To amuse and challenge the snowbound courtiers, a literary sort of game has begun transforming one of the garden tea rooms into a curious hybrid of postal station and scholar’s studio. It starts when a pair of mysterious missives begin circulating throughout the court, passed from courtier to courtier until they eventually come to rest in the garden for all to see. (Examples below.)
Soon, others begin to join in (hopefully). You can too!
Basic Rules:
- Each letter should contain a riddle, or a poem/verse/bit of creative prose (maybe more than one of the above if you’re really fancy).
- Nothing says it has to be good…
- Ideally, your letter should follow on from the letter to which you’re replying, and it must give later letter-writers something with which to connect.
- E.g. if the last letter was a riddle, offer an answer, and then a new riddle, poem, or other message. If the last letter was a poem or prose message, add a new verse, or pose a riddle or message that relates to it in some way (images, themes, a shared word, an artistic embellishment, a sentence bridging the gap between the two, or whatever).
- Your letter may be either Signed (with your name or some kind of identifying symbolism), or Anonymous. Please specify Anonymous or Signed when you post!
- Other characters can figure out the author of an Anonymous letter with a Calligraphy/Perception or Investigation/Perception roll at TN 15.
- Replying to your own letters is a faux pas, but other than that, you may write as many letters as you like.
Totally Optional Rules, feel free to skip:
Make It Fancy: You may choose up to two of the following options, all rolls at TN 10. A basic success, and every two successful raises on a roll, adds one Letter Point to your missive. Failure adds no points, but you still dispatch your letter.
- Polished Prose - Courtier (Rhetoric)/Awareness (for a riddle or prose), Artisan (Poetry)/Awareness (for a poem), or Games: Letters/Awareness (for either)
- Masterful Hand - Calligraphy/Intelligence or Agility
- Artful Folds - Artisan: Origami/Awareness or Agility
- Fine Paper - Craft: Papermaking/Intelligence (represents paper crafted ahead of time)
- Language of Flowers - Artisan: Gardening/Awareness or Artisan: Ikebana/Awareness
- Sweet Scents - Artisan:Perfume or Incense/Awareness or Craft: Perfume or Incense/Intelligence
- Other Artisan or Craft skills, within reason
- Camouflage - Make your Anonymous letter extra super anonymous. Roll Calligraphy/Intelligence at TN 15. Success increases the TN for others to deduce your authorship by 5 (from the base 15 to 20).
- Each successful Raise increases this TN by a further 5.
- Secret message - Hide an extra layer of meaning in your letter, for pure amusement or for any other reasons. Roll Calligraphy(Cipher)/Intelligence at TN 15. If you succeed, you have hidden a secret message in your letter!
- This message should be short enough to express in a sentence or two. You can either include the secret message in your letter post, or communicate it over PMs with players who successfully hit the TN to decode it. Either way, please be on the honor system (RL honor!) and live up to your fellow players’ trust here.
- The TN to decode the message using Calligraphy (Cipher)/Intelligence is 20, +5 for each Raise called on your initial cipher roll.
- You may specify a Skill, Advantage, faction, or other characteristic of your character (within reason) which would make it easier for other characters who also possess that trait to understand your message. If you do, characters who possess the specified trait do not need to roll to decode the message.
Tallying Points:
At the end of the Court season, all letters will be gathered into a grand anthology (provided someone survives to do it). Perhaps this book will become a foundational classic of the Rokugani literary canon! Or perhaps it will go down in ignominy… only time will tell.
Letter Points for each Signed letter accrue to the writer.
Anonymous letters and their associated Letter Points may be either claimed by the writer, or dedicated to the glory of someone else present at the court (writer’s discretion, either at the time of posting the letter or at the end of the game).
Letter Points for Anonymous letters not dedicated to anybody else accrue to the glory of Emperor Shiba!
Distinctions:
- Most Letter Points overall- prominent mention in the anthology! Possibly a gift from the compilers.
- Second-most Letter Points overall- almost as prominent mention in the anthology!
- Most Points for a single letter - prominent placement in the anthology, with an approving preface!
- At least one Letter Point - included in the anthology.
- [Any other achievement that inspires the organizers - TBD]
Status: 3.0 
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