I don't see why you couldn't roll an initiative in your sleep. Actually, I find it very much heroic. We all saw that scene in a movie somewhere!
You still just roll vigilance, and if you don't act first, you are still considered "unconscious" until it is your turn. At least, this is how I play it and how I defined unaware in my houserules.

then again, if you are trying to one-shot a minion... you don't even need to strike, a basic skill check can wipe a pack of them in narrative scenes as per the skill rules.

we are talking about trying to kill a main protagonist here.

you need skill (to sneak in), a good initiative(make sure you beat the other dude's vigilance), and probably Veiled Menace Kata to make sure the job is done right.
basically; Air

1 hour ago, Avatar111 said:

then again, if you are trying to one-shot a minion... you don't even need to strike, a basic skill check can wipe a pack of them in narrative scenes as per the skill rules.

we are talking about trying to kill a main protagonist here.

Arguably the PCs are the protagonists and no-one else is, unless there are "GM PCs" - and those should probably not be played as protagonists either.

Being unconscious prohibits making checks that represent agency (p. 273). Rolling initiative is "seeking to get [your] bearings in the conflict" (p. 250), which sounds like agency to me.

It's just another one of those things the rules are fuzzy on. Handle it the way you think works best for you, there's no rules-as-written mechanic here.

8 hours ago, JBento said:

I'm away from books, but doesn't Unconscious (which you are if you are sleeping) have something to say about making rolls?

Note that you can (and should) spend a Void point in this situation to immediately wake up and not get ganked, which brings about the old discussion "but do NPCs have Void points unless otherwise stated?" A daimyo sounds like someone who would have Void points, though.

Yes the book does say that unconscious character can still make roll to resist effects. That should include resisting critical strikes.

Actually, as far as I’ve seen, you always can resist effects and crits unless specified in the effect itself.

On 3/11/2019 at 12:58 PM, Zolt51 said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but I did not see anywhere in RAW mechanics to handle attacking unaware foes.

We ruled it that the target cannot defend and thus automatically receives a critical strike if the attack is successful but the results, at least at low level seem pretty underwhelming. At worst it can result in 2 critical strikes, that add up to either a severe or permanent injury - but you're left with the victim still standing, at full endurance and pretty pissed at you.

Did I miss anything?

We ruled the same way. Worked good when a Cat clan ninja... err.... shinobi ambushed our heroes.