https://www.mediafire.com/folder/vx477quhxz4vt/Regend5Ling#btf4cvsidtj6ff
Hey look, books! Now quickly, everyone declare your favorite great clan. But beware, the poster below you may disagree. Are you ready to duel to the death for >opinions?! You'd better be, because it is time for /tg/'s L5R court session.
>>47995520
I think that my first response to that picture was "LOL nice pedostache faggot,
Respectfully up yours,
The Crab Clan"
sort of answered that question for me
>>47995569
>Hating Daidoji Mercury-san
Do you just hate awesome things?
>>47995569
Man, I love the Crab, but that is one stupid hat.
>>47995732
What are you talking about, that is a sweet helmet.
Lion, mother fuckers.
Threadly reminder that your clan a shit, mine is obviously superior.
Help. How do I become Shogun? I have infinite time.
>>47996960
You get the emperor to appoint you. Then you turn on them immediately and isolate the Emperor from anyone who can challenge your power (The Emerald Champion, Imperial Chancellor, Clan Champs of politically or martially powerful clans likely to side with them) and after a short period of time on top you step down and appoint your favorite son or daughter as your successor, enshrining the position as a dynastic one.
Then you win forever.
>>47996589
No your clan a shit, mine is superio
>>47996262
Nothing wrong with that.
>>47995520
>Not Lion, AKA most honorable Clan
If you can't solve all your problems with judicious applications of violence and honor, you're clearly in league with the Shadowlands.
>>47998141
>Most honorable clan
>picks fights which cause all kinds of human suffering every summer, because compassion isn't a virtue of bushido or anything
I like the Lion but their war mongering is really kind of fucked when you think about it. Not like every other clan doesn't do that too on a lesser level, or do something else weird as shit and ignore some bushido virtues too of course. Nobody is most honorableexcept for that one Phoenix champion who died to make two other clans stop fighting.
>>47998579
Was every living thing in ancient Japan afflicted with some googly-eye virus?
And they decided to fix it by bartering with a demon, who cured their googly-eyes by giving them slanty eyes?
>>47998579
>I like the Lion but their war mongering is a direct result of the CCG controlling the metaplot, resulting in them needing an excuse for YET ANOTHER war on a regular basis, resulting in the clan whose "something else" half of the "war and something else" schtick that every clan has is "more war" being used to start them regularly
>>47999459
Even before metaplot they always had summer wars and shit just to flex their muscles. Not real 'wars' where they brought the total power of their armies together.
>>47999512
I mean before the metaplot begins. Setting history. That thing.
>>47999512
>had summer wars and shit just to flex their muscles. Not real 'wars' where they brought the total power of their armies together
So, NTC?
>>47995520
Dragon Clan is best clan.
>>47999992
I like most clans, but Dragon don't really jump for me. I like some of their ideas, like the cool monks and the warrior-phlosopher thing the Mirumoto try to cultivate, Sherlock Holmses and shit, but on the whole they don't click emotionally the same for me as they seem to do others.
>>47999992
Fox Clan is best clan.
>>47995520
So ran my first session of what is essentially a Crab Summer Beach Party. The group of samurai recently graduated from their dojo in the central city of the region and headed down to the coast to visit their Aunts for the Kanto Festival. We barely got to the festival proper (just some brawling and gambling on the beach), with most of the session spent with them getting some intel on the situation of the region while spending the night at a road side magistrate station.
They had a loose reception from the Magistrate, a woman named Nobuto Satoha, who was "blessed by Osano-wo" after getting struck by lightning a few years ago. She talks to herself and is pretty rough with the "kids" when it comes to etiquette; only doing proper courtesy because their aunts run the port.
But they had a much warmer reception by the pudgy twenty-three year old doshin ronin named Hu, who gambled with them over dice, drank super hard liqour with them to try and make them lose, and generally grill them for what they're up to.
Which is where something of a problem begins. Endo Ato, a Kaiu Artisan in the group took it upon herself to show Hu as little respect as possible and take advantage of his "kindness" of giving up his room for them to stay while he slept in the central office hub. They bantered, but Ato really sees herself as above him (rightly so), but things get weird. She drew him a picture as a thank you gift so he might be blessed to have ever done her a service. Which is innocuous enough, but she also outed him as having taken the kids to the cleaners via gambling when he should've been resting up for prisoner transport duty.
Hu lied and remarked that the reason he was tired and his back was out was because he kept having to bow out to her disturbing offers of marriage, the young girl clearly smitten by his ronin charm.
He was to be disciplined, but then Satoha found the art. And now she's convinced that one of her superior's nieces is potentially a floozy.
>>48002055
Not sure if hawt or dishonorable
>>48002055
Hu wants nothing to do with her, because Ato is clearly a bitch queen in the making; but he'll probably mock her about it if she ever treats him poorly again.
Ato's cousins, a Kuni Shugenja and a Yasuki Courtier, clearly know the truth but they're getting involved with illegal gambling and sedane/boken battles on the beach.
I'm curious as to how far I should pursue this awkwardness to the mockery of one of my players who is a damn good sport; because while it'd be funny it isn't exactly what I wanted to do with the Magistrates.
I'm thinking they denounce it as childishness and keep it as potential blackmail, or worse something Hu puts up in the prison cell with the drunks so that Ato's work can "really be appreciated." Which feels like enough of a jab to be justified while still being very much a breach of etiquette, were he to possess any.
Especially because their aunts run the port and really having any "favors" lying around could be of use to them. Because Satoha only really wants her job because it provides her stability (she's been reading the Twists of False Madness and thinks she's going crazy rather than being blessed due to the whispers she hears) while Hu is only happy with the job because it is steady pay and he's on the run up in Crane lands.
>>48002102
Likely dishonorable. If the Tako Artisan up in the big city finds out she's doing anything like this he'll probably try to slander her so he can keep his art gigs for the cruel and young Governess with an ego bigger than the sun.
>>47999992
Objectively correct.
>>48002055
Ronin aren't doshin. Doshin is a peasant job, like ashigaru. If he's a samurai but isn't a yoriki, since that implies full deputy power linked to a magistrate, he is basically hired strength. Which is fine.
Who most dutiful Scorpion here?
>>48003240
>>48003368
Oh yes
>>48003421
I mean she was the second Thunder from their clan and spent a ton of time being a horrible person out of duty to her clan which was officially disbanded anyway. She is dutiful! Also a horrible person, that too.
>>47995520
It's the Phoenix. The Phoenix are the best.
To answer the question on the size of Rokugan in the last thread, the atlas of rokugan states that it's twice the size of England ish. Can't check the book for make certain right now, as am on my way to work.
>>48004513
Its something like that though I dunno how I feel about that. I like to think the Centipede Tattoo is more mystical and sort of like that saintly ability to be in two places concurrently. But I feel that way mostly because I love the idea of Rokugan being about the size of China and having these wide swaths of wilderness that cannot be taken due to spirits, ghosts, old legends, and edicts. A gargantuan environment with a medium amount of national populace.
>>48004562
I agree, the feel I hade for the land is completely out of wack after reading that book. And it sure doesn't help how they describe the land either.
>"They have cultivated every last scrap of it"
>"Large parts of the land is untamed wilderness"
>>48003368
> Not using any of the superior Kachiko artwork
>>48004778
I always had the concept that anywhere capable of growing rice is cultivated, but there are large swathes that aren't suitable for it.
I never get to play L5R, just run it
God, I wanna play a Junshin Scorpion.
>>48005376
Liar, nobody ever runs L5R.
>>48005391
There was a guy in the last thread whoring out a game.
>>48005416
No sessions yet, so my point still stands.
Also, it was a joke.
What's the general consensus on the Second City campaign? I've go a hankering to run something but I'm also incredibly lazy.
>>48005611
Haven't looked at it, but have you tried any of the old adventures, or the stuff on kaze no shiro?
>>48005735
I'm considering some of the HoR stuff, they made all the 4 premades available.
>>48005791
4e*
>>47998579
> Pheonix
> Getting hundreds of the Emperors samurai killed in such a pointless fashion that both sides had to leave so they could throw up in private to avoid dishonouring themselves
S'a good joke you have there Samurai-san. Though perhaps you need to stop drinking.
>>48005791
Maybe it was just the gm, but I never liked HoR, nor what I picked up from HOREmperor's posts regarding rpg design on the official forums. YMMV.
>>48003240
Bayushi Datso
Played by my best mate during my first L5R campaign. Best Scorpion ever.
Once tried to poison me into being bedridden so I wouldn't get executed for forbidden knowledge. A true hero.
Are marriages between samurai strictly in-clan, or do samurai tend to marry those in other clans?How dishonorabru is it for a samurai to want to marry a peasant?
>>48006305
Marriages between Clans happen all the time, invariably for political reasons, but the majority of samurai marry into their own Family/Clan.
>Marrying a heimin
You would be disgraced for even attempting to fathom the concept. This is up there with using gunpowder or fraternising with gaijin.
>>48006336
>This is up there with using gunpowder or fraternising with gaijin.
It's gotta be worse. It's fucking up the celestial order.
At least you could be a mantisscumbagwith either of the other things.
>>48006305
>>48006336
Though if you can come up with some weird way to get the peasant into a samurai you might be able to get shit done. Maybe.
>>48006336
>This is up there with using gunpowder
How would someone go about making guns an acceptable solution to problems in the eyes of Rokugan society?
>>48006389
Go back in time and undo White Stag, then play in the Iron Empire setting in IH2.
>>48006394
Or just change the effect it had on Rokugan.
>>48006336
>Marrying a heimin
>using gunpowder
>fraternising with gaijin
The irony being that while many players and gms think Rokugan is hardline 'never happens', or you cut your stomach then and there, all of these happen within the Empire. It's just a matter of presentation to make it palatable, or keeping a secret.
Shugenja found among the heimin are almost always "discovered" to be of lost samurai bloodlines.
Gunpowder is fine, so long as you pretend fireworks and similar items don't use it.
Gaijin treated similarly to married peasants are semi-legitimate, foreign diplomats more so (though less able to travel).
![fireworks2yq[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/0wVqcP7.jpg "fireworks2yq[1].jpg")
>>48006536
They're all extreme fringe cases.
>Shugenja found among the heimin are almost always "discovered" to be of lost samurai bloodlines.
Well being able to invoke the kami's blessing IS proof of a samurai bloodline.
>Gunpowder is fine, so long as you pretend fireworks and similar items don't use it.
Best flavour text.
>>48006381
Theoretically they could become a Togashi monk, but that creates a new problem for you in that it's very rare for Togashi monks to marry.
>>48006605
>Well being able to invoke the kami's blessing IS proof of a samurai bloodline
Only in the sense that samurai will lie to claim that power. The kami don't pay attention to blood - they simply have no concept of death. Rokugan is highly traditional, and shugenja are some of the most traditional samurai along them. The kami can, once they take a liking to a mortal, be fooled into thinking another I'd that same person, no matter how long afterwards. Even a heimin can accidentally manage that.
>>48006672
Toku. Somehow I doubt he was the only one. Just the only one honourable enough to admit it.
>>48006757
That theory really doesn't account for a lot of things. Like how if it's only specific kami that recognize you, why are shugenja able to talk to basically call kami? Unless you mean to say that kami are some kind of hivemind?
>>48002055
>>48002180
This is hilarious Anon, I fucking love Crab inner-party politic stories.
My suggestion is, keep it going. If its fun, the players laugh, and everyone is enjoying themselves, then why not? Hell, it seems like an anime tsundere love story in the making.
>>48005376
I was only ever a player for something like 8 years. My only regret is that all my characters were various flavors of Cranes
>crane kakita duelist with tuberculosis and a heart of gold
>crane duelist courtier with a savvy political sense
>crane daidoji iron killing machine in a thousand years of darkness campaign
>crane zen archer asahina shugenja
Now, since 2012, I'm the only one who knows the setting well enough to run it, so that means im forever GM. And I have soooooo many character ideas now that I'll never get to play ;_;
>>48006394
If Nobunaga could do it, surely an ambitious player character could do it too.
>>48006389
>How would someone go about making guns an acceptable solution to problems in the eyes of Rokugan society?
Easy. If the Emperor likes something, everyone likes something.
In my L5R campaign setting, I use 7th Sea\Theah for my Gaijin. After White Stag (which was actually a religious crusade instead of greedy infighting), the Mantis retained sole (secret) trade with Theah, and became stupidly rich in the process. However, around the 1120's, someone found out that the mantis were doing this. A fast thinking Gaijin trader, a Vodacce, along with his Fate Witch wife, moved first, asked an audience with the Emperor, and because of his wife's powers, not only was he seen, but the audience went spectacularly well. Old Hantei Jodan, so bored and beaten down by all the childish clan squabbles, found his inner child again after becoming so enamored with the Gaijin.
So, Gaijin trade opened up, with some pretty heavy rules, notably no Gaijin can be harmed on Rokuagni lands, but the Gaijin are hard forbidden from spreading their Vaticine Religion.
Firearms are now finding their way into Samurai armies, and only a couple clans, most notably the Lion,refuse to have anything to do with the Gaijin at all.
The Mantis got completely cut out of the loop, since the Vendel League no longer has to get fleeced on prices - so now that the Mantis standard of living is crashing, their basically turning over to full piracy against the Gaijin trade fleets - this of course is making the Mantis one of the most technologically advanced militarys in Rokugan, since they can loophole attacking the Gaijin, and they've begun outfitting their ships with stolen cannons and muskets.
But really, Gaijin work a lot better when you use 7th Sea, considering those nations have heroes as well as villains. Merenae and Thrane just always reek of being complete villian assholes
>>48006794
>theory
Objectively written material. I'd have to find it and read it again to definitively answer your question.
Given I'm not going to do that from my phone, I'd hazard that neither guess is the case, but that the kami following each shugenja are capable of encouraging others of their kind to follow direction. That you can call a theory.
>>48006972
The Agasha have gunpowder, the Daidoji have gunpowder, all the Clans have gunpowder. Actually USING gunpowder is an obscene display of heresy and punishable by death.
It's storyteam bullshit for why the Rokugani have barely advanced technically in over a thousand years, but that's the setting. You just can't use guns in vanilla L5R.
How would you make the Suzumbe Bushi (Sparrow) up to par with the Major Clan bushi schools?
I was thinking of boosting the second technique by giving it a general +1k0 to initiative, and a +1k1 if they have higher honor. But I'm a bit unsure if that doesn't make it overpowered.
Secondly, the third tecnique needs to be changed, but I don't know to what. Currently, if you have a high Perform or Lore skill, it may very well be better to use a void point for +1k1 rather than adding your honor, so it needs to be changed.
>>48007177
Different School.
>>48006381
Ashigaru and Budoka can be raised up to Samurai for long, honorable service, usually with the concept that they have always had the soul of a samurai and this is just adjustment to correctly reflect that in their station.
But then you have a different problem in that they're probably middle aged, definitely still low on the rung and have no wealth or land to speak of, which makes them as unmarriageable as a samurai can get.
>>48006757
The kami do pay attention to blood. That's why there are strong shugenja bloodlines that almost always produce shugenja. You'll be mistaken for one of your own ancestors long before you're mistaken for someone unrelated to you.
>>48007177
Way back when, I wrote a better version of the school. It's on a different PC entirely, but if you give me a sec I'll write up what I remember.
>>48007327
If an ashigaru is raised up in such a way, do their preexisting children also become samurai, or only any children they have afterwards? If it's the first one, you could raise up a loyal retainer in order to marry their younger son or daughter, which would at least avoid the middle-aged problem. The lack of land or wealth would still be an issue, though.
>>48007353
Thanks
>>48007363
I believe that their immediate family (At least spouse and children) become samurai as well. That's how things tend to go in Rokugan. If you get a promotion (Or certain punishments), so does your spouse and children.
>>48006305
I was actually considering a concept like this, though in reverse. Playing a Shosuro actor married off to a different clan, and goes on magical samurai adventures as their spouses peasant servant in one of their personas.
>>48004250
I'm the OP and this is my actual favorite, but I like the Crane a fair bit and find /tg/'s reactive hate of them to be funny so I post a lot of Crane. Does nobody like the cool parts of the clan, or has Ree Soesbee's shittiness tainted them forever in the eyes of others or do people just hate art and commandos?
>>48006146
I didn't say Phoenix. I said that one specific one. That's like looking at Moto Chagatai and deciding all Unicorn are secret traitors waiting for an excuse from a warlord or conspiracy or something to just turn on the Imperial Family.
>>48007655
I've converted them here - for fun, I also made a Shugenja school and courtier path.
Wasn't there some document somewhere which converted the traditional 5-rank ronin schools to 4e?
>>48008219
shit, obvious error - Suzume Shugenja's "Any two high or bugei skills" should read "any high or bugei skill".
>>48006605
>Very interesting
The Harriers were such a dishonorobooru idea but I love them still. Though I am glad that in the rules in 4e they eliminate the original 1e 'they believe what they're doing is right so they keep high honor!' loop hole, since otherwise Scorpion would all be honor 10 or something.
>>48008165
>Ree Soesbee's shittiness
Oh? Can you give me some examples?
Crane used to be my all time favorite clan. However, this was back when they were art and life focused, with this underlying current of heroic virtues, marred by money grubbing misers and political backstabbers.
But I've played so many crane, and done so many crane focused campaigns, that I'm honestly bored to death of them, and I find that I'm liking clans I used to hate a whole lot more - namely the Unicorn and Mantis.
I think my favorite clan is probably the Crab, but I really like them all, and subsequently dislike them all, depending on the metaplot lore - for example, Dragon are great, Hitomi run dragon were dumb as fuck, as well as the time period where they booted one of their founding families out over stupid shit.
>>48008165
Daidoji commandos are actually fine, what I hate, and I imagine what a lot of others hate, is the Doji/Kakita double whammy, where a smug courtier will lobby for preferential treatment, and if you try to voice an objection, no matter how reasonable, they'll try to bait you into dueling a guy who has trained his entire life to defeat you in the school of the guy who invented the system you use for dueling at all, and you have to either risk your life or concede that, no, Doji-san was right after all, their preferential treatment IS fair. And then they have the gall to pretend that their dirty politics are actually righteous because they've used their influence to enshrine the system they built and exploit in the empire's law, and the arrogance to imply that you're a lesser person because you reject their "high culture" for the hammer it is.
Even a scorpion is more honest; at least they don't pretend not to be villains.
>>48008250
>I am glad that in the rules in 4e they eliminate the original 1e 'they believe what they're doing is right so they keep high honor!' loop hole, since otherwise Scorpion would all be honor 10 or something.
Same. Honor is the objective virtue of a deed in vacuum, not it's real net good. Low honor but still altruistic and "good" characters can be very interesting.
>>48008307
>they'll try to bait you into dueling a guy who has trained his entire life to defeat you in the school of the guy who invented the system you use for dueling at all
I houseruled an entire 1st Edition school because this actually pissed me off. I made the kakita duelists a VERY small part of the Kakita Artisan school, that maybe accepts\graduates like 20 students every other year.
In their place, I wrote up the Doji Bushi School, which is very similar to how the Akodo Bushi School works, but with a different theme. I essentially made them Zen Swordsman\Archers with a focus on manipulating raises.
I can post it if anyone is interested, but its a 1st Edition school, so I doubt its useful to anyone here.
>>48008305
Basically everything negative people think of them besides the 'oh man look at that arrogant prick' come from her 1e work with them, because the Crane are her pet clan and that's where all the insane best at everything and with high honor ninjas and you should all love them they're the best! comes into existence which the setting had to step back and sand the edges down to produce the cool 'guardians of art and culture with one badass but outnumbered and outgunned bushi family' we have today.
Someone who didn't just wake up, tell the story about her self insert or 1e Kakita Artisans. Or I'll do it, just lemme get going and shit.
>>48008307
That's how they manage to keep a huge chunk of the empire despite regularly pissing off two of the three most militant clans (two out of two before the Unicorn come back) around.
>>48008307
Kakita duelists are great but hardly undefeatable (the Kakita in my game legit lost his first duel he ever did to a Lion). They just have some advantages which can give them an edge in tight contests, or dominate when it isn't close.
My favorite Crane school is the Daidoji Scout though. Rural traps all day erry day
>>48008405
Sure, your average IR1 Kakita duelist isn't going to win every duel he gets into, but neither is he the guy that gets assigned to protect the high-ranking Doji fucking your shit up at the really important courts.
>>48008405
"Dammit Shuusei, why the hell would you want to bring a rice paddy tripwire to the Winter Court?"
>>48008366
>'guardians of art and culture with one badass but outnumbered and outgunned bushi family' we have today
Having played 1st Ed since 2001 and continuing to do so now, with the only crane book I've read cover to cover being the 1st Ed way of the crane, what you said is what they were in 1st ed.
The harrier shit didn't come about until later, around the 3rd Ed time line. the Daidoji always had the reputation of being very tactically cunning, using all sorts of underhanded shit, from snipers to explosives - but this they could only ever do on the defense, because they were fighting in their own backyard. It was a justification for why one of the smallest clan militaries can continue to survive against the largest clan military whose entire focus is military arts. Also, the gunpowder stuff mainly came from the fact Daidoji Uji was a huge gaijin weeaboo, and loved the shit.
So, I guess, Ree started out fine, and then built a mountain of shit on top of a well built foundation. For the longest time, that actually summed up my feelings on L5R in general (ie 1st ed was the best, every other edition ruined L5R) - I dont feel that way anymore though
>>48008441
Yeah, he needed to bring the Winter Court special edition tripwire.
>>48008434
This.
>>48008405
In a game I was in a while back, the Daidoji and the Hiruma had been shadow warring with each other, and there was one particular patch of forest that was almost certain death to enter because of all the traps that both sides had laid down. Walk ten feet, get smacked by a tiger trap. Avoid that and fall into a pit full of spikes. Pull yourself out of that and walk directly into a field of punji stakes. Limp away and get killed by some unseen bastard sniper lurking up in the treetops.
>>48008434
Yeah but same with the assigned yojimbo of other clans. Build two duelists with identical stats at rank 4 and give one the Kakita school and the other...let's say Hiruma. The Kakita will be favored to win, but won't necessarily be so. Plus other schools possess duelist alt ranks which can help give them bonuses there which might be in the repertoire of the major court yojimbo. Similarly the courtier you're assigned to guard has their own school and techniques and if they're not retarded will fight back cleverly to avoid such entrapment.
I mean the fact is the Doji-Kakita double team baiting works enough they keep doing it, but it isn't as guaranteed a thing as people think. Unless you get the bad luck of a higher IR duelist or Kenshinzen being there, that'd be jjust the GM being a dick though.
>>48008458
I'm not saying they weren't that in 1e, but when I read Way of the Crane (And then Secrets of the Crane) after I read up on them in 4e I felt a material difference in presentation.
Of course that's all subjective, so maybe I am letting my issues with Ree and her self insert Kakita artisan color my opinions on her entire work for that period. But we can all agree Akodo Kaage was stupid, right?
>>48008487
>not jumping branch to branch
Do you even scout???
All this duellist talk reminds of me of a minor clan idea I had once - basically, a clan of duellists who disguised themselves as members of other clans to act as champions-for hire in exchange for favours, allowing for a clan to have champions in minor courts or acting as a champion if your champion is indisposed for some reason.
Should I develop the idea more or is it bad?
>Re-asking a question I had from last thread that didn't get answer
Why do people always say Shosuro Actors are so OP? I honestly don't see why personas are worth it or what good you can do with them.
>>48008525
>self insert Kakita artisan
Who? Do you mean Doji Shizue?
>Akodo Kage
The kolat in general were stupid. That plot is responsible for gutting the Unicorn that I loved, and turning them into something awful
Also, the 1st Ed Artisans are the most broken fucking school in the whole book. No one plays one, no one reads what the school does, and ocassionaly, just to fuck with people, I yank an NPC out to do something crazy, and everyone always goes "wait what?"
>"quickly, we need to get back to otosan uchi the save the emperor!"
>"but were in yama umi toshi, we'll never get there in time!"
>kakita artisan takes 10 minutes to fold a paper dragon
>party arrives in otosan uchi on the back of giant flying dragon
>>48008549
Go for it; it's a pretty funny idea.
>>48008498
It isn't even whether or not it works that bugs me, it's that they pretend that when they use the biggest stick they have to bully whoever they can get away with, it's the most righteous and correct state of affairs possible, and that when everybody else does it, they're being honourless barbarians, because only the crane can decide what sticks are acceptable to brandish threateningly.
>>48008549
>Should I develop the idea more or is it bad?
Go for it. Its basically how I use Assassins in my game. No ninja, if you want someone dead, you pay an expert swordsman to duel the person and kill him
>>48008588
>Who? Do you mean Doji Shizue?
Yes. She and that entire Kolat story were stupid. Kolat on the whole I'm going to leave up to each person to assess, but that specific story was garbage.
>>48008588
>Also, the 1st Ed Artisans are the most broken fucking school in the whole book.
4e has their final effect duplicated in the Kakita Master Artisan advanced school with a big fucking box to the side going 'this is all for art, if you try to use this to summon an emperor or soemthing you can get fucked'. It made me giggle
>>48008307
Cranes duel: It's What They Do.
>>48008605
Well yes, that kind of hypocrisy is what makes court turn on and on. Everyone sees it, even the Crane, but the Crane are the most politically powerful group so speaking blatantly out against them is a one way street to censure and duels.
I like it a lot, it highlights how jacked up the courts of the setting are.
>>48008682
Well yeah, I'm not saying it's bad writing to have them like that. It's a strong part of the setting. But they're still dickbags, and I wouldn't want to hang out with one.
>>48008659
>but that specific story was garbage
I could not agree more with you Anon. between a Lion(!) fu manchu villain, and a Matsu (!!!) ninja, it was dumbest fucking shit ever.
>'this is all for art, if you try to use this to summon an emperor or soemthing you can get fucked'
Haha. there is a similar warning in some of the kakita artisan abilities - basically alludes to the fact that if you create super powerful shit, your likely to kill yourself in the process.
thankfully the kakita artisan school is never a problem because nobody plays it.
Now, the Scorpion Ninja school...thats another can of worms all together
>>48005274
>Uikku eats ass
Every time.
>>48008735
>>48008659
I'm not familiar with the story you guys are talking about-- what does Doji Shizue do that's so bad?
>>48006305
>How dishonorabru is it for a samurai to want to marry a peasant?
Not at all. No tenet forbids it. People might lose their shit over it though because "muh celestial order". Don't give them the chance to mind it, and you will be fine. Your spouse will automatically become samurai upon marriage anyway, and questioning his/her station IS dishonorable.
>>48008735
You can get fucked in this case is more like the GM can just say 'no it doesn't work' and the fact nobody would be fooled by it being anything other than an amazing artistic presentation even if it veers into actual magic. Stomping the 1e power of it flat.
What direction do you think I could start taking my new Taoist Swordsman character in?>inb4 "to the trash"
>>48008813
Grapple so well that even an ultra-swole Crab or Badger will never escape your grip. Then beat them to death with a sword. Or do you mean like roleplay which kind of hinges on who they are, your group, the story, etc
>>48008827
I meant stats, and I specifically want to be taking advantage of that extra Void beyond becoming more of a wound sponge.
As for roleplay, he's kind of a self-hating dragon. I imagine there are a few of those around.
>>48008857
Self-hating for what reason?
>>48008857
Your entire school is keyed around hitting people really hard with swords while in grapple which nobody else can do, so don't neglect jiujitsu and Strength since you need those to put people into a grapple and mercilessly slay them.
>>48008886
>firing bows with any exposed chest skin
Ouch. That shit hurts.
>>48008870
Doesn't approve of the whole samurai-monk tradition. If he wants to be a dick to someone, he will introduce himself as a samurai who isn't ready/sufficiently advanced to be a monk yet, "just like you."
>>48008526
Well the Hiruma and Daidoji obviously did stuff like that.
Anyone else going in there might as well just commit seppuku for all the difference it would make.
>>48008549
I don't think they'd need to disguise themselves as members of other clans to do that. Or at least not all the time. Someone looking for a champion can select a person from outside of their clan.
I could see a market for pretending to actually be a member of their clan, but their public face should just be friends of justice (Where justice = "gifts" given).
>>48008988
Speaking of, how hard would traversing through a forest by jumping between branches be, Athletics TN-wise?
>>48008734
She's going to lose a nipple doing that.
>>48008813
High Strength is useful for the character to grapple/knockdown/nuke other people. See if you can't get access to a nodachi or a scimitar at some point.
>>48009053
I'd imagine it would be kind of hard to use a nodachi while grappling.
>>48008797
>doji shizue, beautiful, lame, cousin to doji hoturi
>meets and begins love affair with matsu hiroru, lion clan ninja
>no, hes actually a ninja
>hiroru's master is akodo kage, the venerable and much beloved lion sensei
>kage is actually a kolat master, fu manchu villain part of a conspiracy that want to kill all gods so man rules themselves
>doji shizue is actually a sleeper agent of the kolat
>kage wants to get rid of his wayward ninja student, so has shizue stab him, because shes a sleeper agent for the kolat
>this is explained that she was kidnapped when she was a child, brainwashed, raped repeatedly by kage on a daily basis, and then inserted back into the crane clan, and nobody noticed because kolat body doubles
>eventually dies to an assassins dagger to save kage, who hates sentimentality and honor, to prove to him that honor has meaning.
He is actually apparently still alive, even during the 4th Edition timeline
This was during the Hidden Emperor saga, which introduced us to some of the dumbest story team decisions in the history of L5R, notably...
>the lying darkness as a concept
>wax face goju ninja assassins taking over the whole empire "invasion of the body snatchers" style
>hitomi dueling and killing the moon
>hida yakamo forcing the sun to commit suicide and then becoming the sun himself
>the lying darkness being defeated by being named akodo, and thus turning into 100 pure lion samurai
>>48009089
Not when you're a Taoist Swordsmen. They specifically can hit with swords in grapple.
>>48009199
I just mean from a fluff/practical point of view.
>>48009156
>>no, hes actually a ninja
I never got why only the Scorpion can have ninja, even if most other clans have at least one school of "shadow warriors." But then again, Scorpion ninja are incredibly stupid so maybe it's for the best.
>we'll take samurai children and give them fake training with tools that only serve to penalize everything they do and see if they survive a year of suicide missions
Wickian passive-aggressiveness at its finest.
>>48009223
I know a common house rule is to make the nodachi count as a heavy weapon instead of as a sword, which would fix that problem.
>>48009224
Lion ninja. Even their actual almost ninja school in canon is basically more of a crypto-bushi courtier than a ninja.
>>48009156
>this is explained that she was kidnapped when she was a child, brainwashed, raped repeatedly by kage on a daily basis, and then inserted back into the crane clan
This is the worst part, hands down.
Unpopular opinion: the Lion ninja was cool, both as a character and as a concept. Get me that Samurai Jack reference, will ya?
>>48009224
Other clans having Ninja isn't so bad an idea, and in Matsu Hiroru's case, he was Tsuko's sister, taught that Lion can do no wrong (by Tsuko), and that Ninja shit was honorable if Lion do it (by Kage). And thus, became Kage's instrument to cause the Lion and Crane to gut themselves.
He was also a self-centered piece of shit, who raped a girl and caused her to kill herself, because his personality was edgelord to the extreme
>watches a clan champions wife and daughter die
>death means nothing, people are just bodies waiting to become dead
His only saving grace is that after the girl he raped killed herself, he realized he was a piece of shit, and told kage to fuck himself. This would of course lead him to get stabbed up by the crane girl he fell in love with (Shizue) because Kage is a giant asshole like that
>>48009266
The funny thing about the rapes, is that they don't even bother to hide it. They talk around it, without saying it actually happened, but the terms are specific
>Akodo Kage used Shizue in "private sessions"
>Shizue had been tortured by the kolat when she was a child, and "used" as a geisha by Kage himself.
>>48009341
>he was Tsuko's sister
Fuck, you know what I mean, Tsuko was his sister
>loyal Lion
>ninja
Choose one and only one.
>>48009341
He was such a part of that 90s RPG scene and culture really
>>48010480
Hiroru was probably someone elses self-insert the same way Shizue was. Wouldn't be surprised if the majority of the signature characters were originally the teams P&P characters during development and playtesting
Kage was the most unlikable villain in L5R, that he really should have died a painful humiliating honorless death after being humiliated by a party of rank 1 characters as part of some adventure module.
Instead, not only does he survive, rumored to be still alive in the 4th Ed era, but were actually supposed to LIKE him, and his arab conspiracy of bullshit.
Honestly, now that I think about it, 1st Ed Lion clan had a ton of very weird characters
>daimyo who was a shintao monk, friends with the lions hated enemies, with a weakness for drink and geisha
>white ninja
>super villain master of a conspiracy that hates all supernatural things
>shadowlands tainted cyber samurai
>cockblocked sexually repressed warrior woman who was willing to serve fu leng just because he wore the emperor like a suit
>>48010665
The late 90s (and really, early millenium) RPG design had this weird mix of random cruelty being integrated into it and metaplots which were about all these cool people you should be so lucky your PCs might get a disdainful glance from.
So yes, he probably was.You ever hear the stories about Wick crashing 7th Sea LARPs while dressed as Reis and critiquing them for BADWRONG FUN?
>>48010665
>>cockblocked sexually repressed warrior woman who was willing to serve fu leng just because he wore the emperor like a suit
Wait when did Matsu Tsuko's sexuality enter into anything. I assumed she had a husband running her home she had dutiful emotionless sex with or something. But she also is one of the characters I basically don't read on whenever I get to pre-Clan War era material in a book because I apparently do not care about her.
Sell me on her and her rippling muscles.
>>48010703
I've heard those stories.
As well as his 1E material being essentially unpublishable until 'massaged' by a bunch of other writers.
>>48010703
No, but that sounds like him. Tell me more.
Wick reminds me a lot of Justin Achilli, the guy who worked for old school White Wolf and said that anyone who doesn't play Vampire the Masquerade in the way he thinks it should be played should get fucked and go back to playing D&D
Also, inflicting Reis on new players sounds like the most bullshit mean thing to do to anyone
>>48010744
Matsu Tsuko was the fiancee of Akodo Arasou, Toturi's older brother, and daimyo of the Lion. They delayed their marriage, which was full of love, so that he could give her Toshi Ranbo as a wedding gift. However, he died trying to take the castle, and she never married.
>>48010789
>>48010744
I also forgot to mention, she became enraged at Arasous death, and vowed to bury the Crane in ashes and blood - so when Toturi comes back from being a monk to read the clan, the first thing he does is make peace with the Crane, considering hes best friends with the crane rulership. Thats why she hated Toturi even more then she hated the Crane.
>>48010879
She mad. She should have had some tea and done what every Lion is supposed to do and follow the leader obediently.
>>48010976
Yeah, Matsu samurai are not rational
>>48011008
You're not rational! I challenge you to a duel to the death for this slight!
>>48011399
>particle effects
>>48011399
ya dun goofed
>>48011488
Peta Wilson? Clearly a Scorpion infiltrator.
Are there any good combat cheat sheets floating around?
>>48011399
WHOA WHOA WHOA
hold on now
Emperor says to stop bully
Go home Matsu-san, Emperor-sama says no duel during his concubines birthday
>>48011488
I mean in a duel to the death if you manage to make it through the first blow to hit back even harder you might still win. Trick is how badly will you be fucked up in that initial blow and if you can negate it somewhat (usually by being good enough at iaijutsu yourself to nerf how many free raises the Kakita gets).
>>48011421
What, you don't have an ambient glowing particle field around you? That's how honor manifests. You must be an honorless Scorpion or something.
>>48011778
/exg/ is thatta way, man.
In my day, young pup, we didn't truck with "particle fields." It was the size of your chonmage and the bushiness of your moustache that made you someone. Now it's all orange/teal contrasts, the horror.
>>48011821
But all the cool kids are doing it!
>>48011833
If the cool kids decide to get spider tattoos one day, will you get one too? Now go run some laps around the castle in full kit, sonny, see if that puts those ridiculous ideas off your head.
What is the best defence in combat for your usual character? Besides skewering the other guy with the pointy bit first.
>>48011921
>Besides skewering the other guy with the pointy bit first
Tetsubo
>>48011955
No but for real.
>>48012012
For real?
Unless 4th Edition has changed a lot, the combat system is rendered pretty irrlevevant if you have a high TN-to-be-hit, usually by combo'ing anything that gives you a TN increase (reflexes, armor, defense, etc)
>>48008606
Idea expanded - untested first draft, but there we go.
>>48012122
With the exception of the 5th Rank Tech, none of these techniques help in dueling at all.
>>48012122
the Cat exist in my game too. Just totally alien to your idea and deeply wrapped up in the evolving timeline that my campaigns form. Good taste in MC animal though.
>>48012247
Turns out I misjudged how many Kakita bushi abilities relate to duels, which I used to judge how much duel stuff I should put in - edited. Keep in mind TN bonuses not from armour still apply to duels, unless there's a line I'm missing somewhere, so the rank 1/3 should both apply in duels.
>>48012393
Oh, really? What kind fo clan is it?
>>48012484
It was founded by a shugenja PC at the end of my first multi year campaign, and their secret mission is to babysit and ancient Naga divination device/location on behalf of the Imperial line. The official reason is a reward for her heroism in the game's climax and allowing the naturally curious woman to study ancient ruins on the island. So its a shugenja MC with a divination focus who try to meddle in the affairs of their betters and study lost ruins.
They don't have a bushi school, so their non-shugenja majority get by with being effectively ronin with a family name or trading with the nearby Mantis to get into their school. Which is good for them, since being on an island means a multi purpose sailing-bushi school works out.
>>48008906
That seems pretty interesting. Do other Taoists not like Dragon monks?
>>48012988
No. Most Dragon like their monks fine but I can see a non-conformist one being kind of resentful of them.
>>48013560
I meant like the Brotherhood.
>>48013837
The Dragon and Brotherhood get along pretty well too.
>>48007341
There's frequent correlation between receiving the attention of the kami and blood. Causation is a theory.
>>48008305
>as well as the time period where they booted one of their founding families out over stupid shit
If you're talking about the Agasha, it was their choice to leave. Togashi, then it was their choice to swear fealty to Hitomi, be tattooed with her blood, and lose the Togashi name or not.
Hitomi was only really ruined by the Honourable Dragon Movement, which created a big stink over Dragon being used as the villains, essentially forcing a 180° on Hitomi, and paving the way for future clan purists to get mad when they're not being portrayed as heroes.
>>48008366
>Basically everything negative people think of them [...] come from her 1e work with them
2e, really
>>48014782
That's fair. I just remember coming off of reading the old books and being like 'I get why people are so techy about them' and recalled I hated Doji Shizue so jumped to the 1e book to blame. Secrets was kind of iffy for a few clans, really.
>>48014760
...you're absolutely right, there was no bitterness between the Dragon and the Agasha at all. Hitomi wasn't crazy at all.
Honestly, you're the only person I've ever seen complain about the Honorable Dragon movement, and Hitomi's 'redemption' arc was actually one of the more interesting things to come out Hidden Emperor. Enlightened Madness is a genuinely appealing concept, and one that sees far too little play. Pulling the Dragon down into 'corruption' was a really weird choice from a story telling point of view, and it still doesn't make sense to me, what, fifteen years later?
They're the aloof, distant clan of weirdos who are explicitly *detached* from Rokugan's whole good vs evil dichotomy, and at the end of it all, Hitomi was still a violent lunatic, she just learned to channel it in ways that weren't guided by a tainted mad man. The Hitomi family were still crazy, violent and unpredictable instead of just comically evil like that whole arc was starting to look.
>>48008165
>>48008305
>>48008366
Oh man, I can't turn down a chance to bash on Ree fucking Soesbee.
Long ago an anon dug up some posts on a long since gone WoW forum by Rich Wulf and (IIRC) Shawn Carman themselves talking about their experiences with L5R and working with her. Apparently she was a mega-cunt who had a habit of completely disregarding anyone else's input but still expecting everyone else to finish her work for her or clean up her messes. She could never meet a deadline and would turn in work that was half finished or rushed to print, giving no one any time to edit anything. And apparently often played the "girl in a boy's club" card to get away with anything if ever confronted about it. She was also apparently a complete hack of a writer, even in the opinion of the rest of the story team (who honestly don't have much room to talk), and anything even remotely close to being considered good that she ever "wrote" was usually the result of her getting other people to do her work for her again.
God I wish I could find an archive of the posts. I've spent hours trying to find them again but they're pretty much gone forever. It's also the source of the best Rich Wulf quote ever, "L5R is in stark denial over just how weeaboo it is."
>>48016698
Sounds like a search-and-replace of John Wick, where "he" becomes "she" and "Scorpion" becomes "Crane."
>>48016698
That sounds hilariously shitty. How does she keep getting work? I thought the RPG writing community was pretty tight knit, so even if she had friends higher up in one company you'd think her rep would reach other people too.
>>48017549
>I thought the RPG writing community was pretty tight knit
Not as much as you'd think. It's just if you freelance for a company you're much more likely to get on full time there.
Kind of the basic, we know this persons work so we continue to work with them.
>>48017703
I really meant to say small rather than tight knit, though I guess my point remained the same even with my being fucktarded.
>>48016348
>...you're absolutely right, there was no bitterness between the Dragon and the Agasha at all. Hitomi wasn't crazy at all.
Try not being a *complete* fuckwit while pushing for the absurd angle. It doesn't endear you to further conversation.
>Honestly, you're the only person I've ever seen complain about the Honorable Dragon movement
Anecdotes are anecdotal. I could bring up all the people I've met, read of, or spoken with online that don't share your view, but then where would we be? In exactly the same position, but you'd feel compelled to naysay it. Plus, they're not that hard to find online. Or they weren't before AEG dropped the forums.
In any case, pulling the Empire into corruption (because Hitomi's next step was to kidnap the emperor and usher in Hidden Emperor as she made her bid for imperial rule) is rarely more interesting than everyone else's struggle to pull it back out. KYD, R2K, Dark Lotus (more so once we were heavily into Light Lotus and the details were a disappointment), Kanpeki's empire that almost was, etc are generally well received as dark settings in which to struggle to be/maintain the light.
Someone has to get their hands dirty to do that.
In the aftermath of the HDM, Dragon were left where Togashi had put them in preparation for that day of thunder, and the story team never really had a clear idea what to do with them ever again.
If we were lucky, post-Hitomi would have been an excellent era for Dragon as they fought to erase the strain upon their honour ... but again, no one ever wants their clan to be the one that strays from the path of light for a good story, and the status quo will be more likely to get a push when it starts. This repeated with the Khan's March, Spider alliance, etc, and not just for Dragon.
Could have been different without that first complete cave in by Ree Soesbee under the HDM.
>>48016698
>"L5R is in stark denial over just how weeaboo it is."
Oh man. This is both incredibly true, but also incredibly sad. I used to be a massive turbo weeaboo, which is why my favorite clan used to be Crane (i'd have tatooed my fucking hands with the daidoji mon back then if i had the money). But really, I loved the fact L5R was a love affair with everything great about Samurai culture. It was just what I was looking for in that time.
So I really can't hate it at all, even if it was massively weeaboo, and even if I really regret being such an insufferable japan supremacist back then.
>>48017549
>>48017703
>>48017771
Part of the effect of the small RPG writing community, as I've heard it; if you shit talk someone, even honestly, it affects your rep equally or more so.
>>48017867
That seems like it'll create a situation where nobody who is shit gets called for being shit.
>>48017820
Honestly dude, I like the Dragon, but the Hitomi\Yakamo story was dumb. Her becoming the moon\Him becoming the sun was dumb. Her being a crazy revenge obsessed crazy cunt was also dumb.
But thats just my view.
>>48017906
See also: Age of Sigmar, and former GW staffers not willing to comment on it beyond polite platitudes.
>>48017937
I kinda agree, but who knows how that would have ended if Wick hadn't left it to Ree. Still preferred them, once it was all done and they were circling the skies, over Jade & Obsidian.
Lady Sun & Lord Moon 4lyfe, tho.
>>48017906
That's exactly what it created, yes.
>>48010703
>You ever hear the stories about Wick crashing 7th Sea LARPs while dressed as Reis and critiquing them for BADWRONG FUN?
Oh my god that's hilarious and sounds totally like Wick. Please storytiem this. PLEASE.
>>48017549
Ree Soesbee keeps getting work for the same reasons people entertain Anita Sarkeesian as a serious scholar.
If you call them out they just cry sexism and discrimination.
I'm serious, she's played the card before.
>>48018578
Here is the (short) story as it was related to me:
>Have played 7th sea larp at Origins. Can confirm that wick shows up and shits on things.
>Organizer told us a story about how when the larp started wick would insist on only playing Reis, and would go around punishing bad RP by killing people. That stopped in 2002 or so when poeple stopped showing up because of this, though.
>>48018710
And another, this a conversation which I think came right off one of our 7th Sea 2e threads
>John Wick isn't going to burst through your door and take your game away for having badwrongfun
>That's actually demonstrably untrue. He's been known to crash the 7th Sea larps at GenCon and both overrule GMs and tell players they're playing wrong. Luckily he has a distinctive look, so if you see him come into the room it's not hard to avoid him. He's one of the main reasons why the 7th Sea larp that Dana was running actually stopped being associated with AEG - just so they had standing to demand he leave instead of loudly shitting on the game in progress.
>I generally just sit in a corner in full plate harness (was given a very nice Eisen card when I showed up to my 1st 7th Sea larp in my harness) with a very large mug of beer, smoke an incense pipe, pick fights with people who annoy me, and bitch to anyone who'll listen about religion and how shit <insert country of choices> beer is, so generally I'm considered to be playing an Eisen "right". He's bitched out my pirate-playing wife before, though, when she stole an unguarded bag of 1000G from the tabletop when nobody was looking. "Heroes don't steal."
>You decked him right
>>...in any case, decking Wick would have been counterproductive. IIRC, the other pirates upon whose behalf she was stealing the loot just shot his character anyway. From surprise. Point-blank. I don't know if his PC lived or died, but I didn't see him in the larp area after that during that year.
>>48018618
>Ree Soesbee keeps getting work
She does? What has she done lately?
>>48018774
Guild Wars 2?
>>48018774
This:
>>48018839
And I THINK she still writes trash novels occasionally, but I can't be arsed to check.
>>48018839
I meant, tabletop RPG wise.
>>48019012
According to her website her most recent tabletop RPG work was she wrote some stuff for Onyx Path in 2014.
>The Baraunghar, by far the smallest of the three armies, consists of only fi ve legions, each commanded personally by a shireikan rather than a taisa. Each legion consists of roughly 2,000 troops, organized into squadrons and companies of varying size depending upon their specialty. Slightly less than half of the Baraunghar are shugenja trained by the Iuchi family, with an emphasis on magic that augments the abilities of other soldiers or enhances movement. The other half of the Baraunghar are yojimbo and soldiers specially trained to work in coordination with their shugenja
"Slightly less than half" is still like 4000 shugenja in that whole army. Plus their existing in the clan elsewhere for religious duty, tending shrines, and other courtier shit. That's a lot of magic samurai. I don't know what point I was trying to get at, I guess kind of amazement at how insanely OP that has to be on the field. See also the Elemental Legions.
>>48019071
Onyx Path keeps giving work to Phil Brucatto, Soesbee is a minor sin.
If anyone here applied for Chinmoku no Chikai, applications are closed. Check your private messages, please.
>The Emperor of Rokugan sat quietly on his great Throne, looking at nothing in particular. Lord Moon, his grandfather, hung high in the sky, for the hour was late. Despite this, Hantei Genji found he could not sleep this night, much like the last night and many before it. For reasons he never truly examined, the half-divine man found that resting upon the Throne and observing the great empty audience chamber in perfect silence calmed his mind. Of course, it was not truly empty; he was not alone.
>“Uncle,” Genji said quietly.
>A subtle shift in the shadows indicated the presence of Bayushi. The master of secrets spoke softly. “You have dismissed your guards, my Emperor. Do you not know the threat of the night, or do you simply find it no threat at all?” Genji rose to his feet and looked at the vague outline of his uncle in the corner of the room, behind the throne to the right. “I think it will be some time before I worry about an assassin in the late hours, Lord Bayushi. You seem to have little better to do than hover about my throne room in the dead of night.”
>“Indeed, Genji-sama. I would certainly wonder about one who had made such a habit,” his uncle replied archly.
Bayushi is the best
>>48019238
>Plus their existing in the clan elsewhere for religious duty, tending shrines, and other courtier shit
Not necessarily'plus'. It's possible most/all shugenja are double dutied to a legion.
Depends how rare they are in your Rokugan, I suppose.
>>48019327
Pastebin of failed entrants?
>>48019702
No.
>>48019761
Why?
>>48019772
That'd be pretty rude. The point of private messaging applications is to not let other people see them.
>>48019781
>>48019836
I'm a man of honor, Bayushi-san. Perhaps your hen of a sensei would like to gossip with you?
>>48019772
Think about it for two seconds, for fucks sake.
>>48019781
You have some strange priorities, my friend.
I would have said the point of private messaging characters is to avoid meta gaming.
Who creates a character for a game, but then feels further showing anyone that character concept would be insulting or embarrassing for the creator?
>>48019836
Better be careful anon-san. That's rude.
>>48020075
I honestly didn't even apply for the game, I just wanted an excuse to use that image.
Engaging map dumping, if captcha doesn't choke
Choking
Wew
Mappu mappu~
>>48019872
And what of your sensei, who learnt manners in a barn?
Minna daisuki mappu
Next is a pretty good rokugan map, with the clans in french
>>48020235
He and I will be in that very same barn, keeping the goat that birthed you company. Distracting her from her disappointment in you.
>>48020335
>Grue
NOT TODAY YOU HUNGRY BASTARD!
Now a map that I can't open on my tablet. Mysterious
>>48020383
This needs to be larger.
>>48020383
Whoa shit that's neat
Last mappu
Please repost one day, /tg/ takes and / tg/ giveth
>>48020292
Might be insulting to say someone was birthed by a goat, but you burnt yourself far worse by claiming no higher possible future for either of you than life in a barn.
>>48019702
10 people joined the game, 4 people actually wrote character applications, 3 were accepted. This presumably makes the one odd applicant salty.
>>48021581
I assumed people rtj'd with character concepts, as one would for winter court or similar. That's a much more reasonable response than the previous terseness and vitriol it brought up.
>>48022219
That said, does the one guy want to talk about their character?
>>48022229
Sure. The reason for not accepting me was probably my lack of experience with the setting and system, and the GM wanted a smaller party, so I was the odd man out.
What I had in mind was a talented Hiruma kid that got told a lot of stories of the Wall, and was therefore terrified of the Wall ever falling. He wanted to be a good samurai not because of virtue as such, but because the consequences of failure seemed so awful. He'd have to come to terms with samurai being needed elsewhere, not just on the Wall, like protecting Crab courtiers and merchants, and being the Wall's support network in general.
We did the 20 questions as character application, don't know how well they conveyed this concept, but probably not very well.
![588107651d[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/k8j1v9v.png "588107651d[1].png")
>>48008219
>>48007655
>>48007353
>>48007177
Here's a version my group made for our games. It expands and improves the base school without changing it too much.
It's near enough on par with the best GC bushi schools, but I've never liked the L5R concept of mechanically nerfing PCs who want to play Minor Clan samurai/ronin. That's what ROLEPLAYING is for.
>>48008219
>>48022576
Thanks.
I also agree that I don't like the whole "Minor Clan schools are worse" thing they got going on. That's why I try to look for things to fix them.
>>48018753
So does the fact that Wick literally does crash games just to tell people they're having badwrongfun now officially make him the worst game designer ever?
>>48023326
His poorly designed game designs do that.
I think that just makes him a cunt.
>>48019590
All of the Kuni are, at least. Because the Crab rank everyone from the lowliest Yasuki vassal clan scrub to the Clan Champion himself in their military, for swift integration and easy conscription.
>>48023323
Yeah, it's a really dumb design decision.
>>48023982
Eh, not really. It makes perfect sense from a fluff->crunch point of view. They're objectively worse off in every way except that the Emperor tries to protect them from larger clans (And succeeds most of the time). Making them equally as good runs counter to that. It's the same thing with ronin, just on a different scale. If you want to be a badass from a disadvantaged background, then you're going to have to be badass in spite of your School, not because of it.
>>48024023
I think it's a pretty dumb decision from a game design perspective. You can have clans be worse off without needing players to go 'Well, everyone else is playing great clan, I should pick great clan too so I can be on par with the group'.
Doubly so with Ronin with how many stories are about Ronin yet L5R pretends they don't exist.
>>48024023
PCs are usually heroic exceptions to the fluff, if you want mechanically inferior MC/ronin then relegate them to NPC factions, if you're going to let PCs play them then they should be balanced.
>>48024023
I actually agree with this, and would prefer if they made this clearer in the book.
>>48024079
>Doubly so with Ronin with how many stories are about Ronin yet L5R pretends they don't exist.
Most ronin stories I can think of don't involve them starting off in squalor, learning sub-par techniques, and attempting to make do with only that. Or, if they do, the ronin in question relies on luck, careful planning, natural ability, etc - things beyond a handful of techniques that would give them a niche advantage.
>>48024177
This is 1E baggage rearing up its head again, because Wick didn't want D&D style murderhobos and that's all ronin can be according to him. Instead of disallowing them, he instead made ronin terribly disadvantaged to shame people out of their character concepts. He did it again in Blood and Honor, his non-L5R samurai RPG, and you can also see this in the amazingly stupid Scorpion ninja rules and background.
>>48025163
There's a non-Wick supplement to Blood And Honor called World of Dew that's all about playing Ronin and other low-lives, and it's a lot cooler.
>>48025221
To be honest, I like B&H's whole "the whole group plays the clan" schtick and how sacrificing your character for the betterment of the whole is mechanically feasible (seppuku rules, woo), I just hate how Wick has to shart on the concepts he doesn't like instead of just going "hey, a ronin character isn't really appropriate for a game where you're supposed to play grand officers of a clan." But I'll look out for World of Dew.
>>48025258
It's been a little while since I've read either of them, so my memory is a little fuzzy, but from what I recall, World of Dew uses the City in place of the Clan Holding or whatever B&H focuses on. Instead of outbuildings and fortifications, you have important locations in the City your characters live in.
Thematically, there's still a fair bit of the blood opera vibe of B&H, but it mixes in a lot of Noir sensibilities-- the sample characters are all members of a demimonde, rather than 100% upstanding citizens-- ronin, geisha, yakuza underlings, yoriki, sumo wrestlers. I like it a lot, but it's definitely something of a departure from B&H.
>>48024113
Minor Clans and Ronin are strictly optional. That's why they're in the expanded rules section and not the core chargen section.
But I don't let people play them most of the time unless the entire group is playing on that level. If I allow it, I make sure they're aware that they're on the bad end of a power disparity.
>>48025163
Nah. That smacks of post-justifying sour grapes to me.
Sparrow, ronin, etc are there primarily for the players able to play Rokugan's system to their advantage (or not!) and want a challenge beyond that of great clan samurai.
>>48026595
The mc schools are inconsistently lower powered anyway. Most are really just highly specialized for their niche than actually inferior which I'm okay with. Sparrow are garbage even by lower power standards but I've never seen anyone want to play one. Other mc get more love in my group and most people do grat clans anyway.
>>48008346
She looks like she's just cut her palm and fingers with her sword. So she's either a terrible swordswoman or she's a blood mage.
>>48026884
after my first character died halfway through the campaign, one of my considerations was a sparrow storyteller who joins the party to be the first to properly write down their tale
I intended to roleplay him as the biggest fanboy ever of the remaining living members of the party
>>48027101
Or the artist forgot what side is the cutting side when trying to look cool
>>48024023
This might not be what the designers intend, but I would like them to allow character niches that would otherwise not fit into the setting.
A good example is the Sparrow Clan. A bunch of samurai who lives incredibly close to their peasants, to the point where they even work with them.
I was personally thinking of making a wide eyed and innocent samurai from the outback who is discovering the world at large with the current adventuring crew, learning important lessons during the adventure.
While you can make that character with almost all the other clans, it might not fit that well, as they normally interact quite a lot with factors that would make it unlikely that they would be that innocent (Crane courts, the Shadowlands, Scorpions stuff, etc.etc).
>>48027159
>I intended to roleplay him as the biggest fanboy ever of the remaining living members of the party
"By the Fortunes, by the Fortunes, by the Fortunes! I can't believe it's you! The Emerald Champion! Standing here, next to me!"
