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RQ Land of the Samurai and Price of Honour


Claudius

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Were RQ Land of the Samurai and its campaign Price of Honour any good? Did anyone here use them? How do they compare to RQ3 Land of Ninja? I have a chance to get a copy of both supplements, and I would like to hear some opinions.

Grając zaś w grę komputerową, być może zdarzyło się wam zapragnąć zejść z wyznaczonej przez autorów ścieżki i, miast zabić smoka i ożenić się z księżniczką, zabić księżniczkę i ożenić się ze smokiem.

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Land of the Samurai is awesome... :)

I didn't write Price of Honour (and actually don't have a copy) so I can't comment on it.

It was written for MRQ1 and if doing it now for Mythras, I would do things somewhat differently; but it's still a work I'm happy with.

In terms of how it compares with 'Land of Ninja', it is set in the Heian era, which predates the nominal time for LoN and, in fact, predates the ninja entirely (although I did write them in as an optional anachronism). During the Heian period, several clans were vying for control of the regency of Japan, and it was during this period that the samurai arose as warrior and, ultimately, social class. The book contains a lot of background about the political wars of the time, but also covers the religious wars between Buddhist sects, and draws on the rich history of the Heian period. Of special interest to me was discovering the sorcery was outlawed by Imperial edict; so, of course, one has to have sorcery in there, operating in the shadows.

Most samurai settings focus on the later, Sengoku period, so if you're looking for something involving shogun, ronin, ninja and the tropes that we're familiar with through Kurosawa's films, then 'Land of the Samurai' may not be the right focus. If you want to explore a period not traditionally, covered with feuding temples and lethal warrior-priests, then it may be for you.

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3 hours ago, lawrence.whitaker said:

In terms of how it compares with 'Land of Ninja', it is set in the Heian era, [...]

Oh, cool, I had no idea. I shall have to try to get a hold of a copy! Gardens of the Heian period get too little love compared to Kamakura and Muromachi gravel gardens or Momoyama period tea gardens. :D

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Land Of The Samurai is very good. It was republished as Samurai Of Legend, I think without hardly any change to text or content 

The Honour system ('On') is also easily retrapped and ported to other settings - I reworked it as a Glory system for an Ancient Greece campaign that I never managed to run.

You will find that either 'Land Of The Samurai' or 'Samurai Of Legend' will be about 90% compatible with Mythras. It's well  worth grabbing a copy at a reasonable price. 

Edited by Mankcam

" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

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Land of Samurai is good, though I'd note it is more "Heike monogatari" than early Heian, in my opinion.

Price of Honor is IMHO not worth buying. As far as i remember, PCs have to find some elemental weapons to rescue a besieged village.

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I'm using both books for my samurai campaign with RQ6/Mythras set in the Sengoku period.

Although "Samurai of Legend" (follow the link to read my review) is set in the Heian period, you can still use the rules for magic, for Honour, the monsters and the ninja. :)
I have created some houserules adapting RQ6 animism to better represent Shinto magic, though.
As for "Price of Honour", I'm using only some parts of it for my own campaign. It's decent enough, although the production of the book itself is rather cheesy.

(By the way, remember my runeblog has a "Translation Gadget" on the right margin, scrolling down).  :-P

Edited by Runeblogger
Added link to my review of Samurai of Legend
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Read my Runeblog about RuneQuest and Glorantha at: http://elruneblog.blogspot.com.es/

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On 5/7/2017 at 9:03 PM, Claudius said:

Were RQ Land of the Samurai and its campaign Price of Honour any good? Did anyone here use them? How do they compare to RQ3 Land of Ninja? I have a chance to get a copy of both supplements, and I would like to hear some opinions.

As someone who knows a bit about Japanese history, but not an awful lot, Land of the Samurai was very good, I would say better than Land of Ninja. Price of Honour seemed to be a good scenario, certainly useable in a Nippon game.

If you liked Land of Ninja then these are worth buying.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

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  • 11 months later...

By the way, I'm using parts of Price of Honour in my campaign, but there are two sorcery spells in that book (I have the Legend ed.) that I can't seem to find on any Mongoose RuneQuest or Legend book I've looked up.
Could anyone please help me find their descriptions? The spells are: 

  • Aura of Lightning
  • Bolts of Agony

Thanks in advance for any help!   ;)

Read my Runeblog about RuneQuest and Glorantha at: http://elruneblog.blogspot.com.es/

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Ooops, I had forgotten about this thread I opened almost one year ago.

I would like to say thank you to everybody who contributed to this thread. Finally I got a copy of RQ Land of the Samurai, but no Price of Honour.

 

Grając zaś w grę komputerową, być może zdarzyło się wam zapragnąć zejść z wyznaczonej przez autorów ścieżki i, miast zabić smoka i ożenić się z księżniczką, zabić księżniczkę i ożenić się ze smokiem.

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13 hours ago, Runeblogger said:

By the way, I'm using parts of Price of Honour in my campaign, but there are two sorcery spells in that book (I have the Legend ed.) that I can't seem to find on any Mongoose RuneQuest or Legend book I've looked up.
Could anyone please help me find their descriptions? The spells are: 

  • Aura of Lightning
  • Bolts of Agony

Thanks in advance for any help!   ;)

I just checked the corebooks, and you're right, these spells don't appear in MRQ2, or Legend.

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Grając zaś w grę komputerową, być może zdarzyło się wam zapragnąć zejść z wyznaczonej przez autorów ścieżki i, miast zabić smoka i ożenić się z księżniczką, zabić księżniczkę i ożenić się ze smokiem.

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