Kenshi - A free form Samurei/Ninja Sandbox (Non Cannon custom world building)

[Garuss Vakarian]

The World Of

Kenshi is a realistic, science fantasy setting taking place late into the post apocalypse of a far off alien world. Science and technology is limited in scope with barely any electricity or other such modern luxury. The societal system borrows heavily from ancient japan, particularly from The Sengoku period. There are very, very few ballistic weaponry and ranged combat is primarily a crossbow (Sometimes recurve bow) driven affair. By majority combat, disputes, war and philosophy is driven by one way and one way only; The Way Of The Sword. Yes, Kenshi is not for the feint of heart. It is a near godless, fearful world filled with bandits, imperialist's and war. If you are looking for a Ancient Japanese styled fiction or a post apocalyptic game with a rich world that is very, very open to a sand box approach. Then this role play is for you. I Assure you! For those familiar with the video game, this will not directly be the world of Kenshi. In this world we will have our own liberties and changes to make it more interesting for those whom have played the actual sandbox game before. While also making it more approachable for those who want to play and contribute to a more unique world that is not bogged down by pesky cannon. If you are however interested. Here is a link to this amazingly open and free sandbox Game. If the video game seems for you I highly encourage you to support the developer Lo-Fi Games.

I will be a full fledged GM, will read every post and will cater npc's/worldy interactions for and to each of you. I am passionate about this idea and would love for it to become a full fledged role playing community/ecosystem with it's own boards and co gm's as time goes on. Color me ambitious and happy, nay proud of anyone who wants to support me. The world consists of varying Biomes with harsh nature such as, Acidic rain, dust storms, bog's etc. There are several factions to play among and or against. I want to give players in this game the liberty to be what they want to be. I want you all free to pick a side, or none at all even! Why not make your own faction/nation and build it through scratch? Band together and make your own city in this world, your very own piece of Eden? Or become conqueror's and burn the world I will lay out before you to the very ground? You decide.

Ancient Times

It all started, with The First Empire; A powerful and technologically advanced civilization, possessing automated factories, satellites, genetic engineering, giant robots, and space elevators. They were the precursor to Kenshi's world and what little is known would influence hundreds of generations. It is unknown how long they existed, what came before them, how far their reach extended, or if they were even from Kenshi's world or not; regardless, they were advanced to the point of godlike levels compared to the modern times.

Then came The War of Behemoths; At some point a war broke out between the First Empire and an enemy. Some type of foreign force? A rebellion from within? The heavens themselves!? The enemy it'self remains largely unknown, all that was known is that they were very destructive and used weapons so powerful that their owners began to fear the consequences of using them, such as the Behemoths, giant Skeletons that tower over the normal races. By the time the war was over, society was left a derelict skeleton of it's former self. Slowly turning into the apocalyptic world it is known as today.

The Obedience; Is a key moment in time. The incident known as The Obedience would be what shapes the hardship of the race known as The Skeleton as well as their place in the wasteland. Due to their fear of the Behemoths, the Ancients decided to dispose of them. Taking advantage of their unquestioning loyalty, the Ancients ordered the Behemoths down into a massive pit, and then betrayed their servants by encasing the pit in solid metal. (Possibly included the ordering of suicide among normal skeletons, as there are apparently many cases of skeleton bodies found with suicide as the cause of death. Unconfirmed if related.)

The Chaos Age; A time of many calamities, from dangerous celestial activity (Meteorites), to natural disasters, to plagues, to a skeleton rebellion (possibly in vengeance for The Obedience). It's unclear exactly what happened, but it brought the great empire of the Ancients to its knees, finishing off it's final death throes and brought humanity to the brink of extinction. According to ancient legends, the calamities were stopped by a being named Chitrin, though the validity of these legends is impossible to say. All that is known, is that the calamities ended with the final moments of The First Empire.

Modern Times; These are dark and chaotic times. From the Holy Nation waging war on any who are not human or whom do not worship their god, to the brutal War like nature of the Shek. Not to mention Slavery run rampant between the decadence of the Imperial cities of The New Empire and the demands of the Holy Nation and it's priests. People just want to live, but the world wont allow a peaceful existence. If slavers don't get you, if bandit's don't rob you and if The Holy Nation doesn't conscript you or the Empire corrupt you. Then Nature will surely eat you alive....


(Once there is more interest I will gladly put in more details about the modern factions of the world. Factions are as follows: Eastern Hives, Western Hives, The Holy Nation, The Shek Kingdom and the New Empire.)

Races:

Humans;
Green Landers- Primarily from farmer cultures, they still tend to be an aggressive race and are easily led astray. The worst of them live in ignorance, knowing only greed and fear, reacting to anything different with hatred and violence, but the best of them are some of the greatest civilized scientists, engineers and warriors in the land. Visually they are literally your basic, run in the mill human being.

Scorch Landers- Scorchlanders tend to value personal freedoms above all else. They don't tend to get along well with rules, regulations and religions, and as a result have a reputation as social misfits and are often found in more adventurous professions. Despite this however, they are highly creative, making them natural-born traders and  are known for being skilled weaponsmiths. Honest to a fault, laughing in the face of manners, moderation and anything sensible, they make loyal friends, passionate enemies, and are great fun to drink with. They have either dark or extremely pale skin and Glowing eyes.

The Shek:
A warrior society that values strength and hardiness above more intellectual pursuits. They are sometimes a little humourless and have a reputation as dumb brutes, but this is not always the case. Their external skeletal plates provide a natural armor but hinders more dexterous pursuits like sneaking around. (They in a lot of ways both thematically and visually mirror the Qunari from Dragon Age.)


Skeletons:
The Skeletons are a complete mystery, nobody knows where they came from and how they were made but they are suspected to be thousands of years old. Fully sentient and capable of feeling sadness, anger, excitement, compassion, thrill and enjoyment, although they don't posses the ability to express anything visually. This combined with their dry sense of humor often confuses the other races, whom the Skeletons see as somewhat volatile and unpredictable. They have no prejudice or fear of death, and make for brutally effective warriors. Due to their age; Skeletons have no conception of  the world from before and are just as lost as anyone else about the specifics of the First Empires rise and then subsequent fall.


The Hive:
Also known as Hivers, are a Race of stick-like humanoids who are meant to collaborate under a collective mind, ruled by a Hive Queen and her princes. Hive characters are separated into many subspecies with their own unique appearance. The majority of the Hivers care for little else other than the Hive's happiness and survival, and are willing to give their lives for the hive as a whole. The longer a Hiver is separated from their Hive, the more their bond with it will weaken, giving way to an increased sense of will and a lack of purpose, although some of them will instead die. Variant's include;

Queen's; Matriarchs of Hiver society, very few are in existence as they act as the primary breeders for Hive society. However some are known to exist outside of the Hive for reasons such as being an unexpected sibling, or having retired them self and gave birth to a new queen. (I added this variant for any interested in playing a female Hiver. Not exactly lore friendly but whatever. This is our version of Kenshi anyway.)

Prince-The highest ranking in a Hive and right-hands to the Queen. Rarely has anyone ever seen an actual Queen, it is the Princes that run everything. Free Princes are usually the result of losing command to a rival Prince, or exiles sent away as punishment for some kind of failure. They are much more intelligent and free-willed than normal Hive types.

Soldier Drone-Soldier drones created to protect their Hive and enforce control over the workers. Stronger and less intelligent than a worker, freedom-seekers are rarer and usually end up finding mercenary work. Often as strong as a shek, soldier drones are the visually bulkier and hardier insects.

Worker Drone-Expendable workers born to labor for the good of their Hive, they know only obedience and value service to the Hive above any personal benefits, safety or comfort. If separated from the controlling influence of the Hive they usually die, but in rare cases become free individuals. Bewildered by their newfound freedom and at their loss of a predetermined purpose they wander lost and seek meaning, but usually just find death or exploitation.


Conclusion:
Does anyone else want to play as classic Samurei and Ninja in a Swords and Sandals apocalypse? Or am I just alone in this? LOL .

[Garuss Vakarian]

Character Creation

Character Creation will have some extremely light system aspects to it for the sake of rounding out characters. No dice. These factors are to express your characters strengths so that players have a grasp of what their own characters can and shouldn't be capable of. As well as what another players character can and shouldn't be capable of. This is to help prevent meta gaming or making perfect characters. I hope people understand and are not put off by these methods. I just want to help us understand each other's characters so we can avoid unfortunate out of character tension.

Story start for the sake of background;
One main important point, is that you are all wanderer's in one way or another. I, as the gm, want to play the world both against and reactionary to you. So whatever your character background: You are a wanderer and you made your way to a place called the Hub. A place for thieves, mercenaries and tradesmen to cross path's as it is a center for underground and illegal trade.

Poor:
All characters (with one character type as an exception.) Start poor, as this is a hard world for the hardened to make it. You may only start with the clothes on your back and one weopon or piece of equipment pertaining to one of your skills.



Skill's:
Each character start's with skill in one weapon group of their choice (Kattana's, Sabres, Axes, Blunt's, Crossbow's etc.) Then four Technical Skill's. (Such as Farming, Engineering, Armor Smithing, Weapon Smithing, Trade/barter.) Options are endless. Skill's are to give an idea of what your character could do, obviously. So if you put down, engineering it makes since if he can repair a skeleton character. But if you did NOT put down medicine or first aid, it makes no sense if your character made an adequate stitching job for a samurais stab wound. Again I want this to be as free form as possible, but I feel this very light rule system is important to preventing perfect characters. IE; Mary/Gary sues. Additional skills can and will be awarded to the players character if the character has had a very sufficient amount of time placed into learning said skill: Ie If a Samurei for hire was asked by a merchant with no weapon skill's to teach them how to fight. After months of in game time that players merchant character can be an initiate with a Kattana and after a year of in game time that character is trained in the sword. Essentially, good patient role playing will award patient players with slightly stronger characters. As it should .

Stats;
This is to give an idea of what your character's strengths and weaknesses are. You have 5 point's and all stats start at 1. Unlike skill's stats don't improve post character creation as these are the building blocks of your characters physical and mental ability. They are not meant to be like any actual game system where you progress and get stronger but rather a measuring stick for us to gauge a characters ability to perform certain binary actions such as leading a winning strategy within the heat of battle (Intuition) or lifting a pack beast up off of the ground (Strength). If your character has low intuition of 3, he or she shouldn't be able to come up with a masterful military strategy in the heat of battle. Maybe outside of combat, but not during. Nor could they coordinate the strategy! lol. I will try not to enforce things as a gm and leave people open to interpreting their own characters capabilities, but you are expected and trusted to play your character within their own realistic means. But with these measures people can notice if your playing a little too perfect.

Strength:The most straight forward of stats but NOT to be forgotten or scoffed at. As it governs ones ability to climb, swim, endure tough terrain as well as how much they can lift/carry and how hard they can hit.
Dexterity:Governs Quickness, Stealth, reflexes, Finesse.
Endurance:Tolerance to pain, ability to move long distances and quickly, ability to hold out without food or drink. ETC. Governs the quality of armor one is able to functionally wear as well. (Want a big ol'samurei suit of armor? Need high endurance.)
Intuition: Governs Logic and Thinking. Intuitive characters are expected to be good planner's, technicians, designers, mathematicians and tacticians.
Wisdom: Governs empathy, sympathy and emotion. A wise character is more grounded, emotionally adept and psychologically strong. A wise character is also better with people and by extension is more charismatic by nature.

Alternate Starts;
The names for each start are just for flavor, it has no baring on background or what you intend for your character to be in the world. IE: Wanderer start doesn't mean your a wanderer. Your character can still be a trained Samurei, a Farmer or whatnot. It is just the template you chose by witch to customize the character. Like a class.

Wanderer: Basic Start as described above

Tradesmen: This is like the basic start. It creates no changes to the skill formula except for one: Choosing a Tradesmen offers you a more financial start; 1000 coin's. (Or as in this world, cat's as the currency is called.) At the cost of your 1 weapons skill.

Ronin: A Ronnin start offer's an additional weapon skill and +1 stat point at the cost of two technical skills.

Genin: This start offer's + 2 additional stat point's and start's with only 1 weapon or Technical skill of choice. (Not one of each but rather one of either.). This equals a more competent but far less worldly character whom may be able perform binary task's efficiently. But lacks any real skill set that can add to the world.

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Name:
Age:
Gender:He/She/They/Them
Orientation: Straight, Gay, Bi etc.

Starting Type: Wanderer, Tradesmen, Ronin or Genin.
Race: Your race just plays a visual/background part to character creation. It is just, what race the character is, plain and simple.
Personality:

Skill's: (Each character starts being skilled with 1 weapon group of choice,

Strength:
Dexterity:
Endurance:
Intuition:
Wisdom:

On's:
Off's:
Small Back Ground: