Draft: The Yoritomo Bushi

Okay, the last of the Basic Disciplines is thWAIT WAIT I JUST FIGURED SOMETHING OUT!

Sorry. I was just thinking of the Tsuruchi again, and that I didn't want the Bounty Hunter Path to be all tied up in the same base uji, so I gave it to the Sakura since they like tracking down ninja, but I was giving it back to the Tsuruchi because that didn't feel right...

But then...

then...

YASUKI BOUNTY HUNTER! Makes perfect sense.

Anyway. Yoritomo. He's looking at me funny, so let's get on with it. Absolutely useless background: Yoritomo was looking to seed the Yoritomo dojo ten years ago and jumps off a ship in Cold Wind City. His comrade asks him how we going to get permission to start a dojo there, and he says, "The way all legends begin. Pick a fight."

He picks a particularly arrogant Kakita duelist by the dock and humiliates him. The Kakita reacts dishonorably, attacking Yoritomo from behind after the duel; Yoritomo still dunks him in the harbor. The samurai is dishonored and made ronin.

Two years later the ronin Dairya begins slicing up opponents. Draw your own conclusions.

So, the ryuu. I tried to make them more focused on unorthodox weapons and tactics, and sailing. Less focused specifically on the kama. I always felt that, unless you have really cool kama (like Yoritomo's massive magic ones), doing the kind of damage the old school called for just didn't make sense. And it was way too one-note. "So I'm a kickbutt sailor and misunderstood samurai, yes?" "Yep." "What are my weapon options?" "Kama." "Kama?" "Well, you can use anything you want, but your techniques really only use kama." "Kama?"

This continues for several more hours.

***

The Yoritomo Bushi Ryuu

Basic Discipline: The Yoritomo Bushi

Uji/Profession: Yoritomo Bushi

Benefit: +1 Willpower

Honor: 1

Skills: Athletics, Commerce, Jiujutsu, Kenjutsu, Nofujutsu, Sailing

Outfit: Daisho, any 2 weapons, light armor, 1 kimono, traveling pack, 8 koku

Okuden

Rank 1, Fight Without Steel: Yoritomo bushi have an unofficial motto: “Whatever works.” You treat all Bujutsu and Karate Skills as Bugei Skills. Also, a preference for maximizing nontraditional weapons allows you to use Nofujutsu weapons without any off-hand penalty. Finally, the rolling style of footwork taught to you allows you to ignore all penalties for unsure footing, whether on a precarious, gravel-covered ledge or a ship tossed about by sea and storm.

Rank 2, Voice of the Storm: The fury of Osano-wo leaves others trembling before you. You can spend a Void Point when spending an Action for Full Attack to negate all Free Raises opponents gain against you and generate Fear equal to your Discipline Rank until your next Action.

Rank 3, Claws of the Mantis: Your extensive experience with unorthodox weapons and tactics has taught you to exploit other samurai's reliance on tradiotion. Whenever you spend an Action to make an attack that does not use Kenjutsu, Kyujutsu, or Yarijutsu, you can also make an additional attack. In addition, you gain a +1k0 bonus to all Bugei Skill rolls when engaged in a Battle with Precipitous terrain.

Rank 4, Yoritomo's Rolling Wave: You have mastered Yoritomo's own contribution to the ryuu, a method of defense that focuses on flexibility and fluidity. When rolling for Full Defense or an Active Defense, you add +XkX to your roll, where X is your Water Ring. You can also move normally during Full Defense, and can move up 5' when making an Active Defense.

Rank 5, Typhoon Strike: You can hurl yourself into combat, striking savagely from all directions at once. Spend Actions equal to your Water Ring (only one need be in the current Phase), then make a single attack roll against everyone nearby. Everyone, friend or foe, is targeted, unless you spend a Void Point to avoid a specific individual in your field of fire. This attacks everyone within 5' x your Water Ring. You can make Raises as normal, or even benefit from Free Raises. However, you cannot spend Raises or perform Attack Maneuvers other than Increased Damage, Knockdown, or declaring Bonus Effects. All Yowamushi are targeted individually by the attack roll. Likewise, you roll a single damage roll, applied to all targets successfully struck. Any modifiers a target applies to the total Wounds inflicted only concerns themselves, but any modifiers to the dice themselves (including altering kept or unkept dice, etc.) concern all targets.