Rokugan Court Events

   The Cities and Courts of Rokugan tend to have quite a lot of events going on. While most of them serve more as excuses to meet people without appearing to be looking for them in particular and backdrops for deal-making, you never know when something is going to be useful, informative, or somehow wind up involving the characters more than superficially. Here, therefore, is a table of common events. The first four categories are going up today, I’ll see if I can’t get the remaining categories up tomorrow.

   (1) Readings and Presentations are always popular – and can easily be scheduled virtually every day. All you need is a comfortable room, a few servants to serve tea, someone literate with a good voice, and a book. What kind of readings will it be today?

• (1) Cautionary Tales: Stories of great failures, embarrassments, defeats, acts of foolishness, and other disasters.
• (2) Current and Original Works: There are always new authors and personal works. Will these be any good? Only one way to find out.
• (3) Duties to the Empire: Tales of Duty, Obligation, and Sacrifice.
• (4) Glorious Exploits: Tales of ordinary heroism, great victories, and exploits that bring lasting fame.
• (5) The Histories of Rokugan: Tales of the founding and later years.
• (6) Just So Stories: Tales of how things became as they are – the origins of plants and animals, customs, and other things, including pre-imperial tales.
• (7) Military Writings: Campaigns, Battles, Tactics, and Strategy.
• (8) Popular Tales: Famous fictional narratives, peasant tales, and other amusements.
• (9) Tales of Gods and Heroes: Mythical figures facing larger-than-life situations.
• (10) The Tao of Shinsei: Incomprehensible, and thus filled with all meaning.

   (2) Theater and Music events are usually presented by formal troupes, but are occasionally presented by the amusement-seekers themselves. The most common forms include:

• (1) Concerts: Formal musical presentations by large groups of performers.
• (2) Dinner Music: Informal musical presentations by individual artists or small groups. Often a backdrop for other events.
• (3) Famous Artists: Presentations by individual famous or aspiring artists.
• (4) Famous Orations: Presentations of great speeches from the past.
• (5) Formal / Noh and Kyogen: Highly stylized plays with amusing interludes.
• (6) Kabuki: Energetic, “modern”, plays with intense action and plenty of excitement and commentery
• (7) Historical Re-enactments:
• (8) Informal: Also known as “Performance Art”. Includes jesters, political commentators, skits, large-scale role-playing events, and acts intended to involve the audience.
• (9) Improvisations: Displays of an actors or musicians virtuosity and ability to work off-the-cuff.
• (10) Puppet Shows: These can be quite elaborate and involve numerous puppeteers.

   (3) Competitions and Exhibitions take a little more arranging, but can keep a court busy for a several days. Competitions, of course, are usually between members of the court. Exhibitions are presented by others – whether to show off local accomplishments, as a part of a tour, or imported by the guests as a favor to their hosts. In general, something like this should turn up at least once a week… Given that these vary a lot in frequency, they’re listed in groups. Just pick something appropriate.

• (1) Acrobatics / Bonsai Training / Brushwork
• (2) Calligraphy / Clock Making / Cooking
• (3) Costume or Mask Making / Crafts (this is often a disguised promotion for trade deals) / Dance
• (4) Directing / Exotic Techniques / Featherwork
• (5) Flower-Arranging / Gardening / Glassblowing
• (6) Ivory Carving / Magic / Origami
• (7) Painting / Pet Tricks and Animal Training / Play Writing and Directing
• (8) Poetry Composition (whether fast, on particular subjects) / Pottery / Sculpting
• (9) Singing / Storytelling / Summarizing Great Works
• (10) Swordsmithing and Sword Techniques / Unarmed Techniques / Wood Carving and Crafting

   (4) Awards and Honors tend to be events of opportunity: when something comes up, so does such an event – however a lot of courts schedule special days for such things once or twice a year.

• (1) Adulthood/Gempukku: Coming-of-age ceremonies tend to involve minor contests, gifts, and quite a lot of pleasantries.
• (2) Alliances and Agreements: Always a cause for a celebration and formal announcement,
• (3) Childbirth: OK, this happens all the time – but since everyone makes a fuss over it anyway, you might as well set aside the occasional day to celebrate it.
• (4) Formal Departure: Whenever someone important leaves.
• (5) Formal Reception or Recognition: When someone is formally presented to the rest of the court.
• (6) Funeral: Does this need an explanation?
• (7) Marriage or Proposal: Or this?
• (8) Notable Visit: Some great Artist, Holy Man, Imperial Representative, or other notable figure has dropped by, and it will – of course- be an occasion.
• (9) Promotions: There are always people who have done well to be promoted, awarded fiefs, assigned to better duties, or given more important responsibilities. There are always people to disciplined as well, but there’s no reason to make a public event out of that.
• (10) Retirement: Someone important is leaving to become a monk, live quietly in their old age, or otherwise take their leave of public life.

   The second section of the list (categories 6-10) is Here.

   The L5R Index Page is Here (to check more recent items use the “Home” tab. The Indexing is usually a few weeks behind).