I've started a campaign to playtest the L5R beta rules. These are my thoughts and reactions.

Legend of the Five Rings Beta Test Campaign

Session One

My players and I spent all of session one on character creation, and I think the creation system used in this edition is really good. The Game of Twenty Questions has been a part of L5R roleplaying since the first edition, but has never been intrinsically tied to character creation before. I think using the twenty questions to determine Ring & Skill increases, as well as Advantages & Disadvantages is a great way for players to make decisions that will shape the personality of their character, as well as allow them to personalize the character. Two bushi from the same clan will have similarities, however the choices made by the players when answering the twenty questions will end up creating characters that are completely different. They will have different Ring scores, different Skills and Skill Ranks, and different Advantages and Disadvantages that will make each character unique.

I also like the way that the twenty questions mechanic gives the GM a few plot hooks for each character before the game even begins, which will allow more personal stories to be used right away in the campaign. The players in this game have already given me a number of ideas in this area. One character has a strained relationship with his family, while another is a playboy who's left a trail of broken hearts in his wake. I can't wait to start using these backgrounds to create trouble for the players!

There is a certain price to be paid for creating characters with such detailed backgrounds and personalities: character creation using the twenty questions mechanic does take some time. It is not an overly quick process coming up with answers to questions like how the character should die, but the result is worth the time investment if even for it's novelty. Seriously, how many of us can whip up a D&D or Savage World character in less than five minutes and be ready to go? Of course you can, but how much do you know about the character you've just created? You know that he's a strong red-haired barbarian who has a sword and some leather armor. After you finish the twenty questions to make a character in this version of L5R, you know who their lord is, and what the character's primary responsibility to their lord is. You know about their family, and their relationship with them. You know about their flaws and weaknesses, and you know how they came about, and how the character deals with them. You know what the character is passionate about and why. This depth of character knowledge allows a much more enriching roleplaying experience for the first few sessions of a game, when compared to other games where your starting character is just a set of numbers on a character sheet.

Now, this is not to say that you can't rush through the twenty questions, get all of the mechanical effects recorded onto a character sheet, and be ready to go. You can do that with this system. However, I think you would be missing out on the opportunity to create a character that you know, a character with a history, and beliefs and feelings, goals and regrets right from the start. I know which character I'd rather play.

My one concern about the twenty questions mechanic is whether or not the starting characters have enough diversity in their skills. A young samurai fresh from their gempuku is expected to have knowledge and experience in a number of areas, including law, history, etiquette, war, and the arts. A few sessions will help me get a better feel for whether the beginning character may need a few more skill ranks spread through the creation process.

Tune in next week for a summary of Session Two.

I made myself a character and I didn’t really like the 20 questions. I found myself skimming the question, giving a short or perfunctory answer, and skipping ahead to the mechanics part of it. I really liked how you got to nudge dials to change the character but I happened to gloss over the RP element of the question so I could get right to the Game element

On 10/13/2017 at 1:34 AM, jquam said:

My one concern about the twenty questions mechanic is whether or not the starting characters have enough diversity in their skills. A young samurai fresh from their gempuku is expected to have knowledge and experience in a number of areas, including law, history, etiquette, war, and the arts. A few sessions will help me get a better feel for whether the beginning character may need a few more skill ranks spread through the creation process.

Two observations:

• The starter adventure hands you 24xp right off the bat. Whether that'll end up in character creation (or in the gm's bit for 'you're starting a campaign, here's the xp and wealth levels to represent gempuku/emerald magistrates/daimyo')
• Whilst Ive not played L5R previously, this system is similar to FFG's SWRPG rather than Dark Heresy - that is, there are no 'advanced skills' you can't attempt unskilled: a ring rank of 3 stands a pretty decent chance of passing a TN2 check on any skill, your skills defining what you excel at rather than being the only stuff you can do.

On 10/14/2017 at 9:33 PM, Magnus Grendel said:

Two observations:

• The starter adventure hands you 24xp right off the bat. Whether that'll end up in character creation (or in the gm's bit for 'you're starting a campaign, here's the xp and wealth levels to represent gempuku/emerald magistrates/daimyo')
• Whilst Ive not played L5R previously, this system is similar to FFG's SWRPG rather than Dark Heresy - that is, there are no 'advanced skills' you can't attempt unskilled: a ring rank of 3 stands a pretty decent chance of passing a TN2 check on any skill, your skills defining what you excel at rather than being the only stuff you can do.

Prior L5R editions, good rings could easily make up for the lack of specific skills as well. Except 2nd...

See, 4 of the 5 rings were split into two traits each. The Ring was the value of the lower.

In 1E Skill rolls were Roll Trait + Skill, keep trait, reduce number of dice by wound penalty. 10's open ended even if unskilled.

In 3E and 4E, Rolls were Roll Trait + Skill, Keep Trait, increase Target Number for wounds, 10's open end only if skilled. The lack of 10's open ending was enough of a penalty for hard stuff, and generally, it meant that you didn't feel incompetent due to lacking skills if you had a relevant trait of 3 - most "routine uses" were TN's under 15. On the other hand, given the 0-10 skill range and the 1-10 ring range, the 10D limit was often hit. (I had a player with a rank 3 scorpion saboteur who could, from surprise get 22k5+15 base on an attack if he had surprise... which became 10k(5+6)+15 which becomes 10K10+20... before "from behind"... Gorram shosuro blade.) The

In 2E, it was Roll Skill, keep trait. Unskilled? no dice to roll... and if a similar skill was substituted, 10's don't open end, and the TN goes up 5 or 10. A really kind GM might allow a raw Trait roll (Roll Trait keep all) at TN+10 and 10's don't explode, as a couple of examples buried elsewhere show, but the player's guide doesn't mention this specifically in the section on rolling skill checks. Being unskilled in 2E was a dire situation. So dire, that the errata said to go back to Roll Trait + Skill, Keep Trait, and simply raise all TN's by 5.

I'm a huge fan of the Game of 20 Q's method of character generation, and so far it's working well in the Beta.

Agree with the concern on skills; I still think there's a hole in the system where samurai can easily begin with a total lack of skill in entire categories. I understand the argument of "you can still roll & keep your ring" to show that you may still have some basic competency, but I think it's still a struggle from a mechanics standpoint to feel confident in a chance of success (even at TN 2), especially if you're trying to RP your approach to the challenge well and not just power-gaming it.

I have some concerns with the disadvantages; a great number of the physical dis-ads feel almost crippling to a combat-oriented character. I found it harder to build in interesting limitations that didn't also neutralize my character's strongest abilities. Additionally, from an RP standpoint, if you're playing a young samurai some of these dis-ads don't feel appropriate to your level of worldliness. I'd like to see a bit more broadening in the final product.

We played our first actual game session on Tuesday, and I have to say, I really like the task resolution in this edition. While it is similar to the Star Wars die mechanic, I really like that each skill can be approached in five different ways, depending on what Ring best represents the character's intention of how they're using the skill. I love that mechanic.

The system is also reminiscent of the roll & keep mechanic of previous editions, but the custom dice give the players some choices to make when they're choosing which dice to keep. The need to balance strife with the successes can create some very interesting roleplaying possibilities.

I also like the stance mechanic during combat. Each stance allows a character a different ability for the combat round, so again the player needs to decide how the character will approach each round. Do they attack all-out to do additional damage, or do they remain cautious and not let their opponent surprise them by spending any opportunity? Do they change their tactics from round to round? We didn't get too much combat in during the game session, but from what I could see, it still seems relatively deadly - if not as deadly as some of the previous editions.

I do believe that a starting character should have a few more ranks in skills. My players and I discussed this, and came up with a couple of different options:

First, instead of selecting three or five skills from their school during character creation, perhaps each character should start with a rank in each of their school skills. This would represent the basic curriculum the student would go through at the school.

Alternately, maybe some additional skill ranks could be awarded during the game of 20 questions. Maybe when a character is deciding on their advantages and disadvantages, a skill rank or two could be included that could be tied to the story of each advantage or disadvantage. Or, perhaps as part of the question involving who the character has learned the most from. That might also be a good place to add a skill rank which could be tied to character background.

With regard to the physical disadvantages, the way they are written makes me think that the game is becoming less realistic and more cinematic with this edition. Most of the physical disadvantages do not specifically call out any drawbacks to combat, which gives me the impression that physical disadvantages are to be handled more like they are in various anime. The blind master or the master swordsman with only one arm, that sort of thing. Personally, I think that how those dis-ads are run comes down to a choice of the realism that the GM and the players want for the campaign. If you want characters to be able to play the one-eyed bowman or a Unicorn Battle Maiden with one leg, then go ahead. But if everyone decides that a bit more realism is what they're looking for in the campaign, then many of the physical dis-ads would not be appropriate for combat oriented characters.

I agree the skills are a bit thin - especially since Fitness and Tactics are pretty core. I'd expect most characters should start with at least 1 in both of those - or change the system so that it wasn't died to only 1 skill to access a conflict or resist a crit.

Our third session mostly revolved around combat (which I found to be really fun), and wondering about uses for the Medicine skill. I was going to ask a bunch of questions regarding Medicine, but Max answered them before I had a chance by posting the beta update. (Thanks Max!)

We haven't had a chance to try social conflicts, or duels yet, but combat is very cool. While it's definitely not as deadly as previous editions, I did find it descriptive, and realistic. Especially combat with a minion group! Having all but one minion take the Support action, and add both rolled and kept dice to the combat check is scary! Even the big burly Hida Defender had some difficulty with that group for a round or two.

I did have one question maybe someone can help me with. Is there a way to increase the severity of a critical strike beyond the base? For example, it seems like the base Deadliness of the hammer should be a bit higher than 3. I understand that the higher base damage will cause it to crit more often or more quickly, but it seems difficult to raise the crit severity without specific school techniques or invocation enhancements. Am I missing something?

The Beta update also adds a few skill ranks in character creation, which should be good news for you

On critical severity, being Enraged (p. 170) increases it by 2, both for crits you inflicts and those you suffer... so if both opponents are enraged, that could theoretically mean a mutual +4!

Also, once Incapacitated, you suffer another +5 to severity. And +5 still if you are Unconscious (since the update - was a different value before).

So I suppose the idea is that big blunt weapons will quickly incapacitate their target by overcoming their Resilience and then inflict higher crits. Sharp and precise weapons can inflict higher crits via the use of double opportunity even when the target is not Incapacitated, but they have a harder time actually incapacitating their target in a conventional way - especially with the resistance values we are seeing now (2 Resistance for simple traveling clothes? That's some solid fabric!)

2 hours ago, Franwax said:

The Beta update also adds a few skill ranks in character creation, which should be good news for you

On critical severity, being Enraged (p. 170) increases it by 2, both for crits you inflicts and those you suffer... so if both opponents are enraged, that could theoretically mean a mutual +4!

Also, once Incapacitated, you suffer another +5 to severity. And +5 still if you are Unconscious (since the update - was a different value before).

So I suppose the idea is that big blunt weapons will quickly incapacitate their target by overcoming their Resilience and then inflict higher crits. Sharp and precise weapons can inflict higher crits via the use of double opportunity even when the target is not Incapacitated, but they have a harder time actually incapacitating their target in a conventional way - especially with the resistance values we are seeing now (2 Resistance for simple traveling clothes? That's some solid fabric!)

Fabric can make a surprisingly durable armor. The Gambeson is basically what really existed in situations where we think of "leather armor" in fantasy games.