Nakahama

Another Banner game, another Minor Clan character for my space samurai collection. This planet and the fleshed out city made me really glad I chose to play a 'local' of some sort.

Thanks to the folks I got to play with. Also thanks to those I didn't, since I enjoy reading the threads making the game come alive. Thanks to the GMs, I know how rough the job is. Thank yous are a drop in the bucket that needs to fill if you hope to have enough oomph to design a game and make it through to the end, but that's a drop I can offer just now.

Hitomi was a pretty transparent sort, and I was at my usual-these-days sparse posting schedule. There was extra time afte surgery, but recovery saps a surprising amount of the energy needed for writing! So much for my hopes of getting a blazing start on the game. XD

All that said, feel free to ask, comment, etc. as is the custom.

Suzume Hitomi wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 12:42 am Another Banner game, another Minor Clan character for my space samurai collection. This planet and the fleshed out city made me really glad I chose to play a 'local' of some sort.

Thanks to the folks I got to play with. Also thanks to those I didn't, since I enjoy reading the threads making the game come alive. Thanks to the GMs, I know how rough the job is. Thank yous are a drop in the bucket that needs to fill if you hope to have enough oomph to design a game and make it through to the end, but that's a drop I can offer just now.

Hitomi was a pretty transparent sort, and I was at my usual-these-days sparse posting schedule. There was extra time afte surgery, but recovery saps a surprising amount of the energy needed for writing! So much for my hopes of getting a blazing start on the game. XD

All that said, feel free to ask, comment, etc. as is the custom.

I really enjoyed Hitomi's character and the opportunity to RP with her (once I eventually figured out how Ochiba would approach the Sparrow, two very different characters).

She had good vibes and I felt was very clearly designed, and the Crane training was a fun quirk.

I'm hoping that fish picture is displayed prominently on a wall somewhere!

What drew you to the seamstress/antique concept, and what do you think her being a Sparrow changed or altered that?

What was your favourite part of being a local?

Will Hitomi continue LARPing into the future as the rebel queen of the island?

Alright, so go ahead and cover your eyes for a the next bit and scroll down to the bottom:

You are, as always, an amazing person to roleplay with. You've got an amazing talent for description, and you always make threads fun. You give a whole bunch, and make every thread memorable. And you really saved me with your knowledge of fashion, because I know beans about fashion, and AI treats a prompt for this game as "Do glowy kimono like clothing with circuit patterns."

Alright, you can look again without overloading your compliment buffers.

I really liked you running with the 'win' at Edge of Darkness. I'm really curious if you have any ideas what our little society will look like going down the road since we didn't have time to get our last meeting off the ground. (Poor Itsuka, literally out of power).

Any thoughts on what her family will arrange for her marriage down the road that you hinted at?

What one thing would you have liked to have gotten to sell from your shop that you didn't? Which character would you have liked to have sold to that you didn't get to?

Thank you for your time and effort, despite being walking wounded

I thought our threads were great, and I'm glad to have gotten them with you!

So, why 3rd ed instead of 4th in Edge of Darkness?

Hitomi was a very nice addition, a different flavor of local! And a very nice idea for a samurai shop.

What's next for her? Dreams, ambitions, secret desires?

Our new queen of 3rd edition Edge of Darkness! I for one welcome her historical dedication to the game.

Thank you for accepting Kanna's invitation to a beach-side picnic and exploring the underwater-part of Namigashira Bay. I regret not being able to connect with Hitomi more, but adored the shop-concept and her character.

Will Feather Your Nest expand its business in the future now?

I know there were a few hiccups and wrenches midday in the game, but I am happy to have you in the game! Especially so as a local, a business owner, and finally as an avid shopper of Run-it-Back. As people mentioned, it was really fitting and fortuitous that Hitomi became the new queen of Edge of Darkness 3rd Edition, upholding that historical banner and showing us a thing or two on how to run a gathering! While Sumie would likely gripe that Hitomi isn't edgy enough...she at least isn't 'mainstream'. Not cool, not lame, is her grade.

I think people here have already asked the good questions. Hm....What is Hitomi eagerly hoping for in the new investment or gentries?

OK, starting on these, but I'll likely have to finish tomorrow as it's definitely time I got some sleep!

Yoritomo Ochiba wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 2:06 am I really enjoyed Hitomi's character and the opportunity to RP with her (once I eventually figured out how Ochiba would approach the Sparrow, two very different characters).

She had good vibes and I felt was very clearly designed, and the Crane training was a fun quirk.

I'm hoping that fish picture is displayed prominently on a wall somewhere!

What drew you to the seamstress/antique concept, and what do you think her being a Sparrow changed or altered that?

What was your favourite part of being a local?

Will Hitomi continue LARPing into the future as the rebel queen of the island?

That fish picture will end up on her wall at home. Maybe someday joined by another as she dabbles in fishing. No greatsharks! I really enjoyed the odd couple friendship developing, while Hitomi remained somewhat mystified at the whole thing. XD

I'd wanted to play a Sparrow and do something with that role they have now of kind of conservatorship of most of Rokugan's historical assets. With this game's premise, the idea of some kin of shop came to mind. I'm familiar in RL of the way museums have to kind of be selective about what they keep an store. Space is finite, and 50 spinning wheels is at the point where many of them are really not very significant...but they aren't going to just toss them either...so what do you do with that kind of thing? In real life, they assess things people want to donate and often refuse them. This is also how you get folks who craft things from antique kimono fabric--those that aren't wanted by museums, and often have damage that makes them not particularly useable as clothing, find another life.

Seamstress was one of the craft/artisan skills I added on as part of the 'what skills make sense for someone doing museum-style conservation and generally needing to know how to properly take care of these old things.' Kintsugi was kind of her main 'art', but the sewing ended up as more useful for PC interactions.

Favorite part of being local was the way you can kind of build in assumed previous interactions with other locals, and getting to make up some of the setting lore as you go along.

We have a thread (that stalled due to scheduling conflicts) of getting the local Rebels together for some tabletop to supplement the LARP. So I do think she'll explore that some more, though she may not remain rebel queen for all that long as such things tend to fluctuate. XD

Yasuki Taraka wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 2:34 am Alright, so go ahead and cover your eyes for a the next bit and scroll down to the bottom:

You are, as always, an amazing person to roleplay with. You've got an amazing talent for description, and you always make threads fun. You give a whole bunch, and make every thread memorable. And you really saved me with your knowledge of fashion, because I know beans about fashion, and AI treats a prompt for this game as "Do glowy kimono like clothing with circuit patterns."

Alright, you can look again without overloading your compliment buffers.

Thanks for all the praise. (see, I'm getting better at not just throwing up the deflection shield). There's a lot of good players around that give me plenty to bounce off of. I'm, at heart, a bit of a reactive player...able to 'yes--and' and 'no--but,' but sometimes hard pressed to come up with a place to start from. Which is when I fall back on descriptive GM instincts that say if I describe the scene and person, it's not unlikely that other players will grab some detail and run with it. This can be frustrating when players are just certain that you described that door as red because it's *super important* and it's just like...a closet. But between players that's a bit less of a danger. XD

I really liked you running with the 'win' at Edge of Darkness. I'm really curious if you have any ideas what our little society will look like going down the road since we didn't have time to get our last meeting off the ground. (Poor Itsuka, literally out of power).

I've been pretty amused that the event that was tuned for Doji courtier to create a win was the edgy LARP. I appreciate you setting up the 'funeral' and inviting me to tap in, or the Edge of Darkness element would have likely just been an interesting conversation topic after the event. 'what an odd game...' But I liked Taraka's idea of being a bit of a neighborhood watch as long as we're out mucking around in odd areas for game. Civicly-minded LARPer seems like it would appeal to Sparrow instincts. Getting some kind of regular meeting going and possibly launching costuming workshops and perhaps a seminar next fancon on 'grounding your 700 year old leech-wraith in historical reality' or something.

Any thoughts on what her family will arrange for her marriage down the road that you hinted at?

Hitomi's Ace, so I didn't expect much in the way of romance to bloom, since that's not usually the flavor of PbP courtships. The 'squish a lot into 12 days' flavor favors those instant attractions/sweep them off their feet style things. So I also expected her matchmaking to remain in the background, family probably vetting a decent Sparrow prospect to present at some point since she's not that likely to garner interest from outside of the clan.

What one thing would you have liked to have gotten to sell from your shop that you didn't? Which character would you have liked to have sold to that you didn't get to?

Thank you for your time and effort, despite being walking wounded

Hmm... I mean getting one of the kintsugi to sell was pretty cool. Even if it was a thread I wasn't even in. ^^ I didn't have a definite set of stock in mind, since I like making some of that up as I go. Having someone need to wrangle one of those step-tiered shelving units around would be interesting.

I think getting Haruhi in as a customer could be interesting. She has this feel of being very cheerful complementary, but then here are these antiques compared with the shiny Crane recreations of Golden Mirror where you could have a certain sense of "oh, I thought it would be *more* something in the original," while not really wanting to say that.

And yeah, I expected the healing process to take me out for a few days, because general anesthesia is complicated and high powered stuff. But I'd sort of expected to bounce back faster instead of having my brain get stubborn and want to do cozy 'knit with a video' far more than it wanted to write for a while there.

Miya Kisha wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 8:12 am I thought our threads were great, and I'm glad to have gotten them with you!

So, why 3rd ed instead of 4th in Edge of Darkness?

Thanks! I did enjoy those threads. Sorry the dinner fell into "ack, back to work eating what brainpower remains!" sluggishness.

So, meta reason was ...why not attempt to ding the front-runner? They were far enough ahead that it likely wouldn't matter, but there might not be another opportunity to make things feel a bit more like smaller factions had a chance.

IC reason..history! Oh, look at the shifts from version to version. What sort of gaming culture was being served by this a century ago? Could it be made more accessible for a modern audience while remaining true to its core feeling?

Hatoful GM wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 8:38 am Hitomi was a very nice addition, a different flavor of local! And a very nice idea for a samurai shop.

What's next for her? Dreams, ambitions, secret desires?

Thanks.

I didn't plan too far ahead with this one. So largely a desire to see this kind of odd shop idea succeed and become better known. What's next is largely seeing the shop through the changes coming to Nakahama. I don't intend to expand the Gentry...that larger size is getting to the point of a chain or something, which doesn't really seem to fit.

Tamori Kanna wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 12:26 pm Our new queen of 3rd edition Edge of Darkness! I for one welcome her historical dedication to the game.

Thank you for accepting Kanna's invitation to a beach-side picnic and exploring the underwater-part of Namigashira Bay. I regret not being able to connect with Hitomi more, but adored the shop-concept and her character.

Will Feather Your Nest expand its business in the future now?

Thanks for the beach invite as well! That was certainly a way to experience the ocean in a completely new way for her. Between that and fishing, she may even need to learn to swim! It can be hard to connect when my posting time and brain get sluggish, but it was a neat scene idea! I regret not trying to spark a card reading there.

As noted above, expanding too much would feel odd. There are, after all, only so many things that can actually be passed along this way. The traditionally made handicrafts can keep being made, but there's only so many people making them. And so on. A larger shop, with maybe room for classes an such might be a future goal.