1st edition L5R is still my go too game. The scorpion clan book is our Bible for playing a good sneak in any game. It's the book I throw at anyone who says "I don't know how to play a rogue"
6 лет назад+3
It's been quite a while since I played l5r... because it is my favourite game ever, I run it for almost 4 years and I legitimaly run out of things to say in that world. But man, do I love it... We played 1st edition, while other editions where released. We tweaked surprisingly little, but I added 2 small changes to the mix: 1) Corruption roll. Whenever you had corruption, you rolled as many black dice as your corruption rank. 10 exploded normally, etc. But you can only chose the black dice if you agreed to get taint. That way, the temptation to become more and more corrupt was not the theoretical "I can roll more dice" but concrete results. 2) Iaijutsu. After a while, Iaijutsu duels where a bit rutinary. Oh, I have more void than you? Well... difficulty will get to 35 and then you strike so I attack. There was no tensioin buildup. So, I replaced it with uncertainty. Both participants rolled their dice in secret. Every 10 rolled got out of the screen and placed in plain sight, and another dice was added behind the screen. In turn, a player could choose to Focus (and reroll as many dice as he liked behind the screen) or Strike and compare his result with the other duelist. They kept the dice as normal, and higher number won.
I do away with Traits entirely and just use Rings. A Doji Courtier doesn't have a high Awareness trait; they have a powerful connection to the element of Air which makes them a great conversationalist but also very fast and a superb archer. It makes things much more flavorful. The second thing I do is I have players run each others' NPCs. I.e. if Mary's Daidoji has the Haunted disadvantage, Bob will be assigned to also play the spirit. If Bob's Yasuki has the Dependent disadvantage, Lauren will be assigned to play the ward. Third is that while I don't limit the point values of Advantages or Disadvantages, I do limit how many each player can take at character creation to only two of each (and either a third advantage or a third disadvantage if it's discounted or provides bonus points for that character type). When they're much rarer they become much more character-defining. A bushi with Strength of the Earth becomes celebrated for her ability to continue fighting despite grievous wounds and while a courtier with Benten's Blessing truly sees himself as touched by the Fortune of Romantic Love rather than just stacking bonuses on social rolls. These Advantages and Disadvantages become almost as defining as School Techniques while also providing much more differentiation from other characters in that School. Beyond that, I tend to do custom mechanics once I know what kind of game I'm running or what my players want to play. For example, if I have a player who's really into martial arts and wants to play a Dragon kaze-do expert, I find a way to tweak martial arts (maybe tweaking the Mastery Abilities of their Jiujutsu Skill). Generally I try and avoid mechanical tweaks that change how things work since the more they're changed the harder they are to remember.
Not L5R but in my new 7th Sea 2e game I have made a small change I call “The Wager”. The Wager (an “I fail” alternative) Now and then (no more than once a roll and usually a lot less) I, the GM, will wager with my players that a specific raise does not go as planned and I will offer them a number of Hero points to let me roll. Example “I’ll wager 3 hero points you don’t make the jump” if the players accept they get the hero points and I roll 3 dice to see if I get a counter raise, if the player rejects I get a Danger Point. Regardless of the outcome, the player gets something and feels satisfied and I as the GM find it easier to get players to buy into failure.
One of my home brewed rule is that I limit the number of exploding dice to your void ring. So if your void ring is 2, you can only have up to 2 dice explode.
I usually go with 1st Edition as a base, but over the years I've ended up modifying a lot of the rules, and actually a bit of the setting. I love 4th Edition Specialties, so I use them. We've made up a slightly different mechanic for Honor we call Pillars of Virtue. Basically I talk with my players about what virtues their characters hold closer and consider to best represent the rightful samurai. We usually pick 2-4 virtues from the 7 Bushido and the 7 Shourido virtues (I think those came with 3rd Edition, and are basically the western-style virtues of self-perfection and advancement). These picks become a character's Pillars, each giving them a way to gain Honor points, a special way to spend Honor points, but also each with a few conditions to become Shaken or Crumbled, when a character either doubts or abandons their faith in the virtue entirely. We messed with the basic rules a bit by making Raises dice you leave outside your roll, inspired by Houses of the Blooded and laziness with math. Also got rid of the Wounds system, with condition-like Wounds replacing points. Katanas are almost always fatal, and in other cases we roll damage against a character's Earth x 5 and the raises determine the severity of the wounds inflicted. We eliminated School Ranks and just use Techniques as if they were Advantages (we call them Bushi Techniques, Shugenja Rituals, Courtier Resources, and Ninja Tricks), and allow for a lot more mixed characters. The Language of the Kami is an Advantage as well, and those that want to be trained in the ways of the Shugenja have to pay some extra points for that, but some bushi or even non-samurai might have the advantage without the proper training and cause trouble. We usually wing it with Spells instead of having a fixed list, using some rough guidelines to determine the difficulty of the roll to achieve the desired effect given the sacrifice. All magic requires a sacrifice, and some sacrifices lower the difficulty (in some cases, such as sacrificing a life, especially your own, lower the difficulty dramatically). So... we've house ruled it a lot :P
Our game has three house rules. The first three rolls on the heritage tables are free and mandatory. You're first three sessions are free for character changes. And finally, " I'm abuot to something stupud", you must anounce you are about to do something stupid, and if it succeeded after the roll you are granted a free raise. It must be a bad idea and everyone at the table must agree that it is cool and dumb.
I've been using a dumbed down version of your honor system for years. I always felt that each clan has a different perception of what honor means. I will admit that I have fully moved on to 4th edition, however, I still utilize my 1E books in almost every session, be it for a bit of information hidden in the appendix of Way of the Scorpion to some NPC stats (which, surprisingly, work out well for 4E) for opponents. My only major houserule I have is I allow Naga to use Void spells without an advantage, but all references to Void changes to Akasha, so it really only ever affects other Naga.
I played in first and third edition. I think that revised third is most complet edition. However have some changes from core mechanic. Primarly because i think about L5R as not samurai drama but oriental/estern heroic fantasy (something like QIN: the warring states). May changes are: clan perspective honor; 2 rises for +0k1 damage and 3 rises for +1k1 damege; TN to be hit is 5 + ref*5 + bonuses + armour (just like in 4th edition); more benefits of heaving high honor; armour gives also damage reduction;
What kind of HR I use at L5R ...? It would be easier to say what I don't. In 2009 one of my friends and I rewrote the entire game to our liking after seeing all of the changes from 2nd, 3rd and 4th edition. In the end we remained fairly close to 1st edition in many things, but we also changed a lot of others. E.g. Pretty much all the shugenja schools were remodelled after the 3rd edition system, so each had one favored element, one adverse element and one ability that changed how they cast spell in a different way (e.g. Scorpions got a Free Raise to cast without getting noticed; Crabs got a Free Raise to cast spell on targets with Shadowland Taint and so on).
I was thinking of playing with 1 hit - 1 kill rule (not for L5R but in general) but I still need to figure out how to convince my team to it. As they prefer to roll than to think when it comes to combat.
I essentially do no play Rokugan with L5R any longer. I switched to Unknown Armies 3rd Edition and named it Unknown Rokugan ( d6ideas.com/?p=7801&lang=en ). We started our first campaign and introduced the concept of Ancestor Spirits as Avatars in addition to what I already outlines in that blog post.
I love the Crane Clan, and I would go even a step further and say that each family has their own priorities regarding the importance of virtues of bushido. I like that Katana are truly deadly approach! Overall I think I probably will go with a house rules version of the game FFG is making, since i already see too many things that I don't like, even though it has some potential. Especially the Giri and Ninjo is of interest to me to create samurai drama, but I have not really worked out how I would actually use it, but the current design feels lacking. Then there are other little things, like the 20 questions and how they shape the character creation in FFG L5R would be something I would change, especially looking at giving more importance on how the character is going to die and shapping a tragic narrative in that direction is important to me.
I've been playing (and GMing) the fourth edition of L5R for years and that's a rule I feel is lacking from the core game, this idea of different honor point losses and gains for each clan. I've been using it without noticing since the beginning. For the more deadly rules inspired by Kurosawa, I get it but I wouldn't use it during my main campaign which is more on a 'hero' side with very powerful characters fighting Onis on a daily basis... Maybe during my one-shot scenarii in which I often use non-samurais or low rank samurais in more diplomacy oriented settings. Thanks for the ideas anyway !
About the rules I use in my games, I have adapted a system from the new Chronicles of Darkness because I have very young players and very shy players sometimes, who still want to play social characters and try out new things. I always ask them if they want to roleplay a situation or use the system if I feel they're having trouble working it out verbally. The system goes like this : each important NPC has informations or services they can grant players if they trust them/fear them/respect them enough. There are usually three or four 'social barriers' behind which the secret/services hide and you can go through these 'doors' with specific rolls, depending on how you're trying to obtain them. The PC's clan, appearance, attitude, honor and reputation can grant bonuses or make the roll more difficult, again, depending on how he tries to open the 'doors'. I.E. : A tall and muscular Hida with numerous battle scars and heavy armour is going to have a hard time getting through the doors with seduction and should probably try intimidation... But intimidation might work less effectively if the NPC he's trying to intimidate is an Akodo soldier who has seen and fought many battles. Whereas, a beautiful Scorpion courtier using his/her looks and sweet voice might get the information/service more efficiently from that same Akodo, since he isn't used to 'resisting' this type of approach or manoeuvering socially. Each new door is more difficult to get through than the last and some can be almost impossible to break depending on the Honour level of the NPC or the spells he might be using/suffering from. Of course I try to act it out as much as I can to invite my players in the ambiance, and usually I drop this system entirely after a few games because the players are used to their characters, the world around them and the customs they have to act out... But it's always good, in my opinion, to have a more rule-oriented option in the beginning.
![Megan Thee Stallion - Mamushi (Remix) [feat. TWICE] [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5c0_u9PsrsQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I've tinkered with the idea of using Pendragon's virtues in L5R, making honor seven different virtues, each with its own values.
Now that FFG has published it's newest edition of L5R, I'm curious what you think about it.
1st edition L5R is still my go too game. The scorpion clan book is our Bible for playing a good sneak in any game.
It's the book I throw at anyone who says "I don't know how to play a rogue"
It's been quite a while since I played l5r... because it is my favourite game ever, I run it for almost 4 years and I legitimaly run out of things to say in that world. But man, do I love it...
We played 1st edition, while other editions where released. We tweaked surprisingly little, but I added 2 small changes to the mix:
1) Corruption roll. Whenever you had corruption, you rolled as many black dice as your corruption rank. 10 exploded normally, etc. But you can only chose the black dice if you agreed to get taint. That way, the temptation to become more and more corrupt was not the theoretical "I can roll more dice" but concrete results.
2) Iaijutsu. After a while, Iaijutsu duels where a bit rutinary. Oh, I have more void than you? Well... difficulty will get to 35 and then you strike so I attack. There was no tensioin buildup. So, I replaced it with uncertainty. Both participants rolled their dice in secret. Every 10 rolled got out of the screen and placed in plain sight, and another dice was added behind the screen. In turn, a player could choose to Focus (and reroll as many dice as he liked behind the screen) or Strike and compare his result with the other duelist. They kept the dice as normal, and higher number won.
I do away with Traits entirely and just use Rings. A Doji Courtier doesn't have a high Awareness trait; they have a powerful connection to the element of Air which makes them a great conversationalist but also very fast and a superb archer. It makes things much more flavorful.
The second thing I do is I have players run each others' NPCs. I.e. if Mary's Daidoji has the Haunted disadvantage, Bob will be assigned to also play the spirit. If Bob's Yasuki has the Dependent disadvantage, Lauren will be assigned to play the ward.
Third is that while I don't limit the point values of Advantages or Disadvantages, I do limit how many each player can take at character creation to only two of each (and either a third advantage or a third disadvantage if it's discounted or provides bonus points for that character type). When they're much rarer they become much more character-defining. A bushi with Strength of the Earth becomes celebrated for her ability to continue fighting despite grievous wounds and while a courtier with Benten's Blessing truly sees himself as touched by the Fortune of Romantic Love rather than just stacking bonuses on social rolls. These Advantages and Disadvantages become almost as defining as School Techniques while also providing much more differentiation from other characters in that School.
Beyond that, I tend to do custom mechanics once I know what kind of game I'm running or what my players want to play. For example, if I have a player who's really into martial arts and wants to play a Dragon kaze-do expert, I find a way to tweak martial arts (maybe tweaking the Mastery Abilities of their Jiujutsu Skill). Generally I try and avoid mechanical tweaks that change how things work since the more they're changed the harder they are to remember.
Not L5R but in my new 7th Sea 2e game I have made a small change I call “The Wager”.
The Wager (an “I fail” alternative)
Now and then (no more than once a roll and usually a lot less) I, the GM, will wager with my players that a specific raise does not go as planned and I will offer them a number of Hero points to let me roll. Example “I’ll wager 3 hero points you don’t make the jump” if the players accept they get the hero points and I roll 3 dice to see if I get a counter raise, if the player rejects I get a Danger Point. Regardless of the outcome, the player gets something and feels satisfied and I as the GM find it easier to get players to buy into failure.
One of my home brewed rule is that I limit the number of exploding dice to your void ring. So if your void ring is 2, you can only have up to 2 dice explode.
I usually go with 1st Edition as a base, but over the years I've ended up modifying a lot of the rules, and actually a bit of the setting. I love 4th Edition Specialties, so I use them. We've made up a slightly different mechanic for Honor we call Pillars of Virtue. Basically I talk with my players about what virtues their characters hold closer and consider to best represent the rightful samurai. We usually pick 2-4 virtues from the 7 Bushido and the 7 Shourido virtues (I think those came with 3rd Edition, and are basically the western-style virtues of self-perfection and advancement). These picks become a character's Pillars, each giving them a way to gain Honor points, a special way to spend Honor points, but also each with a few conditions to become Shaken or Crumbled, when a character either doubts or abandons their faith in the virtue entirely. We messed with the basic rules a bit by making Raises dice you leave outside your roll, inspired by Houses of the Blooded and laziness with math. Also got rid of the Wounds system, with condition-like Wounds replacing points. Katanas are almost always fatal, and in other cases we roll damage against a character's Earth x 5 and the raises determine the severity of the wounds inflicted. We eliminated School Ranks and just use Techniques as if they were Advantages (we call them Bushi Techniques, Shugenja Rituals, Courtier Resources, and Ninja Tricks), and allow for a lot more mixed characters. The Language of the Kami is an Advantage as well, and those that want to be trained in the ways of the Shugenja have to pay some extra points for that, but some bushi or even non-samurai might have the advantage without the proper training and cause trouble. We usually wing it with Spells instead of having a fixed list, using some rough guidelines to determine the difficulty of the roll to achieve the desired effect given the sacrifice. All magic requires a sacrifice, and some sacrifices lower the difficulty (in some cases, such as sacrificing a life, especially your own, lower the difficulty dramatically). So... we've house ruled it a lot :P
Our game has three house rules. The first three rolls on the heritage tables are free and mandatory.
You're first three sessions are free for character changes. And finally, " I'm abuot to something stupud", you must anounce you are about to do something stupid, and if it succeeded after the roll you are granted a free raise. It must be a bad idea and everyone at the table must agree that it is cool and dumb.
I've been using a dumbed down version of your honor system for years. I always felt that each clan has a different perception of what honor means.
I will admit that I have fully moved on to 4th edition, however, I still utilize my 1E books in almost every session, be it for a bit of information hidden in the appendix of Way of the Scorpion to some NPC stats (which, surprisingly, work out well for 4E) for opponents.
My only major houserule I have is I allow Naga to use Void spells without an advantage, but all references to Void changes to Akasha, so it really only ever affects other Naga.
I played in first and third edition. I think that revised third is most complet edition. However have some changes from core mechanic. Primarly because i think about L5R as not samurai drama but oriental/estern heroic fantasy (something like QIN: the warring states). May changes are: clan perspective honor; 2 rises for +0k1 damage and 3 rises for +1k1 damege; TN to be hit is 5 + ref*5 + bonuses + armour (just like in 4th edition); more benefits of heaving high honor; armour gives also damage reduction;
Qin is an awesome game!! I really love L5R but Qin is really great : )
I have that same shirt!
BTW: any plans to publish somewhere your thoughts on what honor means to each specific clan? ;)
As he said, all you have to do is read the clan material to get that answer. ;)
What kind of HR I use at L5R ...?
It would be easier to say what I don't. In 2009 one of my friends and I rewrote the entire game to our liking after seeing all of the changes from 2nd, 3rd and 4th edition. In the end we remained fairly close to 1st edition in many things, but we also changed a lot of others.
E.g. Pretty much all the shugenja schools were remodelled after the 3rd edition system, so each had one favored element, one adverse element and one ability that changed how they cast spell in a different way (e.g. Scorpions got a Free Raise to cast without getting noticed; Crabs got a Free Raise to cast spell on targets with Shadowland Taint and so on).
I was thinking of playing with 1 hit - 1 kill rule (not for L5R but in general) but I still need to figure out how to convince my team to it. As they prefer to roll than to think when it comes to combat.
I essentially do no play Rokugan with L5R any longer. I switched to Unknown Armies 3rd Edition and named it Unknown Rokugan ( d6ideas.com/?p=7801&lang=en ).
We started our first campaign and introduced the concept of Ancestor Spirits as Avatars in addition to what I already outlines in that blog post.
I love the Crane Clan, and I would go even a step further and say that each family has their own priorities regarding the importance of virtues of bushido.
I like that Katana are truly deadly approach!
Overall I think I probably will go with a house rules version of the game FFG is making, since i already see too many things that I don't like, even though it has some potential. Especially the Giri and Ninjo is of interest to me to create samurai drama, but I have not really worked out how I would actually use it, but the current design feels lacking. Then there are other little things, like the 20 questions and how they shape the character creation in FFG L5R would be something I would change, especially looking at giving more importance on how the character is going to die and shapping a tragic narrative in that direction is important to me.
I've been playing (and GMing) the fourth edition of L5R for years and that's a rule I feel is lacking from the core game, this idea of different honor point losses and gains for each clan. I've been using it without noticing since the beginning.
For the more deadly rules inspired by Kurosawa, I get it but I wouldn't use it during my main campaign which is more on a 'hero' side with very powerful characters fighting Onis on a daily basis... Maybe during my one-shot scenarii in which I often use non-samurais or low rank samurais in more diplomacy oriented settings. Thanks for the ideas anyway !
About the rules I use in my games, I have adapted a system from the new Chronicles of Darkness because I have very young players and very shy players sometimes, who still want to play social characters and try out new things. I always ask them if they want to roleplay a situation or use the system if I feel they're having trouble working it out verbally.
The system goes like this : each important NPC has informations or services they can grant players if they trust them/fear them/respect them enough. There are usually three or four 'social barriers' behind which the secret/services hide and you can go through these 'doors' with specific rolls, depending on how you're trying to obtain them. The PC's clan, appearance, attitude, honor and reputation can grant bonuses or make the roll more difficult, again, depending on how he tries to open the 'doors'.
I.E. : A tall and muscular Hida with numerous battle scars and heavy armour is going to have a hard time getting through the doors with seduction and should probably try intimidation... But intimidation might work less effectively if the NPC he's trying to intimidate is an Akodo soldier who has seen and fought many battles.
Whereas, a beautiful Scorpion courtier using his/her looks and sweet voice might get the information/service more efficiently from that same Akodo, since he isn't used to 'resisting' this type of approach or manoeuvering socially.
Each new door is more difficult to get through than the last and some can be almost impossible to break depending on the Honour level of the NPC or the spells he might be using/suffering from.
Of course I try to act it out as much as I can to invite my players in the ambiance, and usually I drop this system entirely after a few games because the players are used to their characters, the world around them and the customs they have to act out... But it's always good, in my opinion, to have a more rule-oriented option in the beginning.