GURPS Warring States Introduction
Information is courtesy of Wikipedia and the Samurai Archives.
The PC’s are samurai in service to the Mori Clan, rulers of Aki province. The Mori, led by the able Daimyo Mori Motonari (1493-1571), are in turn the vassals to the powerful Ouchi Clan under Daimyo Ouchi Yoshitaka, which directly rules Nagato and Sue provinces. The Ouchi and Mori are constantly at war with their neighboring rivals, the Amako Clan, led by daimyo Amako Akahisa. The year is Temmon 17 (1548), a couple of years before the fall of the Ouchi and the rise of the Mori. In Kyoto, both the relatively effective Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru and the impoverished Emperor Go-Nara are puppets of the powerful Hosokawa family, which controls both figureheads. The PC’s are part of the Mori contingent in the Ouchi capital city of Yamaguchi, a castle town and one of the most cosmopolitan trading centers in Japan. The Ouchi control much of Japan’s trade with China during this period. The PC’s are part of an elite contingent of Mori samurai, something along the lines of the "musketeers" of Duma fame. They may have individual reputations, or wealth, but this will be separate from the starting package.