The snow has begun to melt, and the skies are white with stormclouds and sakura. Spring has begun, but even now the horizon is reddening with the heat of the coming summer.
The Three Seasons variant of Snow From Korea doesn't tell a tale only of Summer; instead, each game encompasses the action of an entire year, progressing from Spring to the end of Autumn. In the short, cold Winter, all the samurai are holed up in their mansions awaiting the melt; it's not interesting enough to play.
The characters in Snow From Korea are samurai and samurai-ko, their wives. In each Season, their mission is different: in Spring, it is the characters' duty to bring Honour to their clans; in Summer, to indulge their love or gather power around themselves; and in Autumn, to make sure that the fief is prepared to survive the Winter.
It is your job as a player to try to accomplish these three tasks in the best way you can - while keeping both your samurai from being too changed by them.
One player, called the Emperor (or referee), has the job of describing the world's events to the players. He (I will always use the masculine pronoun for the Emperor and the feminine for other players) decides what they encounter on their way, and serves to narrate those things external to the players' characters. It's his job to make the journeys difficult.
Each player except the Emperor controls a married couple of samurai. She should write a haiku for each of them, giving some idea of their characters. A classical Japanese haiku is an unrhymed poem three lines long; the first and third line are five syllables and the second seven. If you're not Japanese speakers, you may want to write English haiku; don't fret too much about their length. After writing a descriptive haiku, each player should name both samurai and provide their clan and principality with names as well.
The next step is to assign numbers to the samurais' Facets. All the players should agree on a number and divide that amount of points among each samurai and samurai-ko's Facets as they choose, putting at least 1 in each. Each Facet describes a skill that's important in samurai society. A point of a Facet can also be exchanged for an Inheritance Trait or a Culture Trait. A character may have one of each, but no more. After choosing Facets and Traits, choose a School. Both of your samurai belong to the same School, and no samurai may belong to more than one. Record these initial Facet scores.
Samurai have these three Facets: Awaré, Kenjutsu, and Tanka. Samurai-ko have Houjutsu in the place of Kenjutsu.
Every possible Culture and three example Inheritances have been listed here.
Inheritance: Any Inheritance Trait allows you a certain kind of flexibility that is not available to all samurai.
Culture: Any Culture Trait adds 1 to one Trait for encounters and to a different Trait for challenges; it represents a specialization in training.
For keeping track of characters in play, I suggest that you obtain a large pile of change, and use piles of coins to represent Facet and Treasure scores. These fluctuate rapidly in play, so it's less complicated than writing numbers down. Finally, you need to decide how long the game will be, in terms of events the samurai deal with each Season. I suggest that you make each Season at least five rounds long.
Obviously, not everyone in Nihon fights the same way. This is represented through the use of Fighting Schools. Each School has an unusual take on the kamae, a special method with a strength and a weakness. These apply to all types of encounters and challenges, not only those of Kenjutsu; each school teaches a philosophy harmonious with its battle techniques. When creating your samurai, choose one School. To use a School ability, roll a die. On a one or two, the Low effect takes place. On a five or six, the High effect does.
There are a few, rare combat schools which, rather than having an unusual take on a standard kamae, actually have secret kamae of their own. Generally, these are schools of the more esoteric, empty-handed martial arts that originated in Okinawa and China; it is slightly less honourable to be a member of one of these schools than one of the classical schools of sword combat. Using a secret School kamae is no different than using a normal kamae, though some School kamae have applicability restrictions.
Some sample Schools and their abilities follow:
Mirror and Tree School:
The practicioners of the Mirror and Tree School have trained themselves to respond to every situation in the same way, reflecting or standing still as the necessity demands. Any kamae, usable only in Challenges.
Low: Your Facet is set equal to your opponent's.
High: Your opponent's Facet is set equal to yours.
Two Swords One Heart School:
The Niten Isshin Ryu teaches that one can approach a problem from two angles at once. Unfortunately this can divide one's attention. Kagai or Ariake no kamae.
Low: Roll your Facet twice and take the lower number of successes.
High: Roll your Facet twice and take the higher number of successes.
Ocean Flower School:
The Ocean Flower School teaches that strength, like the moon and tide, waxes and wanes. Ariake no kamae.
Low: You do not count sixes as successes, but roll three extra dice.
High: You count threes as successes, but roll three fewer dice.
Eightfold Nest of Serpents School:
The Nest School, founded as a response to the Two Swords One Heart School, teaches that it is often more appropriate to approach a problem twice than tackle it once.
Orochi no kamae: The samurai takes on the aspect of the mythical eight-headed serpent who attacks from every direction. This confrontation is split into two identical confrontations, and each is resolved separately; the samurai recieves a -2 penalty to his Facet each time. Neither samurai may switch his kamae from one confrontation to the next. This kamae specifically breaks the rule that no samurai may be in two successive confrontations of the same type.
Win: Gain a point of the tested Facet.
Lose: Lose a point of the tested Facet.
Scarlet Cauldron School:
The "Akeonabe" School teaches that the best way to defeat one's opponent is to defeat oneself and sublimate the power of this destruction.
Ô-nabe no kamae: The samurai, taking the School's teaching to heart, burns away a piece of himself in the "cauldron" kamae to fuel his action. He recieves a +3 bonus to his Facet for this confrontation.
Win: Transfer two points from the source Facet to the target Facet, lose a point of Snow.
Lose: Lose two points of the tested Facet and one point of any Facet.
Encounters and challenges are collectively called confrontations. A samurai may never participate in two successive confrontations of the same type. This restricts the options that challenging samurai and the Emperor have when opposing a samurai.
An encounter is an event where the samurai comes across something unexpected which tests his abilities and affects his disposition. Any encounter has the potential to change a samurai's Facets. In every case, the Facet being tested is the one at risk; it may be increased or decreased by the encounter. In most cases, another Facet may be affected by the encounter as well, its force being transferred into the tested Facet. We call this Facet the "source."
There are three modes of engagement with confrontations, which Nihonjin call kamae:
To find the result of an encounter, you need a number of 6-sided dice. The samurai rolls as many as his tested Facet, modified by his kamae, while the HEK rolls as many dice as the Facet, unmodified. Count all 1s and 6s as successes for each side. If the samurai has at least as many successes as the HEK does, then he wins the encounter. Otherwise, he loses.
If a samurai has been challenged, that means that he meets one of the other samurai along his journey, and the two engage in a contest of skills. This occurs on the defender's turn, before he has any encounters. The challenger chooses a Facet to test; the source Facet is the same as when an encounter tests that Facet. Then each samurai chooses a mode of engagement and the dice are rolled as usual; the challenger wins if he has at least as many successes as the defender.
Toyotomi Chihiro challenges Izumo no Ennosuke to a meditation contest. Each man will stand motionless on one foot, under the Joong Kyung waterfall. The man standing longest will be the winner. This is a challenge of Tanka.
Chihiro has a Tanka of 4; he is not confident in his spiritual prowess, so he chooses kagai no kamae to get a +2 bonus to his Facet. Ennosuke, having spent some time as a monk in his youth, has a Tanka of 9, and so he chooses mujintou no kamae; he does not want to strain himself unduly. This means he is less invested in his task, so he takes a -2 penalty to his Facet. Chihiro will roll 6 dice, Ennosuke 7.
Chihiro rolls 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6, so he has two successes.
Ennosuke rolls 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 6, so he has 3 successes.
Ennosuke beats Chihiro handily; Chihiro loses two points from his already-low Tanka, making it 2, while Ennosuke adds a point; his Tanka becomes 10.
The first round of turns of this season consists of introducing the samurai and samurai-ko, and identifying what sort of relationship they have. In successive rounds, a player may have either his samurai or his samurai-ko experience a confrontation. This is the whole of his turn. The action of Spring is mainly that of preparing for the long court season of Summer. In Spring, the Treasure of the season is Honor, which is shared by both of a player's samurai.
Whenever a samurai would gain points in a Facet, the clan gains an equal amount of Honor. This means 2 points for a victory in kagai or mujintou no kamae, and 1 point for a victory in ariake no kamae; redirecting Facet gains to Honor doesn't reduce the amount of ancillary Honor gain.
After a challenge (not an encounter!), the challenged samurai may spend Honor to raise the challenged Facet. It costs X squared points of Honor to add X points to a Facet.
At the end of the season, unused Honor automatically becomes Secrets.
The first round of turns this season consist of the samurai departing from their homes, leaving the samurai-ko behind. These departure scenes should reveal something the samurai-ko desires, that the samurai will attempt to bring her. The action of this season is described in detail in the linked posts. In Summer, each character has his own Treasure; samurai have Snow and samurai-ko have Secrets.
In successive rounds this season, a player's turn consists of confrontations for both of his samurai; he may play them in any order he chooses. Samurai may not challenge samurai-ko this season.
Each time a samurai rolls the maximum amount of successes possible in a confrontation, his Snow score is set equal to his highest Facet score, if this will increase his Snow score.
Each time a samurai-ko rolls a maximum success, she adds her highest Facet score to her current Secrets score.
A samurai may spend a point of Snow to reassert a confrontation. He may choose a different kamae and reroll his dice; the other participant does neither.
A samurai-ko may always redirect Facet losses to Secrets.
As his entire turn, a player may choose to have both his samurai commune. They meditate upon their place in the world; this allows the player to convert any amount of Secrets or Snow into the other type of Resource, and transfer it to the appropriate character. (Secrets are useless to samurai; Snow is useless to samurai-ko.)
At the end of the season, Snow automatically converts to Stores. Secrets can be spent, on any Facet, in the same way as Honor can be during Spring.
The first round of turns of Autumn consists of the samurais' returns to their households. The action of this season consists mainly of samurai blustering and preparations for the coming winter. In Autumn, the Treasure of the season is called Stores; it represents the clan's accumulated preparations for the Winter, in terms of political power (the ability to call in favors) as well as physical resources.
Like in Spring, each player's turn consists of exactly one confrontation, and samurai may challenge samurai-ko freely.
Stores are obtained in the same way as Honor is in Spring.
Stores are counted in scoring just like other Resources, but don't do anything else. If you want to play successive years, assume nothing ever happens in Winter, and convert Stores automatically to Honor.