Originally, my long-delayed samurai/sengoku era Japan project was called ‘Ronin’. It is intended to be a historically ‘plausible’ game set in that period, but with options to include supernatural elements or for a more horror-oriented form of solo-play. Three settings for the price of one!
However, both Bushido and Sengoku are taken, and this game is a partial homage to them. Ronin was relatively open, but a *Borg project was created and funded in the meantime, so it’s probably not a great idea to stick with that name. It would already get lost in web searches, and now with competition, the problem is doubled.
The table below contains various options; you can pick one. I’ll explain each.
ONAMI – The meaning is that of a ‘great wave’, which references the famous paintings, but also has a great deal of other powerful symbolism in Japan. Ronin literally means ‘wave man’ so it has double or even triple meaning here. The drawback in that there is a boardgame of that name, and the ‘accent’ that is supposed to be over the ‘O’ can be off-putting to people or hard to search.
JIZAMURAI – Jizamurai were part-time samurai and part-time landholders, combining community leadership and agriculture with some military prowess. You can think of them as being like poorer, ‘bumpkin knights’ in European folklore and history. It’s basically pitch-perfect for what the game is about (Ronin with the potential to become provincial samurai running a small domain) but does, unfortunately, to western eyes, contain the word ‘jizz’. Given my associations, I think people would make assumptions and take the piss too much.
CHIBURI – This is the (questionably useful and somewhat apocryphal) ‘flick’ of a sword to shake off the blood. This has obvious virtue for both describing deadly sword play, and ‘shaking it off’ and moving on, which is the lot of the sword-for-hire.
CHANBARA – This is the whole genre of Japanese ‘sword fighting films’, which does describe a lot of the cultural background and awareness, but implies cinematic, which this game isn’t really.
STRAY CROW/S – I really like this one and the symbolism from Japanese traditions of storytelling, folklore and omens fits very well. However, it doesn’t instantly scream ‘JAPAN!’ at people, so I’m not sure. Each of the three books will have a subtitle, EG: Stray Crow: Ronin, so this isn’t necessarily a problem.
KATANA – Straightforward, cool factor, but dull and overly pragmatic. Meh.
TO – Another word for sword, as in ‘Ninja-To’, but has the accent over the ‘o’ and doesn’t have the ‘brand recognition’ of Katana.
YOJIMBO – Meaning a bodyguard, mercenary, guard or protector (the meaning has widened). More literally, it means a staff, used for protection. It’s not a bad one, but the association with the film, etc., speaks against its use for a gaming product due to confusion. It’s also what people say to me in the street.
SHINWA – Meaning myth, legend or story. Not bad, not quite the scale we’re talking about for our stories (which are more like Mad Max wandering around getting mixed up in shit) and not that recognisable. It’s also, apparently, the name of a Korean boy band.
RONIN – Maybe I should just say ‘fuck it’ and keep the name anyway. It’s not really copywritable or anything and the subtitles would differentiate from the *Borg thing.
Congratulations on your purchase/rental of the: Shurok Mivshikvik Shunvik Mivsha – Sha-Rashmivvikruk (CTF INDEPENDENT TRADER – The Hot Take) from Corman Ship Repair Ltd, for the agreed price of: 1,200 GP per terranglic standard month. Please note that you are required to maintain and upkeep the vessel, make repairs and modifications and otherwise treat the ship entirely as your own, with Corman Ship Repair being the first stop for such repairs, if possible
The Sha-Rashmivvikruk is a pre-collapse Churoc Trade Federation Independent Trader, rated to haul up to 800 tons of external cargo pods in its cargo clamps (4 standard 10/4/4m CTF cargo pods).
The ship has been fitted with two after-market Du-shamiv-Shurokmivvik-pikvik-zhumavikruk(Twin-Turret CTF Point Defence Plasma Blasters) for protection from space debris and to aggressively pursue futures in the salvage market. These have been slaved to the main drive and main power system, to ensure effectively bottomless ammunition.
STATS CREW:10/2 ATTACK: +0 SCALE: 4 HIT POINTS: 28 ARMOUR: d4 DEFENCE: 8 SPEED: Moderate WEAPONS: None TOUGHNESS SAVE: 7 REFLEX SAVE: 5 POWER SAVE: 7 Automation x8 Twin Turret CTF Point Defence Plasma Blasters: Scale 4, Damage d6, Range Short, Ammo Save N/A
Please note that, as a second-hand vessel, Sha-Rashmivvikruk has some quirks you will have to get used to.
The environmental systems are always slightly cool by human standards. Humanoid sophonts from temperate or warm climates may wish to purchase a ship-jacket to go over their shipsuit (Corman branded merchandise is available via our home office, pod 018, Satana Station, The Throat).
Headroom is low for most sophonts in many areas, due to the relatively small size of the churoc who built the vessel. Taller sophonts are advised to spend most of their time in the bridge, engine or common rooms on board.
While the SI system on board has been updated for trade-argot and terranglic, it tends to revert to churoc language in emergencies, a handy guide to churoc emergency phrases is included with these rental documents.
A gazetteer containing information and additional material around the Tabletopless EroTech adult gameworld and campaign.
Legally distinct squid-headed monsters, the new allies of the Yegis. Simply Defined Yegis forces. Gelatinous Icosohedrons The Dancers – The Moons of Kanotag Ferrinvida the Island of the Tomb Legions Olueva – Graveyard of Dwarves Ishtaret – Island of Swamp Roses Orcish Pirates A Lich Lord
Cyber: Involving, using, or relating to computers, especially the internet. Cyborg: In science fiction stories, a creature that is part human and part machine. URL: Uniform Resource Locators, a website address. Borgerlig: The Swedish term for the bourgeois, the middle class. Bourgeois: Belonging to or characteristic of the middle class, typically concerning its perceived materialistic values or conventional moral attitudes.
This book is a cluster of ideas and inspirations for playing a (forbidden) corporate focussed game or campaign of Cy_Borg by Stockholm Kartel. Here you will find corporate character classes, character generation alternatives, a modified mission generator, and other odds and sods.
The Blodrak Corporation knows that reality is a simulation and has injected operatives into the simulation. They’re trying to find a way to save the world (the world is where they keep all their money, after all) by running a repeat simulation at many times normal speed. The trouble is that the simulated populace, government, corporations and cyberpunk keep fucking it up.
You’re there to try new things, troubleshoot and guide the simulation to an eventual positive outcome.
And no, you only get paid per hour that takes place in reality.
If reality is even reality…
This is a RAPID PROTOTYPE made using AI input and art, albeit with human oversight and touch-up. If it proves popular enough, it will be expanded, and more human art and creativity will go into a larger edition.
Before all the OGL nonsense hit, I was going to take things a bit easier this year and also start a project of actually PLAYING games from my vast library of #TTRPG books.
Belatedly, let’s try and get that #GrimGame project started.
We’ll start with the game Poisn’d, a notorious light RPG about pirates doing horrible things to people and each other.
Un juego ideal de jugar para echarte unas risas, o para aquellos días en que no todo el mundo tiene ganas de algo serio, lo suficientemente simple para jugar hasta borracho y lo suficientemente divertido para jugar cuando no lo estas.
This is a TEST to see if there is a worthwhile market in the Latin world for my games. So a lot is riding on whether this reprint sells well. Please let your Spanish-speaking gamer friends know about it and get it out there.
A ‘Giallo’ (Italian pulp) style scenario/context for dramatic crime/supernatural adventures. A cast of strange characters, opportunities for conflict and suggestions for what may – or may not – be a supernatural threat.
System agnostic, but presented for Actual F*cking Monsters.
Did a really good first session, but after a few other games we’ve been playing over the last few years the speed and ease of play of Cyberpunk came as a pleasant surprise. Mission oriented play and the players trying to avoid mess and lengthy combat issues certainly helped, but we ploughed through a lot more than I had planned on! Fortunately Cyberpunk is easy to improvise for, so I was able to improv the additional adventures and we had a really good session.
Next time I’ll be able to start incorporating some of the characters’ personal hooks. Looking forward to it. Still, there’s no reason why other Cyberpunk 2020/Red gamers can’t take advantage of my work as well. Check out the previous video/posts for what it’s all about and the rules changes we’ve been making.
Australian Bushfires
This is one of the adventure hooks we didn’t follow up on, but various companies in-setting have been using the fires as an excuse to test new equipment and gear, from AI assisted big-data processing to better predict weather and the best points to ‘attack’, to drone-swarm firefighting and other techniques. One of these efforts was an Australian tech start up, applying military and therapeutic exoskeleton technology to rescue applications. This is something some companies are already looking into, for load-bearing and equipment carrying – especially in high-rise fires, I just took the concept a bit further to a whole suit of ‘power armour’ designed for firefighting.
The mission would have been to insert into the fire zone and to steal the prototype for an unknown client. The mission would have been complicated by the fact that the start-up (FARPAC – Fire And Rescue Power Armature Concepts, based out of Northern Sydney), had been hired not to really fight the fire, but to retrieve certain objects and data from a ‘civilisational panic room’ mansion owned by an Australian billionaire.
Anyway, here’s the Power Armour prototpe stats, if you want to use them.
Ricky Ryan – Deviantart
FARPAC Wahn X1 Proof of Concept Armature
Mission: Firefighting Unit Cost: Approx 250,000 euros in raw materials and technology, perhaps double that in terms of actual value and work sunk into it. A production version might cost 200,000. Chassis: Str 16, Lift 800, Carry 240 Toughness: 5 (Taken off damage before armour) Armour: SP 15 (30 Vs Fire/Heat – add 10 to both values if not using CPRed) Damage Modifier: D6+2 (Lethal) Sensors: Wideband Aperture Helmet Sensors and AR Overlay SIB: -2 DFB: +1 Controls: Advanced Utilities: Bodyweight Med System, Self-Seal Compression, 4 Hour Life Support, 8 Hour Powerplant (combination pneumatic/LiS battery system. I’ve allowed LiS batteries to double capacity in-setting with no extra cost).
Head: 4 SDP Internal: Wideband Aperture System SDP 15, Comm Link 5 SDP, 200 cost, 80km range.
Left Arm: 4 SDP Internal: 1 Winch and Grapple – 20kg – 500 bucks, SDP 40 Internal: 2 Fire Extinguisher 10 kg, SDP 20, 4 uses. 500 bucks. External: 1 Fire Extinguisher 10 kg, SP 10 SDP 20, 4 uses.
Right Arm: 4 SDP Internal: 1 Fire Extinguisher 10 kg, SDP 20, 4 uses. Internal: 2 Fire Extinguisher 10 kg, SDP 20, 4 uses. External: 1 Large Power Saw, SP 1/3rd, WA -2, 8D6AP, 1250 bucks, 15 kg, SP 10, SDP 25.
Torso: 12 SDP Internal: 1 Bodyweight Med System SDP 15 Internal: 2 Self Seal Compression SDP 50 Internal: 3 Self Seal Compression SDP 50 External: 1 Food/Filtration SDP 10 External: 2 Extended Life Support SP 20, SDP 20 – 4 hour support, 10 kg.
Left Leg: 8 SDP Internal: 1 Self Seal Compression SDP 50 Internal: 2 CO2 Scatter Pack WA +3 50 capsules, ROF 1d6, Range 50m, weight 2kg, SP 10 SDP 20 External: 1 CO2 Scatter Pack WA +3 50 capsules, ROF 1d6, Range 50m, weight 2kg, SP 10 SDP 20
Right Leg: 8 SDP Internal: 1 Self Seal Compression SDP 50 Internal: 2 CO2 Scatter Pack WA +3 50 capsules, ROF 1d6, Range 50m, weight 2kg, SP 10 SDP 20 External: 1 CO2 Scatter Pack WA +3 50 capsules, ROF 1d6, Range 50m, weight 2kg, SP 10 SDP 20
This is really little more than a wearable linear frame with lightweight, fireproof armour and an enclosed environment to protect from heat, smoke and fumes. The real innovation is in the sensor suite, heat shielding and feedback systems, enabling you to find and ‘feel’ your way as though you weren’t armoured at all.
Cryonics Heist
In the setting cryonics has fallen completely out of favour with tech billionaires since the advent of general intelligence AI and the prospects that creates for the potential of consciousness upload. That’s where all the money is going now, and so the bottom has fallen out – along with all the funding – for cryonics research, storage and preparation.
A new company, Osiris Medical Technologies has sprung up, consolidating the debts and resources of these groups and companies as they go bust. They only, however, seem to be taking on the corpsicles and frozen heads that are a) profitable or potentially profitable, or b) have been vitrified using more modern preservation techniques.
The client in this particular case has hired them to retrieve one particular frozen head from a shipment being moved across the country to San Francisco from Alcor in Scottsdale Arizona, which is being wound up.
The players created an epic distraction and went after the head before the convoy left, but I’d done prep as though they were going to attack the convoy. So here you go…
HEMTT A3 Hybrid Truck/Generator
Unit Cost: 450,000 euros Top speed: 65mph Utilities: All-Wheel Drive (Off Road), Military Radio, Improved Handling +1 SP: 44 Composite Armour (SP 25-35 in CPRed, assuming a ‘B-Kit’. Without B-Kit armour assume a basic steel-mantle armour of SP 15/10) SDP: 100 (Body 5 – If not using Maximum Metal just reduce all incoming damage by 5 before armour) ACC/DEC: 10/30 Range: 1200 miles Mass Rating: 13 tons.
Refrigerated Military Container
A standard size shipping container with armour and a backup generator.
SP: 15 SDP: 50 Electronic Lock: DC 25
HUMVEE Hybrid
An electric/diesel hybrid civilian version of the popular military vehicle.
Top Speed: 100 mph Utilities: Off Road, Pintle Mount. ACC/DEC: 15/40 Range: 520 miles SP: 10 (Upgraded, standard car body would have SP 5) SDP: 60 (body 3, if not using Maximum Metal just drop all incoming damage by 3)
Osiris Medical Technology Convoy
The convoy consisted of the following:
2 x HUMVEE 1 x HEMTT Truck Truck Driver x1 Hummer Driver x2 w/pistols Hummer Guards x2 with SMG Truck Guard x1 Elite w/Pistol Medical Technician – Unarmed
Guards: 14 base attack rolls (16 for elite), 35/18 HP. HK416A5 Carbine 15/10/15/20/25/30 WA +1, 100 round cassette, 5.56 (5d6) ROF 20 10mm Glock – 2d6+1 AP, 20 round capacity. Snap-Out Batons D6 Body Armour vest and legs (Concealed) – 7 SP. Smart Glasses/Wireless Smartlink/Biomonitor Wristband +1 WA.
Elite Guard: Right arm cyberarm 20 SP, SDP 30, Shield pop-out with gun brace – Protects head and torso, Skinweave (5 sp), Base Attack: 16
Tactics Under Attack: Rear car: brake, stop, leave vehicle and try to flank ambushers. Front car: interpose between truck and attackers, stay in cover/vehicle and, return fire. Truck: brake and reverse toward reinforcements. Otherwise ram through obstruction.
Osiris Medical Technology
“Taking you to the future.”
Total Assets: 600 million+ Incorporated: 10th August 2019 CEO: Dr Cranston Baird Headquarters: Building 3, Bridgehead Road, Oakley San Francisco. Associated Groups: 21st Century Medicine, ACS, BPF, LES Foreign Partners: KrioRus
Osirus Medical Technolog sprang, seemingly, out of nowhere and gathered up the assets of the various bankrupted and struggling cryonics groups and foundations in the USA. They’ve been utterly ruthless and have discarded or ‘returned’ all remains frozen prior to the vitrification process.
They claim philosophical issues around ‘continuity of consciousness’ make digital upload non-viable as a true immortality and are spending a great deal of money on improving fMRI and other scanning technologies, nanotechnology, cloning and other associated technology that would be useful for ‘resurrection’.
HUAWEI Raid
I was underprepared for this one, but it meant travelling with smugglers to Hong Kong, infiltrating mainland China and breaking into Huawei’s big tech campus around their headquarters. The old campus, not the new, weird, pseudo-European one.
Besides normal security guards, surveillance and tech (such as drones, cameras and so on) the Chinese government has a vested interest in many of their companies and post political officers and even armed guards at key installations.
Security Drones: SP 10 SDP 15 – Electrical dart guns AP 1/4, D6 Taser effect. Basic Power Armour: Body 12, Armour 20 +1 WA Smart Helmet.
Political Officers
30 HP QSZ-92s. Attack Roll: 12
Huawei Security Systems: DC 25
Server Smash
The mission here was to put a stop to an ‘open source AI’ project before it could ever take off. The nerds involved got backing from a splinter-gang of the Brainiacs, H-Squared, who were a bit more open to cybernetic enhancement beyond neuralware and ardent posthumanists.
Typical Gangbangers H-Squared
30 HP 2d6 Pistol +2 WA 2d6 SMG +2 WA Awareness 19+2 (Optics) Attack 12+3 Armoured Trench/Bodysuit/Skinweave combo SP11 Sensory Boosts/Software +2 Cyberoptics Massive amounts of skillware – Any skill they are likely to need at +3
Drone Swarm: 1HP each, form a cloud of whirling ceramic fans that do 1d6x1d6 AP1/4 damage per turn.
Mongrel Robotic Guard Dog SP 15 HP 20, Jaws 2d6AP.
Aren’t we all just a little tired of shiny, brooding, romantic, tragic monsters with their ‘woe is me’ whining and carrying on? ‘Monsters we are, lest monsters we become’. Well, fuck holding onto your humanity. If we’re going to be monsters, let’s be Actual Fucking Monsters.
Drawing inspiration from works like Nightbreed and an endless array of 80s horror flicks and their revivals, Actual Fucking Monsters is a game of monstrous creatures doing horrible things and being tracked down and destroyed for it. You don’t win, you live fast, leave a bloody swathe in your wake and then are cut down by the forces of vengeful humanity.
So these rules are really me brainstorming how I would need to change the rules of D&D to better fit the ‘grimdark’ setting I am intending to crowdfund in the near future.
D&D is great for all sorts of games, but as a ‘general’ rules set doesn’t particularly excel at being anything other then D&D. Lamentations of the Flame Princess and other, hardcore ‘old school’ games hark back to the extreme peril of playing low-level characters in Gygaxian misery-dungeons, and often have a grind-house/grind-core heavy metal aesthetic, veering more towards horror than fantasy.
That’s great and all, but I want to do something with 5e, to appeal to people on a basis of more than nostalgia and to provide a familiar, but different, experience for people who are new to role-playing and have entered through the popularity of 5th Edition.
There’s something of a fetish for super-difficult games in computing, from Darkest Dungeon, Salt and Bloodborne to the Infamous, Dark Souls. Tabletop games are different, you can’t learn or hone the skill of the game or learn the attack patterns of the monsters, character builds can be optimised, but that tends to diminish the role-play. Difficulty, then, has to come from the sense to play tactically, carefully, swing the advantage in your favour and to deal with difficult and horrifying roleplaying and decision making.
We need to take that, lustrous, heroic edge off 5th Edition’s default rules-set to amp up the difficulty and make people play more carefully, but without turning it into a total meatgrinder.
Let’s talk about characters then…
Species
In the setting I am envisioning you would only be able to play humans. So far as the types go otherwise, there isn’t really anything much else that needs to be done. As a default the human traits – especially the variant ones – go a long way to helping compensate for bad rolls at character creation, mixing self-determination and the ‘hardcore’ nature of the ‘straight roll’ character generation – which I would foresee being the standard rules…
To read this full article, please donate $1 a month on my Patreon to get articles like this, access to me and discounts on apparel and PDFs of RPGs. You can get many of the same perks (but fewer) by following me on Minds.com and donating 1 token a month.
Postmortem Studios 
