Very dubious about using battle (vs narrative scenes)

[kelpie 89]

Hi everyone
long time no see here :D and maybe first time posting here about L5R rules

Besides, long story short:

The PC will be (soon) at the court of Flying Squirrel minor clan (i invented it) when they will be put under siege from a Daidoji army
(there are several lore stuff, several more part of the adventure and also a stealing from one 1ed adventure, but i'm keeping it simple now so please focus only on this)
So in the end i was planning about using Battle system. Yay. Seems cool...
seems...
because i have SEVERAL doubts:

1) the system seems cool but it is really cool or is just a way to roll several dice to accomplish very few interesting things?
2) my player are 1x shinjo bushi, 1x ronin (former hida bushi), 2x shugenja and 1x shosuro courtesan. No one has Command, and only two of them have Tactics (both at rank 1). Narratively i can put them in charge of the cohorts, but they will lack any skill to keep the battle going (besides the enemies have 1-3 on social or martial or both...)
3) even if i give them NPC, assistence, the fact is: they will whant to fight a battle? a player could found funny to try this mechanics, but if their characther is'nt involved or are doing something that is completely out of his characther (ie a shugenja guiding a cavalry on the assault)... it will be fun? or just a "ok today we will try this new mechanics" type of evening?

On the other side, i can create a narrative scene, where i describe the battle and then i give them a "mini scene" where they can play a couple round of skirmishes or use some skill roll (ie shugenja calling for the kami to assist the troops, or the courtesan/shinobi going stealth to avoid a fight around the main gate of the castle)
But narrative scene have 2 problems:
a) i don't try the mechanic
b) the outcome is decided by the master, with maybe a couple options based upon the results of players scenes, but in the end is more like viewing a movie directed by the master rather than being part of the story...

Probably we will play next saturday, so i need to decide today or at least tomorrow how i would plan the adventure... did you have any suggestion?

Thank You for your advices!!

[vargrmoon 7]

Personally, I would go with the latter Narrative scene.  Describe the battle, create a couple of mini scenes that help spotlight the characters (combat for the stabby types and intrigues for the talky types).  I think you can make sure the mini scenes are the big ones in the larger narrative battle, so the outcomes of these scenes have a direct influence on the outcome of the larger battle.  That's how I would run it.  I've looked over the Battle rules and while they do seem interesting, the players at my table are definitely less interested in the mass battle rules, and more interested in smaller focused scenes with the larger stuff handled narratively. 

[Magnus Grendel 11,673]

11 hours ago, vargrmoon said:

Personally, I would go with the latter Narrative scene. 

Agreed. Mass Battle conflict scenes are very much "if you are exercising active tactical command of these units". If they happen to be guests of a clan whilst it's attacked, unless there's a good reason they wouldn't necessarily be given a cohort command.

If you're not capable or socially permitted to command, then make the siege something happening in the background whilst you do whatever you would do - sneak, skirmish, plot, whatever. As @vargrmoon says, create a bunch of 'turning point' events they can intervene in and have the results of the battle tip due to those - but make sure there are more than they can possibly all deal with; the problems you can't address are as interesting as the victories you win.

Examples:

A Daidoji commander is leading the attack on the right flank. Defeat him and you'll shatter the enemy advance (challenge).

A group of half-a-dozen enemy Ashigaru are fighting on the top of the wall - two more arrive each round; if you can end a round with no surviving ashigaru, then reinforcements can push the ladders down, whilst if the number ever reaches twelve you'll be pushed back of that section of wall - you'll have to fall back to the inner curtain wall on that side (skirmish).

The enemy have breached a sally gate. There are some exhausted and badly injured 'walking wounded' in a nearby barracks - if you can rally them you might be able to catch the attackers in the flank and throw them back (intrigue)