Hello, everyone! This week has been a frantic race to get the Book of Air finished so that we can get it off to layout and get ready to break ground on the next project in the line. It’s something really special that I hope we can talk about for the very first time right here in later weeks, but for now I have to keep it under wraps or else I might catch a wicked beating from the corporate enforcement division.

The Imperial Histories

Last time we took a few tidbits from the upcoming Imperial Histories sourcebook and gave you a taste of Chapter 6, the chapter that came about as a result of the big contest we had for fans to submit and design entirely new chapters for the book. We had several entries that resulted in new writers working on the book, but of course The Great Famine is the one we’ve mentioned repeatedly as the final product of the contest. Last time you got a bit of an impression of what you’ll be seeing for the whole product, and I hope you’re excited to see it. Today, however, we’re going to check out something a little bit different.

One of the things that people ask me about most frequently with regard to the RPG is the presence of gaijin, including their culture and their weapons. Now granted, they don’t ask about this quite as much as we hear about the Thousand Years of Darkness setting, but we’ve already talked about that a little bit in this column, so this time let’s see what my main man Rob Hobart cooked up for our chapter on the infamous era of White Stag.

New Bugei Skill: Firearms (Intelligence)
Sub-types: Weapon Skill, considered a Low Skill
Emphases: Pistol, Musket
Special: Unless specially permitted by the GM, only gaijin may learn this skill. Firing a gun is a test of memory and rote rather than of physical skill – one of many reasons why it disturbs the samurai of Rokugan. Gunpowder weapons normally have a very slow rate of fire, requiring three Complex Actions to load and prepare for firing (a skilled and experienced soldier can shorten this time, but only somewhat). This skill is considered Low for any Rokugani, and using firearms carries a host of dire social consequences as well.
Mastery Abilities:

• Rank 5: Loading a firearm takes you one less Complex Action.

General Effects of Gunpowder Weapons

Gunpowder is an alien substance within the Emerald Empire and its uses and effects strike fear and horror in the hearts of the Rokugani. In particular, the fact that gunpowder weapons allow simple peasants who have mastered some basic drills to slaughter elite samurai warriors seems not merely disgusting but a perversion of the very basis of the universe. What value does the Celestial Order have in a world where such weapons exist?

In general, the use of gunpowder and firearms is shocking enough to inflict a Fear effect on Rokugani, ranging from Fear 1 for a brief or distant exposure up to Fear 5 for samurai charging into the face of muskets and cannon.

All gunpowder weapons ignore Reduction from armor or natural toughness. (This includes the Reduction of buildings resisting attack by cannons.) If the GM is using the “Alien Metaphysics” option, they also ignore Invulnerability and any Reduction from magical/supernatural sources.

New Weapon: Pistol
Keywords: Small, Gaijin
Range: 20 feet
DR: 3k2
Notes: A pistol’s DR is modified by Perception instead of by Strength. Possession of a pistol is an Imperial crime and should also entail Honor loss of an amount chosen by the GM.

And there’s that! Now, naturally I wouldn’t spoil the whole thing, so you can expect that there are numerous other mechanics in the chapter, including quite a bit more on gaijin powder and the weapons that employ it. So let this just whet your appetite a bit and remember that there’s much more to be had in the pages of Imperial History.

The Book of Air

So far I think it’s safe to say that the primary focus of this column has been the Book of Air, and the mechanics we are in the process of designing for inclusion in that book. To reiterate, just in case some of you are new to the area, I’m sharing with you as-yet-incomplete mechanics that are presently, or in some cases about to be, in playtest. This is your opportunity to post your thoughts, offer feedback, or ask questions about the design philosophy we’re embracing as part of our ongoing work to provide you with high quality material to enhance and improve your ongoing L5R campaigns. Please feel free to offer any insights you might have!

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on the section of the book that concerns monks and Kiho. This is only fitting, since I designed those mechanics for the core book’s Book of Water, but kharma is a real pain, because this has been perhaps the single most challenging section that I’ve worked on for any sourcebook since L5R 4th Edition came out. I’m not sure why, exactly; perhaps it’s the fact that it’s hard to balance Kiho and spells. You want there to be some benefit to being a monk, and you want to capture that pseudo-supernatural feel for Eastern martial arts and enlightenment, but you don’t want to verge too far into the domain of shugenja and such. (Well, at least not unless you’re cranking out some of those really high Mastery Mystial Kiho, and then it’s sort of okay to verge a little far into hot-sauce territory, I guess!)

What I’ve been working on this week specifically has been the section concerning Internal Kiho. For those of you who might not recall or might not be familiar with them, Internal Kiho are those Kiho that allow a monk to manipulate their own chi and enhance their natural abilities to an almost supernatural level (or in some cases, clearly supernatural), giving them that extra edge that hopefully captures the otherworldly feel of a monk on the brink of enlightenment. Toward that end, drawing heavily upon the material written for this section by my good friend Seth Mason, I worked up the following new Monk School. As with last time, at the time I am writing this, this section has not been posted to playtest. It will be by the time you read it, but I refuse to go back and edit it even if they point out some heinous mistake on my part, so once again I’m exposing you to the majesty and/or horror of absolutely untested mechanics:

New School: Order of the Wind [Monk]
There are many divisions within the Order of the Wind, but while the core tenets vary wildly from one group to the next, the core beliefs from which those variants diverge are held by many throughout the order. The essential beliefs of the Brothers of Wind are that the world is a naturally chaotic and unpredictable place, and that this cannot be changed. Rather than struggle against this, a Brother of Wind simply accepts it and remains resolute in the face of uncertainty. This belief grants them control over themselves and, in a limited way, over the world around them. This latter portion of their belief system is not generally discussed outside the ranks of the order, naturally.

Devotion: Fortunism
Benefit: +1 Reflexes
Honor: 4.5
Skills: Athletics, Defense, Jiujutsu, Lore: Theology, Meditation, Staves, any one Skill
Technique: Essence of the Wind – A true Brother of the Wind allows the world to move around him like a breeze, remaining centered and assured throughout the chaos of the world. Any effect that targets you an attempts to influence your behavior, whether a spell, courtier Technique, social Advantage, or any other mechanic, requires an additional Void Point to take effect. Opponents forced to expend multiple Void Points to accomplish this (if the mechanic already requires one Void Point, for instance) may do so without penalty in this one instance.

Those windy lads are the antithesis of mercurial, as it turns out! It was not what I was expecting from the text in that chapter, but I found myself drawn into the backstory Seth created for the order and it spoke to me, so this was actually one of the mechanics in this section that was much easier to come up with.

Oh, hey, while we’re at it, here’s a little taste of a new Kiho as well. I will award several awesome points to anyone who can figure out what classic children’s program I was working on with my boyo when I came up with this one. ;)

New Kiho: Eye of the Eagle
Ring/Mastery: Air 5
Type: Internal

The power of the wind can carry messages and information well beyond the boundaries of human weakness. Some natural creatures with an affinity for Air already possess remarkable abilities that go unnoticed and unappreciated in many instances, and certain monks can mimic these abilities. While this tattoo is active, you may as a Complex Action focus your chi by remaining utterly still an unmoving. Once this is done, so long as you maintain concentration and do not move from your current position, you can see a number of miles equal to your School Rank. The level of detail is sufficient to notice certain details, such as the physical characteristics of individuals, but not so acute as to allow for extremely fine detail, such as reading.

That’s all for this installment. I hope to see you here in two weeks!