Hello everyone, Earlier this year I finished my first time GMing of FFG's Star Wars. It was fun and challenging but was not entirely fulfilling mechanics wise. Me and another more veteran player took a look at L5R and fell in love. The book itself is gorgeous and the rules and setting seem to fit much better with FFG's dice mechanics.

So naturally, I will be running the game so my players can run around being samurai. I have been busy reading the rules when I can and have recently developed a rough outline of a story for the campaign. I am still VERY new to the setting so I hope my idea fits into it. I do not have time to jump into a premade story and learn it in time as a player may leave soon. Hence, just jumping in.

Below is a brief outline of my story as it sits in my head. I do not mind some minor feedback on them. I have more details to share but as I am on my phone, I cannot at the moment. Some of it is very rough and may be rewritten to make more sense:

Eight Decisions for Four Families (working Campaign title)

Four ronin families are vying to join one of the minor clans ( Monkey , Sparrow and Hare ).

All have earned hard won reputations as being reliable ronin families, often working alongside the major and minor clans.

Protecting villages from bandits, settling disputes between minor clans and their families and even absorbing other ronin and turning them into honorable samurai and members of Rokugan society.

One family has a long, deeply held grudge against 2 of the minor clans. They aim to use their favors with one of the other minor clans to weaken the other 2.

They also see the other 3 ronin families joining the minor clans as problematic because they could not only strengthen those clans but, they could also expose some of the more unsavory aspects of their family due to the harsh life ronin sometimes live.

The players are asked by the minor clans to investigate these families in more detail and provide the clans with their findings. They aim to see if the families will fit each clan's personality.

The 4 ronin families are as follows:

Ide - Known for raising koi fish for ponds located at inns, halfways houses and other establishments throughout Rokugan.

Symbol- Two koi swimming in a circle.

Okuda - Oversees a number of hillside rice paddy villages and owns a good number of halfways houses and inns along nearby roads. Has done a lot of work punishing bandit groups and protecting travelers.

Symbol - Egret

Yamashina - Has built a strong reputation for having skilled negotiators and diplomats. Works chiefly among Mercantile families, businesses and the minor clans.

Symbol - The Great Purple Emperor Butterfly

Rokkaku - Maintains a series of very secluded temples in the Shinomen Forest were they maintain relationships with spirits (think the anime Mushi-shi). Their members travel far and wide, helping to maintain balance with the spiritual health and well being of Rokugan and its people. Often, their arrival precedes storms and have often been associated with bad omens.

Symbol - Wind and flowing water

That is where I am at right now. I still have to fill out more details of the families (main characters) and their relationships with the Monkey, Hare and Sparrow minor clans.

Also struggling to find a decent map too.

All feedback is welcome!

Welcome to Rokugan! While these ronin should definitely be trying to join the Crab Clan (i.e. the best one), I suppose the Monkey and the Hare are pretty alright too. Just ignore my icon - I'm totally unbiased...

3 hours ago, Glorious Chief said:

Ide - Known for raising koi fish for ponds located at inns, halfways houses and other establishments throughout Rokugan.

Symbol- Two koi swimming in a circle.

Ide is the name of a family in the Unicorn great clan. I'd suggest changing this one.

Otherwise, ronin tend to be called "brotherhoods"/"otokodate" in setting, rather than families - but exceptions definitely exist. The rest sounds great! Have a blast.

Utz!

50 minutes ago, Hida Jitenno said:

Welcome to Rokugan! While these ronin should definitely be trying to join the Crab Clan (i.e. the best one), I suppose the Monkey and the Hare are pretty alright too. Just ignore my icon - I'm totally unbiased...

Ide is the name of a family in the Unicorn great clan. I'd suggest changing this one.

Otherwise, ronin tend to be called "brotherhoods"/"otokodate" in setting, rather than families - but exceptions definitely exist. The rest sounds great! Have a blast.

Utz!

Hey Hida! Thank for the reply! I am a fan of the Unicorn personally.

True. They could go for one of the great clans but I thought it would be more interesting to have them pursue the minor clans and try to gain not only influence within that clan but also increase the clan's status.

I will have to look into the Ide name. Could make for an interesting side story or depending on the campaign, have their name officially changed for better or worse.

For them being families. I read up briefly on the Oriole clan and decided that the ronin families saw their success. So, they thought, if they renamed themselves as families and more formally established themselves along certain professions, they could increase their chances of moving up the social ladder.

I appreciate the feedback

I am excited to play/run a game in Rokugan.

15 hours ago, Glorious Chief said:

So naturally, I will be running the game so my players can run around being samurai. I have been busy reading the rules when I can and have recently developed a rough outline of a story for the campaign. I am still VERY new to the setting so I hope my idea fits into it. I do not have time to jump into a premade story and learn it in time as a player may leave soon. Hence, just jumping in.

Not a problem - as long as everyone enjoys it!

15 hours ago, Glorious Chief said:

Eight Decisions for Four Families (working Campaign title)

Presumably the sequel to Four Weddings, A Duel, A Centuries-Long Vendetta, Nineteen Shinobi Assassinations, Two Seppuku And Rather A Lot Of Funerals ?

(Rokugani Romantic Comedy Stories are rather involved....)

15 hours ago, Glorious Chief said:

Four ronin families are vying to join one of the minor clans ( Monkey , Sparrow and Hare ).

Fair enough as a start point. Wanting to join an 'established' clan is kind of a default setting for many ronin, especially if they're a group or family and not an individual with no responsibility but to themselves.

12 hours ago, Hida Jitenno said:

While these ronin should definitely be trying to join the Crab Clan (i.e. the best one)

Well, there is the Twenty-Goblin-Winter, which is an easy way for ronin to join the Crab - but that does require being part of an incursion into the shadowlands, and there's that whole downside of the insanity and the tentacles and the inevitable horrible death. Fine for a lone Bushi ronin in the abstract, less great for one with a spouse and children...

12 hours ago, Hida Jitenno said:

Otherwise, ronin tend to be called "brotherhoods"/"otokodate" in setting, rather than families - but exceptions definitely exist.

That's dependent on whether you're talking a bunch of similar-age, not blood related ronin who are travelling and contracting themselves out together (something like The Warriors Of The Boar in the fiction The Fires Of Justice) or an actual family - spouse, siblings, children, etc.

In the latter case they are a family. But they're not a 'Family' - they don't get a family 'bloodline name' in the eyes of Rokugani Law and would instead identify themselves by a place-name of origin or a characteristic or something instead of a family name (so 'Jim-Bob no Toshi Ranbo' rather than 'Doji Jim-Bob' ).

You don't get to be a Family 'officially' unless a named family makes you one.

15 hours ago, Glorious Chief said:

The players are asked by the minor clans to investigate these families in more detail and provide the clans with their findings. They aim to see if the families will fit each clan's personality.

It seems unusual for multiple minor clans to consider multiple ronin brotherhoods jointly simultaneously, and even more odd for the minor clans to ask a third party to make the decision. Are your players going to be Great Clan Samurai?

Multiple clans competing for the allegiance of a ronin group, or multiple ronin groups trying to join a clan is one thing, but the many-to-many seems odd.

16 hours ago, Glorious Chief said:

Ide - Known for raising koi fish for ponds located at inns, halfways houses and other establishments throughout Rokugan.

Symbol- Two koi swimming in a circle.

Okuda - Oversees a number of hillside rice paddy villages and owns a good number of halfways houses and inns along nearby roads. Has done a lot of work punishing bandit groups and protecting travelers.

Symbol - Egret

Yamashina - Has built a strong reputation for having skilled negotiators and diplomats. Works chiefly among Mercantile families, businesses and the minor clans.

Symbol - The Great Purple Emperor Butterfly

Rokkaku - Maintains a series of very secluded temples in the Shinomen Forest were they maintain relationships with spirits (think the anime Mushi-shi). Their members travel far and wide, helping to maintain balance with the spiritual health and well being of Rokugan and its people. Often, their arrival precedes storms and have often been associated with bad omens.

Symbol - Wind and flowing water

Fair enough. Comments about the Ide name aside, then they look like nice concepts.

15 hours ago, Glorious Chief said:

Also struggling to find a decent map too.

What region are you after a map of? Look for Francesca Baerald on Deviantart - she's FFG's cartographer artist, and you'll find a lot of jaw-dropping stuff.

Hello everyone. Sorry for disappearing there. My laptop has run into an issue and I cannot use it at this time

However, my game is going very well thus far. Both players are from the Crane Clan, one a seasoned and older female samurai while the other is a fresh young member of the Crane right out of the Doji school.

They were invited to visit the Fox Clan where their Daimyo was holding a small feast which included representatives of the other minor clans I am including in my campaign. While there, the ronin families make their offers somewhat openly and in front of everyone. Being from the Crane and acting as a sort of diplomat to the minor clans, my PCs are tasked with rebuilding relations with the clans as the previous diplomat soured the relations between the minor clans and the Crane.

They will be given the task to parse through the ronin and see what they do, if they fit the minor clans and rebuild relations. The relations are rebuildable but it requires some work to do. Of course, other nearby major clans, the Crab and Scorpion, may have something to say about it.

As pointed out to me, I also changed the Ide to Imai. Hopefully it works.

The samurai was tested in a nonviolent duel and won in one strike. During the duel I threw in a reference to Seven Samurai because why not! Lol.

But so far, we are all really enjoying the game. It flows really well.