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This message was last edited by the GM at 03:04, Fri 20 Oct 2017.

Soshi Yamabushi
New Path.

Entry: Soshi Shugenja 2
Exit:  Kuroiban. The Soshi Yamabushi school was created with all sorts of dishonorable foes -- including the Tsukai and Shadowlands creatures -- in mind. As such, they always become part of the Black Watch.
Special: Only Scorpion Shugenja of the Soshi Shugenja School may take this path.

The Soshi Yamabushi is a school dedicated to the art of war. The great scholars have said that there are only three aspects of war, and that all three of them must be mastered: Power, the ability to affect one's opponent; Endurance, the ability to outlast ones opponent; and Deception, the ability to deceive your opponent while remaining genuinely aware of what your opponent is up to.

The Soshi Yamabushi school focuses on the third of these three skills, believing that no Clan -- Great or Minor -- should be better at deception in war than the Scorpion Clan.

The history of this school is clouded in mystery: no one outside of the Scorpion Clan knows when they were created or why, nor wether they are effective or not. At this point, that is exactly how they like it.

Rules:
Soshi Yamabushi are particularly good at Mass Battle (the mechanics for this vary depending on which mass battle system is being used; at this point, since no PCs specialize in Battle and that's not what this campaign is about, it's "whatever's good for the story"), especially traps and countering enemy advantages with deception. Several advantages, including superior numbers and unusual power (Magic, Maho, etc.) do not work against a Yamabushi. While they have abilities in battle, their real bonus is access to secret spells that are only given to Shugenja of this school.

Yamabushi may replace their Water ring with their Air ring and Perception with Awareness for any Battle Roll or any roll involved in Mass Combat. [And something regarding Stealth ...]

Notes:

Because this school is more of a philosophy than a set of prescribed skills and talents, the skills one chooses to take will determine how they use it. Thus a generalist may learn Athletics, Stealth, Spellcraft, and Battle to be a good scout, a good advisor to the general, or be to join the other Shugenja in battle; whereas one who only wishes to join the other shugenja in battle will learn a little Stealth, but focuses primarily on Battle, and Spellcraft.

As the name implies, they do all of their training in the mountains and do the typical "yamabushi" things (such as meditation under waterfalls) in addition to some special Scorpion things.

The Crystal Fortress

The Crystal Fortress refers to the select group of Shugenja that will eventually become the Jade Magistrates, and those that are part of the Crystal Fortress have access to the Jade Magistrate school.

It consists mostly of Kuni Witch Hunters, Scorpion Kuroiban, and Asako Inquisitors, though others are sought out for special reasons. A select few seek out the Crystal Fortress of their own volition and are accepted into their ranks.

All Shugenja from one of the Imperial Families are considered to be part of the Crystal Fortress unless they choose to opt out -- protecting the Emperor and his Empire without involving the Imperial Families is a Very Bad Idea(TM).

PCs who wish to be part of the Crystal Fortress may do so without any character points. PCs may also take the entire group as an ally. No specific school(s) is required for this -- as long as you have something to offer a group of fanatic Maho hunters, you can get in.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:53, Wed 25 Oct 2017.

Clarification: Master of the Elements

Attaining this school allows one to cast Void Spells. The Shugenja may also purchase the Ishikendo advantage; this is an exception, being as the Ishikendo advantage is normally innate.

Military Status is slightly different that what's in the book.

Clarification: Imperial Legions

There are generally between twenty and thirty Legions in the Imperial Legions. The Emerald Champion is in charge of all of these Legions, with the Lion Clan Champion second in command when necessary (e.g. the Empire is being invaded). That said, not all Legions are equal.

The first ten Legions are known as the Emerald Legions, and are the elite of the Legions. While politics usually determines who is in the other Legions, and the samurai may or may not be skilled, one must have demonstrated sufficient skill to be made a member of these Legions; there are no exceptions.

The First and Second Legion are the Emperor's personal guard. As one might expect, they are always led by a member of the Imperial Family, usually Seppun trained, and at least part of one Legion is personally guarding the Emperor. One may expect, then, that at the Battle of White Stag no one from either of these legions survived. Any who had would have been shamed and forced to retire to a monastery.

All the rest are just numbers.

Ronin and the Legions

Given that Ronin have no political connections, they only way that a Ronin could enter any of the Imperial Legions is skill -- they would have to be so skilled (and of sufficient honor) that a commander would feel honor requires them to be recommended for a position. As one might assume, this makes them very rare -- there have been many, many times in history when there were no Ronin in any of the Imperial Legions.

Togashi Family

Togashi family are almost always Monks, but there are exceptions; Togashi may be Samurai, and may also have ranks in a non-monk School.

History

My first L5R campaign was when they just released the first edition. At that time they hadn't clarified that the Togashi was a monk family, and I had a player create a Togashi Shugenja (samurai). Halfway through the campaign, one of the "splat books" clarified that the Togashi were "always monks".

Not being the type to retcon a player out of existence, I changed the rules instead; it has since become a standard part of my campaigns.

Raises for Good Rolls

Like in several other L5R games, for every multiple of 10 you beat your TN by you get a Free Raise.


In the case of the Akodo Bushi School, this applies to their fifth rank technique as well -- if you call raises and fail, but make the original TN, you succeed -- and get a free raise for every 10 over the original TN.

A question has been asked about Spending XP:

You can spend it pretty much any time you'd like (mostly because breaks are months -- if not years -- in real time). All I ask is that you record each individual expenditure somewhere on your character sheet.

Samurai PCs are generally assumed to be able to read their Clan/Family cipher. You get this for free (unless you have a reason to not want it, in which feel free to "not get it").