Character Concept
I want a character
that is dedicated to swordmanship in all respects, especially
the artistic and spiritual aspects of kenjutsu. I want him to
be somewhat aloof of the concerns of the Samurai culture. To him,
his understanding of the blade takes priority.
Ideally, I envision
him doing heroic or good things more by coincidence. For example,
he is sent to a place where bad guys are and he is in their way,
so he chops them up. To avoid giving the gamemaster a headache
motivating my character, I plan to use his spiritual side to rationalize
a great concern with honor and ancestors. This will lead to a
general sense of obedience and doing honorable things, which will
hopefully be the same as doing good things. Anything that tarnishes
his honor weakens him, so his honor will be a good sturdy nosering
by which to lead him around.
I want to play him
with a quite and comtemplative demeanor, a very spiritual Bushi,
in general. He will be additionally quirky in that he will eschew
the pursuit of temporal power and wealth unlike most of his Crane
brethren; to what extent I am not certain.
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Making Him a Good
Duelist
The blade is his life,
so most of his existence is just study between brief hot flashes
of his true passion, the Iaijutsu Duel. The main abilities of
importance are:
- Awareness (trait)
- You roll Iaijutsu/Awareness to learn the next three abilities
listed, and the winner of the Awareness test begins the Focus/Strike
interplay. Also, you roll and keep Awareness dice for Initiative,
so this will be very important for subsequent strikes and/or
normal swordplay.
- Agility (trait)
- You roll Iaijitsu/Agility to hit your opponent.
- Iaijutsu (skill)
- You roll Iaijitsu/Agility to hit your opponent, and Iaijutsu/Awareness
at the start of the duel (see above).
- Void (ring) - This
constrains the number of times you may Focus and is used to
buy additional allotments of Focus. Normally, only one point
can be used, but a Crane Bushi of the Kakita School can gain
the ability to spend as many Void points as he likes in an Iaijitsu
duel. This also allows him to spend as much Void as he likes
when it comes time to make the strike.
Some less important
factors:
- Reflexes (trait)
- This determines how hard it is for your opponent to hit you
after the first strike is over. For the first strike the base
is 5 regardless because the duelists are confidently standing
before their oponnent, waiting for the blades to sing free.
- Kenjutsu (skill)
- This is the skill used for subsequent strikes after the first.
A Crane Bushi can use his Iaijutsu skill in place of his Kenjutsu,
though, so for a Kakita trained Bushi, this is less important.
The Kakita Iaijutsu
Duelist in the Way of the Crane has Reflexes 4, Agility 4, Iaijutsu
3, and Defense 3. Seems like a strange choice not to have a better
Awareness or Void, but oh well. I suppose such a character would
not care if he lost the Awareness test, but instead focused on
making a skilled strike. However, a low Void and a losing the
Awareness test may force one into the unenviable situation of
being forced to call Strike.
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Character Creation
This is stream of consciousness,
so I apologize if it seems a little disorganized.
Rings and Traits (Kakita
Family +1 Agility, Kakita School +1 Reflexes)
- Earth 2
- Water 2
- Fire 2
- Air 2
- Void 2
Skills
- Etiquette 1
- Iaijutsu 1
- Kenjutsu 1
- Kyujutsu 1
- Sincerity 1
- Any High Skill 1,
Meditation (makes sense)
- Any High or Bugei
Skill 1, let's go with Jiujitsu: Mizu-do (a cool Crane thing)
Bushi Outfit (all
fine quality)
- Katana
- Wakizashi
- Bow
- 20 Arrows
- Light or Heavy Armor
- Helm
- Traveling Pack
- Steed
- Kimono
- Any 3 weapons
- 10 Koku
From here, I can spend
30 Character Points as follows:
- Trait: New Level
x 3
- Void Ring: New Level
x 6
- Skill: New Level
x 1
What I would like and
what I must have:
- Iaijutsu 3 -
5 points
- Meditation 3
- 5 points
- Tea Ceremony 2 -
3 points
- Lore: Bushi Schools
2 - 3 points
- Void 3 - 18 points
- Awareness 3 -
9 points
- Advantages
- Balance (4)
- Benten's Blessing
(2)
- Great Destiny
(4)
Hmmm, that's well over
40 points. I don't think I have that, and you can only have 10
points of disadvantages. Not that I would necessarily want that
many, but that makes 40 points the limit for a starting PC.
Disadvantages
- Ascetic (3 pts.)
- After talking with the GM, the bulk of this disadvantage will
be represented by two main things. One, the personal possessions
constraint will extend to not owning a steed, any weapons he
is not proficient in, or a noticeable excess of money. Two,
there will be a social stigma of sorts, especially among his
own clan for eschewing wealth and power.
- Fascination (1 pt.)
- Bushi School Styles and Techniques
- Obligation (2 pts.)
- Setsuka owes a small favor to Mirumoto Mannaka ("very
middle") for hosting him on a stay at the Mirumoto Swordmaster
School
- Sworn Enemy Nemesis
(same rank, 4 pts) - Matsu Daionjoo ("loud voice");
Setsuka fought him in an Iaijutsu Duel in which he wanted to
die, but Setsuka did not kill him. Since then Setsuka has been
Daionjoo's nemesis, although Setsuka continues to hold no ill
will towards him.
OK, so I have 40 points
to spend after all. Even though a level 1 skill is almost useless
in the Second Edition, I can't really afford to buy level 2 in
everything I want. So level 1 it is for the background stuff.
Or not? Aargh! Time to add and trim, add and trim, add and trim....
In adding and trimming
skills I am pondering the character concept and although I want
him to be spiritual, I think the notion of him being surrounded
by opulence but not caring for it is more in line with how I see
him. I also have this desire to simply not max out the Disadvantage
points. So, no Ascetic Disadvantage. Nothing else really strikes
me as nifty or appropriate. I think his Fascination will be adequate
to play up his detachment. Maybe a second Fascination would be
in order, but I don't want to wear it out...
So that puts me back
down to 37 points to spend, and I need at least 43 for the above
stuff. So what to get rid of? Great Destiny is an invitation to
let my GM get sloppy and kill my character, but the way our party
is shaping up, my guy will be only one of two Bushi in the party
of four. I will probably forget to use Luck, although it sure
would be nice to have, just in case. Hmm, Great Destiny goes.
Benten's Blessing was taken as a lark really. If I drop that as
well, that's 6 points and I am done.
I decided to refine
the concept a little more towards the Iaijutsu master and away
from the general Samurai. I talked to the GM about the History
and we decided that Lore: Swordfighting would cover what I wanted
better than History. I dropped Luck, Lore: Bushido, Medicine,
and Battle, to purchase Iaijutsu 4 and Sincerity 2.
- Athletics 1 - 1
point (Seems like a minimum requirement)
- Bard 1 - 1 point
(Storytelling about great duels and his ancestors)
- Calligraphy 1 -
1 point (I want him to be able to read ancient scrolls on swordsmanship)
- Defense 1 - 1 point
(Seems like a must have for a warrior of any kind)
- Iaijutsu 4 - 9 points
(Duh, I am almost tempted to buy level 4, don't tempt me!)
- Lore: Swordfighting
1 - 1 point (Storytelling about great duels and his ancestors)
- Meditation 2 - 2
points (He is supposed to be spiritual after all)
- Poetry 1 - 1 point
(I would like to have it as an excuse to quote haiku)
- Shintao 1 - 1 point
(Seems like a must have for a spiritual character)
- Tea Ceremony 1 -
1 point (Keeping it spiritual)
- Awareness 3 - 9
points
- Advantages
- Disadvantages
- Fascination
(1 pt.) - Bushi School Styles and Techniques
- Obligation (2
pts.) - Setsuka owes a small favor to Mirumoto Mannaka ("very
middle") for hosting him on a stay at the Mirumoto Swordmaster
School
- Sworn Enemy Nemesis
(same rank, 4 pts) - Matsu Daionjoo ("loud voice");
Setsuka fought him in an Iaijutsu Duel in which he wanted
to die, but Setsuka did not kill him. Since then Setsuka has
been Daionjoo's nemesis, although Setsuka continues to hold
no ill will towards him.
Done! Now for the backround.
Oops, now I want to
also have an obligation (small favor) to Bayushi Mototugi, so
that's 2 more points to spend. That gives me almost enough for
Luck (3 pts.) so I decided to go ahead and drop Bard 1 and pick
up Luck.
Redux
We talked about how
second edition seemed to be partially revised in that the character
generation mechanics seemed to not have been adjusted properly.
Our GM (Lars) agreed,
and he gave us level 2 in all starting school skills instead of
the usual 1. That changes things for me as follows:
- Iaijutsu 4 now costs
me 2 points less
- Etiquette simply
goes up to level 2
- Kenjutsu simply
goes up to level 2
- Kyujutsu simply
goes up to level 2
- Sincerity simply
goes up to level 2
- Meditation 2 now
costs me 2 points less
- Jiujutsu: Mizu-do
simply goes up to level 2
So I have 4 more points
to spend. Our GM has a new martial arts system. I had to choose
one maneuver. I chose Sweeping and Throwing, but I called it Sweeping
Wind.
- Raised Tea Ceremony
to 2 for 2 points
- Change Quick to
Combat Reflexes for 1 extra point
- Bought Specialized
Weapon Skill: Katana 1 for 1 point
Re-redux
I had asked about an
Honor Sense and Lars created an Advantage. I decided to buy two
levels, which costs 2 character points. So I dropped Specialized
Weapon Skill: Katana 1 for 1 point and I decided to go ahead and
drop Defense 1 with the rationale that relying on Defense 1 could
be dangerous and almost certainly disappointing.
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