It was a good day, Gaming-wise!

It was a good day...
-Finished my gladiatorial mini/skirmish game. That one might see the light of day...

-Started what should be the final form of my setting (which I actually plan to publish...possibly in Bulgarian and in English).

-Continuing work for a beta-test I'd promised to conduct.

-Found some materials which would make running my Legends of Steel campaign (even) easier.''

And of course, dealt with my regular job. But yeah. Overall, great day for gaming!

So, what's the moral of this story?
Well, I guess everyone can draw his or her own conclusions. But if you want the moral I took from all of it, here it is:

"Thou shall begin your day with NSFW activities as often as possible!"

...

I'm now thinking more tales should come with a practical moral like this. (And of course, the original tales like Red Riding Hood actually did).

Realistic historical healing

When we speak about historical settings,we often point that an infected wound would be the end of a character. Thus, people conclude, PCs that actually fight "need" access to magic healing, or an unrealistic damage system.
For quite some time, I was accepting this opinion and believing that "people in the past were just that tough they survived".
Then I remembered actual historical stories, and it didn't fit, but I wasn't in the mood to use stories as proof.

Last week, a wound on my leg (about 5 cm long and wide, but shallow) got infected. In fairness, everything would get infected with 5 days of neglect...but it was a time of great stress, so I had no time to visit the doctor. You know, like it routinely happens with PCs in games?
I recovered using nothing but herbal remedies, and an unguent my wife prepared from different kinds of food - no, I'm not kidding you - and which drew the pus from the wound. Then the herbal remedies kept it clean and disinfected it enough for it to recover.
I doubt any modern medicine would have done (much) more than that...in fact, it got infected while I was treating it with modern disinfectants!

All the herbal ingredients are easily found where I live (I don't know the names in English of most of the herbs, though I remember my Granny showing me some of them and explaining they are good for burns, or for infected wounds). The unguent can easily be prepared in any agrarian setting.
Another "truism" against historical gaming was put to rest, in my book.

Reviews (and a solution) of Kuro: Makkura and Kuro: Tensei

A short explanation: I decided to cover Kuro: Makkura (a.k.a. The Not-So-Great Kuro Campaign) and Kuro: Tensei (a.k.a. the "Where's my kewl powerz?" supplement) in a single post. Why?
They're meant to be linked...chronologically, even. You introduce Tensei after you play through Makkura.

OK, first we're going to talk about the presumed Kuro Campaign...a.k.a. What Asen Doesn't Like About Kuro.
Yes, I'm serious. But it's still presumed you'd be using it...no, don't tell me it's not - everything even in the corebook points you in that direction. The adventure in the basic book is part of it, and you basically have to play through Kuro: Makkura to get to Kuro: Tensei!

SPOILERTIME:
The Incident, the Blockade - they're both parts of it. And they're part of the reasons the setting is what it is.
/SPOILERTIME

So...this won't be the usual review. Instead, I'm going to talk a bit about the campaign, and a lot more about how to salvage it.
Yes, it's that bad, speaking from experience. I've run part of it (readers of my blog can remember that this is one of the very few campaigns I've tried to run...and it's also one of the reasons I'm not actively looking for other people's campaigns).

So, what is the campaign.
It begins with the adventure in the corebook (mandatory - you introduce recurring NPC there), and continues. The point is to get increasingly deeper in the occult world of Shin Edo.

SPOILERTIME 2!
So, first the characters are kidnapped by terrorists and save themselves or are saved, not without the help of an AI (or is it an AI?) they meet in the next building - a laboratory - after the terrorists blow up the floor.
Then they chase a murderer who's obviously not merely human.
They try to save missing students and find themselves in a demon's realm.
Then various shenanigans ensue. OK, that part isn't exactly spoiler-worthy. Oh, and more recurring NPCs are introduced!
FWIW: all the 7 adventures are keyed to the days of the week.
And then they have to chase the demons to prevent a great evil from appearing....but they fail (no questions here).
And then they have the option to return to ordinary lives, or become avatars for the kami who were their ancestors, and to fight demons (though not with this exact wording). You know what PCs are going to pick, right?
(The question, though, is asked as "Do you want to live or die?"
/SPOILERTIME 2!

What's bad about the campaign?
It's frigging linear. Like, I've read a short story ("Regret With Math", by Greg Stolze) that was less linear.
And this is supposed to be a game. But you can change nothing.
If I had to guess what the authors were thinking, it would be something like this...
"The players aren't going to read all about the setting (arguably true in some groups). So, the characters have to reach from A to B by clearing middle points C, D, E, and F, and by the kami, they're going to do it! And the players are going to get immersed in the setting in the process! Those baka players just need to pay attention to the scenery as the train is passing!"
Ahem, maybe not quite like this, but it's what I imagine - not what happened.

Now, for those without the game, and for everyone who might think I'm exaggerating: The adventure in the corebook is, like, the worst example of a glorified railroad you can think of. Or, quite possibly, worse than that!
I mean, it is fully linear. You can't, by design, stray in any direction - short of dying deliberately against obviously superior forces (NPCs with assault weapons and power armour, while the characters are unarmed...exactly how stupid do you have to be in order to stay and fight?) It gives you TNs for checks and stats for NPCs that are going to be fighting. And it also gives you an explanation why, if you fail the checks and have the mind to run, you're still going to pass - and the NPCs couldn't chase you!
Though admittedly, there are brighter moments in the campaign...like the Darkness Demon, amusingly enough. At least you could die for something other than bad dice rolls.
Verdict: Kuro is a great game, and well-researched, but the campaign basically makes all its potential unnecessary, except as a combat engine!

What's good about the Makkura campaign? Why is it even worth salvaging?
The campaign is exactly as bad as it seems, while the game and the setting are exactly as great as they seem. But it is a good way to showcase the setting, and to introduce its darker parts, and unknown beliefs - step by step.
So, how to combine it with an actual, you know, game (where, by definition, your decisions should be able to change the outcome)? I have a solution!
Here's what I actually did, and I'd recommend the same to you as well. It's the adventure in the corebook (yes, that same one) that gave me the idea...
Remember, it is fully linear. So, obviously the authors wanted to tell you this as a story. Should I rewrite it with much effort, or should I run a railroad? "No way" to both, I said.
Instead, I allowed them to do exactly what they wanted (and I recommend you doing the same). I told the players the story.
So, listen: the game begins less than a week after the corebook adventure. The PCs meet and introduce each other, but you tell them that they know each other.
At this point, let the players introduce the PCs.
And then tell them the first adventure as a cut-scene: "Three days ago, you met at the bank that was attacked by terrorists and survived together. Worse, some things you found while escaping point to you that you're all related in some ways! At the least, your names are all on a list." (Also refer to the spoileblock).
Then I read them how the adventure was going to go anyway.
(The players, of course, asked: "why aren't we playing through this?" They were assuming they might do something that might change the events, the poor souls...
Me: "Because it's a total railroad and I can't stand to run it, nor do I have the time to re-write it basically from scratch. And when I say this, I mean it doesn't matter what you're going to try and do").
Then you serve them the actual adventure. See the parts with "adventure seeds" (after the adventures in the campaign, titled "Continuing the Day of..." and on p. 183 of the corebook)?
Those are almost as good as the actual campaign is a failure (for me, at least). They give you suggestions, point out what info about the setting they're meant to introduce, what to focus on...
They are even grouped, so you could pick one depending on the party composition!
So, I'd read each adventure in the campaign as a cut-scene (barring maybe 3 of them, but probably less). The rest of them, and that's the majority unless you're willing to do a lot more work than me, you introduce as cut-scenes.
Remember, they're meant to evoke a mood and progress a plot. Let them do it!
Then you use what you've actually got, and run the adventures that are obvious in the adventure seeds!
And you can decide to stop after some of the events - especially if you don't want to get into playing Kuro: Tensei (where the game becomes less of a horror and more of a supernatural technothriller in a dystopian future...like Eric van Lustbader on steroids. I mean, his ninja guy never met the Japanese Emperor...)
Also, the events from Makkura, which are meant to pre-date Tensei, need never happen - unless the group would like that! Just because you're using them as background, doesn't tie you to that turn of events.
You can even play Tensei without the kami returning in such a spectacular fashion...they players have been considered "worthy", and got a kami's attention. Period. Like so much else in the game, it's a mixed blessing...
Or they might decide to continue the same way as before, without the Ki Powers in Tensei. Personally, I'd love that!
And you know best what your group would like.

Tensei
So, maybe you played Makkura, or maybe you're introducing just Tensei. Either way, it's assumed that a kami (a spirit of a Japanese hero) has merged with your character. It's not possession, see - you're their descendent, so it's obviously fine!
But no matter, the point is that mechanically, you're introducing Kewl Powerz. (And narratively, you're now becoming one of the movers and shakers...while in-world, your PC is now indeed apart from the common man - or woman - at the street, and risks forgetting who he or she used to be in the 21st century).
Oh, and you now have the option to play one of the Onimachines. Get the supplement to learn what those are...

One of the options is Musashi Myamoto, BTW. Other options are Abe no Seimei, Himiko, Lady Tomoe, Kusunoki Masahige and Saito Musashibo Benkei. I liked the spread. (And I like even more that Musashi is NOT the Samurai archetype. He's a Duelist, the samurai is Kusunoki Masashige).
They all give you access to different abilities. For example, all the warriors except Benkai give you only the techniques Kekkai and Okuden - while Himiko, the Miko archetype, gives you access to Divination, Kagenie, Kamitsuki, Kekkai, Kichiyose, and Kuji-Kiri.
Kekkai, for example, are "areas of supernatural purity, where the supernatural cannot harm innocents". The PC(s) and your opponent(s) simply disappear, and fight in a place with no bystanders (unless you want to protect those...them dying leads to Taint), but with all the structures that were there. Anyone who dies there, is dead, but that's it. You can blow the Emperor's Castle, but no
They've got different "Sacred Gimmiku", different ways to recover Ki, allow you to use different items and amulets. The only thing they have in common: the closer you get to "your" kami, the less human you become - and the more powerful.
And since I know you want it, here's the list of "powers".
Divination (duh!)
Kekkai (see above)
Kagenie (the ability to create a paper doll that augments someone's abilities)
Kami-Tsuki (summoning kami to control things around you, like the kami of a house, a car, or whatever)
Katatagae (teleportation)
Kuchiyose (summoning protective spirits)
Kuji-In (using 9 magic rituals to augment your abilities, cure ills, become invisible to impure beings, or throw energy attacks)
Kuji-Kiri (using the raw power of Kuji-In - regardless of whether you know Kuji-In itself - to generate a terrible energy attack)
Maboroshi (wounding your opponent with terrifying illusions woven from Ki)
Okuden (create weapons of energy or inject existing ones with Ki to improve them)
Shinobi ("the originus of the occult knowledge of assassins, ninja and hinin spies", this Technique modifies your body, changing it to fight or fool an enemy - and it is enhanced by having Taint).


Even more importantly (meaning, I don't see any reason not to use those rules and information in the game before Tensei), you get an in-depth explanation of Purity and Taint, and ways to remove the latter. In fact, I believe this should have been in the corebook!
There's also a chapter detailing which regions of Japan are more or less tainted and what it means for those visiting it or living there. The Shin Edo (the New Tokyo capital, remember?) is given its own chapter.

There is a list of the different factions of supernatural creatures, and stats for some of the supernatural creatures (but fair warning: without the options in Kuro: Tensei or really damn heavy cybernetics, you're toast against one of the weak ones, like Okami-Otoko, or Ybao-Kuni).

There's two adventures. What was said about Makkura, applies here as well, in spades. Except there are no Adventure Seeds.
That's fine, though. The whole book is one giant adventure seed - especially the parts about Taint!

For obvious reasons, I'm not going to rate Makkura.
Tensei gets the following ratings from me:
Style: 5/5
Mechanics: 5/5
Setting: 5/5
GMing advice: N/A
Adventures: N/A

Review of Kuro RPG

First, let me pre-face that by saying that it's one of the few games where I'm sorry that print is currently unavailable. However, PDFs are being sold by Le 7ème Cercle.

You only need the core Kuro PDF to play, and the review only touches upon it (except where necessary). There's also a campaign, Kuro: Makkura...which I'm not going to comment on in this post...and a supplement called Kuro: Tensei which introduces the more high-powered options for character development.

By default, Tensei is meant to be played after you played all of Makkura (you reach the state of being able to use those options at the end of the final adventure). We never got to this point, though, when I was running the campaign (it went on hold due to RL crisis, and then we started another, because games are like planes...lack of momentum leads them to fall all over the place).

OK, let me get to the nitty-gritty.

System

The system is skill-based d6 dicepool where you total all dice, add your skill and beat the TN (and dice explode). Nothing out of the ordinary.

There are twists, three of them in fact: 

1. When you roll a 4, it counts as 0, because Japanese superstitions.

2. Also, the skills are separated into "skill trees", where you can have a Skill Area Close Combat of 3, and a Specialisation of, say, Ashihara-Ryu Karate-do at 9, Melee Weapons 4, and Improvised Weapons 6. If you ever have to resort to wrestling, though, you'd have to do it with your Brawling skill, which you're lacking...so all you get is the 3 from Skill Area.

3. Finally, on some levels of Specialisation, you can add a "gimmiku" (gimmick) to the skill - but never to the Skill Area, even if you raise it to become high enough that it would qualify. It's possible, and very sweet, to have more than one gimmiku  on a single skill (which happens when you hit 11 in the skill, so it'd be bad news for the opposition even without the two gimmikus - after all, you are adding 11 to your result). Oh, and BTW, if you raise the Skill Area after getting a Specialisation, it does nothing for the Specialisations!

The gimmikus are, I believe, a great idea. They result in things like "add 2 more to your roll, on top of your skill", "add 4 to your Result if you succeed" (for example, that's a straight add to combat damage, because you always add your Result), "roll another die" (so, like having a higher attribute for this skill), "re-roll a die, and as a bonus, if you roll a 4, it's a 4, not a 0" (IIRC, this is the only one that you can't pick twice, but I might be wrong), and the like.

There's more gimmikus in the expansion Kuro: Tensei, but those tend to interact with Ki-powered actions, and powering actions with Ki is not an option for starting characters. The characters in Kuro: Tensei are meant to be something you reach later...though of course, they mention you could easily begin with it. I didn't begin this way, and wouldn't really recommend it, though.

Why? Simple. The more power you have, the less you pay attention to the setting (no, don't tell me it's not true - it is). And the characters are going to need some time getting used to it...

As a funny detail, in close combat, you can attack cautiously but holding back and dealing less Damage but upping your defence, and then you roll Reflex for the attack; you can fight normally, and roll Agility, or you can take risks, lowering your defence but dealing more damage, and then you roll the attack with Strength. In practice, this means that big brawlers are easier to hit, but if they ever hit back, beware! OTOH, after they swing, you can beat them to the punch...so the combat can be a lot like in some of the better darker manga out there. (I'm actually thinking about Shamo, here).

Damage is HP, but the hits represent actual damage. Losing many hits at once deals Wounds, which lowers your capabilities and can basically put you out of the fight. Totally unexpected, I know! And of course, you can die from multiple hits, with or without wounds.

(I've houseruled that to go "only hits that deal a Wound can knock you out, unless that takes you below the death threshold - then you must roll every turn to avoid collapsing, and only have limited time, determined by the GM, until you actually expire". Of course, the catch is that it applies to the opponents, too!)

Enough about system, buy it and read it if you want all of it...

Besides, it's the setting where the game really shines! Well, once you move past the "historical" part - you'll see, if you ever read it.

OK, I get it, they needed a justification why Japan was again subjected to nuclear strike (which never reached its soil, though) and then was cut off from the world. But still...seriously?

That's unimportant.

It's the description of the society in 2046 New Tokyo...sorry, Shin Edo, which is the same thing in a different language...that really shines.

Androids replacing humans as servants, bodyguards, drivers, maids...you can guess some other uses, too, and you'd be right.

Government-mandated eugenics, where the nation might be dwindling in numbers, but procreating requires getting a certificate. The rich and powerful, of course, can get replacement bodies in order to live forever...oh, and even dating/marrying outside of your social class is probably out of bounds. It's on your documents now.

Computers tracking you everywhere via constant retinal scans, cameras and sniffer devices (which also track whether you're carrying weapons and/or explosives). Your eyes give your presence to everyone, so that you can be subjected to targetted holo-ads. You thought pop-ups are boring on the net? Try walking around in the better parts of Shin Edo!

If you haven't got it that "alienation from the other insignificant people" is the name of the game, you're not paying attention.

But don't worry, that's only until the supernatural notices you. You don't want that. If it happens, you just want things to return to normal. It's when you realize what Japanese horror is about...assuming the GM is any good, I mean.

As the authors point out, in Hollywood horror, it's about either escaping and returning to a normal life, or killing the monster.

Japanese horror is about setting things back to normal, not necessarily by violence - and let me add that escaping, if at all possible, might mean that you can never lead a normal life again. Pacifying the monster is preferred. And for bloodthirsty players, keep in mind that the Japanese ghosts are often the victims of a crime, not the perpetrator returning to do it again and again like in some Hollywood movies I'm not going to name.

So yes, Japanese horror reflects the saying that "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down". Alienation, cosmic insgnificance, and being noticed is a BAD thing...

Welcome to the shiny neon lights of 2046 Shin Edo! Any blackouts are due purely to the international blockade, and not at all to the incompetence or graft among the bureaucratic elite!

We swear by our ratings that it's true!

Oh, and there's an adventure to get you started. However, it's meant to introduce the campaign in Makkura (literally being an intro to it), and I promised not to touch upon the campaign.


Overall:
Style 5/5 (or 4/5 if you think it's too colorful for the content).
Mechanics 5/5...with Expertise!
Setting 5/5
GMing advice: 3/5 (and that's mostly for the "genre advice")
Adventure: N/A