So, this is a simple yet incredibly complex question: If Mono no Aware is so integral to Legend of the Five Rings, is it present in the RPG? If so, how? If not, how can this be implemented?

I do not have any answers for this currently, but I figure adding this question might lead to a good question.

However, do we want to state that, while the LCG is focused around Mono no Aware, should the RPG focus instead on the Ninjo vs Giri?

The notion that the players control their characters and the GM controls the world is a somewhat antiquated notion in some ways, and the truth of the matter, when a game is really clicking, is somewhere in between. However, I think it provides some insight to the issue of mono no aware, which really speaks to the state of the world, that it is ever changing.

Mono no aware, the idea of impermanence and transience, is something the GM should try to infuse into the world. It is the image of the first cherry blossom falling to the ground, heralding the future of those left on the tree; or the last gasp of a samurai cut down by a katana; or the brief glance back at a samurai's family when going to join another clan in marriage. These are things a GM (or player) can add to the story that require no mechanical effect, but are important to make the narrative feel authentic to the genre.

The players as primary arbiters of their characters should keep this theme in mind when playing and creating their characters. This is most explicitly done in question 20 of the game of questions - the very last thing a player decides according to the character generation rules. Question 20 asks how the player would like to see the character die. This should key into the player's mind that the character's death is a part of the narrative. Like everything else in the setting, the PCs are impermanent.

In sum, mono no aware is important to the genre and should probably be a part of most L5R games. It should primarily be driven by the GM, with the players responsible for how their character's feel about the transience of things, including the character herself. However, these are narrative aspects of the game probably driven best by guide GM/Player guidance and setting material, not mechanics.

Mechanically - L5R has had the Kharma rule for building a new character after a previous character has died. If you're serious about having a game in which a character can die for a cause, but it isn't the last scene in the game, then it is important to have some character rebuilding rules.

In the Beta you track all experience a character has been awarded separately from what they've spent and what they have available in their reserve. When a character dies that player can then rebuild a new character with 100% of the xp the previous character died with.

In this way, along with a much more straight forward chargen the game supports GM and players who wish to have an element of Mono no Aware.

That said - judging by the harsh criticism of the Strife and Outburst mechanic with how it "takes control away from the player" I don't think the game would even want to push some type of Mono no Aware as a constant theme...

I think 100% is way too much... I've a player who'd arrange a heroic death every three weeks as a way of rewriting the PC...

So, is it then a simple rule and clarification?

The player earns 2 Experience Points per hour of play, which is applied to their current character. During a Downtime Scene, the player may choose to have their character exit the story. When the player creates a new character, they use the Experience Points they have earned on the new character.

Clarification: While mono no aware is a key element to the world of Legend of the Five Rings and the LCG in particular, this is not the focus of the experience of L5R RPG. L5R RPG is meant to tell stories not of the transient nature of the world, but more of the conflict in the heart of the samurai, the push and pull of ninjo and giri .

11 hours ago, AK_Aramis said:

I think 100% is way too much... I've a player who'd arrange a heroic death every three weeks as a way of rewriting the PC...

idk - I think the simplicity of it is useful, but as a GM you have to decide what the reason is for new characters to keep joining a group if the old characters are all dying out lol. I don't know if 100% xp is problematic, but it is simple.

I think the game should focus more on Ninji and Giri, but also on death. I find it sad that the question about death is got not more attention. Samurai drama and the mono no aware appeal should focus on these things, but instead Giri and Ninjo feel like after thoughts, that are crudly attached to honour and glory (and that in a very annyoing way), and the that dying is so cental for a samurai, which leads then to living the live with pathos as the mono no aware should promote, is completely ignored.