Hey all. I run an L5R RPG on Saturdays with some friends, using Burning Wheel as the ruleset (it's our personal favorite for L5R). We're 6 sessions in and the first 6 we've been recording as podcasts, but we don't have them edited or posted yet. That will be happening very soon though, as we've enlisted someone to help get all that done.
Anyway, I'm going to be posting a link to the Twitch Stream on Saturday at ~6 PM CST (that's our usual start time, but we are going to a Star Wars Destiny tourney Sat and might get a late start).
After the game, we'll do another live stream that's us talking about L5R, and if people like it, we'll stick to it. That said, only 2 of the 4 of us have played the card game, so that will be mostly lore/opinion based until we can get LCG games in.
Anyway, here's my campaign info (although it's been progressed 6 sessions along):
Of Duty and Darkness
Legend of the Five Rings
It is the Age of Toturi IV. He is known to be a crazy emperor, prone to nonsense decrees, and he settles disputes with random contests. One of the more renowned recent examples was a land dispute between the Lion and the Crane. Each laid claim to a plot of land that was previously worthless, but due to rains in the area had recently become a very bountiful plot of land for farming. The Emperor decreed that the courtiers making the protests much each draw the plot of land, from memory. Those present with some faith in Toturi IV thought this a wise test, to see who knows the land better; the Crane had a much more elegant painting of the landscape, and the Lion courtier was sure he had failed. But after the drawings were complete, Toturi burned both drawings, and the one that resulted in a larger pile of ash, the Lion clan pile, was awarded the land. The Crane courtier was furious; the Lion courtier, while honored, felt very ashamed for the method of his victory, and requested from his Champion that they send the Crane some of the koku generated by the land.
His reign has gone on now for almost 50 years, and he has outlived his wife, his own children, and even his siblings. Toturi has a reputedly loyal bodyguard, Hida Habadi, who is said to have killed over 100 assassins in the service of Toturi. Some rumor that he doesn't even sleep, others that he gets horrible powers from a pact with Fu Leng. Habadi says nothing, however, unless specifically asked to speak by his charge, and no one has dared confront him on these rumors at court.
The emperor's niece, Toturi Baneda, is his heir. She acts honorably, and all believe she will make a great Empress some day. There are currently no other heirs, although many have courted Toturi Baneda. The 20-year-old seems to pay these attempts for her affection no attention, however, and when a proposal has been made in front of Toturi IV himself, he has required tests ranging from “make a sushi roll for me better than any I have ever had”, “meditate on your ancestors and provide me the gift of the color I am thinking of”, and “win a game of go against a fish”. The last test the suitor failed because the fish died flopping around instead of making its first move, so Toturi called the game a draw and a tragedy.
Toturi IV has recently made a decree that he has a matter that needs investigating. He gave the details to Baneda in private, including nominations for three clans which must carry out the quest to the most satisfactory decree. Each clan must provide exactly one person, and only these 3 people, Baneda, Toturi, and Habadi are allowed to know the full details of the quest. That is where the group comes in.
Baneda has told you that you are to go to Hinjin, a small village a day's ride west of Shiro Shiba in Phoenix lands. In the forests near there, you are to look for a clearing that has an orb in the center of it. Upon finding it, you are to make a drawing of the orb, without removing it, including any inscriptions on it, and bring it back to the Imperial City. Toturi believes the orb to be of extreme importance.