I'm not the first one to modify the character types to fit his liking, and something tells me that I'm not going to be the last... I've changed a couple of things, but I've only modified what I though was wrong, keeping everything else as it was.

i) Berserkers (kichigai)

ii) Shosuro Actors

iii) Ninja

iv) Daidoji Bushi School

v) Daidoji Specialist School

ABOUT THE BERSERKERS:

Lets see.... take a very big, ugly, strong crab berserker. Given this, we have a character capable of killing anything that moves and pisses him off. If he reaches Rank 5, a punch would be, with Strength 5, a 10K6 roll!!! With this, he could fist Oni no Chi to death (if he had jade rubbed in his hands, hitting with both fists). But what's the problem? If you follow the official rules, once the allowed time the berserker would simply fall straight to the floor, defenseless, until "the end of the combat". This means that the berserker would miss about 99,9999% of the combats against the Shadowlands... And I must say that the idea of "turning on and off" the berserker doesn't look like a good idea, because this is his way of fighting, and not a "turbo"...

The rule I use gives some more play. When the kichigai has been fighting for EarthX2 + School Rank in turns, he will suffer a negative to all his rolls equal to his EarthX5. For every turn thereafter, this negative is decreased by 5 points until this negative reaches zero. At this point the berserker can fight again normally.

ABOUT THE SHOSURO ACTORS:

It's very funny to be a Shosuro actor, indeed. It's a very intense life, full of strong emotions, playing spy games compulsively (if you're not really working as an actor), risking to be discovered by others when you're playing a shugenja role, taking profit from other people when you need it (or just to have fun), backstabbing everybody with those lovely tantos rubbed with some green sticky (and not very honorable) substance... not to mention all those accents you learn to mimic when you learn every new Persona... but even after all this, your body is still the same, and you never know when you will be caught, undressed and beaten...

This is why when you reach Rank 3 I let my actors learn to modify his physical appearance in a more or less extensive way.

Rank 3: additional rules

Once the actor reaches this Rank, he can be chosen by the School Senseis to undergo some additional training. This special training teaches the actor new deep meditation techniques and some other metaphysical secrets he can use to alter his body. The actor learns to manipulate his bone structure and muscles to reshape their arrangement, changing not only his shape but also his physical capabilities. But this doesn't come without a price, because this modifications make the actor's life harder. This modification make the Persona more realistic, gaining a new dimension of interpretation. To do this modificacions the actor needs to meditate for some time. It's not compulsory to use this technique when you learn a Persona, but you learn it anyway.

The School Sensei look for students without any differential characteristic. They look for an absolutely normal actor, without any kind of mental of physical quality that makes him different from the others (and not someone with Bland), that is, they look for an actor without any advantage or disadvantage. The body of an actor with any advantage or disadvantage will not accept to be modified by this technique in any degree. Once this Technique is learnt, the actor modifies the elements that build up his body in order to acquire any advantage or disadvantage, be it physical or mental. The actor can acquire any advantage or disadvantage paying its cost in character points multiplied by 5 (five). This cost is substracted from de Ring Points, calculated by multiplying the Ring Rank by ten (10), from the corresponding Ring for the advantage or disadvantage (see below). The new Ring Rank is calculated by dividing the Ring Points by ten (10), rounding down (remember to keep track of the Ring Points of every Ring somewhere in the character sheet). The decrease of the Ring Rank decreases also the associated Traits (the Traits decrease as much as the Ring), wounds per wound level, TN, etc. No Ring Rank can be below 1.

The modifications are associated permanently to a given Persona and are chosen when that Persona is learnt (please, be coherent when you choose them). This alteration will never disappear, in the same way you can't unlearn the Skills you know, and the time they take to appear is the same the actor needs to change of Persona (followed by some wet, organic sound). Keep in mind that the Rings of a given Persona will be those recalculated!!!! The actor can use any kind of alteration he knows in any of his Persona, but he needs to succeed a corresponding Ring + Meditation of TN equal to the advantage cost in Ring Points plus the School Rank in which he learnt the associated Persona.

Here you can see what advantages/disadvantages are associated with what Rings:

The actor can also modify his height, deform his spine, and change the color of his hair and/or eyes (this associated to the Earth Ring). The height modification is of 3 cm for every +5 to the TN (the roll would be Earth + Meditation with a TN equal to 5 x cm grown plus School Rank in which he learn the Persona). For every +5, 7 Ring Points are lost. The spine deformation can be seen easily if the character has his back naked, and looks a bit grotesque. Every degree of deformation increases by 5 the TN of the roll (calculated and rolled as explained before) and costs 10 Ring Points per degree. The exact rules to change the color of the eyes or the hair is left to the GM discretion.

Ex: Shosuro Takada has reached Rank 3, and has no advantage or disadvantage, so his Sensei choose him to teach him not only the "official" Technique, but also this modification. His first Persona is a pathetic heimin merchant, called Takada. He learns his personality, his Skills and the corresponding modifications he chooses. He decides to bend a bit his back (in order to look quite unable to do much combat), he will decrease his height a bit, chooses to have Clear Thinker, Precise Memory and Read Lips. All this will cost him: 20 points from Earth because he chooses two levels of spine deformation and five more points because he will shrink himself 3 cm, 10 points of Fire due to Clear Thinker, 15 more Fire points for Precise Memory and 10 point of Water for Read Lips. The actor initially had Earth 5, Fire 4, Water 3, so when he plays the merchant Persona his Rings will be Earth 2, Fire 1 and Water 2. Looks like the actor has pushed too far his Fire Ring, but he will need to increase his Traits in order to be able to backstab someone!!!

ABOUT THE NINJA:

Ninja are not so easy to find. If you really want to know something about them you will have to find them inside these pages. Good luck and watch your back!!!

DAIDOJI BUSHI SCHOOL:

All the detailed Daidoji maneuvers in battle show very few Honor and great tenacity, but the School shown in WoC has nothing to do with that (not to mention the "yojimbo" thing...). Here's the School I use in my games; I like it and it's the best thing I have to mend this gap.

Benefit: +1 Agility

Skills: Kenjutsu, Battle, Defense, Yari, Stealth o Etiquette, Kyujutsu o Commerce, Explosives o Traps

Honor: 1.5

Techniques:

Rank 1:

The samurai gains the Way of the land: Crane advantage. The character can also add his Water Rank in every to hit and damage rolls.

Rank 2:

The bushi can spend any number of Void points (not more than he has) before any roll in the Battle Table and . The number of spent Void Points is added to the resulting roll. The bushi can make a Yari + Reflexes roll, spending all his attacks, to an incoming attack. This maneuver can be used a number of times equal to his School Rank per turn. Note that you can block the same opponent more than once.

Rank 3:

Fight becomes something natural to the bushi. He can make two attacks per turn.

Rank 4:

Reaching this Rank the bushi has learnt to command his men in guerrilla war. The TN of his men's enemies is decreased by the result of adding his Perception + Leadership Rank (TN 5 minimum, not additional for every Rank 4 bushi and doesn't work if he's fighting alone). This is useful for a Guntai (20 samurai) at most, and this can only be used in guerrilla war (not in formal battle). The Rank 4 bushi does not receive the benefit of this Technique, but he can substract his Weapon Skill Rank from his enemies TN.

Rank 5:

The samurai gains a Free Raise in Battle rolls for every Rank in Lore: Clan (the Clan he's fighting against). He can also spend a Void Point (and only one every turn) to reroll all de dices that roll higher than five (5), but only once for every Void point spent.

Outfit (all considered to be Fine Quality): Katana, wakizashi, yari, light or heavy armor, helmet, traveling pack, kimono, 3 weapons of choice, bow with 20 arrows, 10 koku

DAIDOJI SPECIALIST SCHOOL

It's well known how good are the Daidoji when fighting forces that clearly outnumber them, using few troops and guerrilla strategies. Something that is not so well known is that there is a small élite group of Daidoji bushi in charge of the riskier and more difficult strikes, fanatically loyal to the Clan. These people are the Daidoji Specialists.

Prerequisites:

Rings/Traits: Earth 4, Fire 4

Skills: 2 any Weapon Skills at 4, Stealth 4, Traps or Explosives at 4, Defense 4

Advantages: Combat Reflexes, Strength of Earth, Quick

Rank 1:

The bushi can keep a number of additional dice equal to his School Rank in all camouflage and stealth rolls.

Rank 2:

The bushi can substrat his Initiative roll from his enemy's TN.

Rank 3:

The bushi learns to use every weapon at hand in the most effective way, rolling an additional 0K1 to hit and damage rolls. He also learns to use his armor in the most efficient way in combat, gaining twice the normal protection from it (light armor as heavy, and heavy adds 20 to TN...!!!).

DAIDOJI YARI SENSEI'S TECHNIQUE

The kenku took his time to train the Daidoji Yari Sensei, because this Technique requires a extremely high level of training to learn it. The bushi Rings and Weapon Skills to be used with this Technique must be at least at Rank 4 and he needs Insight 201 at least (but no specific School Rank is needed). The minimum time required to learn this Technique is 12 - bushi's School Rank in months. After this time the bushi has to make a Fire + School Rank TN 60. If the bushi succeeds, he learns the Technique but if he fails the next roll will be 5 points easier for every 6 months of extra training. Unfortunately the kenku has not patience to spend more than one year to train the same person... at most.

Once learnt this Technique, the bushi can use paired weapons, even if the chosen weapons are not "natural" weapons v(ex: sai, tonfa...), but one of them has to be shorter than the other unless both of them are small (see table below). The bushi also gains an attack with each weapon, in addition of any other attacks he already has (from other Techniques, and can be distributed between both weapons as desired). This fighting style also substrates the bushi's initiative roll from his enemies TN and adds the short Weapon Skill to the bushi's TN. This Technique lets the character use two-handed weapons as one-handed. In order to gain the benefits of this Technique the bushi has to use two weapons. If any of the two weapons gives Initiative bonus the bushi doesn't gain it.

The classification of other weapons is left to the common sense of the GM (if any)