Economy

There's two good things from converting Omi from 3e to 4e.

First is knowing that Sengoku Japan is TL4.  That ups the starting wealth to G$2,000.

This is a good thing because they changed the cost of many things upward, I can still afford them.

That very fine Katana is G$13,000.

If he'd stayed the original TL3, with the G$1,000 starting wealth, my Very Wealthy would only have given me $20k to spend.

I'd have been about G$10k short for the character as written.

GURPS Japan's armor was already a bit more complicated than the basic set, but it went from five lines on the character sheet to 13!

This brings us to the second good thing.

The increase in wealth also let me take armor that was more appropriate to the time period I'd selected.

Lamellar armor has some issues that period writers made note of:

When soaked with water the armor becomes very heavy and cannot be quickly dried; so that in summer it is oppressive and in winter liable to freeze. Moreover, no amount of washing will completely free the lacing from any mud or blood which may have penetrated it, and on long and distant campaigns it becomes evil-smelling and overrun by ants and lice, with consequent ill effects on the health of the wearer.

– Sakakibara Kozan, Chukokatchu Seisakuben

-- Taken from GURPS Loadouts Low-Tech Armor p.32

Different kinds of armor started to replace it by the Sengoku.  More protection for less mass.

But, also, for more G$.

The armor I pieced together comes to G$4,220 and 52.4 lb.  Protection is the same, or better than the 12th to 13th century ensemble from Loadouts which is G$3,615 and 81.2 lb.  Protection is slightly better than the 14th to 15th century set at G$2,539 and 62.8 lb.  Oh, and I remembered my mempo!  The example sets don't have one.

I might have ditched lamellar altogether for mail and plates, but the example photo I was using still had it.