Character Generation - Kumo Clan

[ffilz]

Hmm, I still need to finalize purchases, not sure what to buy in the poison department and any other things I need.

[Marullus]

I have been thinking a lot about poisons. They can affect speed,strength,or health,and picking is hard. One approach is to pick the one that your victim will have the lowest of. So if you are planning on facing bushI, then I guess that is speed. You have to have a strong poison to get them to zero, however, and we probably can't afford that.

The other approach is to buy a poison where a small effect is worthwhile. A small reduction in strength might make a bushi unable to use his weapon effectively, and the penalties are severe. A small reduction in speed, may be the key to escaping and also will move them later in the detail turn actions. I don't know that a small reduction in health is helpful. As for a poison that causes distraction - it is really cheap but less effective than a trip or tangle attack with a rope weapon or jujitsu.

If you are using a blow gun, you need to have one of them. Buy what you can afford.

[ffilz]

I have been thinking a lot about poisons. They can affect speed,strength,or health,and picking is hard. One approach is to pick the 1 that your victim will have the lowest of. So if you are planning on facing bushI, Then I guess that is speed.you have to have a strong poison to get them to zero, However, and we probably can't afford that.

The other approach is to buy a poison where a small effect is worthwhile. A small reduction in strength might make a bushi unable to use his weapon effectively,and the penalties are severe. A small reduction in speed, may be the key to escaping them and also will move them later in the detail turn actions. I don't know that a small reduction in health is helpful. As for a poison that causes distraction - it is really cheap but less effective than a trip or tangle attack with a rope weapon or jujitsu.

If you are using a blow gun, you need to have one of them. buy what you can afford.

A reduction in Speed might also reduce their MNA depending on how optimized they are, but won't affect BAP... Speed is probably the most useful.

[ffilz]

I pored over the poison rules until they made sense. For the use of others, the poison information is:

• Normal poison is Fast poison. The victim saves against it once each Detailed Turn. For double the cost you can get Lightning poison, where the victim saves each phase of each detailed turn. Poison to coat darts or weapons has to be the Injected type.
• You can also get Slow poison for assassination jobs - slow poisons can take minutes to days, and don't work in detailed time. Non-injected poisons are half the costs below (like a slow poison that is ingested in their food, or contact poison on their bedding) where inhaled poisons are x2.5 more. Everything below is for Fast Injected poisons.
• The level of a poison is the number of points damage it does each failed save. Each time-period, the victim makes a Health Save. If he passes he takes no damage and it reduces the level of the poison by 1. When the poison level is reduced to 0, it is over. If he fails the save, he takes the level in damage (see below for types) and retests again at the next time-period.
• Fast Lethal Injected Poisons cost 20sp X Level. They reduce the current Health Attribute. When Health reaches 0, they get a final save to see if they go into a coma or die.
• Fast Paralytic Injected Poisons cost 25sp X Level. They reduce the current Speed Attribute. At 0, they are paralyzed.
• Fast Narcotic Injected Poisons cost 10sp X Level. They reduce the current Strength Attribute. At 0, they pass out for 1d3 hours per remaining level of the poison.
• Fast Disabling Injected Poisons cost 5sp X Level. The level of the poison is the number of Distractions suffered (cumulatively). They lower the BCS of the victims actions that turn. When the number of distractions exceeds their Will score, they can't act at all due to disorientation.

So, at 5-25sp for a level 1 fast poison or 10-50sp for a level 1 lightning poison, it is possible to purchase with starting coin. But a victim only needs to succeed on one save in order to end the progressive decline (recovery is another matter requiring healers and time). Level 2 and level 3 poisons have significantly more effect but multiply the cost by the level.

Let's see, I have >150 silver for poisons...

Hmm, actually with the price differential, maybe 3 doses of Level 5 fast narcotic? For speed, I could afford 2 level 3 doses (which at least guarantees a reduction in BMA).

Eventually I will be making my own poisons, I'll have to read the rules on that more carefully.

[Marullus]

As for number of doses, consider...

Poison is most efficient applied to blowgun darts (10 darts/dose) but can also be put on shuriken (4/dose), daggers/tanto (1/dose), or your ninjato blade (2 doses/use).

[jemmus]

I'm going to have to make some kind of checklist of things not to overlook for the NPCs. E.g., Strength reduction poison. Can he still use the weapon? Encumbered? If encumbered, something can happen to a secondary action, offhand I can't remember what. It would be nice if there were a simple computer program to handle Bushido combat. But the game is so old and I guess also obscure that's not very likely at all to happen.

[ffilz]

I'm going to have to make some kind of checklist of things not to overlook for the NPCs. E.g., Strength reduction poison. Can he still use the weapon? Encumbered? If encumbered, something can happen to a secondary action, offhand I can't remember what. It would be nice if there were a simple computer program to handle Bushido combat. But the game is so old and I guess also obscure that's not very likely at all to happen.

Hmm, I need to devote some time to spiff up the character sheet and add more automatic stuff like I did for Cold Iron. Bushido should be amenable to the same sorts of calculations. That would make it easy to drop the poison effects in. I'd love to make it also have lookup for all the skills and such to make character generation easier. And even lookup of the different character class abilities (and attribute modifiers).

As for number of doses, consider...

Poison is most efficient applied to blowgun darts (10 darts/dose) but can also be put on shuriken (4/dose), daggers/tanto (1/dose), or your ninjato blade (2 doses/use).

Oh yea, with that, I could get 1 dose each of 2 or 3 different poisons. Or maybe bump the level up.

[Marullus]

I'm going to have to make some kind of checklist of things not to overlook for the NPCs. E.g., Strength reduction poison. Can he still use the weapon? Encumbered? If encumbered, something can happen to a secondary action, offhand I can't remember what. It would be nice if there were a simple computer program to handle Bushido combat. But the game is so old and I guess also obscure that's not very likely at all to happen.

Most of that's done - I did it on the Bushi sheets (like Rex's new one) so it calculates the effect of Encumbrance and readjusts all the calculated abilities. Or that you can lower current vs permanent attributes and do the same thing.

...though. Ffilz programming for NPC stats would be less work for me.

[Grognardsw]

I’m assuming my blowgun darts have sleep poison.

Nope - you need to roll your starting coin and spend it on poisons. (Make sure you note your +1 sword, too.)

Start $ [4d3]=8 gp [4d6]=21 sp [4d6×10]=err12 cp If the error doesn’t count another cp roll:
[4d6]=17 ×10 170 cp

How many sp are in one gp? How many cp equal a sp? Thanks.

[ffilz]

I’m assuming my blowgun darts have sleep poison.

Nope - you need to roll your starting coin and spend it on poisons. (Make sure you note your +1 sword, too.)

Start $ [4d3]=8 gp [4d6]=21 sp [4d6×10]=err12 cp If the error doesn’t count another cp roll:
[4d6]=17 ×10 170 cp

How many sp are in one gp? How many cp equal a sp? Thanks.

1 gold = 12 silver, 1 silver = 30 copper

[Marullus]

1 gold = 12 silver, 1 silver = 30 copper

...it is the value of rice to eat for one person.

1cp = 1 day of rice
1sp = 1 month of rice (30 days/30cp)
1gp = 1 year of rice (12 months/12sp)

Peasants grow rice for the Daimyo, who measures wealth by the amount of people he can feed. Coin is easier to trade than rice bushels. (I appreciate the clear anchoring of currency value; it helps me remember and roleplay it.)

[jemmus]

Yep. Rice equaled wealth and rice comes from land + peasants. The Age of Warring States of the 15th and 16th centuries was all about rice, land and peasants. Local daimyo trying to take each other's land and the resident peasants workers by force. After 150 years it finally with the trickiest daimyo, Tokugawa Ieyasu, becoming shogun and absolute dictator.

[ffilz]

Minoru completion and outfitting:

(young)

(nice)

(30)





Plus 100 sp from selling back the ninjato

Is 84 + 100 + 11 + 5 silver = 200 silver

I'll be back this evening to add the actual purchases to this post...

Hmm, not quite enough silver to outfit AND have a horse, but not sure a horse makes sense anyway...

Average Peasant Garb (weight 1)
Average Winter Garb (weight 2)
Ninja garb (weight 4)
Bo (weight 6)
X? Shuriken (1 free) (weight .25 each)
3-segment Blowgun (weight 3) (9 gimmick points)
Climbing Pole (Shinobi-kumade) (weight 5) (15 gimmick points) - surprisingly this saves 1 lb on weight for my bo - and adds a lethal damage option...
5 Darts (Fukiya) (weight .05 each, .25 total) (1 gimmick points)
1 Firepot (Doka) (weight 1) (5 task points)

Weight so far (assuming winter) 16.5 (includes the 1 shuriken, climbing pole instead of bo)

Gear purchases
4 shuriken (4s) (weight 1 - up to 17.5)
Flint & Steel (10c) (weight neg.)
2 Furokshi (2c) (weight neg.)
Geta (7c) (weight 1) - for use when traveling as a shinto pilgrim - easily kicked off if combat ensues to reduce encumbrance in a fight
* Makeup kit (10s) (weight 4)
Straw hat (2c) (weight neg.)
* 4 days Food for travelers (8c) (weight 2)
* Water Bottle (10c) (weight 1)
Straw raincoat (5c) (weight 2)
Extra suits of ninja garb (10s) (weight 4) - not sure what of these I should get, sounds like in addition to color options are disguises

I think some poisons are in order.

* These items will be carried in a furokshi that will be stashed before entering an target location.

With BCS 9, Minoru is eligible for 3 disguises from Hensu-jutsu): Wandering Priest, Travelling Entertainer, Merchant

More work to be done...

Let's see, that adds up to 44 copper (call that 2 silver worth of copper expenditures, more food I guess), 14 silver plus 10 more for an extra set of ninja garb, let's just leave some room... So 175 silver to spend on poison.

Let's take 2 dose of Level 5 Narcotic injected poison (100 sp), 1 dose of Level 3 Paralytic poison (75 sp)

[Grognardsw]

Nope - you need to roll your starting coin and spend it on poisons. (Make sure you note your +1 sword, too.)

Start $ [4d3]=8 gp [4d6]=21 sp [4d6×10]=err12 cp If the error doesn’t count another cp roll:
[4d6]=17 ×10 170 cp

How many sp are in one gp? How many cp equal a sp? Thanks.

1 gold = 12 silver, 1 silver = 30 copper

I have 122 sp, so I'll buy 8 doses of the "Fast Narcotic Injected Poison cost 10sp X Level." So that costs 80 sp?

I had the impression money wasn't key. I had to go back to see why I felt that:

I think Marullus's idea of not having to track coins should work. The clan is made up of communes, after all. Shared resources are distributed to the clan members as determined by the clan's leaders. Money is only needed or spent while in disguise on missions, for purchases of goods and supplies for the clan, and perhaps for bribery...

Thus the equipment on my character sheet without the detailed price breakdown as ffilz did.

[ffilz]

We realized there were some high value items such that having an initial budget made sense, so roll coin, sell ninjato if you don't use it.

Poisons are high value items...

Note that the price is per level. A Level X poison does X points of attribute damage, you probably want higher than level 1. Then 1 does gives multiple applications depending on what you're applying it to.

[jemmus]

Sorry for the confusion. I thought that part of the fun of char gen and starting at 1st level is the challenge of equipping and optimizing the PC, with limited resources. (RP-wise, the clan wants rookie ninja to have to deal with this challenge). But after this mission, the clan will provide supplies, within reason. The easiest way to to that may be to give the PCs some virtual coins to "spend" on supplies/gear from the rulebook's list of items.

In a regular Bushido game, money is an issue partly because characters have to pay to stay in inns when in civilized areas. (They can't camp out on major roads or in towns). In this game, the clan will cover those kinds of expenses. And special non- personal gear items needed for the specific mission. Such as the teacup for this one.

[Marullus]

It was confusing - Jemmus changed that here. I then adjusted directions to roll your starting coin and spend it on poisons.

I have 122 sp, so I'll buy 8 doses of the "Fast Narcotic Injected Poison cost 10sp X Level." So that costs 80 sp?

Blowgun darts are really efficient - you can coat x10 with one dose. Lightning poison is 2x cost but exponentially faster than Fast poison, and the level of the poison is the damage it does and likelihood it continues working longer. So, Lightning Narcotic is 20sp per level of the dose. You can get two doses of level 3 Lightning Narcotic poison for 120sp, which is pretty solid. That's what I'd recommend. Or one dose of level 4 and one dose of level 2.


...
Copying this here just as a reference for later:

Each member of the nakuden considered those he has trained beside for years...

• Minoru -
  • Percieve 9, Ninjutsu 12, Climbing 13, Cieling-walking 10, Leaping 12, Hensu-Jutsu 9.
  • Staff 10, Throwing 9, Blowgun 5, Unarmed 11.
• Fuma -
  • Percieve 5, Ninjutsu 11, Climbing 13, Cieling-walking 8, Leaping 13, Hensu-Jutsu 5, Lockpicking 7.
  • Bow 10, Garotte 10, Rope/Chain 12, Unarmed 12.
• Jinsei -
  • Percieve 5, Ninjutsu 10, Climbing 15, Cieling-walking 9, Leaping 15, Hensu-Jutsu 5, Lockpicking 8.
  • Sword 10, Quickdraw 13, Silent Kill 6, Throwing 8, Blowgun 6, Unarmed 11.
• Kaida -
  • Percieve 9, Ninjutsu 0, Climbing 4, Cieling-walking 0, Leaping 8, Hensu-Jutsu 9, Rhetoric/Argument 15, Magic 10 (inc. Lockpicking 11).
  • Rope/Chain 8, Elemental attacks 10, Unarmed 6.

I love that we're like ninja turtles, each with a different signature weapon - staff, sword, bow, rope/chain - and that the guy with the bo staff is also the scientist/chemist, while Jinsei with the sword is providing leadership so far. Minaru needs to wear purple and Jinsei blue. Now I am just waiting to see if Fuma is cool-but-rude or if he's a party-dude. Our sensei isn't Splinter, but we have Needle and Spike. I can't wait until we discover the Ashi no Ichizoku ninja clan and its sensei, Shureddā.

[Rex]

LOL, unlikely that any character I ever create will be called a party dude. Not sure about cool either, I already have one rude character (he has a 3 charisma).

[jemmus]

Just don't name your characters after Renaissance Italian painters. By the way, you guys are already doing a great job at making this game interesting.

[Grognardsw]

two doses of level 3 Lightning Narcotic poison for 120sp,

I’ll do this