Kindred of the East: Jade Dreams, Jade Tears [tentative interest check]

Started by Blythe, March 20, 2016, 05:41:04 PM

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Blythe



My soul sings of the sea.

I once lived in a small country town in Hokkaido. It was beautiful there. I think my favorite thing about it was the way the snow would just keep falling, like tiny crystals sent forth by the heavens, meant to caress the earth of my home like a lover.

I died in the sea. His hands were around my throat, and I heard the laughter of His lover by the icy shore in the bitter chill of the winter.

I will not talk of the yomi world that I went to thereafter. Suffice it to say that the next night, I rose up from the waves by some unholy grace, escaping the grasp of Suijin's physical realm. My brother waited for me, weeping for my demise, but he wept tears like the salt sea when he saw me walking along the frozen shore. I was like him now, I understood, no longer human in any sense of the word.

He held my hands in his own, and he whispered secrets to me, secrets of the society of our kind, secrets of the Dharmas. I entered an initiation phase of sorts, and centuries later, here I stand.

Pain is my watchword and the highest art I could ever study. I howl the song of the Devil Tiger, and tonight, I have selected four victims. I will enjoy drinking their screams like I once drank the water of the sea, and perhaps they will learn the gruesome yet magnificent truths of pain and love as I learned them in my final moments.










Okay, all, I'm looking to run a KotE game. I've never run a KotE game before, so....bear with me. Players who are patient and keep this in mind would be super appreciated. This is a very tentative interest check. If I see sufficient interest/character concepts, I'll flesh out more of the world.

The setting will be a city in Japan; I've not decided on which city, but it will likely be Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, or possibly Sapporo. I'm open to suggestion about it.

- FAQ -


  • I will accept 4 players. The game is not first-come first-serve.
  • Characters will all have one thing in common: they were killed by the Kuei-jin known Tsukiyama Kikyo, a female practioner of the Devil Tiger Dharma, and the speaker in the above small writing sample. I can provide a bio for Tsukiyama if there's sufficient interest, and players will have the freedom to write their Second Breath origins involving Tsukiyama as they would like using that information as inspiration. I have chosen to do this to immediately tie the party together with something in common with their backstories as well as a possible goal. Obviously Tsukiyama isn't counting on them all to become Kuei-jin!
  • To play, you should be open to crossgender writers and be willing to write with them (Lords writing female characters, Ladies writing male characters, Lieges writing whatever).
  • I would prefer not to use character images for this, please. I've gotten a little burned out with this and would rather see players describe their character appearances more instead.
  • All characters should be 18+. All player O/Os should be respected, and you need to have an O/O thread or your matrix filled out for me to consider you as a player.
  • If this gets sufficient interest, I'll do some worldbuilding based on player input. I want to design a tale around the PCs, not have the PCs put in a pre-set tale.
  • You are starting off with no EXP, only recently risen as a Kuei-jin within the last 50 years. I am allowing the core book, the Dharma books, and the Companion.
  • I prefer slow posters (1/week-ish), but I do ask that you let me know if you'll be away more than 2 weeks if possible.
  • The game is LGBTQA friendly.
  • This is a system game, not a freeform one, and you'd need at least the core rulebook to play.







Anyways, that's all for now. While I'm not sure if this'll get any interest, I figure it couldn't hurt to put it out there! ^^







Information about Tsukiyama Kikyo

Name: Tsukiyama Kikyo

Gender/Sex: Female/Female

Physical Age: Early 20s

Second Breath: Early 1400s.

Dharma: Devil-Tiger

Personality: Tsukiyama is far from what a person might expect of a Devil-Tiger. Her passions are delicate and refined; to an untrained observer, she might even seem cold, but that would be terribly wrong. She wasn't this way before her Second Breath, but whatever she was like before, the reality is that she is a monster of magnificent appetites. Tsukiyama endeavors to teach the most brutal lessons of life...and how better to appreciate the joys of the world then in one's final moments, when understanding they will be lost forever? That being said, achieving a sense of balance in her life has always been difficult due to being unable to chain up her passions at all. She might be able to lay out a calculating plan and delight as each step comes to fruition, but when things don't go exactly as she plans, she can easily fly into monstrous impatient rages. She is someone who still enjoys the finer things in life--she will have nothing but the finest clothes, the finest car, the most disciplined and careful of servants...and right now, she's in excellent standing with nearly all of the Houses of Japan, and rumor has it that she is quite far along the path of her dharma The only thing that has stopped her? She regularly travels to Beijing, and there are...rumors...that her loyalty to Nippon is less than what could be desired. Violent, yes, cruel, yes, cultured and lovely, yes, but traitorous? This remains to be seen.

Brief history: Destined to marry a very wealthy man in Hokkaido, things took a turn for the worse when he began prioritizing his courtesans over her. She became violently jealous, but unable to curb his appetites. Her brother, Jiro, had already become a Kuei-jin, and he welcomed her back to his household when she fled from her husband. She was unaware that he had ever taken the Second Breath at that time. One night, her husband came to Jiro's home, claiming to want to reconcile. Jiro was nowhere to be found...and Kikyo found herself being murdered at the shore bordering Jiro's home. Jiro returned home that night to see signs things in his home had been tampered with, and he went looking for his sister, only to find the next night that she returned on the waves like him, having taken her Second Breath. She recognized him for what he was once she'd become as he was. Jiro does not follow the Devil Tiger Dharma...and in fact, his sister is not sure what Dharma he follows. He introduced Kikyo into Kuei-jin society and to the Devil-Tiger teacher who met her end at Kikyo's hands, beginning a long and vicious cycle of teaching via the dark hand of death. Jiro periodically follows his sister to see what atrocities she has gotten up to, occasionally cleaning up a mess when its gone beyond her control.

Appearance: Slim, about 5'4" (approx. 162 cm), and weighing about 110 lbs (approx. 50 kgs). She dresses in elaborate traditional kimonos and strongly disdains what she claims is "plain" clothing, with blue jeans earning particular ire from her. She is always decked in expensive jewelry, and seeing Kikyo without makeup is unheard of. She keeps to reasonable shades of reds--her favorite colors would be red, green, or gold. Her most prominent piece of attire is a small golden charm bracelet that has a jade tiger attached to it. She has a small scar just on the side of her left eye, barely noticeable at all, but when the light hits it just right, suddenly a viewer might wonder how they hadn't seen it before.

Kakihara

I would tentatively like to express interest.  KotE is one of my favorites, it's the only group of White Wolf books that I've kept a in physical form. 

Pumpkin Seeds


VonDoom

Yes, yes and yes. Already the Searing Wind burns my eyes and ears; flays the wretched skin until only the truth beneath remains.

... which is to say, it's a Devil Tiger life for me. Yo ho.
Now this is the Law of the Jungle-
as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may  prosper,
but the Wolf that shall break it must die.

-Rudyard Kipling, "The Law of the Jungle"
O&O

Marie Reynolds

Well i am interested and i have a concept i would bring in but also i can come up with something else in case you do not want multiple devil tigers. But would Tsukiyama Kikyo be doing the killings during the revolution that brought about the Meiji era or the Meiji era itself.

Blythe

I"m glad to see some interest, and I have no particular issue with multiple Devil-Tigers. In this story's case, multiple Devil Tigers would make perfect sense.

Quote from: Marie Reynolds on March 21, 2016, 09:36:11 AM
Well i am interested and i have a concept i would bring in but also i can come up with something else in case you do not want multiple devil tigers. But would Tsukiyama Kikyo be doing the killings during the revolution that brought about the Meiji era or the Meiji era itself.

The Meiji era ended in 1912; the Kuei-jin characters should have taken their Second Breaths all within the past 50 years, so the Meiji era is a bit too early.

Think less Meiji-era and roughly more towards the end years of World War 2 for the time Tsukiyama decided on the killings, since the game will be set in the mid-1990s.

Even the best-laid plans can go astray, so it's entirely possible that Tsukiyama had to space out her killings rather than take four people in the same night--perhaps she killed one individual in 1944....but she just killed the last of the four in 1994, to give an example. Or perhaps every ten years, she selects four new victims...

Anyways, I'm trying to give people a lot of leeway with the time--so long as its within the last 50 years, it's fine.




Since I'm seeing some interest, I will write up a small bio for Tsukiyama Kikyo, so that possible players can write up histories/backstories. Feel free to work on stats already if you like, though!

In addition, possible interested peoples, do you have a preference for what city in Japan?  :D

Kakihara

My personal vote is for Osaka though with Kyoto a second fav.  I'll work on some stats though I will warn that I'm better at concepts and background then making good choices in powers since I'm not as practically experienced as I am with V:tM.  I'm leaning towards a more modern concept though for my character if that helps others with spacing out the killings or grouping them together.  Possibly 1980's though not certain.

Blythe

Quote from: kakihara on March 21, 2016, 11:52:23 AM
My personal vote is for Osaka though with Kyoto a second fav.  I'll work on some stats though I will warn that I'm better at concepts and background then making good choices in powers since I'm not as practically experienced as I am with V:tM.  I'm leaning towards a more modern concept though for my character if that helps others with spacing out the killings or grouping them together.  Possibly 1980's though not certain.

Hurrah, one vote for Osaka!  ;D

And don't worry about "good" choices. I tend to operate by the "rule of fun" in my games, so build the character that your mind envisions and that you most would want to play. Since I'm wanting to build the story around the PCs, whatever you pick, I'll try to find ways to include good uses of your chosen Shintai and Demon Arts, etc.

If you're better with concept and background, if you prefer to wait until I have a bit more up about the chosen city and have Tsukiyama's bio completed, that would also be fine.

VonDoom

To be fair, it's not like a kindred embrace. If someone wants to originate from an earlier time, the p'o could just have taken longer to get out. They reform even from ashes, after all.

My vote goes towards Kyoto.
Now this is the Law of the Jungle-
as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may  prosper,
but the Wolf that shall break it must die.

-Rudyard Kipling, "The Law of the Jungle"
O&O

Marie Reynolds

I would say i would go with Akihabara as my  first choice, Second would be Kyoto.Also sorry  about my mistake that is what i get for doing  math before my first source of caffeine. I'll cook up a different concept then recycling an old one.

VonDoom

Now this is the Law of the Jungle-
as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may  prosper,
but the Wolf that shall break it must die.

-Rudyard Kipling, "The Law of the Jungle"
O&O

Marie Reynolds

Right, I got so use to paying attention to districts when i gave directions when i lived over  there  then  using cities.

Blythe

Quote from: Marie Reynolds on March 21, 2016, 12:36:34 PM
Also sorry  about my mistake that is what i get for doing  math before my first source of caffeine.

I've totally been there when it comes to the lack of caffeine. *nodnod*

Also, no biggie--I hadn't listed the IC year for the story initially, so it's understandable.




So that's one for for Osaka (with a close 2nd on Kyoto), one for Kyoto, and one for Tokyo!

Marie Reynolds

I think I am going to propose  a thrashing dragonfor consideration.

Kakihara

I believe my character will be a Bone Flower. and by believe I mean I've already decided in my head and just have not written it down yet. That will be for when I'm back in front of my computer.

Blythe

It'll be a couple of days, but I will get a bio up for Tsukiyama!

Right now, it looks like Kyoto will win out when it comes to the setting, just barely, but I'll leave a couple of days for chatter to happen before setting that in stone or anything. ^^

Pumpkin Seeds

Thinking of going with a Centipede.  Also would like to cast my vote for Tokyo. 

Blythe

That's two for Tokyo, then! :)

Note: I've got Tsukiyama's bio now in the first post! Folks, feel free to make up whatever else you like about Tsukiyama, just using the 1st post information as the basis! I didn't want to detail her out too strongly in order to leave you all some room to incorporate her into your characters' backstories more easily, but I didn't want to put in too few details either.

Blythe

If there are no other opinions, that's two solid votes for Tokyo, and since Tokyo's got a cWoD sourcebook I can draw on, I'm thinking I might go ahead and go with that. I can whip  up a bit about the setting (not too much, would very much like to see player concepts and work in any important living or Kuei-jin characters in their backstories as NPCs in Tokyo if possible).

VonDoom

I'm not sure how useful that sourcebook will be, since Japan is pretty much 'no go' territory for traditional Kuei-jin in canon and full of Snake Eaters after the atomic bombs and whatnot.
Now this is the Law of the Jungle-
as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may  prosper,
but the Wolf that shall break it must die.

-Rudyard Kipling, "The Law of the Jungle"
O&O

Blythe

Bleh, then scratch using that book. It's been ages since I read it (and I haven't GMed a KotE game before, so...crap), so I'll just need to put in some more research.

In that case, though, Tokyo's still got two votes, and it's a fairly easier place for me to research, although Kyoto's pretty good in that regard as well.

VonDoom

Scorpion Eaters, that was the name. Not Snake Eaters. Sorry about that.

It might still be useful for locations, or it might even predate the Scorpion Eater thing being introduced, dunno ... you may want to skim over it, at least. Though I still think Kyoto is way cooler.  ;D
Now this is the Law of the Jungle-
as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may  prosper,
but the Wolf that shall break it must die.

-Rudyard Kipling, "The Law of the Jungle"
O&O

Blythe

Hey all, I've decided to go ahead and not run this, many apologies. My lack of familiarity has a lot to do with it, and I've opted rather than try to push through that, to instead give myself more time to get used to KotE, maybe try it as few times as a player with my RL tabletop group. Perhaps when I get more experience under my belt with this particular setting, I'll try again. :)