Greetings from the Sands, Evil-Smelling Brother-in-Law of a Camel!

Just dropping by in your benighted lands for a couple of questions .

Would you accept multiple school with the new edition ?

Then, how would you implement it ?

Thanks for your input.

See you in the sands.

Hmm...

Not sure.

Narratively , there is no reason someone could not complete (or partially complete, depending on what you see rank 1 as representing) training at one school, then drop out, or be thrown out, and instead go and study at a rival school.

The problem is, the schools provide a big 'bundle deal' of stats, some of which are hard to tag an XP value to.

Nominally, you can buy the ring advances, techniques (assuming you meet the prerequisites) and skill advances represented by a school, but the school technique is a tricky one (because its value is emphatically tied to school rank) and modelling the honour shift would be hard.

I'm not sure you should be able to hold rank in multiple schools simultaneously; certainly not keep advancing in both of them, but a nominal XP cost to 'switch schools' seems fair enough (in fact if it drops you back down to school rank 1 the cost needn't be that high at all).

My main balance concern is allowing people to pick up multiple school techniques because those are designed (unlike kata) on the assumption that there's no way to have several at once. Stacking up Way of the Crane and Way of the Lion, for example, can make for a truly ridiculous hits.

Roleplaying requirements aside, I think I’d allow something like this (arguably a little too complicated to be anything but a houserule):

- you need to be skilled in as many of the new school’s skills as you’d get a skill increase in if you took the school as your starting school; you’d need to be skilled in 5 of the 7 skills listed for increases if you want to become a Hida Defender, or 3 out of 6 for the Kuni Purifier school, and so on.

- Shugenja schools don’t mix with non-shugenja schools.

- Going to another clan’s school costs a number of XP equal to twice the sum of all your school ranks. No extra cost if you stay within your clan.

- you get the school ability and one of the starting techniques (player’s choice). Nothing else. Someone joining the Kuni Purifiers would get Gaze into Shadow and either both invocations listed, one of the kata listed, or both rituals listed. None of the other techniques, not the ring increases, not the skill increases.

- Honor is unaffected, no starting outfit.

- if you want to increase your school rank in a previous school, you can do so with XP whenever you enter a new school or rank up in your current school. This costs a number of XP equal to three times the sum of all your school ranks at the time you do this, per school you want to do this for, per rank you want to do this for, and no school rank can exceed 1 plus the number of school ranks you gained via normal advancement (in any school) since joining that school.

- You’re considered a student of all schools you have a rank in, so you can also increase your school rank in any such school via normal advancement. If you take an advance that would count towards advancement in more than one of your schools, it does count towards all of them (school techniques you gain from joining a new school, if they are relevant for advancing in a previous school, count as if they were bought with XP). Paying XP for a school advancement does not bypass regular advancement, it’s only an option to increase your school rank faster, so if you want to increase your rank in a school to 3 via advancements when you raised it to 2 with straight XP you still need to get sufficient advancements for rank 2 first.

Example:

A Doji Diplomat rank 1 wants to join the Kakita Duelists; he stays with the Crane, so no XP cost to change schools; he has Courtesy, Fitness, Martial Arts (Melee), Meditation and Sentiment at various ranks, so he qualifies; he gains Way of the Crane and chooses to gain the Iaijutsu kata as well, but doesn’t get any ring or skill increases, nor the shūji; his honor doesn’t change; he can pay XP to increase his Doji Diplomat rank from 1 to 2 (this would cost 2x (1 Diplomat rank + 1 Duelist rank) = 4 XP) but chooses not to, which means he will be at Diplomat rank 1 until he gains rank 2 as a Duelist and pays XP then, joins a third school and pays XP then, or advances his Diplomat rank the normal way (at which point he gets the same option for his Duelist rank).

This Diplomat/Duelist advances his Duelist rank by spending sufficient XP on relevant advancements; some of these are relevant for the Diplomat school as well but they don’t add up to enough to be able to advance his Diplomat rank yet as well (they do get noted in case they matter later on); he decides he wants to increase the effectiveness of his Diplomat school ability anyway, so pays 3 times 3 (1 Diplomat + 2 Duelist) = 9 XP. The character now has 2 school ranks in both the Diplomat and Duelist schools and could, if he wanted, pay 12 XP to increase his Diplomat school rank to 3.

The campaign continues and through a series of events the character earns an invitation to join the Kitsuki Investigators. If he wants to accept, he’ll need to pay 2 times 4 (2 Duelist + 2 Diplomat) = 8 XP for the privilege of joining a school of another clan than his own and be skilled in 5 or more of the Investigator skills to qualify. He can then also increase his Doji and/or Duelist rank with XP (15 XP the first rank, 18 the next, and 21 for the last possible one; at this point max Diplomat rank is 4, max Duelist rank is 3)

43 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

- Shugenja schools don’t mix with non-shugenja schools.

Previously they were only prohibited to multi-school into Bushi schools, at least in 4th.

I don’t see a problem into attending to a courtier or monk schools. I remember a Crane Card that was shugenja/courtier.

34 minutes ago, Nheko said:

Previously they were only prohibited to multi-school into Bushi schools, at least in 4th.

I don’t see a problem into attending to a courtier or monk schools. I remember a Crane Card that was shugenja/courtier.

I need to look into it in more detail, to be honest, but the way schools work in this system makes me really suspicious of mixing spellcasting in with anything else.

59 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

I need to look into it in more detail, to be honest, but the way schools work in this system makes me really suspicious of mixing spellcasting in with anything else.

I’ll take a look too as it doesn’t hurt. Keep me posted of what you do find...

2 hours ago, Nheko said:

Previously they were only prohibited to multi-school into Bushi schools, at least in 4th.

I don’t see a problem into attending to a courtier or monk schools. I remember a Crane Card that was shugenja/courtier.

3rd was similar. Shugenja could not go bushi, nor bushi go shugenja. Courtier, monk, and ninja could go either but not both.

Just now, AK_Aramis said:

3rd was similar. Shugenja could not go bushi, nor bushi go shugenja. Courtier, monk, and ninja could go either but not both.

Thanks, I wasn’t sure about 3E or previous editions.

Technically everyone should be able to attend a monk school at least. Lorewise a samurai who retires is expected to join the ranks of the brotherhood.

Regarding mixing bushi and shugenja, it has always been a no go. In the actual LCG, the only card who holds these two traits is lord Togashi Yokuni.

A school in the FFG system in its most minimalistic from has one school ability, three techniques available, a school rank, and one capstone ability.

Since most techiques can be learned by everyone, that highlights the school ability in particular since that would be the strongest immidiate power increase.

One the fly I would say it costs 5 XP to learn a new school, which gives you the ability to learn the starting techniques of that school.

Once you've learned the starting techniques, have each school skill at least level 1 and each school ring at least on level 2, you become a proper rank one student of that school learning the school ability and gain the techniques available. Yes, you have to learn everything, if you are allowed to choose between stuff.

Enhancing a school follows the same rules. However, you can spend XP only to increase one of your school ranks (not two or all of them).

Hm, I'd add a rank 0 xp table for each school, and if you complete that, you get the School ability, and narratively, learn there.

And xp into anything can only be counted towards a single school, no Ring increases counting on both schools!

Besides a narrative requirement I would think an xp cost (for the school ability) and perhaps some minimum requirements to be accepted would also be required. I would be less concerned about the minimum requirements parts though, I think a reason within the narrative of the campaign covers most of that.

" The headstrong but foolish Crab Bushi going to live with the Lions to learn the art of command " would be an interesting story

Greetings from the Sands, Evil-Smelling Brother-in-Law of a Camel!

Thanks all for your inputs.

I am somewhat reluctant to allow shugenja to have multiple schools. I am well aware that shugenja could have ranks in courtier schools in the previous edition, but, as of now, most shugenja already have access to shuji techniques and I am not sure allowing them kata would be wise.

What do you think ?

See you in the Sands

This system is not really made for multiple schools.

Even if you losed advancement and/or access to the skills allowed to be bought with xp from the first skill, you would still keep two ranks one. Making the best characters in the game the ones coming from multiple schools instead of only one.

In the past at least you traded advancement and would lose a technique.

" The headstrong but foolish Crab Bushi going to live with the Lions to learn the art of command " Should be given access to the Akodo Shuji teached to him (and i think the system kind of support this) instead of a second school and its rank 1.