So have you dealt with teppojutsu as a GM?

I did a campaign once where the almighty Iweko ended up secretly preparing teppo legions to repel the Yodotai invasion. It lead to the installation of a harsh dictatorship that removed much of the samurai privileges and redistributed the lands ( a la Tokugawa sword hunt). My players had to take a part in this. Lead to epic and emotional moments where they had to accept the "breaking" of rokugani culture in service of the god Empress.

The taboo on firearms is heavy in Rokugan, but a Samurai should serve his lord with any reasonable and efficient weapon.

In Japan history, teppo definitely played a role in the rise to power of the three great unifiers.

Even Seven Samurai has teppo. Imagine what Crab could achieve with artillery and Teppo.

Although not a GM I did have one that took the firearms rules and made it a Kolat exclusive thing (seriously if anyone in Rokugan would have firearms and explosives its them). They didnt use them widespread or anything but they did make great use out of them during firework displays and festivals and even had a School that focused on the use of them.

Perhaps the biggest irony is that due to the scorpion and Lion rewriting the history books, few people (even those in the mentioned Clans) knew anything about them; ignorance is lethal.

Our homebrew setting has guns, down to fairly advanced breech-loading ones, there are only two problems:

- Gun tech went full wheellock, so putting together a teppo ain't easy at all.

- Everyone who should be gunned down can counter guns with relative ease (cut bullets out of air, stop the bullets mid-air Neo Style, or just shrug off bullet wounds altogether).

Because of these, guns are not hot commodity at all, in fact the whole gun business is considered a dead-end technology good enough for militias to scare away bandits or monsters, but too ineffective for actual military use.

I used the teppojutsu skill in the one-off Empire of the Emerald Stars game I ran.

In WC5, set during Onyx, the Daidoji and only the Daidoji had guns. The requirements for the Crane were that if the weapons were ever used against anyone other than the Shadowlands, the whole Daidoji family would be required to commit seppuku. Each gun had to be registered with the Emperor. And if they ever got into the hands of the non-Daidoji, a similar punishment was in store. So I could see an extensive secret Daidoji unit hunting down every trace of out-of-clan, unauthorized researcher into such weapons and destroying them (or bringing them into the Daidoji).

Was WC5 an official thing? I don't recall seeing anything about it anywhere? Am I a complete derp?

7 minutes ago, Aedo said:

Was WC5 an official thing? I don't recall seeing anything about it anywhere? Am I a complete derp?

It was not official. Just some really dedicated fans trying to keep the tradition alive.

I have the vague idea that considering Rokugans obsession with purity and the things they might have to do to get saltpeter, gunpowder might not be very appealing.

The Eta exist to do those kind of jobs, sanitation is handled by them in the first place it wouldnt be much for those doing the work already to make saltpeter.

In fact that's what the Kolat did in our games, certain Eta "Family" would control the flow of saltpeter and make profit in black-market deals...and request the execution of certain samurai while they were at it.

I'd be interested in a storyline of foreign invaders who do well because they use firearms extensively - it would at least be more interesting than an invading goddess and her metallic demon army.

I've addressed this sporadically throughout my campaign with playing up the Empires visceral reactions to firearms to make them VERY unappealing from a setting perspective. The last time the showed up they killed a bushi who was a medium for Matsu. The Lions response was.....thorough and ruthless. In short, my players think they upset the balance of the game...which is kinda the point. players should not want these things around

Kinda agree with Jewels. I don't like them really in the hands of Samurai, but I'm always interested in seeing them as a trigger for the transformation of Rokugan, and confronting players to such transformation. That's why, to keep in line with the taboo feeling linked to firearms, they are a balance upsetters, allowing an unskilled conscript ashigaru to kill a samurai, and thus raising the question of the relevance of samurai in the face of progress.

usually it ends not well for the samurai caste, turning Rokugan into an expansionist autocratic aggressive Empire.

We made gunpowder a sacred substance discovered by Agasha. It's sacred, so its rarely weaponized, and for a good reason, too, because it makes Fire Kami go bonkers.