#New Backgrounds (新規背景)

Contents

#§ Scent — Sengoku Has More Origins Than the Core Could Tell

The core 13 backgrounds cover the major origins of Sengoku-era Japan, but there are lives that fall into the gaps. Wandering refugees, outlaws of the sea, mixed-blood people, comrades-in-arms, exiled nobles, students of rites, heterodox believers — these have enough narrative distinctiveness of their own to be too much to lump together merely as the core Wanderer·Drifter.

This document adds 5 new backgrounds. Each background fully observes the core format (1st-dan technique + 5th-dan A/B fork + 9th-dan deepening + Tatsujin capstone).

#§ Law — 5 New Backgrounds

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#Refugee (流民)

Scent: one who grew up in a band of people wandering aimlessly to escape war·famine·plague, and learned martial arts there. There is not even a word to point to a hometown.

Law:

• Skill perk (2 of 3): Survival, Infiltration, Negotiation
• 1st-dan technique — Years of Endurance [aptitude]: starvation·dehydration·severe-cold penalties reduced by 1 step. Negotiation against refugees is automatically advantaged.

5th-dan fork:

9th-dan deepening:

• A Settlement → Village Headman: a rare case of a leader of refugee origin. Bond 2 Mob squads.
• B Wandering → Shadow of Sengoku: no region is your own place. The intelligence web [upkeep] of every region is automatic.

Tatsujin capstone:

• A → Headman of Restoration (復興の名主): a respected leader who overcame the low birth of refugee origin.
• B → Swordsman of No Return (不歸の劍客): a legend who stays nowhere. No house, no disciples, one blade.

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#Pirate (海賊)

Scent: remnants of the wako, escorts of Nanban trade, plunderers of wrecked ships, and every boundary in between — the origins of those called pirates are diverse.

Law:

• Skill perk: Navigation, Unarmed Combat, Deceit
• 1st-dan technique — Duel on the Ship [aptitude]: attacks +1 in shipboard·wharf·riverside combat. Underwater relocation Energy reduced by 1.

5th-dan fork:

9th-dan deepening:

• A Fleet → Pirate King: hold a small fleet. 2 ships of sea squads.
• B Solo → Pirate Master Swordsman: a pirate who reached the height of the warrior's way. Respected even outside pirate society.

Tatsujin capstone:

• A → Wako Commander-in-Chief (倭寇總帥): head of the Northeast Asian pirate alliance.
• B → Master-Swordsman Pirate (劍豪海賊): a legendary individual warrior. Licensed for single combat.

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#Mixed-Blood Child (混血兒)

Scent: one born between a Japanese mother and a Nanban (or Joseon·Ming) father. Or the reverse. Appearance differs, speech differs, and neither in Japan nor abroad are they fully of the same kind.

Law:

• Skill perk: Interpretation-related skills + Perception + Negotiation (2 of 3)
• 1st-dan technique — One Who Has Two Tongues [aptitude]: fluent in both the language of 1 foreign cultural sphere you designate and Japanese. The effect of automatically acquiring Interpretation [aptitude] (03-04).

5th-dan fork:

9th-dan deepening:

• A Japan → Complete Assimilation: an effect similar to the core heroic-spirit "Land of a Previous Life" route. Lose the mixed-blood privilege, fully gain Japanese-noble privilege.
• B Foreign Land → Foreign Noble: noble status in the father's country. +1 Adaptation slot for that country, free.

Tatsujin capstone:

• A → The Renowned Japanese (異名の日本人): a respected figure no longer asked about origin.
• B → Duke of the Foreign Land(公) (異邦の公): a ducal title granted in a foreign land. The role of envoy to Japan.

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#War Comrade (戰友)

Scent: a past companion who shared the same battlefield with another PC (or NPC). A PC with this background must designate 1 of the other PCs or 1 major NPC as a "war comrade."

Law:

• Skill perk: 2 of the skills related to Perception, Hardiness, field command
• 1st-dan technique — One Who Entrusts Their Back [aptitude]: when in an adjacent zone (or the same zone) as the designated war comrade, each other's attacks +1, Defense +1. Auto-triggers at session start (premised on the war comrade's survival).

5th-dan fork:

9th-dan deepening:

• A Unit → Valiant Commander: grant the squad-command effect to the entire party.
• B Solo → Warrior of the Twin Name(雙名): a legend whose name is called bound to the war comrade's.

Tatsujin capstone:

• A → Famed Army General (名軍將帥): a general remembered as a legend by the soldiers.
• B → One Half of the Twin Blades (雙劍の片方): a being called as one with the war comrade in the world. On the war comrade's death, lose the capstone, but instead branch to a revenge Renown Title.

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#Heterodox Believer (異端宗教人)

Scent: a minority faith belonging to none of mainstream Buddhism·Shinto·Pure Land·Esoteric Buddhism — Ikko-sect radicals, an expelled esoteric splinter sect, Nanban-transmitted Christianity, an uninterpreted ancient faith, Spirit Realm faith, and so on. They move between persecution and proselytizing.

Law:

• Skill perk: Sorcery, Exorcism, Negotiation (2 of 3) — but the usable range is restricted according to the core A/B route
• 1st-dan technique — Heterodox Faith [aptitude]: access to your own faith community. An immediate hideout when persecuted. Conversely, Negotiation against mainstream-religion NPCs is a base -1.

5th-dan fork:

9th-dan deepening:

• A Proselytizing → Leader of Believers: head of a small faith community. Bond 1 squad.
• B Hiding → Underground Guardian: connect secret communities across several regions.

Tatsujin capstone:

• A → Founder (敎祖): the founder or spokesperson of your own faith. A spark of religious war.
• B → Martyrdom Refuser (殉敎拒否者): a legend who endures persecution without dying. One who neither martyred nor apostatized.

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#§ Design Perspective

• All 5 fully observe the core format: 1st-dan technique + 5th-dan A/B + 9th-dan deepening + Tatsujin capstone. The C route is free as an additional choice.
• Inducing connections between PCs: the "war comrade" background in particular makes narrative bonding within the party a rule. Two PCs may also designate each other as war comrades (mutual declaration).
• Compatibility with fiend·gaijin: all new backgrounds have no fiend·gaijin restriction. They are separate from the existing gaijin-only backgrounds.
• GM expansion: additional backgrounds beyond these 5 are recommended for GM creation. See 60-house-rules/60-08.

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"There are names that vanish when you write 'Wanderer' in the origin field. This document revives those names."