L5R RPG - Rules Runs - Part III Shugenja's and teamwork

This will be the final (for now) article on the RPG combat rules. In this run through we will be looking at a fight between a Phoenix Shugenja and her 'escort' a Crab Scout who have been hunting a tainted Troll inside Rokugan.

Characters

First up we have our valiant Shugenja - Isawa Kikue. She has always been quiet and reserved but with a deep thirst for learning. Her rings are very strong in void and earth (her preferred speciality) with three in each. She has a reasonable air of two and all her other rings are all at one. At this point in the scenario she has two void points stored up. Her endurance is a reasonable 8 and composure is also 8. She has a weak focus of 3 (probably due to her being half in and half out of the real world) and an even worse vigilance of 1.

As a Shugenja she has access to several useful Invocations.

First up she has prepared and can use 'Grasp of Earth'. This is a TN2 Earth attack action Theology check that targets one target within 0-2 range bands. If successful the earth cracks and the target suffers supernatural damage equal to the Shugenja's earth ring and that target must resist the attack (TN4 fitness air 2 water 5) to avoid being knocked prone.

Next 'Path to Inner Peace' which requires a TN2 Water support theology check targeting someone with success removing fatigue equal to her Water Ring + bonus successes. (Opportunity can also be used to remove bleeding, dazed, disorientated or lightly wounded conditions or strife).

Finally, she has learnt 'Tempest of Air' which is a TN3 Air attack action targeting everyone at range band 2-3. If Successful all in range receive air damage equal to the air ring and must resist with a TN4 fitness (earth 5, fire 2) or be disoriented. (Opportunity can be spent to potentially not affect friends with this area effect spell)

She also has some downtime rituals not relevant to this action. 

Her school ability is  'One with the Elements' allows her to reduce the TN of any invocation checks by her school rank once per scene.

She carries a staff and a Wakizashi. She also has the scroll she prepared to allow her to use 'Grasp of Earth' without rolling and has several small pouches with useful offerings. She also carries tied around her wrist a decorative band of hair, taken from her beloved Grandmother when she died, as a good luck charm. Clothes wise she is wearing resistance two travelling clothes.

Not travelling clothes

Next we have our Crab Scout - Hiruma Yoshiaki, he has a decent air ring and earth at three, water with two and low fire and void at one this gives him a ok endurance of eight , good  composure at ten, a decent focus of four and a vigilance of two. This ring set makes me picture him as very defensive focused.

His Kata's include 'Striking as Water' which reduces resistance per opportunity spent until the end of his next turn and 'Pelting Hail Style' which allows Melee Ranged check opportunity to be spent choosing other targets within ranges 0-2 who receive strife equal to the base damage of the weapon.

His school ability is Flickering Flame Skirmisher. When fighting tainted creatures of Silhouette three or more and following an attack action this increases that creatures attack TN by an amount equal to the school rank (1).

NOTE: The above is taken from the core printed rulebook. Either the pdf or an unseen errata seems to have been adjusted and now reads :

 
“Flickering Flame Skirmisher (School Ability): After performing an Attack action, you may change your stance. If you do, increase the TN of Attack checks by creatures of silhouette 3 or larger targeting you by your school rank until the start of your next turn”

For this skirmish the core rule book version is being used.

His weaponry is basic with a Daisho, Yari and Yumi and he is wearing Ashigaru armour which provides resistance three.

Their opponent is a Troll who appears to have moved through the Shadowlands to enter Rokugan.

He has an excellent fire ring of 5, great earth and water at 4, decent void at 3 and an ok air at 2. This gives him an endurance of 16, composure of 9, focus 4 and vigilance of 3.

He has a silhouette of four so is very large and 'Sorcerous Scales'; which mean that when it takes damage it's resistance to that damage is increased by four until it receives damage of a different type.. It has a scaled hide providing one resistance to both damage types and uses a massive cudgel that is cumbersome club with range 2, damage of 9! and deadliness of 5. Even without the weapon its hands are strong enough to carry out a 'Rendering Grip' at range one which does damage 4, deadliness 6.

Start

Our intrepid pairing have been tracking the worrying large tracks from close to the Kaiu Wall for several days. Well, in reality, the Hiruma has tracked and the Shugenja has attempted to get information from otherworldly means. Finally, though, they have found a Tainted Troll and can see it in the distance of range band six, probably eating a cow whole.

The conflict has not started yet so this gives the group some prep time for a potential ambush!

A Hiruma Scout doing what he does best. Not kneeling if that was the impression given.

Yoshiaki prepares his Yumi (bow) for use and plants his Yari (spear ) into the ground a little closer to the target. Kikue starts mentally communing with the Kami and preparing to use 'Tempest of Air'

Shugenja's only have the opportunity to prepare one Invocation (spell) for instant use (no dice check as that occurs during preparation). This can be used by anyone and not just the Shugenja hence a friendly Shugenja providing a healing scroll can be quite useful. Without that they have to roll for the check. There is no requirement for 'extra' time to commune with the Kami, unless deliberately channelling, so the character here is either roleplaying or simply trying, and failing, to get the GM to reduce the TN by one.

When ready Yoshiaki checks that Kikue is prepared before he moves forward to range band five , next to his spear, and shoots a 'Humming Bulb arrow' in the Trolls general direction.

Archers have access to different sorts of arrows. The 'Humming Bulb' emits a noise so is used for signalling or to attract attention. Some of the other arrow types will  soon be in use later. 

This attracts the attention of the Troll so, as the conflict has now started, the characters involved take an initiative check. Since the Troll has been 'surprised' his will be a Vigilance initiative and since our heroes are 'ready' (as ready as you can be when taking on a Shadowlands troll) they will be taking a focus initiative check.

If the players wanted to shoot 'at' the Troll then conflict would start prior to this and require an initiative roll.

Initiative

As this is a skirmish it will be a TN1 Tactics check.

Kikue keeps in air stance as she is still communing with an air Kami and does not want to 'upset it' so she will get two  black and zero white dice.

One fail so nothing is added to her focus of three for a poor three.

She is still roleplaying here as there is no need to do the initiative roll in a weaker ring, or at least nothing in the invocation rules

Yoshiaki also chooses air stance and will have three black and one white.

The opportunity cancels the strife meaning he has passed the check with one bonus success so this makes two plus his base focus of four for an initiative of six

Finally our Troll chooses water stance and gets four black and three white (tactics is a martial skill)

He also passes with the opportunity cancelling the strife and this will mean two (one for passing and one bonus success) gets added to his base vigilance of three making five.

So the initiative order will be Crab >> Troll >> Phoenix

Round One

Crab Turn

Yoshiaki goes first and he starts by selecting an armour piercing arrow which he shoots at the Troll.

Armour piercing arrows ignore two points of the target's resistance

This is a TN2 Martial Arts Ranged check. He keeps in air stance and will roll three black and one white

The range is obviously too far and he misses. 

Troll Turn

The Troll keeps in water stance and readies his club with his free water action before using his free manoeuvre action to move towards the party. He takes a TN2 Fitness check to try and move extra range bands. As this is also a martial check he will get four black and three white dice.

He is both angry and, apparently, very fast. Perhaps the first arrow reminded him of an unpleasant wasp attack he had received in his past. He not only succeeds so moves an extra range band but he also succeeds by an extra two bonus successes so he can move another range band still and moves from range band five to two in one single turn! He also has to take his first strife point. This will have been an  alarming eventuality for our two heroes who no doubt thought they would be able to do a lot of damage before he came into melee range.

Phoenix Turn

Kikue is prepared now though and offering some spices she beseeches the air Kami to cast 'Tempest of Air'

Offerings are important for Invocations. Not absolutely necessary but they do make things easier. With a valid choice of offering the Shugenja gets to re-roll up to three blank dice that might appear in their check. An inappropriate choice of offering might increase the TN instead. Most of the usual offerings can be easily collected before the adventure so this is rarely a problem.

The base TN for this is a TN3 Theology (Air) check.. Since with only two in air this would be a hard roll so she decides to use one of her void points to get a third black dice and to keep three. 

Therefore she gets three black and three white dice.

A reasonable roll but she has made an appropriate offering so can re-roll those blank dice.

Great. She succeeds. The invocation only does damage equal to the air ring so bonus successes do not count. Instead she uses the opportunity to attempt to push the troll further away (this will occur if he fails his resistance check).

So instantly a blast of air strikes into the Troll and does two points of fatigue which drops by one to one as the Troll has a supernatural resistance of 1. The Troll now has to make a resistance check and if he fails he will be disoriented but also pushed back a range band and out of combat range! The check is a TN4 fitness check so the Troll will get four black and three white dice.

He fails so is therefore pushed back to range band three and is now disoriented.

Disoriented means that any check involving movement increases its TN by 2

Kikue		Endurance	8
		Composure	8
Yoshiaki		Endurance	8
		Composure	10
Troll	Disoriented	Endurance	16	1
	Sorcerous Scales (Supernatural)	Composure	9	1

Since the Troll has taken damage his Sorcerous Scales activate and will increase his resistance by 4 - if his next damage type received is also supernatural.

Round Two

Crab Turn

Yoshiaki shoots another arrow this time using a Flesh Cutter arrow.

Flesh cutter arrows increase the arrows Deadliness by two

Again it is a TN2 Martial Arts ranged and as he is still in air stance it will be with three black and one white dice. He also uses 'Flickering Flame Skirmisher' which increases the TN of the Trolls next attack against him by one until the end of his next turn.

Good a hit. Since the Troll is in Water stance Yoshiaki uses the opportunity to cause a critical hit. He has to take three strife which nicely expresses the tension caused by this unexpectedly athletic opponent.

The base hit does damage five which is reduced by the Troll's baseline resistance of one to four

Kikue		Endurance	8
		Composure	8
Yoshiaki		Endurance	6
		Composure	8	3
Troll	Disoriented	Endurance	16	5
	Sorcerous Scales (normal)	Composure	9	1

Sorcerous Scales now activates again and IF the next damage the Troll receives is the same base type then his resistance is increased by four! Since Kikue had done supernatural damage the round before that would not impact this hit and is now replaced by a normal damage increase.

Now for the critical hit. The arrows deadliness is three which is increased by the use of the flesh cutter arrow by two to five. The Troll now gets a TN1 fitness in water stance to defend the critical with four black and three white dice.

He not only defends but defends easily. The opportunity easily cancels the strife and the deadliness drops six to zero causing a 'Close Call'. If wearing armour then the armour would gain the damaged quality. As he just has tough skin the GM decides this does nothing (the alternate approach is that it should gain the 'Damaged' quality and reduce by one as well)...

Note: if using the pdf  version of his school ability, he could also switch stance after his attack in Air stance to go to Earth, and avoid  criticals... he can do this every round too! Selecting his favourite stance when his turn begins, attacking, and then switch to Earth until his next turn. The Hiruma stance dancing is quite effective indeed!

Another Hiruma Scout. Also kneeling. Probably a co-incidence. Scouts tend to be less armoured than the Crab primary warriors as the armour interferes with their primary purpose. This Scouts primary purpose is display his bulging muscles to the world.

Troll Turn

The Troll is still disoriented and keeps in water stance to move forward one band (back to two) and then strikes with his club at the Crab Scout with four black and three white dice. The TN is a nastier five. It is base two for the attack +1TN because the club is cumbersome and he has moved prior to the attack and +1TN due to the flickering flame skirmisher bonus AND +1 as the Crab is in Air Stance.

He just misses. Even with this amount of dice a TN of 5 is a hard ask.

Phoenix Turn

Kikue now switches to Earth stance and uses her 'prepared' invocation to case 'Grasp of Earth' instantly.

Since this is ‘prepared’ she just has to essentially activate it and it succeeds (the relevant dice rolling would have occurred when the scroll was made).

So a hit! This invocation 'just' does damage equal to the Shugenja's earth ring.

The hit therefore does base damage of three and is reduced by one due to the resistance. Note that as this is supernatural damage the Trolls Sorcerous Scales do not count as they were protecting against normal damage and they are now operational versus supernatural damage. The one-two of natural-supernatural is helping the two heroes.

Kikue		Endurance	8
		Composure	8
Yoshiaki		Endurance	8
		Composure	10	3
Troll	Disorientated	Endurance	16	7
	Sorcerous Scales (supernatural)	Composure	9	1

The Troll now has to make a TN4 fitness check to avoid being knocked prone. He will have four black and three white dice as he is still in water stance.

Not the best roll and he is knocked prone!

Prone means the character can only move one range band (rolling or crawling presumably) and if they do not move in their turn can remove the condition. They can still fight though.

Kikue		Endurance	8
		Composure	8
Yoshiaki		Endurance	8
		Composure	10	3
Troll	Disorientated, Prone	Endurance	16	7
	Sorcerous Scales (Supernatural)	Composure	9	1

Round Three

Crab Turn

Yoshiaki switches to water stance dropping his bow unceremoniously before he uses his free action to pull out his planted Yari before striking. He gets two black and one white for this TN2 Martial Arts Melee check.

The Yari is a range two spear so matches the current combat range of the Troll's club

A hit with two bonus successes though he has to take three strife to succeed. The Yari does a base damage of five plus two bonus to seven and minus one resistance to cause six fatigue. The Troll is now up to thirteen damage!

Troll Turn

He keeps in water stance  and just strikes and swings with his club from prone with a TN2 Martial arts melee check with four black and three white dice at the Crab.

A hit with five! bonus successes. The Troll uses the two opportunity to cause a critical hit and takes five strife as he steadily gets more confused as to how his opponents are not dead yet.

Now the hit is calculated. The base damage of the club is a horrendous nine. Plus five bonus successes makes fourteen. Minus three resistance (for the Ashigaru armour) makes eleven. If he took that damage he would be incapacitated and out of the fight. Instead he uses his sole void point to not take any fatigue and instead take a second strength five critical hit.

To defend the void caused critical is a TN1 fitness check.

Success dropping the critical deadliness by two to three. This is a flesh wound. Yoshiaki is now Lightly wounded in the water ring but is not bleeding as the club is not razor sharp.

The forced critical (caused by the opportunity) is defended with a TN2 fitness check (he is now lightly wounded) and as Yoshiaki is in water stance this will be two black and two white dice. The clubs base deadliness is five.

Not so successful but a strength five critical just replaces the Light wound with a serious wound (+3 to TNs in the water ring). He still is not bleeding (this requires a maiming blow or higher). He uses the single opportunity to drop his strife by two to a better five.

Finally, as the Troll has not moved both the disorientated and prone conditions are removed.

Kikue		Endurance	8
		Composure	8	1
Yoshiaki	SW Water +3 TN	Endurance	8
		Composure	10	5
Troll	Sorcerous Scales (normal)	Endurance	16	13
		Composure	9	6

Orgre? or Troll?? Looks grumpy either way

Phoenix Turn

Kikue decides to start channelling as she has a cunning plan. She rolls for Grasp of Earth ,which is no longer prepared as scrolls and similar are one-offs, so requires a check. She gets three black and three white dice.

When channelling instead of resolving the Shugenja can choose dice to ‘reserve’ and then (allowing the next Invocation is of the same element) can replace dice in  that check with the reserved dice before rolling. For this check she reserves the black Exploding Success/Strife and a white success as indicated above.

Round Four

Crab Turn

Yoshiaki switches to his preferred Earth stance (reducing the chances of critical hits and giving him his best dice) and with a firm base strikes at the Troll TN2 martial arts melee check with three black and one white dice. He also remembers to use Flickering Flame Skirmisher again as well.

So a hit with one bonus successes and two strife generated.

The hit does five base damage plus one bonus to six - but as the last damage caused was also normal the Sorcerous Scales are now active and the Troll's resistance is five (one base plus four). This reduces the fatigue caused to one and is easily absorbed.

Troll Turn

The Troll takes a strike at TN3 (the Flickering Flame skirmisher has increased it by one more) with four black and three white dice.

 It is a hit with three bonus successes and two strife generated. Base weapon damage is nine plus three bonus successes  minus three for the Ashigaru armour resistance makes nine. The Crab skirmisher is instantly incapacitated with just one vicious hit.

Note: you cannot use 'Shattering Parry' on this as that only allows you to re-roll a Critical Strike 'defend'

Kikue		Endurance	8
		Composure	8	1
Yoshiaki	SW Water +3 TN	Endurance	8	9
	Incapacitated	Composure	10	5
Troll		Endurance	16	14
		Composure	9	9

Phoenix Turn

The players are in some difficulty now as the Troll is unlikely to be perturbed by the Shugenja's combat skills. He is close to becoming compromised though which might help if the fight lasts another couple of rounds.

Kikue therefore decides to take a chance. Shugenja's can (in extremity) cast any Invocation. She remains in earth stance (and the Kami she is happiest dealing with) and tries to cast 'Earth becomes Sky'. As this is not something she has learnt she uses a void point to represent her mind suddenly seeing a possibility that she could ask the Kami. Also as this is an extreme event she uses her treasured bracelet of her grandmothers hair as an exceptional offering for the Kami to assist her in what she intends to do. This appears reasonable to the GM so he permits her to try this.

Now when trying to cast an invocation that the Shugenja does not know they add to the TN the difference between their rank and the invocation rank. In this case it is a rank three invocation so the TN will be increased by two to five as she is only rank one. She also finally uses her School ability to drop it back down to a TN4 .

It is a Theology Earth check so she would get three black and three white dice. The GM decides that the offering was used to permit the action so she will not get to re-roll any blank dice.

She had channelled in the same stance the turn before which means she can use those as they stand and rolls one less for each dice chosen. She uses one reserved black (Ex/s) and one reserved white (EX) so her dice roll is two black and two white which are added to the channelled dice.

Success! A huge spear of rock rushes out of the ground to thud into the Troll. This causes damage equal to the Earth ring (so three) plus bonus successes (one) so four – she uses the opportunity to make the damage sacred which means his resistance does not count and so pushes his fatigue to eighteen and incapacitating him. His Sorcerous scales now re-activate against supernatural damage.

Sacred damage is particularly effective versus Tainted and Shadowlands creatures and means the attack ignores all resistance of the defending character!

Kikue		Endurance	8
		Composure	8	3
Yoshiaki	SW Water +3 TN	Endurance	8	9
	Incapacitated	Composure	10	5
Troll	Incapacitated	Endurance	16	18
	Sorcerous Scales (supernatural)	Composure	9	9

Kikue launches a spear of earth

We have not quite finished with the attack though. Firstly the Troll has to make a resistance check against being knocked prone. This is a TN 3 fitness with four black and three white.

Success! so he is not knocked prone. 

Also as Kikue took three strife carrying out the attack some 'Spiritual Backlash' occurs. This is the Kami not being pleased at being asked to do what they have done so Kikue takes an automatic three fatigue herself and as the ring used was earth the ground surrounding the area up to range band three is now imbalanced for a few days.

Imbalanced means any TNs taken involving Theology or Meditation are increased by one unless the check is in earth where it is increased by two. This represents the Kami being unhappy.

Kikue		Endurance	8	3
		Composure	8	3
Yoshiaki	SW Water +3 TN	Endurance	8	9
	Incapacitated	Composure	10	5
Troll	Incapacitated	Endurance	16	18
	Sorcerous Scales (supernatural)	Composure	9	9

Round Five

Crab Turn

Yoshiaki takes a calming breath and reduces his fatigue to eight and his strife to four which removes the incapacitated condition. He could switch to water stance and strike but it would be at TN5 due to the serious wound so his player decides to play it steady as his character would do.

Troll Turn

All the Troll can do is to switch to water stance, take a calming breath himself then move a range band away from Kikue to 'three' - dropping his own fatigue to seventeen and his strife to eight.

Phoenix Turn

Kikue remains in Earth stance and moves after the Troll back to range two  before striking with her staff at TN2 and three black and zero white dice (she has no skills in melee weapons). She does not use Grasp of Earth as the Sorcerous Scales are still protecting against Supernatural damage and the Imbalanced terrain (caused by the Spiritual Backlash) would make it a TN4 and the damage caused would be zero).

A hit with one bonus success. Her strife increases to six. The hit does a base damage of six plus one bonus to seven minus one resistance to five pushing the Trolls fatigue to twenty three and causes an automatic critical strike. The staff is unlikely to do much damage in that but as the Troll is incapacitated, he is also knocked unconscious and the fight is basically over.

Post Fight

Kikue would see to Yoshiaki's wounds now before Yoshiaki (probably) finishes the tainted monster off. The pair have been lucky to survive this encounter and it was only by both players playing off each other’s successes that they did as well as they did.

The rules are also not entirely clear on what failure of an invocation would mean. In the sidebar it says invocations (outside) of conflicts can only be attempted once and therefore multiple times within conflicts - but if the Kami have refused your request once then they are unlikely to do so again? As a house rule I would say that repeating a failed invocation in a conflict would require a more impressive offering or an  increase of the TN by 1 to show that it is now harder to contact/persuade this particular Kami or perhaps the use of a void point. You will have to decide yourself how to approach such things in your own games perhaps dependant on how bad the fail was and what the roleplaying situation is.

The best description I have heard of how magic works in Rokugan was in the Last Province podcast. Their description runs (something) like this. Imagine a village where a wild dog is allowed to roam. The dog cannot be controlled or ordered or conversed with but is happy within the village grounds and is treated with respect by all the villagers. 

One village member feeds the dog scraps and the dog will perform simple tricks for him. The dog  might not like the task but knows he will get a treat. If this village failed to provide treats or asked the dog to do something it did not like then the dog would not do it and might attack the treat giver. Another villager is a girl who the dog just likes. He would do anything for her regardless as to what she does and always runs to her when he sees her and tries to please her.

The treat giving villager is a Shugenja, the dog is a Kami and the liked girl is a Shrine Maiden. 

As ever this has been a collaborative piece that needed the assistance of several other people  proof reading to to try to ensure the rules were as correct as is possible. This relied on Franwax from the FFG forums and Janek Sielicki from the Facebook group so thanks to both of them. As ever any remaining errors are all my work.

The Troll menace has been ended.