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| Official Kaito Shrine Keeper Art |
In addition, this new edition set back the timeline to before the Scorpion Coup and the core book does not include stats for any of the minor clans. As such, I do not have access to the Tsuruchi Archer school yet. There is, however, the Kaito Shrine Keeper which is an archer monk that does magic stuff with their archery. A further note of the lack of Minor Clans means no Snake Clan stats. So I can't make them a pariah by birth so much the way I did with the 4th edition character.
1. What is your Clan?
Clans provide a bonus to one of your Rings, one skill rank, and starting Status. The school I have eyes on down the line is a Phoenix School, but I think I want to take a different clan. There is a caveat allowing players to take schools outside their clan if the GM allows them, and I like stretching the character creation system to see what it will do. In this case, I am actually going to pull from the Crab Clan.
Crab Clan provides the following.
- Earth +1
- Fitness +1
- Status 30
2. What is your Family?
Each clan has a choice of four or five families. The families provide one of two bonus Rings, two bonus skills, starting Glory, and starting Wealth. The choices of Family for the Crab are the Hida, who are the stereotypical big, burly Crab berserker types; the Hiruma, who are scouts and rangers; the Kuni, widely feared for their inquisition seeking out Shadowlands taint and blood magic users; the Kaiu, engineers and builders; and the Yasuki, merchants and manipulators. I am going to go with the Yasuki in this case which provides the following.
- A Ring bonus, my choice in Bold
- Air +1
- Water +1
- Commerce +1, Design +1
- Glory 39
- Koku 10
3. What is your School?
This is where things start to go off a bit as I am taking the Kaito Shrine Keeper school for this character. Schools provide more Ring bonuses, Skill bonuses, starting techniques, starting Honor, a school ability, and starting gear. The Kaito Shrine Keeper is a Monk school that imbues their supernatural powers into arrows. The schools also provide general access to certain categories of techniques, and their advancement curriculum (that will be discussed in the advancement simulation) sometimes gives them access to individual techniques from other categories. The Kaito Shrine Keeper provides the following.
- Role: Monk
- Air +1, Water +1
- Starting characters max out Skills and Rings at 3 and start with a free 1 point in all Rings. So now this character's Water Ring is max for a starting character.
- Choice of four of the following skills (some schools give choice of five). My choices in bold.
- Fitness +1
- Martial Arts (Ranged) +1
- Meditation +1
- Performance +1
- Smithing +1
- Theology +1
- Honor: 45
- Technique Access: Kata, Rituals, Shuji
- As a note, this is unusual, the average provided technique access are as follows:
- Bushi, Courtier and Shinobi - Kata, Rituals, Shuji
- Monk - Kiho, Rituals, Shuji
- Shugenja - Invocations, Rituals, Shuji
- Ninjutsu is usually provided on a technique by technique basis within Shinobi curriculum.
- Kaito Shrine Keepers get curriculum access to some Invocations for spells that they can put into their arrows.
- As to what the different Techniques are:
- Kata are martial arts techniques.
- Kiho are mystical techniques.
- Invocations are spells calling on spirits.
- Rituals are religious ceremonies that have power but require time.
- Shuji are courtly, social, and leadership techniques.
- Ninjutsu are stealthy and dishonorable practices.
- Starting Techniques
- Kata: Hawk's Precision
- Invocation: Tempest of Air
- Choice of two Rituals, my choices in Bold.
- Cleansing Rite
- Commune with the Spirits
- Threshold Barrier
- School Ability: Sacred Arrows, allows for imbuing arrows with Invocations and the Sacred quality.
- Starting Outfit:
- Sanctified Robes
- Wakizashi (short sword)
- Yumi (bow)
- Quiver of Arrows
- Choice of the following, mine in bold
- Knife
- Bo (staff)
- Scroll Satchel
- Traveling Pack
4. How does your character stand out within their school?
This question has five options and, not coincidentally, there are five Rings. Instead of asking which Ring you want to increase it phrases things in terms of passion, patience, self-awareness, and so on. This is important as it teaches you what sort of attitudes and methods each Ring represent. In prior editions, which Rings were used for what purposes was pretty hard set so this was mostly a roleplaying distinction. In this edition, however, how you describe your action determines what Ring you used. For example, if you were to accept a minor injury in order lay a devastating blow, then you'd be using Void but if you just attacked as aggressively as possible, you'd be using Fire, and if you tried to trick your opponent with a feint then that would be Air. In this manner, Character Creation serves a little bit in the same manner as a tutorial.
The choices are as follows. The options I can't take due to being already maxed out (3 for starting characters) will be on strikeout. The option I take will be in bold.
- Creativity, passion, or drive (Fire +1)
- Grace eloquence, or empathy (Air +1)
Adaptability, friendliness, or awareness (Water +1)- Thoroughness, patience, or calm (Earth +1)
- Self-awareness, insight, or mysticism (Void +1)
5. Who is your Lord and what is your character's duty to them?
This is mostly a roleplaying question, but it is used to set some story hooks for the GM to use. It also sets your Giri, which is one of two major driving factors in your character's life. This is the external duty that they are expected to perform. There are two ways I could do this, one is to have a personal lord, the other is to assume a shared lord for the team. The latter is the easiest on the GM for running a campaign. On the other hand, you can have characters assigned to the same task, such a magistrates, but have different personal lords.
The purpose of Kaito Shrine Keepers is to keep shrines. Crabs don't have a lot of the same kind of shrines that the Phoenix use and the Kaito maintain, and the clans are REALLY possessive about their secrets. So as with the Lord issue, I could assume a couple of different things but the main choice is whether she is beholden to the Crab or the Phoenix. If she is still beholden to the Crab then she was taught these skills either as an act of technique theft or as part of an agreement. She would not be allowed to teach the skills outside of the Phoenix without specific permission. If she is beholden to the Phoenix then it's probable that she has been betrothed to a Phoenix as part of some agreement.
I am going to suggest that she was a child of an impoverished or disgraced Yasuki and taught by a Kaito Shrine Keeper who had become a hermit for some reason. This would give her the ire of the Kaito for having their techniques outside the clan and without permission. I'm going to say that she is beholden to the same Yasuki Daimyo as her parents were. That lord finds her abilities profitable and loans her out to the Kuni inquisitors or the Jade Magistrates. So for that, I'm going to say that her Giri is to serve those who pay her lord for her services.
6. What does your character long for and how might this impede their duty?
As with the previous question, this one is aimed at roleplaying and story hooks for the character to use. In this case, you're looking for the opposing drive, the internal drive. This is referred to in the game as the Ninjo. Like a lot of the gorgon archers I've done, this character desires the ability to set her own fate. She might blame her current master for her parents' ill luck and would rather find a more worthy lord. She doesn't like the fact that her services are doled out based on what people are able to pay and she gets reprimanded if she acts on her own. As such, her Ninjo is to find a worthy lord.
7. What is your character's relationship with their clan?
This appears to be another roleplaying choice, but it has a mechanical impact. It comes down to a choice of whether your character primarily agrees with their clans values and attitudes or whether or not they have a fundamental disagreement with them. In this case it is a bit interesting. Her Lord is a bad example of a Crab and she would know that and the person who taught her the ways of the Kaito would likely, but not necessarily, be a bad example of a Phoenix. Statements above do say that she finds Righteousness a very important virtue, which is more Phoenix than Crab. The Crab care mostly about Courage. On the other hand, the Phoenix have a lose relationship with Sincerity since they find it appropriate to conceal some information from the broader population. This is something that the character would likely not agree with given her experience with her lord. On the other hand, the Crab find Courtesy rather less important than most of the rest of the Empire. All in all, she doesn't dislike Courage enough for me to feel she has a fundamental disagreement with the clan, just her lord. So I'm going to say that she agrees with her clan for the most part. This gives her +5 Glory. The other option would have given her +1 rank to a skill she had 0 in, representing how she diverges from her clan.
8. What does your character think of Bushido?
As with question 7, this also has two directions to choose from. You either firmly agree with a conventional take on Bushido, or you diverge significantly on one more major points. In this case, I feel like this is pretty easy. I don't see anything in the character as she has developed that would say she diverges much from conventional acceptance of Bushido. As such, she gets +10 Honor. The other option would be to get +1 rank in one of the following skills: Commerce, Labor, Medicine, Seafaring, Skulduggery, or Survival representing some ways in which you are an atypical samurai.
9. What is your character's greatest accomplishment?
These next few questions are used to generate Advantages and Disadvantages. Each Advantage and Disadvantage has a narrative effect and a mechanical effect. In the case of Distinctions the mechanical effect is the option to reroll two dice on a check in certain circumstances. Distinctions represent reputations, supernatural blessings, and special knacks. I'm going to suggest that this character's accomplishment was to successfully protect a village from some bandits without getting in trouble with her lord for giving free service. I could give her Ebisu's Blessing for this, but having laborers recognize her as a kindred soul goes a little bit against the idea of her starting as a pariah. I could give her a custom advantage related to working around the wording of instructions. It is very easy to custom build Advantages and Disadvantages, it is even encouraged to do so. But, I don't think that fits this character as she wouldn't want to play such games so much. As such, I will take the Paragon of Righteousness Distinction. This sounds on the surface like another good reputation thing, but in this case it comes from your own internal belief in that virtue. Basically people sense your intensity of belief in this virtue.
10. What holds your character back the most in life?
This question is used to generate an Adversity. Adversities are the reverse of Distinctions. They have a narrative impact, one that discomforts you, and a mechanical effect that forces you to reroll dice. The upside is that if this causes you to fail, then you gain a Void Point, which allow you to activate some techniques and also make some rolls easier. In this case, I could pick Scorn of (one group) as an option. The Phoenix would certainly have it out for her. This would imply that the Phoenix are in her life a lot. That could be, but given what I have already decided, it seems to me that the thing that holds her back the most is her terribly corrupt lord. There isn't really an Adversity for that specifically, but the Blackmail Adversity is close to the same idea of a person who has a great hold over you. So I will do a custom Adversity of Corrupt Lord.
11. What activity makes you feel at peace?
This is an Advantage that helps you reduce your Strife. That can be important as Strife, which represents your emotional turmoil, can make your character vulnerable as it builds up. These Advantages are referred to as Passions and are things like hobbies and crafts. Some examples include Tea or Fashion. But in this case, I am going to go with Animal Bond. Interestingly, the narrative effect of this Passion is that you get a small animal friend that is loyal to you. Given the theme of this character, you know that will be a snake.
12. What concern, fear, or foible troubles your character the most?
This question produces an Anxiety. They are the reverse of Passions and will produce Strife in some cases. In this case, I feel the thing that most gives her grief and stress is in dealing with her lord and her desire to be a proper samurai. In the already existing Anxieties, this could be done via Softheartedness which would mean that she would always lean toward showing mercy when given a choice and would have her Strife rise when having to make decisions that might lead to the deaths of others. One of the examples of that would be in measuring the burden of war on the commoners.
13. Who has your character learned from the most?
So now is time to describe more about the character's mentor. They were taught by a Kaito Shrine Keeper who had turned hermit somewhere in Yasuki lands. I think they had disgraced themselves at some point, perhaps they showed cowardice, not supernaturally induced fear but actually cowardice, at one point in hunting some hostile creature or spirit. Instead of face judgment, they doubled down on their cowardice and fled into obscurity. Eventually, the character stumbled onto their hermitage and started to learn from them the tricks of the trade.
Now, I have gone over the roleplaying aspect of this question, but there's a mechanical aspect as well. This gives you an Advantage and a Disadvantage of your choice and 1 rank in any skill of the character's choice. I was going to give the character the Sixth Sense Distinction as it will help them in tracking the supernatural, both the benevolent and malevolent. However, instead I am going to give them Jurojin's Blessing, suggesting they met their snake friend while learning from their teacher and developed a supernatural resistance to poison and disease as a result of meditations and communing with spirits. As for the Disadvantage, I am thinking to do the unusual for my gorgon concepts and go with an actual disturbing appearance. There is Maimed Visage, which represents injuries received in battle, and Disquieting Countenance, which represents things like birthmarks which might be taken as a bad omen. Given her accomplishment with the bandits, I will go with Maimed Visage. As for the skill, I am going to go with Survival based on the fact that the person was living in a hermit's hut. I also think the character may have been using their archery skills to help supplement her impoverished parents' table.
14. What do people first notice on encountering you?
This question produces a signature piece of clothing, jewelry or the like and names a minor behavior that sticks in people's memory about the character. Looking up above, we already have a number of things that would stick out for this person, at least on first glance. The Maimed Visage wouldn't actually stand-out that much among Crabs. The pet snake, however, is a bit unusual, but we need something on top of that. Let's say she doesn't take much care of her hair and it is a bundle of knotted and unkempt ropes that some people snidely say fit in well with her snake. As for her characteristic item, I'm going to say that while she wears sanctified robes blessed as she was taught, that they are in Crab colors of dark blue and black rather than the typical white and red of the Kaito Shrine Keeper.
15. How does your character react to stressful situations?
This creates an unmasking behavior. Unmasking is when you let your inner emotions to the surface for a brief moment. It can be used to reduce Strife when you are in a bind, but doing so means that you're likely reveal things to people who are watching closely. There are a lot of variations to Unmasking: inappropriate outbursts, rage, revealing vulnerability, and the like. So, basically, this is creating a tell for your character. In this character's case, she starts to suck air through her teeth and effectively hissing.
16. What are your character's pre-existing relationships with other clans, families, organizations, and traditions?
As with many other questions, this is layered with both narrative and mechanical elements. The mechanical element in this case is an item of Rarity 7 that was given as a gift, taken in battle, or otherwise represents the character's interaction with other groups of people in Rokugan. In this character's case, she quite clearly would be disliked intensely by the Phoenix and the Kaito ShrineKeepers specifically. In this case, I'm going to say the item she has is a Pillow Book, which is a book designed to be small and portable. In this case, it has a number of Kaito Shrine Keeper lore and philosophies within it. It is of limited use without the vocal and practical teachings, but Phoenix would likely still not appreciate her having it, especially since she does have the proper training to make sense of it.
17. How would your character's parents describe them?
This is another primarily roleplaying question, but you also place a skill rank in one skill that you have 0 ranks in. I think the character's parents would be disappointed with her continuing to serve the lord that ruined them, but would understand the sense of obligation. I also think that she would have gained a rank in Martial Arts (Melee) which I'm sure her parents, as Crabs, would appreciate.
18. Who was your character named to honor?
This is the first bit of random element in the character creation. There are 10 possible heritages in the core book, plus another 6 in the Shadowlands supplement. The charts are designed such that you either use one or the other rather than both. What you do is roll a d10 twice and then choose between the two results that gives you. In this case, I rolled 1 and 3. The thing named is something that made your character's name sake famous. In this case the options are Famous Deed or Wondrous Work. Famous deed provides +3 Glory and an heirloom of some sort. Wondrous Work provides +5 Glory and a skill rank in an Artisan skill. In either case, you roll the d10 again to find the specific skill or item that comes with that heritage.I am going with the Wondrous Work and the roll gave me 8, which is Design. (I'm thinking she may have created her signature black and blue Shrine Keeper robes.)
19. What is your character's personal name?
There is no particular mechanical aspect for the last two questions, they just sort of finish off the last details of the character. So for the character's name, I'm going to go with Mutsuyo which would be pronounced as "mu-tsu-yo". So her full name is Yasuki Mutsuyo.
20. How should your character die?
This is an interesting question. Note that it is not "how will your character die?" but rather "should". Basically, it is meant to be way to describe the death that would be the most appropriate end to your character's life. The GM is encouraged to use this to seed story elements with things that resonate with that appropriate manner of death. It is up to the player whether or not to run with it or away from it. After all, in a lot of cases, the opposite of the expected end is also appropriate. In Mate's case, I am going to say that the way she should die is in confronting her own lord after escaping her duty to him. It would just be fitting if soon after she thought things were going her way, is when things went badly.
Yasuki Mutsuyo
Clan: CrabFamily: Yasuki
School: Kaito Shrine Keeper
Heritage: Wondrous Work: Design
Giri: To perform the tasks my Lord was paid for me to do.
Ninjo: To find a worthy lord.
Status: 30
Glory: 49
Honor: 55
Air 2
Earth 2
Fire 2
Water 3
Void 1
Commerce 1
Design 2
Fitness 2
Martial Arts (Melee) 1
Martial Arts (Ranged) 1
Meditation 1
Survival 1
Theology 1
Techniques: Kata, Rituals, Shuji
Kata: Hawk's Precision
Invocation: Tempest of Air
Rituals: Cleansing Rite, Threshold Barrier
Distinctions: Jurojin's Blessing, Paragon of Virtue: Righteousness
Adversities: Corrupt Lord, Maimed Visage
Passions: Animal Bond (Small snake friend)
Anxieties: Softheartedness
Quirks: Unkempt, ropy hair. Hisses when emotional.
Relationships: Hostile relationships with the Phoenix and especially the Kaito.
Gear:
10 Koku
Yumi (bow)
Wakizashi
Knife
Quiver of Arrows
Sanctified Robes (Crab colors, Kaito cut)
Scroll Satchel
Pillow Book (Kaito Philosophies and Wisdom)
Traveling Pack
Traveling Companions
- Matsu Akaino, Ikomo Bard (Courtier)
- Shiba Hisatsune, Shiba Guardian (Courtier, Bushi)
- Kistuki Mari, Kitsune Impersonator (Courtier, Shugenja)
- Kistuki Yugozohime, Kitsuki Impersonator (Courtier, Bushi)
Character Creation and the Gorgon Archer
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