New Court Games RPG episode out now!
"10 Types Of Rewards To Give Your L5R Players"
Web: https://courtgamespod.com/podcast/10-types-of-rewards-to-give-your-l5r-players/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/10-types-of-rewards-to-give-your-l5r-players/id1455750389?i=1000497468123
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3uzEEMv6HcwKTmfAKxqNNf
#L5RRPG #L5RFiction #TTRPG #LegendoftheFiveRings

New Court Games RPG episode out now!
"10 Types Of Rewards To Give Your L5R Players"
Web: https://courtgamespod.com/podcast/10-types-of-rewards-to-give-your-l5r-players/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/10-types-of-rewards-to-give-your-l5r-players/id1455750389?i=1000497468123
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3uzEEMv6HcwKTmfAKxqNNf
#L5RRPG #L5RFiction #TTRPG #LegendoftheFiveRings

New L5R RPG Podcast episode out now!
"What are Alexis Dykema and Max Brooke's Game Design Philosophies?"
Web: https://courtgamespod.com/podcast/what-are-lex-and-maxs-philosophies-on-game-design/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-are-lex-and-maxs-philosophies-on-game-design/id1455750389?i=1000496613040
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LiTS5qfMZh6CboNsaowp1
#L5RRPG #L5RFiction #TTRPG #LegendoftheFiveRings

That's basically what  have for my timeline. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wEhIccleYFIsL_C0zKAV3gk4U7XIcjNXokEsuMBbBZM/edit#gid=0

I have created two Crane vassal families while being a GM, so don't mind me while I share those families ☺️ The first up is the Anneda family and you can already find their own school somewhere on this forum. The second is the Munehito family, which is a family that specializes in making kimono's.
 
The Anneda Family
Kakita Branch Family
Ring Increases: +1 Air or +1 Earth
Skill Increases: +1 Medicine, +1 Theology
Glory: 39      Starting Wealth: 6 Koku
The family began as guardians of sakura trees at important locations, but the family nowadays more renown for their cherry blossom material craftsmanship and their delicacies such as sakura mochi. A selection of their best members train at the Anneda Falling Blossom School, this school specializes in training guard animals. Some Crane members exchange rumours that an Anneda guard animal wielded a sword and was preforming a famous Kakita kata.
The Munehito Family
Doji Branch Family
Ring Increases: +1 Air or +1 Fire
Skill Increases: +1 Commerce, +1 Design
Glory: 39      Starting Wealth: 7 Koku
If you are looking for the best kimono makers, then the Crane will direct you towards this family. Their kimono's are expansive, but the quality of such a kimono is recognizable by others, which increases the status of the wearer. A set of their best four kimono's for the Winter Court, will cost you the same amount of money as building a new castle. Luckily for poorer samurai's, they also sell (cheaper) kimono's of a lower quality. The only way to enter their one and only shop in the Quiet City if you are not a Munehito member, is by presenting a written permission by a Crane daimyo or a personal Winter Court invitation.
 
It would make me happy knowing that someone uses one of the two families, so add them to your list if you like them.

New Court Games L5R RPG Podcast episode out now!
"AlexisDykema and MaxCBrooke Solve Your Top 7 Celestial Realms Questions"
Web: https://courtgamespod.com/podcast/celestial-realms-interview/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/alexis-and-max-solve-your-top-7-celestial-realms-questions/id1455750389?i=1000495815277
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/36ne0T7wQwClHiEKpExMLN
#L5RRPG #L5RFiction #TTRPG #LegendoftheFiveRings

Finished the other day. Nice stuff.  Plenty gruesome.

New CGRPG episode out now!
"Questionable Shelter": Will Daisetsu Join the Perfect Land Sect?
Web: https://courtgamespod.com/podcast/questionable-shelter-will-daisetsu-join-the-perfect-land-sect/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/questionable-shelter-will-daisetsu-join-perfect-land/id1455750389?i=1000494942388
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/38bDLrjP8M1yTaup5roNom

I was chekingin the Overall Timeline, and the two fiction I left in the quote (Shadow of Glory and Duty cost) are not in that timeline.
Anyway, very great work

Yeah, I mean, from release to SDoT, it took AEG roughly 2 years. While we have been under what? 3 years of FFG control and we just had “the Scorpion Clan Coup”, so if it takes another 7 years to reach the SDoT, I would be ok with tjat.

Second Day of Thunder is a likely eventual goal, how long we take to get there is the question.  We've already seen that they are doing quite a bit of diversion from the old storyline while still hinting at many of the biggest story beats (just coming at them from completely different directions like the Scorpion Clan "Coup" not being Shoju's fault, and Ronin Toturi being his choice and not a punishment that was leveled against him) so I see no reason to expect different with the Second Day of Thunder. 

Most people want/believe there will be a Second Day of Thunder. Me? Not so much, I would love to have a big Oni threat like the Maw, if that's the case, but I really don't want a SDoT happening. Because that will mean FFG will have to dial up the supernatural threat of the season to keep the setting "interesting" (or boring, IMHO). I really like the emphasis they are giving to the people and their relationship instead of supernatural events. I mean, I get supernatural events happening on the Crab border, because that's pretty much their thing. But I really don't want the amount of Empire/World shattering events that happened in the old timeline in a matter of, what, 90 years?

Thank you for this... the storyline seems different, but with many similarities to, the original storyline. Does anyone know if the current game intends to somewhat mirror the events leading up to the Day of Thunder? Or is there an entirely separate intended here?

It's been enough years, I'm making this my own.

This list started out as a list by @Maffster , found  Here.  But since he is not able to update it, I've taken it over for him.  Everything on this list appears sorted by the date of publication. As such, I've modified it from the original list where there are discrepancies.   If it is associated with a box or card pack set, it is associated with the date that product was released. If it was associated with a novel, it is associated with the date it went on sale on the market.
If you want to know when events occur relative to each other in time, you can find it here, at my New 5r Timeline.  Since events in the timeline often interweave each other or are functionally simultaneous, or contain flashbacks of various lengths, I suggest reading in order of release, rather than by timeline.  Also, this timeline has summaries of the fictions for you to refer to and other tools.
If you want to listen to an audio version of many of these stories, you can find them at https://the-table-is-yours.pinecast.co/.
The Great Clans - This flavor text is from the Box set but is a better introduction to L5R than any fiction, and is suggested to start here before launching into the fictions.
01 - Her Fathers Daughter
02 - The Price Of War
03 - The Rising Wave
04 - Dark Hands Of Heaven
05 - Risen From The Flames
06 - Curved Blades
07 - Smokeless Fire
08 - The World, A Stage
09 - An Empire In Turmoil ...........(PDF Version)
10 - A Season Of War ...........(PDF Version)
11 - A Most Suitable Teacher
12 - In the Garden of Lies (Part 1)
13 - In the Garden of Lies (Part 2)
14 - To The South (Part 1)
15 - To The South (Part 2)
16 - The Fate of Flames
17 - Better To Be Certain
18 - The Fires of Justice
19 - The Stories We Tell
20 - Blind Ambition  ...........(PDF Version)
21 - Service and Sacrifice
22 - A Difference Of Lanterns ...........(PDF Version)
23 - Beneath, Below, Beyond
24 - Family Duty ...........(PDF Version)
25 - Flying Chariot, Standing
26 - Court Games ...........(PDF Version)
27 - Honor, Loyalty, Duty
28 - The Bright Flame of the World's Glory ...........(PDF Version)
29 - Wildcats And Dragon Teeth
30 - Fireflies ...........(PDF Version)
31 - The Spectres of War
32- Repentance Does Not Come First
33 - The Sword and the Spirits
34 - Tempests and Tides ...........(PDF Version)
35 - A Crane Takes Flight
36 - Gaze Into Darkness ...........(PDF Version)
37 - Kurosunai Village
38 - Awakened ...........(PDF Version)
39 - Dreams of Shadow ...........(PDF Version)
40 - Outsiders
41 - Heart of the Garden
42 - Snow And Sun ...........(PDF Version)
43 - Between the Lines
44 - A Swift End ...........(PDF Version)
45 - Whispers of Shadow and Steel
46 – Tiger Stalks His Prey
47 - A Simple Test
48 - A Call to Stewardship - Unicorn Clan Letter
49 - A Call to Leadership - Lion Clan Letter
50 - A Call to Witness - Dragon Clan Letter
51 - A Call for Diplomacy - Crane Clan Letter
52 - A Call for Unity - Phoenix Clan Letter
53 - A Call to Investigate - Crab Clan Letter
54 - A Call to Duty - Scorpion Clan Letter
55 - Small Mercies
56 – Imperial Gifts
57 - Across the Burning Sands
58 – Children of the Empire Part 1
59 – Children of the Empire Part 2
60 – Children of the Empire Part 3
61 -Like Seeds on the Wind
62 – Rule from Horseback
63 – The Last Stone Played
64 – Tactical Maneuvers
65 – 2019 Clan Letters
66 – Falling Stars
67 – By the Stroke of a Brush
68 – Red Petals Scatter
69 – Two Swords Fall from Heaven
70 – Black and White
71 – Behind the Empty Throne
72 – Roar of the Lioness
73 – Wind Through Falling Leaves
74 – The Price of Failure
75 - The Eternal Knot
76 – Trust Me
77 – A Game of Promises
78 – The Cornered Lion Part 1
79 – The Cornered Lion Part 2
80 – Bloody Harvest
81 – Pine and Cherry Blossom
82 – We Strike First
83 – Beyond Reach
84 – What the Eye Cannot See
85 – A Night Storm Rages
86 – Cold Autumn Harvests
87 – Hidden Markings
88 - The Art of Matchmaking
89 - How the World Ought to Work 
90 - Caged Birds
91 - Violence Behind Courtliness
92 - Truth and Lies 
93 - Courtly Nets and Hidden Snares
94 - The Sea and the Sun's Shadow
95 - Heart of the Mountain
96 - A Missive from the Front - Lion Clan
97 - A Missive from the Front - Unicorn Clan
98 - A Secret Letter - Scorpion Clan
99 - A Discerning Eye and an Unyielding Resolve
100 - Daidoji
101 - Beneath the Light of Jade
102 - The Shadow of Glory
103 - Duty's Cost
104 - The Stained Cup
105 - Trail of Shadows
106 - The Last Leaf Falls
107 - When the Wave Strikes the Shore
108 - Questionable Shelter
109 - What Cost a Dream
`110 - An Impossible Task
111 - The Yogo Curse Part 1
112 - The Yogo Curse Part 2
113 - The Careful Gardener

Our first episode for an Actual Play Podcast for L5R 5th Edition, Fortune and Strife, began today, with new episodes coming out every Monday. This podcast focuses on strong characters, a classic format with a fun storyline, and 5th Edition Mechanics.
Episode 1 "A Father's Love" is out now for Fortune and Strife:
RSS: https://pinecast.com/feed/fortune-and-strife
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Is9EQwJ6838bIPz2a2Rct?si=-P9GM2baRcubActRMavmQA&fbclid=IwAR2AV07qU2-1dGUWEwsLeTXP_BnQmCvd4MEI2R6TKrxidgsCoMeyA15tqAc
Patreon (public): https://patreon.com/posts/38256915
Apple and Google to come shortly.

To be fair, the vassal families that each family has usually adopt the suzerain family name when dealing outside of the clan or vassal-suzerain interaction.

My demographics page, if you will recheck, uses the measured area of rokugan X  (population of Japan during the Edo/area of Japan), to draw the total population number, and then divides the total by 5%, which is the sustainable amount of a non-producing elite in the period.  Further down you have a population distribution and explanations as to why fighting forces are half that, etc. All of which clearly available.
Something that might help with the Unicorn is that they are not living nomadically in the burning sands right now.  They are living within their territories, and they have farmers cultivating grain, etc, that are not nomadic.  With that, their herds can certainly grow to a very great size. 

All the numbers I am assuming come from a stable pre-Clan wars timeline.  The Wall is often very quiet for generations. The current rates of attrition for clans like Crane (due to tsunami/warfare) and Crab (due to the spike in Shadowlands activity) and Dragon (due to extremely repressed birthrate) would be different from any sort of background norm.

I don't find the Way of the Dragon numbers, at least proportionally, overly realistic.  I personally in my numbers do not attempt to break down by clan, only split evenly between the clans and non-clan samurai.
 
That said, the Way of the Dragon numbers are supposed to encompass only the actual fighting forces of the clans, not the entire population of the clan. The reason the Lion and Crab numbers are so high is that they utilize a greater percentage of their samurai for warfare than other clans.

The other thing you are not considering is the availability of birth control and the treatment of women.  It has been established in the real world that the birthrate goes down as the societal treatment of women goes up, when birth control is available, and there is not a cultural obligation (for example, for farming) that requires a woman to bear multiple children. 

The Crane being wealthy and less war-oriented would not have developed the cultural obligation to have larger families, and their high relative status and the established availability of 'Moon Tea' would dampen the birthrates.  Clans like the Lion and Crab, with a focus on their military culture, have, potentially, developed a culture with more of a societal expectation of larger families.   This aspect of a society far outweighs temporary drops in population due to war or disease...see our modern world for example.

Finally, those Lion and Scorpion aren't throwing their lives away for nothing. They are being killed in battle...against the Crane.  Unless Crane were such superior fighters that every individual Crane samurai can kill multiples of Lion or Scorpion, they are taking each other out at roughly equal numbers.

I understand the concern, and don't necessarily buy Way of the Dragon's numbers.  But, most of all, please remember that women aren't rabbits. Thanks!

My demographics page, if you will recheck, uses the measured area of rokugan X  (population of Japan during the Edo/area of Japan), to draw the total population number, and then divides the total by 5%, which is the sustainable amount of a non-producing elite in the period.  Further down you have a population distribution and explanations as to why fighting forces are half that, etc. All of which clearly available.
Something that might help with the Unicorn is that they are not living nomadically in the burning sands right now.  They are living within their territories, and they have farmers cultivating grain, etc, that are not nomadic.  With that, their herds can certainly grow to a very great size. 

All the numbers I am assuming come from a stable pre-Clan wars timeline.  The Wall is often very quiet for generations. The current rates of attrition for clans like Crane (due to tsunami/warfare) and Crab (due to the spike in Shadowlands activity) and Dragon (due to extremely repressed birthrate) would be different from any sort of background norm.

New Court Games RPG episode out now!
"How to incorporate L5R fiction into your games"
Web: https://courtgamespod.com/how-to-incorporate-l5r-fiction-into-your-games-enter-the-metaplot-pt-2/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-incorporate-l5r-fiction-into-your-games-enter/id1455750389?i=1000494219162
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7tOTmDHI1Wg6opmistBzmB
#L5RRPG #L5RFiction #TTRPG #LegendoftheFiveRings

Nick Kempin has a great new Video Series for the Court Games podcasts group called Tokyo of the Five Rings, where he makes comparisons between L5R and Rokugan and RL Japan for religion and culture.
Check out his first episode!
 
 

The Low action with risk of honor lost/consequence gives you that 'dangerous' feel.
 
So, if you are playing it straight, honorable, and completely by the book, you take 1 action/sequence 
If you're willing to risk yourself and do something shady, that gives you 2 actions/sequence, but at a risk of being caught.
That risk/reward for doing shady things is the thrill and the cost of getting to do 2 actions/sequence.
 
As for the honor losses, the influence lost when you are caught doing something dishonorable is related to the lord's PUBLIC honor rank.
The lord can be as shady and dishonorable as he likes in private...but if he is publicly really honorable, then you doing something dis honorable is going to reflect worse on you than if you were doing something that the lord himself is doing that is dishonorable.

For example:
Swearing a foul curse is a breech of courtesy. 
If you swear in the court of Kakita Yoshi,  you're going to lose a lot of influence, because everyone knows you do not do that there...Kakita Yoshi would not swear!  OK, he might cuss up a storm in private, but his public honor rank is high and you are expected to behave the same.
If you swear in the court of Hida Kisada, its still inappropriate, but its not nearly as a big deal because everyone expects he would be cursing too, even if he doesn't publicly. He's not as fussy as Yoshi.

But of course, you can adapt as you need for your games!  Just remember influence can be earned back...it's just $$, not a stat.

Glad you like it.
Kaori

I wanted to offer this to the broader L5R RPG community.   This is a kind of "missing link" for the RPG: a way to allow a GM to easily put together and structure a period of time spent in a court, let the players choose what to do during that time, initiate and resolve social combats to achieve goals in that court, and then win favors to advance their own and their group's story. It uses the currency of court-specific influence which players can earn, spend, or trade, in order to achieve their ends.  It is compatible with both 4th and 5th edition L5R, and I provide TNs for both. It's only been extensively playtested in 4th Edition, though, so TNs may need to be adjusted. It allows PVP social combat for larger courts as well as cooperative PC play. It is not the actual structure of individual social combats, but is instead the framework within which social combats can be prepared to make a social game or portion of a campaign. Feedback, as always, much appreciated, and let me know if there are any questions.

https://craneclan.weebly.com/the-influence-game.html

I wanted to offer this to the broader L5R RPG community.   This is a kind of "missing link" for the RPG: a way to allow a GM to easily put together and structure a period of time spent in a court, let the players choose what to do during that time, initiate and resolve social combats to achieve goals in that court, and then win favors to advance their own and their group's story. It uses the currency of court-specific influence which players can earn, spend, or trade, in order to achieve their ends.  It is compatible with both 4th and 5th edition L5R, and I provide TNs for both. It's only been extensively playtested in 4th Edition, though, so TNs may need to be adjusted. It allows PVP social combat for larger courts as well as cooperative PC play. It is not the actual structure of individual social combats, but is instead the framework within which social combats can be prepared to make a social game or portion of a campaign. Feedback, as always, much appreciated, and let me know if there are any questions.

https://craneclan.weebly.com/the-influence-game.html

I wanted to offer this to the broader L5R RPG community.   This is a kind of "missing link" for the RPG: a way to allow a GM to easily put together and structure a period of time spent in a court, let the players choose what to do during that time, initiate and resolve social combats to achieve goals in that court, and then win favors to advance their own and their group's story. It uses the currency of court-specific influence which players can earn, spend, or trade, in order to achieve their ends.  It is compatible with both 4th and 5th edition L5R, and I provide TNs for both. It's only been extensively playtested in 4th Edition, though, so TNs may need to be adjusted. It allows PVP social combat for larger courts as well as cooperative PC play. It is not the actual structure of individual social combats, but is instead the framework within which social combats can be prepared to make a social game or portion of a campaign. Feedback, as always, much appreciated, and let me know if there are any questions.

https://craneclan.weebly.com/the-influence-game.html