With the first officially created character, I is time to open up a thread for out-of-character chat. Hopefully this won't get too lost under the many setting threads.

Howdy there my Tortoise friend!  First, props, I adore the blatant criminals and smugglers respected caretakers of Otosan Uchi.

Figure that we should chat and get to know each other a little bit if we've been going to school together eh?  And ditto will of course go for anyone else that joins us!

Well hello to our erudite youth! Excited to be playing with you.

While I too am a fan of the Tortoise clan, Hiruto will be representing to "other" slow moving, armored animal, the Crab.

Or more specifically, their vassal family the Kano.

The medallion is related to a significant event in the boys life, although I do really like the idea of a bunch of coastal smugglers treating the fat kid like one of their own on the assumption that he is "in the know" after seeing his ornamentation.

Haha!  For some reason my sleep-deprived brain just assumed that given the character description (IE fat kid) that the Kano were related to the Kasuga somehow.  My fault for not bothering to look it up.  Crab makes total sense though!

But yeah, I'm afraid that your idea is now head-canon, and I demand that we make it so?

Hello all! Happy to be playing with you!

I'll be playing the class drama queen/b**** from everybody's favorite clan. Please don't mind the childish insults I come up with during RP, :P.
Now if we can get a Crane girl, maybe an Owl girl, and a Unicorn girl, I can recreate the entire plot of that movie Mean Girls. XD

Welcome!

I imagine Hiruto has heard several creative ones by this time in his life...

Maybe it will motivate him.

On Wednesdays, we wear pink red?

But seriously, welcome welcome!  We've got the queen bee, the fat kid, and the nerd so far, so it sounds like the start of almost any 90s Saturday morning cartoon.

You can lose those pounds Hiruto! Just don't accept any special diet protein bars from Africa. XD

So we are waiting on...a jock and a bad boy? Well, technically my clan was supposed to supply the bad boy, huh. What about a talking crime solving dog instead?

Maybe a token Unicorn with a funny accent?

I think we are almost ready to start. There are 3 more people working their way through. I think I will open the beginning thread soon-- it will be along the road that leads to school (don't worry too much about which direction). This will give you the opportunity to describe your characters morning routine and be able to gather some info about what is happening in the city from the friendly neighborhood watchman.

Sounds great, can't wait!

Very nice!

Yay, 3 more peeps!

I'm assuming we all know each other to start out right?

Unless one of you is a specifically new transfer into the class, then you have all been in the same class for a while now.

Hello hello hello! I'll be joining you all. To solve -mysteries-.

Oh goodness, an Akodo?  Whelp, things just got really boring.  Guess we have to act respectable now.  Ugh.

And by that I mean welcome!

Man, first Hiru was the fat kid, but after looking at the last couple of families he is also the poor kid.

At least he is still allowed to hang out with the children of Daimyo's and Imperial Magistrates, for now...

Welcome!
This message was last edited by the player at 15:51, Wed 10 Mar 2021.

Everyone- EVERYONE- needs a Porkins.

Looking forward to it.

Agreed.  And as long as he remembers to pull up when we tell him to, he'll be fine.

Yeah-- I don't know what to say. I provided 3-5x as many families in every clan to choose from as well as the option to just create one-- as well as providing 2 additional Great Clans, but Hiruto is the only one who chose something other than the ruling family of one of the normal clans.

I got a partially completed application to play an Anneda and there was someone who was with me for 4 weeks as I wrote up all of the reference threads... only to kind of go silently once I had the 20 questions up. He said he wanted to play a Sakura character, but... I guess something came up for him.

Oh well. The format of this game ought to make it super easy for people to drop in, especially as we go through the first school day.

Hey we have our Lion jock! Welcome! No doubt we'll get along ... great.

Yeah, I've had my concept for a Scorpion courtier in my mind for a while, and it just fit to be part of the ruling family. The other ideas, like just a bushi or a shinobi from the Scorpion clan probably could've been from any family.


EDIT: Lol, Amaterasu. We're 'tiny people' huh? XD
This message was last edited by the player at 18:20, Wed 10 Mar 2021.

Well, peasants are small people.

Children are then surely tiny people. (Hiruto perhaps being an exception...)

Anyway, in the opening post please do give narrative on what the character did before arriving on the road and then feel free to interact with one of the characters presented.

I think this might just be an effect of having a bit of fiction to hang ideas and themes off of. At least, that's what it was for me. I love the idea of having more families in each Clan, as it builds out the world and makes if feel a little less gamified. Ditto for the inclusion of the Owl and the struggle for Shogun. Honestly, I like all the setting changes!

But, like Shino, this is a take on a concept I've had for a little while.

I think there's some naming mishaps in that last IC post there Amaterasu. :P Think I got the gist though.

Yes-- please be patient while I get used to the names.

It's all good!
I haven't managed to run a game yet, but I've been trying to get myself organized enough to start one. It does get confusing fast though.

You've put up a lot of impressive work and background info already. :D

I'll second that!

Your preparation and care really shows through.

I absolutely agree!  Having helped put a few games together over the years, I know how much goes into prepping for it, and this is truly impressive mate, well done!

Hmm... I don't want to disrupt your creation of plans until you have worked things out. But if any of you feel like you need to wait for your "turn"-- please don't. But Mei is the only one who posted today.

My experience of well over a decade on this site is the #1 game killer is the combination of those thinking they need to wait for someone else to post before continuing a conversation and those thinking they shouldn't bother to post because nothing that happened directly affects them and requires their character to react. And, yes, the #3 thing is people who log in after a day, see an entire new page of posts and feel so out-of-it that they are discouraged from posting anything. But we aren't at the pace right now where anyone is doing 6 posts a day so someone who can only do 1 will get lost.

So I would like to create this policy-- even if you have /directly/ asked someone something and they did not respond in a day, just post about how they are reacting or what they are thinking about the other conversations/actions the other players are taking and the person who missed a day can retroactively respond or can just write that they took a moment to really think of what to say in response and so got cut off by the others.

Remember that you are playing children, so non-sequiturs and interrupting each other is totally expected. So use that as an easy excuse.

Just-- let's please, please keep things rolling.

(I will note I was slightly disappointed that no one bothered to ask the magistrate assigned to the school about the city crime news, but I hope the way I slipped in information he was intended to share worked to keep the story hook alive.)

Noted!  And yes, loss of momentum is quite the killer, though I'm not worried about us from what I've seen.

And don't worry, talking to the magistrate was on the to-do list after class.

I'll keep that in mind!

That's a great post! I've gotta save those words for my other games. I admit I was expecting someone else to respond, but even if I've got nothing to say, I'll at least post to say I'm ready to move on.

Some character notes, if you ever need to post a reaction for Mei:

She tries harder than most children to maintain face. She is not particularly good at it, but she tries.

Mei, as often as not, tries to answer questions in the form of a quotation from a book she's read. She's incredibly well-read for a nine-year-old, but she's still a kid. Because she's an Akodo, about half of the quotes she knows are from Leadership.

She has zero sense of humor.

That's good to know Mei.

Helps to set a bit of precedent.

Hello everyone.  I'll be your overly serious, studious owl.  I'm a bit tired tonight, but I'll post tomorrow morning.

Welcome Ichiko! Good to have you with us.

Welcome welcome!

An Otomo! Welcome to the game!

Hey, hey, wanna be cousins? Shino's mom was an Otomo.

I wouldn't mind that :)

Hooray! I'll PM you, we can share background details and work out a good dynamic between us. I'm assuming that's ok, Amaterasu.


Also, good to know about your character Mei. Shino might wanna push on that a bit, as Scorpions always view face/masks cynically. Maybe further down the line, we can work on a character moment together where she opens up a little, learn to let loose. :D

And another FYI, Shino is petty and ignorant of other people's feelings at this stage in her life, as she hasn't yet been fully confronted by the real world yet. I hope we work towards a plot point where she can grow as a person, but until then, if I butt heads with you IC, I hope we can make a good RP of it. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 00:09, Mon 15 Mar 2021.

Would go a long way to explaining why she's a part of the group, even if she's incredibly distant, so I think it's a great idea.

And Shino is an asshole, got it.  Isn't that just par for the course with Scorpion though?

Teasing aside, seems like a good little group we've got going here, and lots of room to grow (especially if the characters get to slowly age), so I'm quite excited!

Agreed! Off to a great start, and looking forward to watching them grow.

Suddenly, I feel like we should be hunting a psycho monster clown that leaves red balloons everywhere. For character growth!

Is there an honourific that we are suppose to use for those of equal station to us, or can we call each other by our names?

I used -san for everyone and I'm going by our last names. I believe we're not supposed to use first names unless we're close, right?

Maybe I can call Ichiko by her first name though and you can call Shino by hers? Or maybe a cute nickname for my favorite cousin? Chiko-chan?

Being school children, you would likely use first names for fellow children followed by chan or kun. Adults would be addressed with last name except for maybe sspecial adults that bring themselves down to the children's level.

Also, even with the expanded name list, it could become a bit confusing to use last names. Use them if you want to get across that the character is being quite formal. Dropping the suffix is fine, we can just imagine it is there.

Hello.  I'll be the new kid at the school and city.  Look forward to causing trouble with you all.

Welcome.  Nice to have a Unicorn in the class.

Welcome!

Welcome welcome!

A Gaijin!? XD

Nice to have you join our merry band!

Only in the best way.

Hectic day over here (and yesterday too), lots of papers to grade and the like, so I'm likely going to be a bit slow in replying to anything.  So forgive me if Sanjiro doesn't really get into things yet.

I mean something something quiet introspection?

We all get busy sometimes.  Hope to have you back and active soon :)

You do important work, Sanjiro! Take care of yourself and those kids, we'll be here waiting for you. :)

Much obliged folks!  I'm just wading through a series of god-awful history papers right now (we're close to the end of the quarter), but I should be back in the swing of things tomorrow afternoon once I finish up.

That Clans to Rings match up makes so much sense, I feel like Owls should be a permanent part of the setting from now on due to that. :D

Busy weekend here, but I'll post a reply tomorrow.  My apologies if I've held anything up.

Just posting a check in; I think we're all mostly ready to move on from class, right?

Poor Akiro still hasn't introduced himself yet.
Any pre-existing connections you might have with us? Are you coming in as a foreign exchange student? ;P

All good points/questions, consider them ditto'd?

...yes I know I'm making up words, but hey, whatever, you get my point.

Yep.  New kid and unless you have connections with the Battue, or Ujik it's unlikely we've met.  He's spent his years on the edges of a maho tainted forest, or riding in Unicorn lands.  With that said, Akiro is a friendly enough boy, that will get along with most unless they don't like his dreadlocks and less then proper Rokugan upbringing.

Hope to interact with all of you soon.

Ichiko's mother was a Unicorn, but I didn't imagine her as a gaijin.  I'll leave that to Amaterasu though :P

The Unicorn and Mantis both have about half their holdings, and therefore a significant portion of their clan in the lands outside of Rokugan proper. So both have foreigners or half-foreigners who have been elevated to samurai status, but have little awareness of Rokugan.

On the other hand, the Unicorn clan has been back for hundreds of years and so other members have basically fully integrated. At this point they can be quite embarrassed by the behavior of other member's of their clan.

I'm fine with any decision.  It'll be interesting to have another sister or cousin.

His mom is an Ujik and practices a lot of customs I'm fairly sure no Owl would find acceptable.  His Battue side of the family are samurai that can fit in among the great clans without an issue.

There's plenty of families in the Unicorn, maybe if you guys aren't relatives, you could've at least met each other before. Get some of the immediate culture shock out of the way. ;P

I'm fine with letting Amaterasu surprise me, like in a Joss Whedon TV show :P

There are 10,000s of samurai in the Unicorn-- well, in all the clans. So its not like everyone from the same clan or even same family knows one another. With maybe an exception being very, very new and small families or ones that people get adopted into as they are more like orders or schools.

Anyway-- we have our first skill check of the game. Low stakes-- this is just figuring out how to work out the various bugs that might arise in the system.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:55, Thu 25 Mar 2021.

I think we will do the astrology class and the physical education class a well as a lunch break before the scene has completed. I am open for what scene to explore next.

Also, I should clarify, as far as foreign influence goes-- Unicorn explicitly includes foreigners with Mongolia and some middle eastern. Mantis includes foreigners with Northeast African, Indian and middle eastern influence. Owl has adopted what amounts to European and Chinese expies who have permanently immigrated and tried to conform. This is expressed mainly in the Kasuga and Tsi families, but leaks beyond it.

Phoenix also has deep ties to the Korean -like nation of Yobanjin who live north of Rokugan and are officially enemies for rejecting the Kami, but can more or less come in and integrate easily. But this is considered a "secret" but everyone knows and doesn't care.

Crab adopts anyone who is willing to do their duty. Dragon is somewhat inexplicably Nepalese despite having no explicit foreign ties.

It is really only the Crane and Lion who are aggressively anti-foreigner. But since they held power at various points, the other 6 still more or less conform. The real issue is that anything any Shogun declares becomes permanent law. And even the few times that Unicorn held power, they didn't care about the other foreign groups.

Can the dice roller be set to record each die every time?

15:33, Today: Otomo Ichiko rolled 5 using 2d6 ((3,2)).

I'm going to write a post soon, just need someone to keep my dice roll, as I'm going to be writing it slowly while at work.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:35, Thu 25 Mar 2021.

Fair point!  Should probably be set to that and reroll max actually.

Oh! There is an option to let me set the default roll.

:)

Have you tested it with the reroll option?  Just to make sure it is working as intended.

I think I put reroll max as the default already.

Although that doesn't help with the skill die that reroll on 12 or 11. So if you do get an 11 on the skill die-- I guess you just have to roll the explosion manually.

I think we are just up to Mei I suppose.

Passover, hooray! First holiday with the parents fully vaccinated!

Mazel tov!  Just got my second dose on Friday, so I feel that.

Happy holidays! Glad your family's doing well!

I'm still trying to convince my folks and get them scheduled. They're both too unorganized and suspicious to schedule the appointment themselves, but the one thing that makes them want to do it is having family meetings again (not their good health, which I wish they would prioritize more).

Oh goodness gracious me, I'm sorry to hear that.  My in-laws are both in medicine (retired ER nurse, and a still practicing respiratory therapist), so luckily they both got it the minute it was offered to them.  However my 'rents are expats, so they're just shit out of luck until things get better.  But where they are is handling things very well, and nobody is being an ass about wearing masks or the like (you know, unlike the good 'ol US of A over here).

I'm an rn who worked with immuno compromised children until 2 months ago and am now a wound care specialist, so I got it quickly when it came out. Though I still have to be careful so as not to get the virus, as it doesn't 100% prevent that.

That'll do it!  And wound care is... fun.  I taught combat triage in my military days, and have a soft spot for a good wound.

Which is odd, because most good wounds are a soft spot.

I'm glad you got to enjoy your holidays Mei.  I've been clutter brained recently :P

Yeah, I've been really feeling the isolation this month. Vaccinations are so close, 'some' holidays can happen again, but I know we can't stop being vigilant because of all the different strains and idiots out on the street...

Happy Easter everyone!

Sorry for taking so long with that post. I was trying to come up with a plan in my head about what the room would look like. I ended up doing a bit of a dive into Chinese astronomy and I am not even sure it will end up being particularly helpful.

It's all good. All my other games slowed down over Easter too, hazard of the holidays.

I'm sorta mixing astrology and divination in my mind, but it's those rooms that have these things in them right?

I feel like I've seen them in anime before.

By the way, can I roll that Courtesy check for fun? Just wanna double check so I don't throw dice around for no reason.

Yes, it is fine. It is your technique.

But I don't think the impact will be immediate. I think maybe after this class I will tie in the results of having started that rumor.

Cool, edited the old post with my roll.

Are Akiro and Sanjiro still with us?

Akiro waited quite a while to be able to jump in, I know, but this is the time to join in.

I'm here, yes.  I admit I didn't know if you were moving the scene forward, or if you wanted us to socialize.

My bad, I thought I would be introduced into class. I'll post tonight. On the road right now.

Do we know who the Battue are? They seem like a very minor family.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:12, Wed 14 Apr 2021.

In reply to Otomo Ichiko (msg # 91):

I would think so. This is a largest city in the Empire, so I would think it attracts all kinds of families and that if you've lived in it you're probably taught about at least all the families in the major clans

Well, it is a fairly obscure and insular family-- even if it is in a Great Clan-- so there is every chance of never having heard of them before.

Tell you what-- if you want your character to know, you can do a roll of Earth/Culture and if you get 2 successes then you have heard of them, if you get 3 then you know they are most famous for hunting down maho-tsukai (i.e. inquisitors).

Ariko, please don't take my actions in the game as anything but me playing a silly eight year old.  Ichiko is an over serious little girl playing at being all grown up without knowing what it really means.  I love your character and am enjoying the back and forth.

Same goes to you too Sanjiro and Kano (although I think she likes Kano).

I wasn't worried Ichiko, but I appreciate the sentiment!

And don't worry, Sanjiro is somewhere between being impressed with her/wanting to one up as a matter of pride/mildly infatuated with the cold, smart girl?  So you know, pretty typical kid stuff.

Hahaha, I appreciate your character making simple interactions fun. Don't sweat it with me, I like a bit flavor between the PCs.

As opposed to most L5R games set up like this, there ought not to be particularly deep divides so much as rough edges to work out. Ideally, by the time school ends, you will all have the same goal.

Ichiko, you may have lost a strife when he told his story I just wanted the GM to confirm it.

And yes, no divides here. All it is is flavour and a chance to rp without the ST.

Should I respond first or let others talk. I'm always unsure about posting rate as I don't want to run away with a conversation that others may want to respond to first.

I'd say let's let the others jump in, got a Crab and Scorpion that need the chance to speak up/react.

Busy couple of days. I'll try and post something tonight.

I realize I forgot to address the question you asked, Ichiko.

Unmasking really doesn't mean much for children-- there really is no risk of loss of status or honor. Once you reach your gempukku, assuming you can reach it, you become a whole new person and your slate is wiped clean. So right now it is more like practicing to be an adult and if you slip up-- no big deal.

That's why I described the Strife mechanics like this:

Strife: You accumulate strife over time. After each scene you will recover 1 strife, but otherwise it adds up over time. Remember question 15-- what does your character do when overwhelmed? Well, when Strife reaches above your composure, that is when your character exhibits this behavior. If there is an additional check during that scene, then you make that check as if you make that check as if you had disadvantage but with no void point benefit simply due to the character not being able to concentrate. If the check is failed then all strife is removed from the character. It is also removed at the end of that scene regardless of whether there was such a check.


I would like to think it is less harsh than the by-the-book version which basically very much suggests you would get hit with an honor loss or have to retreat from the scene. This way you can still participate, but the character is "burned out" by having been emotionally overloaded and so any tests of memory, social skills or abilities is going to be a struggle until you have a chance to rest and unwind a bit.

Amaterasu was I able to reduce someone's or everyone's strife by 1 when I spent that opertuninty on that Earth + Theology role? It was when he spoke about Astronomy first.

Okay! Yes, that works-- use those opportunities.

Wait, so does everyone take off 1 strife? I didn't see any OOC roll.

I'ma put my Strife in my bio so I don't forget it, can I change it back to 1?

The only strife anyone should have acquired should be from the written test in the first class and maybe if you decided to do a roll to determine if you knew what the Battue family was about. Nothing else ought to have caused Strife yet.

Yes, Akiro spent an opportunity to lower the strife of those paying attention to him when he spoke of the Hunter in the Dark and of his lessons looking at the stars.

I may have played that differently if I knew :P

My bad. I'm used to secret rolling everything and sending a private line to the GM. I wasn't sure if it applied so I waited on the GM and forgot about it until the talk about strife happened.

Next time I'll be more on the ball. It was a fun scene anyways.

Please do public rolls. As much as I like the setting-- this game system with its unusual dice is convoluted enough that even I get hopelessly confused.

If you had the ability to lower strife via opportunity, it is meant to apply to a single target-- whomever your roll related to.

But your secret roll was this, right?


01:18, Fri 16 Apr: Secret Roll: Battue Akiro rolled 5,14 using 2d6,3d12, rerolling max, unique dice with rolls of 3,2,8,5,1.  Earth + Theology.

Yes 1 success, and 1 opportunity.

1: Reassure the character you are interacting with by your presence, allowing them to remove 1 strife or fatigue.

Right-- so you got to remove 1 strife from the character most involved with your roll, which would be Ichiko-- right? That's all good. No one else ought to have been affected.

No one else ought to have gained or lost strife as a result of this whole thing. Let's just please keep this rolling.

:) Hoping this game doesn't die. I like it a lot.

I'll second that!

Let me add a bit more to move this along-- maybe get your conversations rolling in the right direction.

tl;dr (because that went longer than expect)

-Girl kidnapped by a baku.
-Akiro follows with his two older cousins and pet weasle.
-His cousins tell him to stay put and go at it after they track it into its dream.  Cousins don't believe they had entered the crossroads.
-They get trapped in a bad dream.
-Akiro manages to escape its influence and talks to it. He comes to an understanding with the Baku that he would find its dream and tale and spread it if he releases the girl.
-Akiro thinks he is a lucky hunter and that Sanjiro and Ichiko are going to help him find the dream.
-Akiro isn't sure himself if it is real or not. Problem with dreams.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:46, Wed 28 Apr 2021.

Sorry, probably gonna be able to get a post up tomorrow evening or Friday. Just been a bit busy this week and then I got my second COVID shot today...

Yeah, been a little busy here as well, but I'll get something up tonight.

I assume everyone's been quite busy after Mother's Day. I know I've had a lot of work and plans these last two weeks.

I'm still here though and ready to continue if everyone else is. :D

Same, I'll post tomorrow. My apologies for the delay.

I kind of did a deep dive on TW:WHII during golden week. Not playing the actual game, but more delving into the modding tools and learning how to code stuff.

My apologies, I have had a lot of work lately :(  I have 5 days free, but I'm taking today to relax.  I will post tomorrow.

Hmm.. People keep writing they are going to post and then not doing so.

I guess since it has been more than a week, I really ought to just kick things ahead to the next plot point.

I have found that works well for me.

Just keep posting, and if they can catch up they will.

I agree that moving on is the best bet here although last week has been really busy for me so I was sorta okay with our slow speed.

Is everyone still with us though? I think Mei isn't following the game anymore.

I apologize, but my time has been short on rpol.  We have been in lockdown due to Covid, and I am a nurse.  It's been exhausting.  I will try my best to post more frequently.  I take a long time to post, 20-30mins sometimes, as I need to check everything, because English is not my first language.

I prioritized some games and because of the slow post rate here I keep delaying my post when I shouldn't.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 20:50, Tue 01 June 2021.

I've found that same problem myself. I always find that I spend an hour on rpol just posting for like 1-2 games, so I sometimes just skip rpol after an exhausting day.

I'm not nearly doing as important work as you are as a nurse, so take care of yourself and take your time. Hopefully you still have fun with it, since this is game. :)
There was someone in my last game that just posted in OOC about funny or random stuff when she didn't have time, and I really liked her attitude since we still knew she was paying attention, even when she didn't make an IC post.

Is Sanjiro still active? I was waiting on him to not leave him out of the conversation.

Tomorrow it will have been two weeks since he last logged on. Mei hasn't been here since April. Sanjiro might still return, but I think Mei's a lost cause.

We probably don't need to wait, right?

I would agree there.

If we are going to salvage this, we might need to press on with who we have.

I think so.

None of you took the bait to get closer to the situation to find out what was going on besides Shino wishing to identify the people involved.

Any new applications by any chance?

We got two. One is basically finished and the other sent in his question answers, so I am looking over those tonight.

Nice! Would be really cool to see this continue.

Any preview of clans/families potentially joining us? :D

Matsu and Yogo

A Lion bushi? That's good, we probably needed a bushi since Mei's gone.

And another Scorpion, >D *evil cackle*.


In other news, I'm not sure we're gonna get any more movement from the most recent GM post. Ichiko's probably swamped with work, maybe we should keep moving?

Or will our new characters be introduced here?

*smoke bomb* I have arrived! IC post is up.

Yay! Shinobi! Go Team Sinister ppl!

What's your history? Are you starting as part of the Detective Club?

Collab? XD

Yuki comes from a long line of Yogo Preservers and Ward Masters. She loves art especially in physical form such as calligraphy, origami, fashion, and painting. These she sometimes combines with some of the Performance arts such as using origami animals to illustrate a story. She is very inquisitive and just recently joined the Detectives Club to hone her detective skills. She has a keen eye for figuring out what sort of gifts people desire and is a devout follower of Benten. Collaboration is always welcome.

Should I just move on with just Yuki interjecting here? No one else had anything to input?

There are a couple more glaringly obvious issues with Ichiro's deduction that I gave out to wholly idle players that one of you could come up with.

I figured Hiruto already had his contribution, but I can jump in if it will help.

Sorry, I got really busy after the US Independence Day. My family's going through some summer cleaning after the holidays and that's consumed all my time after work. I'll try to get something up tomorrow.

I haven't posted in for about a month here. Sorry about that-- it really seems like by the time we got to the whole mystery/investigation aspect, no one was really engaged with that.

I think I did far more work in the world building and reinventing the setting, but I really screwed things up by trying to play through a whole schoolday filled with uninteresting things rather than assuming you are all starting off investigating the core mystery that I promised. And, honestly, I wasn't really nearly prepared enough to have NPCs giving big lectures.

I did really hope there would be more player-to-player engagement here, but the only real flare-up we had was between Akiro and Ichiko and I am not sure that was particularly constructive. Shino in particular has done a good job behind the scenes trying to create background ties with other characters, but it might have been better if more of that had been done publicly.

Anyway, there are certainly lessons to be learned here. But I am not sure if it would be better to try skipping forward and engaging with the originally intended plot or dropping the whole "children" aspect and trying to run through the standard adventure modules with the twist of this reinvented world.

Either path is fine with me. I’m ready to jump back in.

I'm not sure how many people are still left; I see Akiro logged on yesterday too, so that's 3 total so far.

I really like the setting, so I advocate continuing in some form or fashion, but I'm not sure skipping to the investigation would salvage the game at this point. As much as I like my character, I also feel like either restarting the game and recreating our PCs (including new people) to include more relatability to each other, or just running a more standard grown up game would be more sustainable in the long run.

Whatever you decide, I'm down to be a part of it.

For my two cents, you are more likely to get more dependable applicants if doing a full grown up module. Topaz Championship is a classic one that is a rite of passage for samurai and eases players new to 5e into the system.

Yeah, the Topaz Championship really is the default way to kick off an L5R game typically as it gives you an excuse to have a brand new character from every clan all gathered up together. Although run dry, it really amounts to no more than making a bunch of skill rolls and seeing who gets the highest.

I think the changes I made to the setting do open up more reasons to have a group from different clans all together without it having to be that or some imperial randomly summoning a bunch of rookies to assign to some mission that doesn't specifically have to do with a conflict between two clans-- so regardless of what clan they choose, the players can be presumed to be pretty neutral in the whole affair.

Honestly, a good third of the people who were interested in the game were turned off due to using the FFG ruleset. It does feel like trying to track the strife was making things a bit complicated. We only did 1-2 rolls and it felt a bit sloppy.

Maybe the players could all be attending some sort of festival or some big empire-wide competition or attending a Noh play. But there also needs to be a willingness on the part of the players to engage in whatever hooks go out there-- are they going to talk to each other if they meet even though it would be super unnatural to do so? Like-- some sort of recognition of "my character is subconsciously genre savvy enough to notice that you are a main character" or are they going to actively get involved if something goes amiss?

If they are in a crowd and someone drops to the ground choking, are they going to rush in to help or just keep walking and think "its not my problem" and if, upon examination, it is clear the person has been poisoned-- are they going to try to figure out who did it or try to cover it up so whomever poisoned the person gets away with it?

If you make the later choices, then you can't really have a story that goes anywhere. If you character just wants to sit in their shadowy corner and not help anyone and just continue their day-to-day life unless a manic pixie appears, takes an unnatural interest in them and literally drags them into the adventure by their hand... then the story is just going to be them going on with their normal life.

I was also initially surprised when you mentioned using 5e's ruleset. I also first got the game in 4e and I loved the Spider and the Mantis and the overarching plot involving all of them. I wouldn't have expected a setting that used so much of the old setting material to use the new ruleset. Fortunately, I was tied to the story and the clans more than I was tied to the rules, so here I am.

And yeah, I guess my total avoidance of helping that bullied kid and convincing Hiruto not to step up really was totally sidestepping the plot hook, huh? :P Oops.
I had an active plan in mind though, it just involved letting the Mantis kid get beat up first. XD

I think with a more balanced party, like we might’ve had originally, that problem isn’t as pronounced, as usually someone like Sanjiro’s character or Mei's character would’ve taken the charge and roped the rest of us into it. We each get to express our characters and respond to plot hooks stylistically but still go along for the ride.
Similarly, my character might've roped them into plot hooks about gossip and drama like discovering two of the teachers were having a love affair or something.
Not that passivity is not a problem that needs to be addressed by us players. I will definitely RP with more savvy in the interest of a continuing game from now on.

If you’re looking for ideas though, I actually had an idea a long time ago when I thought I had the time to GM games. Now it seems like that will never happen because I’m busy every day of the week, but I still think it was an interesting premise:


A Crab daimyo is holding an annual Wall ‘security council’ event that he’s invited all the clans’ defenders and the Empire’s heroes to attend. (Basically a TED talk)
Although the Crab have always respected this old daimyo, he is getting on in years and he usually just rants about the need for constant vigilance of the incoming Shadowlands threat and maho tsukai/tainted demons among them. The Crab sorta just humor him at this point, as his lands are relatively far away from the actual Wall and the Shadowlands (and they have more pressing investments to make). The rest of the clans, who already think the Crab are too paranoid, usually send inexperienced, misbehaving, or unpopular samurai to attend the seminar out of courtesy. (Excuse as to why it's just noob PCs)
When the PCs arrive, the daimyo is indeed old and cranky and sorta losing it, but there are also subtle signs of corruption in the lands that are supposed to be the most vigilant and vehement about defending against corruption. (Mystery)
The heir to the daimyo and the second son are also causing drama within the household, both eyeing their ailing father's position of power. (Politics)
It's sorta like LotR's Rohan with the king being weak and Saruman's corrupted influence everywhere.

So I came up with this premise because it gives the best of both worlds. It had a courtly aspect, a potential for fun combat, mystery, politics, secrets and plots, and finally, the subject of whether the need to invest more into Shadowlands defense was a good political argument that the various characters could each hold their own opinions and expressions on (disagree with each other about) but would also push them into allying and helping each other when push came to shove (defense of the Empire/common enemy).

Feel free to use it or just hopefully let it inspire you towards a great premise of your own.

I suppose something like that could work. I don't know about the whole "security council" angle. Perhaps it could instead be the more simple and straight forward "got sent to the Crab lands to train".

The reason they get sent there could have anything to do with perhaps they had some experience with supernatural forces that might make others feel they have been cursed or maybe they have a keen interest in fighting the shadowlands due to a personal tragedy and so requested to be sent here to train or maybe they did something incredibly embarrassing or shameful and their family is just trying to get them out of the way until things blow over-- and the Crab are always looking for bodies to serve on the wall.

Then maybe they get there and find that instead of serving on the wall or under some witch hunters or anything that would get them within a stones-throw of the Shadowlands, they instead get sent out to some remote, mean stretch up almost barren land out near the plains above evil.

I just thought of the security council idea because I love courtiers and the social system, so I tried to include a Court in the premise for them to argue in. The training angle seems more for bushi or shugenja, more combat sounding.
Still,I guess it works either way as long as some internal politics are at play. The courtier sent to train might only be there grudgingly.

Well, a courtier wouldn't really be sent to a military training seminar either. Not unless they were in a position where they would be commanding troops.

Although now that you mention it, I wonder to what degree people in-universe ought to really be identifying themselves as bushi or courtiers. If I think back across major L5R characters, while there were certainly those who fell to either extreme it was only to the degree that a person might put a lot of focus into one aspect of their life or another.

But for many more characters, just because you could fight well didn't mean you should be expected to be wholly inept at politics (Shoujo, Toturi, Hotaru/Hotari, etc.) and simply because one spent a lot of time in court didn't mean they should be wholly unable to defend themselves in a scrap.

Now maybe that is because the focus of the story were these clan champions who were expected to be the pinnacle at almost everything except when compared among one another-- but I kind of got to wonder if maybe the whole division isn't game mechanics intruding into the story and altering it until characters in-world begin referring to the game mechanics as though aware they are in a game.

Just like everyone in D&D seems to be keenly aware of what class, level and alignment they are.

Anyway, regardless of the reason the ultimate result would still be that you are trapped out on the edge of the empire where nothing of importance happens and you start to notice that something is not quite right (or is it just a trick of your mind because you are so bored you begin fixating on things that maybe you would dismiss otherwise) and the characters know they are going to be stuck there for an indeterminable amount of time unless something in the situation dramatically changes.


Although this still runs the risk of creating a situation where someone will just exploit whatever ruleset is offered up to make a combat god and feel totally entitled to scream duels to the death over every minorly abrasive interaction they have with anyone. Which makes it impossible to present a situation where people act bristly and suspicious and treat the PCs with disregard so that they then later become suspects.

I'm around as well.

I don't know why things seems to not gather a lot of momentum. I felt like I was responsive to your posts GM, and that I had a good relationship with Sanjiro before he took off, and that the teacher interaction was neat. I felt the premise was really creative and fun.

Slower paced games always seem to suffer a bit. People waiting for other people instead of pushing ahead.

I would be up for another try, but will admit that I have no interest in 4e or 5e myself.

I think Pathfinder would be neat if we are looking for a d20 based system personally, but I know lots of people like the newer D&D editions.

Posting speed is huge, although I know I can't do a faster game at this time. I feel if people had still communicated with us that they were still following along and just got too busy or something, we could've either waited for them or pushed ahead without waiting for them.

I personally think, especially for a setting that draws so heavily on feudal Japan, that those roles would be a very clear distinction in-universe. The distinctions are schools after all, not artificial classes, like rogue or fighter. A bushi (or a courtier) trains his or her whole life to fulfill this one role after all. And shugenja, monks, and shinobi are each already an entirely different class of society.

I think the expected crossover skills comes from the idea of a sophisticated samurai following the virtues. If you're sincere, what's the need to be good at politicking? If you're courageous, you'll be of value in any fight. Also, an idea in Chinese martial arts (and probably other Asian cultures) is if you've mastered one thing, you have all the tools necessary to master almost all other things because of how you've cultivated your mind. Training martial arts just becomes the vehicle to inner perfection, then everything else becomes easy.
I think it's embodied in the 'All Arts are One' Void Shuji.

Since that's such an intrinsic ideal to the culture, of course a bushi would be expected to be good at politics and a courtier would be expected to know how to fight. But no one can truly live up to lofty ideals, and then when politics and large scale clan management are factored in, it becomes where can we use this person most effectively to achieve the best results.


I also think you did marvelously in avoiding full combat duel screaming maniac characters when you did our character sheets for us and worked with us on our individual backstories so closely. I think the best way to screen out those types is just by weeding them out in the application phase.

^^^ Definitely agree with the last paragraph.

I'll agree with that as well!

Well, I felt from the beginning that Hiruto was the one character that was most clearly on the ball in terms of getting engaged with the plot. Although everyone neglected to "visit the questgiver" on the way to school. I probably should have signposted that NPC a whole lot more clearly-- that really veered everything off course.

I don't think the d20 system is ideal either. The D20 system is just built solely around combat. 90% of the ruleset and character sheet are dedicated solely on how you kill stuff or how long you can survive something killing you and then everything else is resolved simply through a very simplified skill roll.

Literally all social aspects is handled through a single attribute and a single skill-- well, two attributes and two skills if you count defensive. And its much the same with anything that has to do with investigation.

And then the D20 version of Rokugan was underpinned by a "samurai" class designed at the height of irrational katana worship. One of the nice things about the revised L5R setting FFG did was that they really stepped down that whole focus on katanas. In reality most of the really famous samurai are generally depicted with polearms, bows or even firearms.

The focus on katanas was more of an edo-period fad-- when the wars were over and those descended from samurai had sold off their armor and horses and weapons of war, and the only thing they had left that could be held onto and carry around as a symbol of their family lineage, even if they were running around in hand-me-down rags and begging for food, was a katana.

I suppose one might think that it started earlier with Miyamoto Musashi's popular books. But even if one were to believe any of his tall tales, most of his famous book for which the setting is named after was about fighting with weapons other then katanas, as much as the whole "two sword style" he claimed to have developed (yet never actually used) is what gets so much attention. But even in his stories of his supposed duels-- he didn't use a proper katana and the people he fought against often weren't using katanas either. It was always something like "I fought the greatest spearmaster in the region and killed him using a stick I whittled down into a wooden sword the day before and with my back to the sun so he couldn't see me after keeping him waiting for 6 hours, then ran away as his followers shot arrows at me."

So where is this whole "a katana is a magical super rare sword passed down through generations and can never be replaced and all of your levels go into enhancing this sword into a magic item" come from? Its perhaps the silliest misinterpretation I have ever seen. Of course katanas can get bend and warped beyond use and replaced with new ones that can be produced. And anyone who is actually using one regularly, whether it be in battle or practice, is going to get new ones periodically. Maybe they might hang one that got used in a particularly notable battle on a wall and keep it there as a trophy, but... its just weird.



Anyway, if we are looking for a more simplified ruleset, but one that respects the more social, investigative and craftsmanship aspects of the setting and decreases the focus on combat, perhaps reworking the World of Darkness system would be an approach. Obviously many of the skills would need to be changed out or expanded, maybe even changing up some of the attributes.

Of course there is no way to turn Physical, Mental, Social so there is some Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Void theme. Not unless I were to say... make 2 attributes each for Air, Earth, Fire and Water then void is an attribute that costs twice as much as the others and covers the weird supernatural stuff.