Continuing the series of posts, this one will discuss character development, namely character progression and advancement. I ask of you the following questions:

1. Should character advancement remain as it is? Why?

2. Should it be more akin to the advancement presented in FFG's Star Wars RPG?

3. What would you suggest be the way characters advance in the new system?

4. What should happen to the Advanced Schools and Alternate Paths, if anything?

Try to be as concise as possible; text walls can be daunting to read.

More open ended and allowing to more differences between members of the same clan and school at the same level of advancement. Also, more granularity in schools of whatever equivalent, simply because currently, you either know a whole technique, or don't know it at all; it's a very big jump in progression. In source material (asian action fantasy or whatever), stories about training your abilities are as important as stories about using them - allowing to model your character learning their stuff in smaller steps allows to capture that classical motif in play.

EDIT

And it's simply more fun to play your "first year under your sensei" while getting perks that together are "a whole technique", instead of suddenly getting whole technique at the end and getting small ranks in skills or whatever; currently, getting +1 skill gives very small gameplay interactive difference (it matters, but it doesn't *feel* big/cool enough to leave an impression).

When sensei teaches you Way of The Demon Wind, you want to progressively learn and USE your knowledge, instead of getting it as "ding dong, now you can Demon Cut things".

EDIT2

I would really prefer "Tree" based School Teachings instead of flat 5 techniques. Someone mentioned that it won't work in RPG due to not having graphical representation, and I disagree - assuming 3 trees (Combat, Social, Specialist) per Clan in core rulebook, you end up having 27 pages dedicated to trees that you can put in awesome looking School Scrolls, kind of like Taichi Scrolls.

As for Advanced Schools - I like how characters in Star Wars RPG have 3 "slots" to put their trees in. I think that in L5R, you could have free access to 3 trees of your school, and buy up access to some extra ones - "Different School" becoming "gain access to one tree of another clan", some unaligned trees, advanced trees, General Utility Trees, etc...

EDIT3

Come on, you WANT something like this (but easier to read ) to describe what abilities your school can give you

http://hdwallpapers4you.com/wallpaper_1280x720/avatar_the_last_airbender_desktop_1280x800_hd-wallpaper-747154.jpg

Continuing the series of posts, this one will discuss character development, namely character progression and advancement. I ask of you the following questions:

1. Should character advancement remain as it is? Why?

2. Should it be more akin to the advancement presented in FFG's Star Wars RPG?

3. What would you suggest be the way characters advance in the new system?

4. What should happen to the Advanced Schools and Alternate Paths, if anything?

Try to be as concise as possible; text walls can be daunting to read.

1) Yes. The way the characters advance has ties to the setting itself - the notion that as you learn you become wiser and, by doing so, your sensei decides to teach you further secrets of your school is an elegant way to meld mechanics and setting in a seamless package.

2) No, for the reason described in 1)

3) See 1)

4) I like the fact that there are multiple options as far as character development goes - it helps give a feeling of uniqueness to the character you're building. Personally, I'd like them to be kept in a new edition.

1. Should character advancement remain as it is? Why?

As a crusty old gamer, YES.BECAUSE WE HATE AND FEAR CHANGE!

More seriously, the idea of progressing by learning Clan techniques is nice and flavorful. If anything, I would change schools like non-Clan monks and shugenja to more closely resemble everybody else's path.

Being able to say, "I have mastered the secrets of my clan, and the Arrow Knows the Way" is a hell of a lot cooler and more thematic than "Okay, I get two new spell scrolls."

2. Should it be more akin to the advancement presented in FFG's Star Wars RPG?

Not familiar enough with that system to comment.

3. What would you suggest be the way characters advance in the new system?

Technique-based advancement, probably with some Insight-style mechanic to explain why your daimyo and sensei don't think you're ready to learn the clan's ultimate secret techniques.

4. What should happen to the Advanced Schools and Alternate Paths, if anything?

I like Paths- they're a neat way to reflect the diversity of teachings available within the umbrella of a given clan's educational structure, and I like how 4E handled them- "If you learn this, then you won't learn that."

Advanced Schools... trickier. Often, they never come into play. I'd sooner see them swapped out for Rank 6 or 7 Paths (to stick to the existing 4E nomenclature) because as they are, they seem kinda clunky and unnecessary.

Currently, in 4E, Advanced Schools are this weird thing that you would optimally enter at Insight Rank 4, after getting your Simple Action Attacks, meeting requirements, and continuing it in place of your old school. It's almost only way to make it actually appear in play, Rank +5 games aside.

1. Should character advancement remain as it is? Why?

2. Should it be more akin to the advancement presented in FFG's Star Wars RPG?

3. What would you suggest be the way characters advance in the new system?

4. What should happen to the Advanced Schools and Alternate Paths, if anything?

1. Should character advancement remain as it is? Why?

Yes. The reason for this is that character advancement is a way to simulate the development of the person you are playing. Therefore it adds a development element to the overall exp and also a motivation for the player to strive for the next adventure to see his character growing and developing new skills, talents etc. Also I think if we go for various sub systems like in the Star Wars or Warhammer 40K game. The advancement System should be based on the same building system. So if you decdice to go for the advancement tree make sure each system has the same amount of exp you need to get to the next tier of the tree. Also please try to balance the possible character classes with the thought in mind that you want to play them in a cross system game so that people can use them without the need of rebalancing them first.

2. Should it be more akin to the advancement presented in FFG's Star Wars RPG?

Iam not really oposed to the talent tree advancement they use in Star Wars. The only problem is that I think it is a bit to strict. I think there should be more options to choose from but in general it seems fine.

3. What would you suggest be the way characters advance in the new system?

I suggest a advancement tree based system for the new L5R. The reason is that I don´t think the insight system is wokring really good and would love to see a system that emphasis the feeling of that you advance a bit more.

4. What should happen to the Advanced Schools and Alternate Paths, if anything?

Yes they should stay but become a bit easier to get excess too. At the moment the advanced schools are more the not exsiting schools cause while they are in the book there is not really often someone who is going there becuase soem have ridiculus prequisites like having a ring at 6 etc. Also there should be good advanced and alternate pathees for each clan and not like it is now that some clans just don´t have reall good ones.

I think both pathes and schools should stay but become way easier to acess. For the advanced classes I think if we go for the trees a seperate tree would be in order while the alternate path just gives you it specific technique and nothing more.

Continuing the series of posts, this one will discuss character development, namely character progression and advancement. I ask of you the following questions:

1. Should character advancement remain as it is? Why?

2. Should it be more akin to the advancement presented in FFG's Star Wars RPG?

3. What would you suggest be the way characters advance in the new system?

4. What should happen to the Advanced Schools and Alternate Paths, if anything?

Try to be as concise as possible; text walls can be daunting to read.

If it were up to me, I'd remove Insight Rank, School Rank, and any linear or tree-based Technique progression.

All point-based, all purchased as individual "units", and if one thing actually has another thing as a mechanical necessity ( that is, "Power B does not function on a character who does not have Power A" ) then the necessity is listed as a prerequisite.

It's funny - in fact the old system's system's dual 'linear' and 'point-based' character advancement style always struck me as a fantastic way to break with 'levels' without losing some degree of gradual growth. I, for one, would be happy if the Insight Rank + Skill/Trait raising system was kept in place, even if other core parts of the game get changed (but well, I'm rather happy with the system as it is and would rather see some changes here and there instead of a complete overhaul, so there is that.)

Continuing the series of posts, this one will discuss character development, namely character progression and advancement. I ask of you the following questions:

1. Should character advancement remain as it is? Why?

2. Should it be more akin to the advancement presented in FFG's Star Wars RPG?

3. What would you suggest be the way characters advance in the new system?

4. What should happen to the Advanced Schools and Alternate Paths, if anything?

1- The way the character advancement is, while it's not perfect, it's a great one. Just like in real life, we grant knowledge, skills and stuffs gradually through our experiences. Some system prefer the level up system, but then system mostly focus more on battles than anything else. This also allows players to adjust their needs during the game. For example, they feel like their courtier skills is too weak, they can spend up a few exp there and it will help them kinda quickly. While on the level up system, if you've just gained a level, you won't be able to adjust yourself until your next level.

2- I don't know about this system. Need more informations to be able to give a good answer.

3- I would say to keep the same way. Why? Because you're trained in a Dojo and this is the way you should advance. For example, you decide to get Karate training, you'll learn Karate based on the Dojo you're going. You won't learn another martial arts technique in the middle of your road to the black belt, you'll only learn Karate. You may have some variations, but it will stay Karate. So I feel like it should stay the same for this reason, with alternate path for the few variations or specialisation, but nothing else.

4- I think I've said most of it at #3. They should stay because a Dojo don't want to have clones, they want a few variations to get the best of their students. As Teveshszat said, they should drop down the requirements.

Continuing the series of posts, this one will discuss character development, namely character progression and advancement. I ask of you the following questions:

1. Should character advancement remain as it is? Why?

2. Should it be more akin to the advancement presented in FFG's Star Wars RPG?

3. What would you suggest be the way characters advance in the new system?

4. What should happen to the Advanced Schools and Alternate Paths, if anything?

Try to be as concise as possible; text walls can be daunting to read.

1) I say yes (mostly) And this is why: The Schools are presented as the culmination of centuries of refinement. Your skills are what your character learns personally along the way themselves. I LIKE the idea of certain character ideas not gelling well with an available school, and trying to make techniques fit around your oddball person (heavy weapon doji, archer Akodo, Chain weapon Utaku, etc.) If everyone gets (+2 to [thing you want]) when ever, it destroys that kind of flavor.

2)I am pretty much against anything that comes up in FFG's star wars game. So I'm biased here.

3)Honestly I'm pretty happy with the way the system is now, I would however really like more 'alternate path' choices. The setting has been around for SO LONG that I can very easily see some sensei creating alternate moves at certain ranks to get a desired result. Plus it would really present the idea that there are lots of dojo for each school, not just one big one somewhere. AND: you can totally go around challenging teachers at other schools to learn their secret technique at the proper insight rank.

4) Definitely keep them, but throw requirements (mechanical, not RP) to qualify for them. And make them really disparate within the same clan.

1. Should character advancement remain as it is? Why?

I am somewhat perplexed by people saying that the current Technique system is "flavorful." Your school inherently teaches you some basics, then has five Super Secret Tech things that you can only at certain pre-defined moments, but every single person who studies at that school learns how to do exactly those same things without any variation, and they somehow managed to never let anyone else every learn that? I am not sure how the School/Technique system is at all flavorful, except that it feels "L5R" because that's how the L5R RPG has always been. It's not like there was some flavor presentation of this in story, and then the RPG implemented it. Indeed, although there has to have been something at some point in 20 years of fiction, I can't off the top of my head recall an instance where someone was depicted as going back to their school to learn the Super Secret Tech.

I'll grant that many of the Techniques have cool names, but that doesn't really related to the system. You can have cool names for character abilities in pretty much any system where characters learn distinct abilities (as opposed to just accumulating stat/skill numbers).

Note: that doesn't mean any particular alternative is particularly flavorful either. But the current one is not really flavorful, just familiar.

1. Should character advancement remain as it is? Why?

Yes, I think it perfectly fits the setting and shows that you get insight of the teachings from using them and as you get to better understand them, your sensei decides to teach you more.

2. Should it be more akin to the advancement presented in FFG's Star Wars RPG?

Can't say, since I never played Star Wars, therefore I can't say if it would fit or not.

3. What would you suggest be the way characters advance in the new system?

-

4. What should happen to the Advanced Schools and Alternate Paths, if anything?

There should be some new, since I miss Artisan-Advanced-Schools for the Shiba Artisans, the Shosuro Actors and the Kaiu. But in general I like it the way it is.