Clan of Origin: Badger
Dojo: Fallen Mountain Dojo

Description: The founder of the Ichiro School was a member of the Hida Family. It should be no surprise, then, that this School remains true to its Crab roots. Ichiro’s philosophy is simple: hit the enemy so hard that he has no chance to strike back with flashy swordplay.

In addition to training with the katana, the Ichiro School focuses on feats of great athleticism, as well as developing pain tolerance through wrestling and unarmed combat. It emphasizes the power of pure strength in defeating enemies. In fact, an Ichiro Swordsman uses strength as the answer to pretty much any problem that may arise. Others may move faster or strike with more precision, but the Ichiro Swordsman will answer with overwhelming damage.

Ichiro’s lack of finesse serves as its greatest strength…and its greatest weakness. Believing that pure power will win the day, without exception, leaves an Ichiro Swordsman open to sudden attacks, sneaky tricks, and similar tactics. He does not train to defend against them; therefore, he remains vulnerable to them.

Basic Curriculum: Athlete, Kenjutsu
Knacks: Beat (Kenjutsu), Exploit Weakness (Ichiro), Fortitude, Lunge (Kenjutsu), Wall of Steel (Kenjutsu)

Revised Swordsman Knack: Beat. When attacking an enemy, you can declare a Beat. You roll Brawn + Beat, and must roll a number of Raises equal to your enemy’s Brawn in order for your Beat to be successful. If you are successful, he cannot avoid the attack using any Active Defense. The Raises taken on this roll add Unkept Dice to your damage roll as usual.

Revised Swordsman Knack: Wall of Steel. Your weapon is an ever-present blocking device, and you use it like a tortoise uses its shell. If you have not attacked yet this Round, then each Rank of this Knack increases your TN to be hit by two. You cannot use your Parry Knack with the relevant weapon for Active Defenses in any Phase where you benefit from this Knack.

Apprentice: Even as an Apprentice, an Ichiro Swordsman learns to deliver blows of truly fearsome power. After successfully inflicting damage on an opponent but before the opponent makes a Wound Check, the Ichiro Swordsman may decrease the opponent’s Wound Threshold by his Mastery Level in this School.

Ichiro Swordsmen train at the Fallen Mountain Dojo, where strength is prized above all things and students learn to excel at any task requiring a demonstration of physical might. They may add one Unkept Die (+1k0) to any Brawn-based rolls using Knacks in the Athlete Skill.

Journeyman: With practice, an Ichiro Swordsman learns to call upon his prodigious strength to crush his opponents. While in combat, he may re-roll any Damage Roll, keeping the better of the two results. He can do this a number of times per Scene equal to his Mastery Level.

Master: The final lesson taught at the Fallen Mountain Dojo is that the most effective blows in combat are not the swiftest, but the hardest struck. At the beginning of any Round of combat, after he rolls for Initiative, he may choose to add five to the value of each Action Die he rolls. If this increases the total of any Action Die to more than ten, it is lost. However, for each Die lost in this manner, he may add Unkept Dice (+0k1) directly to his Damage Rolls for the entire Round.