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<blockquote data-quote="MGibster" data-source="post: 9347377" data-attributes="member: 4534">I was running a Legend of the Five Rings game many years ago.&nbsp; For those of you who are not familiar with L5R, it is basically a fantasy version of (mostly) Japan where player characters are samurai (bushi, shugenja, or courtiers) or sometimes monks.&nbsp; One of the players wanted her character to be an extremely honorable bushi who used to be a geisha in the past.&nbsp; There are some problems with that in L5R.&nbsp; There is a caste system in place and for a samurai to have worked as a geisha would bring a lot of embarrassment to her and her family.&nbsp; The player was a bit confused, &quot;But geisha aren't prostitutes.&quot;&nbsp; She's right, they're not, but with a rigid caste system in place if you step out of bounds it's generally not a good thing.&nbsp; But I worked with the player.&nbsp; None of the geisha skills (other than seduction) were dishonorable.&nbsp; It would be perfectly fine for a samurai to possess many of the skills geisha had such as playing the biwa, telling stories, dancing, or singing.&nbsp; If she really wanted to have been a geisha then a Dark Secret disadvantage could work but the reputation of her and her family would be negatively affected if this was ever discovered.&nbsp; This was a (mild) example of a character that didn't really fit the paradigm of the campaign in some ways.&nbsp; But the player and I were happy to work out a solution.&nbsp; She was making a good faith effort to make a character that fit into the campaign.&nbsp; Had she shown up and said, &quot;Hey, I want to play a Dutch merchant who is stranded here&quot; that might have been a pain in my butt.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MGibster, post: 9347377, member: 4534"] I was running a Legend of the Five Rings game many years ago. For those of you who are not familiar with L5R, it is basically a fantasy version of (mostly) Japan where player characters are samurai (bushi, shugenja, or courtiers) or sometimes monks. One of the players wanted her character to be an extremely honorable bushi who used to be a geisha in the past. There are some problems with that in L5R. There is a caste system in place and for a samurai to have worked as a geisha would bring a lot of embarrassment to her and her family. The player was a bit confused, "But geisha aren't prostitutes." She's right, they're not, but with a rigid caste system in place if you step out of bounds it's generally not a good thing. But I worked with the player. None of the geisha skills (other than seduction) were dishonorable. It would be perfectly fine for a samurai to possess many of the skills geisha had such as playing the biwa, telling stories, dancing, or singing. If she really wanted to have been a geisha then a Dark Secret disadvantage could work but the reputation of her and her family would be negatively affected if this was ever discovered. This was a (mild) example of a character that didn't really fit the paradigm of the campaign in some ways. But the player and I were happy to work out a solution. She was making a good faith effort to make a character that fit into the campaign. Had she shown up and said, "Hey, I want to play a Dutch merchant who is stranded here" that might have been a pain in my butt. [/QUOTE]

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