8 hours ago, MoZi said:

A lot of things about L5R fans are funny. People get caught up in identity politics in a world where cold blooded murder is taken for granted as a solution to famine induced civil disobedience. Hilarious.

Another good example is when fans describe attacking a caravan as " civil disobedience."

14 hours ago, Bayushi Tsubaki said:

Dragon special snowflake tactical superiority is twofold:

1) Have superior individual swordsmen (Niten is boss)
2) Bully duel the enemy commander for an insta-win.

There was this thing called enlightenment...

8 hours ago, MoZi said:

A lot of things about L5R fans are funny. People get caught up in identity politics in a world where cold blooded murder is taken for granted as a solution to famine induced civil disobedience. Hilarious.

I'm actually kinda confused about what the ronin and his merry band of bandit wannabes tried to achieve. Why did they target a Crane Clan caravan carrying rice ? It is like robbing a luxury shop because you have torn clothes. Like, sheesh, just think before you act. If you can rally dozens of peasants to attack samurai, then you might as well organize them to hunt and gather food from nature, or just plant lesser crops. Or chop down some trees and trade them for food. Or something along those lines. Just because you can take what you want, it doesn't mean that you have to choose that path.

8 hours ago, MoZi said:

A lot of things about L5R fans are funny. People get caught up in identity politics in a world where cold blooded murder is taken for granted as a solution to famine induced civil disobedience. Hilarious.

I'm actually kinda confused about what the ronin and his merry band of bandit wannabes tried to achieve. Why did they target a Crane Clan caravan carrying rice ? It is like robbing a luxury shop because you have torn clothes. Like, sheesh, just think before you act. If you can rally dozens of peasants to attack samurai, then you might as well organize them to hunt and gather food from nature, or just plant lesser crops. Or chop down some trees and trade them for food. Or something along those lines. Just because you can take what you want, it doesn't mean that you have to choose that path.

8 minutes ago, AtoMaki said:

I'm actually kinda confused about what the ronin and his merry band of bandit wannabes tried to achieve. Why did they target a Crane Clan caravan carrying rice ? It is like robbing a luxury shop because you have torn clothes. Like, sheesh, just think before you act. If you can rally dozens of peasants to attack samurai, then you might as well organize them to hunt and gather food from nature, or just plant lesser crops. Or chop down some trees and trade them for food. Or something along those lines. Just because you can take what you want, it doesn't mean that you have to choose that path.

Well, they aren't going to hunt, they don't eat meat. gathering food probably won't provide enough food to feed villages sustainably, planting lesser crops would take time they obviously don't have, and trading for food is probably a lot harder because of being in a famine.

Also to point out rice is the main food product for Rokugan, so it isn't like stealing torn clothes.

1 hour ago, WHW said:

It's publically and formally disdainful to have a romance, especially if it enters the public space. Having a proper secret affair was always OK and a reason for swag, especially if you could keep it "secret from public" while also making "everyone get the idea" simultaneously. It even had it's own sidebar in one of the book, having an affair it was titled I think :P. I understand your dissonance, though; weren't you a member of story team or something? I'm pretty sure that while it was "estabilished" in setting (mostly in RPG books, at least when that certain dev wasn't looking and stomping it) that both things are OK, story team had it's hands tied when trying to provide actual examples and had to write conservative stories as far as both romance and sexuality were concerned, no?

The 4th edition Great Clans book has a chapter titled 'Courtly Romance: How to have an affair in Rokugan'. It also contains this line ' As long as plausible deniability is maintained, the lovers’ public reputations will suffer little to no harm'. The chapter focuses mainly on that (and in the significant amount of poetry apparently involved in rokugani affairs). By the way, the chapter is on the part of the book concerning the Crane clan .

I don't really recall anything specific regarding same sex relations right now, but I think it was more on the 'not a big deal' side of things, and treated like any other affair.

35 minutes ago, Doji Tori said:

I don't really recall anything specific regarding same sex relations right now, but I think it was more on the 'not a big deal' side of things, and treated like any other affair.

There is nothing to recall, AEG tried to avoid that topic with their "faily friendly" approach, so they didn't touched that topic. I am glad FFG is not as narrow-minded.

4 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

Actually, I disagree. The Agasha and Mirumoto always worked much better together than the Isawa and Shiba. The Phoenix's strength is that, when they do bring Shugenja to war, the bring an overwhelming force of them. Where the Dragon would send a unit of Mirumoto with a handful of Agasha enhancing them, the Phoenix would send a smaller unit of Shiba and a smaller unit of Isawa (perhaps the Firestorm Legion), that worked towards the same goal, but not in an integrated manner.

Um... have you read anything phoenix? The elemental legions are elemental swat. They are trained together in a place called twin soul temple. The legions are comprised of equal parts bushi and shugenja. Shiba knelt to isawa, not the other way around

1 hour ago, SavageTofu said:

There was this thing called enlightenment...

And jumping off cliff laughing without a bungee.

Also firebreathing.

51 minutes ago, RandomJC said:

Well, they aren't going to hunt, they don't eat meat.

Welp.

And I was referring to rice being a high-class food normally only reserved to samurai. If you don't have food at all (torn clothes), then you shouldn't immediately aim for the best available stuff (robbing the luxury shop).

3 minutes ago, AtoMaki said:

Welp.

And I was referring to rice being a high-class food normally only reserved to samurai. If you don't have food at all (torn clothes), then you shouldn't immediately aim for the best available stuff (robbing the luxury shop).

From my understanding rice isn't high-class food though, it's the common food of the land that if a famine caused by the destruction of most of the crops, people would easily die of starvation.

Like potatoes in Ireland in the mid 1800s.

Just now, RandomJC said:

From my understanding rice isn't high-class food though.

It is as far as I remember from The Emerald Empire RPG sourcebook.

1 minute ago, AtoMaki said:

It is as far as I remember from The Emerald Empire RPG sourcebook.

I edited my post, but from my knowledge, rice is basically what everyone ate. not just the rich people.

Assuming you aren't Dragon or Unicorn.

3 minutes ago, RandomJC said:

I edited my post, but from my knowledge, rice is basically what everyone ate. not just the rich people.

Here, straight from Emerald Empire:

Quote

Samurai throughout the Empire eat rice as the main part of their diet. Peasants in farming villages are frequently required to turn over all of the rice they grow to their lords, and grow millet or barley for their own use. In the towns matters are more complex. The poor of a town will eat millet or cheap noodles, but wealthy merchants eat rice almost as often as samurai do. Townsmen falling in between those two extremes will eat mixtures of millet and rice; the higher the proportion of rice, the wealthier the family (or the wealthier it wants to appear).

6 minutes ago, AtoMaki said:

Welp.

And I was referring to rice being a high-class food normally only reserved to samurai. If you don't have food at all (torn clothes), then you shouldn't immediately aim for the best available stuff (robbing the luxury shop).

Even if rice is some luxury item, that would just be an argument against targeting it exclusively, not against targeting it at all. Suppose I'm in an emergency, survival situation and I really need warm clothing to survive the winter, and I decide to resort to theft, and the nearest store is a luxury store. Should I be, "Oh, these clothes are far too nice for someone in my position to steal. I'll leave them to the professional thieves and check out the K-Mart ten miles down the road."?

3 minutes ago, Isawa Syd said:

Um... have you read anything phoenix? The elemental legions are elemental swat. They are trained together in a place called twin soul temple. The legions are comprised of equal parts bushi and shugenja. Shiba knelt to isawa, not the other way around

As per Clan War, the Elemental Legions were entirely Shugenja who enhanced themselves, with various specialisations: fireballs, long-range archery, stone armour or surfing waves. There were also Shiba formations that were practiced in keeping the Isawa safe. What I recall of Masters of War seemed to back that up. However, it was the Dragon in particular who had specific training for their bushi in "How to have spells cast on you" so that it was more effective.

Thus: Dragon = integrated Bushi and Shugenja; Phoenix = complementary Bushi and Shugenja.

For the other Clans, to the best of my memory: Crab used Shugenja to deal with particularly hard oni, and supervise Damned; Crane had shugenja healers; Lion had healers and logistics; Scorpion didn't use shugenja much in war IIRC; Unicorn didn't use shugenja in war until the Moto re-organisation.

3 minutes ago, AtoMaki said:

Here, straight from Emerald Empire:

Maybe it's just me, but I'd take a good barley soup over rice any day!

I'm glad it's lunch time, because this discussion is starting to make me hungry! XD

7 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Should I be, "Oh, these clothes are far too nice for someone in my position to steal. I'll leave them to the professional thieves and check out the K-Mart ten miles down the road."?

I don't say you shouldn't, only that you will look really-really stupid if you do that. It is a sort of overt drama you put into your situation just to beat some sense into an otherwise nonsensical situation.

It is the same sort of overt drama that plagued the old fictions, to be honest ...

Also, joke's on you, I'm having my dinner right now !

Just now, AtoMaki said:

Here, straight from Emerald Empire:

I'd argue that doesn't make sense based on the agricultural set up of Rokugan, that Rice is far too commonly grown to be only eaten by the rich, and if rice fields were the one's destroyed, then the peasants really wouldn't be suffering from a famine. I'd also argue that millet and barley, would not be able to be grown widely enough in a region like Rokugan to be sustainable for the peasant population.

I could also point out that while that information may be true for then, that isn't true for now.

Just now, RandomJC said:

I'd argue that doesn't make sense based on the agricultural set up of Rokugan

Rokugan isn't exactly an agricultural dreamland governed by peerless experts of the craft, if you know what I mean.

Just now, AtoMaki said:

Rokugan isn't exactly an agricultural dreamland governed by peerless experts of the craft, if you know what I mean.

True, but they aren't idiots either.

1 minute ago, RandomJC said:

I'd argue that doesn't make sense based on the agricultural set up of Rokugan, that Rice is far too commonly grown to be only eaten by the rich, and if rice fields were the one's destroyed, then the peasants really wouldn't be suffering from a famine. I'd also argue that millet and barley, would not be able to be grown widely enough in a region like Rokugan to be sustainable for the peasant population.

I could also point out that while that information may be true for then, that isn't true for now.

I think it would depend. If rice is in short supply (and most of it has to be sent to the Emperor, who still demands taxes), the rich will likely just take the millet and barley instead, as they're not likely to just sit back and starve if there's food available.

In that case, the raid could be a sort of poetic justice. You took our food, so we'll take yours.

Are we really discussing grain growth in Rokugan.... man I love us L5R players.

Just now, JJ48 said:

I think it would depend. If rice is in short supply (and most of it has to be sent to the Emperor, who still demands taxes), the rich will likely just take the millet and barley instead, as they're not likely to just sit back and starve if there's food available.

In that case, the raid could be a sort of poetic justice. You took our food, so we'll take yours.

I can't argue with that.

Just now, RandomJC said:

True, but they aren't idiots either.

Let's be honest here, this is arguable at best.