Legend of the Five Rings General: My Clan Champion Can't Be This Cute

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Brand new spoiler, hot off the presses.

Card looks solid. Not awful, not amazing, but solid.

I've been playing with the Miromoto Taoist Swordsman, doing a rewrite of it. It's a school I really like thematically but the end result is rather disappointing and doesn't quite line up with fluff (Being a bushi school despite being monks)

It's not entirely done and I'm not 100% happy with this version but feedback is highly appreciated.

> you gain a bonus to Armour TN equal to Twice your School rank +1
Generally, anything that improves by school rank should be anything but ATN. The Mirumoto bushi has effectively the same ATN bonus (-1) and it sucks ass at every rank. Too low to matter at the start, and irrelevant by the time you're rank 5 and facing worse threats.

>and Reduction equal to your School Rank +2
Handing over too much per technique. It sounds like wish fulfilment homebrew.

> You may perform kiho with a sword rather than an unarmed attack
Don't create needless rules. For Atemi, it's pointless. For those kiho that add damage on top of what you're already doing unarmed, this is way too powerful for a rank 2 technique.
You're using a two handed sword, but you're from a clan and family that is well aware you can hold a two handed sword in one hand. Are you trying to support the one armed taoist swordsman? In which case, you might as well support the no arms Taoist, who does atemi attacks with their feet.

> Atemi attacks performed with a sword do not double the targets armour bonus to armour TN.
Ok.

>In addition, you gain a single tattoo as if you were a Togashi monk.
Still going too far per rank.

>While wielding a sword or unarmed, you may spend a Void Point on your damage roll.
Katana already has this. Why not just make it available for unarmed, instead of opening it to the nodachi Taoist?

>In addition, you gain another tattoo as if you were a Togashi monk.
Homebrew sense tingling.

>Handing over too much per technique. It sounds like wish fulfilment homebrew.
>Katana already has this. Why not just make it available for unarmed, instead of opening it to the nodachi Taoist?

Oddly enough, those two were in the original Swordsman, those are unchanged.

>Generally, anything that improves by school rank should be anything but ATN. The Mirumoto bushi has effectively the same ATN bonus (-1) and it sucks ass at every rank. Too low to matter at the start, and irrelevant by the time you're rank 5 and facing worse threats.

The intention was 'Rank 1 - Roughly on par with Ashigaru armour (With slightly higher reduction), rank 2, roughly on par with light armour, rank 4 roughly on par with heavy armour, rank 5 roughly on par with riding armour'.

>Don't create needless rules. For Atemi, it's pointless.

It allows you to roll the attack roll with your (Likely superior as it's the main focus) sword skills rather than your secondary unarmed skills. Good catch on the damage bonus kiho though, that was unintended. It was intended for Atemi and the 'Punch a guy from a few meters away' Kiho.

>Still going too far per rank.

My concern with the rank 2 is it doesn't actually do anything until you get some Atemi and as non-brotherhood monks they need the full stat for each of them so you are slow to get them. So I was a tad worried about it not giving a notable bonus at that rank.

>Homebrew sense tingling.

It's literally a homebrew rewrite, I'm not 100% sure what you mean there. It's a rank 4 SAA so I was intending for it to give more than a rank 3 SAA (As they generally do. Rank 4 SAA generally come with a nice upside or a very wide range of weapons)

But yeah, the Tatoos are filler that I feel like need to be replaced but I'm still working on exactly what.

I wonder if FFG or fucking anyone really will ever make high-quality sleeves with clan emblems. I'd buy the fuck out of those.

>Japanese name
>chinese philosophy
>based on swords
>specifically katanas
There are so many things wrong with that statement that I have no idea where to begin.

It's an existing L5R school. L5R is weird.

>She's fucking blonde

BLONDE ROKUGANI CANON AHAHAHAH

I hate it simply because it denies us Naginata wielding warrior monks. SOHEI WHEN? FUCK THE SPIDER AND THEIR MEME MONKS SOHEI WHEN SOHEI WHEN

Anyone know if there's any RPG 1e PDFs kicking about? Just gotten into a short game, would like to brush up on the rules before the first session.

Lion clan champion is the cutest.

Well, I'd want to start with a different place than the swordsman school for that.

On the other hand: Naginata monks/Naginata support in general would be cool.

>Oddly enough, those two were in the original Swordsman, those are unchanged.
True, but rather than changing the rank 1, you've added to it. Rank 3 ... I should have looked at the original first. /shrug

>intention
Intent is one thing, but L5R has this thing where attack outstrips defence as you go up in rank. So the further back you push a decent amount of ATN bonus, the less opportunity there is for it to be relevant overall.

>It allows you to roll the attack roll with your (Likely superior as it's the main focus) sword skills rather than your secondary unarmed skills.
How much legit skill substitution is in 4e, anyway?

>It's literally a homebrew rewrite, I'm not 100% sure what you mean there.
Same thing I mean when I mentioned homebrew the first time.

Always check Da Archive.

Thematically, I feel the Taoist Swordsman requires first a rework of the Mirumoto Bushi - because an unarmored Zen Monk Swordsman sounds like a clan DUELIST, and the Mirumoto Bushi is stuck in this wierd place where it's supposed to be battlefield warrior and duelist. And that's dumb.

Been browsing through it, unless I've overlooked a link the earliest I can seem to find is 3e (with a 2e link being removed)

>True, but rather than changing the rank 1, you've added to it.

Well, yes. The initial version was very weak due to it just being a small amount of reduction when in early levels, armour TN matters a lot more due to death spiral nature of L5R combat. It's level 1 ended up being worse than 'has light armour in your starting gear' until very high ranks.

>Intent is one thing, but L5R has this thing where attack outstrips defence as you go up in rank. So the further back you push a decent amount of ATN bonus, the less opportunity there is for it to be relevant overall.

Would +Athletics be more fitting? There are a few classes with access to 'Have a skill to your TN' and it allows people to raise it faster (If with more investment)

>How much legit skill substitution is in 4e, anyway?

Not much that I'm aware of. Mostly just in Shugenja dueling (Which uses Spellcasting rather than Iajutsu) as best as I can recall.

That would be interesting, though in a bit of an odd place fluffwise. Since the Taoists do the Youxia wandering swordsman thing and the Bushi keep the autistic 'Two swords better' clan argument going with the Crane.

She's a Crane. They bleach their hair deliberately.

True, now that I think about it. I'm frankly of the opinion the major clans should have more homogenized/adjusted schools, in least in terms of roles.

Fightan Bushi
Specialized Bushi (Duelist, Yojimbo, Scout, etc)
Courtier
Monk
Shugenja
Unique/Fill(?)

5-6 schools per great clan. 2-3 per vassal clan. 1-2 per minor clan.

So for example the

>Crab

Hida Bushi (fightan)
Hiruma Bushi (Specialist)
Yasuki Courtier
Kuni Shugenja
Kuni Witch-Hunter
Kaiu Engineer

>Dragon

Mirumoto Bushi
Specialist Bushi (Need?)
Kitsuki Investigator
Tamori Shugenja
Togashi Tatooed Order
Mirumoto Taoist Swordsman

>Crane
Daidoji Iron-Warrior (Fightan)
Kakita Bushi (Specialist)
Doji Courtier
Asahina Shugenja
Monk (Needs Clan Monk)
Unique (Needs Clan Unique)

And so forth.

Yes but usually it is white

that is straight blonde

>and that's dumb
Not at all. Most bushi schools double as duelists and soldiers. Few clans are decadent enough to have dedicated duelist schools that *only* duel. Not every bushi is a duelist, but they all have the potential for it.

No, it's just a shitty bleach job. Also the Lion sometimes bleach to blonde.

Given how important duels are, it's hard to see every great clan (barring maybe the Scorpion, who raugh at your highly idealized and ritualized honor) not having one. Even the fucking Crab have one, it may be an advanced school I can;t remember. It literally involves face tanking the first strike.

Or was that the fucking swallow? Fuck

Updated:

Rank 1: Now adds skill to TN so you can get more use earlier.

Rank 2: No longer gives tattoo. Instead you get a stylish but not super powerful (Since a called shot has no effect) ability to make called shots more easily and an ability to promote learning atemi (Since you learn them but NOT the majority Kiho as if you were a brotherhood monk)

Rank 4: No longer gives a tattoo, a wider SAA (Swords, Knives and Unarmed).

I disagree. Full blown basic schools imply a very large amount of resources and support goes into a training regime, and most specialists and off balls simply don't have that. Alt ranks represent offshoots and minor roles just fine.
And every clan having their own dedicated monks would shake up a lot of the setting. It undercuts the Brotherhood heavily.

It's an alt rank for the clan's elite duelists, not a self contained school for literally every duelist in the clan.

Frankly I don't think they should get Atemi or Kiho at all. Let them use Void, or more void, for additional physical actions. Ex. Spend void to attack twice, or 3 times after rank 4 when attack becomes a simple action. Spend void to buff Armor TN for a round. Etc.

Of course at that point you're stepping on the Pheonix;'s shit, since spending void is supposed to be their bushi's thing

Frankly the while idea of an unarmored wuxia swordsman zen master sounds more like an Advanced School for Dragon Bushi than a basic

>barring maybe the Scorpion, who raugh at your highly idealized and ritualized honor
You just don't get the Scorpion at all, huh?

Time for the Scorpiaboos to explain to us how they're the most honorable of all and are totally just being the villain you need Bro

Nope, haven't lost the plot and gone full Alpha Legion, we're saving the realm by being the bastards it needs (as we sell illegal opium to the masses)

>Frankly I don't think they should get Atemi or Kiho at all.

Well, the general thoughts was 'Kiho is the monk thing' and Dragon are the Monk Clan. Tattoos are specifically the Togashi thing but they get Kiho access like any other monk. That and Atemi are cool but so very rarely worth investing in, I've a soft spot for the idea of them.

I toned down the void superstrike with the rank 5 (While staggeringly powerful it was also boring as fuck) to give them more void to play with generally rather than the plan being 'Spend all void for a megahit, go take a nap' and to step off the Phoenix toes.

>Monk (Needs Clan Monk)
Eeh. Not everything needs to be all clan aligned. They fucked that pooch with ninja in 2e. The Brotherhood is pretty tight with all the clans and has people across the empire.

I think the Mirumoto Bushi would have focused on fighting and duelling, swapping the dumpy +3 ATN kata for a +/-5 to shugenja spells kata.

>Time for the Scorpiaboos to explain to us how they're the most honorable of all
Hey, back in 1e, everyone got their own specialised clan lists of Bushido gains, and Scorpion could be the most honourable of all.

>would
should.

>bleaching your hair
>not having natural silver hair

That's how you spot the uplifted ashigaru.

Even the guy they're emulating didn't have natural silver. The color got scared/tainted right off him.

Considering you pretty much only ever have a chance for being raised to samurai status through faking it (stealing a daisho and going ronin) or discovering you have phenomenal magical power (do shugenja stuff), the latter can turn your hair white, and shugenja get drafted into the clans ASAP?

Yeah, silver is how you spot the uplifted ashigaru.

Long serving and faithful ashigaru can be rewarded with ji-samurai status. Even then, they're still below their old masters in the clan.

If you think about it, there's precedent. At the dawn of the empire, people like Matsu or Mirumoto weren't samurai, they were just warriors. They became samurai by pledging themselves to the Kami and the social system the kami were creating. Especially deserving ashigaru can be offered a similar opportunity, and even then it's a lesser version, since they're stuck with the ji thing.

There is precedent, but there is also precedent for long and distinguished lines of ashigaru who remain as such even though they've distinguished themselves as effective, loyal servants for decades or even centuries. Sometimes, they're practically samurai, like the ashigaru family that runs Long Walk, but they aren't actual samurai with proper rights and duties.
There's also precedent for promising budoka to be explicitly groomed for uplifting.

>Long serving and faithful ashigaru can be rewarded with ji-samurai status
Eh. It's raising someone up to the position of "half samurai". Third edition is more specific on how they aren't even given rights to a family name. Given how striated Rokugani society is, once they reach ji-samurai, that's likely as far as they can go in that generation, and likely many more after, as there are other ji-samurai bloodlines better established and equally worthy for further reward.

>1.0 Samurai
>0.5 Ji-samurai
>0.4 Ashigaru
>0.3 Doshin
>0.2 Budoka
>0.1 Merchants / Craftsmen

>The Phoenix is a symbol of contradictions: explosive power and great restraint, vast intelligence and deep humility, immolating self-sacrifice and glorious rebirth.
>vast intelligence and deep humility
>deep humility

It's like they've never read the lore...at all.

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>symbol of contradictions

Kolat did nothing wrong Humans for Humanity remove Kami

Speaking of Organized crime, fucking Yakuza that protect the people from the samurai WHEN?

So.... what happened to that excuse that the devs wanted all the champions to be the same gender as their founding kami?

Was that ever the official statement, or was that just faggots in one of these threads trying desperately to come up with some NOT stupid reason for killing the Daiyu and False Hoturi storyline?

There's a kind of reddish brown that is a natural, if rare as fuck, Japanese hair color. I THINK that one is supposed to be most common among the Lion Clan, because Lions.. Though they could also be dyeing it blond as you say. It's hard to tell what with half the Card Art being people that don't look the least bit Asian and are wearing their Kimono all wrong.

You forgot
>great restraint
When they aren't busy being arrogant as fuck, they're jumping face first into forbidden magic that countless of their ancestors also jumped face first into to no good effect.

Kolat did nothing. End sentence.
Also, the Yakuza is run by the Yasuki. It's too busy being a money engine to protect the common people.
There are Ronin groups that do that, though.

Well, there was that one Phoenix that married a Crab... So there is precedent for that.

The Lion definitely do dye their hair blond sometimes. I wouldn't be surprised if the Kitsu sport rare hair colours naturally too, just like the Kitsune do.

Okay, I have to assume crossbows still use the arrow stats for their bolts? Because two complex actions to reload a weapon that literally deals as much (read: little) damage as a strength two character firing willow leaf arrows from a yumi. Plus the skill is way worse and it has nearly half the range.

Then again, maybe dirty gaijin are shitheads who use weapons that are inferior to the most basic of samurai weapons?

I mean, it depends on what restraint you're talking about. They certainly showing more restraint than the Lion or Crab when it comes to stabbing people. Or the Crane and Scorpion when it comes to being backstabbing dicks.

But yeah, when I hear the word restraint I would be more inclined to think of the Dragon in general.

Those are actually the stats for the Rokugani crossbow, a weapon that is considered lower than even Peasant weapons. Literally only the shittiest of bandits use them.
The yobanjin mostly rely on their massive flying monsters and fairly decent swords during serious fights.

The stats are fitting for early style crossbows. It took a long time for them to develop, and nobody who could develop them further is interested.

I would like to assume nobody would make a crossbow, whether gaijin or Rokugani, if it was literally less useful than a basic bog standard bow wielded by a person who was too weak to wield it properly. Especially considering its reload time and the fact it apparently has no positive armor penetration qualities. It's not like a crossbow is easier to manufacture than a yumi either, considering the yumi could be made from a single piece of wood, bamboo strips laminated together and the like, whereas a crossbow would require mechanisms and laminating pieces of wood that could withstand the torque.

And I know L5R weapon stats make no sense because there are like three weapons ever worth using outside of highly specific gimmick builds, but I refuse to believe the design team put a weapon in there that is so bad it literally deals less than a third of the damage of a basic bow if you take reload time into account on top of having no scaling whatsoever.

At least if it got the arrow damage for bolts you have a weapon that fires slowly but allows for damage per shot that is only matched by highly specialised ranged characters using a daikyu. Which fits the image of the crossbow as a dishonourable weapon that lets a peasant kill a samurai rather than a shit tier weapon less effective than a hunting bow in the hands of a dainty courtier.

It doesn't have the connotation of being a samurai Slayer. The reason the Rokugani despise it is that there is no artistry in its use, it isn't traditional, and the first (and only) design was shit.
If they didn't dislike it on a cultural level, they might have eventually made versions that could actually be powerful. As is, it's hand drawn with a simple locking lug. It sucks because it is sub gastraphetes in terms of power.

when's unicorn

2e did that. Unless it was 1e splat books that gave that.

But yeah, technically Scorpion were the most honorable back then because they had the laxest rules. Crane PCs were like the most dishonorable.