I thought it was worth creating a dedicated thread for the "What Clan Am I?" quiz we have on Strange Assembly. Partially so it's easier to find from these forums, but mostly to create a record/discussion location as I contemplate changes to the quiz. So, first, the link:

Legend of the Five Rings - What Clan Am I?

Edit: changes to the quiz are memorialized in posts below

Edit: as of 6/18/17, let's call this the beta version. Note that I still have several one-to-one answer question. I know those are pretty obvious for folks who are familiar with the Clans, but I think they're helpful for brand new players.

I got Jedi?! Are they bushido?

- People have asked if the quiz could give your second or third choice. I don't have that capability at this time.

- It has been commented that the significance of the answers is too obvious for some of the questions, especially when there are exactly seven options. This is the most frequent critique, and I am mindful of that. I am also mindful that these critiques are at this point mostly coming from people who are not brand new to L5R and know the Clans well. I'm not sure that they are obvious to newer players. With that said, entertainment on the part of existing/returning players is not irrelevant. I'm not sure how far I want to take changes in response to this critique, but I do think that moving away from too many one-clan-per-answer questions might be a good idea.

- There are two questions that sort-of ask if you like military or political better - one from a gameplay notion (do you like military or political conflicts) and one from a Masters of War/Masters of Court/Masters of Magic division. That might be an unhelpful double-dip in the same concept. Also the whole "cutting words" thing might be a bit too cute.

- Updated the answers for the "how important is honor" question to replace the obviously Unicorn answer with a more generic "honor is important, but it's not everything."

- I'm leaning towards deleting the "why do we have allies" question. Too indirect, I think.

- Need to add an explanation of the Bushido virtues (esp. Honesty v. Sincerity). Also possibly more of an explanation of the Rings.

- I like the archery question (because it's very Rokugani but maybe not as super-obvious), except that it's really an outlier as a one-clan question.

- Simplified the "Phoenix" answer to 'what is my greatest flaw?"

- I wonder about the utility of the weapon question. Sure, if you know L5R then it can signal something. And there are a couple of weapon-specific things that are really iconic about Clans (Crab with their hammers/clubs, Dragon with the two swords), but I doubt anyone's interest in spears really corresponds much to an interest into one of the three Clans who have spears as their second-most important weapon.

All thoughts welcome on these topics, or others.

9 hours ago, Daramere said:

- There are two questions that sort-of ask if you like military or political better - one from a gameplay notion (do you like military or political conflicts) and one from a Masters of War/Masters of Court/Masters of Magic division. That might be an unhelpful double-dip in the same concept. Also the whole "cutting words" thing might be a bit too cute.

If you're planning to cut one or the other, I'd recommend that the gameplay-focused question be the one to go. The quiz should assume no preexisting knowledge of the game, and focus purely on the clans as they are presented in-story. Also, few people actually like conflicts, but most understand that they will happen.

9 hours ago, Daramere said:

- Need to add an explanation of the Bushido virtues (esp. Honesty v. Sincerity). Also possibly more of an explanation of the Rings.

Give their names in English, then a dash, followed by a brief description. As for the actual wording, this page of the unofficial wiki could provide some useful guidance: Bushido

10 hours ago, Daramere said:

- Need to add an explanation of the Bushido virtues (esp. Honesty v. Sincerity). Also possibly more of an explanation of the Rings.

Thanks for the quiz. One of the better ones I have found (also I got Crane )

I think the description of the rings is really helpful, if you want to include something similar for bushido i hope this can help you:

-Compassion: I believe in helping those in need.

-Courage: I believe in doing what is necessary, even if it's dangerous.

-Courtesy: I believe in being respectful, even to one's enemies.

-Duty: I believe in personal sacrifice for a greater cause.

-Honesty: I believe in being truthful.

-Honor: I believe in being responsible for one's actions.

-Sincerity: I believe in adherence to one's words.

Based in the descriptions in the 4th edition RPG book. I'm not entirely satisfied with them, especially Duty and my apologies if there are spelling or grammatical mistakes (English is not my first language and this ones were troublesome). I hope it helps anyway.

3 hours ago, Builder2 said:

If you're planning to cut one or the other, I'd recommend that the gameplay-focused question be the one to go. The quiz should assume no preexisting knowledge of the game, and focus purely on the clans as they are presented in-story. Also, few people actually like conflicts, but most understand that they will happen.

Well, if you don't like conflict within the card game context, you probably shouldn't be playing a game with a Conflict Phase.

I definitely don't want to assume that people taking the quiz know the gameplay. But I do think that it is relevant for a player to end up with a clan that will suit the gameplay they like. If what I really want to do is smash face, the quiz should push me away from Crane and Phoenix. That's why I ended up with the question phrased not in game terms, but in terms of whether they like cutting people with swords or with words. (although if the Podcast of the Five Rings guys are representative, this will result in everyone thinking that swords are cool and picking military )

1 minute ago, Daramere said:

Well, if you don't like conflict within the card game context, you probably shouldn't be playing a game with a Conflict Phase.

I definitely don't want to assume that people taking the quiz know the gameplay. But I do think that it is relevant for a player to end up with a clan that will suit the gameplay they like. If what I really want to do is smash face, the quiz should push me away from Crane and Phoenix. That's why I ended up with the question phrased not in game terms, but in terms of whether they like cutting people with swords or with words. (although if the Podcast of the Five Rings guys are representative, this will result in everyone thinking that swords are cool and picking military )

I guess it might've helped if I'd taken the time to reread the question you were referring to. My apologies.

* description added to some bushido virtues

* expanded description for rings

* rephrased question on political v. military

* deleted question on arrows

You might want to double-check the test: my girlfriend got Crab on most of the tries despite always giving answers very far from Crab's typical ones (political inclined, art and culture are very important etc. etc.).

Aren't the translations for Makoto and Gi flipped? The descriptions are right, but isn't makoto supposed to be sincerity?

These quizzes are fantastic for people completely new to the game but difficult for those who have been apart of the game for a while. It is too often we let our knowledge of our favorite clan color our decisions.

13 minutes ago, TechnoGolem said:

These quizzes are fantastic for people completely new to the game but difficult for those who have been apart of the game for a while. It is too often we let our knowledge of our favorite clan color our decisions.

By that point, however, you no longer question what your favorite clan might be, so taking a quiz becomes a tad superfluous. ?

1 hour ago, Zalari said:

Aren't the translations for Makoto and Gi flipped? The descriptions are right, but isn't makoto supposed to be sincerity?

It's possible, since my L5R RPG books are packed away now, and there are varied other translations that I was looking at online.

47 minutes ago, TechnoGolem said:

These quizzes are fantastic for people completely new to the game but difficult for those who have been apart of the game for a while. It is too often we let our knowledge of our favorite clan color our decisions.

Builder2 is correct, although I'm aiming to move towards fewer 'one answer per clan' questions, which seem to be the most obvious-feeling ones.

2 hours ago, Eu8L1ch said:

You might want to double-check the test: my girlfriend got Crab on most of the tries despite always giving answers very far from Crab's typical ones (political inclined, art and culture are very important etc. etc.).

It's hard to say without knowing particular answers. But (at least as the quiz is currently scored) it doesn't matter how far the answers are from a given Clan. There isn't anything like if you pick that you're a political clan, it just excludes Crab,' or massive weighting on questions like that. So it's possible that her answers mostly scatter throughout the Clans, but there are several that line up with Crab, then Crab still get the most points.

Maybe the timeline reboot means this is no longer appropriate, but I think the shourido virtues would be a nice addition, since I recall each was linked to a particular clan.

- Tweaked answers for the following questions: (7) art and culture, (8) strength, (10) weapons; (11) home; (13) character class; (15) playstyle. (former numbers)

- Replaced "seven answer" question on allies with a different one. Moved it further back in the quiz.

- added a new question about reputation

On 10/05/2017 at 3:06 AM, Daramere said:

- People have asked if the quiz could give your second or third choice. I don't have that capability at this time.

Yes missing. Yeah maybe the best L5R quiz.

go figure I'm a Phoenix lol.

my friends and i all placed me in the unicorn clan, however the quiz placed me in the dragon. i can certainly see arguments for both choices... as a result i may be playing Dragon in the LCG

edited:

- scoring for the questions about rings, art/culture

- deleted one answer for the Tao question

- deleted one answer for the friends question

- deleted question about where you feel at home

- changed answer about greatest weakness

- deleted somewhat redundant second question about military/political

-added new question about aggressive/defensive

I haven't been able to access the quiz... the page is displaying this message every time I load it:

[os-widget path=”/strangeassembly/legend-of-the-five-rings-what-clan-am-i” of=”strangeassembly” comments=”false”]

Any help would be most welcome.

Thanks!

I hope it gets fix soon as well. Want to get some new RPG players to try it.

Only those who have bound their souls to Jigoku are unable to access the site.

Let me be the first to welcome you to the Shadowlands faction!

I think I ran through the quiz before and I can't really say that it was the greatest.

I mean-- yeah, which color scheme and which animal avatar the clans have could be all that is needed to appeal to one. If the team is your favorite color or they have your favorite animal icon, I think a lot of people would adapt to everything else.

But beyond that it is difficult to get really into what makes a clan without being too reductive.

Like I feel people are too quick to describe the Crab as "Big, burly, rough and without much care for social graces or artistic or intellectual pursuits" and while that may be true of the Hida and more or less true of the Hiruma, it really doesn't seem to be all that fitting for the Kaiu, Kuni or Yasuki-- which means that the number of families that do not conform to the stereotype outnumber those that do. And it means that one is only pointing those who would favor the Hida/Hiruma stereotype to the Crab-- which means the other families don't get much represented, and those who favor the Hida/Hiruma stereotype could fit in with the Matsu or Moto which means they don't get much represented either because players don't get pushed in their direction.

Similarly, the whole "gaijin" thing gets automatically pushed towards the Unicorn. But the Shinjo and Utaku generally don't really embody that image entirely. Furthermore, the Unicorn are associated with a particular kind of non-Japanese-- the Mongolians. And the fact that the Dragon's Nepalese aspects, the Phoenix's Korean aspects, the Mantis's Chinese and Thai aspects, the Imperials Han Chinese aspects and such aren't considered "gaijin" aspects per se within the setting so much as the Unicorn's Mongolian aspects are is merely an accident of the setting rather than truly saying that the only thing not pure Japanese in the setting are the Unicorn. In fact, hammering the whole "gaijin" aspect too much without noting that one is particularly talking about Mongolians isn't really going to mean anything to a new player.

Anyway, I am certain that a quiz that could help people decide what clan to play could be incredibly useful, I just feel that it wasn't ideally constructed. Rather than one where it is simply a question and 7 ways the most "stereotypical" member of that clan (which usually is only based on 1 family) might answer the question and then tallying which a player chose the most of-- a far better sort of quiz might be one where you have a question and maybe 4 answers that might be typical of a number of families across various clans or would be a "typical" answer of a couple clans and by choosing those answers one would gain points towards the most relevant families.

Then in the end instead of a single answer, you could see which family and thus Clan is most similar to your answers and then how similar or different you would be from the most typical member of other families in Rokugan.