Dark Tides ended up being the best adventure thus far. The PCs felt that the Tortoise clan’s village was a corrupting force. I ended up falling for the Tortoise clan and role playing them for the group. Every player at the table had a defining moment. I like that the investigation can take as long as it needs.
@Dead Unicorn- if you could change how Winter’s embrace was presented what would you do to make it more compelling? I plan to run it eventually but I figured I have a winter court come and go and have the minor clans only receive 2-3 invitations to set up that it’s weird that the Mantis got as many invitations as a major clan. Then change the scheduling so it takes place over a longer period of time with more intrigue and duel options to allow the PCs to interact with the movers and shakers. And intersperse some Challenge/Focus/Strike side plots. For the money issue I was going to change what the book had to allow the PCs to accomplish more while also having their Giri’s reshaped by their masters to give them motivation to participate.
First off, you can take the few details about the setting in Courts of Stone and apply them. Especially the castle town nearby. I had the PCs go incognito to party there and it was some of their favorite stuff. Make sure you have key NPCs for each clan. I had to make a few Unicorn, Scorpion, Minor Clan NPCs to flesh things out and make sure everyone had people to make connections with to fulfill their clan goals. The Scroll or the Blade (Blade or the Scroll?) has extra NPCs there that you can introduce from the start as key players. Also you can use that adventure to fill in big time gaps. When it comes to clan goals, throw out who needs money and wants money. It's broken. The more niche goals, like bargaining treaties or recovering items are much better and create paths for the PCs to succeed or fail, and also what failure looks like. Make up new resources for all the clans. One thing I didn't do was make a big entrance with the Mantis. You should have the PCs on the docks when they arrive, with big fanfare on the boat and the general public suspicious of them because of their standing at this court. You can even get the PCs involved in some betting with the populace to get PC invested even before they are asked by the Crane to spy for them. If you using optional events like the Sumai wrestling competition, make NPCs for it before hand if you know PCs will be involved, personalities that are interesting. Also make sure you know how that competition works, so Players not involved are not sitting all game waiting for one player to go through 5 matches. I used quick duel rules for most of the matches except for the last one, the only one that mattered. For that I used special wrestling duel rules found on my Patreon page for free. Lastly, try to make some weird subplot b-story. Something the PCs can fight, but won't overwhelm the entire court. Maybe the Scorpion are smuggling illegal goods. Maybe the Unicorn brought a special horse and some bandits stole it. Small stuff that can be put into lulls. Hope this all helps. It's a lot of stuff, because the adventure really needs all of this. As always use your own judgement and err on the side of fun.
Naishou Province from L5R 4th edtion. I ran it three different times with three different overarching stories. It is far and wide my favorite adventure in L5R, esp for the sandbox element.
One of the biggest challenges for L5R is of how the players are hard locked to the culture and society... Its one of the things that is appealing about the game, but also can hamstring players used to a traditional group of adventurers where its them against the world. The path of waves, easily takes people out of the strict social norms they are expected to abide with and becomes something more familiar. I have been considering whether or not it would be better to run almost all the adventures through that perspective (I think Winter court would have to be skipped though).
I'm a new GM planning to start a game using the adventure moduals. You mentioned it alittle in the video, bit could you give me a list of order in which you recommend playing each adventure? (Also, I read winters embrace and it seemed so obtuse! What you said was right on the money)
The Beginner Game, In the Palace of the Emerald Champion (web), Dark Tides (Game Masters Kit), Mask of the Oni, & The Knotted Tails (web) all flow from one adventure to the next seamlessly. Winter's Embrace takes place 1 year before those events, but can take place in the same year with some modification. Sins of Regret and Crashing Waves (web) is a Ronin adventure, but can be used for clan samurai, it's just a different experience with them. Not sure when it takes place, but is also disconnected. Wheel of Judgement takes place in the afterlife and all your PCs are dead. If you have a TPK, start Wheel of Judgement! Or, if you just want to do it, tell your players to come up with a way their character died, then tell them that it happened and are now all in the afterlife. :) There are two Gen Con adventures. I'm not sure about Wedding at Kotie Castle, but The Highway Man is a great adventure for Ronin, but they should be at least rank 2.
Winter's Embrace needs a complete rewrite. Even of played as a one shot, it's not very good. The free adventures from Edge Studio's website, Scroll and Blade (?) And Wedding at Kyotei Castle are both far superior for a court intrigue game with actual impact. If a GM is playing Winter's Embrace, I would recommend sitting down and doing a full rewrite with adding in all manner of character background story and a complete B plot.
Winter's Embrance is the best adventure so far. I reallt don't see the problem: the characters do not need to be interested in the Mantis. They have their giris, and if they are following the giris, they will need help from Crane or Scorpion. So why don't help these clans for get something back? The second one probably is Blood of the Lioness. The worst, I don't know. Wheel of Judgement or Palance in the Emerald Chamion. Palance in the Emerald Chamion is good only if you are a new player and don't know L5R.
Dark Tides ended up being the best adventure thus far. The PCs felt that the Tortoise clan’s village was a corrupting force. I ended up falling for the Tortoise clan and role playing them for the group. Every player at the table had a defining moment.
I like that the investigation can take as long as it needs.
1st edition honors veil Is very good.
@Dead Unicorn- if you could change how Winter’s embrace was presented what would you do to make it more compelling?
I plan to run it eventually but I figured I have a winter court come and go and have the minor clans only receive 2-3 invitations to set up that it’s weird that the Mantis got as many invitations as a major clan.
Then change the scheduling so it takes place over a longer period of time with more intrigue and duel options to allow the PCs to interact with the movers and shakers. And intersperse some Challenge/Focus/Strike side plots.
For the money issue I was going to change what the book had to allow the PCs to accomplish more while also having their Giri’s reshaped by their masters to give them motivation to participate.
First off, you can take the few details about the setting in Courts of Stone and apply them. Especially the castle town nearby. I had the PCs go incognito to party there and it was some of their favorite stuff.
Make sure you have key NPCs for each clan. I had to make a few Unicorn, Scorpion, Minor Clan NPCs to flesh things out and make sure everyone had people to make connections with to fulfill their clan goals. The Scroll or the Blade (Blade or the Scroll?) has extra NPCs there that you can introduce from the start as key players. Also you can use that adventure to fill in big time gaps.
When it comes to clan goals, throw out who needs money and wants money. It's broken. The more niche goals, like bargaining treaties or recovering items are much better and create paths for the PCs to succeed or fail, and also what failure looks like. Make up new resources for all the clans.
One thing I didn't do was make a big entrance with the Mantis. You should have the PCs on the docks when they arrive, with big fanfare on the boat and the general public suspicious of them because of their standing at this court. You can even get the PCs involved in some betting with the populace to get PC invested even before they are asked by the Crane to spy for them.
If you using optional events like the Sumai wrestling competition, make NPCs for it before hand if you know PCs will be involved, personalities that are interesting. Also make sure you know how that competition works, so Players not involved are not sitting all game waiting for one player to go through 5 matches. I used quick duel rules for most of the matches except for the last one, the only one that mattered. For that I used special wrestling duel rules found on my Patreon page for free.
Lastly, try to make some weird subplot b-story. Something the PCs can fight, but won't overwhelm the entire court. Maybe the Scorpion are smuggling illegal goods. Maybe the Unicorn brought a special horse and some bandits stole it. Small stuff that can be put into lulls.
Hope this all helps. It's a lot of stuff, because the adventure really needs all of this. As always use your own judgement and err on the side of fun.
Naishou Province from L5R 4th edtion. I ran it three different times with three different overarching stories. It is far and wide my favorite adventure in L5R, esp for the sandbox element.
One of the biggest challenges for L5R is of how the players are hard locked to the culture and society... Its one of the things that is appealing about the game, but also can hamstring players used to a traditional group of adventurers where its them against the world. The path of waves, easily takes people out of the strict social norms they are expected to abide with and becomes something more familiar. I have been considering whether or not it would be better to run almost all the adventures through that perspective (I think Winter court would have to be skipped though).
I've always been a fan of Ronin. They were always my favorite because of their versatility and freedom.
I'm a new GM planning to start a game using the adventure moduals.
You mentioned it alittle in the video, bit could you give me a list of order in which you recommend playing each adventure?
(Also, I read winters embrace and it seemed so obtuse! What you said was right on the money)
The Beginner Game, In the Palace of the Emerald Champion (web), Dark Tides (Game Masters Kit), Mask of the Oni, & The Knotted Tails (web) all flow from one adventure to the next seamlessly.
Winter's Embrace takes place 1 year before those events, but can take place in the same year with some modification.
Sins of Regret and Crashing Waves (web) is a Ronin adventure, but can be used for clan samurai, it's just a different experience with them. Not sure when it takes place, but is also disconnected.
Wheel of Judgement takes place in the afterlife and all your PCs are dead. If you have a TPK, start Wheel of Judgement! Or, if you just want to do it, tell your players to come up with a way their character died, then tell them that it happened and are now all in the afterlife. :)
There are two Gen Con adventures. I'm not sure about Wedding at Kotie Castle, but The Highway Man is a great adventure for Ronin, but they should be at least rank 2.
Great thanks for the information!
Keep up the fantastic L5R videos.
Definitely the best on TH-cam!
14:47 secret offscreen girlfriend liked that
Secret offscreen wife.
Winter's Embrace needs a complete rewrite. Even of played as a one shot, it's not very good. The free adventures from Edge Studio's website, Scroll and Blade (?) And Wedding at Kyotei Castle are both far superior for a court intrigue game with actual impact.
If a GM is playing Winter's Embrace, I would recommend sitting down and doing a full rewrite with adding in all manner of character background story and a complete B plot.
Pull what you think is of value from it for future adventures and scrap the rest. That’s my advice.
Winter's Embrance is the best adventure so far. I reallt don't see the problem: the characters do not need to be interested in the Mantis. They have their giris, and if they are following the giris, they will need help from Crane or Scorpion. So why don't help these clans for get something back?
The second one probably is Blood of the Lioness.
The worst, I don't know. Wheel of Judgement or Palance in the Emerald Chamion. Palance in the Emerald Chamion is good only if you are a new player and don't know L5R.