L5R: City of Lies

Game Master deusvult

Welcome to the game!

domo arigato

dotting ;-)

I'm excited to get the adventure underway and I hope you all are too!

I just have a few administrative things to get out of the way. I'd like to iron out the kinks, lay down some ground rules, and give a chance to answer some questions. Then we'll begin your adventures!

I noticed many of your wound ranks are calculated as if you had strength of the earth. It looks like a copy/paste issue, tbh. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out Chinatsu’s wound TN penalties, they’re correct on his profile for characters w/o Strength of the Earth.

Olmek, if you’d rather play Akodo Ryuku, let me and everyone else know ASAP.

Those of you who haven't already made aliases for your characters, hop to it! ;)

Starting Motivations:

You don't have to be magistrates/yorikis as of the start of this inaugural adventure. It's written under the presumption that you're samurai who happen to be at the right place at the wrong time. (or maybe it's vice versa..)

From what I gleaned in the recruitment thread, this is what we have so far:

Shinjo Xiaoxing and Soshi Konming are yoriki, both assigned to the City of Lies and they already know each other professionally. They even meet regularly at the very Inn the adventure will start in.

Everything else seemed kind of up in the air. To facilitate the process, I'll throw some suggestions that make sense to me:

Kitsuki Katsurou and Mirumoto Katsuyoshi: It's perhaps unrealistic to say that just because you're from the same Clan you already know one another. However, you certainly could have gotten to know one another as fellow Dragons sharing the same road to a common destination through decidedly foreign territory.

Chinatsu: People who knew you as Hida Daizu aren't supposed to acknowledge that you used to be that person. However, it is the City of Lies and like nowhere else, rules are made to be broken. If Shinjo Xiaoxing wants to say she knew you as Hida Daizu, then a Unicorn is quite an appropriate candidate to flaunt the deeply traditional Rokugani rules. BTW, there actually is a Temple to Osano-Wo in the city. I'm not sure if you knew that as a player, but if not it just goes to show.. try to let the players come up with the ideas, they tend to be awesome ;)

Doji Himeko: Prior to considering your position, I see two clusters of relationships (Xiaoxing-Konming-Chinatsu and the two Dragons) A Crane samurai (and a Courtier at that) is the perfect candidate to bridge the two groups. Perhaps she also met the Dragons while they all converged on the City of Lies, where she and Soshi Konming already know one another due through Crane/Scorpion political circles.

If y'all like that arrangement, we've got a group more or less ready to go. If you want to change/add the relationships, that's perfectly fine, too. Let's get it so everyone is comfortable.

nice a temple to Osano-Wo ;-)

i can add to my spell list later with a prayer or two dedicated to that Fortune ;-)

added an additional rank to Medicine

Hello and thanks for the invite. :)

I like your suggestion, GM Onnotangu. Himeko is in the business of knowing people. Although I did write her as having a magisterial position of some sort in Ryoko Owari.

PS. I added two new skills with my spare XP, Lore: Scorpion & Lore: Unicorn.

Hi all :D

Looking forward to this muchly :)

Kongming may have met the 2 Dragons during his one-year stay in the Dragon Lands during his youth, perhaps during some sword-fighting class.

I updated my Defense to 2.

I'm fine with your suggestions GM. Looking for to this :)

Dot. I need to make a profile.

Dot. Gonna fix my mechanical stuff today.

"Konnichiwa, Xiaoxing-san."

Kongming then motions to a private alcove, "Dozo."

He then snaps his fingers and calls for tea.

"The chrysanthemum tea is quite excellent here."

I like your suggestion, GM Onnotangu. Himeko is in the business of knowing people. Although I did write her as having a magisterial position of some sort in Ryoko Owari.

Ah, yes, my bad. I completely forgot about you writing a magistrate's background. However, if you like my idea, we can still use both. We can say Himeko's duties as a yoriki to a Crane Magistrate caused her to regularly travel between the City of Lies and the Crane provinces, thus giving opportunity to meet Katsurou and Katsuyoshi on their way to the City.

I am thinking about changing the identity and nature of your first enemy, Mirumoto Tobezu. The casus belli doesn't really work since Himeko was only a yoriki rather than an Emerald Magistrate, plus I think we've got the Dragon Clan more than represented in the campaign already by having 2 PCs. I'm liking the idea of Tobezu being a Mantis, as that's someone I can have pop up from time to time w/o being around ALL the time. Are you ok with a recurring smuggler who's sore at Himeko?

PS. I added two new skills with my spare XP, Lore: Scorpion & Lore: Unicorn.

That segues into a topic I've been meaning to bring up: My House Rules.

I consider characters as never being unskilled in Lore:Your Own Clan. (Chinatsu, in your case I'm going to say b/c you're a Force Retirement you're never unskilled in Lore: Crab Clan rather than Lore: Brotherhood.)

I like the Honor check. Especially for this campaign since there really ought to be a reward for maintaining one's honor in a place like Ryoko Owari.

The nature of a continuous PbP game requires an adaptation to the Honor roll (and all other mechanics that work on a "X times per session" basis). I'm not sure what a good way to adapt that, however. I'm thinking "per session" abilities recharge every 1st of the real world month. Anyone have other/better ideas on that?

Assuming we get all the kinks and questions worked out by then, I'm thinking about starting the adventure monday night (11 May).

id be ok with starting monday night. one question GM: gear wise, what should Chinatsu have? do i go off the idea of being an ascetic monk or an ascetic Hida Pragmatist?

id be ok with starting monday night. one question GM: gear wise, what should Chinatsu have? do i go off the idea of being an ascetic monk or an ascetic Hida Pragmatist?

Use the starting equipment of a monk (listed in the sidebar on page 231 of the core rulebook)

Doji Himeko wrote:

I like your suggestion, GM Onnotangu. Himeko is in the business of knowing people. Although I did write her as having a magisterial position of some sort in Ryoko Owari.

Ah, yes, my bad. I completely forgot about you writing a magistrate's background. However, if you like my idea, we can still use both. We can say Himeko's duties as a yoriki to a Crane Magistrate caused her to regularly travel between the City of Lies and the Crane provinces, thus giving opportunity to meet Katsurou and Katsuyoshi on their way to the City.

I am thinking about changing the identity and nature of your first enemy, Mirumoto Tobezu. The casus belli doesn't really work since Himeko was only a yoriki rather than an Emerald Magistrate, plus I think we've got the Dragon Clan more than represented in the campaign already by having 2 PCs. I'm liking the idea of Tobezu being a Mantis, as that's someone I can have pop up from time to time w/o being around ALL the time. Are you ok with a recurring smuggler who's sore at Himeko?

Quote:

PS. I added two new skills with my spare XP, Lore: Scorpion & Lore: Unicorn.

That segues into a topic I've been meaning to bring up: My House Rules.

I consider characters as never being unskilled in Lore:Your Own Clan. (Chinatsu, in your case I'm going to say b/c you're a Force Retirement you're never unskilled in Lore: Crab Clan rather than Lore: Brotherhood.)

I like the Honor check. Especially for this campaign since there really ought to be a reward for maintaining one's honor in a place like Ryoko Owari.

The nature of a continuous PbP game requires an adaptation to the Honor roll (and all other mechanics that work on a "X times per session" basis). I'm not sure what a good way to adapt that, however. I'm thinking "per session" abilities recharge every 1st of the real world month. Anyone have other/better ideas on that?

Assuming we get all the kinks and questions worked out by then, I'm thinking about starting the adventure...

That sounds good to me.

I found a nice scan of the city map online; I linked it in the campaign info tab. It'll prove highly useful.. you can zoom in and it's still clear enough to read street names!

Here's the to-do list I'm waiting for so we can start the game:

Soshi Konming: Correct wound rank penalties on the profile

Kitsuki Katsurou: Complete the profile (pls don't make me search through the forums to find relevant information about Katsurou.. I'd like them posted on the profile for ease of reference)

Mirumoto Katsuyoshi: Create alias & profile, fix spells, spend refunded 5 exp for Iaijutsu coming down to 4.

While we're waiting, might be a good time to throw out any questions you may have about the setting, game, or my preferences/expectations.

Question about your map: As players are we assumed to know what the L# are? If so, can you put some sort of key below the link? Assuming that the numbers are publicly known locations.

The Players' information for Ryoko Owari is literally an entire book.

I don't plan to try to make a condensed version to post in campaign info; that'd be way too busy to read. You can read street names if you zoom in, but I plan to augment descriptions of locations by including such phrases as "near LXX on the map". So for now, those L#s are primarily just meta-landmarks. For example, the first post of the game* will include the following line: "The Inn of the Orange Blossom is on the busy intersection of Saffron Street and Brass Avenue, located just about equidistant to the Gate of Condescension (Location 9), the Bridge of Drunken Lovers (Location 16) and the magnificent Dragon Gate (Location 10)."

I do however plan to explain landmarks as you encounter them in-game. Now that you have me thinking about it, it seems like it might be a good idea to give names of the locations you "unlock" in play on the campaign tab. It'd save you the bother of scrolling through my posts to remember what was where.

*=yes, I do have the complete first post already composed and ready to post. And the second. And the third. I'm eager to go :)

EDIT: I put up a couple locations preemptively.. those locations that are meant to be seen everywhere in the city and no doubt everyone knows what they are.

Finshed and done with. Also, all the house rules seem fine with me.

Adjusted character. Had to build off of a website and forgot the skill 4 rule and didn't think about the mastery level of the spell... thought I was still in the 2s.

Stranded in province (flight got cancelled) shld be able to return home in time for the start of the game (16hrs from now) Posting using my phone.

Will correct wound ranks also at that time.

House rules are great, no worries :) I've updated Xiaoxing's profile with the corrected crunch. Would you like a stat line in our profiles to save you hunting around? Trying to think what would be useful, perhaps TN to be hit w and w/o armor, rings? Honor?!

***

Response to Kongming's post

Kongming-san!

The red-haired samurai-ko waves at her friend from across the room, patiently waiting for a host to be free to escort her across to Kongming's table. Seeing how crowded the room is she shrugs and makes her way there herself.

At Kongming's mention of chrysanthemum tea she smiles

I'm sure it is indeed excellent if you are recommending its virtues, however I will stick with jasmine tea for now, the dust on the roads was thick and I find it helps...

She glances across the room and half raises a hand in recognition of another before hastily returning it to her lap

Apologies Kongming-san, I thought I recognised someone I know...or knew...ah well...

Xiaoxing nods and smiles in Chinatsu's direction.

Now where were we? Ah yes, the fragrance of the jasmine tea I find exceptional at sluicing dust from a samurai's parched throat. Now tell me, how have you been? What are you working on?!

Her green eyes twinkle with curiosity despite her relatively composed and polite features.

[ooc]House rules are great, no worries :) I've updated Xiaoxing's profile with the corrected crunch. Would you like a stat line in our profiles to save you hunting around? Trying to think what would be useful, perhaps TN to be hit w and w/o armor, rings? Honor?!

I don't have a set formatting I'm insisting upon.. so long as everything important is there I'm satisfied. Armor TN and RnK for attacking will often be situationally modified anyway, so they're not critical to be pre-calculated.

***Response to Kongming's post***

I totally don't want to stifle your (and Soshi Konming's) enthusiasm, but I'll gently move the setting of your meeting one another out into the street. You'll get to roleplay walking into the inn together as a group when we get started :)

I have some pesky term papers to finish up today before I allow myself the time to indulge in kicking us off.. since they're due today :}

But come hell or high water we'll get the campaign started tonight!

*** Mad Cackle ***

Ah.. finished a 14 page paper in under 4 hours. Now my pretty little samurai.. my brain is a little overcooked and I think that makes it a perfect time to begin the game... may the Fortunes have mercy upon you all!

*** Mad Cackle ****

ok. m back at home.

lemme copy the right wound ranks onto the profile ;-)

Yay for beginning the game!

Thanks for running this GM ^.^

I'm going to give Doji Himeko some more time to get a post in before I move us on to your private dining table.

But in the meantime I'll address something that's already come up: etiquette for surrendering swords.

The awkward thing is both Soshi Konming and Shinjo Xiaoxing are right. I blame the size of the corpus of L5R RPG material.. but it comes to me to balance the contradictory fluff.

The way I synthesize it is the wakizashi may be retained in situations where On is maintained. If you're behaving like samurai, but circumstances dictate that you should be "disarmed", you still get to keep your wakizashi as a badge of station in the samurai class.

On the other hand, in places where On is NOT maintained, being disarmed means exactly that. When you surrender your wakizashi, you're symbolically surrendering your position as samurai.

So, the way I run L5R, that means you can keep your wakizashi in places like reputable taverns (Such as the Inn of the Orange Blossom). You give it up in places like Opium Dens and Geisha Houses.

So with that clarification coming after most of you made your posts, anyone who wants to sit and drink in the Inn may still have their Wakizashis if they desire.

Edit: While I'm on that topic, I realize I've forgotten to mention something else entirely.

In this timeline, Rokugan hasn't had a major war since the return of the Unicorn Clan some 200 years ago. We're before the Coup and before the resulting Clan War.. the Empire is largely at peace and warfare is studied more in theoretical rather than practical terms. "Battles" of this era are essentially large-scale duels. The point I'm getting to: Wearing armor is much rarer in this campaign than in "usual" L5R games. The Governor does not want armored samurai running around her city, and the Scorpion Clan has an even dimmer view of armored samurai travelling thier roads. Unless you're suiting up for some SWAT style assault on a bandit hideout, your armor in this campaign is likely relegated to a display stand.

Sorry! Internet was down last night. Writing up a post now. :)

Thanks for the catch xioxing. Would have been embarrassing if I had made it to ten posts without fixing that.

I'm watching the gameplay thread and ready to give some info to those who've posted about eavesdropping/identifying the Crane Lords, but I'm holding off to give everyone a chance before I respond to any one roll.

I'm chiming in because I'd like to request you guys use some formatting on the rolls..

If you're just announcing your rolls as 3k3 or 2k2 I have to guess what's going on. Thus far it's been fairly obvious what you mean but I'd like to get you in the habit of making it easy on me.

I'd like to see:
Awareness/Perception, 6k3, 1 free raise: 6d10 ⇒ (7, 7, 1, 2, 7, 10) = 34
Exploding 10s: 1d10 ⇒ 7 17+7+7=31
or
Intelligence/Heraldry (untrained)3k3: 3d10 ⇒ (1, 1, 7) = 9

I don't need you to follow my format there exactly, but I'm asking you to not make me figure out what's going on with the rolls or potentially which dice you're picking to keep. (presumably it'd be the highest, but not always...)

No problem GM :)

So, we've entered our first combat scene.

As I disclosed earlier, I'm a first time PbP GM so I hope you bear with me as I swim in the deep end of the pool here.

Over the course of our roleplay thus far, I see that we have some people that post at different times of the day. I expect it'll take us a day to just get the initiative order set, and depending on who's first maybe even up to another day to get the first combat post.

I'm not sure what the etiquette is in PbP, but I'm of a mind to Bot anyone who's gone 24 hours since a prompt.

I'd also like to invite everyone to do your "ask the GM" posts here to keep the gameplay thread streamlined.

So, ask away about any questions you may have.
Anyone with shadowlands lore, go ahead and do a preemtive roll in this thread as well and maybe I can answer some out-of-combat questions to keep the combat posts on schedule.

One suggestion: I am not a master of L5R's system, but if initiative cannot be changed via raises and the roll is in general static, a suggestion is to have the GM roll initiatives(you can roll NPC initiatives yourself). That way, everyone has a central list from the get go to go by and we can see who acts when.

Also, I'm not sure if this is obvious but I'll say that it can be easier to be a little loose with initiative. For instance say initiative is Kongming -> Chinatsu -> creature. Chinatsu can post before Kongming. It's up to you at this point as I have seen some DMs just have Chinatsu's action take place first and I've seen some have Kongming's followed by Chinatsu's. It's all about keeping things moving.

That being said:

Intelligence/Lore(Shadowlands),3k2: 3d10 ⇒ (8, 1, 6) = 15

to figure out what the hell that thing is and how boned are we that it showed up(also why it would show up to begin with).

So a 14. Is there a way to write out a "keep" in the dice roller?

One suggestion: I am not a master of L5R's system, but if initiative cannot be changed via raises and the roll is in general static, a suggestion is to have the GM roll initiatives(you can roll NPC initiatives yourself). That way, everyone has a central list from the get go to go by and we can see who acts when.

Also, I'm not sure if this is obvious but I'll say that it can be easier to be a little loose with initiative. For instance say initiative is Kongming -> Chinatsu -> creature. Chinatsu can post before Kongming. It's up to you at this point as I have seen some DMs just have Chinatsu's action take place first and I've seen some have Kongming's followed by Chinatsu's. It's all about keeping things moving.

That being said:

[dice=Intelligence/Lore(Shadowlands),3k2]3d10

to figure out what the hell that thing is and how boned are we that it showed up(also why it would show up to begin with).

So a 14. Is there a way to write out a "keep" in the dice roller?

I'm going to use this idea.

Anyone who hasn't rolled initiative by the time I get home will have it rolled by me on your behalf.. I'll put an initiative order up tonight, and who ever ends up being first will be "on the clock".

As for the "keeping" in Roll&Keep.. I think you just have to manually calculate it in your post. I don't know of a way to automate the process under the forum code.

Lore:Shadow lands4k3: 4d10 ⇒ (6, 1, 9, 10) = 26 Explode1d10 ⇒ 8 Keep 33

Was going to suggest the same as Chinatsu, GM initiative is a real time saver :)

Also good on the over 24 hours bot, got to keep things moving!

I really don't know what to do about this whole thing: Blindness limits movement, but it seems like that could be mitigated by literally being led by someone, but then again I'd be carrying an unconscious person, so I don't know how to go about this. Assuming Himeko doesn't just bail on me anyway.

I really don't know what to do about this whole thing: Blindness limits movement, but it seems like that could be mitigated by literally being led by someone, but then again I'd be carrying an unconscious person, so I don't know how to go about this. Assuming Himeko doesn't just bail on me anyway.

I'm giving this some thought. In a combat scene, blindness is about one of the worst disadvantages you can have. And I'll be frank; this isn't the last combat scene in the adventure. Not by a long shot.

This adventure is more combat-oriented than the rest of the campaign will be, but I'm afraid you're feeling like a bait and switch. Blindness shouldn't be crippling in a police drama style campaign, but it certainly is in a combat-heavy environment.

Anyway, what I was thinking is free move actions, so long as someone stays there with you, don't trigger the tripping check. That'd allow you to move Water x 5' per skirmish round.. in your case 10' a round. I'm supposing at this point that seems like a decent rate of movement for chaotic conditions or an unfamiliar environment.

I'm concerned that's overly restrictive however by requiring someone to guide you. I'm thinking about bending the rule even more in your favor:

Potentially: Allow you to make free move actions w/o a guide. I'll reserve the right for trip checks if your move goes through wierd terrain, like trying to move through the bonsai garden.
With guide:allow you to make regular, simple move actions w/o trip check (barring weird terrain again) so long as someone else spends their simple move actions correspondingly to guide you.

The more I think about this possible idea, the more I like it. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Not that I want to encourage anyone to dishonorably peek behind the GM screen, but I feel like I owe Katsuyoshi an explanation. The dice as presented don't show the damage I said he took.

I think what happened is when I deleted the damage roll for the bite that missed, it caused the code to recalculate the succeeding dice rolls. It did originally come to 21, I swear :]

I guess in the future I'll just have to not be cute with obsfuscating the dice to hide exact capabilities of NPCs from y'all. If I want to keep something secret I'll hide it behind the spoiler and trust you to be honorable and not peek :)

EDIT: ooh, I think I figured it out. I bet I deleted the second damage roll by accident, and w/o realizing it until now.

Despite my mistake, I'm gonna have most everything stand as posted. The reason the 2nd podling didn't attack you a 2nd time was because you were already Down. Being Down is better than Out or Dead, which could easily be the result if I recalculate your damage and then make the 2nd podling attack you a 2nd time. I will however lower the Earth ring TN on the first check to 13 (as the dice now say), but an 11 still doesn't make it :(

Thanks for the bot, GM. That's precisely what I was going to do. Side note: I saw Mad Max today. That movie is face-meltingly awesome.

ALL DISCUSSION OF FURY ROAD SHOULD BE MADE WITH CAPS LOCK ON.

IT IS THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE.

Ok now you got me interested into watching IT

Speaking of movies in theaters: would it kill Marvel to have Thor actually do something?

Oh, and the Waterx5' is fine as a free action, though my Water is actually three.

Re Blind movement: Let's play around with the house rule as I said I was considering (you can do free move actions w/o a guide w/o a trip check, and you can do simple move actions with a guide w/o a trip check). So lets see how that plays out.

Re My own reminder to consider using your void points when appropriate: That raises an interesting issue for how to spend void points to reduce the damage you take in a pbp forum. Since it's gotta be immediate, right at that moment and potentially in between NPC attacks, I don't think that's really a viable way to do it.

But it's a potentially life saving tool you're meant to have available, nonetheless. So here's another house rule: You set triggers for automatic expenditure.

From now on I'll presume, unless/until I hear otherwise, you'll spend a void point (if available) any time you take damage that would reduce you to the Down category or worse to reduce that damage. If you want to set up a different contingency for spending your void to reduce your damage taken, say so in this thread.

Gm, as far as I'm concerned you didn't have to refund me the extra health. I trust you to play me straight and I am enjoying the combat.

If the oni wasn't paying attention to Kongming that should really get his attention. Screaming one armed man seems to just pour forth with kami powers without effort. To bad you didn't silent prayer it, would have been an epic story for anyone who witnessed it.

Didn't want me to accidently kill yout precious oni huh. :P

Hehe, actually, I was more worried about the Oni killing you ;)

The way the adventure is written, you're intended to be forced to deal with the oni you can't hurt. The Ronin is there to grab a katana and draw hostile fire so none of you have to take it. As such, he doesn't even have a name, much less a background story. Your ability to cast Katana of Fire w/o your scrolls unwittingly hijacked the Ronin's role!

So, now it looks like the Ronin might survive the fight.. that means I get to flesh those things out for myself...

Ro-nin! Ro-nin!

Xiaoxing will be singing his praises at battle's end, even if he *is* dishonorable scum! Luckily she's a Unicorn and can get away with such things ^.^

Ro-nin! Ro-nin!

Xiaoxing will be singing his praises at battle's end, even if he *is* dishonorable scum! Luckily she's a Unicorn and can get away with such things ^.^

I've been nearly bouncing with excitement to reveal more about the Ronin. I hope everyone likes him as much as you do.

So, with your first combat behind you, here's how I tally the carnage:

I see Xiaoxing already updated her profile to reflect the honor gains.. Chinatsu, Himeko, Katsuyoshi, don't forget to update you profiles!

Also, barring any use of the medicine skill to perform some first aid (or more magical healing), Katsuyoshi is still carrying 23 wounds for +10 TN penalties. I'm only realizing now we both forgot to apply your wound penalties to your grapple. Que sera sera. Its not like y'all wouldn't have beaten that last podling anyway...

Don't think for one moment that just because I'm a Unicorn I'm going to approve of our dear Ronin wandering around in black leather to go with his stubble... additionally, he's not borrowing my police interceptor Utaku warhorse to 'upgrade' her, no matter how fast he says that 'special water' will make her go ;p