/L5R/ General

Finally someone posts the pdfs

Our group's D&D campaign is coming to an end soon, and I know our GM has his eye on us doing some L5R. I'm all up for it, but I'm not sure my friends will enjoy the more social and political side. Anyone had any experience with this, or arguments to sway them?

>>47686870
L5R doesn't have to be a political game. I actually suggest not involving the courts until the group is more experienced and has reason to be sent to one.

It can just as easily be about surviving the horrors of life on the wall, samurai drama over conflicts of Bushido, ronin band of brothers, magistrates hunting criminals, etc etc ... the setting provides room to do a lot.

Plus, the further away you are from high society, the less strict the setting is on requiring honour and glory.

>>47687012
Best beginning game for a gm is emerald magistrates. You can having action, light politics, and manageable non end of the world plotlines.

File: 3106753341_4823d9d9a9.jpg (82KB, 347x500px) Image search: [Google]

82KB, 347x500px

>>47686870
>the more social and political side

The best way to deal with this is give the players a personal stake. in whats going on. Nominate a party leader (whether the group knows it or not). Give him a Lord to follow whose super cool and beloved. Make it plain said Lord has scummy rivals. Base the campaign on the turbulent political sea between the Rival and the Lord. Have the players tag along, each representing possible clan alliances, or close connections. Set the game in a province full of detail, and fill it with interesting NPC's.

At which point, coming up with threats and adventures should be easy

>>47687079
Depends on the group. I prefer getting Bushido down pat before the rest of it.

File: Hideyoshi_(yong)_-_Souzou.jpg (198KB, 422x600px) Image search: [Google]

198KB, 422x600px

>>47687210

I forgot to mention - make the Party Leader the Lords trusted samurai. He may not be the Karo or the Lords higher retainers - but he has a personal relationship with the PC, and trusts his counsel. More then that, he's his Lords right hand, trusted in matters where his honor and foresight is needed - which means he could be sent to represent the Lords interest in other courts.

Also, don't look at Rokugan from the top down. The major failing of the setting is that the metaplot focuses too much on people the players will never meet. No one gives a shit who the clan champion or the emperor is, if nothing you do will ever affect them.

Instead, make a small Lord, landowning, with a castle, and some villages - maybe with a small fief of 20,000 koku or less.

>>47687267
>Also, don't look at Rokugan from the top down. The major failing of the setting is that the metaplot focuses too much on people the players will never meet. No one gives a shit who the clan champion or the emperor is, if nothing you do will ever affect them.
This. City or Provincial Governors. They're still low caste samurai (buke, below kuge), albeit at the highest possible rank non-nobility are allowed to reach.

I hate to ask but all my searching has turned up nil. I've been trying to find a pdf that includes the 3e School for the Daidoji Iron Warriors. Even the pdfs in the link by OP don't have it. I swear that this is a real school that I really read about in a friends hard copy 3e Core book but it just doesn't seem to exist anywhere online.
Can anyone help me out?
Have I just been looking in the wrong places?
Or have I actually lost the plot and gotten confused with the Harriers?

>>47688516
http://lasthaiku.wikidot.com/sccrane#toc6

This it?

>>47688516
Did you mean: The Daidoji Bodyguard School from Way of the Crane?

So now that the PDFs have been posted I'm probably gonna be able to get my group to play this, but what edition would you guys use? I don't mean to start an edition war but like is there a "THE BEST" edition or is it a lot of personal preference? What's the big changes?

>>47689512
people generally use 4th edition. Unlike in DnD where editions are vastly different, L5R's editions are iterations. They're all roughly the same game, just the balanced and implantation of certain mechanics are different.

So use 4th.

that said, even 4th is busted as shit. Shugenja and monks are absolutely bonkers. I would suggest restricting them, if not banning them outright.

>>47689512
I'd use 4th, because it's generally better.
Then 1st, 3rd, 2nd, and D&D 3.5 Oriental Adventures, in that order.
Just imagine that there's a small gap between 1st and 3rd, a large gap between 3rd and 2nd, and the Grand Canyon between 2 and Oriental Adventures.

>>47686660
That has got to be the manliest looking Mirumoto ever.

>>47689512
NOT the D20 version. Don't do it mang

>>47689533
Shugenja and monks are only bonkers in the hands of people who know how to break them. Don't worry too much about it.

File: L5R 0th Eddition.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>47686660
OP missed best edition

>>47689533
Thanks man, imma get to learning and distributing, maybe now we can play something that isn't dnd

>>47689533
I disagree about Shugenja being bonkers.
At least at lower school ranks. Never played a high insight game. Monks *can* be bonkers, but they aren't by default.
If you've got a player who is breaking the game wide open as a shugenja or monk, all you need to do is remember that both of those have very strong social obligations and the shugenja gets literally all of their power from spirits that are 100% capable of pulling the plug if the shugenja starts acting disrespectful towards or neglects them.

>>47689571
Shugenja are masters of specialization. Anything they choose to specialize in, they are the best at. They can be much stronger than bushi in combat, they can be much more proficient than a courtier in court. At rank 1, a shugenja can be rolling +2k2 to basically any social roll should they choose to take those spells. At rank 1 a shugenja can hit harder and take more hits than any other bushi, should they take those spells.

It's telling that you mention the way to stop this is for the GM to fiat the spells into simply not working.

>>47689622
It's not fiat if that's literally how magic works in the setting.
Also, I can't find any rank 1 or 2 spell that adds to social rolls.
There's a spell that lets the shugenja be a bit more accurate with their hits (But if they're not a Fire Shugenja specifically, it only brings them up to par with any given bushi), and another spell that gives them reduction roughly equal to light armor (But also slows them down) at Rank 1.
Wasting two rounds of a three round combat to barely bring yourself up to par with a basic bushi wearing light armor isn't too great. Especially when you could just buff an ally and make them actually better than their enemies.

>>47689685
Fires of Purity is pretty good as combat shugenja spells go.

>>47689685
that adds +2k2 to social rolls*
There's Benten's Touch at rank 2, which adds 1k1+the caster's air ring.
So a dedicated shugenja with air affinity can have a +1k1+3 for an hour as a starting character.
Useful if they're going directly to a brisk negotiation, not particularly great for court where you might be hanging around and chatting people up all day.

>>47689765
It is, but you know who would benefit from it more? Literally any bushi (For example, the one directly between you and the enemy), because they're more accurate and do more damage by default.
Again, every spell cast is a complex action. That's your whole turn in a game where combat might only last two or three turns.

>>47689803
Are you seriously advocating buffing a bushi (who can effectively be disabled in one hit) rather than using a single spell slot to potentially disable an opponent? At rank 1, Shugenja have such a selection of damage spells that they're practically a one-man platoon. Need raw ranged damage? Fires from Within or Earth Becomes Sky (both easily 3k3 at a measly TN 15). A group of peasants need to be put down? Hope they're not standing next to eachother or Entincing Dance of Flame can cripple the whole group before they even get a swing in. Getting into an extended fight? Tail of the Fire Dragon. A melee combatant yourself? Fires of Purity even with 3 agi and no other fire investment is usually fine (5k3 average rolls is ~24, usually enough to hit anything you care about). Just wade in there with light armor and a good earth ring and wreck face. And that's just for 1 agi point and 2 skill points in a weapon skill.

Everything you've said so far is so mired in ignorance I don't even know what to say.

>>47686870
>>47687012
Just started playing in a new L5R game and in the first session I had to talk the other two players out of being executed/dueled because they couldn't shut their fucking mouths around the leader of the most powerful faction. It was a really bad idea on the GM's part to start us there, but luckily I can play the fuck out of a smoothtalker(and the GM didn't want 2/3 of the party dead, so he just needed good excuses to not kill them). Otherwise, the GM would have had to handwave most of the game's code of etiquette to have them survive.

Still haven't run into combat, but One thing to look out for is that since the skills aren't already on the sheet, you may ask for a player to roll a skill they didn't know existed.

>>47689931

Buffing a Bushi with with Fires of Purity is a great plan actually, from a simple damage output perspective it outperforms any other rank one spell, it just does it as a sort of AoE rather than single target.

>>47689931
>who can effectively be disabled in one hit
This applies to you more so than a bushi.
>both easily 3k3 at a measly TN 15
The 7k4 that a buffed bushi does is better.
>Entincing Dance of Flame can cripple the whole group before they even get a swing in.
That is what it's good for, yes.
>Getting into an extended fight? Tail of the Fire Dragon.
Lasts 4 rounds and isn't significantly better at range than a bushi using a bow and isn't significantly better in melee than a bushi with a sword.
>Just wade in there with light armor and a good earth ring and wreck face. And that's just for 1 agi point and 2 skill points in a weapon skill.
You know that thing you just said about the bushi being disabled in one hit? Parrot that, but add the caveat that you're still less effective than them, because they have techniques and probably also have a higher agility, reflex, earth ring, and better skill.

>>47690003
It doesn't change the fact that stacking buffs instead of going wide is an awful strategy. Secondly, the point that a perma-buffer shugenja buffing a bushi is better than a combat shugenja is moot, because the point is that the shugenja simply has more impact in a fight because they're simply more powerful. If you disallowed buffing your team mates, the shugenja pulls ahead at most experience values in most situations. The only time a shugenja is ever at a disadvantage compared to their bushi counterparts is the powerspike at rank 3 (assuming the bushi is even of a school that gets second attack at 3) or when you've fought so much that the shugenja is simply out of relevant spell slots. The later of which is duboius because the shugenja is guaranteed to have done things so much more efficiently than the bushi at that point that they'll have more resources a bushi would have otherwise spent.

>>47690033
>>who can effectively be disabled in one hit
>This applies to you more so than a bushi.

Not at all. The only advantage a bushi has over you in raw defense stats is that the shugenja *might* not have light armor. Shugenja scale just as well with earth ring, and in fact, because shugenja are much less reliant on skills (most of their damage spells simply auto hit if they get the TN), shugenja are more likely to have *higher* earth ring than a bushi.

>>47689931
Nothing you just said is so much better than what a bushi can do that it is "bonkers", given casting times and the social implications of a shugenja wearing armor.

>>47690073
>It doesn't change the fact that stacking buffs instead of going wide is an awful strategy.
Most of the spells you listed have a single target and no dot.
A buffed bushi can easily kill 4 to 8 enemies before any buff wears off, and significantly more than that if you're using the longer duration buffs. Fires From Within hits one enemy and that's it, now you're down a Fire casting slot (And lets face it, you only have 5 or 6, including the ones you get from Void).
>The only advantage a bushi has over you in raw defense stats is that the shugenja *might* not have light armor.
You do realize that to cast well, a shugenja has to boost their Ring stats, right? All of the spells you're talking about here are Fire spells. So if you're boosting your Earth Ring (And Reflexes), you're not boosting your Fire Ring, and are doing less damage with your single target damage spells.

>>47690073
>The only advantage a bushi has over you in raw defense stats is that the shugenja *might* not have light armor.
Or a reflex trait worth a damn, since they're Fire specialized. Or an Earth ring worth a damn, since they're Fire specialized. Or the Defense skill, since they're not putting points into skills.
A support shugenja who just stays in the Defense Stance and protects themselves while buffing allies will do better overall than a direct damage shugenja.

>>47690073

At higher levels the shuggies can pump out some crazy stuff, no one is denying that, but the idea that they are just universally more powerful is flat wrong, especially at early levels. At a damage per round comparison between a shug and a bushi, the bushi will win hands down early levels, and only really loose later on due to the Shugs better AoE potential.

>>47690128
>A support shugenja who just stays in the Defense Stance and protects themselves while buffing allies will do better overall than a direct damage shugenja.

Who's side are you even on anyway?

>>47690144
A shugenja (Or a courtier, or anyone, really) with a few ranks in the Defense who just stays in the Defense stance can be harder to hit than someone wearing armor and can still cast all of their spells except for direct attacks. It's just better overall.

>>47689571
>If you've got a player who is breaking the game wide open as a shugenja or monk, all you need to do is remember that both of those have very strong social obligations and the shugenja gets literally all of their power from spirits that are 100% capable of pulling the plug if the shugenja starts acting disrespectful towards or neglects them.
>>47689622
>It's telling that you mention the way to stop this is for the GM to fiat the spells into simply not working.

I find the most effective way to depower a shugenja is to give them a reason to use their spell slots before they reach combat. All you have to do is look at their spell list, and tailor make a wounded target for healing, low grade nemuranai for inspecting / communing, or other reason for a simple use of the basic element spells. Easy, and it'll look like their idea.

>>47690033
>who can effectively be disabled in one hit
>This applies to you more so than a bushi
Depends on the shugenja type. Air become quite hard to hit, while earth shrug off damage.

I thought this game was super deadly. I might be looking at it wrong, though.
Everyone starts off with about 70 health give or take, and I've seen the biggest and best max damage outputs at like 40. I was under the impression more people can die in one hit, was I wrong?
My rank 1 samurai I've statted comes out with 7k3 to hit and hits with 6k2. Does that sound right?

>>47690679
70 health? An earth ring 2 character has 38 hit points to work with. Earth 3 is 57 total, but you approach uselessness once you go above 33.

File: 1335853443850.jpg (1MB, 3883x2741px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 3883x2741px

>>47690679
>>47690701

Average between 32 and 48.

A standard Katana will likely take about half your health, making you seriously in trouble with wound penalties. The next hit will finish you.

three foot razor blades deserve respect

Which schools do you think are the most flavorful?

Whats your opinion on having acrobatics as an athletics emphasis?

>>47691140
Good for ninja.

>>47691238
After reading about the Mountain Summit Temple, I tought it might be a good fit for a kikage zumi monk.

>>47691140
I imagine it's excellent for entertainment in court, probably by Mantis who are accustomed to the rolling about of the ship and decide they want to take it to the next level.

>>47691084
Dragon schools, period!
Masterful swordsmen with an unique swordstyle that pisses off Kakita snobs, fashioned after a legendary real life swordsman? Check.
Superstition-shattering stone-cold logic sleuths who foil scorpion ninja at every turn, and are great in court? Check.
Monks tattoo'd with the literal blood of a god, pursuing enlightenment but still part of the samurai caste? Check.
Priests who not only do magic and secret alchemy, but are also as martial as some bushi and not afraid to get their hands dirty? Check, check, check!

>>47691477
Dragon schools are definitely pretty cool. I think a lot of Mantis schools are also pretty cool.

Tsuruchi have their rejection of Bushido in favour of their own more virtuous code, and rejection of katanas as a symbol of everything that's wrong with samurai in general, in favour of bows? Yes please! More pronounced when they were the Wasp, but still cool.
Yoritomo have their focus on naval combat styles-- the drunken brawler school based on being a rough and tumble sailor with no dojo to practice in, instead learning form whoever will teach you? Oh yeah. The basic bushi school all about being agile and adaptable, fighting with knives or whatever you can lay a hand on? Yes.
Moshi priests all about the power of the storm, but also so pious towards the sun that their power is directly linked to whether or not it's in the sky? Check.

>>47691996
> I think a lot of Mantis schools are also pretty cool.
Because they're almost all from Minor clans.
Every member of the Mantis (Including the Mantis themselves) became more boring when they got pokeclanned. They're all just whitewashed under the Yoritomo now and have lost a lot of their identities.

>>47692229

How do you figure that?

the moshi are stil matriarchal sun worshippers with a lot of shugenja within their ranks

the fox are still tree hugging isolationists with the occasional bestiality.

The wasp are still a very proud clan of archers and bandit hunters, with a certain level of disdain of the more traditional samurai values, and the katana that symbolises it.

Some details of the clans are going to change now that they are in close contact with eachother, and yes the yoritomo are a lot more dominant in the relationship than they should. But out of all the great clans, the Mantis have probably the most varied families among them, and there is little reason to assume that is just going away.

>>47692296
>Some details of the clans are going to change now that they are in close contact with eachother, and yes the yoritomo are a lot more dominant in the relationship than they should.
Not That Guy, but usually the problem seems to be how one way the clan culture osmosis is. It's always minor clans gaining mantis traits.

>>47692650
Bound to happen since the Yoritomo is the main family.

>>47692710
Does not make it less boring compared to the former alliance. Only compounds the sensation.

>>47693080
Who knows, maybe FFG will reset the story and keep the Mantis as a minor clan this time. Bonus points if Yoritomo gets his deserved punishment for his temerity.

>>47693261
I like Mantis as a Great Clan, I think they fill a couple of interesting niches, but their relationship with their vassal families should definitely be reworked.

For me, I'd have the whole clan run by a council of family Daimyos, with Clan Champion being a nominal position that rotates through the families each generation, and which acts more as the mouthpiece of the council when one is needed, than as an actual leader.

>>47694237
Which is already kinda the Phoenix schtick with the elemental council and the Shiba Champion.

File: poisondartfrog.jpg (45KB, 640x453px) Image search: [Google]

45KB, 640x453px

Idea I had from the last thread. A Kakita serial killer, who forces people into duels and then cuts them down (whether they agreed to the duel or not, serial killer and all) as an expression of their madness and having found the 'perfect strike'.

The ones who've been slain are mostly Dragons and Cranes and minor clan dudes, and the Scorpion have no reason to just poison him/her in their sleep, maybe even some political shit why they expressly can't do that.

But in the end it comes down to the party being asked to quietly handle things, as it can't be handled publicly due to the simple fact that none of the clans want to admit their best and brightest duelists are being cut down left and right by one insane Crane.

Is this a decent idea for an arc?

>>47694483
It really depends on the players. Are they smart enough to out smart the enemy? Or are they the type that will try to out duel himm?

>>47694465
It would be a different take on similar theme. The elemental council are all shugenja, and more important for the Isawa than for the clan as a whole-- and the Shiba Champion is as much their minder as their mouthpiece. They also are almost always all Isawa themselves.

A Mantis council would always, by it's nature, be representative of all of a clan's families, and the Champion would be a member of the council, rather than an external pawn. I think it would be an interesting contrast-- particularly with the existing animosity between Mantis and Phoenix.

>>47694483
>>47694528
Bonus points if one of the players has the rumor monger disadvantage.

>>47686660
I've been kicking around the idea of playing this, although I'm not big into bushido and Tokugawa era politics or whatever. Are ronin overplayed? I get the feeling everyone wants to be Musashi.

>>47694618
Kinda yes and no. Everyone wants to try it out at least once...until they realise how punishing the society is towards them. It's extremely rewarding to play one properly, but they are kinda thatguy bait on par with ninjas.

>>47694725
Are ninjas really that guy bait?

I was considering playing one as my next character whenever I got the chance.

>>47694725
Yeah, sounds like my kind of thing. I've always liked playing the underdog, but I imagine it's a big thatguy thing too. I'll see if I can find a game of it and give it a shot. Thanks dude

>>47694745
Without a fail. If you have a thatguy, I will make any bet with you that he will go Crimson red in clan colors.

>>47694794
Shame, I was interested in playing a Shosuro Actor.

>>47694829
Just because an archetype is that guy bait doesn't mean you can't play one.

Just don't be a that guy while doing it.

>>47694794
It's more a scorpion issue then a ninja issue, per se. Altough 4e hasn't introduced many non-scorpion ninja, and even then only in the more obscure sidebooks.

>>47694829
you can make and play proper ninja's, don't worry too much about that. It is just that the scorpion, especially the ninja's among them, are seen by some players as a blank cheque to be as much of an asshole as you want.

>>47694794
Scorpions aren't the only ones with Ninjas, anon.

But yes, chances are That Guy is going to want to e a Scorpion Ninja.

>>47694725
Ronin are also generally sub-par mechanically because of the way they're supposed to gain Techniques by RAW, not to mention many of the ronin Techniques themselves being weak even if you can learn them.

One thing I'd like to do sometime is string some of the more decent ronin Techniques together as a full school, and run with it being an actual ronin School taught out of a single dojo run by the Kaeru in the city of the Rich Frog-- mostly for their own family members, but open to promising outsiders.

>>47690701
>>47690754
"The Wounds inflicted by an attack fill up
these Wound Ranks in order, with each Rank containing a maximum number of Wounds determined by the character’s Earth Ring."

Please help the book is lying to me I guess

I really want to try playing a Kuni witch-hunter, but it seems totally pointless unless the whole campaign is built around that one character.

>>47694843
This. Only because it attracts them, doesn't mean playing one makes you a thatguy.
As said before, thatguys consider ninjas basically the equivalent of playing a chaotic/neutral character in D&D.

>>47694998
Also, make sure to discuss the character with the ST. As a ST myself, shinobi and ronin characters can be a bit more work on our side. I personally enjoy it, making locations and encounter more challenging, but it will be more work for your ST nonetheless.

L5R is basically GoT with all the Great Houses/Great Clans, Battle for the Throne, Intrigue, Magic and Dragons.

If some TV producer made a show about a Day of Thunder or something do you think it could be successful?
The "problem" with it is that you could only cast Asian actors and that would alienate a large crowd. But still Samurai are beloved worldwide. I dunno if someone wrote a good script I think it could work and make lots of money.

>>47695043
What is whitewashing.

>>47695043
It even has a WALL that keeps out monstrous creatures and the Undead.

>>47695059
You couldn't whitewash the whole of Rokugan. You either use Asian actors or you don't make it at all. The good thing is you could employ all types of Asians (not poo in the loo one obviously).

>>47694932

Are you missing the difference between Healthy and the other wound ranks? Healthy is Earth x 5, all the remaining ranks are earth x2. So If you've got Earth 2 to start the game with, you get 10 wounds at healthy, and then 4 wounds each rank after that.

>>47695094
You could whitewash/westernize the whole story without any problems. Just switch asian with europe/england, and the rest just falls in place.

>>47695043

they even got the family way off in one cardila direction that eschews normal social rules and etiquette and mans a fuckhuge wall. AND a family of totallynotpirates living on an island chain of the coast that also don't follow standard social rules and etiquette (altough unlike the ironborn, the mantis ways usually make sense)

>>47695127
Then you just have Game of Thrones again, and what was the point of the exercises?

>>47695139
Thats the point. L5R is a western story with an asian paintjob. Asian story telling is an entirely different beast. Don't get me wrong, I like L5R as any else here, but it IS GoT in Asia.

>>47695158
So it's the reverse of Record of Lodoss War. What's the matter with that?

>>47695215
Well, bugger me tender. I've never seen that. Thanks for pointing me towards it!
As it looks to me, a pseudo western style fantasy setting written by a Japanese. Basically, oldschool FF.
I hope the writer did at least a better job than Wick.

>>47695158
IIRC L5R pre dates GoT

>>47694891
Remind me what the their technique was again?

>>47695215
Record of Lodoss War is a really generic Western fantasy story though, not a Japanese fantasy story pretending to be a Western one, which would be the opposite of L5R.
It looks Japanese as hell because it's written and drawn by Japanese people, but it's a story about a motley crew of heroes who band together and save their imperiled kingdom from the rising forces of darkness.
That's every cookie-cutter fantasy novel ever back in the 1980's.
>>47695271
It's hard to be as shit a writer as Wick.
Lodoss is notable because of totally faithful and absolutely seriously it takes it's cliched storyline without making fun of it or poking holes at it, obviously enjoying itself as it does so.
>>47695568
It does by several years, though the SoIaF novels are older then most people think.

>>47695707
The Kaeru? As far as I know, they don't currently have one. There are a bunch of existing ronin techniques, but each technique is attached to an existing group, like the Forest Killers or Toturi's Army, which you're supposed to join in order to be allowed to learn that technique. But because a lot of those groups have a very short lifespans, the core book encourages you to refluff them for use in your particular campaign.

The refluffing I would do is to pick out five techniques from this disparate group, and just give them to the Kaeru, a longstanding and well-established family of ronin who actually could run a dojo, and just treat the collection of techniques as a Kaeru Bushi School.

>>47695136
What's ironic about that is that most of the supplementary material (and the books themselves if you read closely) show that the stereotypes the Houses have in Westeros are NOT that old or that accurate.
Basically every time a new lord comes to power his personality greatly shapes the entire house because his word and whim is literally law to them and thus he fully dictates the house's actions.

The generation of Starks before this one was led by an older man and his eldest son who was heavily into southern political ambitions (notice how the supposedly "disinterested" Stark's fostered strong relationships with the Southron houses?).
The previous Lannister head was a friendly a peaceable idiot who had no head for money, tactics, or anything else at all.
The previous Greyjoy head was, and I shit you not with this, a fierce warrior but an incredibly progressive and rational guy who kept his people in line and tried his damdest to bring them into modern day and stop them from being butchering pirates anymore.

>>47695847
Of course the previous Greyjoys were more civil and agreeable than Balon. Balon was an idiot who came within a hair's breadth of driving his house extinct. A house of nothing but Balons would not survive very long at all.

>>47695899
You'd think that, but apparently there's been a LOT of guys like him, and Balon isn't even the worst of them.
Part of the problem the worldbook notes (it's co-written by Martin himself) is that their religion is EXTREMELY resistant to anything changing on the island and every time a king who shows up that they do disagree with they spread anger against him and he's overthrown.

Also, Balon almost certainly murdered his dad. Poisoned, if it matters.

>>47695942
The wiki says he was killed in battle.

File: Reach_Heaven.png (324KB, 459x390px) Image search: [Google]

324KB, 459x390px

Now what are the most horribly abusive and over powered things a tattood monk can do, trying to avoid going Saitama in my next campaing.

>>47694891
Canonically, the Kaeru actually have several different dojo. Not for full schools, but they've got the pipe wielders who actually protect the city, and some kind of super secret assassin-for-hire dojo that has never been proven to exist or given mechanics, but is constantly mentioned alongside them in older fluff.

>>47695792
The Kaeru themselves would have a courtier school, because they're merchant-administrators who run a city.
The otokodate that they employ to protect the city (The Machi-Kanshisha) are bushi with their own rank 3 Technique. It just kind of sucks worse than most ronin Techniques, which is saying something.

>>47696821
I mean. Besides all the absolutely broken tattoos? All the absolutely broken kiho.

>>47697371
I'm not really in the know on whats broken and whats not, so share your enlightened view /tg/

>>47697371

not that guy, but can you point out some of the broken ones? never played a monk myself.

in core alone? ki-ren, crane, dragon are three stand-out ones. balance and bamboo can be very strong if you use them just right and have the right party composition. lion if you use the tattoo merging rules from book of air (in conjunction with ki-ren, mostly).

as for kiho, just read them. a lot of kiho are easy to activate and let you become a god at something you were doing anyway.

>>47697277
The one upside to the Machi-Kanshisha technique is that the free raise towards knockdowns stacks with the free raise towards knockdowns from Staves skill rank 5, so they can attempt a knockdown with literally every attack they make.
And that's where the positives end. The free raise towards disarms is meh, and being able to attack as a simple action using a subpar weapon by spending a void point *per simple action attack* is just bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad.

>>47697867
>attempt a knockdown for free with literally every attack they make.
fix'd

File: ok.png (92KB, 500x375px) Image search: [Google]

92KB, 500x375px

>>47697745
Oh, I seem to have ignored the frequency you can use those tattoos.

>>47697745
I have a deep and profound love for Centipede. It's like being a high-powered tattoo'd wuxia monk Pheillipides of Marathon, and in the right circumstances could quite literally save the empire (large-scale Yobanjin invasion, anyone?), before stoically passing out. Also as close to instant messanging as it gets, short of Komori shenenigans.

>>47696198
The book clarifies; he died DURING the war but he had been growing ill for some time before then with no explanation, especially since he was very healthy. The Maester couldn't help him apparently.
After Balon took the Seastone Chair, the first thing he did was kill the Maester for failing to save his father, though he didn't publicly execute him at all and didn't really mention it until somebody asked him from the Citadel.

After reading through the 4th edition book, I'm liking the look of the Wasp clan and their archery. A quick lore-related question, though. Would they still see plenty of naval action, as they are part of Mantis? For example, could a member of the family become captain of one of the Mantis' ships? Or is it only a Yoritomo thing?

>>47698780
The navy is mostly a Yoritomo thing, since they actually live out on the islands. A Tsuruchi could end up as part of the navy, but it's not a given that they will be.

>>47698780
I imagine quite a few archers would serve aboard Mantis vessels, the majority of the clan holdings are after all islands, and their shipfaring business needs to be protected. As for becoming a kobune captain, it isn't restricted to Yoritomo/Yoritomo trained Bushi, but it kind of is a logical consequence that almost all of them would be, as that's a position that's entirely in line with their training and skillset. Could a Tsuruchi archer become a captain? Don't see why not, but the singleminded focus of their school and family doesn't really leave much room for learning the mix of melee combat, naval acumen, leadership and an eye for commerce that's needed to become one. And if he had such an immense knack for these things instead of archery, they probably noticed it way back in his dojo, and why didn't they send him off to train with the Yoritomo then?

>>47698448
I prefer Hoshi w/ Ocean and Barefoot Brethren at rank 2. Never eat, never sleep, never tire.

>>47697924
One at a time?

So can the fluff fags explain something to me? How the fuck is Bayushi Kachiko's son one of the Scorpion's honored ancestors when the little prick was by birth Hoturi's son and therefore a Crane?

>>47699756
Blood doesn't matter ad much as the word of samurai that acknowledge a certain view of the truth.

Which makes it odd that Kaneka was so famously known as The Bastard, as that requires recognising the blood ties, but also denying them.

>>47699745
he probably thought that they weren't a free action with no cooldown.

>>47697469
>>47697510
There's this one Void kiho that I don't remember the name of that gives you 2 void points if you hit with it. It's generally good in conjunction with things that need you to spend void points.

>>47702694
I believe that's been errata'd to actually be stealing void points, which is both better and worse, since it actually takes the option away from your enemies, but you can only gain them if they have any to steal in the first place.

tfw no wall campaign.

tfw no comfy draw lot play/ration stealing shenanigans

tfw no brutal grindhouse battle scenes out of nowhere

Why live?

>>47703232
It's not void point theft. They do have to have void points, though.

>>47703750
>Stay frosty, bushi

>tfw shiba bushi with no qt courtly shugenja waifu to yojimbo for
>tfw shiba bushi guarding a crass earth shugenja with bad bo

how do i get my lord to ask me to commit seppuku?

File: sudoku.jpg (253KB, 700x988px) Image search: [Google]

253KB, 700x988px

>>47705584
Only one path out, fampai.

File: 1434163008384.jpg (67KB, 1440x1080px) Image search: [Google]

67KB, 1440x1080px

>>47705584
>>47705829
>missed your actual question
I feel like an idiot.

Go get drunk and fondle a Magistrate or something.

File: 45bec9162d3c6c56e9dbb2a7221fa530.jpg (117KB, 736x531px)

117KB, 736x531px

>>47698780

BOW KOBAYA

BUNE

O'ATAKA!

Refer to any guide about Shogun 2 for sengoku period naval technology

In all of these, archers and arrows are a huge deal

File: 141370799951555760177.jpg (70KB, 800x494px) Image search: [Google]

70KB, 800x494px

>>47706000

Here's a Kobaya. Pack it with archers, or brave bastards with slings to huck bamboo casks filled with incendiaries or gunpowder.

File: img_4.jpg (247KB, 1024x682px)

247KB, 1024x682px

Heres an example of something bigger, Heavy Bune or an O'Ataka Bune

Castles on water. Fuck year

File: 1172058546.jpg (76KB, 524x322px) Image search: [Google]

76KB, 524x322px

Also, if you want to acknowledge that non-japanese asian cultures are part of rokugan HERESY, then heres a Korean GARLIC EATER Turtleship for you

File: atakebune-diorama-big.jpg (265KB, 1000x652px)

265KB, 1000x652px

A great example of an Atakebune, and considering how pretty it looks, could easily be the flagship of someone important

File: 6dadd-bdzgbgd.jpg (244KB, 693x951px) Image search: [Google]

244KB, 693x951px

Example of shipboard weaponry, Bows, Firebombs, and Matchlocks

File: dsc02470.jpg (861KB, 2000x1500px)

861KB, 2000x1500px

This is a Sengokubune. Notice its got a Sail. You can pack a 100 guys on this thing, split about 80\20 between Seamen (rowers) and Marines (Samurai)

>>47706055
That is one sexy ship. My next courtier is going to have a few ranks in Craft (Shipbuilding) for sure.

File: ship.jpg (77KB, 855x679px) Image search: [Google]

77KB, 855x679px

And heres your fleet backbone, the Medium\Heavy Bune. This thing is a big armored box full of men, anywhere from 100 to 200, with its job being to battle speed up to other ships, latch on with hooks, and send a wave of screaming samurai marines on board.

File: src_23140111.jpg (132KB, 1024x768px)

132KB, 1024x768px

And heres an actual sailing mockup of, what I'm guessing is another Atakebune, with Tokugawa markings. These things were the big warships, can carried upwards of 200 men or more. In 1578, Oda Nobunaga constructed a small fleet of these things covered in iron - they were called Tekkosen "Iron Ships"

File: japanese-warship-of-the-16th-century.jpg (247KB, 1300x948px)

247KB, 1300x948px

>>47706153

Although, as you can see, that one doesn't have oars

Theres a book by Osprey Press "Far East Fighting Ships" - Volume 2 has all the info on Sengoku Era japanese warships. Anyone wanting to add considerable detail to their Mantis\Naval campaign, you'd do well to pick it up (or find a pdf of it)

File: 1272674897999.png (162KB, 1338x535px) Image search: [Google]

162KB, 1338x535px

>>47706180
>Osprey Press "Far East Fighting Ships"

Actually, gimme a bit, and I'll throw my pdf copy up on mega for you guys

File: perry.jpg (23KB, 300x332px)

23KB, 300x332px

>>47706180
>>47706153
>>47706117
>>47706087
>>47706055
>>47706046
>>47706027
>>47706020
>>47706000
Those are some adorable little toys you savages have there.

I want to write a campaign where the gaijin come back to open Rokugan up to the outside world, and have warring subfactions within the clans who support having more trade and technology, while the other half want to keep the gaijin out and cling to their traditions. The Emperor is tight-lipped about the whole thing but foreign ambassadors and traditionalist daimyos alike are trying their damnedest to get on his good side.

>>47706373
that would be like a steampunk setting where steam power was becoming obsolete.

why use rokugan if you're not going to indulge in the romantic elements of it?

File: Dutch East Indiamen.jpg (338KB, 1648x1374px) Image search: [Google]

338KB, 1648x1374px

>>47706373

Sonno-joi Campaign?

I'm actually doing that. I connected 7th Sea to L5R, and after a successful visit by a Vodacce Ambassador (along with his wife), trade is now flourishing in Rokugan. Otosan Uchi (this is a 1st ed campaign) looks like Meiji era Tokyo.

Many retainer family daimyo are arming up with Musket and Cannon. Notably the Mantis, who use Cannon Bune and Matchlock Kobaya pretty regularly.

Of course, the Gaijin are using pic related

>>47706385
Something about the tragedy of having your entire social order and skill set becoming obsolete in the face of technology, forcing the PCs to either adapt and survive at the cost of their status and pride, or rage against the dying of the light and die in a glorious but ultimately futile last stand.

Besides, I'd run this campaign only after I've run several more conventional campaigns, so the players are all good and invested in their setting and their social order before I pull the rug out from under them.

>>47706405
I feel like the Kaiu Wall could benefit greatly from having cannon emplacements. Those oni won't know what hit them.

>>47706432
It does. You don't think the Crab would ignore gun powder just because, do you?

>>47706456
>risking the shadowlands horde gaining access to such a dangerous substance by putting it right on the wall

are you... perhaps dense?

File: 1414076312390.jpg (1MB, 2174x3149px)

1MB, 2174x3149px

>>47706432

You don't want to introduce anything to the Oni that they might appropriate themselves.

Do you really want an Oni with hell-powered cannons for arms?

File: 1410676445557.jpg (359KB, 737x542px) Image search: [Google]

359KB, 737x542px

>>47706284

Here you go, guys. Enjoy!

https://mega.nz/#!5h5kmQLa!wuvbk18Ior_FII_hjDHASZMpJTHNnUuWqhFh5kV9iRw

>>47706492
Many thanks. I'm really new to this franchise, and the Mantis are my favorite Great from my current reading. Naval stuff is awesome, and under-dogs who made it to the top are also awesome.

File: 267.jpg (18KB, 340x267px)

18KB, 340x267px

>>47706470
Less so than you, apparently.

Pic related is Tamori's Flame, but smaller versions were used along the Kaiu Wall, timeline depending.

>>47706477
You say that as though the shadowlands does not have cannons unless you use them and lose them. They do. They don't require gun powder. They are oni.

File: 24816035425_ee54ae3d10_b.jpg (457KB, 1024x576px) Image search: [Google]

457KB, 1024x576px

>>47706540

Oni no Bōrei

>>47706574
Doomguy is the crabbiest Crab that ever crabbed.

File: rip_and_tear.png (103KB, 283x244px) Image search: [Google]

103KB, 283x244px

>>47706588
RIP AND TEAR YOUR GUTS
YOU ARE HUGE, MEANING HUGE GUTS
THAT'S YOUR SPINE, DIG IT!

>>47706715

Put some Samurai Armor on him, and theres your Crab Berserker

File: Hida_Kisada_2.jpg (30KB, 450x247px) Image search: [Google]

30KB, 450x247px

>>47706746
Just imagine it's a hell portal in the background.

File: Hida_Kisada_2.jpg (158KB, 1200x660px) Image search: [Google]

158KB, 1200x660px

>>47706887

>picture for ants

>>47706908
Phone for note writing.

File: 1405454466212.png (227KB, 819x347px) Image search: [Google]

227KB, 819x347px

>>47706908

TELL ME ABOUT THE GREAT BEAR, WHY DOES HE WEAR THE MASK?

File: Kisada_2.jpg (117KB, 1200x884px) Image search: [Google]

117KB, 1200x884px

>>47706936

Pray to your ancestors for forgiveness

Kisada must always be posted in large format

>>47706940
Hes a big Bushi

>>47706492
Could you also post part one, please?

>>47686660
Is it just me, or is the Kitsuki debater alt path really mediocre? Two rolls to down your opponent 1k1 on one social roll made against you? And you're giving up the best Kitsuki skill for it, the one that allows you to see through any act your opponent is pulling?

>>47707040

I dont have a pdf of part one, but it only covers china anyway

>>47707060
lots of alternate paths are garbage for no real reason. 4e's balance is all over the place.

>>47707062
>but it only covers china anyway
I know. I like visiting the L5R threads because I'm new to this game, I think it's fun so far (Mantis a best), and it tends to give me at least a little bit of inspiration for my own not!Asia setting. Getting a book on fighting ships that featured Korea as well as Japan (which tends to get a majority of media coverage, I've noticed) was a bit of a coup, I was hoping to get the one on China as well.

>>47707133

Gimme a bit, maybe i can find it for you

>>47707153
I actually managed to get my hands on it. The Historical Wargames thread has a good Osprey collection.

Thanks for offering anyway. The first book you posted was badass, and also not in the Osprey lists.

File: 1448069722145.gif (2MB, 200x200px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 200x200px

>>47707166

No worries mate, cheers

>>47707082
Never quite so bad as the Scorpion Weapon 'Master', imo.

>>47707234
b-but... muh common thread of all weapons.

Ideas what sort of developments could cause the Scorpion and the Lion to form a military alliance? I'm kinda in need of one.

>>47707372
Cranes being unsufferable cunts as always.

>>47707372
1 someone wants to beat the scorp. someone far up in the lion chain of command has a scorp waifu. gets involved for political reasons

2 someone wants to beat the scorp. lion wants that someone's lands. joins forces with scorp and counterpunches.

3 someone wants to beat the scorp. lion decide that someone is being dishonorable and is threatening to truly exterminate one of the emperor's vassals.

4 someone wants to beat the scorp. scorp uses blackmail to get lion on their side

5 mutual enemies.

>>47687012

It's worth not that, especially pre-Coup, L5R works INCREDIBLY well as a horror game, especially at low Insight. Tainted madmen can be played creepy as hell, maho tsukai are mysterious and villainous assholes who can create absolutely bizarre scenarios, even just serial killers and bandits can be terrifying opponents.

Remember that combat is fucking LETHAL. Two powerful sword hits will flat out kill just about any non-crab, especially if they haven't invested significantly in Earth (and why would you? It's mostly useless aside from a slow, crawling gain of HP) and even three weak hits will take most PCs down for the count.

Also remember that, despite Shugenja being an open option for anyone to play, Rokugan is, (again) especially pre-Coup, a *low magic setting*. Many people in the Emerald Empire go their whole lives never seeing magic. The closest they get are yearly visits from the local Shugenja (as in the only one in their district; they're that rare or rarer, depending where you live) to renew local blessings and maybe take a look at some particularly bad wounds or disease. Magical items barely exist. Their most prominent source (again, pre-Coup) borders on heresy and is a closely guarded secret. The next most common source aren't really magic at all, instead being the results of the first bridges between alchemy and true chemistry. Nemuranai themselves, the standard, acceptable form of magical item in Rokugan, are incredibly rare. Most Samurai will have maybe one very minor heirloom that's been passed down, parent to child, for generations, and that's it.

Basically, what I'm saying here is that pre-Coup is the best setting for the L5R RPG.

>>47707254
Time to Crab Hands? 2xp on a bushi, and you get ranged weapons ...

>>47706536

Uh. What. That's a wizard-powered catapult, you nonce. Fuck are you even talking about?

>>47707487
>Earth
>mostly useless

What the hell kind of games are you playing?
You don't need to be John Wick to completely fuck over a courtier will Willpower 2.

>>47707487
100% agreed. Early fluff on taint and tattooed men (one or both) has always been my favourite.

Not sure if 'Mirror, Mirror' fits with what you're saying (never played it), but any adventure that's freely available because it scared/creeped out the writing team too much to officially include also deserves a mention.

>>47707587
Sure. A wizard powered catapult that happens to involve a metal tube and explosives.

>>47707605
>Early fluff on taint

As in which edition and which books? Not that guy but I might be running L5R soon, need some inspiration.

>>47707633
1e, iirc; Book of the Shadowlands & Bearers Of Jade. (take the latter with a bag of salt)

>>47707605
>Not sure if 'Mirror, Mirror' fits with what you're saying (never played it), but any adventure that's freely available because it scared/creeped out the writing team too much to officially include also deserves a mention.

WAT

>>47706908

"AND THE SHADOWLANDS IS WHERE WE EAT AND BREATH AND PROTECT ALL OF ROKUGAN FROM SMALL, SLITHERING THINGS and occasionally BIG JUMPING AROUND THINGS THAT have MANY TEETH AND FIVE EYES. THIS ONE TIME I SAW MY MOTHER IN LAW DOWN THERE SCARED THE LIVING HELL OUT OF ME."

>>47707603

Yeah, but having a high Willpower does fuckall for your Earth if you're not also increasing Stamina, which does almost literally nothing for anyone who isn't an Earth Shugenja other than raise your HP. In addition, it's a SUPER costly investment to increase both Willpower AND Stamina, especially at the expense of literally all of your other skills.

>>47707696
May or may not be absolutely true, but;
>In L5R horror, you have to scare six hard-core, heavily armed martial artists, some of whom come from an entire clan of professional demon hunters who do not fear death because they know for a fact they will reincarnate.
>So we wrote an adventure that did. We sent it in to Alderac Entertainment Group. It was rejected. Why? Well, as D.J. Trindle, the line editor of L5R, put it:
>"You guys cranked this up to 11..."
>"I got chills reading it..."
>"You're not supposed to scare the GM."

>>47707619

Except the entire thing is wizard powered and involves no gunpowder at any step. It's greek fire in an orb that's thrown and detonated by a shugenja. There's nothing cannon-like about it.

>>47707731
If you've never used stamina, it's either because you're not being pushed / the campaign has d&d style rest-stops for samurai, or because you should be using it ... and still aren't.

>>47707751
You saw the image, right? Official, relevant art. There's more than one model of tamori's flame. Not all of them involve shugenja and catapults. The Crab have something similar.

>>47707731
Yea and Reflexes only affects initiative and armour, useless for a courtier. Agility? You aren't sneaking or swinging a katana, fuck that. Strength? Please, that's what yojimbo are for.
And then suddenly Doji Diplomancer-san is a full insight rank behind his more evenly ringed allies, and having an arrow hit his 15 ATN to drop him straight into critical wounds.

Earth 3 is the closest thing to mandatory on any samurai outside the most specialised court campaign, and even then poison is a thing.

>>47707744
can someone give me an synopsis of the campaing? Other than scary as fuck.

>>47707764

Unless your campaign involves a lot of travel, poisonings or battles (not fights), I can't think of any particular situation that would call for a significant number of stamina rolls, and only one of those is even particularly likely for a given campaign that doesn't explicitly set out to include them. Even then, every other point still stands: increasing Stamina and Willpower will probably cost your character in a lot of other arenas where the points would be better spent. Starting with three of each is probably a good idea, and starting off with a two in both is a terrible idea, but anything above that and you're going to start having serious MAD problems.

>>47707744
>>47707810
>>47707696
>>47707605
Bare in mind it was written by THAT Jennifer Helper, so take this with a grain of salt.

>>47707799

Most Courtiers won't raise their Reflexes over a three until much further down the line; the same goes for pretty much every stat: three is mostly okay for most things, and 3 Earth puts you solidly in the 'two strong hits and you're down' camp, which is where this whole discussion started.

>>47707832
never actually heard of her

>>47707793
Yes, the weapon is contained in an apparatus that vaguely resembles a canon. However that doesnt change the fact that it's shugenja operated.

>>47707909
... Except that it does. The non-catapult is non-shugenja.

>>47707832
The bioware one? Hepler?

>>47707974

So then why even talk about Tamori's Flame if you're talking about something completely different than Tamori's Flame?

>>47708031

It's also worth noting that the Crab don't make use of gaijin pepper, even with this whole weird, backwards argument aside. Any kind of explosives they've got are almost certainly produced by the Agasha.

>>47693261
>>47694237
>>47694562

Honestly, I'd like to see the Mantis take on a 'Nature' role. The Phoenix speak to the raw elements but that's not the same as nature. The Moshi speak to the fire and the air in a swirling storm, the Kitsune call on the life of plant and animal about them and the Yoritomo speak for the wind and wave of the open sea.

All of them have a strong Nature sub-theme already and it's really the big overlap for them.

>>47708031
You seem to be having trouble with the idea that there is more than one model of Tamori's Flame. Shouldn't be a surprise, considering it was used in the Dragon-Phoenix war, and again later in. Developments happen.

In an official book somewhere it's been given a Japanese name, and the Crab have their own version, utilising the non-shugenja method and materials.

Why are you even objecting to something you seem to barely know anything about?

>>47707988
The very same.

>>47708118

Whoa shit, the weapon named after Agasha Tamori was invented during the Dragon/Phoenix War? What a craaaaaaaaaazy coinshut up.

The Crab weapon you're thinking of, by the way, was *literally* a catapult. The detonation was all on the ball and had nothing to do with a packed charge or anything similar.

>>47706947
for you..

>>47708344

It's also worth noting, but totally irrelevant, that the real historical weapon the whole thing is based on, the hikeriki kakyu, were technically trebuchet.

>>47708581
>It's also worth noting, but totally irrelevant
No, looking over that conversation, I think you got it half right there.

>>47708629

But someone was being WRONG on the INTERNET.

>>47708655
Yes. Both of you.

File: wandering-monk-1840-padre-art.jpg (95KB, 767x900px) Image search: [Google]

95KB, 767x900px

Most fitting 4e schools for a wandering monk archetype character?

>>47708685

Excuse me SIR but it was POSITED that the CRAB used GAIJIN PEPPER or ARTILLERY SIMILAR TO A CANNON. NEITHER of these claims are TRUE, ESPECIALLY as they relate to TAMORI'S FLAME and its LATER VERSIONS. THAT was the only POINT I was CORRECTING.

>>47708744
Togashi Tattooed Order are weird and inscrutable and can get away with some wandering pretty easily.

Then there are a bunch of different monk orders that aren't really schools, but that you could still play. I don't know which of them have fluff centered around wandering, if any, but it would be easy to look up in the core book.

File: schadenfreude.gif (246KB, 275x376px)

246KB, 275x376px

>DMing a city-based game of L5R, involving lots of political intrigue and skulduggery in a chaotic, uncertain environment
>One of my players made a character so fucking optimistic and naive, I've started calling her Rokugani Dorthy in my notes.
Help me fuck with my player, /l5rg/. Give me inspiration for situations I can drop her in that'll be challenging/hilarious. I've already used subtle cannibalism, and I have a few other ideas.

Also, I'm asking for inspiration over reccomendation because he's probably already lurking the thread.

>>47707605
>>47707633
Mirror Mirror can be found here
http://www.kazenoshiro.com/rpg/unofficial-content/l5r-rpg-adventures/
The two books of the shadowlands in OP's link are required reading to get a proper feel for it.

I'd also recommend one of the other Hepler adventures, Fortunes Lost. Starts out as a nice magistrate dispute solving adventure with having to balance face and war crimes. Finishes with surprise shadowlands fuckery.

>>47708813
Depends on the rest of the party.

>>47708857
a heavy-weapons bushi, a scorpion infiltrator, and a kitsuki investigator.

>>47708879
The Boulder is no mere heavy weapons bushi.

>>47708914
Hey m8. how's it going?

>>47708879
I mean, can the party bail serve as a contrast to the naivete of the person? Can they shore up weaknesses brought about because of it, and can the naivete bail out the other party members?
I suggest you come up with encounters where at least one of those is true.

Coolest monk fortunist orders?

>>47710469
Order of Osano-Wo.

File: Hida_Fujita.jpg (73KB, 720x480px) Image search: [Google]

73KB, 720x480px

Mods are asleep, post husbandos

File: Kaiu Onizuka.jpg (81KB, 601x500px)

81KB, 601x500px

>>47711079
Murderface best husbando

File: l5r.jpg (63KB, 700x434px) Image search: [Google]

63KB, 700x434px

>>47708813
Play for opposite. Make her optimism and naivety an actual advantage, and not just any advantage, but an overpowering advantage that pulls her (and only her!) out of every problem. Then watch with glee as the player gets increasingly embarrassed while standing in the eye of the storm and just spitting the whole world right in the face.

Going with the usual edgy L5R faggotry is lame. Be original or go home.

>>47710469
Order Of Persistence, Order Of Heroes, that one order dedicated to a Mantis guy who have the complete opposite perspective to the Mantis clan.

>>47708744
Most any monk school, any character with forced retirement.

I'm gonna start running 4th edition tomorrow, anyone got any tips?

>>47713706
Make sure your players understand the etiquette code they're expected to follow. If they make an accidental breach, correct them OOC and give them a chance to do it properly unless they deliberately want to make the breach.

Stay away from a Shadowlands campaign unless you want a TPK.

>>47686660
Any good storytimes here?

>>47715627
Not really. The only storytimes I've seen for l5r are made up as fuck.

>>47706046
The crab use those in their fleet. Except they've also managed to up-armor them.

>>47708790
Pardon me, I didn't realise I was replying to a retard.

>>47715643
I'd share some of my experiences, but I doubt they'd be particularly interesting.

File: Isawa Yukio.png (2MB, 1280x993px)

2MB, 1280x993px

>>47715627
You know what's fun in 1e? Learning Heart of the Inferno as an Innate Ability.

Crazy powerful spell. You're normally supposed to burn the scroll when you cast the spell, but if you don't even NEED the scroll in the first place... Well, needless to say the GM punished me severely every time I cast the spell. Think burning my own soul.

Used it 3 times.
Once to kill a horde of Ronin Bandits, once to kill Kokjuin after like 3 heavy blasts with the Fury of Osano-Wo (only the grace of the Kami saved our party from complete and utter death), and finally to kill the entire party (and myself) after being mentally influenced by the Bloodsword of Greed and facing summary dishonorable execution.

Yes I WAS an Isawa, how could you tell?

>>47718799
I'm a little new to L5R. What did the Isawa do again?

>>47718859
Make bad decisions thinking they're good ones and be best at magic

>>47715627
/tg/'s L5R community is made up almost entirely of individual players without games eternally looking for groups as none want to GM and those who would GM always flake. As such, we have very few stories to share.

>>47696821
If you want a broken monk AND you expect to hit rank 4 go the Phoenix monk.
You don't have to be a poorsan, and you can get your base unarmed attack damage reasonably to 8k7 base, before using tech to buff rings, or kiho.

strength k 1 base unarmed.
strength of 2 (+2k0)
Riddle of fire to add your fire ring to rolled and kept damage. (+4k4)
hands of stone. (+0k1)
Jiujutsu mastery abilities at rank 3, 5, 7 (+2k1)

Add to that your previous ranks of tech and kiho, on top of the fact that you're working with a high fire ring, so you'll be hitting, and you'll be the biggest bastard around.

>>47718859
Isawa are the most hubristic, stick-up-their-ass Shugenja family who think they're the hottest shit alive, and who usually end up causing the majority of mystical fuckups out of simple braindead stubbornness and arrogance.

They were the shitbags, the 5 fucking Elemental Masters, who practically ruled the entire Clan, who just up and decided "yeah, we got this shit" then opened like, 4 fucking Black Scrolls which were keeping the power of the dark lord Fu Leng contained.

>>47718900
that doesn't sound THAT bad

>>47718960
Scratch that, that's pretty bad

>>47718972
It does when they open up Black Scrolls that contain fragments of the power of Setting Satan in it.

>>47718937
I literally got my current L5R group by looking for anons in the L5R general. I'm DMing, and we're all having a blast.

Want a storytime?

>>47719027
Yep

>>47719118
>Backround
Campaign's taking place during the rule of Emperor Touturi II in Mura Sabishi Toshi: the City of Lonely Shores. It used to be a major Daidoji trading hub, but it got confiscated from Crane crontrol since the Crane did something really fucking stupid (which may or may not involve smugling Spiders from the shadowlands into Rokugan).

Mura Sabishi Toshi has, for now, been left under joint administration by the Crab and Scorpion. This is a temporary measure, since the city can be taken easily from the Crab and Scorpion and given to its new owner easily. Fact of the matter is, Crab don't care about a city that north, and Scorpion don't care about a city that far east.

Recent events have left the city besieged by a large bandit army. The Lion can't go and liberate the city, since they're tied up in a campaign in Rokugan's north. Crab can't liberate the city, since they're dealing with significant Shadowlands forces. Crane CAN liberate the city, but aren't since they're still buthurt about losing Mura Sabishi Toshi in the first place.

The PCs are a bunch of emerald magistrates that were sent to the city keep the peace for however many months it will take for the Lion to finish their northern campaign and defeat the bandit army. Until then, they have to keep morale high and stem any chaos/riots in the city.


1/3

>>47718972
>>47718996
>>47718960
Also worthwhile to note that at least some of that is metaplot that was decided by the card game.
>Have super awesome maho shit that needs high end shugenjas to use
>Have faction of super awesome shugenja on the cheap because it's their bag
>???
>The magical guardians and experts of rokugan can't keep their hands out of the maho cookie jar for five fucking minutes
>The shiba don't actually need to seppuku because they've facepalmed so hard they're touching the back of their skulls

>>47719219
>characters
Party consists of 4 Samurai: we've got a Kitsuki Investigator (Kitsuki Sakura), a Badger heavy-weapons bushi ("The Boulder" (refference to AtlA)), a Scorpion Infiltrator (Shosuro Ryuchi), and a Sparow Bushi (Shuzume Anju).
Two important NPCs are the senior Emerald Magistrates who administer the city and to whom that the party reports too: a younger scorpion Bushi (Byushi Shinji) and a grand-motherly Crab Bushi (Hida Hanata)


>Session 1
Having arived in Mura Sabishi Toshi and given a briefing of the situation Shinji and Hanata, the party decide to deal with the most pressing matter affecting the city: food. The only source of food in the city is whatever the Yoritomo bring in by port, and they are charging exorbitant prices for low-quality grain; much of the city starves.

To counteract this, the party aranges a meeting with the unscrupulous Tortouse-clan smugler named Kasuga Tonto. Meeting Tonto at his inn, the Turtle Soup, the party is able to convince Tonto to undercut the Yoritomo even though its not that profitable of a venture by promising future, more lucrative deals.

Tonto agrees, but only if the party performs a favor for him. Tonto has a friend among Mura Sabishi Toshi's significant Ronin population: a man named Resku, who runs the Ronin gang called "The Daimios." This Resku wishes for another Ronin - a man named Hanyo - to die. The party accepts this request.


2/3 or 4

>>47719300

I have fond memories of playing a Moshi shugenja who kept getting told. 'You draw deeply upon your family connection to the Isawa'.

It was a very polite non-compliment as people who suspected she was WAY into the forbidden knowledge. In their defense, she ended the campaign with 5 different forbidden knowledge. So they were not wrong.

>>47719373
>Session 2
The party decides to split up. Anju decides to go to Hanyo directly and learn more about him face-to-face; she brings Ryuchi as backup, just in case. Meanwhile, Sakura and The Bounder return to HQ to learn more about Hanyo and Resku from their superiors.

From Shinji and Hanata, the party learns that Resku is a well-liked but stupid and foolish Ronin, while Hanyo is an honourees rogue who killed Resku's sister

Anju, being a naive country bumpkin, almost gets herself killed. She ends up finding the Opium den which Hanyo and his gang operates, and goest there to talk to them (and possibly also duel them). While taking to Hanyo, Anju fails her awareness check and notices that he appears to be eating a leg of pork; Ryuchi, who is hidden nearby, succeeds on his check and realizes that Hanyo is in fact eating human flesh (implied to be the leg of Resku's sister), and deduces that he is likely quite tainted.

Returning with their findings to Shinji and Hanata, the party gets an almost immediate go-ahaid to kill Hanyo. Ryuchi begins preparing Dripping Poison, while Shinji and Sakura meet with an "expert on dealing with The Taint:" a mad Nezumi shaman who lives in the sewers of Mura Sabishi Toshi. The Nezumi prepares a special Jade Poison to be mixed with mundane poison to create a poison that cannot be resisted by Drawing Upon the Taint.


3/4

>>47719473
Ryuchi, now with his specially-crafted poison, goes over to Hanyo's opium den to see if he can kill the Ronin while he is unaware. Ruche successfully impersonated an opium addict, and puffs opium with Hanyo without actually inhaling until Hanyo passes out from an opium coma (nobody ever told hanyo not to get high on his own supply).

As Ryuchi is about to do the deed, He rolls 27 from a 2k2 awareness check and realizes something rather important: Hanyo had 3 henchmen with him when he spoke to Anju, but there are only 2 of them here now. Quickly hiding in the roof of the shabby opium den just as the 3rd henchman walks in.

Ryuchi, rolling exceptionally on his stealth roll, is able to administer the special Dripping Poison while the 3rd henchman is distracted by Opium, and he quickly makes his escape. In a short 3 hours, the poison runs its course, and one more dark soul is sent screaming to Jigokou.


Having heard that Hanyo is dead, Kasuga Tonto sends a letter to the party, requesting that they meet with him again at the Turtle Soup, so that they may finalize their deal, and meet this Resku whom they have helped so much. But that's all for next session.


4/4

>>47719219
>>47719373
>>47719473
>>47719551
I apologize for the spelling and the writing style of the story being all over the place: I am rather drunk right now.

>>47719027
I got an L5R group from the general, and then the GM bailed and deleted the entire thing after the first session.
Mileage may vary, and all that.

>>47719794
I was in that group. Fuck that guy.

>>47719802
I was in the group with the Phoenix chef that became a conversation piece here for a while.

>>47719551
Cool story, thanks for sharing! One remark though, to notice the human flesh, shouldn't that be an Investigation (Notice)/Perception roll, instead of an Awareness Trait roll? Noticing the missing henchman you could perhaps say was Investigation/Intelligence or Awareness instead of Perception as you're recalling things from memory and connecting them with present evidence, but probably still Investigation, no?

>>47719802
>>47720335
>>47719794
We could make another attempt at a group? We'd need a non-flaking GM first though.

>>47721980
You do it. I

>>47721980
I would, but I'm new to L5R. Maybe in a few months' time.

>>47721980
Much as I'd love to, my schedule has only gotten worse, and I could barely stay in a game back then, so I'm out.

>>47721980
I'd love to, but everyone wants to play and nobody wants to or likes to GM.

I've already GM'd two games this year so it's certainly not my turn :y

>>47721980
I've never gm'd before, but if someone wants to do a reciprocal thing and can gm for someone in gmt +10 without timezone hassles, I'd give it a shot.

>>47721980
>>47722001
>>47722021
>>47722036
>>47722097
>>47722108
>>47722417
And once again we're back to >>47718937

>>47722097
Plenty of people do. However we just tend to have constantly full games because if you're even just mediocre as a GM enthusiasm and regularity in sessions means full games.

I'm sorry, /tg/.

>>47721351
for the first awareness roll, I thought that awareness was more appropriate than investigation since they could obviously see and smell the human flesh, but had to be aware that the flesh was not pork.


As for the second awareness check, it wasn't actually an awareness check, I was just too lazy to write out the whole explanation. Here's what actually happened.

Ryuchi has the Yogo Curse disadvantage, and I have a tradition of modifying all curses in every game I DM. I'm not gonna explain exactly how the curse is modified, since Ryuchi might be lurking this thread, but suffice it to say that it was because of his curse that Ryuchi was put in an unlucky situation: where the 4th henchman walks in just as Ryuchi begins poisoning Hanyo.

The 2k2 roll was, in fact, a straight Void trait roll to detect the turning of the wheel of destiny and his curse affecting his luck. I wasn't expecting him to succeed on the roll, mind you, but he managed to get a 24 on 1 dice, so I told him that something was amiss and he quickly determined that one of the henchmen wasn't there.

Before you think of me as a cruel DM, know that there is a benefit to this curse as well; a benefit that Ryuchi isn't aware of.
Yet.

>>47724304
>1 dice
1 Die.

Die is singular, dice is plural.

>>47725233
You can say dice as a singular as well.

>>47724304
Not to be nitpicky, but Awareness is about empathy and social feeling, Investigation (Notice) seems to be like what you described, noticing by the structure of the bone, smell, shape that what the guy is eating is a piece of human instead of pork, corresponding with Perception as the trait representing your ability to pay attention to events around you. Investigation is broader than just sherlock homes sleuthing, despite what the name may imply. Sorry for the undue attention to such a small detail, but I used to play a Kitsuki investigator and my GM would try and cheat me out of using my investigation all the time because he liked springing shit on us and didn't want someone ruining the surprise (I imagine).

Also your Yogo curse do-over sounds pretty cool, I'm a sucker for destiny shit, and ring rolls get me giddy.

>>47725630
Now that I'm remembering better, I think I gave them the option of what roll to use. Awareness was an option as a sort of 'gut feeling' check, and they both chose that option.

Don't worry, I'm not gonna gimp my party's investigator.

>>47725699
Oh okay! You seem like a pretty good GM, best of luck for the rest of your campaign!

File: 1463524041220.jpg (80KB, 766x960px) Image search: [Google]

80KB, 766x960px

>>47718960
>TFW Isawa Tadaka summoned an Oni and gave it his name
>Because doing that totally didn't get his ancestor Akuma killed
>TFW the fucker still became the Phoenix Thunder in the Second Day
>TFW his family fucked up more than the Guardians in Legacy of Kain by opening FOUR OF THE FUCKING BLACK SCROLLS
>NOT ONE, LIKE BAYUSHI SHOJU
>NOT ONE, LIKE JUNZO
>BUT FOUR. FOUR FUCKING BLACK SCROLLS.

>>47725791
Well his ancestor's name was literally "Demon", so... nothing changes?

>>47725791
And they were perpetually pushed as peacekeepers and purifiers in the CCG lore.

>We shall never again use tainted or blood magic... and this time we mean it!

>>47726867
The CCG lore was pure cancer anyway

This is the same lore that lets Mary Daigotsue run wild over everything and Empress Iweko just shrugs and lets him do it.

>>47725791
But hey, he looked fucking rad, and that's like 80% of character appeal.

>>47727062
This is what happens when you "hire" (booster-pack-stew) fanboys and slashfiction writers, and then make it even harder for them to have a coherent narrative by making half the "major events!" be ideas from people unrelated to the story "department."

>>47689512
first edition make characters pretty strong
second edition, all character are born to suck
third edition is samurai super hero edition
fourth edition is a better balanced (not perfect) first edition

go fourth edition for a first time, its pretty damn good


and DONT go oriental adventure, please dont

>>47689931
thats a lot of fire spells here, how about non fire shugenjas? can you replicate that for them?

>>47727329

Fire and Earth are the best elements for Combat.

Mind you, Fire lacks much outside combat so Earth is generally the better option.

Kinda wish they'd do more with Fire's non-combat themes like Inspiration and Genius.

>>47727261
For a new player, 4th ed is great. Coming from the older editions, it was a bit disappointing to see the Bushi schools get reduced to bland sets of balanced minor bonuses, for the most part; versus the wacky imbalanced techniques of older editions. While they were imbalanced, it definitely made playing each of the different bushi schools *feel* different in combat, which was appreciated.

Can someone tell me if Ikoma Warden is a viable build for a character in 4e? I don't have the pdfs in front of me at the moment but will be looking through them in the next couple of days in prepartion for a game and was just wondering what sort lion clan archetypes work well in the most current edition.

Also is there a l5r rpg forum since AEG purged their forums or is /tg/ the last hope i got for that?

>>47728023
its not really worth it, mathematically speaking.

Does anyone have the core book for the 1st edition pdf available? The folder in OP has everything except for L5R1...

>>47728023
Most every "build" is viable, because all a character needs to be viable is good skills and stats.
The Technique isn't as good as Unicorn ones, but it's all you've got if you want to be elite Lion cavalry and that's good enough if your concept is elite Lion cavalry.

>>47730748
Even a subpar Technique will give you an edge over someone without a Technique, and if you have better stats and skills, you can still beat someone with a better Technique.

>>47730784
Even without, there's always luck, dark paragon, and void points to even things out. The other guy might have the best techniques, but if your dice explode into better numbers? You get to be the better whatever on the day.

lack of bump is a lack of honor

>>47727558
I'm a rather new player, I already feel pretty comfortable with 4e. Do you recommend I learn 3e? How about the older editions?

>>47732898
Not him, but I'd say you shouldn't bother to learn the older editions unless you find a group that insists on playing one of them.
The older books are generally still good for fluff though.

File: BirHpwv.jpg (53KB, 360x400px) Image search: [Google]

53KB, 360x400px

>tfw you played l5r with your group ages ago and everyone got really into it but you didn't really get the rules well during char gen and had some other issues so had to remake characters twice
>don't really get as into your character as much as everyone else but still have fun with the party
>campaign comes to an end because of tpk and everyone is sad for a while

>new l5r campaign comes around a year later
>get really excited and vow to make an awesome character so I can have as much fun as the rest
>make an awesome dragon shugenja who is really useful and also super fun to roleplay. >Everyone else makes flat characters that are the children of their last characters and try to just copy their last ones or continue their stories.
>campaign ends prematurely because I'm the only one having fun.
>mfw

This all happened a few months ago and I still get sad every time I see an l5r thread on here.

Most newbie friendly: 4e

Smoothest mechanics: 4e

Best fluff: 1e

Best art: 1e (Fight me faggots! 1e was the only edition with art that actually reflected how the setting was supposed to look instead of using recycled card art commissioned from artists who knew little to nothing about the setting most of the time)

Most character options: 3e

Best for ronin characters: 3e

Edition that should be outright forgotten: 2e

Edition which shall not be named and should only be destroyed when encounted: d20

I'm running my first l5r game this week. What's a good reason to have samurai from 3 different clans work together, aside from having them be troubleshooters for the emerald magistrate? I'm going to make this a pretty heavy plot and politics game, but I need a reason for these guys to work together despite being from different families

>>47736651
Well, the Emerald Magistrate is the default because it works well and can be varied, but if you're looking for other things, then the following is also a good choice to start with.
All PCs were invited to a party, tournament, or court, and something bad (Traditionally a murder) happens and due to a lack of magistrate presence and the current political situation, it's decided by the local lord that this specific combination of samurai is the best choice to investigate (Either because he wants to show trust in them or because it's the only combination that won't cause people to question his and the investigator's motives) and work out what's what.
The only problem with this is that you're back to square one with figuring out why they stay together afterwards. Actually being friends in-character can be helpful, since they can actively work towards being posted to the same location in the future. If the players agree, a bushi could be indebted to another PC's family and they call it in for a yojimbo, which is a good way to connect two PCs at the hip.

>>47736651
>>47649376
This post elaborated on that pretty well.

i cant find a concrete answer on this one, but does shiba armorsmith work in duels?

>>47737350
By the strictest interpretation of RAW, no, because a Duel is not a Skirmish (But it does use a turn structure so that it can be fit inside a larger skirmish) and so normal combat rules do not apply. The ability to add to your armor TN by spending a void point is something that can be done in combat, which we've determined a duel is not, and since you cannot add to your armor TN, any bonus to that addition also can't be applied.

File: Moto_Nergui.png (2MB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1920x1080px

>>47728194
Here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_YUlI4RPylqV3l2ZUlGN3pqSXc/view?usp=sharing

Looking at the 1e book, I'm glad they fixed some of the really stupider things about the setting, like love being completely looked down on, rather than being seen as tragic, yet righteous that it is now.
Also changing when you turn your blade up in its sheath. That's a good change in fluff. Used to be that you only turned it up to show everyone that you've been insulted. And that's literally it. Now you turn it up when you're ready to draw it, as it fucking should be.

>>47740120
Also the wakizashi as the blade that everyone carries, rather than the katana. It makes more sense for the shorter sword to be the one that you carry if you're not a real warrior and the full pair to be what you carry if you actually can fight.

>>47740120
>>47740168
Where are you reading this from?

>>47741082
"Roleplaying in the Emerald Empire" and a few other places.

>>47741103
Yeah. Where. Page #s.

>>47740120
>like love being completely looked down on
But sure how universal it is there, but early 'Way of X' l5r was more prone to tell you one thing, show you another (or not, if it's straight up propaganda), and wait till you pull at the corner threads yourself.

Love might be looked down upon in certain male samurai circles, but pillow books aren't being sold to illiterate peasants.

>>47741147
Katanas being the one everyone has is on page 23 sidebar, love being looked down on is page 27, and the blade up thing is page 37, but at least comes with the caveat that it's specifically so the blade is pointed at whoever offended you when it's drawn. Still dumb though, since blade up when drawn is generally the default for katana because it's more effective.

>>47741379
And by that, I mean the katana is the one everyone carries.
Obviously everyone *has* a katana and a wakizashi. They just don't generally carry both unless they're bushi.

>>47741255
>early 'Way of X' l5r was more prone to tell you one thing, show you another (or not, if it's straight up propaganda), and wait till you pull at the corner threads yourself.
Which is a really shitty and lazy way of writing your setting's fluff, since what it really means is that different authors pull their favored factions every which way. See Way of the Scorpion, where Wick makes it so that they always win everything forever, even the battles that they lose in canon (those are just CUNNING PLANS that the other dumb honor-bound samurai miss!)

>>47741509
At least future fluff makes it clear that some of these 'wins' are probably internal propaganda to cover up for actual defeats.

>>47741578
That is to say, later writers covering up for the excesses of the early line. It certainly wasn't meant like that when written.

>>47741396
Do they though? That's something I still haven't found a definitive answer on, do courtiers and shugenja have a katana lying around at home? It certainly isn't represented by your school's starting outfit, and certain pieces of fluff seem to strongly imply they just have the wakizashi, but on the other hand the complete daisho set does seem kind of essential, as the katana's supposed to be the soul of the samurai and all.

>>47741509
>where Wick makes it so that they always win everything forever

First Edition is a warm bed of Wickism. I tend to simply ignore everything that dude put into the various books (his writing style is easy to recognize).

>>47742225
Yes they do. They're members of the samurai caste, they get a full daisho (Ideally their grandfather's katana, no word on where wakizashis come from, but they're presumably also heirlooms where possible) as part of their graduation. Your school's starting outfit is the stuff that an average member of that school travels with, not everything they have.

>>47742225
They'll just have a wakizashi most of the time, with their katana(s) as a wallhanger back home. I'd even go so far as to say that most shugenja and courtiers leave their blades naked for display, since they'll never actually use them for anything.

>>47742712
their katana blades*
It'd be a bad idea to leave their wakizashi naked. At the very least they would be laughed out of court for having a hiltless, tsubaless tang sticking out of their robes instead of a fancy hilt.

>>47741509
You sound mad, and unable to appreciate propaganda for what it is.

>>47741705
The Scorpion rewriting their histories to pretend they actually planned everything was canon from even the Wick era. It's pretty much outright stated in the Kolat book that the Scorpion do this. Way of the Lion also emphasizes that every clan writes their own histories, hence why each clan books says that they were really responsible for beating the gaijin at White Stag.

A GM was free to choose which interpretation he liked. If anything, the trend toward having one canonical history only began when they started to incorporate metaplot in 3E.

>>47746644
There was a kolat book?

sometimes i'm tempted to post a game listing here and then hype things up and bail halfway though the first session. does that make me a bad person?

>>47747057
Merchant's Guide to Rokugan.

>>47747320
It makes you like everyone else on /tg/, honestly.

New thread.
>>47749219

Have fun.