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> Wacky silly character that I made, Tribute to Sho Kosugi and 80s ninjas
Wounded Ronin
post Jan 28 2005, 07:57 AM
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I just finished making a really silly character for an SR game tomorrow. However, a lot of love and thought went into this character. I'm going so far as to name the character "Sho Kosugi". IRL Sho Kosugi is, of course, one of the most outrageous and well known ninja portrayers out of 1980s cinema. The character "Sho Kosugi" that I've just created is in fact heavily based on the film "Revenge of the Ninja" (1983) in which Sho Kosugi played the leading role. In this sense, naming the character "Sho Kosugi" is something of a joke directed at the film, since the actor played a character with a similar-sounding first name, Cho.

The character background is heavily based directly on the events in "Revenge of the Ninja", but I changed a lot of things and added a lot to completely ham up the spirit of bullcrap 80s cinema. I even added a custom lifestyle. I hope that by posting this character sheet here, I can provide you all with a little bit of entertainment.

And remember..."only a ninja can stop a ninja!"
========================================
Sho Kosugi grew up in Japan, heir to the Kosugi ninja clan. Every day in his shibumi-filled ninja clan's palatial garden, he would scream things in Japanese and flip out in order to perfectly learn a thousand years of combat secrets.

However, the Kosugi ninja clan, being an old clan brimming with action movie style history, had accumulated many ninja enemies over the generation. Japanese people never forget, see. So if you piss off the wrong ninja clan a thousand years ago, they're still coming after you. This is perfectly true and not a sterotype that I got from watching ninja movies while completely ignoring everything I know about real Japanese people. So one day a coalition of rival ninjas sent by Ashida Kim and Maasaki Hatsumi stormed the palatial garden and went around massacring Sho Kosugi's entire family.

At the time Sho Kosugi was talking with his UCASian friend, Braiden, about opening a Japanese art gallery in Seattle in order to make a lot of money and get away from bloody ninja clan conflicts. Sho Kosugi had been saying something about how he couldn't leave his clan's palace because both his father and grandfather had been killed fighting on it, but he got cut short because he had to flip out and kill all the ninja assassins. Braiden pulled out a 1911 and shot two. Anyway, when the dust cleared Sho's entire family had been killed, except for his elderly mother and one of his two sons. He was particularly choked up because his wife who he liked a lot was killed. Her name was, uh, Masako. Yeah, that's it. That's a pretty high class sounding name.

Anyway, in the wrenching emotion of the moment, Sho Kosugi decided to sell his palace and move to UCAS. His elderly mother, though, brimming with Asiatic wisdom, warned him, "You cannot escape your karma, my son." She also warned him about land wars in Asia.

Fast forward a few years. Sho Kosugi's surviving infant son is now a bratty 8 year old with a baseball cap cum miniature martial arts powerhouse. Sho Kosugi, full of remorse over the death of his wife, renounced violence, and sealed his sword shut with a paper Shinto ward. His mother kept warning him about karma, though, so he had been teaching his son ninjutsu, although he always prefaced it with some bullcrap about, "We are not ninja; we are not samurai. We practice to keep in touch with our traditions."

Of course, Braiden, the white guy, turned out to be an evil ninja because he lived in Japan for 20 years. It makes perfect sense. I mean, remember Bill Murray in "Lost In Translation"? Had he been trapped in Japan for 20 years, he probably would have become an insane and evil ninja too. Furthermore, Braiden was actually a *koga* ninja, which is what Ashida Kim claims to be, so Braiden must be a disciple of Ashida Kim. Either that or he is Ashida Kim. Hmm....

Yeah, so, anyway, Braiden was actually trying to import heroin inside of delicate Japanese porcelain dolls that were on exhibit in Sho Kosugi's gallery. However, Braiden got stiffed by the mafia, so he put on a cheap-looking silver mask and extracted ninja vengance upon the mafia. In retaliation, the mafia stole the dolls, after managing to escape Sho Kosugi following a brutal ninja battle. In the confusion, Braiden, still dressed as the ninja, killed Sho Kosugi's mother, but Sho Kosugi's son, Ken, saw him unmasked. So Braiden had to abduct Ken using an elaborate plot involving a blond woman, hypnosis, and beefy Asian goons. To make a long story short, Sho Kosugi found out and killed Braiden in a brutal ninja duel to the death in a shopping mall at Christmas time.

Flashy magical ninja violence erupting in a shopping mall at christmas time, so all the news showed up and filmed a masked and ninja suited Sho Kosugi dealing exploding slicey death left and right to Braiden's hoards of koga ninja. Black-garbed heads were flying everywhere. Shuriken mysteriously hit anyone who tried to use a gun and killed them instantly. There was much flipping out off of balconies into the melee in the food court. Soon there was an inch of arterial blood on the ground floor of the mall as slain ninjas were draped over every overhanging surface. After a brutal struggle, Sho Kosugi finally killed Braiden, slicing his cheap-looking mask open.

After a high profile event like this, Sho Kosugi had no choice but to escape into the night with his son, running over phone lines, and setting himself up in the shadows. Which he was able to do in spite of culture differences because he was a master of ninja psychology.

Naturally, though, after the bloodbath at the mall at christmas time, everyone was after this mysterious masked ninja man. Luckily, there was so much irrelevant blood, hair, and fabric splattered all over the mall that the refined forensic and ritual magic techniques of Lone Star were useless. However, an elderly Yakuza oyabun named Tomo Sato, using byzantine mazes of asiatic protocl, was able to get the attention and audience of Sho Kosugi.

According to the SR2 sourcebook, old-fashioned Yakuza oyabuns are all honorable and refined, whereas the younger ones are all brash and brutal. The old fashioned ones dislike the young ones for this reason. You are not allowed to dispute this because SR2 made it CANON! CANON, DAMN IT! Anyway, the old fashioned Yakuza oyabun figured that if he had a super ninja in his employ that would be his leg up on the other oyabuns in Seattle. So he took Sho Kosugi as his retainer, and in exchange promised to keep Sho Kosugi's son safe.

Anyway, this relationship continued for a number of years. Sho Kosugi's son is now a rebellious teenager. Sho Kosugi still has the oddly-tasteless-but-lets-not-say-anything medallion bearing his family crest that he took from his dead mother that was featured in the Sho Kosugi film Revenge of the Ninja. And he pretty much hangs out in a cool Japanese-style house that erupted out of an 80s movie and does missions for the oyabun.

Sho Kosugi specific plot hooks for the GM: rebellious son (who is listed only as a level 1 contact due to strained nature of relationship), mission for the oyabun


Character Sheet Follows:
Sho Kosugi
Black Hair, Dark Eyes, 5'9"


Priorities:
Attributes A
Magic B
Skills C
Resources D
Race E

Attributes: (30)
Body 6
Strength 6
Quickness 6
Intelligence 5
Willpower 5
Charisma 2
Reaction 5 (9)
Initiative 5 + 1d6 (9 + 3d6)
Combat Pool 8
Karma Pool 1
Total Karma 0

Active Skills: (34)
Edged Weapons 6 (10)
Unarmed Combat 4
Thrown Weapons 6
Whips/Flails 4
Athletics 6
Stealth 6
Etiquette (Japanese traditional) 1 (3)

Physad Powers:
Improved Reflexes II
Improved Ability: Edged Weapons + 4
Missile Parry



Knowledge Skills: (25)
Byzantine Maze of Traditional Japanese Protocol 4
Ninja Lore (Ninja Psychological Theory) 4 (6)
Classical Japanese Artwork 4
Buddhism (zen-based martial philosophy) 3 (5)
Shinto 2
Yakuza (seattle yakuza) 1 (3)
Japanese Classical Calligraphy 4

Language Skills: (7)
Japanese 5
English 2

Resources: 20,000 Nuyen
Level 2 Contact (10,000)
Wakazashi (treat as Long Cougar Fineblade Knife, STR + 1 M) 1,500
Katana (STR + 3 M, Reach 1) 1,000
Kusarigama (conc. 8, reach 2, STR + 1 M, ensares pg. 276 SR3) 200
Mariki-gusari (conc 10, reach 2, STR + 2 L stun, ensares) 150
Nunchaku (conc 7, reach 1, STR + 1 M stun) 100
Three-section staff (conc 4, reach 2, STR + 2 M stun) 200
Armored Ninja Suit (treat as Camo Full Suit, 5/3) 1,200
20 Ninja Smoke Bombs (treat as Smoke Grenade, conc 6) 600
50 Shuriken (conc 8) 1,500
200 Caltrops (conc 8) 1000
Grapple Gun (conc 7) 450
200 meters of grapple line 100
1 mo. custom lifestyle 1,200
20 Ninja Flashbangs (treat as Flash grenade, pg. 40 CC)



Contacts:
Ken Kosugi (1)
Yakuza Traditional Weaponsmith (1)
Yakuza Oyabun (2)

Custom Lifestyle Information Follows:

If you've ever watched 1980s martial arts films you would notice that in some cases they feature opulent Japanese style houses belonging to important characters. For example, in "Showdown in Little Tokyo" Dolp Lundgren's character maintains a Japanese style hut filled with martial arts weapons as his hideout, and in "The Karate Kid" Mr. Miyagi also lives in very distinct Japanese style house. These houses were always extremely amusing for me, being half Japanese, because if someone were to try and construct a similar house in real life it would be extremely expensive. For example, a set of handcrafted Japanese tansu, the drawer set that Japanese families keep their valuables in, not only would cost thousands of dollars, and be painfully expensive to have imported, and subsequently would actually crack and break from the inside if you could not maintain a humidity level around them comparable to the humidity in Japan. Similarly, a set of simple and elegant tea bowls designed by a famous craftsman could easily cost hundreds of dollars apiece. For this reason, whenever my family and I would see the idyllic Japanese hut inhabited by Mr. Miyagi, we'd burst out laughing and go on and on about how outrageously expensive his place would be.

Since Sho Kosugi is essentially a 1980s ninja movie character, it is only fitting that he have one of these outrageously awe-inspiring Japanese huts filled with extremely tasteful yet expensive furniture and artwork tucked away in the woods somewhere hidden away from Seattle itself. The custom lifestyle detailed below attempts to emulate as best as possible Mr. Miyagi's house and the hideout from "Showdown in Little Tokyo".




Custom Lifestyle: Cinematic 80s Japanese House
Area: Squatter Equivalent (woods significantly removed from Seattle), 1 point
Comforts: Low (spotty water and electricty due to location, eats mostly pickles and rice), 2 points
Entertainment: Street (Nothing electronic, really...painting calligraphy?) 0 points
Furnishings: High (awe inspiring hand crafted Japanese art) 4 points
Security: Low (stupid ninja booby traps, rating 3) 2 points
Space: Middle (smallish hut/house with Zen rock garden out in the woods) 3 points
Basic Cost: 1,000 nuyen a month
Lifestyle Edges and Flaws:
Defensive Setup (always has partial cover and superior position in the home), +.10
Inconspicuous Housing (middle of the damn woods!, +1 TN penalty to find info about Sho), +.10
Quiet Neighborhood (see above; crime uncommon) +.15
Terrific View (see above; view is of surrounding forest) +.05
Cursed Amenities (remote off the grid utilities very unreliable) -.1
Middle of Nowhere (All travel to and from home is doubled)-0.05
No Hazard Alarm -0.05
Net % adjustment: +20%
Final Lifestyle Cost: 1,200 nuyen a month
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Foreigner
post Jan 28 2005, 01:55 PM
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Cute, Wounded Ronin. :)

Of course, aside from everything that you pointed out about the film, the producers also ignored a couple of crucial facts about the American--at least during the fighting sequence at the beginning.

Firstly, firearms, particularly handguns, are illegal in Japan--not even the police are armed--unless you count billy clubs and cattle prods. Only Japan's small military forces are allowed to possess weapons.

And secondly, in order to be a true ninja, one must be Japanese by birth and born into a ninja clan.

Ashida Kim, Steven Hayes, and the other so-called "modern-day ninja" aside, there haven't been any real ninja since approximately the mid-1850s--rumor has it that several of them sneaked aboard the ships in Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry's fleet in Tokyo Bay in 1854, which was there to discuss opening diplomatic relations between the United States and Japan.

Unfortunately, none of the operatives could read, write, or speak English, so the documents that they recovered were essentially useless, unless there was an interpreter handy. :)

--Foreigner
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Demosthenes
post Jan 28 2005, 02:15 PM
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@ Foreigner:
I believe that that was in fact the point.

Wounded Ronin: [Bad lipsynch]
You are good. Very good
But you will not suck seeds [/bad lipsynch]

:rotfl:
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Aku
post Jan 28 2005, 02:37 PM
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just oen slight nitpick. On the "beautiful view.. in middle of woods" (and i understand this is an "idealic" character") But it is quite possible to have a craptacular view in the middle of the woods if the clearing isn't large enough, or you arent on a cleared hill overlooking the woods, or possibly a sparse forest area,but then, you might not get the bonuses fo being in the middle of nowhere (ohh, look a house...out here...)

Personally, i dont like the view in the middle of a dense forest area, but it's something to consider.
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Foreigner
post Jan 28 2005, 03:05 PM
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Demosthenes, Wounded Ronin:

My apologies to both of you if I came across as heavy-handed.

That wasn't my intention.

I was attempting to put things into a proper historical prospective; that's all.

My primary point still stands, though: AFAIK, there have been no true ninja since about the mid-1850's--Hollyweird (as well as some authors) just hasn't (haven't) gotten the message.

--Foreigner
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Fortune
post Jan 28 2005, 03:10 PM
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How do you know for sure? Maybe they are just doing their job right and being all secret-like.
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toturi
post Jan 28 2005, 04:13 PM
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True ninja? I mean if you have proof they exist then they won't be true ninjas. But if there really are true ninjas, you wouldn't have any proof anyway so either way... there are no such thing as ninjas (a little L5R joke here, move along, nothing to see)
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Tanka
post Jan 28 2005, 04:16 PM
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QUOTE (Fortune)
How do you know for sure? Maybe they are just doing their job right and being all secret-like.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is obviously our photographic evidence.
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Cakeman
post Jan 28 2005, 05:05 PM
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"Suddenly... Ninjas!"
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Foreigner
post Jan 28 2005, 05:08 PM
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Fortune, toturi:

I did preface my reply with "As far as I know."

I never said that it was the absolute, unvarnished truth. :)

Actually, I believe that the subject came up for discussion in class when I was taking a course in Japanese history in high school--I'm not certain, though, as I graduated in 1982, and my memory of some of the details is rather hazy.

Anyway, it was about the time that the NBC miniseries based upon James Clavell's
epic novel SHOGUN was first telecast in 1980, and we discussed the series in class.

Somehow, the subject of ninja came up, and the instructor mentioned that the last recorded time that any such individuals undertook a mission was when they sneaked aboard Commodore Perry's ships on an intelligence-gathering job--I believe she said that it was at the behest of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868), rather than Emperor Komei (07/22/1831--01/30/1867; reigned from 03/10/1846 until his death--he was the father of Meiji/Mutsuhito (11/03/1852--07/30/1912; reigned from 02/03/1867 until his death), the grandfather of Taisho/Yoshihito (08/31/1879--12/25/1926; reigned from 07/30/1912 until his death), the great-grandfather of Showa/Hirohito (04/29/1901--01/07/1989; reigned from 12/25/1926 until his death), and the great-great-grandfather of the current Emperor, Heisei/Akihito (born 12/23/1933; became Emperor upon his father's death in 1989).

I hope that that clears things up. I never meant to start an argument. :)

--Foreigner
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nezumi
post Jan 28 2005, 05:43 PM
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As long as we're making crazy PCs, anyone have the rules for making a sasquatch character?
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Wounded Ronin
post Jan 28 2005, 06:52 PM
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QUOTE (Aku)
just oen slight nitpick. On the "beautiful view.. in middle of woods" (and i understand this is an "idealic" character") But it is quite possible to have a craptacular view in the middle of the woods if the clearing isn't large enough, or you arent on a cleared hill overlooking the woods, or possibly a sparse forest area,but then, you might not get the bonuses fo being in the middle of nowhere (ohh, look a house...out here...)

Personally, i dont like the view in the middle of a dense forest area, but it's something to consider.

Aha, but the house could be well hidden in some trees on a hill in the woods, but still have a reasonably clear view of the area around the hill. Sort of like how a man peeking out from behind a tree on top of a hill is still relatively hidden.
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pseudoidiot
post Jan 28 2005, 07:01 PM
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yea, just make a really hairy outdoors loving troll ;)

to be even more entertaining, make him albino with a love of cold weather, and you could go the abominable snowman route
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Crimson Jack
post Jan 28 2005, 07:19 PM
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Am I the only one whose wondering why a ninja is a "crazy" idea for a character? :?
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kevyn668
post Feb 1 2005, 01:36 AM
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QUOTE (Crimson Jack @ Jan 28 2005, 02:19 PM)
Am I the only one whose wondering why a ninja is a "crazy" idea for a character? :?

If only it were so...

Edit: but I still think WR's idea is cool. :)
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DrJest
post Feb 1 2005, 11:29 AM
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Foreigner,

My knowledge of matters Japanese is obviously limited, but:

It's my understanding that the Togakure-ryu is the sole known surviving school of ninja teaching, specialising in taijutsu, the unarmed combat arts. Does that qualify as ninja or not?
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U_Fester
post Feb 1 2005, 01:47 PM
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QUOTE (Foreigner)
Firstly, firearms, particularly handguns, are illegal in Japan--not even the police are armed--unless you count billy clubs and cattle prods. Only Japan's small military forces are allowed to possess weapons.

This is not true. I lived in Japan for four years and police officers do carry handguns. Foot Patrol officers as well as some Squad Patrol officers do not cary hand guns. Most dectives as well as Bike Patrol officers do carry pistols.
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Moon-Hawk
post Feb 1 2005, 03:09 PM
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QUOTE (Cakeman)
"Suddenly... Ninjas!"

I had a campaign like that. (sort of)
One of the players took a high level enemy flaw, so his enemy was an initiated twisted way ninja physmage. Every couple runs I'd say "suddenly...NINJA!" The ninja would take a couple of cheap shots with a crossbow, maybe drop an area effect spell on them, sabotage something, etc, then run away.
The top of his character sheet (where his name would be) just said "NINJA!"
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Wounded Ronin
post Aug 16 2006, 09:46 PM
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QUOTE (DrJest)

It's my understanding that the Togakure-ryu is the sole known surviving school of ninja teaching, specialising in taijutsu, the unarmed combat arts. Does that qualify as ninja or not?

Strictly speaking, no. Not anymore than doing kenjutsu makes you a samurai. In fact, I understand that Maasaki Hatsumi has been trying to distance himself from the whole "ninja" thing because it attracted too many fat Americans who wanted to be ninjas. I think he used to refer to what he was doing as "ninjutsu" but now he calls it "budo taijutsu" so as to give a different impression. Now he wants people to see it as budo, I guess.
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Adarael
post Aug 17 2006, 10:51 PM
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Japanese police sidearms: the standard sidearm for both Tokyo metropolitan and most prefectural police is a .38 revolver, maker to vary by department preference. Some prefectures (Osaka, I believe) have adopted the Sig Sauer P230, but this is the minority of prefectures rather than the standard. The USP, 9mm variety, is currently being considered by several prefectures, as a replacement.

Also, unlike the US, unless an officer is given dispensation by the National Police Agency, they must leave their sidearm at their precinct or police box (koban) when leaving work. No off-duty carry is allowed without some very special circumstances. I believe (but my memory is shaky on this) that certain undercover vice units are given such dispensation, but not without many years of dedicated service beforehand.

Riot police don't carry firearms at all, on the off-chance someone might get nervous.
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Shrike30
post Aug 18 2006, 12:15 AM
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NINJAS FALL, YOU ALL DIE!
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