So creating this character took me a few days because of work and schedules (also why did they release this the same week as the card game? I need more time digest both games ugh!). It's been quite the experience and here's some of my thoughts and feelings.

I love the Crane so I decided to go the Doji route. I usually make Kakita bushi, but wanted to be a little more political, especially after reading about strife and outbursts. That just seems like a lot of fun to deal with. So these are my thoughts for the character I'll play during the playtest.

Family, Clan, Class

She's your typical, gorgeous, Crane Doji Courtier.

Ancestry

I rolled Stolen Knowledge. My DM said that my secret knowledge is a scroll about Maho that has been passed down through the family after being discovered. So basically, I'm walking around with an immediate death sentence. I rolled a 1-3 on the D10, so now I need to pick a kata.

Ninjo and Giri

Her Ninjo is the desire to marry for love. I created a campaign around the idea of Iweko Miaka wanting to marry to love, so this is kind of a tribute to that character from before the reset. I didn't have any solid details for this when I initially selected it, but see advantage below for how this got fleshed out.

I am still working on details of the Giri, but it will definitely surround Diplomacy for the Crane clan. I'm going to talk to the DM about this one.

Selecting my rings

I'm obviously going to get Air to 3 right off the bat. The bigger question is Water 3, or use that point elsewhere. As for leveling up, it might be easier to put points into Void so I can more easily raise all my rings as I get experience, but the adventure won't last that long for now (I know, meta reasoning).

As I read more and more rules, I kept coming back to my decisions with the rings. As a character who might be arguing in the courts a lot, I didn't want to be outbursting all the time. But there are ways to mitigate strife. So I went back on forth on adding some points into fire/earth for Composure reasons.

I settled on Air 3, Earth 1, Fire 1, Water 3, and Void 2

Skills

Skills weren't as difficult for my character. I do have some mild potential concerns with the Design and Aesthetics skills, as I think they can heavily overlap, but we'll see what happens in terms of gameplay. I plan to get some Sentiment pretty quick, maybe even first experience that is handed out. I decided on --

Aesthetics 1, Design 1, Martial Arts (Ranged) 1, Courtesy 2, Culture 2, Government 1.

Advantages and Disadvantages

I'm going to be honest, this is not what I was expecting from advantages and disadvantages, but I am quite happy about it. This actually helped round out my character a bit. I really dig how these helped shape my character's background and personality.

Subtle Observer distinction gives me a few ideas of her attitude in the courts. Observant, seeing what others are doing, and picking up information along the way. Her Ancestry is Stolen Knowledge, so combining the two, I imagine her family is raised to be careful when they speak, and to gather knowledge from others. So one kind of feeds the other, which I like a lot. And yes, the Stolen Knowledge was rolled, blah.

Bitter Betrothal is the adversity, which feeds into the reason she wants to marry for love. This ended up being too perfect. I had a character concept and was able to immediately pick an adversity that goes along with it. So this will feed her Ninjo.

Ikebana passion made me immediately realize my character is going to be obsessed with floral design, combining this with the Design skill. This will be a way for her to open discussion with anyone she wants, as many decorate their homes with such. And she'll always be seen wearing a freshly plucked rose. Except maybe during the Winter Court time...But I'll find a way.

Dangerous Allure still trying to decide on this one...as it's fire based and I don't use a lot of fire. But it would represent her beauty. Hmmmmmm.

Shuji

Cadence (thanks for suggesting this!), Lady Doji's Decree

I'm still working on Kata's and Shuji, but I want to read every one of them before I make a decision. I'd appreciate your input on those.

Would it not be good if you had at least one skill rank in Aestetics to support your passion for ikebana?

Of the three Shuji you can pick as a fresh Doji diplomat shallow waters seems like by far the best fit for her since it's about getting information while the others are about sharing it.

WRT skills it looks like you only took four from your school, you can get a point in aesthetics, composition or design.

Does she have any disagreements with her clans beliefs or Bushido tennents? You can possibly get some other skills that way.

You're also missing your anxiety and your advantage (or disadvantage and skill) from the person significant to you. Irrepressible flirtation might suit the character (or not, you know her better than I do) or perfectionism for her art perhaps?

Also, wouldn't Meiling with its very Chinese sounding, could be considered a Gaijin Name?

You are missing one Advantage (or a Disadvantage+Skill). Did you do the "relationship with a character and an advantage that was born from it" step?

22 hours ago, marshzd said:

She's your typical, gorgeous, Crane Doji Courtier

By the way, if gorgeousness is full part of the character concept, shouldn't you materialize this by an advantage?

Else nothing is really supposed to set her physical attractiveness apart. Even being Crane born.

I made changes to the original post based on feedback.

As per the suggestions, I have taken aesthetics as I apparently had an extra skill to pick. That fits her flower adoration better.

I put Dangerous Allure as a placeholder, I will probably make my own advantage. I totally missed step 13 so I also need to select another skill point, which will go into either aesthetics or one of the social skills. I will have the mentor be someone who taught her how to magnify her beauty. So that all works out.

I selected my starting Shuji finally.

Also, I rolled my ancestry trait, so that's been updated on the character sheet.

Thanks SO much for your feedback guys!

She definitely need to meet the folks I created in this topic

Or maybe not...

For a giri what about she is expected to marry someone out of clan to seal some kind of deal between the Crane and that clan?