Social Skills

Social skills represent a character’s deftness and experience in dealing with other people in various contexts, from court to the battlefield.

Command

The ability to speak authoritatively is as imperative for the courtier—who guide their charges through complicated ceremonies and social events—as it is for the bushi—who shepherds their soldiers through battles and wars. Lives hang in the balance, and one word can inspire victory or lead to disaster. When chaos arises, it is the duty of those in command to take charge and to instill order, and they will be the ones judged on the success or failure of the operation, not their underlings.

The Command skill is used to instill obedience, whether in court or on the battlefield. It is generally most effective when used to motivate subordinates rather than peers, or in the context of a clear command structure, as it revolves around telling others what to do (and, usually, expecting them to do it).

Table 3–3: Sample Tasks (with Rings) and TNs for Social Skills

TASK | TN

1

Calming someone with a reminder about propriety (Earth), convincing an inexperienced soldier that they will survive a battle (Air), teaching someone the rules of a game (Earth), reciting a popular poem to win over your audience (Water).

2

Moving up the scheduled date of an appointment with a court official of lower status (Water), intimidating an average person of lower status (Fire), making a positive impression on someone during a game (Water), Performing a traditional tea ceremony to calm people (Earth).

3

Spreading a rumor such that it reaches the ears of an intended person (Air), getting a group of samurai from rival clans to work together without friction (Water), demonstrating your strategic prowess to someone through a game (Void), impersonating someone else’s voice and posture at a distance (Air).

4

Getting the attention of someone well above your station (Fire), getting a group of armed peasants to rally after breaking formation (Earth), winning double your wagered money at a gambling hall (Fire), performing a play that causes someone of higher status to reflect upon a major decision (Void).

5

Causing a samurai to consider their common humanity with a member of another class of society (Void), getting two characters of status higher than yours to see that a conflict over perceived slights is pointless (Void), rigging part of a game in front of a crowd (Air), singing a rousing song that drives a bedraggled army into a frenzy against the enemy (Fire).

Command Approaches

The Command skill can be used as follows with the appropriate ring:

Reason Approach (Earth Ring): Verbally reprimanding a group of soldiers who have grown lax in their duties, establishing order on a chaotic battlefield, making someone afraid of the consequences of their actions.

Charm Approach (Water Ring): Cultivating loyalty from troops under your command, motivating troops with a promised reward, getting a mixed force to stop squabbling, making someone afraid of letting you down.

Incite Approach (Fire Ring): Restoring morale to weary troops, stoking an old grudge, getting others to follow you despite danger to life and limb, making someone afraid of you personally.

Trick Approach (Air Ring): Giving an assignment without letting on to the dangers it entails, misleading your own troops to confuse your enemy, communicating in code with your troops.

Enlighten Approach (Void Ring): Convincing troops embroiled in a battle to see its pointlessness, persuading enemy soldiers that their cause is not just, snapping someone out of shock or a rage in battle.

Courtesy

The essential Social skill of Rokugan’s highest circles of power, the Courtesy skill represents a character’s ability to influence others’ opinions, persuade others to a course of action, outmaneuver their opponents, win arguments, steer a conversation in a desired direction, and deliver cunning put-downs—all without ever openly giving offense or stepping beyond the complex rules of Rokugani etiquette.

In the vicious world of court politics, politeness is a deadly weapon in a courtier’s arsenal. Baiting someone to an outburst of emotion can destroy their reputation and earn their enmity for life, while deflecting someone’s wrath onto oneself, taking the blame for a mistake, can put them in one’s debt and foster new alliances. Courtesy is also needed when one wishes to influence the perceived truth of a matter that may be in question, regardless of the actual truth.

Courtesy Approaches

The Courtesy skill can be used with the appropriate rings as follows:

Reason Approach (Earth Ring): Convincing someone to listen to reason rather than their emotions, reminding someone of their duties, convincing someone to wait rather than acting and suffering potential consequences.

Charm Approach (Water Ring): Getting someone to like or trust you, fostering desire for something or someone in a person, altering someone’s current desires, efficiently making your way through the complex bureaucracy of a court by being pleasant and gregarious.

Incite Approach (Fire Ring): Convincing someone to listen to their emotions rather than reason, reminding someone of their desires, drawing attention to yourself, getting someone to ignore risks before them, insulting someone openly.

Trick Approach (Air Ring): Convincing someone of something untrue (or incomplete), deflecting attention from yourself onto others, spreading a rumor about someone, leading someone to an idea to convince them it is their own, insulting someone subtly and deniably.

Enlighten Approach (Void Ring): Using well-chosen words to get someone to question a truth they held as absolute, getting someone to remember their true self when they are acting out of fear, despair, rage, or supernatural influence.

Games

Games are an important tool at court, serving as a vital outlet for the rivalries that develop in the highest circles of power and as a crucial opportunity to maintain and develop relationships, especially outside of the strict confines that one’s station would usually dictate.

As a result, success at games is one way a new arrival at court can earn distinction and get access to people of much higher rank, whom they would otherwise be unable to approach. However, only the truly naïve overlook the fact that games are merely one more means to an end in the shifting world of court politics.

The games of Rokugan are as varied as the clans, but first among them is Go, a game played with black and white stones and a wooden board. Played by peasant and Emperor, young and old, bushi and monk, it can be found in all walks of life in Rokugan. The rules are simple, but mastering the game requires years of dedication; proficiency is always worthy of respect.

Other games include Fortunes and Winds, a dice game many samurai see as a pastime for the lower classes; Sadane, a game of biting insults that courtiers enjoy; Karuta, a card game of trick taking using both illustrations and lines of poetry; and Shōgi, a tactical game of generals, cavalry, and assorted soldiers.

Games Approaches

The Games skill can be used as follows with the appropriate ring:

Reason Approach (Earth Ring): Playing without upsetting your opponent, playing cautiously, instructing someone else in the basics of a game, minimizing your losses.

Charm Approach (Water Ring): Using a game to build a rapport with your opponent (or someone else present), playing casually, using a game to get your opponent to trust you.

Incite Approach (Fire Ring): Using a game to make your opponent angry or afraid, playing aggressively, spurring your opponent to wager more, developing new tactics in a game.

Trick Approach (Air Ring): Using a game to uncover your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, playing deceptively, cheating, losing deliberately (without being obvious), sending a subtle message through your play.

Enlighten Approach (Void Ring): Using a game to shock your opponent into seeing something clearly, playing minimally, leaving the fate of the game to pure chance.

Performance

The Performance skill pertains to the act of entertaining others with active arts, from song to dance to storytelling. Performances of sufficient caliber can help to bridge political divides, influence people to rethink their lives, or even set off artistic or political movements. Performance is also used for impersonating others, though obviously doing so would be dishonorable.

Performers occupy an unusual place in Rokugan. Commoners who practice the performing arts are treated poorly by the upper classes and are considered unworthy of the status of craftspeople or farmers. However, every court features musicians, dancers, and artists who are of common birth but are allowed to bring entertainment to those of high station. Their dishonorable status is tolerably ignored—as long as they entertain their betters. Meanwhile, samurai performers are praised by their peers for having an “expressive nature,” or a “poetic soul.”

Performance Approaches

The Performance skill can be used as follows with the appropriate ring:

Reason Approach (Earth Ring): Transmitting some moral lesson to your audience, soothing your audience, educating your audience on a particular matter, setting your audience members’ minds at ease.

Charm Approach (Water Ring): Gaining your audience’s sympathy, causing your audience to desire something, building a positive rapport with your audience.

Incite Approach (Fire Ring): Rousing your audience into a state of excitement, intentionally needling your audience, stirring your audience to immediate action.

Trick Approach (Air Ring): Giving an extremely convincing performance, getting your audience to come to a particular conclusion without stating it outright, impersonating others convincingly.

Enlighten Approach (Void Ring): Causing your audience to reevaluate something in their lives, breaking your audience out of an emotional rut such as sorrow or rage, delivering a message to your audience in spite of supernatural interference.