The Captured Stone (Hato's Q&A)

[Hato]

Being a ronin and heisting made it hard to interact with nearlhy as many people I would have loved to. There's some really shiny players out there telling some amazing stories, and I'm just in the shared universe doing my own thing.

Don't get me wrong, I have no regrets, I had a great time and the ronin games was a fun change of pace and a lot of fun. I was really worried I'd be bored with all the widow posts I'd end up doing, but I think it helped my writing at least a little bit.

So, if you wanna ask anything, let Hato handle it!

[Hotaru Tsuyo]

Thanks for the early thread, really helped me getting into the feel of the character. As usual of late, not enough time for me to post much, but I enjoyed the little that I did.

So what was Hato's backstory as a ronin? She seemed a bit more thoughtful/artistic than one usually expects. How well do you think she'll manage in the Dragon in the end? (that scene was great fun to read, btw.)

[Hato]

Thanks for the early thread, really helped me getting into the feel of the character. As usual of late, not enough time for me to post much, but I enjoyed the little that I did.

So what was Hato's backstory as a ronin? She seemed a bit more thoughtful/artistic than one usually expects. How well do you think she'll manage in the Dragon in the end? (that scene was great fun to read, btw.)

Her backstory as a ronin? But that's been posted since registration!

*Points to avatar*

*Looks over at avatar*

Ohhhh, Seika is zoomed in too far. Seika! Zoom out!

Zooming Out!

Backstory!

Among the waves of ronin who’ve crashed upon the shoals of the World of Dreams, Hato is a young woman who is quite poised and intelligent. Those who care to guess at her origin must wonder whether it was her failure or her lord’s that left her without a mon. The World of Dreams leads many astray, be it with drugs, romance, or simply becoming too enamored of luxuries.


The dark truth of the matter is that Hato was not born a samurai, not even as a ronin She was born unto a geisha serving in the House of the Summer Smile, one of the multitude of geisha houses on World of Dreams. It was not a bad life, she learned how to sing, and how to offer conversation pleasing to those who needed to relax for a while.


Unfortunately, she caught the fancy of one Doji Toranosuke, an older Crane emerald magistrate who was more than just a little bit corrupt. Toranosuke was more than happy to use his influence upon the house to make sure he could use Hato as he saw fit. It was….not a happy time in Hato’s life.


One day, when Toranosuke had drunk himself into a deep sleep, Hato made the decision to escape from his clammy clutches. She took his gun and used it to send him to his appointment at Emma-O’s court, and then stole his money, daisho, and gun.


She fled the house, dressed as plainly as she could, uncertain where to go. The Scorpion don’t exactly look kindly upon non-people gunning down visiting people of import, corrupt douchebag or no Some might argue that the Scorpion prefer to keep the corrupt around for more profitable means anyways. Why build such a lovely trap only to kill the animal before you can eat it?


One would have expected Hato to either be gunned down by Scorpion security forces, or slowly starve to death as the money she stole ran out. However, the Heavens were kind on this day, and she met a ronin by the name of Yonaga. Yonaga, a disgraced Crane graphic artist, took note of Hato’s demeanor, mannerisms, and the Crane markings on the gear she had, and took her for a recently discharged Crane samurai. And so Yonaga brought her in, assuming Hato’s training could be useful to the Scorpion one day.


Hato spent a few happy years absorbing her new life. She learned a great deal of programming from Yonaga, and used her skill at conversation and song for jobs that needed a softer touch. She was quite happy in her new life.


Unhappy, was the son of Toranosuke, Doji Kiyotaka, a Crane clan magistrate. Whereas his father was fairly corrupt, Kiyotaka was both as straight as an arrow, and convinced his father was as well. Of course, the Scorpion had swiftly punished the murderer of his father…well, they had swiftly punished the nearest available criminal who they could blame for it. Kiyotaka did not believe the Scorpion actually caught the real murderer. He demanded retribution upon the geisha house for having allowed such a travesty to occur, and the Scorpion were willing to sacrifice one small house to put the incident to bed, leading to the deaths of many of those Hato had grown up with.


Doji Kiyotaka was still not satisfied. He believes his father was assassinated, if not at the direct hands of the Scorpion, at the hands of one of their tools. He has no authority to officially investigate the matter (and it’s important to him that justice be honorably done), and the Scorpion don’t generally approve of people from other clans hunting down people on their streets, even if they are just ronin. Rumors gathered lead him to believe Hato may be the assassin of his father, and he’s looking for a way to prove it. Hato, on the other hand, knows that Kiyotaka is responsible for the deaths of quite a few people she cared about at the geisha house and would be greatly pleased if he could join his father at Emma O’s court.

-----

I think she'll fit well in the Kitsuki's vassal family. Her build for heisting makes her a pretty good investigator and coutier, and their vassal family's emphasis on training lower castes for investigative work is something she'll likely find herself well suited for.

[Hotaru Sakura]

Alas, Hato seemed cool, alas we couldn't manage a thread together. But hopefully next time!

[Hato]

Alas, Hato seemed cool, alas we couldn't manage a thread together. But hopefully next time!

You need only ever ask

[Miya Nishida]

I will forever long the story that wasn't allowed to happend q.q

[Hato]

I will forever long the story that wasn't allowed to happend q.q

The dice decided they wanted to tell a very specific story.

Heist 3

Alright, 91% chance to hit the 35 I need to steal info.

34

Wow, glad I massaged my build to get to the info broker technique so I can reroll that.

34.

I had to look at sakkaku's dice pool just to make sure there wasn't some weirdness where it repeated the roll without actually rolling the dice. Nope, different numbers on the dice, they just add up to 34 again.

Had I stolen there, I would have had to think a lot harder about your offer since I would have had to make another sale roll to the Phoenix.

Alright, two possible targets for the Dragon. Embassy or a villa.

Well, I've hit an embassy before and I do know that different types of targets have different dice pools, so let's hit the embassy, since I haven't done a private residence. (Yurei did one, but I didn't look what the guards rolled for it.)

Of course, security goes up when a place has already been hit (I did see that when Yurei hit the Spider corp after me) But no one's hit the Dragon embassy so this should be fine.

Voice launches a massive cyber-attack raising security levels everywhere.

Well, ok....guard's rolling 7k4 versus a TN 40? There's only a 25% chance of that, if I can miss a TN 35 twice on 10k5+2 (with emphasis), surely the guard will miss this twice (in and out).

Guard rolls a 55 (3% chance), which would have hit even had I opted to use all 5 prep raises on entrance.

Maybe I can run away?

Guard rolls two 50+s on attack rolls.



I had had a bad feeling going in. "Oh man, one last run for an unimaginably amazing shot at a new life. This is raising so many death flags." And the dice were like, yup!


I did my best for ya Nishida, just like I did my best for the Crab with the two first heists, but the dice said NO. Nothing I could have done about it, but you have my sympathies.

[Boogiepop]

Hello, Hato! Thank you for playing the game and living that hard ronin life! I know being a ronin is tough business, especially when hanging out with other Great Clan samurai. While some doors might have been closed, I hope you've managed to find other RP opportunities from it at least?

[Hato]

Hello, Hato! Thank you for playing the game and living that hard ronin life! I know being a ronin is tough business, especially when hanging out with other Great Clan samurai. While some doors might have been closed, I hope you've managed to find other RP opportunities from it at least?

It was definitely a unique and fun experience!

The last time I went ronin, it was as a topaz competitor so it was easier to rp with others. We all were equals in the sense that we were competing to be recognized as the topaz champion.

And I've played at the daimyo level before which is amazing when you want to control the flow of a conversation. Talk to whomever you want, stop talking to them whenever you want. Talk as much as you want.

But here there were a lot of limitations (self imposed, really, Yurei certainly wasn't so constrained) Join a megathread? Well, doesn't make much sense to run up to a clan samurai and start talking, better hope someone's willing to start talking to you. Engaged in conversation and another clan samurai walks up indicating they want to join the conversation? Better hope your clan partner both invites them in AND keeps you engaged as well.

Was glad I spared the 3 points for 2 ranks of singing. Gave me an interesting hook that some great players were happy to pick up and start talking with me in.

Crab and Imperial definitely had my back. Crab were pragmatic enough to talk to me and Imperials feel everyone is below them, so a ronin isn't that much a step down.

Had some really good, if too brief encounters with Dragon and MCA.

Brushed up against Lion Phoenix and Scorpion, but we just didn't really click, and rl no oni took most of them out. A shame, but it happens.

Didn't talk to any Unicorn, Spider, Mantis, or Crane. Could have been some really interesting conversations here because they've got great players, but well, time and real life bind us all. Hopefully I'll get to talk to those players in future games.

Ah, and I would be remiss not to mention the GM faction, the most powerful of all

Doctor Badass was amazing, of course, how could she not be? I've already said thank you for brightening up an otherwise empty thread, but I'm happy to say thank you again.

The Dragon Ambassador definitely caught me off guard. When the guard smashed the investigation roll, I thought I was dead. When I realized how far I had to run, and how accurate she was, thought I was dead. When I was marched down beneath decks I was like, "Ah, they're gonna turn me over to my sworn enemy, or discover my dark secret and I'm dead.

And Dragon Ambassador definitely came off as a high honor, ascetic, judgmental, cat wielding weirdo. I was so ready for him to go "Welp, this was interesting but go ahead and throw her to the torturers, or the authorities." I had such a small window to try and wiggle my way out of the situation....and it worked! Definitely an interesting character and well portrayed.

I didn't get to play with Thim's NPCs, which is a shame because they looked interesting. But Thim did play with me alot as he kept checking my bank balance and watching my honor like a hawk. Which is definitely a good thing! Would rather know where I am on these things rather than waiting for the announcement of who won only to go "Oh, y'know, I totally forgot about that 50 koku I spent so I shouldn't have won."

I''ve said it before and I'll say it again. It was a great experience, definitely worth the ride. Hope there is a Banner 5

[Susumu Yakumo]

Didn't get a chance to listen to Hato's singing, and Hato didn't even show up to the Yakumo concert!

What ended up inspiring you to choose the ronin path this game?

[Hato]

Didn't get a chance to listen to Hato's singing, and Hato didn't even show up to the Yakumo concert!

What ended up inspiring you to choose the ronin path this game?

Couldn't afford the tickets. It's ok, the rumors said it was the worst concert ever, probably because Yakumo just spends all her time banging ronin instead of practicing (Man, the sheer number of failed rumor rolls you suffered from this game. You may be too famous for your own good) XD

I realize that there wasn't an actual price listed for attending the concert, but there wasn't one listed for arcade night either, and I skipped that and realm expo just being true to the, must not spend money thing I was going for. Day one of the game I looked at the open threads and saw "Oh hey, Yakumo's cool and she has an open thread......having breakfast in the most expensive space in the game, hmmmm...nope." I did have a faint hope you'd wander into one of the threads were I was staking out Shadeworks or Black House with my unsigned Yakumo poster, but I wasn't specifically seeking you out there.

Also thought Yakumo wouldn't particularly enjoy my 6k4 on singing. She is, after all, a mega-star. Running up to her with a 'Hey listen to me sing!" is so cringe XD

Did ronin for a couple of reasons. I wanted something with a higher risk/reward ratio. Previous Banner games, if you don't go seeking out trouble with side-plots, are pretty low pressure. Everyone (still alive) got married at Asakaze, there was no 'You are sent home in shame unwed' consequence. And don't get me wrong, that's a good thing. There's a lot of stress in the world these days, some people just want to chill in magical samurai land. But I hate asking the GMs for bandwidth for personal plots, because they've already got a game to run, ya know? The structured extra spiciness of the ronin lifestyle appealed to me 'You may well die doing this, but it's because you're trying to accomplish something, not because you walked past the off-limits signs because you were bored.'

Also, in one of the Heroes of Rokugan, there was a one off adventure were everyone plays criminals of various stripes seeking to assassinate a samurai. One of the options was a geisha known for her singing ability, and I wanted to play that concept a little more. Granted, the was very little room on the build for fluff. I wanted things like Voice and Dangerous Beauty, and Soul of Artistry and Sage. But those heists were constructed hard mode, so to have a chance, had to build to meet the challenge, and even then, dice be dice yo XD