Under The Rain Drops

Under the Rain Drops

A Samurai Noir Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Honor, Decay, and Choice

"The rain falls, slow and ceaseless. On the armor of the proud, on the graves of the forgotten, on the blade that has taken one life too many. And still, it falls."

Under the Rain Drops is a tabletop role-playing game set in the shadows of Edo-period Japan, where the sword no longer sings only for justice—and every choice carries the echo of regret.
This is not a story of glory.
It is a story of slow ruin, quiet loyalty, fractured duty, and fading dreams.

What Is Under the Rain Drops?

A game of Samurai Noir Drama, Under the Rain Drops invites players to inhabit a world where the war has ended, but the wounds remain. The age of the sword still lingers—but rusts. The samurai walks a narrow path between obligation and self, between code and survival, between light and shadow.

Players take on the roles of samurai, ronin, and other warriors navigating a Japan caught between centuries of tradition and the cold machinery of a new peace. You will fight not only duels, but doubts. Not only rivals, but your own desires.

It is a game where inner tension is as important as external conflict, where your traits— Courage, Duty, Self-Control — are forever in flux with their darker mirrors: Cowardice, Desire, and Impulsivity.

A World of Shadows, Rain, and Blood

Under the Rain Drops paints a bleak yet intimate portrait of the samurai life:

• A time where a samurai's rank is their cage.

• Where peace has turned warriors into clerks, spies, and enforcers.

• Where love, loyalty, and legacy are threads easily severed.

• And the rain never stops falling, whispering sins no ritual can cleanse.

From alleyway conspiracies to quiet cups of tea taken before betrayal, your story will unfold beneath flickering lanterns and blood-wet silk, in moments as soft as poetry and as brutal as war.

A Game of Depth, Culture, and Detail

Beyond the drama and the sword, Under the Rain Drops is also a deep cultural exploration of samurai life during the Edo period. The rulebook serves as both a game system and a narrative encyclopedia, offering insight into:

• Samurai rank, property, and status in the feudal caste system

• Daily routines: from household rituals to weapon maintenance

• Economic realities: currency, costs, land, and the burden of debt

• Arts of peace: calligraphy, music, theater, etiquette, and poetry

• And the quiet, constant negotiation between one’s public mask and private shame

For players and GMs alike, this book is a window into the soul of an era—carefully researched, richly imagined, and told with the somber grace of a haiku carved in rain-washed stone.

Themes at the Heart of the Game

• Honor vs. Depravity – Will you walk the path of the code, or lose yourself to the temptations of power, lust, or vengeance?

• Duty vs. Desire – What happens when the heart speaks louder than the lord?

• The Weight of Age – The game system changes as your character grows older, trading luck for experience, youth for wisdom, impulse for resignation.

• Redemption and Regret – Can the sins of the past ever be washed away—or does the rain simply smear the blood?

Game Features

• Character creation based on age, experience, and moral balance

• A trait system built on moral dichotomies that shift over time

• Rules for social standing, property, wealth, and family

• A world where conflict may be resolved by the sword—but is rarely won cleanly

• Short fiction and flavor prose that bring the world alive between rules and rolls

• Layout inspired by traditional Japanese woodblock prints, featuring art by Hiroaki Takahashi (public domain) is created by Illair from dense forest camp

Designed For...

• Playgroups focused on character development and emotional storytelling

• Fans of Kurosawa, Miyamoto Musashi, The Twilight Samurai, or Rurouni Kenshin—but with a darker lens

• Game Masters who want a cultural, historical, and psychological sandbox to tell samurai tragedies, courtly dramas, or grim political tales

“Are you prepared to choose between the sword and the soul?
Between honor and love? Between memory and silence?”

Sit with your character in the quiet before the storm. Let them whisper their fears to the rain. Then rise—blade in hand, truth in heart—and walk the path that only you can.

Play the story of a soul beneath the storm.
Play Under the Rain Drops.