Not fiction but,

For you Dicerollers out there

Sengoku revied edition by Mark Arsenault and Anthony Bryant

honestly i cant speak to the ruleset, but if you want a little more Japan in Your Rokugan get this.

if u have 1st ed there is even a conversion chart. Which is easily houseruled for 4th.

( the name tables alone are worth it imo.)

You could also watch Princess Mononoke for an idea of what being tainted could be like, although most of the rest of it is set later than Rokugan.

I'm kinda surprised that nobody has mentioned Okko yet.

47 ronin is a popular story around the topics of honor and duty. I believe a version of the story was a canon historical event in the AEG Rokugan. It has been adapted into several films over the years, the most recent ones being '47 Ronin' and 'The last knights'. Neither have particularly good reviews, but they are probably easier to find than previous versions.

'47 ronin' has a lot of fantasy elements thrown in, and while I feel they take away from the honor theme, it has been described as what a movie about a L5R RPG campaign could look like.

Sword of the Stranger is pretty much a "L5R campaign" I would love to play. Here, have an intro:

Well THAT was awesome.

of course now i have to go find a copy •sigh•

I haven't watched Sword of the Stranger for some time - I might revisit it in anticipation of L5R. I think that would be a great story to emulate in L5R, as you can incorporate the different countries / languages by faction to re-create the same scene within l5r

18 hours ago, shosuko said:

I really like the low fantasy setting. Things are very gritty in these books - you really feel like anyone could die, and anyone dying would be tragic. It focuses a lot on the political plots, and the drama between characters of different positions. More action based items like Zato-Ichi are great too, but I typically gravitate towards the thrill of politics, and a kinda expose on the life of samurai when it comes to money and power.

I assume it was mentioned, but "7 Samurai" is probably the most legendary samurai film out there - it gathers very different sorts of samurai together to defend a village from bandits. If you know L5R it's kinda a fun game to place the different samurai into which clan you feel they come from if they were Rokugan. It also gives you a good sense of the interactions between the Samurai and peasant caste.

If you don't mind anime - I would recommend "Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal." Not to be confused with the anime series by the same name (they actually have the same name, characters, ect just one is a fierce drama while the other is a typical anime / comedy.) Trust and Betrayal is a very intense action anime dealing with the fall out of the Tokugawa era, and again the Shinsen Gumi. It is extremely deadly with quick paced fights, and a very tragic ending.

I prefer the low fantasy setting as well. In that sense, most of the material I am drawn to is from the 1960s era (or a bit before) of jidaigeki. For books, this includes almost anything from Eiji Yoshikawa. "Taiko" is already listed in the resources link from FFG. And of course, Hagakure. Tale of Genji a must as well.

For film and TV:

- 7 Samurai - Seiji Miyaguchi as the Crane template. Kambei Shimada, the Lion.

- I have long since felt that "Castle of Owls" (1963) to be one of the most grounded representations of Ninja in film. When watching this film, I found myself thinking about the Ninja museum in Iga. A lot of the methodology/tricks explained there can be found in this film. Also, it provides a little insight into the Scorpion frame of mind, IMO.

- Sword of Doom - A merciless swordsman as the main character... A good reversal on an otherwise romanticized archetype.

- Heaven and Earth - A depiction of Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen at war. You can see threads of Crane and Lion here.

- Legend of the Eight Samurai - Chiba's character "Dosetsu Tadatomo" is what I would think a Phoenix Shugenja might be like.

Historically:

- Historical figures can seem like characters in a forgotten story. For example, the base elements of the Yagyu family (my favourite) remind of the Crane and the Scorpion. This is a lineage of master swordsman that are experts at their craft. They also incorporate many practical elements into their style, and are quite versed as Shinobi.

- Honda Tadakatsu seems like he would be Crab Clan. Oda Nobunaga, Unicorn. Uesugi Kenshin, could be Dragon or Phoenix. Takuan Soho, the same. Sanada Yukimura, Phoenix/Scorpion. Date Masamune, Mirumoto and so on...

Books, Film and History could all paint the picture.

1 minute ago, Anemura said:

I prefer the low fantasy setting as well. In that sense, most of the material I am drawn to is from the 1960s era (or a bit before) of jidaigeki. For books, this includes almost anything from Eiji Yoshikawa. "Taiko" is already listed in the resources link from FFG. And of course, Hagakure. Tale of Genji a must as well.

For film and TV:

- 7 Samurai - Seiji Miyaguchi as the Crane template. Kambei Shimada, the Lion.

- I have long since felt that "Castle of Owls" (1963) to be one of the most grounded representations of Ninja in film. When watching this film, I found myself thinking about the Ninja museum in Iga. A lot of the methodology/tricks explained there can be found in this film. Also, it provides a little insight into the Scorpion frame of mind, IMO.

- Sword of Doom - A merciless swordsman as the main character... A good reversal on an otherwise romanticized archetype.

- Heaven and Earth - A depiction of Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen at war. You can see threads of Crane and Lion here.

- Legend of the Eight Samurai - Chiba's character "Dosetsu Tadatomo" is what I would think a Phoenix Shugenja might be like.

Historically:

- Historical figures can seem like characters in a forgotten story. For example, the base elements of the Yagyu family (my favourite) remind of the Crane and the Scorpion. This is a lineage of master swordsman that are experts at their craft. They also incorporate many practical elements into their style, and are quite versed as Shinobi.

- Honda Tadakatsu seems like he would be Crab Clan. Oda Nobunaga, Unicorn. Uesugi Kenshin, could be Dragon or Phoenix. Takuan Soho, the same. Sanada Yukimura, Phoenix/Scorpion. Date Masamune, Mirumoto and so on...

Books, Film and History could all paint the picture.

I remember Heaven and Earth. very cool

I'll have to check out Castle of Owls. It's tough find a good depiction of historical ninja. I really love the original Way of the Scorpion book because it painted a very good set of tools and methodology for ninja in a low fantasy environment.

9 minutes ago, Anemura said:

- 7 Samurai - Seiji Miyaguchi as the Crane template. Kambei Shimada, the Lion.

Katsushiro Okamoto would definitely be Crane too - a younger, untested Crane who has lived a good life and thinks this Samurai thing is an epic adventure... Only to become awakened to the reality of bloodshed... I love the scene where he tosses money to the peasants to buy rice for the samurai (they are all paid in rice) basically financing everything to live his dream lol

41 minutes ago, shosuko said:

Katsushiro Okamoto would definitely be Crane too - a younger, untested Crane who has lived a good life and thinks this Samurai thing is an epic adventure... Only to become awakened to the reality of bloodshed... I love the scene where he tosses money to the peasants to buy rice for the samurai (they are all paid in rice) basically financing everything to live his dream lol

Katsushiro Okamoto could be a template for near any samurai wanting to go on pilgrimage. It's hard to find direct parallels to each clan in 7 samurai, but a few are quite strong such as Crab, Crane and Lion.

The Way of books are still the best 'splash' material for each clan, IMO. Scorpion was very good, as was Dragon and Lion. You could really tell which clans John Wick favoured with this source material (knowingly or unknowingly).

Oh, and before I forget, someone mentioned the Musashi and fighting with boat oars: From recollection, it was one oar and it was for the purposes of fighting Sasaki Kojiro. Kojiro used a no dachi that was nicknamed "drying pole" to refer to it's reach. Musashi jury rigged a boat oar as a means to create combat distance himself for their duel.

5 minutes ago, Anemura said:

Katsushiro Okamoto could be a template for near any samurai wanting to go on pilgrimage. It's hard to find direct parallels to each clan in 7 samurai, but a few are quite strong such as Crab, Crane and Lion.

The Way of books are still the best 'splash' material for each clan, IMO. Scorpion was very good, as was Dragon and Lion. You could really tell which clans John Wick favoured with this source material (knowingly or unknowingly).

Oh, and before I forget, someone mentioned the Musashi and fighting with boat oars: From recollection, it was one oar and it was for the purposes of fighting Sasaki Kojiro. Kojiro used a no dachi that was nicknamed "drying pole" to refer to it's reach. Musashi jury rigged a boat oar as a means to create combat distance himself for their duel.

Way of the Crab....after reading the chapter 1 'in character' piece, is when I decided the Crab was 'my' clan.

Im considering posting it once the Crad fiction is up

I own all of the 1st ed rpg books. Honestly - beyond the player guide I've not bought any rpg material since as the books I had covered all of my needs (my friends who rp'd with me weren't as into L5R as they were into the setting we created together via L5R.) If they announce a new RPG book for new5r I'm definitely going to buy them all again this time.

7 minutes ago, shosuko said:

I own all of the 1st ed rpg books. Honestly - beyond the player guide I've not bought any rpg material since as the books I had covered all of my needs (my friends who rp'd with me weren't as into L5R as they were into the setting we created together via L5R.) If they announce a new RPG book for new5r I'm definitely going to buy them all again this time.

City of Lies STILL influences my view of L5R, and is still my favorite L5R product.

For some reason the 1st ed stuff always seemed like 'more' compared to later books. Of course the later 'kitchen sink' book were as much a matter of ecomics as anything else.

IMO Imperial histories 1 and 2 and Atlas of Rokugan are definitely worth having.

Being in the mood for something classic, I decided to assay the Lone Wolf and Cub films from the 70's.

If you like lots of fighting , oceans of fake blood, and mountains of dead bodies(and really, who doesn't?) give them a look

For more low fantasy, I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn, the first book of her Tales of the Otori book series. And when I say it's low fantasy, I mean it's low fantasy. I got about halfway through the book before realizing there were supernatural elements at play. Very nice if you like a mystical sensibility but still want the world to feel relatable.

On 13/6/2017 at 5:53 PM, Kuni Katsuyoshi said:

Shogun is great.

I still have my copy.

Some people are intimidated by 1200 pages

There is also a quite good (or at least I remember it being quite good) tv series, but it's only the gaijin side of the novel. You see, the novel features two main points of view. The gaijin trying to make sense of the, for him, crazy Japanese; and the shogun of the title trying to understand this brutish, dirty, oafish gaijin. With the tv series you only get half.

24 minutes ago, Mon no Oni said:

There is also a quite good (or at least I remember it being quite good) tv series, but it's only the gaijin side of the novel. You see, the novel features two main points of view. The gaijin trying to make sense of the, for him, crazy Japanese; and the shogun of the title trying to understand this brutish, dirty, oafish gaijin. With the tv series you only get half.

I remember when I was little and they put the Shogun mini-series on TV, and I could'nt understand what deal was with the shoulder pads and the baggy pants.

43 minutes ago, Ide Yoshiya said:

For more low fantasy, I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn, the first book of her Tales of the Otori book series. And when I say it's low fantasy, I mean it's low fantasy. I got about halfway through the book before realizing there were supernatural elements at play. Very nice if you like a mystical sensibility but still want the world to feel relatable.

I'm going to give this a read in a few.

If it's bad, I'm killing your horse

On 6/17/2017 at 7:37 AM, Kuni Katsuyoshi said:

I'm going to give this a read in a few.

If it's bad, I'm killing your horse

Its quite good. I mentioned this in the last thread like this. It does a good job of ignoring western concepts and instead describing stuff in language a local would use. For example, I don't know that they ever use the word "Katana" in the series, just "Sword".

On ‎6‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 5:51 AM, Ide Yoshiya said:

For more low fantasy, I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn, the first book of her Tales of the Otori book series. And when I say it's low fantasy, I mean it's low fantasy. I got about halfway through the book before realizing there were supernatural elements at play. Very nice if you like a mystical sensibility but still want the world to feel relatable.

Finished ANF this morning......your horse gets to live.

On ‎6‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 3:03 AM, shosuko said:

If you don't mind anime - I would recommend "Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal." Not to be confused with the anime series by the same name (they actually have the same name, characters, ect just one is a fierce drama while the other is a typical anime / comedy.) Trust and Betrayal is a very intense action anime dealing with the fall out of the Tokugawa era, and again the Shinsen Gumi. It is extremely deadly with quick paced fights, and a very tragic ending.

I think Trust and Betrayal can work even for people who aren't anime fans. The TV series I wouldn't go that far. I love the TV series, but just like the manga it feels more light hearted and comedic. The action plays out more like an arcade fighting game like Samurai Showdown or Last Blade. That's not a coincidence since the manga author was influenced by Japanese history and the game Samurai Showdown by his own admission and Last Blade was influenced in turn by Kenshin. Though Trust and Betrayal feels like a straight up serious samurai film.

Kenshin as a whole is a personal favorite of mine. The Kyoto arc in the TV series is just great, and Trust and Betrayal is fantastic.

2 hours ago, Kuni Katsuyoshi said:

Finished ANF this morning......your horse gets to live.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! My horse is also quite pleased.

On 6/22/2017 at 3:51 PM, Kuni Katsuyoshi said:

Finished ANF this morning......your horse gets to live.

You can give up after book 3 or 4. After the original trilogy is not as great. Original trilogy is good.