Dan’s been working on this for a long time now – at least a year in advance of the game actually starting – and it shows as he’s got a fantastic way of making what is a fairly unknown period of history to the players accesible and convincing He’s not bogging us down in cultural detail but we have a sense of the setting.

Rules-wise Dan’s using the core rules from the new World of Darkness book, plus some elements of Werewolf and Mage. This seems to work pretty well and it’s nice to play something else.  The only time I’ve ever played any other White Wolf game was back at university, with Dan again where we played one session of Werewolf and since I’m not a huge modern urban fantasy/horror fan in general so these games haven’t really appealed. As all the characters are magic users of one degree or another, having access to Mage gives us a lot more range than the core book. I’m still coming to terms with the dice pool however – it’s a simple system (good) but seems a little dull to me (bad).

My character is Takeshi. He’s an onmyōji which is a sort of Japanese mystic in the campaign world at least. Takeshi is the illegitimate offspring of a Nagoya merchant and a serving girl – an unusual story of true love. Raised back in Kyoto by his mother, Takeshi’s father sent regular money so he grew up without want and, as a result, without a work ethic to speak of. He fell in with yakuza offsiders and gained a knowledge of a few less than salubrious things, but moved away before he got too far down that path. Luckily for Takeshi, his uncle was a travelling buddhist monk who convinced him that medditation could be a more interesting way to spend one’s time than gambling and drinking.

Takeshi still has a income despite his father’s death but has thrown his lot in with a secret buddhist society in order to gain more insight into the mystic arts. The first two sessions were a) a sort of scene setting adventure where Takeshi met his mentor Manchi and journeyed to the spirit realm and b) the dramatic rescue of the other players characters who were badly wounded after a fight with ninja assasins! We’re playing again tomorrow so more as it happens!