Questions for the GMs

[Agasha Yuna]

Library research scene here:
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=621

[Agasha Yuna]

As discussed, Yuna looks for Miya Hachi to deliver the letter to his wife.

viewtopic.php?f=48&t=622

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Realized that some of my understanding of "how to get trade agreements going" was based on 1. questions asked in the clan forum vs. public, and 2. in some cases make it a bit confusing as to whether we're talking trade deals, alliances, marriage deals or other.

So: Trade specific and out in public where everyone can use it--

Requires from both clans:

Some variety of delegation agreement (I assume PCs get to work this out among themselves. We did.)
Delegation head sign off: Currently doing this as a public thread, and I've seen one for the Crab at some point. Required?
Court sign off: Bring it up in court and roll with that system. Crab demo'd that D3.

Anything else?

[Fukurokujin]

Realized that some of my understanding of "how to get trade agreements going" was based on 1. questions asked in the clan forum vs. public, and 2. in some cases make it a bit confusing as to whether we're talking trade deals, alliances, marriage deals or other.

So: Trade specific and out in public where everyone can use it--

Requires from both clans:

Some variety of delegation agreement (I assume PCs get to work this out among themselves. We did.)
Delegation head sign off: Currently doing this as a public thread, and I've seen one for the Crab at some point. Required?
Court sign off: Bring it up in court and roll with that system. Crab demo'd that D3.

Anything else?

Formal agreements will require that, yes, the delegation as a whole agrees on it, the daimyo present sign off on it (which can be in the public House threads or in private, but should be in-character either way), and the court has to go along with it.

Informal agreements do not need that, but there are always the dangers of one party reneging or the Court catching wind and ruining the whole thing.

Marriages are formal agreements when between Clans and so would need the public presentation at and approval by the Court.

Similarly other agreements that y'all want to have get official recognition (and thus enforceability).

[Agasha Yuna]

At what point in the process do you talk to the Nakodo? After your Daimyo, but before court?

[Cearnach]

So the way the Nakodo works is that she can be consulted if you want help with the matchmaking process, and you might want to get in touch with her if you don't want her to butt in on your deal or raise an objection (some clans need this more than others). Her word carries weight with many of the presiding officers.

[Doji Shinnosuke]

Does Otomo Tooru have any children? I see he’s married, at least. (Promise I’m not plotting anything evil! Just want to have my fluff right.)

[Cearnach]

Adopted children, yes. 3 of them--all girls.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

Mizohachi was silent for a long time.

"Well, bless me, I am intrigued. Do it."

Can I get a TN to know if I should void this?

[Cearnach]

Can I get a TN to know if I should void this?

Call it 20

[Shiba Ryusei]

So, posting schedules and court threads being as they are...

If you have an agreement to present to the Court, but are always waiting on existing business to be cleared due to being asleep the last time there was an opening, when do you slap it up?

[Cearnach]

It's proving more difficult than I anticipated to balance giving players an opportunity to participate in debate and moving things along. We've had a situation where a person has rolled for a debate position but we've posted an NPC and wrapped things up on a debate before she got a chance to post it. That's not great. And we've got this larger problem where deals are experiencing a bottleneck, and that's not great either.

We've tended to err on the side of letting things marinate a bit. We do have 10 more court dates over the course of court. Realistically, 8 of those are days for general business. We will almost certainly get to everybody over the course of that time. On the other hand, I can certainly start stepping things up if there's a consensus that it's better to be more efficient than to allow for possibly greater participation.

We could also consider ghosting a presentation as an option, if you wish. It doesn't strike me as ideal, but I'm not sure that there is a way to do this that's going to work ideally for everybody.

[Doji Shinnosuke]

Subject: Systems and Metasystems

At the end of each Court session, players’ earned Court Points may be allocated to their Contender's Campaign Influence totals, or to their House, at their discretion. (Each player is asked to start a thread in their personal forum to track expenditures; players not stating otherwise will be assumed to award their points to the Clan.) Points invested in a House are translated to the House's Influence score at a rate of 10:1, minimum 1.

Asking about the bolded part here--what's the result of awarding Court Points to the Clan? Does it do anything in particular? (Unless that's a typo for House.)

[Cearnach]

It's just a way of saying that your contribution's mojo is assigned to the idea of the clan. So, in everyone's minds, it was a Scorpion contribution, not an Unabara contribution, if you see my meaning. In a purely mechanical sense, because we are not keeping stats for the clans (the numbers would be so high as to be meaningless) it just means you are discarding those points.

[Doji Shinnosuke]

It's just a way of saying that your contribution's mojo is assigned to the idea of the clan. So, in everyone's minds, it was a Scorpion contribution, not an Unabara contribution, if you see my meaning. In a purely mechanical sense, because we are not keeping stats for the clans (the numbers would be so high as to be meaningless) it just means you are discarding those points.

So basically "if you want points for your House or Wind, keep track in your PF; if you don't care about keeping your points, you don't need to track"?

[Cearnach]

Effectively. But let's not take all the story and magic out of things, huh? Those folks still contributed, just not in a way that makes the numbers go up.

[Shiba Ryusei]

We could also consider ghosting a presentation as an option, if you wish. It doesn't strike me as ideal, but I'm not sure that there is a way to do this that's going to work ideally for everybody.

What if we write out the post, with the roll, put it in our PF, and have you guys move or quote or ghost it for us when an opening occurs?

[Doji Shinnosuke]

Sorry, one more I forgot! Can you tell I've been proofreading syllabi and answering endless questions about them

"Points invested in a House are translated to the House's Influence score at a rate of 10:1, minimum 1."

For odd scores above 10, do we round up or round down?

(e.g. if I have 5 court points, I get 1 Influence. If I have 10 CP, I get 1 influence. If I have 15 CP is that 1 or 2 Influence?)

[Cearnach]

Up is fine.

[Doji Shinnosuke]

All three of these need to be approved by the daimyo of the clans involved. 1 and 2 also need to be presented in court and accepted by the Empress/her officers. Does 3 need to go through the court system, too, or can clans make those economic deals on their own?

Formally, any inter-Clan trade would need Imperial approval, since inter-Clan relations fall under Imperial jurisdiction. (It's not unlike interstate commerce in the United States; cross a state line to make money, and federal jurisdiction applies.)

"Historically," trade arrangements are typically part and parcel of other agreements (e.g., marriages, alliances), with marriages used to solemnize the arrangement or the arrangement made to solemnize the alliance. This does not mean a stand-alone trade deal is impossible, of course, but it might be considered somewhat marked.

I don't mean to pick on the Phoenix and Crab, but their mutual deal in court D3 seems to be pretty much a "straight trade deal" (as opposed to the Crab/Boar one, which has some elements of an alliance such as the exchange of military support although no marriages). PC-to-Player knowledge gap here--is this something that would be at all notable?