L5R RPG

So I'm about to start a campaign (attempt) of L5R 5e and though I'm not a newbie - I've DMed a bit, played some more - it's been a while and I've never touched L5R or any sort of wicked things before.
I'm making my own stories/campaign as silly as this sounds, system is probably a bit too crunchy for my taste but at least it acknowledge that and suggest to downplay it. Players are quite new though but one (and a half) of the four so I'm already trying to prepare for this.

Regardless, any advices, suggestions or more?
And then, L5R thread I guess...

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Play 4e instead
    Blades and blasters have a good campaign up on YouTube if you want to get an idea of how it runs.
    L5R is very roleplay heavy and extremely deadly. Make fights rare but have big stakes.
    Use honor as a reason for everything.
    Social hierarchy makes this game really come into it's own.
    Keep the thread alive and I'll post some stuff later.
    We haven't had a good L5R thread in like 4 months

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >Play 4e instead
      Cringe

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >Play 4e instead
      No can do kind sir but I understand.

      Got every thing else already in mind (few fights, honor, status and glory to the max) but that's always good to be reassured about it.
      The whole ninjo/giri conflicts are still a bit vague for me, but I already have plenty of ideas for "honor or glory" conflicts and pitting bushido values against each others (honor vs compassion, courtesy vs courage).

      I have two cranes, one crab, one unicorn, no shugenja though but two bushi and two courtiers. To keep people tight I've gone for "recent brief civil war got the winning clans together but for how long?" and "Emperor just got on the seat through a civil war and is invested into peace", I'm very much taking stuff of the gunki monogatari I just read. I'll just limit the spiritual stuff but that's not too problematic and that can be used to point holes later on.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >No can do kind sir
        yeah you can
        run any edition you want
        but seriously, run 4e
        5e is awful and the strife system makes it so samurai chimp the frick out like Basketball Americans all the time.

        run a module like Legacy of Disaster to get the group started, then go from there.
        4e has an absolute ass-load of supp books and is flexible enough that you can slap 1e, 2e and 3e modules into it and they work fine.

        5e was just a shit ponzi scheme by a different company to sell crappy custom dice no-one wanted, like everything FFG does

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          >5e is awful and the strife system makes it so samurai chimp the frick out like Basketball Americans all the time.
          The Strife system hasn't done that since the beta.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        You'll do fine. Every edition has its own solutions and issues.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Anything I need to be warn specifically about 5e? There are some stuff I (think I) like about it, just on the paper, many other things seems, as I said a tad clunky, in the end there's always GM priviledge to just do whatever I feel like doing so... proprietary dices seems a bit meh but not too bad.

          >layers are quite new though but one (and a half) of the four so I'm already trying to prepare for this.
          Don't worry about this part in terms of crunch, because 5e, at it's core, is easy to follow even on copious amount alcohol.
          The more specific thing about I'm worry about is what books you have, as 5e is edited by fricking idiots while FFG was dismantling their RPG management; so shit's everywhere. If it's for basic games Starter kit (+ Core) is fine, but anything more requires at least the Path of Waves supplement (especially for Dragon Clan or Ronin); whether legally obtained or not.
          You also need this errata, if you're using the core as it fixes "most" of the thing that's vague.
          >https://@nonfiles.com/V9o85fdez4/errata_faq_v30_8_12_2020_hq_pdf
          (the @ is leet by the way)

          >anything more requires at least the Path of Waves supplement
          What's so critical about PoW? I've checked it with a glance. I have the chance of having a "buy everything" friend so I can have the five first books (Base, EEmpire, CoS, ShLa, PoW). And it's not impossible that I've found them and the rest somewhere on the net anyway. A moderate issue is that we're not in the anglosphere, there's no issue for any of us to read english, but it's more availability of the books in themselves.

          >No can do kind sir
          yeah you can
          run any edition you want
          but seriously, run 4e
          5e is awful and the strife system makes it so samurai chimp the frick out like Basketball Americans all the time.

          run a module like Legacy of Disaster to get the group started, then go from there.
          4e has an absolute ass-load of supp books and is flexible enough that you can slap 1e, 2e and 3e modules into it and they work fine.

          5e was just a shit ponzi scheme by a different company to sell crappy custom dice no-one wanted, like everything FFG does

          >yeah you can
          >run any edition you want
          But that's what I'm doing, I would have to have 4e available to run it for a start, and then it's been a while that I've played, I'd rather have a game than go on about it being the wrong edition. It's not even my books so I'm in no position to complain.
          Read the thread, characters are created, story is created, players are in. What am I suppose to say, sorry, some guy on a Lebanese back-alley crook selling carpet forum told me to play another edition? It would be stupid even if 4e was objectively better. There are probably better games than L5R 4e, some why would I not play those instead!?

          >5e is awful and the strife system makes it so samurai chimp the frick out like Basketball Americans all the time.
          You checked your own strife anon? You sound compromised.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >You checked your own strife anon? You sound compromised.
            Kek.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >What's so critical about PoW?
            PoW gives you more equipment, technique, and generally stuff to do outside court intrigue and duels. It's not the first on the priority per say, but it's a good start as it has more content than the others. Like for exploring the wider world of Rokugan it's a good thing to have IMO.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >Anything I need to be warn specifically about 5e? There are some stuff I (think I) like about it, just on the paper, many other things seems, as I said a tad clunky, in the end there's always GM priviledge to just do whatever I feel like doing so... proprietary dices seems a bit meh but not too bad.
            IMO since the development of this game is chaotic as explained here (

            >layers are quite new though but one (and a half) of the four so I'm already trying to prepare for this.
            Don't worry about this part in terms of crunch, because 5e, at it's core, is easy to follow even on copious amount alcohol.
            The more specific thing about I'm worry about is what books you have, as 5e is edited by fricking idiots while FFG was dismantling their RPG management; so shit's everywhere. If it's for basic games Starter kit (+ Core) is fine, but anything more requires at least the Path of Waves supplement (especially for Dragon Clan or Ronin); whether legally obtained or not.
            You also need this errata, if you're using the core as it fixes "most" of the thing that's vague.
            >https://@nonfiles.com/V9o85fdez4/errata_faq_v30_8_12_2020_hq_pdf
            (the @ is leet by the way)

            ), there's like a lot of "hey, maybe this is neat" level ideas, but the devs didn't really follow up on it on the ruleset. For example, as you see in the pic, there are "story-telling game" types ability you can activate using opportunities, but there isn't a concrete system or even a guideline that players and GMs can use to determine what's appropriate or avoid abuse. Also there are techniques that already gives you a similar outcome with better rules explaining the exact result.

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous
    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Just posting a couple of Ostrowski's art.
      Not a big fan of over the top fantasy stuff and his stuff are for the most part, right at the comfortable level.

      Any favorite artist for l5r? Character artworks are really a bit too all over the place, but I guess that's what you get from a relatively old game.

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    On a total sidenote "Adventures in Rokugan" is L5R + DnD right? Which level of avoid like a plague is that?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      It's better than it sounds, because they went to some amount of effort and didn't just go "lol bushi are Fighters or Rangers or Paladins, Shugenja are Wizards or Clerics", they actually made their own classes with their own mechanics and tried to fit it into Rokugan. It doesn't use schools though, which is sure to be a huge turnoff for many L5R players, you kind of have to build it yourself through D&D multiclassing.
      It is a further step away from what the lore normally is, apparently they got a Japan hating chink in as their "culture expert", so there's an actual China now and the Dragon Clan really just can't get enough of the taste of its dick.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        If you like D&D you'll probably like it. If you don't you won't. It really is D&D + L5R rather than L5R's setting with D&D rules, or anything like that. The setting is different because the mechanics of D&D don't mesh well with everything L5R does with its setting. So it's more of a game of mythic heroes than the more "realistic" characters you end up playing in L5R. If you like both and are happy for something different you might be into it. If you only like D&D and like the idea of a fantasy Japan you'll probably be into it. If you only like L5R and don't like D&D it has very little to offer. Otherwise it's basically fine.

        Sounds fair, not sure it's my cup of tea though, for what I've seen you can play mythical creature and all and this is really not why I'm into l5r. It's fine if they give the "mythical past" vibe, to each their own.

        >What's so critical about PoW?
        PoW gives you more equipment, technique, and generally stuff to do outside court intrigue and duels. It's not the first on the priority per say, but it's a good start as it has more content than the others. Like for exploring the wider world of Rokugan it's a good thing to have IMO.

        Okay, I'll check it for next time, campaign starts pretty straightforward at first, but it sounds promising. I kinda discarded it at first because making non-samurai characters and stuff really wasn't the goal but I'll check it again.

        >Anything I need to be warn specifically about 5e? There are some stuff I (think I) like about it, just on the paper, many other things seems, as I said a tad clunky, in the end there's always GM priviledge to just do whatever I feel like doing so... proprietary dices seems a bit meh but not too bad.
        IMO since the development of this game is chaotic as explained here ([...]), there's like a lot of "hey, maybe this is neat" level ideas, but the devs didn't really follow up on it on the ruleset. For example, as you see in the pic, there are "story-telling game" types ability you can activate using opportunities, but there isn't a concrete system or even a guideline that players and GMs can use to determine what's appropriate or avoid abuse. Also there are techniques that already gives you a similar outcome with better rules explaining the exact result.

        Yeah I felt that reading various bits. It's both very mechanical in many ways (duels, techniques), but then you have the all opportunities things which is reeeally free. Well, that's why the GM is here for.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      If you like D&D you'll probably like it. If you don't you won't. It really is D&D + L5R rather than L5R's setting with D&D rules, or anything like that. The setting is different because the mechanics of D&D don't mesh well with everything L5R does with its setting. So it's more of a game of mythic heroes than the more "realistic" characters you end up playing in L5R. If you like both and are happy for something different you might be into it. If you only like D&D and like the idea of a fantasy Japan you'll probably be into it. If you only like L5R and don't like D&D it has very little to offer. Otherwise it's basically fine.

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    crane women are for crab men

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      afaik, there's one time any Rokugani samurai are described as well endowed - and it's for a Crane man. By a Crab man.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >Only a man can truly appreciate the body of another man

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Hey bro, nice dick

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >5E

    Sad

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    How authentically feudal Japan homosexual does 5e go?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      A little too far since they made homogay marriage a normal thing rather than the one-off extreme political move it was in feudal Japan.

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    have you played nond&d?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Yes, I played some Call of Cthulhu (a while ago, can't remember which one though), played and DMed NWoD.

      A little too far since they made homogay marriage a normal thing rather than the one-off extreme political move it was in feudal Japan.

      >the one-off extreme political move
      Wait what? I know of course of the usual monastic and pederastic-ish things among samurai but actual same-sex marriage, never heard of that one, spill your beans anon.

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