#About This Book — Nihon Kengo Retsuden

Contents

A single blade lies beside the table. It is an old blade. This book is the story of those who were once its owners.

#What This Book Holds

Twelve swordmasters and the schools they left behind. It carries the lineage of the people that Japan's blade created as it was passed down through the generations.

This volume is not an encyclopedia. It does not contain every swordmaster. Instead — it looks at each one a little more slowly. Their day, their duel, their last breath. What remains in the historical record, and the legends that later ages laid over them. And when placed on the game table — what kind of enemy he becomes, and what kind of master he can be.

#Why This Book Has a Dual Face

The other fc volumes of Konsei Reiyotan mostly face a single direction.

fc01 Shinseiki — rules and data (Law)
fc02 Sengoku Fudoki — reading material (Scent)

This volume, fc03, carries both. Each swordmaster's chapter is:

Fiction introduction — a single scene in which that swordmaster appears. Short, and concrete.
History — birth, training, founding of a school, duels, end.
The actual story — anecdotes that remain in the record.
Night tale — the legendized story · the literature and film of later ages.
Lord-tier sheet — Energy, Wounds, Defense, skills, techniques. Numbers you can put on your table right away.
If you fight the swordmaster — matchup, weakness, victory conditions.
If you take the swordmaster as a master — Approach, trial, instruction, reward.

On the table it is used as data; off the table it is used as reading. Two uses.

#Era Range

From the late Heian period (Benkei, Yoshitsune — roster only) to the Boshin War (Iba Hachiro — roster only), roughly 700 years. However, the biographies of the 12 figures in the main text concentrate on the roughly 400 years from the late Muromachi period (around 1450) to Bakumatsu (1868).

The Sengoku period, the base stage of Konsei Reiyotan, is the center, but swordmasters who crossed eras are also included. The reason — a swordmaster is not the product of a single era. The blade of Sengoku was refined in Edo, and the blade of Edo bled in Bakumatsu. This volume traces that continuity in one place.

#Policy on Handling Schools

Schools already in co · ex2 are linked only. They are not re-included.

Katori Shinto-ryu · Yagyu Shinkage-ryu · Jigen-ryu (co)
Caution on rule borrowing: the "Nito-ryu" of co is a rules slot for operating the Musashi-line two-sword style. In its historical narrative, this volume writes it as Niten Ichi-ryu, and treats it separately from Ittosai's Ito Itto-ryu (Itto-ryu line).
Hokushin Itto-ryu · Tennen Rishin-ryu · Jikishinkage-ryu · Ono-ha Itto-ryu · Joseon Sebeop · Bonguk Geombeop · Liechtenauer-ryu · Fiore · La Destreza · Tang-dao Collected Methods · Shaolin Sword · Wudang Sword (ex2)

Schools introduced for the first time in this volume record their Licensed / secret-art techniques in line with the co format:

Kashima Shinto-ryu (鹿島新當流) — Tsukahara Bokuden's school.
Ganryu (巖流) — Sasaki Kojiro's Self-Taught Style.

Both schools are in fc03-03-00-new-schools.md.

#Relationship with `co-09-10` Demon Reincarnation

In the main-text scenario Demon Reincarnation (co-09-10), five swordmasters appear as heroic spirit × demon hybrids — Ito Ittosai · Kamiizumi Nobutsuna · Tsukahara Bokuden · Sasaki Kojiro · Miyamoto Musashi.

This volume re-includes these five in their historical-original versions:

Demon traits removed — Lords as plain human swordmasters.
School-authentication standard — Tsukahara Bokuden in particular: this volume uses Kashima Shinto-ryu (鹿島新當流) by the historical-original standard. The notation in co-09-10 is treated as a game variation for the demonification scenario.
Technique consistency — for techniques that share a name, such as Sasaki Kojiro's Swallow Counter (燕返し), the effect follows the historical-original version (transcendent effects such as Pierce removed).

The two versions coexist. The GM chooses as needed — this volume is the historical original, co-09-10 is the demonification variation.

#What This Book Does Not Do

Scenario design — there are "if you fight / if you serve" hints for each swordmaster, but no finished adventure. Building the scenario is the GM's part.
A complete manual of a school — the school data in this volume is the co-format-conforming basics. Stage-by-stage deepening within a school · branches and derivations are not covered.
Everything about a swordmaster's personal life — this volume concentrates on the blade. Family matters, political involvement, and so on are covered only when necessary.

#How to Read

If there is a swordmaster who interests you, you may open from that chapter.
Reading from the front in chronological order lets you see the lineage of the Japanese blade as a flow.
When you want only the Lord-tier sheet, go straight to the Law section in the middle of each chapter.
Read the night tales slowly outside of session. Useful for conveying atmosphere to players.

#A Word from the Writer

They all actually lived. They took up the blade, they cut people down, some were never cut, and all of them died in the end. The reason they are still remembered is — because something was attached to the tip of their blade. Something more than mere technique. We call that thing swordmaster.

Open it, read it, take it to the table. The moment their blade stands before your PC, you come face to face with the history of the Japanese blade.