So this is a little off topic but how do Vassal Families work? I mean do clans have the right to establish new families under them or do they need the Emperor's approval to establish them? Also I noticed that each clan has official duties as assigned to them by the Emperor. Do we have any currently or is that coming later?
So this is a little off topic but how do Vassal Families work? I mean do clans have the right to establish new families under them or do they need the Emperor's approval to establish them? Also I noticed that each clan has official duties as assigned to them by the Emperor. Do we have any currently or is that coming later?
So this is a little off topic but how to Vassal Families work? I mean do clans have the right to establish new families under them or do they need the Emperor's approval to establish them? Also I noticed that each clan has official duties as assigned to them by the Emperor. Do we have any currently or is that coming later?
Major Clans and the Emperor have a right to grant someone a Family Name (the major clans typically ask the Emperor's approval beforehand), Minor Clans typically do not (though if they have a good reason to do so, they can petition the Emperor, it's just unlikely). A Minor Clan may adopt another Minor Clan or a vassal family belonging to a Major Clan as a vassal family of their own.
The official duties of the Catfish so far are to oversee the lands granted to them. Further great deeds in the future may enhance the rights and responsibilities of the Catfish. (As an example, the Falcon clan only became the Empire's designated ghost hunters after they were around for a few years and figured out that they were good at it.)
Storybookknight, how important was Tsubaki's father by the way? Does she actually know who he was at all? What about her mother, is her identity known?
I'm wondering how the Scorpion are going to try to use the familial connection. It seems unlikely that they wouldn't at least try to exploit such an obvious avenue of approach. Even more interesting when you consider that family values are one of the Scorpions' few virtues, though I don't know how that applies to illegitimate children.
I'm also wondering whether we shouldn't in fact let them get an in, at least to some degree. We probably want the Scorpion to consider us as potentially useful rather than an enemy to be destroyed. And we don't want to be entirely reliant on the Crab for survival anyway, so that our status as an independent clan isn't reduced to merely a formality.
Storybookknight, how important was Tsubaki's father by the way? Does she actually know who he was at all? What about her mother, is her identity known?
I'm wondering how the Scorpion are going to try to use the familial connection. It seems unlikely that they wouldn't at least try to exploit such an obvious avenue of approach. Even more interesting when you consider that family values are one of the Scorpions' few virtues, though I don't know how that applies to illegitimate children.
I'm also wondering whether we shouldn't in fact let them get an in, at least to some degree. We probably want the Scorpion to consider us as potentially useful rather than an enemy to be destroyed. And we don't want to be entirely reliant on the Crab for survival anyway, so that our status as an independent clan isn't reduced to merely a formality.
Tsubaki doesn't know her father very well, and has only seen him a handful of times. She does not know his name.
Her mother was a geisha, and passed of illness when Tsubaki was seven or eight years old. She taught Tsubaki most of what she knows about singing, storytelling, dancing, and so on.
Tsubaki spent a year or two on the streets, and was eventually taken in by the Warakkoi-gumi. She might have eventually become an ashigaru, but when she was fourteen her father came back to the city, found her, gave her a daisho, and left.
Tsubaki doesn't know her father very well, and has only seen him a handful of times. She does not know his name.
Her mother was a geisha, and passed of illness when Tsubaki was seven or eight years old. She taught Tsubaki most of what she knows about singing, storytelling, dancing, and so on.
Tsubaki spent a year or two on the streets, and was eventually taken in by the Warakkoi-gumi. She might have eventually become an ashigaru, but when she was fourteen her father came back to the city, found her, gave her a daisho, and left.
For some reason I have this idea in my head that the Scorpies might order her father to go and beg her forgiveness. I'm not very l5r savvy, but individuals sacrificing themselves, or their pride or honour, for the greater good of the clan is pretty characteristic of the Scorpions, isn't it?
[] Wind. The bastard child of a Scorpion samurai, you had the misfortune of having been born with a large red birthmark over your right eye. As your father was unwilling to acknowledge you due to the potential ill-luck that you would bring, you fell in with a group of ronin smugglers that worked the rivers of the southern lands and facilitated trade between sworn enemies such as the Yasuki and the Doji that could not be seen to interact with each other - as well as less legal merchandise coming from Scorpion lands. You were on your way to Zakyo Toshi when you saw the battle, and provided an escape route for the Emperor by spiriting him away on your riverboat.
To the extent that having good relations with both at once is even possible, yes. The Scorpion and the Crab don't like each other, like, at all. In the long term, the clan is going to have to strike some sort balance between the two if it is to thrive. If actual open conflict between them kicked off we would be caught right in the crossfire. Luckily that's not too likely, since the Crab's primary focus is on the wall, while the Scorpion prefer more subtle means.
I'm somewhat concerned about what's going to happen in court settings (such as the winter court in crab lands, we will presumably attending). The Crab are one of the least courtly and intriguey clans around, and their traditional enemies, the Crane and the Scorpion, are the two best at it. With us as the Crab's allies we could get blasted in the courts. The Emperor's favour protects us to some degree, but if we get associated with scandals he may have to wash his hands of us. We're either going to have to influence their opinion of us in such a way that they're interested in stealing us away from the Crab rather than destroying us, majorly beef up our diplomatic game, or seek ties with other diplo savvy people, like some of the Imperial Families maybe.
You are Namazu Tsubaki, Champion of the Catfish Clan.
You have just been named governor of Zakyo Toshi and daimyo of the neighboring provinces.
You are in badly over your head.
Luckily, you have excellent advisors. Today you sit with Boss Koibu, your surrogate father (now Namazu Koibu, your underling, and isn't that an odd thought) in the Governor's Mansion, where Otomo Genryu lived only a few short weeks ago. Koibu-sama has lead the Warakkoi-gumi for many years, and has a great deal of advice for you on how to set up a new group - a Clan, after all, is not too dissimilar from an otokodate in execution, even if it differs in size and prestige.
"The second most important thing for you to do," he says, "is to pick a council of trusted advisors that will serve as your hands, eyes, and ears within the greater group at large."
You raise an eyebrow, and take a sip of tea, before finally breaking down and asking. "Okay, I'll bite. Why is that the second thing I need to do, and not the first?"
He grins at you. "Because the first thing you need to do is to figure out who you need to bribe with a spot on your council to keep them happy."
You laugh. "Fair enough. So who are you thinking I need to do that with?"
He looks at you solemnly. "The Catfish aren't any bigger than they were last week," he says, "Nor any better equipped, or better trained. If the Firemen and the Brotherhood teamed up against us tomorrow, do you think we could take them, just because the Emperor says we're in charge?"
"Ergh." You say, acknowledging the point. "So what do you think I should do?"
"You're going to need to make compromises," Koibu says with a slight frown. "Like it or not we need help from somewhere. Some of our rivals might join us; others might agree to a non-aggression pact. Here's what I see as our options."
DEALS AND COMPROMISES
The Autumn Brotherhood - A gang of drug dealers that masquerade as priests, using holy vows and the protection given to the Brotherhood of Shinsei to engage in one of the most illegal trades known to Rokugan - Opium. Their leader is unknown to you.
[ ] Adopt the Autumn Brotherhood. (+1 Learning, +1 Enlightenment, +1 Trade, +1 Information, +2 Infamy, -1 Honor, -1 Unity). As much as you detest the opium trade, it's never going to just go away, and the Brotherhood are at least the devil you know. Bringing them under your rule would limit the damage that they do... and give you the resources to make up for the stain upon your soul.
[ ] Leave the Brotherhood alone. You can't bring yourself to actually make peace with them, but if you remove them, you'll only be making room for the cartels in Ryoko Owari to take their place.
[ ] Crush the Brotherhood. You don't care who else you have to make deals with, you're going to eradicate these opium dealers root and branch, and do the same thing to anyone who tries to take their place. You've seen too many people taken by opium to just let that trade flourish in your city.
The Silent Canaries - A gang of merchants and smugglers that deal in seriously illicit goods. Besides tax evasion, they also deal in gaijin goods and information. Their leader is Ukyo, a failed member of the Daidoji clan, who has dyed her hair a vibrant yellow rather than her original clan's typical white. Ukyo is a skilled plotter and a talented businesswoman.
[ ] Adopt the Silent Canaries. (+1 Trade, +1 Information, -1 Diplomacy, +1 Infamy, -1 Unity) So they're smugglers; well, so are you. If you team up with the Canaries, you can make sure that your city's goods make it to markets everywhere without having to deal with patrols or taxes. You'll pay taxes to the Emperor, of course - it's just the Great Clans that you want to compete with. You can't say that having access to gaijin goods would be unattractive either.
[ ] Leave the Silent Canaries alone. Smuggling is relatively harmless, all things considered. You can deal with them after you've dealt with more pressing threats.
[ ] Get rid of the Silent Canaries. Smuggling cuts into your tax base in a serious way, and like any ronin, you know how important money can be. Getting rid of their network now will save you years of losses in the future.
Ronin - The Wave Plains are full of Ronin, and there are quite a few ronin in the city that might join a Clan that would not have joined your otokodate. Recruiting so obviously from the wave-men will cost you some prestige, but making sure that you have a solid base of people to build your clan on is important.
[ ] Adopt Ronin into your clan. (+1 Battle Gold Province, +1 Battle and +1 Information Wave Province, -1 Glory, -1 Honor, -1 Unity.) Your boss accepted only honorable ronin into the Laughing Carp; you aren't going to accept outright criminals, but life as a ronin was painful and you're minded to give other ronin a similar home.
[ ] Leave the Ronin alone. The Empire needs a place where ronin are accepted; as long as the ronin in your lands pay their taxes on time, there's no reason not to let them govern themselves.
[ ] Get rid of the Ronin. You don't need a bunch of masterless samurai in your lands that are bound to stir up crime, and getting rid of them should be pretty easy - just let them know they're unwelcome, and they'll go.
The Firemen - A gang composed primarily of heimin firefighters, they have been long-term rivals of the Warakkoi over the protection racket and the geisha trade. Their leader is a Ronin named Minato, a skilled warrior with the Ono - he's seen as a thug, and is not very well liked, but is a talented leader of men and a cunning plotter.
[ ] Adopt the Firemen. (+1 Battle, +1 Enforcement, -1 Popularity, -2 Unity) They've been your rivals for so long in part because you have similar interests and values, you've just disagreed as to who should be in charge. Now that the Emperor has spoken on the matter, is there really a reason for continued conflict? There may be some grumbling about playing nice with your long-time foes, but you should be able to manage it. In return you'd get a contingent of skilled ashigaru, and a few talented samurai to boot.
[ ] Call a truce with the Firemen. The City still needs firefighters, and you have more important potential enemies to worry about.
[ ] Get rid of the Firemen. They've been your enemies for ages, and that's not going to go away. Going to war with them now will keep them from becoming a problem in the future.
The Emerald Guard - Not technically a criminal gang, the Guardsmen in Zakyo Toshi are still corrupt thanks to the influence of their former leader, Otomo Genryu. Most of members of the Guard are going to be unwilling to leave their former Clans behind, but you may be able to convince certain members of the Guard to stay behind as permanent Clan allies or ambassadors, some might marry into your fledgling clan and some might straight up join as 'gestures of goodwill' - too bad that there will almost certainly be spies and criminals among anyone willing to stay behind.
[ ] Adopt from the Guard (+1 Diplomacy, +1 Learning, -1 Enforcement, -2 Unity) If you're willing to accept foreign spies and criminals in your ranks, you will create opportunities for ties between your fledgling clan and the Great Clans, acquire teachers that you desperately need... and potentially lose some of your control over the city and your Clan as foreigners plot against you.
[ ] Keep the Guard on until their rotations end. It will ensure a smooth transferral of responsibilities, make sure that your new administration is not unprepared for any complications that come up... and give agents among the Guard a chance to subvert your men.
[ ] Get rid of the Guard. You'll muddle your own way through running the city if it means that you can keep your people from being unduly tempted.
Any adoptions that you make will be permanent, and will be reflected in Gold Province's stats (also Wave Province, if you adopt ronin).
You may also pick up traditions, etc. from people that you adopt.
Unity is sort of like Honor - 4 is about average, and 6 is quite good.
Dealing with the Great Clans will wait until after you have a diplomatic advisor.
[X] Plan ANV
-[X] Crush the Brotherhood. You don't care who else you have to make deals with, you're going to eradicate these opium dealers root and branch, and do the same thing to anyone who tries to take their place. You've seen too many people taken by opium to just let that trade flourish in your city.
-[X] Keep the Guard on until their rotations end. It will ensure a smooth transferral of responsibilities, make sure that your new administration is not unprepared for any complications that come up... and give agents among the Guard a chance to subvert your men.
-[X] Adopt the Silent Canaries. (+1 Trade, +1 Information, -1 Diplomacy, +1 Infamy, -1 Unity) So they're smugglers; well, so are you. If you team up with the Canaries, you can make sure that your city's goods make it to markets everywhere without having to deal with patrols or taxes. You'll pay taxes to the Emperor, of course - it's just the Great Clans that you want to compete with. You can't say that having access to gaijin goods would be unattractive either.
-[X] Adopt Ronin into your clan. (+1 Battle Gold Province, +1 Battle and +1 Information Wave Province, -1 Glory, -1 Honor, -1 Unity.) Your boss accepted only honorable ronin into the Laughing Carp; you aren't going to accept outright criminals, but life as a ronin was painful and you're minded to give other ronin a similar home.
-[X] Call a truce with the Firemen. The City still needs firefighters, and you have more important potential enemies to worry about.
Crushing the Brotherhood, adopting the Silent Canaries and Ronin, and leaving the rest.
[X] Crush the Brotherhood.
[X] Adopt the Silent Canaries. (+1 Trade, +1 Information, -1 Diplomacy, +1 Infamy, -1 Unity)
[X] Adopt Ronin into your clan. (+1 Battle Gold Province, +1 Battle and +1 Information Wave Province, -1 Glory, -1 Honor, -1 Unity.)
[X] Call a truce with the Firemen.
[X] Keep the Guard on until their rotations end.
[X]Plan ANV
Basically going with "the devils that we know" on the judgement calls. We explicitly mentioned the opium trade to the Emperor, so they've gotta go. The Canaries occupy our niche, so coopting them to our side strengthens our position vis a vis what our biggest probable resource is: the river trade. The Ronin are a kind of nostalgic choice, brining in the dispossessed, giving them purpose and pride again might hurt our appearances with the other clans, but hell, Tsubaki's got a great big spot on her face and they probably think we're just jumped up criminals anyway.
I think the Firemen are a bit too close to home for us to adopt, it seems like the vendetta runs pretty deep, but we do need some basic social services and if they do their jobs, we can play nice. The Guard is probably too rotten for us to effectively pick out the good from bad unfortunately, and I'd feel more comfortable with them gone once they're done here.
[X] Adopt from the Guard (+1 Diplomacy, +1 Learning, -1 Enforcement, -2 Unity)
[X] Adopt Ronin into your clan. (+1 Battle Gold Province, +1 Battle and +1 Information Wave Province, -1 Glory, -1 Honor, -1 Unity.) .
[X] Adopt the Silent Canaries. (+1 Trade, +1 Information, +1 Infamy, -1 Unity)
[X] Call a truce with the Firemen.
[X] Crush the Brotherhood.
The worst part of this plan is that we will take a hit in infamy, honor and glory, not to mention that we will have to jiggle a little on the formation of our council.
But as an up, we will have better than average trade and almost average battle
I very much like the idea of adopting the Canaries, though the hit to Diplomacy smarts.
For the Ronin, I'm kinda ambivalent about adopting them. On one hand they provide some much-needed improvements to the Wave province. On the other hand, those improvements are mostly militarily, and don't change anything about the fact that it's still pretty darn poor.
Otherwise I agree on getting rid of the opium pushers and leaving the firemen alone.
I very much like the idea of adopting the Canaries, though the hit to Diplomacy smarts.
For the Ronin, I'm kinda ambivalent about adopting them. On one hand they provide some much-needed improvements to the Wave province. On the other hand, those improvements are mostly militarily, and don't change anything about the fact that it's still pretty darn poor.
Otherwise I agree on getting rid of the opium pushers and leaving the firemen alone.
We can, but with the guard we're dealing with far greater unknowns than any of the local factions and I'm not sure how useful ties to other Great clans outside of our current strong bond with the Crab are. They're also sullied by the association with the former governor, and mechanics aside I don't know about welcoming the corrupt cops that wrecked this town in to the new order with open arms.
Nobody likes the opium traders, keeping a corrupt guard is a bad idea (especially if they're spies for other Clans), Canaries & Ronin = more money and troops and the Firemen are our rivals so leaving them alone seems to be better than forcefully integrating them.
I'm rather terrified of the long term infiltration and corruption the guards will bring to our clan. Frankly, we are building the foundations of a clan right now, and I don't want that kind of crack in it.
We want to crush the Autumn Brotherhood. Opium baaaaaad.
The Canaries are adoptable, though I'm wondering if we may instead want to keep them an make them our own deniable smugglers. Our ascension means it's less acceptable for us to be involved in such things, after all.
Adopting the Ronin could be a good way to beef up our forces, and make getting the Wave Province under control easier. I'm inclined to adopt from them.
I wouldn't adopt the Firemen, unless we were skipping the Ronin. Kicking out the firemen may be a bad idea for the city though. We would definitely need to form replacements ASAP
A clean sweep of the Emerald Guard may be worthwhile, but could cause problems. If we keep them we're definitely going to have to ride herd on them. I could even see adopting them for the diplomatic game. This one's a hard choice.
I'll vote
[ ]Plan ANV
for now. Though I'm contemplating adopting from the Guard and keeping the Canaries instead, to gain a better Diplomacy build.
I'm going to switch to Alectai's
[X] Plan Give and Take
for not reducing diplomacy, and not raising our infamy.
We can, but with the guard we're dealing with far greater unknowns than any of the local factions and I'm not sure how useful ties to other Great clans outside of our current strong bond with the Crab are. They're also sullied by the association with the former governor, and mechanics aside I don't know about welcoming the corrupt cops that wrecked this town in to the new order with open arms.
[X] Crush the Brotherhood. You don't care who else you have to make deals with, you're going to eradicate these opium dealers root and branch, and do the same thing to anyone who tries to take their place. You've seen too many people taken by opium to just let that trade flourish in your city.
[X] Leave the Silent Canaries alone. Smuggling is relatively harmless, all things considered. You can deal with them after you've dealt with more pressing threats.
[X] Adopt Ronin into your clan. (+1 Battle Gold Province, +1 Battle and +1 Information Wave Province, -1 Glory, -1 Honor, -1 Unity.) Your boss accepted only honorable ronin into the Laughing Carp; you aren't going to accept outright criminals, but life as a ronin was painful and you're minded to give other ronin a similar home.
[X] Adopt the Firemen. (+1 Battle, +1 Enforcement, -1 Popularity, -2 Unity) They've been your rivals for so long in part because you have similar interests and values, you've just disagreed as to who should be in charge. Now that the Emperor has spoken on the matter, is there really a reason for continued conflict? There may be some grumbling about playing nice with your long-time foes, but you should be able to manage it. In return you'd get a contingent of skilled ashigaru, and a few talented samurai to boot.
[X] Keep the Guard on until their rotations end. It will ensure a smooth transferral of responsibilities, make sure that your new administration is not unprepared for any complications that come up... and give agents among the Guard a chance to subvert your men.
Combination of "Who can we live with" and "Who must go".
Opium dealers? Fuck 'em, they're selling chiefly to the poor or they wouldn't have such a strong presence here. They contribute nothing of value, and are actively hurting us.
Smugglers? Borderline. They won't start shit with us if we don't start shit with them, and their connections could be useful--nonetheless, we can't really officially recognize that shit either. Keep them at arm's length.
Ronin are a useful asset, and give us badly needed manpower, which will be useful to help keep the various powers that be in line. Losing a point of Glory and Honor stings, but hopefully we can regain it, especially with how our battle strength rises considerably from this choice.
The Firemen are strong, and they're rivals--but they're also pretty similar to us, and gets our Battle and Enforcement up to a downright respectable level! The Unity hit hurts, but we can absorb it.
We purge the greatest poison, and start shifting the Guard out of our territory while kindly ignoring the smugglers. In return, our battle strength rises dramatically, and our enforcement takes a jump too--we also avoid losing any Rings with this setup--and our Unity should still remain in the proverbial black.
More importantly, no further Infamy--that would be bad.
