Hello, everyone! It’s crunch time here at L5R HQ as we try to get things done before the end of the year, holidays looming as they are. We are also working on some exciting stuff for the RPG for convention season next year, but I am not yet at liberty to discuss those things just yet. Maybe next month if we’re lucky!

The Book of Water

Last month I talked about the themes of Water and how chain fighting was one of the most interesting parts of those themes to me. Rob Hobart came up with some really fun and exciting Alternate Paths for that particular aspect of combat in L5R, which I feel like is one of the areas that’s never really been explored in any real detail. Last month we looked at the Mantis Chain Fighting Technique he came up with, and I made allusions to how it varied from the Scorpion one. But I didn’t show you the Scorpion one! As I said, we have to save something for this month, don’t we? So here we go:

Scorpion Chain Fighter
Rank: 3
Replaces: Bayushi Bushi 3, Shosuro Infiltrator 3
Requires: Athletics 4, Chain Weapons 4
Technique: Serpent of Steel – The Scorpion use chain weapons both as infiltration tools and as vicious weapons, specializing in the kusarigama for its ability to both disable and cripple opponents at a distance. If you use a chain weapon as a climbing tool, you gain a +1k1 bonus to any Athletics rolls made for that purpose. You may attack with a kusarigama at a distance of up to 15’ from your target. Also, any time you attack with a kusarigama, you may call three Raises on the attack to inflict the Lame Disadvantage on your opponent – the Disadvantage lasts until the Wounds from the attack are healed.

To the surprise of precisely no one, Hobart’s done another great job here capturing that pseudo-ninja feel of the Scorpion Clan in this one Technique. For my money, slapping this on a Shosuro Infiltrator is just good times. I’m curious to hear what you guys think if it in contrast to the Mantis Technique, though. What do you think about where we’re going with our design space?

Sword & Fan

So writing on Sword & Fan is finishing up as we speak, with all those inevitable little nooks and crannies that are rough or missing being polished up. There’s a lot of mechanics being developed but, sadly, none are ready to be shared just yet. I hate to have too short of a column, though, so I thought I might share with you some of the outline that Mr. Hobart came up with for this book, which I think is going to become one of the greats in the history of the L5R RPG. See what you think:

1. Part One: The Sword
   1. Chapter One: Strategy
      1. Fiction
      2. Rokugani grand strategy (maneuvering armies, winning before the battle starts, etc – base this all on “Sun Tao”)
      3. The life of a general in the field (living conditions, the work of organizing and commanding an army, etc)
      4. Famous generals (this should include both canonical figures from across the Empire’s history and a few ones created for this book – however it should not include Sun Tao himself since we already described him in a previous book)
      5. Famous/interesting military campaigns (note the emphasis here is on campaigns, not individual battles – also, do not replicate ones which have already been described in detail in earlier 4th Ed books)
   2. Chapter Two: Tactics
      1. Fiction
      2. Battlefield formations – this should be researched from actual historical Japanese formations, but then tie it in to the “Formation” cards which were published for the CCG in Diamond/Lotus editions
      3. Victory and Defeat (e.g. the fate of defeated armies and commanders, rituals of victory like the viewing of heads, etc)
      4. GM options – ways to dramatize and expand on the Mass Battle table
   3. Chapter Three: Cavalry Warfare
      1. Fiction
      2. Cavalry before the return of the Unicorn
      3. Unicorn battlefield tactics (reference Way of the Unicorn)
      4. Cavalry units in other clans (Tsuru’s Legion, the Lion Clan’s Ikeda family, etc)
      5. Care and training of warhorses (both Unicorn and ponies)
   4. Chapter Four: Enemies
      1. Fiction
      2. Clan-on-Clan warfare (conventions and customs, limitations imposed by social convention and Imperial authority, etc)
      3. Supernatural enemies (problems and challenges of waging war against opponents like Shadowlands creatures, Living Darkness, the Destroyers, etc)
      4. Gaijin enemies (ditto for gaijin, include both the old White Stag battles and also the more recent clashes with the Ivory Kingdoms, Yodotai, etc)

Does that sound awesome or what? And holy cow, wait until you see what he has planned for the Fan part! But we’ll save that for next time.

The Book of the Void

As we have mentioned in previous columns, there’s been some internal discussion as to what format exactly the Book of the Void will take. Because the Void is so different from all the other Rings, my original plan way back when was to make this book completely different from all the others in the series. I honestly thought about making it just one big book full of weirdness and oddities from all across the Emerald Empire and its Colonies, but in all honesty I think something like that would probably lose its novelty… oh, let’s be generous and say one hundred pages in.

Since the rest of the series has been out and done well, however, I have received lots of interested inquires from fans of the line about the kind of things they want to see in the last book. As it turns out, the format seems pretty popular, and a lot of people are curious to see how the themes and concepts of the Void can be applied to war, court, and magic in a broader manner than has been done previously. I am not in charge of format anymore, of course, but we’ll see what Mr. Hobart has in store for us! I for one am very excited about the possibilities and in particular I think a campaign setting themed toward the Void will be an incredibly interesting concept. Maybe I can work with Max on it if I’m lucky. ☺

And of course, it’s not too late for you to sound off on what you’d like to see in the format and content. That’s sort of the purpose of the column, after all!

Well that’s it for this session, friends. See you next month!