"Hirohide-sama," Khenbish steps forward quickly, trying to speak up before his peers might get the chance. Once he has the lord's attention, he bows deeply before beginning with an impassioned tone. "My name is Khenbish, proud descendent of the line of Lady Shinjo. For over a thousand years my family has served to ensure there were no threats to Rokugan from beyond its borders, as tasked by the resplendent Kami Hantei himself. I have lived my entire life at the empire's edge, in the city of Khanbulak, where the Sand Road and Ki-rin's Road bring gaijin from many nations. I was both soldier and diplomat, protecting the empire and negotiating in its interest. I humbly offer my expertise and request the honor to serve as castellan of Shiro Damebarē, defending the Empire from outside threats, serving as my ancestors have for generations." Having made his bid, Khenbish pauses a moment to try to read the room. His speech is now directed as much at his peers as at Lord Hirohide. "It is impossible to miss the implications of the castle's name. No doubt there will be challenges to come, many of which may still be unseen. I can only vow that I would lead as bushidō dictates, with honor and honesty, courage and compassion. I would be an impartial castellan, one who knows the strength of the Imperial Legion lies in bringing Rokugani from all clans together, united in a common cause." Khenbish turns his attention fully back to Hirohide, his voice now calmer. "However you decide, I thank you kindly for hearing my case and am glad for the honor to serve as you see fit."

Interesting. I had almost the opposite reaction. If it had just come down to "Lion win" or "Unicorn win," I still would have thought this was a nice game. I'm a little impressed there are as many possible ways for this to play out as there are. Whether or not a commander dies, whether or not a town is taken, and whether or not the message get out all seem like interesting possibilities to me (I guess I'm less sure on how reading the message matters). Out of curiosity, how many possibilities would you want there to be? Yeah, that seems very true. If you're not especially invested in the clans, you might just try to play the dutiful samurai, which favors the Lion retaking the town. At least you still have to choose between getting the message and saving the general. That's kind of cool.

In my little corner of the multiverse, these poor Lion accidentally hired a secret Shinjo looking to sabotage their efforts from the start. Talk about unlucky. I'm wicked impressed with this story. My experience with Choose Your Own Adventure-style games is that a lot of them suffer one of two problems: Outcomes don't feel connected to the choices that you make, which makes the decision-making less fun (IMHO), or The story is railroaded, and your choices ultimately don't matter that much in the end. Clearly the story isn't railroaded, since there are different outcomes. The decision-making feels sufficiently informed while still keeping a fun level of mystery. And in fact, it's not just that your decisions affect the outcome, they even affect which decisions you get to make later. I just think this was really well put together. I would love to see them do more of this. Major kudos to Lisa Farrell. On my first play-through, I couldn't save the commander, but I did intercept (and read) the message. I wish I could let both sides read it, but since I can only pick one, I'm staying loyal to the Unicorn and letting the messenger get through, especially since that also lets me save the commander (no need for unnecessary deaths).

This is a very cool idea. I hope they do more stuff like this, pandemic or no.

Found the Scorpion. (jk 🙃)

If Dragon, Unicorn, and Phoenix are fair game, maybe you could also explore mythological animals?

Khenbish searches the faces in the crowd to see if he can get a good first look at Harumori. He had hoped he might be able to meet the Kitsu during dinner, but it was surely better this way. This hardly seemed like the setting for the conversation they needed to have. Dressed formally but simply, Khenbish spends most of the meal trying to get to know the Dragon he is seated near. It seemed a shame things should be awkward between them and the Crane and Phoenix. A dinner like this should be a celebration, people from around the Empire coming together for a common cause. It should be a chance for Rokugani to share their cultures and build bridges. But somehow things always became so... political. Returning his focus to his duties, Khenbish tries to begin formulating a strategy. Hirohide-sama had said explicitly that he would be open to thoughts on the matter of appointments. What might his criteria be? How could he persuade the magistrate to appoint him or one of his sisters? So much was riding on these choices. The success of the garrison might be made or lost that evening.

For what it's worth, the Errata and FAQ has an optional alternate school ability for the Treasure Hunter on the last page.

My initial reaction is that this removes a lot of the identity of the five rings from Legend of the Five Rings. Now I'm rolling Fire because I'm mechanically forced to by my opponent, not because it reflects my role-playing choice of being flashy, emotional, or aggressive. And with opportunity being spent the same way, each of the rings might start to feel sort of the same. That said, I'm pro adapting the rules however you need to for your table. I agree that it takes a while to figure out how you can spend opportunity, so I understand the appeal of simplifying things. My sense is that L5R leads to more house ruling than most other RPGs.