I started playing a campaign (5e) for the first time after years of DnD, and it fucking SLAPS dude!!! My second session my ronin guy in a duel with a dragon yoriki who had me dead to fucking rights, but before I bled out I taunted them into finishing me off, opening them up for a finishing blow, and I severed their head from their shoulders before I fainted!
The other courtier players are gonna try to convince the daimyo I should get the Yoriki’s job, and the daimyo’s wife who witnessed it all invited me to have lunch with her. 8)
Why don’t more people play this? It makes for awesome stories and the system is great!
Because fifth edition uses FFGs trash RPG mechanics. FFG also has ADD. They license an IP, drop content at a rapid pace, then, when people start realizing how bad the the system actually is, they dump all the unfinished splats onto onto one intern whike they get the hype train going for their next IP.
For L5R, they claim they’re still planning to release splats for fifth ed, but they’ve gone so far as to outsource to some french company and changed not only the mechanics (using OGL. Yes seriously) but they completely reworked the world.
As horrible as fifth edition’s mechanics are, at least it was still a game about samurai drama set in Rokugan.
Adventures in Rokugan is shitty D&D with katanas set in generic fantasy Aisia with a few nouns stolen from L5R.
Oh speaking of Adventures in Rokudan I read the thing where you're not allowed to do samurai voices or sudoku and I was bummed out
We've been ignoring that shit since it was mostly written at the behest of a third generation Chinese-American who doesn't have a better claim to authenticity than anyone else. Although we've also been mostly ignoring their changes to the lore itself too since they tried to make it a more "mythological" Rokugan that can fit D&D style mechanics.
At least they didn't just say bushi are Fighters or Paladins and call it a day. They actually made new classes with new mechanics. The class that approximates Shugenja and similar magic users doesn't actually use D&D spellcasting at all, and its magic effects are not just D&D spells with a coat of paint.
That was such a fucking stupid decision. Playing an RPG about samurai without including seppuku is like playing an Arthurian Fantasy RPG without including Christianity.
>bu-bu-bu-but self-harm is triggering 🙁
Have you considered the game just might not be the for you?
It's not actually FFG's fault this time, it's their parent company Asmodee who shuffled all of their IPs and split all their games to different subsidiaries. That french company now does all Asmodee related RPGs. Some other company got all the miniatures games. FFG itself is stuck with shitty board games and was further gutted beyond just having all of its games stripped away.
Fingers crossed then. FFG makes good board games, at least. It sounds like Asmodee fucked up not by taking RPGs away from FFG, but by giving them to some lazy fucking frogs.
Asmodee are the lazy fucking frogs. I have many negative things to say about them that I am, by NDA, unable to from the time I was a in a contracted position that happened to work with them on some things where they proved to be dumb as fuck.
Did that NDA cover speculating on whether or not they’re the type to sell an IP that they’re not making money on?
Because it sounds like the best we can hope for is L5R getting sold to someone who remembers what the game is actually supposed to be about.
Best I can say is that they seemed very change and risk averse.
As a loose example of their resistance to change even for the better, that isn't too specific, there were suggestions that they change some wording on something in this project to make it so it actually made sense to players and actually describe what it did but the argument they gave was that they were against changing wording because the wording was already that way. So basically even if it's for the better for the game and would make their customers understand the game better they won't change things simply because things already exist.
So I'd say they're probably likely to just sit on it for a long time, it would probably take some big money to get them to be willing to sell an IP at this point. I hope they get desperate and start dying to force them to have to though. I loved L5R both the card game and the RPG up thru when AEG sold it off and just want something good again.
>Best I can say is that they seemed very change and risk averse.
…then why did they completely reorganize all their sub companies?
I smell bullshit.
Hey, if they felt like doing that but not like changing some wording in a game they were going to release so that it actually described in proper English what the function was maybe they care less about their sub companies than rewriting things. They did seem pretty retarded so that would not be a surprise.
>Because it sounds like the best we can hope for is L5R getting sold to someone who remembers what the game is actually supposed to be about.
Good luck with that. In currentyear everything about L5R teeters on “problematic” at best in the court of public opinion. You will never, ever, find a buyer that won’t do exactly what Edge is doing or worse.
That's why you play the old editions.
>FFG made good board games
ftfy
>Because fifth edition uses FFGs trash RPG mechanics. FFG also has ADD. They license an IP, drop content at a rapid pace, then, when people start realizing how bad the the system actually is, they dump all the unfinished splats onto onto one intern whike they get the hype train going for their next IP.
FFG was going strong with L5R until the Asmodee merger and reorg. The reorg literally had them cancel the LCG and rush the ending of the story just when they were finishing the prelude.
>Adventures in Rokugan is shitty D&D with katanas set in generic fantasy Aisia with a few nouns stolen from L5R.
I suspect the AiR was originally intended to be a completely different Asian theme IP (was likely started as a Chinese focused "Oriental Adventures" book) that had the L5R IP forced into it by the higher ups at Asmodee.
I'm now suspecting that the "cultural consultant" was just as much a victim of Asmodee as the FFG RPG team.
Imagine building a fantasy China and then getting told to merge it with the fun mess that is L5R.
We had one of the main writers for it on discord a while ago, it was always L5R. The cultural consultant convinced them to add more China because Japan was influenced by China, and that's pretty much the start and end of it. It's still mostly Rokugan, but now the Dragon are chinaboos and their weirdness is attributed to that instead of just being weird in a vacuum.
Really? I take it back. "Cultural Consultant" was pulling a setting appropriation.
There were always going to be changes, they deliberately wanted to have the setting fit the new D&D mechanics rather than trying to shove a square peg in a round hole, so they made it a lot looser and more "mythical" than normal. The ideal AiR adventure is out in the woods trying to stay on the good side of whatever strange beings are around you, while clan politics are more of a thing that happens to other people. Non-humans can easily fit into a party, although most of them still try to pretend to be human.
Is this post stolen from reddit? It reeks of soi
He is going to lunch with the daimyo wife Bro!! (His friends) they are going to make out
I'm two session in with the old group and a new guy, using 5th ed. It's been rather fun up until now, they're getting used to a more "free form" type of play and narration rather than the more structured way of playing they were used to (most of them mainly played D&D).
No combat until now (I tried putting them against bandits but they just scared them away telling them to fuck off) but the social part has been rather eventful up until now. I had prepared the basic premise and a contingency plan to nudge them in case they wanted to be led, but things are moving well.
>two minor families on an island have a long standing rivalry, it's been some years since the lord died, they can't settle who should be on top
>intrigues, duels and some open minor fights have managed to get the attention of the Imperial Court, who told them to calm down
>uneasy truce, the PCs family lord sends his firstborn to study at an ally's castle to protect him
>to cement the truce hostages are exchanged, the secondborn is sent instead of his brother, he is not happy
>fast forward, the firstborn comes back, gets ill and dies of natural causes
>now the family has no heir in a safe position
We start playing here.
>at the funeral, an unknown guest claiming to be the firstborn's acquaintance from the mainland pays a visit
>PCs start interacting with him, and succesfully manage to befriend him, dinner is not a good place to discuss sensible stuff so they settle for some tea a few days later
>the lord calls the PCs, as they are either champions or advisors (one of them is the lord's brother, but there's no love lost between them, the PC's goal is actually to lead the clan, as this lord is kind of prone to get led by his emotions)
cont.
>priority is getting the only heir back, but the rival family is sure to want something in exchange for giving a hostage back, as they now are firmly in a position of superiority
>the lord's brother PC suggests to propose a marriage to ally the families, as the other family second daughter is unmarried
>everyone including the lord and the other PCs think the PC is actually proposing himself as the husband, the player didn't get it until the next session (was a rather fun moment)
>the lord is overjoyed and orders the PCs, one of which is the family's herald, to write a letter down and prepare to relay the message
>meanwhile they have tea with the guest, he says that he had been "working" with the dead firstborn to help him establish connections in the mainland to better prepare the family's future
>he regrets having unfinished business (as an NPC he's basically one of the ways the plot can move forward once the situation on the island is settled, but I'm leaving the plot very open as players are luckily proactive)
>he tests them with dialogue and a game of shogi, the daimyo's brother manages to beat him with a series of great rolls
>he is pleasantly surprised, this will open up more help from him since he now thinks they're worth cultivating
>while gathering info on how to better write the marriage proposal they stumble on a historical precedent of another long standing rivalry with no resolution
>the imperial court dissolved both families and handed the province to another clan, this puts into perspective they can't escalate the violence and have to settle the situation quickly
>the guest confirms that in the mainland some nearby daimyos are keeping an eye on the developments
cont.
>the letter ready, the PCs start the short trek, some bandits jump on them and tell them to leave their belongings, they are promptly dispersed
>in running away they drop a letter written very badly by someone not really cultured (one of the PCs has a callgraphy hobby and two of them compose poems)
>interrogating spirits of the forest, the PCs are told that the bandits are actually going back to the village they started from
>the current mission is more important, the PCs keep going and reach the castle, guards announce their arrival and the second daughter waits for them in front of the castle with her guards (she is a hot head duelist interested in personal glory rather than politics, and rather rude)
>she just knows they are bringing a message, so she invites them to follow her, if they can, and runs away at a gallop
>the PC that could have to marry her decides to show he's not a wimp and rides after her, manages to catch her despite her lead, they arrive at the same time, she is rather impressed
>they are announced to the family head and are now going to confront him
And we stopped there since we were short on time, next session will be critical since it will determine where the plot will go, things could go in all manner of ways. I feel there's enough flags and plot points to work with but I won't railroad, I will follow along with what the players want to focus on. Rather pleased until now, the system flows nicely and the group is responding well.
I'll bite, when in the timeline are you guys placing your L5R games nowadays?
Idk, I think the GM said the year thousand-something?
Also I think the whole system is brilliant. The strife leading to outbursts of emotion, the weapons having separate deadliness and damage, the way dice explode and opportunities can fail forward…maybe it’s because I’ve played little else besides dnd 3.5, 4, and 5, but this feels like a huge breath of fresh air, and way more story-forward.
I've been running AiR, but still use the generic pre-Scorpion coup time I always did. But my players aren't as aware of the timeline anyway, and the one who has been reading stuff is stymied by me using books from all three timelines and some details I made up myself.
Haven't played since 2018.
It was at an indeterminate time.
Though I remember the crab clan betraying and invading either hadn't happened yet, or just did not happen in the version of events we were playing in.
I know that the spider clan did not exist, and I can't recall if the monkey clan existed but I know they were never mentioned in the course of the game.
I'm doing my own thing with a "generic" feudal japanese setting where "clans" are phylosophical currents characters follow and the actual clans are noble families as political entities. Of course there are some major players around but we have more of a real sengoku feel with lots of minor factions around rather than a few big cookie cutter blobs.
I miss L5R 4e
no one is hosting play by post on discord for me and some buddies
id like to play this game but i heard how it had been ruined by some chinese american lady
>how badly was it ruined?
>is it salvagable?
>could i just use an earlier edition?
Get fourth ed.
>added a sensitivity warning page and a china, rewrote lore in a way that pisses some people off since it tones down the xenophobia and extreme honor bound behavior
>yes, and some people just use old lore anyway
>yes
There’s a lot more to the changes than that, you’re intentionally downplaying and outright ignoring a lot of the complaints about AiR’s lore changes.
In addition to adding a not!China, any mention of it is written in such a way to make it sound superior to Rokugan and that Rokugan is a bunch of primitive bitchbabies playing at civilization in comparison.
There’s a very weird avoidance of Japanese terminology, to the point I was honestly surprised they KEPT basic words like “samurai,” “katana,” and even “shugenja.” In combination with the not!China fixation and the more open and diverse portrayal of the setting, it makes the whole book feel like it’s intentionally trying to erase the Japanese influences. Which is really weird, but also entirely likely given Asmodee’s track record with the property so far and China/Korea’s general bigotry toward the Japanese.
The downplaying the honorbound culture takes a lot of the teeth out of the setting. One of the defining features that set L5R apart from just being “D&D in funny hats” was navigating the complex social structure. Rokugan was intentionally an oppressive and stifling place because you were expected to struggle with choosing to do what is right vs what society demands, “man vs society” was supposed to be one of the game’s main conflicts. FFG showed they understood this with the L5R5e core rules, but AiR almost completely ignores it.
The game’s tagline used to be “Where honor is stronger than steel” ffs.
This is the same company that banned the banzai chant because a Korean-American got their panties in a twist about it once. So what did you expect?
>Tfw playing in a 2 year long+ 4e campaign where most of the group is r4 minimum
>tfw the absolute amount of bullshit our great GM is allowing us to do has allowed me to play an outright gaijin adopted by some mantis. So now I'm running around as a master kama man with my TN to be hit at 60+ while in attack stance and I'm being guarded