DGLaderoute
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Posts posted by DGLaderoute
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As I said on Discord, I don't want to give any more information about Yugure because I don't know what FFG might have planned for him. You just kinda have to take him as he's portrayed in the story, and be left with a number of possibilities.
And, yes, the story is deliberately intended to be ambiguous in terms of when it happened. It might be referring to Hotaru; however, it might be referring to another, past Champion. That does a better job of giving it a "ghost story" vibe, I think, than spelling out too much.
Also, thank you! Pinch away!
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2 hours ago, Asako Michi said:As far as card designers putting flavor text on the cards, that's entirely possible, but it still means someone taking the additional time to select text for the cards, extra time for formatting that additional element for the cards...it would almost certainly add up pretty fast. From everything I've heard, I honestly doubt Tyler has the time to do that, and if he did somehow have spare time...I'd probably rather see it spent in more focus on fine tuning and balancing the cards. And that's coming from someone whose primary interest in the game is the lore.
This. SOMEONE has to do the flavor text, and whether it's being extracted from other materials (since one presumes you would want the flavor text to match the card, at least to SOME extent; randomly-placed flavor text that doesn't reflect, or even clashes with what's on the card would actually be worse than having none, I think), or written from scratch, there is a cost--either in money, or in time (which is, ultimately, also money). Personally, I'd love to see flavor text on every card with room for it; I'd love even more for it to be unique flavor text, that adds yet more lore and contributes to the story beats. That would be a big job, though, and it would not be cheap in time and/or money. You really don't get something for nothing.
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23 minutes ago, TheHobgoblyn said:If you look above, you will notice that I first excised all the names from the list that were found on the wiki but hadn't been created yet. But then several others pointed out that families that shouldn't exist yet, assuming the events that created them even happen, have been specifically cited as existing. Ultimately that just makes me feel like I may as well include everything that could possibly exist. It is just meant to be a player/gm resource so it isn't necessary to be 100% accurate. I might even include some entirely fan creation ones.
Understood. That's why I emphasized that this was only really applicable for people that are concerned with the current canon. But for those running games/campaigns, then it's whatever works for them.
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32 minutes ago, TheHobgoblyn said:I am pretty sure the term "Spider delegation" made it more than clear enough that it was in the old setting.
There is no Spider Clan right now.
I don't want to assume that everyone reading this is necessarily familiar with the distinctions between the old setting, and the current one. Newer players/fans could read this and go, Spider Clan? Huh? What did I miss? It's all part of trying to keep things accessible to both the established AND the new folks.
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If you're concerned about current canon, then the Maisuna family of the Crab doesn't exist. This appears to just be a Romanji version of "Mason", as in "stone mason"; it was a Kaiu vassal family in the old lore. When I was writing the Crab novella, and described the Gates of Persistence in the Shinomen Mori, I had them built by Kaiu; in the old lore, it was a Maisuna, but FFG seems quite determined to excise things like that from their current lore. There may be other vassal family names that suffer from the same issue.
Of course, if you don't particularly care about the current canon, then by all means carry on, full speed ahead!
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I should note that, sometimes, it's worthwhile to deliver an inappropriate, or even an insulting gift. For instance, in the AEG online Winter Court 3 event, the Spider delegation (actually, one of their members, IIRC) offered the Governor of the Imperial Colonies in the former Ivory Kingdoms, Otomo Suikihime, the gift of an elephant tusk. It had apparently been cut off the animal right after it was killed, and delivered, still bloody, to the Court during the gift-giving ceremony. Needless to say, this was a SUPER offensive gift, but it had clearly been delivered with a deliberate purpose. The Spider realized they'd always be the reviled outsiders in the Court, so this gift was actually a message to all the other delegations--basically, if you f**k with us, then we'll f**k you right back, because we don't care about playing nice. The giver (a Spider shohei, I think) was banned from Court for some time, and made to apologize, but the point had been made. Nor did it really hurt the Spider's standing in Court, which was already pretty much bottom-rung, anyway.
Incidentally, I should emphasize that this happened in the OLD setting of AEG. In the current, FFG setting, this event--assuming it happens at all, which is pretty unlikely--wouldn't be happening for another 70-ish years. I'm offering it only as an example of how there are circumstances in which a bad gift might suit the giver's particular political agenda.
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22 hours ago, kempy said:Lot of cards in single booster expansion got art and flavour connected with current story moment. Often there were just describing what's going on as simple descriptions or quotes. Not to mention really early part of the game (before release of 1st ed RPG) - cards' flavout texts were ONLY source of story background.
Honestly i prefer thousands of flavour texts than blank cards of LCG, even if sometimes they feel forced or a bit cringe. That was kind of mark of L5R (along with all these non-mechanical flavour keywords) and writing thousands of such texts (even reprints got different flavours, more connected to current story) was awesome achievment.
It's not really hard to pick tens or even hundreds of bad examples from 12000+ (20000+ if you count reprints) card pool and put them as exemplars.
I absolutely agree that flavor text can be an awesome contribution to the story.
Who's going to write it?
FFG pays it writers, so the per-word rate would apply to flavor text on cards as much as it does to fiction. Assuming their budget for writing products is pretty much fixed through their fiscal year (and it almost certainly is), then it's a zero-sum game. In other words, how much fiction are you willing to forego, to get the flavor text put on cards?
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22 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:Although-- part of me needs to wonder-- is it even proper to offer a gift to the Emperor (or regeant)? He technically already owns everything in the land, including you, so it would be something he owns offering something else he already owns up to him in order to try to garner favor. In a way, it could be considered insulting to attempt to offer any gift to one who sits upon the throne.
That's why it's important to not give the Emperor something functional or utilitarian, something "off the shelf" or so generic that it has no true meaning. For instance, a beautiful ikebana flower arrangement or bonsai tree is nice, but unless you actually cultivated and arranged them yourself, in some manner that is personal to you and represents a true effort to provide the Emperor with something unique and meaningful, then it's not a good gift. So, "Your most honored and esteemed majesty, this ikebana arrangement is made from flowers originally cultivated by my grandmother, and arrange in a vase that was given to me by my mother--both of whom died in loyal service to the resplendent Throne during the Blah-blah War..." that sort of thing, is fine. "Your most honored and esteemed majesty, here's a flower arrangement I thought would look nice in your front hall..." eh, not so much.
That's why the best gifts for the Emperor are things like poems, stories, songs, hand-crafted works of art, a specially-choreographed dance, that sort of thing. It should be something that clearly shows that you invested time, effort and creativity into it--so the gift is really a reaffirmation of your affection for, and devotion to, the Emperor.
Oh, incidentally--if the gift can simultaneously embarrass or insult a political rival in some subtle, but unmistakable way, so much the better. In the Imperial Court, politics infuses gift giving as much as it does anything else!
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Whatever gift she gives, it should be something personal, something that reflects the individual giving it, while being unique--for instance, a poem that she wrote describing her journey to Winter Court, an heirloom tea service given to her by her grandmother, an ikebana flower arrangement she did herself, from flowers growing in her own garden, that sort of thing. The more layers of meaning she can incorporate into the gift, the better. She should avoid mundane things (since the Emperor technically "owns" everything the Empire), things that are strictly utilitarian, or things that she might think the Emperor "needs"; none of those things would appropriate, and could be considered quite insulting.
Gift-giving is a profoundly important thing in Rokugan, treated with great gravitas. This is especially true for the gifts given at the outset of Winter Court; a good gift that's well-received can greatly increase a samurai's standing in the Court (at least, for a time), while a poorly-received one can dog a delegate through the entire winter, diminishing their influence.
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6 hours ago, Kinzen said:. . . sure! That is totally a thing I knew about before you mentioned it and put in there on purpose, yep yep!
Every writer is a Scorpion.
"Why, yes, I meant to do that. It was my plan all along, of course. Kudos to you for noticing."
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8 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:Can I ask what level of detail you're looking for? The full Census is over 900 people now, the Senior Positions is about 50 and the list of core characters about 25. Alternatively, I could provide an extract relevant to a particular Clan or Clans.
Holy crap, have we really introduced 900 characters? I'll remember that next time I introduce a new character!
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The Naga are a major faction in the Ivory Kingdoms, and are generally well-known to people there, who interact with them quite a bit. In Rokugan, the Naga are virtually nonexistent. Given the fact that the Naga were around before the Kami fell, then it's probably a reasonable assumption, yeah, that the bits and pieces of Naga civilization remaining in Rokugan were probably isolated from greater Naga society when Fu Leng came crashing down. Do we know that for sure? Well, the Naga probably do, but I don't think it's objectively established anywhere exactly what did transpire. Like I said, though, I think it's probably a reasonable assumption about what happened.
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31 minutes ago, Shiba Gunichi said:Point is, I am here for new lore Shoju. I feel so, so bad for the guy- he has done nothing out of selfishness, malice, or ambition (so far). If anything, and I love this when it comes to a Scorpion leader, his mistakes have been in trusting people.
Especially his wife.
By now, it's pretty apparent that the Scorpion, who have been on top of the heap when it comes to standing in the Empire, have met their own, most implacable enemy--themselves.
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It was sometime in 1120. In "Her Father's Daughter", it says, "Three years ago, a devastating tsunami had ravaged the Crane Clan’s coastline, destroying some of the clan’s most fertile lands." I remember getting that timeline from Katrina, but I'm not sure if it's been further specified. Sometime in that year, anyway.
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I think you could probably safely assume that Sukune, O-Ushi and Yori were "back in play" by the end of August or early September, but I guess there actually is a "no later than" date based on the subsequent stories about Yori i.e. when hooks up with Tadaka.
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Yes, the Crab novella takes place in the summer of 1123, sometime after the events of "Beneath, Below, Beyond". That's about as specific as we made it, I think, since it kinda sits apart from the main story-line, all on its own. So, probably sometime in July or August.
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1 minute ago, Diogo Salazar said:Right, I agree he got blindsided by Kachiko way back. The problem being, of course, that deciding not to say anything right away when Toturi and Sumiko announced their retirement and pretty much called him a traitor won't matter much as he will squeeze every body trying to maintain control of a country that is bound to go into a civil war no matter what. Sure, I understand that he also believes in his duty and oath to his old friend to try to keep the peace and protect both his sons, alas, as the old bard said, 'heavy is the head that wears the crown'.
Or, as Coldplay puts it, "Just a puppet on a lonely string...oh, who would ever want to be king?"
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3 minutes ago, Diogo Salazar said:The death of the author is the birth of the reader and all that. I "hate" it in the general sense that poor communication kills because all drama, in the end derives from people hiding information for one reason or another that creates this kind of thing. Of course, it's not to say that the poor communication here is on the level of every Hollywood rom-com but it's just my annoyance on how I really like this version of Shoju and he still got blindsided when he was right.
He did get blindsided--by Kachiko. She never told him about Aramoro. If she had, Shoju might have been able to mitigate the damage. As it was, though, he suddenly found himself confronting the Emerald and Ruby Champions, one of whom chose retirement, and the other the FAR more egregious fate of becoming a ronin. Samurai, especially high-ranking ones, who actually CHOOSE to give up their offices and social station as samurai carry enormous weight...so poor Shoju really was caught off-guard, and there was really nothing he could say or do that didn't risk fracturing the Court right on the spot and plunge Rokugan into outright war. I sincerely doubt that he'll ever let that--getting caught off-guard, because of Scorpion disloyalty--happen again.
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43 minutes ago, Kaito Kikaze said:To say things just got even more complicated is an understatement. Kudos to the story team and @DGLaderoute in particular with this masterful twist.
Thank you! It's actually quite remarkable how much opinions of this story vary--some people have told me they hate it, calling it the worst fiction so far, while others have said it's the very best and they love it (even the ones who hate it tend to add that it was well-written, which is nice, but they generally don't like the way the characters behaved). All of these things are right, of course, because every story is a collaboration between writer and reader, because every reader brings their own values, thoughts, beliefs, etc. to the party.
For a variety of reasons I won't get into, this story took a long time to write and underwent a fair bit of work in conjunction with Katrina and Tyler. I'm quite happy with the result. I only wish we could have got Shoju's perspective while Sumiko and Toturi were talking, because I did need to put myself in his head--but, word count, the harsh taskmaster of writers, reared its ugly mug (and it's already a long story!)
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2 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:....I love nezumi.
Then you'll love the Crab novella, in which the nezumi are really prominent (yes, never miss a chance to plug your book).
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1 hour ago, Daigotsu Arashi said:Everyday you learn something new
My mistake , always I thought Merenae and Thrane were part of the intend of connection between l5r and 7th sea.
So why change of name?
I think FFG simply wanted to reinvent certain aspects of the game to better fit the story they envisioned (for example, Doji Hoturi becoming Doji Hotaru). That included many of the gaijin nations, which also included these ones. Whatever story it is they wish to eventually tell that involves the gaijin from White Stag, assuming they ever get around to telling it, it would seem that their own idea, Pavarre, just works better for them.
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2 hours ago, Daigotsu Arashi said:Wow, now even the sea of Shadows are no threat
The Sea of Shadows remains very much a threat. Sea-travel between Rokugan and the Ivory Kingdoms is far much more difficult and dangerous because of it. See "Shadowlands", p.14.
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2 hours ago, Kinzen said:So. Much. This.
And it's tangential to the specific point here, but: the majority of the stories I've personally written for L5R have been capped at three thousand words. I think for two of them, I've been permitted to go up to four thousand. By now you all probably have a general sense of how much that feels like, but for context, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America define a short story as anything up to 7500 words. Now, we have the advantage of not needing to make each fiction completely self-contained -- we can get away with skipping a bunch of the exposition we'd have to do for an ordinary tale, and not delivering full closure at the end -- but even so, we're constrained to the bottom *half* of what's usually considered short story territory. So yeah, in DGL's shoes, I likewise would not have chosen to devote words to how Toturi learned about a piece of secret history and how he had reacted to it at the time, when the purpose of bringing that up was mostly to provide context for something happening in the present moment. We're not just writing short stories, we're writing fairly small ones, and it is often tough to work at that length.
Very well put. It's really more like we're writing successive chapters in a LOOOOONG novel. However, each of these "chapters" still has to tell a story with a beginning, a middle and an end, a plot that advances along the way--both internally to the story, and in terms of the big story--and characters that get developed. In some respects, I find it actually easier to write standalone stuff...OTOH, writing in this shared universe lets us lean on stuff that's come before (if I'm writing about Shoju, for instance, I don't need to explain who Shoju is, his backstory, etc.) So it's like most things--easier in some ways, and harder in others.
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48 minutes ago, Diogo Salazar said:Ha, thanks for remembering which fiction it was and thank you for writing it. My problem with how it was put in the fiction though it seems to be like:
- This was common knowledge (to at least Toturi) and he wasn't at all surprised to know that sometimes the Hantei line is fallible.
- This wasn't common knowledge to him and once he found out, he took it surprisingly at face value.
The problem I have with 1 is, that if this wasn't common knowledge to the Empire at large (by that, I mean the samurai class) but it was common knowledge to him, it would be nice if this was explicitly mentioned.
While the problem I have with 2 is that if he only found out after becoming Lion Champion or Emerald Champion, we should have been shown his mind breaking down his old assumptions to fit in the new ones. Considering how much Toturi likes to ponder, I think this would have been a nice touch.I don't disagree. However, I would like to introduce you to the two words that are the true master of any freelance writer:
WORD COUNT
We writers are allowed to write to a particular word count for a story. In that word count, we have to deliver all the story beats, and accomplish all the dramatic goals, that are intended for the story. There are NEVER enough words to say all the things we would just love to say, or explain, or expand up, or whatever. The essential dramatic purpose of this passage was to show the reader that past "cruel, paranoid and destructive" Emperors had caused great mayhem in the Empire, and then imply that Sotorii could lead to the same thing. I think it accomplished that, but yes, we could have gone on with more explanation as to how Toturi knows that, how common that knowledge is, etc. But that would just be exposition, and worse, exposition that doesn't advance the plot or help develop the characters. And in a 3500 word story or whatever, you simply don't have scope for that, if it's not something absolutely essential to the story.
So, maybe think of it this way. It's not that that story was lacking that information; it's that this discussion, here, is a bit of value-added, a "bonus feature"...you know, like a movie that comes with a voice-over from the director and actors and such, explaining stuff about what you're seeing on-screen.
Crane regent?
in Lore Discussion
Posted · Edited by DGLaderoute
More generally, the Chancellor would, by custom, ordinarily become the Regent. Of course, the Emperor may dictate otherwise, and that's what happened here--Hantei Jodan named Shoju as Daisetsu's Regent. In Shoju's absence, and lacking any other direction, the position defaults back to the Chancellor, Yoshi (which, if you think about it, gives every incentive for an ambitious Chancellor to do their level best to undermine a Regent and get them ejected from the position!)