Lovebird librarian (Agasha Yuna Q&A)

[Agasha Yuna]

Thank you all so much for the chance to play with you! This is my first time playing with this group, and I am blown away. The storytelling, the organization, the sense of time and urgency, the fun RP scenes that were just getting to know PCs, the trading - it was all so well done. I very much hope to be able to play in future games!

A big kudo to the 'House creation' system! Yuna absolutely came to exist as a character from all those random rolls building House Ageki, and then imagining a courtier coming out of that House and background.

I had in mind that Yuna would be very pious and adamantly Shinseist. But RP quickly moved her to equal focus on the Fortunes. I appreciated all the spiritual conversation and plot. I wanted her to be smart and elegant and good-hearted. Happy to answer questions!

I wasn't expecting the romance, but I loved every minute of it. Thank you, Ryusei player!

[Fukurokujin]

I'll be glad to have you back!

What did spur the romance from your side?

[Shiba Ryusei]

Thank you, Ryusei player!

Back atcha! It gave me an anchor to the game once Ryusei had run out of deals to broker

Please Fill Out Form Questions Ardent through Mauve, and submit them in triplicate...

1. Did Yuna change much from concept to execution?

2. Biggest curveball the game threw you?

3. Biggest curveball Yuna threw you?

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

5. Biggest missed opportunity?

6. Given that our characters are head over heels for each other, I can ask this question safely- Who besides Ryusei was Yuna's favorite PC to talk to?

7. Ryusei likewise owed a fair bit- not so much mechanically, but RP-wise- to House results. What was your favorite thing about House Ageki?

8. Coolest moment for Yuna this game?

[Agasha Yuna]

I'll be glad to have you back!

What did spur the romance from your side?

Yuna was always designed to want to marry into the Phoenix. Her happiest days were at the Asako Loremaster school and at the joint Dragon-Phoenix Izaku libary.

I wanted to reach out to a Phoenix character before game started and picked Ryusei just because he had a cute profile pic, but not necessarily thinking they were going hit it off.

But their chemistry was electric! The more they talked the more they realized how well they fit together. Ryusei player is a great writer. He paid attention to her, he complimented her, he was interested in topic that interested her, he wrote poems.

And it seemed clear to me that Yuna would rather marry a charming friend than a stranger, so she started pursuing the marriage even before she was head over heels in love. But that didn't take long. Their date praying at all the Fortunes was so beautiful and sweet. She was absolutely smitten.

And the romance made me play the game with a more immersive mindset that her story would continue beyond the last day of winter court, that I was playing a chapter in her life, not a 15-day game.

And I think it is a credit to the game that there was so much whirlwind of plot and trouble around them that it felt right that they would cling to each other all the harder.

Back atcha! It gave me an anchor to the game once Ryusei had run out of deals to broker

Please Fill Out Form Questions Ardent through Mauve, and submit them in triplicate...

1. Did Yuna change much from concept to execution?

2. Biggest curveball the game threw you?

3. Biggest curveball Yuna threw you?

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

5. Biggest missed opportunity?

6. Given that our characters are head over heels for each other, I can ask this question safely- Who besides Ryusei was Yuna's favorite PC to talk to?

7. Ryusei likewise owed a fair bit- not so much mechanically, but RP-wise- to House results. What was your favorite thing about House Ageki?

8. Coolest moment for Yuna this game?

1. The biggest change was that she became much more balanced Shinteist/Fortunist. And that was entirely because of Seppun Tomaru and Ryusei, and that first scene together, and then their date to honor the Fortunes.

2. Good question! I think it was the D15 court scene. First, the debate was *how* to pick, not *who* to pick. Yuna wasn't prepared for that. She had been researching to defend Tomaru's educational ideas. To defend and celebrate him. But, also, she realized ... it was an incredibly dangerous situation to say anything negative about any candidate. Because they could turn around and become Emperor! It helped her understand why the decision couldn't be easily made. I really believed as the player that the court points were 'Heaven favor points' and that Heaven would reveal the winner with like a big divine halo moment. So she was quite shocked by how it ended. And the Phoenix walking out nearly broke her. She (and I) thought all the deals with the Phoenix were broken and their borders were closing and the marriage was not going to happen. I am grateful the storytellers helped explain to me OOC what it meant.

3. It became important to Yuna to support Seppun Tomaru-sama even if he potentially wasn't going to win the court points game. I think because I assumed court points = Heaven's favor. She needed Rokugan to value a wise Tao-follower. A good compassionate man who cared about people of all stations. She didn't care about the fall-out if someone else won. It wasn't her ambition to be a 'player' at court. She just wanted to do the right thing. As a player, it pushed me to keep fighting. Yuna is braver than me, I think.

4. Oh man, there were so many people I wanted to get to know more. I am incredibly grateful for getting looped in on the Ningi plot, because it gave me a chance to connect more with some great RPers, like Asahina-san and Shiori-san. I think the person I most wished I could interact with but got vanishingly little chance to was Doji-ke no kashin Tanaka Shinnosuke. I can't tell you how much I loved the Noh play event. It was so beautifully done! A great character.

5. From an OOC perspective, she should have posted first at the Magistrate debate pro calling up the Legion and wracked up 100 court point for Seppun-sama. But I didn't realize it was a yes/no debate, and Yuna had her own good ideas about peaceful solutions. I don't regret sharing them. But oh the points that could have been!

I will also say, as a player, I could have been less OOC rattled by the attack on Yuna in court over the Sparrow deal, by the Lion. I should have just shaken it off. There was surely a way to have figured out what the Lion wanted IC/OOC and gotten there faster and with more flexibility and ease on my part. I was really overwhelmed and it felt like an OOC issue that needed an OOC solution and it just got more and more IC and more and more PVP. But that's because I was rattled and not doing a good job trying to get to an OOC solution. I want to handle bumps better next time!

6. An absolute tie for Jihen and Soshi Eiji. Terrific RPers.

7. House Ageki really made Yuna. It was such a clear story in my head. I wrote generations of background, and it all shaped her. It led me to research a lot of interesting background from 1st century. But my favorite thing might be the house mon which I made and probably no one saw. Here linked: https://ibb.co/S7y3yXGg

8. Yuna's coolest moment? That is really hard to choose! The romance moments with Ryusei are unforgettable! I enjoyed her hosting and ridiculously detailed menu descriptions and pictures. I was really happy to get all the trades done; that felt like a big accomplishment. Maybe the moment the dice gave me a most needed victory was when she danced the water bucket back to court for Seppun Tomaru. I loved the image of that, and I had been seriously concerned we did not have enough people to get him over the finish line, so it felt amazing to do it.

Adding one more. Amazing RP moment when Yuna talked all about the Hantei III issues, and then the spiritual team said the gaki is Hantei Ningi, and I realized ... Hantei III is Hantei Ningi ... *boom* *mind blown*

[Soshi Eiji]

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?

[Agasha Yuna]

The scene I wish I'd done with you is having Yuna ask him for a story that highlights how a person who is pious and Tao-following and cares about people of lesser station is rewarded for that by Heaven.

Like 'help me have a way to send a message that Tomaru is the right pick' with art and performance.

And maybe they talked about storytelling, how to create a story, how to tell it well, and they together compose a story impromptu, stitching pieces from stories that they know. And there would be this story at the end of it, that then got used in another scene!

[Shiba Ryusei]

Speaking of dice events, Ryusei is totally getting her an osprey.

[Agasha Yuna]

Her next dot of xp is totally going into animal handling.

And I will have 20 osprey pictures at the ready!

[Kuni Shiori]

Thank you for the invite to the Gold Standard discussion. My apologies for getting a bit lost in the talks, however! Coming from a mining House and having some experience in the value of minerals, Shiori should have been able to contribute something but admittedly it was a bit of her player's realm.

I'm glad you had a good time here and I hope to catch you next game!

[Kitsu Sayomi]

Yuna was an interesting character, and as someone who plays Dragon characters on the regular, I was happy to see a portrayal of a non-shugenja Agasha.

Was Yuna really committed to the Gold Standard goal, or did she consider it just a duty to try and push it through?

[Agasha Yuna]

Yuna was an interesting character, and as someone who plays Dragon characters on the regular, I was happy to see a portrayal of a non-shugenja Agasha.

Was Yuna really committed to the Gold Standard goal, or did she consider it just a duty to try and push it through?

It was an assignment from Togashi-ue that she was dutifully trying to fulfil. Honestly, the original thing Togashi-ue wanted was no more rice payments, everyone must pay solely in gold.

So Yuna was particularly committed to trying to find a version of that which had any chance at all of being supported by others. So, the idea of let's just have more diversity in how each clan pays, and any metal is okay, and rice folks can still pay rice, was Yuna's best effort after many conversations.

I did a lot of research as the player on the history of economics, systems of monetization, why all cultures move to metal/coin. So I got interested and engaged by it, but it was never Yuna's passion. Yuna's passion was proposing something that would not cause everyone to think the Dragon ridiculously selfish and self-interested.

It still wasn't enough, and she is sorry she couldn't get it across the finish line, but, in Yuna's opinion, she did good for the Dragon by getting the topic introduced gently and reasonably, so the Dragon were invited to resubmit next court, and not mocked for naked greed.

Yuna remains shocked that Togashi-ue had such an unspiritual topic as a goal, though clearly it was in the Dragon's interest if there was some way to get it through.

[Doji Shinnosuke]

Thank you for being in the play and adding a soundtrack! I also regret not getting a proper conversation (or more) with Yuna. One of the reasons I wish I'd had more gas in my tank this game. I'm really glad you've had a nice time, and I hope we'll see you around for other games in this format (if only because that way I'll be able to catch you for some proper RP in the future)!

Yuna was a good example of How To Courtier while being very sincere and not particularly cagey, which every court needs in the mix. One of the things she seemed really sincere about, from an outside perspective, was her devotion to... I don't know if "shugenja supremacy" is quite the right phrase, but I'll go with that. I've been curious how that set of ideas became part of the character. Did it stem from the House creation process, or was it always part of the concept? Or something else?

[Agasha Yuna]

It came from the stories that I wrote developing the house.

House Ageki was founded by a shugenja who did a great favor (with shugenja magic) for Togashi the kami. There's some 1st century lore referenced in this part.

Ageki vowed that her House would learn all there was to know about earth shugenja magic and working effectively with the earth kami. And, to that end, set up to essentially breed earth shugenja nerds for centuries who each vow to only perform and study earth magics. It's like a marriage to earth, and they believe the earth kami are happier because they give them their sole and undivided attention.

So the house breeds almost all shugenja at this point. And the leader of the house, the heir, must be a shugenja.

So Yuna being the eldest child of the House Lord and proving out to not be a shugenja was a big deal. Her mother was deeply ashamed and hated her for it - like it was a personal failing. Her younger brother and younger sister luckily are skilled shugenja.

Her whole life taught her that shugenja are Heaven-blessed and the only people fit to rule, because of their closeness to Heaven.

Fortunately, she has an uncle who is also a non-shugenja and made his fortune as a goldsmith, water hammer smith, etc. He took pity on her, and realized she needed to be out of her mother's sight for household harmony, so he pulled favors with his artistic patron, Miya Kaiya (wife of Miya Hachi), and they sponsored Yuna to get to go to Asako Loremaster school where she could thrive.

On her graduation, she was assigned to the joint Dragon-Phoenix library in Agasha lands (the Izaku library) which is a collection devoted to shugenja studies and other religious/spiritual matters. So again, essentially serving shugenja researchers to find what they need to do their important work. She has precise memory so she remembers every scroll and note. She just can't do magic herself.

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Definitely sorry I wasn't able to hold up conversation as well in the various art events. Workweek scheduling makes for a small posting window and takes a lot out of me mentally to boot. But having a chance to talk spiritual stuff (and get some half-baked ideas set a bit more firmly) was great. Much appreciation for being part of the ritual crowd and giving that historical background to make it all click.

What was the inspiration for the character/made you want to play *this* character? Since the house creation seems like it would easily offer that shugenja option and you went for not just courtier, but different clan school courtier.