Legend of the Five Rings 4th edition

[kenada]

So would it make things more interesting to play a samurai from a Great Clan that really hates the Cranes, or would it be more fun to play a Scorpion who intends on bribing his way to the top?

Though, in all honesty, I was thinking of playing a Crab because they’re not known for their politeness (or whatever it’s called), and that’d help hide my newness to the system/setting.

Edit: I also promise not to name my character ‘Starscream’.

Edit 2: I was also planning on making my character on Saturday. I hope to have a concept ready ahead of time, but I don’t want to end up with something that’s crap because of my unfamiliarity with the system.

Edit 3: You never said where/when you were running.

[BobChuck]

haha... the current plan is

my place (address already sent in a PM to you)
Saturday July 3rd
Noon to 6ish

Having everyone create their characters at the same time is a good idea; we'll have 2-3 books for 2-5 players, unless the special editions get in before the weekend.

Player-wise, there's you (and I have no idea what you will play) and there's my brother (who will probably make a Spider Courtier).

We also have three potentials: Brian (who likes Spellcasters and Shugenja), Corey (who only plays warriors, ever), and Mr. Random Player Who May Not Know About This Thread (who doesn't know the system so we have no idea what he likes).

Brian will almost certainly be there every week. He's a mature, grown-up adult with a House and Car and Wife who is Really Quite Pregnant. He may miss the first or second session if she goes into labor (Best. Excuse. Ever.) but other than that should be quite dependable. I have never actually gamed with him, however.

Corey is... adultish. He has no responsibilities and likes it that way. He really is quite a nice and decent fellow, very handy to have around, but he has no goals in life and is proud of it, so I'm not quite sure how to peg him with a single paragraph. He likes Chaotic "Neutral" characters, and my brother (his usual GM) tends to let him get away with far too much (otherwise he gets himself killed rather quickly and the game ends). So that should be interesting.

[BobChuck]

Update: it's a boy.

[BobChuck]

No word from Random New Poster, so I'm assuming he is either unaware or uninterested.

Brian and Corey are both still "maybes".

There's another potential player - Tyne, my brother's neurotic and OCD girlfriend. She's quiet and shy and skitish and has a filthy mouth and wicked sense of humor. They've been together for years, she's gamed before but never played L5R. She will be there for the first session and will decide whether or not she wants to continue playing. I have no idea what kind of character she will make.

[kenada]

No word from Random New Poster, so I'm assuming he is either unaware or uninterested.

Did you try PMing him?

Brian and Corey are both still "maybes".

⁂

I made it to the skills section in the Book of Fire before taking a break to read the Wilderness Survival Guide’s weather system, which is much better than Pathfinder’s joke of a weather system. I should know enough to be dangerous in L5R. I’m leaning towards being one of the Crab heavy hitters.

[BobChuck]

L5R is such that the best way to learn most of the wacky fun mechanics is to sit down and stat up 20 or so characters.

I have shells for 25 different ones, but have only finished one. Fortunately, I took tomorrow off, so I will be able to put 4-5 hours into building them and be ready on Saturday.

As a Crab Bushi, you can easily get to 9k3 damage starting out (and an armor TN of 25, earth ring 3, reduction 3, etc); their biggest weakness is (and always has been) accuracy. As a Crab, you have to watch your attack roll - rolling 5k2 is *not* going to cut it, even starting out. You'll have significant difficulty hitting training dummies.

If you like the Crab Hida Bushi school, you should also check out the Lion Matsu Berserker. Crab Hida are about dealing and taking damage, but have trouble with accuracy. Lion Matsu are about hitting and dealing damage; they are fairly resilient (not as much as the Crab, of course, but better than Crane or Scorpion). Their biggest flaw is being terribly Lawful Stupid, sort-of-vaguely-like Paladins.

[jareddm]

hey, sorry for not posting.  I found another gaming group so unfortunately I'll have to drop out of this one.

[kenada]

Can someone with the Gaijin Name disadvantage take the name ‘Starscream’?

[BobChuck]

hey, sorry for not posting.  I found another gaming group so unfortunately I'll have to drop out of this one.

np.

Can someone with the Gaijin Name disadvantage take the name ‘Starscream’?

...technically.

Unfortunately, such people have an unfortunate tendency of spontaneously combusting during the character creation process.

[kenada]

When do we receive XP in L5R? Also, how was my honor affected after the first test of the second day?

Edit: Do you want me to move this thread out of the recruitment forum since it’s not for a game in progress?

[BobChuck]

I was planning on giving out all XP, honor, and glory at the end of the adventure.

Depending on what Tyne decides to do, I may be giving out XP at the start of the next session, simply because her character needs help.

I say "may" because we were able to get in touch with both other players.

Corey was unavailable for just this week, as he had to help a friend move out of state, and three-day weekends are excellent times to move. He will definitely be available every Saturday now, up until Labor Day.

Brian had a son 5 days before the campaign began, and flat-out forgot. He very much wants to play, but he's still trying to determine whether or not he can.

So, Corey is definitely going to join us, Brian may be joining us, and Tyne might decide to re-build her character; I will be running a "patch" session Thursday or Friday to get them through to the evening of the second day of the tournament.

If you want to move the thread, please feel free to do so; we are currently the only two people reading it, so I don't think the location matters much.

[kenada]

I moved the thread out of the recruiting forum.

[BobChuck]

I noticed.

[BobChuck]

Things are humming right along. Not much to report in the thread, but the game is doing fine.

The "Roll and Keep" mechanic, combined with excessive punishment for failure, is making the game somewhat less fun for some players.

It's not just the combat, either; a single bad social roll can severely punish a character if the player is not able to quickly think of a solution; this is a bad trait for a rules system to have.

The setting is very nice, with lots of wonderful flavor; the clans are fascinating, the culture is great. It's the underlying core mechanics that get in the way - the extremely unstable dice results combined with little to no room for error or recovery definitely detracts from the game.

[kenada]

I’m definitely not a fan of exploding dice, and RnK seems to exacerbate the issues it has. I can’t imagine that the problems are unknown to the authors of the system, and it’s probably intended as part of its overall lethality.

The "Roll and Keep" mechanic, combined with excessive punishment for failure, is making the game somewhat less fun for some players.

It's not just the combat, either; a single bad social roll can severely punish a character if the player is not able to quickly think of a solution; this is a bad trait for a rules system to have.

The penalty for failure on social rolls is much more higher than combat since a badly enough flubbed social roll can offend someone, and that can end up in a duel or seppuku. It’s why I try not to participate in the social stuff because I don’t want to screw myself over with a bad roll.

As a DM, I can appreciate discouraging players from always rolling along because there is no penalty for failure. I hate it when I try to run a skill challenge, and everyone decides to roll along regardless of the fact that I only asked one person to roll. However, L5R goes to far in the other direction, considering how bad social snafus can end up for a character. The fight Corry picked in the sake house would probably have been no big deal in D&D (maybe with some time in jail or the stocks), but it was pretty much a character killer in L5R.