ROKUGAN- Oriental Adventures

[AbdulAlhazred]

Generally tho, if they are that familiar with the setting... they're probably already playing L5Rd10.

I'd agree that approach can work for one character, but for an entire party it feels a lot less like you're trying to play L5R and more like you're trying to make an L5R house out of sticks while a house made out of perfectly good bricks is just sitting there saying 'Use me!'

And there IS a big bad wolf that can blow the house down in the form of your characters resiliency. 4th edition characters are elites compared to their common enemies. L5R characters are not. The system just is not designed to support it. Triple the damage of monsters (yes, MM3 monsters) and remove resurrection from the game, and you'll be closer.

Sure, if they want to play L5R then they should play L5R. I wouldn't see the point of trying to make 4e INTO L5R either. If they want to play 4e in Rokugan though it seems like they can reasonably do that. The feel of the game isn't going to be exactly the same, but that may be the point. I think you can portray the setting reasonably well in 4e is my main point. Whether you want to or not is really not answerable here, it is entirely up to the people playing the game.

I don't know all the details of the newest version of L5R. In previous incarnations it had some 'issues'. Maybe those are mitigated in version 4. 4e has its own idiosyncrasies but some people may just like the system better. It probably will handle some types of situations at least as well as L5R does, maybe better.

 

[DracoSuave]

Rokugan and L5R are pretty synonymous tho. Rokugan is the world of L5R. It's like... it'd be like trying to use the Storyteller System to play Eberron. Doable, yes. But, it's a lot better to use the system the setting was designed around, i.e. D&D.

The same applies with Rokugan, which involves a lot more than just place names and guys with the same last name.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Rokugan and L5R are pretty synonymous tho. Rokugan is the world of L5R. It's like... it'd be like trying to use the Storyteller System to play Eberron. Doable, yes. But, it's a lot better to use the system the setting was designed around, i.e. D&D.

The same applies with Rokugan, which involves a lot more than just place names and guys with the same last name.

Yeah, OTOH there is a whole 3.x OA source book that uses it, so it isn't exactly like it is unprecedented to use the setting with SOME version of D&D either.

 

[DracoSuave]

Yeah, OTOH there is a whole 3.x OA source book that uses it, so it isn't exactly like it is unprecedented to use the setting with SOME version of D&D either.

Oh yeah, there's an entire d20 version of Legend of the Five Rings that the OA book formed the basis of.

In other news, it was bad at it. That's how we know it doesn't work that well.

 

[Dr_Sage]

Thank you!

Thank you all!!!

I will avoid DnD for now them. Will borrow L5R from a friend and take a look.

My main issue is that my friend feels that L5R is a system with a lot of issues, most balance related and situations where you just can't reproduce the Novels in game terms.

For example, if you are dueling - fine -, but if you are facing multiple opponents (like many samurai, wuxia, and modern japanese movies), you are screwed. Actually, if you look into Bruce Lee movies, you will find the very definition of "minion" right there, being butchered by the dozens.

According to my friend even a powerfull shugenja cannot do half the stuff you can read about in the novels.

But I will read to be shure, and I will try to decide between HARP and L5R.

Thank you all again!

 

[DracoSuave]

To be fair, the novels came out after the RPG, and the RPG was supposed to model the card game.

 

[Zaran]

You can do a little of both systems if you truly like 4e. Just use Inherent Bonuses because there wasn't alot of magic items in Rokugan (and the ones you do find are usually pretty powerful)

I think the easiest way is to get players to pick a Clan and caste and then pick a 4e class that fits that. I would give everyone Diplomacy as a Class skill. (You might give each class an extra skill choice as well because a Samurai relies on their other skills as well as combat ability)

Dragon clan Samurai could be Tempest fighters or Rangers.
Phoenix Shugenja could be Wizards. Other Clan Shugenja would probably be Sorcerers. Water Shugenja could be Clerics . All Shugenja would have Religion as a class skill.

Crabs would be Barbarians, Battleragers, or two hand weapon specialists fighters. You can reflavor armor a bit. Light Samurai Armor could be Hides or Leather. Heavy could be scale or chain.

You can still use the Honor system from l5R . You could do something like allow Honor to be used to add to a roll once a day and if they fail they lose honor.

Combat would be less important. You should do alot of Skill Challenges.