Earlier this week I ran the first session in what will hopefully become a short (25-ish session) campaign using Legend of the 5 Rings (L5R) 4th Edition. I actually ran this same campaign before for an online group around the same time as my Icewind Dale game, also as an introduction to the setting and system. I didn't effectively document either campaign, so I hope to make it up with this one. Strap your swords to your belt, and get ready to enter Rokugan!
Characters
Bayushi Nori, Scorpion clan courtier
Suzume Minori, Sparrow clan warrior
Tsuruchi Kenzo, Wasp clan archer
Kitsuki Ayumi, Dragon clan investigator
Hiruma Saya, Crab clan scout
Shiba Imori, Phoenix clan warrior
The Session
After finishing up their character sheets and getting introduced to one another outside of the game, the party got their first taste of Rokugan. It's the late spring of 1113, the tenth year of the reign of Emperor Hantei XXXVIII, and the characters, who were all unlikely candidates to become Emerald Magistrates (think samurai FBI) receive letters of acceptance. They will be assigned as trial magistrates under the watch of newly minted magistrate Akodo Torokai, a very high-status and orthodox cleric of the Lion clan. They will serve under him for a year, and at the end if they have his approval, they will become full members of the Imperial bureaucracy.
They meet him in his estate outside the Imperial City, and discover they've all been chosen as part of Torokai's pet project to expand the Emerald Magistrates outside their usual strict conformity by injecting some unusual candidates into the mix. As a result of politicking against him, however, the group has not been assigned a mission, so if they want to gain glory and achieve high status, they'll have to go looking for trouble. After he is pulled away for a moment, his wife, Akodo Tomoko, threatens them all with gruesome death if her husband doesn't come home, and instructs them in how to properly serve him.
They depart the Imperial heartlands and head west toward Lion territory. Along the way, they run into a group of monks on the road. They are fleeing the looting of the nearby Half-Moon Village, where bandits have taken the head priest hostage. The party deliberates and settles on a plan. Hiruma Saya disguises herself as a monk with Shiba Imori, Suzume Minori and Kitsuki Ayumi 'escorting' her in the direction of the village while the archers lie in wait. when they run into a handful of bandits guarding the entrance to the walled village, they drop their disguise and demand the surrender of the bandits.
Battle breaks out, with Saya taking injuries, but the archers' support and the intimidation factor of well-armed samurai allows the group to kill two and take one hostage while one escapes and raises the alarm. The remaining bandits scatter with what little loot they could take, but the party finds the shrine still occupied. Within, the bandit captain is interrogating a young priest while the elder priest lies dead on the floor.
The party launches an ambush and manages to incapacitate the second-in-command, but only lightly injures the captain, who attacks the restrained priest while muttering a strange spell. He is slain in short order, and the party is even relieved to see the elder priest rise... until they realize he has been animated as a zombie.
Only half the party manage to keep their wits about them, the rest trembling in fear of the undead creature before them. Nevertheless they are able to dispatch it with some difficulty.
Investigation and interrogation, as well as consultation with nearby Jade Magistrates (the party's opposite number focused on spiritual threats to the empire) confirm the use of blood magic, and find the bandit's true goal: a cache of blood magic scrolls, hidden in the foundation of the shrine over twenty years ago, which are promptly burned.
With this inauspicious beginning past them, the party continue on their way. Their first stop is the Castle of Vigilance (Shiro no Yojin) of the Lion clan's Matsu family. This fortress is the Lion's greatest stronghold on their southern border with the Crane clan. At the moment, however, it is nearly empty as its lady, Matsu Megumi, and her army are at war with the Crane clan and have pushed the border fifty miles south. The Lion are allied with the Crab and Scorpion clans, while the Crane have allied with the Unicorn and Mantis minor clan which controls the seas. The Dragon and Phoenix clans remain neutral.
The acting lord of the castle is her husband, Matsu Hiro, who happens to be Torokai's cousin. He also intends to visit the castle diviner, his friend and mentor Kitsu Rin. The party arrives and is treated to a luxurious bath and welcome, and soon meet other samurai staying in the castle as guests. These include Doji Mai, a Crane clan courtier taken hostage by the Lion, Yogo Akira, a Scorpion clan courtier on his way to a wedding, Mirumoto Nobara, a Dragon clan duelist traveling around to refine her skills, Isawa Kato, a Phoenix clan cleric also here to see Kitsu Rin, and Yasuki Arinori, a Crab clan merchant here to discuss supply logistics and trade.
This group is dickering over a trinket; a hair ornament shaped like a dragon's head carved from a single piece of blue jade. They finally decide to dice over it, and Shiba Imori and Tsuruchi Kenzo also join in, though ultimately it goes to the Yogo, who proposed the game of chance in the first place.
Akodo Torokai returns without having met Kitsu Rin, who is in isolated retreat. Instead they are all treated to a dinner with the castle lord. At the end of that meal, when no servants remain in the hall, Matsu Hiro confides in them: Kitsu Rin has been missing for a week and is presumed dead. His servants are acting strangely, and with several samurai from other clans present, he cannot afford to act rashly. Thus he charges the party to get to the bottom of this mystery, and the session ends.
Takeaways
If you're interested in running it yourself or introducing this system to your group, I link here the primer I made for my players.
The players haven't yet adjusted to the notion that they aren't playing outcast drifters a la D&D, but instead magistrates with a great deal of status. This is something to instill in them over time.
Counting up dice rolls in this system definitely takes longer than in systems without dice pools, but I expect this will be remedied over time as the players grow more fluent with counting up dice. I tend to roll my dice in a cup, and next session I'll make sure everyone has their own dice cup. I'll probably also print out a cheat sheet for stances and actions, as the combat this session was slowed down with people not being sure which actions to take. Movement was, oddly enough, an issue that kept popping up, with players feeling they couldn't do anything because they couldn't get close enough to the enemy.
And as a payoff for the title pun, my song of the week: Archenemy's Sunset Over The Empire
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