This is the review of the second edition of [url=http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=21991]BUDO[/url]. BUDO bills itself as Hard Style Wushu. I'm not really sure what that means, but I take it from what's inside the product itself to be an indication that there's a little more detail, a little more crunch in the system than you would find in ordinary Wushu.
For those of you not in the know, [url=http://wiki.saberpunk.net/pm2/pmwiki.php?n=Wushu.HomePage]Wushu[/url] is an extremely rules light system, which was created by Daniel Bayn, almost as a lark. The basic system is available for free from the Wushu Wiki along with many of the modifications which BUDO itself uses. BUDO does however offer the whole in a convenient and attractive package, along with a few of it's own unique improvements to the system.
It's a very good system at that, but I can't help but feel that as with all rebuilds of Wushu, it misses the point by trying to make something that can be very simple, more complex.
Appearance
The "physical" thing is actually a PDF, very reasonably priced at 3.50$, with 16 pages of rules, 8 pages of setting, 3 pages of Wushu Open License, and 1 page of character sheet in the starkly minimalist style of Wushu games everywhere.
It's nicely laid out, colorful and with attractive fonts, with some appealing pictures which mesh well with the feel the setting is attempting to evoke. It's all in one page, with the words wrapping around the pictures, and I can't help but wish that more games were laid out so simply and cleanly. It's a pleasure to read in it's general layout.
Style
The second edition cleans up a lot of the confusing transposition of Asian language for simple game mechanics, and smooths over the roughness of the first edition nicely. It's still sometimes hard to follow in places, but the explanations run much more cleanly and clearly, and there is a vast reduction in the 'swap out a common word for an Asian one for style reasons' that so plagued the first edition. I still find that the style itself leaves something to be desired for me personally. This is however, a personal preference, and I do find it much clearer than the first edition mechanics.
The system is simple enough, and the layout and examples provided are sufficient, so that I could decipher the thing itself. The raw 'correctly used word' editing was over all good, though I did catch a few missing numerical traits, and some minor issues with words simply missing or misused, but they were very few and far between. It was not a sufficient enough problem to cause any trouble.
The key concepts are now nicely referenced and explained to the reader in order, which allows for a much smoother character creation than was previously the case.
Setting
The setting attempts to emulate the feel of mystic Asia, very much seen through a western lens. The second edition has a very nice 'real' historical setting to place the Samurai, Ninja, and dueling city states in. The vague inferred setting of the first edition has been replaced by a much more detailed layout of the Ryukyu Kingdom, including roughs of religions, people, places, martial arts styles, and a good solid foundation to base a fast flowing Wushu game on.
There's a great deal of liberty taken with the concept of course, but the 'reality' of the setting feels much more coherent. To make a movie analogy, it is a good quality props and setting budget, whereas the last film had a quarry and a small stand of bamboo to film in.
Setting Comparisons It's hard for me not to compare this setting to the world of Weapons of the Gods, and think that perhaps for those frustrated with WotG's complex and crunchy rules that this system might be much more to their taste. WotG certainly provides a wealth of setting detail on a fantasy China.
System
Like most Wushu, in BUDO all the conflicts are settled with the same mechanic, whether it's solving a puzzle, running a marathon, or carving someone into tiny chunks with a katana. Unlike vanilla Wushu, BUDO uses d10's, and the target value is found by adding one of the character's Trait's + a Stat (renamed Kihon) to find the value to meet or beat.
Stats are divided up into Physical, Mental, and Social, and renamed to their appropriate Asian counterpart. Traits, curiously enough are not renamed, and are such things as "Ninja - poisons" or "Musician - Shamishen". Traits are also divided up into Physical, Mental, and Social.
Points are assigned and spread out by the player to each stat and trait, the average being a total of 4.
Characters in BUDO also have Chi for each stat, renamed Ki. I find this an appealing rules change, since it means that you have a strong incentive to shift the fight to your preferred method of conflict, so as to maximize your "hit points" as it were.
The players gain bonus dice as per normal Wushu, with details counting for dice. Interestingly enough, your character concept (or Ruhya. Ruhya... I warned you that almost every basic concept is renamed) when used in a description gives you a free die above and beyond the cap. This feature also I like, since it encourages the player to use their character concept and bring it to the fore. The character also develops a technique or style when he is created, and this grants a bonus die when used. These bonus dice are especially useful, since most scenes have the die cap set at 3! Only for very cinematic or climatic fights will the dice cap be set higher, to 5 or so. This makes those free dice from style and concept very useful indeed!
As an optional rule, BUDO characters can detail several points worth of equipment that give them bonus dice to use in various type of conflict, separated into Physical, Mental, and Social once more. As the dice are used up in the equipment pool, they vanish from use, until the pool reaches 0, at which point is starts to regenerate at a rate of 1 per scene. This has the appealing effect of making the player cycle through his or her equipment, giving the various conflicts variety just as you might find in a movie, showing off all facets of the character's abilities.
When fighting against a named character (Bushi), the player has the opportunity to use their own style against them, gaining bonus dice(Ju) from descriptive use of the player. This has the intriguing effect of forcing the player to describe his or her own defeat, or close to defeat at the hands of a superior style, as the character gains bonus dice from the description of the style being used against him.
One of the features I rather liked about the low dice cap was that the characters did have to struggle early, learn the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent set against them, and then later return to use the knowledge against them. (symbolized by the learning what kind of style the named character or threat is using, and then using it against them in combat).
Another way for characters to beat the low dice cap and small Chi(Ki) pools is to use the "setback" option from Wushu Open which is a default rule in the BUDO rules set. Setbacks allow you to take temporary penalties to your dice pool instead of taking a loss of Chi. This can be very deadly in BUDO however, since the dice pools are already so small!
One of the features of the game that is unique to BUDO is the introduction of a division players into two categories. The Shihan and the Iemoto. The player who's character is designated Shihan is the 'star' of the scene and receives an additional die in any conflict they are involved with, while the Iemoto dictates the order of initiative and has the option to Veto details if he or she feels that a detail does not fit the scene. The duties of Shihan and Iemoto rotate around the table, skipping the GM.
Then we come to the calculations for proper challenge rating of the mooks and named characters of BUDO. It's a little surprising to me to find hard math details in any derivative of a Wushu game, but it does provide useful guidelines for how to calculate the challenge to your players. There is also a new type of challenge, a General challenge, which lies between the typical mook threat, and the full power of a named character challenge. There is really very little difference, except that the 'full power' challenges have split up the Ki(Chi) among them, and so it would be much easier to take a castle by social manipulation, than by brute force for instance. Another nice touch of the system.
Overview, Summary, & Comments
Overall, a good and thoughtful rework of the basic concepts of the Wushu system, with more detail and tactical choices woven into the setting itself. There are a lot of rules changes in here which force the player interaction in a new way, increasing player involvement, and making the player play to their chosen role, using my chosen method of player manipulation, the carrot, rewarding rather than punishing the player for making certain choices within the game world.
I did not, however, like the renaming of core concepts which have common accepted use names across the spectrum of many different types of game. It made the game hard to wade through, and felt a little too trite and pointless to me. I am a Westerner, and this game is being sold by Westerners. There is little to gain from the renaming of terms, and much to be lost in clarity and from the hidden snickers of those who understand and read Asian languages and culture properly.
Thus ends my review. Well worth the 3.50$, but with a few rough edges which might keep those happier with vanilla Wushu or who have already developed their own preferences from the assortment of free optional rules already contained with Wushu Open, away.
