u/Hawk-Academic

Wondering if anyone has ever attempted to convert the Feast mini-game from Chaosium's Pendragon rpg into one appropriate for the Rokugan setting?

For those unfamiliar with Pendragon, during a Feast mini-game, the players can choose a variety of base activities (Flirting, Gaming, Indulge, Intrigue) each with their own consequences and rewards, or to risk greater rewards/problems by choosing to Draw a feast card. The cards are usually the highlight of the mini-game, as they introduce some wild events and great opportunities for RP. Some examples include "A Test of Strength" in which an NPC knight challenges one of the PCs to a contest or "A Love Poem" in which an NPC knight is trying (and failing) to compose for his lady and asks one of the PCs to help him out.

Obviously there are large differences between medieval European and Japanese feasts, but a bit of research opened up some interesting possibilities:

- Feasts began with Honzen Ryori which was a formal, structured, strict part of the feast. Sedate compared to the stereotypical European version. During this section, the shikisankon, a formal three rounds of drinks were served.

- Following the drinks, the host would announce bureiko or a time in which formal social rank was broken or ignored. This allowed samurai to be loud drunks with each other without fear of political issues. This usually devolved over the course of the night and ended up with a lot of loud entertainment like poetry battles, impromptu plays where samurai acted out the various parts in well known stories, etc.

In the Pendragon version of feasts, players can gain or lose Honor or Glory based on their activities during the mini-game. This seems just as appropriate for a L5R version.

Has anyone attempted this before? Thoughts? I've noticed a number of the published L5R adventures, including the Tournament of the Topaz Champion and Murder at Kyotei Castle feature a feast scene, but the adventure just basically says "the characters have a feast here and this happens", and leave it at that.

Thanks for any opinions or advice!

As I'm getting ready to start my own 4e campaign, I'm looking at the rules for Iaijutsu duels and I'm ... not impressed. I'm finding that I vastly prefer the 3e rules and want to use those.

Here's some context: I've run and participated in a number of 3e duels. I have yet to be involved in any way with one using the 4e rules.

The sticking point for me is mostly the rules for the 3rd round (focus/strike). As the 4e handbook itself states the rules have been "streamlined and simplified, doing away with the need to spend endless time rolling Focus attempts."

First off, I wouldn't describe the rolling of Focus attempts to be "endless". They're capped at least by one of the participants Void ring. I also find that the rolling of these Focus attempts simulates and builds the kind of tension that you see in other samurai media when two duelists are facing off and one flinches first.

It feels like the 4e rules just go "dueling is boring, let's break it down to a quick 3 rolls and be done."

Again though, I haven't run a duel with the 4e rules. Those of you with more experience between the two, please enlighten me if I'm not seeing it correctly.

Planning on running the original 1e "Ceremony of the Samurai" Topaz Championship to start the campaign for my regular gaming group. (Slight spoilers ahead I guess?) However, I've come across a few continuity errors/plot holes. I have solutions for them, but I want to know if anyone else saw the same things and how they handled them. One of them is fairly egregious though, and I'm not sure how to rectify it.

1) The Duel.

At one point, one of the NPC contestants challenges another to a duel in front of the Emerald Champion, who sanctions it. One of the contestants dies. The Problem: Both of those involved in this duel are children. Neither had passed their gempukku yet. I find it hard to believe that Rokugan law allows children to run around challenging each other to duels to the death.

My solution is to postpone the duel until after both have achieved their gempukku. If they still wanna beef after that, their lords can decide. This does change the adventure pretty significantly though, as this death is supposed to be a major emotional story beat.

If anyone knows any different concerning this point of Rokugan law, I would love to know.

2) Akodo Toturi

According to the adventure. Akodo Toturi is supposed to be in attendance as the Lion Clan Champion and daimyo. It's not mentioned in the text here, but according to canon, he's also the sensei of Doji Kuwanan, who was sent off to the Lion lands to be trained by them as part of some exchange. (Doji Kuwanan is one of the contestants in this year's Topaz Championship as well.)

The Problem: This adventure takes place in 1118. Akodo Arasou was not killed at Toshi Ranbo until 1120. At this point, Toturi should still be in the monastery where he resided for years until his brother died and he was recalled.

The solution for the immediate problem is fairly simple, just replace Toturi with Arasou.

However, that leaves the problem of Doji Kuwanan. According to Way of the Crane (pgs. 80-81), Kuwanan was sent off to study with the Lion at the age of 12 and studied under Toturi himself, and according to Way of the Lion, this engendered the conflict between Kuwanan and Matsu Hiroru that neither sensei saw fit to stop. But how was Toturi able to be Kuwanan's sensei, when he was in a monastery studying to be a monk at this time? Am I missing a reference somewhere?

Thanks for all advice in advance!

I'm about to take my weekly DnD group (6 players) to Rokugan. None of them had even heard of L5R until I mentioned it to them a while back. Mechanically, I plan on running a 1e/4e game.

Since this is their first ventures into L5R, I want to start right at the beginning, with the original 1118 Topaz Championship and go from there. In my opinion, this is when the Great Clans are most "like themselves" and a lot of complications from future events (Spider Clan, Toturi Dynasty, etc.) haven't happened yet. I would rather they play through those events themselves.

My plan is to use the original timeline for the most part, but modified based on my players actions and skip events that never made sense to me or that I just outright dislike. There's even a couple things/events/people I'd like to borrow from the new 5e timeline.

I'm considering even going as far as allowing my PCs to stand in as the Thunders for their respective clans, if events should take us that way.

I've only ever been a player in an L5R game, this will be my first time as GM, though I've GMed numerous other game systems before. Does anyone have recommendations for modules, or even order of modules in the above mentioned settings? Things to watch out for in the lore, or any published adventures to avoid? I'm considering currently Honor's Veil and Mirror, Mirror and I would like my PCs, even if they don't become Thunders, to take part in the Otosan Uchi parts of the Scorpion Clan Coup.