Why not a fantasy or science fiction setting?
We were looking for three things from a gameplay point of view. Firstly, a period or setting where there are a large number of factions, one of whom eventually dominates all the others and wins. Secondly we need a period where there is a technology race going on, with new troop types being developed which change the way battles are fought. Thirdly we wanted a period where it wasn’t just military might that won the day – we wanted diplomacy, espionage and treachery to play a large part. Japan in the Sengoku period gave us all these things. We were also looking for “content” that would have world wide appeal – that is widely considered to be “cool”, and would give us a chance to produce a game with a strong style and well as gameplay. The Samurai era gives us all that. We also wanted to have a game world that was “real” rather than invented. It gives us huge amounts of material to draw on, and takes advantage of the fact that all players will already have some idea of what the Samurai we
