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Mors Rattus posted:e: and no, yeah, the Kuni definitely have...problems. Like, I get the idea of wanting them to be combat wizards to the extreme, but having literally no access to major social skills whatsoever is a Bad Time in L5R. Oh yeah, that sucks too, I just had the realization that their hyper-focus might actually be a bad thing even in games with that focus, which I haven't seen mentioned, whereas their inability to do anything else is obvious. If you're fighting Taint, and there's a Kuni there, it's now all about the Kuni because of how much better they are than everyone else at dealing with it. If you're doing a Shadowlands thing, then presumably everyone or almost everyone should be fighting monsters, but how good the Kuni are at that warps the game around them, so you have to deal with the issue of things how to adequately challenge everyone instead of having one person effortlessly deal with things or everyone else struggle to keep up. It seems like there's just no good way to balance it; ironically, I think that a Shadowlands game might be a bad game, one of the worst, to use a Kuni character because of this, despite seeming like the most obvious one. You want everyone to have a place in the game, so one person so thoroughly outclassing everyone else in the thing central to the campaign is not great. The ideal game for one, I think, is one where there's a suspected lurking demon problem as a major plot point but not the central one. Maybe in a court setting or some other place social stuff is needed, where normal combat, like with bandits or jackass samurai, is also a likely event. Maybe a lord's castle and the surrounding village. Kuni gets to be the primary Taint investigator, figuring out who is or isn't possessed, but needs to get help from the others to convince them of the threat or gain access to whatever, and/or their demon-hunting causes problems the others need to smooth over. At some point the demon thing is found and can be some major boss, so it being stronger than normal and the bushi having a battle where their priority is supporting the Kuni and protecting bystanders rather than being the thing-killers is a fun change of pace rather than the norm, and in the other fights that may happen the Kuni can still contribute without dominating. Edit: Also, the mental image of some scary Crab mystic with their face paint and complete lack of manners terrifying and pissing off the more refined people so their allies have to placate them is amusing to me. And meanwhile the Kuni is probably in the background breaking into the lord's bedroom to investigate it for demonic influence or something. Basically, they need a game with Tainted stuff, but not about Tainted stuff; they're too good at fighting it and don't give others much room to be involved, so the game needs a lot of other stuff going on too, at least some of which they can also help with so that they don't just become a weapon the party deploys when a demon shows up and do nothing the rest of the time. Roland Jones fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Nov 8, 2018 |
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Nov 8, 2018 20:04
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It seems like every edition the Crab get one school devoted to explicitly Shadowlands stuff, which is frustrating as unless you've got that as a main element the class PC can feel like they're sitting on their hands a lot of the time. At the same time, being the best against Tainted stuff is the Crab's thing so I get why they have it. I just wish they weren't so single target sometimes.
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Nov 8, 2018 20:31
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At least the non-Kuni Crab schools are all pretty good at just general stuff. Like, the Hiruma have a bit of focus on fighting Big Monster Things but they can function decently well outside that specific arena anyway.
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Nov 8, 2018 20:33
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I mean, they start pretty focused, but they can fight and they can cast stone armor and after a single adventure they can pick up a few earth spells and never look back. I've got a crab in an upcoming campaign I'm running and my plan for him is to have a few zombies in the first adventure and then not worry about it too much from then on. Besides, it's medieval pseudo japan, why wouldn't you have ghosts all over the drat place.
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Nov 8, 2018 20:34
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Challenging a single Kuni really isn't as hard as people make it out to be. They are really fantastically good, but evil cheats. Give them a maho-slinger or two to throw down with while the rest of the party has to deal with the giant pile of cultists, zombies, and maybe minor oni that they run with. Kuni will rarely fail to cast, and 1v1 with a maho caster, they'll just win, but finding things for the rest of the party hasn't ever been the hard part. That's been trying to not just instantly wipe the party with one of the many completely broken maho spells. It's a lot like 4e D&D. A single big solo monster is rarely a good idea, even if it's a loving oni lord or something.
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Nov 8, 2018 20:59
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Also thank you for the effort post, Mors. I always like even vague build guides.
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Nov 9, 2018 03:52
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Dick Burglar posted:Also I wish Crab clan had a cooler animal mascot than a crab. I know crabs are tenacious or whatever but they're still crabs. 
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Nov 9, 2018 04:52
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crabs are super cool they're armored sea bugs with giant claws and cool little rectangular slot mouths like a 1950's robot
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Nov 9, 2018 04:59
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With a weak point you can attack for massive damage. Also thanks for all the summaries, Mors. That's pretty rad.
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Nov 9, 2018 06:05
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I wish I knew someone that was running the L5R RPG out here in Taiwan because I so very badly want to play a Soshi Illusionist named Gob. "Is this one of your tricks, Scorpion?" "It's not one of my tricks, Crane....IT'S MY ILLUSION!"
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Nov 9, 2018 19:06
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Yeah, but where did the incense come from?
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Nov 9, 2018 19:20
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when a scorp plays meek informant and u have way of the crab
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Nov 9, 2018 19:34
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Ruzihm posted:when a scorp plays meek informant and u have way of the crab Crab/Scorpion is one of my favorite dynamics because they have a shared overlap of 'we do poo poo work for the Emperor so the land can be safe and the guys like the Crane and Lion maybe don't respect us like they should' but just completely different concepts. Right now in my game I'm playing a Scorpion illusionist (that school is so fun) and my friend's Crab engineer has become friends with my character, but will just not let me get away with anything. The campaign is focused around a blood mage treason plot hiding as smugglers and bandits, so naturally we both agree 'yea these guys gotta die' since that's kinda our clans' overview, but it's just a constant battle of the engineer looking at my scorpion and going 'you clearly forgot to tell us you lightened the 'bandits' illicit cargo a bit before hand, right, my good friend Scorpion?' and me trying to use illusions and junk to send some illicit poo poo home so my lord can more 'control the flow' than 'completely wipe out' as the Crab would like. Meanwhile the poor phoenix we have with us is just kinda constantly trying to remind us 'hey, you remember the real threat here is heretical blood magic that could be used to kill the imperial family right?' and our Unicorn merchant is just kinda trying to make sure the actual legitimate business doesn't get hosed up. L5R is a good game, y'all.
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Nov 9, 2018 23:53
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So, question. My game is about being the handpicked advisors to the Boy Emperor Daisetsu, for various reasons involving Shoju's complex and intricate plots to make people very angry. This means that all of 'em are starting with Titles, and this led to a question - when does the Status boost from a Title happen, when you get it or when you complete it?
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Nov 9, 2018 23:59
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I think it's when it's bestowed on you, since that's when the officials are all 'this guy's a cool guy with a fancy title' so that'd be when people take notice and go 'ooooh fancy title, that guy sounds like a cool guy'.
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Nov 10, 2018 00:11
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Hey guys, been away for a bit. Didn’t think anyone cared about the Discord WC but yes, Singapore’s still in it and hoping to go all the way. Thanks for the support! The WC is currently on a long break due to FFG Worlds and waiting for new Restricted List though, so it might be some time before we see more games. No, I’m not Johnny Shen, the Scorp finalist for FFG Worlds. We hung out when he came to Singapore a while back though, and I’m still 2-0 up on him in match records (; We like to tease him for running only 2 Ways of the Scorpion in his Worlds deck. New roles I think went about as well as it could. Crane gimped themselves for the sake of Crab which is cool. (SoV was the better choice but if they took it then Dragon would take KoW leaving Crab with nothing) Cranes took quite a hit from losing SBR and gaining nothing much in return. Rumors of their new SH suggest they have nothing to worry about though (; Dragon IMO got stronger. SoV is super good with FoF going on the RL. Scorpion now has a Crane splash variant with SBR/Noble Sac and Mark of Shame, so look out for that in the coming months. I’m in the midst of jumping into an L5R RPG game, actually. Being my first RPG, you guys got any tips for me? Was considering a Kitsuki or Shosuro if that helps.
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Nov 10, 2018 13:21
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nyxnyxnyx posted:Hey guys, been away for a bit. Didn’t think anyone cared about the Discord WC but yes, Singapore’s still in it and hoping to go all the way. Thanks for the support! The WC is currently on a long break due to FFG Worlds and waiting for new Restricted List though, so it might be some time before we see more games. Martin, right? What are people thinking the new restrictions coming will be?
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Nov 10, 2018 16:43
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Yep. Hard to say, haven’t really heard any leaks for RL. We all know FoF is going on but with Dragon on SoV I would hope that Dragon gets hit some other way. Restoration of Balance on RL might be interesting, though a bit drastic. Right now I place the clans roughly like this assuming top level competition: Dragon > Phoenix > Crane/Scorp > Crab > Uni/Lion Just hoping the RL helps the bottom (removing FGG for example) and addresses the top end without being too heavy handed.
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Nov 10, 2018 17:26
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I am having a lot of fun with my Dragon courtier. If your campaign is anything like mine, ranks in courtesy are golden. Make sure you pick advantages that will come up often: Keen memory, sight or hearing as an investigator will easily drop three or four times a session. Void clients aren’t that important so if you want to pick a rare weakness, enemy is still the way to go like previous editions. I love weaknesses with the downside is your character gets more screen time.
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Nov 10, 2018 17:58
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Are there any in depth videos out with either actual play or just really thorough explanations of how the RPG plays? I posted about trying the beginner game with my friends and being really unhappy with how it went. I’m still unsure if the adventure(or premade characters) were poorly written or if we just didn’t understand the rules well enough or if this game just isn’t for us. I’m reluctant to buy anything else until I have a better understanding of the game.
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Nov 10, 2018 18:19
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I really want to try out the new RPG, but I have no one to play it with. I wish I had local friends who were interested in tabletop RPGs. Austin has a great local gaming shop (Dragon's Lair), but to be honest, I do not trust randos at a gamer shop to not be massive pieces of poo poo (or at least the worst kind of weebs), so I'm super sketch about joining a gaming group, as opposed to turning my friends into a gaming group. The local place also smells like a local gaming shop, which makes me assume Bad Things about their clientele.
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Nov 10, 2018 18:50
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There’s a massively huge Discord. If you can’t find it PM me for a link.
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Nov 10, 2018 18:56
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Part of the appeal of doing it locally would be that I could borrow somebody else's rulebook, saving me 50 bucks 
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Nov 10, 2018 19:09
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nyxnyxnyx posted:Yep. I would definitely like to see the new set come out before they RL some new cards. I think the new Lion attachment control card is a step in the right direction regarding Dragon balance. Like, I know attachments are their thing and all but I think all clans should have some way of dealing with that in faction without just having to splash Dragon for Let Go. I'd like to see every faction get some form of restricted event, attachment, and holding control. We're seeing some of it with the new Lion card, or the Phoenix holding that discards cards in provinces if you have a Scholar; more stuff like that, for each faction so that people actually start taking cards from other factions beyond meta cards. If there is a card that I feel should be on the restricted list now though it's Voice of Honor.
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Nov 10, 2018 20:26
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I'm really enjoying my Kaiu Engineer. But it recently came up that I made a crab despite them being my least favorite core clan... because I wanted to get away from always being the supportive sweet bards of other games. And now I'm playing a Kaiu which is like, both socially and combat wise super supportive of others.
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Nov 12, 2018 18:50
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KittyEmpress posted:I'm really enjoying my Kaiu Engineer. But it recently came up that I made a crab despite them being my least favorite core clan... because I wanted to get away from always being the supportive sweet bards of other games. Yeah but at least you're not sweet.
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Nov 12, 2018 19:39
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Mors Rattus posted:Yeah but at least you're not sweet. Nope, I'm surly and constantly telling everyone how they're idiots for worrying about petty things, while drinking and knowing everything there is to know about sake.
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Nov 13, 2018 01:50
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nyxnyxnyx posted:I’m in the midst of jumping into an L5R RPG game, actually. Being my first RPG, you guys got any tips for me? Was considering a Kitsuki or Shosuro if that helps. In past editions a Kitsuki Investigator is a lot a fun if you have a GM that plays along. It’s a feudal justice system so like 95% of evidence is going to hinge on witness testimony, a magistrate isn’t going to believe most forensic evidence you can present. Fingerprints? What makes you think multiple people can’t have have the same fingerprints? The footprints found at the scene denote a man 30lbs heavier than the defendant? He’s been in prison for the last 3 weeks awaiting the magistrate, of course he’s lost weight. Then you have to worry that by trying to defend the accused you’re impugning the honor of the witness and if that’s another samurai you bet the witness is going to defend his honor. You’re best bet is to usually piece together what happened and then confront the guilty party and trick them into confessing, like Columbo or Poirot.
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Nov 13, 2018 23:58
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Mors Rattus posted:I actually think that shugenja look way scarier than they are because of the same thing that makes the Agasha actually a good school when you learn how to use them: elements. A Shugenja can't use an invocation whose element doesn't match their stance. This means that you can pretty easily guess what approaches are going to be best against them if you figure out what invocations they're planning on using. How is that going to uniquely disadvantage casters, though? Kata require particular stances as well. The kata user who knows his opponent favors Fire and uses kata with Fire-disadvantaged resist checks will receive tough TNs in turn when the caster knows what elements his favorite kata require. Incidentally the stance system is extra cool and we need way more stuff like the TNs that change by victim stance. There are the roots of a great tactical experience in this game. edit: LCG chat What's anyone's experience using Kyuden Bayushi? I feel like I can't bear to part with the power of City of the Open Hand and actually just barely don't self-dishonor quite enough to use Kyuden Bayushi well. SuperKlaus fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Nov 14, 2018 |
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Nov 14, 2018 02:22
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SuperKlaus posted:How is that going to uniquely disadvantage casters, though? Kata require particular stances as well. The kata user who knows his opponent favors Fire and uses kata with Fire-disadvantaged resist checks will receive tough TNs in turn when the caster knows what elements his favorite kata require. Primarily because Katas usually are beneficial but are not required - your average bushi can handle being out of their ideal stance for a while and still hit guys well. A shugenja and a courtier are both going to be more reliant on their invocations and shujis (respectively) in combat, being less good at the basic gameplay of 'hit a guy', with shugenjas having more flashy and splashier effects at the cost of spiritual backlash risks, and courtiers being more likely to know katas or basic hit-man skills.
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Nov 14, 2018 02:33
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Dick Burglar posted:I really want to try out the new RPG, but I have no one to play it with. I wish I had local friends who were interested in tabletop RPGs. Austin has a great local gaming shop (Dragon's Lair), but to be honest, I do not trust randos at a gamer shop to not be massive pieces of poo poo (or at least the worst kind of weebs), so I'm super sketch about joining a gaming group, as opposed to turning my friends into a gaming group. The local place also smells like a local gaming shop, which makes me assume Bad Things about their clientele. Mine was cool actually, until I moved.
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Nov 14, 2018 03:25
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:In past editions a Kitsuki Investigator is a lot a fun if you have a GM that plays along. It’s a feudal justice system so like 95% of evidence is going to hinge on witness testimony, a magistrate isn’t going to believe most forensic evidence you can present. Fingerprints? What makes you think multiple people can’t have have the same fingerprints? The footprints found at the scene denote a man 30lbs heavier than the defendant? He’s been in prison for the last 3 weeks awaiting the magistrate, of course he’s lost weight. Yeah, Kitsuki Investigators kind of seem like you're RPing a Phoenix Wright game basically; get your evidence and hopefully don't get assaulted by the bad guy, then "prove" their guilt while dealing with everyone being dicks to you for no real reason and the deck being stacked against you because why not, until you drive the guilty party into a breakdown and they admit their guilt in front of everyone.
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Nov 14, 2018 04:20
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Mors Rattus posted:Primarily because Katas usually are beneficial but are not required - your average bushi can handle being out of their ideal stance for a while and still hit guys well. A shugenja and a courtier are both going to be more reliant on their invocations and shujis (respectively) in combat, being less good at the basic gameplay of 'hit a guy', with shugenjas having more flashy and splashier effects at the cost of spiritual backlash risks, and courtiers being more likely to know katas or basic hit-man skills. All characters have equal access to skill purchases. There is school curriculum to consider but as most shugenja schools offer in-curriculum Martial Skills somewhere along the line, any character can grab a couple ranks of anything they please during the Twenty Questions, and a shugenja may have incentive to buy Martial Skills curriculum be damned to take proper advantage of magic like Biting Steel and (Weapon) of (Element) that grants him sweet power-ups for several rounds after spending but one round in the right stance for casting, it is assuming too much to figure a bushi will have a baseline combat check-making advantage large enough to overcome his inability to pull off wild poo poo like monster summoning and flight.
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Nov 14, 2018 05:42
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I think that the class of dedicated combatants being more reliable in combat than the class of pacifist priests is the game working as intended.
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Nov 14, 2018 12:42
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Oh, hey, I missed it if this was posted, but the PDF for the core book has been out for a couple of weeks. Nice for anyone who wants a digital version or whatever. Also, I just noticed it upon rereading their info, Storm Fleet Tide Seers only have Air and Water invocations under the techniques they have access to, rather than invocations in general the way the "core" shugenja schools do, though Fury of Osano-Wo is in their curriculum. That's interesting, and fitting, if limiting; I wonder if that's going to be common for minor clan shugenja. Some are a bit easier to narrow down than others; Moshi shugenja would be Air and Fire, obviously, but the Kitsune are a bit harder to pin, since their thing is "nature" and animals and whatnot rather than specific elements, as a couple of examples. I suppose we'll see whenever the next minor clan shugenja school is released. It definitely makes those shugenja more predictable in battle and such, though the minor clans are usually focused enough that their general strategies are probably pretty obvious anyway (Centipede shugenja are going to light you on fire, Mantis ones will do storm-y stuff or hit you with lightning, etc).
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Nov 15, 2018 09:11
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so in regards to the RPG, I want to make sure I'm understanding Critical Strike severity correctly: When suffering a Critical Strike from a weapon, the Severity is equal to the weapon's deadliness. Critical Strikes don't necessarily stack. So I could wail on someone all day with a Hammer (Deadliness 2), and they won't die. Seems... weird.
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Nov 17, 2018 03:23
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FrostyPox posted:so in regards to the RPG, I want to make sure I'm understanding Critical Strike severity correctly: If you hit someone unconscious (by making their fatigue exceed their endurance) you get +10 crit severity.
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Nov 17, 2018 03:46
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Zarick posted:If you hit someone unconscious (by making their fatigue exceed their endurance) you get +10 crit severity. Ah! I missed that part some how. Thanks!
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Nov 17, 2018 03:51
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FrostyPox posted:Ah! I missed that part some how. Thanks! Also there are kata that modify it, including a rank five ranged one that doubles deadly if you knock them out with the shot.
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Nov 17, 2018 10:54
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You may also want to invoke the suggested rule (written next to the crits table I believe) that if you take the same scarring crit twice you start dying instead. Helps a lot to make sure a person can in fact be killed by getting kicked in the head a lot or whatever despite a kick's low deadliness.Lord_Hambrose posted:I think that the class of dedicated combatants being more reliable in combat than the class of pacifist priests is the game working as intended. The point is that shugenja are not in fact less reliable unless they wish to be so as they are afforded the same skill choices as anyone else. Mors Rattus and I are discussing what happens when Techniques are shut off and not considered (see the statement that kata-users are more comfortable than invocation-users when neither can use the stance they want). I take this to mean we are discussing Skills because the engine is Rings, Skills, and Techniques, and Rings are obviously perfectly equally available to all PCs. Any shugenja may get Martial Arts 2 during character creation simply by choosing the Skill option at Step 7 and the Disadvantage plus Skill option at Step 13. The shugenja may increase Martial Arts again via Samurai Heritage (with luck or if Heritage is not used randomly [and it really should not be used randomly]), making Martial Arts 3 possible at creation. Martial Arts 3 is the cap at creation, so no bushi can exceed that skill. Another option for getting a rank of Martial Arts exists at Step 17, though that path can't stack to 3. Further, if Martial Arts is too hard to get or not desired, physical-conflict-relevant skills like Fitness or Tactics are readily available from myriad sources, beginning with Clan and Family. Fitness particularly serves everyone because it's the skill for most resistance checks (to say nothing of crits) and it's further combat-adjacent because it's how you'd do a stunt like pushing a sake barrel on to a dude's head. So even shugenja unskilled at "apply sword to man" can easily possess useful physical conflict skills. Turning to specifics, I think we can agree that Kuni shugenja are martially-oriented. Past them, though, the Agasha and Iuchi shugenja get Martial Arts as a +1 Skill option at creation. Every dojo except the Asahina gets the Martial Skill Group in-curriculum at some point in their course, sometimes twice. The combat-adjacent skills are frequent sights in starting bonus options and curricula. Thus we see that a shugenja who wishes to compete at applying swords to mans is at most one Skill Rank behind his bushi cousin at creation and probably only a rank or two behind him mid- or late-career. This difference in effectiveness in the bushi's favor when Techniques are shut off is much smaller than the difference in effectiveness in the shugenja's favor when Techniques are on.
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Nov 17, 2018 21:04
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