The Shining Empires Campaign Guide

[dymondy2k]

I personally see no reason to add in "eastern" classes. All that really needs to be done is re-flavoring the core classes, why create a separate "samurai" class, for example, when the fighter class is supposed to cover warriors in general? Again just my take.

Thats pretty much what I did.. I just gave them a level/per day KI strike (max damage) and disallowed them from wearing heavy armor until 7th level

[SmootRK]

There are good works that can be used to make a samurai. For instance, the Knight sub-class with a few tweaks would be fine for a Samurai.
The Gladiator/Duelist would make a good warrior-monk sort of class by removing armor usage altogether (while still keeping or increasing AC bonus they get).
Standard Fighter using Weapon Specialization rules towards one special weapon gives a good Kensai (sword saint).
MU/Illusionist/Necromancer need a reorganization of spells, probably based upon Asian 5 Element circle to make a WuJen
Clerics/Druids need some tweaks to give more justice to Shinto/Bhuddist/other religious roots. There is a Priest sub-class that might make a good base.
Monk as a dedicated class needs a little work.

What I am really looking forward to is Steveman's use of martial arts. Are you planning some sort of special system for that, or is it folded into the class itself. I would love to see it work like weapon specialization ranks, but expanded for additional classes... eagerly waiting to see such mechanics for use with BFRPG.

[Steveman]

The current list of classes are:

Bushi (Fighter)
Which consists of 4 choices that must be made, which only affects how the class interacts with the Honor rules; Ban, Bushi, Ronin and Samurai
Maho-tsukai (Magic-users)
Sohei (Cleric)
Sekkou (Thief)

Weapons and armors allowed will be different from what you know with the core classes, tho.

The following Sub-classes
Karateka (Great Way Adept*)
Ninja (Assassin)
Wu-Jen (Alternate spell-list magic-users)
Shugenja (Druid, with some heavy refluffing)
Sumo (variant Martial Artist)
Miko (Clothy Priest)
Geisha (Bard)

Only the Sumo, Miko and Geisha will have full class profiles within the book. The rest will be about half a page of fluff notes and a referral to the existing classes.

* The Traditional dungeon fantasy "Monk/Martial Artist" has zero Japanese influence. It is all Chinese Shaolin, and has no place in a decidedly Japan setting. Though Japan does have a long tradition of unarmed combat training, it looks a lot different than what people are used to.

[Dimirag]

You'll never see a Karateka doing some wu-shu style acrobatics, thats entire Chinese monk territory.
I've created the Scrapper because of that, in a western style campaign using a "monk" or a variation can feel out of place...
I'm planning on doing some "oriental sub-classes", because I like giving each class its own "thing", extirpating a fighter from his permitted armor use w/out giving them some defense benefit can end up on a class that easily suffers damage when on a fight...

[Steveman]

While a karateka is not a wuxia warrior (seeing as wuxia is a chinese word, as Japanese does not have the letter X), you would almost be right. However, it was Japan that invented the wire-martial arts for their early super-hero movies - stuff that was based on ninja and samurai myth, NOT kung fu. Ninja and Samurai both trained in forms of Karate, thought they were not Karateka - who were people who nearly lived at dojos and trained in unarmed combat almost exclusively. This may come from Karate having some intermingling with some of the northern styles of Kung Fu that happened before the end of the Tokugawa era.

The current classes draft has a page working as an overview of the classes.
Then each of the 4 core classes gets half a page of fluff notes and what optional rules which I recommend making available to them for matching the power level and tone of the Shining empires.

Each sub-class not detailed in the book will get two paragraphs or so, an abbreviated version of the half-page that the Sohei, Bushi, Mahi-tsukai and Sekkou get.

Then the new classes will be getting a page to themselves.

Of course, the art for the book may adjust this. This will be a fully illustrated full color release, afterall.

[Dimirag]

I was referring to the fact that on most RPG's the martial artist are based on Chi users, plant /animal talking, Tibetan/Buddhist style archetype while depending on the culture there are lots of different martial arts, so creating a new class can become a requisite in this kind of situation.
Like depending on setting style you can have the traditional ninja/kunoicihi/shinobi as a spy/assassin or as a more mystical semi magic user/elementalist...

[Steveman]

Yeah, I already covered that I'll be repurposing one of the existing monk classes (probably Great Way Adept, as it doesn't actually have much of a Shaolin feel to its rules - assuming my memory is solid. Haven't reviewed everything for the classes set yet. Working mostly on the races chapter right now) to better fit the Karateka of the Japanese legend. I know my stuff for this, and have quite a few people well versed in Japanese history, language and pop culture to bounce ideas off of.

As for Kung Fu Monks being the most common martial artist, it comes from Gary Gygax really loving the TV show Kung Fu and including a class based on that in AD&D. One of my goals with TSECS is to create a sense of the isolationist period that permeated through Japan for a long time.

[SmootRK]

I am looking forward to more on this. Anything new to share?

[Steveman]

The Races chapter is coming along nicely. Some paycheck art has eaten up most of my free time, so the forward movement has been slow, however, while slow it is not stalled. I would post the full color race pic, but I want that to be a surprise for the full chapter.

[SmootRK]

The Races chapter is coming along nicely. Some paycheck art has eaten up most of my free time, so the forward movement has been slow, however, while slow it is not stalled. I would post the full color race pic, but I want that to be a surprise for the full chapter.

Just my subtle prods to keep you on target