On 11/12/2017 at 10:31 AM, AK_Aramis said:

Rules Question raised: Maintaining Lord Hida's Grip: new roll every turn, or just spend your action to maintain it?

I would say, as long as the victim does nothing to remove it, the technique continues without you doing anything.
If they remove it, you have to use it again.

Immobilized, p171 :
Removed When: At the end of their turn, if the character did not perform a Movement action this turn, they remove the Immobilized condition.

Had two from the Saturday group show. So we had Hida Eiko and Togashi Akane. Both now Rank 3 bushi.

They arrive in the "palace" of the Tonburi (A homebrewed vassal of the Dōji - they have a dōjo of the Daidoji Harrier school; their head shugenja has a variant on the Asahina school)

They meet Dōji no Tonburi Atari - the 18 year old Daimyō (and Kakita Duelist), only newly appointed in his deceased father's stead, his Bodyguard, Daidōji Kaneka (Previously was Daidōji Yojimbo; I used a variation on Kakita Duelist)

They have heard of Kaneka, Noted for having been Yojimbo to 5 Daimyō since gempuku... and he's 25. (Infamy: failure)

They meet two others banished to the Tonburi holding: Hida Matsu (A huge musclebound drunkard), And Matsu Akodo, an aged scrawny & threadbare samurai. They have heard Hida's story - After being dragged unconscious from the geisha house by Watchtower 2, for drunken brawling by throwing other samurai through the walls.

And Dōji no Tonburi Anshin. Atari's younger sister, who was sent to the Kitsuki Magistrate School. Who has to remind the PC's (and the much drunk Hida Matsu and Matsu Akodo). They try to pry some dirt about Daidōji... and fail. But they get some on the boys... which is what prompted her to chide them. Anshin also gets some fears - specifically those of the two PC's.

At dinner, Everyone is crowded into the hall - both PC's, the Lion, all the notables, and 16 Tonburi samurai.

And they find out about Atari's obsession: the Geisha Hanako. She mesmerizes the whole room (At 9k5, she should.)... Togashi asks if she might play Togashi's Song... she cannot recall it. So she instead plays the ballad of the Last Akodo. (See L5R 2E PG pg 12-13.)

Wrap session.

10 XP.

I've been taking an approach to strife that carries it forward more - in the last two sessions (both since sending a "final" in)

1. if you're not in scene, no Water reduction at end of scene.
2. If it isn't conflict, you're not in stances and thus the stance benefits do not apply. Which results in a need for a void backlash for narrative scenes.
3. Be liberal with Giri and Ninjō "violation" +3 strife hits for courses of action. (I had one scene where a player violated both... twice... in changing his approach to the scene.) Typically only once each per scene
4. Adding a variant attack for social conflict that does 1+Bonus Successes strife (to allow strifing someone out.) TN = Vigilance. 2 opp to add additional targets.
5. Calming Breath can only be used while the threat is on. Once the goals are met or the opponents withdraw, no more actions.
6. Calming breath cannot be used in narrative scenes, only in conflicts.
7. No strife recovered from downtime unless an action is taken to do so, such as Tea Ceremony or Meditation, except the end of scene recovery if they did something.
8. Must keep at least one die.

AFAICT, 1, 2, 5, and 6 are Rules-As-Written, but apparently not what many people are doing in their games.

I'm not certain is #8 is RAW.

I've been using "Fail by 3+ is fumble" - but not applying strife, just a particularly visible failure.

I've also been liberally using the inflict strife opportunities.

I've been relatively consistent with Honor and Glory hits and gains. My groups both buy-in on those systems, in the same way they do in FFG's Star Wars.

Still running, both groups

Things I feel are wrong:

1. No compulsory "must unmask" point.
2. The crit system still feels way too weak.
3. Honor and Glory are more fiddly this edition; I realized that, while I'm adjusting less per adjustment, I'm adjusting way more often for lesser actions; under 2E and 3E, the adjustments were stronger.
4. Several inclarities.
   • If you hit a target who has fatigue past their endurance, can they still roll to reduce the crit? (I've not been)
   • If you inflict two crits in one action (one by target over end, one by technique &/or one by advantage), are they two (three) different crits? or are they one summing the severities?
   • Combat movement (both non-gridded and gridded) needs more clarity
   • Poisons feel vague.

For #1, I've houseruled it exactly like End: at 10 over, you're done

Instead of forced must unmask point, how about a different angle: others may attempt to force Unmasking on you when you are Compromised, either by techniques or by opportunity spends on successful social actions (think Social Crits). This way, your pressure to Unmask is having the control of how do you Unmask, instead of being at mercy of someone using their ability to Unmask you.
It's something I plan to give as ability for supernatural phenomena that prey on emotionally unstable (kind of like Affliction), but I think it could also be an interesting way to make Intrigues more dangerous and impactful.

@WHW There needs, really, to be a point where, you're out of the scene, period. Social conflict does a form of damage. Which may represent credibility loss, embarrassment, emotional breakdown, temper tantrums, etc.

I'm not averse at all to techniques forcing it before the default, but there very much needs to be a default.

I've ended one of my two L5R games - not because I dislike the system, not because the system is broken...

The biggest lack in the beta is the lack of both suitable opponent stats and of a bushi, courtier, and shugenja school for each clan.

I'm hoping for some significant changes in rules between beta and release.

I have 1-2 sessions left in my game and all my players are quite interested still. However, we have reached the point where the cost of continuing is too high. After spending 8+ hours creating mass battle content for the climax of the campaign I decided if the players are dead set on L5R we would switch to 2nd Edition.

I agree there are some major issues, some of which create imbalance leading to difficulties in finding combat challenges. The current Armor system just seems to make heavy armor overpowered and not being in armor a severe disadvantage. And I don't think a Rank 2 Crab Clan bushi should be able to fairly easily "solo" an Oni.

Rank 2 solo an oni? yes.

Rank 2 solo a major oni? No.

Note that my players worked together to toast Kazanaga-no-oni.

My 3 player group did as well, the general was saved but incapacitated. Was actually 1 round away from TPK as they finished it with no casualties.