[L5R] Giri - Now Hiring

[Alzie]

Okay, real talk now. I've decided the theme will be a combination of the Great Famine and Five Rings heresy and I have a server, but now I need people. I'm sure the players exist, but I'm only one staffer. So here we go, this is what i'm thinking we need.

• Theme Staffer
  I have a general time spot and environment down, but we still need a specific location and surrounding for players to locate themselves in. Having someone who knows the L5R theme and wants to construct us somewhere to RP would be great.

• Plot Staffer
  Player Run things will hopefully occur, but I want to have an active meta plot too. There should be something in the background the players are basing their RP (And hopefully plots) on.

• General Staffer
  A staffer with some knowledge of L5R that wants to help around. Do Jobs, approve apps, help players, maybe run a scene or two sometimes.

[Jennkryst]

@alzie said in [L5R] Giri - Now Hiring:

• General Staffer
  A staffer with some knowledge of L5R that wants to help around. Do Jobs, approve apps, help players, maybe run a scene or two sometimes.

General staffer is where I shine. Job busywork and chargen MATHS are the bees knees. Scene running is also possible, but I usually just do ALL THE JOBS so other, better plot staff can run stuff.

[Ganymede]

Until I fulfill my promises to The Descent, I can't help. Otherwise, I'd probably pop in as a Theme or Plot Staffer. I presume we're using L5R 4E, as 5E is in beta?

[Alzie]

@ganymede I'm using the 5E Beta actually.

[ixokai]

raises hand

I have absolutely no idea what this game is about.

Does interpreting "L5R" and "Great Famine" and "Five Rings heresy" as having a non-zero meaning, well, is that important? I'm figuring that's important.

[Thenomain]

@ixokai

It's important to know something about a game before playing it, yeah.

Here's the aforementioned beta documents.

Others can help you with theme and setting.

[ixokai]

@Thenomain I was, apparently failing, trying to be funny and suggesting more information in the recruitment post would be good.

[Alzie]

@ixokai said in [L5R] Giri - Now Hiring:

@Thenomain I was, apparently failing, trying to be funny and suggesting more information in the recruitment post would be good.

That's fair.
We're using the Legend of the Five Rings Beta system to run a new game. I named the game Giri which is the word for the samurai's moral obligation to their duty which is constantly in conflict with their humanity - called ninjo.

The Great Famine was a time during the period of Rokugan's early history where, following a horrendous harvest, torrential rainfall plagued several of the territories and destroyed even more of the food available. Some lords turned towards tyrannical taxation to make up their difference, others ignored the problem and some attempted to solve the problem in the best way they could only to find that the terrible weather had other effects as well: the destruction of important road ways between clan territories. As i'm sure you can imagine, for some remote areas this brought trade and any hope of outside help to a screeching halt. For other areas, such as the dragon clan territories, this was an even worse effect because mountains don't lend themselves to finding other paths. Then of course, there were the refugees. A lot of them. And a peoples army. All kinds of things. Basically, when you don't have food and your lords don't seem to care, you find food. Sometimes, finding food means you gotta kill some of the people society tells you have been granted a divine right to rule you. This is unsettling to those people who weren't prepared for you to do this.

On the other hand, the Heresy of the Five Rings was a monk who proposed that the reason all this bad shit was happening at all was because there were too many clans. What if you were to, you know, make it so there were less clans and each clan matched up to one of the five rings. Five clans, Five rings. Then all the bad stuff goes away. Well, if you haven't eaten in several weeks and you want someone to blame for it, then a monk comes along and tells you there's someone to blame for it and you have a divine right to blame them? Well they better pack it up, because they're enemy numero uno now. The other clans need to make people forget that they're starving too, so they're either not going to interfere or, in the case of one clan, push that shit right along with fervor.

Was there any specific questions you had or did that cover most of it?

Also, we're using Mu2!

[Jennkryst]

@alzie Silly suggestion: fast forward to an alt history where the heresy worked, and everything is hunky-dory...

... UNTIL THE FIRE [ring clan] ATTACKS.

[Alzie]

@jennkryst said in [L5R] Giri - Now Hiring:

@alzie Silly suggestion: fast forward to an alt history where the heresy worked, and everything is hunky-dory...

... UNTIL THE FIRE [ring clan] ATTACKS.

I'm open to changes in the theme. We haven't opened yet so that's possible. I thought about that and we could include the hawk clan. I just want to force players to explore the conflict between giri and ninjo.

Edit: I'm gonna get really going on code starting monday because I have a 3 day thanksgiving break from work and all the caffeine I can hold.

[ixokai]

@alzie Nope! That's a good amount of information. Thanks!

[ShelBeast]

@alzie I think that you missed that @Jennkryst was making an Avatar The Last Airbender reference.

[bored]

I mean, I'll help if you get to the point where it's relevant/needed , but I'll be honest that at the current stages things are a bit premature.

The ruleset still doesn't fit very well for MU and they're in beta, so there's a lot of hurtles to address and 'we can open a game shortly' doesn't seem realistic or wise.

Edit: while I mentioned liking the Great Famine in the other thread, I think the Five Rings Heresy is a bad idea because again you're undermining core assumptions of the game. A lot of the material in those books for alternate Rokugans pretty much hinge on the idea that people looking at these supplements probably have a lot of experience with the base game and want something new and different. Five clans isn't just combining Scorpion and Crane, it's pre-return of the Ki-Rin/Unicorn. So you're cutting/changing a lot of core material, as well as potentially negatively impacting players who might enjoy those clans.

[Alzie]

@bored Are there particular reasons you have issues with the beta rules on a mu? I've read the beta PDF. There are 5 rings, 5 skill groups and GM/Player defined specialties. The roller is going to have to be a mix of automation and player agency, but I don't see that being a reason to not have a MU. I've seen no major mechanic that would stop a Mu from working in the vein of say TBZ's time mechanic. Even converting the down time system is doable.

[bored]

@alzie

They've already posted several updates that made pretty major changes, so there's every reason to believe they will keep doing that. The rules that exist in a month, several, or whenever it actually hits print could be pretty different.

For instance, there's a lot of discussion about the skill groups not being very well designed right now, as certain areas are over-represented (the Artisan group) while many of what people consider pretty fundamental skills are not included or sufficiently differentiated (no Ride skill, somewhat odd perception rules in the newest update, etc). So I don't think you can assume even those lists are finalized.

[Alzie]

@bored said in [L5R] Giri - Now Hiring:

@alzie

They've already posted several updates that made pretty major changes, so there's every reason to believe they will keep doing that. The rules that exist in a month, several, or whenever it actually hits print could be pretty different.

I'm actually already using the 2.0 Beta version rules.

@bored said in [L5R] Giri - Now Hiring:

For instance, there's a lot of discussion about the skill groups not being very well designed right now, as certain areas are over-represented (the Artisan group) while many of what people consider pretty fundamental skills are not included or sufficiently differentiated (no Ride skill, somewhat odd perception rules in the newest update, etc). So I don't think you can assume even those lists are finalized.

Ride is listed as a subskill of Survival on p.106 in the 2.0 beta rules. So it goes under the Trade Group and Survival Skill. Though I understand some people want it to be an independent skill.

Pretty much every discussion about the skill system I see though is only about there being no specific skill to roll to examine a room. Yet, there's absolutely nothing stopping people from adding the skill to their campaigns. Scholar already has the appropriate approachs for it and Water has already been noted as the ring used for investigations.

There's a lot of flexibility here and it's radically different compared to 4e for sure. It's gonna take some getting used to, but the difference between 4e's giant list of skills and 5e's broad approach based skill system isn't a reason to not open a game. I actually like the 5e way better due to the amount of GM customization it allows and the fact that the approach system forces players to think about their RP.

[bored]

@alzie My point isn't to argue any one change, it's that there have been several changes (I think they came out less than a month apart?) and there are almost certainly going to be many more before you open up.

[Ganymede]

@bored said in [L5R] Giri - Now Hiring:

My point isn't to argue any one change, it's that there have been several changes (I think they came out less than a month apart?) and there are almost certainly going to be many more before you open up.

I concur with this.

Frankly, the appeal for L5R is the setting, and I think this is true for many. I like the Great Famine, but I also like a lot of the older Crab material. I think you should pick a particular time and location, and then work around how you'd like the game to unfold. And I think it should remain far from the Shogun so as to not let "high politics" dominate.

[bored]

Yeah, in terms of physical setting Crab is often a logical choice (why I used Sunda Mizu Mura for my game) because it lets you run Shadowlands TPs without having to work around non-trivial travel time. That said, the Great Famine's major events take place on the Lion/Dragon border in the north.

[Surasanji]

I've learned I hate to staff, but I do look forward to this game coming into being! As written in the Tao: “Every journey begins with a single step. Step well, and your journey will be filled with fortune. Step poorly, and it will be wrought with disaster.”

And: "We tell the tale of heroes to remind ourselves that we also can be great.”

I'll be sure to Cgen when the time comes!