Life & Craft
Not every day is a duel or a deadline. What you do with the quiet days shapes who you become as much as the sword does.
Training
Sharpening every edge.
The dojo sharpens the sword arm and the body's endurance; the bookshop and the shrine build the mind; a lord's manor can teach the politics and strategy of court, once you've earned enough trust to be let in the room. A wandering teacher will sell you a lesson, too. Every one of the six abilities that decides how a duel or a negotiation goes is something you can go and work on.
The cultured life
The refined arts & pilgrimage.
The sword isn't the only discipline worth mastering. Six refined arts each rank on their own and bank a cultural standing that stands apart from your name with the blade. Piety runs alongside it: taking the pilgrim's vow and sitting in zazen build a standing of a different kind, and both can turn up boons along the way.
Tea & poetry
Chadō, the tea ceremony, and poetry in haiku and waka — refinement measured in its own tiers.
Calligraphy & the board
Shodō, the brush, and the boards of go and shōgi — each a discipline of its own.
Falconry & noh
Takagari, the hawk on the wrist, and the chant and drum of noh.
People
Relationships.
Courtship and talk aren't a stat check resolved off-screen. Approaching someone plays out as an interactive back-and-forth — read the person you're with, spend your words well, and win them over turn by turn as their patience wears or their warmth grows. Wooing far above your own station is exactly as hard as it sounds: the wider the rank gap, the colder the reception and the quicker their patience runs out.
Coin
Trade, robbery & crime.
Goods move between towns at different prices, and buying low in one settlement to sell high in another is an honest way to build coin. Not every ronin stays honest, though — the same roads and the same purses can be taken by force instead of trade, whether that's a caravan on the highway or a mark closer to home. Crime carries its own weight: word travels, bounties get posted, and guards and bounty hunters come looking for anyone whose name has grown too well known for the wrong reasons.
Home & leisure
The fields, the cup & the board.
A made man buys a plot and builds an estate — and around it, a life beyond the blade. Break ground into fields and farm them; or take a seat at the tavern, where coin changes hands over dice, stones, and sake. Each is its own little game to play, hand-drawn in the same pixel style as everything else.
Farm your fields
Clear ground and sow seven crops — rice, tea, ginseng and more. They ripen as the seasons turn; reap them into the pantry and eat for energy, health, or a lasting buff.
Chō-han dice
The bakuto's game: the dealer shakes two dice under a bamboo cup and lifts it. Bet 丁 even or 半 odd — call it right and double your stake.
Gomoku
Five stones in a row on a nine-line board, played against a tavern regular for a wager. Simple to learn, and a real opponent to outthink.
The drinking contest
Mash cup after cup to out-last a local toper. Win the wager — and temper your constitution — or wake up under the table.