Blossoms Are Falling Preview!

[luke]

Table of Contents (http://www.burningwheel.org/wiki/images/9/99/Blossoms_TOC_r6.5.pdf).

Check out the table of contents!

We traditionally post a complete chapter as a preview in addition to the Table of Contents. What do you want to see? (Not the monster chapter! That's for paying customers only! ;))

Also, in case you missed it, keep checking this page (http://www.burningwheel.org/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Blossoms_Are_Falling) for more previews and updates. We posted Kusanagi the Grass Cutting Sword late last week and we'll have more in the coming weeks!

-L

[Tobias]

What I want? Well:

Emotional Attributes, or
Poetry!

[Angaros]

Yes, Emotional Attributes! Give us! :)

[Clyde Rhoer]

I vote for being surprised about emotional attributes. Don't give away the milk. Personally I'm much more interested in Nihon is Burning, specifically Politics and Administration.

[gooderguy]

Nihon is Burning and Duel of Verse would be good teasers

my vote

[Suicide King]

Duel of Verse!

[stormsweeper]

Etiquette, hands down.

[Trismegistus]

Using This Book! ;)

Actually, Feats of Valor sound neato.

[luke]

Ok, next one to respond gets the whole PDF (providing you've preordered of course) RIGHT NOW.

-L

[donbaloo]

Clan Burner!!!

[luke]

Chris McNeilly for TEH WIN!

PM me an email address that receive a 3 mb file, my friend!

[donbaloo]

For some reason the forum shows Luke as the last poster for me but when I look at it I'm the last poster. What's up?

Edit: Ah, after I posted it cleared up somehow. Sending you a PM with email address directly Luke! WooHoo!

[luke]

it's in there!

[donbaloo]

Indeed it is....I am quite thankful that I was at work late and caught this opportunity. For all those that did not get the pdf, which is everyone but me, I just want to say that you should spend a little less time working and a little more time living on the BW forums and eagerly checking every single post that goes up as soon as it goes up. Maybe next time you will have the very beautiful prize.

Seriously though, I've only spent a few minutes thus far glancing through it and I have these few things to say:

A) This is gonna look awesome in hardcopy. Can't wait to feel it while flipping the pages.

B) Visually impressive; the fonts and layout are awesome and the artwork is very good.

C) I sense life within these pages.

Very good stuff. Can't wait to get dug into it. And on that note....I'm homeward bound! Thanks for the opportunity Luke; it's fantastic!

[luke]

What is the "home" you speak of?

[donbaloo]

Nothing cryptic this time. In the above context "home" is simply that place that is not "work"...where I eat, sleep, garden, and read over my shiny new exclusive copy of the Blossoms pdf.

[Merritt Baggett]

DAIKAIJU!

Who cares if they're not actually listed in the table of contents?

[steve]

I reckon the Setting Background, will give us the chance to familiarise ourselves further with the twilight of Heian era Japan.
edit *waaaaaaay to slow - I didnt see the 2nd page of posts*

[Enlil]

Wow, looks awesome! Can't wait to see that pdf.

I'd personally like to see the feats of valor . . .

Christian

[Trismegistus]

What, no spoilers, Chris?

[donbaloo]

What, no spoilers, Chris?

A little time my good friend. I've only since last night really had a chance to look hard at the material. Its good. Very good. I want to point out that I have very very little knowledge of this genre, never really read or watched books and movies on the subject, but the presentation is done well. After reading the intro material and the short fiction piece (excellent addition by the way) I think I could run a decent game of Blossoms and it be genre loyal if not exactly true. Luke has done a great job of clueing the ignorant in to the setting and giving us the info we'll need to make the genre work. Plus, there's just something about his mechanics in his games, they themselves seem to help you understand and feel what the game should be like. This aspect, at least for me (and maybe its because I knew so little going in), holds even more true with Blossoms. The mechanics/subsystems really make the genre playable.

I'm still not all the way through the pdf so I can't tell you much about everything. I can tell you that there's a blindfighting skill which you can substitute for your speed in positioning tests. I loved that. Its also interesting that we've just recently had a thread in sparks that talks about a new skill to substitute into making throwing, locking, etc. checks and the skill is already here in Blossoms, Jujutsu. Luke must have been chuckling throughout that sparks discussion.

And spirit weapons. Have we mentioned those yet?

I've only very briefly got to look over the Duel of Verse info but it all looks good. Honor and Shame? Whole campaigns will revolve around these two babies and I love every aspect of them. Very similar to the emotional attributes we're accustomed to but very intimately embedded in the mechanics and the setting. Moreso than our current Emotional Attributes, if that's possible to imagine.

Gotta run for now but I'll leave off with this. This book truly is a very cool and unique setting for the BW game and Luke breaks the setting down nicely into about 5 different primary subject matters that can potentially be explored in your game. There's everything from courtly intrigue to wandering adventure laid out as possibilities. And right now, I really want to run a game that centers around a shamed Minamoto warrior who is in honor debt to his Warlord and his sworn Oath (an assumed Belief) is to venture into the mountains with a group of Shinto priests to placate angry spirits and face a demon. No courtly intrigue but lots of adventure!

[luke]

That's all good news, Chris. We felt that the setting was so different from what people would expect, we wanted to paint a very clear and vivid picture.

We're currently playing the captains of a small Fujiwara allied clan on Yashima. They're lord was recently killed and they're trying very had not to get swallowed in the ensuing power vaccuum.

We've got three bushi, one onmyoji and one sohei. It's been really fun. I love Honor and Shame!

And I luurve the Etiquette rules.

-L

[donbaloo]

Yeah, Honor and Shame is where its at! I don't think anyone will be able to read through those sections and not be bombarded with cool potential scenes and decisions for their games! That whole mechanic is really nice.

As far as etiquette, I like the way it sounds as well. Its one of the many mechanics that I was referring to when I said that the mechanics and systems really paint the genre for me. And as I read over it it struck me that etiquette seems to be almost this very subtle battle in and of itself. When the etiquette tests come out I can see the situation at hand and it seems like this really anxious moment where we can all very clearly feel the tension but at the same time its resolved in such a soft way. Is that correct? Because essentially the winner of an etiquette test is gonna dictate what subject matter can be discussed in the conversation, a very important notion.

But then, a duel of verse can transcend the limitations of the language etiquette at hand. And I love that! There is so much conflict at hand and on the surface participants appear to be very collected and proper, but underneath the surface there's a fierce turbulence! Am I correct in the way I'm interpreting those things? I can't put it into words really but what it boils down to is that social conflict will be as heated as any physical confrontation but its all so damn subtle and very controlled. Really neat stuff.

[luke]

Yes! The Etiquette tests are proving very tense. As tense as a good initial positioning test in a Fight.

Speaking of which, did you see the Feats of Valor yet?!

[Durgil]

What time period roughly are we talking about here?

[luke]

Later Heian Era. Hogen Rebellion to Genpei War. 1100s.

[Magister of Order]

This is going to be great. I'm currently getting ready to run my first game of Burning Wheel, which will focus on noble houses and courtly intrigue. After hearing all the great material that's in this suppliment, I wish I had it in hand, as it seems to do everything I want to do, and probably better than I can do it myself.

Ah well, I'll just have to wait until next time.

Thanks to Luke and the rest at BWHQ for creating such a great game, and for continuing to produce such quality work.

[donbaloo]

Ah yes, finished the .pdf!! Yes Luke, read through the Feats of Valor and I think that subsystem is very neat. Yet another bit of game mechanics that breathe such color into the play of this genre. I'm assuming Feats of Valor can be brought out at any player's whim (within the rules of before/after an exchange)? What I find interesting about the mechanic is that everyone involved gets a little goodness out of it, the one who proposes it and the one who accepts. FoV seem like huge exclamation points on the action at hand! To me they are very cool miniscenes where I ask you "Are you this badass?" Dare you test you skill for the opportunity to reply, "Yes, I am exactly that badass!"? And if you are...you may have just earned yourself a reputation!

For those eager to know more about the changes I'll point a couple things out. Outside of the Emotional Attributes and the very proliferative role of Etiquette you're not going to find any real huge mechanics changes. And that's as it should be in my opinion as its a supplement for the original game. DoW are still there, Fight! and Range and Cover are much the same. Duels of Verse are handled very much like DoW and in all reality are simply DoW using your poetry skills. But its the notion that going to Verse allows you to discuss things that would otherwise be taboo in the court that makes it interesting to me.

As I alluded to earlier Fight and Range and Cover are pretty much the same. There's a new addition to Blocks that account for potential sword damage (and breakage!!) and some interesting initial positioning additions that work off of Etiquette and Honor. Battles, in a general sense, are simply different beasts altogether as everything hinges upon Honor and Shame (and I'm talking mostly about the notion of Challenges in battles). This definitely feeds the genre color.

Of much interest to me is the extra focus we have for dealing with spirits and demons. There are specific skills built for these interactions and most aim at forcing these angry supernaturals into DoW or otherwise placating them so as to chill those bitches out! I really like the spirit stuff that Blossoms presents and the several statted up individuals really fuel the imaginative fire. For all there is on offer for courtly interactions and political maneuvering, I'm mostly fired up for some Nihon Ghostbusters action! And I want to be possessed in the process! Cleansing be damned!

One thing I was relieved to see in the back of the book was a big list of potential clan names and personal names. Not being genre literate I was in fear of being able to produce a sizeable number of good names for a game. My players would certainly be rolling up with BillyBobasama and Sushisan otherwise. Good idea on that addition Luke.

If you're a BW fan at all I think you'll enjoy seeing this supplement and Luke's presented the genre in such a way that it should be approachable by any BW fan. If you were previously a fan of all things Oriental and a BW fan....you my friend are in for a very real treat.

Edit: I realize I make repeated reference to Luke doing such and such but I'd be remiss to not credit Rich (Fourth Horseman) as well. So, to you Rich, good work as well! I'm sure the rest of the gang was probably pretty heavily involved as well so everyone there deserves some praise I'd imagine...

[luke]

Awesome! Thanks, Chris! Now I'm dying to play!

[luke]

ZOMG! I got the proof! Soooo cool!

-L

[donbaloo]

Your .pdf comes to life! Can't wait for mine to do the same...

[luke]

The cover is SWEEEEET

[Kublai]

Agreed! The cover is AMAZING!