Hi,

I have about 20 house rules in the hopper right at the moment, but here are the rules I’ve actually implemented at my table.

-All samurai get a full daisho (katana and wakizashi). Courtier and Shugenja may elect not to carry the long sword at their discretion.

-all samurai of rank 30 + have a peasant servant. Samurai of rank 40 + have a number of servants equal to their rank, as well as a yojimbo.

-all samurai have a home, the quality of which is determined by their clan and status.

-targets who are prone have the TN to attack them lowered by 1, and the TN for their attacks raised by 1.

-targets attacked by a foe they are unaware of cannot defend against damage.

These seem reasonable, I may steal last 2 to my own table.
I have always assumed everyone (except unclaimed ronin) have home, either in their lord's household or as their own. Also the servants are readily available should someone need them, depending on status and giri of the individual. A courtier in another clan's court may have a couple of attendants, while their own household may have dozen or more, while bushi on field may have 10 ashigaru to look after but no personal servants while working as yojimbo to someone.

You would first need to define "unaware of". If you want to use it mechanically, it would need to be codified (something the core rule should have done honestly).

Regarding the prone, the decrease TN by 1 to attack a prone target is relative to a lot of things I feel. Against range attacks, it actually could be a +1 instead of -1. So I ended up just keeping the "you get +1 to your martial attack checks while prone".

The samurai daisho, home, servants are all interesting. When you say rank 30+ or 40+, you mean 3+ or 4+? Or you mean status? Status would probably be more appropriate and in that case, I would probably bump the numbers to at least 45+ to start having servants because otherwise you could get one at character creation which overlap the actual fact that some schools do get an attendant and that is a big part of their kit's balance.

5 hours ago, Avatar111 said:

You would first need to define "unaware of". If you want to use it mechanically, it would need to be codified (something the core rule should have done honestly).

Indeed. We have been struggling with how to handle perception. RAW is expectedly thin on the topic. We don’t really like using passive perception, like vigilance. So I dunno.

5 hours ago, Avatar111 said:

Regarding the prone, the decrease TN by 1 to attack a prone target is relative to a lot of things I feel. Against range attacks, it actually could be a +1 instead of -1. So I ended up just keeping the "you get +1 to your martial attack checks while prone".

Granted. I don’t feel that adjusting the TN for prone based on situation would be a problem.

5 hours ago, Avatar111 said:

The samurai daisho, home, servants are all interesting. When you say rank 30+ or 40+, you mean 3+ or 4+? Or you mean status? Status would probably be more appropriate and in that case, I would probably bump the numbers to at least 45+ to start having servants because otherwise you could get one at character creation which overlap the actual fact that some schools do get an attendant and that is a big part of their kit's balance.

Balance. You’re funny.

Samurai are nobles. Having a servant seems necessary. Or, at the very least, allow a samurai to requisition a servant. But to do that the servant would need to be assigned a rarity, or a price.... yikes. Maybe not.

Though the movie Twilight Samurai tells the sad tale of a poor samurai. He had to do his own laundry and farm his own food. Good movie. But not one that made me say “that’s like L5R!”