Legend of Five Rings - Theoretical Character - Blind Beauty Rebuild

This is a rebuild of my overlooked Crab Clan woman using the most recent version of the setting by Fantasy Flight Games. I am only going to rebuild only one version of her, and actually going to take a mix of schools that didn't appear on the original version. Now, one of the most interesting things about this new edition is that they've integrated the Twenty Questions with the mechanics of character creation. The twenty questions have always been there, but in prior editions they've been primarily roleplaying tools.

Question 1 - What clan does your character belong to?

This gives our first bonus to our Rings, a bonus to skills, and our initial Status level.

Crab Clan - +1 Earth, +1 Fitness, Status 30

Question 2 - What family does your character belong to?

For this case, we're going to go with the Hiruma and their associations with scouting and observation. This will give another Ring bonus, two more skills, starting wealth, and Glory.

Hiruma - +1 Air or Water, I'm choosing Air, +1 Skulduggery, +1 Survival, Glory 39, Starting Wealth 3 Koku

Question 3 - What is your school and what roles does that school fall into?

In this case, I'm going to give her a Dragon school on the idea that a Kitsuki magistrate visited her family while she was young for some reason and was impressed with her intelligence. He began  teaching her during his stay and via correspondence. So her school is Kitsuki Magistrate, which is going to have the roles of Bushi and Courtier. This is something I really like. In previous editions, the schools only ever fit one role, but now many of the schools will touch on multiple roles. In addition, there are now shinobi schools that aren't narratively shinobi, such as the Hiruma scouts. So you can mechanically be a ninja without having as many of the social downsides that in many ways were far heftier than they needed to be. On the other hand, there's not going to be a thing with picking up other schools later on.

The school gives us two more Ring bonuses, five more skills, starting Honor, the sort of Techniques your character will be able to pick up, some starting gear, techniques, a school ability, and a curriculum for advancement.

Kitsuki Magistrate - +1 Air, +1 Earth, +1 Sentiment, +1 Martial Arts (Melee), +1 Government, +1 Skulduggery, +1 Culture, Honor 45, Techniques: Kata, Shuji, Rituals, Techniques: Shallow Waters and choice of Tactical Assessment and Striking as Air. I'm choosing Tactical Assessment. We get the Kitsuki Method and some gear.

Question 4 - How does your character stand out within their school?

This is where we can choose one of Rings by a certain amount. As it turns out, when I first went through this, I was thinking of making her a Yasuki and so my stats were a little bit more spread out. In this case, our character has 3 in Air and Earth, and 1 in Fire, Water, and Void. I think she's going to stand out from others via her own self-awareness and that comes with +1 Void.

Question 5 - Who is your lord and what is your character's duty to them?

This determines where the character's duty takes her. In our case, the character hasn't stood out much yet, so she hasn't been tapped for service. This means her duty is mostly to her family who mostly see her as a precious and vulnerable person who needs protection. As such, her Giri is to be a "Good Daughter." This is going to guide how she gains reputation and esteem. I can tell you right now that she's not going to like this Giri. It does go along with the idea of being a courtier who watches out for her family, who are likely mostly bushi.

Question 6 - What does your character long for and how might this impede their duty?

This is used to determine the character's Ninjo, which is not a mispelling of Ninja. This is the challenge that the character has set for themselves and what might eventually set them at odds with Bushido. In this character's case, she is going to have the desire to gain Respect. This might drive her to act beyond the limits her family set for her.

Question 7 - What is your character's relationship with their clan?

She respects her clan and its ideals, but her clan does not believe that she can be useful to what they care about, fighting at the wall. While she doesn't expect to be a warrior, she would like to be taken seriously. Because of this, I'm going to say the character has a fundamental disagreement with one of her clan's policies, at least in so far as she has experienced it. This will give her a +1 to a skill she has a 0 in and I'm going to make it Martial Arts (Unarmed) because she is not supposed to be practicing such things given her blindness.

Question 8 - What does your character think of Bushido?

This character very much believes in the ideals of Bushido, which gives her a +10 Honor.

Question 9 - What is your character's greatest accomplishment so far?

You use this to pick an Advantage and how that Advantage helped your character succeed in something. In this case it is a Distinction, which we are going to mark as Dangerous Beauty and say that her beauty helped trick a criminal into revealing himself. Distinctions give benefits to certain activities.

Question 10 - What holds your character back the most in life?

This creates a Disadvantage called an Adversity. Of course, this is going to be Blindness. Blindness create problems in certain activities and provide Void Points when that happens.

Question 11 - What activity most makes your character feel at peace?

This creates another Advantage, one referred to as a Passion.  Passions help relieve Strife, which is a sort of mental stress track, and also occasionally provide some benefits. In our case, I'm going to say she loves dealing with puzzles and riddles. There isn't an existing Passion to exactly match that, but there are suggestions on making new ones. I will likely base it on the Secrets passion.

Question 12 - What concern, fear, or foible troubles your character the most?

This creates an Anxiety, which is the opposite of a Passion. It generates Strife and causes troubles in certain situations. In her case, I'm going to give her Pride as her Anxiety. This is also something that will have to be created. I'm likely going to use Impatience as a model for it.

Question 13 - Who has your character learned the most from in life?

This is her Kitsuki mentor who's been surreptitiously teaching her. This generates another Advantage and another Disadvantage. In this case, I'm going to give her Precise Memory due to her training with the Kitsuki and Scorn of the Hida Clan. The Hida don't think much of her at all and if they encounter her they will tend to insult her out of hand.

Question 14 - What do people notice first upon encountering your character?

I'm going to say that the first thing most people notice is her milky white eyes which she doesn't bother to conceal or close. You'd think it would set people off, but it seems just to heighten her beauty?

Question 15 - How does your character react to stressful situations?

This is a quirk that begins to show itself as her Strife rises. In her case, she starts drifting into profanity the like of which only a daughter of veteran scouts has heard.

Question 16 - What are your character's pre-existing relationships with other clans, families, organizations, and traditions?

We've already touched on this in a few places, but it does provide us an extra item of rarity 7 or less. 

Question 17 - How would your character's parents describe them?

Her parents think of her as a precious daughter and helpless young woman too beautiful for her own good.

Question 18 - Who was your character named to honor?

In this case, we roll a d10 twice and look at the chart to see the options we have available for our character's namesake. We rolled 2 and 5 which is Glorious Sacrifice and Discovery. I'm going to go with Discovery, meaning she was named after a great scholar of her family. This increases our Glory by 3 and we roll 1d10 again which gives us a +1 in a skill. I rolled 2 and the +1 goes to Culture.

Question 19 - What is your character's personal name?

I'm going to go with Atsuko, just because I like the name.

Question 20 - How should your character die?

This is sort of an optional thing, and I'm not sure how this character should die off the top of my head. My thought is something along the lines of a Sherlock Holmes Reichenbach Falls type thing where she lures an enemy into mutual destruction somehow.

At this point we figure out our figured attributes. Endurance is (Earth + Fire) x2,  Composure is (Earth + Water) x2, Focus is Air + Fire, and Vigilance is (Air + Water)/2.

Hiruma Atsuko

Kitsuki Magistrate School (Courtier, Bushi)

Air 3

Earth 3

Fire 1

Water 1

Void 2 

Giri: Good Daughter

Ninjo: Personal Respect

Glory 42

Status 30

Honor 55

Endurance: 8
Composure: 8
Focus: 4
Vigilance: 2

Culture 2

Fitness 1

Government 1

Martial Arts (Melee) 1

Martial Arts (Unarmed) 1

Sentiment 1

Skulduggery 2

Survival 1 

Techniques: Kata, Rituals, Shuji

Shuji: Tactical Assessment, Shallow Waters 

Distinctions: Dangerous Beauty, Precise Memory

Passions: Puzzles and Riddles

Adversities: Blindness, Scorn of the Hida Clan

Anxieties: Pride 

School Ability: Kitsuki's Method

Starting Outfit: Traveling clothes, wakizashi, knife, calligraphy set, bo staff, traveling pack, journal of observations.