(Ronin) Samurai character creation analysis.

Discussion on game mastering Earthdawn. May contain spoilers; caution is recommended!
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Crusader
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(Ronin) Samurai character creation analysis.

Postby Crusader » Sun Jul 01, 2012 8:27 pm

Hi all,

So a new campaign comes along and I decided to throw myself into the Samurai Discipline. I watch some samurai movies, look up what I can find on Bushido on the net and do a good bit of digging to understand what Samurai do and how they think and act.

And then I look at Earthdawn's Samurai and look at how they fit into the rules. First off, since I would like to play a free-roaming Samurai who can easily travel with a group throughout Cathay, I feel compelled to play a Ronin. A Samurai in service abroad still has too many ties to Jih'Po and his Daimyo for my likings.

And then the rules come around. The standard samurai gear is exquisite, but requires you more or less to play in Jih'Po at the beck and call of the Daimyo. A Samurai Abroad still has a mighty fine starting pack. The Ronin is worst off in gear but has the highest freedom. And here I started doing the character creation proper and decided on Ronin, as having too check with my Daimyo and accepting new orders would too much interfere with the party.

One of the first things that comes into the eye is the broad focus a Samurai has; horseback combat (which is completely optional), melee combat and archery. I like versatile and the Samurai therefore fits me like a glove. I decided on a human and picked Trick Riding as my first optional, in the hopes of finding a horse later (at which time I can always take Charge thanks to Versatility).

But then the first thing that nagged me came along; what on earth do Samurai do with their off hand? Think of samurai for a moment and you know they hold the katana in both hands. Archery too takes two hands. But as the katana is a size three weapon, rules-wise the game almost begs you to take a shield. Cathayan armor is poor at best. Samurai armor is so hideously expensive a starting Ronin might as well forget about it for a long, long time. Samurai partial armor is an option though, so I looked at it this way;

I need a bow and as big a melee weapon as I can find and then the best armor possible.

I can pick of four choices for a starting item:
-The katana. Size 3, max forged for damage step 8. A great weapon for a first circle character.
-The wakizashi. Size 2, max forged for damage step 5. Why one would take this over the katana besides some RP background reason is beyond me. Statwise the katana wins on every account.
-The samurai partial armor. Physical 5, initiative penalty 1. That offers up the question; Is 1 extra armor worth 980? I hear a big, resounding "no" from a mile away, no matter how hard increasing one's armor in Cathay is. 980 gold can easily be spent on something better.
-200 extra starting money.

The choice then clearly is between the 200 money or the katana. Then the question comes along what weapon of size 6, perhaps 5 I can use to maximize the benefit of Parry as a discipline talent over the katana. Looking at the Cathay weapons list, I was in for a shock. Size 6 weapons are hideously expensive (at least 120) and require massive strength (at least 16). Size 5 weapons do a lot better, with the very affordable Battle-axe (50) or Three-section-staff (30). Thematically not the best fits for Samurai, but doable for a Ronin down his luck I suppose. As a human, I don't want to over invest in strength. 14 is my max, potentially limiting me to the size 5 weapons. Therefore I think the katana remains the better choice.

And then comes the very big question; shields. With the katana and the rules as they are, the game begs me to take something into my off-hand. 3 extra armor is up for the taking. Second weapon can be picked up at 5th circle to replace it. But a samurai with a shield? That's unheard of. There almost should be a rule against it. But there is no bonus whatsoever for wielding the katana as a proper samurai would, and that stings me deeply. I think it is an oversight really. Historically Samurai were such perfect warriors that they did not need a shield. But in Earthdawn, that is absolutely not the case. A full Samurai can start with the Samurai armor, and them I can easily pardon for not taking 3 extra armor, but Ronin and Samurai abroad do not have that luxury. Unlike in history, Samurai armor is unimpressive and they would be punished for not using their off-hand. This is my biggest problem with the samurai as they stand now.

Now, some Samurai did dual-wield weapons. I could theoretically take second weapon as a skill. But do I really want to make a Cathayan Swordmaster here, or a samurai?

Making my character filled me with mixed feelings. I got the impression that all Samurai in Earthdawn, who wish to normalize their potential, either have to dump the katana for a two-handed weapon (potentially requiring high strength) or are forced into dual-wielding, lowering their Parry potential. For the classical samurai, the one wielding a katana two-handed, there is no place in Earthdawn. And that's something I would dearly like to see fixed. A simple rule like "A Samurai wielding only a katana treats it as a size 5/6 weapon for the purpose of Parry" would fix all my worries.

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Drucifer
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Re: (Ronin) Samurai character creation analysis.

Postby Drucifer » Sun Jul 01, 2012 10:01 pm

Tableau Infractus
Tableau Infractus


Fans are the life blood of any game system... Go get some new blood.

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Anunnaki
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Re: (Ronin) Samurai character creation analysis.

Postby Anunnaki » Sun Jul 01, 2012 10:26 pm

And there is always the no dachi (the two-handed sword) ... Though that isn't in the Cathay books. :)

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Crusader
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Re: (Ronin) Samurai character creation analysis.

Postby Crusader » Mon Jul 02, 2012 4:37 am


Telarus_KSC
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Re: (Ronin) Samurai character creation analysis.

Postby Telarus_KSC » Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:10 pm



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