OOC Chat V

[Iuchi Saksaha]

*sends virtual chocolates and/or the blood of innocents to the overworked GM, depending on preference*

No hurry! We are a twitchy lot, but it's not as if anything in RL is urgently waiting on the next timeline update.

[Miya Mei]

I'm excited to see how your Kickstarter goes! This summer has been crazy busy for you, hope things calm down a little for winter.

Beta rules are up now by the way, and yes, it uses custom dice:

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.c ... lebook.pdf

200+ pages, a lot to go through.

Just finished reading the setting they presented, seems pretty standard to what we all know as L5R. Notable is that the office of the Jade Magistrate/Jade Champion hasn't been filled for years...

Mantis are a Minor clan and specifically mentioned as being powerful enough to command greater respect than most Minor clans.

Scorpion are detailed as reiterated as their role of being the loyal villain. Explanation also shows them taking the role of the Otomo: "They keep all clans united in hatred against them, yet divided so that no one clan can challenge the line to whom they owe undying loyalty: the Hantei"

Despite having custom dice, there is still the Roll and Keep mechanic. Ring (6 sided)+Skill (12 sided) keeping ring.

Skills aren't tied to rings, so you could roll an Earth+Katana or even Void+Katana for example depending on what you say you want to do (where in current it is Fire+Katana always). Say in Combat an Air would be to do a feint, Earth would be for enduring, Fire to overwhelm, Water to shift around an opponent, and Void to do whatever it takes no matter the cost to self.

TNs are 1 through 8.

Symbols: Success (grants 1 to beat TN), Explosive Success (Grants 1 to beat TN+roll extra of same dice symbol was on), Opportunity (secondary benefits, based on what ring you used), and Strife (negative effects).

Strife doesn't negate success, but builds up, once you hit your characters threshold, bad stuff happens. Bad stuff is pretty well laid out too so you don't have to come up with it on the fly. (A list of options to choose from)

Derived attributes such as health or strife threshold are a combination of two rings. Lots of balance here it seems.

Void points are a little different. start game with 1 per session, can gain more each session (examples are given) up to void ring. May be spent to roll and keep 1 extra ring die, block a critical hit, or activate a technique

Honor and Glory grant special extra flaws or disadvantages based on score.

Clan gives Status,family gives glory, school gives honor. (all give extra ring and skills. School gives techniques. )

Lots of options in character creation to flesh out stances on things and fleshing them out give extra mechanical benefits.

One random table during creation (heritage)

Advantages and Disadvantages are in.

Additional techniques not related to school (but require different stats) are in. Involve martial and social!

Duels are in and more deadly than skirmishes.

Combat still has stances.

Range system uses how far something is and how big it is.

Lots of modifiers for combat such as terrain, stances, position, etc etc.

Characters can sustain damage equal to their resilience then take crits. Crits are a sliding number, 1-16. Crits can outright kill you (a 16). Can be mitigated by a skill check to reduce how severe the crit is. Void spent to reduce a crit damages a weapon and always sets the crit to a 4, if no weapon instead a players body part can be used setting the crit at 9. Can still roll the skill to lower crit effect after as well ( always a fitness check) Unconscious characters can't use Void

Mass Battles are in!

[Kitsune Takeo]

At a glance...the rules look needlessly complicated in all aspects.

Character advancement, in particular, looks complicated.

No Void spells that I saw. The word ishiken does not appear in the text.

Dragon tattoos give only simple modifiers to skills.

[Miya Mei]

Character Creation Example:

Step 0: All rings at 1, All skills at 0. Note, no selection may improve anything over rank 3. If your selection would, you must may still make the selection, but must pick a different ring/skill than what your selection granted as long as that wouldn't increase higher than 3

Step 1: Clan
Unicorn (+1 Water +1 Survival 30 Status)

Step 2: Family
Otaku (+1 Earth, +1 Fitness, +1 Tactics 44 Glory)

Step 3: School
Shinjo Outrider (+1 Earth, +1 Fire Choose 5: +1 Commerce +1 Fitness +1 Martial Arts [Melee] +1 Martial Arts [Ranged] +1 Medicine +1 Survival +1 Tactics)

Techniques Available to purchase later: Kata, Shuji, Rituals

Starting Tech

Kata: (Choose 1: Striking as Fire, Striking as Water)

Shuji: Lady Shinjo's Speed

Honor: 40

School Ability: Born in the Saddle

Starting Outfit (gear)

Step 4: How do you stand in school?

(Choose +1 Fire, +1 Air, +1 Water, +1 Earth, +1 Void)

Steps 5-8: (Roleplay only, no direct mechanics)

Step 9: Greatest Acomplishment? (Chose a Specific Distinction)

Step 10: What holds you back? (Choose Specific Adversity)

Step 11: What makes you feel at peace? (Choose Specific Passion)

Step 12: What concern/fear troubles you most? (Choose Specific Anxiety)

Step 13: Who have you learned from most? (Chose one advantage related to mentor and relationship OR chose one disadvantage related to mentor and relationship but gain one rank in a skill

Step 14-17: (Roleplay only, no direct mechanics)

Step 18: Who was your character named to honor? (Roll 10 sided dice twice selecting whicher rol you prefer and consult Samurai Heritage table. Then roll 10 sided die a third time and do what entry says on table to gain bonus.

Step 19-20: (Roleplay only, no direct mechanics)

Step 21: Fill in derivative stats


Sooo

Final Character:

Otaku Omar

Unicorn Clan, Otaku Family, Shinjo Outrider

Status: 30
Honor: 40
Glory: 49

Rings:

Air: 1
Earth: 3
Fire: 1
Water: 2
Void: 2

Skills:
Fitness: 1
Martial Arts [Melee]: 1
Martial Arts [Ranged]: 1
Medicine: 1
Smithing: 1
Survival: 2
Tactics: 1

Derived Statistics:
Resilience (Water+Earthx2): 10
Composure (Earth+Firex2): 8
Focus: (Air+Fire): 2
Vigilance (Water+Air/2): 2 [note, any fractions are always rounded UP]
Max Void: 2

School Standing:
+1 Void

Heritage:
Wondrous Work (Increase Glory by 5, gain +1 to Smithing skill)

Distinction:
Indomitable Will (Earth)
Ally [Name] (Water) - earned from Step 13

Adversity:
Gaijin Name (Fire)

Passion (Max 3):
Animal Bond (Earth)

Anxiety (Max 3):
Ferocity (Air)

Techniques:
Kata: Striking as Water
Shuji: Lady Shinjo's Speed

School Ability:
Born in the Saddle

Available Techniques to Learn:
Any Kata, Shuji, and Rituals

[Usagi Tsukimi]

I'm old. Change is hard.

The change from nWOD to Chronicles of Darkness/Blood and Smoke has deterred me from jumping back into those games overall. I dip in here and there.

I think I'll be able to understand new L5r better. At least i hope so.

[Soshi Taira]

I think that while I plan to play the LCG, I may loiter in 4thed for the RPG.

Not sure.

[Ide Amaya]

I feel like too many things were changed for the sake of change, not to improve them in any way.

[Miya Mei]

Yeah, there is certainly an air of that in a lot of places. I'm still interested in it though, just need to see how well they listen to feedback. If the beta was a final product, I would not use it. So I'll reserve my final judgement til I see the hardcopy book.

Also, super cool vlog about the beginnings of L5R from a players perspective from 95-97. Great bit of history there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9jxVbg ... e=youtu.be

[Miya Mei]

RPG updates!

Lots of good stuff in here. Odd choice on how they distribute the updates though (second document instead of just re-releasing original document with colored changes)

One of the many great improvements is how they changed Strife. Now, when your character accumulates strife equal to or more than their strife limit, they cannot ever keep any dice with a strife symbol on them. In order to get rid of strife, you can either take the many different options that take time, or you can do what is called "Unmasking" which then has a number of different effects you can pick from. none of them make you lose control of your character, and all are appropriate to the setting.

They renamed Wounds to Fatigue to make things make more sense. Not a huge deal, but it shows FFG is listening!

Also, MANTIS CLAN PREVIEW! Don't worry, I know many of you dislike the Mantis in current 4th ed, but I think you will love the bit they showed here. Very different, and extremely flavorful.

Links:

Rules updates: https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.c ... es_v10.pdf

Mantis Preview: https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.c ... n-good.pdf

[Mindshred]

My first Kickstarter is live!

~Link~

[Otaku Imane]

Looking good! Already 2/3 of the way there with 28 days still to go

[Mindshred]

And up to 83% now!

[Seppun Hitako]

Was worried my funds wouldn't cover it, but a Black Friday deal left me a slight surplus, so I'll get a copy!

[Mindshred]

Was worried my funds wouldn't cover it, but a Black Friday deal left me a slight surplus, so I'll get a copy!

Thanks much!

[Moto Baatar]

The polls make it look like a lovely train wreck of a clan war/spirit war in the making! Should be fun!