Steampunk Amahara: Rules

Character Creation

Classes

First, choose a character class. Each class gives free bonuses to stats, specialisations and starting Arts; they are broad description of your occupation and role in the party.

Shrine Maiden

Shrine maidens are maidservants to the kami, the class of Shinto cleric that ranks below Priestess. Originally simply lower ranking priestesses, the shrine maiden has evolved into a separate career. Where the priestess's life is regimented with taboos and devotions and remain and purely religious class, the shrine maiden has expanded into many areas, including the day to day administration of a Shinto sect's temporal affairs, and responsibility for its military force. In some instances, they have even become real leaders, relating to their sect's High Priestess much like the Shogun once related to the Apostle. As a class, shrine maidens can excel at almost anything but are always female and rarely deviate far from their religious core. They start with Shinto Lore as well as one other art that has Shinto Lore as a prerequisite.

This is the only absolutely critical class for the game to start - there needs to be at least one, but hell, we could have nothing but shrine maidens if we like.

Samurai

The end of the Yanari Shogunate also ended the distinctions and privileges of the samurai class. Yet, old traditions die hard and the numerous survivors of Bakumatsu have continued to raise their descendents in the old ways even if they no longer have inherited privileges or much political power. In any event, they start with Close Combat and Bushido and are liable to be good melee fighters.

Ronin

Ninja

While Amahara's governments have had to grapple with overabundant samurai at various times in the past, it has rarely found itself with enough ninja for all the dishonourable work that needs to be done in the name of honour.

Ashigaru

The common soldier hasn't entirely inherited the prestige of the samurai, but the gap in status has closed greatly with the fall of the Shogunate. They also have the whole Firearms thing going for them.

Geisha

Scholar

Scholars are Amaharans who have spent time studying overseas. They are comparatively lacking in Amaharan arts but start with Gaijin Education.

Stats

You have x points to design your character. Any excess points can be saved for increase later.

Level 1 - 1 CP
Level 2 - 3 CP
Level 3 - 6 CP
Level 4 - 10 CP
Level 5 - 15 CP
Level 6 - 21 CP
Level 7 - 28 CP
Level 8 - 36 CP
Level 9 - 45 CP
Level 10 - 55 CP

In short, to improve a stat costs (current level + 1)

Base Stats

Strength

A measure of overall physical potency. It is used alone for standing feats of muscle power or endurance and also adds directly to damage and soak. When attacking hand to hand, every point of Strength the attacker has over the defender subtracts one from the defender's Parry.

Dexterity

Dexterity Man, Dexterity Man! Does all the things Dexterity can!

Wits

Mental speed and the ability to carry on thinking under pressure. When attacking hand to hand, every point of Wits the attacker has over the defender subtracts from the defender's Dodge.

Intelligence

Raw smarts. Is used for perception when reflexes don't really matter.

Charisma

A measure of personal presence and the most common stat to which physical beauty is attached as a Speciality.

Resolve

A measure of mental toughness and focus.

Derived Stats

Strength + Dexterity: Having more Strength than the defender in hand to hand subtracts from their Parry. This is also your Sport rating which is used for feats requiring both precision and muscle mass.

Dexterity + Wit: Having more Wits than the defender in hand to hand subtracts from their Dodge. This is also your Init rating to which you add d10 for initiative.

Wits + Intelligence: When someone "attacks" a problem with Wits and is already successful, every point of Intelligence over the perpetrator adds threshold success.

Intelligence + Charisma: Every point of Intelligence a would-be manipulator has over her mark adds threshold success if the Charisma roll is successful.

Charisma + Resolve = (This should totally do something or help in some way!)

Resolve + Strength = Double it and that's how many hitpoints you have.

Specialties

You may also buy Specialties, which give you additional dice in specific situations. Specialties are bought as stats and can be customised but as a rule need to be fairly specific. For example, Swording or Parrying are no good, but Kendo works. Dodging is too broad, but Diving for Cover is okay. Note that Specialties are not explicitly tied to any one stat here. Note also that while they add dice, they do not reduce difficulty threshold on their own.

Arts

Each character has 2 class Arts which they start with and may choose y other additional Arts. Having a relevant Art lowers the success threshold from various unpleasantly high numbers depending on how necessary training, knowledge and experience are for that task. Generally, tasks that require knowledge, training, and precise rituals will be difficulty 9 or 10 and even "natural" skills need 7 or 8. It is hence a pretty good idea to make sure your starting Arts reflect what it is you want to do. Arts also have various other beneficial special effects that are always active.

Level 1 Arts

Animal Friendship

The ability to make friends with animals and other creatures, and failing that to at least quickly make sense of their habits and behaviours. This extends to blatantly magical creatures of course. The usual difficulty of interacting with animals is 7-9 depending on its nature and temperament and this reduces that by one.

Athletics

A general proficiency to jumping, tumbling, climbing, swimming, and running around which adventurers into wild and forgotten lands are wont to often do. Reduces the difficulty of most standard tasks by one, generally from 7 to 6.

Bushido

Classical Education (Amaharan)

Most characters are assumed to have a basic command of writing and numbers but Classical Education indicates a higher standard of learnedness that most peasants cannot afford - it includes a somewhat more extensive understanding of mathematics and significantly greater proficiency in the Amaharan language, including formal writing and at least the basics of poetry, calligraphy, literature, histories of the realm, and generally things that a samurai of old would be expected to know.

Clockwork Prosthetic

Some extremely skilled foreign surgeon-mechanics are able to construct clockwork prosthetics to replace missing limbs. This makes one of your arms mechanical with all attendant benefits and disadvantages.

Close Combat

A general proficiency in fighting at close quarters. It reduces the difficulty of armed and unarmed combat to 6 and most improvised weapons to 7.

Craft

Covers a general proficiency in working with your hands.

Endure

Allows long term endurance, and to resist hits. Gives more importants and <something else>.

Fast Draw

Firearms

This gives familiarity with firearms, allowing you to shoot at difficulty 6 as well as to maintain them between use - an important skill in the era of black powder.

Education (Gaijin) (req. a specialty at 2 or more)

Indicates time spent studying with a gaijin institution overseas. Provides a solid understanding of gaijin society (especially of the country where the studying took place), literacy in their language, mathematics, and basic understanding of their arts and sciences.

Education (Mainland)

Intrigue

You are educated or at least practically experienced in politics, probably due to the social class you were born into but perhaps not a little luck and opportunity. You know gain easy insight into what's going on. A vital prerequisite to game out of being pawns.

Meditation

A prerequisite for a whole bunch of things and allows easier meditation using Resolve.

Performance (req. a specialty at 2 or higher)

A general knowledge of how to perform or entertain.

Stealth

Improves stealth, allowing a character to become all but invisible.

Shinto Lore

Opens up the Arete stat and gives a solid background of training and knowledge in shinto rites, rituals and ceremonies.

Survival

You know your way around the wilderness. Improves difficulty for tasks relating to surviving outside populated areas for yourself and for people you help. Includes hunting (provided you know how to use a weapon), tracking and so on.

Tattoos

Tattoos are serious business in Amahara, with deep roots in tradition and ancient secrets of unimagineable power. Even when completely mundane, they are on the whole rather more impressive than tattoos available elsewhere in the world. Having a set of these reduces the difficulty of various social interactions (generally intimidation) depending ont he amount of skin exposed.

Level 2 Arts

Bunraku (req. Craft and Performance)

Bunraku is the art of controlling creepy Amaharan dolls from a distance with wires and clockwork. Foreigners see it as an amazing and exotic art, making it as useful for entertainment as for other more sinister purposes when overseas.

Chi Aura (req. Meditation)

Disguise

You are very good at disguising yourself and others, certainly able to appear as a totally different person and perhaps able to change apparent ethnicity or maybe even gender.

Heart of Clear Water (req. Meditation)

Grants preternatural perception.

Jukendo (req. Close Combat and Firearms)

Jukendo is the uniquely Amaharan art of fighting with a rifle in hand to hand combat with or without a spike or sword bayonet. Considering that rifles are unwieldy up close, it is considered a beneficial skill for quality troops. The rifle becomes treated as a weapon in close combat, which reduces its difficulty to 6 and prevents close combatants from cutting through it without a higher level Art.

Kagura (req. Shinto Lore and Close Combat and Athletics)

Kagura is the sacred unarmed combat form of the shrine maidens that evolved from the various ceremonial dances and rituals associated with the Shinto religion. It is a highly acrobatic, striking martial art with an emphasis on flexibility, acrobatics, kicks and dodging. In the real world, its closest cousin would be capoeira. In addition to enhancing unarmed combat, it can strike immaterial targets.

Kappa Affinity (req. Athletics)

You are a fish. Swimming, diving and holding breath (within reason) are unrolled actions except under hostile circumstances. You can also see and even fight reasonably well underwater. You also have resistance to the unpleasant effects of icy bodies of water.

Kenjutsu

Kyudo

Archery is a dying art these days, but the use of a yumi was once almost as prestigious a samurai skill as kenjutsu. Although guns have replaced bows in most areas, they still have a few advantages, such as stealth.

Ninjutsu

Ninjas aiming for combat effectiveness and lethality will train in a variety of weird weapons - basically every other weapon in the Amaharan arsenal that aren't standard samurai weapons or guns.

Ninja Parkour (req. Athletics and )

This is the real ninja action deal and allows ninjas to use grapples and swing lines, leap across rooftops and generally just appear out of the woodwork when everyone is least expecting it.

Ritual Magic (req. Shinto Lore)

Spiritualism (req. Shinto Lore)

This allows the summoning of spirits and the invocation of the kami to assist you. This type of magic still works in the homeland but its usefulness drops rapidly in other areas. In civilised areas, the kami find it difficult to manifest for any length of time if at all. In places untouched by Amahara Shinto, they may behave in unexpected, even hostile ways and against the traditions and rituals that have long governed the norm of interaction between the worlds of gods and humans. Changing this situation by spreading Amahara Shinto is of course a primary directive of your mission.

Voice Artist (req. Performance)

Level 3 Arts

Burning Aura (req. Chi Aura + Endure)

Partially literal.

Killing Intent (req. Chi Aura)

Your chi aura is dark and full of killing intent (if you are in fact intent on killing). Roll Charisma + Resolve to terrify people in an incredible way.

Ludicrous Parry (req. Kenjutsu and Heart of Clear Water)

Sunder

This grants cinematic powers to a katana, allowing them to slice through small to medium sized objects and improvised weapons, including guns at close range unless the person with the gun has Jukendo.

Zen Archery

Is not Zen Gunnery.

Equipment

Weapons

The only ones that matter, obviously.

Tanto

A knife.

Katana

While Amahara is behind the West in terms of modern technology, it is somewhat ahead in older crafts. Nothing makes this more clear than the katana, the finest sword in the world.

Naginata

Staff

Yumi

Under most circumstances, a bow works like a rifle except it is worthless in melee, does a lot less damage, does not jam, is vulnerable to weather, and does not produce noise or smoke.

Derringer

A derringer is a single-shot pistol that comes in a pair. They fire once each and don't do much damage, but are nevertheless a positive way to begin or end a fight.

Revolver

A revolver normally fires once every other round.

Midori Type 17

This rifle is produced in Midori Arsenal, an indigenous weapons manufactory of the Amahara Home Islands. It is a modern weapon, but one without any special features. It also is not the most reliable rifle there is.

This is a bolt action, single shot rifle using a crude brass cartridge filled with black powder. After firing, the rifle must spend a two round cycle out of action as the shooter works the bolt, loads a fresh round, and works the bolt again. Where the rifle is in this process obviously has no bearing on its utility as a melee weapon (see Jukendo). As it causes a massive bang and a huge plume of smoke, it loses stealth the moment it shoots. On the other hand, it deals a fuckton of damage if it hits and has, as far as the game is concerned, unlimited range.

Bayonet

This attachment makes a rifle also a very convincing melee weapon and is hence not free. After all, good heroines seldom openly mount a bayonet on the rifle slung to her back. The art of fighting hand-to-hand with a rifle - whether the bayonet is there or not - is an Art called Jukendo.