#Class Alternate Techniques (代替特技) — Section Index

Contents

#Identity

For each of the 33 core classes + the 1 Commoner class from the 1st expansion, this adds alternate techniques that can be chosen in the per-dan technique slots. It does not replace core techniques, but adds them as options choosable in parallel in the same slot.

Example: the samurai 1-dan slot can choose this expansion's "Iai Severing" as an alternative alongside the core "One-Blade Kiai."

#Design Goals

33 classes + 1 Commoner class = 34 classes × 5 dan (1/3/5/7/9) = 170 alternate techniques (final goal).
However, the Commoner and some classes have dan-count limits, so the actual number is ~165.
Each alternate technique presents a play type different from the original technique. Numerically equal, role-differentiated.
Example: original is a "tanky blocker" → the alternate is a "mobile harasser"
Balance against the core: numerically identical or within ±1. Extreme buffs or nerfs are forbidden.
The alternate techniques for the 12 fiend classes comply with the core Villain Play Guide protocol — a villain-only expansion, table-wide consensus at Session 0, and GM permission are mandatory. In an ex1 campaign, the PC-replacement-only and 1-per-party limits additionally apply, but those are ex1-specific protocols and separate from the core protocol.
The alternate techniques for the 3 outsider classes maintain Adaptation slot compatibility.

#§ File List for This Section

ex2-01-01-basic-classes.md — 5 each of the basic 18-class alternate techniques
ex2-01-02-villain-classes.md — 5 each of the fiend 12-class alternate techniques
ex2-01-03-outsider-and-commoner.md — alternate techniques for the 3 outsider classes + the Commoner

#Reference Documents

Core required:

Classes (職業, Classes) — full class index
Progression (成長體系) — per-dan technique slot system
Renown Titles (威名) — 9-dan/Tatsujin Renown Title
Villain Play Guide (惡役指南, Villain's Guide) — common protocol for the 12 fiend classes
Expansion Classes — Supplementary Data (擴張職業補足) — expansion class protocol

Each core class file:

../../../04-character/classes/04-01-samurai.md ~ 04-18-puppeteer.md (18 basic)
../../../04-character/classes/04-20-villain-shurado.md ~ 04-31-villain-zakkasho.md (12 fiend)
../../../04-character/classes/04-32-outsider-modern.md ~ 04-34-outsider-celestial.md (3 outsider)

1st expansion:

Commoner (民衆) — NPC-Only Expansion Class — Commoner class (for 01-37)
the 1st expansion's principle of narrative technique operation (narrativizing the Commoner's general techniques)

Within this expansion:

#§ Scent — The Same 1-Dan, Two Paths

The dojo of the Hojo house. Two boys of 11 received their 1-dan on the same day.

The master taught the same kata. One-Blade Kiai — the first kata the core samurai learns at 1-dan. The two boys learned the same stance, the same breath, the same single motion.

Ten years passed.

One man — Sasaki — mastered the One-Blade Kiai as it was. That single breath was the self of his whole life. Straight, simple, and the enemy ended within one breath. He believed that if he cut, the enemy would be cut.

The other man — Kawai — at some point twisted that breath. Starting from the same stance, he added one more rotation before the blade first touched. The master said, "That is not my kata," and Kawai did not answer. What he had mastered was Iai Severing (居合切断) — his own kata that split a single breath into two.

On a day at Sekigahara, the two men faced the enemy together in the same camp. Sasaki cut first. Kawai entered the gap where Sasaki's breath ended and cut second. The enemy fell to the two cuts at the same time.

That night Sasaki asked Kawai, "Why did you go a different path?" Kawai answered, "Because your path was right. Because your path was right, my path could also be right."

The same beginning gives birth to two swords. That is the essence of alternate techniques. The core fixes one path, and this expansion places another path beside it — both are right. Whichever path the PC chooses.

"A swordsman who knows only one path wins against only one enemy."