Bushido (role-playing game)

Bushido

Cover of Bushido's 2nd Ed. core rules, Book II
Designer(s)	Robert N. Charrette, Paul R. Hume
Publisher(s)	Phoenix Games
Publication date	1979 (Tyr Games) 1980 (Phoenix Games) 1981 (Fantasy Games Unlimited)
Genre(s)	Fantasy
System(s)	Custom

Bushido is a Samurai role-playing game set in Feudal Japan, originally designed by Robert N. Charrette and Paul R. Hume and published originally by Tyr Games then Phoenix Games and subsequently by Fantasy Games Unlimited. The setting for the game is a land called Nippon and characters adventure in this heroic, mythic and fantastic analogue of Japan's past. It was the first non-Western game besides Empire of the Petal Throne. It is thematically based on Chanbara movies, such as those made by Akira Kurosawa, in which the heroes are modestly superhuman but not extraordinarily so.

The Bushido role-playing game was originally published in 1979 by Tyr Games (which quickly went out of business) but was more widely released in 1980 by Phoenix Games as a boxed set. This edition included a map of Nippon, a tri-fold screen, a character sheet, Book I, The Heroes of Nippon, the Players Guidebook and Book II, The Land of Nippon, the Gamesmaster's Guidebook. All illustrations in the original boxed set are copyright by Robert N. Charrette. The game is now sold as a single book in which the two original books are combined (otherwise unaltered).

As with most role-playing games, Bushido players use characters defined by a series of attributes, skills, professions and levels. The professions are Bushi (fighters), Budoka (martial artists), Yakuza (gangsters), Ninja, Shugenja (Taoist-style wizards) and Gakusho (priests, either Buddhist or Shinto). Character progression is implemented by both down-time training and level advancement. There are only six character levels, an unusually small number in role-playing games.