Engaging Shinobi PCs

Shinobi PCs add a new set of rewards and challenges

to your game. Because shinobi do not follow the stan-
dard rules of samurai society, they add a great deal
of flexibility in terms of the challenges you throw at
your players. However, you may also struggle to cre-
ate scenes in which both shinobi and samurai play
together. Cutting back and forth between “shinobi
scenes” and “samurai scenes” can generate a sense of
disconnection between your players.
The best way to counteract this tendency is to
make sure that your players are collaborating with you
on getting shinobi and samurai into the same scenes,
rather than waiting for you to provide opportunities
to do so. Ask the samurai why they need the shinobi,
what the shinobi can do that is valuable and essen-
tial to their plans. Also ask them why they respect the
shinobi and their work—they probably have a handle
on disrespect, so get them thinking about reasons
why they can value one another both technically and
emotionally. Conversely, give the shinobi opportunities
to show their humanity and virtue. What do they care
about on a personal level? What larger goals beyond
payment and the job do they have, and how do these
goals intersect with the greater good?
In terms of the shinobi’s mission, assassination is all
well and good in short games, but longer campaigns
can generate more material from missions involving
espionage, sabotage, and secret communications.
These types of missions require samurai and shinobi
to work in concert. The samurai use their ability to
move around in the light to give the shinobi access
and opportunity. The shinobi then move in the shad-
ows to pass that opportunity back to the samurai. The
best missions require intense action in both the light
and the shadows. Make the samurai and shinobi need
each other.
giving access and cover
In order to relate meaningfully to the narrative, shi-
nobi need access to samurai spaces. There are two
common ways to obtain access: through disguise and
through stealth.
Disguise-based infiltration was the first resort of
historical Japanese spies. Alternate identities and
believable cover stories make hiding in plain sight a
much more reliable way to gather information than
wearing dark clothing and concealing oneself in raf-
ters and shadows. You should be generous with your
response when a shinobi PC attempts to hide themself
among servants, to craft a believable cover identity as
a courtier or bushi, or to make excuses for themself to
the guards and staff with whom they regularly interact.
Particularly compelling drama and romance can come
from positive, friendly relationships between a shinobi’s
cover identity and the people around them. A guard
who genuinely likes the shinobi’s false identity and is
likely to cover for them or vouch for them allows the
shinobi player to make satisfying hard choices when it
comes time to execute their mission.
Similarly, when the shinobi decides to go dark, you
should afford them ample opportunity to hide, use
acrobatics, and gain access to important areas as only
they can. Trees, tall grass, bushes, secret passages,
shadowy hallways, rooftops, and easily distractible
guards allow shinobi to keep moving quickly and keep
up with their samurai counterparts.
If the shinobi fails rolls or makes mistakes, do not
go straight to revealing their identity. Instead, take the
opportunity to increase the tension by ratcheting up
NPCs’ suspicion slowly and suspensefully. Such a fail-
ure creates opportunities for other shinobi or, better
yet, samurai to move in and cover for their colleague’s
error, forcing them to collaborate and, once again,
need one another.
Meet tHe Plan, Kill tHe Plan
Gamers tend to be intelligent folk who play intelligent
characters who hatch cunning plans. This tendency
goes double for rogues, thieves, and spies, who can-
not charge heedlessly into danger like Lion Clan bushi.
What’s more, many gamers have struggled in the
past with GMs who have an adversarial attitude. These
GMs turn games into a sort of contest in which player
and GM try to outwit one another, with the GM glee-
fully capitalizing on the players’ out-of-character fail-
ures to think of things or to anticipate threats. This sort
of GMing has its place for those groups that enjoy it,
but when trying to tell a collaborative story, it can risk
bogging down play. Some players who have dealt with
such a GM in the past can often spend hours of out-of-
game time preparing every angle before attempting a
challenge—a process that draws spotlight time away
from the other PCs and slows the story to a crawl.
If you have a shinobi player character in your story,
you need to be prepared ahead of time to engage
with their player’s likely desire to enact cunning plans
and prepare for their foes in a way that is good for
the group. First, tell the shinobi’s player that you’re
not out to get them—you’re telling a story together,
and you know they can’t prepare for everything. Then,
give the shinobi’s player a limited amount of time to
plan their approach.
126
CHAPTER 3: GAMES OF DISCOURSEMatthew Wynn (Order #20055116)
For example, say you’re going to leave
the table for five to fifteen minutes, after
which you will return to hear the outline
of the shinobi’s plan—and only the outline, not the
details. If possible, physically move to another room.
This gesture prevents the shinobi’s player from bom-
barding you with questions and encourages them to
plan efficiently. Make it clear that they shouldn’t take
the short time frame you have given them as a chal-
lenge to see how complicated a plan they can cram
into a ten-minute planning window, but instead as
encouragement toward a relatively straightforward
plan, perhaps something that can be explained in
twenty seconds or less. The end result of the “plan-
ning break” should be a quick summary of the shi-
nobi’s approach to the problem, like “I’m going to
impersonate the daimyō’s relative to get past the
guards, then leap out the window into the river when
I’ve got the documents” or “We’re going to sneak
over the wall under cover of night and start some
fires, then find the target in the confusion.”
Putting Ideas Into Action
Next comes the actual mission. Here, you can take
inspiration from films or television shows that center
around heists or capers. A common narrative structure
for heist media is to show the audience the action,
then deal with the rogue’s planning or preparation
using frequent flashbacks. Encourage the shinobi’s
127Matthew Wynn (Order #20055116)
player to describe the action in the present, focusing
on what scenes seem cool or exciting to play out rather
than what the “right answer” to a problem is. That way,
you as the GM can improvise interesting solutions to a
problem instead of following a script that ceases to be
useful when failed dice rolls or excitable players knock
the action off track.
If there’s a question of whether the shinobi brought
the right tool for the job, don’t make them stick to a list
of items they prepared ahead of time; let them con-
tinue to add to their equipment freely in medias res,
assuming retroactively that they bought it, until such
time as their character runs out of carrying space. If
they encounter a problem that would have required
prior time and preparation to overcome, have them
narrate a flashback in which they bribed a greedy
guard, released rats onto the premises, or something
similar, and have them make a check at that point to
see how well their preparation succeeded. Record any
from those checks instead of trying to give it to the
PC retroactively; the strife should be gained when the
effect of the flashback enters the story at the current
time, accompanied by a suitable narrative flourish (for
instance, the guard leaves them a note demanding
more money for continued silence, or some of the rats
end up startling them in the hall).
New Titles
Great deeds are often awarded with prestigious titles
in the Courts of Rokugan, although some titles tend to
become more infamous than famous over time. These
new titles follow the rules described on page 305 of
the core rulebook.
castellan
While a daimyō presides over one or more castles,
daily management of a fortification invariably falls to
one of their subordinates. A castellan is generally one
of their daimyō’s most trusted agents, for they see to
the safety and readiness of the daimyō’s primary hold-
ing. To serve in this role, a character must not just be
trustworthy and loyal, but also learned in topics from
logistics and wartime defenses, to the cultural expecta-
tions of entertaining guests from the highest echelons
of society.
Assigned By: A daimyō after putting the character in
charge of the day-to-day management of a castle. A
castle can have a single castellan.
Status Award: +5 (to a maximum of 30)
Glory Award: +10 (to a maximum of 60)
XP to Completion: 20
Every Stone Has its Place (Title Ability): When under-
taking a downtime activity to prepare your castle for
an important event (a wedding, a battle, or a Winter
Court, for example), you may change all rolled blank
results to results.
covert agent
There are countless ways in which a samurai might
become an asset of someone other than their sworn
lord. Sometimes, even samurai who believed their loy-
alty to Bushidō unshakable discover that they cannot
serve both their lord and their conscience. Sometimes,
covert agents are embedded in enemy courts and
swear false loyalty in service of their true lord. And,
nPc sHinobi
While samurai are likely to go into every
game expecting to struggle against antag-
onistic samurai, the same is not necessarily
true of shinobi. Do they know there are others
beyond those who have trained and worked
with them? The revelation that antagonistic
shinobi are in play is an intense and exciting
one; best of all, because they are stealthy,
the GM need not decide in advance whether
shinobi are in play. Just as the shinobi PCs
can decide retroactively that something “was
the plan all along,” the GM can decide late
in the game that a certain NPC was in fact a
shinobi all along. While an epic confrontation
between rival shinobi is an attractive climax,
enemy shinobi are also excellent ways to
tempt PC shinobi into increasingly entangled
plots and loyalties: they have no compunction
about offering to work with PCs in exchange
for sinister deals, or for favors that seem
innocuous now but set up future tragedy.
128
CHAPTER 3: GAMES OF DISCOURSECastellan
ADVANCE TYPE
TITLE
Social Skills Skl. Grp.
Culture Skill
Design Skill
Government Skill
= Rallying Cry Technique
= Slippery Maneuvers Technique
= Touchstone of Courage TechniqueMatthew Wynn (Order #20055116)
of course, some samurai are not so high-minded in
their treachery. Blackmail, bribery, revenge, jealousy,
fear, and even hope for a better world can all sway
human hearts from the hard path of Bushidō. However
should a character become a covert agent, they now
serve a secret purpose, and must quickly develop new
skills to stay one step ahead—or face disgrace and a
brutal demise.
Assigned By: Any individual who gives the character
a task that requires them to act against the interests
of their sworn lord (or falsely enter the service of
another lord).
Honor Award: -10 (to a minimum of 25)
XP to Completion: 20
Immediate Effects: Gain the Dark Secret disadvantage.
Practiced Prevaricator (Title Ability): When you make
a check to deceive or hide from someone, you may
negate up to 2 symbols.
dreaded enforcer
In the noblest and most honorable of courts, there
are still those whose hearts bear the stains of wicked
deeds. Even a daimyō who would never give voice to
an order to have a lesser lord killed, or a political rival’s
relative captured to ensure their compliance, might tol-
erate a subordinate who takes such actions of their own
volition (provided it remained deniable). Within the
Scorpion Clan, such individuals act relatively openly.
Within the traditionalist Crane or Lion Clan, such an
individual might be a magistrate whose investigations
are always perfectly legal—and brutal to the full extent
of the law. The role of such individuals varies greatly by
clan, region, and individual lord, but the fundamental
truth remains the same: these agents wield fear against
those who oppose their sworn master.
Assigned By: A lord after they assign the character
to assassinate or otherwise remove someone of Sta-
tus 60 or higher—and the character succeeds!
Honor Award: -10 (to a minimum of 5)
Glory Award: -20 (to a minimum of 15)
XP to Completion: 40
Immediate Effects: Gain the Whispers of Cruelty
disadvantage.
Merciless Eyes (Title Ability): When making a check
to plan an assassination or attack with lethal intent, you
may negate up to 2 symbols.
esteemed negotiator
When the Great Clans of Rokugan stand at the preci-
pice of conflict, they often call upon renowned medi-
ators. The Deer Clan is well-known for its counselors,
but they are hardly the only group that serves this role
in the Emerald Empire. Daimyō in need of impartial
mediators often turn to the Brotherhood of Shinsei,
the Togashi Order, and other organizations known for
their great wisdom or unconventional perspective,
such as the Asako, Ide, Asahina, and Yogo families. To
be called upon as an outside mediator is a great honor,
and those who become renowned at defusing mount-
ing conflicts are ever in demand in the Emerald Empire.
Assigned By: A daimyō or other individual of status
50 or higher who requests the character specifically
as a mediator for a political problem (and the char-
acter’s lord assents to this assignment).
Glory Award: +10 (to a minimum of 65)
XP to Completion: 34
Calming Words (Title Ability): Once per scene, as a
Scheme and Support action, you may reduce the strife
of all characters in the scene by your ranks in Sentiment.
129
CHAPTER 3: GAMES OF DISCOURSECovert Agent
ADVANCE TYPE
TITLE
Social Skills Skl. Grp.
Meditation Skill
= Artful Alibi Technique
= Cadence Technique
= Cunning Distraction Technique
= To Float or Sink Technique
= What’s Yours is Mine TechniqueDread Enforcer
ADVANCE TYPE
TITLE
Martial Skills Skl. Grp.
Medicine Skill
Skulduggery Skill
= Deceitful Strike Technique
= Like a Ghost Technique
= Silent Elimination Technique
= The Stillness of Death TechniqueEsteemed Negotiator
ADVANCE TYPE
TITLE
Social Skills Skl. Grp.
Culture Skill
Government Skill
Sentiment Skill
= Rank 1–3 Earth Shūji Tech. Grp.
= The Ties that Bind Technique
= Treaty Signing TechniqueMatthew Wynn (Order #20055116)
KensHinzen
The most legendary of living duelists in all of Rokugan,
the kenshinzen are an order within the Kakita Duelist
tradition who have achieved a rank of mastery over
iaidō that few can even conceive, drawing their swords
with a fluid speed the swiftest eye can hardly track.
These artists of the sword are highly sought-after as
yōjimbō, advisors, and generals, and any duelist who
faces a kenshinzen lightly is sure to taste defeat.
Assigned By: Two existing kenshinzen, after witness-
ing the character defeating a kenshinzen in a duel.
The character must also have an honor attribute of
65 or higher.
Glory Award: +20 (to a maximum of 75)
XP to Completion: 24
A Single Moment (Title Ability): When you perform
an Attack action that uses a sheathed Razor-Edged
weapon, you may spend as follows:
Void : Your target cannot defend against the damage
from this Attack action unless they spend a Void point.
Any : After you perform this action, you may sheathe
the weapon you used.
Kyuden asaKo
sHieldbearer
Training in venerable weapons that others might
view as archaic, the Shieldbearers of Kyūden
Asako are skilled martial artists who main-
tain a tradition older than the Emerald
Empire itself. The Shieldbearers’
unorthodox fighting style makes
them difficult for many samurai
to engage individually or as a
unit, and their ancient tradi-
tion has proven its worth
each time it has been
tested by attacks
upon their home.
Occasionally, Shieldbearers are assigned to other lords
in the Phoenix Clan and even beyond, for their unique
tactics and keen understanding of defensive fighting
make them excellent yōjimbō and unusual but effective
unit leaders.
Assigned By: The commander of the Kyūden Asako
Shieldbearers when the character joins their ranks.
Glory Award: +5 (to a maximum of 55)
XP to Completion: 40
Time-Tested Defense (Title Ability): After an Attack
action check targeting you fails, the attacker suffers
strife equal to their shortfall.
master artisan
Once in a generation perhaps, a human’s art touches
the divine, stirring the world itself with its clarity of
purpose. There are numerous fables of Kakita artisans
whose final masterworks changed the course of history,
and every artist’s tradition claims some number whose
works reached these heights, establishing their creators
as masters among masters. The Sevenfold Palace is one
location that produces some number of Master Artisans,
but there are other schools and facilities in Rokugan
whose students often lay claim to this title. To take on
130
CHAPTER 3: GAMES OF DISCOURSEKenshinzen
ADVANCE TYPE
TITLE
Martial Skills Skl. Grp.
Social Skills Skl. Grp.
Culture Skill
Sentiment Skill
= Rank 1–5 Close Combat Kata Tech. Grp.
= Rank 1–5 Void Shūji Tech. Grp.
= Tea Ceremony TechniqueKyuden Asako Shieldbearer
ADVANCE TYPE
TITLE
Scholar Skills Skl. Grp.
Martial Arts [Melee] Skill
Martial Arts [Ranged] Skill
Meditation Skill
Tactics Skill
= Rank 1–3 Kata Tech. Grp.
= Cleansing Rite Technique
SHIELDBEARER SHIELD
When a character is
inducted into the ranks
of the Shieldbearers,
the GM can see that
they are gifted with a
small bronze shield.
These have the follow-
ing profile (Range 0,
Damage 2, Deadliness
2, Cumbersome, Dura-
ble, Wargear). When a
character has a readied
small bronze shield,
treat their physical
resistance as 5. As a
Movement and Support
action, if a character
has a shield readied,
they may increase the
TN of Attack action
checks made targeting
them by 1. This persists
until the start of their
next turn.Matthew Wynn (Order #20055116)
the title of Master Artisan is to begin this elusive pur-
suit—to reach the realization that mastery of an art is not
the end of their journey, but the beginning.
Assigned By: Someone of status 75 or higher after
the character performs a great artistic feat for them.
Glory Award: +30 (to a maximum of 80)
XP to Completion: 60
Inspired Creations (Title Ability): When crafting an
item, you may spend as follows:
: The item you create is a singular masterwork.
You must give it a name befitting its status. Once per
game session when making a check that uses the
item, a character may add 1 set to any result of
their choice.
winter court cHamPion
Each year at the Winter Court, samurai take the oppor-
tunity to prove themselves, participating in numerous
challenges, games, and tests. While these events are in
many ways backdrop for the bargains and machinations
on the grand stage of politics, they are hardly unimport-
ant. Becoming a Winter Court Champion offers a char-
acter more than just the accolades of the court for the
remainder of the proceedings. It also gives them unpar-
alleled access to the authorities of Rokugan, includ-
ing the Imperial Court, which is usually sealed away
in Otosan Uchi behind high walls of stone and higher
walls of bureaucracy. Thus, winning a contest at a Win-
ter Court can be a unique opportunity to advance their
clan’s agenda—and one’s own agenda within the clan!
Assigned By: The Emperor or one of their chosen
agents after a character wins one of the major con-
tests at a Winter Court.
Glory Award: +20 (to a maximum of 75)
XP to Completion: 16
Accustomed to Attention (Title Ability): When mak-
ing a check to boast or get people’s attention, you may
negate up to 2 symbols.
seven fold
Palace acolyte
The Seven Fold Palace serves as a proving ground for
skilled artisans of the blade, of armor, and of other arts
as well. Apprentices and journeyman artists toil cease-
lessly amidst the pristine grounds, each someday hop-
ing to achieve the vaunted rank of Master Artisan. The
life of an aspirant is not easy, filled with long hours and
harsh judgment for failed works, but the opportunity
to learn is also unparalleled in Rokugan. Few succeed
in the quest to become a Master Artisan, and yet there
is never any shortage of new students willing to hurl
themselves into this crucible of learning.
Assigned By: One of the masters of the Seven Fold
Palace after the character begins studying there.
Glory Award: +5 (to a maximum of 35)
XP to Completion: 36
First, Forge Yourself (Title Ability): When you make
a check to craft an item, you may suffer a number of
fatigue up to your ranks in Fitness. If you do, change
that many results containing to results.
131
CHAPTER 3: GAMES OF DISCOURSEMaster Artisan
ADVANCE TYPE
TITLE
Artisan Skills Skl. Grp.
Courtesy Skill
Culture Skill
Medicine Skill
Meditation Skill
= All Arts Are One Technique
= Formal Tea Ceremony TechniqueWinter Court Champion
ADVANCE TYPE
TITLE
Artisan Skills Skl. Grp.
Social Skills Skl. Grp.
= Artisan’s Appraisal Technique
= Formal Tea Ceremony Technique
= Fun and Games Technique
= Offend the Sensibilities Technique
= Spiteful Loss TechniqueSeven Fold Palace Acolyte
ADVANCE TYPE
TITLE
Trade Skills Skl. Grp.
Aesthetics Skill
Design Skill
Fitness Skill
Meditation Skill
Smithing Skill
= Artisan’s Appraisal Techniqu