Contents

• Artisan Skill Group
  • Aesthetics Approaches
  • Composition Approaches
  • Design Approaches
  • Smithing Approaches
• Martial Skill Group
  • Fitness Approaches
  • Martial Arts [Melee] Approaches
  • Martial Arts [Ranged] Approaches
  • Martial Arts [Unarmed] Approaches
  • Meditation Approaches
  • Tactics Approaches
• Scholar Skill Group
  • Culture Approaches
  • Government Approaches
  • Medicine Approaches
  • Sentiment Approaches
  • Theology Approaches
• Social Skill Group
  • Command Approaches
  • Courtesy Approaches
  • Games Approaches
  • Performance Approaches
• Trade Skill Group
  • Commerce Approaches
  • Labor Approaches
  • Seafaring Approaches
  • Skulduggery Approaches
  • Survival Approaches

Artisan Skill Group

Aesthetics Approaches

• Refine Approach (Air Ring):
  • Finding a flaw in a piece and removing it
  • Adding a detail that enhances a piece
  • Hiding a subtle message within a work
• Restore Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Restoring a damaged piece
  • Maintaining something’s beauty
  • Safely transporting a piece
• Invent Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Creating a new work
  • Brainstorming new possible works
  • Developing new methods and techniques for creating art
• Adapt Approach (Water Ring):
  • Altering an existing work
  • Completely reworking or rebuilding an existing piece
  • Finding inspiration for new works
• **Attune Approach (Void Ring):
  • Learning a work’s purpose
  • Discerning whether a work has any supernatural qualities or features and awakening those features within it

Composition Approaches

• Refine Approach (Air Ring):
  • Correcting errors in a work
  • Removing excessive and unnecessary verbiage from a work to make it read more cleanly and quickly
  • Adding a nuanced allusion or reference
  • Introducing implications and subtext
• Restore Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Restoring an old text that has been damaged by time or exposure
  • Annotating a difficult text with references that make it easier for readers to understand
  • Transcribing a work without errors
• Invent Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Writing a first draft of a new text
  • Filling in the missing gaps of an incomplete text
  • Brainstorming ideas for new written works
• Adapt Approach (Water Ring):
  • Translating a text from another language
  • Adapting a work for a new medium
  • Using an old quote in a new context that reframes its meaning
  • Combining visual elements with textual elements
• Attune Approach (Void Ring):
  • Understanding a writer’s deeper purpose behind a work
  • Discerning whether a work has any supernatural qualities or features
  • Learning about oneself from a text

Design Approaches

• Refine Approach (Air Ring):
  • Improving an existing piece of clothing with embellishment
  • Choosing clothes that send a specific message
  • Adding filigree to a piece of jewelry that enhances its beauty
• Restore Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Stitching up a tear in a damaged piece of clothing
  • Storing a piece of clothing such that it will not degrade
  • Replacing lost parts of a piece of clothing
• Invent Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Sewing a new piece of clothing
  • Inventing a new style
  • Crafting a new accessory, conjecturing about possible new trends in clothing
• Adapt Approach (Water Ring):
  • Repurposing an old piece of clothing to serve a new function
  • Adding a new element to an outfit to let it function in different circumstances
  • Turning an old piece of clothing into raw materials for a new project
• Attune Approach (Void Ring):
  • Learning the deeper purpose for which a piece of clothing was made
  • Discerning whether a worn item has any supernatural features
  • Awakening the supernatural properties slumbering in an object of power

Smithing Approaches

• Refine Approach (Air Ring):
  • Polishing a blade to hone its edge
  • Improving a spear’s grip
  • Adding embellishments to a naginata to accent the beautiful wave pattern of the steel
• Restore Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Repairing a damaged weapon or piece of armor
  • Performing routine upkeep and cleaning on a weapon or piece of armor
  • Treating a weapon or piece of armor to prevent rust and corrosion
• Invent Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Forging a new blade
  • Crafting a new piece of armor
  • Inventing a new weapon or piece of armor
  • Conjecturing about possible new weapons and armor technologies
• Adapt Approach (Water Ring):
  • Improving an existing weapon or piece of armor
  • Reshaping a mundane item into a weapon
  • Sizing a weapon for a new wielder
  • Salvaging a destroyed sword to reforge it
• Attune Approach (Void Ring):
  • Learning the purpose for which a weapon or piece of armor was forged
  • Discerning whether a weapon or piece of armor has any supernatural features
  • Unlocking supernatural potential within a forged item

Martial Skill Group

Fitness Approaches

• Feint Approach (Air Ring):
  • Moving stealthily
  • Maintaining balance
  • Trailing someone without their realizing it
  • Falling safely and landing gracefully
  • Evading someone in a footrace
  • Controlling where hits land on your body
• Withstand Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Moving cautiously
  • Pushing one’s body to the breaking point without suffering permanent harm
  • Marching long distances
  • Holding up heavy objects for long periods of time
  • Hiding by standing still
  • Taking a hit
• Overwhelm Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Moving without heed for obstacles
  • Leaping long distances
  • Pushing and lifting heavy objects quickly
  • Breaking things
  • Catching someone in a footrace
  • Meeting incoming attacks with equal opposing force
• Shift Approach (Water Ring):
  • Moving around obstacles and through crowds without slowing
  • Fitting through small spaces
  • Performing exercises to speed recovery from injury
  • Losing pursuers in a crowd
  • Rolling with the punches
• Sacrifice Approach (Void Ring):
  • Acting on sheer instinct
  • Pushing one’s body beyond the breaking point to achieve a goal
  • Overcoming physical limitations with sheer will
  • Taking hits directly

Martial Arts [Melee] Approaches

• Feint Approach (Air Ring):
  • Fighting subtly
  • Attacking indirectly
  • Outmaneuvering your opponent
  • Evading attacks
  • Practicing techniques that rely on grace and poise
  • Reading your opponent’s moves
• Withstand Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Fighting defensively
  • Blocking carefully
  • Exhausting your opponent
  • Practicing techniques that rely on stamina
• Overwhelm Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Fighting aggressively
  • Attacking directly
  • Unnerving your opponent
  • Practicing techniques that rely on bursts of speed and power
• Shift Approach (Water Ring):
  • Fighting reactively
  • Redirecting force
  • Drawing out your opponent
  • Practicing techniques that rely on fluidity of motion and flexibility
• Sacrifice Approach (Void Ring):
  • Fighting instinctively or without regard for your life
  • Attacking without regard for anything else
  • Putting mind over matter

Martial Arts [Ranged] Approaches

• Feint Approach (Air Ring):
  • Firing without giving away your position
  • Hitting specific parts of your target
  • Firing to create vulnerabilities in the target’s defenses
• Withstand Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Maintaining a consistent field of fire
  • Suppressing targets
  • Firing to keep targets from overtaking a position
  • Properly stowing ranged weapons
• Overwhelm Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Firing to deplete enemy forces
  • Firing to allow allies to advance
  • Firing to terrify the enemy
• Shift Approach (Water Ring):
  • Fighting reactively
  • Redirecting force
  • Drawing out your opponent
  • Firing to create openings to reposition
• Sacrifice Approach (Void Ring):
  • Exposing yourself to get a shot on your target
  • Putting your faith in the universe that your shot will find its mark

Martial Arts [Unarmed] Approaches

• Feint Approach (Air Ring):
  • Fighting subtly
  • Attacking indirectly
  • Outmaneuvering your opponent
  • Evading attacks
  • Practicing techniques that rely on grace and poise
• Withstand Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Fighting defensively
  • Blocking forcefully
  • Exhausting your opponent
  • Practicing techniques that rely on stamina
• Overwhelm Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Fighting aggressively
  • Attacking directly
  • Unnerving your opponent
  • Practicing techniques that rely on bursts of speed and power
• Shift Approach (Water Ring):
  • Fighting reactively
  • Redirecting force
  • Drawing out your opponent
  • Practicing techniques that rely on fluidity of motion and flexibility
• Sacrifice Approach (Void Ring):
  • Attacking without regard for anything else
  • Including your life
  • Putting mind over matter

Meditation Approaches

• Feint Approach (Air Ring):
  • Convincing yourself of the truth of something
  • Finding weaknesses in your viewpoints and ideologies
  • Understanding how to align your goals with your ideals
  • Resisting despair
• Withstand Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Using logic to overcome your personal feelings
  • Reflecting on the nature of your responsibilities
  • Maintaining a level head despite challenges and provocation
  • Resisting temptation
• Overwhelm Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Using your emotions to reject a seemingly inevitable conclusion before you
  • Maintaining concentration on a single topic
  • Staying in an emotional state for long periods of time
  • Resisting fear
• Shift Approach (Water Ring):
  • Understanding your own emotions and desires
  • Reflecting on the nature of your desires
  • Understanding how to align your goals with your desires
  • Resisting rage
• Sacrifice Approach (Void Ring):
  • Understanding your place in the universe
  • Understanding the role fate has provided for you
  • Knowing what you are willing to give up to achieve your goals
  • Seeing glimpses of your own future
  • Resisting supernatural mental interference

Tactics Approaches

• Feint Approach (Air Ring):
  • Executing a feigned retreat
  • Flanking the enemy
  • Discerning weaknesses in the enemy’s defenses and targets of interest
• Withstand Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Resisting a head-on assault
  • Holding a point at all costs
  • Mitigating losses during a retreat
  • Overseeing the construction of siege weapons
• Overwhelm Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Executing a head-on assault
  • Overrunning the enemy
  • Breaking enemy morale with terrifying tactics
  • Designing siege weapons
• Shift Approach (Water Ring):
  • Executing a counterattack
  • Repositioning swiftly after an attack
  • Taking full advantage of useful terrain
  • Moving and operating siege weapons
• Sacrifice Approach (Void Ring):
  • Sending a unit to die to create a strategic opening
  • Commanding a force without revealing one’s identity to the enemy

Scholar Skill Group

Culture Approaches

• Analyze Approach (Air Ring):
  • Detecting traces of a regional accent in a character’s speech
  • Noticing slight imperfections in a mon or personal chop that reveal it to be a forgery
  • Assessing the way a practice differs in a specific region
• Recall Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Remembering the names of the most influential members of a particular court
  • Knowing the particular customs of a region
  • Remembering the geographical features of an area
• Theorize Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Guessing where an influential person might go in an unfamiliar city
  • Conjecturing about the proper decorum for an unusual social situation
  • Anticipating social trends in different regions
• Survey Approach (Water Ring):
  • Identifying a fellow samurai using their clan, family, and personal mon (crest)
  • Identifying an object’s region of origin
  • Identifying a samurai’s general status by their manner of dress
  • Identifying which cultures have influenced a location
  • Determining one’s location in an unfamiliar city based on common architectural patterns
• Sense Approach (Void Ring):
  • Identifying the purpose traditions fulfill in society
  • Identifying the rising stars at a particular court
  • Intuiting the supernatural underpinnings of a cultural practice

Government Approaches

• Analyze Approach (Air Ring):
  • Finding a contradiction or loophole in a system or the law
  • Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a legal argument
  • Studying a system in detail to find the places where pressure can be applied to get specific results
• Recall Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Knowing the letter of the law
  • Knowing the explicit structure of government
  • Knowing about past events and legal precedents
  • Knowing political history and precedent in detail
  • Knowing past scholars of history and law and quoting their works
• Theorize Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Understanding the various ways the law could be applied in an unprecedented case
  • Framing an argument about why the law should be applied differently in a particular instance
  • Guessing the political ramifications of a new ruler’s ascension
• Survey Approach (Water Ring):
  • Identifying an illegal act
  • Reading the tacit structure of power
  • Determining who to ask to get something done within a bureaucracy
  • Noticing classic bureaucratic schemes and ploys put into play by one’s opponents
• Sense Approach (Void Ring):
  • Knowing how likely a given verdict is in a particular case
  • Identifying the candidate most likely to hold a position next
  • Knowing the likelihood of success for a particular ploy or scheme

Medicine Approaches

• Analyze Approach (Air Ring):
  • Recognizing symptoms
  • Diagnosing diseases and ailments in patients
  • Performing surgery in the field or a place of healing (Refine)
  • Administering medicines and poisons in the proper dosage for the desired effect (Refine)
• Recall Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Studying and recalling existing remedies
  • Creating bandages and medical supplies (Restore)
  • Stanching blood loss (Restore)
  • Mending other minor harm (Restore)
• Theorize Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Studying new medicines and treatments
  • Treating unknown ailments
  • Experimenting with unknown ingredients (Invent)
  • Brewing poisons (Invent)
  • Instilling patients with energy (Invent)
• Survey Approach (Water Ring):
  • Identifying helpful and harmful herbs
  • Gathering ingredients
  • Finding hazards and contaminants in an environment
  • Brewing remedies (Adapt)
  • Relieving exhaustion and pain (Adapt)
  • Speeding patients’ recovery from long-term illness and injury (Adapt)
• Sense Approach (Void Ring):
  • Detecting spiritual ailments
  • Working entirely without ingredients
  • Realigning the energy in others (Attune)
  • Treating spiritual ailments (Attune)

Sentiment Approaches

• Recall Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Detecting inconsistencies between someone’s current and past behavior
  • Understanding someone’s fears and responsibilities
  • Determining how best to set someone at ease
• Survey Approach (Water Ring):
  • Discerning someone’s personal feelings about a person or subject (and whether they are positive, negative, or neutral)
  • Detecting whether someone’s intentions are hostile
  • Understanding someone’s desires
  • Determining how best to win someone’s approval or support
• Theorize Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Determining whether someone has left out important details or told you a lie of omission
  • Catching that someone has left out something important
  • Understanding someone’s convictions and ideals
  • Determining how best to excite or enrage someone
• Analyze Approach (Air Ring):
  • Knowing whether someone is lying to you directly
  • Knowing how a choice or action will make someone feel
  • Understanding someone’s self-perceptions and vulnerabilities
  • Determining how best to get someone to do something you want
• Sense Approach (Void Ring):
  • Determining whether someone is under the effects of supernatural persuasion or a supernatural being
  • Studying and understanding one’s own emotions
  • Determining whether someone is acting in opposition to their own desires or is suppressing their emotions
  • Knowing the purpose behind someone’s words

Theology Approaches

• Analyze Approach (Air Ring):
  • Determining how religious or spiritual a person is and what traditions they follow
  • Finding and untangling subtle nuance or apparent contradictions in scripture
  • Noticing the telltale signs of a supernatural creature walking among humans
  • Communing with air kami
• Recall Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Knowing facts about the formal doctrines of religious traditions of the Emerald Empire
  • Knowing about historical occurrences of supernatural events
  • Correctly reciting scripture
  • Remembering the weaknesses of a supernatural being from folklore
  • Communing with earth kami
• Theorize Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Guessing what supernatural forces might be at work based on secondary evidence
  • Reconciling two contradictory pieces of religious doctrine
  • Offering a novel explanation of the meaning of a piece of scripture
  • Communing with fire kami
• Survey Approach (Water Ring):
  • Identifying religious artifacts and supernatural phenomena
  • Knowing how the average person of a given walk of life interacts with spiritual traditions
  • Researching a piece of scripture to learn its meaning
  • Communing with water kami
• Sense Approach (Void Ring):
  • Performing divinations
  • Determining the veracity of a supernatural occurrence
  • Predicting the behavior of supernatural entities
  • Knowing the philosophical ramifications of a decision
  • Communing with the root of the universe

Social Skill Group

Command Approaches

• Trick Approach (Air Ring):
  • Giving an assignment without letting on to the dangers it entails
  • Misleading your own troops to confuse your enemy
  • Communicating in code with your troops
• Reason Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Verbally reprimanding a group of soldiers who have grown lax in their duties
  • Establishing order on a chaotic battlefield
  • Making someone afraid of the consequences of their actions
• Incite Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Restoring morale to weary troops
  • Stoking an old grudge
  • Getting others to follow you despite danger to life and limb
  • Making someone afraid of you personally
• Charm Approach (Water Ring):
  • Cultivating loyalty from troops under your command
  • Motivating troops with a promised reward
  • Getting a mixed force to stop squabbling
  • Making someone afraid of letting you down
• Enlighten Approach (Void Ring):
  • Convincing troops embroiled in a battle to see its pointlessness
  • Persuading enemy soldiers that their cause is not just
  • Snapping someone out of shock or a rage in battle

Courtesy Approaches

• Trick Approach (Air Ring):
  • Convincing someone of something untrue (or incomplete)
  • Deflecting attention from yourself onto others
  • Spreading a rumor about someone
  • Leading someone to an idea to convince them it is their own
  • Insulting someone subtly and deniably
• Reason Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Convincing someone to listen to reason rather than their emotions
  • Reminding someone of their duties
  • Convincing someone to wait rather than acting and suffering potential consequences
• Incite Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Convincing someone to listen to their emotions rather than reason
  • Reminding someone of their desires
  • Drawing attention to yourself
  • Getting someone to ignore risks before them
  • Insulting someone openly
• Charm Approach (Water Ring):
  • Getting someone to like or trust you
  • Fostering desire for something or someone in a person
  • Altering someone’s current desires
  • Efficiently making your way through the complex bureaucracy of a court by being pleasant and gregarious
• Enlighten Approach (Void Ring):
  • Using well-chosen words to get someone to question a truth they held as absolute
  • Getting someone to remember their true self when they are acting out of fear despair, rage, or supernatural influence

Games Approaches

• Trick Approach (Air Ring):
  • Using a game to uncover your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses
  • Playing deceptively, cheating, losing deliberately (without being obvious)
  • Sending a subtle message through your play
• Reason Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Playing without upsetting your opponent
  • Playing cautiously
  • Instructing someone else in the basics of a game
  • Minimizing your losses
• Incite Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Using a game to make your opponent angry or afraid
  • Playing aggressively
  • Spurring your opponent to wager more
  • Developing new tactics in a game
• Charm Approach (Water Ring):
  • Using a game to build a rapport with your opponent (or someone else present)
  • Playing casually
  • Using a game to get your opponent to trust you
• Enlighten Approach (Void Ring):
  • Using a game to shock your opponent into seeing something clearly
  • Playing minimally
  • Leaving the fate of the game to pure chance

Performance Approaches

• Trick Approach (Air Ring):
  • Giving an extremely convincing performance
  • Getting your audience to come to a particular conclusion without stating it outright
  • Impersonating others convincingly
• Reason Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Transmitting some moral lesson to your audience
  • Soothing your audience
  • Educating your audience on a particular matter
  • Setting your audience members’ minds at ease
• Incite Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Rousing your audience into a state of excitement
  • Intentionally needling your audience
  • Stirring your audience to immediate action
• Charm Approach (Water Ring):
  • Gaining your audience’s sympathy
  • Causing your audience to desire something
  • Building a positive rapport with your audience
• Enlighten Approach (Void Ring):
  • Causing your audience to reevaluate something in their lives
  • Breaking your audience out of an emotional rut such as sorrow or rage
  • Delivering a message to your audience in spite of supernatural interference

Trade Skill Group

Commerce Approaches

• Con Approach (Air Ring):
  • Convincing someone your goods are of the highest quality or best price
  • Determining a product’s monetary value
  • Getting as much money out of a customer as possible
  • Assessing the competition’s progress and possible weaknesses
• Produce Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Balancing accounts
  • Storing and maintaining merchandise
  • Moving merchandise safely
• Innovate Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Finding ways to make your product or service distinctive
  • Creating new incentives for customers
  • Inventing a new product or service
  • Finding a new market to serve
• Exchange Approach (Water Ring):
  • Buying goods from wholesalers
  • Finding a good deal on items and services
  • Bartering on favorable terms
  • Getting an item as cheaply as possible
• Subsist Approach (Void Ring):
  • Operating with minimal expenditures
  • Stretching supplies as far as possible
  • Knowing how product values will change in the future

Labor Approaches

• Con Approach (Air Ring):
  • Organizing the work of others on a project
  • Covering over flaws in one’s work
  • Disguising one sort of object as another
  • Pretending to work
• Produce Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Mass-producing items
  • Laying groundwork and foundations
  • Maintaining tools
  • Plowing fields
  • Planting seeds
  • Harvesting crops
• Innovate Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Developing tools to make your work easier
  • Drafting new plans and designs
  • Experimenting with new methods
  • Creating new recipes
• Exchange Approach (Water Ring):
  • Acquiring items and tools
  • Negotiating with tax collectors
  • Fermenting harvested goods
  • Cooking food
• Subsist Approach (Void Ring):
  • Knowing how to expend minimal supplies in your work
  • Using the natural landscape to do your work for you
  • Knowing when to let a field lie fallow
  • Knowing the best location to build

Seafaring Approaches

• Con Approach (Air Ring):
  • Convincing someone to hire your ship instead
  • Managing sailors during a voyage
  • Trailing another ship without being noticed
  • Escaping a pursuing vessel
  • Finding signs of the passage of another ship
• Produce Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Maintaining boats
  • Maintaining ship logs and records
  • Knowing facts about historical routes
  • Knowing how long supplies will last
  • Filtering out salt to create potable water
• Innovate Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Building new boats
  • Map-making
  • Pioneering new routes
• Exchange Approach (Water Ring):
  • Navigating on the ocean
  • Knowing which routes are the fastest
  • Determining your current location on a body of water
  • Operating a boat
• Subsist Approach (Void Ring):
  • Sensing storms before they descend
  • Placating ocean and wind kami with sailors’ traditions

Skulduggery Approaches

• Con Approach (Air Ring):
  • Picking someone’s pocket
  • Shadowing a mark without being noticed
  • Organizing a group of thieves on a job
  • Tracking someone through a city
  • Knowing the right bribe to secure a corrupt official’s cooperation
• Produce Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Securing a location
  • Constructing locks and other security measures
  • Memorizing maps and codes
  • Dividing spoils in an organized manner
• Innovate Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Creating secret codes
  • Creating new tools for criminal activities
  • Concocting complex plots to slip past security measures
  • Picking an unfamiliar lock
• Exchange Approach (Water Ring):
  • Finding a fence to sell stolen items to
  • Knowing how to move freely through a city while avoiding law enforcement
  • Determining the fastest way to break into a secure facility
• Subsist Approach (Void Ring):
  • Erasing all trace of your presence
  • Blending into a crowd
  • Placating spirits and other supernatural beings who might punish you for your sins

Survival Approaches

• Con Approach (Air Ring):
  • Making and using traps
  • Tracking people and animals in the wild
  • Training animals to perform new tasks (often using food as an incentive)
• Produce Approach (Earth Ring):
  • Creating shelter
  • Storing food
  • Calming animals
• Innovate Approach (Fire Ring):
  • Finding ways to cook unfamiliar ingredients
  • Building makeshift weapons
  • Spurring animals to move quickly
• Exchange Approach (Water Ring):
  • Foraging for food and potable water
  • Fishing
  • Befriending animals
  • Cooking familiar ingredients
• Subsist Approach (Void Ring):
  • Rationing food and water
  • Sensing natural disasters before they occur
  • Placating mountain and forest kami