From the introduction: Rules for fantasy role-playing adventure in Tokugawa-Era Japan. ... Kanabo is a role-playing game inspired by sword-fighting movies typically set in Tokugawa-era Japan (1600–1868). Players take on the role of wandering Travelers roving the countryside seeking fame, fortune, justice, revenge, or simply the freedom to roam. In this time, the fierce civil wars of the Warring States Period are over. Left with no more wars to fight, masterless warriors struggle to survive and to find purpose and peace in a society that has largely left them behind. Another typical theme of this genre is the internal conflict between the human intuition and feeling of right and wrong, and ones’ obligation to lord and family.