Shogun (again)

A couple of weeks ago I headed down the A1 to Retford to play UK Freeform’s annual weekend freeform larp. This year it was the 72-player Shogun, conceived by Nathan Richards, Richard Salmon and Richard Perry, with additional material by Chad Brinkley, A.J. Smith and Carol Johnson. (Here’s the website).

This was my second time playing Shogun – it was my first run in 2018 when I played Kinyu, the moneylender. I wrote about that here.

This time I played Sakamoto Jin, the head of the Imperial Bodyguard and Lord High Executioner. I was close to the Shogun’s family, and this was a very different game to last time.

One of the things I really enjoy about these huge freeforms is that there is so much going on that it is easy to play the game again and have a completely different experience.

First, though, a word about the hotel.

Winning the hotel room lottery

We’ve been using the same hotel now since 1997 – nearly 30 years! It’s perfect for our needs, and over the years, we have become used to them, and they’ve become used to us. This time, however, I won the hotel room lottery and was allocated the four-room honeymoon suite (known, I think, as the Dukeries Suite).

How ridiculous! All this and only me!

I didn’t even know there was a honeymoon suite!

It was quite absurd, but set me up nicely for a lovely weekend. (I met someone else who has had that suite in the past – I think it really is the luck of the draw.)

Anyway, back to the game.

Sakamoto Jin

According to the who’s who, “Sakamoto Jin is a former peasant who rose to become the head of the Shogun's Bodyguard. Once deadly and fearsome, he has become old and should surely have retired to a monastery to make way for someone younger.”

Investigating a murder...

So that was me. It was nice to play an older character.

Problems problems

So I started the game with a few problems. Biggest of which is that the Shogun had just been murdered, which launched us into a political crisis. It was also a stain on my honour – would I have to commit seppuku before the weekend was out?

Working through that mystery was a significant part of my game – and it was nicely paced that it wasn’t definitively resolved until Saturday evening. (Although I was getting close – I had a pretty good idea of who had done it by then, but not why.)

That was only one problem, though. I also had spies to track down, a group of dissidents to uncover (I think they thought they were the Rebel Alliance), various artefacts to find, an heir to mentor, a Ninja leader to apprehend, and resolve my love interest.

Some I succeeded, some I didn’t. Others went off in strange directions and others never really kicked off. There was so much going on it didn’t matter.

Abilities

Ability cards are a feature of weekend-long freeforms, and while I often find I forget to use them, this time I found them helpful. I think that’s because they felt really key to the character – it felt like they’d been thought about. Some of the ones I really liked:

• Step Down with Grace and Harmony: Appoint a new bodyguard to the family of the Shogun. Give the person your 'Devoted Protector' ability. You gain 1 Honour as does the character you appoint. One Use (This was rather nice, but in many ways it ended my game as soon as I used it.)
• You Can Always Tell a Killer by Their Eyes: Look into any character's eyes for 5 seconds, then play this card. That character must then tell you if they have ever, personally, killed someone (other than in battle). They don't have to tell you any details but they can do so if they wish. Once per time period. (A lovely ability that I used several times. Gave you a sense of a character without giving anything away.)
• No-o-o-o-o!!! Use this special ability whenever an ally or close friend is killed or wounded by an opponent. You gain a +2 bonus the next time you engage in a combat contest against that opponent. One Use. (I like the Obi-Wan feel of this one.)
• Old but Experienced: You are still a deadly opponent, but age is creeping up on you. Subtract 2 from your Iaijutsu score in a formal duel – in normal combat, use your full score Permanent (I think this is the first time I’ve seen a negative ability – it really gives the sense of a character ageing.)

The abilities were also formatted so they fit on a perforated sheet that I separated before the game. We should remember this next time we run Tombstone!

Shogun highlights 

So, my Shogun highlights. (To avoid key spoilers, I’m using player names instead of character names.) 

• Investigating the Shogun’s murder was interesting. It was frustrating to begin with, but things started to come together when I traced the sword used to kill the Shogan to an incident in the geisha house that Steve B (playing the killer) had been involved in. Then on Saturday evening, a key clue dropped and so Sano Ichiro (the magistrate played by Mike S) and I arrested and questioned him.
• We let Steve B go, but he later attacked the Shogun’s widow (Elyssia K) and heir (Alex S). I gave chase, but Steve B got away – I then killed him (well, his character) later on Sunday morning.
• Tracing the insurgent Heaven and Earth Society was fun (although also slightly frustrating as I struggled to find others particularly interested in that). Fortunately, Musashi (leader of the 47 ronin played by Tony M) was keen to prove his worth and be a double agent. I do wish I'd interrupted their meeting a little later, though! (I should probably have had an out-of-character chat with Karim about it first. Ah, hindsight!)
• I enjoyed my interactions with Kirstine H, playing a ninja. She was drifting a little, so on Saturday afternoon she caught me and suggested that I catch her breaking into my home. So we did this, and I nearly beat her, but she got away thanks to some ninja trickery. (Dastardly ninjas!) On Sunday, I retired and appointed her as my replacement as Imperial Bodyguard and High Executioner. That prompted some raised eyebrows from Elyssia (the Shogun’s widow).
• And I had a pleasant old-folk romance with Shimako (Julie W), the head of the Drunken Monkey school of fighting. We avoided overt romantic displays of affection but had a nice romance involving tea ceremonies, cherry blossoms and helping each other with our problems. On Sunday we married.
• I converted to Catholicism, which I didn’t expect! I had been poisoned by Kirstine’s ninja darts and needed treatment. The nearest doctor was Father Rodrigo (Ben A), who sneakily converted me while treating me. That then prompted a crisis among the Council of Regents as to the number of high-profile Japanese who were being converted to Catholicism…
• I enjoyed watching the play on Saturday night. And this time, I was in the audience, compared to the last time when I was a member of the players.

Plus I really enjoyed all the fabulous costumes, plus seeing old friends and making new ones.

Becoming Catholic.

My one criticism of my character was that the character sheet was a little disjointed. In particular, I was the bearer of a legendary sword, and in preparing to step down, I had given it to Fiona L. Unfortunately, this was the first time the character was mentioned and it would have helped to have had some history to show that they respected each other. (Fiona said she was a bit puzzled as to why I had given her the sword as well.)

Two Steves, locked in deadly combat. (No really, this is a fight!)

And compared to last time?

Compared to last time, I had a very different game. This time, I was very busy with various investigations – and while I wasn’t caught up in the detailed politicking as the daimyos jockeyed for power, I was on the edge of all that. I certainly had no time to indulge in acting!

Did I enjoy it more? The first run was so long ago that I can’t compare – but I know I was busier this time, and I like to be busy. (But I didn’t quite have the thrill of my first “acting” performance.)

Contingencies 

I will say that the contingency envelopes were better this time. Last time, I complained that the contingency envelopes triggered off a number, which was hard to manage. This time, I had two contingencies and I had a hint as to who it applied to.

For example, I had one that said, “Open this envelope on encountering Character No XXX (one of the Ambassadors).” That helped enormously – I opened it after I attended the timetabled greeting of the ambassadors. At that point, I didn’t know which ambassador the envelope referred to, but after the ceremony, I quickly checked the badge names and learned who it applied to.

(I wrote about Shogun’s contingency envelopes after the first run – I was pleased to see an improvement!)

My advance prep (or lack of)

I have an extremely bad habit (which I think is well-known among my fellow freeformers) of not reading all the background. I certainly hadn’t read the detailed rules and much of the general background of Japan I had skimmed. (I’m not proud of this.)

I did do some prep – I printed out the character sheet and marked player names alongside the character names (I found Japanese character names very hard to remember). I’m glad I did that, as I found the A5 booklets the GMs provided a little too small for my ageing eyes.

However, I wish I’d done what Tony did…

Tony’s little black book

From what I could see, Tony had bought an A5 black hardback notebook, printed his character sheet and stuck it into the notebook.

Each plot had its own page(s), which included the original text and space for his notes. Additionally, each other character in the game had their own page. He’d cut out the public information from the Who’s Who and put it at the top of the page, leaving lots of space for further notes.

So while I was carrying around my character sheet (and other bits of paper) and a notebook, Tony just had a notebook. That was a much more elegant solution – both in ease of use and how it appeared (clutching envelopes and looking through tatty sheets of paper never looks good).

Anyway, I am writing this out in more detail than may warrant to remind myself that that’s what I should do next year!

Next year: Gateways

And speaking of next year’s game, it’s been announced. It’s a science fiction game called Gateways inspired by things like The Expanse, Babylon 5, Firefly and many more. You can read more about it on the website.

If you are interested in the game, registration closes at the end of March. There’s then a lottery, as these games are usually oversubscribed. There’s a waiting list which is often burned through as life intervenes and people drop out, so I wouldn’t lose hope if you end up on it.