Aiki

Giving out Aiki

All the players including the GM award Aiki to acting
players based on a few guidelines:

Did the player express their characters Fates?

Give them Aiki
Did the player acting in the scene entertain you?
Give them Aiki
Dont judge one players role-playing based on
anothers, but rather against their own skills

Using Aiki

After the skill roll

Special Actions

During an Intermission

Make a Fate roll - For each Aiki spent roll

Empathy using your highest fate as a skill and
gain the resulting successes as Kiai
Take or give a new Fate - For each Aiki spent
create a new Fate for you or another player, in
that case give the Aiki to the other player

During a Scene

Use Aiki as Kiai - Can be used as Kiai 1 for 1

(Does NOT count as Spent Kiai)
Make a Fate roll - You can spend Aiki to make a
single Fate roll in a scene or in combat as an
action, you must use the most relevant Fate at
that moment

Kiai

Dice Boost - For each Kiai spent gain 1 die to

add to the roll
Skill Boost - You can raise the level of a skill up
to 4 for 3 Kiai per level

Interrupt Action - For 2 Kiai you can interrupt

another character action and act before they do,
only the first interruption is valid and if in
combat you have to buy an additional action
Multiple Combat Actions - For each Kiai spent
you can take an additional combat action at the
end of the round
Protect - For 1 Kiai protect a character, if before
the defence roll is made you can make the
defence roll for the other character, if after then
you take the damage as is instead. In any case no
counter-attack is possible
Emotion Matrix Shift - For each Kiai spent you
can move an Emotion Matrix result left, right, up
or down

Permanent Bonuses

Temporary Bonuses
Before the skill roll

Success Boost - You can buy additional successes

for 3 Kiai each

Gain Equipment - See Equipment Section for

equipment costs. Possible at the Intermission
phase or in a Scene with GM permission
Raise Attributes - 10 Kiai for 1 Attribute Point.
Possible at any time except for armour that must
be upgraded during the Intermission phase
Gain New General Skills - 5 Kiai to raise a
General Skill from 1 to 2. Possible at any time
Gain New Specialist Skills - 5 Kiai to raise a
Specialist Skill from 1 to 2. Possible during the
Intermission phase
Raise Skills - See Skills Section for skill costs.
Possible at any time but requires GM permission
for rank 5 Skills

Karma

All Spent Kiai becomes Karma at the start of the

Intermission phase
If character's Karma raises over 108 the
character becomes an Asura
Karma can only be reduced by sublimating or
rewriting Fates

Fates

Destiny - Special Fate Given by the GM which is

the character initial role in the scenario
Each has a rank between 2 and 5
Depending on rank Fates have an associated cost
(Rank 2 = 0 Cost, Rank 3 = 10 Cost, Rank 4 = 30
Cost, Rank 5 = 70 Cost)
The total cost of your Fates cannot be higher
than your Karma
Higher Fates help generating more Kiai during
the Intermission phase
More Fates help getting more Aiki for roleplaying
Can be sublimated or rewritten during the
Intermission phase to decrease Karma

Basic Combat

Attacking and Damage

Health and Damage

Attacks and Counter-Attacks

When you take damage, you decide how to split it

between two pools: Vitality and Wounds

Initiative Phase:
Characters act in order of highest Agility (if tied
Body then Senses then Knowledge)
Characters Turns:
1) Declare Special Action
o Rest - Gain 1 point of Vitality back, no
actions
o Wait - Delay you turn. If multiple waiting
characters try to act at the same time use
normal initiative for them
o Moment of Truth - See Moment of Truth
Section for details
2) Move up to Agility x 10 in meters
3) Take an Action
o Attack - See Attacking and Damage Section
o Special Ability - Onmyojutsu, Samurai
Form, The Butterfly Dream, Wormcharm,
Resonance, Buddhist Magic, Ninjutsu, Arts
of War, Shinto Magic and Yohjutsu
o Fate Roll - Roll EMPATHY:FATE with the
most appropriate Fate and gain Kiai
o Cheer On - Encourage a character you have
a Fate with and give him up to your
Empathy score in Aiki Chits (Can trade 3
Kiai for 1 Aiki but it counts as Spent Kiai)
4) Half-Action
o Simple action, less than 5 seconds long
5) Interaction Phase
o Lasting Damage is recorded
o Passing out or dying due to Wounds
o Regeneration of Vitality or Wounds
o Shiki spirit appearing after a summoning,
or disappearing when dispelled

4) The Attacker rolls an appropriate skill for the

attack action
o BODY:UNARMED COMBAT
o AGILITY:MELEE WEAPONS
o SENSES:MARKSMAN
5) The Defender rolls an appropriate skill for the
defence action
o Against physical attacks (Unarmed, melee
weapons or physical projectiles)
BODY:UNARMED COMBATS
AGILITY:MELEE WEAPONS
AGILITY:EVASION
o Against non-physical attacks (Fire, acid,
electricity, spiritual force, explosives)
AGILITY:EVASION
6) Count the number of successes of each roll and
compare them
o Attackers Successes > Defenders Successes
Attacker hits dealing damage equal to the
difference plus the Damage Rating of his
weapon
o Attackers Successes = Defenders Successes
Both the Attacker and Defender fail to hit
each other
o Attackers Successes < Defenders Successes
Defender counter-attacks and hits dealing
damage equal to the difference plus the
Damage Rating of his weapon
If the Attacker uses SENSES:MARKSMAN or the
Defender uses AGILITY:EVASION there is no
counter-attack

Vitality

Represents the ability to stay conscious

Damage in Vitality represents bruises, flesh
wounds, fatigue, weariness and similar
When Vitality goes to 0 or lower the character
becomes unconscious and will stay so until
sometime after the fight
You can choose to take all the damage to Vitality
and going to negative Vitality, this has no
additional adverse effects
PCs will never die after going to 0 or lower
Vitality unless the Dead Box is checked or player
permission is given to kill the character
NPCs at 0 Vitality can be put out of their misery
by the PCs
Outside of combat Vitality regenerates at the
rate of 1 point per minute

Wounds

Represents deep cuts, painful stabs, broken

bones, torn muscles and similar
The more severe Wound type you have checked
give you an effect
Only one wound effect is active at a time
The more severe Wound type determines the
Difficulty of healing actions on the character
There are 4 types of wounds with relative
effects:
1. Light Wounds
No effect
Healing Difficulty: 1
2. Heavy Wounds

 +1 Bonus die to all your rolls

Healing Difficulty: 2
3. Critical Wounds
+2 Bonus die to all your rolls
Lose 1 Vitality every Interaction Phase
while in combat (Cannot lower Vitality to
less than 1)
Lose 1 Vitality every minute while not in
combat
Healing Difficulty: 3
4. Dead Box
+3 Bonus die to all your rolls
If Vitality goes to zero or less when the
Dead box is checked the character dies
Characters never die unless the Dead Box is
checked
When it's checked it absorbs all the
damage from that attack
Healing Difficulty: No healing possible (In
combat) / Same as other Wounds or 1 if no
other Wounds (Outside of combat)

Healing Damage and Soul

In Combat

SENSES:FIRST AID rolled against the healing

Difficulty (Minimum 1) can be used to return an
unconscious character to battle with 1 Vitality
SENSES:FIRST AID rolled against Difficulty 3 can
stop the Critical Wound Vitality drain

Outside of combat

Vitality recovers at the rate of 1 point per

minute
If the character has Critical Wounds he will lose
1 Vitality every minute and eventually fall
unconscious
Soul recovers at the rate of 1 point per hour

A full day's rest or relaxation (carousing,

gambling, hot-spring episode, etc.) will recover
full Soul
SENSES:FIRST AID can be rolled each day to heal
Wounds: count the successes, subtract the
healing difficulty and heal that many Wounds

Special Combat Rules

Aiuchi
o Declared by the defender
o The Attacker automatically hits first and deals
damage equal to ALL his successes plus the
Damage Rating
o If the Defender is still standing then he
automatically hits first and deals damage
equal to ALL his successes plus the Damage
Rating
o BOTH the Attacker and the Defender MUST
use the BODY attribute for this attack
Sneak Attack
o The Attacker must be hidden, disguised or
invisible
o Roll the attack as normal
o The defender cannot counter-attack
o If the attacker hits he deals damage equal to
ALL his successes plus the Damage Rating
Soulgem Melee Weapons
o When the Attacker hits he can fire up to the
rate of fire of the weapon in Soulgems
o Each Soulgem fired adds +1 Damage to the
attack
Ranged Weapons
o When making an attack with a ranged weapon
you can make additional attacks up against
multiple targets or the same target

o The total number of attacks must be equal or

lower of the rate of fire of the weapon
o Roll only once and compare with each
Defender
o Add +1 Damage for each attack after the first
against the same target (Max +2)
Other Damage
o Can be reduced with an appropriate skill
o Falling Damage
Damage: Height in meters
Resist with: Movement
o Poison/Fire/Acid/Cold Damage
Damage: Varies
Resist with: Willpower
o Explosive Damage
Damage: Varies
Resist with: Evasion
o Continual Damage can be resisted each turn
Strategy
o Once per Act you make an STATION:STRATEGY
roll and bank the number of successes as
bonus dice
o Represents expert plan creation, setting up
strategies to win skirmishes and the like
o At any time during the Act, a strategist can
award some or all of these dice to their allies
or even use these dice themselves
o The strategist should describe, how their
actions or strategies led to this advantage
o All remaining dice are lost at the end of the
Act