In this shimmering spring day, Ah, with ever anxious heart The blossoms are falling A supplement for the Burning Wheel Fantasy Roleplaying System Gempeitokitsu Original Concept Rich Soto Concept Design Rich Soto and Luke Crane Development Rich Soto, Luke Crane and Thor Olavsrud Additional Development Radek Drozdalski, Mayuran Tiruchelvam, Pete Tierney, Danaher Dempsey Monsters Thor Olavsrud and Radek Drozdalski Editing Thor Olavsrud and Johanna Novales. Special last minute thanks to Chris McNeilly! Fiction Shoshi, by Robin D. Laws Sho Ga Nai, by Sean Bosker Cover Jordan Worley Map and Folios Tony Dowler Interior Art Jordan Worley, Kurt Komoda, Justin Andersen, Scott LeMien, Chris Moeller, Keith the Silent K Senkowski Japanese Language and Culture Consultations Andy Kitkowski, Mike Montesa and Noriko Sakamoto Title Poem: Kokinshu 57 by Ki no Tomonori Burning Wheel, the Character Burner and the Monster Burner are trademarks (™) of Luke Crane. The five-spoked wheel logo is a registered trademark (®) of Luke Crane. The Blossoms Are Falling is © 2007 Luke Crane. ISBN: 0-9758889-5-1 Printed in the United States at Lightning Source. Contents Using This Book 6 Nihon Is Burning 7 The Class Structure of Nihon 8 Politics and Administration 10 The Great Clans of Nihon 15 Timeline of the Later Heian Period 20 Religion in Nihon 22 Sho Ga Nai 27 Shoshi 43 The Clan Burner 55 Overarching Confl icts 55 Family and Clan Burner 58 Temple Burner 60 Perilous Adventure Burner 63 The Rise of the Shogun 65 GMs and the Clan Burner 67 The Paths to Enlightenment 68 Choosing Lifepaths 68 Provincial Warrior Setting 69 Imperial Court Setting 71 Buddhist Monastery Subsetting 73 Jinju Setting 75 Farms and Villages Setting 76 City Setting 80 Artisan Setting 84 Hagure Subsetting 86 Stat Pools 88 Karma 89 Nihon-Specifi c Traits 89 The Way 106 Nihon-Specifi c Skills 106 Resources 124 Emotional Attributes 129 Honor 129 Shame 134 Honor Debt 138 A Woman’s Honor 141 Authority 142 Arahitogami 143 Artha and Emotional Attributes 144 Etiquette 145 Proper Address 145 Titles and Honorifi cs 146 Language 147 Bowing 149 Poetry 150 Waka Form 150 Poetic Feats 152 Duels of Verse 153 Feats of Valor 155 Feats 155 Challenges 157 Back Sword Block 159 Weapons and Armor 160 Weapon Notes 160 Spirit Weapons 161 Missile Weapons 161 Armor 163 Kami 164 Kami 164 Ghosts 166 Oni 166 Angry Spirits 167 Offerings 170 Impurities 170 Paths of the Dead 171 Shikigami 172 Hyakki-Yakou 174 Ama-no-Jaku 175 Baku 177 Gaki 180 Haku-Taku 182 Hari-Onago 185 Kitsune 187 Oni-ni-Kanabo 191 Sagari 194 Tengu 196 Yama-Bito 199 Clans of Nihon 202 Nipponese Names 205 Designer’s Notes 207 Reference 209 Web 209 Print 212 Using Th i s Book This book contains supplementary material for the Burning Wheel fantasy roleplaying system. It details how to use that system to play out stories in Heian era Japan. It is our fi rst “traditional” setting book. It contains an information dump at the beginning and the rules text follows. We here at Burning Wheel HQ thought we’d show you our particular take on a traditional setting book. We certainly learned a lot. In order to get the most out of this book, you will need to have a copy of the Burning Wheel, the Character Burner and the Monster Burner. Many of the elements contained in this book are referenced to page numbers in those three books. This helps us keep costs down and also keeps everything uniform. I do apologize for the extra look-up time. Unless otherwise noted, this book obeys all of the standard conventions of Burning Wheel for Artha, Character Burning, Beliefs, Fight!, Range and Cover, etc. Exceptions, and there are many, are noted in the text. If a system is not noted, referenced or described in this book—like Sorcery, for example—assume that it is unavailable in this setting. One last thing: The Japanese transliterations have been simplifi ed as much as possible. We removed the hyphenation of compound words where we could, and eliminated the diacritics and accents all together. Just pronounce each syllable of the Japanese words individually and quickly and you’ll do fi ne. Thanks for your support. Enjoy the book. Sho ga nai, —Luke 6 Nih o n Is Burning The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind. —The Tale of the Heike In Nihon, the twelfth century draws to its zenith and the land stands on the precipice of great change. This is a land of contradictions. In the countryside, provincial warriors possess the power of force and impose the emperor’s writ, yet they have no infl uence over the emperor. In Heiankyo, the capital, the emperor is enthroned—a sitting deity, the nominal ruler of Nihon, yet he has little infl uence over his own court. The font of all these contradictions is the Fujiwara, a noble clan that by tradition provides all of the imperial court’s principal advisors and the emperor’s principal wives. Tradition gives the Fujiwara great infl uence, and they are effectively the rulers of Nihon. So it has been for hundreds of years. Ambition, fi red with a sense of injustice, broods in the wilderness. In the south, one provincial clan, the Taira, have grown powerful and confi dent clearing the land of bandits and pirates. In the north, another provincial clan, the Minamoto, have grown powerful suppressing barbarians and the goblins and demons infesting the mountains. Both great clans are descended from Yamato princes and are kin to the emperor. Each clan is jealous of the other’s glory. Yet both clans also resent being ordered around by perfumed Fujiwara nobles of Heiankyo. By every right, the Taira and Minamoto are the equals of the Fujiwara. Moreover, years of constant fi ghting have given them a sense of honor and pride that none of the soft nobles of Heiankyo could ever understand. Perhaps a warlord ruling all of Nihon with the consent of the emperor, a shogun, could fi nally supplant the infl uence of the Fujiwara? Ambition, attended with a sense of entitlement, sits ready and coiled. In Heiankyo, two brothers—Go-Shirakawa and Sutoku— 7 In this shimmering spring day sit as co-emperors. Each, egged on by his Fujiwara wife, believes he should rule alone as the god-emperor. Yet, both will have to wait. Away from the everyday travails of court, the retired emperor, Toba, exerts a calming infl uence from his monastery on Mt. Hiei. He is the father of both co-emperors, and the sons will stay their dispute while the father lives. Ambition, resplendent with all its hubris, waxes to its zenith. At the same court, the Sekkan, principal advisor to both emperors, and the head of the Fujiwara clan, rests confi dent that his infl uence will continue. He is confi dent his way will be the law no matter which young prince emerges over the other. He is confi dent the provincial warriors who smell of dung can be kept in check. That was yesterday. Today, tomorrow, next week or next year, Toba will die. Where will ambition lead Nihon? You decide. The Class Structure of Nihon Nihon has a very stratifi ed society. The god-emperors, descended from the sun-goddess Amaterasu, rule. They exert their infl uence with Nihon’s kami—god-spirits—to ensure the order and safety of the land and people. The emperors rule from the city of Heiankyo. Sometimes they retire to a monastery on the nearby mountain of Hiei—exerting a similar amount of infl uence as a sitting emperor, but without any of the complications of court intrigue. That intrigue is provided by the courtiers of the various noble families who attend the emperor. Chief among these families are the Fujiwara clan. By tradition, the top ministers come from the Fujiwara, and by tradition the emperor’s fi rst wife must be Fujiwara. These traditions make the head of the Fujiwara clan a very powerful man indeed. This formal infl uence has been cultivated into informal webs of power in the capital. Even the most single-minded of emperors fi nds it diffi cult to act independently of these webs. The great warrior houses are descended from the imperial family itself or directly from the deities of Nihon. However, these provincial nobles wield a different kind of power: the power of the horse, the bow and the sword. With the noble stature of their lineage, the provincial warriors have matched a pure devotion to duty with a strict code of honor. Deviation from that code is the deepest shame. Although the 8 emperor often appoints a direct representative from court to oversee administration of the outlying provinces of Nihon, it is the warlords and their retainers who see to the material protection and the welfare of the people in general. Physical welfare is the province of the warriors, but spiritual welfare rests in the hands of the powerful Buddhist and Shinto priests. Nihon is a deeply religious land, and its priests shepherd the faithful through the turmoil and suffering of life so that they may be reborn into a better existence. Merchants, laborers or peasant farmers are fated to serve and live in the role to which they were born. There is almost no mobility between the 9 In this shimmering spring day lowest rungs of Nihon’s society and the upper tiers. The only way to escape the life your father or mother led is to join a Buddhist monastery or completely rebel and become an outcast.