Legend of the Five Rings

[corbetphantom]

hey everyone...i think this thread will probably suffer a quick and painless death, but it's worht a try...

i GM a table-top RPG called Legend of the Five Rings. it's set in the fictional empire of Rokugan, which is kind of a cross between feudal Japan and ancient China.

The RPG was based off of a mildly successfull collectible card game of the same name.

if there's anyone out there that would like to discuss their experiences/views/questions about the game, feel free to jump in.

 

[KisstheSky]

A casual friend tried to teach me, he's won a bunch of tournaments but I only played a couple of times. I didn't have the money at the time to buy the cards. It seemed like a cool game though

 

[cats]

I need more info but so far I'm willing to try a story based on it. Still I need to know how it works but a good story is a good story so I would be willing to play if you give me more info, like: Charas, if theres magic, weapons, basic plot.

 

[corbetphantom]

*l* sorry for the miscomunication...i was more interested in talking ABOUT a game...i'm already swamped runing the real one to start an online one here.

however, you did ask, so i will be happy to share info with you...as far as characters, there's 7 Great Clans that one could join, each with it's own speciality and weaknesses: the Crane who are master swordsmen and are called the right hand of the emporer, the Lion who are master tacticians and who are called the left hand of the emporer, the Crab who protect the empire from the demonic beasts of the Shadowlands, the Unicorn who have both the largest horses (everyone else rides ponies) and the best trained cavalry in the empire, the Dragon who are the great warrior-philosophers (they are almost monks), the Phoenix who raise and train the finest shugenja (wizard/priests) the world has ever known, and the dark Scorpian who are the spies and assasins, they are called the underhand of the emporer. Additionally, there are a number of lesser clans, and two non-human speices, Ratlings and Naga.

magic, yes an no...PC's who want to do "magic" are called shugenja (hard g). they aren't "real" magicians however. their power comes from the kami, the nature spirits and gods who populate the empire. actual magic (called "maho") is forbidden, as the only way to get power without beseeching the spirits is through letting the blood of an intelligent being and requesting the power from Fu-Leng, the god of evil.

weapons are more or less any kind of weapon you would find in fuedal japan: katana, wakazashi, nagatina, yari, etc...

the basic plot is...complex. *l* the timeline my players are in is in the midst of the Clan War. the most basic reader's digest version is this: the Scorpian clan has been disbanded by Imperial edict, one of the main families of the Lion clan has been similarly disbanded. the Crane and the Lion, never the best of friends to begin with, are in open warfare. The Lion is also at war with the Crane's main ally, the Phoenix. The Dragon have yet to take a stand in the war, but fear for the sanity of the Elemental Masters of the Phoenix clan. the Crab clan, seeing weakness on the Imperial throne, and despising all things week, have made a pact with the demons: they will welcome them into the empire as allies for the purpose of overthrowing the emporer. the Crab plan to betray their demonic allies as soon as the throne is theirs. the body of the Emporer has become posessed by Fu-Leng, and he is having a servant from the former Scorpian clan opening the Black Scrolls that serve to bind him in place.

confusing yet?

and yeah, i played the card game myself for a bit, but it's hard to find out here, plus my magic the gathering obsession was more or less eating up all of my spare cash...

 

[cats]

Oh yeah well if you dont!... to be honest I don't think any one else will. Oh well mymistake I guess, thanks for answering my questions but they really only make me want to do a story off of this more.

 

[corbetphantom]

Oh yeah well if you dont!... to be honest I don't think any one else will. Oh well mymistake I guess, thanks for answering my questions but they really only make me want to do a story off of this more.

*l* if you want to ask around maybe there can be a RP based on it but not quite the same. to be honest, i'd be happy to play it in, i'm just wayyyy too busy between class and work and running the actual game...

 

[cats]

Well if you started a thread it'd evolve itself, or atleast they often do, if they don't they normally don't last to long. Also when ever some one tried DM a thread up here like Doungens and dragons it doesn't last long. You just can't pen and papper here, lits a writeing site and that is what everything on it truely boils down to. Writeing a story with otehr people.

 

[corbetphantom]

tell ya what...if you can find some people besides just you and me to do it, then i'll start one...two person threads aren't all that fun and exciting to me...*l* variety and all that...

 

[cats]

Well I'll be damned I convinced you. Didn't see that comeing. I must agree about one person threads, but then agin I did have one excpetion, coarse it became just the two of us when every one else stopped. But that one didn't become truely fun until we got a third person. Oh well, we'll see what happens here.

 

[corbetphantom]

tell ya what (again) i'll start a casting call, and if there's a favorable response we'll play ok? (now getting rather interested in playing a freestyle version himself *lol*)

 

[cats]

Tell you what. I'm not trying to get you to start a trhead. I thought this was one at first and then am dumb enough to keep talking. However if your interested and start one I will be more then happy to play. (I just didn't want to sound like I was winning and I felt that you got that impression.)

 

[corbetphantom]

Tell you what. I'm not trying to get you to start a trhead. I thought this was one at first and then am dumb enough to keep talking. However if your interested and start one I will be more then happy to play. (I just didn't want to sound like I was winning and I felt that you got that impression.)

what can i say? the idea of a written samurai rp took me by storm...i wasn't originally going to do one, but i decided "what the hell, if it doesn't work, no big deal. if it does, then there will be some other people doing it too so that it won't just be be, and i may even come up with some ideas for the real game..."


now i think i'm gonna put the link to the casting call in my sig line, so that i can try to lure in some more people.

 

[ShadowLvr]

I'd be interested. Though my basis for RPG was D&D along with Hero Quest (if you remember that board game) and later MajorMud. The problem with the various clans, is forces me out of character... For some reason, I do very well in magic classes. Built some of the toughest, and best mages, sorceres, necromancers etc in the various games I have. For RPG purposes, would like to steal a bit from my MajorMud days... with a Mage. The race was listed as "Gaunt One" bit cheesy, but direct description. Avg height of 6 1/2-nearly 8 ft, accented by their lean frame and long limbs and fingers. Typically very short or no hair, pale, but born saturated with magic, making them excellent spellcasters. The magic allows them to see at night as well as during day. But, as you can guess by their builds, not exactly strong, or tough characters. Mine survived on his magic, allowing him to nuke just about anyone who bothered me. Don't know if you'd allow an outcaste like mine to join this... "realm"?

 

[cats]

hey if you don't normaly play fighters now's a great chance to learn. We are pretty eassy going on this site because we simply like to write. And some of the best writeing is when you put some effort into makeing a character you aren't familar with. SO prehaps you can try a fighter of some sort this time.

Or if you still want to use a magic user then go to the pheonix clan. They use spells but there pwoer comes from there god not them. But thats the way the game is set up.

 

[ShadowLvr]

Trust me, tried a lot over the years. Best I can manage is ninja types. So toss me in with Black Scorpion I think it was?...

 

[corbetphantom]

Scorpion would actually be great for a ninja-type. i haven't really gone into this yet, but now is as good a time as any.

there are ninja

they are more or less the boogie men of Rokugan.

background stuff:

all of the Great Clans are directly descended from their own Kami.

Back when the world was created there was Father Moon, and Mother Sun. Moon chased Sun for many years, and always Sun resisted Moon's advances. One day however, Sun and Moon lived together as man and woman. Sun became pregnent. Moon, fearful that any offspring he had might one day challenege his power, devised a plan: as his childeren were being born, he would eat them.

Sun learned of this plan and thought of a way to overcome it. Soon the time of her birthing arrived. As Moon ate each of their children, Sun said "You must be thirsty after such a big meal!" and gave him a glass of sake. Eight children were eaten, but by the time came for Moon to eat the last, Hantei, he was so drunk that he did not notice that Sun fed him a rock rather than a child. Moon then passed out in his drunkedness (thus do we learn that a true samurai never drinks to excess). Sun told her son Hantei that he must learn the way of the sword so that he might best his father and free his siblings.

When Moon awoke, he saw that Hantei had become a man and was holding a naked sword before him. Father Moon asked "Who are you?" and Hantei replied, "I am your eigth son, Hantei. I have come to fight you and free my siblings."

Father and son fought a mighty duel, but finally, Hantei slashed Moon across the belly, and all of his siblings began to fall to the earth below. Hantei jumped after them to avoid the wrath of his father. As the last child of Moon was falling out, Fu Leng, Moon grabbed him by the wrist and held him tight. Fu Leng managed to break free, but as a result, he did not fall to earth in the same place as his brothers and sisters. Instead he fell into a deep crack in the Shadowlands, the place where darkness dwells, and he slowly became corrupted.

The great Kami, after a duel, elected Hantei as their leader, and set about making peace with men. (the naga, the original dwellers of earth had fallen asleep and would not awaken for over a thousand years)

Hantei became Emporer, and the other Kami became the leaders of the Seven Clans.

Many years later, Fu Leng burst out of his prison, fully corrupted, he had completed his transformation into the Dark Kami. There began a war between light and dark. The armies of Fu Leng, armed with demonic power and strength seemed sure to win. But then, a simpl monk who called himself Shinsei entered the court of Hantei. The monk and the Kami talked all through the night as Isawa wrote down the conversation (thus was Shintao born).

Shinsei convinced Hantei to be allowed to take one member of each Clan into the Shadowlands to battle Fu Leng in person. Hantei agreed, and said that the Kami would gladly join the crusade. Shinsei shook his head and told Hantei that only humans could defeat the evil. The Seven Thunders were born.

Shinsei led them into the Shadowlands, and they were never seen again, save one. The only sign that was given of their success was the retreat of the demons back into the Dark Realm. The day that Fu Leng was defeated was called The Day of Thunder.

The only survivor was the Scorpion Clan Thunder. She was badly wounded and nearly died on her way back from the Shadowlands with her precious burden, the Black Scrolls, the twelve spells cast by Isawa, the Phoenix Thunder, to bind Fu Leng in the nether world.

The Scorpion knew she had to make it bak to the Empire or else all would be lost. She could not do it however and she fell.

She was approached by a being of pure Darkness. Not evil. Darkness. Father Moon and Mother Sun had brought the universe into being by naming it. The thing that approached the fallen Scorpian was something that had hidden during the naming, and had hence never been made. It is called the Living Darkness. It approached the Scorpian with a deal: if she would consent to give a certain number of her clansmen over to it every year, the Darkness would help her to live. it would also bestow upon certain members of her Clan the ability to meld with shadow and preform other mysterious acts. Shoshuro, the Scorpion, saw no other alternative and agreed.

She managed to stumble into the Imperial court and deliver the message that Fu Leng was defeated, before vomiting and collapsing "dead."

Shoshuro later told Bayushi, the Kami of the Scorpian, of her deal, and he agreed, seeing great potential for his clan. He also took possesion of the Scrolls, and gave their protection over to the Yogo family.

Thus were ninja born.

A thousand years of relative peace have passed since then, but all that has changed. War rocks the Empire, and the Clans appear to have abandonded their sacred duties. The Second Day of Thunder approaches.

(note that not all scorpion are ninja, and the fact that few in the clan know about Shoshuro's deal with the Darkness, and few outside the clan even know ABOUT the darkness. (the unicorn do, but that's another story)


thank you for tuning in for another instalment of "This is your Rokugan." )

 

[ShadowLvr]

I like this group. Definately my type. Best part is, I don't have to think of an exact description right away. Always be hooded, cloaked, etc. And I'm a night owl anyways. My people!

 

[corbetphantom]

I like this group. Definately my type. Best part is, I don't have to think of an exact description right away. Always be hooded, cloaked, etc. And I'm a night owl anyways. My people!

scorpion or ninja? note that in either case, you'll probably want to hide your true identity...for rather obvious reasons.

shouldn't be too hard if you're a higer ranking ninja, you can assume the form of any non-descript person...problem is, the stronger a ninja you are, the closer you are to being consumed by the Darkness, much as Shoshuro herself was consumed a century or so after the Day of Thunder...

 

[cats]

*Eyes widen* That was rather interesting.

Okay the pheonix have the specil group of wizards. The black scorpian have Ninjas as there specil group. What about the others? Do the cranes or dragons have specil groups? And, if so what are they?

 

[ShadowLvr]

shouldn't be too hard if you're a higer ranking ninja, you can assume the form of any non-descript person...problem is, the stronger a ninja you are, the closer you are to being consumed by the Darkness, much as Shoshuro herself was consumed a century or so after the Day of Thunder...

*Whispering softly from the shadows* Who says I haven't been? *disappears again with a hiss of silk*

 

[corbetphantom]

*Eyes widen* That was rather interesting.

Okay the pheonix have the specil group of wizards. The black scorpian have Ninjas as there specil group. What about the others? Do the cranes or dragons have specil groups? And, if so what are they?

it's just Scorpian, no Black. Nor do most of them even know of the existence of the ninja. no one except for the ninja themselves know for sure that they even exist.

and i'm sorry if i mislead you a little...all of the clans have wizards, the Phoenix are just better at it than anyone else.

each of the schools have their own specialities...for more detailed info, check the website i linked on the other page...

 

[corbetphantom]

*Whispering softly from the shadows* Who says I haven't been? *disappears again with a hiss of silk*

the fact that you use to word "I" jk.

seriosuly though, when the Darkness takes over a person, that person litterally ceases to be a distinctive person. the Darnkess absorbes them into itself.

 

[cats]

it's just Scorpian, no Black. Nor do most of them even know of the existence of the ninja. no one except for the ninja themselves know for sure that they even exist.

and i'm sorry if i mislead you a little...all of the clans have wizards, the Phoenix are just better at it than anyone else.

each of the schools have their own specialities...for more detailed info, check the website i linked on the other page...

Oh.... I'll do that then.

 

[ShadowLvr]

Ok, so maybe we've been here? (Sorry, busy week)

 

[cats]

Okay I started a chara on the other thread. Any coments about it?