Well what can I Say but good job FFG. Still not fully there but going in the right direction.

Love most of the changes. Some things could use more work, but your getting there.

Still Issues

Red entries: Changes due to Update.

1.Character Creation.

a) Removal of Family and Clans Skills/Rings. The skills should be rolled into the schools and be awarded. example: Hida Defender School +1 Fitness, +1 Martial Arts [Melee], +1 Martial Arts [Ranged], +1 Martial Arts [Unarmed], +1 Meditation, +1 Survival, +1 Tactics, +1 Command. Where player gets them all.

b) Rings should be raised to 2, but keep starting cap at 3. This removes the need for Families and Clans to provide them (which was always an issue in 4th).

c) Players need far more choices then agree/disagree on clan precepts, one on the choice itself and on the award if they disagree. That will work.

d) the Bushidō question needs to be reworked. The idea that I don't believe in Bushidō so I have Commerce skills makes no sense to me. This is the perfect place to setup a Samurais tenet. What does he believe about Bushidō.

Does he follow his Clans beliefs openly, does he strongly believe in a tenet opposed to his clan, ETC. This is a roleplaying element not a mechanical one so it should be up to him and the GM decide how it is handled not the game.

e) almost all instances of Advantages and Disadvantages need to be removed. These are roleplaying enhancement that should be left to the player. I do like the ideas of passions and anxiety but that’s about it. anything else should be left to the player to decided.

f) There should be a starting pool of XP for the players to customize their PCs as a standard part of Character Creation. Not a tacked-on amount in the adventure.

2. Advantages and Disadvantages

a) Disadvantages need to be divorced from Void gain. Void is centering oneself not overcoming my missing finger.

b) each Advantage and Disadvantage need to be reviewed and have their points addressed. They are in no way equal.

3. Skills

a) Subskills need to be made part of the core rules as Emphases. Update: At this point the sub skills IMHO just need to be filled out and added. It’s easier for the GM to remove them then add them.

b) Approaches need to be reworked to something less random and more structured. Right now, players can run rough-shot over the system to powergame them. I would suggest that All Approaches need to be justified to the GM.

4. Techniques

a) a Kata is not a combat techniques. Kata a Japanese word, are detailed choreographed patterns of movements practiced either solo or in pairs. It would be better to call it a school/combat technique.

b) Rituals need to be removed. The concept is nuts and doesn't fit the setting where bushi are not magical.

5. Equipment

a) Replace Ceremonial with Honorable. I believe it just makes more sense in what your trying to say.

b) Razor-Edged: as written makes swords to fragile. I would suggest "If damage drops below -Damage level it would take effect. Needs some type of progressive damage system such as.

c) Zanbatō/No-daichi: first range 2 is a bit much. why would I take a Naginata, or Yari over this? it’s a long sword not a pike.

d) Naginata, Yari: with only range of 2. These weapons are pretty much useless. they need ability to hold a target at range two or (I can't believe I'm saying this) attack of opportunity. option is to give them the stats of a staff at range 1. Got some of this with the new movement rules. Still has the issues of range 1.

e) Chokutō: just to point out this is not a tachi, it’s an older sword that predates both the Katana and Tachi. The confusion comes from the kanji for both being translated the same. This type of sword would not be made in the era that this game is set.

f) Dao: again, this is a Chinese weapon which was never used in Japan or Rokugan.

g) Crossbows: should be removed as they have no place in Rokugan.

h) The only way I would say keep these weapons (f, g) is if you created add gaijin trait to the weapons that caused massive honor/glory loss to use.

i) Poison (Noxious Poison) this is way too weak for what it represents.

6. Scenes and Conflicts

a) this area is too hard to go over due to the many other issues I have that would need to be addressed first. see above and below.

7. Strife

a) the system is a hot mess. one of the biggest issues is no one seems to know what it is or what is for. ask a writer to get one answer, ask a player/GM to get another, read over the rules in the book and get still another. Nice work here. But still need Some clarifications on narrative ways to get rid of strife.

Such as using the service of a tea house or other such thing we will leave alone.

well that's what I would need to see fix.

Is this a thread to talk about all changes? Just a quick commentary, if its not, they seemed to try and please the "defense scaling please" and the "iaijutsu has no point lol" folks.

Edit: ok, my opinion will follow.

Do not know about the changes or the way in general that they went to give starting items/equipment on the choice of the character. It seems contrived to me. But the way they went to give more starting skills to characters it’s okay. i think.

Liked that they say that a 0xp character is approximately a high clan samurai straight of Gempukku. However, you can do whatever you want with it, fluff it different or give appropriate xp.

Not sure if they actually improved the game on their decision to change the water opportunity on artisan skill. (Before you had the not cumbersome heavy armor, now you have the concealable nodachi.)

Iaijutsu Cut: Horizontal Blade: Not sure, if i like it, but if it is the only way to Draw and Ready without using actions on a skirmish (without being on the water stance) it serves it purpose, and it is completely okay. It does what it should do. If you just need to use assessment, to ready the weapon. Well. “Yay range 2”.

Iaijutsu Cut: Rising Blade: Okay, they come up with this to make Iaijutsu kill people on Clashes and Duels. If it’s not broken strong, I like it. Reminds the lethal center stance slash of the past.

Striking as Air: By itself no nerf needed, but they are nerfing ways to improve your tn to hit so it’s okay.

Sad about the Bokken nerf.

Still not sure how drawing,sheating,readying works. (Actually, sheat will cost action that I know, not sure about the rest).

Water Stance:Think they did this for the Drawing,Sheating,Readying, maneuver costing action part. However, people will eventually check if this is abuseable or not. i do like the idea tough.

Air Stance:Feels weird that this stance scales. (Tough you can argue that the Fire Stance scales too in virtue of keeping and rolling more.). But yeah seems interesting, Overall should be harder do increase TN absurdly now. But someone with Rank 3 will have a TN 4 to hit, Rank 5 TN 5. At first glance is looking broken.

Duels: I am Happy that Iaijutsu duels exists in this universe. With that said... Just finish the job of revamping the duel and cut To First Blood from it. Right now, we are looking at Hidas duelling on Heavy Armor as the kings of Iaijutsu due to decreasing severity of critical strike by a Fitness Roll + Heavy Armor + Rank. If this mechanical thought is not enough to sway opinions. Just consider the fact that common honor duels are about who goes first anyway, not about how badly you cut the other person. In fact, only one person should came out injuried from an iaijutsu duel anyway. More about this later.

Repeating myself. i like the fact that to first strike has comeback. Not sure if the Iaijutsu duel to the death, is about two guys sheeting and drawing their weapons until their death or if it evolves to a regular duel/clash after the first turn. I prefer the second option. But I’m fine either way.

So since Iaijutsu was added, Sparring Bout and regular duel, two guys beating each other was added., as i said before i didn’t had a problem with duels and clashes, my problem was Iaijutsu being wiped from the setting.
Not sure if Taryu-Jiai deserve more love, if not now, maybe in an expansion book? Do not know.

In any case, What i would change: Get rid of Iaijutsu to first blood, make sure that the Kakita (i wish it was every bushi to be fair, Maybe one opportunity being used to decrease your severity? maybe sucesses? i dont know.) can win any serious duel without actually hurting his opponents if he want(Only because that looks cool. It can be simulated on the system by getting a severity 0.)

I would suggest forfeiting honor and glory instead of ordering then to do so. Every individual and every duel will be treated accordingly; Depending on situation, i could see a duelist actually gaining glory if he kills an opponent in one surprising and incredible strike. And well... if you end up killing someone once, it may be an accident, if you dueled 3 times and killed 3 guys well... Yeah the penalties need to be heavier… Rokugan will talk about it. So judge accordingly. On duels to first strike, if the combat is not immediately stopped after victory conditions are met, suggest honor penalty if the loser strikes back.(Its bad sportsmanship.)

Lastly. i'm not sure if only the assessment roll used in the entire system is an appropriate way to do Duels. It doesn’t feel deep enough since the only thing you want is to go first and hit with TN 3 (to a maximum of 6 if the opponent has Air 5 and started on that stance.), The betting strife is a nice part of this system (that will help the critical strike of iaijutsu). But of course, it’s better to test and see how it feels.

Skirmish: Not sure, if you can draw/ready weapon on assessment rolls, is looking to be the case. Overall, i like the maneuver action and i like the general nerf to movement, not sure, how it will affect the system tough.

Dislike the change to Fatigue, wounds felt great to me. Now people will spend an entire week "fatigued".
The Nerf to Parry is welcome, but i still think that the game would be better without this parry mechanic. Especially with the first blood iaijutsu duels that we have in place right now, everyone will keep a void point on the duel and spend it to survive the first critical strike and keep iaijutsuing.

And considering the other nerfs, an nerf to the guard action seems forgot. That’s all I think

13 minutes ago, Mobiusllls said:

Is this a thread to talk about all changes? Just a quick commentary, if its not, they seemed to try and please the "defense scaling please" and the "iaijutsu has no point lol" folks.

This thread is for

1. Comments on beta changes.

2. Things that need to be corrected in the Character Gen rules.

4. General Changes you see that need to be made.

5. Anything else that seems productive to the betterment of this game.

I like how they simply added an option to gain any skill with 0 ranks and describe why it fits, and that they added extra opportunities to gain skills during creation. I think this will help characters be more diverse.

I'm not sure where they're going with the heritage tables though. I think this is one of the most awkward parts of character creation because there is just 1 table, and only 10 results... There should be more tables, or maybe scrap this part and do something else instead. I kinda like the concept but the randomness, and the limited offerings make it kinda stale.

Quote

p. 170, Bleeding: Amend the first sentence of the “Effects” field to the following: “While Bleeding, when a character suffers strife from keeping  results on dice…”

So it's now near impossible to bleed out when incapacitated/unconscious. Not necessarily a bad thing for the players, but - aside from inflicting it early with something like Flowing Water style - it does diminish the value of bleeding a lot, since by the time you receive it you generally aren't making checks.

6 hours ago, tenchi2a said:

There should be a starting pool of XP for the players to customize their PCs as a standard part of Character Creation. Not a tacked-on amount in the adventure.

There is (update page 3):

Quote

From novices fresh from their gempuku to veteran retainers of the high lords of Rokugan, there are many different types of characters who players might want to roleplay. However, there is no one “correct” starting point for a story—one campaign might revolve around experienced courtiers, while another could be focused on new heroes thrown into the chaos of intrigues or even war! The GM determines how many additional experience points all PCs in a campaign start with (if any). Here are three recommended starting points, but GMs should feel free to tailor these as they see fit:

New Samurai (+0 XP): These characters have just completed their gempuku, and have little real-world experience.

Young Heroes (+14 XP): These characters have served their lord for a time or have otherwise acquired some practical experience in the world.

Veteran Samurai (+46 XP): These characters are seasoned warriors, courtiers, priests, or monks, skilled in their arts and confident in their position.

6 hours ago, tenchi2a said:

g) Crossbows: should be removed as they have no place in Rokugan.

The Wall. Ballistae have been a big part of the armaments of the wall even in previous editions, and a crossbow is nothing but a man-portable analogue.

I'd be happy to see a 'seen as dishonorable' type quality to discourage their use in open battle on other samurai, but nothing feels massively illogical about their inclusion as the sort of thing you might see a Crab garrison trooper using.

15 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

The Wall. Ballistae have been a big part of the armaments of the wall even in previous editions, and a crossbow is nothing but a man-portable analogue.

I'd be happy to see a 'seen as dishonorable' type quality to discourage their use in open battle on other samurai, but nothing feels massively illogical about their inclusion as the sort of thing you might see a Crab garrison trooper using.

Ballistas and crossbows are two different animals.

one existing does in not way automatically make the other available.

In L5R only the Yobanjin had them and trade or interaction with them was forbidden by imperial decree.

So it would not just be an honor loss to use them you could be sentenced to death.

the Phoenix made sure to keep their dealing with the Yobanjin secret so their would be no one who even knew that crossbows existed in Rokugan.