Duelling Samurai

Obviously, the samurai’s Past doesn’t offer much for a combat situation, but it’s fertile ground for roleplaying. In most systems, the People theme would also not contribute to the combat, but as we’ll see the samurai’s Hatred of the Arai may be used in combat.

In the video the Arai samurai wears the grey and blue armour. They are a much more skilful samurai and reluctant to fight. We’ll define them as an Aggressor challenge.

Limits

• Harm 3

Tags & Statuses

• Armour
• Katana
• Battle veteran
• Composed-2
• Sword combat

Threats & Consequences

Combat breakdown

The following is a breakdown of the video of two duelling samurai created by Phil Shoebottom. The intention is to help those new to the Legends in the Mist system understand how combat plays out, similar to the breakdown for the Mythras RPG.

In this duel between an average samurai (Morioka) and an excellent one (Arai). In Legend in the Mist terms, the Morioka player has Origin level themes while the Arai challenge has Adventurer level sword combat ability. This means anything the Arai challenge does relating to sword combat receives applies a -3 modifier to player rolls (because the Narrator or Game Master never rolls for challenges to attack).

To help track the combat, each round is marked with the timestamp from the video.

0:08 The samurai meet in the courtyard, but the Arai samurai isn’t impressed by the hero. The hero challenges the samurai to a duel using their Hatred of the Arai and Todano retainer tags. Unfortunately, the Arai is Composed-2 and a Battle veteran. He’s not going to get drawn into a fight that easily. The player rolls a 8 for a final result of 7 (+2 for Hatred of the Arai and Todano retained but -3 for Composed-2 and Battle veteran). This is a partial success.

As a consequence, the Arai samurai turns around and approaches the hero. Once in melee range, the samurai noisily sheaths their sword. Our hero receives the status Insulted-1. The hero may spend 1 power (there’s always one power if you have a partial or complete success even if the sum of your positive and negative tags was negative or zero) to discover something about their opponent.

This is when our hero learns the Arai samurai has sword combat ability. That puts the hero in peril during this combat. Everything their opponent does with a sword will be at +3.

0:16 The samurai places their hand on their katana, signalling they’re ready for a fight, but they walk away. This is the first threat the Arai samurai has made. The hero could ignore it. But they’ve been Insulted-1, they have a Hatred of the Arai, and a weakness Death before dishonour. Narratively, ignoring the insult would be weird. Our hero decides to attack, marshalling their Katana, Katana training, and Hatred of the Arai to give them +3 power. There are no tags in play on the field of combat, however, the Arai challenger also has a Katana, is Composed-2, and has better sword combat skills for a total of -6 power. That puts our hero at a cumulative -3.

Our hero rolls an 8 which becomes a 5 after we subtract 3. They race across the courtyard katana raised, but the Arai samurai drops to their knee and flips them over their shoulder. Rather than receive the Prone-1 status, our hero attempts to roll a reaction. Our hero uses their Defensive manoeuvres to roll and land gracefully, ensuring they’ll be able to rise without taking an action to rid themselves of the Prone status. They roll an 11 for a total result of 12. SUCCESS.

0:25 The Arai samurai threatens our hero with compelled surrender by placing the blade of their katana against our hero’s neck. Oops. Our hero responds with a strike from their Katana, their Hatred of the Arai, and Defensive manoeuvres for a total of +3 power. This is a bit dangerous, because if they fail, they won’t be able to use defensive manoeuvres to reduce any consequences. Risky!

The narrator rules this is a pretty easy situation to escape, so the challenger’s combat skills don’t apply. It’s used more to give an opponent an opportunity to surrender gracefully. “Ya lost kid. Good fight.” Our hero really rates the Arai, so they roll an 8 for a total result of 11. A good solid success.

Our hero can’t inflict a status on the Arai, because that wouldn’t make sense, but they can act before the Arai makes its next threat by spending one power for an extra feat.

0:26 Our hero may attack, because they have the spotlight and the Arai isn’t presently making a threat. They want to fight their way to a standing position, the cumulative power for this is still a -3 because of the mismatch between our hero and the Arai challenger. However, at least they’re not also suffering from Prone-1 status. Our hero rolls a 11 which yields a final result of 8. A partial success.

The katanas clash until our hero is able to reach his feet. Normally, our hero would have 1 power to spend on an effect, however, extra feat doesn’t narratively make sense here.

0:29 The Arai raises their blade to strike. Our hero goes for the kill, but they’re still overmatched and remain at a cumulative -3 power. They roll a 9, but after subtracting 3, that leaves them with merely a 6. Not enough for a partial success. The Arai samurai parries their strike.

0:30 As the Arai samurai finishes parrying the hero’s strike, their blade rises up under the hero’s chin compelling surrender. Again. This is still an easy situation to get out of. Our hero decides to step back to break out of the situation. Like before, they risk using Defensive manoeuvres to break free. Rolling a 10 for a total result of 13, our hero succeeds.

As before, they can’t inflict a status on the Arai, but they choose to act before their opponent can make its next threat by spending one power for an extra feat.

0:32 Our hero strikes! Before the Arai can act, our hero swings, but they’re still at a cumulative -3 power. A roll of 4 just isn’t enough. The Arai grabs our hero’s blade and throws them to the ground. Rather than receive the Prone-1 status, our hero rolls a reaction using Defensive manoeuvres. Fortunately, our hero rolls a 7 for a final result of 8. They’re slap the ground and shout while standing up, but their opponent is waiting.

0:38 The Arai samurai stands katana out ready to strike. Our hero decides to strike first, sadly still at cumulative -3 power. They rush in and swing, rolling a 8 for a final result of 5. Ugh. The Arai samurai locks blades with our hero and pushes them back.

0:42 Finally tired of this bullheaded hero, the Arai opponent waits, katana ready, for our hero to strike. Our hero rolls a 9, but that’s still a failure after subtracting 3. The Arai side-steps our hero’s blade and slices their katana across our hero’s abdomen. Because the Arai outclasses our hero, the Wounded-3 is increased to a lethal Wounded-6.

Staggering, our hero decides dying isn’t on their agenda and rolls a reaction. Our hero will use Defensive manoeuvres again, but they can also burn their Armour tag for a total power of +4. Unfortunately, our hero gets the worst possible outcome — a critical failure — rolling a 2. No matter what their power had been, they failed.

0:47 Our hero drops to the ground, dead, with Wounded-6.

Normally, I don’t use challenges that have the option of inflicting actual, permanent death. I prefer Wounded-5, which means the hero is out of the scene with a transformative wound. But having watched a lot of Shogun lately, getting hit with a katana seems like a one-and-done event and our hero walked into an encounter they weren’t equipped to handle.