Heroes of Rokugan

[Old Gobbo]

Since all of you happen to enjoy role-playing on these forums, I think it's safe to assume that some of you happen to enjoy table-top RPGs as well. I'm considering running a few online over skype and wanted to see if anyone was interested in playing.

The system is called Legend of the Five Rings. It takes place in a setting called Rokugan, which is a fantasy version of feudal Japan, with bits of China, Korea, and Mongolia thrown in. Everyone plays a samurai fighting for their Daimyo, Clan, and Emperor. This game is somewhat unique in that not all classes are able to withstand a fight. You can also play samurai priests (known as shugenja) or courtiers.

The games I want to run online are part of a Living Campaign called Heroes of Rokugan. A Living Campaign is an RPG campaign that has shared adventures played by many people throughout the world. This means you can take the character you're playing with us to GenCon or Otakon and play the Living Campaign there with the same character. Or, if you enjoy it so much you want to play with some of your offline friends, you can, with the exact same character.

So, is anyone interested?

[Old Gobbo]

The version of Legend of the Five Rings that we will be playing is the fourth (and latest) edition. Books are readily available from your Friendly Local Game Store or as PDFs on Drive Thru RPG.

Legend of the Five Rings, or L5R, uses a Roll and Keep system. You roll a number of ten sided dice and keep a certain number of them, summing the ones you keep. For example, if you wish to attack and you have a dice pool of 4k2 (roll 4 dice and keep 2 of them), you might roll a 5, 8, 2, and 4. You would keep the two best (8 and 5) for a total of 13.

[more info added later when I have the time, gotta work now]

[Old Gobbo]

The game takes place in the fictional world of Rokugan. Rokugan has a culture very much like feudal Japan. It is ruled by an Emperor who has the Mandate of Heaven to rule over everyone in Rokugan. Below him are the Samurai, separated into different clans. Below the samurai are the Heimin, the peasant class. Finally, there is the Eta, non-people.

The Clans

The Crab Clan

The Crab clan has the distinction of guarding Rokugan from the Shadowlands in the south, a land of taint and evil. Every waking moment of their day, they spend their lives fighting the Shadowlands upon the Great Carpenter Wall, a wall that stretches all the way across Rokugan's southern border.

This constant battle makes the Crab some of the strongest bodied and willed samurai in the Empire, but they are also uncouth and rude in comparison to "normal" samurai who have the luxury to relax. The Shadowlands does not let the Crab relax.

The Crane Clan

The Crane clan is the Left Hand of the Emperor. They are the best diplomats, the best duelists, and the best artisans in the entire Empire, or so they would have you believe. Until the most recent one, the Empress has always come from the Crane clan.

The Lion Clan

The Phoenix Clan

The Dragon Clan

The Unicorn Clan

The Scorpion Clan

The Mantis Clan

The Imperial Families

The Minor Clans

Ronin



[more added later]

[Old Gobbo]

The Heroes of Rokugan campaign takes place during the time known only as the Spirit Wars.

Four years ago, Rokugan faced the forces of the Lying Darkness at Volturnum. With the return of the Empire’s ancestors through Oblivion’s Gate, the Shadow was defeated, though at great cost. Many of these spirits chose to remain in the mortal realm, to help Rokugan recover from the grievous wounds dealt by the Empire’s enemies during the War Against the Darkness. Emperor Toturi I, himself a returned spirit, has made every effort to reintegrate the other spirits into the modern Empire. The major conflicts over the last decade have taken their toll, and Rokugan has been long in rebuilding. But the Empire’s foes have been biding their time as well, and the reign of Toturi is not as secure as most believe…

[more info later]