Relation Creation

[Cearnach]

Defining the Household (with thanks to Hackmaster)

This section is largely a role-playing aid, intended to help players fill in backstory. Rolls on charts should be considered optional, and if you want to tell a rather different story with your house than you might roll up, that’s cool with me. Just be sure to include similar data so that others can interact with your house like they would with others generated randomly.


Parental Survivability Matrix
Roll 1d100 for each parent. A roll of 10 or less on the first roll indicates your character is without parents—possibly orphaned at a young age, perhaps they died later in your character’s life, perhaps you were abandoned on the steps of a shrine. A 91 or above indicates that a particular parent is deceased. If only one parent is dead, roll d100 to see if the surviving parent remarried (70% chance, 0% if you are Scorpion—the Scorpion do not remarry).

Quality of Upbringing
You should roll or choose twice on the following chart—once for the mother and once for the father.

01-50: Loving Parent
Character grew up well-nurtured and properly cared for.

51-70: Ill-equipped Parent
Parent was well-intentioned but unskilled or unprepared for raising children

71-91: Indifferent Parent
Your parent was uninterested in you, seeing you just as a byproduct of their duty, nothing more.

92-100: Antagonistic Parent
Your parent, perhaps with the best of intentions, perhaps not, was insufferably hard on you.

Status of Siblings
Roll 1d20 to determine number of siblings. Add 1 to your roll if you are a Crab samurai.
1: None
2-4: One sibling
5-7: Two siblings
8-10: Three siblings
11-13: Four siblings
14-16: Five siblings
17-18: Six Siblings
19: Seven siblings
20: Eight siblings.

Now that you know the number of children your parents had, you need to determine their sex. Roll d6. Odds male, evens female.

Next, roll d6 for each sibling to see if he or she is still alive. If you are a Hiruma, Hida, or Kuni, add 1 to each roll. A result of 5, 6, or 7 indicates that the sibling is dead. This could indicate any form of death you wish, including stillbirth, childhood disease, accident, murder, or the ever-popular death in glorious battle.

For each surviving sibling, roll a d%. A roll of 99-100 indicates that this sibling is your twin. Add 2 to your roll if you are a Bayushi or Shiba samurai.

If the character has at least one sibling, roll randomly to determine his place. The firstborn is usually heir to the estate or possessions of their parents, except among the Matsu and the Moshi, where the women inherit first.

Of course, just because your character has some brothers or sisters doesn’t mean that they necessarily like him. To determine the nature of your relationship with any particular brother or sister, roll 2d12 on the table below.

4 or less: Bitter Enemy
5-9:Argumentative
10-16: The character and sibling are close, with good family ties, but few intense feelings except during special times of hurt or celebration
17-21: Very Close
22+: Devoted

Extended Family: Use the above guidelines with the parent that did not leave their family to join the marriage as the principal character in order to generate grandparents, aunts, and uncles. These might also be good resources for your character.

[Cearnach]

Finally, here are some questions to ask yourself about your family, if you wish. If nothing else, it gives you stuff to talk about, and it may help you in figuring out your character’s backstory. Note, these are optional, but you never know what might come up.

The Lord
How old is the Lord?
What do they look like?
Has he or she participated in any wars or intrigues?
If so, what side was he or she on? Was their contribution significant?
What is their relationship with their lord?
What was/is their relationship with their parents like?
How are they perceived in the Empire at large
Does your lord have rivals? Enemies? Close Allies?
Does your lord have some sort of shame or disadvantage?
What are your lord’s ambitions?
Is your lord interested in backing any of the potential successors?

The Spouse
If your lord is married, ask yourself these questions:
How old is the spouse?
From what house do they come?
Do they have any siblings?
What is their relationship with her kin?
Did they have any moments of failure or shame?
Did they have any moments of greatness?
How are they perceived generally?
What do they look like?
What are their ambitions?

Kiddos/Extended relations
For each child, specify the gender and birth order as described above.
How old are they?
Did they have any moments of failure or shame?
Did they have any moments of greatness or glory?
How are they perceived outside your family circle?
What do they look like?
Name an ambition.
Name a mannerism.