Finished reading it yesterday and had time to mull it over.

Overall I liked it with a few caveats.

The lack of distinction between commoners and samurai, or at least the seemingly strong identification of the depicted commoners with their samurai overlords seemed a bit off. While I understand that competent rulers would foster both loyalty and a sense of local pride in the population I would still expect to see more signs of cast separation and its enforcement. At the very least I would expect to see something like sumptuary laws that helped distinguish the castes.

Yojiro also seemed more naive than I would expect. I absolutely buy is ignorance and horror at kagenari, but everything else seemed a bit forced. Surely, even if by his nature he was kept in the dark about the details of everything going on around him, by his very upbringing and by his role as a Emerald Magistrate he would have some inkling of what would be really going on even if only in broadstrokes.

Loved that the Kitsuki were unashamedly spying on the Scorpion.

It's a little paradoxical for the Scorpion's case, since their clan's duty, at least in their eyes, allows them to disregard other apparent duties (like loyally and truthfully investigating this murder) in order to maintain their clan's dominance and continued ability to perform their duties. It's a bit self-serving, but I don't think Yojiro or Shoju consider it a betrayal of the Empire, since they do it to continue effectively serving the Empire.

The same is pretty much true for other clans too, in that every clan serves the Emperor, but others don't have a moral code to permit such a paradox, at least openly.

On 12/2/2018 at 10:21 AM, Suzume Chikahisa said:

Finished reading it yesterday and had time to mull it over.

Overall I liked it with a few caveats.

The lack of distinction between commoners and samurai, or at least the seemingly strong identification of the depicted commoners with their samurai overlords seemed a bit off. While I understand that competent rulers would foster both loyalty and a sense of local pride in the population I would still expect to see more signs of cast separation and its enforcement. At the very least I would expect to see something like sumptuary laws that helped distinguish the castes.

Yojiro also seemed more naive than I would expect. I absolutely buy is ignorance and horror at kagenari, but everything else seemed a bit forced. Surely, even if by his nature he was kept in the dark about the details of everything going on around him, by his very upbringing and by his role as a Emerald Magistrate he would have some inkling of what would be really going on even if only in broadstrokes.

Loved that the Kitsuki were unashamedly spying on the Scorpion.

I think it's the city they are in which has a more relaxed distinction between the casts, and it's not meant to illustrate the condition across the empire. At least that's the impression I got. The RPG adventure in the GM Kit that is set in Slow Tide Harbor had a similar sort of feel. The Scorpion and the Tortoise I'm assuming are more relaxed purposefully in this regard. In contrast we got the story about the Crab village or the RPG adventure in the starter kit which both show commoners being very subservient to the samurai. It might also be an urban versus rural thing. I like that there is a level of nuance to the relationship between samurai and the commoners. I'm hoping maybe that's fleshed out a bit in one of the RPG supplements.

Ryoko Owari has always been a bit weird, even back as far as the 1E box. Some merchants are beginning to think that their samurai patrons owe them more, since they're making them lots of money; those samurai tend to be opium users, smugglers or patrons; the 'firemen' are effectively a bunch of competing yakuza; the burakumin are making money hand over fist and there are stories of some of them sneaking off and buying themselves farms in other villages, effectively becoming heimin! It really isn't a place to give you a good impression of how the rest of the empire works.

21 minutes ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

the 'firemen' are effectively a bunch of competing yakuza

So it's the Rokugan version of this scene .

4 hours ago, Mangod said:

So it's the Rokugan version of this scene .

The most accurate analogy ever posted.

16 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

Some merchants are beginning to think that their samurai patrons owe them more, since they're making them lots of money; those samurai tend to be opium users, smugglers or patrons; the 'firemen' are effectively a bunch of competing yakuza; the burakumin are making money hand over fist and there are stories of some of them sneaking off and buying themselves farms in other villages, effectively becoming heimin! It really isn't a place to give you a good impression of how the rest of the empire works.

That said these are things that happened historically in defiance of things like sumptuary laws so I like that it's in there. Makes Rokugan feel more like a real place than a place where everything happens as expected. Though I agree it gives a potentially warped view of Rokugani society if you show the exception more prominently than the rule.

On 12/3/2018 at 11:17 PM, Mangod said:

So it's the Rokugan version of this scene .

Pretty much.