I was thinking about the marriage advantage/disadvantage in legend of the the five rings and thought about a samurai...

My Bayushi Courtier actually has a Kitsuki mother.

Stonewall saga was nice, yeah.

>tfw my Lion's Pride bushi is the only unmarried member of our party

How does the marriage mechanic work? What's the dis/advantage of being married?

I'm finishing up my own RPG right now and it sounds like an interesting idea.

BLISSFUL BETROTHAL [ SOCIAL] (3 POINTS)
Your marriage has been arranged and, much to your delight, you have come to truly love your intended spouse. The social connections you have established as part of your enthusiastic marriage preparations allow you to purchase the following Advantages for two points less each (to a minimum of 1 point): Gentry, Kharmic Tie (with your betrothed only), Social Position, and Wealth. Bitter betroth is the exact opposite of that.

fuck now I want to play L5R now. a shame no one fucking runs it.

I don't know what the meta game is right now but, I think spider clan is legit thanks to the new empress.

>I don't know what the meta game is right now
Under FFG, it's all been retconned back to just before the Scorpion Clan Coup / Clan Wars. Plus some gender flips on characters.

I don't know how to feel about this but, I guess thats better then letting the spider clan in the empire

The first tournament was focused on whether or not the Emperor would ban Meishodo

The decision was made to not bn it, and instead the practice is now taught in imperial magic schools

>crab wife
that's kind of hot

strong arms for the best cuddles

Crab wives come in two flavours.

1st flavor, those determined to have as many kids as possible and to be the best mother possible to those kids. Not strong soldiers, but sturdy enough of will to handle 6 kids at once. Highly, highly unlikely to marry outside of the clan

2nd flavour are those who fight on the wall, far less likely to care so deeply about having kids, strong of body and will, but less experienced in homely practices, far more likely to marry outside of the clan

what kind of mothers can Scorpions be?

Depends extremely heavily on how much the scorpion clan, and the specific family in the scorpion clan your wife comes from, likes you

If they don't like you, they'll appear as peaceful and proper as the most desirable crane wife, and yet they'll raise your children to hate you and your clan, and will probably assassinate you

If they like you, they're the most loyal spouses possible. The scorpion clan prides loyalty above all else. Although she might pull some strings behind your back to help you in ways you'd rather she didn't

>instead the practice is now taught in imperial magic schools
No. The theory / how to combat it is taught in imperial schools.

ahh, sorry

I try to avoid along with any possible romantic elements.

For some bizarre reason my players keep insistent on imagining the clan archetypes of the literal animal people.

I don't think its magical ream thing but I'm not taking the chance

>For some bizarre reason my players keep insistent on imagining the clan archetypes of the literal animal people.
What does that even?

This, Blissful Betrothal to a Scorpion is very, very good for you. Always be on good terms with your Scorpion wife - if the Scorps have one of their daughters marry you, that means they think you're important.

I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT. BE ON. YOUR WIFES CLAN'S BAD SIDE.

>Always be on good terms with your Scorpion wife
While it's not bad advice, it won't matter if Scorpion plans go against you.

>if the Scorps have one of their daughters marry you, that means they think you're important
No, it means they think marrying you is useful for some reason. That can be just about anything, provided the Scorpion judge it to be worth the price of marrying off a samurai.

just play nice with them and they'll play nice with you, is all. Marrying them means you're family now

Marrying into the Scorpion means you're family, but not "of the blood". You have to prove beyond doubt, you're loyal to the Scorpion before they'll treat you like that. Not many do, which leaves them roughly on par with Junshin.

If a Scorpion married into your clan, they're of your family, which is different. Still doesn't connote any loyalty from the Scorpion clan, and your spouse still likely holds a strong sense of obligation to their birth clan unless the circumstances were uniquely unusual.

And no matter how you act and what anyone thinks of you, you're married to a (former) Scorpion. If that means you're a footnote in the grand Scorpion plan to get to samurai Bob, and that means fucking you over, then you're going to get fucked over.

Potential suitors may honestly be too intimidated. Or your fellow party members think potential suitors are not good enough and stop block them. Does your character even want to marry/have children/settle down?

Anyone have any good droopy moustache Scorpion art?

They might hold obligations to their birth clan, but their birth clan won't trust them unless they were specifically married off for espionage purposes (Which is something they'd be very, very careful about, because the repercussions would be enormous). If it's a regular marriage, the Scorpion spy network is, at best, going to treat her as a passive asset, and at worst, not going to consider her part of the network at all.

Depends on who is running what part and what operation. The Scorpion clan isn't a monolithic block of drones. It's got any number of wannabe masterminds each running their own things. EVERY Scorpion wants to NOT be bottom bitch. They get sacrificed for the clan. Most don't want to die. So everyone is trying to be the guy in charge.

That being the case, anyone one could have been married off for ANY reason. And anyone with a hook in could try to use such a person as a asset.

>unless they were specifically married off for espionage purposes
Which you won't have knowledge of one way or another.

>Which is something they'd be very, very careful about, because the repercussions would be enormous
The Scorpion are always very very careful. They don't give poison to fresh spud ninja, and they're not going to use a rookie for a sensitive mission where they're married off into a foreign clan. That's a given.

The point remains:
>Which you won't have knowledge of one way or another.
Which is like saying, "Oh yes, that isn't fatal, until it is." The Scorpion won't fuck you over or kill you. Until they do. At which point They Can Swim™ and everything you've done previously doesn't count for shit.

Can't they be honorary WASPs

I read that as "my Lion's Pride bishi is the only unmarried member of our party".

Goddammit Veeky Forums.

The thing is, they're not all perfect at keikaku'ing, and they aren't all actually spies and ninja. Most of them do nothing sneaky at all and never will, because the ones who actually do that stuff need cover. Because they value loyalty, loyalty is supposed to transfer to your new clan if you get married off, and people will notice if every single scorpion who marries out ends up suspiciously widowed, they don't use bride-ninja very often. In fact, thinking about it, every example we have did that stuff on their own volition. Kachiko being the biggest one. Nobody told her to accept the Hantei's marriage. Nobody told her to poison him. Nobody told her to cuck him when he became possessed. She did it all on her own.

It doesn't matter that they're not ALL perfect at anything. That would be a level of certainty in what you're getting to which you could definitely always say, "No, don't get a Scorpion spouse ever. They're all just waiting for you to turn around to hatch a plan." That's not the case, and no one is arguing it is the case.

The point is that you'll never truly know if they're there waiting for the right moment to do that, or anything else. For all you know, the master plan someone hatched for marrying you was to have someone in regular close contact with your samurai circle to fuck your boss and ruin his happy marriage, and everything revolves around that.

The original poster implied having a Scorpion spouse on good terms with you means you're safe, and that getting married to a Scorpion means you're someone they think is important. To which the reply is still "You'll never be certain" and "It really doesn't".

How often does the Emperor marry outside of three crane clan? I knew it was pretty common to have a crane wife

Very rarely. If the Crane managed to piss him off before the marriage, he might snub them, but that means they really, really fucked up. The Kachiko situation was far from normal.

How far out are spouses chosen? I imagine there is pretty heavy politics involved in getting go be a future Emperor's Grand parent

I'm pretty sure they have a special ceremony, where every eligible (Meaning related to a high ranked person) Doji get together in a room and the young emperor picks one. No idea how they reconcile that with old emperors who refuse to abdicate the throne. I'm also not entirely sure how they deal with the younger imperial siblings. They might just wait until they're made Otomo and then marry the normal way.

No, stop. Don't give my GM any ideas. You know how a newly instated Lion daimyo has to live with the Lion's Pride for the first half-year of their tenure? The GM will create a newly minted Lion daimyo and make me responsible for him.

Where does that come from and why?

last words after post-coital honeymoon sex?

>Marrying into the Scorpion means you're family, but not "of the blood". You have to prove beyond doubt, you're loyal to the Scorpion before they'll treat you like that. Not many do, which leaves them roughly on par with Junshin.
One of my characters for a game that never happened was sort of like that - a Kitsuki Bushi (Mirumoto School) with Lost Love (dead Scorpion betrothed), Bitter Betrothal, and Dependent (from Scorpion), with Imperial Marriage (the Bitter Betrothal - a cowardly/incompetent Miya Herald).
It was an interesting background - her father was always invited to relatively minor Scorpion winter courts. They liked playing a game where they would set up murder mysteries and the like, and let him investigate (to understand the Kitsuki method and train their people). He understood it was a game, and took it as an opportunity to train himself against Scorpion methods.
This set up her becoming friends with a Scorpion child, who had the disadvantage Cannot Lie. Yeah.
But he argues that for the safety of the clan's plans he needs to marry out, and his family likes my character... Helped that she said (with full youthful sincerity and a child's lack of awareness of consequences) that she would protect him. Betrothal happens.
SO fast forward to graduation - they actually get assigned to ride circuit with a Miya Herald. Together. Sure, her twin brother is there as chaperone, but he's usually busy making sure the idiot doesn't die. Along the way, she gets pregnant - whoops! Should've had more chaperones. So the group is riding back to quickly set up the full marriage and bandits happen (secretly a group of Lion Bushi trying to strike against the Scorpion). She's trying to protect the Herald, who is a coward, her brother gets crippled fighting back-to-back with her love, and said love gets killed.
So there's Lost Love - and the Dependent.
(cont)

Way of the Lion IIRC, one of the first edition Great Clan sourcebooks.

(cont)
Now the situation is more dire, and a deal is struck - the Miya has to marry her to make up for his mistake (and he must live with his dishonor, even with his parents pulling strings to keep their kid alive). The public story is that since his "subordinates" were severely harmed (One dead, one crippled, the third left with the dead one's kid), he must provide for them as honor demands.
Enter the Bitter Betroathal - which comes with the husband as an Enemy (yeah, it got fucked). Fights over the kid, which culminates with her breaking a vase into knives and threatening to gut him if he ever again says that the kid's father never existed.
Now, the Scorpion know the real story - and their part of the deal? The kid will be trained Scorpion. She is unofficial Scorpion, (and the Dragon still consider her Kitsuki above Miya, because fuck that coward and his dishonorabu parents) and let her wear the mask her love made her - a half/quarter mask: a scorpion in Dragon colors.
Hell, she gets occasional offers of assassinating her husband. She turns them down, says she's waiting for the day that she can publicly have a reason to kill him.
Too bad he's such a coward and will back down.
And that's why she was 6 years older than the rest of the group, but still at the same IR. Had to wait for the kid to go into training.

I wish I could think up backstories like that

The key is having a fun GM

I hope your character as the Bad Fortune (Secret Love) disadvantage for maximum romantic shenanigans.

I love this sad backstory.
Though the saddest part is
>a game that never happened
(Admittedly, of the many L5R campaigns I've played, I think only one survived past session #3.

Veteran of that shitbird Shinsei's Smile and his fucktarded habit of just disappearing after starting a game?

Can anyone help an user out on where to find the book(s) for the RPG?

Nah, these were all RL campaigns over the years.
Had a habit of starting with the Topaz Championship, and then the game just drying up afterwards for whatever reason.
Though admittedly, all my attempts at online rpgs have been complete failures. (Granted, I've never tried actual 'we all meet up at this regular time to play, but the meetup is online' style, only 'it's all play-by-post, so happens at random intervals' style, which always went really badly.)

amazon or drivethrurpg

She teaches your children how to swim.

I recognize that name. What other campaigns did he run and subsequently abandon?

C) dickass mantis husband and his black-sheep tomboy crane

Yeah, over 14 years of playing and collecting systems I've been in about... 9 campaigns, all of which had maybe 2-4 sessions before dying or my schedule and life forcing me drop out.
The most recent attempts pissed me off though - every 3 to four months the supposed DM (who was my roommate and hopefully dies in a tragic mugging on the east coast) would try to start a game, hype us all up, then completely abandon it before the first session.
He did this maybe ten times, but would sabotage my attempts to get a game off the ground - we got one session into a single game, which he insisted had to be Pathfinder, because he couldn't play any other game except as DM.
And then he decided that he could no longer play his character, who had to be the driving force behind the reason for the group being together, and decided that he needed to drop the game rather than play another character.
And then he decided that he need to throw my game off track by hyping up an L5R game and hiding the PF books.

He's not getting any of his collection back though. That mean I have some L5R1e books.

>If they like you, they're the most loyal spouses possible. The scorpion clan prides loyalty above all else. Although she might pull some strings behind your back to help you in ways you'd rather she didn't

Then YOGO CURSE.

If it's an arranged marriage, you'd know if she had the curse. Pedigree is very important, and Yogo blood would be a calculated risk.

This just proves tomboys are eternally awesome

I had something like this in one game, but replace the Crab girl with a Unicorn. Very cute, but also very lewd.

Found it:

Way of the Lion, first edition, page 36-37, 'The Lion's Pride'.

"When a new Lion daimyo is instated, they spend the first half-year of their tenure living with the Pride. Only under such intense conditions, it is said, can the daimyo be fully accepted by the matriarchal unit. Without this acceptance, the unswerving dedication of the soldiers could be lost. Even a male daimyo - although those are rare - endures this period. The ultimate outcome is either complete understanding or complete rejection."

Seems pretty lewd to me.

Japanese hornets are worse.

Stamina for days.

Friendly reminder that the Phoenix are the worst clan ever.

I'm not opening a Black Scroll. Really. Also, everyone has to turn in their spellscrolls and ciphers for safekeeping.

[The Codex Isawa does not support this action.]

They read Usagi Yojimbo

Never allow your players to dictate the events of your world.
You were *thinking* 'wise, quiet scholar*, but your *players* gave you 8-bit Theater Black Mage.

an akodo/bayushi wedding can make a power couple if they cooperate together. akodo knows tradition and battle tactic and a bayushi knows the weaknesses in the akodo's logic. both cooperating can lead to a tough nut to crack, at court, or battle.

crab/crane like you described is easily a mess. it CAN work but they gotta have a secret fetish or something.

>tfw you will never get to see your refined, calligraphy-loving Crane wife in a elegant, specialized hanbok as she reaches up to adjust your silly Crane hat

What about Akodo/Matsu?

It could work but a lot hinges on the two individuals.