User:GuardianOfTheWastes/Golden Oldies Wiki/Sword of the Samurai/Creation

When you start a new game, you are presented with a series of screens where you create your preliminary character, with only two of the four options affecting you throughout. These screens are as follows, and make up the fundamentals of your journey (or your family's journey) to becoming the seii taishogun, or more simply Shogun.

Naming screen
On this screen, you (guess what?), name your character (but this is only the first character, and you can do the same for your sons, or accept the suggested Japanese name that your wife presents). Simply put, just type in a suitable name - by that I mean Japanese for authenticity - and hit enter [return]. Then, you will be taken to the next screen, the...

Clan selection screen
Here you choose one of the wide variety of historical clans from anywhere in Japan. This will be one of the choices that is unchangable, and you will eventually end up creating the Shogunate of your clan (such as the Ashikaga Shogunate or the Tokugawa Shogunate, you might establish the Mori or Shimazu Shogunate). It also dictates the province where you will do the RP element of the game, and this is the only map you will experience in the game.

Family Advantage screen
This is the screen where you essentially choose your initial advantage, and this again only affects your initial character as it gives you an initial bonus to whichever value you choose, though you will earn these values soon enough and it does not really matter which you choose. I'd advise you always choose land, however, as this is harder to gain, and will give you a boost to the amount of armed samurai retainers that you can keep.

Difficulty selection screen
This is one of the most clever screens in the hole game in my opinion. The difficultly level is set against swords that a samurai would have carried, and they are wonderfully detailed. But enough on the well-thought-out-difficulty-options. Here, you choose what difficulty the game will run as, and this is vital. The easiest difficult protects your character from death aside from if he brings great dishonour upon his family. As the difficulty increases, so to does what you can die from and the skill of all the other people in Japan (fighters primarily) up to a more realistic level.
 * Tantō
 * Wakazashi
 * Katana
 * No-Dachi