Post by cassusaevum on Jan 10, 2019 13:10:15 GMT -5
Rokugani Court, Intrigue, and Influence
What Is Court?
"Court" in Rokugan is a general term for when a powerful Daimyo hosts other samurai and their retainers at their palace or estates. The nominal reason is one of leisure, and courts normally take place in the winter and the spring, where the poor weather (rains in the spring and snow in the winter) make both war and travel difficult. While leisure is the nominal reason, the actual reason is to play the game of politics. Alliances, betrayals, marriage proposals, duels and more are all the meat and bread (or fish and rice) of a given session of Court. These sessions normally last an entire calendar season and have a formal "kick off" and "closing." There are always sponsored events: tournaments of various kinds, grand balls, and so forth as well as more informal gatherings and opportunities to pursue your goals.
Mechanics
I like to think of Rokugani Court as a place where plots and schemes are hatched over the span of weeks and months. The rules as written abstract this down to the Intrigue system, but I'd like something just slightly more granular to show the rise and potential fall of the characters' triumphs and failures at Court. So, throughout the season of Court, as you engage in INTRIGUES and EVENTS you will have opportunities to earn and spend INFLUENCE.
What Are Intrigues?
Intrigues are a type of conflict (like mass battles, skirmishes, and duels). This means that when you are participating in them, you still do things like choose stances (think of this as your attitude during the Intrigue) and take turns. Initiative order is less important and time is much more abstract. More focus is also placed on the narrative of what is happening.
Resolving Intrigues
Generally speaking, Intrigues are resolved in the following manner:
Our courtly intrigues will be slightly more structured than those presented in the book, as the book is not really set up to deal with a situation that takes place over months and has multiple intrigues going on at one time for any given character.
The Courtly Day
A day of Court will consist of 8 hours of time that can be used pursuing either Intrigues or following Passions or participating in scheduled Events (which sometimes work the same as Intrigues and sometimes do not)
The rest of the day is taken up by eating, sleeping, other necessities, and making sure you're looking your best each and every day for each and every showing at court
In order to keep things simple, you can only pursue a single Intrigue, Passion, or Event in a given Courtly Day. The notion that you can only pursue one of these in a day may be a bit unrealistic, but it is necessary to keep things flowing a little more smoothly.
Court it self will last for a set number of days/weeks. At this moment, I'm thinking this initial Court will last for 30 in-game days. However, if we find things becoming too repetitive or dragging on too much, that might change. Also, bear in mind that there will be other opportunities for traditional "adventures" that take place during court, which could also impact things (if you're away from the court for a week dealing with bandits, I'll tack on some measure of time to how long Court is). The goal is to give you enough time that it's possible to earn enough influence to achieve your daimyo-given objectives and some of your personal objectives while maintaining the pressure of a clock.
Elements of an Intrigue
Considerations
Stances will effect the difficulty of a given task. Spreading rumors is easier (and safer) using Air than Fire, for example. This will be similar to the tournament, except there won't be clues given to pick the right stance. I'll also be keeping a tally of how often you use the various stances. This will start to earn you a reputation at Court for behaving a certain way. That reputation will, at times, help and at other times, hinder.
Advantages and Disadvantages will also effect the difficulty of things. Partly, this will happen in a purely mechanical way - you're advantages and disadvantages may grant you or force you to do re-rolls. But their will be more subtle impacts as well. For example, if you wanted to secure a marriage contract but children hate you, you might have to acquire more momentum, because you may be seen as somewhat unsuitable as "family" material.
Previous relationships will have an impact. If you've interacted with someone before, depending on the nature of that interaction, winning them over will be easier or more challenging
Clan histories will factor in - it might be easier for a Crane to convince a Lion than for that same Crane to convince a Scorpion, for example.
What Are Events?
Simply put, events are the activities that have been scheduled to take place during Court. They will include things as far ranging as dueling tournaments, flower arranging competitions, and grand games of strategy. While events won't take place every day of Court, when they do, if you choose to participate, it will be another way to earn Influence. Most will still be handled as Intrigues, though they will almost all be single-day in terms of how long it takes to complete them.
What Is Influence?
Influence is a supplemental system I'm adding to the game to represent the political capital your characters build (and spend) over the course of a given season of Court. It is an abstraction of the prestige you earn from winning courtly events, the relationships you build, and the benefits of the various intrigues in which you engage. In short, it's your political currency and can be saved or spent according to your wishes (and the rules outlined below). You can think of it as an expanded rewards system for the Intrigue system that gives you some additional options that don't exist in the rules as written.
Starting Influence
You begin the Court season with a number of Influence equal to the tens place of your Status
Gaining Influence
In general, Influence will be a mechanical reward that you are given as a result of engaging in the Intrigue system presented in the rulebook. This reward is in addition to the goal or objective that you set out to achieve.
So, "I want to gain influence" is not, in and of itself, a goal for which you can make a roll. Instead, you would engage in some other task. This can range from the concrete -- "I'm going to participate in the sadane competition that's taking place today" -- to the more abstract -- "I'm going to try and seduce that pretty girl/guy that I met." Either of those specific tasks are resolved using the Intrigue System described above, and each will also have narrative (and in some cases mechanical) effects in addition to the gaining of influence.
There will be other ways to gain influence as well... for example, if you foil an assassination plot, you will gain Influence, even though the actual "foiling" took place outside of an intrigue
Spending Influence
There are 3 basic ways to spend influence:
Pursuing the goals set by your daimyo. Each of you has certain objectives with certain costs. Once you have accumulated the influence to "pay" for one of these goals, you can simply spend the influence and achieve it. We can handle the narrative as a sort of cut scene, or role-play it out depending on what's going on at the time.
Pursuing personal goals. Things may crop up that you want to achieve, and most anything can be achieved by spending influence. Have an unsuccessful courtship but really want to have a marriage proposal accepted? With enough influence, you can make it happen. Hate someone bad enough that you want permission for a duel to the death? Influence is the way to do it.
Re-Rolls. You can spend influence to re-roll dice in Intrigues at the rate of 1 point per die re-rolled.
What Is Court?
"Court" in Rokugan is a general term for when a powerful Daimyo hosts other samurai and their retainers at their palace or estates. The nominal reason is one of leisure, and courts normally take place in the winter and the spring, where the poor weather (rains in the spring and snow in the winter) make both war and travel difficult. While leisure is the nominal reason, the actual reason is to play the game of politics. Alliances, betrayals, marriage proposals, duels and more are all the meat and bread (or fish and rice) of a given session of Court. These sessions normally last an entire calendar season and have a formal "kick off" and "closing." There are always sponsored events: tournaments of various kinds, grand balls, and so forth as well as more informal gatherings and opportunities to pursue your goals.
Mechanics
I like to think of Rokugani Court as a place where plots and schemes are hatched over the span of weeks and months. The rules as written abstract this down to the Intrigue system, but I'd like something just slightly more granular to show the rise and potential fall of the characters' triumphs and failures at Court. So, throughout the season of Court, as you engage in INTRIGUES and EVENTS you will have opportunities to earn and spend INFLUENCE.
What Are Intrigues?
Intrigues are a type of conflict (like mass battles, skirmishes, and duels). This means that when you are participating in them, you still do things like choose stances (think of this as your attitude during the Intrigue) and take turns. Initiative order is less important and time is much more abstract. More focus is also placed on the narrative of what is happening.
Resolving Intrigues
Generally speaking, Intrigues are resolved in the following manner:
- State a Goal or Objective (I think of this as initiating the Intrigue)
- Determine how you're going to go about that goal (this is both your stance and the narrative of how you're going to go about things)
- Role play and "roll play"
- Intrigues are narrative and meant to be about role playing, but there is still mechanical resolution that comes in to play to measure your level of success (or failure). This takes two forms: Simple Intrigues might be resolved in a single roll that requires either a set number of successes or an opposed roll with another character More complex intrigues require Momentum. These are essentially "extended tasks" that require generating a number of successes over time in order to achieve your goals. These are bounded by time - you generally have to get x successes within y narrative time increments to be successful) and the base difficulty depends on what you're attempting to do. For a TN 2, you would need 2 successes to gain 1 momentum and each additional success would count as an additional momentum.
- Resolution - Were you successful? And what was the result? This will sometimes be mechanical (Honor and Glory are often gained and lost during intrigues) and sometimes purely narrative. In our case, however, all successful Intrigues will result in at least some Influence gain. Being successful in your endeavors, whatever they may be, is always viewed favorably by the broader Court, even if it would be viewed negatively by a subset of individuals.
Our courtly intrigues will be slightly more structured than those presented in the book, as the book is not really set up to deal with a situation that takes place over months and has multiple intrigues going on at one time for any given character.
The Courtly Day
A day of Court will consist of 8 hours of time that can be used pursuing either Intrigues or following Passions or participating in scheduled Events (which sometimes work the same as Intrigues and sometimes do not)
The rest of the day is taken up by eating, sleeping, other necessities, and making sure you're looking your best each and every day for each and every showing at court
In order to keep things simple, you can only pursue a single Intrigue, Passion, or Event in a given Courtly Day. The notion that you can only pursue one of these in a day may be a bit unrealistic, but it is necessary to keep things flowing a little more smoothly.
Court it self will last for a set number of days/weeks. At this moment, I'm thinking this initial Court will last for 30 in-game days. However, if we find things becoming too repetitive or dragging on too much, that might change. Also, bear in mind that there will be other opportunities for traditional "adventures" that take place during court, which could also impact things (if you're away from the court for a week dealing with bandits, I'll tack on some measure of time to how long Court is). The goal is to give you enough time that it's possible to earn enough influence to achieve your daimyo-given objectives and some of your personal objectives while maintaining the pressure of a clock.
Elements of an Intrigue
- Momentum Threshold - this is how much momentum is necessary to complete the Intrigue successfully.
- Difficulty - this is the TN of any test you make to gain Momentum
- Cooldown - this is how often you can make a check on this Intrigue. For example, if you are trying to seduce someone, pursuing it every day may end up being counter productive. You may have two wait a couple of days between each check.
- Maximum Time - This is the number of days you have to complete an Intrigue once you have started it
- Influence Award - how much influence will be awarded if you are successful in your task. You will always receive influence if you complete an Intrigue.
Considerations
Stances will effect the difficulty of a given task. Spreading rumors is easier (and safer) using Air than Fire, for example. This will be similar to the tournament, except there won't be clues given to pick the right stance. I'll also be keeping a tally of how often you use the various stances. This will start to earn you a reputation at Court for behaving a certain way. That reputation will, at times, help and at other times, hinder.
Advantages and Disadvantages will also effect the difficulty of things. Partly, this will happen in a purely mechanical way - you're advantages and disadvantages may grant you or force you to do re-rolls. But their will be more subtle impacts as well. For example, if you wanted to secure a marriage contract but children hate you, you might have to acquire more momentum, because you may be seen as somewhat unsuitable as "family" material.
Previous relationships will have an impact. If you've interacted with someone before, depending on the nature of that interaction, winning them over will be easier or more challenging
Clan histories will factor in - it might be easier for a Crane to convince a Lion than for that same Crane to convince a Scorpion, for example.
What Are Events?
Simply put, events are the activities that have been scheduled to take place during Court. They will include things as far ranging as dueling tournaments, flower arranging competitions, and grand games of strategy. While events won't take place every day of Court, when they do, if you choose to participate, it will be another way to earn Influence. Most will still be handled as Intrigues, though they will almost all be single-day in terms of how long it takes to complete them.
What Is Influence?
Influence is a supplemental system I'm adding to the game to represent the political capital your characters build (and spend) over the course of a given season of Court. It is an abstraction of the prestige you earn from winning courtly events, the relationships you build, and the benefits of the various intrigues in which you engage. In short, it's your political currency and can be saved or spent according to your wishes (and the rules outlined below). You can think of it as an expanded rewards system for the Intrigue system that gives you some additional options that don't exist in the rules as written.
Starting Influence
You begin the Court season with a number of Influence equal to the tens place of your Status
Gaining Influence
In general, Influence will be a mechanical reward that you are given as a result of engaging in the Intrigue system presented in the rulebook. This reward is in addition to the goal or objective that you set out to achieve.
So, "I want to gain influence" is not, in and of itself, a goal for which you can make a roll. Instead, you would engage in some other task. This can range from the concrete -- "I'm going to participate in the sadane competition that's taking place today" -- to the more abstract -- "I'm going to try and seduce that pretty girl/guy that I met." Either of those specific tasks are resolved using the Intrigue System described above, and each will also have narrative (and in some cases mechanical) effects in addition to the gaining of influence.
There will be other ways to gain influence as well... for example, if you foil an assassination plot, you will gain Influence, even though the actual "foiling" took place outside of an intrigue
Spending Influence
There are 3 basic ways to spend influence:
Pursuing the goals set by your daimyo. Each of you has certain objectives with certain costs. Once you have accumulated the influence to "pay" for one of these goals, you can simply spend the influence and achieve it. We can handle the narrative as a sort of cut scene, or role-play it out depending on what's going on at the time.
Pursuing personal goals. Things may crop up that you want to achieve, and most anything can be achieved by spending influence. Have an unsuccessful courtship but really want to have a marriage proposal accepted? With enough influence, you can make it happen. Hate someone bad enough that you want permission for a duel to the death? Influence is the way to do it.
Re-Rolls. You can spend influence to re-roll dice in Intrigues at the rate of 1 point per die re-rolled.