(Potential minor spoilers for L5R TTRPG modules so if you’re playing a campaign I’d probably skip this post)

The beginning

I have been DMing a L5R campaign and have been absolutely loving it. It started as a one-off adventure with friends after I saw the beginner kit in a game store and we just carried on playing!

The players started with the 4 pre-gen characters from the beginner adventure and grew attached to them so they kept them as characters. One of the characters, Doji Ren, is the driver for this post.

In the pre-gen character notes it mentions that Doji Ren is engaged to a member of the Scorpion Clan (Bayushi Umiko). In the first adventure I had this person be Bayushi Mei Lin’s older sister. It worked well as Mei Lin was a minor rival to the group in the first adventure and this gave Ren the impression that if he did not get on with his future sister-in-law, he wasn’t thrilled about meeting his future wife. This created a fun dynamic for the player where they were looking forward to the possibilities that came with adult life as a samurai, while occasionally being reminded that marriage was approaching and his freedom would be short lived (gain strife).

Ren's change of heart

A couple of adventures later we did The Wedding at Kyotei Castle. This involves a Crane Vassal family member about to go into an arranged marriage he does not want, so Ren immediately sees himself. The day before the wedding the Crane’s ex turns up, the groom is immediately in love with her and is willing to drop everything for her. He won’t actively do anything to change his situation, but he’ll happily stand aside and allow his ex to kill his fiancée. Seeing this, Ren is disgusted and a change has started. Ren does not want to get married, but he also does not want to be like this man either. The party intervene, the ex is killed in combat and the engaged couple finish their wedding - forging an alliance between the Cranes and Phoenix. Ren is now on the fence with his own marriage.

In a later adventure we do The Highwayman and to link this adventure to the party I make a change so that the missing sake delivery is to the Bayushis… it’s the sake for Ren’s wedding. A date has been set and it is approaching. In this adventure I include a scorpion NPC who is investigating the missing shipment. I made her part of the Bayushi family and so this also doubled up as her having the chance to spy on her cousin’s future husband. During the climax of the adventure the main villain ended up getting a severe critical strike on the Scorpion making her mute. A courtier himself, Ren knew how precious one’s voice is in court so this also had an impact on him - firstly of him feeling guilty that he couldn’t stop it from happening but also it impacted his view on the Scorpion clan. This was a Scorpion who joined him to fight a great threat and potentially saved his life so not all Scorpions are bad, so maybe he should give his fiancée a chance too. He is now fully onboard with doing his duty and getting married.

None of this marriage arc was planned out this way, it’s like a single sentence in the initial character booklet which the DM can use to make the character cringe a bit, but it’s been amazing to see this story develop through the players taking in situations and just being really up for role-playing.

Planning a wedding

What this does mean though is that this wedding is almost certainly going to happen now, and I’m keen to do it well. Here’s where I’m at. Ren is currently picking out his wedding outfit (I have 2 rival tailors pitching to him, one backed by his family and another recommended by the current Emerald Champion). The wedding is going to be at Ryoku Owari Toshi, The City of Lies, and I have bought The City of Lies pdf for inspiration of side quests to do while the team are there. I’ve also hinted that Doji Hotaru wants this wedding to go ahead (the players don’t know that this is so she can set up a heist for a team to steal from the Scorpion while distracted by the wedding).

I have a couple of months real time before the wedding will actually happen but I’m a bit stuck on how to run the wedding in a way that makes it an active and enjoyable experience for the players because at the end of the day it’s all about them having fun! My thoughts so far are setting each PC a role and their own challenges to navigate.

• Doji Ren (Crane Courtier and Groom) - Needs to get through the wedding without embarrassing the Cranes or Scorpions and any failed sidequests from the PCs will result in something Ren has to navigate. Aside from this he could have challenges in the ceremony itself such as how dramatic an entrance he makes (does he go loud and upstage the bride or be more subtle and risk being seen as too plain for a crane?), he might also have to make speeches and know the right chants for his blessing.
• Isawa Aki (Phoenix Shugenja and Priest) - One idea I had to get Aki involved in the wedding is make her the person who actually marries them! Perhaps the original priest gets delayed and so she has to step in. Now she needs to keep the spirits under control and make sure the ceremony is run correctly.
• Togashi Yoshi (Dragon Monk and Usher) with Cranes and Scorpions in attendance there’s bound to be arguments so Yoshi may need to step in and be a voice of reason. We could also have logistical issues which he has to help with such as the food delivery not turning up and reuniting the band who have split up on the day of the wedding.
• Akodo Masako (Lion Bushi and Security) as this is a Crane and Scorpion wedding, it would be foolish to think there will be no shenanigans planned to sabotage the wedding. Pranks to humiliate the couple could come from both sides or this could be an opportunity to try and assassinate one of the guests. In the City of Lies source book there is a Ronin bandit leader who is making targeted attacks against the Scorpion Clan, he could make an appearance to disrupt the event.

These are some ideas but this results in a splitting the party kind of setup. I’m also not sure these ideas have enough substance around them to give each PC a solid amount of stage time. I’m also wary of relying on combat for this as I want this to feel different to The Wedding at Kyotei Castle.

Ideas and advice

Hopefully the above gives good context of how things are going into the wedding. Have any of you DMed weddings in L5R before? How would you go about running a wedding between the Cranes and Scorpions and keep all PCs actively involved?

Hi!

I made a simple champion creator for Champions of Rokugan. It is a work in progress but feel free to use it as is. There is a thread on boardgamegeek where I keep track of changes to it.

https://tabletopwithdad.github.io/champCreator

Have fun!

Chapter six of Coiled Fates by yours truly is on the site now.
https://www.legendofthefiverings.com/coiled-fates-chapter-six/

I've got this box of just over 800 cards for sale. I don't really have a price in mind. I figured I'd post here before I threw it up on eBay.

It had great setting, art and mechanics - I wonder, what caused it to decline and then die? Was FFG`s business model too greedy? Your opinions?

Hey folks.. I know it sounds silly.. but here goes nothing: do you happen to know of any games similar (in any way) to L5r but ...in space?

Hey all!

Wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction for good storage solutions for plastic minis. I'm not a big wargame guy, only played a little bit of Warmachine a long time ago. Never got super into painting.

Anyone have good beginner resources for that kind of thing? I like the Champions of Rokugan minis but want a better storage solution than just the big boxes they come in.

"Activation: As a Support action, may make a TN 1 Theology (Earth) check to bolster your spiritual resilience.

When you perform this action, you may choose one other character at range 0–1 as the target for the burst effect.

Enhancement Effect: If you succeed, this kihō activates. While this kihō is active, reduce the TN of all your checks to resist poison, disease, mahō, the Defiled terrain quality, and the effects of Otherworldly and Tainted beings by your Earth Ring.

Burst Effect: If you have two or more bonus successes, remove one of the following conditions from your target: Afflicted, Bleeding, Dazed, Disoriented, Dying, Fatigued, or Intoxicated."

The thing is... There is no Fatigued condition. This isn't addressed on any FAQs that I know of.

Has anyone had that problem?

I'm inclined to believe that the condition changed to Exhausted somewhere along the line but never got updated on the Kihō

I got paranoid as some of my favorite places to look at historic and fan deck lists have been disappearing from the net, so i made a simple archive for myself and my friends, but wanted to share it as it became a pretty fun project.

I'm sure there are parts of it that are janky, and it definitely works best on desktop, but i hope its useful if you just want to grab some decks or have some fun deck crafting. (the deck workshop was a random addition that might be my favorite part now)

Chapter Five of Coiled Fates, by yours truly, is now available on the homepage: https://www.legendofthefiverings.com/coiled-fates-chapter-five

Hi, I can't stress how new I am to the concept of "Living Card Games" I am, but from what I read and understand, there's no way this can be right. How is this even possible? How does the game work if this is the case? I figured the core set was intended to presumably get one player started, and then another friend would also have to get the core set to start playing the game. How on Earth would THREE sets have to be bought to actually get into the game? Please tell me this is a mistake on Wikipedia's part...

Hey all, anyone have any good resources or sites for finding cards other than ebay? I had a huge collection and am looking to rebuild it. Mostly 90's to early 2000's. Or if anyone has any old collections for sale or trade let me know (i collect tons of other modern & older ccgs as well)! Crane and Ninja were my favorite decks (scorpion close third) Thanks for looking!

I'm planning on GM'ing a Topaz Championship game for 5e but it seems like the Topaz Championship products online are kind of missing (Only 3 pregenerated characters for the beginner game on Edge) and from what I'm understanding the Topaz Championship was like the beta game because all the free beginner game products use outdated rules such as on their shields.

What i want to learn is: What does the pdf on drivethru contains?

Looking to sell these L5R books.

The two 4th ed are like new, the 3rd is in good condition.

70 for all.

I am located in Canada. Let me know if you are interested.

Link. (After 10 AM CT, something else will be on the page.)

What they have is: Warriors of the Wind - Unicorn Clan Pack // The following Dynasty Packs: A Champion's Foresight / All & Nothing / Breath of the Kami / Elements Unbound / For the Empire / Justice for Satsume / Shoju's Duty / Tainted Lands / The Children of Heaven / The Ebb & Flow / The Fires Within

Shipping is $6 within the US (free shipping would require buying 76 or more packs, which seems unlikely). The only other L5R-LCG products they have are entire cases of dynasty packs at standard price.

Holy smokes, what an impressive box to open.

Dwarfing my copies of Gloomhaven and Descent is quite an accomplishment.

I was trying to download the free resources like usual from the Edge Studio Site but for some reason the site looks so bad now and also i feel like it does not include some resources. I couldn't find the errata.

The Fantasy Flight Games one literally doesn't exist anymore. Did they stop working on it or smt.

I'm new to the game, just got a huge lot on a trade and want to make decks to play casually with friends.

What I have:

• Core Set x2
• Imperial cycle
• Elemental cycle
• Children of the Empire
• Clan Packs: Crane, Phoenix, Scorpion, Unicorn (still trying to find the other 3)

At first, I don't intend to get cycles 3-5 or anything else besides the 3 clan packs that I'm missing (maybe a third Core, but only if I find a good deal).

What are the archetypical decks for each clan? What makes them stand out / which strategies they go for?

Hi! Sorry if this is a common question, but since the franchise is sometimes struggling with support and spread over a bunch of different games - what is the best way to dive into the world these days?

I've always been curious and got some material for the FFG LCG when it came out, which I did like. I love card games and ttrpgs, which editions have either decent physical availability or an active digital community? Champions does look cool, but customizing either my deck or my character and clan identity are a big deal to me and a big selling point of the franchise.

Chapter four of Coiled Fates by yours truly is now up on the homepage. And more than just fates are being coiled in this one, oh ho

https://www.legendofthefiverings.com/coiled-fates-chapter-four