This new rules set comes with an opportunity to have a new direction for some of the Great families and their schools.

I’ve always felt that the Lion should have Diplomats that were masters of brokering treaties and that the concept of Bards (storytellers) and people that give people gifts from exotic lands was better suited to the Unicorn.

The Crane should have a Courtier with the Ikoma’s technique of calming down and angering people.

The Lion should have a Diplomat with techniques centered around declaring war legally and negotiating ceasefires, surrenders, and treaties.

The Unicorn should have a Bard with the Crane’s gift-giving focus and technique, and maybe something about telling stories - especially given their Clan is the one that will have stories of adventures from far-off, distant places.

The Crane invented the rules of social interaction, so they should be masters of using it to their advantage and frustrating those that don’t know the game as well as they do. “ Always be polite to your enemies; nothing angers them more” (Oscar Wilde), has always been something I felt was a cornerstone of the Crane. It certainly seemed to be at the root of the Kakita/Matsu rivalry.

”The Schools of the Crane Clan inculcate proper decorum in all their students no matter their primary curriculum” ... “No one plays the game of Court better than the Crane - after all, their Clan wtote the rules”. (pg 34).

The technique given to the Lion seems to embody this more than what the Crane have.

I love that the Lion are now focused on their mastery of leadership, and so I feel like their Courtiers should be Diplomats that allow them to take military action legally, and to broker treaties. I would love to see the “Lawyered” term (from How I Met Your Mother) used by players playing Lion Diplomats when they corner some poor sap into taking an action they didn’t want to take but are now bound to do.

With regard to the idea of a Unicorn Bard, try this on for size: ”Without ever breaking their perfect etiquette, the [Unicorn Bards] ensure that none can forget the grandeur and magnanimity of the [Unicorn] Clan, and that every favour is returned to the [Unicorn] tenfold”.

I’d love to have others test out what happens if you swap the Techniques of these schools. Does it affect how the character is played? If so, what were the results?

12 hours ago, Razorgirl said:

I’d love to have others test out what happens if you swap the Techniques of these schools. Does it affect how the character is played? If so, what were the results?

Don't forget the general driven-by-story out-of-clan permission:

Quote

If you wish for your character to study at another school, ask your GM’s permission and work out a set of circumstances that have allowed for your character to study at another school.

If another clan school narratively suits the clan's courtiers better from your and your GM's perspective on the setting, use that one when creating your character.

So what do they actually do?

• Doji Diplomats generate many opportunities (rather than generating success or failure directly). At low levels (rank 1) it's essentially an extra void point with a few conditions; you can only use it to generate opportunity, but you get to commit it after rolling dice so it's never 'wasted'. How good it is depends on what you can do with said opportunity (it's only once per scene but it's a very flexible talent, especially when paired with Shuji), and it's something done without worring about strife (very crane-like, to me)
• Kitsuki Investigators are....yeah. That's an incredibly focused school talent. Are you doing investigation? Yes - awesome. Otherwise move on. It's not really an intrigue class in the way the other three are.
• Ikoma Bards are incredibly powerful in a more combative intrigue - when you've got an objective like Undermine [character] (or are trying to stop such an objective). That, again, feels pretty fire/lion-appropriate
• Bayushi Manipulators feel very appropriate. Getting 1+ extra rerolls whenever exploiting a weakness is extremely scorpion.

I could see Unicorn courtiers using the Bard template. Equally, I could see Lion diplomats - frankly anyone's diplomats if they're actually being diplomatic rather than using aggressive negotiation (bard) or blackmail/exploitation (manipulator) - using the Doji template.

Ultimately what you chose to do in your game is up to you. However I expect the tone/focus/roles of each courtier will remain as is, if only because this game is being made along side a card game that is going to be basing cards off those roles. I would probably focus on the actual mechanics for improvement rather than setting and theme like this simply for that reason, as these aren't likely to change in Beta.