Draft: Shosuro Butei and Kakita Artisan

Without a doubt, the Butei and Artisan are undoubtedly the most difficult Disciplines to work out the way I like. The Shosuro Butei have been these great spy/assassin/actors since Way of the Scorpion, but I didn't want them to be dedicated assassins and spies. I wanted them to be more broad-based, and leave the assassin and spy mechanics for Paths and Advanced Disciplines. I think what's left is still playable and fun, and managed to avoid the whole issue of whether they were kabuki or noh specialists.

The Artisan was even more difficult. The original had all these great, mystical art tricks. But that also gave it a terribly long write-up that felt like several Schools instead of one. By Great Clans, the Artisan had become a much more unified School, but it felt like just a dice booster with little flavor. I decided that a lot of the art-specific stuff was better used for Advanced Disciplines and Paths.

Phase 2, someday. Phase 2. Until then, here ya go!

Kakita Artisan Gakuen

Basic Discipline: Kakita Artisan

Uji/Profession: Kakita Teishin

Benefit: +1 Agility

Honor: 2

Skills: Artisan, Athletics, Calligraphy, Etiquette, Oratory, Performance

Outfit: Tanto, 2 kimono, art supplies, traveling pack, 10 koku (all Fine Quality)

Okuden

Rank 1, Hands of the Lady: Lady Doji's spirit moves your hands. When using Artisan, you gain Free Raises equal to your Discipline Rank. In addition, you gain a bonus on all Social Skill roll totals equal to your Artisan.

Rank 2, The Soul's Dream: The art you create moves and inspires the soul of the samurai. Any art you create produces additional Honor Points equal to your Discipline Rank, and you do not need an Honor of 3 to gain Honor from art. When using a Skill to create art, you gain a bonus to your Skill roll total equal to your Honor.

Rank 3, Free the Soul: With great care and effort you create art that inspires the audience to delve deep within for answers and achievement. As a Season Action, you can create a work of art capable of granting others Void Points. At the end of the Season, you make the appropriate Skill roll (TN 20). If it succeeds, you have created a Rank 1 artwork. This artwork has a tangible, fixed form, such as a painting, poem, sculpture, architecture—even a garden would qualify. The potential artwork Rank can be increased by 1 per Raise. Each Season, you can spend a Season Action—but only one per artwork—to increase the actual Rank of the artwork, but cannot increase it past its potential. When it's time to reveal the artwork, you may add the Rank of the Social Event to your artwork's Rank with a successful Artisan/Awareness roll (TN 10 x the Social Event's Rank).

Once revealed to an audience, those who view the work may make Void roll (TN 5 x the artwork's Rank) to gain Void Points equal to the artwork's Rank. These may exceed an individual's normal maximum for Void Points; the GM's Void Pool gains Void Points equal to the artwork Rank as well. However, this inspiration can only affect an individual or the GM's Void Pool once per Season; the GM may choose to forego the Void Pool bonus at any time.

While the artwork's Rank does not decrease, its benefits do. Every time an individual attempts to gain Void Points from a specific artwork, the gain is reduced by 1 Void Point.

Finally, the TN to create an artwork that creates Honor is halved from 40 to 20.

Rank 4, The Undying Name: Your art's magnificence can make or break reputations. When creating an artwork, you can make Raises to work in aspects of another's Glory or Infamy into the work. Each Raise works in an additional individual. Those included in the artwork gain Free Raises on contested Social rolls with anyone who has gained Void Points from the artwork this Season, and gain Glory or Infamy Points equal to the artwork's Rank. Alternatively, for an additional Raise you make the individuals lose Gory or Infamy Points.

Rank 5, A Gift Beyond Price: You understand the most powerful force of change in the universe is the power of art and vision. Artisan and Performance Skills are also considered Lore Skills for you. When involved a Vendetta, you can spend a Vendetta Action to give a Granted Quality to an enemy or a member of your force.

Shosuro Butei Gakuen

Basic Discipline: Shosuro Butei

Uji/Profession: Shosuro Teishin

Benefit: +1 Awareness

Honor: 1

Skills: Artisan, Athletics, Meditation, Performance, Oratory, Sincerity

Outfit: Aiguchi, kimono, 2 costumes and masks, journal, traveling pack, 4 koku

Okuden

Rank 1, A Thousand Hearts: The butei learns to hide his true feelings beneath the actor's mask. You gain a +Xk0 bonus to all Performance Skill rolls and contested Social rolls instigated by others, where X equals your Discipline Rank.

Ranks 2-4, A Thousand Masks: Your mastery of mannerisms and personality traits beyond yourself allows you to delve so deeply into a persona that you are easily mistaken for the true thing, at the risk of losing yourself. At Ranks 2, 3, and 4 you gain a new persona you have mastered intricately. A persona is an archetypical character in Hachigoku culture, a figure flexible enough to be found nearly anywhere. Playing the persona often requires you to portray someone beneath samurai status; when doing so, you are so submerged in the persona that you act outside the bounds of Bushido and Honor. You cannot benefit from it in this case, either. And other samurai might not so willingly accept your sudden “eccentricity.” And since the whole point of being deep within a persona is to enter a transitory world, you have no Glory unless provided by the persona, and any Glory Points you gain or lose are attached to the persona and vanish if you slip out of the persona.

Each persona provides you with role-appropriate clothing and equipment. You also gain a set of Skills at Ranks equal to your Discipline Rank. Using your own Skills while submerged in a persona is difficult, and becomes more difficult as you progress through the your training, imposing a -Xk0 penalty to all rolls involving Skills you posses unconnected with the persona. You can spend a Season Action to increase a number of persona Skills equal to your Discipline Rank by 1 Rank, although no such Skills may have Ranks higher than your Discipline Rank + Void. You can even flesh out the persona's “character” by adding additional Skills outside the normal set, and purchasing an Emphasis in the skill instead of raising it. Slipping in and out of a persona requires either a Meditation/Void roll (TN your Discipline Rank x 5) or spending a Void Point.

Anyone trying to see the real you through your persona when they don't already no otherwise, such as someone investigating you as a shinobi perhaps, must make a contested Investigation/Awareness or Perception roll against your Stealth (Disguise)/Awareness.

Farmer Skills: Athletics, Etiquette, Craft, Hunting, Nofujutsu, Yarijutsu. This persona can also be used to simulate an ashigaru, doshin, or servant. Your Glory is considered 0 while in this persona.

Merchant Skills: Commerce, Craft, Etiquette, Law, Sincerity, Underworld Lore. This persona can also be used to simulate a criminal or gambler. Your Glory is considered 0 while in this persona, or you may choose to have Infamy 1.

Geisha Skills: Artisan, Commerce, Etiquette, Oratory, Performance, Sincerity. This persona can also be used to simulate any artist or performer. Your Glory is considered equal to your highest persona Skill Rank, but no higher than your highest Ring.

Gakusho Skills: Choose a Gakusho Basic Discipline and gain its Discipline Skills. Of course, you do not actually gain any Discipline Okuden or Kiho, so be careful lest someone should test your abilities...

Ronin Skills: Athletics, Commerce, Hunting, Kenjutsu, Kyujutsu, Yarijutsu. You have a Glory of 0, or Infamy 1. You can learn Ronin Okuden if you have the appropriate profession, but it is attached to your persona and not usable at all outside of it.

Samurai Skills: Choose a Bushi, Teishin, or Shugenja Basic Discipline and gain its Discipline Skills. Of course, you do not actually gain any Discipline Okuden or spells, so be careful lest someone should test your abilities...

Rank 5: The Final Mask: You achieve a mastery over your art so complete that your performance is near perfect, and this mastery extends itself to fully-fleshed individual characters. When someone is trying to pierce through your persona and see the true you, you can spend a Void Point to automatically succeed on the contested roll with Free Raises equal to your Awareness.

Furthermore, you can now attempt to imitate specific individuals instead or archetypes. It requires personal observation to imitate a living person. After observing an individual for about a day, you can attempt to impersonate the individual by making a Performance/Awareness roll (TN 10 x the target's Insight Rank or Threat Rank). You gain a +1k0 to this roll per additional day spent observing to learn what Skills the target knows. If successful you generate a persona specific to the individual with Skills equal to your Discipline Rank at Ranks equal to your Discipline Rank, plus 1 Skill per Raise. You gain all Emphases the target possesses in that Skill, and can increase Skills or buy additional Emphases with a Season Action as normal.

Of course, you do not actually gain any Discipline Okuden or magic, so be careful lest someone should test your abilities...