The madness about Kanna is rooted deep, starting all the way back. With the character sheet.

I've come to really despise character sheets with time. How a bunch of arbitrary numbers chosen at the very start, at a point you have but a rough idea at what the story will be about, condition so much about your character. How sometimes it would make perfect sense in story for a character (yours or another) to do something but, no luck, not the right numbers, so better step down in favor of the right pile of numbers or, far worst, steal someone else's thunder.

In pen-and-paper my usual group has mostly move to systems where everyone is a jack-of-all-trades with specialties that suggest a course of action more than constraint it. While this choice was itself conditioned by the move toward short scenarios rather than lengthy campaigns, I kinda like it a lot? I'm not saying that's for everyone's taste, and I perfectly understand that someone could prefer a system that puts a greater distance between a total neophyte and an expert. To each their own.

But it's important to understand how... nonplussed I was at the idea of making Kanna's sheet.

So I had the brilliant idea of... Not making one. I mean, Kanna has one, but it's just a default Lion courtier template with half a dozen points of fluff skills powdered onto it. I didn't even have the strength to add something silly and fun to it, like Games: Oshidama, Crab Hands or Phobia: Spiders (the actual arachnid).

I thought it would remove a thorn from my side and allow me to focus serenely on what actually mattered: Story, personality, etc.

It turned out to be. The. Worst. Idea. Ever.

Even if Kanna's sheet was bland to the extreme, I still felt, even subconsciously, I had to live to it in a certain capacity, a bit like when you randomly inherit a paladin at a convention one-shot and overdo it to the death because you're not used to playing paladins.

The initial concept, completely lost at sea at this point, was a joke about what we call "court journalists" in real life. These journalists that don't really do any reporting, but instead are part of the suite of some politician, following them everywhere, dutifully repeating their propaganda and licking their boots in the hope they will be rewarded with some revelation that will sell well.

I also naturally tend to do demi-shugenja, as in someone with a priestly background but that didn't have to deal with the mechanics of spells. Maybe someone with Medium or Inner Gift if I had actually made a sheet (which, thinking of it, does sound like playing a Fighter/Rogue/Sorcerer who specializes in enchantments just to not play a Bard).

And from that moment onward, it simply went fully off the rails. Having three different directions (journalist, priest, paragon) might, on paper, still have provided interesting interactions. In practice, it created a Frankenstein monster that was just constantly tripping on her own legs, self-sabotaging with glee, each aspect (well, mostly the paragon) paralyzing the other two, and leaving little room to develop more personal sides of her personality that could have opened up smoother interactions.

Of course, a bad starting point is just that. In a different timeline, in a different headspace, course would have been corrected swiftly. Instead, I went full perseverare diabolicum, apparently supposing the problem would magically solve itself if I ignored it long enough. In doing so, I made everyone's lives, mine included, far more difficult than it should have been. So sorry about that.

Note that I enjoyed partaking in the game very much. I just wish I had been less obtrusive, more constructive, a lot of the time.

Hato wrote: ↑

Sun May 08, 2022 5:28 am

I'm curious about the duel. What kind of long term effects would we see from the Heaven's declaration from Kanna's place in the universe?

Dai wrote: ↑

Sun May 08, 2022 12:11 pm

So what are you going to name the ronin stand-in for Dai who does die heroically in the battle as opposed to ruining the narrative by surviving?

• To do pew pew, you need Reflexes, Earth, and maybe a bit of Perception. To do big stick, you need that AND Agility, and a bit of Strength (to complete the Water ring mostly).
• With the sidearm roughly as good as the katana and the rifle has good as tetsubo, there is little incentive going through the hassle of a melee build.
• While super cool (and thus here to stay), the new ruling about Gunfighter + Full Attack removes the very last thing melee with melee weapons had for itself.

Susumu Yakumo wrote:Reading back, I suppose I'm not surprised that Kanna got challenged to a duel in the end, since she seemed to be a bit of a prickly customer when speaking with others, especially if the subject of the Spider was involved. ^^;

Susumu Yakumo wrote:And I think it's really interesting your ideas and insight into Character Sheet vs Story. I've seen a lot of discussions on similar topics in other forums that talk about gaming and roleplaying games, and I've noticed that there is sometimes a divide between different approaches. Some are more whimsical in their approach to character and just let the character be adapted as the dice fall, whereas other have more firm ideas of what the character should be able to do and not do and do not enjoy adapting as unexpected scenarios occurr. Not that any way is more right or wrong than the others, as we all approach roleplaying games with the idea of how we can have fun. It's just interesting to look at from a gaming-theory standpoint.

Susumu Yakumo wrote:I felt the idea of a Lion journalist to be pretty intriguing. Having a vision to write about samurai from other clans is a great icebreaker for topics and for meeting different characters, I feel - like a good excuse to ask for scenes or to make the conversations engaging. So in that vein, what ended up being the most interesting meeting or interview Kanna had during her time here?