Gin No Jūken: The Silver Bayonet in Japan

[Osmoses]

With 'The Silver Bayonet' being all the rage we figured we'd give it a go. But, having no Napoleonic terrain or figures, we decided to shift the action to 1860's Japan and get some more use out of our Boshin War and Bakumatsu figures.

The background to 'Gin No Jūken' (銀の銃剣):

Following the arrival of foreign barbarians in Japan, a spate of supernatural incidents have occurred across the country. Bakufu and anti-Bakufu factions secretly make plans to investigate. Tosa anti-Bakufu agitator Sakamoto Ryōma creates a new group to look into the manifestations of Yōkai, under the slogan 尊皇攘怪 'Sonnō Jōkai' (Revere the emperor, expel the monsters). The Bakufu authorities create their own specialised unit, an off-shoot of the Shinsengumi called the Shinkaigumi (新怪組).

The Chōshū group of the Sonnō Jōkai is led by Mōri Katsunaga with his soldiers Takatoshi and Sōbe (infantry), Yamanami Keisuke, a Shinsengumi deserter (junior officer), Ōme a Kyōto courtesan (swordswoman), Akage, a fox (irregular), and Kaede an armour-wearing miko (supernatural investigator):





Chōshū troops investigate mysterious goings on in a village and are met by some Tsukumogami (animated household objects) and some obviously drunk tanuki:





Bakufu Shinkaigumi investigators  are on the trail of a metsuke who disappeared in a village which appears to be abandoned...



But are soon attacked by monsters:








The games so far have just been a re-skin, so no new rules or monsters added, everything has just been ported over to Bakumatsu Japan as it is in the rulebook. Technically the weapons should be different but we didn't bother making new rules for them. The latter pictures are the first solo scenario in the book, with the forest replaced by a village and the wolves and werewolves by bakemono and Oni. We also played a few PvP games that were too involving for me to get decent pictures (I played Chōshū in the PvP and Bakufu in the solo game)

[Grumpy Gnome]

Brilliant concept and execution, it is great to see what folks are coming up with for the Silver Bayonet.

[DivisMal]

I second that! Very inspirational project!!

[Osmoses]

Thanks. Doesn't take long after a new set of rules is released before everyone is using them for a completely different period.

[has.been]

Lovely work there.

[FramFramson]

Beautiful table and figures!

[area23]

beautiful, everything.

[Khusru2]

Well done on thinking things through. Love the setting though I play Ronin which is somewhat earlier.

[Blackwolf]

Fab Love the fox!

[Emir of Askaristan]

What a lovely table and a wonderful idea for a setting.

[Daeothar]

Wonderful adaptation!

You might consider looking into the Bushido! range of miniatures by GCT Studios; they have a wonderful coterie of Asian/Japanese mythology inspired miniatures, some of which would fit in perfectly with your project

[Osmoses]

Yes, the GCT Bushido range are some of my favourite figures. The fox is a Bushido figure, as are the goblins in the above pics.

[Seal]

Thank you for posting this. We will be using this concept for some Samurai Silver Bayonet games.

[Daeothar]

Yes, the GCT Bushido range are some of my favourite figures. The fox is a Bushido figure, as are the goblins in the above pics.

On second glance, I recognise them, yes

Great stuff

[Easy E]

 

Very impressive.