Latest news
The God-Machine Chronicle
White Wolf and Onyx Path published the God-Machine Chronicle recently, which includes rules updates for the World of Darkness core. They were even decent enough to offer the Appendix of the book, which has said rules, for free! Which is awesome. And what would be a better way to celebrate than to make two character-sheets for these updated rules? You can find the 1-page and the 2-page versions in the WoD Resources page. The 2-pages version has extensive combat sheet in the addition to the standard sheet, so all you need for doing some serious fighting should fit on that second page, if you are so inclined.
Posted on 1st May 2013
Chapter 5
Just finished the rough draft of Chapter 5: Equipment for Grim Fictions. It's rather short and not really as informative as I would have liked, but with dwindling interest on my half (thanks in part to flaring interest in making another game) it was more about getting it out than to do it in great detail. You will find some weapons, vehicles and other stuff, but I did not include any descriptions on the stuff. I imagine more details in the more finished product, but for now you have to use your imagination.
Posted on 23rd April 2013
I am a DAD!
My beautiful daughter was born yesterday morning. It has been tough these past three days, especially for her mother, but we are as happy as can be imagined (tired, but happy).
Well then, it is time for me to go act all dad-like and change a diaper.
Posted on 9th April 2013
News
Have you ever had the feeling that you wanted to make a role-playing system from scratch and suddenly you are making 4 or 5? That's how I'm feeling now.
I suppose the next chapter for Grim Fictions will be up later this month or early next month. I have more pressing matters right now but I hope that the first draft of GF will be completed before July.
As for character sheets, I just finished the MtC sheet (as you may have noticed) and I'm working slowly on a sheet for Pathfinder. I haven't played much d20 until lately, and that's not really that much, so it's challenging to know what I want to keep and what I want to keep out. It is likely to be a lot like the official sheet, but it gives me a template to work with for later.
I wanted to make an April Fools sheet this year, but I forgot all about it. I might make one for later, which would be a rather late AF joke.
Posted on 4th April 2013
Mummy: the Curse
You may have heard, or you may not have, that Mummy: the Curse is now officially being sold on DriveThruRPG. This is awesome, I think, although I've had the luxury of having the preview version for some time now because I backed the project on Kickstarter. I like this idea; allowing backers to get a preview version of the book, which allows them to comment on it and notice errors that the developers missed.
Anyway, I've uploaded the MtC character sheet to the WoD Resources page, along with the Rome version and a sheet for Ghosts. Because MtC has expanded rules on ghosts, the Ghost sheet has the same visual theme as the Mummy sheet.
I also bought a new customizable GM screen today, so it is not all that unlikely that I will start making GM material that will fit that screen and post onto the website. I was asked to make one for L5R some time ago, so now I think it might be time to make that happen.
Posted on 28th March 2013
Too much progress
I'm not very good at waiting. Instead of waiting to see how many like my Facebook page, I uploaded Chapter 3: Conditions to the website the other day. Not only that, but now I've also finished writing Chapter 4: Skills and uploaded that to the Grim Fictions page as well! I'm all about progress these days.
Next chapter is about equipment. It includes weapons, so here's a little preview of how they work: Weapons have two stats. First, the difficulty of using that weapon. That translates into the Diff to attack someone with that weapon. Second is the damage. The target rolls his Vitality against the weapon's damage as Diff to see how much damage he suffers. Even if the roll is successful, the target still suffers either a Bruising or a Bleeding Condition just for being hit. That's all there is to weapons, or at least most of them (I imagine explosives might have to work a little differently).
Posted on 16th March 2013
Contact!
So I now have a new e-mail address that you can use to contact me. You can now send requiests to samurai & emeraldsamurai.com. Just remove the spaces and replace the & with a @ and you are good to go.
In other news, I've finished writing Chapter 3 for Grim Fictions. I do want to see how many are actually interested in Grim Fictions before I upload it, so I won't upload anything until I get 50 likes on the EmeraldSamurai Facebook page. Of course, eventually I will upload it, and it should be on the website by the end of the month, regardless of interest, just as was originally planned.
I got my hands on the One Ring role-playing game and it looks gorgeous! The art alone is reason enough to get the books, but the system looks interesting. I can hardly wait to give it a try. I will likely make my own version of the character sheet, just for fun.
I'm also trying to start working on a character sheet for Pathfinder. Thing with the d20 systems though is that they are most often very well made and give enough room for everything you need on just two pages. The reason why I haven't made one already is because I don't know what I can add to it or how I can make it different. It is also the reason why getting started is a pain. But I'm going to try. If I can finish a template, making some changes shouldn't be a problem later on.
Posted on 6th March 2013
Change in layout
I updated Grim Fictions, both chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 2 now has the combat system included in it and chapter 1 has updated information about chapter 2. I also switched from using InDesign to using Word to make the pdf. It allows for much more flexibility when making updates, at least while doing the drafts.
You can check out the chapters in the Grim Fictions page.
Posted on 25th February 2013
System
Chapter 2 of Grim Fictions, "System", has now been uploaded. Starting now, I plan on uploading at least one chapter every month, so Chapter 3: Conditions, should be uploaded in March. If you have any comment on the new chapter, tell me about it on my Facebook page.
Posted on 12th February 2013
Introducing, Grim Fictions
I just uploaded a PDF file containing the Introduction chapter to Grim Fictions! This is an open proofreading project, meaning that I would really much like to hear what you think about it. If you haven't already, you can head over to Emerald Samurai's Facebook page and tell me what you think there.
Grim Fictions is a complete role-playing game that I am developing for fun and practice, and is completely free! Check out the Grim Fictions page for more information, and the first draft of the Introduction.
Posted on 7th February 2013
Darkness over Rome
I completed and uploaded sheets for World of Darkness that fit the Roman setting presented in Requiem for Rome. You can check it out in the WoD Resources page. They are mostly the same as the others, except I changed the font for all things except for the titles, changed the titles to include "Rome" in it (Awakened Rome, Lost in Rome, Slashing through Rome, etc.), and changed the Skills to include those presented in the RfR supplement. I also plan on doing similar sheets for a Victorian setting.
Posted on 4th February 2013
Completed WoD
I've completed the sheets for the currently published World of Darkness books. You can find them in the WoD Resources page. I also plan on doing sheets for Mummy: the Curse and Demon: the Ruffers (or whatever) w-once they've been published.
Posted on 1st February 2013
Testings
I have to be honest, Grim Fictions is not the only game I'm working on. I am also working on game mechanics that I'm putting far more effort into making and that I'm taking more seriously. Yesterday, we had a small test to see if we could take what I had already designed and make a character (or five). I am very happy to say that we could, although they are rather limited. I am pleased with the results and I am starting on a revision to fix the problems that did arise and problems that never came into play but were noted. I also hope to streamline the mechanics with this small revision, since it was originally designed in fragments and rules were made in one place that did not work in another place.
This is just to show you how much I have on my plate. Not only am I making a functional game that will be published online for free, I am also working on another system that is much more complex. In addition, I am working on getting a degree in general linguistics, doing some character sheets when I can and running two unrelated role-playing games with friends.
Which reminds me; I have been writing a lot of handouts for a game of Hunter: the Vigil that I think are pretty cool and I plan on sharing it. So stay tuned for Hunter: Devil's Own.
On other news, I also plan on making a Facebook page for Emerald Samurai, which will serve as the primary discussion board for the stuff on this wee website of mine. We will all be able to use that medium to discuss the Grim Fictions pages and you will be able to ask for specific sheets if you like.
EDIT: The problem with me posting about my plans to do stuff is that right after I post about it I often tend to go right ahead and do it. Emerald Samurai is now live on Facebook!
Posted on 24th January 2013
Grim Previews
I'm working with my webmaster to create pages for Grim Fictions. She is working on other projects, however (which she is getting paid for), so things are a bit slow. So I decided to give you a small preview of how dice are rolled in Grim Fictions.
The first thing is that the GM assigns a difficulty to the intended action. This is normally somewhere between 1 and 6, but can go as high as 8. Anything above that is impossible to succeed at. The player rolls a number of dice equal to the protagonist's ranks in the specified Trait. In order for him to succeed, at least one die needs to show a number equal to, or higher than, the assigned difficulty. Only one die is applied to the roll, all others are discarded; your success is not greater even though multiple dice show the required number.
Let's assume that you are attempting a stunt on your car. The difficulty is set at 4 and you roll your two dice in Dexterity (Traits start low). If either die shows 4, 5 or 6, your stunt succeeds. If both dice show 4 or higher, your stunt succeeds just as well as if only one had done so. If neither die shows 4 or higher, you failed. It is quite simple.
Posted on 19th January 2013
Grim Fictions
I've created a page for Grim Fictions, my very own role-playing mechanics that I'm working on. So far, I've only written a little introduction to the game and posted the first draft of the charactersheet. I only found out that the sheet was much bigger than I expected it to be, so I had to work on getting it fixed, which may cause it to suffer when printed, I'm not sure.
Like I've said, the first draft of Chapter 1 is completed and Chapter 2 is nearly so, and I hope to post them soon for your enjoyment.
In other news, I've also posted a sheet for Vampire: the Requiem, which you can find here.
Posted on 17th January 2013
New Layout
Step one of my schedule is now complete! The website has a new layout! In may see some changes in the future, near and far, but I really like how it turned out.
I've started work on my own role-playing game, previously known as Project Gritty-Time but now called Grim Fictions, and I have finished the first draft for Chapter 1: Introduction and I've done a lot of work on Chapter 2: System. Although I won't post anything just yet, I will do a seperate page for Grim Fictions very soon where all related stuff will be kept.
I have also done some character sheets for Burn Legend, a setting presented in Shards of the Exalted Dreams, for Exalted 2nd edition. I have also done some sheets for World of Darkness, which I will upload soon. I really wanted to have the new layout finished before I started to upload anything new, and now that my kind webmaster has finished it you can expect more character sheets to be uploaded in the near future.
Until then, enjoy yourselves.
EDIT: The first World of Darkness sheet can now be found here.
Posted on 10th January 2013
Schedule for 2013
Greetings!
It is a new year! Although it has been more than a year since I last updated this front page, I've made some updates to the Exalted and the Scion character sheets in the last year. It's not much, I grant you that, but I hope I will be doing more this year. Here are some reasons why:
Exalted is getting updated to 3rd edition. I am super excited about this and I can't wait to see the new look! This is a complete overhaul that removes some of the stuff I never really liked or got my head around. Although the tick system of Exalted 2nd edition was pretty cool and gave battles some flow, it was a real pain to keep track of it, which drove me to make the Exalted Combat Tracker. From what I hear, 3rd edition won't have this tick system for combat, which I think is a much needed improvement.
Since Exalted is getting a new edition, rumours have spread that Scion will also get an update. I don't know if it will be this year (I doubt it) but it also fills me with a sort of glee. I've been running a game of Scion for a short time now, but it has been greatly modified to allow for a simpler gaming. I do make use of house-ruling frequently but one thing I've never gotten the hang on is keeping track of these house-rules. Hopefully, a new edition of Scion won't require as much modifying.
I think it is high time for me to start working on World of Darkness sheets. Although MrGone has a great collection of character sheets (which are all awesome and should fill everyone's needs for character sheets) I've wanted to make something that fits my own style. It's not a competition, I think that you should definitely use MrGone's sheets if you want quality sheets, but if you want something different then that is what I will offer.
And then, my second biggest news: I want to make a new roleplaying system and I have been working on one for the last two years, on and off. It is just ready enough to go through some testing, but until it is finished I want to try my hand on another system I just developed and is currently called Project Gritty-Time, for the lack of a better title. It is a d6 system where you roll a number of dice and keep the highest result, and it shouldn't be much more complicated than that. I will post more about it in the future but the whole system will be accessible through this website.
Speaking of which, this website is getting an update and a new look (I promise (really honestly (I'm discussing it with my webmaster right now (as we speak)))). I will be switching entirely to the Emerald Samurai title, the navigation will be fixed and accessibility will be simplified. I don't want you to have to go from A to B so that you can get to C, but I want you to be able to jump directly from A to C.
Finally, my biggest news, and one that will definitely demand a large portion of my time. Me and my fiancee are expecting a baby in April! This will mean diapers, crying, lack of sleep, a lot of coffee, and me enjoying every minute of it. But it will undoubtably mean that I won't be able to do everything I want to do this year. So, after reading through my schedule above, keep in mind that I probably won't be able to do all of it.
Well, that's it for now. To recap: New Exalted sheets for the 3rd edition, new Scion sheets for the 2nd edition, new World of Darkness sheets, and a new roleplaying game. This is my resolution for 2013. I hope you enjoy your new year and that you will enjoy what I have to offer you in the next 365 or so days.
Posted on 4th January 2013
Deleted
I have now finished deleting all the content related to the Emerald & Jade campaign. That includes the player characters, the adventure diaries and the NPCs. I am working on a new campaign with a new group and, assuming it goes off instead of just dying horrible death by the hands of the evil villain 'Lack of Interest', I will start populating these catagories with information about that campaign.
If you want to find the information about the Emerald & Jade campaign, you can download the campaign log on the L5R resources page.
Posted on 27th October 2011
Fixing, moving and stuff
I have now finished moving to Iceland, I've got a full time job and I'm attending class at the Uni. Hopefully, I will find time to do some serious role-playing but for now I am coming up blank for any long term campaigns. I am toying with an idea for series of short adventures and hopefully one of them can be extended into a campaign.
Before I left London, the website somehow deleted everything I did in the last few days. It wasn't much and I only noticed that the Epilogue post was gone, so I rewrote it and finished packing. When I had settled down only a week ago, I found out that some of the files had been lost as well, including the Combat Sheets for Scion and Exalted.
I've finished uploading most of it back, but the "Very Special Edition" of my Scion sheet simply won't behave. It's been problematic getting it re-uploaded and it seems that the last attempt didn't quite do the trick. The file appears here, but downloading it won't work. In the meantime, I did another version of it without the fancy artwork and replaced it with something a little less flashy. It is also editable and should be much easier on the eye. I hope you like it.
Posted on 11th September 2011
Epilogue
We had our last session some time ago. I did make a post about it but it appears it somehow got deleted. Anyway, the website will be undergoing some changes and work. All the material and more related to our Emerald & Jade game, and more, has been put into a PDF file, which should be uploaded soon.
The website will then suffer some changes. All the game related information will be removed and the website will get some visual improvements (I hope). Room will be made for another game, which I hope to start once I'm settled. I hope to continue making character sheets and other stuff, but getting my computer together is taking a little longer than I hoped. Character sheets will start popping up soon though, I hope.
I honestly wish that the Emerald & Jade game could have continued. I had a lot of stuff planned, many conspiracies, many interesting villains and heart-wrenching tragedies. Most of my ideas can be found in the PDF file for this game, which will be uploaded soon (if anyone is actually reading this, keep an eye out for this week).
I want to thank my players for a good time, and I hope that I will enjoy as good a group again.
Posted on 8th August 2011
Winter Court Continues (cont.)
The Winter Court is still going, and here is the current status of the Winter Court competition after six contests:
Top 10 (after six contests)
1. Kitsuki Raidou (129 points)
2-3. Bayushi Kojiro (127 points)
2-3. Kakita Kanbei (127 points)
4. Akodo Daiki (109 points)
5. Tsuruchi Naomi (98 points)
6. Hida Banzo (96 points)
7. Urashima Kashima (94 points)
8. Seppun Kimiko (93 points)
9. Miya Hotaru-no-hime (81 points)
10. Matsu Akemi (71 points)
Bottom 5 (after six contests)
24-25. Kakita Tateno (35 points)
24-25. Bayushi Takahiro (35 points)
26. Hida Maruki (33 points)
27. Hida Tairou (33 points)
28. Mirumoto Hideki (32 points)
Players are BOLD, NPCs are Italic
Posted on 27th May 2011
Winter Court Continues
Added the next part of the Winter Court to the adventure diaries and updated the characters. Although there were a lot of NPCs mentioned during last night's sessions, I only added info about those who the Magistrates interacted with.
Since there's a Winter Court competition going on in the Winter Court, I decided to add a little something up here. Here's the Top 10 contestants, based on points, after the first contest, which was in poetry.
Top 10 (after one contest)
1: Kitsuki Raidou (41 points)
2: Kakita Tateno (35 points)
3-4: Bayushi Kojiro (31 points)
3-4: Hida Banzo (31 points)
5: Seppun Kimiko (21 points)
6: Miya Hotaru-no-hime (20 points)
7: Otomo Ryuunosuke (19 points)
8-9: Akodo Yurou (17 points)
8-9: Kakita Kanbei (17 points)
10: Asahina Chou (12 points)
Bottom 5 (after one contest)
23-26: Hida Tairou (4 points)
23-26: Hida Maruki (4 points)
23-26: Akodo Daiki (4 points)
27-29: Bayushi Takahiro (3 points)
27-29: Moto Yao-Xung (3 points)
27-29: Moto Ling (3 points)
30: Moto Yao-Han (0 points)
Player characters are BOLD, NPCs are Italic
Posted on 13th May 2011
Start of the Winter Court
We started the Winter Court last night. I believe the group was happy about getting another chance to kill Ema, the bloodmage they fought against in the Tree of Life adventure. This time, Ema was killed, instead of being brought to justice. We all know how horribly that failed.
I believe I've finished all the needed updating for our last session: added new NPCs, updated old NPCs, added an adventure diary, updated the characters, and so on. This is actually more work than I first suspected, and I've working on this update for about an hour or so.
I also added an XP count to the characters, because we forgot to count the character's total XP since they started the game. In my games, the total XP count is very important, because new players use the lowest of this count and new characters of old players use the XP count of the players. Essentially, it is the players who get the XP, not their characters, so when they get new characters they start with as much XP as they have earned through their old ones. So I decided to add this count to the website so that we could have a decent idea of how much XP each has earned.
Posted on 29th April 2011
Downloadables
I've added some downloadable content to the Resources catagory. There's stuff for L5R and WoD, includes character sheets and GM screen. It is all downloadable as PDF files. Enjoy.
Posted on 22nd April 2011
The Story so Far
All adventure diaries up until now have been written and logged, as well as a short description of every major NPC that has made an appearance so far. Each NPC has a link at the end of their description that directs you to the adventure diary in which he or she first appeared, and the ones he or she later appeared in. And, each adventure diary has links at their ends which will direct you to all the major NPCs which made an appearance in that adventure. When the diaries or the NPC descriptions refer to Magistrates with capital 'M', I am referring to the player characters, but there's an appearance of magistrates with lower case 'm', it refers to NPCs.
The adventures that have been written and logged are: Dead Crab in Crane's Nest (the first adventure of the campaign), Beast of Hotei, The Smell of Rat, Tree of Life, and The Report. Enjoy reading them.
Furthermore, each description of an NPC has a picture of that NPC. These pictures belong to the artists who made them (or in some cases, to AEG or someone else entirely). Unfortunately, I spent days browsing the internet for them and many of the names of artists have been lost in the process. If you are one of these artists, or own the art, and would like me to remove your art from this site, all you need to do is send me a message and let me know. If my e-mail has not been yet added to this site (the developer is still working on the rough edges) I can also be contacted through here. As soon as I see the message I will act on it.
Posted on 18th April 2011
Welcome!
Welcome one and all, to this website dedicated to the adventures of a group of Imperial Magistrates in the fantastic world of Rokugan! For lurkers who have accidentally found their way to this website, this site is dedicated to a role-playing game set in a fantasy world influenced by Japan, China, Korea and other Asian countries (mostly Japan though). This is a medium sized group of players, and a GM, who try to meet every week to play a game of Legend of the Five Rings (L5R for short). Occasionally, we will deviate from our schedule and play something completely different, such as World of Darkness or Call of Cthulu, but this website focuses on our L5R campaign.
For those of you who are players, I will be adding information about our campaign in the coming days. It may not be a very quick process, but you should be seeing information related to the campaign shortly. This will include information on various NPCs, towns and locations, and not so detailed script of past adventures.
As your host and GM, I now announce this website officially operational. Yay!
Posted on 17th April 2011