Harzerkatze
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Posts posted by Harzerkatze
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I primarily have my Creature Collection thread here that I will have to relocate. The document itself is on my personal server and thus safe, but I'll have to see where I can advertise it to L5R players.
@KakitaKaori If you have a place for my Collection, I would be grateful if you hosted it.
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@Zantosa @Magnus Grendel OK, hab Euch vorgemerkt.
Wir spielen mit 30 XP Startbudget. Ihr könnte mir schreiben, welche Schule etc. Ihr gerne spielen würdet, dann kann ich das Abenteuer etwas daran anpassen. -
I just read that the Crane clan now has the regency of Rokugan:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2020/12/16/the-careful-gardener/.
I thought Shoju Bajushi was the regent? When did that happen?
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One might wonder why the Crane, the clan that is proudest of its diplomatic ability, is in conflict with 5 of the 7 other clans. (Although I would doubt that the rivalry between Kakita and Mirumoto amounts to so much as clan hostility.)
The answer lies in another relationship not in the diagram: That to the emperor.
The Crane always was the clan closest to the emperor, its left hand and the source of his wives.
It was also the richest clan, which is why they could afford to spend their time on art and petty court intrigue.
Which is why they are hit so hard now: There is no emperor, and the tsunami destroyed the source of their wealth. They face opponents in the fields in the Lion, in the courts in the scorpion and the regent, and in economics in the Crab dealing with the Mantis. -
Hi there,
with the "Dark Winter in the North" campaign I played in seemingly not continuing and the pandemic isolation driving me slowly insane, I was thinking about starting a new PbP campaign, with me as GM.
It would play in the current timeline and start as a short adventure over a few weeks, with an evaluation afterwards if we want to continue.
I would want to start in January. Without wanting to give away the plot, the story would start in Phoenix lands, with four or five players.
They could be Ronin or Emerald Magistrates.
Anyone interested in playing?Magnus Grendel and Zantosa reacted to this -
Another one: the Ikiryō, a ghost of a still living person, inspired by the great novel Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter , which has a very nice L5R feeling to it.
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While Celestial Realms provides Omamori for Hotei, Jurojin and Kisshoten, and the latter two are nicely done, I feel like the Boon of Hotei is really problematic.
You remove Strife equal to your Focus value for a Void Point once per game. Since it isn't even declared as an action, my current character would heal 7 Strife for free . That would completely break a duel and is better than the Warrior's Resolve kata without costing any XP.My solution would be that you can only use the Boon of Hotei out of initiative/Comflict Scenes. So it is useful if you have to reset before a duel, e.g. if you go the D'Artagnan method of challenging multiple people to duels in a row. But in the duel itself, it could not be used.
Magnus Grendel and DSalazar reacted to this -
This has not been made explicit in L5R. If you want a related example from the souce material, in Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, which has an almost identical story, a group of ronin defend a village from bandits. It comes out that the villagers have plundered quite some weapons from battlefields and hidden them away. The ronin are furious when they find out, almost deciding to kill villagers for the transgression. But finally they relent and use what they get to defend the village.
If we take that example, we can deduce:
- It is very untypical for a ronin to use a weapon taken from a battlefield in T7S. Looting is just not a thing for them, even thougfh they are so poor that a meal of rice a day is enough for them to risk their lives on an almost suicide mission.
- It is very common for the peasants to pilfer weapons and armor from the dead and hide them somewhere.
- When the battle comes, the ronin arm peasants with pilfered armor and allow them to use the spears they hid. There is no peasant (if we do not count main characters) with a sword in the movie.The_Shaman reacted to this -
Next entry, inspired by something from the Trail of Shadows L5R novel: the Totate Gumo, or Trapdoor Spider Monster.
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I have to say I was positively surprised that the Ring order in L5R fit exactly how I planned it for the Undertaker.
Representing the story image of quicksand, you sink deeper if you struggle hard, but less if you remain calm.
That means a Fire approach should be more difficult, an Earth approach better suited.
Whether by chance or concept, that is exactly how a Water-focused check works.Magnus Grendel reacted to this -
A new entry for when you want to give your players that sinking feeling: the Undertaker, for a change not directly inspired by a japanese legend.
A creature of earth that creates quicksand to give you a permanent place in its kingdom.
And a cautionary tale of the consequences when you just change your burial habits as a culture...
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26 minutes ago, FelixFenix said:Thanks guys. I will like to do a test drive of Spooky’s Emma-o Shugenja and thought of using a Kuni for a family but not sure if because he wasn’t attending a Kuni school he was allowed to use their makeup.
The Kuni are not much about brand management. If it works against Tainted creatures, the more adopt it, the better.
The problem is rather all the other people asking behind your back: "Why is he dressing like an insane inquisitor?" -
My understanding is that the Kuni believe that many ghosts cannot identify someone with a painted face as a human, which shields the other humans from their revenge.
"I was slain by a two-legged creature with a red and white face. When I find another one, I will make it rue the day!"
If so, it is both possible that the young Kuni took this belief with him when he transferred over to the other school, or that he left it behind. So I see both options as valid.
Other clans would find it very strange, of course, and if the new school is not concerned with hunting monsters, it would be seen as a bizarre habit, e.g. in a courtier or shugenja.neilcell and FelixFenix reacted to this -
46 minutes ago, KakitaKaori said:If you don't mind, I'd like to plug this wonderful resource on the Court Games podcast. Do you mind? And should I credit you under a different name, or this name? Thank you!
@HarzerkatzeHi there! I'd be honored to be featured on your podcast. You can call me harzerkatze, or Ruven, my real name.
The Strange Creatures of Rokugan creature compendium is an ongoing work in progress, of course.
I regularily update the document to include new entries I designed. -
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A cute new entry for my Creature Collection: The Pipe Fox or Kuda-Gitsune, a sweet animal from Chikusho-do that can bond with humans and help them with their magical powers, but has a Sorcerer's-Apprentice-like drawback.
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And another one: Ittan-Momen, a flying bolt of cloth that wraps around people to suffocate them. A low-level opponent for a change.
Magnus Grendel and Kiso reacted to this -
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Man, I am really tempted to give my creature Collection a cool L5R cover, but I don't think that would be legal under the fair use provisions, as the logo and such are trademarks.
Still...
Magnus Grendel and Kiso reacted to this -
Another category of Yokai seems to be "one threat, one solution yokai": Creatures that have a very special way of doing things that always leads to them killing someone, but with one special way of breaking the pattern. The Akomanto and Kuchisake-onna you talked about are prime examples, as is the Umibōzu, a large spirit appearing next to ships, asking for a barrel and then drowning the sailors in it, with the pattern breaking option being giving it a barrel without a bottom. My Akikage or Con-Tinh is similar. If you know other yokai of this pattern, tell me, perhaps it serves to make them all into one group of challenges.
I think those can be made into great RPG creatures, but one has to change "killing" into "attacking" and add the special feature that the creature keeps reappearing as long as the circle is not broken. So the Kuchisake-onna could ask its question and attack whether answered yes or no, and be killed after a fight, but appear again the next night. The PCs can try different solutions, which leads to the same fight if they don't work, but their work of protecting the innocents from the threat is only finished if they find the right solution.
It is important that the PCs can try different ways, for unlike in the stories, it is almost impossible to get it right the first way through.
The alternative is that the PCs encounter the story first. So they know that the Kuchisake-onna kills whether told yes or no, so they know they have to find an alternative. The danger to the latter approach is that some PCs tend to try before planning, so a GM should know their group before challenging them with a one-solution-yokai.
Those kinds of creatures make good low-level challenges or good side-quests for an evening of samurai ghostbusters.Magnus Grendel reacted to this -
The problem with most yokai is that while they may be atmospheric or even spooky, they offer little in an RPG context. A ghost that takes the form of a paper lantern is a staple of japanese animation, but you would not need L5R Stats for it. The same goes for women with eyes all over their bodies or dwarves with just one eye: If they don't DO something with their special features, I feel like they are not good entries into my Creature Collection.
Others are similar to existing entries. I have the Kasa-Obake, a rather harmless umbrella obake, so a harmless lantern obake would be too close. Likewise, I have the Jinmenju, a tree feeding on people, so I think a Jubokko would offer little new. Same goes for "women who strangle with their living hair": Anyone wanting to use a Futakuchi-onna can base it on my White-Haired Witch. I wanted to create a Bakeneko, but stopped realizing that from the PCs perspective, there is little difference between facing that and a Kitzune, for which we have an entire school with invocations and all.
I will create an entry for the Hashihime/Funayūrei, which are both pretty much "drowning spirits". We have rules for suffocation, so a spirit living in the water able to pull PCs down and then make them Immobilized or Prone would offer a dangerous challenge. The Yuki-onna looks interesting, too, but we lack rules for cold or freezing, which makes it harder to translate her to L5R. -
16 minutes ago, TheHobgoblyn said:I was thinking of translating the legend of the girl with a mask over her lower face that comes up on those who are traveling alone outside train stations and asks "Do you think I am pretty?" and attacks whether they answer "yes" or "no", but I can't seem to find the name of that one.
That's Kuchisake-onna. The Constantine TV series used that in the fifth episode, strangely set in New Orleans.
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10 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:Akamanto - A ghostly spirit who is traditionally dressed in red. They will come upon those in need and offer one of two items to the person-- for example, offering a red cloak or a blue cloak to someone in need. They will kill those who choose incorrectly-- though some believe both answers are 'incorrect' and that the only way to survive is to ignore the spirit entirely.
"Those in need" is hilarious, seeing that according to wikipedia, the spirit appears in public toilets and offers red or blue toilet paper...
New PbP game
in Your Stories
Posted · Edited by Harzerkatze
Oops, wrote in German by mistake, sorry. Halt! Hammerzeit!
30 XP starting budget. Ronin with Service to a Lord title is entitely ok.
Bit with the forums going down in February, starting a group here in January isn't really worth it. Where should we relocate it?