/l5rg/ Legend of the Five Rings General

Just give them high status/powerful connections for free and let them build characters as normal. Having the right parents goes a lot further than experience.

It doesn't even have to be the right parents.
I think earlier editions did this better in some ways - Rokugani samurai were considered part of the military almost by default, which meant you had a military rank - regardless of whether you were capable of fulfilling the duties of rank or not. If not, then your aides and advisors were certainly the true caretakers of the position.

This.

Don't be afraid to give out free advantages for the sake of the campaign if everyone is getting them. This isn't D&D, you're not going to shatter some kind of already fragile game balance doing things like that.

It's still expected that every samurai can contribute something to the military, and the Crab (And probably the Lion) explicitly give everyone a rank in the military to make this fast and easy.
It's also quite common for samurai to get thrown into posts they're not ready for, with soft courtiers left in charge of garrisons and internal patrols because all the real bushi are out on the front. And then you're assumed to have the skills because you got the post. Lots of circular reasoning that can't be disputed without calling down a lot of dishonor on yourself and your superiors. Magistrates in particular have it bad.
You were given the post, which implies you have the skills, which means you don't need training, which is evident by the fact that you were given the post. Claiming that you don't have the skill means that whoever assigned you there made a bad call and you yourself look bad for not having the skill for the job you've been assigned.

Most clans skirt around these issues by either putting the person in question in an unimportant situation where their lack of actual skill won't do any damage, or they get second-in-command types who actually know how to do the job and the fop in charge just stamps the paperwork and gets all the glory. The latter actually makes for pretty fun campaigns, where the PCs are said officers and they have an NPC over their head that just stamps their paperwork, gets all the glory, and occasionally throws his weight around.

Oh, there is a third situation too, where the unskilled person given the position was set up to fail by a political rival. That one is equally fun.

Is there an easy fix for that? I mean, if you've got access to old fluff about the Wasp and Centipede, how difficult would it be to extrapolate the Mantis looking as if the Tsurichi and Moshi actually had an effect?
(And honestly, given that Yoritomo himself was damn near a cult of personality, and the clan was led by competing useless slut-pirates after his death, you'd think that the basic Mantis identity would be way more up-for-grabs.)

Probably the simplest way to fix it is to have the new Mantis just act like the old Minor Clans Alliance. They're all the Mantis Clan for tax and political purposes, but as far as the clan is concerned internally they're extremely close allies.

What *was* the old Moshi personality, anyways? The Tsuruchi I mostly remember (or at least, could jog my own memory on, if I needed to), but all I remember about the Centipede is that they were matriarchal and liked the sun; not really sure what that means.

THE SUN IS FUKCING AWESOME

BOYS ARE SHIT

They were a little isolationist, quite religious and very proud. If you pissed them off you'd get burned as they inherited a lot of the Phoenix 'Magic solves all our problems'

The real annoyance I had with Book of stuff for the Moshi was that it treated them like they were Air primary when Fire has always been their jam. They literally run the biggest library of fire spells in the entire setting.

As said, they were an extremely religious, fairly isolationist, matriarchal clan dedicated to the Sun. And had extremely powerful fire magic.

But you wouldn't fucking know that looking at their post-absorption description. Because I swear the AEG writers went out of their way to make things as stupid as possible sometimes.

I said it before and I'll say it again, I'm fucking glad FFG got the property away from AEG. They could half-ass everything and still be more competent than AEG ever was.

I used to get really irritated by stuff like that, but after dealing with it for so long, and having it overshadowed by more retarded things on much larger scales, I got used to just ignoring or changing stupid parts.

It feels like a lot of writers for third and fourth edition work were just commissioned a certain piece of work for a book, given a primer on stuff in the setting and how it relates to the card game, then are left to their devices.

>I said it before and I'll say it again, I'm fucking glad FFG got the property away from AEG. They could half-ass everything and still be more competent than AEG ever was.

I tell myself this pretty much every day, user.

It'd been about a decade since I'd last been following along with the story. I was surprisingly willing to go along with all of Rich Wulf's stuff, but I started drifting away when the Enlightenment stuff started up, and by the time a random Kitsuki was the Empress, I checked out. Then I heard something about them killing Kali and colonizing India, which just made me even more glad I'd checked out.
Then, I heard about the FFG thing, and I assumed that it was correct.

I pretty much checked out after Khan's Defiance, and only looked into things here and there just out of curiosity. Every time I looked in things were just getting stupider and stupider, it was like a constant downward spiral of stupidity. After I found out about Daigotsu going full Gary Stu, the Spider becoming a great clan, and the nu-Taint I actually got pretty disillusioned with the entire IP for a while and dropped L5R completely. I couldn't even play campaigns in different eras or timelines anymore because something would just remind me about how stupid everything became. I manned up and got over it only to find out about all the bullshit with the last plotline before the FFG buyout and just said "fuck this entire setting" and dropped it again.

I actually only recently got back into L5R again BECAUSE of the FFG buyout. It makes me feel vindicated somehow.

Last I heard of the metaplot, Yoritomo had a Black Scroll opened on his stupid kami face and the Mantis were in shambles. Was that real or what? What's the state of the setting right before the FFG transfer?

The state of the setting before the FFG buyout was basically "fuck everyone, Spider win everything forever."

...

From the totally unsubstantiated rumors I've heard it actually got to the point story prizes were basically "decide how the Spider gets to be awesome while fucking your clan in the ass" and people were leaving the CCG in droves. Apparently, shit even got so stupid even the Spider players were quitting.

So all the Wick-era Scorpion wankery and then some, now over the literal Shadowlands clan?

I have a hard time understanding why the Spider were so popular when they go so strongly against what I thought were the draws of the setting.

The thing about the Spider is that its very existence was always controversial to its own player base.
There were a LOT of horde players who quit when their faction was standardized to fit in with the Clans (IE, when the Spider was formed). Then some players quit when the spider were made a Great Clan and shunted away to not!India, and then some quit because they were made less evil and more normalized, and then a lot of the ones left were upset at the idea of dumping all of that to follow the tantrum boy back into the darkness.

I think it's because the marketing executives were pulling shit out of their ass and they were never actually *that* popular.

they were probably popular in focus groups of people who didn't play the game. spider were striking and violent and dark and clearly evil and badass... at least from the art.

Look at how much Veeky Forums wanks over their bad interpretations of the Crab and Mantis. Most of the fans of these clans on Veeky Forums like them BECAUSE they think they're an excuse not to play by the social rules and get away with it.

I haven't seen anyone here claiming that the Crab or Mantis can freely not play by the social rules.

Not in this thread. Yet.

Or in the last 6 or 7 threads. I think you're just making shit up.

I think you need to go back and read some threads.

Though, to be fair, it was far more prominent two or three years ago than it has been recently. There was even a period of blatant anti-Crab trolling as a backlash to it.

Shit, the last two or three threads have had quite a bit of FUCK YORITOMO, and you can also scroll up.

I was here for those threads.
The idea that the Crab completely ignore social rules always comes from people bashing the Crab or Mantis for ignoring social rules.
The most I've seen is someone asking for an easy way to get into the setting and someone else saying that it's easier to do if you play as a character who isn't great at etiquette, such as a Crab or Mantis. And even that advice came with warnings that outright ignoring the social rules was suicide.

Man why would we do that? Why would we ever rag on the most perfect of all mortal men, personally chosen by the thunder dragon for his honor and courage and duty and all the other tenets of bushido apartment complex? Yoritomo was literally the perfect human being that did nothing wrong. The Kami who fell to Rokugan are clearly shitty examples of how things should be done because let me tell you all about how Yoritomo lives up to none of them.

Well I couldn't actually because the wordcount is too limited. But the only thing you need to know about Yoritomo-sama is how he uses Kama instead of the incredibly overrated Katana. I mean, for real. It's stupid. Just because a bunch of gods used it as their weapon of choice for like... probably centuries while they were fucking around in the heavens? Means that it's the best? Or whatever? Fuck that. Kama. Yoritomo is the best.

Don't forget about the extortion racket he was running.
When the gods came down, they clearly forgot about the most important part of bushido, placing your own wellbeing above the wellbeing of every other person in Rokugan.
Truly, only someone as great as Yoritomo would be willing to take their toys and go home if they didn't get their way.

>The most I've seen is someone asking for an easy way to get into the setting and someone else saying that it's easier to do if you play as a character who isn't great at etiquette, such as a Crab or Mantis.
I never understood this line of thinking. If anything playing as that kind of character is L5R hardmode because it shuts you out of so much and you have to deal with the consequences constantly.
The best clan for newbies is without a doubt the Lion, particularly Akodo, because anyone even partially interested in L5R is at least somewhat familiar with the bushido-bound samurai stereotypes they revolve entirely around.

Not to mention that just because they are rude and lacking in manners by Rokugani standards it doesn't mean that they're CN fishmalks. The Crab in particular shape the fuck up at home even if they're not doing all the bowing and sincere talk required of samurai behind the Crab lands: you follow commands, you do as you're told because you're in a fucking war that will never end and people will die if you fuck up. You can be a brash asshole - hell, any clan can have brash assholes - but you will be put in your place if you stray too far. Even if that place is under a small stone tablet with your name on it.
I want to say Dragon, actually. Everyone knows they're a bit weird so minor lapses can be excused while people learn the ropes of the setting, they're average Honor so they aren't as straitjacketed, and dual wielding is cool.

>I want to say Dragon, actually. Everyone knows they're a bit weird so minor lapses can be excused while people learn the ropes of the setting, they're average Honor so they aren't as straitjacketed, and dual wielding is cool.
I can also accept that. Lion and Dragon are good choices for new players.

Honestly the social mores of Rokugan are complex enough that any GM worth his salt should be all but straight up holding the hands of new players and letting them know things that their character would know, instead of punishing them for knowledge the player lacks.

The general gist is that while a new player should try to conform to the setting, it's easier to bend the rules/remind them after shit happens/let it slide *if* they're from a clan whose in-setting stereotype is ignorant or boorish. They'll cop some flak for upholding said stereotype in places where failing social graces can get you killed/duelled/sudoku'd/assigned to protect the emperor's peacocks for eternity, but not as much as someone with any meaningful status, glory, or clan rep.

>Dragon, actually. Everyone knows they're a bit weird
I think people drag the Togashi byline onto the rest of the Dragon a bit too much. Mirumoto are a bit poetic & pragmatic, Kitsuki can be confronting when faced with deception, and Tamori unusually violent for shugenja, but they're not all like the few hundred Tattooed Men, even if they're Taoist Swordsmen or actually a tattooed man.

For a new player, I'd start them off as Lion, help them read up on Bushido in Rokugan, and let them go from there. Maybe offer the Haunted disadvantage as a way for their ancestors to keep them in line every now and then.
Otherwise, if they want to be completely external to Rokugani etiquette, the Shinmaki order in Emerald Empire. Blatantly honest, spiritually pure and honourable monk will let them question everything and not look like they're ignorant/rude in the process.

>The general gist is that while a new player should try to conform to the setting, it's easier to bend the rules/remind them after shit happens/let it slide *if* they're from a clan whose in-setting stereotype is ignorant or boorish. They'll cop some flak for upholding said stereotype in places where failing social graces can get you killed/duelled/sudoku'd/assigned to protect the emperor's peacocks for eternity, but not as much as someone with any meaningful status, glory, or clan rep.
Sounds like you run a pretty high risk of teaching them bad habits. "Oh another L5R game? This court stuff is boring I'll just play a Crab again and act like a D&D murderhobo and get away with it because that's just how Crab are, right?"

>I think people drag the Togashi byline onto the rest of the Dragon a bit too much. Mirumoto are a bit poetic & pragmatic, Kitsuki can be confronting when faced with deception, and Tamori unusually violent for shugenja, but they're not all like the few hundred Tattooed Men, even if they're Taoist Swordsmen or actually a tattooed man.
I think the "everyone knows they're a bit weird" refers more to how people in the setting look at the Dragon. Depending on the era most people might only know the Dragon clan as "those weirdos who hang out in their mountains all the time. I heard they're all mysterious and spiritual and enlightened and shit."

>For a new player, I'd start them off as Lion, help them read up on Bushido in Rokugan, and let them go from there. Maybe offer the Haunted disadvantage as a way for their ancestors to keep them in line every now and then.
That's pretty much my line of thinking. Akodo bushi are pretty much THE quintessential samurai stereotype as far as the average Joe would be able to identify.

>Otherwise, if they want to be completely external to Rokugani etiquette, the Shinmaki order in Emerald Empire. Blatantly honest, spiritually pure and honourable monk will let them question everything and not look like they're ignorant/rude in the process.
Actually monks in general might not be a bad choice for newer players, all things considered. They don't have the "might get mistaken as a free pass to murderhobo" thing going on (for the most part), they're detached from the consequences of most social mores, are still respected by the upper class and looked up to by the lowers, but still have certain expectations of them due to their position.

>So all the Wick-era Scorpion wankery

Wick's general philosophy is that shitting on the players is "fun", and at the very least the Scorpion were treated like actual garbage in the CCG and most of the RPG books he was in charge of. The Kolat basically played them for fools all of Clan War and Jade and they were literally stomped out of existence twice; they never became the unstoppable secret police until Gold rolled around. A better comparison would be the Crane in Diamond era, who were so loved by the story team ended up getting god damn ninjas in story while dominating the tournaments due to Kakita shenanigans. Ree Soesbee's handling of the Crane in 1E had the same favoritism problem, but it was mitigated by the fact that the Crane got horrible story "prizes" whenever they won tournaments like Doji Reju joining Hitomi or having the giant sea spider destroy their lands.

Good thing I was an Alliance player back then.

>I'll just play a Crab again and act like a D&D murderhobo and get away
Nah.

>They'll cop some flak for upholding said stereotype in places where failing social graces can get you killed/duelled/sudoku'd/assigned to protect the emperor's peacocks for eternity, but not as much as someone with any meaningful status, glory, or clan rep.

They'd need to stick to the boonies of Rokugan to avoid higher standards of etiquette, and require double plus bland monk asceticism to avoid gaining glory over time to avoid ever being called back into polite society. Even then it would happen eventually in a standard game, or the group would split.

It's lesser effect while they're nobody, not no effect forever.

>Depending on the era most people might only know the Dragon clan as "those weirdos who hang out in their mountains all the time
That would be the Togashi, again. Every other family had some involvement with the courts of Rokugan.

I think that's true of the eras featured in the cgg, but if memory serves there were periods where the whole Dragon clan might not come down from their mountains for a century at a time, which is why the appearance of their armies was so notable and why the Dragonfly were so important as the gateway to the Dragon.

It's not fun for a faction to be isolated and never show up while the rest of the clans are doing stuff, so they got and remained active from the Clan War era on.

Which made the Dragonfly pretty pointless. Why do you need to speak to a middleman to communicate with the Dragon when they have courtiers from the clan in courts around Rokugan?

I could be wrong, but that's how I thought things were presented. Maybe there were a couple Mirumoto at Otosan Uchi, but I doubt most people knew anything about their presence.

>Wick's general philosophy is that shitting on the players is "fun"
I like his Sound of Silence era philosophy, such as it is. It wasn't considered shitting on players by groups, so much as people liked playing Die Hard in Rokugan & Full Metal Kimono PCs.

>Ree Soesbee's handling of the Crane in 1E
2e.

>I think that's true of the eras featured in the cgg
Really isn't.

>Why do you need to speak to a middleman to communicate with the Dragon
You don't have to, unless you're intending to present something to the Dragon that you would prefer not to present under the direct view of other clans. There are so many, many .... many possible reasons for that.

Both.

>You don't have to, unless you're intending to present something to the Dragon that you would prefer not to present under the direct view of other clans. There are so many, many .... many possible reasons for that.
That's a really good point. Thanks, user.

What did Soesbee do with the Crane aside from her self-insert and her pathological inability to spell "hakama"?

God damn did that second one grate all through the Crane Clan War novel, fuck damn.

>her pathological inability to spell "hakama"?
Please explain further.

Throughout the Crane novel, the word hakama is consistently spelled "hakima".

It's like nails on a damn chalkboard, I know I've never seen that shit in L5R sourcebooks.

As said, Crane were to Soesbee as Scorpion were to Wick.

A lot of the stupid bullshit surrounding the Crane, both benefiting the clan or hindering it, were the fault of Soesbee. Her writing is pretty much the soul source of a lot of Veeky Forums's hateboner for the Crane.

>It's like nails on a damn chalkboard
That describes most of the Clan War novels, honestly. The only good one was the Scorpion one only because it gives some insight into Shoju's mindset and the political climate before and after the coup.

>That describes most of the Clan War novels

I'm starting to get that impression, yeah.

I got them suggested to me because I wanted to know more about the Clan War, but I'm starting to think the whole thing was an epic troll.

They're not that bad. Not great, but more or less average fantasy pulp; if you can stomach those, the Clan War books will be fine. The ones by Sullivan and the Crab one are okay. Ree's are Reetastic for better or worse. I can barely remember the Unicorn one. I think it if was god-awful it'd at least stand out for that.

In fact, compared to the shitty, Yojimbo rip-off Wind(War? Whichever stars Kaneka.) book, they're shining examples of literature.

After the last thread Im giving thought to a comfy adventure series set in the boonies. What clan would have the coziest adventures by a countryside court and castle?

Phoenix. Relatively peaceful. Cool forest atmosphere. The only clan-specific stuff going wrong is the occasional inquisitor visiting town and touching everyone with jade. Generally peaceful clan means your territory probably wont be under dispute any time soon.

"The players were asking for it" has been one of his lines for decades now. He's on the record as calling players at his table masochistic fucks that knew (or should've known) what they were up to when they sat to play with him.

>What's the largest battle in which you had a PC involved? Did they survive?

We once had a one-shot for testing a homebrew Mass Battle System. It pitted 800k Rokugani led by the Kami Ryoshun against 500k Yodotai led by their war god Conquest.

My character survived due to lucky Battle Events and smart switching between engagement levels.

It was actually a fairly boring game.

Just wanted to say: It's heavily implied that the Yodotai gods and Rokugani gods are one in the same with different names. The idea is to paint the Yodotai as this bizzaro pseudo-mirror version of Rokugan.

Golden Sky Stories: Fox Clan Edition.

>giant sea spider destroy their lands.
Oho

Did someone say Great Sea Spider?

>I know you guys wanted to play a fantasy samurai game but I think what we all really wanted is a kaiju survival adventure, am I right or what?

did anyone here get the onyx and after leaks? I only caught the TBS stuff off normiebook.

They were cool to me because they were villains. I could play PURE EVIL and others could battle me. That was cool, because inter-clan fighting is the most stupid shit ever. Then the spider became a great clan and I quit playing.

from an rpg standpoint they were kinda shoehorned. From the ccg view theyre great.

>From the ccg view theyre great.
That's always the issue, isn't it?

And?

How do bastards and other cross-caste children or marraiges fit into the Celestial Order? Do they belong to the lower caste by default? Can an acknowledged bastard be lifted up?

They can be acknowledged, yes.

Also there are several cases of heimin being "discovered to be of a lost samurai bloodline" and uplifted.

Make them the sons (or daughters) of prominent members of the commanding families. Like the Clan Champ's 3rd cousin. Put them in charge of border garrisons, small detachments of 3 companies or so. Let them earn higher rank with successful command of their small border garrisons in skirmishes against other clans and large bandit bands that like to plunder their supplies as they come in from the various villages that support them.

Have them do small scale recon work to find the actual bandit hideout before they get to have the large battles. Let them find out about rumors of a Maho-tsukai being run out of a town in their area of influence and then have them hear about the improperly buried dead bandits that they slaughtered getting up and walking around and heading deeper into their Clan's lands. What do they do?

There are all sorts of ideas. Just use your brain. It's the lump, 3 feet above your ass.

How often do border skirmishes happen? Wouldn't those be diplomatic incidents that would cause problems for the clans in court?

Not really, since two lords of, say, the Scorpion and Lion could go to war to settle a dispute while the rest of the Clan stays fairly amicable.

Minor lords can muster troops to go fight similarly minor lords in their own clan or across borders. This happens often enough that any given day during most Summers sees at least a small skirmish here or there across the country.
In fact, one of the warning signs of the Lion gearing up to fight another Clan at the highest level is all of their shitty little lords resolving all of their internal disputes diplomatically or through sudden and decisive duels, in preparation to send all of their troops to the Clan's muster.

Has your character ever been in love? How did it work out?

Back when I had a local (sort of) L5R scene, it was a common thought that there simply weren't wars at all - everything was Winter Court all the time, everything was sincerity and poisoned words (and tea), the only violence came from duels and assassins' daggers.

Which is kinda silly. The samurai are a military aristocracy. There's at least one small war going on across the Empire at any time: even if there's no actual change of lands involved, everyone needs experienced troops for when real conflicts flare up, and a release valve for the bunch of proud, angry 18 year olds with three-foot lengths of murdering steel that make up most of the low ranking bushi.

>it was a common thought that there simply weren't wars at all
Why would they all think that to begin with? It's not supported by anything.

I've been in love with one of my player's characters before.

That was a weird time.

>That was a weird time.
That you will now elaborate on.

Previous campaign, everyone got hitched or had love in their lives. Didn't work out well for anyone but the person it shouldn't have, because I had them roll for epilogue stuff.

Top two, Daidoji Gorobei (NPC) and the Topaz Champion Katogama Aoiki (PC) had a pretty terrible marriage because she was like 8 years older than him when they got hitched (at the request of his father, a sensei she admired). Pretty loveless because she got in the way of him doing an honor duel with his former best friend when he was like 12 (his best friend assumed Gorobei's brother Junpei killed his father because the killer and Junpei wore the same masks).

Hanegansi Umigoto (PC) and Tsurichi Khan (NPC) were pretty much doomed from the start because Umigoto had a lot of issues. She was half-Mantis to start with (Mom was a Daidoji Marine, Dad was a chubby Yoritomo Courtier with a heart of gold), she was a trained duelist but lost the Topaz Championship to Aoiki, and she only became the head magistrate for the region because she said she'd take the job. Oddly Khan and Umigoto got on well by the end, because they both believed in the pursuit of JUSTICE and lining your pocket with as much koku as possible. Umi's dad was so proud his daughter went back to "The Winning Team."

Katogama Hikaru (PC) and fuck I forget her name but she was a geisha (NPC) had the True Love disadvantage. It ended horribly. Hikaru outed department plans against a pirate king as a way to save her from getting a train run on her by Sanada and some ex-Daidoji Harriers. Ended up dying horribly after getting impaled into a wall by a no-dachi and his innard being eaten by tigers. And then the mountain collapsed on him too. His True Love ended up being a plant who worked for an unknown third party and was keeping tabs on him the whole time.

Current campaign is getting somewhere now.

It was the early 2000s, fighting was for ROLLPLAYERS instead of TRUE ROLE PLAYERS. It was as dumb as it sounded.

Ah crud.
Curious as to this as well.
I never understood why there was a giant sea spider. Is their cultural precedent for that or was this just some strange appeal to daikaiju and mass destruction shit?
Seconding the Phoenix, though coastal Crane are a lot of fun too. Northern Lion or hell, Lion during their occupation of Kirin Lands (due to their journey west) could be cool. Depends on what you want to do with it specifically.

its not a funny story.

True Love and Bad Fortune: Secret Lover are my two favorite disadvantages to take. So my characters often are in love.

I don't expect it to be, but it does sound horribly fascinating and possibly even disturbing. Please share.

Well the concept of a real person being in love with a fictional character created by someone they know has equal amounts tragedy and comedy to it; albeit not the laughing with you type of comedy I'm sure.

I've got a character with Bad Fortune: Secret Lover. He got bitch-slapped by the new daimyo of the Kaiu Family because he rebuked her. He's a small time minor clan diplomat who only met her back when they were in the Yasuki Yashiki and they had nights where they got drunk and fooled around. And the worst part is, still not sure if that's the Secret Lover who had a woman he slept with one time assassinated.

But it also wasn't the maho-tsukai my diplomat married for the purposes of outing her family as being complicit in Shadowlands bullshit. I'm personally hoping it is the gay Bayushi Bushi who is my diplomat's best friend; because at least my guy is stupid enough to believe anything he'd ask is just "warrior bonding that we're not allowed to talk about."

He's got a head for numbers, and nothing else.

I've never had a game last long enough for the secret lover to appear, but my first true love was a PC, who ended up having a happy ending because her betrothed was a useless piece of shit who failed every event at the topaz championship while my character was the winner.

There are all sorts of crazy Japanese mythological monsters, and several different kinds of spider ones. They usually tend to not be that ecksbawkshueg(else how is the hero going to defeat them?), though, so it might have been exaggerated to make it cooler.

Well I think the GM just likes using it because I took the Dangerous Beauty advantage too and a lot of people have been into my character--almost always to his detriment. He's shaved his head at this point and inflicted at least two scars on his face to avoid capture. Its kind of great, he went from being Chris Traegar from Parks & Rec to being this super burnt out 20 year old now in charge of his family and winning wars by saying the right things on the battlefield and being willing to sacrifice his glory to get it done.

He just wanted to start the damn pony express before shit got real. Still proud of his shining achievement trying to frame up a rival diplomat with an opium addiction as someone who fucked a pig. Me and the party shugenja rolled high enough, it should've worked. We ended up glassing him and just planting a bunch of drugs on him. Its a great in joke now between me and the shugenja, lots of pig-themed gifts.

It is a fun disadvantage, probably a lot more manageable fun if you're not a courtier.

Oh yeah, I know. Its just...A giant sea spider is rather specific and strange. Because I'm googling and failing to find an example yokai, but I might just not be googling deep enough.

The giant sea spider is actually supposed to be a good guy... thing and is Tainted. Someone manages to cleanse it at some point, at least in one of the alt histories.