Announcing ...

[Shurijo]

TetNak, thanks for assist on char sheet. I'll try to review it today.

[TetNak]

Just don't get killed. Your guy is not exactly a fighter.

[Hayabusa]

A note on weapons here. "Staves are excellent for delivering brute force to stun or incapacitate an opponent, but their blunt nature can make killing an opponent diffi cult and messy work without proper training. Also staves have tremendous trouble overcoming armor, which diffuses their impact very effectively. Armor bonuses to the Armor TN are doubled against attacks made with a staff."

I mention it because most of us (or at least Mei-Li and Xun Wen) used a bo staff in fights. Luckily when you get the Staves skill on rank 3, that bonus of an opponents armor is negated.

Btw, great kiho: Wave in All Things. I saw Eisai (Trog's monk) use it a lot and it lets you attack an opponent from a range that's your Water ring x 10 feet away by hitting the ground which hits your target. Which is great because I don't want to get hit by swords and since we don't wear armor we may be dead very quickly.

"Water flows through all things, including the earth. You may make an unarmed attack by striking a body of standing water or the earth. The effects of this strike are felt by one opponent who is in contact with either the water or earth (whichever one was struck) and who is within a number of feet equal to your Water Ring x10. The effect of the strike is quite obvious, and may not be performed discreetly. If you are concealed at the time this Kiho is activated, your position is immediately revealed to the target and those in his immediate vicinity."

[TetNak]

Not a ton of people wear armor either, at least armor greater than light. This is not Rokugan. I expect it to be very, very, unusual for you to meet up with anyone with greater than light armor. Anyway -- through kiho, etc, you're going to gain some 'powers', or seemingly powers through the mechanical advantages they give. This will be explained ICly -- very soon.

[Hayabusa]

I spent my 25 XP. All of it but not even at Rank 2 so far. (Maybe we can get a bit MOAR? This game's been running for exactly two years and six months on Saturday.)

Well, that's good to hear. But even a light armor gives an opponent a 10 to the TNtbH. Though I still don't want to see the business end of a sword with my character.

Too bad that the Book of Earth has not been released. Because I think that one deals with unarmed combat.

Will the game be moved to the L5R-forum after the change of the system?

[TetNak]

Just email me your new sheet.

As far as insight rank, it all depends on what you spend it on.

[Hayabusa]

I noticed that I missed a few things like the skill rank masteries. I'll do that later and mail again. (Because I noticed that those are missing right after I mailed it to you a moment ago. I also forgot to update Reflexes from a 2 to a 3.)

[TetNak]

Ok.

Yeah, I noticed some oddities as well.

So -- What does the Martial Arts emphasis do?

[TetNak]

Haya -- Dude, you guys just came from Quon Da last chapter ......

[Hayabusa]

Oddly that is NEVER mentioned in the book. But I think they're going to go into that in that mentioned Book of Earth. Which sucks.

"DESCRIPTION: The art of unarmed combat is something that all bushi appreciate, although not all pursue it in the dojo. Many rely upon the weapon-based techniques they learn from their sensei to defend them even without their weapons, and while this can be marginally effective, the actual study of unarmed combat is much more useful. Monks in particular devote a great amount of time to the art of hand-to-hand combat, believing they both hone the body and unify it with the mind.

Jiujutsu can be used as a Weapon Skill, rolling Jiujitsu / Agility against an opponent's Armor TN to hit and rolling a number of dice equal to your strength, keeping one for damage (so if you had Strength 3, you would roll 3k1 damage for an unarmed attack). Jiujutsu is also used for initiating and maintaining Grapples, which are explained in the Book of Earth. The Improvised Weapons Emphasis allows you to use almost anything you can get your hands on to increase your capacity to inflict damage. The GM is the final arbiter of what damage a particular improvised weapon inflicts, but generally it should grant additional rolled or kept dice, but not both."

Also, Unarmed combat does very little damage by itself. Hey, maybe you can make something up for that Martial Arts emphases. Like it allows you to reroll something, I don't know...