Creating a minor clan character?

[themountain 0]

I feel like I have read the core book over and over about creating a character hailing from a minor clan. I believe the 4e L5R you could create a character and have him in a minor clan like the Spider, Badger, etc. Now there is no schools, families, or +s or -s to help create a minor clan based character. Does anyone know if it will be added with in source books later on or perhaps if there is a community built system where you can use minor clans for background just like a major clan? Thanks.

[Void Crane 189]

The Mantis clan has a write up under the L5R downloads on FFG’s website.

The others aren’t out yet to my knowledge. But I believe some more are coming.

[UnitOmega 2,818]

Tortoise Clan is in the GM Kit, as the adventure deals a lot with their inner workings. 

[Shinjo Koetsu 37]

I have a feeling we'll see one minor clan per supplement.

[Nheko 205]

The Falcon Minor Clan will be included in the upcoming Shadowlands book.

[Franwax 386]

On 12/30/2018 at 8:43 AM, themountain said:

I believe the 4e L5R you could create a character and have him in a minor clan like the Spider, Badger, etc.

The Spider had actually become a Great Clan by then (they really did let anyone in at some point amirite!  ) but yeah, there were options for many minor clans (and imperials, and half a dozen of brotherhood monastic orders, and advanced schools... all from the core book, but I’m digressing). For now, as others said, we have Mantis and Tortoise, and soon the Falcon. But in the meanwhile, some people have tried their hand in this house rules thread. I don’t guarantee the playability/quality but it can give you some ideas:

 

[TheHobgoblyn 352]

It looks like they intend to drip-feed rules for creating minor clans so that playgroups won't get overwhelmed by them.

Minor Clans are supposed to be rare, but there are so many benefits to being able to play them....

First, one gets to have a unique color scheme and animal avatar outside of the usual ones.

Second, the ring bonuses for them could possibly be better than any of the existing clans.

Third, the more they have to come up with unique techniques, the more likely it will be that they will print one that is accidentally far more powerful than intended.

And the penalties for being a minor clan are starting with lower status and glory-- things which a GM is very likely to ignore and could probably be overcome fairly quickly through regular gameplay.

[Franwax 386]

2 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

Third, the more they have to come up with unique techniques, the more likely it will be that they will print one that is accidentally far more powerful than intended.

I would hope that game designers know how to avoid such pitfalls. Power creep coming from an excess of new publications was something that did plague the 3rd edition and was seriously reined in in the 4th. I do not know how FFG’s other RPGs have been doing in that respect but from what I see from Emerald Empire, they’re keeping things reasonable in terms of school abilities so far (the Taoist Monk is actually a bit underwhelming, although having access to both Kiho and Kata opens up interesting avenues). If anything, minor clans are supposed to be weaker, but that may be difficult to implement with only a single school ability per school.

As for starting Ring bonuses, everyone is pretty much equal here since all characters start with a total of 10 points and cannot go higher than 3 in char gen. Between the “free” increase in question 4, and the spillover from Rings that would exceed 3 (like Earth for the Hida), it’s pretty easy to tailor any clan/family/school as you wish and if not, differences tend to be smoothed after a few xp are earned. 

[UnitOmega 2,818]

Actually, FFG's errors in gameplay seem to come early on in the design and just aren't fixed *coughAutofirejuryriggingcough*. Player crafted stuff gets a little finicky if you let them keep smashing on typewriters, but usually requiring loads of time/money invested and that's probably on theme for L5R. None-core abilities can be impressive, astoundingly good, flashy and creative but very rarely warp the mechanisms unless you're specifically min-maxing in to them, and honestly you could just as easily do that into Core stuff. At least in my experience, been a few years since I ran SWRPG so I haven't played the material in the last chunk of sourcebooks. 

One can argue some of the schools in EE are more "powerful" out the gate, or have more narrative weight to them, *coughKolatcough*, But they are also not necessarily applicable to every campaign, and thus are not always appropriate choices.