[OSSR] Rokugan Campaign Setting (d20)

[ColorBlindNinja61]

Magic of Rokugan – Part 2

The first thing in this section is a variant rule about how resurrection spells aren't appropriate for Rokugan and you should strongly consider removing them and giving out different spells instead. Except Reincarnate, that spell is fine. Then, as if it’s not done pissing me off, the book tells us that they’re giving different names to preexisting spells. I cannot overstate how much I fucking hate this book…

In this chapter, it seems that the Shugenja’s spell list has received an overhaul. A few spells were cut or shuffled around but mostly new spells were added. I didn’t compare this section to the spells Shugenja get in OA with a fine-toothed comb or anything but as far as I can tell, this is a raw power up for the class. The Shugenja may not possess the sheer amount of “I Win” buttons that the Wizard does but they can still turn invisible, teleport, create illusions, control the weather and scry on people. This book gives them even more spells, which we’ll get into in a moment. The point is, the Shugenja get more than enough magic to break Rokugan over their knee. It doesn’t help at all that the setting strikes me mostly as low magic with an emphasis on sword wielding warriors.

So, let’s look at these new Shugenja spells, shall we? Much like with the feats, I’m not going over every single one, just the highlights. As I read through these, I realize that some of these spells are also given to the standard D&D classes as well. Which… surprised me.

Bad Kharma is a 5th level Air spell that forces a WILL save or they automatically roll a 1 on their next skill check, save, initiative, or attack roll. This begs to combined with a Save or Die on an enemy with a good FORT save, but a poor WILL mod. Benten’s Touch is another Air (and Bard!) spell that’s 2nd level and gives you a +10 to all CHA based skills! Which of course means an Air Shugenja has better social-fu than the Courtier does. I guess somethings don’t change.

Commune With Elements is a universal Shugenja spell that’s 0th level. You can ask a nature spirit a question and it has a 50% +1% chance per caster level of giving a meaningful response. You can promise the spirit a favor for another +10%. But if you ask these spirits about recent spells they were asked to perform, they will be able to reveal the exact nature of the spell cast. Sure, Commune Elements is vaguely worded, and Mister Cavern is encouraged to have the spirits fuck with you, but for a level 0 spell, it’s ludicrously useful. I could see this breaking a campaign, easily.

Dominate the Mind is a 6th level Air spell, it’s basically a shorter duration Dominate Person (1 minute/level). It’s still mind control even though the Sorcerer can do it better than you can. The Flow of Time is just weird. It’s a 7th level Water Shugenja spell that removes you from the standard flow of time for a single minute. From your perspective, an hour passes but during this time you can’t affect anyone in the regular time stream. And speaking of weird spells, Kharma (universal Shugenja spell, 6th level) is really strange. It works like Reincarnate, but a preexisting NPC suddenly realized they’re the reincarnation of the dead character you cast the spell on. Like, they’re an entirely different person, but they gain the abilities of the dead character. It’s super weird, but very flavorful. No costly material component, but it only works on humans, so your Ratling Shaman is SOL if they die.

The Mirror’s Smile (Air 9th) turns one humanoid into a perfect copy of another humanoid. Forever. This can’t be detected magically, and it can’t be dispelled except via Wish, Miracle or a second casting of the Mirror’s Smile. It doesn’t sound like they pick up the abilities of the person they turn into, barring any racial changes for swapping species. Prison of the Soul (Earth 6th) is just Trap the Soul but it only works on Outsiders. I guess you’re supposed to cast it on Oni? Sympathetic Energies is another odd spell (Water 5th and Wiz/Sorc 5th) that lets you transfer any non-permanent/instantaneous spell of 4th level or lower effecting the caster from themselves to another target. Or vice versa. That could be handy.

Walking the Way is a spell that teleports you to an empty plane called “The Way”, which can only be accessed by this spell (and Wish, I’d assume). You can’t use Scry in “The Way” but you also can’t be scried on. Furthermore, teleportation and extra-dimensional effects do not function there. The spell only lasts an hour per level, though, but I could see maybe extending it so you can sleep there for the night or something. But the king of the new Shugenja spells is easily The Waves Are Ever Changing (Water 8th). It’s just Shapechange, except you can’t swap forms, you have to stick with whatever you initially turn into when you cast the spell. And you get it two levels earlier than Wizards do…


There are very few void spells in the Rokugan Campaign Setting and there are only two worth talking about, Divine the Future (9th) and Visage of the Void (8th). Divine the Future is a shitty spell that costs 1000 XP and lets you ask the DM a single question about the campaign. Not only is the DM encouraged to be cryptic, but you can’t even change future you see! Visage of the Void takes two hours to cast but protects you from detection from all magical wards, alarms and barriers created by lower level spells. You also cannot be detected by spell-like abilities. The best effect is if someone casts a spell on you, you get to make an opposed INT check; if you win, the spell doesn’t work. Sadly, this ends Visage of the Void.


The Maho class in OA was a sort of precursor to the Tainted Sorcerer (which evolved into the Tainted Scholar), spellcasting prestige classes that use their Taint scores to determine their save DCs and bonus spells per day. The Rokugan Campaign Setting hasn’t told us this yet, but it uses entirely different Taint rules than any of the ones featured in D&D 3rd edition. We’ll have to wait until later to see if this changes the viability of blood magic. The Maho spell list is pretty good and includes: Animate Dead, Enervation, Black Tentacles, Polymorph, Solid Fog, Cloud Kill, Contact Other Planes, Slay Living, Acid Fog, Blasphemy, Polymorph Any Object and Greater Planar Binding.

Those are some kickass spells but the new Maho spells by and large suck. The only one I saw worth noting is Sinful Dreams, which causes the target to have an erotic dream about the caster, granting you a +10 on Bluff, Diplomacy or Intimidate checks VS them over the course of the next 12 hours. Or +15, if you’re trying to seduce them. …. Am I reading the Book of Erotic Fantasy by mistake? What the actual fuck?

Even still, Maho is one of the better routes to power in Rokugan but you still have to deal with everyone hating you and wanting you dead. TBH, the Shugenja is probably a better option.

The next chapter is Life in Rokugan, in which the game frankly acknowledges some of the setting’s deep flaws and… does fuck all about them.

[OgreBattle]

This sounds like the MTG Blocks approach should be how D&D does different worlds, realms, planes.

Then "Legacy" can be the planeshopper high level unlock

No, which is a shame, considering the great Chinese literary classics (Journey to the West, Outlaws of the Marsh, Romance of the Three Kingdoms etc). I don't know what system would best capture those, but there'd still be interest in "Chinese stuff in D&D, keeping in mind that it's still D&D".

Lvl 8+ D&D3e ain't terrible for it, though I forget why they have to journey slowly on foot and not leap 10,000 li to their destination.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Lvl 8+ D&D3e ain't terrible for it, though I forget why they have to journey slowly on foot and not leap 10,000 li to their destination.

Because the only member of the group who can actually retrieve the quest item is a puny mortal who would be killed by such a feat.

[Krusk]

You went briefly over the The Emerald Magistrate, but I think its worth noting that its core ability, Strength of Purpose (which powers up every other level) doesn't actually do anything half the time.

It gives the magistrate a "+2 morale bonus to resist any attempt to turn him away from his duty either through the use of skill (diplomacy, intimidate, bluff) or through magic (any attempts at mind control of influencing thoughts). "

There aren't rules for using diplomacy against PCs, and the only rules for using diplomacy have you rolling against a flat DC chart. There is nothing to add a +2 to. It could give a +2 morale bonus to saves against fear from the intimidate skill, but gaining the shaken condition is kind of a stretch to call "An attempt to turn him from his duty". Bluff at least has some clear rules on when to apply it.

Magic, I guess you add to the saves, if the DM decides you get to. Which is at least a plausible thing that could happen.

[ColorBlindNinja61]

You went briefly over the The Emerald Magistrate, but I think its worth noting that its core ability, Strength of Purpose (which powers up every other level) doesn't actually do anything half the time.

It gives the magistrate a "+2 morale bonus to resist any attempt to turn him away from his duty either through the use of skill (diplomacy, intimidate, bluff) or through magic (any attempts at mind control of influencing thoughts). "

There aren't rules for using diplomacy against PCs, and the only rules for using diplomacy have you rolling against a flat DC chart. There is nothing to add a +2 to. It could give a +2 morale bonus to saves against fear from the intimidate skill, but gaining the shaken condition is kind of a stretch to call "An attempt to turn him from his duty". Bluff at least has some clear rules on when to apply it.

Magic, I guess you add to the saves, if the DM decides you get to. Which is at least a plausible thing that could happen.

That's hilarious, I didn't notice that because I was kind of skimming through that section (I can only read so many crappy prestige classes in a row before my brain goes numb).

[ColorBlindNinja61]

Life in Rokugan – Part 1

The first paragraph in this chapter starts by ranting about how depicting Rokugan is difficult, unlike standard D&D, which is supposedly intuitive. Next, we’re told that making your first character for Fantasy Asia is also difficult because you might end up with a character that’s “utterly wrong for the setting” or a useless character. Their example of “useless” is a Crane Courtier with nothing but combat skills. That class doesn’t have combat skills, I have no idea what they’re talking about here.

This section honestly almost comes off as a pretentious rant about how “You’re doing it wrong, guys!” This impression continues as the book insists that understanding your character’s background is super important, unlike those other settings. The Rokugan Campaign Setting also informs the reader that the setting has “great potential for games of intrigue and deception” and that you’ll have to make sure you characters don’t pick typical D&D skills like Climb and instead take “skills that seem a bit useless in other settings”. By which they mean Bluff, Diplomacy and Sense Motive, which tells me they have no fucking clue how d20 works. The authors also insist that the party should consist entirely of humans, because other races are super rare in the setting and the Rokugani are racist bastards. Oh god we will cover this in more detail later…

Now, we get into how to make a party and one of the biggest problems with Rokugan as a setting. Several of the clans that the players are supposed to belong to hate each other. The example the book gives is currently the Lion and Dragon clan are at war, so logically the Lion player and the Dragon player should try to kill each other on sight. And openly being a ninja means just about everyone wants you dead. What really pisses me off is that the Rokugan Campaign Setting realizes this problem but instead of addressing the root cause (shitty worldbuilding) they dump all the work on the players and the DM. Each player is expected to carefully craft their backstory so they have a reason not to kill each other on sight.

The other solution the book pushes is to just have the DM declare what sort of characters are allowed in the campaign. The authors acknowledge how shitty this advice is and that players tend to be unhappy when they can’t play the character they want. Again, they do nothing to address the root problem which is the same fucking issue that Exalted and Vampire have. Why do so many TTRPG designers insist on making PC factions that want each other dead? Right away, this makes actually playing in Rokugan more of a pain in the ass than it ever needed to be. Because the dumbasses who wrote this book refused to actually fix what was wrong with the setting.

While it’s possible to concoct a plot that forces the party to work together, it’s likely the kind of thing that works best for a one shot. The book seems to realize this and so the next section is about maintaining a campaign. The first suggestion is intrigue, which the authors seem to think consists of Shyamalan-style plot twists. Then, the Rokugan Campaign Setting starts babbling about honor and etiquette. This rant seems out of place and is in all likelihood bad advice for a campaign’s long-term health. We get such amazing suggestions as forcing the players to choose between their duty and their personal desires. This is doomed to failure. The players are going to do what they want, when they want to, and however they want to. They’ll probably flip off the lord who gave the order in the first place. The empire is just too morally repugnant for the players to want to play nice with them.

We at last are done with character and campaign advice and move into how Rokugan differs from standard D&D. This is basically where the authors double down on the stupid shit we’ve seen earlier. Magic is rare and apparently peasants genuflect before Shugenja who so much as cast an orison. Magic items are also rare, and the implication is you might go an entire campaign without seeing one. The section about foreigners is especially bad. Most of it is the usual xenophobia we saw before but then we’re informed that non-human characters might end up being enslaved. I need to quote this passage in full:

In all cases, the appearance of a human form will the characters from initially getting into too much trouble. The average elf, dwarf, or even gnome can be easily passed off as a funny-looking human. However, dark-skinned versions of these races (e.g. Drow), halflings, ogres, goblins, and the like are most likely going to get the “sub-human slave labor” treatment.

However, dark-skinned versions of these races (e.g. Drow), halflings, ogres, goblins, and the like are most likely going to get the “sub-human slave labor” treatment.

dark-skinned versions of these races

I… don’t… Words do not even… Fucking hell!

Just take a look at Lion Clan deals with the Zokujin – a race of intelligent beings treated as nothing more than mindless labors for their mines. Rokugan ethnocentrism sees this as acceptable, as long as the Zokujin (or other slaves) are not treated in a “cruel” manner.

Yeah, the party is going to topple Rokugan faster than you can say “Rebel Alliance”. But we’re not done with the shitty quotes.

While a campaign would grind to a halt if you suddenly threw all the non-humans into a dungeon or diamond mine, it is good motivation for such characters to keep in line.

Fuck this book.

After that bullshit, the book starts talking about money, but we’ll cover that in the next post.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

That'll show those uppity non-humans!
How blatant. I don't know if this is more of the author's problems or D&D's "this race is an evil version of a regular race because it's darker and/or monochromatic" problem. Kind of a chicken and egg thing going on here.

Has the book suggested that the party might come together to try and overthrow all these horrible assholes? That seems like it would be right in line with the fantasy Japan thing they're trying to go for, plus it gives an excuse for disgrunted players to join up with one another. Setting up with "the world is shit" might be tolerable if the players are actually expected to un-shit it up... but I have the feeling it's not doing that.

[ColorBlindNinja61]

That'll show those uppity non-humans!
How blatant. I don't know if this is more of the author's problems or D&D's "this race is an evil version of a regular race because it's darker and/or monochromatic" problem. Kind of a chicken and egg thing going on here.

I'm pretty sure the reason for this is grimdark.

Has the book suggested that the party might come together to try and overthrow all these horrible assholes? That seems like it would be right in line with the fantasy Japan thing they're trying to go for, plus it gives an excuse for disgrunted players to join up with one another. Setting up with "the world is shit" might be tolerable if the players are actually expected to un-shit it up... but I have the feeling it's not doing that.

No, in fact, it seems like the authors haven't even considered that this might be a possibility. We haven't gotten to the section of the book that lists NPC statblocks, but I'll be bringing up the difficulty of overthrowing the setting when we do.

[Orca]

The crane courtier with only combat skills being possible (never mind bad) sounds like a bunch of this advice was written for another RPG, presumably Lot5R. It goes with the clans being thought to be important in game mechanics as well as roleplaying. Basically this is a shitty conversion.

Waving around racism to keep your setting pure and untainted by out of setting things was widely thought to be a bad idea when Gygax brought it up in the AD&D 1e DMG (to control monsters as PCs, that time) and it's annoying that the authors of this managed to avoid hearing about that. Learning from others mistakes is something that the RPG industry is especially bad at though.

[Prak]

Rokugon is based on a Fantasy Feudal Japan, and, in reality, Feudal Japan was pretty fucking xenophobic*, and a shitty place to be a foreigner. Or a commoner, for that matter. Even today, Japanese culture has a pretty big racist attitude to non-Japanese (slash non-white, thanks to Western cultural imperialist interference) people-

It's well known by now how Jynx's design is super-based on Japanese stereotypes of black people. There was an outcry very shortly after Pokemon came westwards and the design was changed. ...by making her face purple.


Two of these images are Japanese depictions of Koreans, and one is a Western depiction of Japanese people. Guess which!*




*The top two images are the Japanese depictions of Koreans, the bottom image is the Western depiction of Japanese people


This is an anti-Chinese rally in Japan

So the depicted Rokugani attitude towards foreigners has a basis on the culture that Rokugan is meant to reflect. Likewise, the idea that a samurai would attack a non-samurai wearing daisho also has some basis in reality, albeit it's actually pretty lenient by comparison. Under the three unifiers of Japan, there were substantial restrictions on the wearing of swords, with the specific purpose of underlining and strengthening social class divides. While commoners were allowed to own swords, the wearing of two swords and long swords (generally swords greater than 2 feet in length, but the specific limit varied over time) was restricted to the Samurai class. Commoners could be awarded the privilege of wearing two swords for "meritorious service," which was fairly common for peasant leaders and officials, and commoners were allowed to carry longswords if they were traveling or during a fire (obviously). There was also Hideyoshi's Sword Hunt Law of 1588, where peasants were supposed to have been entirely disarmed of all weapons, but were not systematically so. The intent was to make rebellion less likely and possible through reduction of the total weapons owned by peasants. It would be a simple and ready justification for any Japanese official to take your sword or bow or whatever, even if their real reason was "I don't like your face."

So, given that, if Rokugon only says "if you wear a daisho and you're not a samurai, you're going to get attacked" that's actually extremely lenient compared to actual feudal era Japan, as it allows you to carry any form of sword, axe, mace, etc.

As for the societal treatment of ninja.... well, ninja were, generally speaking, mercenaries and spies originating from the lower classes to engage in "irregular warfare" which flouted laws and codes of Bushido and honor. Openly being a ninja in Rokugon would be like walking around 1920s London with red hair, pale skin and freckles while wearing a shirt that says "I'm in the IRA." Of course you're going to get treated shittily by the plebs and harassed by the police, except that the Rokugani empire is essentially a police state, so when I say "harassed" I mean "attacked with intent to kill." Now, does the fact that Rokugan has a recognized clan of ninja that has a place in the court, in the Scorpion Clan, change that a bit? Maybe, if you're saying you're specifically a Scorpion Clan ninja, but then you've got higher ups from the Scorpion Clan giving you shit, either for the incredibly poor taste decision to flout their plausible deniability (The Scorpion Clan maintain they "are not ninjas," even though everyone knows they're totally ninjas) or for claiming to be part of their clan, and they suspect you're full of shit, and are maligning their Clan through your fraud.

Walking around Rokugon/Japan while wearing your shinobi get up is, at best-

"Bond, James Bond. And I probably shouldn't be using the same name to chat up my rape targets and perform espionage."


"Sterling Archer, world's greatest superspy. ...who doesn't know the meaning of the word 'covert'."

Which, like, ok, there's "literary" basis for it, but a ninja is not the same as a "rogue." Ninja were feudal era Japanese spies and assassins from the lower classes. Any ninja who is not a complete moron doomed to die on their first day out of "Ninja School" would not broadcast that they were a ninja, nor that they were trained in breaking and entering and assassination.

Now, as to the idea that this setting paints the empire as tyrannical, oppressive, racist, and something that any rational party would revolt against... Ok? While implementation may be poor, creating a setting where the main temporal authority is an evil empire and the players are likely to want to fight it, is not a bad thing. Now, do AEG/LRPG recognize that that's what they've done? I don't know. I'm not familiar enough with the material or the company(/ies), and the premier L5R understander of the Den recently took his ball and went home in a puff of temper tantrum. I think it's likely that some writers for L5R recognize this, but others don't.

I think the book's fluff has some poor writing, definitely. As usual for a Big Company Book, it seems that their suggestions for how to play are some mix of out-of-touch, off base, and pretentious, and used to prop up the deficiencies in their system, where they could not create a system that encouraged the entitled style of play.


*Whether or not there was some justification to that xenophobia, given how often they were victim to racist attacks and abuses by larger empires... well, I'm informed enough to form that supposition, but not enough to defend it. And while there can be a justification for xenophobia, I'm of course in no way intending to excuse the actual racism.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

I thought Jynx was based on the Yuki-ona and she was black/purple because she died of fucking hypothermia. But then there's the weird lips that its preevolution also has, so... fuck, I dunno.
I'm not contesting any other parts of your post, though.

[ColorBlindNinja61]

Rokugon is based on a Fantasy Feudal Japan, and, in reality, Feudal Japan was pretty fucking xenophobic*, and a shitty place to be a foreigner. Or a commoner, for that matter. Even today, Japanese culture has a pretty big racist attitude to non-Japanese (slash non-white, thanks to Western cultural imperialist interference) people-

So the depicted Rokugani attitude towards foreigners has a basis on the culture that Rokugan is meant to reflect. Likewise, the idea that a samurai would attack a non-samurai wearing daisho also has some basis in reality, albeit it's actually pretty lenient by comparison. Under the three unifiers of Japan, there were substantial restrictions on the wearing of swords, with the specific purpose of underlining and strengthening social class divides. While commoners were allowed to own swords, the wearing of two swords and long swords (generally swords greater than 2 feet in length, but the specific limit varied over time) was restricted to the Samurai class. Commoners could be awarded the privilege of wearing two swords for "meritorious service," which was fairly common for peasant leaders and officials, and commoners were allowed to carry longswords if they were traveling or during a fire (obviously). There was also Hideyoshi's Sword Hunt Law of 1588, where peasants were supposed to have been entirely disarmed of all weapons, but were not systematically so. The intent was to make rebellion less likely and possible through reduction of the total weapons owned by peasants. It would be a simple and ready justification for any Japanese official to take your sword or bow or whatever, even if their real reason was "I don't like your face."

So, given that, if Rokugon only says "if you wear a daisho and you're not a samurai, you're going to get attacked" that's actually extremely lenient compared to actual feudal era Japan, as it allows you to carry any form of sword, axe, mace, etc.

My two main objections to this are:

1. Rokugan is a fantasy setting, historical accuracy doesn't matter in a world with Kitsune and dragons.

2. The xenophobia and classism are terrible for a RPG setting.

EDIT:
Hell, Rokugan already isn't historically accurate.

Now, as to the idea that this setting paints the empire as tyrannical, oppressive, racist, and something that any rational party would revolt against... Ok? While implementation may be poor, creating a setting where the main temporal authority is an evil empire and the players are likely to want to fight it, is not a bad thing. Now, do AEG/LRPG recognize that that's what they've done? I don't know. I'm not familiar enough with the material or the company(/ies), and the premier L5R understander of the Den recently took his ball and went home in a puff of temper tantrum. I think it's likely that some writers for L5R recognize this, but others don't.

As far as I can tell, the authors in no way realize how repugnant Rokugan is as a setting. I doubt the thought even occurred to them that the players might want to overthrow it.

[OgreBattle]

So what are Rokugan PC's suppose to do in an adventure?

Can mixed clan parties work?

[ColorBlindNinja61]

So what are Rokugan PC's suppose to do in an adventure?

To be entirely honest, the book is a bit vague about that. I suppose you can fight evil Shadowlands critters or maybe participate in a clan war.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think the most likely campaign that's getting run in Rokugan is, "overthrow the government, because they're assholes."

EDIT: It also doesn't help that Rokugan as a setting does not mix well with what mid to high level d20 characters can do. This is even the case for their own classes like the Shugenja.

Can mixed clan parties work?

Only if you painstakingly craft each PC's backstory so they don't have a reason to kill each other on sight.

[ColorBlindNinja61]

Life in Rokugan – Part 2

The Rokugan Campaign Setting begins its discussion regarding money and equipment by disparaging the idea of wealth being a motivation for adventurers. Here, it’s assumed that your lord will simply provide the gear you need. This leads nicely into the next segment which assumes that all the players will be nobles. So, if you wanted to play peasant heroes, this book doesn’t support that. Furthermore, we’re told nobles can basically barge into a peasant’s house and demand food.

A samurai should be able to demand pretty much anything he requires from a peasant, such as shelter, food, or assistance.

But just to make sure Mister Cavern can still fuck with you…

Of course, too much demanding may attract the attention of the peasant’s master, something the character may not want.

Yeah, fuck you too book.


Now the Rokugan Campaign Setting starts talking about the culture of the setting. The book repeats that if anyone but a noble is caught with either a katana or a wakizashi, they’re killed on the spot. But we’re also told peasants have no legal recourse if nobles treat them like shit. Wonderful… The book assures us that the emperor wields supreme executive power, which is ahistorical if I’m not mistaken (at least in the case of Japan). Some ink is spilled on the various hierarchical positions and the poor bastards at the bottom of Rokgan’s social caste aren’t even considered people. It’s apparently not even a crime to kill them, which is royally fucked up on so many levels.

Next, we get a discussion of the seasons and what the various hours of the day are called. We’re also told that the various clans pretty much go to war every summer and only stop in the winter because the snow make it too hard to transport troops. The emperor can tell the warring families to knock it the hell off if the fighting threatens the stability of the empire but rarely does so. They try to handwave this bullshit by claiming all the fighting makes the clans stronger. Which is fucking stupid on several levels… The authors decide to spend the pages after the seasons talking about, flora, fauna and natural disasters before they start talking about laws.

The Emerald Magistrates enforce the law and each clan has their own magistrates. The Jade Champion is tasked with what qualifies as blood magic and is served by the inquisitors. Then we get a discussion of crime and punishment. Murder is seen as no big deal as long as it’s conducted in an honorable fashion, AKA dueling, but theft and forgery are capital crimes. Treason is also punished by execution, but they also kill the perpetrator’s family. Because the setting isn’t abhorrent enough already.

Evidence is seen as unimportant and instead testimony is the golden standard. Because it’s not like eyewitness testimony has about a 50/50 shot of being fucking wrong or anything! Oh yeah and it’s not uncommon to extract confessions via torture.

And of course, rather than being dishonorably executed, you can commit seppuku instead. But only if you’re a noble and not a dirty, dirty peasant.


The next couple paragraphs are dedicated to travel and we learn that Rokguan does indeed have roads, you also have to have travel papers in order to be allowed to travel. The book now starts talking about reputation and honor. We’re informed that your reputation is more important than the actual reality of your character. We also get an explanation of Bushido and its various tenants. I can only assume that “compassion” is a total fucking lie given what we’ve been told about the setting…

The next segment is about the types of games played in Rokugan and I can’t be bothered to fucking care about them, so let’s move on to etiquette. The authors really want you to take this shit seriously.

In Rokugan, etiquette is all-important. A samurai with no notion of etiquette can meet his end just as quickly as if he took his place on the battlefield with no knowledge of the sword. Despite appearances to the contrary, the courts of Rokugan are very much a battleground, and words are weapons wielded by some of the greatest tacticians the Empire has ever seen.

Is this supposed to make me care about the godawful Courtier class? Because I’m not buying this bullshit. Anyway, we’re told is proper to bow when you meet peers or superiors and we get an explanation of Japanese honorifics. I… couldn’t tell you how accurate this is but it seems to line up from what I’ve seen from watching anime. The stupidest section here claims it’s customary to refuse a gift twice before accepting it. I’m going to guess this has no actual historical basis…

The subheading about learning would be wasted space except we’re told that pupils are supposed to regularly return to their schools. Because why would you want your RPG setting to allow for adventures, amirite? Appropriately, the next section is about… Adventurers. The authors seem to realize that being sworn to a lord limits adventuring opportunities massively and provide some suggestions to circumvent this issue. One is the “Musha Shugyo”, which is basically a tradition where a warrior wanders around the empire in an attempt to experience personal growth. The next is you could work for the Emerald Magistrates and enforce the laws for the emperor. Except the laws of Rokugan are so reprehensible most groups won’t want to do that. The third suggestion is that you’re cartographers, because that’s high adventure! The fourth suggestion is that you’re bodyguards, which is cliché but works. For a one shot, not a whole campaign. The book at this point shrugs its shoulders and tosses out a bunch of miscellaneous ideas, including being scouts, bounty hunters, ambassadors/diplomats, spies or ronin. Not sure how that last one is supposed to gel with the assumption that every PC is a noble…


Now we get a discussion on languages and the xenophobia returns! Joy. We’re told that there are basically three languages in Rokugan, Common, High Language (for court/legal proceedings), and Kami (spirit language). The book mentions nonhuman and barbarian languages (AKA, foreign) but since we’re told the latter is rare, so the setting basically has three languages. That’s not awful design and I’m honestly shocked each clan doesn’t have their own language (though they do have their own dialects). The currency used in Rokugan is called Koku, which is bushels of rice. We’re told that the worth of a Koku fluctuates wildly, which just seems like license for Mister Cavern to tell you there was a bad harvest this year, your Koku ain’t worth shit. The book also tells us that nobles are too good for manual labor, that’s for peasants, and farmers have to give up 60% of their annual yields. I don’t have the background in history to tell you how realistic that is but given this book’s track record, I suspect it’s bullshit.


The Rokguan Campaign Setting drills into our heads that the emperor has supreme executive authority once more before moving on to talk about war. We’re told about the two books that govern how war is waged in the setting and we get a brief mention of siege warfare. The book informs us it’s slow and tedious for both sides. That doesn’t sound inaccurate. Where the stupid returns in full force is the section about surrender. This is considered dishonorable for nobles, so I guess everyone in Rokugan fights to the death. Now the authors say that Shugenja actively participate in war and I honestly think they have no fucking clue what the class is actually capable of. Apparently, Shugenja are allowed to honorably surrender, because they serve the kami or some shit. Whatever. It’s also perfectly honorable for nobles to hold each other’s families hostage but kidnapping is dishonorable. Whatever.


The next section is on dueling and this apparently the go to method of rectifying a dispute between Samurai. You can’t challenge a higher rank Samurai to a duel, you’re just supposed to suck their cock honorably accept their insults. Apparently Shugenja have magic duels instead of swordfights and Courtiers are supposed to engage of battle of wits. But you’ll be labeled a pussy if you challenge someone to a flower arranging contest, which seems exceedingly unjust, IMO. In a shocking display of common sense, these duels are rarely to the death but are usually just to first blood. Then the tell you the reason for this is because a Samurai’s life belongs to their lord. Sigh…


We get a more detailed discussion of siege engines and a couple paragraphs about fortifications. We actually get some crunch here and once again the authors display their ignorance of d20. The Kikkosha (turtle wagon) gives everyone underneath it +25 AC against ranged attacks. That’s… not how you’d handle that kind of thing in D&D 3.X. I’d just say they get total cover and be done with it. Then when they describe the Kurma Date (giant shields on wheels), I find out the authors do understand the cover rules. Archers get ¾ cover when using the damn thing but “troops employing it” get a +15 AC VS ranged attacks. What the actual fuck? If they know how the cover rules work, why not just use those instead?!


The next section is about magic in society, in which once again, the Shugenja are the only magic class acknowledged to exist. We’re told that all magic in Rokugan is holy (or unholy, in the case of Maho) and:

Magic itself is the providence of the samurai caste, a proof that the blessing of the Sun and Moon are upon their children – the people of the clans.

Even though anyone can be born a Sorcerer. Is the implication that they execute/arrest anyone using magic who’s not a noble? It wouldn’t fucking surprise me.

But the stupid keeps on coming as the next subheading covers magic and law. Magic doesn’t count as testimony in a legal context, because one time a Shugenja used magic to prove some dick killed someone and they were wrong. This is just fucking lazy world building and comes off as a clumsy attempt to keep the players from using magic to trivially solve the Whodunit of the week. Of course, by this logic, testimony shouldn’t be admissible in court either, but that would require actual thought.

Maho is mentioned in two paragraphs that just harp on about how evil it is and then the book tells us that Shugenja who “abuse” their power will “find that the kami are silent when he most needs their aid.” Again, “abuse” is never defined, this is just license for the DM to fuck with you. Magic apparently also can’t “tamper with the destiny of a mortal” (whatever the fuck that means), manipulate the greater elemental forces (the examples given are the tides, stars and moon) and magic can’t resurrect the dead. So, I guess the sidebar in the magic section telling us that removing resurrection magic was a variant was a fucking lie. But if you suck Mister Cavern’s dick just right, the kami might let you do shit that’s otherwise impossible to achieve with magic.

We finally get an explanation of how taint works and as I said earlier, it differs from any other taint system in D&D 3.X. Taint is represented by points and having a certain number of points gives you a modifier. Gaining enough taint points gives you a symptom. You can use your taint modifier for STR/DEX/CON skill checks, but you always apply your taint mod as a penalty to your CHA. The broad strokes of this system aren’t awful, but the implementation is ass. Galivanting about in the Shadowlands without jade prompts one FORT save a day (DC 10) or you gain a point of taint. The DC goes up by +5 for each successive day you spend there.

Where this shit becomes problematic, is any injures received in the Shadowlands or by Shadowland creatures can cause the victim to be tainted, as well as injures sustained from obsidian weapons. Most of this shit has no mechanics! How long does jade protect you? Never specified. How much taint do you acquire from being injured while in the Shadowlands/by obsidian/from Shadowland monsters? Who fucking knows! We thankfully do get rules for how Maho spreads taint, any Maho spell that doesn’t explicitly give the target taint prompts a FORT save or the victim gains a number of taint points equal to the spell level. We get a list of symptoms of taint, which are mostly just gross mutations or violent insanity. Of fucking course there’s no cure for this shit, at best you can stave off the symptoms with a special tea made from rare herbs. How rare? Fuck you, you don’t get to know!


That chapter took forever. We’re covering geography next, and counterintuitively, this is where most of the NPC statblocks are.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

How much of 3.5 would've been better if the people shitting out all these splatbooks actually talked with one another so they didn't keep rewriting the same fucking mechanics over and over? I feel like it wouldn't be insignificant...

[Prak]

My two main objections to this are:

1. Rokugan is a fantasy setting, historical accuracy doesn't matter in a world with Kitsune and dragons.

2. The xenophobia and classism are terrible for a RPG setting.

Eh, fair to some extent, but, as I understand it, the selling point of L5R is "It's Feudal Japan! With all that mythical stuff! And some other vaguely appropriate stuff we just made up! (But it's not literally Japan, so we can trademark shit)," so I think that if it didn't include at least nods to Feudal Era realities then the presumed weeaboo demographic would cry foul.

And now I'm just remembering Champions of Kamigawa, a Magic block set in Fantasy Japan Plane with a heavy emphasis on Feudal Japan and Japanese mythology-appropriate stuff, and how it markedly underperformed. Apparently this is attributed to mechanics, but I genuinely believe that it's because the player base was a bunch of mid-00s weebs who wanted Anime Magic! and got Quasi-Authentic Japanese Lore Magic. As someone who's way more into actual mythology than "Anime" (as a generalized thing), I deeply mourn the fact that Magic's never going back to Kamigawa.

But, yeah, it probably should be toned down a lot, at least for D&D L5R, which is presumably trying to appeal to D&D players who happen to be interested in "Japanese Stuff," rather than wannabe Edo historians, and where people are more accustomed to, at worst, strained pleasantries between PCs of rival groups. But then, also I think we're giving too much credence to a setting write up when dwarves, elves and orcs all supposedly hate each other in Standard D&D but a group with an Elf, Dwarf and (Half-)Orc isn't particularly uncommon, and mostly the racial tensions are reflected by little more low level racism and some racist barbs between the characters.

The stupidest section here claims it’s customary to refuse a gift twice before accepting it. I’m going to guess this has no actual historical basis…

It's customary in business settings, so I imagine it was likely a present custom in formal settings of past eras.

The currency used in Rokugan is called Koku, which is bushels of rice. We’re told that the worth of a Koku fluctuates wildly, which just seems like license for Mister Cavern to tell you there was a bad harvest this year, your Koku ain’t worth shit. The book also tells us that nobles are too good for manual labor, that’s for peasants, and farmers have to give up 60% of their annual yields. I don’t have the background in history to tell you how realistic that is but given this book’s track record, I suspect it’s bullshit.

The koku is a historical japanese volumetric measure, essentially equivalent to sufficient rice to feed a person for a year, so, logically, the value or buying power of a koku would fluctuate, to some extent with the harvest. If there's a drought or a bad harvest, your samurai's koku would be super valuable, as it's literal food that is scarce at that moment, while if there's been a particularly good harvest, it would buy you less, because there's plenty of food. That said, I don't think characters are literally carrying around sacks of rice, and in actual history, samurai received stipends of koku, but commonly received at least some of that stipend in the form of gold ryo, each one equivalent to 1 koku. Another reason to assume the PCs are nobles, I guess.

With the yearly wars between clans, I could see something where the clans are constantly jockeying for dominance in the imperial courts, and the Emperor allows this because it means constant training of soldiers, a certain darwinian mechanic where the weaker soldiers are weeded out, and is an excuse for not only the emperors armies, the clans, to be on constant war footing, but also for the emperor to not pay for it out of the imperial coffers. If the wars are more performative than actual "we're gonna kill all those fuckers and take their women!" then it could work out. Even the idea that surrender is dishonorable and holding families hostage is legit but kidnapping is dishonorable... I feel like it's a pretty accurate reflection of societal constructs of honor. It's probably best to think of the clan wars as dueling on a grand scale. And...

In a shocking display of common sense, these duels are rarely to the death but are usually just to first blood. Then the tell you the reason for this is because a Samurai’s life belongs to their lord. Sigh…

I mean, yeah. That's how things worked in Feudal Japan. And even if Rokugan isn't historical Edo Japan, it's trying to reflect that culture, similarly to how D&D wants to reflect Medieval Europe, except, y'know, it actually does it.

But if you suck Mister Cavern’s dick just right, the kami might let you do shit that’s otherwise impossible to achieve with magic.

Man, I need to play some L5R. I mean, I'm really good at sucking dick...


I think L5R presents an interesting game concept, it might be really interesting to play in Rokugon with a group that bought into the culture and was prepared to grapple with it. But I do think the big take away from this review is that D&D is definitely not a good system to put it in. D20 may work, but tying it to D&D in any real way just leaves people entering with too many D&D assumptions that don't work in Rokugon.

[ColorBlindNinja61]

My two main objections to this are:

1. Rokugan is a fantasy setting, historical accuracy doesn't matter in a world with Kitsune and dragons.

2. The xenophobia and classism are terrible for a RPG setting.

Eh, fair to some extent, but, as I understand it, the selling point of L5R is "It's Feudal Japan! With all that mythical stuff! And some other vaguely appropriate stuff we just made up! (But it's not literally Japan, so we can trademark shit)," so I think that if it didn't include at least nods to Feudal Era realities then the presumed weeaboo demographic would cry foul.

My impression (which I freely admit may be wrong), is that the L5R crowd largely are trying to have their cake and eat it. They want to be able to point at actual history and say, "See! This is why Rokugan is all xenophobic and classist!", but at the same time, the setting is ahistorical in other areas.

But, yeah, it probably should be toned down a lot, at least for D&D L5R, which is presumably trying to appeal to D&D players who happen to be interested in "Japanese Stuff," rather than wannabe Edo historians, and where people are more accustomed to, at worst, strained pleasantries between PCs of rival groups. But then, also I think we're giving too much credence to a setting write up when dwarves, elves and orcs all supposedly hate each other in Standard D&D but a group with an Elf, Dwarf and (Half-)Orc isn't particularly uncommon, and mostly the racial tensions are reflected by little more low level racism and some racist barbs between the characters.

Like I said, I maintain the xenobophia is harmful for the game as a RPG setting.

The stupidest section here claims it’s customary to refuse a gift twice before accepting it. I’m going to guess this has no actual historical basis…

It's customary in business settings, so I imagine it was likely a present custom in formal settings of past eras.

Fair enough, I'm hardly a historian.

The currency used in Rokugan is called Koku, which is bushels of rice. We’re told that the worth of a Koku fluctuates wildly, which just seems like license for Mister Cavern to tell you there was a bad harvest this year, your Koku ain’t worth shit. The book also tells us that nobles are too good for manual labor, that’s for peasants, and farmers have to give up 60% of their annual yields. I don’t have the background in history to tell you how realistic that is but given this book’s track record, I suspect it’s bullshit.

The koku is a historical japanese volumetric measure, essentially equivalent to sufficient rice to feed a person for a year, so, logically, the value or buying power of a koku would fluctuate, to some extent with the harvest. If there's a drought or a bad harvest, your samurai's koku would be super valuable, as it's literal food that is scarce at that moment, while if there's been a particularly good harvest, it would buy you less, because there's plenty of food. That said, I don't think characters are literally carrying around sacks of rice, and in actual history, samurai received stipends of koku, but commonly received at least some of that stipend in the form of gold ryo, each one equivalent to 1 koku. Another reason to assume the PCs are nobles, I guess.

I do apologize for my lack of clarity, it was the part about farmers giving up 60% of their annual crop yields I was expressing skepticism of.

With the yearly wars between clans, I could see something where the clans are constantly jockeying for dominance in the imperial courts, and the Emperor allows this because it means constant training of soldiers, a certain darwinian mechanic where the weaker soldiers are weeded out, and is an excuse for not only the emperors armies, the clans, to be on constant war footing, but also for the emperor to not pay for it out of the imperial coffers. If the wars are more performative than actual "we're gonna kill all those fuckers and take their women!" then it could work out.

My knowledge of the setting is sketchy, but I recall all this fighting leaving the empire vulnerable to the evil Shadowlands Oni, who invaded at one point.

Even the idea that surrender is dishonorable and holding families hostage is legit but kidnapping is dishonorable... I feel like it's a pretty accurate reflection of societal constructs of honor. It's probably best to think of the clan wars as dueling on a grand scale.

That's fair, but I think the clans constantly fighting each other is bad for party cohesion.

And...

In a shocking display of common sense, these duels are rarely to the death but are usually just to first blood. Then the tell you the reason for this is because a Samurai’s life belongs to their lord. Sigh…

I mean, yeah. That's how things worked in Feudal Japan. And even if Rokugan isn't historical Edo Japan, it's trying to reflect that culture, similarly to how D&D wants to reflect Medieval Europe, except, y'know, it actually does it.

TBH, I think that D&D's tendency to play fast and loose with its adherence to actual medieval history is largely for the best.

But if you suck Mister Cavern’s dick just right, the kami might let you do shit that’s otherwise impossible to achieve with magic.

Man, I need to play some L5R. I mean, I'm really good at sucking dick...

I think L5R presents an interesting game concept, it might be really interesting to play in Rokugon with a group that bought into the culture and was prepared to grapple with it.

For sure and this is partly why I'm so frustrated with this book. I like the idea of L5R, it's just the actual setting is radioactive cancer.

But I do think the big take away from this review is that D&D is definitely not a good system to put it in. D20 may work, but tying it to D&D in any real way just leaves people entering with too many D&D assumptions that don't work in Rokugon.

I feel like Rokugan might be improved if it borrowed a little more from D&D. But as the setting is presented? I agree 100%.

[JigokuBosatsu]

Magic doesn’t count as testimony in a legal context, because one time a Shugenja used magic to prove some dick killed someone and they were wrong.

I'd like to believe this is a sly reference to Rashomon.

[OgreBattle]

Ive talked to people who were decision makers on it (met them at a talk) and it was not intended to be a 'more authentic than anime made by Japanese for Japanese audiences', they like anime and wanted to do anime projects with Japanese studios (MtG in general not Kamigawa specific)

It sounds like mechanics was the main reasoon, though my own opinion is they didnt have enough ninja or sexy fox girls or tengu swordsmen or bishonen samurai. The lack of fire toad ninjas especially at a time Naruto was best selling comic in USA, I'll do a new thread on "what fork users really want with oriental fantasy"

[ColorBlindNinja61]

Ive talked to people who were decision makers on it (met them at a talk) and it was not intended to be a 'more authentic than anime made by Japanese for Japanese audiences', they like anime and wanted to do anime projects with Japanese studios (MtG in general not Kamigawa specific)

That is interesting. That would lead me to believe the xenophobia and classism present in the setting is more the result of grimderp, than anything.

[Prak]

'more authentic than anime made by Japanese for Japanese audiences'

Sorry, I didn't mean that I supposed Rokugan was "more authentic than anime," just that I suppose it's more focused on reflecting Feudal Japan than anime tropes.

[Orca]

On the 60% tax thing; in Europe for a long period of time (classical Rome - Black Death, roughly) a certain part of the population owed half their production to their liege lord or owner, for that part of the time which they spent working on the lord/owners' land. Usually they would own some land as well and pay something like 1/11 or 1/17 of their production off that to their lord.

If someone was paying 60% of everything then they were an unusually oppressed slave. The sort of person who almost everyone would look down on and say "Thank God I'm not them" about.

Feudal Japan may have been different, I dunno.

[Prak]

I checked, and, according to us-japan.org, a 50-60% tax of a farmer's total rice crop yield is apparently historically accurate. That said, I don't know what the overall circumstances were.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Were the circumstances "fuck them peasants, make us rice"?