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Rokugan RPG fantasy setting conversion for D&DNext (preliminary thoughts)
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<blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 6289542" data-attributes="member: 1465"><p><strong>Preliminary thoughts: essential setting elements</strong></p><p></p><p>Here I'm rambling a bit about what are elements of the Rokugan fantasy setting that IMO need to be reflected in the converted rules, and generate some "design marks".</p><p></p><p>When I'll start making the actual conversion, I'll restrict myself to a "basic Rokugan campaign". What does that mean?</p><p></p><p>It means essentially to focus on the most iconic characters only, which is what typically you should start from in your first game in Rokugan. In the world of Rokugan, the norm for a player character is to hail from the Rokugani noble caste (let's call them "<strong>bushi</strong>" rather than "samurai" to avoid confusion with the Samurai class), and belong to either a Great Clan, a Minor Clan, an Imperial Family, or be a Ronin. Non-noble human characters (peasants or slaves), non-human characters and "gaijin" (foreigners) are not basic characters and interact very differently with everybody else. </p><p></p><p>Design mark #1: only the Human race in the basic campaign (Rokugani bushi)</p><p>Design mark #2: focus on Great Clans first, leave Minor Clans, Imperial Family and Ronin for a later stage</p><p></p><p>Furthermore, all bushi train with a <strong>School </strong>since young age, and normally stick with it forever; there is a stern division between martial schools (Samurai), magic schools (Shugenja), court schools (Courtiers) and monasteries (Monks). Almost everything that can be learned, has to be learned from a master, but masters don't "sell" training (money doesn't work for Rokugani bushi). There are options to learn specific things from another School or master, but there is no such thing as freely shifting from school to school or choosing to learn anything you want (in fact, it could almost be said that there is no individual freedom at all in Rokugan). This causes stern multiclassing restrictions between the main classes, however in d20 other classes work more like "service classes" that can be freely taken to complement the character <em>mechanics</em>, without the need to have a narrative meaning (example: you are a Samurai, you're trained in one specific martial School, mechanically you might be a Samurai/Fighter/Ranger/Barbarian if everything is appropriate to your School, narratively you're still just a Samurai of that School).</p><p></p><p>Design mark #3: only Samurai, Shugenja, Courtier and Monk classes needed in the basic campaign</p><p>Design mark #4: no multiclassing</p><p></p><p><strong>Honor </strong>is essential for a Rokugan campaign, while Alignment is unimportant and mostly left as a roleplay aid. To make Honor a more tangible element of the game, an actual Honor rules system should be there. Fortunately, the d20 Honor system is pretty much plug-and-play and can probably be used in 5e with little or no adjustment.</p><p></p><p>Design mark #5: just reuse the d20 Honor system</p><p></p><p><strong>Skills </strong>(anything non-martial and non-magical) are very important in Rokugan. The original d20 versions of the 4 main classes all had at least 4 skill points per level, so all human PCs could max out 5 skills minimum. D&DNext characters use broader skills than in 3e, and all have at least 4 of them, so maybe not much change is needed here. However the skills list need to be filtered for potentially dishonorable skills, and more Rokugani-specific skills need to be added. <strong>Backgrounds </strong>in 5e represent your "job" or "social role" when not adventuring, but all Rokugan basic PC are nobles, and don't have a "job"; most sample Backgrounds are inappropriate, and the few left would make the PC too rigid, thus it's best to go with the "pick your own skills" option.</p><p></p><p>Design mark #6: remove dishonorable (sub)skills from the list</p><p>Design mark #7: identify what iconic Rokugani skills are missing from the list</p><p>Design mark #8: no backgrounds, freely pick your trait+skills+tools</p><p></p><p><strong>Clan</strong>, <strong>Family </strong>and <strong>Ancestor </strong>are Rokugan-specific choices essential in character design. Clan in d20 didn't grant benefits straightforward, but instead it determined what you can learn (feats, skills, spells, prestige classes etc.). The choice of Family typically determined your favored class (not applicable), an additional class skill or small skill bonus, and extra equipment. Your chosen Ancestor was your first level bonus feat, called an "Ancestor feat", which is something that each PC has one and only one (you had to pick one Ancestor feat at 1st level, you could never have another, and there is no other way to gain Ancestor feats); this means that despite being "feats" they are completely separate from all other feats in the game, hence there is no need to convert them into 5e feats, they can remain their own separate thing.</p><p></p><p>Design mark #8: there has to be plenty of clan-restricted character material (feats, spells, subclasses, equipment)</p><p>Design mark #9: Ancestor feats remain a separate subsystem</p><p></p><p><strong>Magic </strong>in Rokugan works differently than in typical D&D. The Shugenja is the only PC class who does magic, which is a little bit of everything: magic is related to the spirit-based religion of Rokugan, so narratively the Shugenja is partly a Mage, partly a Cleric and partly a Druid. That's not a problem, anyway it's the only spellcasting class. But the spellcasting system used by the Legend of the Five Rings RPG is very different from vancian. The d20 version of the Shugenja used D&D spells and slots, but at least cast spells as a Sorcerer. What is most appropriate for 5e still needs to be thought out carefully.</p><p></p><p>Another thing that needs to be in, is <strong>Void Use</strong>, which is about supernatural deeds but potentially open to every character. In d20, most abilities related to Void Use were therefore feats. This may or may not be the best solution in D&DNext, I still have to think about it.</p><p></p><p>As a last remark, as long as a "basic Rokugan campaign" is concerned, there is no need to worry about less-than-straightforward characters, let's say "characters with issues" such as Ronin, Ninja, and tainted characters. The DM is definitely going to need something to represent Maho-Tsukai or Maho-Bujin and other adversaries, but these could be designed ad-hoc, without generalized rules for the time being.</p><p></p><p>...on second thoughts, probably <strong>Taint</strong> should be there already in the basic game. The d20 Taint system is probably good as-is except for the numbers involved, which might need some adaptation to fit bounded accuracy.</p><p></p><p>Design mark #10: reuse the d20 Taint system, with adjusted numbers</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Li Shenron, post: 6289542, member: 1465"] [B]Preliminary thoughts: essential setting elements[/B] Here I'm rambling a bit about what are elements of the Rokugan fantasy setting that IMO need to be reflected in the converted rules, and generate some "design marks". When I'll start making the actual conversion, I'll restrict myself to a "basic Rokugan campaign". What does that mean? It means essentially to focus on the most iconic characters only, which is what typically you should start from in your first game in Rokugan. In the world of Rokugan, the norm for a player character is to hail from the Rokugani noble caste (let's call them "[B]bushi[/B]" rather than "samurai" to avoid confusion with the Samurai class), and belong to either a Great Clan, a Minor Clan, an Imperial Family, or be a Ronin. Non-noble human characters (peasants or slaves), non-human characters and "gaijin" (foreigners) are not basic characters and interact very differently with everybody else. Design mark #1: only the Human race in the basic campaign (Rokugani bushi) Design mark #2: focus on Great Clans first, leave Minor Clans, Imperial Family and Ronin for a later stage Furthermore, all bushi train with a [B]School [/B]since young age, and normally stick with it forever; there is a stern division between martial schools (Samurai), magic schools (Shugenja), court schools (Courtiers) and monasteries (Monks). Almost everything that can be learned, has to be learned from a master, but masters don't "sell" training (money doesn't work for Rokugani bushi). There are options to learn specific things from another School or master, but there is no such thing as freely shifting from school to school or choosing to learn anything you want (in fact, it could almost be said that there is no individual freedom at all in Rokugan). This causes stern multiclassing restrictions between the main classes, however in d20 other classes work more like "service classes" that can be freely taken to complement the character [I]mechanics[/I], without the need to have a narrative meaning (example: you are a Samurai, you're trained in one specific martial School, mechanically you might be a Samurai/Fighter/Ranger/Barbarian if everything is appropriate to your School, narratively you're still just a Samurai of that School). Design mark #3: only Samurai, Shugenja, Courtier and Monk classes needed in the basic campaign Design mark #4: no multiclassing [B]Honor [/B]is essential for a Rokugan campaign, while Alignment is unimportant and mostly left as a roleplay aid. To make Honor a more tangible element of the game, an actual Honor rules system should be there. Fortunately, the d20 Honor system is pretty much plug-and-play and can probably be used in 5e with little or no adjustment. Design mark #5: just reuse the d20 Honor system [B]Skills [/B](anything non-martial and non-magical) are very important in Rokugan. The original d20 versions of the 4 main classes all had at least 4 skill points per level, so all human PCs could max out 5 skills minimum. D&DNext characters use broader skills than in 3e, and all have at least 4 of them, so maybe not much change is needed here. However the skills list need to be filtered for potentially dishonorable skills, and more Rokugani-specific skills need to be added. [B]Backgrounds [/B]in 5e represent your "job" or "social role" when not adventuring, but all Rokugan basic PC are nobles, and don't have a "job"; most sample Backgrounds are inappropriate, and the few left would make the PC too rigid, thus it's best to go with the "pick your own skills" option. Design mark #6: remove dishonorable (sub)skills from the list Design mark #7: identify what iconic Rokugani skills are missing from the list Design mark #8: no backgrounds, freely pick your trait+skills+tools [B]Clan[/B], [B]Family [/B]and [B]Ancestor [/B]are Rokugan-specific choices essential in character design. Clan in d20 didn't grant benefits straightforward, but instead it determined what you can learn (feats, skills, spells, prestige classes etc.). The choice of Family typically determined your favored class (not applicable), an additional class skill or small skill bonus, and extra equipment. Your chosen Ancestor was your first level bonus feat, called an "Ancestor feat", which is something that each PC has one and only one (you had to pick one Ancestor feat at 1st level, you could never have another, and there is no other way to gain Ancestor feats); this means that despite being "feats" they are completely separate from all other feats in the game, hence there is no need to convert them into 5e feats, they can remain their own separate thing. Design mark #8: there has to be plenty of clan-restricted character material (feats, spells, subclasses, equipment) Design mark #9: Ancestor feats remain a separate subsystem [B]Magic [/B]in Rokugan works differently than in typical D&D. The Shugenja is the only PC class who does magic, which is a little bit of everything: magic is related to the spirit-based religion of Rokugan, so narratively the Shugenja is partly a Mage, partly a Cleric and partly a Druid. That's not a problem, anyway it's the only spellcasting class. But the spellcasting system used by the Legend of the Five Rings RPG is very different from vancian. The d20 version of the Shugenja used D&D spells and slots, but at least cast spells as a Sorcerer. What is most appropriate for 5e still needs to be thought out carefully. Another thing that needs to be in, is [B]Void Use[/B], which is about supernatural deeds but potentially open to every character. In d20, most abilities related to Void Use were therefore feats. This may or may not be the best solution in D&DNext, I still have to think about it. As a last remark, as long as a "basic Rokugan campaign" is concerned, there is no need to worry about less-than-straightforward characters, let's say "characters with issues" such as Ronin, Ninja, and tainted characters. The DM is definitely going to need something to represent Maho-Tsukai or Maho-Bujin and other adversaries, but these could be designed ad-hoc, without generalized rules for the time being. ...on second thoughts, probably [B]Taint[/B] should be there already in the basic game. The d20 Taint system is probably good as-is except for the numbers involved, which might need some adaptation to fit bounded accuracy. Design mark #10: reuse the d20 Taint system, with adjusted numbers [/QUOTE]
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