Designer Diary #5: The Feel of Rokugan
Posted 2nd March 2010 at 02:25 PM by L5R Design Diaries
Updated 2nd March 2010 at 02:28 PM by L5R Design Diaries
Updated 2nd March 2010 at 02:28 PM by L5R Design Diaries
L5R RPG 4th Edition: Designer Diary #5
The Feel of Rokugan
The Feel of Rokugan
Good morning everyone!
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Well, if you’ve seen the schedule, you know that next time we start the series talking about the design of specific systems like Skills, Advantages, and Schools. When the team and I were first coming up with the schedule for these things, we had planned for this installment to talk about the broad theme of the setting, and how the mechanics tried to capture that essence and give you a game that genuinely felt like Rokugan. But, in all honesty, we’ve talked so much about theme in the past few installments that I think it’s time we start giving you something with a little more substance. So I thought it might be interesting to pair up with my fellow designer Rob Hobart, lord and master of the Heroes of Rokugan living campaign, and follow up his comments with some hard mechanical previews of the new edition. Let’s get to it, shall we?“Every game attempts to present a particular “feel,” a particular tone and style that draws in the players. In the case of L5R, this “feel” is focused on the nature of the game world, an Asian-inspired fantasy setting in which the characters play samurai. A lot of this is conveyed through the game’s flavor text, what is commonly called “fluff” in gaming circles (as opposed to mechanics, which are “crunch”). However, in a well-designed game there should not be a breach between crunch and fluff. They should be a unified whole, tied together and reinforcing each other. The “feel” of a role-playing game is not created by crunch or fluff, but by the synergistic union of both of them. In a well-designed game, even the most basic mechanics can reinforce the essential feel and tone of the game world.
A simple but striking example of this may be found in L5R’s basic mechanic, the Roll & Keep system. Although Roll & Keep is a fun and interesting system on a purely mechanical basis, it also serves to reflect the “feel” of a samurai world where the characters are all highly skilled members of an elite caste. Because the R&K system creates a “curve” of probability (as opposed to the “straight line” probability of a game system like D&D/d20), players have a good idea of their characters’ capabilities and of what they’re able to pull off in any given situation. This creates a sense of character confidence and skill that is entirely appropriate to a samurai game.”
I think all you Not As New Players out there will agree one hundred percent with Rob on this one. I know how much I enjoyed the system when I first started playing the game back in 1997 (I think that’s the right date… the fog of years is enormous!). It was so simple and elegant that I fell in love with it right away. I certainly wasn’t going to go changing it on the first edition I’ve ever walked lead on! Tweak it for the purposes of stability and balance, certainly, but whole-cloth changes? No thanks.
Here’s a little preview of the TN chart and the Raise mechanics for the new edition. There’s very little changed here, but hopefully you’ll find the mechanics nice and clear. This is the skeleton for everything else you’re going to see between now and the game’s release, after all. From the Book of Earth, your first real mechanics preview:
Basic Mechanics: the Roll & Keep System
At its core, the Legend of the Five Rings Role-playing Game uses a very simple mechanic. When a player wishes to have his character take an action, the Game Master determines what abilities the character should use to determine success or failure (these abilities most often consist of one Trait and one Skill used in conjunction with one another). The Game Master must also decide how difficult the task should be, and choose a Target Number (TN) based on this difficulty. The player rolls a number of ten-sided dice based upon the abilities on the samurai’s character sheet that the Game Master has identified as necessary for the task. The player then adds the total of the dice rolled and compares the sum to the TN chosen by the Game Master. If the total meets or exceeds the TN, the character successfully completed the task in question. If the total is less than the TN, the character has failed to complete the task.
It is rare that a player will keep all of the dice rolled when his character is taking an action. Typically, a player can keep a smaller number of dice than the amount rolled, and in almost all situations the player will choose the highest rolling of the dice, although he may keep whichever ones he chooses; if for some reason he wishes for his character to fail the roll in question, he may choose lower rolling dice. When denoting the number of dice that should be rolled and kept, the format used is XkY, where X represents the number of dice rolled, or “rolled dice,” and Y the number of dice kept, or “kept dice.” For example, the notation 4k2 means that four dice should be rolled and two of them chosen to be kept and added together; if the player rolled a 3, 6, 7, and 9, the player would likely choose the 7 and 9 for a total of 16 on the roll.
Target NumbersA Target Number is a measure of the difficulty of any given task, as determined by the Game Master. A task that should be easy will be assigned a low TN, whereas a difficult task will have a higher TN. While individual Game Masters are encouraged to use their own judgment to determine the difficulty of any task, a general idea of how difficult a given task might be is as follows:
(Please note that this is not the format the table takes in the rulebook, this is simply for ease of viewing on ENWorld)
Table 2.1: Standard Target Numbers
TN / Difficulty / Physical / Mental
None / Mundane / Getting out of bed / Remembering details of your sword
5 / Very Easy / Striking an immobile target / Recognizing an old friend
10 / Easy / Carrying half your weight / Finding a misplaced item
15 / Average / Lifting your weight / Remembering someone you’ve seen once
20 / Moderate / Jumping a ten-foot ditch / Recognizing someone in disguise
25 / Difficult / Scaling a cliff without rope / Finding a well-hidden object
30 / Very Hard / Diving safely from a waterfall / Remembering someone’s exact words
40 / Heroic / Out-wrestling a troll / Naming all of your ancestors… in order
60 / Impossible / Shattering stone with bare hands / Outwitting a Fortune
Raises
There are times when simple success is not enough. When a character needs to accomplish something truly spectacular, Raises are the means by which that can be accomplished. When a player declares he is making a Raise, he is choosing to voluntarily increase the TN of the task his character is attempting, by an increment of 5 per Raise. Raises are generally made when a player feels his character’s abilities will allow him to easily exceed the TN for a given task. The most common use of Raises is to allow characters to perform Maneuvers in combat (described later in this chapter), but individual GMs can allow any number of different effects with sufficient Raises. Players who wish to try unconventional or creative actions that are not covered by the basic rules should simply ask the GM how many Raises will be required to succeed.
A character can make a maximum number of Raises per roll equal to his Void Ring. A character with Void 2, for instance, can make 1 or 2 Raises per roll, but not 3. Some mechanical effects grant a character Free Raises. These give the benefit of having made a Raise without actually increasing the TN of the roll in question, and do not count toward the maximum number of Raises that may be made per roll. Free Raises may also be used to reduce the TN of the task being attempted by 5 instead of augmenting the roll in the same way as a normal Raise.
Raises are not without risk, however. If a player declares Raises on a roll, and the result of his roll fails to meet the new, increased TN, the roll fails. This is a failure even if the result of the roll meets the original TN but falls short of the new, increased TN.
“As a slightly deeper example, consider the role of Honor. Any game about samurai has to address Honor and the Code of Bushido, because these are such essential elements of samurai life and culture. The demands of Bushido drive almost all of a samurai’s major choices and actions, and the conflict between the harsh and unforgiving Code of Bushido and the human needs and impulses of any samurai (things like love or friendship) form the dramatic heart of samurai role-play. A lot of Bushido’s importance can be conveyed through flavor text, of course, but one of the strengths of L5R is that it also conveys it through game mechanics. Every character has an Honor Rank, representing how well that character lives up to the demands of Bushido. Honor goes up and down according to the character’s actions, providing a direct in-game reinforcement to the cultural norms of Rokugan. Moreover, the Honor Rank has in-game effects! Every edition of the L5R RPG, including 4th Edition, includes methods whereby a character’s Honor Rank can help protect him from dishonorable failings such as succumbing to blackmail or fleeing from a supernatural monster. In Fourth Edition, this is the primary value of Honor, but an optional rule allows the GM to make Honor even more valuable to the characters. Thus, there is a direct mechanical reinforcement within the game of the “feel” of Rokugan as a culture driven by Honor and Bushido.”
Unlike the Roll & Keep system, we did change some aspects of Honor in the new edition. The most basic example is that it’s been altered to a 1 to 10 scale, whereas it has previously been 1 to 5. Everything else in the game was already 1-10, so we figured that it was only appropriate to use the same scale for Honor. Additionally, it allows for a lot more leeway in terms of Honor changing over time. Rewarding and penalizing a character’s Honor for his actions is one of the most unique and interesting aspects of the game, or at least I have always thought so. With a greater scale of Honor to operate with, GMs can give rewards and penalties more freely without immediately and drastically affected a character’s abilities. And if that’s something that a GM prefers, well… there’s no reason you can’t simply alter the scale of the rewards and penalties to ensure the same broad swings. Insert pizza metaphor here!
Let’s talk about a few tidbits you get along with your character’s Honor!
Discerning Honor
Samurai who have a high Honor Rank conduct themselves in such a manner that their nature is obvious to those who pay close attention. Any character may attempt to discern the Honor Rank of another person by making a Lore: Bushido / Awareness roll (TN 30). If the roll is successful, the person making the roll can discern the Honor Rank of the samurai being evaluated.
The Strength of Honor
One of the greatest benefits of having a high Honor Rank is that characters can rely upon their Honor to aid them in resisting temptations or manipulations that a true samurai should turn aside easily. Characters add their Honor Rank to the total of any roll made to resist uses of the Intimidation and Temptation Skills, as well as to all rolls to resist Fear effects of any kind.
Optional Rule: The Honor Roll
Some GMs may wish to offer more concrete rewards and incentives to characters who maintain a high Honor Rank. This may be done by introducing the concept of an Honor Roll into the game.
An Honor Roll allows a character to call upon his Honor once per game session to try to succeed at something he would otherwise fail. After a character fails a Skill, Trait, Ring, or Spell Casting roll, he may opt to re-roll the attempt at the same TN, but using his Honor Rank in rolled and kept dice in place of the original dice. (For example, a character of Honor Rank 6 fails an attack roll and decides to call on his Honor to re-roll. His normal attack roll is 7k4, but he now re-rolls with 6k6, since his Honor Rank is 6.) If the second roll succeeds, the character successfully performs the action. However, if it fails, not only does the character fail the original action but he also loses a full Rank (ten Points) of Honor as his faith in his own capabilities is shaken.
The GM should exercise caution in deciding whether to use the Honor Roll rule in his game. Although it does create an incentive for characters to follow the path of Bushido, it also creates the potential of tilting the game heavily in favor of high-honor characters, allowing them to succeed with near-certainty once per session. GMs should carefully consider whether they wish to allow this option.
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“As a designer, one of the most interesting and compelling examples of Rokugan’s feel, to me, is its treatment of evil, specifically of supernatural and monstrous evil. The key concept in Rokugan’s vision of evil is the Shadowlands Taint, which represents the corrupting supernatural influence of Jigoku, the Realm of Evil. Once the Taint gets into someone, it slowly but relentlessly grows, subverting them into evil and insane beings. Eventually the Taint completely consumes the victim’s identity, transforming them into a completely evil being – in effect, a monster. There is very little chance of escaping the grip of the Taint once it gets its grip on you, and this sense of an inevitable doom at the hand of an alien and implacable force is one of L5R’s most distinctive elements. The Taint is an intensely Asian concept, very different from the more conventional depiction of evil found in most Western-style fantasy RPGs. These supernatural themes are found in modern Asian culture as well – check out films like Ju-On or Ringu, for example – and the Taint is a very effective way of carrying this feel into the game. As Brian mentioned in the third Designer Diary, over time the depiction of the Taint had become somewhat vitiated in successive editions of L5R, and one of our goals in 4th Edition was to restore that sense of profound fear and inevitable doom associated with the Shadowlands.” If you’re a fan of the setting or the fiction, I think you’ll agree that the Taint is supposed to be a horrific, nightmarish force that even the hardiest samurai fears. And rightly so! The first edition of the game presented the Taint as a real horror show, but there was some mitigation of it over the course of the game’s life. I’m not going to judge that one way or the other, because there were good reasons for it at the time. In the new edition, however, it’s time to give the tiger its teeth back, we think, and I hope you’ll agree. Although I’m not quite ready to give away all the secrets of the new Taint just yet, I think this preview should whet your appetite ever so slightly.
Gaining the Taint – Active Infection
The Taint is infectious and malignant, always watching for a chance to spread. Any time a character is exposed to the Taint, however briefly, he must make an Earth roll to resist it. The TN of this roll depends on the severity of the exposure. Passive exposure to a Tainted environment (such as traveling through the Shadowlands without jade) is much less dangerous than direct contact with a Tainted creature, for example. In situations where multiple conditions apply at the same time (such as being bitten by a Tainted creature while within the Shadowlands), roll once using the highest applicable TN.
Each time a character fails one of these rolls, he immediately gains 1 point of Taint.
(Please note that this is not the format the table takes in the rulebook, this is simply for ease of viewing on ENWorld)
Table 4.1: Taint Exposure Rolls
The Target Number would be 10 based on activities such as:Traveling in the Shadowlands without jade (per day), Injured while in the Shadowlands, Exposed to Tainted blood/ichor, Physical proximity/contact with a heavily Tainted creature.
The Target Number would be 15 based on activities such as: Using a Minor Shadowlands Power (where applicable), Injured (bitten/stung/clawed) by a Tainted creature, Struck with a Tainted weapon, Bearing an Oni Mark (per week), Submerged in Tainted liquid (water or otherwise).
The Target Number would be 20 based on the following activities: Using a Greater Shadowlands Power(where applicable), Eating/drinking Tainted food or water.
The Target Number would be 30 if you were swallowed alive by an Oni (and somehow escaped).
Gaining the Taint – Growth of Infection
Once a character has the Taint, it will attempt to grow, slowly eating away at his body, mind, and soul. Minor infection can be resisted fairly easily, but the Taint is persistent and never tires, and will seize on any moment of weakness. A character who is Tainted must make periodic Earth rolls to see whether his Taint has managed to grow. The frequency of these rolls, and the TN required, goes up as the Taint becomes stronger, as shown below on table 4.2. Each time such a roll is failed, the character gains 1 additional point of Taint.
(Please note that this is not the format the table takes in the rulebook, this is simply for ease of viewing on ENWorld)
Table 4.2: Taint Growth
Taint Level / Check Interval / Check TN
Seeds of Darkness / Once/month / 5
Level 1 / Once/month / 10
Level 2 / Once/two weeks / 15
Level 3 / Once/week / 20
Level 4 / Once/day / 25
A character who is drinking Jade Petal Tea on a daily basis gains a +2k2 bonus to these Earth rolls. Living a life of strict piety, meditation, and moral and physical purity can also make it easier to resist the Taint’s growth, awarding anywhere from a +1k0 to a +3k0 bonus to the Earth rolls, at the GM’s discretion. Many individuals who learn they possess Taint choose to retire to special monasteries, administered by the Brotherhood of Shinsei and regularly visited by the Kuni Witch-Hunters, where they can live pure and simple lives, drink their Jade Petal Tea, and hopefully die without becoming Lost. Tainted Characters
The Taint rules presented here represent the “default” vision of Rokugan, in which the Taint is a deadly and all-consuming force which soon overwhelms and devours those who fall under its power. However, some GMs may wish to run a campaign in which characters do not succumb to the Taint so swiftly, especially if they are using the Spider Clan as a playable faction for PCs. In this case, we recommend the GM slow the pace of Taint growth, either by lowering the frequency of rolls for Taint growth, or dropping the TNs by 5. The GM can also choose to add another Taint Rank to each level of infection (see below), thus allowing characters to hold off longer before becoming Lost.
Truly ambitious or unconventional GMs can choose to allow players to run Lost characters, subject to appropriate restrictions on their role-playing choices. Be warned that this profoundly alters the nature and role of the Taint in Rokugan, and is thus not a step to be taken lightly!
Effects of the Taint
The Taint is the manifestation of Jigoku’s power, and as such, it seeks always to spread the nature of the Realm of Evil – to spread violence, hate, terror, pain, and destruction. It twists and mutates everything it touches, perverts every urge and desire into the worst imaginable outcome, destroys life and empowers death. Living creatures who are badly Tainted begin to exhibit unpleasant mutations – skin turns pale, hair falls out or becomes coarse or greasy – and as the Taint grows these mutations become more and more grotesque. Even worse are the mental and spiritual symptoms. Those who are Tainted begin to feel violent and sickening urges, hearing voices in their minds that urge them to evil and destruction. Eventually, if left unchecked the Taint will wholly consume its victims, turning them into terrible monsters
Those who have studied the Taint, chiefly the Kuni family of the Crab Clan, have learned to recognize its symptoms and effects. They describe six levels of Taint infection, ranging from minor passive infection – almost undetectable – to the final dissolution that they refer to as being “Lost.”
That’s all for now, folks! Join me next time as I reveal the new edition’s Skill list, as well has how Mastery Abilities and Emphases are going to work!
Total Comments 6
Comments
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Hope You will proofread your text before You make a mess again:
The player then adds the total of the dice rolled
...
Typically, a player can keep a smaller number of dice than the amount rolled
...
and what dice are kept (probably the traitvalue?)
please don't make a mess like 3.5!!!
Posted 3rd March 2010 at 06:24 AM by Vincent_V
- Hello, Vincent. I answer your more elaborate version of these questions at the AEG forums, but let me respond in brief here as well.
The first statement with which you take issue is necessary to tell readers that this is a cumulative game, not an individual. The Storyteller system, for example, looks at the individual results on the dice. This is cumulative, where you add them together. No problem. Then, a short time later, we explain that you don't always keep everything, but that you pick and choose.
You are obviously familiar with the system, based on your 3.5 comment, so I think you're overthinking the text a little bit. That part is hopefully clear to new players!Posted 3rd March 2010 at 01:39 PM by Shawn Carman - I'm glad to see you capping raises by Void ring. I very much hope you don't have any Advantages (like 3ed) which remove the cap, b/c that makes for very very broken characters. I'm looking forward to the Advantages article very much, b/c some of those in 3ed were completely out of whack vis a vis relative power/cost.Posted 3rd March 2010 at 10:30 PM by jghiloni
- Regarding the maximum number of raises, I actually liked the Ruling of 3rd Edition (raises are capped either by Void Ring or skill rank, wichever is higher). With that ruling, it was possible to have a character who is a master in one thing without having the need to make him quite good in everything. With the old ruling, that character was able to call several raises in his favorate skill, but far less in any other skill. Going back to the 1st/2nd Edition ruling of having Void Ring alone as a cap for the number of raises means that now (again) everyone has to go for a high (or at least moderate) Void Ring.Posted 18th March 2010 at 09:07 AM by Yellow
- With the new Taint rules, I am hopeful that you will include methods that the Kuni use for detecting the Taint. Minor passive infection is listed as "almost undetectable" so what does detect it? When does jade start affecting tainted individuals? And please oh please don't let Moto Death Priests detect Taint at will. It undermines the insidiousness of the Taint and is a kick in the gut to the Kuni. This technique makes another clan infinitely better at doing what the Kuni are supposed to do.
Other than that, I really enjoy what I'm seeing here. The Taint had its teeth pulled in 3e. This goes a long way in making it a dangerous threat again.Posted 20th March 2010 at 01:21 AM by Galadhion - Will there be a price/item index in the new edition? In previous editions one had been absent, something I think was regrettable. Samurai are supposed to be more concerned with honor than money, but what about settings like Ryoko Owari where understanding what to do with money is important. And hey we can’t forget about Ronin or less-than-honorable characters.
I think a price/item index would be a good idea, it would allow GMs and players to better understand some of the smaller things that populate a world that can seem a bit too alien to conceptualize sometimes.Posted 3rd April 2010 at 09:53 AM by Austin Smith
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