Estates

Estates

While some samurai spend their days traveling from city to city, most samurai of respectable status have some form of estate, residence, or base, be this a manor in a city's samurai quarter, a workshop in which they hone their craft, or personal rooms in a castle. At it's barest, this property is a place a samurai can rest or entertain guests, but with an investment of time and resources, an estate can become a powerful tool for a samurai.
Estates are ranked, with all estates beginning at rank 0. Samurai can raise their estate to a rank up to their school rank and no higher. Typically this is done by expending Major Boons, but other opportunities to enhance one's estate may occur during play at the GM's discretion in lieu of other possible rewards. Each upgrade to the estate grants one of the following boons:

• Atelier: You can reduce the TN of an Artisan Skill check by the number of Atelier upgrades purchased. This could take the form of a well equipped smithy, an atelier in which an artist might paint or compose, a garden with an inspiring view, a storeroom full of fine fabrics and threads, or something along these lines.
• Dojo: You can reduce the TN of a Martial Skill check by the number of Dojo upgrades purchased. This could take the form of a traditional dojo with students, a private practice room full of training dummies and practice weapons, a tactician's table full of miniatures and terrain with scroll libraries of tactical treatises, a zen garden to meditate in, or something along these lines.
• Parlor: You can reduce the TN of a Social Skill check by the number of Parlor upgrades purchased. This could take the form of a well appointed tea room to entertain guests, a courtyard theater to hold kabuki and noh plays, a hidden gambling den, or something along these lines.
• Study: You can reduce the TN of a Scholar Skill check by the number of Study upgrades purchased. This could take the form of an archive of legal precedents and family registers, a library of readings gathered from across Rokugan, a shrine full of religious texts, or something along these lines.
• Business: You can reduce the TN of a Trade Skill check by the number of Business upgrades purchased. This could take the form of a storefront, a fertile farm, a smuggler's warehouse, vast hunting grounds within the bounds of your estate, or something along these lines.
• Income: You increase your monthly stipend by 5 koku per Income upgrade purchased. This could take the form of any number of the above examples, such as a designer's workshop turning profit off selling extravagant kimonos, a gambling den with a steep cut for the house, a shrine in a land with wealthy worshipers, a successful sake brewery, or something along these lines.

The TN reductions offered by the above upgrades only apply to skills of the group that the owner has ranks in, and typically only apply when you have direct access to your holdings, but once per session, a character can spend a Void Point to gain the benefit their estate during regular play so long as it makes sense within the narrative. For example, using an Atelier to have prepared a gift for another samurai they reasonably could have been working on or anticipated needing, recalling a useful maneuver studied at a Dojo during a mass combat, or coincidentally having read over relevant legal documents in your Study when trying to resolve a governmental dispute.
For ronin or other non-samurai characters without permanent residence, the same mechanical benefits are available in the form of Connections instead of Estates.