Samurai Chapter

[Primarch Betalio]

My homebrew Space Marines ( blood angels successor) essentially is based on the feudal Japanese culture. Battle-Brothers are considered samurai, Captains are called daimyos, 1 of the 2 Chapter Masters is called the Shogunate ( leads the Chapter into battle), the other Chapter Master basically sits on a throne/ Webway portal. Since I'm trying to write the Codex supplement for them what should I include?

[Brother Hellion]

If I had a quarter for every time some one homewbrews a samurai themed SM Chapter I'd have...maybe a $1.25?

[Kaede45]

On 2/13/2024 at 1:32 PM, Primarch Betalio said:

My homebrew Space Marines ( blood angels successor) essentially is based on the feudal Japanese culture. Battle-Brothers are considered samurai, Captains are called daimyos, 1 of the 2 Chapter Masters is called the Shogunate ( leads the Chapter into battle), the other Chapter Master basically sits on a throne/ Webway portal. Since I'm trying to write the Codex supplement for them what should I include?

I’ve actually been thinking of a similar idea with the Primarch for the legion being based on Gilgamesh from the Final Fantasy series! One of these days I should write it all down & post it…

 

On 2/13/2024 at 4:22 PM, Brother Hellion said:

If I had a quarter for every time some one homewbrews a samurai themed SM Chapter I'd have...maybe a $1.25?

 

Oh come now, I’m sure you’d have waaaaaaaaay more than that.

[Brother Hellion]

On 12/15/2024 at 2:18 PM, Kaede45 said:

I’ve actually been thinking of a similar idea with the Primarch for the legion being based on Gilgamesh from the Final Fantasy series! One of these days I should write it all down & post it…

 

 

Oh come now, I’m sure you’d have waaaaaaaaay more than that.

Well now its $4.50 at current count.

[Brother Tyler]

This topic has been moved to the Liber forum since it appears to be about DIY Chapter development. There is actually a lot of advice about DIY Chapter creation to be found linked in the DIY Resources topic, including different hobbyists' recommendations for things to include in different types of articles.

 

Since the premise of this is that you are writing this as a codex supplement, I recommend focusing on similarly titled articles, especially three that can be found in our Downloads (Red Hunters by @MECHFACE and Fire Claws and Exorcists by me - all three of these are presented in a manner similar to the official codex supplements that Games Workshop published in White Dwarf magazine). It should be understood, however, that there is considerable flexibility, and you could always look to the more expansive codex supplements that Games Workshop has published for other Chapters such as the Black Templars, Dark Angels, etc. These provide considerably more content. Ultimately, the full range of content that you develop will depend upon your desires and abilities. If anything, I recommend starting small and then expanding to cover the full range of content that you desire.

 

As far as your concept goes, it's sound. It's not the first DIY Chapter inspired by Feudal Japan that we've seen over the years, so a search (especially of the Liber forums) might provide you with some ideas. I especially recommend searching for either "Japan" or "Samurai" if you want to pursue this course.

 

One thing I'll call out is your use of "Shogunate" as a title for individuals. In Feudal Japan, the Shogunate was the government that was led by a Shogun. In this, the more appropriate title for your two Chapter Masters would be "Shogun" and their respective command structures would be the "Shogunate."

 

To directly answer your question, I recommend the following as minimum content:

• Chapter name
• Heraldry and markings
• Rules, if applicable (these might simply be identification of an official rule set to use, or you might create [some] bespoke rules for the Chapter)
• Basic information about the Chapter's organization and history (with the split Shoguns, I see 3 paragraphs being the absolute minimum, though such a concept could easily stretch on for pages)

And that's just a bare minimum. The more you're willing to do, the more we'll have to work with and the more feedback/recommendations we'll be able to provide.

[Brother Cambrius]

Brother Tyler's laid out most of what I would say in terms of what style you might want to pull from if you wanted to write this akin to a Codex Supplement.

We've certainly seen a good few Samurai inspired Chapters over the decades on the Forum. As BT suggests, utilise our Search function and see what you find to draw ideas and inspiration from,

One I do have from a long time back was a Japanese inspired Chapter made by the illustrator @Philip S, The Red Suns, not directly Samurai themed entirely, but it might be a good source of basic inspiration as to how Philip interpreted Japanese culture being the influence of style for his Chapter.

Cambrius