Courtship Points

During this game, characters will be demonstrating their skills and talents to the Phoenix in order to obtain a spouse.

The process of determining which characters will end up engaged to each other will be determined via Courtship Points. Courtship Points represent a character's desirability as a spouse, with a greater number of points representing not just how favorably the Phoenix nakado look upon the character, but also how much leeway they will grant that character when it comes to his or her marriage wishes.

Each character will begin with a certain number of Courtship Points, as determined by a rubric that will be made public once the game begins. In addition, characters will also be able to earn additional Courtship Points during a series of events planned throughout the festival.

There can be only one

Taking first place in a contest will generally award the character three Courtship Points, taking second place will award two Courtship Points, and taking third place will award a single Courtship Point. Tie-breakers will be introduced to make sure that only three characters score points in a given event.

Conduct yourself with dignity and grace

Characters joining the game after Day 1 will at most be given 1 Courtship Point as the Phoenix do not look kindly on people who cannot arrive on time. NPC characters start with a smattering of Courtship Points and cannot gain Courtship Points during the game.

Character can also earn or lose Courtship Points through roleplaying; characters who behave as proper adults and act like proper samurai may gain points, while those who exhibit behavior unbecoming of a samurai may lose points. These gains and losses will be entirely at the whim of the GM, but will generally not exceed a gain or loss of a single point except in the most extreme of situations.

The End of the Miai

At the conclusion of the miai, each of the participating characters will be matched up with their future spouse. Beginning with the character with the most Courtship Points, each character will be allowed to choose a spouse from the other participants or from the list of NPCs made available on D12. It should be noted that same sex marriages are commonplace in the 32nd century and so character can pick anyone as their spouse.

First among equals

Ties are broken so that the character with highest sum of glory and status Ranks gets to chose their spouse first. Should the characters have equal sum of glory and status Ranks, the GM's will flip a coin to determine which character gets to pick first.

What if...

A character may elect not to choose a spouse, but doing so provides an insult to the Phoenix clan. Such a character will leave the miai unmarried but will lose Honor as if they had disobeyed their lord's commands, and they will gain two ranks of Infamy.

Characters with a positive number of Courtship Points (0 or higher) who are left unmatched will be engaged to an NPC of their choosing, while those who have a negative number of points (-1 or lower) will be sent home with an apologetic letter from the Phoenix, unengaged and quite shamed. These characters will lose Honor as if they had committed a major breach of etiquette and will gain 1 rank of Infamy.

One does not thwart destiny without a cost

Depending upon the pairings, characters may or may not be pleased with their spouses. At the conclusion of the miai, characters may choose to grant their spouse either the Blissful Betrothal advantage or the Bitter Betrothal disadvantage, though this is by no means required. It is entirely possible for one member of the pair to love or hate a fiance who does not return the sentiment, and thus does not grant them an advantage or disadvantage in return.

Characters who become engaged to an Imperial will gain the Imperial Spouse advantage.

Those marrying characters of higher Status will be assumed to be marrying into the Clan of the higher Status individual. Should the Status of two characters be equal, the character with the lower number of Courtship Points will marry into the Clan of their spouse.