OK, I have now had enough time to give a fairly detailed review of the new L5R 4th Edition. I will be doing this by section, mostly to organize my own thoughts
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Now the idea in 3/3R was that the ronin "schools" weren't actually schools so much as instinctive ways of fighting or self-created techniques. It's a nice idea, but I never liked the idea that everyone's self-created techniques were the same.* The problem is, there's already a mechanic to do that in l5r: don't take a school at all. Just invest in your skills and traits. Isn't that what being self-taught would really do?
The Monkey generally number just a few dozen samurai at any given time. I have no idea how they can afford a bushi school** but they certainly can't afford a bushi school and a shugenja school and a courtier school. What happens if a Monkey wants to be a shugenja? You go out of clan to receive your training: Proud but sad father: My daughter, your mother and I care for you greatly but you walk a path we have never followed, one we can never follow. You must journey to our allies among the Scorpion. Their lady, Bayushi Miyako, was once of the Toku. Give this letter to her and she will take you to the Soshi who will instruct you in the use of your gifts. This will be a difficult path and I suspect age will claim me before you return, but when you return it will be with knowledge no Monkey has ever known and a strength we have never wielded.
Fuzake Daughter: I will, father. I will make you proud of me.
Family: Toku School: Soshi Recommended Advantages/Disadvantages: Different School, Obligation (Scorpion) 4 pts., Ally (Bayushi Miyako, Inf 4, Dev 1) 5, Lost Love (Father)
What if his son wants to be a courtier? You could do something similar or he could not take as School at all. Father: No son of mine is going to wind up as some tofu-eating geisha boy! You will go to our clan's school and you will learn to fight, not to be some foppish twit preening for a Crane lord's pleasure!
Son: I won't, father! I understand how people work, I've studied politics. I... I defy, you, father.
Father: Get. Out. You're on your own now, boy.
Family: Toku School: None (ask if the GM will let you get bonus points for no school, ala 3rd) Recommended Advantages/Disadvantages: Great Potential (Courtier), Black Sheep, Lost Love (Father)
Isn't that more interesting than just some generic school? Which story would you rather tell?
* One thing they did get right was the power level: none of the schools was on par with a Clan School, great or minor, intended to accomplish the same thing. Credit where credit is due.
** Hobart actually pushed to return minor clans to 3-rank schools for just this reason.
I agree with all your points about why and how a school is formed, but my argument was more centered around the game mechanics angle. Yes, the game is about the history of rokugan, but it is also about playability. And I agree that many minor clans will send shugenja or courtiers to other clans when they need to be trained. My problem was actually the fact that some minor clans ONLY have shugenja schools. I find it hard to believe that there are no Dragonfly bushi at all, or that all of them have no school ranks.
The clans that don't have bushi schools no doubt still have a few bushi* but I can absolutely believe that most don't have school ranks. The clans simply don't have the resources to support a school.
In case of many of the clans with only shugenja (Bat, Dragonfly, Snake) or courtier (Tortoise) schools, they almost always have some ties to other clans that would provide training. One of the books, for example (please don't ask my which one. I don't want to do the research) is very clear that part of the agreement when the Dragonfly were founded was that they couldn't form a bushi school, so as to prevent them from appearing to be a threat. As such, the Dragon agreed to provide training to any aspiring Dragonfly bushi who wanted it, and in turn the Dragonfly would serve as gatekeepers to the Dragon lands. Likewise the Yoritomo often train yojimbo for the Bat.
What would be interesting - and this is something I considered for CoR - would be providing a discount for Minor Clan samurai to purchase Different School for a specific clan. But beyond that, I have no problem with the rules putting minor clans at a disadvantage. After all, that's part of the point of playing a minor clan member.
* How many is a matter of debate as L5R has always been very vague about the size of the minor clans. Some, like the Badger, have only two dozen people at any given time, while others like the Hare are large enough to support two distinct families (though the Ujina are often depicted as being on the two-dozen side).
The Monkey generally number just a few dozen samurai at any given time. I have no idea how they can afford a bushi school** but they certainly can't afford a bushi school and a shugenja school and a courtier school. What happens if a Monkey wants to be a shugenja? You go out of clan to receive your training:
Proud but sad father: My daughter, your mother and I care for you greatly but you walk a path we have never followed, one we can never follow. You must journey to our allies among the Scorpion. Their lady, Bayushi Miyako, was once of the Toku. Give this letter to her and she will take you to the Soshi who will instruct you in the use of your gifts. This will be a difficult path and I suspect age will claim me before you return, but when you return it will be with knowledge no Monkey has ever known and a strength we have never wielded.
Fuzake Daughter: I will, father. I will make you proud of me.
Family: Toku
School: Soshi
Recommended Advantages/Disadvantages: Different School, Obligation (Scorpion) 4 pts., Ally (Bayushi Miyako, Inf 4, Dev 1) 5, Lost Love (Father)
What if his son wants to be a courtier? You could do something similar or he could not take as School at all.
Father: No son of mine is going to wind up as some tofu-eating geisha boy! You will go to our clan's school and you will learn to fight, not to be some foppish twit preening for a Crane lord's pleasure!
Son: I won't, father! I understand how people work, I've studied politics. I... I defy, you, father.
Father: Get. Out. You're on your own now, boy.
Family: Toku
School: None (ask if the GM will let you get bonus points for no school, ala 3rd)
Recommended Advantages/Disadvantages: Great Potential (Courtier), Black Sheep, Lost Love (Father)
Isn't that more interesting than just some generic school? Which story would you rather tell?
* One thing they did get right was the power level: none of the schools was on par with a Clan School, great or minor, intended to accomplish the same thing. Credit where credit is due.
** Hobart actually pushed to return minor clans to 3-rank schools for just this reason.
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In case of many of the clans with only shugenja (Bat, Dragonfly, Snake) or courtier (Tortoise) schools, they almost always have some ties to other clans that would provide training. One of the books, for example (please don't ask my which one. I don't want to do the research) is very clear that part of the agreement when the Dragonfly were founded was that they couldn't form a bushi school, so as to prevent them from appearing to be a threat. As such, the Dragon agreed to provide training to any aspiring Dragonfly bushi who wanted it, and in turn the Dragonfly would serve as gatekeepers to the Dragon lands. Likewise the Yoritomo often train yojimbo for the Bat.
What would be interesting - and this is something I considered for CoR - would be providing a discount for Minor Clan samurai to purchase Different School for a specific clan. But beyond that, I have no problem with the rules putting minor clans at a disadvantage. After all, that's part of the point of playing a minor clan member.
* How many is a matter of debate as L5R has always been very vague about the size of the minor clans. Some, like the Badger, have only two dozen people at any given time, while others like the Hare are large enough to support two distinct families (though the Ujina are often depicted as being on the two-dozen side).
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