/L5RG/ - Legend Of The Five Rings General

>The Talons are an elite unit of fighters who are ordered to where the battle is most intense or the most desperate. They are fearless warriors. doing what they must to serve the clan in times of war. They wield their blades in the traditional Mirumoto dual-wielding style, slashing their enemies in a flurry of blows. They use both blades to deadly efficiency, and few enemies can stand against a charge from a legion of Talons. Ironically, many in the Dragon Lands view the Talons with disdain, claiming that their seemingly wild. free-swinging attacks are barbaric and insulting to the sophisticated style created by Mirumoto. The Talons are indifferent to this criticism, holding to the belief that their furious style is yet another evolution of the daisho technique.

>The Dragon Talons were the Heavy Infantry of the Dragon Clan, the shock troops against the enemy's tough defenders and special units. They were trained in use of the heavy sword known as the no-dachi.

>The clan’s heavy infantry, known as the Dragon Talons, are trained in use of the heavy sword known as the no-dachi
It's odd that they changed that for 4e, but also odd to think of anything from Mirumoto as sophisticated. Though at least some writing through the editions gives the idea that the wakizashi should be used more for defence than attack.

...

Sophisticated in this sense simply means highly developed. Mirumoto was never sophisticated in the social sense, but his swordplay techniques were a lot more refined than anyone else of his generation and arguably as refined as Kakita's techniques, though in in a different direction.

Huh. Thanks for the tip.

Nobody ever has the Atlas of Rokugan as a PDF....fucking AEG

Care for some tea?

Threadly reminder to never accept a gift from a Crane.

It'd be rude to refuse.

>two female brocks in background
>generic white girl in foreground

thanks l5r art.

Wonder how he's going to justify that to the Winter Court.

Probably divert attention to a Tortoise's red hair or something.

Is Lion the best clan to start off with if I want to go stoic frowny face warrior?

I feel like Crab are the stoic ones.

Only the Akodo family.
Other good stoics are the Daidoji of the Crane, the Hiruma and (later)Toritaka of the Crab, and male Moshi from the Centipede (later Mantis).
Avoid the happy Shinjo, bellicose Hida, and most of the emotional outbursts families such as Yoritomo, Mirumoto, Moto, Matsu and Ikoma.

Depends on what kind of stoic frowny face bushi you want to be.

Akodo will be intensely honourable.

Hida can be stoic, while Hiruma have long been quite stoic over losing their lands.

Daidoji will be honourable, but pragmatic.

Mirumoto will be more mysterious or poetic.

Kitsu are traditionally extremely stoic and traditional beyond even Lion standards.

>most of the emotional outbursts families such as [...] Mirumoto [...] and Ikoma
Ikoma are emotional as part of a specific duty, and have samurai who don't do that duty. Mirumoto I think you just don't get.

Is Maho inherently bad or is it just that everyone who's ever used it was a twat?

Sent a request, im quite interested

Is that guy an oni, or just shitty art ? His hand us as big as his victim's head.

Inherently bad. It's powered by dark spirits from the jealous realm of objective evil.

>Is that guy an oni
He's a crab

>or just shitty art
Manlets, everyone. They really will never learn.

It's parody art. Say "Hida Kanchimi" slowly, while thinking about ninja.

...

>One eye means near zero depth perception.
>Archer.

Are you going to shame your ancestors by not doing what they do? The thing they are famous for and the one thing your clan has to offer?

You still have environmental cues as well as the simple size of the target.

Why aren't Kami everywhere?

I mean like the little kami all over Rokugan, not Sun and Moon's kids. These little guys aren't really anything special they just seem like little elementals and yet....
I don't think that they are anywhere else in the world.

To be fair, the character was at WCIV and lost to an Utaku in the archery contest...

...

Moreover, the arrow knows the way. You don't actually aim in Rokugani archery.

bump

Finally. Some good Scorpion artwork.

Still looking for a couple players.

>mfw Dragon shugenja from Togashi family, especially if they get tattoos, think it's apparently license to play Chaotic Neutral characters with LOLRANDUM mentality as long as they say some cryptic shit every now and then

Which L5R clan has the best hair?

The Crane, probably.
They can bleach it and it still looks okay.
But the real answer is the Bee Clan. Hair is part of fashion, and nobody fashions better than the Hachi.

Still better than having a Fudoist Nun decked out with bullshit-tier kiho.
>She is the mother of all LULRANDUM
>She can literally kill you with her breath
Calling her "volatile" doesn't even start to describe it...

ban supernatural elements for PCs.

enjoy your games

The party would be dead if not for the Utaku Battle Maiden and her Crescent Moon tattoo, so I guess a half-crazy nun with superpowers is a small price to pay for what her kind brings to the table.

why do so many GMs let non-Togashi get their tats?

I haven't seen it done in 4e. Kinda requires serious investment via multiple schools, and there isn't exactly a mobile tattooing station going around Rokugan.

There is a way for non-Togashi to get a tat in the Great Clans heritage tables, but even that is restricted to Dragons.

It's also linked to the Enlightened Madness disadvantage, and is chosen by the GM.

>crab ninja

I thought Crab Clan's idea of stealth was intimidating people into not acknowledging them.

Ok, so I might have gone a little off the deep end here and need a little help.

I decided to run a game for a bunch of new people. Magistrates, normal shit. They're assigned to watch over the Ronin Plains, because I figured that it means there's less impact at the obvious social shit they'll screw up while still enough people and negotiations for it to get pointed out and have an impact.

I figured since Zakyo Toshi is the biggest city that hey, I'll use that as the main city for it. They'll spend most of their time there, and I have a ton of plot hooks I can do off the amount of shit going on there, given the spider, the gangs, the merchants, and all the other shady crap there. Not to mention some of it is pre-done in Strongholds.

So then I fucked up and decided to make a map for it. I'm not done with that yet (as you can see to the right) but I think I made it...a bit bigger than I intended. So now like 70% of it is just empty space used for when I want to say "Thing is over in this general area."

So I'm looking for people to help populate it. Shops, Inns, People, Guards, whatever you can get me. Because while I wanted the feeling of twisting, confusing streets, this thing got out of hand a little faster than I expected.

Also,
Allegedly coming out this month according to an announcement Fantasy Flight made sometime in August. Haven't heard them contradict it yet.

That's the Mantis. Who use intimidation for everything.

lynks.se/probability/

I'm glad it's back up.

based.

Just veto them. You don't really see Ise Zumi on regular basis. This works just fine with strict social order in Rokugan.

>mfw thinking about the inevitable 5E FFG will come up with

Hope you're ready for proprietary dice and character cards, guys.

Thats a big ninja.

I think they're more interested in the card game.
Well... I hope so.

Wow, you're only like the thousandth person to say that since they bought the IP.

After all, every single one of their current products use those, right?

Good. Keep the fear alive.

Do Magical Affinities allow you to learn spells as if you have the higher school rank, or does it only affect casting?

Do I have to jump through hoops to get previous editions' content playable in 4E? I ask because City of Lies looks like the shit, but I don't know about the timeline and other things.

So how superior are Unicorn steeds compared to regular Rokugani horses, which are described as more akin to ponies?

Because tattoos are a fairly mild part of the special ability arms race. It is much easier to keep tabs on ~80 tattoos than to do the same with 200+ kata and/or 150+ kiho.

Because they don't know how to say no to their players. Getting a single Ise Zumi aka magical tattoo, as an outsider should be a tremendous feat to achieve. And you probably shouldn't even be aiming for it a much as Ise Zumi would simply see you worthy of having and would offer it.

Utaku Battle Steeds are statted out in a way that they could probably beat Lions in fights.

They're faster, stronger and larger than the Rokugani Ponies. They're also unafraid of combat and won't run away or abandon their rider.

>Do I have to jump through hoops to get previous editions' content playable in 4E?

It's basically the same system over four editions, but you'll have to adjust the TNs a little. Just do it.

Getting a tattoo should be the result of climbing the mountain, not leaving while they refuse you, and eventually being considered worthy to shave your head and take on a new name. Otherwise you might as well get a Tsuruchi bow and Utaku steed to complete the set.

>there are players who actually replace their ancestor's katana and armor
For shame.

It's more likely than you think. Of course, you don't just throw it into some ditch somewhere - you send it back to clan HQ so when new samurai go through their gempukku they can be given a weapon.

you bet

>not saving your excess swords for your children, and your excess armour for display

How would you adapt it for L5R?

Turn the great clans into alliances, families and minor clans into clans, and just follow the story.

The tattoos don't work if they're covered up.

Oh Steve.

A samurai who dies to the first strike of the fight is just a glorified ashigaru. A glorified ashigaru wearing ancestral weapons and armor, in your case.

Letting down your ancestors because "muh sentimentality" is waaaaay worse than not wearing their antique (and most likely too obsolete to be useful anyway) equipment.

>Oh Steve
Yep, you got it.

>>there are players who actually replace their ancestor's katana and armor
>For shame.

>Father had four children. His father had four children. His father had four children. Of this 64 potential kids, of course I didn't receive my great grandfather's daisho. I'm not even the heir of my line. Dad got some bullshit sword made for me for gempukku.

>Of this 64 potential kids, of course I didn't receive my great grandfather's daisho
Eh ... it's only ever hypothetically as far back as your grandfather, but this is why (imo) superiors and daimyo should gift weapons, katana and daisho more often. ie; the whole insult thing should be kept to when actual effort is put in to insulting the receiver. (like gifting a quiver of arrows to someone after an embarrassing failure within a tournament)

Well sure, I imagine you would just get a ceremonial weapon or something if everything else failed. At worst whoever gifts these items would have some new higher quality ones manufactured for gifts if there's no ancestral items to pass on.

The reason a practical gift is insulting is that the giver implies the receiver's superior cannot provide for the receiver's needs. When your superior is giving you something themselves, they are doing the very thing that someone else giving you the same thing would imply they cannot. It isn't a fucking insult when your daimyo gives you a katana, it's him doing his goddamn job. And because it's his job, it doesn't even constitute a gift; it's an award for service or a badge of office, or a necessary tool for your own job.

>City of Lies

that would work fine because, as as setting, you can pretty much keep it static until you initiate the opium wars adventure or unless you set at some different point in time like much earlier when crab conquered the and made a spectacular mess of actually running it, for example.

Calm your tits, dude. If it's a gift, it's a gift.

When your printer at the office breaks and the boss gets a new one, is that a gift? No. A gift is something you give someone because you wanted to, not because it's your job to give it to them in order for them to do their job.

In modern practicality terms, yes. Here we're talking about fictional feudal Japan, where there's a much different meaning to things.

WHICH CLAN HAS THE WOMEN WITH THE BEST ASS

Well japs are flat as fuck, so the best chicks are the half-gaijin ones. Unicorn and Mantis got the curves. Doji have the skeletal grace.

Is your argument really that any time one samurai gives something to another samurai, it's a gift? Go back and read the book again. It's all about personal significance. Your daimyo absolutely can give you a gift, like at your wedding for example, and when he does, it's going to be something of personal significance, not a practical item for fulfilling your role as a samurai, because to do otherwise to to behave poorly. When he gives you your katana during your gempukku, it's a highly ritualised event, but it's not a gift, because for it to be a gift, your lord would be saying "I don't have to give this to you, but I will anyway", to imply that taking care of you is not his responsibility-- it destabilises the feudal relationship between master and servant. Not every transfer of items is a gift, and to suggest the reverse is nonsensical.

It can be both, "As a reward for service and a token of elevated position take this!"
It's all about the context. There are occasions for personal gifts and occasions for official gifts. They're not the same thing.

I don't believe a token of official recognition like that constitutes a gift, but I don't care to argue the point any longer, since it seems like we agree on the main thing, which is that there IS a clear difference between personal gifts and whatever we care to call the other thing, and that the other thing is sufficiently different that receiving practical items is not an insult like suggested it was, which is what I have been trying to argue against this whole time.

So did Shinjo go all Loki on a unicorn or am I reading this wrong?

She did.

That unicorn might have been a djinn or the spirit of Fu Leng. It was really unclear.

...

Any hopes/predictions for the new card game from FFG?

Will it be a complete new game or just an updated version of the old one?

Personally I'd like a complete restart with a little less complexity and much better wording.