The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Bushido-I picked this up in Dallas after my cousin purchased "Legends of the Five Rings." Both are games revolving around role-playing in a version of ancient Japan. Bushido is more historically accurate, while Legends tries to reproduce the "feel" of Japan in a fictional milieu. Some of the mechanics in Legends are quite nice, but overall I felt like it was another bare bones game, that was ripe for many supplements to flesh out the system. It just felt incomplete. Bushido is nicely complete, but extraordinarily dated. It was copyrighted in '81 by Fantasy Games Unlimited, and it bears the burden of being close to D&D but different somehow.

This game doesn't have all of the flavoring of Legends, but it is complete. I would have liked to have a copy of GURPS Japan to compare these products to- I used to have a copy of Runequest Japan, which was terrible in my opinion. I just never felt that the Runequest mechanics were appropriate for that type of game. Admittedly I couldn't see Japanese peasants wielding any kind of magic- even spirit magic (though RuneQuest Vikings did work for me- who knows?). For a clumsy system, and some ideas about roleplaying in JapanŠI'd give Bushido a "C." Legends get a "C" as well- it would have been higher, but they get knocked down a letter grade because of the incompleteness of some of the rules.

Bushido: Valley of the Mists-I believe that this is the only adventure released for Bushido by FGU. In many respects it reminded me of Griffin Mountain for RuneQuest. this module details an area, with two adventures, and a number of encounter descriptions that could be fleshed out into full fledged adventures. There's not a lot of wasted space in its 32 pages, and since I paid around $6 for itŠit was well worth the money. This adventur was written by one of the designers of Bushido, and it may help one to decipher what Bushido adventures are supposed to "look" like. There are a number of helpful GM suggestions throughout the text, therefore I'll give it a "B," for the various helps to novice players and GMs. Besides-- I once met Paul Hume or Bob Charrete at some SCA event, held at a VFW post in South Carolina.

Overall, I'd like to see Bushido reprinted and updated, but that does not seem likely as long as Scott Bizar tries to extract draconian fees for any further usage of any FGU properties. There has been some heated discussion on various newsgroups about this- I'd just like to see the games done right by FGU, and if they aren't capable of doing it, then give someone else a chance.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Bushido & Valley of the Mists
Author: Paul Hume & Bob Charrette; Bob Charrette Category: game Company/Publisher: FGU Cost: 20? & 6 Page count: 140 & 32 Capsule Review by Scott Shafer on 02/02/98. Genre tags: none	Bushido-I picked this up in Dallas after my cousin purchased "Legends of the Five Rings." Both are games revolving around role-playing in a version of ancient Japan. Bushido is more historically accurate, while Legends tries to reproduce the "feel" of Japan in a fictional milieu. Some of the mechanics in Legends are quite nice, but overall I felt like it was another bare bones game, that was ripe for many supplements to flesh out the system. It just felt incomplete. Bushido is nicely complete, but extraordinarily dated. It was copyrighted in '81 by Fantasy Games Unlimited, and it bears the burden of being close to D&D but different somehow. This game doesn't have all of the flavoring of Legends, but it is complete. I would have liked to have a copy of GURPS Japan to compare these products to- I used to have a copy of Runequest Japan, which was terrible in my opinion. I just never felt that the Runequest mechanics were appropriate for that type of game. Admittedly I couldn't see Japanese peasants wielding any kind of magic- even spirit magic (though RuneQuest Vikings did work for me- who knows?). For a clumsy system, and some ideas about roleplaying in JapanŠI'd give Bushido a "C." Legends get a "C" as well- it would have been higher, but they get knocked down a letter grade because of the incompleteness of some of the rules. Bushido: Valley of the Mists-I believe that this is the only adventure released for Bushido by FGU. In many respects it reminded me of Griffin Mountain for RuneQuest. this module details an area, with two adventures, and a number of encounter descriptions that could be fleshed out into full fledged adventures. There's not a lot of wasted space in its 32 pages, and since I paid around $6 for itŠit was well worth the money. This adventur was written by one of the designers of Bushido, and it may help one to decipher what Bushido adventures are supposed to "look" like. There are a number of helpful GM suggestions throughout the text, therefore I'll give it a "B," for the various helps to novice players and GMs. Besides-- I once met Paul Hume or Bob Charrete at some SCA event, held at a VFW post in South Carolina. Overall, I'd like to see Bushido reprinted and updated, but that does not seem likely as long as Scott Bizar tries to extract draconian fees for any further usage of any FGU properties. There has been some heated discussion on various newsgroups about this- I'd just like to see the games done right by FGU, and if they aren't capable of doing it, then give someone else a chance. Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 3 (Average)

Bushido & Valley of the Mists