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What edition is best for a complete newcomer to the system and the lore? When my 3.5 D&D game ends I might try out L5R

>>97493711
Lore wise, the 4th edition is the most "timeline agnostic" due to coming out near the tail end of the original CCG and thus having all manner of elements to pick and choose from including alternate continuities, but 5th edition also tends to be heavily considered due to the fact it chucks AEG's timeline out the window to start over from right before the Clan Wars. System wise from what I understand, it also tends to come to either the 4th or 5th editions depending on whether or not you want to play with Fantasy Flight Game's iteration of the system or not, since 4th edition is at least theoretically the most balanced of AEG's line. Though I'm sure someone is going to argue that not being balanced is the point and probably steer you to 3rd edition or a homebrewed version of it, but that's just my limited experience with it.

>>97493711
Yeah I'd say 5e for a total reset of the plot and meta stuff but the system is so ass. You might just stick to 4e and learn the little bits of plot it does have.

>>97493711
4e is where it is at, there are a few poorly done bits, like how kata and few schools got hit with the reactionary nerf bat too hard. 3e is crazy with its power level and weird quirks. 2e fucks so much shit up no one talks about it other than to mention the D&D 3.0 abomination that spawned the dual stat books. 1e is the OG and has a lot of flat out broken pieces (like anything shat out by Ree Soesbee).

>>97493711
4e. Some people like 5e and realistically you're only going to find people playing that or AiR, but it's a huge departure from how things used to be. Adventures in Rokugan isn't as much of a soulless skin walker as Oriental Adventures was, they tried to make it more unique, but it ultimately is just D&D 5e and represents yet another split in the timeline to accommodate non-human PCs into a more mystical tolerant Rokugan. Some of the most recent fluff stuff is in a fourth timeline, incidentally. It's completely fucked.

Been waiting for a thread to come, posting the ending to a story I started a long time ago.

Keep in mind that we're using an alternative view of how clans and schools work in fluff. Clans are political entities, while the "scorpion", "phoenix" and the others are like philosophical views single individuals decide to adopt. This gives me a more Sengoku feel with many major and minor clans dotting the land rather than a few big blobs, and opens the way to have a wider range of schools available. In the classic fluff you would have to jump through hoops to justify different clans working together or have everyone from the same clan, limiting options.

Our group is made up of an Akodo Commander, a Matsu Berserker, an Isawa Elementalist, a Shiba Guardian and a Shinjo Outrider. They all act as either counsellors or important individuals to their lord, even if they're struggling with the notion that they can "nudge" the lord's ideas towards their own in true japanese drama fashion.

The adventure is supposedly one of upwards mobility: they are part of a minor family that's been in a rivalry with another one on the same island. This rivalry had been going on for some time, and after the latest skirmish that drew relatively a lot of blood the Imperial Court basically told both parties to calm the fuck down. The rival family held the advantage but decided not to push it, agreed to an exchange of hostages and kept a hold of the castle, while the PCs family would occupy the town with a port and take residence there. The PCs lord had sent away his firstborn to protect him from the exchange, something that his second son deeply resents now, but that didn't save the firstborn anyway. After the peace agreement was settled he came back, only for him to die of natural causes soon after. So the PCs start with an ambitious, mourning lord having to share what he sees as "his" island with a family he has a bitter rivalry with, and the Court already told him he has to deal with it.

cont.

>>97496365
Anyway, things start at lord Morikawa's (the PCs lord) firstborn's funeral, taking place in the castle by gentle concession of the Asakura (rival family) to honour the dead. During the ceremony an unknown outsider comes uninvited, but politely introduces himself as a friend of the deceased and asks for permission to honour him as well. He is then invited to dinner, where the PCs manage to impress him with their manners and wit, so he opens up to them and explains that he knew the firstborn while he was sent away to a nearby castle for "tutoring" (which was the excuse given to send him away). The outsider, Kagetsugu, makes it clear he had a working relationship with the dead, Moritono, and that he was looking forward to working with him again when the chance came. He never told what they actually did in the mainland, anyway. During the dinner, Shigemori (the lord's second son that is still held hostage) remained aloof and close to his captors, something lord Morikawa wasn't too happy with.

The dinner ends and lord Morikawa calls his advisors to tell them the new family priority: he has no heir as things stand now, so he needs to get his only remaining son back in any way possible. Open violence is not an option at the moment, guile would be hard, that leaves diplomacy.

cont.

>>97496372
The Akodo guy (which is the lord's relative with little actual power besides acting as general when needed and, well, being a samurai) puts forward the idea that lord Asakura still has an unmarried daughter. The player meant to say that they could marry her and the second son, but everyone else at the table thought he was offering to do it himself (the misunderstanding would actually go on for a while, making it all even more awkward and hilarious in a way). The lord is rather happy with this proposal since it would mean sending off a relative he doesn't really get along with and getting his son back, so he gives permission to go ahead and send envoys to lord Asakura as soon as possible.

The players start researching texts to find the best approach to write the letter's text in a way that would move lord Asakura (and they end up writing a damn fine letter with some awesome rolling), but while they do so they worryingly stumble upon a mention of some old case in which a rivalry such as the one they're trying to settle ended up in the Imperial Court getting tired of both parties' bickering and disbanding both families, giving the land to other nearby lords. The characters try to look into this and ask Kagetsugu, the cosmopolitan outsider, for some information, After a good game of shogi where the Akodo commander managed to beat him, proving he is not a simpleton, a very impressed Kagetsugu indeed confirms that both their neighbours on the mainland coast, the Takado in the north and the Yoshimura in the south, are watching with keen interest. (They have a rivalry of their own going on in the shadows and both would use the island and its resources and port to gain the upper hand, but this hasn't come up yet). Kagetsugu warns about the Yoshimura clan being particularly interested, and thus dangerous.

cont.

>>97496377
When the letter is ready, the PCs leave the town to head for the castle, and along the road get attacked by what look like random bandits. This was supposed to be the first combat test drive, but in true PC fashion they do something unexpected and just tell the bandits to fuck off, intimidating them. Dice fall, and the bandits turn away and run, leaving behind a poorly written order from someone that wants them to attack the PCs and get whatever they're carrying. This was clearly aimed at getting a hold of the letter with the marriage proposal, but the players are on a mission to deliver it first and foremost, so investigation will have to wait. The shugenja asks the spirits where the bandits have run off to and they say they've gone back to town. Taking note of this, they go ahead with their mission.

They find some Asakura sentries along the road, which ends up in a larger patrol coming ahead to meet them soon after. That patrol is being led by lord Asakura's daughter, as things go, and it soon becomes clear that she's not the mannered courtesan waifu some were expecting. She hears the players have a letter for her father and challenges them to a ride to the castle, sprinting away. By now the Akodo player realized he is the one that would have to marry her, so he is not about to look like a whimp. He rides after her and they end up arriving at the same time, something that she grudgingly acknowledges, even if the thing she is most pleasurably impressed by is the fact that he actually broke protocol to ride after her rather than being stuck up like most samurai.

cont.

>>97496386
The players are introduced to lord Asakura, a pretty chill guy all things considered, but still a political mind behind his manners. He is indeed moved by the letter and would have agreed in principle for the good of the land, even if it was written more poorly, but he still has to consider his family's standing, and as things are now he would lose too much of an advantage by sending his rival's son away in exchange for a marriage where he holds the female side. He then sends the players away with an answer that opens the way for further diplomatic exchanges to refine the details of the arrangement.

Lord Morikawa is satisfied that things are moving forward and basically gives the players free reign to do as they please as long as his son makes it back and the Imperial Court doesn't stamp down on them for going over the line, and when informed of the bandits tells the players to take a look around the town but to not stir up too much trouble by going around in an official manner.

Noble Noeru, the berserker, aside from his love of calligraphy and composition, is also attracted to the less noble art of gambling, since there was little chance to go around cutting heads as of late, so he's the face for the investigation. The town is small but the port and traffic allow for two gambling houses to coexist. There's enough work for both so they each mind their own business, no gang wars or anything, criminality is small game. Noeru goes to his usual place and asks around if there are some good-for-nothings looking for a quick buck. Some of those are always around, and the players also hear rumors that there's a new ronin in town that now acts as a yojimbo. When they meet the small fries to discuss the job offer, one of them turns out to be one of the bandits that attacked the PCs some days before.

cont.

>>97496393
Both Noeru and the bandit recognise each other. The bandit runs, but not as fast as his face hits the floor. He reveals he was working for Takeshi (the other gambling den's boss) when he attacked the players, but doesn't know anything more. He gets sent to prison and the players, eager to wrap this up, go late in the evening to confront Takeshi on his turf. Eyebrows are raised when a bunch of samurai show up, but Noeru is a known gambler and the Shiba Guardian starts drinking so the game of dice quickly resumes. Both Noeru and Daisuke (the Akodo guy) play, while the Shiba dude keeps taking a look around while drinking, and the Elementalist just pretends to follow the game. The outrider, who doesn't like to waste time, goes out of the front door and goes to check the back of the building, and there he meets the ronin guarding the back door.
The ronin knows him by name and knows he is the lord's messenger, so he invites him inside to discuss a business proposal. The akodo guy with the elementalist start looking for him, seeing he's not coming back after a while. The outrider accepts warily, but not warily enough. The ronin, not one for subtletly or beating around the bush, quickly says that he would want to "share the burden" with the messenger, basically getting a hold of the letters en route to and from the noble families. At that, the outrider clearly refuses and makes to leave, but the ronin and his goons try to stop him. Violence ensues.
The outrider tries to move past the bandits towards the door and fails, but poor rolling on the ronin and goons' part means they all manage to just scratch him once, he flows like fucking quicksilver around their blows. The other PCs, hearing sounds of fighting, run to the rescue and quickly dispatch the mooks, leaving the ronin alone and surrounded, back to the wall.

cont.

>>97496399
The intention was to have him die fighting but the players wanted to interrogate him, and some good rolls once again mean that they get what they want (I don't want to impose my "vision" or anything on how the story unfolds, if they want to do something and the rolls support it, and the story isn't completely destroyed by some whacky shit, I roll with it).

The ronin surrenders but asks to keep his weapons. Not all characters agree on how to deal with a ronin, but in the end they let him keep his wakizashi. When questioned he reveals that he is a disgraced samurai that used to be under Yoshimura until his lord sent him away after an argument, so he got to the island in hopes of getting his hands onto some juicy info about the ongoing rivalry that could be helpful to his former lord, and use that info to buy his place back into the clan.

And this is where we left off last time, with the ronin imprisoned into the berserker's house to keep a close eye on him rather than send him to jail along with the few mooks left alive.

cont.

>>97496404
Now for the continuation up until the ending, not that long anyway.

The ronin is imprisoned. I was listening to the players argue about what to do with the prisoner now, while actually considering to have him kill himself in solitude, by now completely disgraced, to keep what last bit of honor he could. Then, the players started coming up with a plan that I couldn't ignore, since it opened more possibilities for the future.
They would have the ronin glimpse false information (still to be specified) and send him back to the mainland, ostensibly to appear more honorable and friendly towards lord Yoshimura, a notion about which the whily old fox would, undoubtedly, smugly laugh at in secret.

The incident ends with a danger for the island dealt with, future potential for damaging an enemy now open, and the hard fact that the land is under threat bared for both parties of the civil struggle to see. In all of this, Takeshi was nowhere to be seen.

The PCs quickly seize the opportunity to inform both lord Morikawa and the Asakura of what happened, and that makes the last remnants of stubborness recede. Morikawa still wants his son back, and Asakura is not willing to risk opening the way to danger from any source, so he gives his consent to the wedding, under the agreement that both he and his old rival would stand behind the throne as joint counsellors, even if the effective power would be in the hands of the new generation. With that, he moves to inform his daughter, who was starting to suspect something but was still pretty much oblivious to the whole thing.

cont.

>>97496410
Everyone is waiting nervously in the castle courtyard, both families on edge, when enraged shouts break what semblance of peace was starting to settle in. Saneyuki, Asakura's daughter, didn't take the news well. Now, as it was rather apparent before, the lady isn't that enamored with the notion of protocol, and is kind of hot-headed at times, The Morikawa to her are a means to an end, and the end is getting glory by fighting them. Nothing personal.
So, after her father told her she would have to marry a Morikawa, she broke all facades and stormed into the courtyard, demanding a duel against her future husband. She plainly states that she was not going to marry someone weaker than her.

Everyone is aghast at the development, half for the scene of her screaming around and half because this could fuck up any hope of actually making peace between the families. Her father hurries after her and takes it rather well. Imagine Mr Manhattan after they told him he gives cancer, but he doesn't teleport to mars. Even then, he quickly collects himself, and confronts his daughter with the situation, and reminds her that he already gave his word, and she would dishonor him greatly by refusing the marriage. Saneyuki starts to realize she fucked up, and defers to her father, but is unwilling to budge on the duel, as that would allow her to keep her own honor after the challenge was already issued, and her personal pride demanded it anyway. Daisuke, her husband-to-be, is not one to back down from a challenge, and the duel is accepted.

Both family leaders now have their hands tied, and can only graciously save face and declare that the duel would take place at sunset, after a somber tea ceremony.

cont.

>>97496415
Here the players tried to nudge things in their favour by trying to gather information about the lady and a bunch of other stuff, but the dice finally betray them. They can't manage to learn anything new (fluffed it out as everyone being too wary and nervous to chit-chat), with the only hint being that the lady clearly has some preference for the fire ring, as evidenced by her actions. With the scene done, there's nothing left but move to the duel.

Everyone gathers in the courtyard. Hands are not on weapons but close enough, as some outcomes of the duel could very well lead to a situation where everyone would be fucked already, so they might as well go all in and settle some scores before the Imperial Court comes stomping around.

The duel begins, Daisuke manouvers to block Saneyuki's Fire Ring, but she suprises him by naturally relying on Earth. She is quick to act in life, but cold and metodical when fighting. With both using a more defensive style (and this presents the double bonus of helping prevent injury, hopefully), the fight drags on with neither side being able to gain the upper hand for a while. The Shinjo Outrider considers using his sword to reflect sunlight on Saneyuki's face, but quickly reconsiders after thinking about the situation. Both sides are ramping up stress, the end is nigh.

cont.

>>97496416
Finally, Saneyuki spots an opening and seizes the opportunity. Daisuke is injured, blood is spilt. The duel is over.

Daisuke's player didn't roll that well, but he also could have played it better. He didn't check the duel rules properly, so he didn't use all the options he could have. This made the difference between a Happy and Unhappy Marriage.

Saneyuki keeps her word to her father and agrees to the wedding. She respects her new husband, because the duel was still very close, but the small hint of disappointment in him will take time and decisive action to wipe away. She promises him he will have more chances for a rematch, making it clear that her expectations will be high.

With this, the campaign stopped as it was pretty much concluded for the moment, the future holds potential, but I don't know when we'll be able to get together again to continue, several schedules changed radically. There are several directions I'd like to go, but we who are left now are playing other games between ourselves for the time being. In time I will bring it up again.

All in all we had good fun.

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>>97493301
Wht clan has the hottest twinks and why is it the Scorpion?

>>97499172
It stands to reason that crane should have a fair number of sissies.

>>97493711
4e.
Some people might say 3e, but 4 is where things peaked

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>>97500356
probably but they're so stuck up
meanwhile scorpions have 100% been trained to please a man for uhhhh "infiltration" purposes. so im making the evil shinobi my wife (male)

This a good system?

>>97499172
please be careful with scorpion twink, they are venomous to the touch.

>>97507540
roll+keep+raise is a very interesting and surprisingly easy system.

>>97507540
We tried 5e and it flowed smoothly, can be great fun. You just need a group that's into the setting (more as the japanese political drama thing rather than rokugan per se)

>>97493711
>>97509169
I personally had a lot of fun with 5e, but I've also never tried 4 since I wasn't around back in the day. Shame that there's no way in hell we get the Scorpion book.

>>97509957
Yeah, disappointing to see that the last two books will never arrive.
Personally I never tried 4 because I'm a printed stuff guy and it was easier to get 5e, it helped that it was localized for the other players as well. Would love to try it out but it's good enough that I manage to get back to 5e.

>>97499172
>>97502225
> scorpion twinks
> two pictures of clearly phoenix twinks

baka

>>97510907
The second maybe but the mask on the first is pure kuge scorp.

What is the best way to introduce normies to l5r and ease them into things?