Disclaimer : I do NOT intend any insinuations or insults of any kind with this post. If any do appear, then I apologize in advance.

In the rulebook, the Iuchi family of the Unicorn are given Skill Increases of +1 Meditation and +1 Theology at the onset (pg. 55). Call me biased, but this does not make much sense to me, for the following reasons:

1) the Togashi Tattooed Order (Dragon) and the Isawa Family (Phoenix) have the same starting Skill Increases, which makes the profiles feel a bit redundant (I beg forgiveness for this criticism).
2) the Unicorn are wild and undisciplined by nature, and meditation in its proper state is inherently calm and focused
3) the magic that the Unicorn use ( meishodo) commands the Kami instead of working in cooperation with them, thus endangering the balance of the Elements in the L5R universe and therefore does not coincide with the concept of meditation, because meditation per se entails an awareness of the truth. Speaking as someone who practices meditation and its context in real life, it strikes me that someone who meditates as a discipline would be more cautious in their employment of tangible means.

Again, call me biased for the above, but based on the above, would it be feasible, strictly as a house rule , to replace the +1 Meditation for the Iuchi with a different starting bonus?

It is a technical bonus because Meditation + Void is thinking about esoteric wizard stuff and resisting supernatural effects. The Iuchi should be obviously good at these, so they get +1 Meditation.

Not to be rude, while I don't think you are not insulting, I do think it is a matter of bias.

While most of the Unicorn can be seen aa uncouth and uncivilized by the rest of the Empire, the criticism of being "wild and undisciplined" is really just applicable against the Moto. One would be hard-pressed to call the Utaku Battle-Maidens such.

Same goes for the Iuchi. While they can party like the rest of the unicorn they are, after all, a shugenja family and understand and respect the importance of that role.

Also, the idea that Meishodo is behind the elemental imbalance has no other proof than the word of the Phoenix. As far as I can tell, there has been nothing to actually prove a connection. The only time we see something that would be some sort of connection, it is also revealed that the Iuchi character is the one fixing it.

Lastly, meditative states does not just require calm bodily relaxation. People can experience meditative states through many ways, including dancing or simply spinning. These ways would be seen at best as strange or controversial to the rest of Rokugan, but are non-the-less equally effective.

Once again, I am very sorry if I come of as rude or patronizing. If you want more wild and undisciplined Unicorn and want to change it up, then go right ahead. Perhaps some Artisan skill to reflect their tradition of making Talismans.

TL;DR the Unicorn are not undisciplined, Meishodo might not be the cause of the elemental imbalance and meditative states can be achieved in many ways that would be strange to the rest of Rokugan.

On 2/3/2019 at 6:38 PM, zenandhonor said:

Understood. Thank you guys for your feedback.