1 minute ago, Teslacrashed said:

Loved the fiction, and I'm very excited about how my clan is going to go forward.

It seems we're going to get a more "active" Dragon clan this time around, being involved in events, which is fantastic.

Yeah - I love how Yokuni went from enigmatic and in a trance to "We gotta go NOW!"

This is part of my critique of Toturi in the Lion story. The author wanted to portray him as tactical, but he never had a point of decision to advance or attack. Sometimes the quickest and most decisive strike is best! But instead we got Toturi the indecisive, "maybe just don't fight?"

It will be interesting to see what he marches for! It could be an attack on the Carpenter Wall, or maybe he is preempting an inter-clan war. I don't know, but I sure am excited!

I think that the typical samurai would in general not trample the samurai child, but their reaction afterwards could vary. A lot of ****-samurai would probably get very pissed and demand satisfaction for the horse, putting the blame on the kid, and thus on kids parents and sensei.

2 minutes ago, shosuko said:

Yeah - I love how Yokuni went from enigmatic and in a trance to "We gotta go NOW!"

This is part of my critique of Toturi in the Lion story. The author wanted to portray him as tactical, but he never had a point of decision to advance or attack. Sometimes the quickest and most decisive strike is best! But instead we got Toturi the indecisive, "maybe just don't fight?"

I thought portraying Toturi as terribly indecisive was intentional. The last page of the Lion fiction made that pretty clear.

15 minutes ago, WHW said:

I think that the typical samurai would in general not trample the samurai child, but their reaction afterwards could vary. A lot of ****-samurai would probably get very pissed and demand satisfaction for the horse, putting the blame on the kid, and thus on kids parents and sensei.

There's a bit back in Secrets of the Lion that calls out the fact that Lion Samurai WILL NOT stop their horses for any peasant pedestrians in their way. And thus, looking both ways before crossing the road is a massive part of the culture in Lion villages...

Great story for the Dragon, really makes me feel like the old Dragon fiction did. Brought just about every essence of the old flavor for me, and added some new. Falling more and more in love with the New Rokugan each week.

29 minutes ago, wolfien8 said:

Togashi Yokuni has no tattoos I just noticed in the art, so he isn't a tattooed monk. Also they state that they accept all walks in the dragon so maybe Yokuni was previously a Scorpion, but left to become a Togashi.

Well, we don't know exactly what's going on here, but based on Classic L5R it would make perfect sense for "Yokuni" not to have tattoos (and, IIRC, he was not drawn with tattoos). He was the kami Togashi. The ink for the magic tattoos (they also have plenty of mundane tattoos) of the Dragon monks was powerful because it had Togashi's blood in it; their power derived from his. So it makes sense that Togashi would not have his own tattoos.

23 minutes ago, GoblinGuide said:

I thought portraying Toturi as terribly indecisive was intentional. The last page of the Lion fiction made that pretty clear.

Yes, at the expense of being a tactical dunce. Toturi is supposed to be a tactical genius, and yet his only advice was "don't fight."

The Dragon clan though - here they are introspective, and recluse, and yet ready to act immediately given the right moment.

5 minutes ago, shosuko said:

Yes, at the expense of being a tactical dunce. Toturi is supposed to be a tactical genius, and yet his only advice was "don't fight."

The Dragon clan though - here they are introspective, and recluse, and yet ready to act immediately given the right moment.

Well, and also holding back his forces for the right moment to strike at the beginning of the fiction.

I'll echo what many other have said: this is a very good piece of fiction, (by far for me) the best so far. I also really like the Dragon Clan, so there's that. The only weak point I could find in it is when Mirumoto Masahige just goes "I gotta a plan! There's this magic gal, let's just mind-control the trouble-givers!": it feels a bit scripted, unrealistic (you have to find those firsts, but he's not mentioning anything about that) and it comes up abruptly in the story (we don't get, say, a scene where Masahige ponders about the possibility, maybe weighing pros and cons). Aside from that, an astounding work, really.

30 minutes ago, RandomJC said:

Well, and also holding back his forces for the right moment to strike at the beginning of the fiction.

We went over this in the Lion clan story thread several times, but I think the Dragon story illustrates how this needs to be done.

Sure - Toturi says "don't do anything, wait" and it turns out to be great... but is that tactical? Or did it finally get to be too much waiting and he had to do something? To balance this we need to have a point of decision where he does something. At a point if you never attack you are just passive, not tactical.

In the Dragon story they show they are reclusive, and Yokuni is in a trance and cryptic... but then at a point he says "We are doing this now, prepare to march from our province."

This shows the correct balance to feel that Yokuni is actually in charge, intelligent, and decisive. Toturi comes off as passive because he never has that balance between inaction and action. This is part of why the Dragon clan has received pretty much purely positive reviews where the Lion was extremely conflicted.

2 hours ago, Mon no Oni said:

Also, it could explain the other mystery; why not enough children are born. If the Perfect Lands tenents are right, and the faithful get out of the Karmic Wheel, that would explain it: not enough souls to replenish ningendo.

I thought about this too. If it's true, it would imply that there are either a finite number of souls, or new souls are only created very slowly. If it's the former, the Dragon will never solve their birthrate problem, short of some kind of evil soul-snatching scheme.

1 minute ago, Fumi said:

I thought about this too. If it's true, it would imply that there are either a finite number of souls, or new souls are only created very slowly. If it's the former, the Dragon will never solve their birthrate problem, short of some kind of evil soul-snatching scheme.

Which could make for an interesting story.

1 hour ago, Daramere said:

Well, we don't know exactly what's going on here, but based on Classic L5R it would make perfect sense for "Yokuni" not to have tattoos (and, IIRC, he was not drawn with tattoos). He was the kami Togashi. The ink for the magic tattoos (they also have plenty of mundane tattoos) of the Dragon monks was powerful because it had Togashi's blood in it; their power derived from his. So it makes sense that Togashi would not have his own tattoos.

1

His head, most of his body, and one of his arms is very nearly covered. I mean, he may very well not be Togashi, but he could still have some Tattoos. Especially if he went body snatching vampire.

4 hours ago, Togashi Gao Shan said:

She even has slightly "creepier" looking tattoos. The shadowy look to them reminds me of both Kokujin and his disciples, and the 'shadow brands' the Scorpion use(d).

I would like to see the shadow brands return.

Hupefully we won't have to wait too long to see what her abilities actually are.

41 minutes ago, shosuko said:

Sure - Toturi says "don't do anything, wait" and it turns out to be great... but is that tactical? Or did it finally get to be too much waiting and he had to do something? To balance this we need to have a point of decision where he does something. At a point if you never attack you are just passive, not tactical.

In the Dragon story they show they are reclusive, and Yokuni is in a trance and cryptic... but then at a point he says "We are doing this now, prepare to march from our province."

I'm not sure how do you get that from the Lion story I read. There Toturi waited until the precise right moment, when he acted to catch the enemy in a pincer formation. He simply nailed it, and showed to be a great tactician.

7 minutes ago, Fumi said:

I thought about this too. If it's true, it would imply that there are either a finite number of souls, or new souls are only created very slowly. If it's the former, the Dragon will never solve their birthrate problem, short of some kind of evil soul-snatching scheme.

But can Dragon Clan samurai and eta only be reborn to Dragon Clan? I don't think that would really hold up. These guys could be everywhere, just nobody but the Pheonix and the Dragon care. Only the Dragon seem to have this problem.

That being said, that could make for a really powerful spiritual conflict. More so if they are not really ending up with Shinsei, but ending up lost elsewhere, out of the cycle.

On a completely unrelated topic, last time I was in an L5R RPG, I was a Dragon Magistrate with an Eta whose name was the Japanese word for dirt. Good times.

2 minutes ago, Devin-the-Poet said:

But can Dragon Clan samurai and eta only be reborn to Dragon Clan? I don't think that would really hold up. These guys could be everywhere, just nobody but the Pheonix and the Dragon care. Only the Dragon seem to have this problem.

That being said, that could make for a really powerful spiritual conflict. More so if they are not really ending up with Shinsei, but ending up lost elsewhere, out of the cycle.

On a completely unrelated topic, last time I was in an L5R RPG, I was a Dragon Magistrate with an Eta whose name was the Japanese word for dirt. Good times.

There are worse names an eta could get stuck with.

Though if it were me, i try to get a name retcon. I'd end up busting up the table (and the game) because I could not stop with 'dirt' jokes.

24 minutes ago, Mon no Oni said:

I'm not sure how do you get that from the Lion story I read. There Toturi waited until the precise right moment, when he acted to catch the enemy in a pincer formation. He simply nailed it, and showed to be a great tactician.

There were two situations Toturi faced. The ambush, which was "wait" and then after breaking the crane garrison in a pincer, when he said again "wait."

Tactics isn't reduced to just waiting, tactics is about the correct action. As I said in the Lion story thread, which you can go join the discussion there if you want to weigh in on this, we only see Toturi say wait. We never hear him say GO! Finally releasing his ambush is not GO! That is a culmination of waiting. The waiting was successful in the ambush... but then his answer to the city is only to wait again. Seeing the same answer given twice in a short story is bland, and shows a thin character, and certainly doesn't illustrate tactical abilities. It's a poor story.

I will not speak on this further here. I offered it as an illustration as to Togashi Yokuni and the dragon and being wise and inspired. They do not just sit alone in their mountains, but are also willing to move into action at a moments notice when the divination comes. The Dragon clan, and Yokuni seem powerful.

Toturi can hang for all I care about Lion given their story and deck design at this point. I am not impressed by them in any regard.

15 minutes ago, Kuni Katsuyoshi said:

There are worse names an eta could get stuck with.

Though if it were me, i try to get a name retcon. I'd end up busting up the table (and the game) because I could not stop with 'dirt' jokes.

Nah, it helped a lot especially for the people new the setting. His job was to carry my stuff and do all the gross parts of my atopsies. If he ever touched samurai they would be dirty. Although he did get nicknamed Woodhouse for some reason.

Did anyone else notice that Masashige called Hitomi Hitomi-kun?

Is that supposed to be a joke about the old card looking like a man? In Japanese, the suffix for a woman should be -chan, where -kun is for men.

I'll throw my name in for this fiction superior to the previous two.

I'd be for this 'cult' actually having more of a presence in other fiction. Oh, and in the game too.

The Yokuni twist was actually pretty interesting. Maybe we'll get a completely different story with him this time around? I also wonder if he'll be the one to visit Shoju this time around.

No. -chan is "cutesy" suffix, used most often for women, children, loved ones and pets. It can be both a show of affection and a socially acceptable way to ridicule someone "kun" is to someone who is, basically, lower than you in the hierarchy, no matter the gender.

3 minutes ago, agarrett said:

Did anyone else notice that Masashige called Hitomi Hitomi-kun?

Is that supposed to be a joke about the old card looking like a man? In Japanese, the suffix for a woman should be -chan, where -kun is for men.

She's a MAN,baby!!

sorry couldn't let it pass by

basically, he calls her Hitomi-kun because he respects her as a warrior and doesn't think about her in terms of cute girlish girl.

And with that, I'm off to bed, because i can barely see anymore.

I loved this piece and although there was only a brief mention of the Phoenix in it, this had me definitely leaning towards playing Dragon over Phoenix now. Can't wait now to see the cards revealed next week!