Shiba Tsukimi by April Lee (click to see her DeviantArt page)
One of the most important things to remember for a standard L5R campaign is to remember that by default, the player characters are of the Samurai Caste. This puts them in a unique position in the social strata of Rokugan, where they are both nobles and servants to higher ranking superiors.
As such, there is a distinct difference when it comes to treating the opposition. L5R is not a game about going into dungeons, chopping up goblins and hauling all their gear back to town to sell. There are several universal rules that apply to the characters given their station in life, some of which may seem very strange to those who are used to D&D or other standard fantasy settings.
- Samurai are not meant to touch dead bodies. Doing so is unclean, and is left to the eta, a caste of commoner that is considered non-human. Therefore rifling through the dead to pick their pockets is abhorrent to most samurai, and even Ronin look around and check first before they try something like this.
- A Samurai’s wealth is provided for by his lord. Commerce is beneath a samurai in Rokugan, and while they may dabble in it, an obsession towards such activity and the acquisition of wealth is seen as a weakness of character, with the exception of certain families who are made famous by such behavior such as the Crab Clans’ Yasuki family and the Mantis Clan’s Yoritomo family.
- Associating with commoners is unseemly. Commoners exist beneath a samurai, and while compassion to fellow man is admirable, fraternizing with those who are clearly lower in the Celestial Hierarchy is considered to be foolish behavior that may draw the ire or ridicule of others.
Are these rules absolutes? Definitely not, but that’s the fun of L5R. The rules set forth by the society are rigid and unforgiving, and every character must eventually come to terms with the fact that they will have to break one rule to honor another virtue. It’s these moments when a character is forced to choose and define themselves when the chips are down that make L5R an interesting and memorable game.
Perhaps it is foolish for a samurai to barge into a burning peasant’s home, blasphemous for him to shove away the dead body of a mother to save a bawling baby of a caste lower than his own, but it’s the right thing to do in his heart, and the character has to live with making that choice. L5R is a game that encourages introspective play, where characters constantly weigh their decisions against their morals and the rules of their society.
I really liked this post. Part because I’ve got an unfulfilled desire to play a Legends of the 5 Rings campaign and part because it demonstrates the shift in expectations that most people will have to deal with in order to fully explore the setting.
Keep it up!
PS: I’ve not been here in a long time; I’m glad to see that the quality of the content has stayed high.
Hi Federico!
Thanks for the kind words, and I’m glad you liked the article!
But Gear helps.
Observe:
But remember, most L5R characters start with decent armor, effective weapons, a good selection of spells (if shugenja) and some other fun/interesting stuff. It is not like you are entering the world with a rusty knife and wearing a potato sack, most characters -by definition- are at the upper end of the social scale and have what they need and often what they want as well.
Definitely, characters that don’t start off as Ronin or Minor clan are well provided for by their Daimyo. In fact, it is not difficult to see why obsessing over “better” gear is an insult to your Daimyo, who took pains to equip you properly.
Save the world with this Wooden Sword and Pot Shield.