Information

[Tassu]

Information
Information, the first principle of warfare, must form the foundation of all your efforts. Know, of course, thine enemy. But in knowing him do not forget above all to know thyself. The commander who embraces this totality of battle shall win even with the inferior force.

Ikoma Yuriko, 1st Head of the Ikoma Intelligence Agency




The infamous World of Dreams, thanks to the low import and export taxes enforced by the Scorpion officials, is the he most important trade hub of the Empire. Because of this, the world ​hosts embassies of every clan and additionally serves as an unofficial home to several large Scorpion aligned crime syndicates, most of which operate through puppet-businesses or reputable storefronts, to mask their true activity. This game focuses on the perpetual war that is fought both in the courts and alleys of the world spanning city, diplomats trying to gather any and all information they can without exposing what they know themselves. The Scorpion, undisputed masters of this game, allow the clans to play on their turf, weighting the benefits of the rather unusual arrangement worth the risk.

While in theory pacts and alliances bind the great clans together, diplomats and courtiers are keenly aware that history of the Empire is filled with instances where a clan champion has renounced an oath he has given, using a convenient excuse to justify their actions. This means that the intelligence agencies of the great clans employ numerous spies and informants, trying to make sure that the clan leadership and commanders are aware of the actual political situation of the Empire at all times. This game takes place during the winter court of 3124 in the Oborozuki province of the World of Dreams, allowing the players a chance to present their faction at the courts and take part to the war fought in the shadows, where diplomats and spies fight over scraps of data and rumors, paying for every byte of data with blood or coin.

There will be many events which reward factions with Information. Additionally every player has the ability to make Espionage rolls to gather invaluable information for their faction. Additional Information may be gained by hiring a ronin agent to perform Heists for your faction. Such clandestine operations offer a high risk, high reward option of those scrupulous or desperate enough to enlist the aid of the underworld.

Espionage rolls
Characters can try to gather information via Espionage rolls, which represent the character trying to flatter, coerce, deceive or seduce other diplomats for information. Character may make an Espionage Roll once per session against a TN of 20 to increase the Information Score of their faction by 1, plus an additional 1 for each successful Raise you call on the roll. Additionally, you may (and probably should) call a Raise on the roll to hide your activities. Failure to so can result in the Scorpion to become aware of your actions, which could see your character earning the 'Sworn Enemy' Disadvantage as the Shosuro and Bayushi shinobi keep a close eye on the various diplomatic missions on the world.

Characters with Different School Advantage reduce their Information gains from Espionage rolls by 1 as clans deem their ties to others a liability. This penalty does not apply to Information gained from events or to Information purchased from ronin agents.

There are a number of skills you can use for Espionage Roll: Courtier (Manipulation), Intimidation (Control), and Temptation (Bribery), all of which use the Awareness* Trait. Espionage Rolls are considered to be Social Skill Rolls made against samurai characters, but they are not Contested Rolls meaning that techniques and advantages referring to Contested Rolls do not apply. Since you are trying to pry information out of people, Seven Fortunes' Blessing: Benten does not apply.

*Yoritomo Courtiers may replace Awareness with Willpower when using Intimidation as per Duty Before Honor.

When making your rolls, please list the following in the description of the roll on Orokos: Game session the roll is for, Skill being used, Void usage, other modifiers, and Raises of any sort. We will be lenient for the first few in-character days and provide warnings, after that incorrect rolls will not be counted.

Temptation and Intimidation count as Low Skills and using them causes the character to lose Honor as per the core rules.

Getting caught

Should a character make a Espionage Roll without calling a Raise to obfuscate their identity, the GM's will roll 6k3 against TN equal to 10 + (Status Rank x5) - (Espionage Raises called x5) + Points spent in Scorpion Allies. Should the roll equal or beat the TN, the character is considered a threat that needs to be eliminated and gains the Disadvantage as described above. Notably this rule applies to the Scorpion as well. The Clan of Secrets does not suffer careless buffoons.

Example. Kakita Ai, a Status 2 courtier with a 2 point Scorpion ally (her paramour) decides that the information is worth the risk and makes Espionage Roll with 1 Raise without hiding her identity. The GM's will roll 6k3 against TN of 17. [10 + 2 * 5 (status) - 1 * 5 raises she made) + 2 points spent in Scorpion allies]

Failing Espionage Roll, as long as character has made the Raise to hide their identity, has no consequences (other than failing to accumulate Information for your faction).


Ronin and Information
Ronin thrive by sell the information they manage to gather for highest bidder. GM's must be notified of any and all such transactions. If you don't tell us where and how it happened, it didn't happen. Clans have resources dedicated for this purchase, consisting of untraceable koku and commodities they have at hand. Notably PCs CANNOT use their own koku to hire ronin to perform heists as such transactions can be traced. (Using your koku to hire a ronin guide to Desolation is perfectly fine, though)

Ronin selling information to any non-Scorpion faction will automatically trigger a roll akin to a character not hiding their identity while making an Espionage roll with GM's rolling 6k3 against TN 20 + (ronin's Rank in Lore: Underworld + points spent on Scorpion and/or underworld allies). Should the roll equal or beat the TN, the character is considered a threat that needs to be eliminated and gains the Sworn Enemy Disadvantage as described above. This roll is triggered for each transaction ronin character might make - thus ronin are encouraged to gather a sizeable lump of information before selling it in order to reduce the chances of attracting wrong sort of attention.

Example. Yurie, a cunning hacker with Lore: Underworld 3 and a Scorpion ally with 1 Devotion and 1 Influence has managed to gather some information she wants to sell to the Crane for 10 koku. The GM's will roll 6k3 against TN 25 (20 + her Lore: Underworld skill 3 + points spent on Scorpion allies 2 ) to see if Yurie's antics have caught the eye of the Scorpion spies. Had Yurie sold her information to the Scorpion she would not need to risk this roll. However, chances are that the Scorpion would also pay her far less...


Heists
A faction may hire a ronin agent to perform a heist twice per game. This may be a PC ronin or the faction may decide to seek out a NPC ronin by Seeking Information in Slums (see Slums for details). PC's are expected to manage the negotiation with a PC ronin on the screen while negotiations with NPC ronin will be arranged behind the screens to save GM time.

PC ronin may perform heists once per session if they wish, whether they have been hired or not.

The heists are high-risk, high-reward, operations and should the agent fail too many rolls, they likely end apprehended or killed. However, should the agent succeed, they will be rewarded with high amounts of Information. Should the agent be caught, there is a chance they might be persuaded to reveal the faction employing them, leading to in-game consequences. Too keep things simple and to avoid unnecessary shenanigans an agent MAY NOT implicate a faction not involved in the process.

With at least nine factions involved in the war in shadows, we encourage players to seek out ronin PC to carry out the Heist whenever possible, minimizing the GM work involved. Heists performed by NPC ronin will be resolved using a matlab script - thus unlike mentioned earlier, factions may hire NPC ronin whenever - though may do so only twice per game to both reduce spamming AND to allow the ronin PCs greater agency.

While the Skill Rolls involved will inevitably very according to the target and approach, a ronin character planning to sell their services to the highest bidder should likely invest in the following skills. Investigation, Lore: Underworld, Stealth, Use Computers.

Non-ronin characters CANNOT attempt Heists as getting caught would cause a diplomatic incident the Clans simply cannot afford.

Mechanics for Heists can be found here.

Targets
GM Tassu will provide the faction with a small list of potential targets when the faction agrees to hire a ronin, though players are free to suggest targets themselves. Characters may also to Seek Information in Slums (see Slums for details) to discover more lucrative targets.


Starting Information

Crab: 10
Crane: 20
Dragon: 10
Lion: 10
Mantis: 15
Phoenix: 15
Scorpion: 25
Spider: 15
Unicorn: 15
Imperials: 35
Hare: 15
Firefly: 10
Fox: 10

Minor clans will be added should they get players.

Game outcome
At the end of the game, the Information pools of each clan will be divided by the amount of Information they started with. The three clans with the highest fraction are considered having won the game, triggering a vote on how the faction will utilize this information. Other clans suffer no consequences.

Ties will be broken by starting Information, with the faction with least starting Information winning any tie breakers. In case starting Information are tied as well, the faction with most Information gained from Heists is considered the winner. Should the Information gained from Heists be also equal, ties are no longer broken and the two factions are considered to have achieved the same standing.

Game outcome for ronin
The ronin character that has accrued most koku during the game will establish a small mercenary band of their own, affiliated with a faction of the player's choosing. Additionally, the player gets to design a new ronin path (IR2 or IR3), though the contents of such path are subject to GM veto.