Legend of the Five Rings General

Oooh, these are all pretty good.

Plus, I had read in the Way of the Minor Clans, that Wakiza's mother, as a way to get her daughter interested in a man, has been hosting tournaments and festivals for many young strapping samurai to come and woo the girl. I've been considering adding in a few additional NPC's to make the contest more interesting.

>The Yogo courtier has the most earth of anyone in the party, and they have three bushi

Oh man, this is going to be fun!

Thanks. I tried to make them all things that would frustrate Yoritomo if he lost more than usual. Because of all the hidden conditions that are not given when the challenges are pitched. In the hopes that it'd help him seem far more reasonable when he turns to violence should he lose.

He looks less like a sore loser and more like he feels cheated.

fuck AEG in general. I love L5R, but they ran the metaplot into the goddamn ground.

One of the big aspects I'm going with this, is that Wakiza has a way to flex her ambitious without betraying Lady Sun - and thus, the Centipede don't get cursed in the process.

A big metaplot change, because in my campaign, the Mantis don't subsume a bunch of minor clans to make themselves bigger. Yoritomo no longer has "Great Destiny" - he has "Driven"

However, I do plan on all the relationships between the minor clans to become so strong, that together in alliance, they are stronger then even Yoritomo wanted, and can project even more power then any one major clan can. I feel its the best way for each of the minor clans to keep their culture and autonomy, while still growing into a new age of strength and respect

>Also, one thing to mention - I hate AEG's insistence that only their super special signature npc's have cool things happen to them while PC's can only be an audience for metaplot. As such, I allow my PC's to have equally important destinies.
I normally like my L5R more grounded but this is a cool thing to do, user. Fuck '90s godlike NPCs and auteur-designers insisting PCs are just spearcarriers.

my PCs are just regular down on their luck magistrates with a snowball's chance in hell, and, they don't like those odds, but if they are going down... they're going down swinging.
I agree with you 100%. Fuck their shit-tier boring ass mary sue NPCs.

My players are always more invested in a campaign\setting, if their actions can make an impact on that setting. I generally run L5R campaigns with player parties being an active part of the main metaplot.

We ready.

Very good start. I would limit the rank 3 just to SAA ( seems to be convention as far as ranks that give SAA). I'll have more CC after I get to a comp.

I'm totally cool with this. You sound like you're doing it right. NPCs (like say Yoritomo) are cool to include, but when you play it like AEG wants you to, where Yoritomo is SOOO COOOL GUYZ, and the PCs are shitstains, it is lame.

One-eye player here - if my character hits something, her target's going to splatter. If my character feints and hits something, splatter across the walls.

Splatter and spend a VP on damage? Splatter across -towns-. Of course, then she'd be dizzy for the next round.

6k3 attack roll, 7k2 katana, +2k1 from Void on damage. I can't eyeball how well she'd do with feints yet.

Okay, I see some problems. The concept, while Niche, feels good. But:
-The first rank's special ability feels to specialized to apply - it wouldn't be remiss to stretch to "Lore:Theology when fighting the inhuman or the wielder of nerunami".
-Second rank is good.
-Third rank is good.
-Fourth rank - maybe give a bonus for the emphasis rather than having the technique not work without the emphasis?
-Honestly, the fifth rank technique just feels like you decided to throw dice at the problem and call it a school. I'm not sure how to work this one, but it feels like something other than just flat buffs is the way to go here - maybe something involving spell resistance and applying it to magical object effects?
-While I get why you wanted the kama, I feel like it potholes the school somewhat between the dog techniques and the nerunami niche it feels like the minor clan would be very one note. Maybe change it to peasant weapons as opposed to the Kama and make the school grant "any one weapon skill" instead of knives since your school's outfit lists any one weapon?

Overall, incredibly niche but a good start. You could maybe stretch it to curses in general while keeping with the same themes? The dog is a pretty neat touch, and while the Kama does relate to the clan name keep in mind the player needs flexibility to try a few builds. Maybe the Kama could be integrated into the clan symbol?

My IR 1 ichiro bushi who rolls 10k2 for damage scoffs at a mere 7k2.

Considering this is my 2nd L5R character ever, I'm okay with 9k3 damage!

reminder
7k2: avg ~21.4
10k2: avg 24
9k3: avg ~30.9

About minor clans... what's out there on the Kitsune?

>Party gets into a flex off
>The courtier wins

They have rules in the core book (4e)

forgot to mention: minor clan kitsune family has +1 willpower.

I'll stretch the first rank to make it more versatile. I'll change the Kama to being Peasant Weapons in general.

Fourth Rank: Maybe allow for the Itachi Tracker to blow a Void Point to make it a contested roll against their Lore: Elements/Lore: Theology for the spell to hit them?
Fifth Rank: Yeah, phoned it in. I think I was looking at a Phoenix technique and trying to apply it. Maybe something like this:

Rank 5: Fracturing the Tie
The last lesson an Itachi Tracker must learn is how to destroy a numenerai should it fall into the wrong hands or be of a profane nature. When fighting an individual with a cursed or blessed item, you and your hound gain a +1k0 bonus to all attack rolls or +0k1 to all damage rolls made against any cursed or blessed enemy or spiritual entity. If you successfully perform a Disarm Maneuver or strike an unheld numenerai you may expend all your Void Points (a minimum of one point must be spent) to destroy the spiritual tie to the item and render it inert and shattered. If the item has the Unbreakable quality, the item now becomes breakable and any further magical enhancements become inert for a number of days equal to your Earth Ring. Performing this technique renders you unable to recover Void Points for one week.

Based off the Kaiu 5th rank advantage and hits the Anti-Magic deal pretty well while still giving a flat bonus. It's certainly something that'd make them be controversial as a school but still useful to bring in due to their niche specialization.

Fixing typos.
Rank 5: Fracturing the Tie
The last lesson an Itachi Tracker must learn is how to destroy a numenerai should it fall into the wrong hands or be of a profane nature. You and your dog gain a +1k0 bonus to all attack rolls or +0k1 to all damage rolls made against any cursed or blessed enemy or spiritual entity. If you successfully perform a Disarm Maneuver or strike an unheld numenerai you may expend all your Void Points (a minimum of one point must be spent) to destroy the spiritual tie to the item and render it inert and shattered. If the item has the Unbreakable quality, the item now becomes breakable and any further magical enhancements become inert for a number of days equal to your Earth Ring. Performing this technique renders you unable to recover Void Points for one week.

That literally happened last session. The old Crab in the Severed Hand was impressed by the young Yasuki who saved his aunt by brutally killing two bandits. The Yasuki flexed and rolled a 61--so the Old Crab is offering to get him trained in Kobo Ichi-Kai.

probably should award him with emphasis (flexing) for free.

Nitpick, muscles would probably be under Water ring.
Its a gimmicky build for the fun of "crit fishing". The more optimal build would be going for the One, with which I would be rolling 5k4. But the ichiro is known more for being able to use "rumble" as a verb to describe his movement.

>Also, one thing to mention - I hate AEG's insistence that only their super special signature npc's have cool things happen to them while PC's can only be an audience for metaplot. As such, I allow my PC's to have equally important destinies.

They got over this a lot in 4e. All the books that have heavy setting plot in them (mostly IH) have material to figure out high or low scale games pretty easily. That shit was maxed out in earlier editions because this game was so fucking 90s it hurt.

pastebin.com/DBFBw11s
Updated Rank 1, 4, and 5.

Thanks for the looking at so far.
Might stretch it to curses in general, it's all very WIP. As for the dog, I was kind of surprised that only the Unicorn had a dog school and it was advanced. So making it a small school that uses a very basic dog more for intended tracking purposes (the dog isn't buffed to be a War Dog by any means) seemed right. Kama being part of the Clan Symbol seems appropriate. Might change its founding lore to hit up the 7 foxes, 8 Tanuki, 9 Weasels thing the Itachi yokai has going.

Perhaps still founded by a Bayushi Jade Magistrate, with his first followers being a Kistune wife and her six relatives, eight "Tanuki" Clan samurai who wandered out of the Shinomen Mori to assist them in the construction of their archives, and the nine sons his first wife bore him (the 9 Weasels). Make the reversal of fortunes for poor Bayushi Itachi to be in full effect; he gets a wife and her relatives to join him, mysterious forest mystics who assist him in construction, and many healthy, happy children. Which is a nice shift from manlet "cursed for being a triplet and cursed by Sakkaku" magistrate.

>Pursuit of Mystery technique gives you a dog

Itachi Shagi and his faithful companion Scubi-do are on the case, huh?

With their partners Isawa Biruma, Kaiu Fureddi and Doji Dafune.

rokugan your way

It bothers me how I didn't consider this until now. I was really aiming for more of a Yokai-related theme because I got those neat Matthew Mercer illustrated books. But yes, I can totally see it going that way if you let it.

Funny. I was certain the technique's name was a deliberate reference.

>I hate AEG's insistence that only their super special signature npc's have cool things happen to them while PC's can only be an audience for metaplot
Yeah ... Nah. That ain't a thing.

That lady has absurdly large boobs.

The fates have aligned for this to occur, I'm not against the stupid fun that can come from it. Perhaps I'm just tired enough that my subconscious was taking over, but it wasn't intentionally.

Was mainly chosen because the "scythe weasel" yokai is known to bark like a dog and I figured "dog that can track/sniff out curses and the supernatural" was a neat feature that really plays more into what people believe about animals and the supernatural than any truth of it.

Bumpo.

Am I the only one here who actually likes the current balance of Ronin?

No, but the vocal ones generally aren't the content ones.

What's the relevant build information for both of these impressive rolls? Post character sheets.

Looking at it again, the badger is pretty simple: Strength 4, the large trait, and a Dai Tsuchi gets you to 10k2. You'll get better expected value out of a tetsubo though.

For the katana, either strength 4, or strength three and 3 in kenjutsu, which matches the attack roll as well.

Nevermind, figured it out.

With the extra void damage coming from the "Touch of the Void Disadvantage."

Here's something for you, though it requires some money shuffling/ convincing your GM to let you take a No-Dachi instead of a heavy weapon or pole-arm.

Matsu Family, Matsu Berserker School. Strength is at 4. Take the Large Advantage. Boost Kenjutsu to 3. When using a No-Dachi, you swing with an attack roll of 6k3 for 9k3+6 damage every attack. (Base damage 3k3, +4k0 for strength, + 1ko for large weapon, +1k0 for kenjutsu mastery bonus, +6 from rounded down matsu honor bonus).

Lion Paragon at rank 3 to double your honour rank for the duration of a skirmish. Strength in Purity Kata to roll [honour] dice on one damage roll per turn.

Alternatively, Daigotsu bushi / Colonial Conqueror to hit once, then double the damage result.

One-Eye here, replying anyway because courteous!

Okay, Bayushi Bushi + Bayushi Family gives me Reflexes 3 Intelligence 3, and therefore Fire 3. Kenjutsu is at 3.

Strength is 2; I get 4k2 from Sacred Weapon Shosuro Blade, and then +1k0 from Kenjutsu 3.

So my attack is Agi 3 + Kenjutsu 3, 6k3, and my damage roll is 7k2, or 9k3 if i spend a void point, because Touch of the Void makes it 2k1 instead of 1k1.

Tangent, but Bayushi Bushi, Soshi family is my favourite Sage monkey.

Correction- AGILITY 3

Who is this glorious Asian muscle babe and in what game can I fuck her?

Optimization for L5R is highly reliant on how many people you can expect to back you up, which dictates how specialized you can become. Challenge: Select the cheesiest schools for a 2, 3, and 4 person party.

2: Toku Bushi (Fighting and Investigating, all rounding), Isawa Shugenja with high Air ring and Affinity (Casting and Talking).

3: Kakita Bushi with high Air Ring (Talk, duel, shoot), Isawa Shugenja with Fire Affinity and Sage (Casting, Knowing Things, Blasting), Daidoji Iron Warrior (Fighting, Keeping the other two alive).

4: Doji Courtier with high air (Talk and shoot!), Isawa Shugenja with Fire Affinity and Sage (Cast and Know things!), Hida Bushi with grappling and heavy weapon emphasis (For fighting!), Kakita Bushi with high Void and Reflexes (It's time to... d-d-d-d-d-duel!)

Its really not hard for players, with half a braincell, to look through the rules available and make powerful PC's.

I actually tend to enforce the idea that players make characters with unique aspects to them, and that they don't step on anyones toes. For instance, if someone makes a character thats all about leading armies on the mass battle table, I make sure no one else makes the same concept.

Closed campaign roles work wonders that way. First come, first serve

Feel free to interpret the challenge as not being about optimization, but about finding schools which for 2, 3 or 4 people don't overlap too much on each other's domains while covering most standard activities. Bonus for being thematically appropriate!

For an Emerald Magistrates Game:
2: Kasuga Smuggler (Talk and Investigate!), Soshi Magistrate (Scare and Fight). With the full pockets, smooth smile and keen eyes of the Tortoise and the angry, scary beatings of the Scorpion, it's a Rokugan buddy cop movie.

>but about finding schools which for 2, 3 or 4 people don't overlap too much on each other's domains while covering most standard activities. Bonus for being thematically appropriate!

I have a 6 player party right now
>Crane, Daidoji, Multiple Schools (Daidoji + Lion Elite Spear)(Built for Tank Spear Fighting)
>Lion, Akodo Bushi (Built for leading armies)
>Crab, Hida Bushi (Built for Heavy Damage Anti-Armor)(Wears Bulletproof Armor)
>Mirumoto Bushi, Emerald Magistrate (Built for mystical shit and investigation)
>Mantis Bushi (built for sailing ships and being a negotiator, woo'er of pretty ladies)
>Musket Ronin (only one in the party who can speak gaijin languages, is a vaticine convert, knows explosives, how to use cannons, and is a sniper)

Other then "some of these characters use a sword" there is no overlap. The Crab and the Daidoji are similar, but different enough that they don't feel the same.
>Daidoji is built to duel opposing named NPCs with his spear, by going first and being precise
>Crab is built to kill anything dead flat in roughly one hit, regardless of armor, weapon, tactics, or how many wounds they have

3. Kasuga Smuggler (Talk and Investigate), Ichiro Bushi (Grapple and Smash), Kitsune Shugenja (Cast, maximum spirit talking, not too squishy). This all minor clans trio is very well suited to finding things out while playing a bit loose with the rules, who needs to know how we found out so long as we have the testimony and evidence at the end, eh? (Tortoise for Underworld Connections, Badger for brute force, Fox for magic evidence).

Just noticed something fucky looking at rules for Badger. Their lore emphasizes that they love heavy weapons, but they don't get simple attacks with any of them, just samurai weapons and unarmed attacks. From henceforth I will houserule the shit out of that.

Which is the better Unicorn shugenja?

Yep. Their lore says they don't carry a katana around, either. Bugs me when I ask a GM about playing Badger by lore, and they think I'm trying to munchkin l5r.

>Their lore says they don't carry a katana around

Something that bothered me about the Wasp\Tsuruchi

Can't we just have a Family\Clan that focuses on Archery WITHOUT having to have them completly shit on samurai traditions?

Oh right, its AEG\John Wick\L5R, where if you not using your katana all the time, you are literally the worst samurai ever and your ancestors hate you to death

>Let's make a minor clan!

Okay - give me 1d10 for the origin for the founder.

1. You can always distance yourself from the tradition.

2. Play another clan / family samurai taught by the Tsuruchi.

3. Use one of the slightly less capable archery paths/schools. They're not all shit.

4. Fucking make something new.

Your implying that I don't run the Wasp differently in my own campaigns, and that I don't remove the whole "katana is the only weapon for the samurai" nonsense.

>They're not all shit

Thats not even what I'm talking about. My issue is with the written clan culture, not whether or not schools have good techniques or whatever.

>Your implying
No implications.
I'm using the default assumptions - base setting. If you don't clear that up first, it's not my problem.

>My issue is with the written clan culture, not whether or not schools have good techniques
Other clans have archery, plus traditions and culture thereof. They're not all shit.

Got bored and made a slightly less boobalicious version of this.

>Other clans have archery, plus traditions and culture thereof.

Like who?

If you mean "clans that have kyujutsu as part of their skill curriculum" that doesn't count.

If you mean "clans that get a bow and 20 arrows as part of their starting outfit" that also doesn't count.

>They're not all shit

Which ones?

Because if you mean anything Unicorn, gotta disagree with you. Shinjo Bushi school is shit. Yomanri Horse Archer is a rank 4 path.

Asahina archer is also a rank 4 path.

Dragons wind is also a rank 4 path.

In any case, its irrelevant because I dont play 4th edition, I dont run 4th edition, and likely will never do either. My issue is a setting issue, because not only is the only archer focused school written from a perspective of being completely disdainful toward samurai culture, but that this is just a symptom of wickian writing where the katana is the only weapon that means anything, and using any other weapon is frowned upon. Thus if your culture is focused on another weapon, it becomes mutually exclusive. (which also isnt true at all considering the Daidoji have a spear focus, and the Crab have a tetsubo focus - both of which still have daisho, and don't break swords because of contrived reasons)

Akoko are fantastic archers with fleshcutters thanks to their rank 1.

In 1st Edition yes, and I'm surprised I never noticed that before.

In 4th Edition, kinda, because the armored target still gets reduction. Also, the Akodo Bushi doesn't get any arrows with their bow, assuming they choose one.

>because the armored target still gets reduction.
Just like they do against every single other archer in the game other than what, the Hiruma Snipers?

And daidoji sluts

Scouts. Fuck you tiny keyboard and autocorrect. Though maybe slutty daidooji can ignore reduction too. Who knows

The badger is far from optimal (10k2 vrs 8k3 vrs 5k4), but I wasn't trying to optimize to begin with, just have fun with crit fishing.

Years ago, I ran a Western-style fantasy campaign where a PC rogue needlessly murdered a guard he was interrogating. I chose not to admonish the action during
play and didn’t even say anything about it over the next few weeks. But as the story threads were coming to a close and the city was burning from an internal riot, enemies of the rogue PC pulled him into an alley
during the chaos.

The character was never heard from again. The player asked me what happened to his character. I told him, “You don’t know.” Needless to say, he wasn’t happy.

Well, did he have to pass a roll not to get taken?

Hello anonymous 4e writer quote.

One of my favorites is to take a Yoritomo Bushi, specialize in kenjutsu, and take Froend of the Elements (Water). This build is ideal for higher level PC's, but it's still plenty of fun at r2. Knock downs for days, baby.

Is this actually a Wick quote?

No. It's 4e core.

We have no idea who wrote it?

There's a page of credits, no? We have some idea.

I hope that if fantasy flight releases an rpg it doesn't ditch the roll'n keep mechanic. And makes ronin more viable. Genreally they should just ask fans what they want.

>Genreally they should just ask fans what they want
Because fans are unified and reasonable in their wants.

noone gives a shit, fuck off

That was over five hours ago, I doubt the person who posted that is even still here.

well, I bet there's stuff a lot of people would agree on. I don't think anyone wants the spider to be a great clan.

Ronin are supposed to be shit. The whole point is that they don't have access to the thousand years of knowledge and training that the other clans do. It fits the thematics of the setting.

Making ronin better would make playing an all-ronin party kind of drab. Why the fuck would anyone expect a shitty, unwanted, barely even human, learned how to fight by hitting trees and maybe murdering bandits sometimes, ronin to go toe to toe with a fully clan samurai who has been instructed by the best of the best his or her whole life?

It would literally ruin the setting. It would fly in the face of simulationist practicality and fly in the face of the narrative. All for what reason? So people who play ronin could *cheapen* their accomplishments by having an easier time?

>The whole point is that they don't have access to the thousand years of knowledge and training that the other clans do.

It is not like Kakita (or Matsu... or Mirumoto... or literally everyone from the Dawn of Empire) spent his whole life with kung-fu training in a dojo. He came out of the forest as an absolute nobody, and you can see how far he got.

Yes, he got really far competing against other people who had similar experience. No one, from Matsu to Isawa had a Great Clan's dojo to train in.

Dude literally created the techniques taught in those dojos. He just came out of the forest, beat some duded, became the emperor's champ, and now thousands of people venerate his style... a style he acquired by chopping down some trees while being ridiculed by a kenku.

Or, if you want to really go there, then we can say that a simple ashigaru can go toe-to-toe with a samurai. There isn't THAT much of a difference between the two as far as mechanics go. School Techniques aren't really sweet until SAA kicks in.

style, yes. specific techniques, no.

Akodo- best archers in the early game, still solid into the late. Always shoot fleshcutters, always ignore armor TN, always kill shit, and still great in melee, because... Akodo.

except this is totally accurate and samurai are killed by ashigaru all the time, which is exactly why the clans use ashigaru in the first place...

also of note: kakita was trained by a kenku.

1 ashigaru vs 1 samurai is no match (barring exceptional circumstances). It's only when you're fielding an army of ashigaru, the odds are much higher that a samurai would die.

Same goes for non-classically trained ronin. They're just going to be worse than a clan samurai. Of course, a decent chunk of ronin are actually clan samurai who became ronin at a later time, so they will have their school techniques.

He actually developed the specific techniques up to Rank 3 (as everyone else from Matsu to Mirumoto).

As far as I'm aware, the kenku just coached Kakita but did not train him.