Roleplaying a Courtier when you aren't one (L5R)

[Ezlo]

So I'm in this fantastic Legend of the Five Rings campaign right now, that I'm really enjoying. Our party is comprised of four scorpions who have just been assigned to a new backwater lord out in the middle of nowhere. I'm just your plain old samurai, built to be the party's fighter. We also have a disgraced samurai who has decided to become a ninja, a quiet shugenja and another fighter type character is very good at all the courtier stuff too. Our GM decided that too get us all working together and trusting each other she would send us on a quick mission to break up a marriage between the Crane and Lion clan.

Here's where the problems come in. The other players decided to take a simple mission that wasn't intended to last very long into something a lot more time-consuming that it originally was supposed to. I am perfectly fine with that, and I'm enjoying listening to what the other players are doing, but I'm left with nothing of my own to do. I have points in various skills that I could start to do some political backstabbing type stuff if I wanted to, but I'm not good at doing that in real life, and our GM is very big on the roleplaying our dice rolls. Do you guys no any good things to watch or read that could get me in the mood or more used to courtly intrigue? Or any tips for a political adventure in general? Or good stories even?

[LibraryOgre]

Though it is very NSFW, you might look for some of the work of Koike Kazuo, especially his "Path of the Assassin", though his "Samurai Executioner" and "Lone Wolf and Cub" are also good, they deal less with the court and more with lone sociopaths.

Sean Russell's "Initiate Brother" and "Gatherer of Clouds" are also good pseudo-Japanese court intrigue and war books.

However, the main thing to look at is your goals. What do you wish to achieve? Who stands in the way of that achievement, and is it better to go over them or around them? Over will make you enemies; around, maybe less so.

Since your goal is to break up a marriage alliance between the Lion and the Crane, think of ways to do that. You might prove some disgrace to the Lion, which would make the Crane not want him, or vice versa. If you're straightforward enough, and think you can take him, you might provoke the Lion to a fight, killing him and ending the alliance.

Figure out your goals and the tools you have to work with. Remember that the honor of your clan must be protected, and your own honor is secondary to that.

[Kaun]

You could consider being the hand in front if your skills are more combat related then social.

Be a little more forward then the rest of your party, make sly comments that have poorly concealed double meanings. Infringe ever so slightly into peoples personal lives to the point where it is a touch awkward and leaning towards inappropriate.

Be the hand that draws the attention in social situations while the other members of your group get the real work done.

A good Scorpion is a master of misdirection and even tho you may not be the best tool for every job, sometimes just being a tool can be very useful if done right. :smallamused:

[Diskhotep]

You could also ask the GM if there are any side goals the Scorpion Clan wants accomplished that fit in with your particular skill set. If there's nothing else to be accomplished, then spend your time gathering contacts for later. Since you seem to be the most "forthright" of the bunch (i.e., not a manipulative courtier, sneaky guy, or mysterious shugenja), you should with a bit of work be able to make some acquaintances if not allies amongst the Lion and Crane bushi.

Just out of curiosity, why is the marriage being interfered with? Is it a Scorpion plot? If the clan's goal is say to forge their own marriage alliance with the Crane/Lion, then disgracing the other partner is a good way to go. If there is a threat to the empire (one of the main tasks of the Scorpion is to keep enough tension between the clans to prevent a massive military alliance and coup), what is that threat and why haven't the threatening members been discredited or assassinated?

A great thing to do would be to find someone from one clan (or both) who doesn't want this marriage to go forward, and offer services in helping to dissolve the engagement. That way you are still accomplishing Scorpion goals, plus a Lion or Crane owes you a favor for doing something you were going to do anyway.

In the long term, get some social skills if you don't already have any. Use your time at court to justify learning them. In a setting like L5R, they are incredibly useful to have, even if you are not a courtier. Remember, just because you didn't go to a courtier school doesn't mean you can't be assigned to court, and you want to be able to move and shake with the best of them.