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Game Mechanics

The Die Pool System | Using Skills | What Affects Difficulties | Doing More Than One Thing
Attack and Defense | Borrowing Dice |  Damage | Poison | Pulling Punches | Feats of Ki | Feats of Karma
Other Uses of Combat Dice | Healing | Sample Fight | Magic | Spiritual Rolls | Social Rolls

Most of the time in Bushido, the game is simple: if you want to do something and it's considered well within reason that your character can do it, you can do it.  However, every so often you'll need to roll dice to determine if your character can do something.

The Die Pool System

The way Bushido works is by die pools.  You may have noticed back in character creation that the numbers you chose for your statistics reflect how many ten-sided dice you roll to accomplish something.  For instance, if you're fighting, and you have three dice in Swordsmanship and four in Reflexes (not Strength, that comes later!), you would roll seven ten-sided dice.

How do you know if you're successful in doing something?  The number of dice you roll above 5 (i.e., 6 or better) indicates how successful you are.  If you're fighting, the number of successes you get indicates how many ten-sided dice you roll for damage.

If none of your rolls are successful and you have rolled one or more ones, then you have committed a critical error.  The number of ones indicates the severity of the error.  For instance, if you shoot a bow and roll one critical error, the bowstring would break.  If you were swinging a sword and you rolled three critical errors, the sword would hit a rock and probably even break!

Sometimes you will need more than one success to accomplish what you're doing.  This is called raising the base difficulty.  If you are working at a base difficulty of 2, and you roll 3 successes, you've achieved what you're trying to do.  If you only roll 2 successes, then that's not enough.

Any successes above and beyond what are needed to do something are called free-and-clear successes.

Difficulties can also go up because of other things -- for instance, if you've been blinded, or if you're fighting with an off hand.  See the section What Affects Difficulties below for more on this.

Using Skills

When you want to use a skill, you simply roll the applicable basic stats plus the applicable skills.  You generally never use more than one basic stat for anything, which keeps the die pools small and also keeps things from getting too convoluted.  You almost always never use more than one skill at a time.

Sometimes it isn't all that obvious what the needed basic stat is, so here are some examples to help you get a better idea.  Forging a sword, for instance, involves both muscle and skill, but skill is more important than muscle here.  To that end, you'd roll Int + Weaponsmithing.

As mentioned above, not everything requires a roll.  If you want to go to the tavern on the outskirts of town you live in, you don't need to roll Intelligence + Area Knowledge (Town)!  This is a "gimme."  However, if you're trying to go to a part of town that you've never been to before, then you'd need to do that.

As we mentioned before, you generally only roll one skill and one stat at once.  The only major exception to this is when you're adding Ki to a roll.  For more on that, see below (under Feats of Ki).

What Affects Difficulties

Many things can affect the difficulty of an action.  When something is made more difficult, you need more successes to accomplish it.  For instance, if you're fighting in the rain, everyone fighting needs another two successes on top of whatever else they need to roll to hit.  This is listed as a "-2" difficulty.

This table lists modifiers for physical actions (typically combat).

Disabled arm or hand: the limb cannot be used in combat. Offhand penalties and limping apply.  Multiple Attack minus does not count if you're using two weapons, have Two-Handed Fighting and are only attacking twice on a turn. (If you attack three or more times with such a setup, then the incremental -2 applies.)

Note that if you're doing something with a minus, and you have no successes left over after the minus but one or more 1s, this is not a botch, just a simple failure.

Here are some modifiers for social or mental tasks:

How Different Weapons Affect Attack and Defense

This is a quick rundown of how different weapons affect attacks and defenses.  "Succ." means the number of successes for the attack.  For instance, damage for a tanto would be the number of successes plus up to two dice of STR (i.e., if the wielder had 3 STR, only 2 would be used; if they only had one die of STR, one would be used).

Doing More Than One Thing

If you want to do more than one thing, you'll need to roll for each action separately.

For instance, if you wanted to leap off your horse and hit something while in midair, you'd have to roll Riding + Reflexes first, then Kendo (Swordsmanship) + Reflexes, assuming you got the first off without problems.  Both actions take place in the same turn.  Basically, combining actions like sort of like a variant on doubling your attack (see below).

Note that while rolling each of these actions, you'd be vulnerable to attacks from others.  You cannot defend yourself when you do this sort of thing.  For instance, if you were attacking one person in this fashion and a second person decided to take a swipe at you, you would have no defense against them.

If you use Jumping as a way of attacking in an accelerated fashion, any successes from your Jumping roll get added to the die pool of the actual attack, if the attack itself is successful (i.e., not blocked or dodged).  This simulates the effects of your momentum on the attack.  If the other person rolls enough successes to negate the attack dice alone, Jumping dice are not added.

The limitations to what can be accomplished through this should be dictated by common sense.

Attack and Defense

When you want to attack someone, you roll any applicable stats plus any applicable skills, and count the number of successes.  If you're the one being attacked and you want to defend yourself, the way you do this is by rolling either just your Reflexes, or Reflexes plus whatever skill you are using to defend yourself.  (If you were backflipping to avoid a thrown knife, for instance, that would be Reflexes + Acrobatics -- assuming you have Acrobatics!)

The number of successes you get cancels out the number of successes they get.  If you're the one with more successes, you've made a successful attack and you can determine damage.

If you're trying to determine who attacks first (in a situation where neither party is being surprised), both people roll Reflexes plus any relevant combat acceleration skills, such as Fast-draw.  The one with the most successes goes first.

If you surprise someone, your attack AND damage dice are doubled in the first attack.

If you are being attacked by more than one person, you can only defend yourself against one of them at a time. It is the GM's discretion who gets to attack you. The only exception to this is if you have the skill Two-Handed Fighting, in which case you can defend yourself against two at a time.  If you only have one weapon, you can use a weapon in one hand and use a hand-to-hand fighting skill with the other.  You do not actually roll Two-Handed Fighting; you roll the skill you use with it.  (You must have Two-Handed Fighting at the same or greater level than the fighting skill you wish to use.)  Two-Handed Fighting is also useful for hand-to-hand combat, although you need to use any hand-to-hand fighting skills or Reflexes alone to use it that way.

Alternatively, you can roll multiple defenses, but each successive defense in the same turn will be at an incremental -1.

If you're striking a blow to drive someone back or using hand-to-hand fighting, roll Strength + the skill, not Reflexes.

If you want to use a jump or run to fuel an attack -- by adding momentum to the attack -- do so by first rolling your jump or run plus Ref.  The person being attacked gets a free defense (no penalties except what they would ordinarily get in such a circumstance).  If they successfully dodge or defend against that jump or run, then the attack is considered blocked or dodged.  If they do not block or dodge, however, then the attacker rolls his subsequent attack, and adds the successes from the jump/run as bonus dice.  (If, for instance, you rolled a jump attack and got two free-and-clear successes, you'd add two dice to the actual attack.)  The actual attack is defended conventionally as well.

If you use your defense to fuel an attack -- for instance, roll out of the way of one attacker and use that momentum to attack another person -- you can do this in the same manner as a jumping attack, but the attack itself (not the acrobatic move, but the subsequent attack) will be at a -2.

Borrowing Dice to Bolster Attacks / Defense

If you want to bolster your attack, you can do so by pre-emptively sacrificing dice from your defense.  Conversely, you can also bolster your defense by pre-emptively sacrificing your attack dice.  For instance, if you normally roll 8 dice (4 Reflexes + 4 Kendo), you could roll 10 by borrowing 2 from your next defense.  Then when it came time to defend, you would roll 6, not 8.  You can only borrow dice from your next turn.

When fighting with a bow or similar weapon, note that it takes one turn to nock an arrow and another to shoot it.  The Speed-Load skill offsets this, provided you roll successfully.  (If you flunk Speed-Load, nothing happens, you just don't get to do both actions at once.)

You cannot use Two-Handed Fighting with a bow or other weapon that requires both hands, but you can use your feet if they're not bound or being blocked by something (which would be one of the martial-arts skills + Dex,  or a straight Dex roll).

If you're being attacked by two people, for instance, and you're fending both of them off using Two-Handed Fighting, the turns go like this (assuming you're the one going first):

• You attack, they defend
• They attack first, you defend.
• They attack a second time, you defend.

If they have Two-Handed Fighting as well, it's:

• You attack first, they defend
• They attack first, you defend.
• You attack a second time, they defend.
• They attack a second time, you defend.

Each of your individual attacks can only be directed at one person at a time.  As before, if you wanted to do something elaborate like strike through someone at someone behind them, you'd need to roll separately for each person you were trying to hit, with each successive person adding 2 difficulty.

Damage

Damage is done when you get one or more successes off in an attack.  The number of successes you get determines the number of 10-sided dice you roll for damage.

The resulting number is subtracted from the Life of the person who is hit. When Life reaches zero, that person is unconscious.  When it reaches a negative version of their Life score, they are dead.  Unconscious characters cannot defend themselves, of course.  Death is irreversible; there is no resurrecting the dead in this game.

Normally damage is figured by rolling the same number of over-and-above successes you get from the attack.  If you are fighting someone hand to hand, damage is figured a little differently.  To calculate damage from a punch or a kick, use your Strength dice -- roll your Strength, count the number of successes from that (everything 6 and up), and then roll that number of dice to determine damage.

Poison

Poison can have varied effects, depending on the poison.  Some poisons are mild and only cause dizziness, weakness, nausea or cramps; others are genuinely incapacitating and will kill within a day unless counteracted.

To determine the effects of a poison, the poisoner rolls Int + Poisoning (plus Ki if desired).  A standard poison that causes weakness can be created with no penalty.  A poison that causes death within the day is -2 difficulty; a poison that kills within the hour is -4; a poison that kills within minutes of contact is -8.

Poison is counteracted by a Stamina roll (plus Ki, at the discretion of the player).

If someone is poisoned, they lose 1d10 of Life in a proportionate span of time to the power of the poison.  If the poison kills within the day, they lose 1d10 every hour; if it kills within the hour, they lose 1d10 every minute, and so on.  The total number of successes for the poisoning (after all minuses and Stamina rolls) is the number of dice they will lose during this span of time.

Pulling A Punch / Doing Limited Damage / Effects

Sometimes you don't want to strike to kill -- only to wound, break a limb, or knock the wind out of someone.  Generically this is pulling a punch.  Pulling a punch will add -2 against the total successes of whatever you're trying to do.  If you miss , you hit the target but do full damage.  If you hit the total successes or better, you are able to achieve the desired damage.

You cannot pull punches with a distance weapon, such as a bow.

Knocking someone off their feet with a blow (unless you're using Judo, in which case that's the idea), or knocking someone into someone else, etc. is the same as knocking someone back (see above).

If you are attacking someone with one skill and they have no applicable skill to defend with, then they roll straight DX to get out of the way (provided they can!).  The key word is applicable.  For instance, if someone takes a swing at you with a sword and all you've got is Judo, then you're not going to be able to do much of anything unless you disarm him and get your hands on him.

Disarming someone is a feat of difficulty 4 (see the chart).

If you are using a wooden practice weapon, doing anything more than stun damage is -2.  (Basically, 1-2 successes total means the person being attacked is winded for that many rounds.)

Sparring is different than pulling punches.  In sparring, both people fighting have agreed to do no damage, and so damage is not rolled.  You can borrow dice when sparring, however.  If one person chooses to stop sparring and inflict damage, they can only do so by sacrificing their next defense.

Feats Of Ki

You may remember that your Ki dice can be used once in a game session (or once per in-game day) to do something out of the ordinary.  To do this, simply take the die pool you would normally use for the feat in question and add Ki to it.  You can do this once per game session or once a day in game time.  You cannot split up the die pool and use some of it now and some of it later; you use it all at once or not at all.

For instance: let's say you were in a judo match and you wanted to use a sudden burst of energy to get an upper hand on your opponent. (The way this is visualized is up to the player.)  You'd roll Ki + Judo + Strength (to attack; this would be Reflexes if you were defending) and check the results.

Combining actions with Ki is allowed within limits. To recast the previous example, if you wanted to use your Ki in combination with your Kendo (Swordsmanship) skills and Reflexes to leap off your horse and hit something in midair, you'd have to make a decision as to whether you were applying your Ki to the jump or to the hit.  If it's the hit, you'd roll Riding + Reflexes first, then Ki + Kendo (Swordsmanship) + Reflexes, assuming you got the first off without problems.  Also keep in mind that you would not be able to defend yourself during any of this.

The exception to the once-a-session rule is when you are trying to perform something supernatural that you have a skill based on Ki for, such as asking for a favor of your ancestors.  If you have Supplication (most priest characters will want this!), you'd roll that with Ki normally and not be limited to the once-a-session rule.  However, if you try to perform the same supplication more than once in a row, each successive attempt will raise the total successes by one.

Feats of Karma

The Karma die pool has a use of its own.  If you have x number of dice in Karma, you can re-roll that many die rolls during any one XP voting period.  For instance, if you roll Ref + Kendo  and you blow it, you can spend one point of Karma to redo the roll.  If you've already done this Karma number of times before another XP period has passed, you cannot do it again.

Other Uses Of Combat Dice

If you want to do something like a called shot, you raise the total successes.  Called shots to a limb or a specific part of the torso, +1; to the head, hand, or foot (including wrists and ankles), +2; to the neck, +4.  A called shot to the eye is +5 -- nothing less than a 10 will be a success, and if there are other factors on top of that, it's even tougher.

Grades of armor raises total successess.  Regular clothing makes no difference.  Simple leather armor is +1; full armor (yoroi) is +2.  Note that full armor means FULL armor -- you cannot don full armor in less than five to ten minutes, because of the number of pieces involved.

Grades of weaponry work to offset a total successes.  If someone has a samurai sword of very fine manufacture, that's a +1 (vs. something like a wooden practice sword, which would confer no advantage).  By "very fine," think of the kinds of swords that would be considered national treasures today.

[Right now I am assuming that all weapons do the same amount of damage, for simplicity's sake.  This will be refined later.]

Hitting someone from a distance, with a bow or other ranged weapon, will up the total successes by 1 every 10 meters (as per the chart). This is in addition to any other target modifiers, of course.

Healing

To determine how fast someone heals in a given day, roll Stamina dice.  You roll the number of successes you get and are healed that many points in a given day.  (Example: roll three Stamina dice, get 3, 6, and 6.  Roll two dice, get five and nine; you're healed fourteen points that day.)  Poison ups the success total successes by two.  Someone with a Healer skill would add that to their Stamina roll (or to the Stamina roll of the person they are healing).

A Sample Fight

Oyuki encounters a ruffian on the road with the following stats: STR 4, INT 2, REF 4, STA 4, APP 1.  He's also got a Kendo (Swordsmanship) skill of 4 and a Fast-Draw (Sword) of 2.  Since both parties have Kendo (Swordsmanship), a surprise attack on Oyuki doesn't work.  To that end, both roll Reflexes + Fast-Draw (Sword):

Oyuki: 5, 2, 5, 9, 9, 9 [three successes]
Ruffian: 8, 4, 4, 1, 6, 4 [two successes]

Oyuki goes first, rolling Kendo + Reflexes:

Oyuki: 5, 3, 7, 9, 6, 5, 7 [four successes]

The ruffian attempts to defend himself, also with Kendo + Reflexes:

Ruffian: 5, 9, 8, 1, 10, 10, 2, 3 [four successes]

The first round is a draw, since four cancels four.

Oyuki: 6, 1, 10, 4, 2, 8, 5 [three successes]
Ruffian: 2, 2, 4, 2, 5, 1, 6, 5 [one success]

Two successes for Oyuki.  Oyuki now gets to roll two ten-sided dice to determine the damage she's inflicted.

Oyuki: 8, 5 = 12

The ruffian is badly injured, decides today's not his day, and flees with his life.

Magic

Spells can be taken as skills, if you are a magic-user.  For more details on magic-users and magic spells, see the link marked Magic.

Casting spells is done by rolling Ki + the spell in question.  Note that you cannot cast more spells in a day than you have points in Ki.  (Casting spells is also not considered a Ki burn unless you actually declare it, in which case you'd get to add your Ki dice twice.)

People who are the subject of a spell can resist by rolling Ki + Int at base difficulty.  If they are aware a spell is being cast (most people aren't!), they get a +1.  (This action does not burn Ki.)

Supernatural powers work the same way -- Ki + the power in question.  Fullbreed supernaturals can use each of their powers up to their number of Ki points per day.  Halfbreeds can only use up to their number of Ki points per day amongst all their powers.  For instance, a fullbreed yuki-onna with Ki 4 could cast one of her powers 4 times a day, in addition to other powers (each at 4 times a day).  A halfbreed yuki-onna with Ki 4 would only be able to use four instances of her powers in a day.  (Using supernatural powers alone does not burn your Ki for the day.)

Spiritual Rolls

[This section may be deprecated in the future.]

Asking the spirits for a favor is something that many people do, not just priests or shine maidens.  After making a suitable offering (which will vary depending on the circumstances), roll Ki + Karma.  The greater the number of successes, the more one's wishes will be heeded, but only in a subtle way -- for instance, you can't get the gods to magically transport you somewhere, but you might happen across a farmer with an oxcart headed in the same direction!

Every successive attempt to invoke the spirits during a one-week period will add -1 to the difficulty involved.

You can also do this by rolling Ki + Supplication.  Note that doing so does not deplete your Ki for the day.  However, if you just roll Ki + Karma (presumably, you'd do this if you don't have Supplication), you'd deplete your pool of both Ki and Karma for the day.

The way successes from spiritual rolls work is like so: the successes can then be invested in actions that pertain directly to what you were trying to do.  You basically have a pool of bonus dice which can be spent on those rolls.  The only restriction is that you cannot spend more than your Ki or Karma score, whichever is lower, of bonus dice in any single roll.

Social Rolls

Self-control -- avoiding the loss of one's temper, clamping down on anger, etc -- depends on who you are trying to keep losing your temper in front of.  For someone you are loyal to, it's Face + Fealty.   For everyone else, it's Face + Etiquette.

Betraying someone is always difficult and one of the most stigmatizing things someone can do in Japanese society.  Roll Face + Fealty (+ Karma if applicable; this burns your Karma for the day) to determine your level of success.

Committing ritual suicide is one of the more dramatic ways a character can die.  In the (hopefully) unlikely event a PC wishes to do this, he will need to roll based on the circumstances.

If the character is killing himself out of loyalty to someone, then he rolls Face + Fealty.

If the character is killing himself to achieve a karmic goal, then he rolls Face + Karma (this burns your Karma for the day).

If any of the above involve a second or a helper, they should also roll Fealty + Face and add those successes (if any) to the total.

The number of successes, if any, determines how prolonged the death is.  Failure indicates that the person has merely wounded or crippled himself, depending on the manner of death involved.  A failed suicide attempt will cause you to LOSE ALL OF YOUR Face DICE.  The only way to get these back is to earn them, the slow and painful way.

Last but not least, let's have a look at the Room Rules.