The local gaming store in my community asked me to GM the beginner box game of L5R to increase interest in both the TTRPG, and the LCG. The core groups of players tends to shy away from pre-gen characters in any game trial, except to use them as a reference for better understanding a new game setting/mechanic; that said, it appears there are quite a few rules changes made to the pre-gens vs. the rules in the core book. Our groups mostly play TTRPGS like D&D, and Pathfinder. The change in theme and language has been very fun for us, though a little daunting, because most of us have little frame of reference outside of a handful of people that have watched Samurai movies/Anime, and one player who attends a Karate class who recognizes some of the basic language (which we are quickly realizing has varying amounts of resonance with Rokugan, or L5R).

The questions they brought to me:

Would members of rival Clans even be willing to work together towards a common goal?

Is this system meant for there to be alot of inner party conflict between the above PCs?

Why does the artwork for the Tattooed monks seem more stylized for Chinese martial arts, is there a supplement that adds more traditional Japanese themed unarmed arts, or is this just a player misconception? We will be the first to admit these themes pull from areas that are largely new cultural territory for us, having played in games mostly based around Western Folklore.

How are beginning Ring, ranks determined if you are given up to 3 rings in 1, or 2 elements, but will only have 1 in void, if the rule is that your ring amount can only be your lowest ring value, plus your void?

For instance: One of our players is enamored with the Kakita dueling school, after reading about how they approach dueling and art. She started the 20 questions with her group and got: +1 Air for (for Crane Clan), +1 Fire (for Kakita Family), +1 Air, and +1 Earth (For Kakita Duelist School), + 1 Fire ( for how her character stands out in her school). Is it possible for her to have these Ring values with only +1 in Water, and Void?

For skill ranks: several of the pre-gen characters have skills that are not listed in their schools, or have two ranks in a skill, like Martial Arts Melee, that you cannot appear to get two ranks in if you follow the character building instructions in the Core book. Are these specifically designed for the beginner adventures, or are there rules we are missing for skills?

For School Starting Techniques/Abilities: The Toagashi monk's "Blood of the Kami" ability seems to be different on the pre-gen, than what is listed in the book. For the pre-gen version do the "Opportunity" added to Kept Dice represent a success, or just a benefit to replace an undesired dice?

Does a Togashi monk start with 1 Kiho, or two? We see a "choose one" instruction listed under "Starting Techniques", but the "Blood of the Kami" description says they select one at "no XP" cost. Since none of the other schools listed make reference to giving their techniques for free is this meant to be an additional Kiho?

For our Kakita character, what kata should she be able to recieve, since "Iaijutsu Cut: Rising Blade:" only works with a "Razor Edged" weapon that she will not have access to until the "Emerald Palace"?

Last is how the games currency/monetary system works: How do players acquire currency/items? Do they always have to entreat their Daimyo/other superior? We have found rules for selling items at half listed value, but outside of that we haven't found much; further, because engaging in trade is considered to be looked down upon, is there some sort of negative effect for the players trying to engage in trade or acquire wealth? We have one player that is determined to climb the social ladder and have a castle, and his own clan...if such a thing is possible. Is wealth necessary to achieve his goal?

Thank you for any help, or clarification you might provide.

I can imagine that if you would build the Beginner's Box SC with the rule of the Core Rule Book you might have slightly different characters. I think the samurai of the BB are specially designed to fit in the beginner adventures. They are designed in the spirit of the CRB schools (I might be wrong, this is my experience with the Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beginner's Box SC).

The ring value cap (lowest ring value + void ring value) only counts for increases via XP. It has no effect during character creation.

You can learn any skill you want even if it is not listed in your school curriculum. Listing skills in your curriculum only means that every XP you spend on that skill counts fully against the amount you have to spend to reach the next school rank. When you buy a skill (or skill rank: buying meditation 3 when only meditation 1-2 is listed for example) not listed the spent XP only count half (buying meditation 3 for 6 XP counts as 3 XP spent for your curriculum). It is not forbidden to learn skills outside of your curriculum (in fact it is pretty much needed) but you level up your school rank slower.

Same for techniques: you may learn any technique you meet the prerequisites (and your school gets you access to: which are three types of techniques on every school, normally Shuji, Kata & Rituals for Bushi for example) wether they are listed in the curriculum or not. When listed every XP counts fully, when not listed half. Any technique with the diamond symbol can be purchased even if you don't meet the prerequisites (school rank must not be lower than technique rank).

11 hours ago, Arujin said:

1) Would members of rival Clans even be willing to work together towards a common goal?

2) Is this system meant for there to be alot of inner party conflict between the above PCs?

3) Last is how the games currency/monetary system works: How do players acquire currency/items? Do they always have to entreat their Daimyo/other superior? We have found rules for selling items at half listed value, but outside of that we haven't found much; further, because engaging in trade is considered to be looked down upon, is there some sort of negative effect for the players trying to engage in trade or acquire wealth? We have one player that is determined to climb the social ladder and have a castle, and his own clan...if such a thing is possible. Is wealth necessary to achieve his goal?

1) Rokugan is a very formal society. Impressions matter a lot. Achieving something brings honor and glory to you, your lord, your family and clan. This is one of your main goals in life, quite possibly the main goal. If you can gain honor by working with other clans, that is well worth it. Also, if your lord gives you a task you do it - it doesn't matter if you're happy with what, how or why. Just don't let others steal your glory.

2) Honestly, probably less than you might think. Again, formal society. You'll want to play nice most of the time, because it'll look bad if you don't. There certainly can be conflict, but it's a roleplaying game where a party of characters does stuff together. Adventures devolving into continuous squabbling serves nobody well. Roleplay the "we're better than everyone else" attitudes, sure, but don't take it to the point where your characters spend more time throwing hissy fits than bringing honor to their ancestors. You can be extra snooty to people you outrank (meaning, you have a significantly higher status), but typically player characters will not outrank each other enough to matter (that might change with Minor Clans, and we already have ronin, but normally statuses of player characters don't differ all that much).

3) On the face of it, Rokugan is a meritocracy. Essentially, you try to reap glory so your lord sees your worth and promotes you (status increase). With a higher status will come holdings to manage and get an income from. More glory, more status, more/larger holdings, more responsibility and respect. Wealth can help, of course, but you climb the social ladder by impressing your superiors so they promote you. And you can only be given the right to found your own clan by the Emperor. Becoming rich is a possible way to impress your superiors too (or buy yourself a nice promotion, even), but the system lends itself much better to using the glory route.

edit: I'd hoped the core book would provide more setting info, to be honest. If this is your first time visting Rokugan, the information is really sparse while the setting arguably makes the game. FFG will release Emerald Empire at some point (currently it's "at the printer") and that will help a lot, but for now it's what little info there is in the core book, looking at older editions or asking players who are already familiar with the setting.

Thank you for the answers! We have begun play, and so far the group's seem to love it, though we struggle with a lack of experienced players from former editions.

Quite a few players have been reading all the fiction, and lore they can. We are very excited to hear about the setting book.

Out of 23 initial players only 4 have decided the game wasn't quite their style, but they loved the dice system.

Big success here. Hopefully we keep it going!

On ‎11‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 3:28 PM, Arujin said:

For our Kakita character, what kata should she be able to recieve, since "Iaijutsu Cut: Rising Blade:" only works with a "Razor Edged" weapon that she will not have access to until the "Emerald Palace"?

If you're creating characters rather than using the stock ones, then I'd accept that katana and wakizashi are razor edged for the purposes of those techniques, even if you're not throwing in the actual effects of razor edged yet.

This answer probably applies to the Togashi's rules as well - quite a few things are 'tweaked' for the simplied rules in the beta.

On ‎11‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 3:28 PM, Arujin said:

Why does the artwork for the Tattooed monks seem more stylized for Chinese martial arts, is there a supplement that adds more traditional Japanese themed unarmed arts, or is this just a player misconception? We will be the first to admit these themes pull from areas that are largely new cultural territory for us, having played in games mostly based around Western Folklore.

Rokugan is a bit of an oriental mish-mash, not purely Japan. The bulk of the setting is feudal Japanese, but the Unicorn have a very heavy Mongolian feel going on (in fact one of the Unicorn Clan Champion's titles is Khan of Khans), whilst quite a few clans have occasional Chinese or Korean 'bleed-through' - the Kaiu totally-not-the-Great-Wall, for example, and their repeater crossbows, or the Togashi monks

On 11/2/2018 at 11:28 AM, Arujin said:

For our Kakita character, what kata should she be able to recieve, since "Iaijutsu Cut: Rising Blade:" only works with a "Razor Edged" weapon that she will not have access to until the "Emerald Palace"?

As an additional note bokken can still be used with Iai techniques. So I would definitely allow the Kakita character to use their training sword. No change is needed.

On 11/5/2018 at 1:24 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

Rokugan is a bit of an oriental mish-mash, not purely Japan. The bulk of the setting is feudal Japanese, but the Unicorn have a very heavy Mongolian feel going on (in fact one of the Unicorn Clan Champion's titles is Khan of Khans), whilst quite a few clans have occasional Chinese or Korean 'bleed-through' - the Kaiu totally-not-the-Great-Wall, for example, and their repeater crossbows, or the Togashi monks

Note that Moto Batbayar has a Mongolian personal name. (I looked it up, as it's not a japanese name - the closed one can kana it is バツバヤル which reads as Batubayaru.)

As does current Unicorn Champ, Shinjo Altansarnai (it means "golden rose").

Might be the wrong section for this, but some of my fellow players and I are wondering about character ages. We've made starting characters with no bonus XP and now wonder just how old these Samurai are. Without any XP in their schools yet are they fresh out of their gempuku, or is there no real guideline for us to look at?

2 hours ago, DBN006 said:

Might be the wrong section for this, but some of my fellow players and I are wondering about character ages. We've made starting characters with no bonus XP and now wonder just how old these Samurai are. Without any XP in their schools yet are they fresh out of their gempuku, or is there no real guideline for us to look at?

Historically, the ages ranged from 10 to 20 years for the Genpuku. The more warlike the era, the older, as they were expected to function in their adult roles. 15 to 20 is a good range.

In the the book it says that normally Gempuku is about age 16, but this varies from tradition to tradition and so an older or younger isn't uncommon.

Note that it's also possible to have the Seasoned distinction to be notably older - the fluff talks about someone and her aunt - when you start to become a noteworthy hero.

Personally, I'd even go so far as to say that being a wall guard at a minor keep for a decade doesn't necessarily give you the opportunity to improve your skills to Rank 2 and it's only when you move 'onstage' (the start of the campaign) that you begin gaining XP.

3 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

Note that it's also possible to have the Seasoned distinction to be notably older - the fluff talks about someone and her aunt - when you start to become a noteworthy hero.

Personally, I'd even go so far as to say that being a wall guard at a minor keep for a decade doesn't necessarily give you the opportunity to improve your skills to Rank 2 and it's only when you move 'onstage' (the start of the campaign) that you begin gaining XP.

It would, however, be grounds for a handful of points spent on games and courtesy...