03: High Spirits

I am assuming you would have at least politely acknowledge Kakita Riku when you approach them. Based on your check you get a read that both of them are in fairly good spirits and are beginning to enjoy the evening.

If you want to check what your character recalls about the selection process for the tournament you can make a TN 1 Government(Earth) check

I'll roll, in case Aki mentions something later ;)

success with strife 2x
opportunity with strife 1x...

not very happy about the extra strife.... If anyone mentions it... I'll take 2 strife and use the opportunity to determine why would a minor clan such as the mantis be even invited

Yoshi will take a point of Strain from the insult. If Yoshi does not respond to the insult they will loose a point of Glory (your choice whether to or not)

You will all take another point of Strife from the insults and if you do not respond you will lose a point of Glory (no one has lost any glory so far). Whilst the rolls you are making would help in a normal social encounter these Ronin are not reacting to such civilized interactions as you'd normally expect

Ah the joys of running pre-written scenarios! Just wanted to say I don't normally like to constrain things as much as this scene has but I'm trying to run through the scenario pretty straight so it'll be a tad 'rail-roady' in places.

Each of the ronin are armed but none of them are pulling weapons, seeming to be happy with their fists. You will all be facing off against a single ronin.

Ok, this is our first proper Skirmish. During a Skirmish characters will act in order of initiative, from highest to lowest, with ties being broken by PC's (in the event of a tie between PC's the character with the highest honor score will go first). So to start off we'll need an Initiative check, can everyone please make a TN 1 Tactics check, the ring you use for the check will determine the Stance you will start the battle in (see below) and your Initiative score will be equal to any bonus successes you get plus your characters Vigilance equal to your Vigilance if you fail the check, if you pass it will be equal to your Vigilance plus 1 for succeeding plus an amount equal to any bonus successes on the Tactics check.

Ok, got that slightly out. I've corrected it above but if you don't succeed it's simply equal to your Vigilance

Initiative Track
Kashita - 6!
Yoshi - 2
Aki - ?

The TN of Kashita's first check against this Ronin is reduced by 1.

Initiative Track
Kashita - 6
Ronin - 4
Aki - 3
Yoshi - 2

You are all currently unarmed so could attack with your fists or try to kick the ronin using the Strike action (see below) or try to ready a weapon of some sort (improvised or otherwise). Those of you who have Opportunities from your initiative check can spend one to ready a weapon (either an improvised one or could say you had a boken (practice sword) in the possessions you brought with you).

Sequence for a round in a Skirmish is first you choose whether you are staying in your current stance (in this case it is whatever Ring you used on the Initiative check) or changing to a different Stance. Then you can Move and perform an Action (in either order). I've noted the Strike action below, other Skirmish Actions are listed on page 263 of the rule book but if you don't have access to it just tell me what you are thinking of doing and I'll give the details of the Action that seems most appropriate.

Kashita is up first.

As this is our first combat I'm going to walk through things a bit more openly than I might normally.

That attack deals 2 damage to the ronin. They are wearing no armor and have no other means of reducing the damage. As they are not Incapacitated they will instinctively defend (twisting to reduce the impact) taking 2 fatigue in the process. As their Endurance score is 5 they do not become Incapacitated (you need to get an opponents Fatigue above their Endurance for them to become Incapacitated)

Hope that's clear (has taken me a bit to get it straight in my head). Feel free to ask any questions if there's any part of that which doesn't make sense.

I'm going to roll for the Ronin below and then narrate what happens in a separate post.

Ok all of the Ronin switch to Fire stance so if they succeed on their attack they will gain an extra bonus success per Strife symbol on their kept dice. Dice rolls are as follows:

On Aki: Ring dice - 1(Blank) 1(Blank), Skill Die - 1(Blank)
On Kashita: Ring dice - 1(Blank) 5(Success), Skill Die - 7(Success and Strife)
On Yoshi: Ring dice - 2(Opportunity and Strife) 4(Success and Strife), Skill Die - 9(Success)

TN for the Strike action to hit is 2.

On Aki the Ronin get's nothing regardless on how many dice they keep so it's a miss.

On Kashita whilst the Ronin could keep dice for two successes their TN for the Strike is increased by 1 due to Kashita being in Air stance so they cannot hit them (as the Strife only count as bonus successes if the attack hits). They will keep the Ring die with the single success.

On Yoshi they will keep all of the dice to get a total of 1 x Opportunity, 2 x Strife, and 2 x Successes. So that meets the TN and does 1 base damage, due to them being in Fire Stance that get's increased to 3 damage due to the kept Strife and they will use the Opportunity to activate their 'Sit down child!' ability which knocks Yoshi down. They need to spend their Movement on their next action to stand and suffer 1 Strife from the embarrassment. As Yoshi has no way to reduce the damage they will take 3 fatigue as they try to defend against it.

Ronin Condition Track
Ronin on Aki: 0 fatigue (5 Endurance), 0 strife (6 Composure)
Ronin on Kashita: 2 fatigue (5 Endurance), 0 strife (6 Composure)
Ronin on Yoshi: 0 fatigue (5 Endurance), 2 strife (6 Composure)

Aki and Yoshi to go....

2 Successes, nothing else

Assuming you are keeping dice for 1 x opportunity, 2 x success (incl the exp succ), and 1 x strife and that you are using the Opportunity to offset the Strife unless you want to do something else with it?

As your attack just met the TN you only do the base damage of 1 for using your fist and again as the Ronin does not have any way to reduce the damage they take 1 x fatigue.

Ronin Condition Track
Ronin on Aki: 0 fatigue (5 Endurance), 0 strife (6 Composure)
Ronin on Kashita: 2 fatigue (5 Endurance), 0 strife (6 Composure)
Ronin on Yoshi: 1 fatigue (5 Endurance), 2 strife (6 Composure)

Aki to go....

As your attack just met the TN you only do the base damage of 1 for using your fist and again as the Ronin does not have any way to reduce the damage they take 1 x fatigue.

Ronin Condition Track
Ronin on Aki: 1 fatigue (5 Endurance), 0 strife (6 Composure)
Ronin on Kashita: 2 fatigue (5 Endurance), 0 strife (6 Composure)
Ronin on Yoshi: 1 fatigue (5 Endurance), 2 strife (6 Composure)

Kashita to go....

wasn't it 2x opportunity + 2 x success (incl the exp succ) + 2 x strife (with opportunities canceling the strifes?
I could eventually decrease my strife with the Blood of the Kami ability, but I'm not sure how that works...

Was basing it on what you originally had on your post, you must have been editing it as I was posting so I didn't see the revised post. Will rejig the post and get it updated later.

The Blood of the Kami adds an extra ring die to your pool showing 1 x Opportunity result (so you don't roll it) you can then decide whether you want it to be one of your kept dice or not but you still can't exceed your ring value in kept dice (not including extra dice from Explosive Successes though)

right, so in this case I can keep 3 + the opportunity and strife (re-rolled 2), or is it 3 + the actual exploding die (6)?

I thought even with exploded dice, you still can't keep more than your ring value. Am I wrong?

No that's not quite right. The way you work out your kept dice pool is as follows:

1) Roll your Skill and Ring Dice as appropriate for your Skill and Approach
2) Add any other dice to your pool from any other abilities (such as 'Blood of the Kami')
3) Before re rolling any exploding dice work out which dice you are keeping from your initial roll plus extra dice. The maximum number of dice you can usually keep at this point is equal to the value of the Ring you used in the check but can be amended for other factors (i.e. Certain school abilities, spent Void Points, etc)
4) Once you have worked out your Kept dice pool roll any extra dice for any Explosive Successes in your Kept pool (you do not re roll any that you did not keep)
5) You can decide to add any of those to your Kept pool even if that means your number of Kept dice exceeds your Ring value. If any of the additional dice you keep also roll Explosive successes you can roll additional dice for those as well and, dependent on the results, choose whether to add them to your pool of kept dice.

So in the example of your roll you got the following:

Ring Dice: 3 (Opportunity), 4 (Success and Strife), 6 (Explosive Success, Strife)
Skill Dice: 5 (Opportunity)
Breath of the Kami Dice: * (Opportunity)

So out of the above you can keep 3 dice, if one of the dice you keep is the Explosive Success then you can roll an additional die and add it to your kept pool if you want to even if that means you exceed 3 kept dice.

One other thing to remember is you only need to keep a minimum of 1 dice, can be useful in situations where you roll lots of Strife and a Blank die and don't want to risk unmasking.

Does that clear it all up? Just let me know how you're managing your dice pool for the next check and I'll redo the post with the result of it before moving on.

Yeah they just keep exploding but as noted above you only re roll for an exploding die if you are keeping it and you are also not under any obligation to keep any of the extra dice you roll as part of keeping an explosive success.

sounds good :)

Yes, thanks

The Ronin on Kashita is now Incapacitated (see below) and obviously out of the fight for the time being.

Ronin Condition Track
Ronin on Aki: 1 fatigue (5 Endurance), 0 strife (6 Composure)
Ronin on Kashita: 7 fatigue (5 Endurance), 0 strife (6 Composure) - Incapacitated
Ronin on Yoshi: 1 fatigue (5 Endurance), 2 strife (6 Composure)

Rolls for Ronin, results to follow.....

On Aki: Ring dice - 2(Opportunity and Strife) 6(Explosive Success and Strife), Skill Die - 4(Opportunity), Explosive Success Die - 2(Opportunity and Strife)
On Yoshi: Ring dice - 2(Opportunity and Strife) 5(Success), Skill Die - 8(Success)

TN for the Strike action to hit is 2. If the Ronin succeed they may add a number of bonus successes equal to the amount of Strife on the dice due to being in Fire Stance

On Aki: Ronin keeps the 6 Ring die (Explosive Success and Strife) and rolls again before determining final dice pool. As they can't get any more successes from keeping any other dice they will just keep the one and take a point of Strife
On Yoshi: Ronin keeps all three dice for a total of 2 x successes, 1 x Opportunity, and 1 x Strife. They hit for 2 Damage (1 from the 'weapon' for meeting the TN of 2, 1 for the kept point of Strife (Fire Stance)) which will translate to two points of Fatigue and they will use the Opportunity to activate their 'Sit down child!' ability again which knocks Yoshi down (need to spend your Movement on your next action to stand and suffer 1 Strife).

Where is everyone at now in terms of Strife and Fatigue?

Stances
Yoshi: Earth
Aki: Fire
Kashita: Air

Ronin Condition Track
Ronin on Aki: 1 fatigue (5 Endurance), 1 strife (6 Composure)
Ronin on Yoshi: 1 fatigue (5 Endurance), 3 strife (6 Composure)

PC's turn....

so a earth stance doesn't prevent him from knocking me? :( I hoping not to meet the friendly floor again...
I'm fatigue 5/10 and strife 9/10

so that's one opportunity, one blank and one opportunity plus strife. The strife ignored and I have an extra opportunity from the blood of the kami ability. Because my ring is void, I keep 2 dice... what is the point of critical striking the ronin? The alternative will be to recover two strife

My bad - I've amended to post to reflect that he didn't but you down again.

The deadliness of a kick is 1 and a punch is 2. In crit terms They are the same severity and would inflict a 'Close Call' which other than damaging their armor (if they were wearing any) doesn't do anything. I can't see anything in the main rulebook to suggest inflicting multiple crits would increase the severity of any subsequent crits so there's probably not much point in spending the opportunities like that in this fight.

Last thing, according to the Strike action you can only spend the 2 x Opportunities if you succeed on the check

Yup, seven bonus successes for a total of 8 damage!

Ronin Condition Track
Ronin on Aki: 9 fatigue (5 Endurance), 1 strife (6 Composure) - incapacitated
Ronin on Yoshi: 1 fatigue (5 Endurance), 3 strife (6 Composure)

Kashita to go....

Well you're both moving about (it's not like you're just standing still, taking turns to punch one another) but if there's something different you want to try just let me know and I'll try and work out the equivalent action for it. Remember you are just starting out and have only just hopefully finished your schooling

I suppose I'd have taken a earth stance instead, seeing that avoids the humiliation of being knocked down, if that is ok :D

ahah I meant that, taking a earth stance and being hit pretty much looks like just standing there looking like a punching bag :D which is very monkly

Quick bump - Kashita is up.....

Yoshi peacefully awaits to be punched... yet again :D

just sayin... but Yoshi was too busy being a punch bag to notice ;)

Just to clarify the -Kun suffix is used by persons of senior status in addressing or referring to those of junior status, something you would all be used to.

Does anyone have anything more they want to do in this scene or shall we move things along?

not that I can think of for now

Okay, so I'm not sure how magic in this game works. From what I understood, you're basically asking the spirits for favors right? Would it be possible for me to ask a spirit to watch over Hitoshi during the night and alert me if something's happening?
And how would that work if it works?

Ok, going to draw this Scene to a close at this point. I'll pick up the above query from Bowlofspinach in the OOC thread and we also have some housekeeping to undertake as this is the point in the beginner game where some XP would be allocated!