#Start Here — First Session Guide

Contents

Tale of Spirits and Yokai Quickstart cover

📄 Get the PDF — Download the print/offline distribution Quickstart (cover, auto table of contents, per-sheet mini-rules, and a battle-map appendix): English · 日本語 · 한국어. Or just keep reading on the web.

First time? With 30 minutes of prep and one session (2~3 hours), you can run this world. This page is the first sheet a new GM reads. There are no new rules — it is all a guide pointing to the co core rules.

#This Game Is

Sengoku-period Japan — but a world where yoma are real. The blood of war soaks the land and opens gates to the Spirit Realm. Through those rifts pour oni, tengu, onryo, gaki, and yoko, so war is a fight between people and people while at the same time a fight between people and yoma. Play is not mass-army combat but small-scale tactical engagements (2~4 PCs + a few squads against a single band of yoma), and morality runs not on an alignment chart but on the Three Ways and Six Hearts — three ways and six hearts. The tone is dark fantasy: stillness is scarier than spectacle. PCs are 1st-dan warriors, ronin, and exorcist-monks — they begin with a small incident the domain has sent them to investigate.

#What You Need

Dice: 10-sided, 2 of them (2d10). If you have none, an app or table that rolls 0~9.
People: 1 GM + 2~4 players.
Time: 2~3 hours.
What to lay out: this page · the cheat sheet, 1 sheet · the pregen sheets (printed, 1 sheet per 1 person) · the Novice one-shot "The Convict's Cord".

#30-Minute Prep (GM)

Learn the world and the core loop (5 min) — this page + the cheat sheet, one sheet.
Read the Novice one-shot "The Convict's Cord" (15 min) — qs-02. 3 acts + a squad-battle tutorial (Convict Squad · Teppo Corps). Act-by-act flow and enemy data are included, so a new GM can run it by reading straight through.
Choose characters (5 min) — the recommended 4 below. Print the 8 completed pregen sheets and hand one to each person.
Run it (start after 5 min of setting up the table).

#The Core Loop at a Glance — Know Only This and You Can Play

Check: 2d10 + attribute + skill ≥ target number (standard 11). If the two dice show the same number, Critical Hit (great success) / Fumble (great failure).
Combat: each round, act in order of highest Energy (10+Finesse) → if hit, Wounds -1 → at Wounds 0 you go down. Death is checked only after combat ends.
Position: zones — you clash in the Front Zone, the Rear Zone is safe, and you break enemy zones with a Breakthrough.
Way: Three Ways and Six Hearts — which way (Rites, Emptiness, Mystery) and which heart (bright, dark) the character walks.

All tables and numbers fit on the one-page cheat sheet.

#Recommended First Party — 4 with Non-Overlapping Roles

These are ready-to-use completed characters — all from the co-04-08 pregens, self-sufficient with the core rulebook alone.

Character	Class	Role	One-Line Use
Kagura Masamune	samurai	Front Zone tank	Stands at the front and locks down a zone with the Immovable Formation
Maria	gaijin	teppo ranged	A single shot of gunpowder from the Rear Zone that breaks through Defense
Renge	Pure Land Monk	healing · morale	Raises allies with Amida's Shield and props up the squad's morale
Hanabi	entertainer	Negotiation · buff	Talks her way through and lifts the battlefield's morale

Completed sheets (for printing): 8 Pregens — Completed Sheets. A no-fuss 4 — tank, teppo, healing, Negotiation — that all click into place at once. (5th/10th-dan growth versions, the self-harming high-risk shugenja, and the like are in the co-04-08 index.)
A more polished set of 6 player templates (with play tips and a relationship table, if you own ex1): ex1-99-03.

#4 Reinforcement/Swap Candidates

These are candidates to add when player counts run high, or to swap in for one of the initial 4. Like the initial 4 above, they all come from the co-04-08 pregens, and can be used as-is in the Novice one-shot "The Convict's Cord".

Character	Class	Role	One-Line Use
Hayame	ronin	mobile melee	A swift blade unbound by formation — dives into the Core Zone to strike the vital point
Kage	shinobi	Scouting · Infiltration	Slips into the Flank Zone and Outside Zone to scout and ambush the enemy Rear Zone
Abe Seika	onmyoji	Sorcery · shikigami	Commands shikigami from the Rear Zone to scout and screen, and reads a yoma's origin
Enku	esoteric monk	Core-Zone melee Exorcism	Takes up the vajra and leaps into the Core Zone to cut a yoma in two

Swap Guide — if you want a more mobile Front Zone, Masamune↔Hayame · if you need Scouting and Infiltration, make one slot Kage · if you need dedicated Sorcery, make one slot Seika · if you need Core-Zone melee Exorcism, Enku. With an 8-person full party (initial 4 + these 4), roles barely overlap: tank, teppo, healing, Negotiation + mobile melee, Scouting, Sorcery, Core-Zone Exorcism.

Seika ↔ Enku. The two have fought together before — "While you read the sutra passage, I'll hold the front for you." Putting onmyoji and esoteric monk together meshes Rear-Zone shikigami and Sorcery with Core-Zone melee Exorcism (co-04-08-05).

Class-by-class completed sheets (1st/5th/10th dan): co-04-08 pregen index.

#How to Run the First Session (Gist)

Write the victory condition as "achievement" (not annihilation). The mood is stillness over spectacle.
Break the teaching order into stages: check (reading traces) → squad battle (two orders with lesser yoma) → read the foe (yoko) → riddle (you can't beat the Kaibutsu — Scouting is the answer).
For the first session, keep the death rules soft — lethal only when players agree. "The Convict's Cord" holds all of this in one place.

After running one game: What's Next — The Next Scenario and Further Reading. · co core index · build a character yourself co-04.