Artisan

[ChuiSaoul 8]

Hey, right now I am GMing and I am new at the game (Just finished my third session). None of my player are, but I was curious to know, if playing an artisan in any fun. Cause, they are in the game and all. But considering that the game is mostly political stuff and martial combat (depending on the style of game you run), at witch point does it make sense for a PC to know how to make a sword ?

[Avatar111 553]

15 minutes ago, ChuiSaoul said:

Hey, right now I am GMing and I am new at the game (Just finished my third session). None of my player are, but I was curious to know, if playing an artisan in any fun. Cause, they are in the game and all. But considering that the game is mostly political stuff and martial combat (depending on the style of game you run), at witch point does it make sense for a PC to know how to make a sword ?

The GM wil deal with that by making the campaign more focused on crafting ? Maybe some plot with nemuranai or other similar subject ? Maybe try to include more lore and scenes that relates to arts/crafts/gifts etc ?

Afterall, crafting will be 1 or 2 skills and 1 or 2 shuji for you... It isn't like you can't do anything else anyway! So yeah, the GM should cover that in his story. Same as the GM needs to cover for a "shinobi" in the story.

Have a session 0, put some boundaries and have fun with your players coming up with a "story". also, never more than 3 players or otherwise the GM will struggle making the story matter for all characters.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Avatar111

[ChuiSaoul 8]

 

16 minutes ago, Avatar111 said:

The GM wil deal with that by making the campaign more focused on crafting ? Maybe some plot with nemuranai or other similar subject ? Maybe try to include more lore and scenes that relates to arts/crafts/gifts etc ?

Afterall, crafting will be 1 or 2 skills and 1 or 2 shuji for you... It isn't like you can't do anything else anyway! So yeah, the GM should cover that in his story. Same as the GM needs to cover for a "shinobi" in the story.

Have a session 0, put some boundaries and have fun with your players coming up with a "story". also, never more than 3 players or otherwise the GM will struggle making the story matter for all characters.

Yup, get what you are saying. An the rule of crafting look suprisingly satifying. With the patern form Shadowlands and all. So you can really feel like you are doing something a craftsmith would do, but just by of some use. That was also my feeling, just wanted to know the feedback of people who played with those schools.

And quick question, would you consider the xp spend in learning patern as xp spend in a rank school. Because I know it's a bit outside of th erule but I feel that any artisan school would have it in there school if it weren't from the fact that patern appeared after the source book came out. 

Edited October 10, 2019 by ChuiSaoul

[Avatar111 553]

8 minutes ago, ChuiSaoul said:

 

Yup, get what you are saying. An the rule of crafting look suprisingly satifying. With the patern form Shadowlands and all. So you can really feel like you are doing something a craftsmith would do, but just by of some use. That was also my feeling, just wanted to know the feedback of people who played with those schools.

And quick question, would you consider the xp spend in learning patern as xp spend in a rank school. Because I know it's a bit outside of th erule but I feel that any artisan school would have it in there school if it weren't from the fact that patern appeared after the source book came out. 

As a GM, you do whatever you want. If it breaks, you talk with your players and readjust.
honestly, the game breaks by itself in many cases, so having this attitude with your players (flexibility and coming up to fair agreement with everybody) is a discussion you should have before the game even starts.

[ChuiSaoul 8]

11 minutes ago, Avatar111 said:

 the game breaks by itself in many cases

You think the game is not really balanced ?

[Avatar111 553]

12 minutes ago, ChuiSaoul said:

You think the game is not really balanced ?

Balance is not an issue really, in a trpg, it can be adjusted. If something is way too cheesy I hope you and your player can find ways to balance it.
Some of the rules are also not really well designed, but again, nothing a GM cannot account for or adjust.

[Harzerkatze 262]

You can play any school, for the school primarily grants one school ability. Sure, some of those are awesome, bit a lot of what the PC csn do comes from his skills & techniques, which the artisan can learn as well as any bushi.

Of course, playing an artisannonly makes sense when the player wants to play one. But then, there are quite some things in the rules where his abilities help the group:

- removing Damaged or Broken condition from weapon and armor

- the Blessing of Steel ritual can give qualities to weapons. Blessed is one which would be very helpful if facing tainted beings

- Blessing of Steel in Void with a  Opportunity can lower the TN of the next attack done with a weapon or arrow by 2. This keeps till used, so preparing a weapon for when it really counts is not bad.

- when refining a set of ashigaru armor or laquered armor with an Air artisan check, he can add the Subtle quality, which cancels Wargear. Which means you can wear that armor in normal life without scaring the normal people.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Harzerkatze

[Magnus Grendel 11,673]

14 hours ago, ChuiSaoul said:

None of my player are, but I was curious to know, if playing an artisan in any fun. Cause, they are in the game and all. But considering that the game is mostly political stuff and martial combat (depending on the style of game you run), at witch point does it make sense for a PC to know how to make a sword ?

If you're doing political stuff, make sure the 'game of gift-giving' gets attention, because that's where an artisan can shine; producing gifts, critiquing gifts, or spotting the subtext message in gifts.

A swordsmith can as noted fix or improve a sword, but they can also be useful when you need to know about a sword. If a sword is somehow at the centre of a mystery, scrutinize or theorise with smithing could be used to find the item's history, clues about its wielder from the sword school it was made by, for example.

[UnitOmega 2,818]

I mean, I'm pretty sure there's only one pure Artisan school (so far), and the game says that for purposes of Roles, Artisans are functionally like Courtiers, they're expected to attend and handle social functions at court. Artisan skills are highly valued in Rokugan, and have their own internal merit (though obviously for players they might not always be "practical") so no one needs an excuse to have them, knowing a little poetry or painting is just good and can get you respect points. Smithing is the most practical for PCs, as there are systems to damage equipment so having a guy to roll Smithing+Earth on a regular basis is good and there's a few other tricks. If you're a social character, there are a few shuji which can or only proc on Artisan skills, so you can get some additional ability there which make you feel involved even if you're just like a court painter or a travelling novelist trapped by a blizzard or something.