The guy who coded Kishi Kaisei MUX [L5R]
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I don't think the rank stuff is actually as bad as it seems if you examine how it works and actually look through the tables. You count all XP for advancing a qualifying skill, even for multiple raises, so you can focus if you want to. Every rank has a skill group, so you have a variety of choices every rank from that. Ring purchases always count. Then there's a good number of other wildcard entries like 'Any 1 X Kata.' So between all of that, you have a pretty fair amount of choice in how you want to spent your xp (more skills, more rings, more tech focus, which ones, etc), while still sticking to the idea that schools... do teach specific things. That's part of the in-game fiction, and it shouldn't be ignored.
While the system may encourage you to plan your buys to some degree to maximize rank gain... that was true in prior editions too (ie, raising a stat that didn't make any sense just to up the ring for insight). Also, if you choose to buy something 'off menu' it will probably be low and thus pretty cheap, so you're not delaying yourself much.
@d-bone said in The guy who coded Kishi Kaisei MUX [L5R]:
So for examlple.. take the Hida Defender- a Bushi warrior class. Look at what ranks you are and are not allowed to take certain skills to level up. Develop a strategy now to game the system to level up as a fast as possible while also making the most hyper optimized character while still leveling up. For example, level up Martial skills as much as possible in first and second ranks, because you can't for some reason level them up in 3rd or 4th. Dump stat skills like Command, Tactics, meditation and Theology becuase taking them in cgen doesn't count towards leveling up, so you can buy them on the cheap to help kick you over the edge to level up.
This... is wrong/doesn't make much sense. Your Clan, family, and school give you a ton of skills with minimal choice, so you can't really 'dump stat' much nor does it make any sense to. You advance by xp spent not by ticking off which skills you raise, so raising a higher skill contributes more. In the end, you have to spend 16 xp no matter what you do, and there's no difference getting 2 skills at 1 for 4 xp or 1 skill to 2 for 4xp. And if double up where you can (even on 'dump' stats like Fitness and Tactics as a Hida Defender) you end up with more XP worth of character. I simply can't imagine the scenario you're trying to describe. You're also confusing Skills with Skill Groups when saying you can't raise them in ranks 3 & 4 - you just become more focused.
All of this actually reflects the game designers having a pretty good grasp on how characters tend to develop. Most bushi will rank up pretty easily just raising Martial Arts a couple times early (ie, 10xp from a free MA 1 to MA 3), then polish off the remaining 6xp with a mix of minor skills and techniques. In later ranks, they'll dump big chunks of XP to max MA ( leaving secondary skills at ~1-3) while shoring up rings (due to the max ring rules) and buying more techniques. All which feeds into a nice ranking up pattern for most bushi.
Why is this a game that is about narrative focus with one of the most obviously abusable level up designs I've ever seen that also clearly destroys character variety. No more Samurai with deception or persuasion skills, becuase lul fuck you. This system also is meant to replace the system where-in every school gets a set of unique abilities. Instead of getting 5 abilities, you get one. (which in turn explains why characters can only level up certain ways- because all the classes are the same practically)
This... kind of suggests you haven't actually read or grasped the new rules at all. It looks like you skimmed through to things like Rank tables without reading the underlying material.
Deception and Persuasion aren't skills, nor are there equivalents. They're approaches. Being deceptive is an Air approach, and so any character with a high Air Ring could be deceptive (ie, any Scorpion or Crane + various families + various schools). Persuasion could be basically any of the other approaches, depending on flavor: persuading someone via logical argument is earth, charm is water, provocation or other strong emotional approaches are fire, etc. As for the skills, any of the Social skills can basically slot into this function, as can Skulduggery in Trade. A Crab with Command is an effective social character in these rules, right alongside the standard Crane/Phoenix/Scorpions with Courtesy. It's pretty easy for bushi to start with one of these skills at 2 and increase them for rank in rank 1 as well... so you're flat out wrong, here.
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I have started to pull apart the code @faraday wrote for FFG SW, to see how to make it work for this. The good news is it it just a D6 + a D12, and you can put your difficulty in as a specific number instead of the random fluxing of SW or Genesys. Figuring out how to pull from a +sheet will be tricksy.
HRs will be needed for proper MU stuff, but I kinda want to go RAW initially, so we can playtest bugs out and report them, like a proper beta.
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@jennkryst Hope it's useful. I basically wrote that code off the cuff on a quasi-dare, so I can't vouch for its quality
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I didn't even know FFG SW code existed, huh.
That said, I feel like the rough thing in the new L5R is that it's still roll and keep but now its roll and keep with meaningful options/decisionmaking, meaning every roll is a two-step process. You can't simply put in a +command and even get a success/failure message. That alone seems like it's going to be incredibly slow to resolve in a MU setting.
