/l5rg/ Legend of the Five Rings General

As a duelist, you basically want Air and Void, and then iajutsu and kenjutsu. Social and artistic skills will complement your high air, and Meditation or Tea Ceremony will complement your Void-- Kakita bushi has Tea Ceremony as a school skill, so you may as well go with that one. The Thousand Years of Steel kata series is decent and flavourful for you, particularly the first one, Empire Rests on its Edge

I have what might be a silly question.
Reincarnation is a thing in Rokugan, it is likely your character could be the reincarnation of some previous hero or villain.
Would who they were affect your now?

It's possible. There's a Reincarnated advantage, but I don't remember what it does. You could also just fluff a lot of stuff as leftovers from a pst life, though; an unusual skill, a spiritual advantage or disadvantage...

But could you inherit their past spiritual problems or traits?
Like say your ancestor was heavily tainted by the realm with all the hungry dead (but not Tainted). Or haunted by a particular ghost.
Would those things happen to you or would it only be like... a small foot note. Maybe your character is more vicious/can see ghosts.

I don't think you would continue to be haunted by a particular ghost, but if you had, say, a Kharmic Tie with someone in a past life, you might now have one with their reincarnation. If you became Cursed or Blessed by a Realm, it might linger.

Ultimately it's a judgement call, and you should talk it over with your GM, but it's not the kind of thing that would be out of keeping with the setting.

Does anyone have a PDF link to the new Atlas? Its the one that seems most elusive to find anywhere.

The ghost could be chasing an enemy though life after life. Unable to enter Meido and reincarnate because it can't let go of the Mortal Realm.

Someone should probably reupload this to a better site and stick it in with the other links up top.

www72.zippyshare.com/v/4jULC45j/file.html

Depends on how they were reincarnated. Most pass through Emma-O's realm and are stripped of most, if not all of that.

That's why you go and visit the Moto.
Or the Kitsu. Not sure which would be best to visit in this sort of situation.

Depends on who you are most able to make a deal with. Also the Falcon and Kuni are good options if you need an exorcism.

Aren't Kuni a bit limited when it comes to things like ghosts?
I figure they'd be super focused on one specific thing; the Taint.

Compared to the real specialists, yeah. But they are more used to dealing with hostile stuff compared to many shugenja and at worst can brute force it away with Banish.

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Kuni aren't bad at it. They work closely with the Toritaka, who really are ghost specialists, and the Nezumi who know a lot of weird trivia about spirits and whatnot.

>implying Nezumi can relay that information in a way people can understand

There are Crab who literally spend months living in Nezumi dens, speaking their language. They can relay information.

I like those Geisha. It certainly makes them feel more right.
I'm looking for advice on creating an equivalent to the Tokugawa and Meiji era hidden Christians for a Togashi Dynasty game. Currently, I have it legal for them to worship in their own homes and shrines built in specially designated places, with unofficial official permission to practice on the Kaiu Wall (the crab take any weaponnthey can). Currently I'm stealing a form of the church of the prophets from 7th sea, but what other ideas do people have?

On tablet and no pictures to save thread. No content either.

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Do you think an Isawa non-Master being promoted to Jade Champion has sent the family's whole power structure into disarray?

You don't get promoted to Jade Champion. You win the position by winning the Test of the Jade Champion.

And I doubt it would seriously muck up the family's power structure much considering the post has been held by non-Isawa for most of its existence. The only Isawa Jade Champion that is named in the lore is the current one, Isawa Kaname.

What, no ideas?

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Just rolled up a Mirumoto Bushi, 1st edition.

Advice for how to properly do one?

Besides not being bad with Kenjutsu or letting a Kakita beat you in a duel? Not really.

More so than 4e, 1e Dragon clan are really individualist, allowing their members to take their own path in life as long as it doesn't conflict with Bushido.

And that, Rokugan, is why personal shields should can be a pretty damn useful thing to have.

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>not being shielded by your honour

The Moto have actually used shields before-- in a lot of cases, they were purely ceremonial, but Moto Gaheris was famous for actually using his in combat, and it went on to become a Family relic. Shields were also quite a bit more popular among the Moto during his reign.

I used the same first name for my new character in L5R as my last one.

Am I bankrupt creatively? I just really like the name.

Supposedly, those big-ass shoulder pads have the same role as hand-held shields.

Don't ask, it's nippon logic.

Well, for historical Japan that makes sense. Early samurai were all about that horse archery, because as we've seen with the mongols, that shit can be pretty devastating. Obviously a handheld shield's no good when you're wrestling with a bow on horseback, so the sode on the shoulders are the next best thing, particularly if the motion of drawing the bow will have your side and back turned towards the enemy.
Infantry tactics adjusted accordingly. The best counter against horse archers (short of having more/better horse archers) consisted of a large quantity of foot archers, ideally in a fortified position. Foot archers can't really use a personal shield either, so in Japan they used large semi-stationary pavises. You'll need to protect those against direct cavalry charges which you'd best do with long spears or pikes, which also don't lend themselves too well to be used in conjunction with shields. The focus eventually shifted away from horse archery but much of these tactics remained, since you can't go far wrong with a good stout polearm as the weapon for your infantry. Then soon after firearms showed up, and using shields against those is kind of a waste of time anyhow.

Now, the question is how well that would translate to Rokugan. Over there, cavalry combat doesn't seem to be particularly commonly practised outside of the Unicorn clan, and even they don't seem to be doing much in the way of horse archery.

What name?

Taikomaki or something. Drum beaters!

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Do you think the Toturi would have made the same mistakes as the Iweko dynasty has?

Did anyone even like the Toturi?
I mean I'd guess that would be the main reason why the story team decided to get rid of them.

I like them much better than the Iweko.

But how do you kill a Spider?

Step on it.

You just wait, eventually the spider kills themselves.

That's not hard, the Iweko are pretty unlikable.

We never had a chance to like the Toturi, they killed them off as fast as they could.

Honestly I liked them just fine - I always run my L5R games in later periods assuming their lineage continued.

I have a hard time blaming the Iweko for anything when the bad ideas are all coming from Corporate. It's one thing to dislike characters who are well-written morons, but disliking the victims of executive mandates just doesn't feel fair.

People like the Toturi more in hindsight, but at the time they were as disliked as the Iweko. The reasons weren't that dissimilar, really. When you boil it down, AEG had certain restrictions on how the story arcs could ever grow, and those restrictions didn't fit fan expectations for imperial characters.

AEG also just had no fucking clue how to run a metaplot.

Well, I was meaning with hindsight and looking them over.

I think one reason why I don't mind the Toturi is that there seemed to be no expectation to like them - they were simply presented with flaws and strengths.

Iweko I comes off as such bullshit because she ruins everything but then we're supposed to think she was some sort of mystical genius for coming up with the Colonies as a contingency plan... for the problems she created herself.

It didn't help that they were sometimes thrown curveballs from tournament winners. The Fox joined the Mantis entirely because a Mantis player demanded it as a story reward.

I hope that FFG keeps tournament results far the fuck away from the RPG.

Tournament winners were absolute shit stains on numerous occasions (attempts to turn the paragons of bushido into an all-bloodspeaker gang come to mind), but reducing tournament results to jokes (nezumi wins), the current OP faction / net deck sweeping the tournament prize list (ie; 4/6 Cranes in the keepers of enlightenment) ... there's a lot of accidental or unintended shitting on the story that could have been avoided by structuring the choices differently.

Then there's accusations of AEG being Cheaty mcCheaters when it comes to major events' points tallying (more of a problem in Winter Court), or translating results oddly. ("you chose to corrupt your high honour guy - well, we're killing him to corrupt someone new" - or "you won this sword for your guy - the emperor gives it to him through his stomach" - or "your fanbase is complaining about being forced to work with the bad guy despite being the most active clan against bad guy - we'll get the second most active clan to work with the bad guy instead")

Did you ignore the Khan trying to take over?
Or was it just a failed attempt?

Generally assume a failed attempt. The Shadowed Throne is an interesting path into a Toturi future

Toturi Sezaru is still my favorite character.
Would have made for a horrible Emperor but he was really neat. Honestly all his kids were bad choices for emperor....

The best was probably the one who died, his only girl kid.

Nah, she would have been too strict on trying to force all samurai to be honour 8-10.

So I have a player who's mother wants him to organize some trade deals to help the family offset bad business deals in their background. The player got an amazing roll and brokered a deal with a Yasuki that was favorable (One raise)

How do I make that plot line remain relevant and interesting without saying "Go and save our wagons" every week.

>So I have a player who's mother wants him to organize some trade deals
Obligatory: will they still be able to make the game?

>The player got an amazing roll and brokered a deal with a Yasuki that was favorable (One raise)
>someone actually uses raises
My niggs.

>How do I make that plot line remain relevant and interesting without saying "Go and save our wagons" every week.
Get them to do other things that the merchant traders need. Establish other routes, deal with other merchant patrons plying the same routes or merchandise, clear troublesome spots of ronin/bandits/ogres/other, kick a subplot off with an assassination attempt, etc.

> Obligatory: will they still be able to make the game?
They will be able to make it. and yes, I was very happy when the players started choosing to make raises. I've NEVER been in a group that did before.

Also great suggestions. Thanks user!

I've had a few glimpses behind the curtains at AEG.

The first was when my playgroup got in as playtesters for Spycraft and City of Heroes CCGs. We had access to the L5R playtest section and as a result we saw the whole process of a set being made. The two standouts for L5R were the Khol Wall and Warrens of the One Tribe strongholds. The entire playtest forum was screaming that they were OP shit and should not be released into the wild. Both got released as is and totally wrecked the meta to the point where AEG had to errata the cards.

A guy in my group got a job with AEG for a few years. His stories from the inside were so bad that our group finally quit the CCG completely. Most the shit people say in threads like this are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes the metaplot meddling. The shit over Winter Court is especially bad as went out of their way marginalize any new players to that scene.

Really now?

Kinda disappointing to hear actually. Especially since I've been collecting long enough to have every core book edition (excluding D20. Including the limited edition 1st ed).

Wick probably blames it on a secret conspiracy within the company that he invented to blame for inconsistencies.
Just like all of his settings.
Or he left them railroading orders in their employment contracts.
Or both.

My experiences with AEG were long after Wick was given the heavy-ho. Contrary to Veeky Forums's belief, Wick's influence on L5R pretty much ends when the 2e RPG came out.

What's the Mirumoto gempukku? I've tried looking for it, and I can't find any information on it.

It's in Way of the Dragon, 1 sec.

... Ok, can't find it in WotD, but this is in Great Clans;

>However, Mirumoto training goes well beyond the blade and bow: it includes meditation and intensive studying of the Tao, as well as poetry and art. Indeed, some of the Mirumoto have chosen to focus their swordsmanship studies on these more esoteric domains of the spirit and the Tao rather than the straightforward practicality of the Niten method. This diverse approach is even reflected in gempukku customs: many Mirumoto dojo, in both the Niten and Taoist schools, require their students to write a poem before gempukku, usually a meditation on the student’s understanding of Shinsei’s famous answer: “Neither will I.”

>Truth's path is a sword
>The blade cuts my palms and heels
>Still I will not fall
>Hitomi's gempukku poem

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Ballin', I picked the right skills for my rank 1 character then.

Thanks user.

>My experiences with AEG were long after Wick was given the heavy-ho
Is that any way to speak of Kachiko?

Does anyone have any information about the battle madien's gempukku? Way of the Unicorn mentions that they have a special one but half the page is blacked out.

Have you checked Great Clans?

ctrl-f the entire thing. Nothing like that.

Seems to be something overlooked repeatedly. Still, they're intensely straightforward, strong willed, independent, and spiritually pure, so their gempukku would either focus on that or take it as a given.

This is from Secrets of the Unicorn, so take it with a grain of salt large enough to choke an elephant.

Is this a canon Crane castle or is it just pretty art? I know it isn't Kyuuden Doji, it lacks the iconic statue of a crane on a pillar rising from the sea.

Looks more like a palace that tries to evoke the martial role of it's owner or something.

I'm fairly sure this L5R card art. White haired samurai in blue kimono on the bottom left, picturesque coastal castle with a huge ass crane painted on the rock it perches on. Is this just happy coincidence or is this an actual piece of art from AEG? I just kind of want to change the name in my folder to an accurate location name if such a thing exists.

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imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=12258

with the crafty advantage, I don't have to spend any xp getting for my low skills correct?

No. If you have no ranks whatsoever in a relevant skill, the game treats you as if you had 1 rank in that skill. So you add 1k0 to your roll, you can make raises, and your dice can explode exactly as if you had rank 1 in that skill. It does not actually give you rank 1, however, and you will need to actually get rank 1 in order to get rank 2 or beyond as normal.

Note that rank 1 in a relevant skill and the advantage do not stack, so try to jump right past it if you want to actually advance the skill(s).

Eh?

You get 1 "phantom" rank in every low skill and other skill that counts as a low skill (like lore: anatomy or craft: poison).

This costs you 3xp, though Scorpion or Spider or Ninja pay 2xp, while Scorpion Ninja or Spider Ninja pay 1xp. (... you can't mechanically be a Scorpion Spider or Spider Scorpion)

That is not the case. The exact wording for the advantage is, "Scorpion, Spider, and ninja characters may purchase this advantage for 2 Points." Meeting any one of the requirements gets the discount meeting two or more does nothing further as it doesn't say, " Scorpion, Spider, and ninja characters may purchase this advantage for 1 point less," or something similar.

No, actually it was clarified in errata and multiple dev posts that discounts stack if more than one applies to you. Crab Bushi get Crab Hands for a single point.

The Official 4e Errata says nothing of the sort.

That's because I remembered it wrong and it's literally in the core book (And also a bunch of dev posts). Sidebar, page 149. Discounts stack, but can't bring the total cost below 1.

Advantage and Disadvantage discounts are very poorly formatted.

So are bonus dice for things like +1k1 void point use.

Why do the heavens have to listen to the emperor?
Right like I could understand the first couple of Hantei Emperors. But when they got to be more mortal, or replaced by mortals like with Toturi... Why did they still listen and let them decide who can become fortunes?