Character Generation - Second Generation

[jemmus]

Birth Table roll for new PC
[1d100]=95
Eta, Low
I'm tempted to make a ninja and save the karma for the next PC. But also tempted to just spend it on a new bushi....

[Marullus]

To be honest, the idea of 'reincarnating the same character' is too wierd for me. A similar Bushi, a relation to the first, even... that makes sense. But the idea of role-playing (to me) is that each character should have a distinct story.

I am also okay applying broadly - any new PC made for this new generation can have +5 Karma as far as I am concerned. (So, make a Ninja is fine.)

I also am considering letting you all start at Level 2. It's a 1 BCS difference for all your Bushi but overcomes the utility problems Ffilz is identifying for Gakusho and Shugenja.

[jemmus]

I may be wrong, but I understood it as the reincarnated character is a separate character with a new backstory. He/she doesn't know about the first character, and doesn't necessarily have the same personality. I guess to kind of rationalize that, the new character will probably have a different caste and rank. So their backstory would be very different.

Thanks, going with the ninja with +5 karma then. I'll post something in the other game's house rules. "GM has discretion to award bonus karma, and waive the requirement that the new character be in the same profession. GM can also decide that the new PC starts at a higher level."

[jemmus]

Second PC's Birth Table roll
[1d100]=66
Heimin - Farmer, Low rank
Looks like this country boy is skilled at shovel-jutsu and hoe-jutsu.

[Marullus]

It would be interesting to see a Bodoka! Or a bushi striving to break the ceiling?

[jemmus]

It would make a perfect budoka, but as I read through the atemi-waza and ju-jutsu rules again, I wasn't very excited. Throwing opponents and making them prone for the +5 BCS bonus could be pretty powerful in combat, though. I'm leaning toward a bushi with the ju-jutsu bugei, but still undecided.

[Marullus]

A Yakuza would also be very fitting to the story. (And Yakuza get Sumai!) Playing a Ninja and a Yakuza makes you kind of the central point for all criminal enterprise, though.

[Samwell Turleton]

Birth Table [1d100]=19 = Low Ronin
Age [1d6]=5+15 = 20
Money; Gold [3d3]=5, Silver [3d6]=4, Copper [3d6]=11x10 = 5 gold, 4 silver, 110 copper
Armor Class [1d3]=3+1
Sword Inheritance [1d20]=3 = Average Sword
Warhorse [1d100]=29 of 15% = No horse
Arrows [4d6]=10
Hit Points [1d10]=8

Average Samurai Garb
Average Winter Garb
Buke Skills
Katakana
Hiragana
Kenjutsu score +5 initial score
Court Dance
Choice of 1 Fine Art

Bushi

INITIAL SKILLS:
Kenjustsu;
Kyujutsu;
choice of any 2 Bugei;
choice of 1 from: Armory, Bowyer, Go, Musical Instrument, Physician, Hawking.

INITIAL GOODS:
a bow of proper man-rating, choice of type;
a quiver; 4D6 arrows of any type of head;
a weapon for each Bugei.

Armor: Buke add 1D3 to Armor Class of armor; other receive
suit of Ashigaru-style armor of Armor Class Rank Factor + 1D3. If
there is no appropriate suit of armor in the Armor Class listing
that corresponds to the indicated Armor Class, the character
starts with no armor.

[jemmus]

Nice!

[Marullus]

Random is cool and all, but so is continuity of the story. I'd like to implement the following:

You can either accept the Birth Table roll of your new character, or re-use the birth table roll of your previous character but must be a close relative of that previous character.

So, if Turlton wants to be the older sibling of Souta as previously mentioned, he can re-use the "low samurai" roll instead of the new "low ronin" roll to enable that continuity. He can also either play Taka, or play the sibling-of-Taka as a different story with the "medium samurai" roll.

Jemmus could make the father, brother, or sister of Toshizo as High Ronin.

Personally, I want to see Mac play the Middle Ronin sister of Ha as a Shugenja.

I would rather see the story continue with characters of other classes but who are personally connected to your original characters than the as-written method of same-class but no continuity of story.

[ffilz]

Random is cool and all, but so is continuity of the story. I'd like to implement the following:

You can either accept the Birth Table roll of your new character, or re-use the birth table roll of your previous character but must be a close relative of that previous character.

So, if Turlton wants to be the older sibling of Souta as previously mentioned, he can re-use the "low samurai" roll instead of the new "low ronin" roll to enable that continuity. He can also either play Taka, or play the sibling-of-Taka as a different story with the "medium samurai" roll.

Jemmus could make the father, brother, or sister of Toshizo as High Ronin.

Personally, I want to see Mac play the Middle Ronin sister of Ha as a Shugenja.

I would rather see the story continue with characters of other classes but who are personally connected to your original characters than the as-written method of same-class but no continuity of story.

Seems generally reasonable, though let me think about Eiji's replacement since I didn't create Eijin in the first place. I may be a few days or even next week before I can go through chargen,

[ffilz]

I've been working on Eiji's replacement, still a bunch to do...

I hope it's OK, I just rolled my own dice, if you prefer I can use the dice roller...

He's a low status craftsman become Budhist Gakusho. I figured carpentry would be his craft, fishing his practical art. I really should try a different Yoga, but for now took Karma (just one, using my 2 fine arts for Meditation and Physician). The starting equipment gives him tools, not sure what tools would be appropriate for a Budhist wandering carpenter... I was thinking someone who build house frames, so mallet, axe, adze, plane, saw, drill seem like the basic tools to put up a house frame.

Keiso is the name...

Still have to think about a 2nd character...

[Marullus]

Anyone who is making a new Bushi, I recommend you start with a copy of this sheet. It's the most up to date. (Some forumulas and such are bushi-specific, so if making another class it might be better to start from the old character of that class.)

Blank Bushi Sheet

[ffilz]

Oh and I have a question. MNA is Speed / 10 but doesn’t mention round down. Does that mean a 15 Speed grants 2 actions?

[Marullus]

Yes.

[ffilz]

Yes.

Cool. The formula was wrong at least in Taisho's sheet... It was round(speed/10, 0) instead of just round(speed/10).

I'm using the 5 Karma points on Keiso to get Speed 15...

[Marullus]

Cool. The formula was wrong at least in Taisho's sheet... It was round(speed/10, 0) instead of just round(speed/10).

=round(speed/10) is an invalid function because it doesn't specify the decimal place to round to.
=round(speed/10,0) is correct because it rounds normally (meaning, forcing the 1.5 up to 2) and specifies it must be a whole number. So, 15 speed becomes number of actions 2 instead of 1.5, so there's no confusion.
=rounddown(speed/10,0) would be the alternative... so not the one we want here. I use that function for the BCS ones where it's needed.

I'm using the 5 Karma points on Keiso to get Speed 15...

Good move.

Since it's freshly relevant, I'll copy this post over....

The "round down" rule applies to anything resulting in a BCS. Otherwise, it is normal rounding unless specified. That means the following are good minimum thresholds to consider:

Speed 15
Minimum level to a get a secondary action (as 15 rounds up to 2 actions for MNA)
Deftness 7
Minimum level to use your secondary action. Any less and your secondary action falls on turn 1 and is moot.
Strength 8
Minimum level that avoids a damage penalty to all rolls. Any lower and you take -1 to everything.

What Toshizo is struggling with is being Partially Encumbered, which applies a 25% penalty to both speed and deftness. If you're going to be Partially Encumbered, you need those numbers to be Speed 19 and Deftness 9 to both get and use a secondary action.

Things we learned about Bushi...

A katana's minimum strength is 15 for two-handed use. Since it is a 1.5H weapon, that means to use it one-handed (or two-weapon with a wakizashi in the Ni-to-kenjutsu style) requires a minimum strength of 19. Since a Strength of 20 gives a +1 bonus to all damage, that's a better goal, though. (Encumbrance doesn't effect Strength, so that's at least good.)

[Marullus]

Making this official as you formulate characters:

I am going to treat the Wakizashi as a SHORT weapon, not MEDIUM. This creates important differentiation between it and the Katana, and reason to carry both. The no-dachi remains LONG.

I expect weapon length will matter more as you explore tactics in this second generation.

Everyone okay with that?

[ffilz]

Making this official as you formulate characters:

I am going to treat the Wakizashi as a SHORT weapon, not MEDIUM. This creates important differentiation between it and the Katana, and reason to carry both. The no-dachi remains LONG.

I expect weapon length will matter more as you explore tactics in this second generation.

Everyone okay with that?

Sounds good to me.

[jemmus]

Sounds good. In the other game's thread a proposed that using katana indoors (except in dojos) be with a hindrance. Japanese buildings are small, the wakizashi was the preferred weapon indoors.

I'm almost done with my ninja PC. I've forgotten, the new PCs are starting at 1st level, right? And one of them gets 5 karma to spend?