By on May 14, 2018 in, On today’s episode we sit down with Tanner Clausen, GM on the Shadow of the Cabal podcast, to learn about and create characters for the game that is played on that podcast, Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition. Timestamps: 00:00:00 – Announcements 00:03:49 – Introductions 00:06:21 – What’s in a Game? 00:06:39 – Rokugan, the Setting for L5R 00:09:58 – What Do Characters Do in L5R? 00:14:35 – What Do You Need to Play L5R? 00:15:32 – What is Unique? 00:23:29 – History of the Game 00:32:52 – Let’s Make Some People 00:33:15 – Clans and Families 00:34:41 – Ryan’s Concept 00:37:18 – Amelia’s Concept 00:40:41 – Tanner’s Concept 00:41:42 – What are the other clans all about?
Contents Credits. Writing:,. Editors: Rob Hobart,. Proofreaders: Eoin Burke, Jim Chatham, Mason Crawford, Daniel Dineen, Erykah Fassett, Laura Harvey, Daniel Jacobsen, John Merholtz, Jen Oney-Hooven, Todd Stites, Ralph Tropeano.
RPG Rules Team: Dace, Mason Crawford, Aaron Rubman. Art Director: Todd Rowland. Cover Design: David Ardila. Graphix Design: David Ardila. Layout: Edge Studio. Artists: Christopher Appel, Steve Argyle, Gonzalo Ordonez Arias, Mathew S.
I got invited to a game of L5R (the role-playing game, not the card game) and I want to know enough about the game to be able to contribute instead of being hauled along. The biggest problem for me is I don't know what it is I don't know. Now I've never played an RPG before (at least not one that didn't require a computer and further stipulated minimum specifications), but I did attempt to do some research and I even went so far as to acquiring a 4th Edition Rule Book (after first determining this was the correct edition). Now I sort of understand the rules for their combat system, I get what they mean by keeping dice and exploding dice, and I sort of understand you have Warriors and Mages, but there are a lot of things that are very alien to me. For example:. The Role of Honor: How it's used, how it's gained, how I should treat it.
The Role of Courtiers: Both inside and outside of combat (especially outside). The Role of Clans: I can tell there is a lot of emphasis here, but I don't really understand its purpose. The Role of Artisans and Geisha: Are these 'classes'? How do they fit in the game?. The Different Archetypes which are germane to the setting I'm even more concerned about everything I should have on this list that I don't even know enough to know I'm missing.
The Role of Honor: How it's used, how it's gained, how I should treat it. It's a measure of doing what is right.
If you're losing it, you're being a villain. If you're gaining it, a righteous samurai. As a player, you don't use it, per se.
As a GM, you inform players of whether they are living up to samurai morals with it. The Role of Courtiers: Both inside and outside of combat (especially outside). In combat: survive. Some may also be combat capable, but it's neither their giri (duty) nor their role.
A few (Magistrates) might be combatants, but they are the exception. Outside of combat: some are the face-men (talkers, con artists, negotiators, diplomats), some are artisans (which is good for duels of art), and some are information gatherers (magistrates, spies).
The Role of Clans: I can tell there is a lot of emphasis here, but I don't really understand its purpose. You are part of larger groups.
The family (more properly, sept, a division of a clan) is a sub-clan. You have multiple duties as a samurai: To the Emperor (The Daimyō of all), To your Clan's Daimyō, your Family's Daimyō, Your local Daimyō, your wife, your parents & siblings, your family members, and your clan mates. What ranking you put those into defines, in many ways, how to play the character. Mechanically, Clan determines what schools are available to you, and what families. Socially, Outside your clan, you're pretty much interchangeable with any other non-daimyo non-magistrate of your clan. Only within is your personal identity valued.
And likewise, unless duty demands it, you should avoid members of other clans; they are not allies, per se. Except when it comes to fighting Oni. Some GM's ignore this aspect, tho'. The Clans can, in many ways, be thought of as nations within the Union of Rokugan. They often have fought wars with each other. The Role of Artisans and Geisha: Are these 'classes'? How do they fit in the game?
Artisans are there to win duels of Art. See Way of the Courtesan for more details on that. Geisha are non-people.
They are there to entertain samurai and to be spies, and as romantic plot objects. They are not, generally, suitable as PC's. (Historically, they bordered on indentured slaves.).
The Different Archetypes which are germane to the setting The big archetypes of the Samurai Genre. The Bushi's Bushi: the combat monster. Big, strong, tough, often not too bright. Honorable, but manipulated. If you phrase something as dishonorable, he won't do it; if you convince him Honor demands it, you won't stop him without killing him. High earth ring, high willpower.
The Thinking Bushi: A less combat capable bushi, but still quite lethal, he tends to avoid combats, but can hold his own. Experienced bushi of this type are often excellent captains and generals. The sneaky bushi: not a skulker and hider, but a political creature. Gets others to do his handiwork. Often a courtier, but not always. The Yojinbo: the devoted bodyguard.
Once assigned a charge, nothing, not even his own dishonor, will cause him to willingly let harm befall his charge. Often, this also involves thwarting the will of the charge. The Wise Warrior Monk: dispenser of advice and, when needed, but-kicking. Often possessed of quite the temper, but it's long, slow, and when riled, unstoppable. Usually a retired samurai. The Silly Monk: usually a young monk, who does stupid things, but learns from the experiences. Often comic relief, and often shares bits of wisdom without realizing it.
The quiet master of the Monastery: ancient, withered, and wise beyond reason. Not usually suitable for PC's.
Basically, a living encyclopedia, but also one which, being retired samurai, is capable of delivery of rather surprising violence when absolutely needed. The Magistrate: Tasked to keep the peace, and to investigate crimes. Half courtier, half warrior, and half spy. Subtypes include the Honest Magistrate (often played the fool), the detective (who has to then coerce confessions and witnesses), and the slayer (who figures out the guilty, then kills them while they 'resist arrest').
The Geisha: usually a love interest. Always duplicitous in some way. And one who falls in love with her is doomed.
The Rōnin: Masterless, and honorless, he's either to be pittied, abused, or paid to be sacrificed in battle. The best are incredible, but often treachery or cowardice is how a Rōnin makes it to old age. The Shinobu: the spy, the assassin.
Hides in plain sight, pretending to be one of the above, or a servant of one of the above. Usually killed when exposed. Fantasy Samurai Archetypes The Shugenja: Healer, priest and wizard. Makes children nervous, and worries bushi. Unless, of course, he's YOUR clan's Shugenja. Then he just creeps you out until he blasts the goo out of that there oni, or glues you back together after a battle. The Chanbara Monk: The guy making the 20m leaps and throwing monsters.
Physics went out the window when he entered the room. Naruto, were he not a ninja. In game, there have been a few schools that can support this. Demon Hunters: usually in the game, these are magistrates or members of the Crab Clan. In the broader samurai literature, they are often monks or priests, often madmen. You will have two very important choices during character creation - what clan do you belong to? Do you use magic?
As a new L5R player, these will shape the rest of your experience. It will be simpler if you make a character who doesn't use magic. This magic system involves a certain learning curve; it's not hideously complicated, but it's more than point-and-click spellcasting, and you'll have plenty of other things to think about at the table. Things like clans. Which clan you belong to will have a major impact on how your character fits into the fairly rigid social structure of a typical L5R game. In a sense, clans are like character classes - people (players, NPCs, GMs) will make assumptions based on what you pick.
If you're a Crane, you'll probably be seen as aristocratic and clever. A Lion is from the old school. A Crab brawls, yells, and has no patience with 'true' culture.
Talk to your GM and see if they have suggestions. Maybe it would be good to play a Unicorn, with your outlander's ways and your detachment from the game's mainstream culture. Most important - have fun! If you think something will be cool or entertaining to everyone, do it. L5R clans, like character classes, are a way to say 'this is how I intend to play the game.' They aren't as restrictive as classes, exactly, but they set up certain expectations. Again, your Crane character is probably snooty, rich, and annoyingly good at things - whether a samurai or a shugenja, a Crane will be expected/assumed to act certain ways.
Similarly, a Scorpion will presumably wear a mask, skulk around, and act shifty. That doesn't mean you have to do that, any more than a sword-n-sorcery fighter has to wield a big weapon and hit stuff, but it's the expectation folks will have. – Nov 23 '10 at 20:18. I can't give you much rules advice, having not played L5R specifically. However, here's a bit of advice that should be generally applicable (especially if L5R is somewhat like it's cousin, 7th Sea): Familiarize yourself with the setting enough that you can come up with one or two top-down character concepts that sound interesting. By top-down, I mean create them from story concepts rather than mechanics and points (as though you were writing a character for a short story in the game's setting).
This will speed up character generation tremendously if you have a bit of help from a more experienced player, because they can narrow down your mechanical choices before you begin. Alternatively, choose a focus area or two from within the mechanics ('I want to use this kind of magic; I want to be a two weapon melee fighter; etc.). This will also help speed up character creation, although it's bound a bit more tightly to your understanding of the system. Clans The main reason for clans — and other subgroups like them you'll find — is to give an idea of what kinds of characters are likely to be found in a typical game, and give you some inspiration for what kind of character you'd like to make. They offer some easy-entry stereotypes, some starting conflicts (Lion are rivals with Crane; Crab think the Scorpion are sneaky and untrustworthy while the Scorpion think the Crab are boorish thugs), and access to mechanics that are exclusive to the clans — a Dragon spellcaster will feel different in play than a Phoenix one. Artisans and Geisha They're not 'classes' like character classes; they're social classes. You might enjoy playing one, but they're included as alternates to things like shugenja and samurai, which are more typical character types.
Martial fights are not central to L5R; The game is about conflicting social obligations. In many Computer RPGs (and also in some tabletop RPGs), combat is the central theme, while social interactions, investigation, and being a member of society play only a minor role. In particular, CRPG dialogue is often option-based and the options are nearly independent of your character's attributes. This is different in tabletop RPGs, even more so in Legends of the five Rings. The game draws heavily on the narrative tropes of the Samurai genre, which goes far beyond the good use of various tactics in fights and picking the right dialogue options to progress to one particular pre-written ending scene. The genre is not concerned with hard fights and choices with obvious context, and there are rarely very linear story lines.
The game is about conflicting social obligations, not about fights to incapacitate enemies, and all the things that confuse you should make much more sense when you keep that in mind. The character “schools” – Samurai/Bushi, Shugenja (somewhere between priest and mage), Courtiers and Monks – are all members of the nobility of an empire. As such, they are bound by expectations and codes of conduct that govern their behaviour, and they have loyalities to different people – protect the weak, honour their ancestors, love their partners, educate their children, obey their various lords. The Samurai genre draws on the conflict between these different codes and loyalities, so the rules of L5R try to model them through various means. One of the core conflicts in the genre is between doing what is best for you/your closest loyalities (winning battles, exposing traitors, gaining political power, surviving) and what the world expects from you (fight honorably, don't act secretly, own up to problems people higher in the command chain make you responsible for). The second bit is what honour measures.
Unless you are playing a character who is explicitly put in place as a low-honour pawn of higher-ups who want to sacrifice him to protect their own honour (Scorpion clan essentially does this for the whole empire, but many other clans have people like this), you should care about your Honour value. It affects how you will be treated, whether you can expect others to listen to you, what will happen to you if you get caught doing something bad and so on. The other big conflict is choosing between different honorable actions, or, more often, different dishonorable actions. What do you do if you find out that a high imperial figure has dealings with Evil? You cannot expose a high imperial, but you also can't let Evil be supported. Both options would be dishonourable. Solving the problem yourself would be even more dishonourable if it came out.
Another instance of this type of conflict is between obviously honourable loyalties to different people, like if your clan daimyo requires you to act against the will of the Emperor or against the defenseless peasants. Both options are dishonourable, what will you do? This is where the Clans come in: A clan is a large group of politically and philosophically somewhat unified nobility.
Clans have power, often about as much as the Emperor in their domain, and relatively unified interests, so the conflicts between clans drive much of imperial politics, and the loyality to clan vs. Empire is a strong theme. Often a group of player characters will either come from the same clan and try to further their clan's interests, conflicting with honour, other clans and the imperial nobles; or player characters will all come from different clans, and the philosophical differences between the clans (how important are honour, fighting, ancestors, secrecy, loyality, etc.) will drive the conflicts. This is where Courtiers come in: The usual samurai knows basic etiquette, but is not well-trained representing himself in front of the higher nobility.
Courtiers are. They know how to tell a superior that things have gone badly without losing face and honour. They know how to phrase a request for aid without revealing the weakness and dishonour of the asker. They know how to move around in court without offending anyone. They know how to tell the family daimyo that you need to be relinquished from your duties to work for the clan daimyo. Courtiers may even be hardly able to fight, but often a fight will either be between samurai and badly trained dishonourable people, putting even a courtier at advantage, or between different honourable samurai (maybe even a duel), such that the courtiers would not be in danger – and often, fights make out less than half the focus of the game. Other archetypes (you mention artisans and geisha; monks, ronin – clanless samurai –, ninja, and magistrates are other important archetypes) fall somewhere into this spectrum, as well.
They all gain their place from the conflicts between various honourable, dutyful or loyal deeds. They may not be able to fight, but they are able to give other people incentives to act honourably or dishonourably and are therefore important to the setting. There are already a lot of great answers, so I will try to include what I didn't see here instead of being redundant. I would talk to your GM as a starter If you GM has requirements or restrictions, that can at least narrow things down to what you need to know at your first session.
Plus, no matter how much RAW you read, I haven't sat at the same era/setting of Rokugan twice. Generic First Time Advice The 4e core book has some great advice in it, and that's to take Etiquette, Defense, Lore: Bushido, and Investigation at character creation. If your school doesn't have them, then tack them on, it's the cheapest way to spend points to buy a new skill. I would take special notice of how aramis mentioned that you don't have to play a min/maxing stat cruncher, specifically the 'thinking bushi'. For the first venture into a new system, it is a personal recommendation that you make your character an intellectual. Buy advantages like 'Sage' and 'Perfect Memory', maybe even Blessing of the Seven Fortunes (Benten), because anything you as a player don't know to do, you have a safety net installed by your dice. Your GM should be willing to work with you in game.
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For example, I still have new players that say things like 'I do the proper greeting and titles for everyone', because they are still getting used to what they actually are. When they roll Awareness+Etiquette, I describe the actions as I expect them - the depth of bows, the suffixes/titles, etc. As an in character narrative so they can start adding it reflexively. Which brings me to my next point. Take Notes In Game You're learning a new system so it always helps to take notes on the way the GM describes things. You don't need to take super detailed notes, but try to notice mannerisms of characters. The funny thing about RPGs like L5R, is that for as varied as an individual person may be, the stereotypes hold in most cases.
When the school gives a character bonuses for doing things a certain way, they aren't going out of their way just to be special most of the time. And one last segue. GM Assisted Creation When I help new players make a character, I work with a funnel method. Instead of how the book says you should start with your Clan, then your family, then your school, I would start narrowing it down by how you want to get things done. If you say 'I want to be a Columbo style detective', or 'I want to be a healer', or 'I want to be conniving but comfortable with a blade', a knowledgeable GM should be able to give you a couple of candidate builds to get you started.
Just make sure you come to the table with at least an idea of how your character would solve their problems.
I want to like this edition but I keep finding things about it which draw my attention away from the good parts. There is a lot to like about the system. Roll and Keep is intuitive and it gives the player a degree of control over things which is sorely missing from many other systems. The designers went out of their way to give more material than their previous efforts and did their utmost to make as much of it easily playable. And the amount of setting given in this book should give anyone willing to read through it ideas aplenty for their own campaign. Yet in spite of all of this wonderful work, I keep getting tripped up by the few metaphorical runs in the rug.
The following review is broken down into three major sections. Character, Skills, and System representing a brief dive into those areas.
I will be concentrating mostly on the changes with respect to the Third Edition rules and an overall impression from the material presented in the book. I have not yet had a chance to run or otherwise use the system but have done several simulated dice rolls with a computer dice program. CHARACTER Character Creation remains unchanged, which is both good and bad. It is good in that those already familiar with it will be able to jump right in to trying out the new, redesigned Clans and Schools. It is bad in that L5R characters tend to be even more cookie-cutter at the start than any other game I have thus far encountered. Thematically, this fits in well. Rokugani culture is not the Western culture of the Individual.
Vary too far outside of what is expected, you may end up like the fence post and pounded on until you do fit in. The schools of each clan are what you would expect and don't vary much from Third Edition. Download ninja saga offline mod apk terbaru. As for the claim that has been repeated by the designers that these Schools and Clans represent an 'Iconic' version of them. I am not so certain.
Iconic to my mind would mean to stray a bit from having the same set of schools for each Clan or possibly changing out the current schools for something from the Advanced list which deeply embraces the 'concept' of the Clan stated succinctly only a few pages before the rules start. For example, if the Crane are so good at diplomacy and intrigue then why is there only one Courtier school available? And why does it lack the charismatic oomph the Clan is famous for? Advanced schools and alternate paths are an interesting addition but after having examined them I am left wondering what the point was. The Advanced Schools strike me as only half-completed and could have easily been turned into another full school to be included with the rest in the Clans section.
Alternate paths seem more like a scattering of ideas which didn't fit in with anything else and that the designers didn't want to throw away. Would it have been too much to see these ideas congealed into full blown Schools and placed with the Clans? As it stands, it leaves me with the impression that this was a halfhearted effort to bring some choice to an otherwise dull character system. Finally, a graphical walk through of character creation or an example of a finished character is missing. While there may be caveats that character creation depends on the campaign but having a completed character from each of the character schools would certainly help smooth out many of the conceptual hiccups that those who are unfamiliar with L5R and Rokugan are inevitably going to have.
Likewise, having a few pages dedicated to pointing out and where a character sheet needs to be filled in would likewise have been appreciated. SKILLS Skills have undergone a reworking of their core mechanics. Skill Emphasis and Mastery have been changed to remove many static bonuses or free raises to skill tests. Also gone are the Insight bonuses given for reaching the higher ranks, leaving players in an awkward position character-development wise. In a more positive vein, characters are no longer dinged for having only a single rank in a skill.
Buying a skill Emphasis now gives you the ability to re-roll 1s once per skill check instead of adding the rank of the skill to the roll. More about how this impacts the game statically below. Masteries bonuses vary but have been standardized to occur at ranks 3,5 and 7. The usefulness of the bonuses is questionable at best. Overall, the change to skill rolls is a step backwards to rules in the second or even first editions. There is little reason for players to invest in their character's skills beyond buying the initial rank and possibly an Emphsis, if they have the experience to spend. Instead, it appears that players are supposed to be hoarding the experience earned to spend on raising Rings, which now have the greatest impact on all parts of the game.
Masteries also feel restrained in what little bonuses they grant. Many give a token 1k0 bonus, usually at rank 3 or 5.
None give any free raises and only a few grant a 0k1 bonus at 7. A couple, exactly two, give an insight bonus. Otherwise, that's it.
Mechanically, this leaves the skills lacking a bite and conceptually hollow. Take the Defense skill, for instance. The rank 7 mastery gives the character the ability to use a simple action while maintaining their defensive stance. Except it can't be used for an attack. It seems to me that this is less a reward for dedication to the skill and more a punishment.
If a character gets so good at defending, or looking like they're defending that it creates the opportunity to attack I fail to see any reason for not letting them do so. I'm not saying that it has to be free of a mechanical penalty, but to specifically call out specifically useful actions as being verboten, as this system does often, it does something to the player's mentality. I think it makes them want the obvious use more and forces them to seek ways to get around the arbitrariness of the rules. Worse, I think it causes the careful, thoughtful GM to question the rules they were handed. Forcing them to spend time retooling things which they shouldn't have to deal with.
After using a computer dice roller to check some statistical calculations, I can't say I'm happy with where players now stand. The lack of flat bonuses related to the Emphasizes resulted in many more failures than with. It also leaves the players guessing at their effectiveness. Without the flat bonus, you're tied directly to the whims of the dice - no matter how much or how little the skill has been trained. The distinct lack of predictability strikes me as odd change to make.
Having characters who have bothered to train a skill and yet can't know with any certainty that they are going to be successful? Not a good place to be as a GM. In my experience it makes players less likely to engage in the sorts of risky behavior needed for heroics, or more likely to lie their way through encounters, or both. If flat bonuses and free raises were such a an issue that they needed to be removed, and I'm not convinced that they were, then wouldn't it have been easier to say that only X amount of bonus or N free raises apply to any given roll? As it stands, the bonuses were arbitrary and making a further arbitrary cutoff doesn't require an extraordinary leap in logic or justification the way taking them away does.
The flat emphasis bonus also fueled a reason to invest in skills, making them a useful experience sink and gave players another way in which to make their characters unique. The insight bonus at rank 5 gave players a good bang for their experience buck.
The change in fourth edition doesn't provide this same motivation. If anything, all it tells players to buy as many rank one skills as needed and save the rest to boost rings as fast as they can. Were I to start a campaign today, I would have to fall back to the previous edition's rules. This is not to say that 3rd edition skill rules were perfect but they achieved a good balance in the game.
There was a motivation for raising them to the higher ranks and gave real reason for investing in more than a token Emphasis. They also gave players an alternate path to advancing their characters' Insight rank. Despite its faults, that system felt more real and far more intuitive than the new one does. If this is the way to fixing some of the abuses that players used, I remain wholly unconvinced that it is a good, working solution. SYSTEM Stances provides one of the more interesting aspects of this new version. You get five to chose from, each with a different set of bonuses granted for their use and a couple have restrictions.
However, as with the skill Masteries, some of the bonuses seem stingy. For instance the Full Defense stance only gives half of Defense/Reflexes roll to TN to be hit and is pretty much the only thing that character gets to do.
Actions have also been tweaked and now come in the standard RPG flavors: Complex, Simple, and Move. Rounds give you a single complex action or two simple with whatever free actions. This doesn't mean you're out of luck if what you want to do isn't already defined in the rules. There are a few maneuvers to pick from which can be executed with additional raises, including another attack. But these come at a steep cost in raises.
Again this idea that there were too many free raises or flat bonuses seems to have raised its ugly head. The dice also got a minor reworking as well. As with previous editions, only ten dice are ever used and that for ever 2 dice rolled beyond the first ten, you get to keep an extra. For example 12k4 is turned into 10k5. What is new however is when you already have 10 kept dice, you instead get a bonus of 2 to the roll for every 2 dice kept or rolled beyond the first ten.
12k10 turns into 10k10+2 and 12k14 turns into 10k10+6. TL;DR The good: If you liked the previous versions of the L5R system, you'll find a lot to enjoy in this edition as well. Characters can be easily converted as most of the same game is present from previous versions. The roll and keep system, the Clans both great and small, and their respective schools that you've had access to before are all there.
Casting and spells have gotten a much needed upgrade in ease of use and focus. Combat is given additional depth with the new Stances. The bad: Uniformity right down to the bonuses given in each school. A quicker attack at rank 3 or 4 for the Bushi.
A 5k0 bonus for the Courtiers at rank 5. The exact same list of spells, varied only by element choice. At least the Phoenix gets to pick theirs. There can be such a thing as too much balance and this system blows past that point and heads for a whole new level. Beneath the veneer of flavor text, the Clans and Schools are the same with a lack of rulesy crunch. The ugly: The new skills rules means that unless your players are good liars, they're going to be failing more than they did with 3rd.
Expect to see a lot of Rank 1 skills once players figure out the statistics don't change that much with higher ranks and that experience cost to insight ratio is not good at all. With the greater weight put on primary attributes characters are going to look greatly alike and be equally effective no matter the Clan and School. Thank you very much for the review. This had been on my radar for awhile.
Your review helped me save some money. I am not into the CCG storyline at all but I am rather solidly into the concept of Rokugan and the basic 1st edition rulebook.
Having never really played it, I have been on the fence looking down at all of the materials up-to-date; I have read all of the material without going into the detailed viscera of the ruleset asides the basics. Out of all of it, I suppose I was looking for a generic rulebook without too much of the CCG influence, and a more streamlined system without too much crunch. It seems you have a solid feel for this game. I have a question if you don't mind.
Of the 4 editions, which edition for just the mechanics of gameplay would you buy if you were going to start from scratch? I am only speaking of the rules as opposed to all of the other modules, companions, etc. Thanks once again! It seems you have a solid feel for this game. I have a question if you don't mind.
Of the 4 editions, which edition for just the mechanics of gameplay would you buy if you were going to start from scratch? I am only speaking of the rules as opposed to all of the other modules, companions, etc. My preference, if it didn't come across too boldly in the review, is for the 3rd/Revised rules. I find them a better overall balance to gameplay.
This is not to suggest that they are without their flaws and they have their own oddities to have deal with. But if it came down to picking a 'core' to use for building off of, then 3rd it is. I also suggest making yourself familiar with the errata for the book. That particular line suffered from a few printing issues which had the effect of obscuring a few rules. You are right. It's just to balanced, but I had that problem already with 3rd and 3rd rev.
All Clans had good courtiers, good fighters etc. Even the Lion had 'Ninja/Shinobi'. I think first edition was thematically the best. Yes, some Schoolranks were really awesome, (like 5th Rank Bayushi, but we know that the scorpion cheat all the time), but that was cool! I like some rules from the 4th ed, but I'll stick with 1st ed L5R. (And I just ordered Blood & Honor, the latest Samurai game from John Wick).
4th edition seems alot more balanced and i also completly disagree with the topic poster. Great negative critism tho - not accurate but well written. 3rd edition sucked due to how one could get insane amounts of free raises for one and the schools where just too diverse so they could not be balanced. The schools in 4th ed have some similarities but also each aproach a different style. Scorpion faints, crab knocks down, crane transports iaijutsu into scirmish, lion charges in full attack, etc. Also the idea of alternative paths is nice - so a crab berserker gets his berserker rage instead a reduction from his rank 2 techniques. I even have a spider chuda maho-tsukai in the group i gamemaster - officially known as the luchi shugenja.
And its not much to worry for me that i keep the balance. About the skills if you where to raise just your rings and leave your skills at one you would quickly become the victim of a high skilled samurai. I find it redicolus to think in that direction since you need ALOT more xp to raise attributes than you do with skills but skills add emphases and increase rolled die at a much lower cost.
What i like in 4th ed the players are encouraged to raise their void ring to be able to raise accordingly with their skills. Which makes l5r character heroes more resemble their ccg counterparts - named experienced characters often have a high chi which basically is the void ring in the rpg. Its alot more fun to play a high insight rank group now than it was before. None gets overpowered easily but the curve of character growth of strength feels more natural and steady. I can just lay the book at the table and trust the balance of the game in most parts i dont have to add much optional rules (which are also in the book as suggestions anyway).
Tldr: Got ideas for scientific things which would be feasible in the world of Rokugan that can fake 'magic'? Long version: Friend has been playing L5R's rpg for awhile and told me about it. I joking around threw out the idea for a character who was pretending to be a shugenja using science as they lacked magic and was very much a con man/charlatan. Friend immediately fell in love with the idea of hiding the truth from other characters and players and the hilarity that would ensue and convinced me to try L5R, when I've never table top roleplayed before, as this character for a campagin she's GMing (first time for her to GM).
She's working with me to try and create the character but I'm running into a wall of ways to make the character feasible. Sleight of hand and a silver tongue can work in a social setting but in combat my character needs to be able to 'cast' some spells which do actual damage. Obviously gaijin pepper will be involved.
L5r 4th Edition Pdf
But I'd like to have some variety in what I can do rather than throw home made bombs every encounter of the campaign. I've spent the last day or so researching things like quicklime and saltpepper trying to find chemicals and substances which would technologically be available and when applied correctly create 'magical' and dangerous effects that are able to be carried on my person. Some ideas I've found is fire breath by using oil and some sleight of hand to hide a flame to ignite it with, and making flour 'fireballs' using scattered flour and another hidden flame. I'm trying to source some references which say quicklime can cause blinding and burns but I'm out of ideas past that so would love to hear other's. Whilst correct in that nowadays you can only put into potions spells with 'one target', there are still enough spells available that you can do various damaging and buffing effects fom which to maybe try and emulate in other ways. You'd be hard pushed, for example, to fake a potion which lets you sink into the earth, but you could feasibly emulate healing spells, fireball type effects, and even buff-like effects like pain suppression or debuffs like reducing targets rings with poisons. Ultimately, I'm not convinced the effort will be too rewarding, and the nature of kami and Shugenja in Rokugan means you're going to get found out unavoidably.
But no reason not to examine the idea to see if it works for you! Oh yeah I know I'm going to get found out eventually, and earn a whole lot of bad karma on the way, the fun of it is mostly to see how far I can go with a character who was born a peasant and decided screw that life and has become a con man impersonating samurai to go and sell fake talismans and do fake spells to make as much money as he can before the consequences catch up to him. Also to see how long I myself and the GM can fool the other players and relish in their confusion and surprise as the truth finally gets revealed! Yeah looked into that but sadly bleach wasn't discovered until 18th century and as my GM has said I can't have anything newer than the 15th century because that /seems/ to be where the gaijin nations are in terms of technological advancement. We've been debating that since the gaijin haven't had much sign of advancement since first coming in contact with Rokugan in the 5th century which means they haven't had technological changes for 700 years which doesn't make sense (but I know is needed for timeline neutrality) so I think she could bend some advancements based on that.
We've been having a big debate on whether I could have baking soda because the Unicorn could have come in contact with it while away from Rokugan and brought it back with them because they preferred bread made with it since it removes the metallic taste. Greek fire is sadly still unknown to modern science on the exact process but it seems it was more than just a chemical mixture but actually a whole deployment system built into the ships so I am loathe to try and make it for the character since I don't think it would be able to be carried on his person.
L5r 4th Edition Torrent
Same with ancient Chinese flamethrowers which involved two bellows and was quite a contraption. However apparently they used to use arsenic gases as riot control and had a variety of toxic smoke bombs in ancient China I may be able to figure out how to convince my GM to let me have if I can find out more about their exact chemical formulas and ingredients!
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