Question for everyone.

Can a samurai have positions in two seperate offices at the same time?

For instance in one our games, there is a (Dragon) NPC who is both a Jade and Emerald Magistrate. This allows him to be the superior to PC's from both Emerald & Jade groups and give them orders to work together. Would this be all right as far lore goes? (Additional Information : The Jade and Emerald Champions are both aware and even assigned him the city he is currently responsible for together.)

In another mono-clan game, the group is made up of clan-magistrates but sooner or later they will need to command their clans soldiers for certain military engagements. Can a clan magistrate also have a rank in their clan's armies? (Note: The clan in mention is the Lion if that makes a difference.)

I am not sure if there is any "rule" for this, but what I would say is yes and no.

Can a samurai hold multiple posts / titles? Yes. There is no reason you can't serve multiple roles for your leader provided you can do them all together.

The problem is if the roles have different leaders. These leaders may not always play nice, and may want more of the character's time and efforts for them. That isn't to say you can't just make that part of the tension either! Give him orders from each that slightly differ, see how he plays it. Maybe slip in an order from one that contradicts the other, or provides insight that makes the other order more difficult to complete.

This scene should be relevant I think... (about 3 minutes section)

The bottom line answer is, it's your game, so you can do whatever you want. If this works for you, then go for it!

In the canonical setting, yes, samurai can hold multiple offices--we even have a specific example. Doji Satsume was both Emerald Champion and Crane Clan Champion for several years, before stepping down from the latter and handing it over to his daughter, Hotaru. This would be the exception, though. Samurai are all about doing their duty, and owing a duty to multiple offices and, therefore, multiple lords (unless there's one lord that's a multi-tasker as well) could be a problem--if Shinjo Bob has two offices, A and B, and office A says do X, and office B says do Y, and X and Y aren't compatible activities, then how does Shinjo Bob reconcile this? Generally, this sort of split duty situation would be something everyone would prefer to avoid, so multiple simultaneous appointments would probably only be allowed if there was a really specific reason for it.

In your examples, in the first case, the Emerald and Jade Champs are okay with it, so clearly, there isn't a problem...unless the two Champs disagree, of course. But in that case, the Emerald Champion would have the final say, as he or she outranks the Jade Champion. In the second case, your Magistrate would probably be temporarily relieved of his duties to assume those of a military commander, and then revert back if and when his military duties ended. It would be unusual to have someone expected to perform the duties of a Magistrate while also commanding an army in (one presumes) wartime. Again, it's up to you if that's how it goes in your game, though.

The late (New!) Doji Satsume was both Crane Champion and Emerald Champion. #doublechamp #mayherestinpeace

Thanks all for the replies. Think I got a clear answer for the most part.

I forgot about Doji Satsume but in his case both his superior as a Clan Champion and Emerald Champion is the same person.

Two different people as superiors was my issue in the first case.

More details about the first case is the NPC was assigned to the City of Lies by both champions. He is to defer to the EC in general Law matters and to the JC on magic/maho/etc related matters.

Regarding the second case, here are some examples of the situations I had in mind for our players :

- Large scale Bandit activity in Lion Lands. Magistrates are assigned the duty + task force to wipe them out.

- Surprise Crane or Scorpion attack on Border city, either before or during battle senior officers are killed/assasinated. Can Magistrate be given leadership roles? or even simply take charge (as they doubt the current most senior officer?)