Geron Raveneye
Explorer
Still playing, IF I can get the time for myself to prepare something nice for my L5R players. Still and always using the d10 version of the game, and still the 1st Edition, as I didn't see much need to upgrade so far. 
Plus, I hate the CCG metaplot they pressed on the game. 
To answer your question about the rules mechanics, they are pretty simple. You roll 10-sided dice, if you roll a 10 you reroll it, and you add up a certain number of your rolls to get a result. For nearly all tests, you add your ranks in the proper skill and a matching attribute, roll those...and depending on the edition of the game, you keep a number of dice equal to
1st Edition: your attribute
2nd Edition: your skill
3rd Edition: your attribute
Yeah, a tad confusing, don't ask me why.
Skills have an associated attribute, but the game encourages the GM to handle different situations by matching a skill with different attributes. That way, plain fighting is done by [Weapon Skill]+Agilityk keeping dice equal to Agility, judging a katana's quality can be [Weapon Skill]+Intelligence keeping dice equal to Intelligence, etc...
The GM sets the basic Target Number of an action, the player can declare "raises" to gain special effects like more damage, spell manipulation, or more impressive results, but for each raise the TN goes up by +5. The characters have an attribute called "Void" that works a bit like Action Points for D&D...if you spend a Void Point, you can raise one of your attributes for one check. Void Points refresh after a night of sleep, meditation, tea ceremony and at the start of the game session.
The differences are multiple. Magic is closely tied to the elemental rings of the shugenja, and raises allow them to manipulate their spells in a variety of ways.
Combat is pretty deadly. Characters' wound points are tied to their Earth Ring, with 2xEarth the amount of wound points per wound level, and 8 wound levels in total. Most characters have between 48 and 80 wound points, and thanks to exploding damage dice, that can be gone in one or two strokes. Being wounded earns the character penalties on his checks...1st Edition takes away dice you can roll for a check, then sends you Down, then Out, then Dead. That way, combat can be over damn fast for either. I've seen the Matsu Bushi in my group felled by the lucky strike of a pirate once, and I've seen the Soshi shugenja nearly kill a nasty Oni with a strike of 72 points of damage.
D20 simply creates a different Rokugan than D10 does...they should not really be compared, on a rules mechanics level. They are two different games running on the same background, and if you run the same adventure with either, you will get totally different results.
Plus, I hate the CCG metaplot they pressed on the game. To answer your question about the rules mechanics, they are pretty simple. You roll 10-sided dice, if you roll a 10 you reroll it, and you add up a certain number of your rolls to get a result. For nearly all tests, you add your ranks in the proper skill and a matching attribute, roll those...and depending on the edition of the game, you keep a number of dice equal to
1st Edition: your attribute
2nd Edition: your skill
3rd Edition: your attribute
Yeah, a tad confusing, don't ask me why.
Skills have an associated attribute, but the game encourages the GM to handle different situations by matching a skill with different attributes. That way, plain fighting is done by [Weapon Skill]+Agilityk keeping dice equal to Agility, judging a katana's quality can be [Weapon Skill]+Intelligence keeping dice equal to Intelligence, etc...
The GM sets the basic Target Number of an action, the player can declare "raises" to gain special effects like more damage, spell manipulation, or more impressive results, but for each raise the TN goes up by +5. The characters have an attribute called "Void" that works a bit like Action Points for D&D...if you spend a Void Point, you can raise one of your attributes for one check. Void Points refresh after a night of sleep, meditation, tea ceremony and at the start of the game session.
The differences are multiple. Magic is closely tied to the elemental rings of the shugenja, and raises allow them to manipulate their spells in a variety of ways.
Combat is pretty deadly. Characters' wound points are tied to their Earth Ring, with 2xEarth the amount of wound points per wound level, and 8 wound levels in total. Most characters have between 48 and 80 wound points, and thanks to exploding damage dice, that can be gone in one or two strokes. Being wounded earns the character penalties on his checks...1st Edition takes away dice you can roll for a check, then sends you Down, then Out, then Dead. That way, combat can be over damn fast for either. I've seen the Matsu Bushi in my group felled by the lucky strike of a pirate once, and I've seen the Soshi shugenja nearly kill a nasty Oni with a strike of 72 points of damage.
D20 simply creates a different Rokugan than D10 does...they should not really be compared, on a rules mechanics level. They are two different games running on the same background, and if you run the same adventure with either, you will get totally different results.
