Recognizing Samurai
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Recognizing Samurai |
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| Adventure Hook: You're about to die. | ||
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Under the first edition rules presented in the Game Master's Survival Guide, recognizing other samurai was an incredibly complicated roll that had an entire printed page of explanation, which included a table that covered over half a page of TNs and modifiers. And even once the process made sense, the fact that a Glory Rank 5 samurai and a Glory Rank 2 samurai were both base TN 20, but a Glory Rank 4 samurai was base TN 5 still made absolutely no sense. Plus, it was based entirely on Glory, and completely diregarded how good a courtier a character was. This became a much more simplified process in the second edition rules, but the new rule is far from a perfect solution. It does not take into account any modifiers, so a Hida stationed on the Carpenter Wall is just as likely to recognize the Hiruma daimyo as the Agasha daimyo. Also, the lack of rolling any dice whatsoever means that a character with a Courtier skill of only 2 will recognize only a dozen or so people in the Empire (only those with Glory of 8 or higher). A character with no Courtier skill will presumably not even recognize his own Clan daimyo. Although, Kami help the character with Bad Reputation. Since this Disadvantage was not changed in the second edition, it still calls for a die to be rolled and added to the result of the recognition check. Such characters with a Glory rank of 0 will still be recognized (and despised) by one in every ten people they meet. This is completely the opposite of the samurai with Bland, which still increases the TN to recognize him by 10. With the Bland advantage, the only possible way to be recognized at all is by someone with a Courtier skill of 10, and even then, only if you are the Emperor. The following set of rules is an attempt to actually find a useful medium between the over-complicaed first edition rules and the over-simplified second edition rules. Optional Rule: Recognition Recognizing another samurai is either a Glory or Courtier check, player's choice. The TN for this check is equal to (11 - the Glory Rank of the other samurai) x 5. So recognizing a Rank 1 bushi would be a TN of 50, but recognizing the Emperor would only be a TN of 5 (there are those in the backwoods of Rokugan who would not even recognize the Emperor, so this should not be an automatic success). The TN decreases by 10 if the target is in the same clan as the character. This decrease includes factions such as the Brotherhood and Naga, but not "groups" that are not associated, such as ronin or ninja (unless both ninja are Scorpion clan, for instance). For characters with Multiple Schools or Different School, this bonus will also apply to samurai from any clan the character has trained with. Obviously, in certain situations, the TN will vary, or the roll may even be an autmoatic success. The Isawa Fire Tensai are so few in number that they will always recognize each other, and every student of a dojo will recognize the dojo's master, no matter how many students train there. This is much closer to the rules from the first edition than the second. The mechanic has been simplified, and the entire table of modifiers has been done away with. Dangerous Beauty should not automatically let a Crab more readily recognize a Scorpion. The Scorpion in question should use her Dangerous Beauty to gain Glory, then the Crab will be more likely to recognize her. Plus, Bad Reputation and Bland actually make sense now. |
