Legend of the Five Rings General

The funny part is that Scorpion off themselves in a heartbeat if ordered to do so. The only real difference between them and other clans in that regard is that they're more willing to dishonor themselves in the process if it's necessary.
Scorpion generals have purposefully and knowingly lost wars and committed seppuku because their lords felt it was necessary for their just as keikaku plans.

Sorry user for the bad ST.

Sorry you had such a terrible GM, user

>Heinous crime -20
>Breach of etiquette -20
>Disloyalty to a Lord -18
>Disobeying a Lord's command -10

Now people will know not to fuck with an Honor 3.2 character.

Following orders despite personal misgivings is also an honour loss at rank 9, though. And, depending on what the lord's actual plans were, going along could easily have counted as being duped into performing a criminal or disloyal act.

Really, what he should have done was prounounce scathing death poem and then made his seppukku in public in explicit protest of the lord's new direction.

This.

It was at this point in the thread this game began to sound gay as fuck.

Death and honor are big parts of the game, and sometimes they can't be separated.
L5R is not the game for people who desperately want to avoid character death.
In a fight, you can die in less than three rounds. In an argument, you can die in less than three sentences.
The legal system has several varieties of death sentences and big gaping loopholes that make framing people easy.
The feudal system allows those higher up to demand the deaths of those lower than them.
The culture has suicide as a standard way to cleanse tainted honor.
If you really can't stand your character dying, play something else.

It is worth noting, however, that actually getting to honor 9 is not super typical.

A big theme of l5r is that is very easy for Bushido to dictate two mutually exclusive things in a given situation, and the more honorable you are, the more those kinds of problems you'll face. If you aren't every so often losing a little bit of honor for one action in order to avoid losing more for something else, that's atypical.

>play something else
Or someONE else. There are character varieties that are less affected by this (ninja, ronin).

As a GM, thats something I've had some problems with, because as a Player, I got very good at justifying a lot of situations in order to avoid honor loss.

Example - in my campaign right now, most everyone is honor 2 or less, with one Honor 3 Lion who took idealistic so he could have a more sun tzu attitude on war, and an honor 5 daidoji.

The Honor 5 Daidoji is the problem, because he doesn't lose any honor for anything.
>trusted retainer to the Okita daimyo, who desperately wants to help the Shima reclaim their lands - but can't due to the Emperors commands that no clans may war with each other
>Daidoji goes ronin in order to be his lords instrument in helping the Shima, and not exactly disobey the Emperor
>therefore, the honor loss is negated because he is being loyal to his lords heart, even if she cant be loyal to her alliances in reality
>party is planning a partisan rebellion against a family of scheming backstabbing yasuki retainers
>this will include lots of guerrilla warfare
>daidoji justifies this by "these guys are honorless scum anyway, they don't deserve any respect in how we fight them"

I think I'm probably gonna ding him a bit on that last example - but it suits this character better to be something none of the other players can be: a trusted emissary. He can be sent to all the other factions the player party are hoping to court, considering an Honor 5 character is very well received.

Problem with that, the player isn't very good at RPing and has an aversion to talking in character.

You should ding him on that last example if "those guys" are fellow Rokugani.
If they're shadowlands or gaijin, then there's no honor loss (Or gain) in guerrillaing all over them.

Well, truth is, "those guys" are just a yasuki vassal family that use money and politics to make up for military shortcomings.

They put together a strong three family alliance, used that to bring false testimony against the Shima family and dishonored them, and then played upon that shame to conquer their province, using "adopted" scorpion troops, and scorpion sabotage - considering this is in the wake of the coup, the fact that an entire scorpion vassal family was adopted into them as a way to escape being exiled, it can be seen as against the law\emperors pronouncements

Its no different then what the Crane and Scorpion do all the time.

They're Rokugani, ding his honor.

Considering aspects of this guerrilla war is going to be...
>rousing peasant rebellions
>accosting tax collectors
>killing magistrates
>taking rice and tax shipments
>attacking military patrols
>striking at trade routes
>pirating trade vessels
>fomenting rebellion in castle\fort towns
>accosting castle\fort garrisons in the streets\in the night\in sake houses\in geisha houses

I can point this out to the Daidoji that all of this is dishonorable as fuck

It is dishonorable, but the Daidoji as a family sacrifice their honor for the greater good. That's always been their thing. See the Harriers too.

Or the Scorpion as a clan.

They don't see it as much of a sacrifice culturally. They do it for the clan therefore what's the loss? I mean aside from the odd one who manages to acquire a normal sense of honor somehow.

True enough I suppose - its kinda how the Daidoji fight.

Difference is, and heres the kicker, this player is trying to maintain his honor only because of school technique, and the fact his wound ranks are configured by his honor, not his earth. So therefore, for a purely gamplay benefit, he wants to keep his high intact for his wound ranks.

So really, he can't do the harrier style shit, nor even the uji style guerrilla war, because his honor wont allow it. I let him get away with going ronin, because it fits my campaign plan, and its justifiable from a certain perspective - and while I didn't ding him honor for it, his family was furious, and demanded every piece of outfit, including all his weapons and armor, even his clothes, before telling him to get his dumb ronin ass the fuck out and never come back

No, they do it for the Emperor and Rokugan, as a clan if not individually.

Doesn't the Iron Warrior tech add to wound rank rather than replace the formula entirely? Still useful, he however should have been a Daidoji Scout if he wanted to go full guerilla. Since the Iron Warriors are basically their standard heavy infantry

What? Is this 4e? Because if it is it shouldn't matter if he has Honor 5 or Honor 0; he'll still get the same bonus. It only matters if he has Honor 6+

It wasn't very interesting, the lord was an average dude who was corrupted by wealth and power. He abandoned Honor, and brought great shame on his peers and retainers alike. My character, being high-Honor and all that, used the Zeroth Law Rebellion card to save the lord from himself. He gave him a chance to apologize and change his ways, but it did not work.

After the kill the lord's son took his place, and he ruled much more wisely than his father. The other samurai in the court just went with the flow because they were scared shitless.

My character pretty much continued his life like nothing happened. He mourned his lord, but as a truly honorable samurai, he felt zero regret. He got a few ranks of Infamy though.

Its 1st Ed
>At the first Rank, the Daidoji bushi uses his Honor Rank, rather than his Earth Ring, to figure his wound level. Round all fractions down.

As for the intentions of the character, he didn't set out to be a guerrilla, thats just the present situation. His character originally set out to be a dutiful samurai, in the hopes of becoming his lords most trusted retainer, thereby leading his family to glory through honorable action. The definition of a low ambition honorable samurai

Oh boy is he fucked.

Hes got options, but they really are the hard mode of choices.
>delivering declarations of war
>acting as an emissary
>informing armies of imminent attack
>dueling magistrates\metsuke
>acting as a metsuke against notable enemies
>acting as emissary to other political factions

CHANGE THE DAMN TECH.

If you've put the PCs in a situation where they're inherently screwed by RAW through no fault of their own, then you owe it to them to change things up; either change the situation or change the RAW.

If the PCs *choose* to do things that screw their characters knowing they're screwed (and do it anyway), then no, don't pull punches. But deliberately putting a Wound Ranks = Honor Rank PC in a situation where their Honor MUST drop like a rock is no different than the dick Scorpion-loving storyteller above killing off the Lion just for being a Lion. You're still choosing to kill off the PC (this one is just going to take longer).

Give the player the option to play it as the 4e version technique; that way it's his choice. If he wants to go down the Honor Loss = Wound Rank loss death spiral, then it's HIS choice.

Players think they have more power over the game than they do, and largely they need to get over their attitude of "I deserve !". But this - specifically - is one time where the GM having the power needs to be very carefully used. You should never put a PC into an outright, literal, no-win (Choose A, you die; Choose B, you die more slowly) scenario

I don't know. Normally yes, but this isn't a situation he forced the PC to go into and part of L5R is dealing with the consequences of your choices within their insanely harsh and contradictory moral code. He is making his bed, let him lie in it.

>>Really, what he should have done was prounounce scathing death poem and then made his seppukku in public in explicit protest of the lord's new direction

This would have been gloriously honorable and people would've written poems about the character after the fact.

>>therefore, the honor loss is negated because he is being loyal to his lords heart, even if she cant be loyal to her alliances in reality
pffffffffAHAHAHA! Bullshit! Istantaneous honor loss!

...

...

Arguably, the execution could be considered as protecting the honor of the clan. Think what would happen if a lord fled from battle like a coward. NOBODY would give a shit if his own bodyguard killed him.

your GM was shit

Well obviously. Scorpion fanboy, remember?

My big issue with L5R is that while the rules suggest this playstyle, the fiction has characters doing shit that will an entire Sudoku book.

That might be an honour gain, but there's no lying to Bushido. Killing your lord is going to ding.

I think it helps to realise that not everyone is intensely burdened with the idealistic disadvantage. They know honour can be regained, or that sacrificing their own honour can put their clan in a better position.

...

It also helps to realize that Honor (the score) is supposed to constantly and wildly fluctuate over the course of a session, let alone a campaign.

>constantly and wildly fluctuate
Eh. Not really, unless you're taking actions uncharacteristic for your honour rank. Also, not uncommon for groups to tally honour changes to take effect at the end of a session.

Is there a character creator program for 4th edition? A friend of mine really wants me to run a game, but I feel like creating a ton of NPCs fully statted out by hand will be a pain.

Try L5RCM.

I'm not changing anything. The player wants a high honor purely for gameplay\munchkin reasons, and the campaign is going into a direction that makes that difficult to maintain. Its up to him to decide how to square his choices with circumstances, and I've been helping him - specifically by giving him choices on how to maintain his honor within these circumstances.

I know what I'm doing, thank you

He got his punishment for going ronin - as far as he was concerned, by going ronin he was being true and faithful to his lords wishes, and upholding what he feels was right in his sense of justice - a crime was committed through the dishonor of others, and the proclamation of the emperor was allowing that crime to go unpunished.

Look up the story of the 47 Ronin as an example of what I'm talking about

>fully statted out
So just don't do this. There's no real reason to, at all.

>I know what I'm doing, thank you

Was that sarcasm or not? I don't know if I should be offended for pontificating or whatever

The post that was in reply to, assuming its yours, was basically "hes fucking up, just let him fuck up" (He is making his bed, let him lie in it.)

Therefore, in reply, I know what I'm doing. This isnt my first rodeo.

That's what I figured. I was mostly arguing with the other user. Sorry if that sounded belittling. Not attempting to incite any duels here

My original point is that I tend to be soft on Honor Loss, because I, as a GM, can rationalize the reasons for the actions, and I can see why the honor wouldn't go down. This is because I've played this game for 8+ years, and I've made questionable decisions as a player. I've got somewhat adept at coming up with explanations to keep honor intact.

Plus, my player party is very new to this game, so I'm trying to be somewhat forgiving. By not penalizing his honor, but penalizing him in other ways, I'm not straight fucking the player, like this thinks I'm doing.

That is a very reasonable stance all tings told. Are you sure you're playing 1e? The 90s were strong with that one.

Yeah, I'm running 1st Ed. the rules are simpler, less complicated, and easier for new players to pick up. Its not exactly balanced, but I have a number of houserules that fix those issues.

Specifically, I have no issue with 4th Edition, in fact I like it a lot - but I'm also running my campaign during the Coup and Clan War, and 1st Edition represents that era better. I'll probably make the edition jump if FFG comes out with something that I like.

I'm also an old fogey whose set in his ways, and I personally like 1st Edition the best.

Cheers, fellow 1E fan. I too prefer the pre-Coup to Coup era the best. Mind sharing some of your houserules?

I read 1e a while ago, years after I started my first 4e game, and I don't even know how to feel about it. There's some weird archaic bits to it that even other games of that era don't have, but you can also see the skeleton that later editions are built on really clearly.

Sure.

I have...well, a fuckin ton of things, not all of which I use.

The first thing I did was marginalize the kakita dueling school almost completely and I rarely allow people to play them. In its place, I wrote up an entirely new school, the Doji Bushi School

>Attribute Bonus +1 Agility
>Honor: 3.5
>Skills: Kenjutsu - Kyujutsu - Meditation - Sincerity - Ettiquette - Any 1 Bugei Skill - Any 1 High Skill
>Outfit: Same as RAW Kakita Bushi
>Rank 1 - Way Of The Crane (All TN raises now raise by 3 instead of by 5)
>Rank 2 - Strike From The Soul (During Attack Rolls, any dice that roll lower than Void Ring, you may ReRoll them, accepting new roll, even if it is lower)
>Rank 3 - One Soul, One Blade (One additional action per combat turn, for the purpose of attacks, parries, or movement.)
>Rank 4 - Souls Grace (Attack and Damage rolls are not affected by Wound Penalties)
>Rank 5 - One Truth (Raises are now not limited by Void - Void points spent on Attack & Damage rolls grant 2 extra dice per void point.)

After that, I completely overhauled the Iaijutsu Dueling rules, so that Void isn't the only thing thats important. I based the system somewhat off how the CCG used to do duels, and I'm not fully convinced it works well. Its a long document, so I can post that next if you'd like.

I undertook a project to overhaul the combat system completely, and heres some of what I did...
>everyone now starts with two actions per turn, for attacks, parries, and movement
>parries are Agilty+KenjutsuK1 added to TN
>you can pass on an init roll to add extra dice to defense attempts
>a successful parry will give you the ability to act immediately. a successful attack allows you to attack again

And I wrote up Swordstyles. The goal of this was to give more options in combat in the form of maneuvers, and to give some difference between non-bushi characters and regular swordsman (like ronin). Ill explain that more if your curious

You are more than likely correct. However I just like to have them statted. Just in case.

I know that I can just say they have are rolling x keeping y, and that they could just deal with whatever I throw at them. But I just really am a fan of having a real character sheet in front of me.

I actually am curious. To be honest, I never really did much around with duels, since I preferred dealing with the "demons and shit" part of L5R better than the politicking (chalk it up to terrible Scorpion fan GMs as a player)

Post away!

Heres my Iaijutsu rules...

- L5R Iaijutsu Dueling -

Step 1 -
Each opponent may choose to roll Awareness + Iaijutsu, TN 15, to
determine His opponents skill, void, void points, etc
He may only determine one thing, at TN 15, and additional
information with raises

Step 2 -
The opponent who rolled highest in the previous roll chooses
who calls focus or strike first.

Focusing -
An opponent may only focus a number of times equal to their
Void. Each time the opponent chooses to focus,
- The TN to hit his opponent raises by 5 (from 5)
- He rolls a single D10, and records the number (Focus Dice)

Note: The TN is shared - as the Duel Begins, it starts at 5
Each time a Focus is called, that TN raises by 5.

Each time a Focus is called, the duelist who is focusing
must succeed a Void roll with a TN equal to the current
TN. Failure means he has lost his composure, and a
strike is immediately called.

Each time a focus is called, add up the current amount
on the Focus Dice - these Dice are not to be shown
(exception: GM)

Once an opponent has run out of Focus, he must call Strike
A single void point may be spent to grant an additional Focus.

Step 3 -
Once an opponent calls Strike, either volountarily or because
he is out of Focus, the totals of rolled Focus Dice are revealed.

The duelist with the highest total of his showing focus dice
gets to strike first, at the current TN set by the amount of
focus actions in the duel.

Each Focus in the duel provides a bonus of +1k0 to Damage

Just finished the second session of a Crab Campaign, wherein the party realized their Aunt's backwater port is not a high class place. They engaged in a tournament during the Kanto Festival that saw them fighting to stay on top of a hill of rocks, and then had to compose poetry while they were pelted with rocks. Surprisingly the Yasuki Courtier won due to being an angry fuck who managed to dodge being pelted with stones.

He won a big green snail. He's start to get that he really doesn't like the sticks and would be better off in the big city.

They also get ambushed by some insomniac Serpents of Sanada, one of which slashed the Kaiu girl in the face and caused her to flee at the cost of her honor. With no back-up, and their nicest aunt at knife-point, Shinsaku the Courtier butchered two people; gutting one with his wakiazashi and then impaling one between the eyes at a long range. The Kuni girl brought out the Katana of Fire and eviscerated a pirate.

Kuni Girl and Shin hung out with Hu and they believe him not to have murdered a Daidoji Kuge for his swords, because why else would one go ronin? Kuni Girl actually suspects he may be an ex-Harrier on the run for use of gaijin pepper and teppos.

Everyone met back up at the Aunt's manor and the locals are viewing Shinsaku and the Kuni as heroes and the Kaiu got false credit as well. The Kuni Girl talked to her Aunt about what some fire kami said during the Kanto Festival about how some child is angry at the four Aunts and how the fire kami were promised a night parade.

For a more light-hearted romp than previous campaigns, it is shaping up. Party is expanding into taking some more martial skills because "I am a Crab" has become their mantra for surviving brutal bullshit.

Considering we're essentially running the first part of Rise of the Runelords but in Rokugan, it is going very smoothly as far as story beats are concerned.

Yup.
He opted out of it and became a ronin though, legitimately cutting ties with his old life rather then kill himself to erase his lord's shame. He decided his lord's honor wasn't worth his life and neither was his own, so he just up and vanished one night rather then outright refuse.

He definitely made up for it on a personal level over time but his old lord never forgive him and he had some nasty blood feuds with members of his old social group and was forced to kill at least two of them.

Thanks friend.

This will save you much time and effort. That being said, you don't need a ton of NPCs. Enemies of the Empire provides you with some basic Ronin of all spades that can work as anything if you just toss them a technique or so.

As for Swordstyles, they work like this...

A swordstyle is three things - a principle (basically they work like a school technique), a curriculum (usually three skills you get a free rank in), and a number of maneuvers (from 8 to 12).

When you get a swordstyle, for free as part of a bushi school, or bought at character generation with CP's, you get a free rank in all the curriculum skills, the principle ability, and usually 2 maneuvers. Learning maneuvers costs exp or CP.

Heres a pastbin of an example of a non-school swordstyle (particularly a scorpion one)

pastebin.com/ips0xens

I'm confused.

Shouldn't you just call strike if you win the assessment? A TN 5 to hit? Can you give me an example case?

Because of the way Duels work, if you call strike, your calling THE other person to strike. So normally, by RAW, iaijutsu in 1st edition basically becomes "focus until you cant anymore" which makes void the most important stat - he who has the highest void will likely win.

In my system, an iaijutsu duel is now two things - your ability to pass composure tests, and your focus dice. focus dice become a game of poker, because your might have rolled a 9 on your first focus dice, but your opponent might have rolled an exploding ten. focus dice determine who strikes first - the higher strikes first in this case.

So it becomes a game of "how long can I focus and build up a high focus total, vs how long can I go before i fail a compsure roll" - plus, with the TN going up per each persons focus, it can run the risk of being unhittable for people with shit agility and iaijutsu

However, it is luck of the draw, but you can control it somewhat. If your focus dice keep coming up shit, you can just keep raising the TN if you think you can keep hitting composure rolls, so that the other guy is fucked trying to hit you. This is where the 2nd rank Kakita technique really shines

So why was a green snail a prize?

The problem with the poker analogy is that there is no bluff. Failing a composure roll just makes you strike, which is awful for the person who went second because they're either tied or behind one die. It seems to be really heavily favored for the winner of the awareness roll. If they roll a 9 or 10 they just call strike and whomp the other guy, and if not, assuming void is even, they're still at a huge statistical advantage.

If I would make a change, make it so losing composure is merely a failure of that focus roll, but still counts against your totals. But either way it's just an exercise in statistical probability than anything else. Still, it seems better than even the 4e rules right now.

Well there was a coin purse alongside it too, but it mostly has to do with one of their Aunts being a Shugenja who runs a temple for Suitengu and Isora who specializes in making lesser nemuranai. But that Aunt is currently protesting the tournaments because her siblings have stopped caring about the more important religious tenants of the Kanto Festival.

So rather than getting a cool magical shell, Shin got a big green snail. If he has a problem with it, he can take it up with the "not fun" Aunt Mineko.

It is sort of a petty issue going on within the family at large. None of their Aunts are married. Aunt Hama loves scary stories and intimidating her potential suitors too much, Aunt Yukari resents men due to her father not letting her serve as a samurai-ko and a scandal when she sought out training with a Kobo-Ichi Kai fighter, and Aunt Shizu got humiliated while trying to court a Mantis man. Aunt Mineko, the youngest and least batshit of them is sort of the odd-man out because she rather enjoys her life at the moment and while she would like a husband is perfectly content where she is.

She's probably also being courted by the Severed Hand ex-Scout named Hiruma Wanimoto who the party believes may have hired the wako to stage a coup on the other three aunts.

Which isn't the case at all. Hama, Yukari, and Shizu are just really shitty at their jobs and Wanimoto is trying to make them realize that they need to have better defenses. He didn't hire any wako and he's disgusted that this is how his point was proven.

So the snail is just a petty way for the Aunts to have other people voice their distaste for one another by making their lives a little bit harder.

I wish I had your gift for antics. My usual games are usually character heavy mysteries (so usually magistrates) but I'm having them plan a festival on behalf of a local governor now and find it is hard to make it fun, give freedom but not go full sandbox (which I respect people who can do that but I have historically found I am shit at it), and keep things moving at any sort of pace.

I try to push my limits as a GM but inevitably seem to really suck when I do so.

I played a couple of L5R games with people from Veeky Forums on IRC back in the day

fun times, even if the campaigns were disasters

Eh, I happen to feel that 4th Editions Iaijutsu rules are terrible. It reduces a rather scary multiple round endurance trial into a single contested roll.

While I agree that my iaijutsu rules may not entirely be perfect, they seem to work well. The poker analogy comes from the fact that a good focus dice roll doesn't always mean its best to call a strike immediately, but I've had PC's kill on the first turn, and die on the first turn, due to a gamble that didn't pay off (either for the NPC or the PC). Most duels go for three rounds, and tend to fail when the TN hits a 20 or a 25. Thats usually 3 focus dice per duelist, and theres a possibility that at least some of those are high numbers, and or tens.

This is based on how the CCG did dueling - when a duel occured, cards with a focus value were placed face down. You didnt know what the focus value of each card was - it could be high numbers, it be trash numbers, it could be cards with effects designed to manipulate the duel. The only thing you knew was how many cards the other guy was putting down, which meant, if you wanted to win, you should keep focusing. All kinds of clever strategies come out of this, like initiating a duel using a personality card that you dont care about, and throwing down shit focus cards, just to get your opponent to dump cards out of his hand to try and save whoever is being dueled - particularly useful before a battle, when he probably just dumped cards out of his hand that might have been battle action\terrain cards, etc.

Failing a composure is rather huge because it robs you of a focus dice, and ends the duel, so each time it comes around to a "focus or strike" you have to ask yourself "can I make this composure roll? can I hit the new TN? can I make do with the numbers I already have?"

As such, Players in my campaign tend to treat Iaijutsu duels with a fair degree of apprehension, and don't ever enter them lightly.

>Eh, I happen to feel that 4th Editions Iaijutsu rules are terrible. It reduces a rather scary multiple round endurance trial into a single contested roll.

That's sort of the thing. There's not really any decision making to be had in any duel system I've seen. Yours can be boiled down to a single roll and some probability math. So they're all terrible to me.

I know how CCG dueling works, but I'm telling you, as a powergamer, your system boils down to the starting roll. If you win, you have a massive statistical advantage. If you roll well on your first focus (lets say a 7) and then strike on your next round, you have a 60% chance to first strike (win), a 10% chance to kharmic (tie), and a 30% chance to lose.

Those odds are INCREDIBLY good because they only go down on average the more you focus (assuming the competitors have even stats).

The meta for your game is thus:
1) Win the awareness roll at any cost
2) If you roll well on your first focus, strike.
3) If you don't roll well, you're forced to continue focusing.
4) If you go second you don't have any choice but to focus. Your goal here is to make the TN too high for anyone to get hit, and then go to a normal skirmish.

I've never had players in my game group that have approached it from a purely numbers point of view. Most everyone looks at it from a perspective of...
>oh shit, if i fuck this up, im gonna die
or
>high focus roll right? well fuck, ill just roll a ten, and if i dont roll a ten, ill just nudge the dice until it is a ten

I think this is the best I've come up with, but really, I'm open to better suggestions

I've considered a few changes
>removing focus dice, and just using RAW with the ability to spend void points for additional focus actions
>using RAW plus above, and using composure rolls to stop focusing going stupid high
>using my system, but giving each side their own TN instead of a shared TN
>using RAW but with a shared TN

Actually there's one thing I do really like about your system. It's not unreasonable for the duel to go past the first strike, giving clans that don't focus on a assess/focus/strike part of the duel more presence.

Like I said, your system is better than 4e RAW, at least in my opinion, but it still needs work. That said, I don't have any ideas myself, which sucks because I hate to criticize your work without adding something constructive. Makes me feel like a dick.

The only idea I have is a "build your strike" style, perhaps. During the focus you secretly choose 1 of 4 options.

Options are
- Moment: Increases your strike priority (highest priority strikes first)
- Nimbleness: Increases your Armor TN
- Swiftness: Increases your Strike Roll
- Understanding: Look at your opponent's choices so far (Awareness)

The rolls would be public, so you know how many dice your opponent is rolling. Your goal is to try and figure out how they're building their strike and try and counter it. There's even an RPS element. Prio/Attack > Attack/Defense. Attack/Defense > Prio/Defense. Prio/Defense > Prio/Attack. Sorta.

Eh, no it sucks. I'm just posting this now because it might help someone figure something better out.

Hmmm....

Thats some interesting stuff there, and I think I'm gonna put that in my toolbox.

Ultimately, I pitch Iaijutsu duels as this:
Ultimately, you want an Iaijutsu duel vs a skirmish. Why? Because an iaijutsu duel deprives both sides of their toys - no one gets school techniques (save like two schools that focus on iaijutsu), and it comes down to pure attributes and skills. Both in the setting and out, I explain that duels are designed to be an equalizer, which is why its preferred for settling disputes.

Problem is, duels aren't an equalizer, its just a way for someone with higher void to win all the time. My system even has a problem with that, but it gives options for how to handle things - in my opinion, its weakest link is that it relies on random roll of focus dice.

With your suggestion, when a focus comes up, the communal TN raises, and you have options on how your preparing yourself for the outcome. Whether by going first, at the cost of accuracy (and maybe even making yourself easier to hit), making yourself harder to hit (but likely going second), making it easier for you to land a strike (but, like above, probably making yourself easier to hit).

So if you want to strike first, your TN to be hit dumps to like 5 or something, and your opponents want to not be hit, he chooses to bump his TN up, by half or a double. You go first but miss, and now your opponent is going to cut you in half.
The 4th option, of seeing what the other person is doing, is essential so you know whether hes going for a priority strike - because if you do without knowing, it comes down to a possible kharmic strike with both parties at a TN of 5.

Or, heres a thought - with each of the options, as the duel progresses, the longer you've locked yourself in to that choice, the better benefit or return you get from it. So there is a benefit to choosing your "stance" early and sticking with it, vs shifting your stance to something else
(cont)

So, as the duel begins, duelist one assumes a priority strike stance, and duelist 2 chooses to watch and assess his opponent - second focus comes up, duelist 1 stays with priority strike, and duelist 2 switches into the TN boost stance. as focus 3 comes up, duelist 1 decides to switch to TN boost, and seeing a stance switch, duelist 2 switches to priority strike.

duelist one gains a TN bonus, but now is going to be striking second, or with a penalty to whatever determines strike order - while duelist two is going to get to strike first, or a bonus to strike order, at the cost of his TN which just dumped to five, while duelist 1 has his TN go back to normal with a bump

I apparently can't type worth a shit tonight

I meant what I said as an alternative to yours. I don't know if they'll mix quite right without it getting too complicated. But whatever you think is good for your game is good for your game.

My lord was about to fail his province so hard I committed seppuku on my own.

GM didn't think I'd actually go through with it. He thought Id dishonor myself and my warriors by disobeying orders.

He hates paladins too, which explained a lot when I found out.

Refined...

Assessment: Mostly same as RAW. Replace the +1k1 bonus for beating your opponent's roll with "gain one peek". Then gain one peek regardless. A peek can be used before any focus roll to reveal any one aspect.

Focus: Each player secretly chooses an aspect. Attack (Awareness), defense (Reflexes), speed (Void). Each player rolls Iaijutsu/trait, and adds 1 to that aspect for reach raised called on that roll. The TN starts at 0 and increases by 5 each round. Either player may move into the Strike instead of Focusing. If both players fail a Focus in a single round, move to the Strike.

Strike: Each player reveals their aspects. The highest speed strikes first (or Kharmic in case of a tie). Attack must match or beat defense for a successful strike. Duels that fail to draw blood continue to a skirmish as normal.

For anyone arguing with this, don't forget the Japanese proverb "Seven times down, Eight times up"

There is nothing wrong with going ronin, in actual Japan many samurai believed that a samurai who had never been a ronin could not be trusted. Lords often forced their retainers to become ronin as a test, to see if their loyalty remained true even in exile.

Rokugan isn't Japan.

>Lords often forced their retainers to become ronin as a test, to see if their loyalty remained true even in exile.
There is so much lore to l5r, I'm rarely surprised when anyone forgets some. I'd suggest reading Way of the Wolf. Or, y'know, just continuing as you were.

I was trying to think of the name of that. What was it again? Warrior's journey or something?

Musha Shugyo, the warrior pilgrimage

Musha shugyou, which translates to roughly that, yeah.

Thanks, bros.

Despite it being something you can do in rokugan, the description even says that you get treated like shit regardless. By RAW, clans are jealously protective of their martial techniques, so doing a musha shugyo will just get you a lot of doors slammed in your face, assuming some arrogant school senpai doesn't decide to make an example of you.

You have to have a lenient GM whose ok with nothing having clan sensei's acting like assholes

>nothing

Not, i mean

Please see this post

Quick go watch bushido: samurai saga 1963

>By RAW, clans are jealously protective of their martial techniques, so doing a musha shugyo will just get you a lot of doors slammed in your face
That's assuming the secrets of clan techniques can be learnt simply by having them used against you - short of kenku swordmasters, that's simply not true, and musha shugyo is not an exercise in futility.

I always pictured the true secrets as similar to the karate kid training or shigurui in terms of exercising and strengthening particular parts of the body, but more esoteric, anyway. Makes more sense, even if the setting leaves it up to the group.