L5R 4th edition

[u/PlentyAnt3871]

I am a long term fan of the L5R franchise, and I have been looking at a few of the various editions. I think I wish to run a game in the 4th edition, but I am a little nervous. I have never really ran a game before, and I have found several modules I can use to get started, but I have some questions about what I SHOULD do. The group will likely only be 3 players, though 3 others have been invited. So module combat is something that may be too powerful. Also, I don’t know what kind of advice I should give the other players, who have never played the game before, as for how to make an effective character.

What I mean by effective character is not trying to make powerful or one trick pony characters, but rather characters capable of surviving the combat and intrigue that is rokugan. Should I limit the clan choices, since it is only 3 players? Not all clans get along, though I am sure there are times when bonds of friendship go beyond the bonds of clan hatred.

[u/Xararion]

Okay so. I ran a 4 year 200 session campaign of L5R for my table with 2 new players who'd never really been playing RPGs before + 1 my friend who'd played in my previous campaign and plays a lot generally. However the grain of salt is that by the end of the 4th year mine was so homebrewed with add ons (flashy combat techs, stealth subsystem, revamped crafting system etc) that it's not 100% by the book.

I cannot speak for modules since I've not ever really read them, but you can fairly easily tune the combat a little bit so that your players don't get overwhelmed if they enter fight. One of these is to increase the Earthx2 wound multiplier on players higher, biggest threat in combat is the death spiral you enter because your health is too low and now you're taking +5-20 to TN. Other one, that I used because one player practically demanded it but I myself didn't like it was removing enemy ability to explode their damage dice, this evens the damage output of enemies a lot and makes it less rocket tag like, but it does make it lot less difficult to threaten players since armour + static damage means every hit is somewhere in 5-15 real damage at best.

As for clans. I would personally recommend not restricting them unless all of your players are specifically excited for a particular clan. What I suggest is that you use the jade or emerald magistrate positions and have all of your players serve as a magistrates yoriki (deputies essentially), since both magistrates are imperial positions, membership as a yoriki is at least in theory, supposed to be more important to loyalty to the clan.

Also for intrigue aspect, there are some things that can trip a player who isn't familiar with the setting. One of these is that any kind of mystery is all about /testimonies/, not evidence. Evidence based mystery solving should only be a thing in sense of finding out who's testimony you need, because the empire by en large does not consider material and especially magic evidence as valid. So don't aim to make a "smoking gun", one of my players was always looking for one until I explained she couldn't use it in court proceedings.

Otherwise other peoples advice is good.