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Basic Statistics | Secondary Statistics

Creating a new character for Bushido is designed to be relatively straightforward.  The game's emphasis is role-playing, not rolling gobs of dice, so there are a minimum of stats in the game.  However, the few times that you do need to use those stats, they'll come in handy.

The most important thing to do is to come up with an idea of what kind of person you'll be playing and what role they will fill in this world (and in Iiga Vilage).  Where someone fits into society is far more important in a stratified world like Japan than it is in today's world.

To do the actual character creation, we recommend using the Character Sheets feature on IMC (where the game itself is played).  This will make it much easier to manage everything and submit it.

Here are some of the basic character archetypes in the world of Bushido.  Bear in mind that some variation is always possible, but not so far that the character goes against its own nature.

Samurai

The concept of the samurai is synonymous with classical Japan.  The samurai were at the top of the social pyramid up until the end of the 19th century, and for good reason: it was soldiers who held society together.

Most samurai are born into a clan that provides them with rank and station.  They serve a given lord after coming of age, and are granted privileges which many others would not have -- the right to kill with impunity, for instance.  If a peasant offended a samurai, he was well within his rights to execute the peasant on the spot and generally not expect more in the way of a repercussion than pay a fine.

A samurai who has left his master, or been expelled, or left without one after the destruction of his clan is a ronin, or "wave man."  After the end of the wars, ronin became a more common sight.  Many of them sold their services as bodyguards or assassins; some sold their sword entirely and entered a new way of life as a farmer or merchant.

Noblemen

The ruling classes included the samurai, but also included functionaries, scribes, ordained priests and many other people whose function was to keep the machinery of the imperial court well-oiled and functional.  Many of these people never left the capitol, but when they did they were usually assigned to a specific district by the emperor or one of his functionaries.  Daimyos with regional control were such people (although they usually made their particular region their home).

Farmers

Without rice, there was no Japan, or so the common wisdom went.  The common wisdom was right.  Farmers provided the very sustenance for the state, even if they were taxed brutally (as much as 50-100% of their crop if times were bad) and were often the targets of thieves, bandits, outlaws, warlords, famine, plague, and who knows what else!  To be honest, though, their lives were not all misery, just hard-worked.

Merchants

Merchants occupied a lower level on the social scale than samurai, craftsmen or farmers.  Merchants sold things from other people, or handled money (which was in itself considered vulgar).  At the same time, they were tolerated, since they often provided services which were not available in any other form.

Others

• Commoners / laborers.  The cogs and gears of the social machine.  Someone's got to do the dirty work, and it may just be you.
• Actors and artists.  Whether your medium is a stage or a blank swath of silk, performers and creators of all kinds are always in demand.
• Priests and monks.  Both Buddhist monks and Shinto priests were important parts of life (and death) in Japan, and found their way into every walk of life.
• Outcasts.  The blind, crippled, lame, deaf, or otherwise socially unacceptable have worlds of their own that they travel in, too.

History

Before you deal with stats, however, stop for a moment and consider instead your character.  Most of the character concepts for the room consist of samurai or ninja of one variety or another.  There's nothing wrong with those concepts, but a) that's far from the only kinds of characters I look for and b) the more diverse a populace I can get in the room, the better.

The first element of a character sheet for the room is not the statistics, but a well-thought-out history for that character.  The history does not need to be a novel-length tome (although a long history is always enjoyable!), but it must cover the following points:

• Origins: Where did this character come from?
• Present: What is this character doing now and what is he like?
• Desires: What does this character want?
• Fates: Where will this character end up?

You must have all of these points covered in the history you submit.  If you just want to devote one paragraph to each, that's fine.  The more the better, but you must explain things in some detail.

The reason for each of these is simple.  In the room, no character is static.  Everything that happens influences your character in some way.  Having a fate for your character, or an ultimate goal (or goals) makes it easier for storytellers (and players!) to devise plots and character arcs for that character.  A character that never changes is a boring character, for both the other players and ultimately for the player herself.  The game mechanics I have devised reflect this, and we will see more details about that later.

Note that if you want to create a backstory that involves one of the other PCs or staff-controlled NPCs in the room, please be sure to clear it with the staff and/or the players in question.

Male Vs. Female?

One ongoing controversy about the setting (and this has been something I have run into in just about every RPG that involved feudal Japan) is the way women are traditionally treated as subordinates or second-class citizens.  While this is historically true, the game will not have "penalties" imposed on people who play females.  In other words, if you play a female character, don't expect to be singled out, but you will run up against some of the traditional obstacles women faced (even if only in a reduced form).

If you are interested in creating a female fighter or ninja, history has recorded a number of such figures, so it's not out of the question.  Bear in mind, however, that such a thing is highly unusual, and people in the game are liable to react strongly -- but that's all part of the experience.

Some Things To Avoid

When making characters, there are a few things which are almost certainly going to get your characters rejected, due to room restrictions or matters of taste.

1. Character histories where the character was raped.  This is not easy to handle well, and I have almost never seen it done right.  It's unpleasant enough in real life, and it gives the history a sordidness that's not really in place in the room.
2. Characters where one parent was gaijin.  Unless you plan on playing the character as a total outcast, avoid this.
3. Characters that speak languages other than Japanese must take that language as a skill and justify it in their history.  If someone speaks Korean, for instance, they need to have a very good reason for being able to.  The same goes with Dutch or Portuguese.  More than one language is rare enough.
4. Characters that deal regularly with people outside Japan or are themselves foreigners.  This was difficult before and is well-nigh impossible now at this stage of history.  Most trading was in the process of being closed to the outside world.  Unless your character had that as his history -- that and not much else -- avoid this.  Foreigners includes Chinese and Koreans; we do have a couple of Chinese characters in active play, but we are allowing them to continue under a grandfather clause.
5. Hybrid human/nonhuman characters.
6. Characters born/raised in China and emigrating to Japan.  I'm breaking this out into a separate clause because we have seen so many of these that I must make a specific rule about it.  I'm also doing this because I know precious little about China itself, to avoid problems in accuracy.  Please don't submit characters that were born in China or raised there.

Basic Statistics

Once you have a history and personality in mind, you will choose the following basic statistics for each character. Each of these is a number from one to five; with higher numbers being better.  Higher scores are possible, but not for starting characters.  The numbers indicate how many ten-sided dice you roll to accomplish given tasks.

• Strength.  How strong you are physically.  A young child would be a one; an average artisan or farmer, a two or three; a soldier, sumo wrestler or samurai would be a four or five.
• Intelligence.  This is not factual knowledge, but rather how well you think.  Someone who follows gamely and doesn't really consider much of what he's told would be a one or a two; someone who is witty and insightful would score higher.  (Note that a smart person does not automatically equal an iconoclastic one.)  Factual knowledge is reflected by whatever skills you know (see below).
• Reflexes.  The speed of your physical reaction time.  A three or better is recommended for anyone who creates a fighter-type character, since you can duck blows better.  A one is not someone who is uncoordinated, but simply someone who doesn't do much fighting.
• Stamina.  A measure of how fast you heal and how well you recover from blows.
• Appearance.  How good you look.  Appearance dice can be applied to attempts to impress (or seduce) people.  Bear in mind, if you are injured, you can lose Appearance dice.  (This is at the discretion of the GM and should be used sparingly.)  This stat can be zero if you choose, but bear in mind it'll mean you are hideously ugly.

You have fifteen points to divide up between those five categories.  You cannot save points for later, and none of these statistics can be zero except for Appearance.  You do not have to spend all of these points if it doesn't reflect the character you want to create, either, but for game balance it's good to use as many of them as possible.

Secondary Statistics

The following secondary statistics also get up to fifteen points to be divided freely between them, and none can be above five at creation time.  Again, spend them all; you cannot save them.  You can, however, reduce one or more of these stats to zero at the expense of other stats, except for Etiquette (which can never be less than one).  (Note that the 15 points you get are apart from the one die for Etiquette.  That's a freebie.)

• Fealty.  This is a measure of how loyal you are to authority.  A wanderer or thief would have a low fealty; a samurai would have to have a relatively high fealty (two is the minimum).  You use your fealty dice when you are testing your loyalty to someone or something: your spouse, your friends, your parents, and so on.
• Face.  This measures how well people will respect and be loyal to you, and are used when you are trying to command followers, curry favor with friends or impress peers.  Face, like Etiquette, is used with almost every social skill you can think of.  If you do something which disgraces you in someone's eyes, any rolls for that person that use face have +1 added to the target.
• Etiquette.  This indicates how good you are at being social.  Everyone gets one die of Etiquette automatically; this stat cannot be zero.  Peasants and commoners would have a low etiquette; courtly nobles and samurai, high.  If you're trying to impress someone, you'd use Etiquette dice in combination with some skill.  (If you're trying to impress them with your panache and get them to see things your way, then you'd add Face dice.)
• Ki.  Ki is a measure of a person's inner spiritual strength, sort of like a cross between willpower and one's connection with the nature of things.  When you draw on your "inner resources" for something extraordinary, you add your Ki dice.  However, your Ki dice can only be used ONCE per day.  (In game terms, this would translate to once per session.)  Anything supernatural -- using magic of any kind or invoking the gods -- involves Ki, but the once-a-session limit does not apply to supernatural efforts that you have skills for.
• Karma.  This loosely translates to luck, but it is also a measure of what a person is destined for in life.  This is not a measure of how good or bad it is, but how intense it is. A character with a zero Karma isn't without a destiny; it just means they can't draw on their destiny for strength, so to speak, or they are more content to drift through life and not achieve their destiny as forcefully.  Karma dice can be used to re-roll a roll if it goes bad, up to the number of Karma dice you have per XP period.  See Feats of Karma for more information.

Your Life, which is a measure of how many hits you can take in combat, is (Strength + Stamina + Ki + Karma) X 4.

If you are interested in Supernatural characters, you should read the pages we now have devoted to that subject.  You cannot play a supernatural character unless you have had at least three months' playtime with an approved character of a more conventional variety.

Once you have your basic stats compiled, you can move on to adding Skills.