Character Generation - Second Generation

[Marullus]

Ignore the age roll. It has no mechanical effect and is messing up the story. Do you WANT to be the uncle? Then make up an age and be the uncle.

You are starting in town (stabling costs, ugh) ND didn't expect you were going to war so don't have a warhorse. Easier explanation?

[ffilz]

Ignore the age roll. It has no mechanical effect and is messing up the story. Do you WANT to be the uncle? Then make up an age and be the uncle.

You are starting in town (stabling costs, ugh) ND didn't expect you were going to war so don't have a warhorse. Easier explanation?

Sure, that sounds good. Hiring a porter for town to town is much cheaper than feeding and stabling a horse. Hmm, though if not expecting to go to war, why is he lugging AC 7 around?

Age roll does play into language skills, but that's a minor thing to just let be based on the age roll while making actual age something different.

Uncle he is.

[jemmus]

Can Toshizo's older brother be a sohei Buddhist soldier-monk? That could be fun, and it would explain why younger brother got the horse, instead of the elder one. The older brother was spiritual-minded and used his bugei training to get a job at a temple and get off of the family's expenses.
By the way, my ninja is done except for buying equipment.

[Marullus]

Sure! I think we decided that being Sohei means being a Bushi but with the Pious Layman rules on top. You can trade the horsemanship skill for the naganata as their traditional weapon. He can also do the swap-On-for-20 like a Gakusho because he gave up his family name for a Buddhist one (right?)

... I think it is more important that Ffilz Gakusho be a Buddhist and come with him, then, as a tie in? A Pious Layman really needs to travel with a Gakusho - their abilities are complimentary.

[Marullus]

The updated list (from notes here):

• Ffilz: Satake Motoyuki, a Bushi In-Service to the Daimyo. (Sheet)
• Samwell Turleton: Continuation of Satake Taka, with plot developments!
• Samwell Turleton: Amano Daitaro, a bushi, Souta's older brother (Sheet)
• Jemmus: Kamine XXXX, A Sohei Bushi (Toshizo's older brother)
• Jemmus: A ninja (sheet?)
• Ffilz: Keiso, a Gakusho carpenter (Sheet)
• jmacatty: A bushi, Ha's brother
• jmacatty: A bushi, undefined

I got a PM from jmacatty that real life is interfering and he's not going to be able to continue right now (but he is welcome back any time!).

[Marullus]

*bump*
How's everyone doing?

If we're feeling good, I can try to launch this weekend.

[jemmus]

My ninja Saizo is done and posted in the Character Sheets thread. I'll work on the sohei this weekend. I stole the ninja's name from an old movie series called Kirigakure Saizo (Hiding-in-Mists Saizo). I see that Saizo is an anime character now.

[Samwell Turleton]

I am pretty busy but should be able to make some regular posts. I would be ready to start again whenever the group is ready.

[Marullus]

Jmacatty and Enoch may be able to rejoin. I am excited to see if we can add them in this week before we kick off!

@Turlton - I sent some PMs about Taka, if you could look for those and reply? I want to make sure we're on the same page.

[Marullus]

• Ffilz: Satake Motoyuki, a Bushi In-Service to the Daimyo. (Sheet)
• Samwell Turleton: Satake Taka, Shugenja Samurai. (Sheet)
• Samwell Turleton: Amano Daitaro, a bushi, Souta's older brother (Sheet)
• Jemmus: Kamine XXXX, A Sohei Bushi (Toshizo's older brother)
• Jemmus: Saizo, A ninja / Impoverished Budoka (Sheet)
• Ffilz: Keiso, a Gakusho carpenter (Sheet)
• jmacatty: A bushi, Ha's brother (Sheet)
• jmacatty: A bushi, undefined (Sheet)
• Enoch: New Character

We have Jemmus still working on the new Kamine brother as a Sohei Bushi (Please use the New Bushi sheet and steal a copy of the Pious Layman tab from Haruto's sheet) and potential characters in the works for Jmacatty and Enoch, but I'm going to go ahead and open the new story thread so you can start roleplaying as you finish up. If anyone has questions or tweaks to finalize your characters, please continue discussing here.

[Marullus]

Was looking at this one...

• Samwell Turleton: Amano Daitaro, a bushi, Souta's older brother (Sheet)

Dang, though... can you find 1 more point for STR? You have 20 and you need 21 to get a 2-Man Han-Kyu bow.

[ffilz]

Was looking at this one...

• Samwell Turleton: Amano Daitaro, a bushi, Souta's older brother (Sheet)

Dang, though... can you find 1 more point for STR? You have 20 and you need 21 to get a 2-Man Han-Kyu bow.

I tried with Satake Motoyuki to get another point of STR (for a 4-man Dai-Kyu) but I just couldn't spare a point from any other attribute...

[jemmus]

Such is the wonderful nature of Bushido. It reminds me of the old Car Wars tabletop game. You always need just one more point.... (BTW, any of you ever play that one? We played a hybrid of tactical Car Wars wargame with Top Secret RPG rules for character RPGing. The combination was amazingly fun. A tactical design and drive vehicular wargame, with a personal RPG character as the driver/jobs taker. That was a incredibly fun. If anyone is interested, I'll run that kind of game.

Rural Texas, rural meth labs. High speeds, lead foot drivers, highly armed highway patrol troopers, local cops, ignorant (but highly armed) sheriff's deputies, vehicular and personal high powered weapons, interstate exit ramps and stop signs. Also a few "Son, you have been caught showing a total lack of respect for the law" and "Sorry, dude, don't take it personal" NPC comments thrown in.

[Samwell Turleton]

Who needs health when you can carry bigger stuff. I will make that update.

[Marullus]

I need access to be granted for Kamine no Zenrin's sheet.

Also, realizing that Keiso is losing his secondary action because it falls on Action Phase 1. He needs another point of Deftness, I think?

The Base Action Phase = current Deftness/2, round down.
Note that no action occurs in any Action Phase with a number
lower than 2, Thus, a character with a current Deftness of 3 or less is
essentially limited to movement only, when using Detailed Action
timescale. His reflexes are just too slow. Such Characters perform
their movement on Action Phase 2, moving after all other actions in
the Detailed Turn have been resolved. Any other actions allowed to
such Characters are purely at the discretion of the Gamesmaster.
Characters with high Speed scores may be allowed to perform
multiple actions in a single Detailed Turn. See "Maximum Number of
Actions," below. In this case, the Action Phases on which they may
perform these Actions are derived from the Base Action Phase.

[ffilz]

I need access to be granted for Kamine no Zenrin's sheet.

Also, realizing that Keiso is losing his secondary action because it falls on Action Phase 1. He needs another point of Deftness, I think?

The Base Action Phase = current Deftness/2, round down.
Note that no action occurs in any Action Phase with a number
lower than 2, Thus, a character with a current Deftness of 3 or less is
essentially limited to movement only, when using Detailed Action
timescale. His reflexes are just too slow. Such Characters perform
their movement on Action Phase 2, moving after all other actions in
the Detailed Turn have been resolved. Any other actions allowed to
such Characters are purely at the discretion of the Gamesmaster.
Characters with high Speed scores may be allowed to perform
multiple actions in a single Detailed Turn. See "Maximum Number of
Actions," below. In this case, the Action Phases on which they may
perform these Actions are derived from the Base Action Phase.

Oh, yuck... I don't think Keiso has another point to shift into Deftness... He'll just have to train enough to boost Deftness...

As a Buddhist Gakusha, I'm not devastated that he only gets one action...

[jemmus]

Sorry about that. Anyone with the link can view Zenrin's sheet now.

[Marullus]

Glad to have you in the Ninja Bushido game!

I would also like to invite you to our other game as well. That one is a more traditional "adventure module." Jemmus and I are running them in tandem with one set of shared house rules and learning process. (I picked up running the second game mostly so Jemmus wasn't forever DM and could also play. ) Bushido is fun and crunchy, and we figure if you learn the system we might as well use it twice.

Post rate is slow and very forgiving. You can read the adventure so far.

While Jemmus' game is reformatting to try Ninja only, the other game is more "ronin adventuring against the Oni in the mountains" like a more traditional RPG. They just finished a political arc and want to go back to adventure. It also will be a little higher level - they are second level and you will join as they take a month downtime for advancement (which you also will get).

They currently have a cleric (gakusho) paladin (sohei bushi) who currently needs to stone for murder, and a Ninja. They party can use other classes (and you can try out non-ninja):
- Samurai/Ronin (fighters, particularly with katana and bow)
- Bodoka (martial artists, not historical but more fun Kung fu movie)
- Yakuza (thug/criminal/thieves)
- Shugenja (wizards/sorcerers)

I am glad to work with you and help you learn.

Would a female Ronin work?

Yep! Sounds great.

As a female, you add bonus skill bugei of Naginatajutsu, Tantojutsu, and Shurikenjutsu.

In general, it may be stated that a woman in Nippon travelling
freely about the countryside as a wandering member of a Profession
has to some extent severed her connection with her family. This may
imply that she has moved into a Profession where such a division is
normal, as in the case of the female Gakusho. Or she may have no
living family. Without Clan protection, her prospects are grim. She
may be a young widow. In this case, women remained with their
husband's Clan, but were regarded as the poorest of poor relations.
A women might seek freedom by pursuing life as a wanderer rather
than accept the grudging charity of her in-laws.
The proudest tradition of the Buke is their military training.
Women in this Caste are not denied this birthright. The traditional
weapons of the female Buke are the Naginata (glaive), the Tanto
(dagger), the Yari (spear), and the Uchi-ne (light javelin).
Shurikenjutsu, using the Tanto or Aiguchi, was also taught to most
women of the military aristocracy. Training in Kenjutsu was not
uncommon and many women in the Caste sought mastery of more
esoteric weapon forms.
Based on legends and historical incidents in the saga of Nippon,
many women, their male relatives dead or captured, proved their
expertise in the Bugei of strategy (Chikujo-kutsu and Senjo-jutsu) at
the head of the Clan's armies or within its fortresses. Study in these
Bugei would therefore be a logical choice for the female Buke,
especially one who functions as a Bushi.

Normally you would roll 1d100 and look at the birth table on page 39.

I offered for Ffilz to pick Caste instead because he was uncomfortable rolling the highest category (in service to the Daimyo) and I don't mind if others want to pick a Caste to tell a particular story instead of rolling. Rex said he wanted a female ronin, and picking ronin is fine or rolling is fine. The story he wants to play is more important to me.

I am all for rolling.

Caste [1d100]=13

Member, is that high enough for a ronin?

[Marullus]

Okay - birth caste.

A 13 sets you as "Middle Samurai." That's an important landed family, but a family beneath the Daimyo's clan. In this setting, that would be a member of one of these families.

A Ronin would be a roll between 21-45. If you wish to play a concept that is a ronin (i.e. an unlanded knight errant rather than from a landed noble family) you can freely switch. Castes are Samurai --> Ronin --> Heimin (peasants, artisans, then merchants) --> Eta (including Ninja). Within each caste there is a grading of High/Middle/Low for relative status and wealth.

Set which you like and then I'll tell you what else you roll and set up your template.

[Rex]

I will take the roll and go with a middle Samurai.