Hi, I’m writing a short campaign for The Legend of the Five Rings, I’d like to share it and receive feedback.
I’m writing down the plot here, then in the comments I’ll give a short introduction to the setting and the PCs.
/// PLOT ///
The PCs are invited to Toshirambo, a castle once ruled by the Lion clan, then obtained by the Crane through political means. There, Daidoji Haruki, wife of the daimyo Doji Arada, will celebrate her passage to the old age, an important milestone. The invitations come with unusually precious gifts, and the PCs families are somewhat compelled to send their envoys (even the unwilling Akodo, for whom the name of Toshirambo alone is enough to start a quarrel).
While travelling for the castle they might start to realize that the peasants around it are in an uproar, and banditism is widespread; some might even be attacked.
Once they are received inside the castle, and they have a chance to chat with the local courtesans, they realize the real reason they were called here: the outside population is on the verge of rebellion, and the daimyo needs help dealing with it.
The daimyo is indeed rather cruel, and quite unskilled at administrating the land: wastes the resources he has to manage, and needlessly starves the population. On top of that he’s arrogant and overall unpleasant, but still he’s the rightful daimyo of the land.
/// PLOT (continues) ///
What is *actually* happening, however, is that Daidoji Hiroki, cousin (incestous? why not) of the daimyo’s wife and first of the daimyo’s yojimbo, has been plotting in order to seize power from the lord. He asked the Scorpions at court for help, in exchange for a good political position in the governance to come.
The Scorpions have been descretely inciting the population, encouraging little mutinies on one hand, and suggesting firm repression on the other.
At the same time, they spread rumors of instability in the lands of the Lion, where some tacticians are bound to consider the chance to take advantage of the situation and seize back Toshirambo.
What Daidoji Hiroki wants is to spark a real battle on Toshirambo, a battle where the current daimyo will prove himself unworthy (eventually die in battle? could be arranged), then take the situation into his own hands, bring the Crane to military victory (with military help from the Scorpion) and come out as the worthy leader of the castle.
What the Scorpion might try is to seize power for itself at the end of the battle, betraying Daidoji Hiroki. In order to prevent that, some important offsprings of the Scorpion are invited to the celebration as well, and in fact held hostages. If the Scorpion were to try anything fancy the youngsters would all die a brutal death.
/// PLOT (continues) ///
The PCs will be descretely approached by the Scorpion courtesans, which will try to recruit them for the battle, on the other side. Akodo Hikaru, in particular, will arrive at the celebration already knowing a bit of the situation, and some Scorpion will propose a Lion-Scorpion alliance for the battle to come, in exchange to his guidance as a general of the revolting army.
At the same time, a Crane magistrate will ask their collaboration in order to understand what’s going on.
/// GENERAL INTRO (SKIP IT IF YOU ALREADY KNOW L5R) ///
The setting of The Legend of the Five Rings is strongly inspired by the japanese Meiji era, i.e. samurai families ruling on their lands, while the Emperor remains the supreme authority above all of them. There’s magic, regularily practiced by “shugenja”, the L5R sorcerers.
The families are actually called “clans”, each clan hosts 3 to 5 “families”.
The major clans are Crab, Crane, Dragon, Lion, Phoenix, Scorpion, Unicorn.
The clans are seldom at war with each other, but most of the time they do not openly fight. Most of the balance of power is tuned through court tricks, deals, betrayals and shit. The Scorpion clan is the undisputed master of trickery, the Crane clan is more keen on regular diplomacy (but Crane courtsmen won’t hesitate dirting their hands with Scorpion-like deals for the sake of the clan - or personal gain), the other clans meddle more or less in politics except for the Crab, which usually despises anything that isn’t open, honest conflict. The Lion is famous for pride and war tactics, the Phoenix is strongly dedicated to magic, the Unicorn was missing for centuries, which it spent traveling in the western world, acquiring foreign knowledge and customs.
/// PLAYING CHARACTERS ///
I will storytell this for 4 players, one will play a new PC I don’t know anything about, the others will be:
Akodo Hikaru (Lion) - young, proud and smart samurai, unusual rising star of the Lion clan, has a keen mind but doesn’t like actual combat. Uses his clan reputation and his own social standing to avoid battles and duels, prefers to scheme and manipulate in the court instead. He often takes delight in working together with Scorpion courtesans rather than with more honorable warriors.
Shinjo <something> (Unicorn) - male samurai coming from a mathriarcal family, eager to prove his worth and break free from years of feminazi control. Has a couple of honor issues he holds dear, but tends to go with the flow, especially when Akodo Hikaru is involved.
Rikimaru Ronin) - male samurai without a lord, pretty much honorless and clueless, gets to do the right thing at the right time, after hours/days of embarrassment.
So what is the daimyo actually hoping to accomplish by inviting a bunch of people from other clans and what are the unloyal yojimbo, Lion hopefuls, and Scorpion schemers going to do about it?
Is he looking for extra military support, or just hoping that more samurai being present will lead to less unrest across the board?
>>46368863
that's exactly the kind of critics I need, thank you very much.
The daimyo is unaware of the schemes but he (and his magistrates) smells something. He invites a bunch of people in order to have extra hands investigating, gain stability, and eventually gain aid if it comes to battle.
>>46368863
>>46368941
Actually, I thought this more thoroughly: the daimyo knows that a military attack might come in a matter of days. Bringing nobles from different clans is supposed to bring stability, because attacking the keep could be read as an hostile act towards all of their families. Of course the nobles can't stay long, but that will buy some time to deal with the crisis and/or investigating around it. The nobles are not directly/offically asked for help(that would be shameful for the Crane), but they will still be engaged for help in a more informal way.
bump :(
Why hasn't he sought aid from his own clan before trying to reach out for military aid from other clans through ambassadors who have been lied to about the circumstances of their arrival?
L5R is Clan above all else save the Emperor, someone so "arrogant" would never seek help from outsiders before approaching his own daimyo.
>>46371227
Well, if he's been mismanaging things, it can be better to use delaying tactics and get a third party to deal with some of it rather than admit that he fucked up to his boss. If the clan finds out that he's that much of a fuckup, they'll replace him. If someone from another clan finds out that there's problems, the worst they can do is blackmail him, which is often easier to deal with and less disastrous as long as he plays along.
>>46371227
He doesn't openly ask for help, but you might still be right about the "arrogant" thing. Fortunately, we do not actually need him to be arrogant, I need him to be unpleasant. Arrogant was just a mean to it.
>>46368634
>Akodo
>doesn’t like actual combat, takes delight in working together with Scorpion
>Shinjo
>easer to...break free from years of feminazi control.
>Ronin
>honorless and clueless
I think I finally understand John Wick a little better.
>>46371952
I went and read the wiki page, but I still don't get you. Is that a complicated way to say "those characters are shit"?
>>46372045
I'm only joking. John Wick was on the original L5R team and he has what might generously be called an aggressive approach to DMing.
An experienced DM, if so inclined would have an absolute field day in a court setting with those characters.
>>46372093
Yeah yeah I wasn't going to make an issue out of it anyway. The party is rather new to the whole L5R things so it's kind of projecting his past experience on the new game. The Akodo player is a long-time Lasombra player, if you happened to play Vampires you might start seeing what he has in mind with that weird Akodo he built up.
>>46372171
A swift google of Lasombra tells me they're Otomo as hell, though Doji or Kakita would fit them amongst the Great Clans. Akodo are certainly their pride though.
>>46372257
Good analysis. Funny thing is he didn't *plan* to bring a Lasombra in the Rokugan, it just came out that way.
Anyway, back to main topic. :)
