Legend of the Five Rings, anybody played it? Options

[Adarael]

I've made my sentiments known, Toturi. I'm certain that you enjoy the tournament controlled metaplot. I have never liked the idea, even during 1st edition. I'm gonna leave it at that, because I'm certain I'll not change your mind, and I know you won't change mine. The fact of the matter is that there's definitely enough room in the game to change history or keep it verbatim.

Moon-Hawk, the 1st rank characters are reasonably competent. They're not gonna be too amazing at any one thing, but they won't suck, either. Let me give you an example. We'll say we have a Phoenix samurai known as Isawa Akikata. Now, despite being of the Isawa family, Akikata never had any skill at speaking to the spirits of Rokugan despite the prominence of his immediate family's shugenja. So he got his ass shipped off to the Shiba bushi school to learn about chopping folks up. Even so, his family expected that he comport himself like a proper Isawa and learn his ass about some spirits. His sheet, optimized for killing and being wise in the ways of spirits, is as follows:

EARTH: 2
Stamina: 3
Willpower: 2

WATER: 2
Strength: 2
Perception: 2

FIRE: 3
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 3

AIR: 2
Reflexes: 2
Awareness: 3

VOID: 2

Skills:
Defense 3 (Mastery 1)
Kyujutsu 1
Meditation (Void Recovery) 1
Spears 3
Theology 3
Calligraphy 1
Divination 2
Etiquette 2
Lore: Spirits: 2

Advantages:
Precise Memory (3)

Disadvantages:
Social Disadvantage (3 points - not a Shugenja)
Driven (Prove self to father, 3 points)

TN to be hit: 15 (18) (+5 from standard light armor, +3 from Defense)

Glory: 0
Honor: 2.5
Status: 1

With this sheet, we can see that Akikata will easily be able to hit the standard TN (15) with the skills he's good at (Theology, Stabbing Fools, Not Getting Stabbed By Fools). What's more, he stands a decent chance of doing well with his spirit lore, etiquette, and divination skills as well. His standard TN to be hit in combat is above average, owing to his Defense rating 3, which affords him a mastery bonus. He can also use his rank 1 technique to add his void ring rating to his TN to be hit, attack rolls, or damage rolls. Nobody's gonna count on Akikata to hold the line against the charging Matsu, but nobody should expect him to, either. They should expect him to fight and die like a good bushi, or fight and live and everyone gets a nice surprise because the cannon fodder made it out alive.

Another fact to keep in mind is that starting L5R characters are supposed to be fresh-faced from their gempukku, between the ages of 16 and 18. If you're running a game where people are supposed to have been around the block a bit, by all means, give them more XP. Starting characters are supposed to be new at this. If they're not new, they deserve more XP.

[Moon-Hawk]

Thanks, that was really helpful. I was feeling like I'd done something wrong when I looked at the sample NPCs and saw that a frickin' bandit rolls 8k4 to attack, and I started feeling pretty bad about my measly 4k2 for my sneaky guy.
I guess I haven't done too miserably on my starting characters after all.

[DuckEggBlue Omeg...]