Seasons & Season Actions

Oh sure, I could be reading Aristotle right now, but...

Let's get to that Season Actions I've been hinting at, and more or less making Experience Points unnecessary. Time to make Trouble.

Season Actions

As you pass from one Season to another, life changes. The inevitable river of history washes over your character, carrying you with the current as the tides of the years rise and ebb. Season changing into another Season until the original Season returns, with everything different and changed at once. The eternal cycle of the Tao.

Every Season can be divided into five steps: Shelter, Trouble, Actions, Stories, and Resolution.

Shelter

Everyone needs a place to live, some shelter from the slings and arrows of duty and obligation. At the beginning of each Season you must scramble for a place to hang your daisho, be it a barracks, a home, a room at the inn, or some other hideaway where you can spend downtime during the Season. Several Holdings provide shelter, some for free, some on condition of your profession, and some for koku. If you cannot find shelter, it could be because of poverty (often in the case of ronin) or because your duties were so overwhelming you simply could not take a moment's rest throughout those months, always busy with a task or traveling.

Space in a Holding is limited. A single Holding cannot provide shelter for more members of your wa than its Holding Rank. It's not that the Holding is necessarily small, but simply that you do not hold enough sway or prestige to rate permanent housing or provide enough hospitality. There are certainly plenty of other samurai, gakusho, and heimen living their lives and performing their duties there; you're just either too busy or unnoticed to take full advantage.

Nor does lack of shelter imply that you've been sleeping out in the rain and starving all season. Your daimyo, shinden, or occasional employment has provided for you basic needs: food, clothing, and, yes, shelter. It's just not been enough to be mechanically beneficial for you, for having shelter is crucial to having opportunity and resources to learn and train. If you have no shelter, you cannot use any Season Actions to increase or purchase Traits, Rings, Skills, Emphases, Okuden, Kiho, or Spells. You do still have Season Actions and spend them normally; only those specific for those purposes.

Trouble

Holdings are boons. They are also responsibilities. Every Holding is prone to Trouble. Peasants are revolting. Strife between students or sensei at a dojo flare up. The castle is under siege. Bandits rob merchants. Shadowlands monsters overrun the village. A Bloodspeaker cult infiltrates the shinden. Murder. Tsunami. Earthquake.

Trouble.

Trouble is determined individually for each Holding. At the beginning of each Season, roll 1 die for a Holding, adding the Holding's Rank to the total of each roll. If the roll exceeds the Trouble TN, the Holding is in Trouble. The Trouble TN varies by Season:

• Spring: 9
• Summer: 7
• Autumn: 8
• Winter: 6

This is done for every Holding. Holdings in Trouble have their resources taxed to the limit; there's none left over for you, thus you cannot leverage a Holding for any benefits. It grants no items, no free Season Actions, nothing. If you were using the Holding for shelter, this remains unaffected. However, you cannot use a Holding in Trouble for shelter at the beginning of a Season.

If a Holding is still in Trouble at the end of the Season, the Holding loses 1 Holding Rank. If this reduces it to 0, the Holding is destroyed. Every time a Holding you're responsible for loses a Rank, you lose a Glory Rank. If multiple characters from the same uji, shinden, or otokodate are invested in a Holding (they pooled their points during the wa's creation to buy Holding Ranks), they all share the Glory loss.

Normally it takes a Season Action to quell Trouble, but you could call on your wa to aid you in a time of need, turning the incident of Trouble into an opportunity for a Story. Yes, for the GM that means Trouble is built-in Challenges, very useful if you're at a loss what to do for the session. You're welcome. Entire Seasons could be filled with Stories of the wa eliminating Trouble, if that's the path you want to take. Whether the Trouble is quelled properly at the end of the Story depends entirely on the actions of the players.

Actions

Once you've determined shelter and Trouble, you are free to assign Season Actions. Season Actions reflect a variety of activities you spread out over the Season, goals you work on achieving when you're not occupied by a Story or tending to your routine duties. Each Season you gain a certain number of Season Actions equal to the Ring Rank associated with the Season: Water for Spring, Fire for Summer, Earth for Autumn, and Air for Winter. In addition, certain Holdings or other abilities may give you free Season Actions to achieve some specific goals. If a Holding gives free Season Actions, they can be split between all the members for their intended purpose. Any use of a Holding, including claiming the free Season Actions, is called leveraging the Holding, and any member of the wa can leverage any other member's Holding. However, a Holding cannot be leveraged with more Season Actions than it has Ranks in any one Season.

Example: Hida Jo has a Blacksmith Rank 3. He could spend one Season Action to leverage it for a katana. Akira, his fellow wa member, can spend 2 Season Actions to leverage it for a Fine Quality yari. The Holding cannot be leveraged with Season Actions anymore this Season.

Once you spend each Season Action, its benefits do not occur immediately. The effects of the Season Action are delayed until the end of the Season, when they are all Resolved.

You can spend a Season Action on:

• Trouble: Target a Holding in Trouble. All its Trouble is eliminated. This can be done to any Holdings in your wa.
• Holdings: Raise a Holding's Rank by 1, once per Season per Holding, or even purchase a new Holding at Rank 1. This is still considered leveraging, thus Trouble prevents doing so. You can also leverage a Holding for its special ability.
• Wa: As mentioned in the Wa rules, each member of the wa can contribute a Season Action to increase the Wa Rank by 1. All members must contribute, or there is no effect.
• Skills: Increase a Skill by 1 Rank, or purchase a new Emphasis in a Skill you already know. You cannot increase any single Skill by more than 1 Rank per Season. Also, certain Skills allow the use of Season Actions to perform feats requiring significant time to accomplish, usually artistic pursuits, crafts, and trades. While the Season Action is spent now, any actual rolls are not made until the end of the Season.
• Traits: Increasing Traits is no simple matter, and takes a significant investment time and dedication. Raising your Trait Rank requires a number of Season Actions equal to the new Rank. This is a cumulative purchase, as no more than a single Season Action can be spent per Trait per Season. Thus, raising a Trait from Rank 2 to 3 requires at least 3 Seasons, as 1 Season Action is spent each Season. These need not be consecutive Seasons, however, and other Traits could have additional Season Actions spent on them simultaneously.
• Void Ring: Like Traits, increasing your Void Ring takes significant time and dedication. Raising your Void Ring Rank requires a number of Season Actions equal to twice its new Rank. However, while these Season Actions can be spent over the course of several non-consecutive Seasons, they are not limited to 1 per Season; you can spend multiple Season Actions to raise your Void in a single Season.
• Change Faction: It costs 1 Season Action to join a new uji, shinden, or otokodate. If you join a new uji, you must have its Meibutsu already. If you join a new shinden, you must have all the Discipline Skills taught by its associated Discipline. If you join a new otokodate, you must fulfill its requirements. Leaving an old faction behind likely means a whole lot of enemies, hurt comrades, and a damn good Story.
• Ronin Okuden: If you have enough Insight Ranks, you can learn a new Ronin Okuden. Ronin Okuden not taught by an otokodate require 2 Season Actions: hunting down a ronin who already knows the Okuden, convincing the ronin to teach you, and training. If you have the Sensei Advantage or are a member of an otokodate that teaches it, it only costs you 1 Season Action. You must already meet any Trait, Ring, or Skill requirements necessary before spending Season Actions. You cannot spend more Season Actions to learn more than 1 Ronin Okuden or Discipline Okuden per Season.
• Discipline Okuden: If you have enough Insight Ranks, you can learn a new Discipline Okuden. Learning the Okuden costs a number of Season Actions equal to its Rank. This is a cumulative purchase, as no more than a single Season Action can be spent per Season. These need not be consecutive Seasons, however you cannot spend Season Actions on a different Discipline or Ronin Okuden while dedicated to learning this one; if you do, you forfeit all Season Actions spent thus far. If it is an Advanced Discipline, you must meet all its requirements before spending a Season Action. If the Okuden is taught by a Discipline Path, you spend 1 Season Action if you meet the Path of Entry or 2 Season Actions if not.
• Spells: You can use the Spellcraft Skill to learn or create new spells. You must meet the Mastery Level requirements of the spell to learn or create, and spend a Season Action. As with all Skills, making the Spellcraft Skill roll doesn't happen until the end of the Season.
• Kiho: As long as you meet its Mastery Level requirements, you can learn new Kiho. If you are a Gakusho, this costs 1 Season Action. If you are a Shugenja, you can spend 2 Season Actions. Any one else must spend 3 Season Actions and have at least Theology (Shintao) 5.

Story

This is where the magic happens. You and your wa go tell your Stories, usually 1-3 per Season. Have fun; I'll be here when you get back.

Resolution

Welcome back. It's the end of the Season, and all your plans come to fruition. Holdings provide their benefits or are rescued from Trouble (or harmed by it). Your training or research continues or concludes, and any new Skill Ranks, Emphases, Trait Ranks, Void Ring Ranks, Okuden, Spells, or Kiho are added to your character sheet.

Time for the next Season.