List of players to date updated in the first post -All six are in, the rest will become alternates.
OK, what I have picked up is that most people have the WOTC OA book, but not the AEG expansions. based on this I will go with my own OA vision rather than Rokugan (I rather like hengeyokai etc in an OA game, they fit into a lot of Oriental legends which include shapeshifters).
So the game is going to allow all options from the OA book, the clans will be used as a political framework. Characters will be created at level 7, with a 32 point buy to allow for some power but you are still not the big boys on the block but important enough to attract attention. Note: Level is NOT an indicator of political power, a governor of a province could be a level 1 Aristocat while the peasant you are being unpleasant to could have spent the last ten winters fighting as a levi in the local lords wars and be a 10th level warrior! Appearances are going to be deceptive - an essential element in any oriental campagn
Also, take note that social class is VERY important and as such is likely to affect how characters interact and WILL affect NPC interactions. A simple example is that a samurai is not likely to bother with the name of a peasant and wil just refer to them by their job title (farmer, innkeeper etc) while a peasant looking directly at a samurai without showing the proper respect with bowing his head is asking for trouble!
On a character creation note- Any noble character must take at least two skill points in perform or a craft skill (artistic craft, NOT artisan type craft). This is to reflect that those with a noble upbringing are brought up in a civilised manner and are educated beyond merely swinging a sword, praying to the kami or xasting spells - that would be just boorish!
As for alignment, it doesn't bother me what alignment you are but no dishonourable evil characters - so chaotic evil is completely out. Also, chaotic neutrals are likely to have a hard time in many areas, particularly if they get a reputation. Even chaotic good characters will suffer if they behave dishonourably - "Face" is all important to many in the kingdom and thus a lack of face will mean that many, particularly nobles and those aspiring social climbers will not want to have anything to do with you!
For a pantheon I am going with animism. The world is filled with spirits and everything has kami attached to it. On top of the spirits of the world sits the celestia bureacracy, the greatest Kami who rule the world. Their main servants are the dragons who serve them and communicate with them (making dragon hunters despised - I mean who could like someone that kills the servants of the gods, even if said servants are terrorising you?) As such evil dragons are far more likely to set themselves up as a lord of an area demanding tribute than to go on chaotic rampages.
So essentially those who choose domains can choose any that fit their character concept. I haven't populated the Celestial Bureacracy, so feel free to name elements of it as you wish, assigning portfolios as necessary (generally ephemeral concepts, physical concepts such as earth etc are represented by the earth bound kami).
A short geo-political lesson on the area - The main empire is the Empire of the River God, the capital at the mouth of a major river that splits it into two. The Center is generally civilised, decadent, and seen as more artistic, as one moves further to the east or west it gets more babrabaric and militaristic- the east is bordered by the realm of the Dark Ones (essentially I am moving the Shadowlands to here as an ongoing source of maraudign Oni, undead problems and generally supernatural problems), the west moves closer to other nations, the North West to the nation of Hora, the South West to "Barbarian Nations", not really nations but loose confederations of barabarian tribes that band together to protect themselves from the forays of hunting bands from Hosea and the Empire.
Hosa and the Empire have an uneasy peace. The border is fluid and skirmishes between lords on the borders common, but these are generally ignored by the rulers of the respective countries in the interest of avoiding a full scale war that could give the barbarians a chance to grab land from them. Hosa is governed in much the same way as the Empire but tends to be more rough around the edges, similar customs exist in both, but the ones in the empire tend to be more elaborate and time consuming.
