"Re-purposing for Ronin" Topic

So, having been interested in Japanese mythology since the days of 1st Edition Oriental Adventures and hearing all the good things about Ronin, I decided that once I have some disposable income, I'd get a copy of the rules.

My friend and planned opponent already has enough figures at his disposal to field a Bushi Buntai, based on my minimal knowledge of the rules, etc. having the Izumi Samurai, Ashigaru with Yari and Ashigaru with Harquebus from Heroscape, which gives him three samurai and eight Ashigaru. Which left me at a disadvantage, as I believed I had no suitable figures…

However, sometimes you never know what you've got until you look. After a rummage through the lead pile, I found that I had 2 of the original 1989 Jes Goodwin Rat Ogres, a skaven with Jezzail and two Ral Partha Ratman Slingers, so the basis for a Nezumi Buntai was born.

I know that strictly speaking Nezumi are an invention for RPGs and don't really have any mythologocal weight, per se, unless you count the Lafcadio Hearn story, "The Boy Who Drew Cats", which has a goblin-rat in it, but the original Skaven sculpts were cool, before GW went all spiky and skullsy.

From my research, Oni can mean Ogre or Demon (as in Oni-Baba, etc.) so a Nezumi-Oni would mean Rat-Ogre or Rat-Demon (proper Japanese scholars will probably be tutting me as they read this), so the Rat Ogres become Nezumi-Oni. The sword was replaced with a Tetsubo sourced from a Mega Blocks knights set that I bought for the scenic elements. No pictures as yet, as they are in their infancy and I'm still deciding how to orientalise them, paint-wise.

Also in the lead mountain were an oriental vampire from West Wind's Gothic Horror range, an Indy Heroclix Death Demon (which will make quite a cool samurai when repainted) and a Mage Knight Leech Troll, which will make an excellent female Oni, as she already has horns.

So, eight usuable figures, with no additional expense- which is always a bonus.

Now, just need to convince myself that Kroot can make acceptable Tengu proxies…

Nice move my son. You go Oni-San, the never say never of pro worgamers always cheers me up. (My Buntai is made up of a mix of old LOT5R figures I have in 'one' of the lead piles I have ;) cheers and happy gaming, PS I'm getting into gear for a few scratch builds for the terrain as well)

Regarding terrain, all my terrain is geared towards modern (superhero) gaming, so did some research on manufacturers of Japanese terrain. Sarissa Precision, 4Ground, Plastruct and Oshiro all do Japanese terrain – of varying price and quality.

However, check out the Mura Miniatures website, as there are some tutorials on making effective (and cheap!) 28mm Japanese buildings. Inspired by this and using the Oshiro Terrain website as a reference guide, my first structure, a Kura (Japanese storehouse) for my Nezumi to raid is under consturction. The section on how to make good-looking thatch is brilliant. Who would have thought to use old towels…?

There is somebody out there that makes Tengu…Black Hat? Black Cat?

On this Osprey page, there are two files that might interest you:

link

Check the RONIN "Creatures List" file, and in the Of Gods And Mortals section, check the "Japanese" list. Both feature mythical creatures from Japanese folklore. I don't know how the rules for OGAM compare to RONIN, so you might have to extrapolate/creatively interpret those stats for RONIN.

While they're a bit pricey, check out the Noh Empire minis from Soda Pop ( link ), as well as Kenobo from the Corsairs range.

Kenobo:

"Kyuuso" is probably the rat-demon you're looking for. It's a giant rat that eats cats.

Black hat make some nice Ronin/Bandit types and some unarmoured Samurai but no Tengu from waht I am aware.

It's your game so ignore the purists and play what you've got. Like Zargon, I've many L5R/Clan War figures and I use them. There's no rules (yet) for shugenja, but at the moment they can be used as civilians or objectives. {i.e. You must escort your family's ambassador to the Shogunate. Your rivals (the family who is contesting control of the province with your family) want to kill him as then there will be no one to plead your family's case before the Shogun.}

At some point I'll want to add some of the smaller supernatural creatures in my collection (I've two Clan War dragons and an oni the same size as the dragons … might be too much.} But there are many, many skeletons … "that which kills you makes you stronger …"

Yeah, it's often a pick and choose one…

Currently the cheapest option for a Buntai is to go with one of the Wargames Factory plastic samurai boxes and have at it…you can actually get a couple of them out of it.

Now, the downside is that they aren't the best minis for quality, but still relatively good and they have a good variety of customization options.

Another good option is to go with the Sohei list and grab a few minis from the Kensei range…the Kuge Clan Heroine blister along with the Onna Bushi actually look like they'd fit the Sohei list extremely well in their equipment…they also have a few other options that would fit…

My current ones for Ronin has 4 clan war, one Kensei, and Bombshell's Tetsu-Ko

Valiant still makes the Clan War Nezumi figs:

link

Yes, I'm going the Wargames Factory route for ashigaru. Also, it's easier to convince people to start up by telling them that we could split two boxes of ashigaru (1 missle, 1 yari) three ways and that would take care of the ashigaru portion of a samurai buntai.

At some point I'll get the official sohei buntai from Northstar. Don't have any sohei in the collection and I think they are pretty cool, although their martial prowess may have been greatly exaggerated.

Since you are looking at Kensei figures, you probably saw the various mythological figure releases. They do have tengu although at the current rate of exchange two (medium-sized) figures for US$27.56 is steep. [Posted price as of 15 April 2014 is Euro 19.95] Nice sculpts though.

The Onna Bushi look pretty good as well. However, my Clan War collection has a number of them already so a purchase from Kensei is unlikely.

If I remember right, Tengu are limited to 1/buntai for the ones that can have one

The Zenit Tengu are indeed very nice – I hope to get some soon.

I have put together rules for Kappa, Jorogumo and Amanojaku (minor Oni), and for an Oni buntai. Osprey are suffering from long delays in getting this up on their site, so here it is:

Kappa
Kappa are small, humanoid aquatic creatures with scaly skin. They have been known to drown humans by luring or dragging them into the water.

Type Rank CP In Fight Shoot Armour Points
Kappa 2 2 2 2 0 Medium 20
Weapons: Claws (no special rules)
Attributes: Tough, Fearless
Options: None
Special Rules: Kappa suffer no penalty for moving through any sort of water. Any model that is wounded by a Kappa whilst in water must test against drowning as detailed on page 11 of the Ronin rulebook (other mythical creatures are immune to this).

Notes: Kappa can be played as a Buntai of their own, or as an independent force in a multi-player game, either by a third player or by random movement. In the case of the latter, place an agreed number of Kappa in or adjacent to a water feature on the board. After all other models have been moved each turn, if there are no non-kappa models within 12" of each Kappa model, randomly determine a direction and then move each Kappa 9". If there is a non-kappa model within 12" of any Kappa model, the Kappa will move towards it and attempt to get into combat. When in combat, the Kappa is controlled by the opposing player.

Jorogumo
This terrifying creature takes the guise of a giant spider or woman. It can hypnotise men and then bind them with silk for later consumption.

Type Rank CP In Fight Shoot Armour Points
Jorogumo 4 4 4 4 2 Medium 50
Weapons: Claws
Attributes: Fearless, Terrifying, Formidable, Hard-to-kill, Tough
Options: None

Special Rules: Spider Silk – the Jorogumo can make a shooting attack at any model within 6". If successful, the target may not take any action or make any movement until it rolls less than or equal to its Rank in the End Phase. The Target receives no bonus for armour against such a shooting attack.

A Jorogumo may be fielded with any number of models or Rank 2 or less from the Bushi, Koryu, Ikko-ikki or Peasant lists that it has entranced. These models are Fearless whilst the Jorogumo is in play but will rout automatically should it be killed. No more than 25% of these models may have missile weapons, and none may have teppo.

Amanojaku
Amanojaku are a smaller type of oni, malicious demons that prey upon humans.

Type Rank CP In Fight Shoot Armour Points
Oni 2 2 2 2 0 Light 16
Weapons: Claws and teeth and occasionally weapons (no effect on stats).
Attributes: Tough, Fearless
Options: None

Sword-for-hire: Up to 3 Amanojaku can be hired by Peasants or Bandits. No other Swords-for-hire may be selected alongside Amanojaku.

Oni Buntai

An Oni Buntai may contain up to 3 Oni and any number of Amanojaku. If at least 2 Oni are selected, one may upgraded to a Greater Oni for +10 points. Greater Oni have a Fight of 4 and Bujutsu.

Cheers Craig

I'd already bookmarked CP Models Kappa for my Kappa needs, decided that a Perry Miniatures female towns person would be my Jorogumo in human form and an Amazon bag of plastic 5cm halloween spiders would be the spider-form (once suitably painted as the actual Jorogumo spider, so yellow and blue stripes) and was undecided on what to use the Spyglass Orc Captain/merchant as, but will now be an Amanojaku. Have to research the colourings of the last one though…

I will also be using Weng Chiang from the Black Tree Doctor Who range as a mysterious evil sorcerer, with Mr Sinn from the same range as his Ninja-esque sidekick and some Ral Partha undead samurai as his troops.

Thank you for putting together such an inspiring game.

Black hat were the cheapest option for me to have a varied buntai.

£12.00 GBP got me

3 peasants with spears
3 ronin with bows
3 ronin with swords
3 ronin with yari

That's my bandit buntai.