#GM Scene Tools

Contents

Thought is revealed better when it makes one choose than when it is explained.

#Opening Fragment — A Single Question

The GM could not decide on a name for the yoma. The bestiary held many fitting candidates, but whichever he chose, the scene fell flat. So instead of a name, he wrote down a single question.

"What did this village bury its dead to justify?"

When the players arrived, the village was quiet. The village head kept to propriety, the monk would not show the funeral records, and the children did not go to the well. No yoma had yet appeared. But the question was already changing the speech of every NPC.

The samurai PC asked the village head, "Whose command was it?"

The Pure Land Monk PC asked a different question. "Why did you erase the name?"

The ronin sat by the well and said nothing. The wildlander who came from the mountains listened to the sound of the water. In that moment the GM knew. The yoma's name can be decided last. One good question already held the whole scene together.

#The Basic Form of Making a Scene

A Sando Shinkyo scene usually begins with one of the following questions.

Confucian question: Whose command is just?
Buddhist question: Whose suffering will you see first?
Zen question: What must you set down in order to move?

You need only combine this question with a yoma, a war, a house, a temple, or a village problem.

#Conflict Seeds

Seed	Confucianism	Buddhism	Zen
a lord who became a yoma	keep Loyalty, or cut down the lord	is the lord too a suffering being	can you cut after setting down the name
a village that rose in rebellion	a challenge to order	the karma made by hunger	the silence of those who grasped their anger
the onryo of an abandoned temple	who is responsible for the temple	the funeral failed	the remaining monk will not speak
a daimyo's forced conversion	unification for the sake of order	the violence of faith	is faith too an attachment
a swordsman's request for a duel	honor and procedure	the karma of killing	can you set down victory and defeat

#Place Tools

#Domain School

Good for Confucian scenes. Young warriors read texts, and an old scholar debates cause. When a yoma incident comes in, "report and responsibility" becomes the problem before "extermination."

Question to use: "When the one who knows the right answer is not on the scene, whom does the principle of the document save?"

#Mountain Temple

Good for Buddhist and Shugendo scenes. Austerity, goma, warrior-monks, onryo, and refugees can all come in together.

Question to use: "Does this temple save sentient beings, or protect its own power?"

#Tea Room

Both Zen and Confucianism appear. The procedure is strict but the words are few. Good for assassination, reconciliation, surrender negotiation, and Heart Shift scenes.

Question to use: "In the place where the blade is set down, who is more dangerous?"

#House Grave

Confucian filial piety and Buddhist funeral overlap. The names of the dead, the sins of the house, onryo, and the problem of succession all come out together.

Question to use: "To protect the name of an ancestor, can you sacrifice the living?"

#Well

Village, onryo, purification, feng shui, and Buddhist funeral all enter. A deep, narrow place makes words echo.

Question to use: "What did the village bury, and what came back up?"

#Quick NPC Creation

Fill in the three lines below, and a Sando Shinkyo NPC arises at once.

The name this NPC seeks to protect:
The suffering this NPC has seen:
The thing this NPC cannot set down:

Examples:

NPC	Name	Suffering	Attachment
domain-school scholar	a dead lord's command	war orphans	procedure
mountain-temple monk	the master's dharma lineage	a village starved to death	the failure of salvation
reclusive swordsman	the house name he cast off	the death of a disciple	the one perfect stroke
feng shui master	the blueprint of the castle	spirit-vein contamination	the rightness of his own calculation

#Tips for Running a Scene

#Choice Over Explanation

Do not say "In this era, Confucianism is important"; give the retainer a choice.

A command letter from the lord has come.
If you do as it commands, one village dies.
If you refuse, the house ends.

In this scene, Confucianism is already at work.

#Cost Over Faith

Do not say "Buddhism is a religion of compassion"; give the monk a cost.

It may be possible to save the child who became a yoma.
In the meantime, three others may die.
Kill it, and it ends at once.

In this scene, Buddhism is already at work.

#Pressure Even in Silence

A Zen scene drags if left alone. You must put pressure even into the silence.

When the rain stops, the duel begins.
You must answer before the tea grows cold.
When the bell rings three times, the gate opens.

Do this, and silence becomes action.

#Yoma and the Sando Shinkyo

A single yoma can be read differently through three schools of thought.

Yoma Type	Confucian Reading	Buddhist Reading	Zen Reading
onryo	a death where cause collapsed	the suffering of one who could not reach rebirth	a voice that the attachment of the living hears
oni	violence outside order	the karma of anger and hunger	the form of the heart called fear
tengu	the mountain's law that mocks human order	a being that tests the practitioner	a master who severs arrogance
yoko	a deceit that shakes propriety	a mirror of attachment and desire	a koan that says do not be seized by what is seen
gaki	the result of greed	the direct form of hunger and karma	a heart empty even when filled

#Post-Session Questions

After a session that used the themes of the Sando Shinkyo, the following questions are good.

Today, who wavered between command and duty?
Today, who saw the enemy's suffering?
Today, who could not set something down?
Did today's choice brighten or darken which heart?

These questions are not reward or punishment. They are the seeds of the next scene.

One good question holds a scene longer than a single yoma.