Standard character creation from the Legend of the Five Rings Third Edition d10 rule book.

10 pts Max for Disadvantages
45 Character Points + 125 Exp for Character Gen

In the game threads please post as follows:

1. Normal type for actions etc.

2. Blue for normal speech.

3. Italics for thoughts.

4. Orange for Out Of Character comments.

5. Any color you like when speaking in another Language other than Rokugani which is BLUE.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:39, Wed 09 May 2012.

FOR BEGINNERS TO L5R

Roll/Keep

Legend of the Five Rings is a roll/keep multi-die system.  Whenever you roll dice (allways d10's and usually several at a time) you will keep some dice and drop others.  Kept dice are added together to make a total while dice that you drop aren't counted towards that total.  Usually you will be rolling a number of dice equal to your Stat+Skill and keeping dice equal to your stat.  To suceed at a task the total of your kept dice must be equal or more than the Target Number (or TN) set by the GM.

ex:  Bayushi Baku is trying to sneak past Shinjo Kasumi and the GM sets the TN at 15.  Bayushi Baku has Agility 3 and Stealth 4 so he rolls a total of 7d10 and gets a 1,1,5,7,8,8,and 9.  Because Bayushi Baku's Agility is 3 he only gets to keep 3 of those d10's.  So his final total is 8+8+9=25 which is greater than the TN set by the GM so he succeeds.

as a side note, 7k3 means roll 7d10 and keep 3 of those dice.

"Exploding" Dice

Whenever you roll a ten, you may roll an extra kept die.  If that die comes up as a ten, you may roll another extra kept die.  You may continue rolling as long as your dice continue to come up as ten.

ex:  Hiruma Ichigo is trying to hit Akodo Tsurugi.  Akodo Tsurugi's TN to be hit is 35.  Hiruma Ichigo as Agility 3 and Kenjutsu 2 so he rolls a total of 5d10 and gets 7,7,7,10,and 10.  Normally he would only get 7+10+10=27 and fail because he only keeps 3 dice, but because he rolled two 10's he may roll two more kept dice.  His exploding dice come up 6 and 9.  So his final total is 7+10+10+6+9=42 which is greater than Akodo Tsurugi's TN to be hit so he succeeds.

Certain Techniques or skills will cause dice to explode on numbers other than 10 or may prevent the exploding of dice altogether.  These situations will be dealt with on a case by case basis.

Raises

Sometimes you want to do something more impressive than simply suceed at your task, in those cases, you may declare a raise and voluntarily raise your TN by 5.  Some tasks require more than one raise (disarming your opponent in combat, for example, requires 3 raises for a total TN increase of +15).  The more Raises you take, the more impressive the results, should you suceed.  Beware of taking too many raises, however, if you roll and fail to meet your new TN, even if you met your pre-raise TN, you still fail.

ex:  Yoritomo Kurako is trying to convince Kitsuki Tatewaki that she wasn't involved in the death of Hida Akane and wants to take a Raise to convince Kitsuki Tatewaki that she wasn't even in the area where the murder occured.  Normally the TN would be 35 but because she took a Raise, the TN is now 40.  Yoritomo Kurako has Awareness 3 and Deceit 5 so she rolls a total of 8d10 and gets 1,2,8,8,8,8,10, and 10.  Her Exploding dice come up 7 and 1.  So her final total 8+10+10+7+1=36.  While she met her original TN of 35, because she took that Raise, she fails to convince Kitsuki Tatewaki of anything.

Certain techniques or skills will provide you with Free Raises.  A Free Raise can be declared just like a normal Raise but will not raise your TN.  Free Raises may also be used to lower your TN by 5.

Name:                         Clan:          School:

Rank:     Insight:

Rings:         Traits:

Earth:         Stamina:
               Willpower

Water:         Strength:
               Perception:

Fire:          Agility:
               Intelligence:

Air:           Reflexes:
               Awareness:

Void:


Skills         Emphases        Ranks      |      Advantages     Disadvantages

Spending Character Points

Traits:  At character creation every Trait starts at 2.  First add your Family and School Trait Bonuses to your character.  To raise a trait to the next rank requires spending a number of Character Points equal to the desired rank times four.  So to raise a trait from 2 to 3 would cost 12 Character Points while raising a trait from 3 to 4 would cost 16 Character Points.  At Character Creation you may want to raise a Trait more than one rank, to do so you must raise each trait one rank at a time.

ex:  Bayushi Koizume of the Bayushi Courtier School starts with Awareness 3 (+1 Awareness from his School) and wants to raise his Awareness to 5.  First he must spend 16 Character Points to raise his Awareness to 4 and then 20 more character points to raise it to 5, for a grand total of 36 Character Points.

Void Ring:  Like a Trait, the Void Ring starts at 2 can be raised by spending a number of Character Points equal to the desired rank times four.  The Void Ring is the only ring that can be raised in this manner.

Skills:  Character Points can also raise existing skills or purchase new skills.  To raise a skill to the next rank requires spending a number of Character Points equal to the new rank.  Purchasing a new skill at rank 1 costs 1 Character Point.

Advantages & Disadvantages:  Traits and Skills represent a character's physical and mental abilities, but some qualities cannot be represented by Traits or Skills.  Advantages and Disadvantages represent these physical, mental, social, and material qualities.  Advantages tend to offer a concrete mechanical benifit, so they cost Character Points.  Whereas Disadvantages tend to hinder the character in some way, and gain the character extra Character Points.

Insight Rank and School Rank
Insight Rank can be seen as a character's physical and mental prowess through advancing traits and skills, while School Rank is a reflection of how the character has parlayed these increased abilities into training in his Clan's private Techniques.  At each Insight Rank you gain access to the next School Technique.

Insight
Insight = (Rings * 10) + Skills + Insight Bonuses


Insight       Rank
  0-149        1
150-174        2
175-199        3
200-224        4
etc.

Skills

Skills come in four broad types:  Bugei Skills (skills that deal with fighting, warfare, and combat), High Skills (skills involving art, etiquette, politics, and lore), Low Skills (skills that are seen as unclean and dishonorable), and Merchant Skills (skills that deal with trade, commerce, and other things that, while not the province of the samurai, are not inherently dishonorable)

Emphasis

Some Skills list a number of Emphases in their description.  Emphases are specific applications of that Skill.  For example, while the Kenjutsu Skill gives mastery of several different types of swords, the Katana Emphasis gives greater knowledge of that particular weapon.
When using a skill in an area where its Emphasis applies, you may add your skill rank to the total of your roll.  If more than one Emphasis applies to a single roll, you only gain the bonuses of one.  Some Emphases grant Emphasis Abilities that allow you to use your skill in unusual ways.  Any skill applications that fall under a skill's emphais cannot be used unless you possess that Emphasis.

An Emphasis costs a number of points equal to twice the number of Emphases your character will have in that Skill after that Emphasis is learned.  Thus the first Emphasis costs 2 points, the second costs 4, etc.

Mastery Abilities
Many skills offer Mastery Abilities--bonuses that you recieve if you reach a certain rank in that skill.  All Mastery Abilities are cumulative unless noted other wise.  All Skills offer the following Mastery Abilities:

Rank 1 - Apprentice
At this skill rank you may have one Empahsis in your chosen Skill.  Emphases granted by your school do not count against this maximum.

Rank 3 - Novice
you may begin teaching your skill to others.  You may now have 3 Emphases in this skill

Rank 5 - Journeyman
At this rank you gain an extra +2 Insight.  You gain a Free Raise when using this Skill.  You may now have 5 Emphases in this Skill.

Rank 7 - Master
You may now have 6 Emphases in this skill.

Rank 10 - Grand Master
At this Rank you gain an extra +5 Insight.  The number of Raises you may make when using this skill is no longer limited by your void.  there is no limit to the number of Emphases you may have in this Skill.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:24, Thu 29 Nov 2007.