Honor in Play
Texto
Literally meaning “way of the warrior” in Japanese, Bushidō is the code by which nearly all samurai in Rokugan strive to live. Samurai are taught to reach for these ideals at the expense of their own personal gain. Of course, samurai are also human, so the “breaking point” when one abandons Bushidō out of self-interest or the need for self-preservation makes for rich story and roleplaying material. The other rich story opportunity associated with Bushidō occurs when its tenets inevitably come into conflict with each other. What does a samurai do when their lord commands them to do something dishonorable? What does a samurai do when Honesty clashes with Courtesy? When Justice calls for blood but Compassion counsels mercy?
Honor is a code of behavior meant to guide the members of the samurai caste, but it does not align exactly in all places with Rokugan’s complex legal system, which imposes different standards upon people at the different levels of society. Some things are dishonorable but not considered crimes for samurai—killing someone of lower station without just cause might be within a samurai’s legal rights (provided that person is not considered another samurai’s charge), but it is still a severe violation of the Bushidō tenet of Compassion (Jin), which dictates that a samurai should have regard for even these lives. Almost all criminal activities are on some level dishonorable, though occasionally, breaking the law is less dishonorable than the alternative.
Table 7–2: Honor Scores offers concrete examples of what a character’s honor attribute says about their moral fiber. As detailed in that table, if a character’s honor enters a certain range, the character receives one or more virtue-type distinctions or flaw-type adversities. These are chosen by the player, based on the parts of the code their character holds dearest or spurns. These are removed if the character’s honor rises or falls outside of the specified range..
Forfeiting and Staking Honor
Characters must forfeit honor to breach the tenets of their code, and are awarded honor when they make sacrifices in the name of these tenets. Because honor is internal to the character, this occurs no matter how few witnesses there are to their fateful decision.
Awarding Honor for Deeds
Honor cannot be gained without adversity. As such, the GM should award honor to characters for deeds that put their code above their immediate needs or desires.
Characters generally should not be awarded honor for things that cost them nothing or are not accompanied by risks. A trifling breach or sacrifice is any that the GM deems too small to be minor but too large to fully ignore.
Table 7–1: Honor and Glory Forfeits/Awards
SCALE | FORFEIT | AWARD
Trifling | 1 | 1
Minor | Attribute Rank | 3
Major | Attribute Rank x 2 | 6
Massive | Attribute Rank x 4 | 9
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Core Rulebook · Chapter 7: The Game Master › Using Social Attributes › Honor in Play · p. 300
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Literally meaning “way of the warrior” in Japanese, Bushidō is the code by which nearly all samurai in Rokugan strive to live. Samurai are taught to reach for these ideals at the expense of their own personal gain. Of course, samurai are also human, so the “breaking point” when one abandons Bushidō out of self-interest or the need for self-preservation makes for rich story and roleplaying material. The other rich story opportunity associated with Bushidō occurs when its tenets inevitably come into conflict with each other. What does a samurai do when their lord commands them to do something dishonorable? What does a samurai do when Honesty clashes with Courtesy? When Justice calls for blood but Compassion counsels mercy?
Honor is a code of behavior meant to guide the members of the samurai caste, but it does not align exactly in all places with Rokugan’s complex legal system, which imposes different standards upon people at the different levels of society. Some things are dishonorable but not considered crimes for samurai—killing someone of lower station without just cause might be within a samurai’s legal rights (provided that person is not considered another samurai’s charge), but it is still a severe violation of the Bushidō tenet of Compassion (Jin), which dictates that a samurai should have regard for even these lives. Almost all criminal activities are on some level dishonorable, though occasionally, breaking the law is less dishonorable than the alternative.
Table 7–2: Honor Scores offers concrete examples of what a character’s honor attribute says about their moral fiber. As detailed in that table, if a character’s honor enters a certain range, the character receives one or more virtue-type distinctions or flaw-type adversities. These are chosen by the player, based on the parts of the code their character holds dearest or spurns. These are removed if the character’s honor rises or falls outside of the specified range..
Forfeiting and Staking Honor
Characters must forfeit honor to breach the tenets of their code, and are awarded honor when they make sacrifices in the name of these tenets. Because honor is internal to the character, this occurs no matter how few witnesses there are to their fateful decision.
Awarding Honor for Deeds
Honor cannot be gained without adversity. As such, the GM should award honor to characters for deeds that put their code above their immediate needs or desires.
Characters generally should not be awarded honor for things that cost them nothing or are not accompanied by risks. A trifling breach or sacrifice is any that the GM deems too small to be minor but too large to fully ignore.
Table 7–1: Honor and Glory Forfeits/Awards
SCALE | FORFEIT | AWARD
Trifling | 1 | 1
Minor | Attribute Rank | 3
Major | Attribute Rank x 2 | 6
Massive | Attribute Rank x 4 | 9