Hello. Decided to start recruiting for L5R. We will be using 4th edition, during the pre-scorpion clan coup era. You are either a Bushi or a Shugenja. I would like it if you were apart of the same Clan. You may use Ads/Disads to complete your character. Also it is possible to play a Courtier, but I'm running you through some of the 1e adventures (Void in the Heavens, Code of Bushido, and others).
4th edition has all the schools, I think. I'll be running you through the Topaz Championship starter adventure, so all you can have an introduction to Rokugan. Then you could be imperial magistrates. Depending on how diverse you are.
I am a tentative dot, depending on how my current recruitments go.
cool, dot
I'm also intrigued to see what clan (or clans) everyone wanted to be from. I won't lie, I always really liked the "doing bad for good reasons" mentality of Scorpion.
If you couldn't tell by the walls of text in the interest page, I'm so down.
Huston, we wouldn't have to be the same clan; he said it's topaz championship and then magistrates. Magistrates can easily be multi-clan. It's the book's go to for a motley crew.
Still interested. What all do you want in the recruitment post? I'm assuming you don't want complete builds?
I'm still mainly interested in playing a Crane samurai (or I guess, Bushi). You can see the general personality and equivalent background of the Rokugani character I'd play in this alias' profile (i.e. she's a shugyosha wandering the land as a duelist, whose parents are samurai in a regional hub's police force, or alternatively, in minor bureaucratic postings).
Definitely Dotting, I have a little experience in setting but virtually none with the system past reading through it. My votes for the clan would go to Scorpion Dragon and Crab!
Just responding to what the GM posted.I would like it if you were apart of the same Clan.
I have no idea how I missed that.
I blame lack of sleep. My kid is teething.
Well, I vote anything but Lions, and to a lesser extent Crane. Those folks have sticks so far up their butts it hits the back of their teeth.
Scorpion gets s!&* done.
I don't know the clans well enough to make a good suggestion but perhaps, if we're not all from the same clan, we can choose from 2-3 clans that get along well enough with one another? It will still allow for some clan tension and different goals but not be as tense as having a Scorpion running around with the group?
As far as I remember:
Crab - gets along with Unicorn, Phoenix, Mantis, Dragon; ok with Scorpion, Lion; hate the Crane
Crane - hate the Lion, hate the Crane; ok with Mantis, get along with everyone else
Dragon - dislike the Phoenix, but no major beef or major alliances with anyone
Lion - get along with Mantis okay, Crab okay, but have butted heads with damnnear everyone else
Mantis - f#** the Phoenix; Crab is our BFF, Unicorns are our buddies, everyone is is okay.
Phoenix - minor beef with Dragon, major beef with Mantis, everyone else is okay.
Unicorn - get along with Crab and Mantis, butt heads hard with Lion, ok with Crane and Dragon, no major opinion on the rest.
I can't help thinking I'm missing someone.
Also, some minor clans are basically vassals of the major. Like Dragonfly is Dragon's sidekick, and the Falcon/Boar/Crab connection.
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The Thunder Dragon gave up her spot in the heavens so Yoritomo could be the Mantis's patron, so even they have divine representatives.
And Fu Leng reps the Spider, though everyone but the Unicorn hates them, and in this time period they aren't antiheroes; they're straight up villains.
But I had to mention it, because they my boys.
I once wrote (but didn't get to run) a campaign where a minor clan on the rise goes in search of Ryoshun's ghost to rep them as the tenth great clan.
I saw interest in Scorpion and Crane already. They get along most of the time, unlike most clans that share boarders. Probably because both are quite subtle at their wars. A scorpion/crane/mantis/unicorn/dragon alliance is about the most clans I can conceive working together and not murdering each other.
Because seriously, f&+! the Lion Clan.
All this is me spitballing. I love talking Rokugan lore. And I love that another potential player is a lore nerd! Obviously the GM has to chime in. I just love this setting and can talk shop a lot about it.
Oh, snap, we forgot political marriages. You gotta get along with your teammate if you're banging their sister.
...irl it's the only reason I even tolerate my brother in law.
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I am definitely interested. I would much rather Crane to Scorpion. I think Crane have more variety in classes, especially if we are removing ninja classes.
But I think Crab could be a lot of fun for a group to play so that would be my pick. They have a lot of variety in their classes. Which could make for a more interesting party if we are all the same clan. Even if you kick out the Kuni Witch Hunter, it still has a lot of options and variety for the group to select from.
A question for the GM, when you said only Bushi and Shugenja does that remove investigators or are you including them under Bushi? Would you allow a Kuni Witch Hunter or Ninjas?
A question for the GM, when you said only Bushi and Shugenja does that remove investigators or are you including them under Bushi? Would you allow a Kuni Witch Hunter or Ninjas?
Most of the adventures I have are from 1st Edition. The ninja don't get a lot of shine, and I tolerate a friend of mine playing a ninja because she's good at it.
The main reason I don't have a lot of people playing ninja, because they weren't an option for the main book. The main 1e book talks about them, and the major ninja families (Bayushi being one of them). They don't become an option to play until the Way of the Scorpion clan book.
I'm not allowing courtiers because the campaign deals with the question of honor, loyalty, and family. That's why I'm starting you out with the Topaz Championship (from 1e) and then as emerald and/or jade magistrates you deal with problems in the Empire.
If the campaign was based on what ninja do, that's a whole different kettle of fish.
Do you have a preference, or should we work that out amongst ourselves?
I prefer you work that out amongst yourselves. I can run different clans in one group (as Imperial Magistrates under the Emerald Champion, for instance). One thing you got to remember, this is an introductory campaign -- some of the people applying don't know Rokugan or the Lore. That's why I said you're either Bushi or Shugenja. After we have the initial campaign out of the way, we can try an all ninja campaign. Ala Naruto in Rokugan.
That depends on what we do with Legend of the Five Rings (one of the prospective employees for our little enterprise is actually Japanese, so you may see some more of Japan's culture injected into L5R. Something like an actual list of Japanese names. But we may use Gold Rush Games' Sengoku as a further inspiration point).
We're definitely going to turn away from FFG's direction for the game. Fantasy Flight Games' Roleplaying Game is good for a Bushido Simulator, but is low fantasy. So we are adding a little more fantasy and Japanese Folklore to the game, making a mid-fantasy version of Rokugan. So the possibility of playing a race other than a human is likely.
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If you are willing to run different clans working for the Emerald Magistrate I do think that lets players go to the clan that most fits their personality. I would play something other then Crab if we could just pick the Clan of our choice. We could also just take the advantage to get a different school.
But if Eltonj wants us to all be the same clan we seem to have the following votes (some of these are assumed by reading comments, and only the first mentioned.) I am not sure if the no ninja schools changes things for people:
Crane 1 [Tamahi Kiyoko]
Phoenix 1 [hustonj]
Crab 2 [Malinor and Daniel]
Scorpion 3 [KingHotTrash, The Vagrant Erudite, and Eithand]
I'm down for a mixed game, if that lets everyone play what they want to play.
EDIT: I had wrote up this awesome long thing about how I'd play a Scorpion but then the post got swallowed.
Basically, if I played one in the group then I would make sure everyone is cool with what I'm generally doing in OOC. I wouldn't screw anyone over without talking about it first OOCly. If someone didn't want to be involved in my schemes, I would hope the DM would work with me to let me play a manipulative Scorpion while not having to involve that player in it.
When I play these kinds of character, it isn't a "mwahahaha, gather all the power and blackmail everyone!". It is more of a "I do the things others cannot or will not do."
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Scorpions are not my cup of tea, and I do think that there are several clans (Scorpion and Lion being the two biggest) that can kind of ruin others fun unless everyone agrees to play nice. As long as we all go in with that intent I think it will be good, but I am not all that interested in a Scorpion centric campaign either.
I am cool with any of the clans.
The Thunder Dragon gave up her spot in the heavens so Yoritomo could be the Mantis's patron, so even they have divine representatives.Long fall between founded by a Great Kami and gave Yoritomo a spot in the Celestial Order he wasn't born into.
Mantis hater. Now I just have to play a Yoritomo Bushi.
As the GM just gave his approval for multiple clans, I have a character I'd like to try.
He's the youngest son of his clan's champion. He's spoiled, arrogant, and ridiculously naturally talented - but he's a lazy, hedonism driven bastard. Basically it's a mix of Sterling Archer and Mugen from Samurai Champloo. I'd either go katana/parangu (if we had no other duelist and I had to use a katana), dual kama, or preferably a kusigarama modified to have two kama rather than a kama and a ball.
Maybe take an ally advantage, bare minimum social, and a lot of acrobatics.
Even pre-great clan status, the Mantis were disproportionately powerful and rich due to their ocean supremacy. When your parents are clan champions, your older sister teaches the clan school, and you are a naturally gifted beast with a blade from a clan of ex pirates, you're going to get seriously humbled...and I can't wait. It'll be great (as long as it doesn't kill him and I can let him grow as a person).
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I don't think I have ever played a Shugenja.
Back when I played the card game there was a Phoenix Shugenja that was a duelist/swordmaster as well. I am tempted to build something like that. You don't get a ton of spells so this would give me something to do when I wasn't throwing fire around.
If someone else wants to play a Phoenix Shugenja I can come up with something else.
I don't think I have ever played a Shugenja.
Back when I played the card game there was a Phoenix Shugenja that was a duelist/swordmaster as well. I am tempted to build something like that. You don't get a ton of spells so this would give me something to do when I wasn't throwing fire around.
If someone else wants to play a Phoenix Shugenja I can come up with something else.
Make what you want to play.
Does 4th ed have any of the Minor Clan schools? Specifically Hare? I have been wanting to play a Hare Bushi since other side of forever. I don't have 4th ed, but can pick up pdf if they have Hare. Don't want to waste people's time otherwise.
The Hare clan mentions an Usagi Bushi school. 4th ed has all the minor clan bushi and shugenja schools.
Well, this is my initial attempt at an L5R character. The CharGen page on Last Haiku (linked in the Interest thread earlier; http://lasthaiku.wikidot.com/chargen) has a link to a "20 Questions" at the top of it that I thought were kind of helpful in fleshing out the character. I included it and my answers for Kiyo in a spoiler at the bottom of the profile.
One thing I'm not entirely sure about is whether a Kakita always has the Kakita surname (or an Akodo always has the Akodo surname, etc.) or if there were 'cadet branches' of families that were related but didn't share the same surname. If they do always have the family name, then I'll change her surname from Tamaki to Kakita as appropriate.
Well, this is my initial attempt at an L5R character. The CharGen page on Last Haiku (linked in the Interest thread earlier; http://lasthaiku.wikidot.com/chargen) has a link to a "20 Questions" at the top of it that I thought were kind of helpful in fleshing out the character. I included it and my answers for Kiyo in a spoiler at the bottom of the profile.
One thing I'm not entirely sure about is whether a Kakita always has the Kakita surname (or an Akodo always has the Akodo surname, etc.) or if there were 'cadet branches' of families that were related but didn't share the same surname. If they do always have the family name, then I'll change her surname from Tamaki to Kakita as appropriate.
Your character does look sound. You've got the Way of the Crane technique, right?
Your character does look sound. You've got the Way of the Crane technique, right?
Yeah, it's toward the top of the profile/character sheet, just above Honor and below School and Kata Known.
In addition to the surname question, are there special materials in Rokugan, like adamantine? I know in the d20 Oriental Adventures book, it talks about jade weapons being used to fight creatures from the Shadowlands, but I don't see much about anything to do with the Shadowlands or its inhabitants on either lasthaiku.wikidot.com or magicalsamurai.wikidot.com.
Your character does look sound. You've got the Way of the Crane technique, right?Yeah, it's toward the top of the profile/character sheet, just above Honor and below School and Kata Known.
In addition to the surname question, are there special materials in Rokugan, like adamantine? I know in the d20 Oriental Adventures book, it talks about jade weapons being used to fight creatures from the Shadowlands, but I don't see much about anything to do with the Shadowlands or its inhabitants on either lasthaiku.wikidot.com or magical-samurai.wikidot.com.
There isn't any special materials in Rokugan, except for jade and crystal. As for your question for your surname, it's possible that you can keep Tamaki.
Eltonj, are you going with standard creation rules, as far as exp, school gear, etc?
When would you like characters ready? How much do you want in the way of backstory, etc?
I am thinking Spider clan, Susuma
If Heritage table ,
Omens and Portents
You were abandoned at a monastery as a child, an unwelcome burden on your parents. Your years in the monastery were unpleasant and punishing, but the doctrine of strength and power in the Order of the Spider appealed to you, and you were among Roshungi’s fi rst adherents. You gain the Dark Paragon Advantage.
GM is this ok?
Muzouka here. Here's my character. Haven't applied the Heritage yet in case it is not allowed.
I am thinking Spider clan, Susuma
If Heritage table 1d10,
Omens and Portents1d10
You were abandoned at a monastery as a child, an unwelcome burden on your parents. Your years in the monastery were unpleasant and punishing, but the doctrine of strength and power in the Order of the Spider appealed to you, and you were among Roshungi’s fi rst adherents. You gain the Dark Paragon Advantage.
GM is this ok?
The spider clan didn't exist during the pre-Scorpion Clan Coup era. So, decide on something else.
Eltonj, are you going with standard creation rules, as far as exp, school gear, etc?
When would you like characters ready? How much do you want in the way of backstory, etc?
Well, I don't want a novel. If you have to have a long backstory, a page and a half is five.
And we are going with standard creation rules. Also, we are using the heritage tables for those who are interested in them.
Muzouka here. Here's my character. Haven't applied the Heritage yet in case it is not allowed.
Not bad. Though you left out his back story.
Malinor here. This is my character. If we are doing Heritage Tables, here is my roll:
Shameful Past
My ancestor summoned and named an Oni after himself and now it hunts my family. Weee.....