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Physical Skills | Mental Skills | Social Skills | Additional Character Creation Notes | Experience Points

Skills dictate what you can do well -- not what you can do, period, but what you do well.  You can choose up to forty-five points to be divided amongst skills.  Skills are also somewhat freeform, but there are a few that I will be providing here for the sake of consistency.  If you want to provide something that isn't on this list, feel free (within reason).

Choose skills that complement your character.  A samurai who knew poisons would be suspect -- unless this was a ninja in disguise, of course!  As with everything else, skills are rated from one to five for starters and can be increased later.  You cannot add skills haphazardly; you must be able to provide a workable rationale for an added skill.

Skills are divided into three categories: physical, mental and social.  Each skill works in conjunction with at least one base statistic, which depends on the skill itself.  Generally, physical skills work with Strength [S] or Reflexes [R].  Mental skills work with Intelligence [I], and social skills usually work with Fealty [Fe], Face [Fa] and Etiquette [E].

To determine how to modify skills, look at What Affects Difficulties.

Physical Skills

• Acrobatics: Allows you to perform acrobatic manuevers such as leaps, cartwheels, handstands, balancing acts, and so on. [R]
• Archery: Lets you use a bow (large or small), either while standing still or riding, to hit a target. [R: ATTACKS / S: DAMAGE]
• Arrow Deflection: Arrows fired at you can be caught, slapped away, trapped in a loose sleeve or otherwise diverted. [R]
• Blind-fighting: Lets you fight without penalties in the dark. This skill is bought at the same level as any other skills you use it with (like Fast-Draw or Two-Handed Fighting), and must be raised when you raise those other skills as well. [R]
• Bone-breaking: Like weapon-breaking, but allows you to do the same with limbs, digits, or joints.  [R: ATTACKS / S: DAMAGE]
• Brawling: This is a basic hand-to-hand fighting style without much art to it, but it works if you have nothing else.  [S: ATTACKS/DAMAGE/DEFENSE]
• Climbing: Allows you to scale vertical surfaces that aren't designed to be climbed, such as a wall face. [R]
• Fan-fighting: Lets you use a war fan (or a conventional one) as a weapon. [R]
• Fast-draw (for a specific weapon): Lets you draw and attack with a given weapon in the same turn. Dice for Fast-Draw are added to any Init rolls (i.e. Reflex contests). [R]
• Hiding: Lets you evade detection. [R]
• Iaido: A style of swordsmanship that places a great deal of emphasis on drawing and  striking all in the same motion. [R]
• Improvised Weapon: A skill that lets you use any non-weapon object as a weapon, but with only STR dice as the maximum damage. [R]
• Jiu-jitsu: A form of unarmed fighting that emphasizes using an enemy's weight and strength against him.  [R]
• Jumping: Allows you to jump from a moving object or onto a moving object very accurately. [R]
• Kara-te (shotokan): An unarmed combat style, probably the most familiar and famous of them all. [R: ATTACKS / S: DAMAGE]
• Kendo: Allows you to wield any sized sword for fighting. This is only if you're using ONE sword.  If you're using TWO, see Two-Sword Style. [R]
• Knife-fighting: Close-quarters combat with a knife. [R]
• Kumi-uchi: A precursor to wrestling that was used as a grappling style on the battlefield, mainly intended to immobilize an opponent before rendering a killing blow.  Ashigaru (footsoldiers) would probably know this tactic as well as samurai. [R]
• Mounted Combat: Allows you to fight on horseback without taking movement penalties. [R]
• Naginata: Lets you use the naginata, or a polearm-like weapon that was typically employed by noblewomen. [R]
• Pressure Points: Lets you disable an enemy with precise attacks to certain nerve clusters. If you succeed, the enemy is paralyzed for the number of rounds equal to the number of successes you have. [R]
• Riding: Lets you ride any animal or vehicle. [R]
• Sumie-e: An artistic skill.  Sumie-e involves painting with a brush and requires that you make no mistakes while doing so or else the whole picture is ruined. [R]
• Sleight-of-Hand: Lets you misdirect people with gestures.  Useful for palming small items and concealing them (in a sleeve, for instance). [R]
• Spear: Lets you fight with the spear. [R]
• Speed-Load (for bows): Lets you load and fire a bow in the same turn. [R]
• Staff: Lets you wield a staff of any length up to the height of the wielder. [R]
• Stealth: Lets you move without being detected by someone else. [R]
• Sword-And-Sheath Style (Requires Two-Handed Fighting): Lets you use your sword sheath as a weapon as well, for bashing, deflection, blocking, and so on. [R]
• Throwing: Allows you to hit something by throwing something else, especially if the object you're throwing isn't balanced for it. [R: ATTACKS / S:DAMAGE]
• Two-Handed Fighting: Allows you to use both hands to fight with, independent of each other.  Some skills require this.  You don't need this if you're using a weapon that requires a two-handed grip, only when you're fighting with one weapon in each hand (such as a katana/wakizashi pair). When you buy a skill that requires this, you must have this skill at the same level or better; you cannot buy up skills that rely on this without raising it first. [R]
• Two-Weapon Style (Requires Two-Handed Fighting): Lets you wield one weapon in each hand for any type of weapon that does not require a two-handed grip to use. [R]
• Weapon-breaking: A set of skills that teaches one how to destroy an opponent's weapon by stomping, misdirecting, or otherwise diverting it.  If you want to break someone's weapon, use WB + STR (your roll) vs. Weapon Skill + STR (the opponent's roll). You need to get at least as many free-and-clear successes as the other guy has base dice in ST. [S]
• Weapon Catching (catch thrown weapons, etc. barehanded): Allows you to trap a weapon thrown at you other than an arrow, such as a dagger, spear or uchi-ne. [R]

Mental Skills

Many of the skills listed in the character sheet generator are not echoed here as they are craft skills whose function should be self-evident.

• Animal Handling: Provides you with the skills to work with animals -- care, feeding, etc.  This does not include riding (see above). 
• Area Knowledge (for specific geographic areas): With this you know your way around a geographic area -- where to go, what the fastest way to get from A to B is, and where to avoid.
• Brewing: The know-how to make alcoholic drinks (sake' and plum wine, for instance).
• Cooking: Almost everyone knows how to boil rice, but Cooking provides you with the skills to make an appealing meal.
• Craftsmanship: Allows you to craft a specific kind of item.  Each item type requires a separate skill.
• Farming: Lets you manage and run a farm.  Note that each type of crop requires a different skill.
• Fishing: Lets you catch fish from either fresh or salt-water bodies. Note that this is primarily a mental, not a physical skill.
• Languages: Any language you know other than Japanese is considered a separate skill.  Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Korean, and English are the main possibilities.
• Literacy: Written Japanese is highly complex, so a specific skill for reading and writing must be purchased.
• Meditation: Allows you to maintain peace of mind and focus.
• Memorization: Allows you to memorize textual information without needing the text.  Monks and messengers would find this useful.
• Poisons: Allows you to synthesize poisons, a skill of use to assassins.  Most poisons are either made from mineral spirits, blowfish secretions, or lacquer.
• Strategy/Tactics: Allows you to conduct war campaigns against an enemy, to devise battle plans and implement them.  Tactics is for small-scale battles -- hand-to-hand combat, one-on-one -- while strategy is for big campaigns involving directing other people.
• Supernatural Lore: The nitty-gritty of all things strange and supernatural, from how to drive away evil spirits to placating the gods.
• Tracking/Hunting: Lets you find and kill animals based on their spoor.

Social Skills

• Acting: Allows you to perform from a script convincingly and with gusto. [E]
• Carousing: Lets you hold your liquor or otherwise keep from becoming incapacitated when you're intoxicated. [Stamina]
• Clowning: This is something like a cross between performing and flattery -- it allows you to placate someone with humor.  Note that this is only going to be appropriate for certain types of characters, of course. [E]
• Delegation: This allows you to take a task, break it down and delegate it out amongst several suitable parties. [E]
• Diplomacy: This skill lets you serve as a diplomat or mediator, resolving disputes between two or more parties with a minimum of friction and allowing them to meet common ground. [E] (with [FA]+[FE] if applicable)
• Disguise: Lets you change your appearance with the aid of makeup, costumes, prosthetics, etc. [E]
• Divination: This allows you to determine the future as revealed by the spirits.  Keep in mind that what the spirits say may be subject to interpretation! [K]
• Gambling: Allows you to gamble and get slightly better odds than someone without this skill. [INT]
• Interrogation: Lets you obtain specific information from a subject. [INT]
• Lie Detecting: Lets you know when someone is deceiving you. If someone else has the Lying skill, however, they may be able to cancel this out. [INT]
• Lying: This allows you to lie and get away with it, and even allows you to beat someone else with the Lie Detecting skill if you're good enough. [E]
• Makeup: Lets you beautify someone with taste. [E]
• Poetry: Lets you compose aesthetically pleasing poems, a skill which is still very much in vogue among many. [INT]
• Poetry Appreciation: A complementary skill to Poetry, which allows you to respond suitably to a well-composed poem. [INT]
• Religious Ceremony: Allows you to conduct Shinto or Buddhist religious ceremonies (specify which).  [K]
• Savoir-Faire: The ability to determine someone else's motives or reasons for doing something based on their behavior and the context of a situation.  This is not telepathy, but an educated guess. [E]
• Seduction: Allows you to use your physical and social charms on a subject.  [E]
• Singing: Lets you sing in a strong and properly modulated voice. [E]
• Spirit Duelling: Allows you to psychically attack someone you have previously met.  Successes translate into incapacitating all of that person's Ki rolls -- for bonuses, spells, Ki-based skills, etc. -- for [success] number of hours. [K]
• Supplication (invoke ancestors): Allows you to placate your ancestors or other guardian spirits. [K]
• Tea Ceremony: The ability to correctly perform a tea ceremony.  [E]
• Torture: Lets you inflict pain on a subject without killing them.  [INT]

Additional Character Creation Notes

Skill sets for different styles or schools of fighting are OK and in fact desired.  I do not have a methodology for breaking out how one could be superior or inferior to another (which is a common element of this kind of storytelling), but I will say this: if you and your opponent happen to have the same fighting style, and he has it at the same level as you do or higher, they cannot be surprised if you attack them with it.  (This is not the same as generic fighting skills; this applies only to specific "schools" of combat.)

Personality traits, such as shyness or great wisdom, should be codified in the points and skills listed above, as well as detailed in the character history.  If you want to roleplay a one-eyed swordsman, for instance, it's assumed that he has found ways to compensate for his loss in his skills, and so things like that are not explicitly coded in your stats.

Buying equipment is somewhat open-ended.  I am not placing any explicit restrictions on what you can and cannot have other than common sense.  A farmer would not be walking around with a daisho and a samurai would not use poisoned shuriken, etc.  The same goes for money -- in game terms it's of small importance; list what you think that character would have.

Experience Points

As you play, you will be able to vote experience points for your fellow players based on the quality of their roleplay.  You can vote as many times as you like a week for other people's characters. However, each individual character can only receive up to 5 votes a week.  (Hosts and staff can vote more than 8 times a week.)

XP can be re-spent on skills and used to heighten existing stats at the following costs:

• To add a point in a skill requires an arithmetically increasing number of points.  The first point is one point; the second, two; the third, three, and so on.

• To add a point in a statistic requires an exponentially increasing number of points.  The first point is one; the second is four; the third is nine; the fourth is sixteen; the fifth is twenty-five.

• No skill can be raised higher than 10 for the lifetime of the character.
• No stat can be raised more than once during the lifetime of a character, and no stat can be raised or bought higher than 5.
• No skill can be raised more than one point during any XP allotment (i.e., one week).

Once you have finished creating your character sheet, submit it by clicking "Submit this sheet" at the bottom of the form.  Character sheets need to be submitted before you can spend XP.

Now you can learn about how the dice are used in the Game Mechanics section.