What would you like to see in a rebooted L5R?

By TheHobgoblyn, in Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game

So basically, you'd prefer to see the protagonists of the story as something beyond human comprehension.

Not more beyond human comparison as, say, Superman or the Punisher. Or Captain America. Or pretty much any other superhero. Hell, the samurai of Rokugan are already beyond human comprehension most of the time, I just want them to be awesome while at it and not tragic.

Uh... then there are plenty of other systems and settings out there for you to romp around in. Rokugan is all about human failings, no matter how many gods are being faced down this week.Even the capital-K Kami are interesting only because of their foibles,failings, and inconsistencies.

In Rokugan,"awesome" is often in the vein of "You run.I die." There are plenty of moments of superhuman badassery (Kuon's suicide run during the Destroyer War, Ningen turning a small army of Yobanjin into a field of flowers, prettymuch any time a Togashi monk gets their hands dirty). And you know what? It was almost never the best part of any given narrative.

Tone-wise, I prefer to run my L5R games less like animation, and more like a Kurosawa film with more open displays of supernatural elements. Not saying this is the best way, but it makes the most sense to me as an expression of what makes a *samurai* fantasy different from any other fantasy.

It's the best way, there is already Exalted for super-human anime style games.

It's the best way, there is already Exalted for super-human anime style games.

Exalted is about literal gods and not "simple" superhumans. I wouldn't go that far.

Also, it is worth pointing out that you can still have people with flaws in my system. They just won't be honorable. Nobody forces you to strive for Honor 3.0+, Honor 0.0-2.9 is a relatively cozy place as long as you don't want to accomplish much with your life (if you do, then be prepared that you will be a villain in the story, and you will inevitably fail and meet a grisly end).

Edited by AtoMaki

Honor is good only for servants, great people do what they want and if they succeed, they decide what is honorable. ^_^

An interesting system would put you against your goals in order to follow the honor.

At this point I believe any further debate on the nature of Bushido and honor in Rokugan is best served by a new thread. Nothing in the last two pages has anything to do with the concept of a rebooted L5R setting.

Okay, to fix this issue, I'm gonna say this: if Rokugan gets the reboot, I would like to see my interpretation as canon reality and as the official standard Honor is measured. So samurai would be really this (super)heroic, righteous people who uphold a superhuman code of morality. And how would they do that as mere humans? Well, I would say that following a superhuman code actually turns the samurai into superhuman beings in the same vein as the Book of Void mentioned the possibility of this through Mushin/Zanshin/Shoshin/Gaman.

Mechanically this would manifest in "Honor Mastery Abilities": most characters would start at Honor 1.0 (roughly equivalent to the current 5.0-6.9 level), gaining small bonuses for their token effort to follow Bushido properly (this would be the level for the usual "resist Fear/Temptation better" and similar bonuses); when you reach Honor 3.0, you are considered to have "Strong Honor" (8.0-9.0 level) and receive modest bonuses like a few extra Void Points; get to Honor 5.0 to say that you have "True Honor" (10.0 in the current system) and gain some really sweet stuff like to spend a Void Point to turn any roll into a Honor roll - this also heralds the end of worrying about mundane opponents; the ranks actually continue up to Honor 10.0 (this would be the new "literally impossible" level, with a note that even Akodo only managed to reach Honor 9.9) - when you reach Honor 7.0, you can go face-to-face with a real oni, and at Honor 9.0 you are pretty much unstoppable and can challenge oni lords, fortunes, and their likes.

Now, this would put "Honor is stronger than steel" really on the radar ;) !

I would have a question about that idea. What's the point of developping a mechanic unaccessable?

My thoughts on the idea is the following: if you're creating a mechanic unaccessable, chances are that some storyteller may use it poorly and give honor points like candies creating some imbalance. I've seen games where some characters were at 8-9 honor when they should clearly be around 4-5. Imagine with a system like that.

Anyway, I'll ask my question again, why creating a mechanic where a common character shouldn't be able to access it? At some point, let's create an equivalent of "D&D Epic Level Handbook", which was an attrocity... At first, when I've heard about that book, I thought it was some kind of April's fool, until I saw someone who bought it... Then, the downhills materials simply flow... Sorry to bring that up, but reading this makes me feel that time in D&D, which is when I've found D&D ridiculous even when I've stop playing that system for other systems.

I would have a question about that idea. What's the point of developping a mechanic unaccessable?

It isn't unaccessible. You are free to be a decent human being and slowly accumulate Honor until you reach 7.0 or even 9.0. Or you can put some roleplaying effort into it, and reach that level quicker (and reap the benefits for playing the game on Nintendo Hard mode). It is like how the system allows you to be Insight Rank 20 though your average character will most likely never come even close to that level. The mechanics are good for motivation and to make it clear that Honor is indeed stronger than steel.

Until this point I would have just assumed that everyone familiar with the "stronger than steel" slogan understood it as merely a simile. The things one takes for granted...