My group and I have recently decided to try L5R 3e and we've heard terrifying things about how lethal it could be. Does anyone have any terrifying/funny/ or just plain good stories to share about your games? I know the lore after reading the core book and a few novels but I'm just curious to here war stories.

I, too, will be interested to hear about the experience of playing L5R. I bought the fourth edition book a week or two ago, and plan to run a one-shot (very) loosely based on The Seven Samurai.

Sadly, all I've ever been able to do is make characters, play in a free-form PBP game, and play in one very brief d20 L5R game...and obsessively read, read, read, the "real" L5R books. I've LOVE to give the game a shot some time.

Same, and I'm excited as can be to try it. And I've only talked to a few players who've actually played it before. And they all say it's deadly.. very very deadly.

Things about L5R:

With certain school technique related exceptions everryone has a very finite amount of hit points that combined with the exploding dice system (in L5R 10's always explode) death is always a distinct possibility. Include the fact that there is no hand of god rule, and no ressurection that most people will want means you cycle through characters fairly regularly.

The system is not balanced, at all. Is your name Mirumoto? Congratulations, your a tiny combat god walking astride lesser men you can kill with but a thought. Everybody else will range from OK to Sezume bushi. For being a much "softer" system then Shadowrun for example there are just as many inconsistancies or things that just flat weren't thought out well.

Amusing things: Getting killed by peasonts with sticks, getting killed by rattlings, getting killed by FISH.

Don't get me wrong I had fun with L5R for a long time but It has some serious issues as a gme world and system.

I don't play it much, but it's not because it's a bad system, it's because I'm Asian and kinda get weirded out playing (generally) alongside a bunch of white dudes enthusiastically pretending to be Asian.

Personal hangup, I guess. I get the same kinda half amused feeling when around guys with Asian kanji tattoos. Especially if the kanji doesn't say what the tattoo owner thinks it says.




-karma

Any particularly egregious examples spring to mind? I've always thought that probably happens a lot more than people expect.
Douchebag: "Dude, I, like, want the kanji for 'courage' on my left asscheek."
Tattoo Artist: "No problem." *inks the kanji for "moron"*

Well, off the top of my head I remember one guy who had what what he thought was the kanji for "No Fear" when he really had the Kanji for "Not Fear".

But more commonly I see nonsensical strings of kanji like "Hot Pickle Oven Toe" that were probably picked cos they look cool.

It's like Reverse Engrish.



-karma

Sort of like a Bilingual Bonus, only the bonus is that you look like an idiot. Score!

Eh, if I can pretend to be a spell-slinging guy or a cowboy or a Roman, I figure I can pretend to be a samurai, too.

As to the kanji tattoo problem, I hear you. The funny thing is, I know a lot of people who now assume *all* kanji tattos must be wrong.

Oh how I love Dumpshock and off topic discussions. Hahaha

Ever read those?

http://users.skynet.be/kumanagai/uk/l5r_comics/

The Haiku from our crab bushi during the Topaz tournament:

Katana is crap
My tetsubo is better
to smack big onis

(or something like that, hard to translate in English)

Alright. Everything that's been said is very true for all editions of the game, up to the revised 3rd edition of the rules. It is generally poorly edited and terribly un-balenced. Dragon and Crane bushi with high initiative destroy everything.

But, about 2 weeks ago, they released 4th edition. They rewrote everything. This is significant, because it's the first time that's happened - if you look at most schools from 3rd revised and compare them to the versions in the 1st edition of the book, most techniques are exactly the same (typos and all), just with additional abilities added onto the end. In 4th edition, that is no longer the case - things were re-written, rebalanced, redefined, and toned down.

It is (and always has been) an incredibly lethal game - the first person to do enough damage to push his target into -15 or more wound penalty wins, and a good combat character will do that with one damage roll. But then, that's how sword fights - and especially katana duels - work in real life.

In 3rd edition, the only bushi worth building are Dragon and Crane duelist; no one else has the speed, and speed is the only important thing in 1st - 3rd.

In 4th, things are significantly more even; there are significantly fewer free raises, armor reduces damage in addition to making you harder to hit, and normal is earth x5 instead of x2 so there's more health; all that together means hitting hard and being able to not be hit hard are as important as hitting fast, not getting hit, and hitting first. So Hida and Matsu can afford to let the Crane attack first and just pulp him when their turn comes around.

Courtiers are (supposed to be) very important. They are like the "face" in Shadowrun, only since combat is so lethal and since you are playing a proper samurai, talking and being social and showing proper courtesy and respect should be even more important. Whether or not this is how your game actually ends up depends mostly on your GM.

In 3rd, I honestly don't know enough to summarize beyond "Crane and Scorpion are the only ones worth playing".

In 4th, Crane are the best generalist Courtiers - in a standard Court with standard circumstances the Crane will win. The other Courtier schools either focus on different areas entirely (like the Dragon "investigation" Courtier or the Phoenix "Lore" Courtier) or focus on "alternative" tactics and methods of shifting the playing field in their favor - they can't match the Crane in his arena and they know it, so they make him "fight" on their terms (Crab, Mantis, Scorpion, and Unicorn all do this).

Shugenja are priests. They are not "mages", "wizards", "sorcerers", "adepts", or "magicians". They do have spells, and those spells are very nice, but that is not what they do in the setting. They are priests, shepherds, servants of the kami, spiritual guides of the samurai caste and Rokugan as a whole. You can build them as fairly nasty blasting type spellcasters, but even the best of them aren't as lethal as Bushi.

In 3rd edition, the Tamori are loads of fun - get Magic of Rokugan to learn "Earth Becomes Sky", pick up a quarterstaff, get 3 points of Staff fighting and lots of Defense (which all together with your high Earth ring results in a TNtbH in the 40s), and have fun Earthbending.

In 4th edition, the best blasters are the Moshi from the Mantis/Centipede clan - get the "cone of air[thunder]" spell and the "Fury of Osano-Wo", put lots of points into defense, and have fun. Some Kenjutsu (or Kyjutsu) might be a good choice too, since you'll have the Reflexes and Agility.