https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/11/4/a-lordless-life/
Starting previews, probably means the book is later this month or in Dec (and then I'm waiting for april 1st for the pdf jeez).
This one outlines some ronin stuff and mentions there will be a new game of 20 questions to give you a more detailed and specific backstory which works better for non-Clan samurai.
Was hoping for more meat on the bones. Some details or examples.
Loving the intro quote:
“When you reach town, you will need a vantage point overlooking the harbor, so you notice when the shipment arrives. Keiichi’s inn south of the docks will do. Pay, and he will let you stay as long as you want without asking questions. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Forgive me, I—” The rōnin flushes. “I am surprised you know Keiichi’s.”
“Oh, I was not always a respectable old lady in a fancy castle. Do this thing for me well, and perhaps you will earn that story.”
14 hours ago, UnitOmega said:This one outlines some ronin stuff and mentions there will be a new game of 20 questions to give you a more detailed and specific backstory which works better for non-Clan samurai.
11 hours ago, Harzerkatze said:Was hoping for more meat on the bones. Some details or examples.
Well, I assume the PCs from The Highwayman (the GenCon storyline game) were generated using the new system, so they'll be examples.
Holy crap, some of those look awesome! I didn't think I'd be very interested.
I'm hoping there are rules for creating character from Merenae and Thrane from across the Sea of Amaterasu. At a minimum, the Battle of White Stag begs the question as to characters from the nation(s) that dared to wage a Naval War with Rokugan, even if the latter refuses to acknowledge it as an official war.
I am very curious about the "Sage" role. Is it some kind of combination of Monk and Shugenja, perhaps?
Also; how will Honor come into play for Gaijin characters? Will they be bound to it the same way or will they handle it differently from others?
4 hours ago, MirumotoOrashu said:I am very curious about the "Sage" role. Is it some kind of combination of Monk and Shugenja, perhaps?
Also; how will Honor come into play for Gaijin characters? Will they be bound to it the same way or will they handle it differently from others?
I rather expect it to be something along the lines of Artisan: Prerequisite to a few rituals, with no overlap to invocations or kiho.
It will have to be seen if it is disadvantageous to the older sage schools like Asako Loremaster that they were designed before this was designed, like it is a disadvantage to be from a shinobi school that was out before Courts of Stone and thus has not access to all ninjutzu.
7 hours ago, MirumotoOrashu said:I am very curious about the "Sage" role. Is it some kind of combination of Monk and Shugenja, perhaps?
Also; how will Honor come into play for Gaijin characters? Will they be bound to it the same way or will they handle it differently from others?
There is a bit in Across the Burning Sands (the Unicorn Novella) when Shono has a sudden realisation that these Gaijin have their own kind of honour, even if it isn't to exactly the same code as bushido. I'm pretty sure that they will use that as something of a precedent for all of the foreigners.
On 11/6/2019 at 7:04 PM, Tonbo Karasu said:There is a bit in Across the Burning Sands (the Unicorn Novella) when Shono has a sudden realisation that these Gaijin have their own kind of honour, even if it isn't to exactly the same code as bushido. I'm pretty sure that they will use that as something of a precedent for all of the foreigners.
Makes sense.
Part of me is hoping they do that as it would make the Gaijin stand out as even more "alien" as they can consider actions proper Samurai wouldn't even consider (like the imperial heir killing his father in a fit of rage) while also having some kind of code of conduct that they wouldn't break. However, another part of me is worried that it would divert attention from Bushido and its demands on samurai if everyone starts going on "The path of I-was-going-do-that-anyway", but that might just be my bad experiences with Vampire the Masquerade talking.
12 hours ago, MirumotoOrashu said:Makes sense.
Part of me is hoping they do that as it would make the Gaijin stand out as even more "alien" as they can consider actions proper Samurai wouldn't even consider (like the imperial heir killing his father in a fit of rage) while also having some kind of code of conduct that they wouldn't break. However, another part of me is worried that it would divert attention from Bushido and its demands on samurai if everyone starts going on "The path of I-was-going-do-that-anyway", but that might just be my bad experiences with Vampire the Masquerade talking.
However, in the Sabbat, paths were considered to be something worthy by the social environment around them. I am pretty sure that non-Bushido honour is something that would be looked down on by the social environment, if it's even recognised at all.
I mean...the really interesting things here if they want to make changes to Honor for gaijin is...a few shuji and other techs refer to it. So either those are banned for gaijin schools, or functionally the same, I guess?
8 hours ago, Horvagab said:I mean...the really interesting things here if they want to make changes to Honor for gaijin is...a few shuji and other techs refer to it. So either those are banned for gaijin schools, or functionally the same, I guess?
l5r rpg is not about mechanical power (it is broken af anyway) it is about CHOICES and building the WORLD.
drop mic.
On 11/8/2019 at 10:54 PM, Tonbo Karasu said:I am pretty sure that non-Bushido honour is something that would be looked down on by the social environment, if it's even recognised at all.
Completely. If anything it makes honour more central to the player - since, for any campaign set in the Empire, Bushido and the Celestial Order remains the guiding principles of the law. So you still have to comply with it in order not to be a criminal and subject to summary execution, but one or more elements of it may be completely at odds with your personal code of honour.
It's much like the arguments had about scorpion PCs taking the clan philosophy to extreme and doing nefarious things to quietly remove potential threats to the Empire before they ever crystallise.
Yes , in the eyes of Bayushi, you are taking the correct approach to serving the throne and as such can expect the GM to award you a shed-tonne of honour.
No , That's not going to stop you being hauled in front of the magistrate and politely offered the opportunity to perform the three cuts (before the charges have to be read out publically) if anyone finds out what you actually did!
Edited by Magnus GrendelOn 11/8/2019 at 11:54 PM, Tonbo Karasu said:I am pretty sure that non-Bushido honour is something that would be looked down on by the social environment, if it's even recognised at all.
35 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:Completely. If anything it makes honour more central to the player - since, for any campaign set in the Empire, Bushido and the Celestial Order remains the guiding principles of the law. So you still have to comply with it in order not to be a criminal and subject to summary execution, but one or more elements of it may be completely at odds with your personal code of honour.
I completely agree on the point of non-Bushido Honor-codes being a point of conflict with the rest of Rokugan, and a very interesting one at that.
The scorpion being underhanded is distasteful, but them doing what they do out of duty to the Empire is reasonable considering of Bushido. Some gaijin picking a fight to "defend the honor" of some heimin is utterly alien.
And being that gaijin who has to suppress acting upon their own code of honor to not get stabbed by these warrior-nobles, and trying to find a way to deal with it before you lose your own sense of honor, is pretty appealing!
Both of these scenarios makes for great hooks for a story and I really do hope we get to see it!
As I said, my worry is that people will find an excuse to use whatever honor-system fits whatever they wanted to do anyway, but that is just my worries after playing too much vampire with people who just wanted to do stupid **** and use their path as an excuse to get out of trouble.
The more I think about it, the more I want it.
17 minutes ago, MirumotoOrashu said:Some gaijin picking a fight to "defend the honor" of some heimin is utterly alien.
Indeed. Depending on what gaijin cultures we get, the whole samurai/heimin/hinin thing is an obvious point for conflict. "Don't randomly decide to stab your sworn lord in the back" is a pretty universal concept in most cultures from Bushido to Chivalry to the basic principle of "murder is bad", but things which are more associated with specific Rokugani beliefs are much more fertile ground for drama.
It reminds me of James Clavell's Shogun , where a Blackthorne's European crew don't get the 'caste' concept at a fundamental level - since (for example) ship's cook doubled as the butcher and was one of the ship's higher ranking officers. Said crewman gets accommodated with a hinin family and doesn't understand why people think they should be angry about it.
Equally, seppuku to restore honour is supposed to expiate basically any sin of the committing party - but in many other cultures, suicide is a mortal sin in and of itself, and being asked to 'second' someone would be a truly repulsive concept.
Edited by Magnus GrendelA new preview is online, its about the Ivory Kingdoms, https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/11/11/the-ivory-kingdoms/
And on Katrina Ostrander twitter this image of an Ujik Diviner can be found
Welp, there's your Moto Death Priest.
Yep, got some new notes here. Detail about the ivory kingdoms, some internal groups, probably some stuff about the Ghostlands (the reverse side of the Shadowlands). Get a name drop for the Dancing Blades tradition, and an Alchemist title. It sounds to me like Sage is either the gaijin shugenja, or now even more possibly a "scientist" role, given the mention about the Caliphate and their mathematicians and alchemists. Probably not something we'd see native to Rokugan outside of the Agasha.
Also confirmed, rules for outlining a custom school, and your own gaijin lands which can be playable.
It's nice to see the Ivory Kingdoms will be less monolithic than how they were presented in the past
6 hours ago, Daigotsu Max said:It's nice to see the Ivory Kingdoms will be less monolithic than how they were presented in the past
Indeed. Historically there were hundreds of Rajahs and Thakurs. Only Alexander the Great's capture of Punjab and his subsequent crossing of the river into India proper caused them to set aside their difference and unite against the foreign invader from the West. Glad to see that will be replicated to some degree.
Well...
The Gaijin are coming to L5R. Knowing that they recycle art, and that the art in the preview (the guy and girl side by side) is the card/novella format art.
We can expect either a big influx of Gaijin cards to the LCG, or something more.
I appreciate how they are constantly coming out with new and interesting ways to play L5R, but when playing a Samurai game I have no interest in playing a Gaijin. I'm a little annoyed that there are so many Minor Clans left untouched and they're instead spending their time creating Gaijin. I may be in the minority here, but I guess I feel they should flesh out the rest of Rokugan before going beyond its borders.
As a lifelong Mantis Player (nearly 15 years now), I actually kind of hate what that Yoritomo are in the RPG. I'm patiently waiting to see what my Tsuruchi and Moshi are up to, but still no info on the Wasp or Centipede. Have yet to play the new RPG because of this. Guess I'll continue to wait.
The Ivory Kingdoms apparently have five factions, "the ruling Sheelavaan, the Mukka religious sect, the Saamrajya monarchy, the Tajir traders, and the Naga serpent folk". For what it's worth, a quick online check found that "Sheelavaan" is Hindi for "urbane" and "Mukka" is a town in Karnataka state, but I don't know if the word has other significance. "Sammrajya" is Hindi for "empire" or "kingdom", and "Tajir" is used in Indonesian, Arabic, and Urdu to mean "merchant". I'm not a speaker of any of these languages. That's just what came up in a Google search.
I'm wondering if the silent Crab watchtower has perhaps been taken by Naga. The last time we saw them, they were getting somewhat annoyed by Kaiu Shuichi.