#About This Book — Strange Tales of Edo

Contents

Summary + Reference Only. This document guides the character and scope of this volume. Actual adversary data is handled in chapter 06.

#Scent — The Sound of Opening Pages

This book declares no new war. Instead it opens a ledger in a quiet room and shows the names erased within it and the blood that would not be erased. The story of Edo begins in a lower voice than the beat of a great drum.

#Law — Scope of Use

The core laws of co are used as-is. The check formula and combat procedure are not redefined.
Era application, faction relationships, incident structure, and adversary data are the primary functions of this volume.
The GM uses this document as the standard for deciding what scenes to set in Edo.

#Scene Commentary — The GM Who Holds This Book

This document looks like a preface, but it is actually a device for aligning expectations at the table. When a player asks, "Does being in Edo reduce combat?", the GM can answer: no. But the meaning of combat changes. Bringing down an enemy is still important, but in Edo, who witnessed the enemy fall and what record it leaves carry equal weight.

Reading this document before the first session also clarifies that ex3 is not a volume that increases new classes and new options. Players build characters with the co laws they already know, and the GM prepares what names, permissions, and suspicions that character receives in Edo society.

Decide at the table immediately:

Is this campaign a formal commission or an informal one?
After the incident is resolved, will it be disclosed or buried?
When will you first show a scene in which a human faction is more dangerous than the yoma?

#Session Application — Aligning Expectations

First scene: The GM declares, "This campaign is not a story about learning new classes — it is a story about watching the same character find out what name they are called in Edo."
The twist: The moment a player tries to resolve things through combat, the client says, "If a body is left behind, our house falls first."
Final question: Does this table want a story of eliminating yoma, or a story of handling a society in which yoma are hidden?

#The Character of This Volume

Strange Tales of Edo is a setting expansion pack that transforms the peaceful Edo period into a stage for Konsei Reiyotan.

This volume is not a book that adds large-scale rule and data options the way ex2 does. Basic checks, combat, unit grades, classes, skills, and weapon structure follow co. What Strange Tales of Edo does is explain what changes when those laws are placed within the society called Edo.

In the Sengoku era of Konsei Reiyotan, combat centers on the battlefield and yoma extermination. In the Edo period, the same laws move into narrower and more complex spaces. Alleyways, bridges, dojos, pleasure quarters, mansions, bathhouses, ferry landings, checkpoints, and temple stairways become the battlefield. Victory in combat means not only bringing down an enemy but also keeping witnesses alive, erasing records, preserving the domain's honor, and deciding whose lies to expose — the yoma's or the humans'.

The center of this volume is therefore an operations guide, not new player options. However, adversaries that are needed repeatedly in an Edo campaign are provided as new data. Adversaries such as Nurarihyon and urban yoma, dojo disciples, swordmasters who have become killing demons, a daimyo possessed by a yoma, and yakuza kept ronin are written in the co format of Wounds, Defense, Energy, and techniques.

#For Readers Without Prior Knowledge of Japanese History

This book does not assume the reader already knows the Edo period well. "Old Japan where samurai wear swords" is not enough to capture this era. It is a society in which a shogunate that has ended war controls daimyo and warriors, cities and commerce and publishing expand, a person's affiliation is managed by ledgers and temple registration, and rumors and Kaidan rapidly become commodities.

A GM reading for the first time need only remember the following four sentences first.

The Edo period is a long age of peace created by the Tokugawa shogunate.
That peace is not a natural state; it is maintained by checkpoints, laws, social rank, ledgers, and surveillance.
Yoma incidents lie outside that order, so the shogunate suppresses and conceals them simultaneously.
Because urban culture has developed, Kaidan are fear, information, and commodity all at once.

Grasping these four sentences makes the factions and campaign structure that follow far easier to read. Why the shogunate hides things, why the Hundred-Tale Society gathers fear, why the conspiratorial factions treat yoma as a commodity — all of it emerges from the same period structure.

#What This Volume Contains

Edo-period life, public order, the city, the highways, and the domain order.
The unclosed gate of the Spirit Realm and the shogunate's concealment system.
The triangular structure of the shogunate, the Hundred-Tale Society, and the human conspiratorial factions.
The Edo-era social face and affiliation of the base 18 classes.
Yoma and human adversary data needed for an Edo campaign.
Campaign frames for inspection tours, dojos, Kaidan, the underworld, and domain incidents.

#What This Volume Does Not Cover

Edo-exclusive classes that replace the base 18.
Large-scale school, special ability, and sorcery expansions.
A full Bakumatsu-era campaign.
Duplicate data serving the same function as existing co adversaries.

#Data-Writing Principles

Domain	Treatment
PC classes	No new classes. Explains the Edo application of the base 18 only
Schools · special abilities	Not added as a rule. Refer to `ex2` when needed
Yoma	New data only for the portion needed for Edo ghost tales
Human adversaries	Actively included. Recurring adversaries of Edo campaigns
Faction leaders	Written as Lord-grade enemies; human conspiratorial faction leaders remain human
Named blades · smiths	Centered on `fc05` links and operations commentary

#How to Read This Volume

Players need only read chapters 01 and 04 first. Knowing what social rank and organization one can belong to, and what face one's class carries in Edo, is enough.

The GM must read chapters 02 and 03 first. An incident in Strange Tales of Edo does not end with "a yoma has appeared." Understanding why the shogunate hides things, why the Hundred-Tale Society wants to protect, and why the human conspiratorial factions want to exploit — only then does the pressure of an incident arise.

Combat and scenarios are taken up from chapter 05. The adversary roster in chapter 06 is a combat-preparation document, and chapter 07 is the long-term campaign frame.

#Core Sentence

The gate of the Spirit Realm has not closed. But the Edo shogunate erases that gate from the record, conceals it under law, and wraps it in the language of a public-order incident.

"Rather than learning new rules, one watches the moment the same rules put on the clothing of a different age."