When the playtest formally comes out, I plan on making a sort of homebrew campaign to test how well it can work with things that aren't particularly "traditional" pseudo-medieval. My intent to try and make a Eastern themed campaign, samurai, ninja, Hun-army-style-bandits, etc. Does anyone have any advice for this or things that I should try, judging from what we know of the playtest so far?
Okay from what I've seen and what I know beyond the usual stuff
(I played a 3.5 campaign in the l5r setting for a while, maybe try to get the books for that)
also, what I write might be biased - and leaning towards the japanese part rather then the chinese (who fought the huns)
Don't stick samurai to a certain class, samurai are warriors - so fighters, rangers, paladins and barbarians all are valid
non samurai are probably courtiers
if not they are monks or shamans which are the spiritual folks - traditional castes don't apply to them neccessarily
Monks are rather common, use them as allies, adversaries, npcs - it was not unusual for a poor family to give their child in the care of a monastary, also unwanted noble children (bastards for example) and there are probably many other reasons why one would end up in a monastery
Ninjas don't exist. At least officially, every clan has them and some of your players probably want to play one (I would advise to either rogue or monk as class) but they probably have a cover as cotier, craftsmen or other things
think before the campaign if you want a party of nobles or commoners or a mixed - there is like nothing inbetween and the difference is HUGE (if you go for a mixed and one of the commoners screws up one of the nobles is at fault)
Also add a few backgrounds - noble courtier and noble bushi would probably be good, they both should gain basic training in knowledge nobility, whcih could become a very important skill
Look at the item rarities - as said, a katana would be more common (depending on how hard it is to get by maybe still uncommon (after all only real samurai are allowed to wield it)) and things like a rapier would probably be rarer)
For some weapons you would probably have to improvise (a tanto would be probably a katana with dagger dmg and the wakizashi a katana with short sword dmg, they are also restricted to nobles)
Intrigues are popular, a number of big and many small clans and all want a piece of the cake, it doesn't matter that they are officially all friends, there are barely any allies you actually can trust (look up the sengoku era, maybe via extra history - nobunaga was from a not actually big clan, the one advantage that led him to be able to conquer the whole area was a SINGLE ally he COULD trust)
Consider if you allow characters from other continents, gaijin as they are called can now and then break the customs without beeing frowned upon, at least not more then usual (which is (depending on your setting) usually a lot
gaijin and commoners might need higher mastery in diplomacy etc to get a chance to talk to nobles - and (especially commoners) have higher penalties if they botch
First of all, thank you for everything you said all of that is going into my notes. Second as of right now, when the PCs begin, openly carrying metal weapons is going to be illegal- and the shogun runs everything. The child emperor, unbeknownst to the majority of the populace, not only knows the shogun rules with an iron fist but does not care either, as he feels the shogun handles the "boring" part of being the emperor.
Anyway, from a role-playing perspective, I currently have a few NPCs that the players could pursue and will be my primary means of interjecting plot and background (as needed). There is a maid in the prefects house that is a spy for Hattori Hanzo (who wants to place a new shogun in power), a samurai's son (who will allow the PCs to become offically part of the shogunate and eventually "open carry" weapons), and a third "wild-card/ robin hood style" character for outcomes I have not yet predicted.
well the 'openly carrying weapons' is kinda of part of the historical stuff either way
you either were a samurai and could wear a katana and whatever the flip you want (sidenote: originally samurai were mounted archers)
or you were a noble and could carry a wakizashi
both were also a symbol of status - you would carry it to official events
I am somewhat sure I mix up some details here but I think when you are a guest somewhere it would be placed next to you on the right side (because usually you carry your sword left so you can easily draw it with your right hand) or behind you
it was an insult and/or a subtle threat to either continue carrying it or place it on your left side
or you were a monk who usually doesnt need weapons (or use your walking stick to beat up people ;) )
or you were a peasant and werent allowed to carry weapons as long as you werent enlisted as ashigaru for military service
that's the reason why 'peasant weapons' came into beeing: kamas, tonfa, nunchucks, staff weapons - they all were (modified) peasants tools which everyone could carry around
and of course ninjas don't care much about all those rules - but since every katana is unique and it is harshly punished toc carry one without good reason (or beeing a samurai of course) they usually avoided katanas and wakizashis
there were of course other long bladed weapons, but ashigaru for example usually were archers, spear fighters or (later on) used arquesbus as weapons
The samurais son will probably be a fighter class, depending on the clan usually, well, fighter - or a ranger (two weapons style works well with katana + wakizashi and archery is also very fitting) - but as said, barbarian and paladin would also be valid choices
you should in the last case maybe customize the paladins code a bit since they usually don't work well in cloak&dagger campagins
the maid would probably a rogue or monk - alternative a bard would make an excellent geisha, which could also be an option for your wild card character
which could depending on your needs of couse be everything but (depending if you picked rogue or bard for the second one) the other would probably a good addition
otherwise think of a sorcerer (imperial bloodline would work very well I would guess, the dragon bloodline would work for the setting (look up imperial dragons in the... i think it was the third bestiary for alternative breath weapons/resistances) and abberant bloodline would probably spellwise a good adition but such characters WILL be fowned upon)