[L5R] How we run a samurai drama

How Legend of the Five Rings 5e triumphs at running social drama

Legend of the Five Rings 5e is perhaps the best system for running and playing social drama that I've encountered so far. The rules have a lot of thought put into them even if they suffer from the usual problems when treading new territory.
 

The core book's greatest problem is that it isn't very good at conveying how its rules are best played. This means most new groups end up using the basic rules and ignoring many of the interesting minutiae hidden in skill descriptions and implied in conflict rules.

(And playing like this is completely fine! Our group has been happily using the Skills' and Rings' base descriptions for years, improvising the rest. It's only recently me and one other player have been deep-reading the rules and delving into the potential this game has.)

In this post (or series of posts) I'll do my best to share insight and advice on how to run interesting samurai drama from our groups four year campaign.


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How to use and not to use Shuji: spreading rumours and other social shenanigans

I was running a social intrigue when one of my players asked if his character deliver a hidden message. I did what I usually do: told him a test difficulty according to what felt right when another player asked: "Why can he deliver a message with an action roll when I've bought a Shuji to be able to do it?"

In the moment, had a quick discussion, made a ruling that felt fair to everyone and moved on. But this encouraged me to later read the rules with greater focus:

Our issue is part of a greater problem in TTRPG system complexity:

 

If the game has a separate ability for doing X, can anyone attempt it without buying it?

L5R 5e actually has solved this, though the book doesn't really tell you that: reading through the Core Rulebook's Shuji section, I discovered that many, perhaps even most important, social techniques don't give new actions but new uses for Opportunities. They give latitude to Courtiers, so they can achieve more with one action roll.

Take our group's favourite Shuji, Cadence (the ability to send hidden messages): during an Intrigue or other Social scene I'd rule that any samurai can make a Scheme action to attempt sending a hidden message with Air+Courtesy/Performance (or other applicable skill).

With Cadence, however, you can send a hidden message while you're addressing the court on some other issue. With the right Shuji and enought Opportunities you can send a hidden message, spread a rumour* and speak for your cause, all in one action.

Without the right Shuji, achieving all of this might take three actions over three turns.

*In my first draft I referred to the Shuji Whispers of the Court. Now I checked the actual text and this Shuji actually creates an action instead of giving Opportunity uses to other actions. Oh well.

 

What about Kata?

Kata, or Combat Techniques, have more of these "Buy this Technique to create a new action" compared to the social side. At the first glance, this seems like a problem or an oversight, (no matter what system and what game you are running, eventually there's a combat situation where a player asks "How do I grapple?") but here I believe the answer lies in the fiction, or the Rokugani culture:

The Rokugani society is very traditional with many lessons and techniques harkening back to the time of the Kami. (Fields of Victory supplement writes that the Akodo Military School's curriculum is very close to how Akodo One-Eye originally taught his warriors).

This means the style of "free for all, all tricks allowed" fighting is almost unheard of and frowned upon among the samurai.

Touching someone is seen as intimate or distasteful, so to answer my players question about grappling: no, the samurai aren't taught to grapple. Not unless they've been taught the Badger clan's Sumai techniques.

(How does one restrain a combatant then? Challenge them into a duel. Or use a jitte.)

Optional rule: Improvised technique

Many players like being inventive and many player character samurai have more unorthodox ways of thinking compared to their peers.

If a character's player wants to attempt something the GM feels might or should be a technique, the character can improvise:

Spend a Void Point and tell the GM what you want to achieve. The GM tells the player which Skill and Ring to use and decides on a TN. The base TN should generally be at least 1 point higher than the standard Strike.

If the PC is a Lion, Crane or Phoenix, they might suffer a Trivial breach of Honor for not trusting the teachings of their ancestors.