In this game you will be playing truly children of the empire. Your characters will be between 7 to 12 years old, currently residing within Otosan Uchi. Naturally you can be from any clan and could either be residents or visitors who only intended to stay for a season. You could even be officially a hostage.

Regardless you should be attending a branch of one of your schools in the city, probably among a fairly small class.

You will start with lower stats than a proper graduate and no proper weapons or armor. But the encounters faced by your characters will generally not be the lethal ones unless you continuously take foolish actions.

I hope everyone will take characters who have a sense of curiosity and desire to prove themselves, the kind of person who when faced with a mystery won't let it rise without looking into it-- and maybe even the kind who will drag those around them into it as well. Or at least someone who won't reject being dragged along on the adventure at first and then fully engage in trying to help and protect their new friends.

However beyond the simple request that you make characters who will be interested in following up on leads and not be antagonistically adverse to working with others to achieve their aims, any kind of personality, motivation and demeanor is good-- the more dynamic and the better the mix, the more fun we will have.

Also-- don't feel required to use a family from the book. I posted all those other families in each clan for a reason. If you have any questions about them, I will be happy to provide more information.

I intend to have the game feature mostly around solving mysteries and helping people out with various moral choices being presented along the way.

I don't know if the game will progress to the point of the PCs becoming adults. I have a few stories planned before any time skip. However it is possible to occur in the future. For the time being I want to focus on the freedom your characters have before being handed any adult responsibilities.


The story will start off as "Merchants in the vegetable market have been reporting that all their cucumbers have been going missing! One of then even said that they saw a shadow of a child running off right after a batch had been stolen. Suspicion has fallen upon the children of the city, someone in just about every school and plenty of the commoners in the city have been accused of being the dastardly cucumber thief by their classmates. It's time to get to the bottom of this and find out who is stealing the cucumbers and why-- the adults don't seem to be doing it or just don't care, so it's going to be up to the kids to solve this mystery!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:23, Sun 21 Feb 2021.

Daily Routine
Although your typical daily routine might be a little different than this depending on your family and heritage, however the most expected route is to be a bit like this...

You probably wake up during the hours of the Hare (6AM to 8AM) depending on how complex your morning routine is. Those who might take more care in their fitness or appearance or engage in more complex religious rituals probably wake up earlier while those who stay up late or prefer to get more sleep in order to keep their stress low or save energy for the day probably get up later. If the family does certain skill training before regular schooling begin, that might also require awakening earlier. Also those who live in the Kanjo, Chisei or Karada districts will have to get up a little earlier in order to travel to the Hito district where the children's school is. Breakfast usually consists of rice, soup, left overs from the previous nights dinner and raw eggs.

School begins at the beginning of the hour of the Serpent (10AM) and regular classes continue until the hour of the Monkey (4pm). There are different teachers for different subjects for childhood education. Classes in Otosan Uchi include literature, writing, art, history, arithmetic, law and astronomy. Naturally there is a break during the day for lunch which typically consists of onigiri (riceballs) that usually have some sort of filling like shake, umeboshi, kombu, tarako or mentaiko.

During the Hour of the Monkey (4pm to 6pm) the children break off into different groups to take part in activities that relate to their future educational path. Bushi will train in their fitness, trade families will take further mathematics classes, smiths will study architecture and learn about geology and ores, artisans will study design philosophy and further art classes, etc.

During the Hour of the Rooster (6PM to 8PM) the students are generally expected to return home. Although some may engage in other activities rather than return directly home. Dinner can vary wildly, see the Clan topic for the cuisines of different clans, but in Otosan Uchi noodles or hotpots with a variety of vegetables and fish are most common.

By the hour of the Boar (10pm) there is a curfew and any children found on the streets at this hour without adult supervision will be returned home by the city watchmen. It is expected that the children will have gone to sleep by the Hour of the Rat (12pm), although earlier is obviously preferable.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:44, Sat 06 Mar 2021.