>Heroic samurai
>Spell-wielding shugenja
>Treacherous ninja
>The terrible wastes of the Shadowlands
>Welcome to the Emerald Empire!
Little Courtier Girls Edition
>Trove
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Last thread: Kolat didn't do anything wrong (or did they?), loyal Scorpion wives, crazy Rokugan reimaginings.
What was the last time one of your PCs totally crushed it at court?
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In terms of court, probably the best thing I did was win a duel, but I was a Kakita bushi at the time. I'm not skilled at court.
Possible other question - Which best dual clan game is the best, assuming even balance and free reign over the rest of the campaign type?
I told Doji-san that she was a basic bitch and then all the other courtiers did that "ooooooooh" thing with the hands and her pet duelist was too embarrassed to do anything about it.
Dual clan game? Just 2 PCs or a whole party?
As in the whole party can only contain characters from one of two clans. Great and minor, minor and minor, Great and Great, either combination works.
In that case... Scorpion/Crab seems like a really fun combination. They have a common thread of pragmatism and practicality. Obviously they differ on honesty and sincerity, but it's Duty that unites them.
I had a character that won the right to found a minor clan in a high stakes game of Go.
Well, he won a bunch of land in a game of Go. And then the loser's clan pulled some strings to get the clan founded, so they could claim it was a gift for the new clan instead of a lost bet.
So what is Veeky Forums's favorite edition of L5R? I only actually have physical copies of 4th edition lineups and not even all of those only like 3 books because it never took off with my group.
Crab/Phoenix, maybe. The Crab have this weird feeling towards the Phoenix where they think their pacifism is dumb but they respect their courage in stating it publicly. Plus, magic missiles never come out of fashion in the Shadowlands.
My personal favorite is 4th. Many others here also like 4th. Some people like 1st. I've seen a tiny bit of support for 3rd, and nobody around here has much of anything to say about 2nd. D20 version can fuck right off.
Where do I learn about governing as well as districts, provinces, and castle life in the empire? What is the scale of several villages and who controls them?
Oh god the d20 version. I thought I had erased that from memory. I personally enjoy 4th but having never played any other edition it isn't very easily determined.
I've played a Crab/Scorpion game and it was fun. A little Crane and Lion got thrown in though via NPCs
Were the NPCs bullied?
my favorite is 4th by far
first is like 4th but less balanced and more powerfull
second........they nerfed first ed HARD and everybody suck at everything forever
third ed, they WAY over corrected second ed, i call this edition: samurai super hero
4th ed is for me the best edition, it like first ed but...advanced and balanced as best they could
there is no d20 l5r, no, shut up
it was a colony game in the ex ivory kingdoms
in the first summer court (winter court but for the colony) my scorpion ex-ronin kept whispering ideas of events to the master of ceremonies (right hand of the ivory champion in our game)
all the ideas worked wonderfully and i got good glory and a powerfull ally. shit was so koku
>kami directly responsible for tearing a hole to Jigokou though Ningen-Do, creating the shadowlands
>kami completely incapable of dealing with the shadowlands, rely on mortals
>kami come down to earth and establish a brutal, totalitarian caste-based system
>kami hold your soul ransom, forcing you to serve in their caste-based system and punishing you in the next life if you disobey
>kami honestly think they're the good guys
Why have you not joined the Kolat yet, user? Will you die as a slave, or will you fight as a man?
>believing the kami exist
Temae.
Well, if the kami /don't/ exist, that probably means that the kenku were right, and if my old GM taught me anything, it's to never trust the Winged Jew.
>Implying the Kami aren't beholden to the Celestial Dragon
You want to piss off the thing that commands all of the non-corrupt gods, the beings that run day to day life, every afterlife (Except the one where you become oni poop), and the Sun and Moon themselves?
I hate that the new sun and moon got booted. The fuck was with that?
>the Sun and Moon themselves
Why would I wish to dishonor Yakamo and Hitomi, who are the very embodiment of what it means to be human.
The fortunes are a bunch of hypocrites who are fine with Tengoku controlling the destiny of Ningen-Do, but lose their shit when its the other way around.
If the Celestial Dragon told Yakamo to stop shining on your crops for the next few years, guess what? You get super dark stormclouds over your farmland for the next decade.
Fuck that Kolat for life.
The Celestial Dragon sounds like a total cunt. Why the fuck would I worship that overgrown lizard?
You don't. It's such a holier-than-thou cunt that it doesn't directly interact with ningen-do at all. There's a whole layer of celestial bureaucracy between it and everything else worth mentioning in the heavens, and then there's a whole layer of existence between that and ningen-do.
A famous gaijin once said "No Fortunes or Emperors, only Man," and I can't agree more.
Tengoku has no right to rule Ningen-Do, nor does if offer Ningen-Do anything through its rulership; 'destiny belongs to the mortal man,' after-all.
If the Fortunes are gonna punish me eternally for daring to live free and do the right thing, then that's fine. I'm a stubborn Akodo bushi: I would suffer any punishment before I bent the knee to false and undeserving rulers.
>I'm a stubborn Akodo bushi: I would suffer any punishment before I bent the knee to false and undeserving rulers.
You don't get to take pride in being an Akodo bushi and then decry everything Akodo stood for.
>"Loyalty was not learned, neither was it inherited, it must be earned... Loyalty, unlike the others, must be given constant attention. A leader had to build loyalty in his men." - Akodo
But user, I haven't.
Hantei earned Akodo's loyalty to such a degree that they can coast on it forevermore.
You are the odd one out who will probably be reincarnated as a goat, or dung beetle, or minor gaki.
And I shall be the most honorable goat in the field; the cleanest dung beetle in the heap; the most stalwart of minor gaki.
The Celestial Dragon has done nothing to earn my loyalty, and all those who serve such a foolish creature have, in doing so, proven themselves to be unworthy of loyalty.
Any samurai would give his life for duty and honor. It takes a Kolat to give his soul to such noble devotions.
There's nothing noble in what the Kolat does for its own benefit. It has accomplished nothing and helped nobody but itself. Even that whole thing with the War Against The Darkness was self-serving, because The Nothing winning means the Kolat get snuffed out along with everything else.
And am I so ignoble and "self serving," when I have been willing to sacrifice anything for noble principles?
Fact of the matter is, the Kolat didn't fight in the War Against The Darkness to save their own skin, but in fact, for the exact opposite reason: they fought, even though they knew it would expose them, and that they would be destroyed by those they tried to save; the ones they had been fighting for this entire time.
I doubt it, given that noble self sacrifice is not and has never been their thing.
They fought to save their own hides, and it was the only positive thing they've ever accomplished in the entire history of their existence.
Even when events unfolded that matched their goals, it wasn't actually them doing it. The Gozoku brought divine Imperial power to its knees while the Kolat just watched. Yakamo and Hitomi worked out the sun and moon problem and the Kolat were just as blindsided as everything else in existence.
You can't even say that a broken clock is right twice a day because they only did the right thing one time.
They've been doing the right thing for one thousand years. The kami had no right to rule mortal men, especially since it was mortals who were the deciding factor in the War Against Fu Leng.
They've been doing jack shit for one thousand years.
Literally the only thing they ever accomplished was handing out Crystal during the War against Darkness. That's it.
They've killed no fortunes, weakened no kami, empowered no mortal (Except among themselves in their own organization), affected no social change, and generally only brought down the quality of life for people through gratuitous blackmail, assassination, brainwashing, and economic warfare.
You can't argue with the brainwashed so it is best just to cut him down.
They've empowered mortals of their own organization (of whom they accept based on merit, no birth), grown steadly in power, stymied the actions of the enemy, prepared, planned, and managed to do quite with a strategy of 'death by a thousand cuts.'
Nothing wrong with playing the long game.
your side has enslaved the very souls of every mortal to ever live; you don't have the moral high-ground
Renounce this defiled world and attain the Pure Land
Renounce this defiled world and attain the Pure Land
Renounce this defiled world and attain the Pure Land
I at the least, am more free than you, a follower of those who are descended from a group made up of those that would burn the world over petty revenge against the winners and who most likely follow a perversion of Shinsei's teachings.
They have done literally nothing. "Death by a thousand cuts" implies death. "A thousand impotent cuts followed by directly giving yourself away" is more appropriate. They can't even free the hinin. They can't even take down the shittiest of minor fortunes. The goddamn Fortune of Dung is more powerful than the entirety of the Kolat.
>never harmed or affected the beings in Tengoku
>just killed and ruined the lives of their fellow mortals
Free the sheeple by killing them! It's the only way!
Must have missed the part where Mirumoto, Matsu, Kakita, and all the rest were enslaved instead of following the kami once they realized the way of the kami was objectively better than the constant tribal warfare.
Also the Kolat were never about defying the kami because it was the right thing to do; they were all a bunch of salty chieftains who were mad they weren't top dog anymore.
I, at the least, am
Really need to reread these before posting.
They should have just fucked off with the Yobanjin tribes. They didn't want to deal with the Kami and they seem to be doing just fine up North. Other than that War of Dark Fire thing, but hey, nobody has a perfect record.
Renounce this defiled world and attain the Pure Land
Renounce this defiled world and attain the Pure Land
Renounce this defiled world and attain the Pure Land
Well that's as much the fault of the Phoenix as anyone else.
>the Kolat were never about defying the kami because it was the right thing to do; they were all a bunch of salty chieftains who were mad they weren't top dog anymore
the kolat has been a lot more than angry warlords for the majority of its existence, just like rokugan has been a lot less than the divine, perfect empire of its inception.
You know, all those bad thins can be traced back to a weak woman who couldn't slap his retarded husband when he went haywire, and the retarded daughter of those two who thought she was THE perfect special snowflake.
Really, the Kolat should be an anti-woman organization.
The Kami aren't beholden to the Celestial Dragon. That thing is barely a middle-man whose only job is to keep Ningen-do and Tengoku apart and act as a liaison between the two.
>Also the Kolat were never about defying the kami because it was the right thing to do; they were all a bunch of salty chieftains who were mad they weren't top dog anymore.
That's the Yobanjin. The Kolat was created by a bunch of philosophers and other big time thinkers.
Courtiers actually carrying their Daisho in art?
That's unheard of!
Scorpion and also Scorpion.
Or
Scorpion and Crab
Count the swords dumbass. Also, check the length of what they do have.
It's one blade, not two.
Would there be a problem with a retired monk, who served previously as a shugenja, with him using his shugenja powers?
Is the monk using their communion with the kami to do un-monk-like things?
No, though I remember reading somewhere that monks aren't supposed to reveal too much about their lives before monkhood.
They are *supposed* to leave their previous life behind when their head is shaved and they are given a new name.
More so in earlier editions, you may find examples of monks that just plain DGAF about following the expected monk guidelines. Some keep their daisho or wakizashi, others maintain clan ties (more common for retired Lion to hang around as advisors), etc.
Do different clans have different sepekku customs? Like maybe the Mantis jump off their ships, or the Badger squish themselves with a large boulder.
I don't think there's anything like that, though the idea of samurai crushing themselves with boulders sounds pretty rad. A proper seppuku's a pretty big deal though. I bet the crane invented it.
Though, as far as I remember, there are multiple ways of properly cutting your belly open. Maybe there's regional differences to it in rokugan.
Though if you are the GM as a player I wouldn't care too much if there were boulder seppukuing samurai around. Seppuku's supposed to be pretty hard to do though, so I would keep in mind it's purpose if I went coming up with drasticly different seppuku methods.
Can someone point me to all material about etiquette while visiting another samurai.
Considering the ammount of ritualisation surrounding rokugan's iaijutsu: If two samurai were, for example, sitting around and drinking, and they started to quarrel. Would you use kenjutsu or iaijutsu skill to quickly draw your sword and smite the other?
Depends on the context. It'd probably be keyed off of Reflexes as you make it seem like the deciding factor is how quickly the samurai notices shit's about to go down and reflexively draw his sword. Kenjutsu as a skill is a pretty safe choice here, as it'd also decide how well you can draw from a seated position, navigate your sword around the table you're sitting behind and the objects on said table, and manage to hit the samurai at an angle you're normally not cutting from. If it'd be purely swiftness of drawing where these other factors play a secondary role, skill at Iaijutsu probably is more useful for striking first than general skill with a sword.
But then again, using Iaijutsu as a skill feels a lot more flavorful for these things, and could be a way to give players who invested heavily into Iaijutsu a small advantage next to their duelling niche.
Also, side remark, it's not because a skill is generally used in one very specific instance that it can't be useful outside of that instance. Duelling may be a formal affair, but being a skilled Iaijutsu duelist could potentially also pay off in other circumstances.
you called?
>They have done literally nothing
1. They've survived, unlike all of the setting's major "villains."
2. Read some of the alt-history settings where Fu Leng wins, or some other terrible thing happens to the empire; the Kolat are always major players in these settings, because they've been lying in wait for the right time.
Mirumoto Dufusu has just slapped your waifu's ass and asked what you're going to do about it. You're unarmed, but fortunately you know one of Rokugan's secret martial arts! How do you respond? Keep in mind that Dufusu is armed with his daisho and is not afraid to use it!
Spread rumors of his impropriety and of his inability to restrain himself. Do it in a way that you cannot be called out for slandering him.
I tell him that dank memes are the true path to enlightenment and watch him as he ruins his life shitposting in the mountains.
What's proper etiquette if you are visiting a stranger on some super official bussiness?
Ideally with a letter beforehand, but acceptable to just show up, you introduce yourself and then say you have super official business. Then if you trust them not to murderstab you, you give your daisho to the servant staff and then you talk about your business.
FRO8 character registration begins in 6 hours. Hype!
Iaijutus is what I'd use for that, given that it's literally the skill for drawing a sword fast.
Kenjutsu does have a Mastery ability for drawing a katana, but Iaijutsu has a better version of the ability at a lower Mastery rank, and has less uses overall.
There's also some fluff about yojimbo and guards (Seppun in particular) who practice Iaijutsu not to actually duel with it, but to be able to draw their swords faster in emergencies, so there's fluff support for it being the "draw faster than the next guy" skill.
As early as 1E, the rules stated that you wasted the first round drawing your weapon unless you used Iaijutsu to draw and strike with your sword, so it always had an use even if you weren't a dedicated duelist.
Well, 4e sure doesn't have a rule like that. And if it does, where?
I like the rule though.
What is that? Just give me the gist of it?
4e says that medium and large weapons require a simple action to draw unless you've got a Technique or Skill Mastery that says otherwise.
Iaijutsu rank 3 says otherwise for Katanas. Kenjutsu rank 5 says otherwise for all swords. Polearms, Spears, and Staves rank 7 say otherwise for, their respective weapons.
The crab dignitaries are eating all your food. What do you do!
Distract them by asking to see a draw lot play.
Appreciate their honest enjoyment of the feast prepared by your Shosuro friend's personal chef and staff. Have they noticed the special spice? It's quite a shocker!
Let them. I'm not so poor that a bunch of locusts could cause me difficulty, and so full that they'/re sleepy dignitaries are a powerful asset - they'll agree to anything.
I specifically ordered my kitchen staff to prepare an entire vat of deep fried dumplings for just this reason.
In the event that there's any left afterwards, we cart it out to the castle village and let the peasants take it home.
Jest at them that they are so poorly fed on the Wall that they have to come to my castle and eat all my food.
Pray that they're offended enough to start a fight then. Otherwise, you might conceivably get an invitation to the Wall, see how well a Crab eats.
It's a pbp l5r 4e game, where the GMs have made duelling more complicated, removed or altered a bunch of schools and paths for various reasons (some good, some not so good), and otherwise messed with the system. AFAIK, they didn't touch weapon stats.
Does Permanent Wound mean that your Healthy rank is always full, or does it mean that Nicked is always full and you go straight to Grazed after healthy is knocked away?
It means healthy is always full.
bring out the drink, and pray to the fortunes that they took to it just as enthusiastically.
But did you remember ordering shochu? Sake won't even faze them.
Of course not: I want them to be pliable, not vomiting on my new shoes.
...
>tfw the buyout killed your FLGS
L5R was their biggest seller, even over Magic
It was a samurai fucking wonderland and now it's gone.
Where the fuck do you live?
Tucson. Well, I did at the time.
Hat's game of choice was L5R, and he pushed that shit hardcore. Ran every Imperial Gift, every event, would drive folks to Kotei just to make sure local players got to try their decks at the big events. Magic and 40k were big sellers too of course but he was all in on L5R, and his wife ran the tabletop.
The shop was always in that FLGS 'hanging on by a thread' state even when it was doing well, and the buyout meant no new product or events.
It's a duel! Tomorrow, at sunset. We will strike when the last rays of Amaterasu's light disappear, and see who will be consumed by the darkness forever.
Also, my secret martial art is the Thousand Katas of Steel. So either Mirumoto Dufusu has a masterful B plan or his life ends tomorrow.
Ask them why they are eating so much. If they have food shortage in their lands then I should assemble a few carts of foodsupplies the can take when they leave.
Otherwise, all I should do is wish them good health. That food goes to the best place it can go.
Worth applying, Veeky Forums? Previous experience with l5r online felt horribly clique-y and never quite became fun. Wondering if this one will feel similar.
Implying that L5R doesn't refer to a non-bushi's wakizashi as their daisho
Well I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure that's how it's written in the books. I know that's not the historical/real world meaning of the word.
Let me rephrase myself to appease these sad pedants:
Courtiers carrying their wakizashis in art? That's unheard of!
I grapple him. Enjoy being pulped between my giant Crab pecs.
Join with a friend or two and make your own fun.
You get as much out of these things as you put in, it's different from a smaller, personal game.
Anyone want to be my friend to make our own fun?
What timezone?