Hello, everyone. I’m sick! This has no bearing on you personally, of course, but I’ve been defeated by the sinister sinuses and I’m feeling wretched. Forgive me if I’m less chatty than usual. Let’s get to it, shall we?

The Imperial Histories

We continue with our examination of our forthcoming book, The Imperial Histories! Whenever I’ve talked about this book, and I’m pretty sure that I’ve talked about it a lot, I make mention of Jason Bianchi, the winner of our Writing the Imperial Histories contest. Jason created an entirely new vision of Rokugan that fit nicely into one of those big holes we have in the nation’s timeline, coming up with something that was delightfully samurai and yet completely new. As soon as I read the entry, I knew that I wanted to read more. To give you an idea, let me share with you the first two years of the ten year timeline that describes this era:

Year 660

• The spring rainy season comes early and brings abnormally heavy rains that persist throughout the planting season and recur in the fall, causing widespread crop failure. Initial appeals to the Emerald Champion, Akodo Kenburo, for a temporary reduction in taxes are refused. Delegations from the Crab and Dragon attempt to lobby the Emperor directly, hoping the Son of Heaven will reconsider Kenburo’s decision. Hantei XX is so outraged that servants of the throne would dare ask the Son of Heaven to get by with less that he levies punitive taxes on both clans. The costs of these additional taxes are too much for the Dragon Clan to absorb and the clan suffers famine over the winter.
• Right before the onset of winter Emperor Hantei XX publicly announces that due to the poor weather he will not be holding Winter Court at Kyuden Bayushi as originally planned. Instead he will go to the Crane and stay at Kyuden Doji. While the change of venue is only an inconvenience for most clans, it is devastating news for the Dragon and Scorpion. The Emperor’s abrupt decision is only his latest action to undermine the political standing of the Scorpion Clan, while the starving Dragon are unable to send a delegation at all.
• The winter sees continued hard weather, with unusually heavy snowfall throughout the Empire. Monasteries and temples are crowded as samurai and commoners alike pray to the Fortunes for an abatement of their punishment.

Year 661

• The previous year's poor weather continues and lasts the entire year. In the spring the heavy rains combined with run-off from the previous year’s heavy snow cause massive flooding of all major rivers and lakes. The floods wreak terrible destruction on low-lying villages and cities, as well as washing out roads and bridges. Many farmlands are ruined as well, particularly in the fertile lowlands of the Scorpion, Lion, and Crane. Moreover, the loss of roads and bridges impedes efforts to ship supplies to regions afflicted by hunger.
• As the price of rice begins the climb dramatically, the Empire’s merchants wage increasingly bitter commercial warfare over the dwindling food supplies. The Daidoji and the Yasuki in particular become increasingly vicious and cutthroat, with daimyo Yasuki Miwako and Daidoji Katsunan each working to shut their rival out of every possible market. By autumn the trade war is doing almost as much damage to Rokugan’s economy as the bad weather.
• Togashi Toshimasa (the name used by the Kami Togashi in this era) spends the winter in silent meditation and prayer in a chamber within Shiro Mirumoto. He gives instructions that anyone who wishes to see him is to be allowed to enter the room and stay for as long as they wish – but he refuses to speak to any such visitors. By the spring of 662, word of his peculiar behavior is spreading across the Empire.

Now tell me you don’t want to run and/or play in a game set in that era, eh? It’s going to be fantastic. I desperately want to share some more with you, but I don’t want to give too much away too early. Maybe my resolve will wane as we get closer to release. Oh, and since this is a design column, here’s one of the mechanics accompanying Jason’s chapter:

People’s Legionnaire
After the commoner Asahime began organizing her army of peasants, she worked with her monk adviser Rojin to develop a spear-fighting technique that would allow simple ashigaru soldiers to stand their ground against samurai opponents. The technique was designed to capitalize on working together, using numbers and discipline to overcome the superior fighting skills of samurai opponents. Unsurprisingly, in Rokugan’s canon history the technique did not survive the ultimate defeat of the People’s Legion, but creative GMs can use it to represent any peasant or ronin army that lasts long enough to develop some discipline and organized training.

New Ronin Path: People’s Legionnaire [Bushi]
Technique Rank: 1
Benefit: +1 Stamina
Skills: Athletics, Defense, Hunting, Knives, Spears, Stealth, any 1 Merchant or Low Skill
Honor: 0.0 (peasant fighting technique)
Outfit: Ashigaru Armor, Sturdy Clothing, Yari, any 1 Peasant weapon, Backpack, 5 zeni
Technique: Unity of Purpose – The People’s Legionnaires drill endlessly, learning to act in unison on the battlefield. After Initiative is rolled at the beginning of a skirmish, you may take a Free Action to lower your Initiative score to match that of an ally who is also trained in this technique. If you and an ally with the same Initiative attack the same opponent, you each gain a +1k0 bonus on your attack roll for each such ally striking the same foe. The maximum number of bonus dice you can gain on a single attack roll is equal to your Insight Rank +1.

Good stuff! I’m really looking forward to sitting down and reading it all again, this time from beginning to end without stopping to make editing notes or jot down mechanical ideas or anything. Nothing must become between the reader and the narrative, I say!

The Book of Air

And here we are back at the main event once more. This book is rapidly nearing the point where it needs to go to layout, so I’ve spent this week frantically writing up notes on existing Kiho and trying to use a little mojo here and there to work on some new ones. I find Kiho more difficult to write than spells because the themes for spells are somehow more definite. What can you can and cannot do with a spell is somehow kind of instinctual, or at least to me, and with a Kiho… who knows? Those monks are nuts! Regardless, with this book we’re trying to help players and GMs not only by giving them new things to use, but by trying to help them find new ways to use the things we’ve already given them. For instance, in the section on Martial Kiho, check this succinct description of the old Air First (keep in mind I’m sending this from the draft files, not the post-edit files!):

Air Fist
One of the most basic Kiho known to exist, Air Fist is also one of the only readily known martial Kiho aligned with the element of Air. It is often among the first secrets taught to newly accepted members of the Brotherhood, not only because it is a simple technique that virtually anyone can learn if their mindset is right, but also because it allows new brothers to add an element of the mystical to their daily kata and exercises. The increased speed and deftness that accompanies the use of Air Fist has opened the mind of many monks to the possibilities inherent in the study of elemental Kiho.

Mechanical Considerations: The value of Air Fist depends entirely upon the other abilities a monk character has with which to pair it. The value of an increased Initiative Score can be considerable, but the damage reduction is a factor that has to be weighed carefully considering the generally low level of damage typically inflicted by unarmed attacks. If the character is built for unarmed damage, using such advantages as Hands of Stone, then the damage mitigation can be overcome and the Kiho remains an extremely effective tool. Likewise, as a Internal Kiho, Air Fist can be combined with various other Kiho, including those that employ atemi strikes; in this case, the reduced damage is irrelevant since atemi strikes do very little damage anyway, and the effects of those Kiho are delivered faster thanks to the boost to Initiative Score.

Social Considerations: Monks are a tricky bit of business in any social situation, honestly, but for those who are intended to treat monks with respect, namely samurai, the use of Air Fist can be seen as a means of impressing certain portions of that group. Certainly the speed and surety of a monk’s Air Fist strike can impress some among the martially minded, such as the Crane or Scorpion, although those who favor power of precision, such as the Crab or perhaps the Matsu family of the Lion, might find it distasteful. Those who hold the tenet compassion of the code of bushido in high regard might well response favorable to monks known to make use of the Air Fist, given that by its very nature of dealing less damage, it is among the least destructive means of offense available to any member of the Brotherhood skilled in its use.

So you may have noticed that there are not very many Martial Kiho that are aligned with Air. In fact, there are exactly… uh…one. So if we are going to flesh that aspect out a little bit, obviously we needed one or two more. I’ve been tinkering with some ideas and I’m going to take a bit of a risk here. This is a fledgling Kiho that hasn’t even been posted to playtest yet, so literally no one has seen it before. This may send up tons of red flags I haven’t thought of yet, and give you a whole new appreciation for the job that the PTs do in translating my feverish notes into something that can be made use of by fans everywhere. Please be gentle as I present to you:

Essence of the Hurricane

• Ring/Mastery: Air 7
• Type: Martial

The true strength of the wind can be harnessed by the willful soul, and projected outward to impact the world around him in a nonlethal but still very powerful method. This Kiho requires a successful unarmed strike to be delivered. Because of the nature of the Kiho, the target’s Armor TN is not increased by actual armor worn. When a target is struck using this Kiho, no damage is inflicted. Instead, the target is thrown in the opposite direction a number of feet equal to your Air Ring and is rendered Prone.

Bask in the glory that is untested mechanical text. Until next time, game on!