Tenra Bansho Development Journal

Must rest.  Here are the highlights: Got a lot of awesome new games. Ran 3 awesome sessions of TBZ: Seriously, the players were GREAT, kept the action and drama popping, it was phenomenal. One of my sessions was quasi-cancelled because three of the players didn’t show: But instead, I ran a one-on-one with the last [...]

So over on a group blog I share with some friends, I discuss other Japanese RPGs. Mostly previews, fanboy ravings and the like punctuated by cultural elements. That site is http://www.j-rpg.com . Recently, someone asked what was so revolutionary about Tenra Bansho in Japan over at RPGNet. I discuss the details there, as well as [...]

So a few questions and comments folks had: * What is that “ZAKT-8″ weapon on the character sheet from the last post? What does it look like? A ZAKT-8 is a unique weapon to the setting of Tenra. It’s the only standard “typical big-ass anime sword” that appears, most weapons are… well, *normal sized*. In [...]

The sample character from the book is Kirie, an ex-yoroi armour (mecha) rider. It’s written on one of the alternate character sheets: The game will include several sheets depending on orientation preference and the like (pulled from the winner of the Character Sheet Creation contest, from two years back). Kirie used to ride a 3-meter [...]

Little life issues interrupt the translation process, post X-Thousand. So I took a few days off in order to get some home stuff together, rejuvenate, and finish the last bits of Tenra Bansho translation. I use many tools for the translation (might be a good post for later). I do a lot of my translation [...]

Hey all: Been awhile! Going to GenCon in August? Give me a shout, we’ll see about meeting up and playing. I’ll be running Tenra at scheduled and unscheduled events. My buddy Jerry Grayson will be running HELLAS: Worlds of Sun and Stone (think “Tenra Bansho, but with Greeks”) in the same manner. Got ideas for [...]

That was the tagline on the back of the book, when it was originally released in 2000/2001.  Today? Probably not quite as applicable, as there are more games on the market that aim to be “a complete campaign/story/gaming experience within one session”. But it’s worth a look at the intention behind that tagline. When Tenra [...]

So I was talking with Luke (who, with Drozdal, is working on the layout of the game) this last weekend after a rousing set of Roller Derby at the North Carolina state fairgrounds. In Tenra Bansho Zero, you engage in combat just like other tabletop RPGs: You make a series of attack rolls. You take [...]

How The Sausage Is Made Translated Wow, it’s been about 4 years since I started this project, the translation and release of Tenra Bansho Zero in English. At the time, I thought it would just take about 2 years tops to knock this thing out from Start to Publish. 4 years later, and I’m on [...]

Are you coming to ORIGINS this year? If so, event registration has started, and the events are set. Here are the TBZ-related events coming up at ORIGINS Game Fair 2009: 6056 Tenra Bansho Zero – Shinobi Ultimatum Lord Buren has made use of your ninja clan for generations. This time, everything falls apart as one [...]