I had a ton of fun this game and will miss it and the players in it. Thanks to the GMs and the players! I'm looking forward to the next game, whenever it may be!

Feel free to ask me anything.

The guy Ryusei wants as a brother-in-law XD

I greatly enjoyed Ryusei's scenes with Ryoichi, since they seemed to be on similar businesslike wavelengths, which led to my guy feeling relaxed

BEWARE THE DREADED FORM QUESTIONS!

Please Fill Out Form Questions @ through pumice, and submit them in triplicate...

1. Did Ryoichi change much from concept to execution?

2. Biggest curveball the game threw you?

3. Biggest curveball Ryoichi threw you?

4. PC you missed interacting with that you wish Ryoichi had logged some time with?

5. Coolest moment for Ryoichi?

6. As the only open Team Tatsuya Backer.... I actually get a lot of Ryoichi's reasoning for him. Did Ryoichi have anybody he thought was easy to bring around to Team Ronin?

Alas, Shiori didn't get to interact much with Ryoichi until near the end of the game. Still, she has much hope in him that he will find a future after Court. I mean, you have done a lot in the negotiations and trades! Also, securing one of the Winds too! Do you think you'll be reprising Ryoichi in the future? Any plans that fell through in his negotiations?

1. Did Ryoichi change much from concept to execution?

Yes, very much so. I originally thought I'd be a kind of duelist/yojimbo for whatever courtiers the Crab ended up sending, and wouldn't get involved in the politics that much ... then I found that I really enjoyed the courtier aspect of the game. My original character sheet had Courtier skill at 0 and Art skill at 0 and I had to buy both of those up with XP. This worked out though because I think I was actually the worst duelist (in terms of mechanical stats) of all the people who decided to bring duelists.

2. Biggest curveball the game threw you?

The mission to retrieve Tatsuya from Ryoko Owari completely changed what I was doing. Up to that point I was probably going to support Otomo Gorobei (I just love those unwanted underdog heirs, I guess). It also grew my relationships with the other players who went on this mission, which was nice, and led to fun stuff later.

3. Biggest curveball Ryoichi threw you?

I started off thinking Ryoichi would really be into marrying the Miya girl for the status, but about midway through it just no longer felt right - even though an Imperial spouse would seem good for my character, I felt like it would be hurting the Crab, and we had built up a lot of team spirit. So we ended up rejecting that offer.

4. PC you missed interacting with that you wish Ryoichi had logged some time with?

I had almost no interaction with the Dragon throughout the whole game (until Yuna hosted some threads late game), and would've liked to talk to more of them.

5. Coolest moment for Ryoichi?

Ryoichi's finest moment was getting the Crane and the Otomo to both agree to help pay to build the Yasuki bank in the capital in return for "shares". The Crane even asked for more shares than I originally offered them. It was the Yasuki-est thing ever.

6. As the only open Team Tatsuya Backer.... I actually get a lot of Ryoichi's reasoning for him. Did Ryoichi have anybody he thought was easy to bring around to Team Ronin?

I had really thought that the other PCs who went on the Tatsuya mission would naturally want to support him, but none did. Then I thought I could persuade people that Tatsuya was a closer relation to the Empress than Tomaru while not being an icky Crane, but then I failed like three straight Court action rolls in the law event which basically demolished that argument. Alas!

Kuni Shiori wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2025 5:15 am

Alas, Shiori didn't get to interact much with Ryoichi until near the end of the game. Still, she has much hope in him that he will find a future after Court. I mean, you have done a lot in the negotiations and trades! Also, securing one of the Winds too! Do you think you'll be reprising Ryoichi in the future? Any plans that fell through in his negotiations?

Yes, I wish I had gotten to interact with Shiori more earlier on! The Crab private folder chats were great for coordination between our players but not so great for character development.

I would reprise Ryoichi, if the next game made sense for it. He'd do fine in another court game, in a clan war, or on a trading mission, but probably wouldn't make sense if the next game is "Rise of Iuchiban". With the cool House system we have going on, I also thought about playing another member of his House.

Regarding plans that fell through, I took a lot of big swings during negotiations - some of them worked, and some didn't.

My first big plan that didn't work out was trying to fix the price of Arms as being worth 3 of anything else. Our intel suggested that both Crane and Lion would be hot to buy up Arms, but no one else should have Arms but the Crab, so I thought I could set up some sort of artificial scarcity here. I think I did convince some people that Arms were more valuable than other resources, but unfortunately more clans had Arms than I thought, so mostly people got Arms cheaper from elsewhere instead.

My second big plan that didn't work out was trying to convince Lady Shiba or Lord Miya that Tatsuya should really be a member of the Imperial families, since the Empress had officially announced Tatsuya was the son of Muhaki, which ought to make him either Hantei Tatsuya or Prince Tatsuya, which sounds way more impressive than "that ronin guy". I wasn't able to get either one to agree, sadly.

It was a pleasure working with you on team Crab. You did some good work with treaties and other negotiations, and it was nice to have you around.

I am rather terrible at questions, so I'll leave that off. Just wanted to say it was fun having you with the Crab.

Director's Cut Question: Think back on the game as a whole. If you could go back, and add just one more scene with our characters in it, what would it be? What are they doing/talking about?

My big question for Ryoichi is this.

At the Musubi festival scene, Yuna did several posts to bring the 2 conversations together, in the hopes that Ryoichi might speak more about Tatsuya, and speak to Seppun-sama. She felt strongly that Tomaru and Tatsuya could see the benefit of working together.

But you did not reply to any of those posts.

I am curious if IC Ryoichi did not want to discuss politics and IC rebuffed the advances.

Or, were you just busy OOC and didn't see it?

No worries either way. Just super curious.

I enjoyed watching Ryoichi operate; thanks for playing!

Soshi Eiji wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2025 7:53 am

Director's Cut Question: Think back on the game as a whole. If you could go back, and add just one more scene with our characters in it, what would it be? What are they doing/talking about?

In hindsight I would've liked to talk to Eiji more in the early game on about Otomo Gorobei (following up our earlier thread underneath the tree in the courtyard) and maybe about Crab/Scorpion trade agreements. I kinda lost that thread in the rush to steer other trade agreements into court.

Agasha Yuna wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2025 11:09 am

My big question for Ryoichi is this.

At the Musubi festival scene, Yuna did several posts to bring the 2 conversations together, in the hopes that Ryoichi might speak more about Tatsuya, and speak to Seppun-sama. She felt strongly that Tomaru and Tatsuya could see the benefit of working together.

But you did not reply to any of those posts.

I am curious if IC Ryoichi did not want to discuss politics and IC rebuffed the advances.

Or, were you just busy OOC and didn't see it?

Looking back at this thread, I see that Yuna had brought Tomaru over and we got to talking about Sayomi's painting - but then I somehow missed that Yuna had asked about Tatsuya's opinions. Sorry about that I was not purposely ignoring it, and I should've said something there.

Hiruma Daichi wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2025 7:10 am

It was a pleasure working with you on team Crab. You did some good work with treaties and other negotiations, and it was nice to have you around.

I am rather terrible at questions, so I'll leave that off. Just wanted to say it was fun having you with the Crab.

Thanks very much! Working with Daichi and Masaki and Shiori was terrific too. I thought we would be underdogs in court, but Team Crab acquitted itself very well!

Yasuki Ryoichi wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2025 3:38 pm

Looking back at this thread, I see that Yuna had brought Tomaru over and we got to talking about Sayomi's painting - but then I somehow missed that Yuna had asked about Tatsuya's opinions. Sorry about that I was not purposely ignoring it, and I should've said something there.

No worries. I probably should have done another post to make it clear.

But I choose to be encouraged that there may yet be a chance to bring Tomaru and Tatsuya together, since you weren't IC trying to avoid it, if there is a future chapter with these characters.

Thanks for playing! As always, you bring interesting characters to the game.

Ryoichi was a Hida Bushi with courtly training?
Is he bringing Tatsuya into the Crab?
Since he's a friend and ally of Tatsuya, how does he feel about Ryunosuke's leaving (and did he ever learn about his involvement in Bokushi's death)?

Kitsu Sayomi wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2025 4:09 pm

Thanks for playing! As always, you bring interesting characters to the game.

Ryoichi was a Hida Bushi with courtly training?

Thanks! Yes, he was Hida bushi school, but got to use a total of zero Hida bushi techniques. One of my first questions to our delegation head was, "Hey, is it cool to wear armor in Imperial Court?" I started with Etiquette 5 because I figured I'd need high Etiquette to survive, but didn't start with any other courtly skills. But based on gameplay I ended up being a lot more of a courtier character than I originally expected, and so I spent all my earned XP on raising Courtier and Art.

Kitsu Sayomi wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2025 4:09 pm

Is he bringing Tatsuya into the Crab?

Well, I'm hoping to raise some Crab support for Tatsuya, but how successful that is really depends on what the Crab Champion and his daimyo want to do. I don't think he'd actually join the Crab Clan though, for the sake of maintaining his claim to the throne.

Kitsu Sayomi wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2025 4:09 pm

Since he's a friend and ally of Tatsuya, how does he feel about Ryunosuke's leaving (and did he ever learn about his involvement in Bokushi's death)?

Well, Ryunosuke leaving is pretty clearly bad for Tatsuya and his cause. Ryoichi heard about Bokushi's death, but isn't aware of Ryunosuke's involvement - he kind of assumes it's connected to the assassins sent after Tatsuya.

Agasha Yuna wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2025 4:04 pm

But I choose to be encouraged that there may yet be a chance to bring Tomaru and Tatsuya together, since you weren't IC trying to avoid it, if there is a future chapter with these characters.

I hope so! Tomaru actually seemed a decent fellow from what I could see. I'm a little worried for his and Noriko's safety considering they seem to be staying near the Imperial Court (and Keihime's likely base of support). I'm kinda surprised Keihime didn't have archers or assassins ready for the end of Court, LOL.

Whether ciivl war breaks out or not, with 5 Winds still active I'm sure there will be opportunities for the different factions to compete and/or cooperate.