Roleplaying game

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Chapter 2: Creating a Character
practice has taught the Shiba Guardians how to dance in harmony with 
elemental kami when called forth by the invocations of the shugenja.
Ring Increases: +1 Earth, +1 Water
Skill Increases (choose five different skills): +1 Courtesy, +1 Fitness, +1 
Martial Arts [Melee], +1 Meditation, +1 Survival, +1 Tactics, +1 Theology
Techniques Available: Kata, Shūji, Rituals
Starting Techniques:
•  Kata (choose one): Striking as Water, Striking as Earth
•  Kata: Lord Shiba’s Selflessness
Honor: 45
Way of the Phoenix (School Ability): The Shiba Guardian School teach-
es the idea of a life-preserving blade, one that is drawn only after all other 
options have been exhausted. In a clan so full of shugenja, emotional 
turbulence can lead to catastrophic destruction; it is the Shiba Guardian’s 
sworn task to keep their clan’s shugenja from being harmed and from 
harming themselves. If a conflict or disaster can be cut off at the source 
with a word of wise counsel rather than a swift sword, all the better.
Once per scene, when a character at range 0–3 makes a check, you may 
negate a number of  results up to your school rank.
Starting Outfit: Ashigaru armor, travel clothing, daishō (katana and waki-
zashi), spear or naginata, traveling pack, 5 koku.
Scorpion Schools
The Scorpion do what they must because they have to, and their schools 
teach absolute loyalty to the clan as much as they teach the means by which 
the clan achieves its ends. The differences between appearances and reality, 
lies and truths, suspicion and trust—and more importantly, how and when 
to use which—are all driven home in their students, point by painful point.
Bayushi Manipulator School [Courtier]
Through the adept use of deception, temptation, and espionage, Bayushi-
trained courtiers are the masters of finding and exploiting the weak-
nesses of others. No method is too dishonorable as long as it is effective 
and untraceable. The Bayushi Manipulators are the shadow to the Doji 
Diplomat’s light, justly feared by all; yet, no court is complete without its 
Scorpion scoundrel—others are glad to have the Scorpion be the ones to 
dirty their hands. The Bayushi Manipulators accept their roles as villains 
in the play that is Rokugan, and in doing so, they help ensure that no true 
villains rise to threaten the Emperor.
Ring Increases: +1 Air, +1 Fire
Skill Increases (choose five different skills): +1 Courtesy, +1 Com-
mand, +1 Design, +1 Martial Arts [Unarmed], +1 Performance, +1 Senti-
ment, +1 Skulduggery
Techniques Available: Kata, Shūji, Rituals
Starting Techniques:
•  Shūji (choose one): Cadence, Rustling Leaves
•  Shūji: Lord Bayushi’s Whispers
Honor: 35
Weakness Is My Strength (School Ability): The Bayushi Manipulator 
School teaches that any disadvantage can be exploited, any flaw in armor 
turned into a fatal gap, and any stain spread to ruin a reputation.
When you exploit a target’s disadvantage as part of a Scheme action 
(see Turning Advantages and Disadvantages, page 61), you may re-
roll additional dice up to your school rank.
Starting Outfit: Ceremonial clothing, clothing, travel clothes, wakizashi, 
any one weapon, calligraphy set, traveling pack, 5 koku.
Shosuro Infiltrator School [Ninja]
The Shosuro Infiltrators have perfected acting and stagecraft. With their 
well-honed abilities of acrobatics, disguise, and stealth, these Scorpion 
agents encounter very few places to which they cannot gain access. As 
agents of surprise and disruption, they do not stand and fight, but instead 
sow chaos and vanish—usually to disguise what their mission actually 
was. Many a yōjimbō has thwarted an apparent assassination attempt that 
was merely a distraction from the target the Shosuro Infiltrators truly 
sought. Such infiltrators can vanish into shadows or, with equal skill, 
mingle with peasants to become invisible to the eyes of samurai.
Ring Increases: +1 Air, +1 Fire
Skill Increases (choose five different skills): +1 Courtesy, +1 Fitness, +1 
Games, +1 Performance, +1 Martial Arts [Melee], +1 Martial Arts [Un-
armed], +1 Skulduggery
Techniques Available: Kata, Rituals, Shūji
Starting Techniques:
•  Kata: Soaring Slice
•  Shūji (choose one): Whispers of Court, Sensational Distraction
Honor: 30
The Path of Shadows (School Ability): Striking a foe from behind or 
while they are asleep is extremely advantageous, and thus extremely 
dishonorable. Fortunately for the ninja of the Shosuro Infiltrator School, 
such considerations are hardly worthy of notice.
When performing an Attack action against a target who is unaware of 
your presence or is suffering the Incapacitated or Unconscious condition, 
treat the base damage and deadliness of your weapon as being increased 
by an amount equal to your school rank.
Starting Outfit: Ceremonial clothes, common clothes, travel clothes, 
daishō (katana and wakizashi), knife, bow, 10 arrows, traveling pack, 
5 koku.
Unicorn Schools
A holdover from their days journeying the Burning Sands and beyond, 
every Unicorn child learns to ride, pack, and travel to where they are 
needed most at a moment’s notice. More than other schools, Unicorn 
dōjō are innovative in the development of their techniques and receptive 
to borrowing methods and equipment from other cultures. They do not 
take pride in upholding tradition so much as they do in forging their own 
traditions to best serve the clan.
Ninja and Shinobi
Shinobi are covert agents and infiltrators who hide from sight and 
strike with surprise and without honor. Shinobi are often called 
ninja in popular legend, but as anyone will tell you, ninja do not 
exist. The shinobi are a weapon of war, but they are often used in 
times of peace to hide the origin of an attack and deflect blame for 
drastic but precise violence. The use of such tactics, and the shinobi 
themselves, are officially banned by Imperial Edict, but somehow 
rumors of their use remain.

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