I am leaning toward negligible inflation for the sake of sanity, though if people really want me to mess with prices, I suppose I could do it.

The deeper explanation would be that the currency supply has been more or less in line with the production for the market, and the fluctuations have been regulated via foreign merchants. Gold is primarily produced by the Dragon, and they are kind of reluctant to flood the market because they are not interested in price spikes in crops. Silver is produced by the Phoenix and while they may have an incentive for 'progressive' monetary policy to save their asses, the Yobanjin incursion and the Isawa rebellion have cut their output to significant extent. Copper is the Lion commodity, and they are pretty anti-capitalistic. If anything, I'd expect a deflationary pressure, which is more in line with what happened in early modern Imperial China - constant thirst for currency to monetise the growing manufacturing market, met by currency imports from Western traders for all the awesome oriental goods exported to the Old World. And while we don't have Peru in this universe, we can assume that the Tarkhanate/Merenae have some specie output to supply monies into Rokugan to have the economy going.

So unless I have a strong voice of 'let's have macroeconomy!' I'd lean toward: stable, prices by the book. 5 bushels of rice per 1 koku.

Suzume light gray is barely visible on the tropical theme...

Is there any chance we could darken it a smidge?

*Looks at stipends.*

Um... I'm a little confused.

So. I am Asahina. That's a -50%. However, I'm also one of the founding explorers. That means I'm subject to Jama's +50%.

Does the Jama modifier replace the Asahina modifier, or stack with it? Am I getting stipend +50%, or stipend +0%?

Asahina is -1. Jama is +50% of your Asahina's stipend. They stack, but they are all counted from base, so one can offset the other.

Darkened it.

*Checks again.*

Ah. Yes. So... 10 for Doji courtier, -1 for Asahina, *1.5 for Jama, makes 13.5?

I'll throw up a example, I believe I am right if not I'd ask to be corrected.

Here we have Ichiro Daisuke, a Badger clan bushi, trained in the daidoji scout school and a member of the imperial navy college.

First we find his school... Daidoji scout, so we look up the Daidoji bonus, Daidoji are progressive so they get +1 koku to their starting package. so from 5 koku to 6.

Daisuke also went to the imperial naval college. So as a follower of Jama he gets +50% of his base stipend. So 2.5 koku . Currently he is at 5 + 1+ 2.5 8.5 koku

Last we check how the clan did this last year. The badger clans fortunes were generally unchanged. SO Daisuke adds 0 koku. Currently he is at 5 + 1 + 2.5 = 0 = 8.5 koku

If he was a returning character with the wealth advantage he would add extra koku at this point. 1 koku for each rank of wealth. As he is a new character with 2 ranks of wealth he would add +8 koku for a total of 16.5 koku.

Yasu is completely correct.

As a new character, I need to modify my starting money using the stipend values, yes?

EDIT: nvm, I see it now.

Random thought in the Discord Chat:

Could you use the Medicine skill to create beauty products (skin cream, makeup, that sort of stuff)? I recall in Way of the Scorpion that Kachiko got most of her beauty stuff from the Agasha.

I think Kaoru took that as a separate Craft or Artisan skill in Banner.

While I recall Booksnake in Heresy introduced Craft: Alchemy for the Agasha. It's an arbitrary call. My first gut feeling for this setting is Craft: Chemistry as Medicine is already big and versatile, and it doesn't have the status of a Craft Skill, but then some Lores I've detailed are big too. And in the end, there's no way to avoid overlaps. So I guess I'd allow it if it's meant for skincare and comes from herbal components like other ointments to treat diseases. For more complicated processes of producing paints, shades, powders, mascaras etc. for aesthetic/theatric/concealing purposes I guess Craft: Chemistry will be needed. Which is something I'd consider part of Agasha profile, I gave it to Sanjuro, and he made paints and sparkling water with it.

So I notice some mechanics which I have 0 idea what they are, I'm assuming as they come from sourcebooks I don't own. How central will non core rulebook mechanics be for the game?

Just so I know how much I'll need to figure out.

The Way of the Daimyo module is one of the ways to approach the game, available for high-status people who want to actually do some resource management, governing etc. It is one of the side-options, I wouldn't call it central to the game. If this is something you don't feel like engaging, you absolutely don't have to and it shouldn't lessen your experience.

Does this mean returners can now post our personal threads as per below?

Yes

Could a character train with monks to multi-school their technique, or would they have to fully join the order?

Getting out of any monastic order back to any non-monastic life is a very rare occurrence.

Mmmk, so someone staying at a monastery for a while couldn't train without being a monk themselves.

*roger*

"Training" and "learning school techniques and kiho" are two entirely different things. Monks are respected for their knowledge, wisdom, and sometimes skill; it's perfectly normal for a samurai to seek out a monk respected in their field in order to learn from them, but that's not the same time as multi-schooling to monk.