Heres a game I'm starting up as an adventuring party type of game.
link to another game
Twenty Goblin Winters
Each clan in the empire has its own traditions and ceremonies. The Crab Clan are no different. Occassionally, not every year, the Crab hold a Twenty Goblin Winter. The open the gates to the Shadowlands and let out participants.
Each participant seeks to kill and return the heads of twenty bakemono - goblins - in the space of three months. Those that succeed are usually granted membership in the Crab Clan itself, an incentive that many of the participants find alluring as they are ronin.
This year is different.
This year, the competition isn't who can bring back the most heads - it is which clan will. A high-ranking Yasuki courtier, Yasuki Nagyo, son of the Yasuki family daimyo, ran his mouth in the presence of the Emperor.
"None of the great clans save the Crab could survive a Twenty Goblin Winter" he said. Each of the great clans begged to differ, and sent a fair few of thier youngest, least experienced members to prove it.
The players take the role of these inexperienced warriors as they seek to survive in the Shadowlands. They can be of any clan, any family. The game breaks away from the 'offical' L5R timeline, in the year 1167, a year after the fall of Ichiban.