Gates of the Second City: Random Chatter

[Muskrat]

Yes, that ending was a nice touch.

[Vardaen]

An excellent final post. The game is officially wrapped up.

I enjoyed everyone's RP, and I think I will run another game, OR play in a game if one of you wants to run one?@?!?!?!?

Anyhow, I am thinking of maybe the FFG storyline, but I haven't finished reading up on where they are yet. It has potential as a good What If plot line.

[Orvost]

Hey thanks, guys. I'll miss this game since it was the only game I play on this site. I look forward to the next one.

[Vardaen]

Well we can't have you not in ANY games. We'll work on getting another one started soon enough.

[ManWithDoor]

And there are games out there happy for new players! If you're interested in Pathfinder or 40K, I can guarantee you that you could throw in your hat to at least ... 4 games off the top of my head that are looking for more players. Just saying.

[Vardaen]

And there are games out there happy for new players! If you're interested in Pathfinder or 40K, I can guarantee you that you could throw in your hat to at least ... 4 games off the top of my head that are looking for more players. Just saying.

Damn straight!

[Hermit]

Anyhow, I am thinking of maybe the FFG storyline, but I haven't finished reading up on where they are yet. It has potential as a good What If plot line.

It would certainly shake things up quite a bit story-wise. From what I've read of the short stories so far, it doesn't appear as though it's progressed to the point of the Second Day of Thunder yet. The earliest stories are set some time at around 1123 when the Lion-Crane War would've entered a stalemate and the Scorpion Clan Coup was set to kick off in the AEG version of events.

With that said I'm not well versed enough in L5R's lore to discern all of FFG's revisions to the timeline/setting/people beyond the obvious ones (i.e. the Crane Clan Champion Hoturi's gender has been switched to a woman and is now named Hotaru, Crane territories got hit by a massive tsunami and are consequently experiencing famine and civil unrest, Dragon birthrates are perilously low, etc. Perhaps one of the most surprising divergences in the FFG timeline however is that the events surrounding the Hantei child who would be kidnapped and eventually become Daigotsu never transpired. As such he is still an official member of the Hantei family and is named Hantei Daisetsu).

This link provides a basic rundown of the FFG timeline, though it's safe to say that a bunch of other stuff has probably happened in the interim since this thread came out back in October 2017:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.co ... -timeline/

[Vardaen]

Yeah, they just put out the story that would replace Shujo killing the Hantei

[Hermit]

Yeah, they just put out the story that would replace Shujo killing the Hantei

I haven't gotten that far yet, though I've recently finished the Core Set Fiction and am now reading through the Event Fiction. My opinion thus far is that FFG's done a good job straddling that line between weaving an alternative telling of events while not straying too far from the source material that made that particular era of Rokugani history so dramatic and intriguing. Some of the new plot hooks, like the Pure Land Sect gaining traction in Dragon lands, the surge of imbalance among shugenja in their interactions with the kami noted especially by the Phoenix, and the ominous implications of this growing trend being tied somehow to the Unicorn's meishōdō magic are especially fascinating. That said there are some revisions that I wish that they didn't make, but those are fortunately mostly minor details that don't detract from the overall enjoyment of this retelling.

Going back to what you said about entertaining the possibility of setting the campaign in FFG's timeline, do you think that there's enough stories and material out at this time to be able to set up a stable enough framework for telling the overall story during that era (with of course player involvement potentially changing the course of events even further from the canon) without it going completely off the rails and making it difficult to improvise or have contingencies in place?

Also, while it's my understanding that 4E Rules/Mechanics would be used on this forum for the sake of convenience and function in a PbP format, do you think there are any particular aspects of 5E that could be adapted and/or incorporated into 4E? I for one am not a fan of several of 5th's features and changes, but there are some that I do think are good. One particular aspect that immediately springs to mind is how 5E allows character's to utilize certain skills and talents in accordance with their choice of Element/Ring instead of being effectively restricted to whatever Ring that 4E traditionally associates a skill set with.

For example I could see this being especially helpful for Bushi characters as it would mechanically compensate for certain shortcomings typically encountered depending on which Path/School someone takes, plus it has a very thematic appeal in the sense of reflecting an individual Bushi's style/mentality when it comes to martial arts. Then again it might over complicate or outright be incompatible with 4E's approach to gameplay (I'm far from an expert when it comes to game mechanics), but I have to say if nothing else it's an interesting concept.

[ManWithDoor]

By and large I'm fine with keeping 4th Ed the way it is, although there is always the option of GM-Player discussions that could allow the occasional mixing up of the Mechanics. For example, normally Intimidation is based in Awareness, especially if this was a Court scene or normal conversation. But if it's an entirely different type of scene...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TruXhuAO4IY

...then I think V might listen to the argument of basing the roll off of Willpower or Strength this time.