Quote:
Originally Posted by Pragmatic
I'm a yin/yang Dragon and Phoenix fan. So how could I resist when I heard that Legend of the Five Rings had Clans Dragon and Phoenix?
I haven't seen any of the original systems' writeups of the iconic classes (Dragon two-sword, Dragon tattooed monk, Phoenix void shujenga, and to go a bit beyond, Crane quick-draw master, Crane courtier, Lion war leader, Unicorn horseman, Mantis bowman...).
I've seen some of these started up in D&D 3.XE, but as is usual for D&D (and this is not a criticism, D&D is fine for its genre, but I happen to like GURPS), there's not much detail on styles.
Looking at Martial Arts, are there styles for a Dragon two-sword master, a Phoenix void sense sword master (which, as far as I can tell, is an action without thinking style, but I very well could be mistaken), a Crane Iaijutsu (quick draw master), a Dragon tattooed monk (which probably probably include chi and Powers-based tattoos)? I know even less about the Unicorn horseman and the Mantis bowman, and almost nothing about the other great clans and small clans.
As for the Phoenix void shujenga (and the other four elements masters), I'm not sure how they'd work with Magic, Sorcery, or Chinese (whatever it's called) spells. I only have only the vaguest of ideas what spells they have in 3E (I take concepts from 3E, not direct conversions...). Nor am I sure what other clan shujenga do to specialize.
To make a long story stay exceedingly verbose, does anyone have resources on conversions to GURPS, fleshing out the various styles?
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Note that all of those core classes were in d20 Rokugan... but most L5R fans will, as I am doing now, tell you to completely ignore the D&D mechanical content as totally worthless drekh.
If you're going to play Rokugan as a setting, 5th ed has reset the setting, dropping most of the power creep. Conversion to GURPS, however.... no edition is a simple solution.
If you're looking for a real L5R ruleset, 3rd is the crunchiest, 4th is more streamlined but has the most setting WTF moments. 5th has custom dice, and is, IMO, the best, with 3rd close after....
2nd has a lot more options, but broke the basic mechanics, and 1st is a little more swingy than all the others.
Oh, and all the references to the various OA species? They're not part of canonical Rokugan; the only playable non-humans are Nezumi (Rat-men) and Naga (Snake-"centaurs"). Hengeyokai do exist, but not as playables, ibid. Kenku.
As for GURPS conversions...
Use G:Japan and G: Martial Arts.
Crane Kakita are single-sword iaijutsu/iaidô
Dragon Mirumoto are two-sword, musashi-based.
Each edition has a different level of magical abilities other than the invocations used by Shugenja, which are fairly consistent across editions.