I'm coming up with another character concept, and I was wondering how best to make the story align with Rokugan's culture and laws. Here's the basics:

The character was born to a family of peasants, the third of six kids, but suffering from a few severe physical handicaps: hunchbacked, one-legged, cataracts blinding one eyes, and a freakishly large left-arm that's only gotten stronger through working the farm. Despite this, his parents raised him anyway rather than leaving him exposed as a baby to die. He's managed to become an efficient and tough part of the community, despite his handicaps.

One day, while out in the rice paddies, he happened upon the son of his village's lord trying to force themselves on one of his cousins. Not knowing who the man was at the time, he thrashed him senseless before his cousin revealed just who her attacker was.

The basics of the original concept is that he left home with his peg leg and his family's second-best axe to become a wandering hero (in this case, he'd probably become a ronin). The problem is that I'm not sure how well this story would mesh into Rokugan's legal system. The original concept was written with more traditional European-based medieval fantasy in mind, where an individual peasant who did this would most likely just be hung for this if they didn't run off and become an outlaw, but heimin in Rokugan have a lot more to worry about in terms of collective punishment. Clearly this guy would be executed, probably painfully, for assaulting the son of his lord, if only on principle alone, but running away doesn't solve the problem for his family, as they would probably be executed as well, whether or not he was found among them, with even the entire village potentially suffering if the local lord was feeling mean (especially considering the guy turns a blind eye to his son sexually assaulting the village women). So would this misshapen but noble-hearted ronin even be a viable concept in Rokugan, or would this story only end in tears with him, and possibly his entire family, being brutally killed for his act of heroism?

Uhhh, I hate to be that guy , but... I'm going to go with "only ends in tears."

I mean, you should probably take as a given that at least some of his family will be executed. And he obviously can't "blend in" and hide in a way that means he wouldn't be recognized.

It's going to be extremely hard for him to pass himself off as a ronin without some indication that he's of the samurai caste. Probably should include him stealing this boy's katana.

Whether he could find a place that would accept him at all... Forest killers, maybe? If he's brutal enough. I think he'd have an extremely hard time finding acceptance unless he could probably kill anyone that tries to take him down.

Best bet: kill 20 goblins and bring their heads to the Crab. The general rule, when there's a 20-Goblin Winter, is that if you can kill 20 goblins, the Crab accept you into their clan, no questions asked, your past left behind.

I honestly figured the 20-Goblin Winter was the best way to ensure his survival. Even if he did join the Crab Clan through that method, would that protect him from retaliation from his former lord and his son? I mean, obviously the son would have a vendetta against him anyway, but would he have to pursue it on his own or could he just have his dad tell the Crab Clan "Your newly-recruited samurai assaulted my son, we demand you order him to commit seppuku immediately!"

To answer the follow up - yeah probably, that guy is a Crab now, and you leave your old life behind entirely. Crab don't really stand on politicking most times, and one who has survived the 20 Goblin Winter is a valuable tool.

But, to answer the original question, there's one other place you could get away with this - the land of the Dragon. Dragon Magistrates tend to follow Kitsuki's Method and way of thinking - that physical evidence trumps the social weight of testimony. They will even hold an actual trial which involves presenting and explaining of evidence and testimony. Thus, if the weight of evidence was on the side of our hapless peasant here, a Dragon magistrate might actually rule in favor of the peasant, not the samurai. But the samurai in question also probably wouldn't be punished very harshly because peasants are important but not as legally protected as samurai. This would incentivize our young soul with more virtue than sense to get out of dodge, because if the young man or his father decides to see how sharp their swords are probably not a lot would come of that either.

6 minutes ago, UnitOmega said:

To answer the follow up - yeah probably, that guy is a Crab now, and you leave your old life behind entirely. Crab don't really stand on politicking most times, and one who has survived the 20 Goblin Winter is a valuable tool.

But, to answer the original question, there's one other place you could get away with this - the land of the Dragon. Dragon Magistrates tend to follow Kitsuki's Method and way of thinking - that physical evidence trumps the social weight of testimony. They will even hold an actual trial which involves presenting and explaining of evidence and testimony. Thus, if the weight of evidence was on the side of our hapless peasant here, a Dragon magistrate might actually rule in favor of the peasant, not the samurai. But the samurai in question also probably wouldn't be punished very harshly because peasants are important but not as legally protected as samurai. This would incentivize our young soul with more virtue than sense to get out of dodge, because if the young man or his father decides to see how sharp their swords are probably not a lot would come of that either.

Agree 100% regarding the Crab. While it may not stop the lord or the son from trying to take revenge, the Crab would be extraordinarily unlikely to turn him over. So it wouldn't protect him from a knife in the back, but definitely would from more "legal" methods of trying to take him.

As to the Dragon, the trial pre-supposes there was a wrong committed. While to our modern sensibilities, that's fairly obvious, that wouldn't be so clear in a "peasants are quasi-property" scenario. If the peasant woman worked the lands of the lord, anyone harming her would answer to that lord. If the lord is willing to see this vengeance through for his son, is it really arguable that he'd also agree his property was damaged in such a way that would give a legal defense to the prospective character.

So I don't disagree than in a more modern or progressive Rokugan, the Kitsuki could be of help to the character. But the way peasants are presented in the setting, it doesn't seem likely that "defense of others" would work when the "other" may not have even had a right to defend herself.

5 hours ago, Hida Jitenno said:

But the way peasants are presented in the setting, it doesn't seem likely that "defense of others" would work when the "other" may not have even had a right to defend herself.

This.

It's a perfectly logical response, but - at least where the peasant is a vassal of the family that produced the young noble trying to force himself on her, it's questionable what rights you have unless the current lord themselves is prepared to intervene. Remember that a samurai can basically kill any peasant at any time for any reason.

8 hours ago, Archpaladin Zousha said:

The original concept was written with more traditional European-based medieval fantasy in mind, where an individual peasant who did this would most likely just be hung for this if they didn't run off and become an outlaw, but heimin in Rokugan have a lot more to worry about in terms of collective punishment. Clearly this guy would be executed, probably painfully, for assaulting the son of his lord, if only on principle alone, but running away doesn't solve the problem for his family, as they would probably be executed as well, whether or not he was found among them, with even the entire village potentially suffering if the local lord was feeling mean (especially considering the guy turns a blind eye to his son sexually assaulting the village women). So would this misshapen but noble-hearted ronin even be a viable concept in Rokugan, or would this story only end in tears with him, and possibly his entire family, being brutally killed for his act of heroism?

If you want a suitable inspiration, I might point you at the Raymond Feist character Erik von Darkmoor , as the character's origin - at least as an 'adventurer' - is pretty similar with one key difference. The short version:

• Erik is the illegitimate son of the local lord. He is (in the setting) acknowledged enough by his father to be allowed to use the family name (hence the 'von') although he's still considered a peasant, lives with his mothers' family, and has no contact with his father.
  • obviously the use of a samurai family name would be a no-no in Rokugan as family names are a huge thing, and the right to use one is the distinction between two grades of buke (ji-samurai and 'full' samurai), let alone peasants.
  • Nevertheless, an illegitimate child " that absolutely everyone knows is the son of the local lord not that anyone dares actually say that" is not that unlikely.
• He's moderately successful by peasant standards (I believe he's a smith's apprentice)
• He comes across the lord's son (i.e. his half-brother) assaulting a woman he cares about (picking her largely for this reason; his half-brother hates him but won't attack him directly because of his father)
• Obviously, Erik finds out about this (he's supposed to) and goes to intervene. What actually happens is that he kills his brother in what is more-or-less self defence but since he went looking for him, armed himself, and pretty much knew what he was going to find, there's no way a court would believe that. To add further trouble, he finds out later that his father has just died and his brother was doing this to 'celebrate' - which is a problem since that means that at the point he killed him, his brother was legally the baron, bringing the King's Justice into the matter and basically preventing any possibility of a fair trial.

If I was adapting the character for Rokugan:

• You're right that if a heimin beats the stuffing out of a samurai, they're dead, especially if they don't finish the job as the samurai's testimony is, in the eyes of the law, an unassailable version of what happened. The samurai has the authority to kill them right then and there but if they want to 'do it properly' the result will be exactly the same.
  • Running away makes sense. I would suggest that running away when you're a half-blind, too blatantly obvious to blend into a crowd, and have a peg-leg, you're not going to get very far.
• You're also right that some level of retribution might well fall on the family.
  • A good idea might be to make the character an adopted orphan, either raised by a specific family, or, maybe better, by the village as a whole (or at least, as a young child by an elderly peasant who's now dead). The lord could in theory still decide to massacre everyone in the village, but if they're not pants-on-head crazy, and not a complete git, then they're more likely to accept that heimin shouldn't be held accountable for the actions of other heimin that they're not actually related to .
  • If they're an orphan, you can still potentially work in the back-story element of the boy being of samurai blood.
• You need some claim to samurai status.
  • The child being crippled might be why they were abandoned to die of exposure, before being found by a.n.other peasant. That way round arguably works just as well if the character's mother is samurai; and the parents took one look at the cripple and announced "died at birth" to the world.
  • You need to either be samurai, and convince someone else (truthfully or not) that you are samurai, in order to be ronin. Peasants aren't ronin, they're just armed bandits.
  • You need to be ronin in order to take part in a twenty-goblin-winter, after which you're allowed to become Hida (well, technically normally Moshibaru no Hida but as far as any non-crab is concerned it's the same thing).
• Someone probably needs to decide to help you. You're not going to be able to just thump the lord's son and run, and the victim (being also a hiemin) doesn't count.
  • That could be the lord (if the child is an illegitimate son) and they don't want to kill off their son, even if they're not willing to acknowledge them.
    • If the illegitimate son kills the legitimate one, then the lord has an awkward situation that if they pursue justice they are left with no heir. Exiling but not killing the illegitimate son as a ronin leaves open the possibility that they may be able to redeem themselves and come back some day.
  • It could be someone else who's decided that what you did was the right thing. Critically, that someone probably needs to be of samurai status themselves and able in some way to avoid retribution for the lord.
    • Something like a local monk or priest (who's fully aware of what a vicious little bugger the son was), since they might not be a vassal to the lord.
    • A local samurai is unlikely to have sufficient status to gainsay the lord's heir's version of events, especially if they weren't present, and even if they were, then if they're the lord's vassal, if they say "you're not giving testimony" they have no choice.
      • An extreme idea is if one of the lord's vassals was prepared to commit seppuku in protest to executing the character; especially if they reveal that the peasant is actually their son, and pointing out that the lord knows exactly what his son was doing and why he got beaten up. That might well shock the lord into thinking twice, makes the character not 'a peasant' in the eyes of the samurai (so there's no logical reason for retribution at the villagers), and might result in exile-as-a-ronin as a result.
      • That gives you an interesting backstory of a samurai retainer who was always a touch more compassionate than the rest of the lord's bushi essentially protesting the execution to the lord, up to and including seppuku, and when asked by the character " why ", has the answer " because it was the right thing to do, and because I'm your father/mother " as last words.

Largely agreed with all here, but the Crab way out is too obvious.

Instead of peasant, make the parents a minor samurai, buke, who are guards of the peasant's out on the rice paddy. Everyone knows who's kid he actually is, even if he lives with the peasants and works the farm, being deemed unsuitable for the Samurai.

Have the boy's parents show up demanding the peasant be killed, only to find he has a wakisashi. He tells everyone what happened (**** of a peasant is NOT something a samurai can just get away with. it violates bushido. killing for a reason, maybe. ****? **** no.) and the boy denys it and challenges him to a duel, feeling like he can defeat this deformed thing easily. They duel, and in a quick easy blow, your character takes his hand. You are taken to a school to properly learn to fight, your natural prowess being apparent, and proven right through the trial of combat. The boy is dishonored, but allowed to live and work to reclaim honor. Boom, built in nemesis who will be a constant thorn in your side.

Amazing ideas, thanks folks! Lots of stuff to think on! One question, though: from what it sounds like, ronin is a specific caste of its own, rather than "the Japanese word for mercenary." It sounds like a person can't just pick up a weapon and sell their services in an army to become ronin. Am I reading that right?

2 hours ago, Archpaladin Zousha said:

Amazing ideas, thanks folks! Lots of stuff to think on! One question, though: from what it sounds like, ronin is a specific caste of its own, rather than "the Japanese word for mercenary." It sounds like a person can't just pick up a weapon and sell their services in an army to become ronin. Am I reading that right?

Correct. A ronin is a samurai caste person without a sworn master to serve. They very typically are mercenary, because they need money to survive. They have no lord to provide them with housing, food, clothing, anything .

Now there has been a very cool example of a peasant who picked up a dead samurai's katana, lied about being a ronin, and became best friends with a future Emperor. Once that person became Emperor, the peasant confessed, but the Emperor, being able to do this as literally the representative of the Celestial Heavens in the mortal realm, declared, "Ah, but his soul is that of a samurai, so he has been one in truth all along!"

Avoiding names because this was from the AEG storyline, and since you seem new to the setting, I don't want to confuse you regarding those characters at present in the FFG storyline.

But that is by far the exception and very not the rule.

Indeed. To be a ronin you have to be a samurai, and the only way to become a samurai when you're not already - which is rare - is by elevation by your lord (or their lord, or so on). A runaway can't just decide to become a mercenary, they're just an armed bandit in the eyes of the law.

Theoretically, a hiemin (peasant) might be elevated to become a ji-samurai for some suitably awesome display of courage and honour. This is like Sharpe - the idea of a Napoleonic soldier from the ranks being made an officer or a medieval peasant being knighted - but even more so.

Such an individual could in turn then decide - or be forced - to become ronin, though since they must have come to their lord's attention in a positive way, I can't really see it happening very often. Becoming ronin after the fall of a minor clan or vassal family might work; if it was a lord's favour which led to your elevation but you're peasant-born, I can see a subsequent heir not wanting your service.

The 'hierarchy' of samurai basically goes something like this:

Ronin - 'Wave-Men' - samurai without a lord. They are still acknowledged as samurai, though, so technically have the rights and privileges of the caste. If a ronin is insulted by a peasant, the ronin is within their rights to kill the peasant. The problem comes that the peasant will have a lord, and the lord may (will) take umbrage if you can't defend your actions, especially if said peasant was, for example, a wealthy merchant who paid a lot of tax.

Ji-Samurai - 'Half-Samurai' - samurai with a lord but no familial rank; acknowledged as a member of a Clan, with the feudal obligations and rights associated with serving a lord, but not a member of their lord's family - or indeed any family. Obviously they will know their own lineage, but they don't get a family name; you might have a town-of-origin ('no Tsuma') or descriptor ('Grey-hair') much like a ronin, if only to distinguish you from all the other Jim-Bobs serving in the Crane army.

Vassal Samurai - members of a vassal family sworn to a specific clan family. Inferior to an equivalent samurai of the clan family, but obviously a vassal daimyo outranks a regular samurai of their parent family. Gets a family name, though it's Tsume no Daidoji (indicating their parent family) rather than just Tsume. May well be referred to as Daidoji by samurai from outside the clan who don't recognise the subtle distinctions

Clan Samurai - members of a clan family. Get the full 'Daidoji' or whatever family name.

19 hours ago, Hida Jitenno said:

Correct. A ronin is a samurai caste person without a sworn master to serve. They very typically are mercenary, because they need money to survive. They have no lord to provide them with housing, food, clothing, anything .

Now there has been a very cool example of a peasant who picked up a dead samurai's katana, lied about being a ronin, and became best friends with a future Emperor. Once that person became Emperor, the peasant confessed, but the Emperor, being able to do this as literally the representative of the Celestial Heavens in the mortal realm, declared, "Ah, but his soul is that of a samurai, so he has been one in truth all along!"

Avoiding names because this was from the AEG storyline, and since you seem new to the setting, I don't want to confuse you regarding those characters at present in the FFG storyline.

But that is by far the exception and very not the rule.

Of course that story was somewhat inspired by history - Hideyoshi.

Toku, you're talking about Toku. I do know a little about the old setting! 😜

I hope they bring him and the Monkey Clan back in this reboot at some point, I miss them. 🙁

What would happen if the lady he rescued wasn't another heimin, but was of samurai caste herself, and she vouched for him (assuming he himself is still fully heimin rather than being the illegitimate child of a samurai)? Could her dad tell the other guy's dad, like "You will NOT execute this man for assaulting your son, for I am going to reward him by making him my daughter's yojimbo!" or something?

15 hours ago, Archpaladin Zousha said:

Toku, you're talking about Toku. I do know a little about the old setting! 😜

I hope they bring him and the Monkey Clan back in this reboot at some point, I miss them. 🙁

What would happen if the lady he rescued wasn't another heimin, but was of samurai caste herself, and she vouched for him (assuming he himself is still fully heimin rather than being the illegitimate child of a samurai)? Could her dad tell the other guy's dad, like "You will NOT execute this man for assaulting your son, for I am going to reward him by making him my daughter's yojimbo!" or something?

Getting better, but the lady would have to socially outrank the son, or her testimony would carry less weight than his. Or perhaps if her father outranked the son's father. In Dragon lands, where they consider more than just testimony and you've got a samurai who was being assaulted, then you're in better standing. And her father could likely only promote the rescuer if he was that peasant's lord.

Perhaps a visiting lord and his son? The son gets hands-on with the lady, and for reason "I need it for this background" her actual yojimbo wasn't around. And then this peasant helps her. There's still an issue, I think, with his misshapen appearance you described earlier though. If he's suddenly the yojimbo of this lady, he's going to be accompanying her everywhere. He's got a big public position, and it would probably damage her standing or ability to fulfill her role in the clan. While anyone who takes the time to understand why may not be so prejudiced, the first reaction of just about everyone would be:

"Dear sweet kami of mercy, are there no warriors in his service that he would have to have... that be her defender?"

I'm starting to think this guy would probably function better as an NPC than a PC. Someone for PC samurai to come across in this situation to illustrate Rokugan's caste system in action and give more justice-minded samurai something to intervene in. Thanks for all the information, everyone! 😊

6 hours ago, Archpaladin Zousha said:

Someone for PC samurai to come across in this situation to illustrate Rokugan's caste system in action and give more justice-minded samurai something to intervene in.

That's a nice idea - it's a very good ethical problem to confront PCs with, because the legal option is clearly the wrong one - meaning you've got Righteousness and Duty (follow the Law) at clear odds with Honour and Compassion (do the right thing regardless of relative social precedence).

If they succeed in finding a way out which doesn't involve him being executed, your players could get the character out of it as an Attendant (since he clearly wouldn't be safe staying there).

On the surface, the concept of a peasant going ronin is very weird for Rokugan and requires additional thought and justification to make it work.

One possibility that has not been mentioned yet is the spirit realm. Most of the time, in most campaigns the spirit worlds are not front and center, but its not impossible that something otherworldly could take an interest in your "fish out of water" idea. A tengu, a trickster spirit, a spirit from Yumi-do, a Kitsune, an animal spirit (is the bakeneko the cat spirit?) ... something like this could take someone under their wing and plausibly arm them with a daisho and release them as recognized ronin.

The benefactor would clearly have an agenda of its own. And "justice" may not be that high on its to-do list. They may not even be that benevolent to the character. For example if "a spirit creature" have a grudge against the NPC who initiates everything, they take special delight in creating a thorn in his side from a "mutant rice farmer" who doesn't look anything like an honorable samurai. Because, you know a man is sometimes judged by the qualities of his enemies. And a powerful samurai who is bested by Mutant Rice Farmer (even if he's M.R.F. no Tengu) is also probably humiliated...

On 7/19/2019 at 11:29 PM, Archpaladin Zousha said:

What would happen if the lady he rescued wasn't another heimin, but was of samurai caste herself, and she vouched for him (assuming he himself is still fully heimin rather than being the illegitimate child of a samurai)? Could her dad tell the other guy's dad, like "You will NOT execute this man for assaulting your son, for I am going to reward him by making him my daughter's yojimbo!" or something?

This would be a very interesting story for other PCs, especially if Daughter and Son are the same Status, and rival Clans, maybe even on the borders of their respective territories.
However, for the peasant? This is really problematic. You see, in Rokugan, physical deformities are seen as indicative of moral failings. That the warping and corruption of your spirit manifests by warming and corrupting your form. So, this Mutant Rice Farmer would, for the most part, be automatically considered degenerate morally. How could he ever be considered for being even a ji-Samurai? While he saved the Daughter, he obviousy saved her for some nefarious purpose! His good deed would buy him some mercy..in the form of a quick death.

Wow, I didn't realize that was a thing in Rokugani society. I thought it was like how Date Masamune felt about his missing eye: he specifically requested portraits of him be painted with him having both eyes, because your body is a gift to you from your parents, and alienating any part of it, even for reasons beyond your control, was disrespectful.

11 hours ago, Archpaladin Zousha said:

Wow, I didn't realize that was a thing in Rokugani society. I thought it was like how Date Masamune felt about his missing eye: he specifically requested portraits of him be painted with him having both eyes, because your body is a gift to you from your parents, and alienating any part of it, even for reasons beyond your control, was disrespectful.

It has a bit to do with the Taint of Jigoku, which leaves obvious marks on the body over time. For a Samurai who has some disfigurement from birth(see: The Crane Champion's sister, the Storyteller), it can be overcome if it is not too severe an issue, but massive deformities? He is destined for the arms of Jigoku! Kill him now to save his spirit!

15 hours ago, Archpaladin Zousha said:

Wow, I didn't realize that was a thing in Rokugani society. I thought it was like how Date Masamune  felt about his missing eye: he specifically requested portraits of him be painted with him having both eyes, because your body is a gift to you from your parents, and alienating any part of it, even for reasons beyond your control, was disrespectful.

An honourably won scar is different. Losing an extremity in the service of your lord, or in battle, or whatever, is one thing.

Being born crippled and twisted is (supposedly) a mark of a spiritual imperfection.

which makes a good story in its own right. he's earned respect through his actions, but the fear of Taint is still upon him. Give him a yojimbo given by another clan who's actual purpose isn't to defend him, but to put him down the moment he shows a trace of turning from the path of righteousness.

12 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

An honourably won scar is different. Losing an extremity in the service of your lord, or in battle, or whatever, is one thing.

Being born crippled and twisted is (supposedly) a mark of a spiritual imperfection.

But Masamune lost his eye because of a childhood smallpox infection.

1 hour ago, Archpaladin Zousha said:

But Masamune lost his eye because of a childhood smallpox infection.

He lost the use of his eye from the infection. Smallpox blinds you but doesn't remove the eye from your face; Dokuganryū was famous for having a missing eye and there are various legends about how.

Ah. I see! Thank you for the clarification.