Kakita Artisan School

[Artisan, Courtier]

Rings: +1 Air, +1 Fire

Starting Skills (choose 5): +1 Aesthetics, + 1 Perform, +1 Martial Arts (Unarmed), +1 Courtesy, +1 Culture, +1 Sentiment , +1 Composition, +1 Design

Honor: 55

Techniques available: Rituals, Shuji, Kata

Starting Techniques:
Shuji: ◊ Artisans Appraisal
Shuji (Choose 2): ◊ Dazzling Performance , ◊ Offend the Sensibilities , Cadence, ◊ Artisans Appraisal

Passionate Artisan (School Ability): You may gain up to school rank in strife to reroll that number of dice on any Perform or Artisan skill group check roll . If this causes you to become compromised, you may choose to unmask by going into the Exhausted status (or any other permitted unmasking).

Move the Soul (Mastery Ability): Once per game session, you may make a Social skill check using Performance or an Artisan Skill Group skill against a TN equal to the target’s current Vigilance. If that target is compromised or becomes compromised due to this roll, they are required to sacrifice 1 void equal to 1 or 1+ bonus successes and roll a Courtesy check with a TN equal to 1+Bonus Successes , or else have an immediate Outburst reflecting a specific strong emotion selected by the master artisan.
Opportunities:
1+ Opportunity: If successful, this ability may incite additional people up to the character’s school rank with vigilance less than the original target.
2 Opportunity: This ability might incite an emotional outburst in the target that does not match the emotional response expected by other viewers.

Starting Outfit: Traveling clothes, ceremonial clothes, wakizashi, traveling pack, calligraphy set, an attendant or Rokugani pony, makeup set OR instrument OR set of artisan tools (paints, paper, sculpting tools, pruning knife and arranging comb for ikebana, or whatever tools are necessary to perform a single primary artisan craft) .

Curriculum:

Rank 1:

Artisan Skills
Courtesy
Culture
Performance
Rank 1 Air shuji
Well of Desire
◊ Sensational Distraction

Rank 2:

Social Skills
Sentiment
Rank 1-2 Rituals Tea Ceremony
Rank 1-2 Fire shuji
Culture
Open Hand Style
Design

Rank 3

Scholar Skills
Commerce
Government Performance
◊ Courage of the Seven Thunders
◊ To Offer Ease Touch the Heart (see below)
Courtesy
Rank 1-3 Earth Shuji

Rank 4

Artisan Skills
Command
Performance Government
Theology
Rank 1-4 Water Shuji
◊ Matsu’s Battlecry
◊ Touch of the Divine (see below)

Rank 5

Social Skills
Composition
◊ Path to Inner Peace
◊ Mask of Wind
Games
Rank 1-5 Void Shuji
Meditation

New Shuji:

Rank 4 5 Air Shuji: To Touch the Heart To Offer Ease
Artisan Only
Once per scene, when you make a Social skill check using Performance or an Artisan Skill Group skill, you may spend opportunities in the following fashion:
*+: Select one Target. Cause the target one strife
**: Select one Target who is compromised. That target may choose to unmask. If they choose to unmask at this moment, that unmasking causes them to lose their next action (if in a conflict), and comes with a visible display of emotion. However, that target does not lose honor or glory and does not display a weakness in association with this unmasking.
***: Instead of one target, you may select a number of other characters to target equal to your ranks in Culture

New Ritual:

Rank 5 Ritual: Touch of the Divine
Artisan Only
Once per game session, as a downtime activity using a quality set of artisans tools, you may make a TN(4) Aesthetics (Void) targeting an item that you have already created that matches a with an original creation quality of TN before discount of 5 or higher. This roll can be assisted under normal assistance rules . If successful, the item receives a mild illusion associated with it linked to the nature of the item. The wings of a painted butterfly may seem to flap, an origami animal might seem to move, an ikebana transform to a miniature landscape, calligraphy letters move and change their meaning, a painted doll may seem to dance. This is an illusion only, but the illusion produced is selected by the choice and design of the creator.

This effect can be reproduced by anyone contemplating the artwork undisturbed as a downtime activity and making a TN 2 Void/Aesthetics check. If they do so, their strife is reduced by 2.
New Opportunities:
** If you succeed, Reduce the TN of the Void/Aesthetics check needed to view the effect after it is initially presented by 1.
** If you succeed, you gain 1 glory per person viewing this artwork at its initial presentation of higher status than yourself ( If they do not speak against the artwork) .
*+: Reduce the strife of each person viewing the initial presentation of this artwork by 2, up to a number of other characters equal to your ranks in Culture

Substitute Matsu's Battlecry, Mask of Wind, Path to Inner Peace with Shuji as these are Invocations because they are "illegal" even though they feel right.

That was intentional....I wanted to have this school to have a bit of magic just as the Kaito do. I picked invocations that would be less dramatic in their effects, but the effects come from the kami being pleased with the artisan's efforts. Same with the ritual.

Thank you for the feedback...I'm glad they feel right. Insert other media

I have a few objections to giving a School access to Invocations. First it cheapens magic as it is no longer exclusive to Shugenja and Fortunist Monks. Secondly by giving the Kakita Artist access to Invocations it lessens the school of the Asahina Artificer. Thirdly there is no precedent in earlier editions that the Kakita Artist had access to magic. Lastly it insults the skills of the Kakita Artists that they need to cheat with magic.

The Kakita Artisans are awesome! I'm glad someone homebrewed these. And personally, I think having a magical nature to their art is fine. The Shikigami ritual seems heavily based on the final ability of the 4e Kakita Master Artisan advanced school, so I think there's some precedent for it. I'm going to break how I see it into starting skills/techniques, curriculum, and school abilities.

Starting skills/techniques
I can't find Brilliant Performance. What is it from?

Most other (non-Shugenja) schools are looking at two starting techniques, at most one of which would be rank 2. With this school you could start with three techniques, all of which could be rank 2 (if I'm interpreting the icon on Brilliant Performance correctly). Probably too strong?

The school should probably only have 7 options for starting school skills. I don't think any other schools in the game have 8.

I'm not sure if honor 55 is justified. I get that they're honorable, but there are so few schools that start with 55 honor. I'd be hesitant to pair it with so many other strong aspects of the school.

Curriculum
Your curriculum includes:

1. Techniques outside of those normally available to the school (invocations).
2. Techniques more than one rank earlier than usual (To Offer Ease).
3. Access to multiple technique groups in the same rank.

I know other schools do 1 and 2. I can't find an example of 3. I think they all make the curriculum a little stronger, and I'm not seeing anything to balance this out.

Does Sensational Distraction need the icon? It's rank 1, yeah? Also, Government is in rank 3, but so is the Scholar skill group.

School abilities

On 9/7/2019 at 8:39 AM, KakitaKaori said:

Passionate Artisan (School Ability): You may gain up to school rank in strife to reroll that number of dice on any Perform or Artisan roll. If this causes you to become compromised, you may choose to unmask by going into the Exhausted status (or any other permitted unmasking).

The first part of this ability seems very reasonable, but I'm struggling to gauge the strength of the second part. I think it depends on how easily the GM lets you concoct a reason to roll Perform or Artisan and how many scenes your GM puts into the same day. 99% of the time, there's no real penalty for acquiring the Exhausted condition in the last scene of the day. I think I'd need to playtest this before I could tell how strong it is.

On 9/7/2019 at 8:39 AM, KakitaKaori said:

Move the Soul (Mastery Ability): Once per game session, you may make a Social skill check using Performance or an Artisan Skill Group skill against a TN equal to the target’s current Vigilance. If that target is compromised or becomes compromised due to this roll, they are required to sacrifice void equal to 1 or 1+ bonus successes, or else have an immediate Outburst reflecting a specific strong emotion selected by the master artisan.
Opportunities:
1+ Opportunity: If successful, this ability may incite additional people up to the character’s school rank with vigilance less than the original target.
2 Opportunity: This ability might incite an emotional outburst in the target that does not match the emotional response expected by other viewers.

I'm struggling to understand the intent of how this works. Is this granting the player a new kind of action they can take (in which case, what is the default effect, assuming a success? How would it cause strife?) or is this a way to modify an existing action the character can already take (in which case, it probably shouldn't change the TN, unless to make it higher)?

My gut says 1. you shouldn't get to choose how another character Unmasks, and 2. an ability shouldn't be able to force (or pressure) the expenditure of more than 1 Void point. Obviously this is all just personal preference, but I think it's consistent with the design of the game.

Anyhow, cool class. I know my comments were mostly critical, but I do really dig the idea. Let us know if you get a chance to playtest it!

15 hours ago, Alisair Longreach said:

I have a few objections to giving a School access to Invocations. First it cheapens magic as it is no longer exclusive to Shugenja and Fortunist Monks. Secondly by giving the Kakita Artist access to Invocations it lessens the school of the Asahina Artificer. Thirdly there is no precedent in earlier editions that the Kakita Artist had access to magic. Lastly it insults the skills of the Kakita Artists that they need to cheat with magic.

Interesting...that seems an almost personal sounding stake, though I admit I don't understand the objections.

It doesn't cheapen magic...magic in 5th Ed is not exclusive to Shugenja in the first place...anybody can become a fortunist monk, and therefore 'earn' magic, and Kaito, for example, cannot speak to the kami. Also, anybody, a bushi or a member of any school has the ability to pick up an invocation in the Heritage table rolls in 5th Ed. Anyone, including Bushi, in 5th ed, have the ability to commune with the kami and receive responses. So it wasn't exclusive anyway. And if it were exclusive, I don't see how making it not exclusive 'cheapens' it...doesn't that depend on how much magic you want in your world of Rokugan? It doesn't make magic much more common...we're talking about the very highest levels of one exclusive school.

Second, It doesn't lesson the school of the Asahina Artifacer...they are a different school, with full access to the whole spell repertoire. They don't even get access to making nerumani until rank 6, so while they do craft, their focus is definitely on their magic. The existence of Kaito monks does not diminish Isawa Shugenja...they're different schools doing different things.

You are completely incorrect on precedent....in 1st Edition L5R, Kakita Artisans could produce incredibly powerful magical effects from something called 'maya', including shapechanging into alternate forms (including animals), teleporting through paintings, creating lifesize items from origami, summoning heroes into being, etc. This was stripped away in later editions, in part because the magic was so strong, and in part because it was easier to explain to the WOTC d20 crowd that only shugenja do magic...they removed magic from monks then too, in an attempt to 'de-magic' Rokugan. This tiny thread of magic that I've allowed here, obviously way stripped down from the original maya, let them have just a little bit of their original magic back.

Finally, this doesn't cheapen the Kakita artisans by saying they are cheating by using magic. Absolutely the opposite...their art reaches a level where the kami take notice and make certain things happen for them. 4th Edition cheapened the Kakita artisans by making them a purely lesser courtier school. In 5th Edition, there are plenty of ways to make courtier schools that don't need art.

I was going for something else, trying to bring back that 1st Ed vibe, if only just a little bit with just a couple of spell effects.

5 hours ago, MonCalamariAgainstDrunkDriving said:

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The Kakita Artisans are awesome! I'm glad someone homebrewed these. And personally, I think having a magical nature to their art is fine. The Shikigami ritual seems heavily based on the final ability of the 4e Kakita Master Artisan advanced school, so I think there's some precedent for it. I'm going to break how I see it into starting skills/techniques, curriculum, and school abilities.

Thanks for taking such a good look at this!!

Quote

Starting skills/techniques
I can't find Brilliant Performance. What is it from?

I think that was supposed to be Dazzling Performance from the original book. I added that at the recommendation of a more experienced player, moving up artisans appraisal...Original I just had a choice between Artisan's appraisal, Cadence, and Offend the Sensibilities (picking 2).

Quote

Most other (non-Shugenja) schools are looking at two starting techniques, at most one of which would be rank 2. With this school you could start with three techniques, all of which could be rank 2 (if I'm interpreting the icon on Brilliant Performance correctly). Probably too strong?

Maybe? I guess I could make it pick 2 from those 4?

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The school should probably only have 7 options for starting school skills. I don't think any other schools in the game have 8.

You're right...I knocked it down to 7 by removing Sentiment.

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I'm not sure if honor 55 is justified. I get that they're honorable, but there are so few schools that start with 55 honor. I'd be hesitant to pair it with so many other strong aspects of the school.

That's the same honor as the Kakita Swordsmith, so I figured it would be about the same, since that is essentially one kind of Kakita artisan.

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Curriculum
Your curriculum includes:

1. Techniques outside of those normally available to the school (invocations).
2. Techniques more than one rank earlier than usual (To Offer Ease).
3. Access to multiple technique groups in the same rank.

I know other schools do 1 and 2. I can't find an example of 3. I think they all make the curriculum a little stronger, and I'm not seeing anything to balance this out.

Does Sensational Distraction need the icon? It's rank 1, yeah? Also, Government is in rank 3, but so is the Scholar skill group.

I changed Rank 1-2 rituals to Tea Ceremony...I /think/ that addresses #3? I also swapped Government in rank 3 for Performance from Rank 4 (put Performance in Rank 3 and Government in Rank 4) to help with that.

School abilities

Quote

The first part of this ability seems very reasonable, but I'm struggling to gauge the strength of the second part. I think it depends on how easily the GM lets you concoct a reason to roll Perform or Artisan and how many scenes your GM puts into the same day. 99% of the time, there's no real penalty for acquiring the Exhausted condition in the last scene of the day. I think I'd need to playtest this before I could tell how strong it is.

From what I understand, from discussing with others, entering the exhausted condition is a possible allowed unmasking anyway...In this case I specified it only to remind players that it was an allowed unmasking. If the GM has scenes that end at night when the exhausted state won't cause an impact because you're following it with sufficient rest, you'd also reset all your strife at the same time anyway to 50% strife as is, so you wouldn't need to outburst anyway. That was intended as more of a suggested outburst time that would be thematic.

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I'm struggling to understand the intent of how this works. Is this granting the player a new kind of action they can take (in which case, what is the default effect, assuming a success? How would it cause strife?) or is this a way to modify an existing action the character can already take (in which case, it probably shouldn't change the TN, unless to make it higher)?

My gut says 1. you shouldn't get to choose how another character Unmasks, and 2. an ability shouldn't be able to force (or pressure) the expenditure of more than 1 Void point. Obviously this is all just personal preference, but I think it's consistent with the design of the game.

You got it right...it's a new kind of performance/artisan action they can take. This action can cause strife (by other performance related kata, or because they're doing it in the fire ring), which is why it specifies if they are compromised or it pushes them into compromised.

From there, it does force the unmasking, with a few caveats. 1) Have to already be compromised to begin with...this required serious setting up to get there. 2)They can get out of it...but at a lot of cost in void. This is a Mastery 6 ability...you don't get out of other classes keystone abilities just by spending a void point. 3) The TN is pretty high and it takes bonus successes (not to mention extra opportunities) to get anything more than 1 void spent. 4) It doesn't choose the exact outburst, but it chooses the emotion of the outburst.

Therefore, a Kakita Jester does, at high levels, have the ability to make someone laugh. A Musician or Poet can make someone cry. It can't make them swear to duel someone, but it can make someone express an outburst of anger. If they do this in conjunction with the 'To Offer Ease' ritual, they could, at the highest levels, create an outburst of emotion in their audience that sets their hearts at ease, removes their strife, and makes them, for example, ready and strife-free the next day. This seems very much in line with previous incarnations of the schools and explains why daimyo might want the services of a Kakita Artisan. It does have an aggressive aspect...especially if you made that guy there angry while everyone else thought it was funny....but that's often what artisans do to in stories. That was the goal, anyway.

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Anyhow, cool class. I know my comments were mostly critical, but I do really dig the idea. Let us know if you get a chance to playtest it!

Thank you so much for the feedback! I made some tweaks that would hopefully help a little bit tone it down without being too much.

Observations:

On ‎9‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 2:39 PM, KakitaKaori said:

Passionate Artisan (School Ability): You may gain up to school rank in strife to reroll that number of dice on any Perform or Artisan roll. If this causes you to become compromised, you may choose to unmask by going into the Exhausted status (or any other permitted unmasking).

• Artisan Skill Group check. There is no such thing as an 'artisan roll' (outside of Rokugani SubWay franchises, anyway).
• The only reason you might want to specifically say 'roll' rather than 'check' is if you want it available for non-check rolls. This is a pretty rare occurrence in the game at the moment (the only one which springs to mind is the Centre action in a duel), and 'check' is more consistent with other school abilities.
• The second sentence adds nothing. Unless you're going to mandate what unmasking is used, you're not doing anything other than would normally be allowed by following the rules for unmasking; which is basically 'have whatever negative consequence you agree with the GM'.

On ‎9‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 2:39 PM, KakitaKaori said:

Move the Soul (Mastery Ability): Once per game session, you may make a Social skill check using Performance or an Artisan Skill Group skill against a TN equal to the target’s current Vigilance. If that target is compromised or becomes compromised due to this roll, they are required to sacrifice void equal to 1 or 1+ bonus successes, or else have an immediate Outburst reflecting a specific strong emotion selected by the master artisan.
Opportunities:
1+ Opportunity: If successful, this ability may incite additional people up to the character’s school rank with vigilance less than the original target.
2 Opportunity: This ability might incite an emotional outburst in the target that does not match the emotional response expected by other viewers.

Is this an action? If so, what type? (I would assume scheme) because that might affect the TN depending on stances, other abilities, etc.

Does it add strife to the target naturally, is it only useful if you make a fire stance check and spend (in which case does it still count as 'due to this roll' if I spend and they then perform an action targeting me and become compromised by the strife from that?) or if they're already compromised?

I still agree with @MonCalamariAgainstDrunkDriving : you shouldn't be able to force expenditure of multiple void points - primarily because NPCs never have multiple void points. An adversary-level NPC automatically starts with one (1) void point, regardless of their void ring. So you're basically saying that if you can get a bonus success, they can't voluntarily prevent the effect. I would say either remove the 'void point to ignore' option completely or make only one void point (but reduce the amount of control you get - so if you don't spend the void point you unmask in a way broadly chosen by the artisan, whilst if you do you unmask in a way of your choice, as normal).

On ‎9‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 2:39 PM, KakitaKaori said:

Starting Outfit: Traveling clothes, Ceremonial clothes, wakizashi, traveling pack, calligraphy set, an attendant or Rokugani pony, makeup set OR instrument OR artisan supply kit.

Less sure about travelling clothes - the Kakita Duellist may be a wandering duellist or Yojimbo but this samurai is more likely to be court-bound and in ceremonial clothes most of the time like a Doji Diplomat or Bureacrat. I guess travelling clothes here can be seen as 'studio working clothes' though, especially for practitioners of painting, clay sculpture and other 'messier' art-forms.

Note: Artisan Supply Kit isn't an explicit item I can find anywhere - there are subsets of this; tea ceremony set (formal or portable), tattoo needles, calligraphy set, makeup kit (and disguise kit), smithy's kit and so on, but there isn't really such a single item as 'artisan supply kit' unless I've missed it (in which case I apologise). You might want to have a nominal 'sidebar' with the school to explain what does and doesn't count as one. (which is your opportunity to decide, for example, if the smithy kit does - smithing is an artisan skill but that then makes this school tread very heavily on the toes of the Kakita Swordsmith).

On ‎9‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 2:39 PM, KakitaKaori said:

Rank 5 Air Shuji: To Offer Ease
Artisan Only
Once per scene, when you make a Social skill check using Performance or an Artisan Skill Group skill, you may spend opportunities in the following fashion:
*+: Select one Target. Cause the target one strife
**: Select one Target who is compromised. That target may choose to unmask. If they choose to unmask at this moment, that unmasking causes them to lose their next action (if in a conflict), and comes with a visible display of emotion. However, that target does not lose honor or glory and does not display a weakness in association with this unmasking.
***: Instead of one target, you may select a number of other characters to target equal to your ranks in Culture

I get the idea, and....it sort of makes sense. The title doesn't seem to fit; you're not causing 'ease' but a cathartic outpouring of emotion - arguably the exact reverse.

Also, I don't think preferential access in curriculum usually jumps two ranks; you've given a rank 3 samurai preferential access to a rank 5 shuji. It's only rank 5 because you've said it is, though, so I'd just suggest making it rank 4 and ducking the issue.

Also, the shuji is about inspiring passion (causing someone's on to slip with the sheer thingey -ness of your piece of art). That sound far more like Fire to me. You don't have to restrict it to a fire ring check if you don't want to, but I definitely think it should be a fire shuji.

On ‎9‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 2:39 PM, KakitaKaori said:

Rank 5 Ritual: Touch of the Divine
Artisan Only
Once per game session, as a downtime activity using a quality set of artisans tools, you may make a TN(4) Aesthetics (Void) targeting an item that you have already created that matches a quality of TN5 or higher. This roll can be assisted under normal assistance rules. If successful, the item receives a mild illusion associated with it linked to the nature of the item. The wings of a painted butterfly may seem to flap, an origami animal might seem to move, an ikebana transform to a miniature landscape, calligraphy letters move and change their meaning, a painted doll may seem to dance. This is an illusion only, but the illusion produced is selected by the choice and design of the creator.

This effect can be reproduced by anyone contemplating the artwork undisturbed as a downtime activity and making a TN 2 Void/Aesthetics check. If they do so, their strife is reduced by 2.
New Opportunities:
** If you succeed, Reduce the TN of the Void/Aesthetics check needed to view the effect after it is initially presented by 1.
** If you succeed, you gain 1 glory per person viewing this artwork at its initial presentation of higher status than yourself.
*+: Reduce the strife of each person viewing the initial presentation of this artwork by 2, up to a number of other characters equal to your ranks in Culture

See previous comments about artisan supply kit - the same thing applies here with 'artisan's tools' - use the same term, and then if you have a 'boxout' defining what counts as one it all refers back to the same place.

Equally, what is a 'quality' set of artisan's tools? Unless you're going to require the calligraphy set to have 'resplendent' or 'sacred' (which is a pretty high bar as nothing else does) the word is meaningless and should probably be removed; it can probably be assumed that to count as a 'proper' samurai's calligraphy set you're looking at something better than an 'orrible bit of yak's tail on a stick as a brush....

If the roll can be assisted as normal, you don't need to mention the fact because that's the default rules. Only if assistance is either limited or not available does this need to be mentioned. I might suggest - given that we're talking heart-stopping works of art here, that unskilled assistance might be something you might want to prohibit; jim-bob the clumsy, drunken one-armed hinin is not going to be able to meaningfully 'assist' in creating something like this.

When does this fit in the 'chain' of crafting? I'm assuming at the end?

1. Fire/Water - initial creation
2. Air - refined form
3. Void - magical illusion effect

Makes sense to me.

Also, listing the TN of the crafting check doesn't really work; because the TN is actively reduced by the facilities you have available. But adding a 'magical' touch should be more likely, not less, in the kakita school workshop/asako libraries/gardens of Kyuden Doji/whatever. Equally, pairing whether you're allowed to do it to the rarity of the item doesn't really make sense; a Shogi set is only rarity 3 but there's no reason a suitably awesome craftsman couldn't produce a jaw-droppingly beautiful set whose pieces actually appear to march and fight when moved about the board.

I would suggest the option for gaining glory should require the higher status individuals to approve of the work, not just be there - turning up, showing off your flapping origami butterfly and having the daimyo say " wow, that sucks ..." will not do much for your social cache!

Good morning,

First, I want to say THANK YOU for Court Games and for the Crane Wibbly page, good stuff!

Second: I'm completely unfamiliar with prior editions of the Kakita Artisan.

Now, to my commentary.

PASSIONATE ARTISAN
I really like the direction of this school ability, but some of the execution is problematic.

1. Gaining strife while performing is cool, so the first leg of the ability is fine. Gaining strife while using artisan skills in a social setting is likewise good. Gaining strife while crafting is neigh irrelevant-as it'll happen during downtime when you're not in a stressful situation-but ultimately keeps the ability simple, which is good.

2. One thing I appreciate about the RAW design of Artisan and Crafter schools is that none of them are strictly better at crafting. The Asahina do add * to rolls, but that's only for invocations, not crafting, and * doesn't really add to the quality of the item anyway. The Kaiu's items are better, but only when they use them personally. My concern is that if you make a crafting school that is strictly better from a dicing perspective, then that becomes the go-to crafting school for anybody who wants to make a craftsman. I'm not sure if my concern makes sense...

3. Becoming Exhausted from the school ability is GREAT. Thematic, and potent, considering the fact that a) it'll happen VERY rarely, and b) exhaustion is damaging in both physical and social conflict. If you can orchestrate it so that you unmask from this ability as the last scene of the day, thus making the exhaustion irrelevant, then you have earned the "free" unmask, IMO.

Sidebar: I do not think that becoming exhausted is a standard unmasking.

TECHNIQUES
I like that you've created 'class' specific techniques. I think this is a REALLY cool concept. I've been pondering making School specific techniques myself, but 'class' specific ones are a great new niche.

TO OFFER EASE
When I first read this, I felt it was a little all over the place. After reading through your comments on this school, I now understand the idea. Flavor text will clear up any future misunderstanding.

I'm not sure it's worth a Rank 5 though.

TOUCH OF THE DIVINE
This really should be for the Kakita artisan only, seems a bit too "special" to extend it to ANY artisan.

RESPONSES
Responses to other posters (sorry I didn't quote directly, this forum is... challenging to use on my phone).

I agree with Alisair Longreach that giving Invocations to this school steps on the toes of the Asahina Artisan. Having a 2nd Crane artisan already infringes on their turf, making a 2nd magical artisan seems redundant. Though I LOVE the fact that their art animates, pretty cool.

I disagree with Moncalamari, for while the school may get more starting techniques than other schools... one of them is Artisan's Appraisal. Come on, that thing is so super niche as to be nearly useless (though I DID use it in my game once).

I also disagree with Moncalamari about his issue with the curriculum table. Firstly, I think that it is GOOD for designers to branch out and make new ideas on their tables. Secondly, I think that the writers did a poor job with some of their tables, so improving on them is a plus. Thirdly, while I'm concerned about these artisans infringing on Asahina's niche, if I ignore that concern, I LOVE the inclusion of invocations on the table.

I disagree with Magnus Grendel (whom I usually agree with) when he criticizes the unmasking benefit. Firstly, I didn't realize that you could negotiate other consequences for unmasking. Secondly, not all GMs would allow the exhaustion unmasking... until they read it as part of your school stat block. Ergo, while others might be able to use the ability, giving it explicitly to this school isn't a waste.

9 hours ago, AndyDay303 said:

I disagree with Moncalamari, for while the school may get more starting techniques than other schools... one of them is Artisan's Appraisal. Come on, that thing is so super niche as to be nearly useless (though I DID use it in my game once).

Even if you don't count Artisan's Appraisal (which I think you should), they can still start with a rank 3 technique and a rank 2 technique, which no other school gets.

9 hours ago, AndyDay303 said:

I also disagree with Moncalamari about his issue with the curriculum table. Firstly, I think that it is GOOD for designers to branch out and make new ideas on their tables. Secondly, I think that the writers did a poor job with some of their tables, so improving on them is a plus. Thirdly, while I'm concerned about these artisans infringing on Asahina's niche, if I ignore that concern, I LOVE the inclusion of invocations on the table.

1. Sure. I'm not against "branching out," but all of these ways increase power or versatility when compared to other schools. It just seems like something to address if you're concerned about balance.
2. If you feel that way, sure, but without knowing how you "fix" them, I can only compare this school to other schools as they're written.
3. I'm actually not against invocations being part of the curriculum.

On 9/9/2019 at 11:46 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

Observations:

• Artisan Skill Group check. There is no such thing as an 'artisan roll' (outside of Rokugani SubWay franchises, anyway).
• The only reason you might want to specifically say 'roll' rather than 'check' is if you want it available for non-check rolls. This is a pretty rare occurrence in the game at the moment (the only one which springs to mind is the Centre action in a duel), and 'check' is more consistent with other school abilities.
• The second sentence adds nothing. Unless you're going to mandate what unmasking is used, you're not doing anything other than would normally be allowed by following the rules for unmasking; which is basically 'have whatever negative consequence you agree with the GM'.

First of all, Thank you so much for taking so much time to answer it. I'll go back and tweak the original school with your suggestions! I want to keep the sentence on Unmasking type because it is not a stated unmasking type and some GMs are really picky about what is allowed.

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Is this an action? If so, what type? (I would assume scheme) because that might affect the TN depending on stances, other abilities, etc. Does it add strife to the target naturally, is it only useful if you make a fire stance check and spend (in which case does it still count as 'due to this roll' if I spend and they then perform an action targeting me and become compromised by the strife from that?) or if they're already compromised?
I still agree with @MonCalamariAgainstDrunkDriving : you shouldn't be able to force expenditure of multiple void points - primarily because NPCs never have multiple void points. An adversary-level NPC automatically starts with one (1) void point, regardless of their void ring. So you're basically saying that if you can get a bonus success, they can't voluntarily prevent the effect. I would say either remove the 'void point to ignore' option completely or make only one void point (but reduce the amount of control you get - so if you don't spend the void point you unmask in a way broadly chosen by the artisan, whilst if you do you unmask in a way of your choice, as normal).

This would be a scheme action. It does not add strife to the target by itself unless you are doing it in Fire stance and have two Opportunities from Fire Stance to add strife (or potentially another stacking shuji of some sort). It can only happen if the Target is already compromised or you managed to give them enough strife from fire stance to allow it to go. In practice, this will really only happen if the target is already compromised, which is what makes it much weaker than people seem to think that it is by reading it.

I think that Adversary NPCs /should/ always react to this...this is a rank 6 mastery ability, and should be really powerful. It still isn't like an instakill or anything which is what you have for other equal rank skills. To use it you need to push your opponent to compromise and that's not easy.

Based on what you said, I made it the same ability for 1 point and then added a skill check related to Bonus successes. So if an NPC spends 1 void AND makes the skill check they can get out of it, but otherwise have to.

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Less sure about traveling clothes - the Kakita Duellist may be a wandering duellist or Yojimbo but this samurai is more likely to be court-bound and in ceremonial clothes most of the time like a Doji Diplomat or Bureacrat. I guess travelling clothes here can be seen as 'studio working clothes' though, especially for practitioners of painting, clay sculpture and other 'messier' art-forms.

Note: Artisan Supply Kit isn't an explicit item I can find anywhere - there are subsets of this; tea ceremony set (formal or portable), tattoo needles, calligraphy set, makeup kit (and disguise kit), smithy's kit and so on, but there isn't really such a single item as 'artisan supply kit' unless I've missed it (in which case I apologise). You might want to have a nominal 'sidebar' with the school to explain what does and doesn't count as one. (which is your opportunity to decide, for example, if the smithy kit does - smithing is an artisan skill but that then makes this school tread very heavily on the toes of the Kakita Swordsmith).

They have traveling clothes because the model is actually traveling artisans. Kakita Artisans in lore also serve as regional teachers and go from court to court to perform...and, as you said, its necessary for workshop crafts like painting, sculpture, etc.

There is no item for Artisan supply kit...I just didn't want to list all the possible things since there are so many types of craft. But it's appropriate any artisan would have the items necessary to do their craft. I'll worry about a sidebar I guess if I was being more formal? I added a more general note.

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I get the idea, and....it sort of makes sense. The title doesn't seem to fit; you're not causing 'ease' but a cathartic outpouring of emotion - arguably the exact reverse.

Also, I don't think preferential access in curriculum usually jumps two ranks; you've given a rank 3 samurai preferential access to a rank 5 shuji. It's only rank 5 because you've said it is, though, so I'd just suggest making it rank 4 and ducking the issue.

Also, the shuji is about inspiring passion (causing someone's on to slip with the sheer thingey-ness of your piece of art). That sound far more like Fire to me. You don't have to restrict it to a fire ring check if you don't want to, but I definitely think it should be a fire shuji.

I made it 4 to skip around and changed the title.
I agree that Fire is the best element for it, but Air shuji /suck/ overall and Air needs some more decent shuji. There is some justification for it being air. One is for balance because off the fire opportunity strife. But better is that it's more a controlled redirection on the part of the artisan to create a situation where it is OK to outburst. You aren't causing the outburst...you're causing the situation where an outburst is socially allowed. That requires a precise manipulation of circumstances which fits air better.

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See previous comments about artisan supply kit - the same thing applies here with 'artisan's tools' - use the same term, and then if you have a 'boxout' defining what counts as one it all refers back to the same place.

Equally, what is a 'quality' set of artisan's tools? Unless you're going to require the calligraphy set to have 'resplendent' or 'sacred' (which is a pretty high bar as nothing else does) the word is meaningless and should probably be removed; it can probably be assumed that to count as a 'proper' samurai's calligraphy set you're looking at something better than an 'orrible bit of yak's tail on a stick as a brush....

If the roll can be assisted as normal, you don't need to mention the fact because that's the default rules. Only if assistance is either limited or not available does this need to be mentioned. I might suggest - given that we're talking heart-stopping works of art here, that unskilled assistance might be something you might want to prohibit; jim-bob the clumsy, drunken one-armed hinin is not going to be able to meaningfully 'assist' in creating something like this.

When does this fit in the 'chain' of crafting? I'm assuming at the end?

Fire/Water - initial creation
Air - refined form
Void - magical illusion effect

Makes sense to me.

Also, listing the TN of the crafting check doesn't really work; because the TN is actively reduced by the facilities you have available. But adding a 'magical' touch should be more likely, not less, in the kakita school workshop/asako libraries/gardens of Kyuden Doji/whatever. Equally, pairing whether you're allowed to do it to the rarity of the item doesn't really make sense; a Shogi set is only rarity 3 but there's no reason a suitably awesome craftsman couldn't produce a jaw-droppingly beautiful set whose pieces actually appear to march and fight when moved about the board.

I would suggest the ** option for gaining glory should require the higher status individuals to approve of the work, not just be there - turning up, showing off your flapping origami butterfly and having the daimyo say "wow, that sucks..." will not do much for your social cache!

I added the description of quality tools above. By Quality tools, I mean 'Not jury-rigged'...I removed it to make it simpler. I added that the higher status person has to not speak against the artwork...if it is presented to the Emperor and he does not speak against it, it gets approval just from being seen by him. I removed the section on assistance, which I had kept because it was in line with the Swordsmith rules but isn't necessary. Removing it leaves it up to the GM to determine how much and what sort of assistance might be allowed. Your order for smithing is exactly what I was thinking though...First you create...then you refine...then you make sublime.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback and sorry for taking so long to answer.

10 hours ago, KakitaKaori said:

So if an NPC spends 1 void AND makes the skill check they can get out of it, but otherwise have to.

That's fair enough. A sufficiently powerful NPC should have a chance to keep their cool - yes, if you've succeeded well, it's unlikely, but I'm fine with unlikely as long as a suitable mechanic exists; a sufficiently important and powerful adversary NPC can have massive ring and skill values, but by default never gets multiple void points.

If your audience is basically an incarnate kami, a disguised warlord of jigoku, or a great clan champion, or something, "you're an NPC, you only have 1 void point, you don't even get to roll dice" seems wrong.

My only observation is that mastering your emotions so as not to let a strong swell of feeling show is normally Meditation rather than Courtesy.

10 hours ago, KakitaKaori said:

There is some justification for it being air. One is for balance because off the fire opportunity strife. But better is that it's more a controlled redirection on the part of the artisan to create a situation where it is OK to outburst. You aren't causing the outburst...you're causing the situation where an outburst is socially allowed. That requires a precise manipulation of circumstances which fits air better.

Okay, fair enough, I can buy that.