As the story goes (Suzume Senseki Q&A)

[Suzume Senseki]

There's a funny story about a humble brown bird from the woods whose sensei made him particularly fond of the art of swordplay, but also particularly loathe to use that art to kill. That odd bird met a dragon who was curious about different styles of swordplay throughout the Empire. Oddly enough, the dragon got interest in the woodsman's chirping swordplay, and at the same time got him introduced to the scaly art of sister swords. As the story goes, the future saw an unlikely chirping swordsman who swirled two weapons around like a dragon, and a skilled, traditional dragon that learned to chirp as it went to live with birds in the woods.

Ask away

[Saibankan]

What's one thing that you feel the game handled really well?

What's one thing (outside of dueling and strife) that you feels needs to be changed before the next game?


What drew you to Haruhi?

[Kuni Yasu]

Chirp.

Sorry our threads tended to peter out. Yay timezones.

I had the impression Senseki definitely didn't agree with Yasu's very negative take on the first play they spoke at. General desire to just..see things in a better light?

[Shiba Raizo]

Biggest surprise the game threw you?

Biggest "damn, I wish I'd done that differently" moment?

Favorite scene?

[Moto Mitsuki]

Will Senseki move toward a two-handed fighting style?

More generally, what do you expect will change in Senseki's life now he's married a big clan (though not in that big clan)?

[Suzume Senseki]

What's one thing that you feel the game handled really well?

What's one thing (outside of dueling and strife) that you feels needs to be changed before the next game?


What drew you to Haruhi?

Hey Sai! First of all, thanks for the game, I liked it a lot!

1) I actually think most things were handled quite well! I enjoyed most events a lot, and I liked the variety of different approaches you used for them. I have one comment on them, but that goes into...

2) So - first things first, I actually hated neither duelling nor strife! Duelling, as you know well, I think could use changes, clarifications, or both (we've been talking about that a lot, so no surprise there). Strife, otoh, I kept thinking about quite a bit, but I actually don't think needs many changes? Mitsuki made some suggestions that might be useful, but I actually like the idea of handling Strife accumulation as part of the game!
That said, and going into things that are *not* duelling and strife, I'd add... three things, I guess.

a) While I greatly liked the variety and the design of most events (see above!), I do think Focus and Vigilance (and maybe also Fatigue!) could be given a greater role in events. I feel many folks are leaving this game with the impression that Composure is the "god stat", but I think the reason may be that the other derived stats didn't come into play as often as Strife/composure did. So I think maybe adding bonuses, TN changes or other things that depended on Vigilance/ Focus more often, and/or have events causing Fatigue (in failed rolls or something as well as strife) might be something to consider for later

b) Somewhat related to strife management, but not only, and also related to VPs: I found it relatively hard to find ways to integrate 'disadvantages being activated' into my threads. Passions too, but less so - and the possibility of using them as Background things helped a lot. I know Mitsuki has a suggestion that would deal with that... but I fear it may tie VPs to events too much, which may be too limiting for high-void characters. I kept wondering if allowing people to have their Anxieties triggering as "background" things, accruing strife and getting VPs at the cost of a Time Slot, may not be an option to avoid 'forcing' people to create threads for the sole purpose of 'roleplaying disadvantages' (or, more honestly, with the purpose of getting a VP). Not sure how you or others feel about this, though!

c) Similarly - I liked agendas as a side-goal, but I feel having to fit something RP-wise to get an Agenda roll in was sometimes a bit odd. I managed to get around that with the whole "Sparrow tells a story" thing that ended up being real fun, and having that extra bit to guide your RP is nice... but I think 'some' ability to do that in the background might be nice too, maybe? Or maybe just 'you can roll for it if you interact with said person during the day', or something like that, again to not 'force' RP decisions to get the roll and points to happen? I do fear that... might lead to other problems, but it's something I've been thinking about.

3) Oh, that's a good question! I was considering trying to get in contact with at least one of the NPCs, and none of the PCs I had interacted with had really 'clicked' that much when I got to look more closely at the NPC profiles. While Senseki came in as more of a woodsman/ herbalist, his sensei being a swordmaster of sorts (which I had *kinda* thought about, not sure how much of that I actually included in the BG?) and the fact that after checking with you the Sparrow tech is actually valid for duels all contributed to my thinking 'ok, he probably admires duelling at least somewhat... and meeting someone who uses a style quite different from his own and who's interested in the 'art' of it, not so much 'proving superiority', seemed kinda fitting for his own peaceful, friendly (and softhearted!) view to things. The fact that there was that line about her having 'peasant-like features' wasn't completely lost on me either

I guess the sparring matches with Mitsuki, in which he found out people actually used *shields* made him even more interested in different styles, so there was that too!

[Suzume Senseki]

Chirp.

Sorry our threads tended to peter out. Yay timezones.

I had the impression Senseki definitely didn't agree with Yasu's very negative take on the first play they spoke at. General desire to just..see things in a better light?

Chirps

No worries! I've dropped the ball quite a few times during Shika too... I mean, RL makes me do that now and again, but I guess it happened even more often in Shika. Sorry about that - to you and others!

And then - yep... I think a general desire to see things in a better light was part of it. But also, I figured he would be used to have the Sparrow cast in a bad light (or, well, no light at all?) quite often, and I figured he was one who would be open to laughing about himself and his clan... as long as it wasn't downright disrespectful. The way the play showed things, I figured he saw as more "ok, this is a stereotype, and the storyteller/ playwright is trying to convey the point that people often see what they're trained to see" as something truly critical or disrespectful... although the fact Yasu, who was otherwise open and friendly (or at least he felt that way!) got so mad about it made him rethink if he was maybe wrong. It was an interesting conversation, all in all! Too bad I dropped the ball when you mentioned yams XD Would've been fun to get into that

[Suzume Senseki]

Will Senseki move toward a two-handed fighting style?

More generally, what do you expect will change in Senseki's life now he's married a big clan (though not in that big clan)?

Hey Mitsuki! First a note here - in terms of people who made an effect on him during the game, I'd say Mitsuki was possibly number 1! Even more than Haruhi... although, well, she had a lasting effect too, of course. Thanks for the threads, it's been fun! And sorry for dropping the ball on so many of them...

As to your questions:

1) Actually, if I get to play him again, I will probably try to incorporate things that work with two hands AND things that work with two weapons! His fight with Mitsuki was very impactful for him, as I said above... but I think more than 'fighting with two weapons', it made him see as even more important the 'stood out before of this' bit of the 20 questions, which's flexibility
But then Haruhi is probably bound to have a big impact too. He'll never be as good with two swords as a Dragon, of course, but the fact that some Kata make that a viable option makes getting those a very likely option for him in the future

2) For this one - I think the changes will be based more on 'being married to a Dragon duellist' and 'being married to Haruhi' than 'being maried to a big clan', if that makes sense? I figured at some point during the game that he just expected to go back to the 'same' life... and then noticed that might not be happening (and he asked others about what they felt about this). I figure being married to Haruhi - and having met this bunch of GC samurai from all over - is bound to make him notice more and more he won't be the same, even if he tries to and keeps the same duty

[Suzume Senseki]

Biggest surprise the game threw you?

Biggest "damn, I wish I'd done that differently" moment?

Favorite scene?

Hey Raizo! Senseki will miss his grumpy friend! XD

First, sorry for taking so long to answer here - been spotty lately, and answering your questions took some more thought than the others. Still not sure I've got very good answers to them, but here goes:

1) Senseki had a rather 'smooth' ride through the game, I'd say. Partly because I ended up not being too much of a heavy poster, and as a result (well, not ONLY as a result, but also) I skipped many of the tenser and weirder parts of the game. But I'd say two surprises, one IC and one OOC

IC, the whole scene with the cat hiding a boy, and then an evil spirit having possessed Kheree but that NOT having directly to do with the cat, that all was quite a surprise. Raizo's comment there was priceless, btw XD But despite the surprise, he ended up just keeping company to the boy, so even there he went for a relatively smooth ride!

OOC... to be honest, the biggest surprise was how much people ended up hating some things in 5e - mostly Strife Management and Duels. I do get that it's a big change from 4e, and I do get that duels (actually, fights in 5e in general I guess) have a relatively steep learning curve AND the rules could have been much better organised and be worded differently for Iai duels (as I've been suggesting for a while and now attempting to do). A different ruleset for Iai duels, hopefully somehow still connected with other 5e rules, might make sense - and in fact some others and I have been trying to do some things in that regard as well. But even so, I didn't expect there to be so much hate of the system! I do understand where it comes from, in part at least, but it was still a big surprise!

2) I'm not sure, to be honest? Maybe getting involved in more story bits early on, and getting to talk more to some characters I hardly had time with. I'd hoped to go more fully into a "Minor Clan Alliance represent!" mode, which I did 'some' of, but not much... but otherwise I don't have many regrets Which is a good thing, I guess!

3) That's ALWAYS a tough one to answer! I really liked the conversation with Yasu during the Plays, as the contrast between her very strong opinion of how stereotypes were represented and Senseki's more subdued comments was fun to do and managed to keep things friendly. I also liked many of my scenes with Mitsuki - the two sparring matches particularly ended up being very meaningful! And I loved the many scenes with Bai - unlike some 60% of the Miai, he never developed any actual romantic feelings for her (I'm guessing the opposite is true as well?), but I feel they had many similarities that gave them a strong friendly vibe. It was fun!