Inari
First Post
Well, this topic has been brought up more times than I can count on both hands, but D&D and other d20 systems are progressive systems and constantly evolve. That is the nature of such a widespread system.
Now, to get to the point.
I run a heavily modified d20 Legend of the Five Rings (Rokugan) game, influenced greatly by the 1st edition of the d10 l5r game, along with countless alternate-rules books (AU, UA, countless netbooks, you get the drift...). Returning to these boards, I thought I'd start by putting forth a bit of effort and share my ideas with the people here.
The main changes in my games include:
Grim'n'Gritty v3.3 modified
Weapon groups ala. Unearthed Arcana with Rokugan style
A greatly modified skill list, with several unified skills and even a new skill
Various other smaller ideas
So go get your snack, sit down nicely, and enjoy pondering over these ideas (or just scroll down to the bottom and flame me like everyone else will ^^)
part 1: Grim n' Gritty
"For the coward, there is no life. For the hero, there is no death"
- Unknown
One of the many things that set the Rokugan setting apart from other d20 settings is that in its core, it's not as cinematic... To me it's always seemed to be more of a gritty setting where heroes struggle with their beliefs of the code of the warrior. A setting where 10% of the nation rules as the higher class, where roughly 30% of the people can be executed for just looking at that higher 10%. Where an even smaller percentage actually commands the respect of entire armies, where a man is supposed to embrace life as well as accept death at any moment. Seemingly contradictory at a quick glance, the world of Rokugan isn't full of dungeons to raid nor monsters to slaughter.
For those reasons and many more, I employ the Grim'n'Gritty rules. A few might ask why I do not use the newer version of G'n'G, the simplified version. The answer is simple to me... I don't like simplicity ^^. I have modified the called shot chart, and it can be seen in "Called Shots.doc" In essence, the main changes are threefold:
Other changes I've made to the Grim'n'Gritty v3.3:
part 2: Weapon groups
"A quick sword does not make a samurai, though it can unmake one."
- Hantei Naseru
When I opened my copy of Unearthed Arcana, my hopes were high. I was expecting variant rules that'd blow my mind away. Things that'd change everything about the way I played, and more. I was expecting combat to suddenly become 5 seconds, fighters to be nerfed even more and quasi demon/dragon sorcerers to dominate the arena. Needless to say, my expectations were blown out of proportions, and after reading the first few pages, I seriously considered throwing the book into the garbage can. Fortunately, I wasn't so brash as to follow my instincts that time, and thankful I am. Amidst the chaotic jungle of mumbo-jumbo rules, I found the perfect rose I had been looking for. The weapon grouping idea. It seemed the whole idea was perfect for me untill I read the entire thing.
T'was at that moment that I noticed that my perfect rose had thorns, as the groups were obviously optimised for your dungeon-crawling rogues and fighters. But, as usual for me, I had to go personalise it. Attached to this post is a file called "Weapon groups.doc" and it details the exact crunchy bits. Most of the names of the weapons only make sense to those that have Knowledge: [(non)fictional oriental weapons].
The weapon grouping list is useful to the group in the following ways:
My favorite proficiency is Throwing (prerequisite: tantojutsu). It started as a unique proficiency to a Unicorn clan Samurai, but it prooved to be so funny in play that I actually incorperated it into the general list, for fun's sake.
part 3: Skills
Being able to cut a man into a million pieces is a great skill indeed. But if that is all one can do, than he is no better than a lowly barbarian.
- Unknown
When one thinks of the orient and D&D, one clearly probably thinks of famous movies like Crouching tiger hidden dragon, 7 samurai, Yojimbo, Hero and the recent The Last samurai along with Anime, Manga, countless video games and even childhood stories of ninja crawling upon rooftops. Such are the legends that forge the legend of the five rings along with a huge lesson of history (some of it more untrue and fictional than other parts). L5r has many years of fiction behind it, and is supported by a great community of CCG fans. By the time the setting actually found its way to d20, it was already greatly different from the original setting, much had happened and the setting itself had evolved thanks to player involvement.
But the foundation was the same. A cultural setting. A setting where perception is much more important than truth. A setting where the wrong word will have you either cast out and loose your honor forever, or where you must fall on your own blade. A world where cutting two deep wounds in your abdomen and having your head chopped off is considered holy, and repends for almost all past misdeeds.
During my years of DMing the world of Rokugan, I have yet to see a single character without a cultural skill (bluff, diplomacy, gather information, sense motive, etc.). Even an uncoth ratling barbarian with 7 in int and 6 in wis giving a total of 2sp/level was smart enough to invest a few points in diplomacy and sense motive (despite both being cross-class skills).
But sadly, the game designers at Alderac were just too broad with skills. Wheras D&D has Knowledge: [planes], the l5r equivelant is spirit realms (10 I know of) and each spirit realm has it's OWN knowledge skill. Use of these skills is extremely rare, and yet they give them each seperately. This is one of the many examples where Aderac expects every samurai to have 18 in int and be experts at everything. My first thought was to bump every class up in skill points by a flat 2 points, but fearing that lone rogue who'd have 18 in int, I hesitated (15sp/level is VERY dangerous, assuming it's a human).
Instead, I chose to continue where 3.5 left off, and unify a large number of skills. Most of it were obvious choices (example: fold Knowledge: [Etiquette] into Diplomacy and Knowledge [War] into Battle). Synergies were also touched up a bit. One of the more fun things I did though, was granting additional class skills. Already, Alderac had thought of that, and each family has a permanent class skill. If a character has a class that already has this skill as a class skill, the skill gets boosted by +1 (for example the Bayushi family grant Diplomacy as their class skill. A rogue Bayushi already has Diplomacy as a class skill, and thus also gains a +1 bonus to it). What I added to that element was to hand the PCs additional 3 class skills of their own choosing.
There are also four more "new" skills that get more used than others.
[/list]
New skill: Athletics [str, armor check penalty]
You are skilled in the more common basic sports, such as sprinting, climbing and swimming, and can put these skills into everyday use.
New use: In addition to climbing, jumping and swimming, the skill can be used to sprint, thus increasing the character's base speed. Whenever the character is running in a straight line, unhindered by difficult terrain and her movement isn't restricted by a heavy load (armor restrictions matter little), then the character can try to increase her speed.
To increase the character's speed by 1 feet, the character must succeed at a DC 4 athletic check. The DC increases by 4 for every feet added (3ft DC12, 4ft DC16, 5ft DC20, etc.). This speed bonus is added before all other modifiers come into place (before double move and running speed).
Example of use: Joe the human fighter is wearing a chainshirt (light armor) and has an athletics modifier of +7. Joe has just finished his standard action attack with his longsword, and cleaved the last orc standing near him. Joe is at 1 hp, and will surely die by next turn if he doesn't get to the cleric so he can be healed. The cleric can't get to Joe because he's occupied at the moment, but could percievably take a 5 foot step towards Joe and cast a curing spell on him. That still leaves Joe 35 feet to cross in a single move action before he can get to the cleric. Normally, this'd be impossible, but fear not, for Joe can use his athletics skill to great use here *dramatic ghasp*
Joe would have to increase his speed by at least 5 feet to cross those 35 feet (the other 30ft he gets from his base speed), requiring a athletics check with a DC of 20. Joe can seemingly achieve that on a roll of 13 on his dice.
And voila, Joe rolls. A 12. His efforts proove to no avail, and Joe is killed later on by an angry orc, because he missed his DC by 1 point.
- Not your standard skill example, ehh?
part 4: Other small things
"Only the face of all that is and is not can reveal the truth."
- The Dao of Shinsei
Well, I've shared the biggest three house rules that I use in my normal game. I still regret not knowing how to make tables and having to resort to .doc files, but things are as things are and I can only make the best of what I have. Following are smaller columns that include the little things that I can think of at the moment.
Natural 20/natural 1
"I could have died."
"No," the monk smirked. "Did you not see me here?"
A natural 20 is only an automatic success and a 1 is only an automatic failure with an attack roll. Saves, skills and other rolls don't have automatic resaults, although a 20 is almost always a success (opposed skills suck if a character with a +70 to bluff gets beaten by a peasant with -2 to sense motive). Furtermore, attack rolls that score a natural 20/1 have to reroll and be confirmed as either critical hits or fumbles. A fun little fumble chart is used with a simple d100 roll. It is included as the file "fumbles.txt" (I'm still considering creating a new chart for ranged attacks, ray attacks and spells in general).
Glory, Honor and Alignment
"I borrow my name from my ancestors. I must return it to them unharmed. I borrow my honor from my descenants. In shaming myself, I shame them as well."
- Akodo's Leadership
To put it bluntly, I've never ever liked alignments. People naturally evolve and following some guide to 'playing alignment X' just gets in my way. Thus, I have completely dumped the alignments and rather use honor as presented in the Rokugan campaign setting. The glory from 1st edition is also used.
(note: although I'd like to share the glory rules with you, I'm afraid I might violate copyright terms by doing so).
Melee attack modifier
"Know your sword as you know yourself, for in truth there is no difference"
- Togashi Nyoko
When you think of D&D, you naturally imagine the axeman a strong and hulky brute, putting his whole body into his swings. On the other end of the spectre, you see the rapier-wielding frenchman using his wits and finesse to strike his opponent where he doesn't see it coming. In the orient, I can imagine those two types, the brute and the unfettered clashing against each other quite evenly. A rule that just started as a fluke to boost up the party's ninja, I allowed characters to use their Dex modifier in lieu of their Str modifier when using a light or a one handed weapon (katana counts as one handed). Damage is of course bound to strenght, and no one in their right mind would dump his str and still hope to just survive off dexterity. Since the object of the attack is not to break through armor (damage does that), then the dex modifier *can* be used in its place.
Starting outfits
"This is not just a blade. This is one thousand years of honor, glory and technique. You are nothing but another opponent unworthy of its edge."
- Doji Kurohito
As I've said probably three or four times already, l5r is not a world where the heroes go raiding temples and dungeons for loot. A samurai is provided what he needs, with respects of course to what he has achieved. As such, the starting equipment of the samurai is highly orginized. A chart found in the document "starting equipment.doc" shows the default starting packages per profession and wealth. Wealthier clans in l5r include the Crane and the Unicorn, whereas the Dragon can rarely give their samurai the full equipment. Sadly, I'm not fealing like writing down the entire list of what family and what school has what equipment (I only have it on paper), but the chart should give at least an idea of how it looks like. The more militeristic families often give their bushi advanced outfits.
Traits and disadvantages
"Wherever there is light, there must be shadow."
- The Dao of Shinsei
I'll just keep this one short. I fully employ the traits/disadvantages from Unearthed Arcana, but a player has yet to take a disadvantage (I've always said that a disadvantage has to actually hurt, or it doesn't count).
Family traits
"Appreciation of beauty is the beginning of wisdom."
- The Dao of Shinsei
Just to power my players up a bit, I give them 2 free stat points that their families and dojo dictate. Yet again, fearing copyright, I cannot say what families get what bonus to what stat, but each one can be found in the 1st edition l5r and the old "way of the" books.
Ronin don't get a family trait (it sucks being ronin, I guess).
Favored class
"Guard your words carefully, for you own every word you speak."
- The Dao of Shinsei
Being a fan of Arcana Unearthed, I decided also to drop favored class. Fortunately my players aren't as much of munchkins as I'd probably be, so they haven't really abused this... yet... ^^
part 5: Your turn!
"Just as there was a world before this one, there will be another world after this one."
- The Dao of Shinsei
Well then, that pretty much wraps it up. Most of my house rules have been spilled before you, and it's up to you to do what you want with them. Essentially, I'm asking you to start buttering me up by saying how grand my house rules are ^^
...but chances are that you don't all agree with them. So by all means, share your opinions on them. Don't be shy now...
*/me gets the torturing prongs*
Sayonara
Now, to get to the point.
I run a heavily modified d20 Legend of the Five Rings (Rokugan) game, influenced greatly by the 1st edition of the d10 l5r game, along with countless alternate-rules books (AU, UA, countless netbooks, you get the drift...). Returning to these boards, I thought I'd start by putting forth a bit of effort and share my ideas with the people here.
The main changes in my games include:
Grim'n'Gritty v3.3 modified
Weapon groups ala. Unearthed Arcana with Rokugan style
A greatly modified skill list, with several unified skills and even a new skill
Various other smaller ideas
So go get your snack, sit down nicely, and enjoy pondering over these ideas (or just scroll down to the bottom and flame me like everyone else will ^^)
part 1: Grim n' Gritty
"For the coward, there is no life. For the hero, there is no death"
- Unknown
One of the many things that set the Rokugan setting apart from other d20 settings is that in its core, it's not as cinematic... To me it's always seemed to be more of a gritty setting where heroes struggle with their beliefs of the code of the warrior. A setting where 10% of the nation rules as the higher class, where roughly 30% of the people can be executed for just looking at that higher 10%. Where an even smaller percentage actually commands the respect of entire armies, where a man is supposed to embrace life as well as accept death at any moment. Seemingly contradictory at a quick glance, the world of Rokugan isn't full of dungeons to raid nor monsters to slaughter.
For those reasons and many more, I employ the Grim'n'Gritty rules. A few might ask why I do not use the newer version of G'n'G, the simplified version. The answer is simple to me... I don't like simplicity ^^. I have modified the called shot chart, and it can be seen in "Called Shots.doc" In essence, the main changes are threefold:
- Adjusted penalties to hit with a few called shots
- Heightened penalties for having a limb disabled
- Called shots needn't be performed as standard actions. A character can opt to make one or more iterative attacks in a full-attack a called shot, even each attack a different called shot
Other changes I've made to the Grim'n'Gritty v3.3:
- *Take-10* on defense rolls (in lieu of rolling your defense versus each attack)
- No wound-level penalties
- Berserkers (barbarians) have a medium progression base defense, instead of the good progression in GnG v3.3 (those with whirling frenzy from UA have good progression though)
part 2: Weapon groups
"A quick sword does not make a samurai, though it can unmake one."
- Hantei Naseru
When I opened my copy of Unearthed Arcana, my hopes were high. I was expecting variant rules that'd blow my mind away. Things that'd change everything about the way I played, and more. I was expecting combat to suddenly become 5 seconds, fighters to be nerfed even more and quasi demon/dragon sorcerers to dominate the arena. Needless to say, my expectations were blown out of proportions, and after reading the first few pages, I seriously considered throwing the book into the garbage can. Fortunately, I wasn't so brash as to follow my instincts that time, and thankful I am. Amidst the chaotic jungle of mumbo-jumbo rules, I found the perfect rose I had been looking for. The weapon grouping idea. It seemed the whole idea was perfect for me untill I read the entire thing.
T'was at that moment that I noticed that my perfect rose had thorns, as the groups were obviously optimised for your dungeon-crawling rogues and fighters. But, as usual for me, I had to go personalise it. Attached to this post is a file called "Weapon groups.doc" and it details the exact crunchy bits. Most of the names of the weapons only make sense to those that have Knowledge: [(non)fictional oriental weapons].
The weapon grouping list is useful to the group in the following ways:
- Gives straightforward and logical choices to characters
- Allows character to be about as compitent as their standard counterparts
- Allows even more unique characters without too many sacrifices (like a spellcaster wielding a katana with almost equal skill as the resident samurai in the group)
My favorite proficiency is Throwing (prerequisite: tantojutsu). It started as a unique proficiency to a Unicorn clan Samurai, but it prooved to be so funny in play that I actually incorperated it into the general list, for fun's sake.
part 3: Skills
Being able to cut a man into a million pieces is a great skill indeed. But if that is all one can do, than he is no better than a lowly barbarian.
- Unknown
When one thinks of the orient and D&D, one clearly probably thinks of famous movies like Crouching tiger hidden dragon, 7 samurai, Yojimbo, Hero and the recent The Last samurai along with Anime, Manga, countless video games and even childhood stories of ninja crawling upon rooftops. Such are the legends that forge the legend of the five rings along with a huge lesson of history (some of it more untrue and fictional than other parts). L5r has many years of fiction behind it, and is supported by a great community of CCG fans. By the time the setting actually found its way to d20, it was already greatly different from the original setting, much had happened and the setting itself had evolved thanks to player involvement.
But the foundation was the same. A cultural setting. A setting where perception is much more important than truth. A setting where the wrong word will have you either cast out and loose your honor forever, or where you must fall on your own blade. A world where cutting two deep wounds in your abdomen and having your head chopped off is considered holy, and repends for almost all past misdeeds.
During my years of DMing the world of Rokugan, I have yet to see a single character without a cultural skill (bluff, diplomacy, gather information, sense motive, etc.). Even an uncoth ratling barbarian with 7 in int and 6 in wis giving a total of 2sp/level was smart enough to invest a few points in diplomacy and sense motive (despite both being cross-class skills).
But sadly, the game designers at Alderac were just too broad with skills. Wheras D&D has Knowledge: [planes], the l5r equivelant is spirit realms (10 I know of) and each spirit realm has it's OWN knowledge skill. Use of these skills is extremely rare, and yet they give them each seperately. This is one of the many examples where Aderac expects every samurai to have 18 in int and be experts at everything. My first thought was to bump every class up in skill points by a flat 2 points, but fearing that lone rogue who'd have 18 in int, I hesitated (15sp/level is VERY dangerous, assuming it's a human).
Instead, I chose to continue where 3.5 left off, and unify a large number of skills. Most of it were obvious choices (example: fold Knowledge: [Etiquette] into Diplomacy and Knowledge [War] into Battle). Synergies were also touched up a bit. One of the more fun things I did though, was granting additional class skills. Already, Alderac had thought of that, and each family has a permanent class skill. If a character has a class that already has this skill as a class skill, the skill gets boosted by +1 (for example the Bayushi family grant Diplomacy as their class skill. A rogue Bayushi already has Diplomacy as a class skill, and thus also gains a +1 bonus to it). What I added to that element was to hand the PCs additional 3 class skills of their own choosing.
There are also four more "new" skills that get more used than others.
[/list]
- Acrobatics [dex] - The former balance and tumble skills folded into one.
- Athletics [str] - The former climb, jump and swim folded into one big skill. Also includes running. See description.
- Perception [wis] - The former Listen and Spot folded into one. Also includes other senses (vibrations, smell, etc.).
- Sneak [dex] - The former Hide and Move Silently skills folded into one. As per Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed.
New skill: Athletics [str, armor check penalty]
You are skilled in the more common basic sports, such as sprinting, climbing and swimming, and can put these skills into everyday use.
New use: In addition to climbing, jumping and swimming, the skill can be used to sprint, thus increasing the character's base speed. Whenever the character is running in a straight line, unhindered by difficult terrain and her movement isn't restricted by a heavy load (armor restrictions matter little), then the character can try to increase her speed.
To increase the character's speed by 1 feet, the character must succeed at a DC 4 athletic check. The DC increases by 4 for every feet added (3ft DC12, 4ft DC16, 5ft DC20, etc.). This speed bonus is added before all other modifiers come into place (before double move and running speed).
Example of use: Joe the human fighter is wearing a chainshirt (light armor) and has an athletics modifier of +7. Joe has just finished his standard action attack with his longsword, and cleaved the last orc standing near him. Joe is at 1 hp, and will surely die by next turn if he doesn't get to the cleric so he can be healed. The cleric can't get to Joe because he's occupied at the moment, but could percievably take a 5 foot step towards Joe and cast a curing spell on him. That still leaves Joe 35 feet to cross in a single move action before he can get to the cleric. Normally, this'd be impossible, but fear not, for Joe can use his athletics skill to great use here *dramatic ghasp*
Joe would have to increase his speed by at least 5 feet to cross those 35 feet (the other 30ft he gets from his base speed), requiring a athletics check with a DC of 20. Joe can seemingly achieve that on a roll of 13 on his dice.
And voila, Joe rolls. A 12. His efforts proove to no avail, and Joe is killed later on by an angry orc, because he missed his DC by 1 point.
- Not your standard skill example, ehh?
part 4: Other small things
"Only the face of all that is and is not can reveal the truth."
- The Dao of Shinsei
Well, I've shared the biggest three house rules that I use in my normal game. I still regret not knowing how to make tables and having to resort to .doc files, but things are as things are and I can only make the best of what I have. Following are smaller columns that include the little things that I can think of at the moment.
Natural 20/natural 1
"I could have died."
"No," the monk smirked. "Did you not see me here?"
A natural 20 is only an automatic success and a 1 is only an automatic failure with an attack roll. Saves, skills and other rolls don't have automatic resaults, although a 20 is almost always a success (opposed skills suck if a character with a +70 to bluff gets beaten by a peasant with -2 to sense motive). Furtermore, attack rolls that score a natural 20/1 have to reroll and be confirmed as either critical hits or fumbles. A fun little fumble chart is used with a simple d100 roll. It is included as the file "fumbles.txt" (I'm still considering creating a new chart for ranged attacks, ray attacks and spells in general).
Glory, Honor and Alignment
"I borrow my name from my ancestors. I must return it to them unharmed. I borrow my honor from my descenants. In shaming myself, I shame them as well."
- Akodo's Leadership
To put it bluntly, I've never ever liked alignments. People naturally evolve and following some guide to 'playing alignment X' just gets in my way. Thus, I have completely dumped the alignments and rather use honor as presented in the Rokugan campaign setting. The glory from 1st edition is also used.
(note: although I'd like to share the glory rules with you, I'm afraid I might violate copyright terms by doing so).
Melee attack modifier
"Know your sword as you know yourself, for in truth there is no difference"
- Togashi Nyoko
When you think of D&D, you naturally imagine the axeman a strong and hulky brute, putting his whole body into his swings. On the other end of the spectre, you see the rapier-wielding frenchman using his wits and finesse to strike his opponent where he doesn't see it coming. In the orient, I can imagine those two types, the brute and the unfettered clashing against each other quite evenly. A rule that just started as a fluke to boost up the party's ninja, I allowed characters to use their Dex modifier in lieu of their Str modifier when using a light or a one handed weapon (katana counts as one handed). Damage is of course bound to strenght, and no one in their right mind would dump his str and still hope to just survive off dexterity. Since the object of the attack is not to break through armor (damage does that), then the dex modifier *can* be used in its place.
Starting outfits
"This is not just a blade. This is one thousand years of honor, glory and technique. You are nothing but another opponent unworthy of its edge."
- Doji Kurohito
As I've said probably three or four times already, l5r is not a world where the heroes go raiding temples and dungeons for loot. A samurai is provided what he needs, with respects of course to what he has achieved. As such, the starting equipment of the samurai is highly orginized. A chart found in the document "starting equipment.doc" shows the default starting packages per profession and wealth. Wealthier clans in l5r include the Crane and the Unicorn, whereas the Dragon can rarely give their samurai the full equipment. Sadly, I'm not fealing like writing down the entire list of what family and what school has what equipment (I only have it on paper), but the chart should give at least an idea of how it looks like. The more militeristic families often give their bushi advanced outfits.
Traits and disadvantages
"Wherever there is light, there must be shadow."
- The Dao of Shinsei
I'll just keep this one short. I fully employ the traits/disadvantages from Unearthed Arcana, but a player has yet to take a disadvantage (I've always said that a disadvantage has to actually hurt, or it doesn't count).
Family traits
"Appreciation of beauty is the beginning of wisdom."
- The Dao of Shinsei
Just to power my players up a bit, I give them 2 free stat points that their families and dojo dictate. Yet again, fearing copyright, I cannot say what families get what bonus to what stat, but each one can be found in the 1st edition l5r and the old "way of the" books.
Ronin don't get a family trait (it sucks being ronin, I guess).
Favored class
"Guard your words carefully, for you own every word you speak."
- The Dao of Shinsei
Being a fan of Arcana Unearthed, I decided also to drop favored class. Fortunately my players aren't as much of munchkins as I'd probably be, so they haven't really abused this... yet... ^^
part 5: Your turn!
"Just as there was a world before this one, there will be another world after this one."
- The Dao of Shinsei
Well then, that pretty much wraps it up. Most of my house rules have been spilled before you, and it's up to you to do what you want with them. Essentially, I'm asking you to start buttering me up by saying how grand my house rules are ^^
...but chances are that you don't all agree with them. So by all means, share your opinions on them. Don't be shy now...
*/me gets the torturing prongs*
Sayonara
