So.

As the title says, I started writing my own version of the L5R RPG, changing not only mechanics but transforming the setting into what I thought it should be. So I thought I should post what I write here for a little bit of critique. As it will become very obvious as I post more stuff, one of my objectives was to transform Rokugan from a "Japan" setting into a "Asia" setting the same way Thea, from the 7th Sea RPG, is not representative of a single European nation. I also took lots of inspiration from other RPGs, video games (Nioh in particular) and media in general.

Most of what I have put to paper until now is very broad strokes in nature, so any questions are welcome. I will use this post to present what I have fluff-wise and will set another one immediately after this for mechanics.

======================================

The Great Clans as Cultures and Nations :

Each Great Clan becomes, instead, a Nation originally unified by its founding O-kami¹. But more than that, the Great Clans are representatives of the cultures founded by them, and not necessarily bind people from this culture to the land. There can be characters born and raised in the Lion culture that lives in Scorpion lands, Scorpion culture characters living in Crab lands and so on. Being from a different culture does not prevent them from being servants of the lords of the land he lives in, though.

The Families are now known as Clans and take the spot previously occupied by the Great Clans: they represent to socio-political unit a character is loyal to. The old Families (now called Clans) are not as bound to their respective Clans (now called Nations) as they were before. Internal warfare amongst Clans of the same Nation is much more common and the rule, instead of the exception. Also, Clans defection from Nation to Nation happens more (instead of being limited to the Yasuki and the Agasha in the whole history of Rokugan).

The Minor Clans are no more. Instead, their families are now Clans in the new sense of the word, basically existing at the same social standing as every single other Clan in Rokugan. Of course, they are usually less powerful militarily and economically than most long standing and traditional Clans like the Akodo, Bayushi and etc, but that can change. There might be times when a very small Clan like the Ashinagabachi gets enough fortunes that it becomes powerful enough to challenge even more traditionally powerful Clans like the Daidoji.

The Nioh :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nio

Some people, unknowingly born with the blood of Emma-O, the Tenth O-kami, will have the capability to see spirits and hurt them. These people are known as Nioh (“ Bearer of the Thunderbolt ” or “ Benevolent King ” depending on the translation) and are regarded as very important people to their respective clans, considering the amount of mayhem and destruction that can be caused by yokai. The first legends of the Nioh arose when the Little Teacher, Shinsei, came to Rokugan and started spreading his Tao . Some say that the Nioh where his bodyguards, travelling by his side and protecting him from the evil spirits that tried to stop him. Others talk how the Nioh are descended from the Seven Thunders and that’s why the Little Teacher chose them to travel to the heart of the Shadowlands and destroy the Corrupted O-kami, Fu Leng.

This will be represented by the Inner Gift: Nioh advantage:

Inner Gift: Nioh (7 Points)

Unbeknownst to all, the character posses the blood of Emma-O, the Tenth O-kami, flowing in his veins. This have several benefits;

• Firstly, the character can see spirits normally;

• Secondly, the character can spend a Void Point to activate the power of his soul: for a number of rounds equal to his highest Ring, he will be able to cause damage to Spirits as if they were normal enemies. This ignores any kind of abilities that prevent or attenuates damage being caused to the spiritual creature in question, like the Invulnerability and Spirit qualities. This does not work against creatures corrupted by the Shadowlands, unless the character is in possession of a jade finger. If that’s the case, the power of jade imbues the character and he not only becomes immune to the Shadowlands Aratama and capable of causing damage as if all his attacks where jade-laced, but he also purifies any kind of Aratama in his path. The jade finger is consumed;

• While the spirit power is active, the character gains Reduction with the same value as the Ring he is using to activate this ability;

While the spiritual power of the Nioh is manifested, the character and his equipment seems engulfed by an elemental aura corresponding to the Ring he uses for this ability. This elemental aura is simply a visual manifestation of his spiritual power and have no other effect besides the ones described above. When imbued with the power of jade, his elemental aura takes a golden hue, shining with sacred light.

New Style+Weapon Skill Rules :

1. Each character can buy a rank in a Style for 10 xp;

2. Each Style have a list of weapon skills it trains it’s students in;

3. Every time the character rises in Style Rank, his Weapon Skills rise as well;

4. If a character takes ranks in another Style, he gets the new list of Weapon Skills at that rank, even if he already have those skills from another Style, but he does not add them together. They are, in effect, different skills;

5. Every time a character assume a battle stance, he must also state from which Style that stance is. He will use the Weapon Skill values from that Style, exclusively, while in that stance.

What actually gives your weapon skills is your Style , taught to you by your Dojo .

Each Dojo have one single Style but it can teach you Techniques from various Schools.

So, for example, the Dojo of the Veiled Moon¹ can teach you both the Bayushi Bushi and the Shosuro Shinobi techs, but you will always learn them in the basis of the Veiled Moon Style, which focuses on chain and thrown weapons. On the other hand, the Black Cabal Dojo¹ teaches the same Schools as the Veiled Moon, but focuses more on polearms and swords.

Example:

Veiled Moon Style Skills : Chain Weapons +1, Ninjutsu Weapons +1, Knives +1, Swords +0, Kyujutsu +0, One other weapon at -1;

Black Cabal Style Skills : Polearms +1, Swords +1, Knives +1, Ninjutsu Weapons +0, Kyujutsu +0, One other weapon at -1;

So, in this example, a character that buys the Rank 1 Veiled Moon Style will have a Skill Rank 2 in the Chain Weapons, Ninjutsu Weapons and Knives skills, Skill Rank 1 in Swords and Kyujutsu and one other weapon at Skill Rank 0 (this allows him to explode dice in the attack, but does not give actual dice to roll beyond his attribute) whenever he assumes a battle stance during combat. If he rises the Veiled Moon Style to Rank 2, his skills will become Chain Weapons 3, Ninjutsu Weapons 3, Knives 3, Swords 2, Kyujutsu 2, and one other weapon at 1, when in a stance from this combat style.

If the same character also buys the Rank 1 Black Cabal Style, whenever he assumes a battle stance, he must choose from which style that stance is. When in the Veiled Moon stance, his Knives skill will be 3, but when in the Black Cabal stance, the same skill will be 2, because he is not as proficient with the way this style fights using knives.

Weapons Overhaul :

The weapons in the game will adhere to the following calculation of damage and capabilities:

The Kept Dice:

All weapons with the Large keyword will have a Xk3 damage roll. All other weapons, no matter how small, will have a k2 damage roll. Only non-lethal or unarmed strikes will cause Xk1 damage.

The Rolled Dice:

The amount of rolled dice a weapon has is based on its point of balance . The further from the hilt (or from the hand in a hiltless weapon) of the weapon, the more dice it will roll for damage. But it comes at a cost: a weapon with a lot of mass towards its point becomes unwieldy and makes the number of Rises to execute certain Combat Maneuvers to go up. Weapons will vary from 0kX damage roll (for weapons like knives) all the way up to 5kX damage roll (for weapons like heavy axes or hammers, for example).

Maneuverability:

This is how agile the weapon is in the hands, how easy it is to control. This is a modifier to the number of Raises some weapons need to execute specific combat maneuvers. This Maneuverability modifier will be:

• -1 Raise (for weapons with a 0k or 1k damage roll);

• +0 Raise (for weapons with a 2k or 3k damage roll);

• +1 Raise (for weapons with a 4k or 5k damage roll);

Some specific combat maneuvers will be impacted differently by the weapon’s Maneuverability . For example, the Knock-Down maneuver is actually easier to execute with heavier weapons, so the bonus and penalties from this rule are actually reversed when executing this particular combat maneuver. Cases like this are going to be explicitly pointed in each combat maneuver.

Damage Types:

One of the most important change in the weapon and combat rules is the implementation of different damage types: Slashing, Piercing and Crushing. Armor will give different Damage Reduction for each of these, also depending on their construction.

It looks like what you are doing is changing things at a fundamental level of not only the game, but the setting, and lore. In this case I would not even have it be L5R. Keep what you have, but name it different, and set it in a different named world. Keeping it the same name will only seek comparisons and nostalgic anger from fans of the current world.

53 minutes ago, HidaYama said:

It looks like what you are doing is changing things at a fundamental level of not only the game, but the setting, and lore.

Yes. I am changing it in a fundamental level. As I very explicitly said so in the very first paragraph of the opening post:

"I started writing my own version of the L5R RPG, changing not only mechanics but transforming the setting into what I thought it should be. So I thought I should post what I write here for a little bit of critique. As it will become very obvious as I post more stuff, one of my objectives was to transform Rokugan from a "Japan" setting into a "Asia" setting the same way Thea, from the 7th Sea RPG, is not representative of a single European nation. "

53 minutes ago, HidaYama said:

In this case I would not even have it be L5R. Keep what you have, but name it different, and set it in a different named world. Keeping it the same name will only seek comparisons and nostalgic anger from fans of the current world.

And why the Jigoku wouldn't you have it be L5R? As I said above, my objective is precisely make it "L5R+", so changing it to not be L5R is counter to the whole point of the exercise. Now, to people that would be angry that a guy is making a homebrewed (as very clearly said in the title of freaking topic) version of the setting, to play in their own home with his own friends... I don't even know what to say, to be honest. Except that they can go **** themselves very, very hard. What are they going to do, invade my home and burn my files?

Now, to everyone open and interested in seeing these changes, I am completely open to criticism and ideas and I'm looking forward to answer any questions that may arise from this topic, as that is a great way to make my own ideas clearer. I'm also open to suggestions (that doesn't involve "why don't you just not do it at all?". Seriously...).

1 minute ago, Mirumoto Saito said:

Now, to everyone open and interested in seeing these changes, I am completely open to criticism and ideas and I'm looking forward to answer any questions that may arise from this topic, as that is a great way to make my own ideas clearer. I'm also open to suggestions (that doesn't involve "why don't you just not do it at all?". Seriously...).

You are obviously not open to criticism. You don't have to be uncivil and attack like a rabid dog. I merely stated my opinion. If you actually read my posting, versus just being defensive, you will find I am very intrigued by your changes so far, and find them interesting.

"Rabid dog"? Dude, when we're talking about homebrew, coming in and saying "your core premise is too different and will anger fans" is not very useful criticism. Since you aren't playing in his game, if what he's doing doesn't interest you, then just pass on by.

I am open to criticism, HidaYama.

What I'm not open to is being told that I should not do the whole project to begin with.

Now do you have any criticism or suggestion that does not involve that? I am very willing to read what you got.

2 minutes ago, Kinzen said:

"Rabid dog"? Dude, when we're talking about homebrew, coming in and saying "your core premise is too different and will anger fans" is not very useful criticism. Since you aren't playing in his game, if what he's doing doesn't interest you, then just pass on by.

Precisely, Kinzen! Thank you! I also would be honored to hear what you have to say about these ideas.

1 minute ago, Mirumoto Saito said:

I am open to criticism, HidaYama.

What I'm not open to is being told that I should not do the whole project to begin with.

Now do you have any criticism or suggestion that does not involve that? I am very willing to read what you got.

I did NOT say to not do it. If you actually READ MY POSTS, you will see I am intrigued by it.

3 minutes ago, Kinzen said:

"Rabid dog"? Dude, when we're talking about homebrew, coming in and saying "your core premise is too different and will anger fans" is not very useful criticism. Since you aren't playing in his game, if what he's doing doesn't interest you, then just pass on by.

Nowhere in his original post did it say it was for his home game use only. Many people create homebrews for RPGs and post them online for others to use. I was only making a suggustion to him, if his intention was to post it online for others to use, so more people took a serious look at it rather than blindly criticize because it is not their Rokugan.

11 minutes ago, HidaYama said:

Nowhere in his original post did it say it was for his home game use only. Many people create homebrews for RPGs and post them online for others to use.

For others who like the idea to use. With apologies to Saito, this isn't the type of setting change that interests me; that doesn't mean it won't be of interest to others. Criticism will be the most useful from people who say, "oooh, I love this idea, but I think you can achieve your goal more effectively by doing X, Y, and Z." Criticism of the "your goal is the wrong one" variety helps no one.

2 minutes ago, Kinzen said:

For others who like the idea to use. With apologies to Saito, this isn't the type of setting change that interests me; that doesn't mean it won't be of interest to others. Criticism will be the most useful from people who say, "oooh, I love this idea, but I think you can achieve your goal more effectively by doing X, Y, and Z." Criticism of the "your goal is the wrong one" variety helps no one.

I am not saying his goal is the wrong one. I was merely suggesting he could reach his potential goal of reaching more people in a manner they would be open to give it a good honest look for potential use is X. This meets exactly what you state is the helpful ciritque.

3 minutes ago, Kinzen said:

For others who like the idea to use. With apologies to Saito, this isn't the type of setting change that interests me; that doesn't mean it won't be of interest to others. Criticism will be the most useful from people who say, "oooh, I love this idea, but I think you can achieve your goal more effectively by doing X, Y, and Z." Criticism of the "your goal is the wrong one" variety helps no one

Precisely!

2 minutes ago, Kinzen said:

With apologies to Saito, this isn't the type of setting change that interests me;

No problems, Kinzen. Thanks for the support!

I am with HidaYama on this. What you have so far is very appealing, but it's not what I would use for an L5R campaign per se . But L5R doesn't have to be the be-all, end-all of Asian fantasy. Like I'm reading Tales of the Otori right now to whet my thirst in between L5R stories. Scratches the exact same itch I have for a fantasy world built upon principles of honor and bushido that L5R does. But that doesn't mean it is L5R, or that I gain anything by comparing the two or expecting it to be L5R. I get far more value by recognizing that it is a different world, thereby leaving myself open to appreciating how it applies the cultural and philosophical concepts that make up its identity as an Asian fantasy.

It is true that homebrews are just like fan-fictions, a personal view of an already existing world, and its lore. However, I do not think Hida Yama went overboard in his first post. I read his suggestion as "if you are looking to add elements from other games, and others sources too, why not call your game something else?". Not an attack, just some useful piece of criticism.

The author of the fan-fiction or the homebrewed game has every right to name it whatever he or she pleases. Nonetheless, Hida Yama's suggestion is perfectly sensible: people will compare it to the original game. Whereas calling your fan-work anything else, (such as, and that is only a suggestion, The Secret of the Five Rings) will prevent criticism that is only based on comparison coming from hardcore fans of certain aspects of the original creation.

@Mirumoto Saito Mind you, that is useful because you are making fundamental changes, as stated in your original post. It will help readers have an objective mindset, all the while showing your love for the game(s) that inspired your work.

Moreover, I am saying this as someone who has over 200 pages of a L5R-heavily-inspired homebrewed game. I do not post because I am a completionnist and will share it only when I feel like it is perfect for my taste.

Regarding your homebrewed game, I will abstain from comments, because it does not speak to me. I like the original standpoint of the nations and the Théah-inspired world, however I have seen too little to develop any feelings towards it.

Nonetheless, I will happily read more of it.

P.S. I do not call my game The Secret of the Five Rings , however I contemplated the idea when I wanted to add more Secret of the Seventh Seas to my world. Therefore, I shared it because it shows love for both games.

What about Nations of the Five Rings ?

22 hours ago, HidaYama said:

It looks like what you are doing is changing things at a fundamental level of not only the game, but the setting, and lore.

As far as I can see, the big change only addresses a problem many RPG gamers face: faction interaction diversity. Like, instead of having 7+1(Shadowlands)+1(Imperials) factions to play around, you now have a bazillion with all those family!Clans and stuff. It is really just a renaming for the sake of convenience, instead of, say, overhauling the whole thing from the ground up so that an Akodo dude can declare war on a Matsu chick.

By the way, I want to read more about mechanics. I'm in a dire need of 50+ kata names and assorted mechanics .

...the forum ate my frakking post.

7 hours ago, AtoMaki said:

As far as I can see, the big change only addresses a problem many RPG gamers face: faction interaction diversity. Like, instead of having 7+1(Shadowlands)+1(Imperials) factions to play around, you now have a bazillion with all those family!Clans and stuff. It is really just a renaming for the sake of convenience, instead of, say, overhauling the whole thing from the ground up so that an Akodo dude can declare war on a Matsu chick.

Yes, precisely! I did make greater changes to the setting, but those are things I didn't even put to paper yet. The only things done with what I posted so far was increase the setting's sense of scale and renaming a few social groupings. I wonder what the reaction would be if I posted my Mecha L5R setting...

That makes me remember something: I should thank you, AtoMaki. Some of the ideas I had where at least sparked by looking at your version of the setting some time ago.

8 hours ago, AtoMaki said:

By the way, I want to read more about mechanics. I'm in a dire need of 50+ kata names and assorted mechanics .

Heh, I don't know if will be able to help you with names, but I do hope my mechanics can at least inspire some ideas in your games. What do you think about my Combat Style rule above?

While I do like what I see, I am concerned that you are creating the homebrewed edition in an unusual order. Although I understand it may help to create that which holds your interest first, wouldn't it be better to describe skills and the general method of their use and advancement first?

That said, I do think the combat style rules are a good innovation. Would you do something similar for other skills? Might the kata also tie into the combat styles?

14 minutes ago, Metalrift said:

While I do like what I see, I am concerned that you are creating the homebrewed edition in an unusual order. Although I understand it may help to create that which holds your interest first, wouldn't it be better to describe skills and the general method of their use and advancement first?

Ah, that is something that I very much should have made clear from the very beginning, in retrospect. I actually don't intend to change skills all that much, except for some mastery abilities (of some of them). So, you can expect that anything that is not explicitly changed will remain the same as it is in 4th edition.

36 minutes ago, Metalrift said:

That said, I do think the combat style rules are a good innovation. Would you do something similar for other skills? Might the kata also tie into the combat styles?

Yes, that is something that I'm seriously considering right now, but am facing a big problem with. One of the ideas I had was to make this as the Profession or something, and it would give you more general skills to use. Say, for example, the "Generic Courtier"* profession. It would have the following skills: Courtier +1, Etiquette +1, Sincerity +1, Calligraphy +0, any High or Merchant Skill +0, any other High or Merchant Skill -1. Simple enough. The problem is that with the Combat Styles I can prevent stacking through the stances limitation, but there is no such thing for social or exploration skills...

I could get rid of the stances thing and just make the Styles/Professions raise the level of the skills directly, stacking and all, but that would remove a lot of of the flavor from the combat stances, I think. Any suggestions?

On Kata, I didn't considered them a lot yet... Sorry!

*Not an actual thing. This is just for the sake of the example.

I added some stuff above, pasted here for convenience:

The Nioh :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nio

Some people, unknowingly born with the blood of Emma-O, the Tenth O-kami, will have the capability to see spirits and hurt them. These people are known as Nioh (“ Bearer of the Thunderbolt ” or “ Benevolent King ” depending on the translation) and are regarded as very important people to their respective clans, considering the amount of mayhem and destruction that can be caused by yokai. The first legends of the Nioh arose when the Little Teacher, Shinsei, came to Rokugan and started spreading his Tao . Some say that the Nioh where his bodyguards, travelling by his side and protecting him from the evil spirits that tried to stop him. Others talk how the Nioh are descended from the Seven Thunders and that’s why the Little Teacher chose them to travel to the heart of the Shadowlands and destroy the Corrupted O-kami, Fu Leng.

This will be represented by the Inner Gift: Nioh advantage:

Inner Gift: Nioh (7 Points)

Unbeknownst to all, the character posses the blood of Emma-O, the Tenth O-kami, flowing in his veins. This have several benefits;

• Firstly, the character can see spirits normally;

• Secondly, the character can spend a Void Point to activate the power of his soul: for a number of rounds equal to his highest Ring, he will be able to cause damage to Spirits as if they were normal enemies. This ignores any kind of abilities that prevent or attenuates damage being caused to the spiritual creature in question, like the Invulnerability and Spirit qualities. This does not work against creatures corrupted by the Shadowlands, unless the character is in possession of a jade finger. If that’s the case, the power of jade imbues the character and he not only becomes immune to the Shadowlands Aratama and capable of causing damage as if all his attacks where jade-laced, but he also purifies any kind of Aratama in his path. The jade finger is consumed;

• While the spirit power is active, the character gains Reduction with the same value as the Ring he is using to activate this ability;

While the spiritual power of the Nioh is manifested, the character and his equipment seems engulfed by an elemental aura corresponding to the Ring he uses for this ability. This elemental aura is simply a visual manifestation of his spiritual power and have no other effect besides the ones described above. When imbued with the power of jade, his elemental aura takes a golden hue, shining with sacred light.

Weapons Overhaul :

The weapons in the game will adhere to the following calculation of damage and capabilities:

The Kept Dice:

All weapons with the Large keyword will have a Xk3 damage roll. All other weapons, no matter how small, will have a k2 damage roll. Only non-lethal or unarmed strikes will cause Xk1 damage.

The Rolled Dice:

The amount of rolled dice a weapon has is based on its point of balance . The further from the hilt (or from the hand in a hiltless weapon) of the weapon, the more dice it will roll for damage. But it comes at a cost: a weapon with a lot of mass towards its point becomes unwieldy and makes the number of Rises to execute certain Combat Maneuvers to go up. Weapons will vary from 0kX damage roll (for weapons like knives) all the way up to 5kX damage roll (for weapons like heavy axes or hammers, for example).

Maneuverability:

This is how agile the weapon is in the hands, how easy it is to control. This is a modifier to the number of Raises some weapons need to execute specific combat maneuvers. This Maneuverability modifier will be:

• -1 Raise (for weapons with a 0k or 1k damage roll);

• +0 Raise (for weapons with a 2k or 3k damage roll);

• +1 Raise (for weapons with a 4k or 5k damage roll);

Some specific combat maneuvers will be impacted differently by the weapon’s Maneuverability . For example, the Knock-Down maneuver is actually easier to execute with heavier weapons, so the bonus and penalties from this rule are actually reversed when executing this particular combat maneuver. Cases like this are going to be explicitly pointed in each combat maneuver.

Damage Types:

One of the most important change in the weapon and combat rules is the implementation of different damage types: Slashing, Piercing and Crushing. Armor will give different Damage Reduction for each of these, also depending on their construction.

As can be obviously observed, I didn't provide any examples of weapons under the new rules. That is because each weapon would have to be analyzed individually and I don't have time for that, currently... But the rules presented here makes it easy enough for anybody to adapt them, if sufficient interest is manifested.

But as an example: The spear (or Yari) is a Large weapon with a point of balance situated in the very middle of the (quite massive) shaft. So, under this rule, it will have a DR of 1k3, with a Maneuverability of -1 and causing Piercing damage, mostly.

On 6/2/2017 at 1:17 AM, Mirumoto Saito said:

That makes me remember something: I should thank you, AtoMaki. Some of the ideas I had where at least sparked by looking at your version of the setting some time ago.

Hey, thanks for the shoutout !

By the way, I'm not a big fan of complex weapon rules like additional accuracy/maneuverability/balance/whatever attributes and different damage types. In my opinion, it is better to level out weapon stats so that players can pick whatever they like and not get screwed over by a complicated weapon balance.

I'm going to have to take some time to really examine this before I can really say how I feel about it. I like Rokugan as a nation more than a continent, but that's because it is what I know.
I must admit, this looks awfully familiar; did you post this on the old L5R forums with AEG?

21 hours ago, AtoMaki said:

Hey, thanks for the shoutout !

By the way, I'm not a big fan of complex weapon rules like additional accuracy/maneuverability/balance/whatever attributes and different damage types. In my opinion, it is better to level out weapon stats so that players can pick whatever they like and not get screwed over by a complicated weapon balance.

It actually looks complicated on the surface and when re-stating the weapons. But after that it is actually quite simple, as you can see by the yari example above. How the weapons are used in the RPG, on a meta level, basically stays the same, the maneuverability rule just changes how many Raises you'll need to call on maneuvers. I'm providing just a metric to make weapons consistent, damage- and ability-wise. But I do understand your concern.

20 hours ago, Samurai Fox said:

I'm going to have to take some time to really examine this before I can really say how I feel about it. I like Rokugan as a nation more than a continent, but that's because it is what I know.

I totally understand the preference for Rokugan as a nation. Myself even, it took quite some time before considering this change.

21 hours ago, Samurai Fox said:

I must admit, this looks awfully familiar; did you post this on the old L5R forums with AEG?

The lore part or the mechanics part? I did blabber about mechanical stuff more on the AEG forums, but never actually posted any of this stuff, specifically. You might have seem my topics on modern firearms, cybernetics or mecha, though.

Other than that, what do you guys think of the Nioh advantage and setting implications?

2 hours ago, Mirumoto Saito said:

The lore part or the mechanics part? I did blabber about mechanical stuff more on the AEG forums, but never actually posted any of this stuff, specifically. You might have seem my topics on modern firearms, cybernetics or mecha, though.

I distinctly remember mentions of making Rokugan into a continent, with the Great Clans being made into Nations named after the Kami rather than the clan (Akodo Nation, not Lion Nation).

Now, onto the mechanics of your world.

1. The Idea of Nations and Clans : One of the biggest bonuses I could see from this style of setting is that Vassal Families would be monumentally more important now. I'm going to guess they'd be called Houses now, but I've felt that the idea behind vassal families was always very fun, but hard to accomplish in practice, simply because is so much easier to remember a character as being a member of the Matsu family rather than being a member of the Ikeda Family of the Matsu. It would probably be far more relevant in this sort of setting. Also, do clans of the same Nation have access to the same schools? Or does each clan guard their secrets and require favors to train outsiders (Different School Advantage)? When a Clan defects to a new Nation, do they take that School with them so that no one in their old Nation can train in it anymore? Or does it depend on how 'widespread' the teachings were?\

2. Weapon Styles/Weapon Damage Overhaul : The Weapons style rule looks fairly cool; very flavorful and does a great job at reflecting how people trained in fighting would be more versatile than just focusing on one weapon. Not sure if I'd use it, but I wouldn't mind playing it if it was a house rule for someone else. As for Weapon Damage, good concept, and looks to be good execution. I;d have to try these rules for a session in my game to really test it, though.
3. Nioh : This concept is pretty cool; are they all Emma-O's bastards, or is there more than one way to manifest the Fortune of Death's blessings (like Blood of Osano-wo)? I'd have to say, I think it's too powerful for 7 points, however. I'd make them only gain the 'spirit sight' power, and turn the other half of their ability into an Alternate Path available to anyone with the Nioh Advantage, able to be taken at any Rank (though Rank 2 would probably be the most common rank to take it at). Also, what sort of relationship would the Nioh have with the Order if Order of Peaceful Repose (the monks dedicated to Emma-O that also specialize in exorcism)? As for implications, this makes me think your setting's going to be more 'spiritually' active, with more supernatural elements, like the Togashi Dynasty setting. In the least, it means Emma-O's getting more action than in cannon (so he's probably a nicer judge of the dead )...bravo, Lord of Death!

Keep posting; we need more Homebrew here. It doesn't get enough love, so we few that do homebrew gotta stick together.