Way of the Samurai: Roll & Write

Way of the Samurai: Roll & Write Rulebook

Table of Contents

Required Material

In addition to the present combat booklet, you will need two essential components:

4 standard D6 dice.
1 pencil.

Introduction

Way of the Samurai – R&W is composed as a 39-duels booklet. Each double page represents a duel. A duel takes up to 20 rounds. In each round, you will roll up to 3 dice and attribute the results to your "Attack", "Defense" and/or "Focus" characteristics. You can also use your Ki to modify some of your results.

Note: the Introduction names a "Focus" characteristic. The Player Table and the rest of the rules call this column "Concentration", and it is treated as Concentration throughout this transcription.

Game Components Description

A duel is represented by a double page: one Player Page and one Opponent Page.

Opponent pages vary from Opponent to Opponent, but the Player page can also change depending on the difficulty of the fight.

Player Page

Player's Ki points. When you spend a Ki point, cross it out. If you gain a Ki point, erase the scratch from an already crossed out Ki point or draw a new Ki point.
Player health points. When you lose a health point, cross out a heart. When you no longer have any health points, the game is lost.
Miyamoto Musashi. Your character.
Player Table. This table represents the Rounds as well as the distribution of player characteristics.
Concentration Table. This table displays the rewards you can gain from accumulating your Concentration Points.
Level 1 and 2 Injury Table. This table displays Level 1 and Level 2 Injuries.
Deep Wounds Table. This table displays the different Deep Wounds.

Opponent Page

Opponent's Name.
Difficulty level. Levels vary from 1 to 4 stars.
Opponent's Resistance Area. It represents the attack level you must reach to do damage to your opponent.
Opponent Health Points. When the Opponent loses a Health point, cross out a heart.
Opponent's Defense and Counterattack Table. This table displays the opponent's level of defense and counterattack. It also displays the damage received by the player if the specific levels in defense are not reached.
Opponent. The opponent's illustration.

Gameplay

Each game represents a fight.

A fight takes up to a maximum of 20 rounds.

A round has 2 phases: the Player phase and the Opponent phase.

A round is played with 4 dice. You will roll a certain quantity of these 4 dice during the Player phase, then the Opponent will roll the remaining dice during the Opponent phase.

The more dice you roll during the Player phase, the more Attack and/or Defense and/or Concentration you will have. On the other hand, the fewer dice the Opponent rolls, the more Defense and the more of a formidable counterattack he will have!

Player Table Description

The player table is the most important component of the Player page. This table has 4 columns: Round, Attack, Defense and Concentration.

The Round column is divided into two parts. The first part displays the number of the round being played, and the second part defines the number of dice you may roll during this round:

A green die symbol means you may roll up to 3 dice out of the 4.
A yellow die symbol means you may roll up to 2 dice.
An orange die symbol means you may roll only 1 unique die during this round.

The remaining dice out of the 4 will be rolled by the opponent in the Opponent phase.

The result of each die will allow you to define in the other columns your level of Attack, Defense and Concentration for this round.

The Attack column allows you to write your Attack level for this round. It is also divided into two parts. The first part is to write your Attack level. The second part is to write the difference between your Attack Level and the Opponent's Defense value (the Opponent's Defense will be defined during the Opponent Phase).

The Defense column allows you to write your Defense level for this round. It is also divided into two parts. The first part is to write your Defense level. The second part is to specify whether your Defense was a success or not. You must write a check mark if your Defense was a success and a cross if it failed.

The Concentration column allows you to write the concentration points you want to accumulate to trigger a bonus or surprise attack later.

Round Description (and more)

Here is a detailed description of 3 first rounds of a game. With these 3 rounds, you will go through all possible interactions and everything you need to know to understand the rules of the game.

Let's play against Oda Nobunaga.
A round always starts with the Player Phase.
Position the 4 dice in front of you.
Refer to the Round 1 line. It has the green "up to 3 dice" symbol.
You can therefore roll up to 3 dice. You decide to roll the 3 dice.
The results of your dice are: 3 – 5 – 4.
When rolling several dice you cannot divide the result of one die, but you can add several dice together. (If you roll only one die, read page 9.)
You use 3 and 4 for your Attack level. So, you have 7 in Attack.
You use 5 for your Defense level. So, you have 5 in Defense.
You have no more dice left. So, you have 0 in Concentration.

The Player phase is over, let's go over the Opponent phase:

Roll the remaining die. The result is a 6.
Refer to line 6 of the Opponent's Defense and Counterattack Zone table. The 4 columns are to be read from left to right.
- The first column corresponds to the total value of the opponent dice and defines the line that will describe the Opponent's action for this round. In our case, the opponent made a total of 6, so we will be following the line 6.
- The second column displays the Opponent's Defense for this round.
- The third column displays the Opponent's Counterattack condition for this round.
- The fourth and last column displays the damage you receive if your Defense is not sufficient against the Opponent's counterattack condition.
From the second column, subtract the value next to the two crossed swords of the Opponent's defense from your attack level. The result is your final Attack level. Write the final Attack level in the Attack column of the current round of the Player Table. In our case, the Opponent's defense is 2. Our Final Attack level therefore is 5. That is 7 – 2 = 5.
Now that you have your final Attack level for the round, immediately refer to the Opponent's Resistance Area to know the amount of damage you are inflicting on them. Your attack is 5, so you inflict 1 damage to your opponent. Cross out a heart on the Opponent Page. By performing an Attack of 5, the requirement of 4 is fulfilled but the requirement of 6 is not. Therefore, the damage corresponding to the requirement of 4 is applied. Having a Final Attack level higher than the applicable requirement does not impact the damage inflicted and the difference is not carried over to the next round.
Your attack is finished, you must withstand the Opponent's counterattack. In our case, the Opponent's Counterattack tells us that if your Defense is strictly below 3, you suffer 4 damage. Your Defense is 5, you take no damage. Write a check mark in the box next to your level of Defense.

Round 1 is over. Let's start round 2.

Round 2

You may roll up to 2 dice this round. You decide to roll the 2 dice.
Your results are: 5 – 1.
The die with a value of '1' is not going to help you too much, you decide to use a Ki point to re-roll the die in question.
You re-roll the die with the value '1' and you get a 4. Therefore, your results are 5 and 4.
You write 5 in Attack, 0 in Defense and add 4 in Concentration.

Ki

Your Ki points are of great help during a fight.

During the Player phase, you may spend 1 Ki point for an action of your choice among the following:
- Re-roll one of your dice.
- Increase one of your Attack or Defense stats by 1.
During the Opponent phase, you may spend 1 Ki point for the following action:
- Re-roll all of the Opponent's dice.

You can only use a maximum of 3 Ki points per round.

When you no longer have any Ki points, the game continues normally.

You can recover Ki points by spending your Concentration (read pages 6 and 7).

Concentration

Concentration is a profitable strategy in many cases. When you have one or more dice that you do not want to use in Attack or Defense because they are too weak or for other reasons, you may place them in Concentration. Concentration functions as a cumulative pool of points that you can spend to gain bonuses or surprise attacks against your opponent.

Contrary to Attack and Defense stats recording your current round level, Concentration is added from round to round to record your current total amount of Concentration.
Refer to the Concentration table to find out the amount of Concentration points to spend for each bonus.
Concentration points can only be spent during the Player phase.

Example: John has accumulated the Concentration points from diagram A. During the Player phase, he decides to spend 12 points to make a surprise attack on his opponent. He will therefore cross out his current 17 points as in Diagram B and write down the number of remaining points (that is, 17 – 12 = 5).

Diagram A shows the Concentration track entries 1, 1, 5, 5, 5, 10, 14, 17, 17. Diagram B shows the same entries with the last 17 crossed out and the remainder 5 written beside it.

Concentration Rewards

8 points: Gain 1 Ki point.
12 points: The opponent loses 1 Health point.
18 points: You gain a bonus of +4 in Attack to spend during the current round.
23 points: The opponent loses 2 Health points.
28 points: You gain a bonus of +4 in Defense to spend during the current round.
34 points: The opponent loses 3 Health points.
40 points: Roll a 6-sided die. The opponent loses X Health point(s) where X is the result of the die. If the result is a 6, your opponent is decapitated. You immediately win the duel.

Round 2 (Opponent phase)

The Player phase is over, let's move on to the Opponent phase.
There are 2 dice left, so the opponent rolls 2 dice. The results are 5 and 2. That is, 5 + 2 = 7.
Refer to line 7 of the Opponent's Defense and Counterattack Table.
Line 7 tells us to subtract 3 from your Attack level. You have 2 Final Attack Level. This is not enough to do any damage to your opponent.
Line 7 also specifies that if your Defense is strictly less than 5 you suffer a Level 1 Injury.

Injuries

There are two types of Injuries, level 1 Injuries and level 2 Injuries. They are represented by a single red wound symbol and a double red wound symbol respectively.

When you receive a Level 1 Injury, you must roll one D6 die and refer to the Injury table on the Player page.
When you receive a Level 2 Injury, you must roll two D6 dice and refer to the same Injury table.

To find out which part of the body the opponent has injured you, take the sum of the dice and refer to the corresponding area of the body.

If you receive a Level 1 Injury and the die result is 1, you dodge the attack and you suffer no injury.
If you receive a Level 2 Injury and the dice result is 12, you are decapitated by the opponent, the duel is lost.
If the Injury is a Deep Wound symbol, you suffer a Deep Wound. (See below for Deep Wounds.)
If you have to lose Ki points and you no longer have any, lose that many Health points.
When you receive an Injury, scratch the area that was hit.
If you receive an Injury on an area that has already been injured (except area 1 or 12), you lose the limb in question, or the body part is seriously affected. Suffer the damage caused and continue the duel with the following constraint: you can now only roll one die per Round, and your opponent will always roll 3 dice until the end of the duel.

Injury Table (Player page)

The Injury table is a diagram of a body with numbered areas 1 to 12. Each area shows one of the following effects:

Area 1: marked with an "×" symbol. No Health, Ki or Deep Wound effect is printed on this area.
Area 2: lose 1 Health point and 2 Ki points.
Area 3: lose 2 Health points.
Area 4: lose 3 Health points.
Area 5: Deep Wound.
Area 6: lose 3 Health points and 1 Ki point.
Area 7: Deep Wound.
Area 8: Deep Wound.
Area 9: Deep Wound.
Area 10: lose 5 Health points.
Area 11: Deep Wound.
Area 12: death symbol. The opponent decapitates you and the duel is lost.

Example: in Round 2, you have zero Defense, so you suffer a Level 1 Injury. You roll a die, and the result is 3. You therefore lose 2 Health points as indicated in Zone 3, "your right arm is affected".

Round 2 is over. Let's start round 3.

Deep Wounds

When the Injury shows the Deep Wound symbol, you receive a Deep Wound. Immediately roll a D6 die and refer to the Deep Wounds Table.

Deep Wounds are Injuries that cause great damage or disability until the end of the duel. When you receive a Deep Wound, write a check mark on the small circle in front of the corresponding Deep Wound. During the same duel, you cannot suffer the same Deep Wound twice. If this case arises, you must re-roll a D6 die.

Deep Wounds Description

1: Until the end of the duel, you can no longer use dice with a value of '1', they are directly discarded until the next round. (You cannot revive them using Ki.)
2: Until the end of the duel, you can no longer use dice with a value of '2', they are directly discarded until the next round. (You cannot revive them using Ki.)
3: You lose 1 Health point at the start of each round.
4: Your Concentration points are reduced to zero. Replace your current level of Concentration by '0'. You can continue to accumulate more, but you're starting from scratch.
5: Roll a D6 and lose X Ki point(s). X = the result of the die.
6: Roll a D6 and lose X Health point(s). X = the result of the die.

Round 3

Round 3 allows you to roll only one die. The result is 5.
You enter 2 in Defense, 3 in Attack and 0 in Concentration.

When you roll only one die, and only in this case, you have the possibility of splitting the result of the die to distribute the points between your Attack, your Defense, and your Concentration.

You use 1 Ki point to increase your Attack to 4.
The opponent rolls his 3 dice. The sum of the 3 dice is equal to 10 (2 – 5 – 3).
You refer to line 10 and see that you risk receiving a Level 2 Injury.
You use a Ki point to re-roll the opponent's 3 dice. The new result is 13 (4 – 3 – 6).
Line 13 tells us that the opponent has a Defense of zero, so your final Attack level is 4.
The opponent loses 1 Health point. Cross one of his hearts.
His counterattack is 2, but you have 2 Defense, you take no damage.

The 3rd round is over. Play further round after round and may the best Samurai win!

Victory Conditions

If the opponent no longer has any Health points, you win the game.

Defeat Conditions

If you no longer have any Health points, you lose the game.

Failure Conditions Without Defeat

At the end of round 20, if you have more Health points than your Opponent, he gives up the fight, your blade staying unsatisfied, and your honor tainted.
At the end of round 20, if you have fewer Health points than your opponent, you are giving up. You better get back to trainings…

Round Summary

Player Phase

Roll one or more dice.
Distribute the results into your stats for the current round.

Opponent Phase

Roll the remaining opponent's dice.
Calculate your final Attack level.
Cause the damages according to your final Attack level.
Suffer the Opponent's Counterattack according to your Defense level.
Proceed to the next round.