L5R Newbie Part III - Introduction to the Dragon Clan
Next in my list of introduction articles to the L5R clans is the enigmatic Dragon clan.
This clan populates a primarily mountainous area of Rokugan which provides a useful defensive advantage but equally makes it difficult to profit/feed advance the clan. There is a very strong religious streak running through the clan that is not common with the other clans. The Dragon clan are also somewhat more 'bloody minded' and 'independent' of the the major clans.
Dragon territories 'here be mountains'
Comparisons - Dragon have more factual comparisons than fictional and these do follow family lines. The Togashi have a very strong resemblance to old Japan's Warrior Monks alongside Buddhist theology. There are plenty of Chinese cultural references in the Dragon clan as well with Kung fu monks, alchemical sorcery, investigating judges, and Taoist swordsmen . Their make up and attitude also seem closely attuned to other historical mountain nations. The Highlanders in Scotland have strong resemblances to their resource requirements and needs. It is a very unique clan in identity and structure.
The Perfect Land sect
Due to the strong streak of mysticism the Dragon are a natural home to the Perfect Land Sect and a large number of the Dragon stories so far have been strongly linked to this. The Perfect Land Sect is a religious movement that is regarded as heretical but is popular with the peasantry and some disillusioned Ronin. See here , here and here
It is heretical because the Sect does not allow worship of the Fortunes or even ancestors so is very different to the primary Rokugan religious setup. Instead it focuses on repeating the name of Shinsei (matching some more recent religious sects). More worryingly perhaps the sect recently has started blaming Samurai directly for causing the Empire's ills. This is unlikely to end well for the peasantry.
It looks likely that this will be the primary focus for the Dragon clan (at least for the moment). The Sect is gaining advantages from the lack of food in Dragon territory which has been compounded by the famine in Crane lands caused by the Tsunami. Prior to this the Crane heavily exported food so could cover shortfalls for other clans (for money and political advantage no doubt). This has been compounded by a fall in the birth rate which means less people to toil on the land that does exist.
Locations
Kyuden Togashi (the High House of Light) - The chief monastery to the tattooed monks. Dragon monks rarely leave their home but when they do they are often regarded as erratic and bizarre with 'unusual' attitudes. It is apparently very difficult to find and is carved from the face of one of the highest mountains in the North. Whether this is truly one of the 'highest mountains in the North' as it is obviously surrounded by much higher mountains (see the picture below)
Siege engines on higher mountains could make life difficult for this fortress
Mountain Summit Temple - The site of a famed military training dojo also built on top of a high peak it basically is a group of interconnected towers and training requiring a strong head for heights. Students frequently die whilst training so it is regarded as one of the most brutal Dojos in Rokugan
Certainly a temple and certainly on a summit but without the connecting towers. Nice art so it will have to do.
Great Falls Castle - Built by a Togashi monk whose birth family was Kaiu - this castle sits over a large waterfall. It is the largest storehouse of Dragon military items in the Empire
Some current important Characters
Togashi Yokuni
The current clan champion. He very much keeps himself to himself and is, practically, always seen wearing a full helm. His body contains the soul of the Kami Togashi so technically has been alive for a thousand years or so. Due to this his blood can be used to create the tattoos that the Dragon Clan monks liberally coat their bodies and has the (useful) advantage of making the tattoos suffused with magical power.
Yokuni has a reeeeeeaaaaallllyyy long hilt on his katana. I'm just that saying he surely cannot hold that properly especially as he appears to have weird metal things on his fingers.
Here is Togashis letter to his clan members.
Agasha Sumiko - This is the current Ruby Champion who has been kept busy covering the Emerald Champion role after the death of Satsume and then had to work with the new Emerald Champion (but for how long dum dun daaaaaaaa) Akodo Toturi.
She has been surprisingly politically adept. Perhaps 'attuned to the use of the levers of power' would be better. Her own travails have featured heavily more with regard to the RPG and with the start of the story line connected to the Imperial Family here.
The 'emo' Dragon. Sumiko has a lot on her plate and the latest goth festival will just have to wait.
Mirumoto Hitomi
Unusually for a warrior she shaves her head to show her dedication to Bushido. She is almost closer to a Crab Berserker in that her primary known emotion was 'rage' along perhaps with drive, passion and lack of fear. She had a long history in the Old5r game but in new5R is currently moving with an army under Yokuni's orders into the Empire itself. Read here
As opposed to a Daisho Hitomi appears to be carrying two full Katana. You can certainly see why Dragon lands seem to suck as a place to live. Is deliberate baldness amongst severe cold a good life style choice?
RPG
Dragon clan members have starting ring increases in Fire and Meditation which nicely represents their twin primary focus of ultra-aggressive duelling and Monk type religion. Of the four starting houses
Agasha - The Shugenja house adds fire or void to that along with medicine and smithing skills
Kitsuki - The Courtier/police house adds air or water along with the government and sentiment skills representing both the empathy and knowledge needed for a good political operator.
Mirumoto - The duelist house adds earth or water along with the fitness and tactics skills.
Togashi - finally the Monk house allows earth and void increases along with fitness and theology skills
Schools
Agasha Mystic - Their initial Shugenja House.
The Agasha flavour of Shugenja ties the default invocation use abilities with alchemy which is used to strengthen or alter the invocations. The School ring increases are Earth and Water with an initial choice of three skills from Fitness, Martial Arts unarmed, medicine, meditation, smithing and theology. Which is an interesting grouping for a Shugenja. The school certainly has a 'itinerant monk/firework maker' feel to it.
Starting honour is a reasonable forty.
Looks drugged up or perhaps he accidentally set his hands on fire and that is an expression of agony.
The character can pick from Invocations, Rituals and Shuji so is following a standard Shugenja structure there. For Invocations they get to pick one from
The Fires from Within - This is an attack action using a TN3 Theology Fire check that targets up to the characters fire ring (which will presumably be around three at start if this is selected) at range bands one to three. On a success the targets are smited (who does't love giving a good smiting) with a stream of fire causing damage equal to the fire ring total plus bonus successes. *+ can be used to increase the range band per every opportunity spent. I love this invocation as it does a decent amount of damage to a large group of people and the opportunity allows it to be used at extreme range (and if it fails then the Kami were unwilling to project that far). Nice and a useful offensive invocation.
Tetsubo of Earth - A Support action needing a TN1 Theology Earth check on a patch of relevant ground at 0-1. Success summons and readies a Tetsubo out of earth or stone. When an attack action checks damage if the target is prone then it suffers additional damage equal to the earth ring (due presumably to the extra weight). A single opportunity can change it to any type of melee weapon and make it durable, another could be spent to allow the casing Shugenja to immediately perform a Guard action which adds a TN of 1 to any attack against the target (plus one more for every two bonus successes) so not wasting an action entirely whilst creating it and finally two opportunity will give the summoned weapon the sacred quality which does extra damage to certain creature types. Not as instantly aggressive as the previous it would still be useful in court sessions (I have no weapon, wait a second! ta daaaaa) and where certain creatures are more vulnerable to certain weapon types (this creature needs me to do more initial damage to grind down its large endurance and when close to doing so create a weapon with much higher deadliness for the soon to arrive critical hits).
Path to Inner Peace - A support action TN2 Theology Water check targeting a single person at range 0-2. This is a healing spell that 'mends' muscles removing fatigue equal to the water ring plus bonus successes. This is only allowed once per scene per target. A single opportunity allows a minorish condition to be removed as well (bleeding, dazed, disorientated or lightly wounded). A single opportunity can also be spent to remove strife equal to the bonus successes. This is a nice heal with the scene restriction to prevent a game breaking ability if used each turn.
Jurojins Balm - Another support action with a TN1 Theology targeting one at 0-1. Success augments the targets fortitude meaning that TN resist checks of passion/disease are decreased by two (to a minimum of one) and the target also cannot get drunk. Effects last until the end of the scene. A single opportunity can make the resist check also apply to the more dangerous Maho, otherworldy beings or defiled terrain. Another opportunity makes it last twenty-four hours instead. Finally, two opportunity can 'mend' the target removing passions and the dying condition! It also removes symptoms of diseases until the end of the scene This is a surprisingly useful invocation that would need a cunning plan to increase its usefulness.
The character then gets a choice of one of two (common starter) rituals
Cleansing Rite - A TN3 Theology Void check targeting up to five characters and success removes spiritual contaminants from the targets (not the Shadowlands trait). If opportunity is spent and one of the targets is 'otherworldly' the Shugenja will be aware of this but not who. Two opportunity can also be spent to cleanse an area if it is 'Defiled'. If that area has been 'Defiled' a while then this might only be temporary.
Commune with the Spirits - A downtime activity that allows the character to gain information or relevant assistance dependant on the gift token i.e a water check taking an Elemental gift could allow the caster to use a water Kami to cross a small river, or to make it rain briefly. Lots of opportunities with all the results of this.
The School ability is 'Transmutation' - When performing an invocation, the Shugenja can choose a different ring to the school choice but cannot spend opportunity from the original element but can spend opportunity of the new element. I really don’t know how the opportunity works in practice except that the ability at least allows the Shugenja to get one strong ring and then use that for lots of different other invocations of other ring types. To that extent this is perhaps the most multi-purpose Shugenja so far though god help you if your dominant ring gets a TN disadvantage. This represents the Schools ability to use alchemy to adjust the invocations to create something similar but different so is also a clever representation of the School and its students
Equipment - As they are Shugenja they start with Sanctified robes. For weapons they just get a Wakizashi to indicate their status and a bo (staff).
Togashi Tattooed Order (Monk) - These are the warrior Monks and are usually pictured meditating under a waterfall. Togashi monks are usually heavily covered with magical tattoos which have a small bit of the original Dragon Kamis blood giving them their power.
Characters get ring boosts in Earth and Void (useful for extra void points)
Start skills number four chosen from Fitness, Martial Arts Melee, Martial Arts Unarmed, Meditation, Survival and Theology with a reasonable honor of forty.
Upgrade choices can be made from Kiho, Shuji and Rituals.
For a student of this schools starting kiho they get a surprisingly wide selection but only get to pick ‘one’. Kiho are different to most of the other skills/abilities in that once activated then it remains active until the Monk decides to stop using it or he/she uses a different Kiho. Therefore a Monk can power up one early and make themselves a veritable deadly martial arts machine. Neo can go eat his heart out.
Earthen Fist – As an attack and Support action a TN1 Martial Arts Melee Unarmed Earth check is made targeting one at range 0-1. When active the damage of unarmed attacks (kicks and punches) is increased by the earth ring and physical resistance is increased by one. Kiho’s also have burst effects which auto ‘fire’ when (usually) two bonus successes are gained. For this Kiho this auto causes physical damage equal to the earth ring and the target must resist with a TN4 Fitness check (Air 2 Water 5) to avoid being made prone. Prone stops them moving more than one range band a turn and makes them less at risk to Arial attacks and more at risk to some others.
Earth Needs No Eyes – A Support Kiho as a TN1 Meditation Earth check to gain awareness of the environment through the ground up to a number of range bands equal to the ring. If active the Monks vigilance is increased by their earth ring so they are unlikely to be surprised. If three or more bonus successes are gained then the Monk is also aware of all living creatures and objects touching the ground at a range of the earth ring plus bonus successes. No sneaking up on this Monk then.
Flame Fist – Like the Earthen this has a simlar concept, except this is a fire check.On success the deadliness of any unarmed attacks is increased by the fire ring and all damage caused is supernatural (so avoiding a lot of the armour out there which sucks against supernatural damage). The Burst effect causes damage to the target equal to the fire ring and the target must resist a TN4 fitness (air 5 water 2) or become Dazed. Dazed characters increase their attack and scheme TNs by two so this is a strong condition to apply.
Ki Protection – A Mediation and Support action with a TN1 Meditation water check. When successful any calming breaths taken by the Monk decrease fatigue by two (instead of one). The Monk can also spend a void point to once per scene remove fatigue from a target up to their rank in medicine. The Burst effect removes fatigue from the target equal to the medicine skill level plus bonus successes (this is a once per scene effect per target). This therefore is more for a ‘healing’ monk than fighting one though as a Monk levels it may be a useful tool to pick up.
Water Fist – Unsurprisingly perhaps this matches the Earth and Flame Fists except is now a water check. Success here reduces the attacked targets resistance by two times the water ring! If the water ring is three that means armour of resistance six will not block attacks from this Monk. The Monk can also spend a void point to perform a kick through any contacting surface (i.e the ground) at a target within a range band up to the water ring. This does damage equal to the water ring and is automatically in range. Finally the burst just does damage equal to the water ring.
The traditional Monk pose. They find a handy waterfall and meditate. This is where I imagine one of my RPG Players characters goes to stop thinking about horses (very few people will get this and that is okay)
Monks start with a Shuji – this is the useful ‘Lord Togashi’s Insight’, bane of gms everywhere. Once per session the Monk needs to pass a TN2 Meditation check and if successful can ask for Lord Togashi’s help with an intractable problem. On success then some hint of the way forward will come from the Kami. Opportunity can be spent to reduce the TN of the next check related to the query by up to the school rank.
Finally the School ability is the very impressive ‘Blood of the Kami’. This is basically the magical tattoo drawn with the blood of Togashi that empowers a Kiho. The character picks a relevant natural symbol for the Tattoo (a waterfall perhaps for a water Kiho) and then, allowing they match the pre-requisites, they can then auto select a related Kiho that they learn without having to pay any xp for at all. Every time they go up a school rank they can get another magical tattoo and learn another ‘free’ Kiho. That is a very useful school ability perhaps available because only one Kiho can be active at a time.
Mirumoto – Two Heavens Adept School - The military Dragon house and their primary 'thing' is two sword combat. Now all trained warriors in Rokugan can 'use' two swords at a time but the Dragon train dedicate as their primary talent. A Bushi of this school featured in my duelling rules walk through here
Starting rings increase by both Earth and Fire and the Starting skill selection is made between Command, Composition, Fitness and Martial Arts Melee
Starting honor is an impressive 50. Probably due to the luxurious hair.
The student can pick from Kata, Rituals and Shuji and gets no less than three of the Strikings to pick ‘one’ initially.
Striking as Earth – Increases resistance by opportunity spent until the end of your next turn
Striking as Fire – Increases severity of any critical strike by every opportunity spent until the end of your next turn
Striking as Water – Reduces your opponents resistance by opportunity spent until the end of the next turn.
Dragon seem to like A - no hair or B - tons of hair.
Quick sword sidebar! For any other Samurai Clan in Rokugan his Katana would be upside down. Katana's have a sharp outside edge (which is one reason for curve) and are usually drawn to be used two handed with the scabbard the other way round (so 'sad face' not 'happy face')
Play Examples – Though not cutting edge the following vods show the (ex) Dragon greats MindsDesire in action here and here
Great art and strategically placed hair. Takes tattoo placement to a whole new level. I suppose she deliberately avoided the waterfall treatment as she'd look like a drowned rat. I suppose this art is allowed as all the male monks are equally objectified???
Togashi Yokuni
The current clan champion. He very much keeps himself to himself and is, practically, always seen wearing a full helm. His body contains the soul of the Kami Togashi so technically has been alive for a thousand years or so. Due to this his blood can be used to create the tattoos that the Dragon Clan monks liberally coat their bodies and has the (useful) advantage of making the tattoos suffused with magical power.
Here is Togashis letter to his clan members.
Agasha Sumiko - This is the current Ruby Champion who has been kept busy covering the Emerald Champion role after the death of Satsume and then had to work with the new Emerald Champion (but for how long dum dun daaaaaaaa) Akodo Toturi.
She has been surprisingly politically adept. Perhaps 'attuned to the use of the levers of power' would be better. Her own travails have featured heavily more with regard to the RPG and with the start of the story line connected to the Imperial Family here.
Mirumoto Hitomi
Unusually for a warrior she shaves her head to show her dedication to Bushido. She is almost closer to a Crab Berserker in that her primary known emotion was 'rage' along perhaps with drive, passion and lack of fear. She had a long history in the Old5r game but in new5R is currently moving with an army under Yokuni's orders into the Empire itself. Read here
As opposed to a Daisho Hitomi appears to be carrying two full Katana. You can certainly see why Dragon lands seem to suck as a place to live. Is deliberate baldness amongst severe cold a good life style choice?
RPG
Dragon clan members have starting ring increases in Fire and Meditation which nicely represents their twin primary focus of ultra-aggressive duelling and Monk type religion. Of the four starting houses
Agasha - The Shugenja house adds fire or void to that along with medicine and smithing skills
Kitsuki - The Courtier/police house adds air or water along with the government and sentiment skills representing both the empathy and knowledge needed for a good political operator.
Mirumoto - The duelist house adds earth or water along with the fitness and tactics skills.
Togashi - finally the Monk house allows earth and void increases along with fitness and theology skills
Schools
Agasha Mystic - Their initial Shugenja House.
The Agasha flavour of Shugenja ties the default invocation use abilities with alchemy which is used to strengthen or alter the invocations. The School ring increases are Earth and Water with an initial choice of three skills from Fitness, Martial Arts unarmed, medicine, meditation, smithing and theology. Which is an interesting grouping for a Shugenja. The school certainly has a 'itinerant monk/firework maker' feel to it.
Starting honour is a reasonable forty.
The character can pick from Invocations, Rituals and Shuji so is following a standard Shugenja structure there. For Invocations they get to pick one from
The Fires from Within - This is an attack action using a TN3 Theology Fire check that targets up to the characters fire ring (which will presumably be around three at start if this is selected) at range bands one to three. On a success the targets are smited (who does't love giving a good smiting) with a stream of fire causing damage equal to the fire ring total plus bonus successes. *+ can be used to increase the range band per every opportunity spent. I love this invocation as it does a decent amount of damage to a large group of people and the opportunity allows it to be used at extreme range (and if it fails then the Kami were unwilling to project that far). Nice and a useful offensive invocation.
Tetsubo of Earth - A Support action needing a TN1 Theology Earth check on a patch of relevant ground at 0-1. Success summons and readies a Tetsubo out of earth or stone. When an attack action checks damage if the target is prone then it suffers additional damage equal to the earth ring (due presumably to the extra weight). A single opportunity can change it to any type of melee weapon and make it durable, another could be spent to allow the casing Shugenja to immediately perform a Guard action which adds a TN of 1 to any attack against the target (plus one more for every two bonus successes) so not wasting an action entirely whilst creating it and finally two opportunity will give the summoned weapon the sacred quality which does extra damage to certain creature types. Not as instantly aggressive as the previous it would still be useful in court sessions (I have no weapon, wait a second! ta daaaaa) and where certain creatures are more vulnerable to certain weapon types (this creature needs me to do more initial damage to grind down its large endurance and when close to doing so create a weapon with much higher deadliness for the soon to arrive critical hits).
Path to Inner Peace - A support action TN2 Theology Water check targeting a single person at range 0-2. This is a healing spell that 'mends' muscles removing fatigue equal to the water ring plus bonus successes. This is only allowed once per scene per target. A single opportunity allows a minorish condition to be removed as well (bleeding, dazed, disorientated or lightly wounded). A single opportunity can also be spent to remove strife equal to the bonus successes. This is a nice heal with the scene restriction to prevent a game breaking ability if used each turn.
Jurojins Balm - Another support action with a TN1 Theology targeting one at 0-1. Success augments the targets fortitude meaning that TN resist checks of passion/disease are decreased by two (to a minimum of one) and the target also cannot get drunk. Effects last until the end of the scene. A single opportunity can make the resist check also apply to the more dangerous Maho, otherworldy beings or defiled terrain. Another opportunity makes it last twenty-four hours instead. Finally, two opportunity can 'mend' the target removing passions and the dying condition! It also removes symptoms of diseases until the end of the scene This is a surprisingly useful invocation that would need a cunning plan to increase its usefulness.
The character then gets a choice of one of two (common starter) rituals
Cleansing Rite - A TN3 Theology Void check targeting up to five characters and success removes spiritual contaminants from the targets (not the Shadowlands trait). If opportunity is spent and one of the targets is 'otherworldly' the Shugenja will be aware of this but not who. Two opportunity can also be spent to cleanse an area if it is 'Defiled'. If that area has been 'Defiled' a while then this might only be temporary.
Commune with the Spirits - A downtime activity that allows the character to gain information or relevant assistance dependant on the gift token i.e a water check taking an Elemental gift could allow the caster to use a water Kami to cross a small river, or to make it rain briefly. Lots of opportunities with all the results of this.
The School ability is 'Transmutation' - When performing an invocation, the Shugenja can choose a different ring to the school choice but cannot spend opportunity from the original element but can spend opportunity of the new element. I really don’t know how the opportunity works in practice except that the ability at least allows the Shugenja to get one strong ring and then use that for lots of different other invocations of other ring types. To that extent this is perhaps the most multi-purpose Shugenja so far though god help you if your dominant ring gets a TN disadvantage. This represents the Schools ability to use alchemy to adjust the invocations to create something similar but different so is also a clever representation of the School and its students
Equipment - As they are Shugenja they start with Sanctified robes. For weapons they just get a Wakizashi to indicate their status and a bo (staff).
Togashi Tattooed Order (Monk) - These are the warrior Monks and are usually pictured meditating under a waterfall. Togashi monks are usually heavily covered with magical tattoos which have a small bit of the original Dragon Kamis blood giving them their power.
Characters get ring boosts in Earth and Void (useful for extra void points)
Start skills number four chosen from Fitness, Martial Arts Melee, Martial Arts Unarmed, Meditation, Survival and Theology with a reasonable honor of forty.
Upgrade choices can be made from Kiho, Shuji and Rituals.
For a student of this schools starting kiho they get a surprisingly wide selection but only get to pick ‘one’. Kiho are different to most of the other skills/abilities in that once activated then it remains active until the Monk decides to stop using it or he/she uses a different Kiho. Therefore a Monk can power up one early and make themselves a veritable deadly martial arts machine. Neo can go eat his heart out.
Yes I know that is not Neo but he is 'bald' so if halfway to being a Togashi monk. He just needs to find a waterfall.
Finally most of the Kiho's are both attack AND support actions this basically represents the Monk totally focusing on getting in the 'zone' they cant play round with other actions while doing so.
Earthen Fist – As an attack and Support action a TN1 Martial Arts Melee Unarmed Earth check is made targeting one at range 0-1. When active the damage of unarmed attacks (kicks and punches) is increased by the earth ring and physical resistance is increased by one. Kiho’s also have burst effects which auto ‘fire’ when (usually) two bonus successes are gained. For this Kiho this auto causes physical damage equal to the earth ring and the target must resist with a TN4 Fitness check (Air 2 Water 5) to avoid being made prone. Prone stops them moving more than one range band a turn and makes them less at risk to Arial attacks and more at risk to some others.
Earth Needs No Eyes – A Support Kiho as a TN1 Meditation Earth check to gain awareness of the environment through the ground up to a number of range bands equal to the ring. If active the Monks vigilance is increased by their earth ring so they are unlikely to be surprised. If three or more bonus successes are gained then the Monk is also aware of all living creatures and objects touching the ground at a range of the earth ring plus bonus successes. No sneaking up on this Monk then.
Flame Fist – Like the Earthen this has a simlar concept, except this is a fire check.On success the deadliness of any unarmed attacks is increased by the fire ring and all damage caused is supernatural (so avoiding a lot of the armour out there which sucks against supernatural damage). The Burst effect causes damage to the target equal to the fire ring and the target must resist a TN4 fitness (air 5 water 2) or become Dazed. Dazed characters increase their attack and scheme TNs by two so this is a strong condition to apply.
Ki Protection – A Mediation and Support action with a TN1 Meditation water check. When successful any calming breaths taken by the Monk decrease fatigue by two (instead of one). The Monk can also spend a void point to once per scene remove fatigue from a target up to their rank in medicine. The Burst effect removes fatigue from the target equal to the medicine skill level plus bonus successes (this is a once per scene effect per target). This therefore is more for a ‘healing’ monk than fighting one though as a Monk levels it may be a useful tool to pick up.
Water Fist – Unsurprisingly perhaps this matches the Earth and Flame Fists except is now a water check. Success here reduces the attacked targets resistance by two times the water ring! If the water ring is three that means armour of resistance six will not block attacks from this Monk. The Monk can also spend a void point to perform a kick through any contacting surface (i.e the ground) at a target within a range band up to the water ring. This does damage equal to the water ring and is automatically in range. Finally the burst just does damage equal to the water ring.
Monks start with a Shuji – this is the useful ‘Lord Togashi’s Insight’, bane of gms everywhere. Once per session the Monk needs to pass a TN2 Meditation check and if successful can ask for Lord Togashi’s help with an intractable problem. On success then some hint of the way forward will come from the Kami. Opportunity can be spent to reduce the TN of the next check related to the query by up to the school rank.
Finally the School ability is the very impressive ‘Blood of the Kami’. This is basically the magical tattoo drawn with the blood of Togashi that empowers a Kiho. The character picks a relevant natural symbol for the Tattoo (a waterfall perhaps for a water Kiho) and then, allowing they match the pre-requisites, they can then auto select a related Kiho that they learn without having to pay any xp for at all. Every time they go up a school rank they can get another magical tattoo and learn another ‘free’ Kiho. That is a very useful school ability perhaps available because only one Kiho can be active at a time.
Mirumoto – Two Heavens Adept School - The military Dragon house and their primary 'thing' is two sword combat. Now all trained warriors in Rokugan can 'use' two swords at a time but the Dragon train dedicate as their primary talent. A Bushi of this school featured in my duelling rules walk through here
Starting rings increase by both Earth and Fire and the Starting skill selection is made between Command, Composition, Fitness and Martial Arts Melee
Starting honor is an impressive 50. Probably due to the luxurious hair.
The student can pick from Kata, Rituals and Shuji and gets no less than three of the Strikings to pick ‘one’ initially.
Striking as Earth – Increases resistance by opportunity spent until the end of your next turn
Striking as Fire – Increases severity of any critical strike by every opportunity spent until the end of your next turn
Striking as Water – Reduces your opponents resistance by opportunity spent until the end of the next turn.
Dragon seem to like A - no hair or B - tons of hair.
Quick sword sidebar! For any other Samurai Clan in Rokugan his Katana would be upside down. Katana's have a sharp outside edge (which is one reason for curve) and are usually drawn to be used two handed with the scabbard the other way round (so 'sad face' not 'happy face')
This approach is a more European sabre type way but this 'might' makes sense as the sword is to be drawn one handed so you can bring the hilt up and then down to ready in a 'V'
The School Ability is ‘Way of the Dragon’ which usefully ties in to the two hand technique. When being attacked the character can use a weapon in a single hand (or just their spare hand if they are only using one weapon) to ‘ward’ or ‘trap’. Ward means that the attacker can be forced to re-roll a number of his dice containing success or explosive success results up to the current rank and Trap is a defensive action that reduces the TN of your own attacks versus that character by the school rank (to a minimum of one).
Equipment – The Mirumoto must like nice clothes to go with all the hair as they start with travelling clothes, ceremonial clothes and Ashigaru Armour. They can either have a standard Daisho or a Wakizashi and any weapon of rarity six or lower (admittedly likely to be a sword).
It is a useful fighting school with plenty of uniqueness from the other military houses.
Kitsuki Investigator- The Courtier/social house has another interesting side line in that they are famous as 'investigators'. Rokugan has an unusual legal structure where evidence matters less than witness from appropriately ranked people. i.e a Daimyo is found standing over a body holding the bleeding knife that just killed the body. The Daimyo says, 'it was not me, it was a ninja who ran off over there. I picked the knife up to disarm the attacker' and this would usually be enough. The Kitsuki have a more western orientated 'crime scene' type approach so can perversely be less popular as a result.
Anyway the School starts with Air and Earth ring increases. The air makes sense due to its inquisitiveness. Students also get to choose three starting skills from Culture, Government, Martial Arts Melee, Medicine, Sentiment and Survival. All very appropriate though the limit of three is usually more common with the powerful Shugenja schools.
Starting honor is also a decent forty five and the character can pick from Kata, Rituals and Shuji . This makes the class almost a cross between courtier and shugenja (or Monk perhaps).
For Kata a character can choose between
Striking as Air - My least favourite 'striking' this allows dice to be reserved for the next roll. Presumably for those really difficult attack TNs and it works like a Shugenja channelling.
Tactical Assessment - When making an initiative spend the character can gain extra opportunity use as follows (dependant on the initiative check stance)
Air - Choose an enemy an learn an advantage
Earth - A character does not apply its disadvantages
Water - Choose a terrain and it counts as obscuring for attack checks against you or allies (obscuring increases the TN of attacks by one)
Fire - Choose a character and a known advantage, this applies to ALL their checks
This is a nice ability that represents the Kitsuki's inquiring mind and ability to utilize that information in the best way possible.
A Kitsuki investigator cuts to the chase by noticing some blood stains. Missed the body with the sword in it entirely - but the method has rules and he is following them to the letter. Hopefully before the Assassin standing behind him can sneak off.
They also get one Shuji - Shallow Waters - When making a social water check they can spend opportunity with one allowing you to learn what the target desires and two will allow you to learn their Ninjo
The School Ability is the 'Kitsuki Method' - When investigating the character can treat their rank in the relevant skill as being equal to their current school rank (so when starting out the school rank is one so if investigating, say smithing which they do not have, then they would get an extra skill dice for the check). If they have relevant skill ranks higher than the school rank then they can add black ring dice with opportunity on up to the school rank. Another wonderful ability that allows them to be the Sherlock Holmes of the Rokugan world.
Equipment - Travelling clothes as they are not 'warriors' along with a Wakizashi, a knife and either a bo (staff) or a Jian (a straight edged sword)
Mirumoto Taoist Blade – (Bushi, Monk) – The new School introduced by the Shadowlands book is actual closer to an elite Crane duelist than the standard Mirumoto two blade school is.
Start ring boosts are in void and water.
As the character is also a Monk they get to choose four skills from Labor, Martial Arts Armed, Martial Arts Unarmed, Mediation, Survival, Theology. The Monk has another high starting honor of 48 and gets to choose upgrades from Kata, Kiho and Rituals so this is a very competitive combat character.
Initial Kata allows a choice of two from the following
Iaijutsu Cut Rising Blade - This is a duel technique that allows the duelist to draw a sheathed razor edged weapon one handed and strike in the same action. TN3 due to the added difficulty. Extra opportunity can allow a second razor edged weapon to be readied.
Striking as Water – Decrease opponents resistance by opportunity spent until the end of the next round
Soaring Slice – this is an attack action using a one handed grip on a weapon on a TN2 martial arts check targeting one enemy at band 2-3. If successful that weapon is thrown at the enemy doing damage equal to the base plus bonus successes. If that causes a critical then the weapon is embedded 'in' them.
Do you know how hard it is to find a decent picture of a Dragon with a single sword who also looks like a Monk with a picture that’s not 10 pixels by 10 pixels? No?? Well this will have to do though I admit she doesn’t shout ‘Monk’ to me what with the armour and hair but I forgive her.
They also get the Water Fist Kata automatically – This is the same as the default Monk Kata so read that again..
Finally the School ability is ‘Sharpened Ki’- This allows Kiho that affect Martial Arts Unarmed attacks (so they start with one – Water fist) can also affect melee weapons in a one handed grip. Any check to try and use Kiho also gets automatic bonus success results added equal to the school rank (note it has to be a success for these to be added). If the character is using a Katana and this along with Water Fist then that means that the opponent will almost never count any resistance so any attack will be hitting at full strength all the time AND spare opportunity can be used for other things (critical hits!) . Note that you cant (for example) do this whilst in fire stance. The Monk would need to know flame fist and have that active to make that work.
Equipment – Travelling Clothes and a Daisho or any one sword or rarity seven of lower.
LCG
Dragon decks are quite easy to play (if anything in L5R is 'easy' to play. To play well at an elite level is a different thing entirely but the standard Dragon deck is quite simple which makes it a good choice for starting to play as it reduces the decisions a player needs to make drastically down). The only reason Dragon has not won more is that is has been strangely unpopular in the LCG. For a while only MindsDesire, of the elites (a strong U.S player) played (and really dominated) with them but even he has switched over to other clans now (Phoenix and apparently Crane soon). Other strong players have started coming through the ranks but the underlying playing numbers never seem to represent the perceived strengths of the clan (whereas Unicorn at release and Lion recently have seen lower player numbers due to perceived and actual weakness in the card base which is something quite different)
The base Dragon attachment deck relies on the qualities of its Dynasty characters and basically attempts to create a tower character with lots of attachments that just mashes through any opponent. Access to the best attachment discard card in the game means that they are far freer to play around with other splashes than almost every other clan.
Dragon has the rare ability to run several different deck types (and their clan pack is not even out yet!) . They have a Monk deck that can be strong but tends to be a little uneven and they also have a potential duelling deck arriving quite soon. Dragon duelling is a lot more targeted at removing fate than Crane duelling that seems more 'action removal and bow'. This makes a nice difference between the two clans styles.
Disadvantages - If running tower then tower destruction concepts can hurt badly but the biggest disadvantage Dragon have is that their deck concept and operation is so logical that I don’t think it teaches the majority of its players how to win and use their deck to win in unusual situations. If the answer is always obvious then they don't get the play experience to force a win by playing the opponent or making the most of a bad hand or when multiple options could be correct. The elite players do not count for this opinion and several very strong Dragon players are out there but I suspect it is also the primary reason why the clan is not as popular as its power level says it should be.
Some Key Cards
Togashi Yokuni - 95% of the time this card will always have something good to copy. With certain copies out this could be of enormous use.
Mirumoto Raitsugu - The early 'nasty' duelist he is still ultra popular being not only useful but cheap for Dragon towers.
Mirumoto Hitomi - A more recent 'nasy' duelist
Let Go - The strongest attachment control in the game
Mirumoto Daisho - Opens up dishonour (and potentially honor) victories for Dragon.
Restoration of Balance - Early favourite for most hated province to hit. A common LCG tactic is the 'bid 5 ' meta and bidding five moving to nine cards and hitting this first turn could force a horrific loss. Instead people try and play cards which helps Dragon as they don't even necessarily hit Resto that turn.
Sacred Sanctuary - An irritating province to attack (if the Dragon is Monk tower or the like) .
Imperial Advisors Dragon purchase advice is here (amongst the other clans)
The School Ability is ‘Way of the Dragon’ which usefully ties in to the two hand technique. When being attacked the character can use a weapon in a single hand (or just their spare hand if they are only using one weapon) to ‘ward’ or ‘trap’. Ward means that the attacker can be forced to re-roll a number of his dice containing success or explosive success results up to the current rank and Trap is a defensive action that reduces the TN of your own attacks versus that character by the school rank (to a minimum of one).
Equipment – The Mirumoto must like nice clothes to go with all the hair as they start with travelling clothes, ceremonial clothes and Ashigaru Armour. They can either have a standard Daisho or a Wakizashi and any weapon of rarity six or lower (admittedly likely to be a sword).
It is a useful fighting school with plenty of uniqueness from the other military houses.
Kitsuki Investigator- The Courtier/social house has another interesting side line in that they are famous as 'investigators'. Rokugan has an unusual legal structure where evidence matters less than witness from appropriately ranked people. i.e a Daimyo is found standing over a body holding the bleeding knife that just killed the body. The Daimyo says, 'it was not me, it was a ninja who ran off over there. I picked the knife up to disarm the attacker' and this would usually be enough. The Kitsuki have a more western orientated 'crime scene' type approach so can perversely be less popular as a result.
Anyway the School starts with Air and Earth ring increases. The air makes sense due to its inquisitiveness. Students also get to choose three starting skills from Culture, Government, Martial Arts Melee, Medicine, Sentiment and Survival. All very appropriate though the limit of three is usually more common with the powerful Shugenja schools.
Starting honor is also a decent forty five and the character can pick from Kata, Rituals and Shuji . This makes the class almost a cross between courtier and shugenja (or Monk perhaps).
For Kata a character can choose between
Striking as Air - My least favourite 'striking' this allows dice to be reserved for the next roll. Presumably for those really difficult attack TNs and it works like a Shugenja channelling.
Tactical Assessment - When making an initiative spend the character can gain extra opportunity use as follows (dependant on the initiative check stance)
Air - Choose an enemy an learn an advantage
Earth - A character does not apply its disadvantages
Water - Choose a terrain and it counts as obscuring for attack checks against you or allies (obscuring increases the TN of attacks by one)
Fire - Choose a character and a known advantage, this applies to ALL their checks
This is a nice ability that represents the Kitsuki's inquiring mind and ability to utilize that information in the best way possible.
A Kitsuki investigator cuts to the chase by noticing some blood stains. Missed the body with the sword in it entirely - but the method has rules and he is following them to the letter. Hopefully before the Assassin standing behind him can sneak off.
They also get one Shuji - Shallow Waters - When making a social water check they can spend opportunity with one allowing you to learn what the target desires and two will allow you to learn their Ninjo
The School Ability is the 'Kitsuki Method' - When investigating the character can treat their rank in the relevant skill as being equal to their current school rank (so when starting out the school rank is one so if investigating, say smithing which they do not have, then they would get an extra skill dice for the check). If they have relevant skill ranks higher than the school rank then they can add black ring dice with opportunity on up to the school rank. Another wonderful ability that allows them to be the Sherlock Holmes of the Rokugan world.
Equipment - Travelling clothes as they are not 'warriors' along with a Wakizashi, a knife and either a bo (staff) or a Jian (a straight edged sword)
Mirumoto Taoist Blade – (Bushi, Monk) – The new School introduced by the Shadowlands book is actual closer to an elite Crane duelist than the standard Mirumoto two blade school is.
Start ring boosts are in void and water.
As the character is also a Monk they get to choose four skills from Labor, Martial Arts Armed, Martial Arts Unarmed, Mediation, Survival, Theology. The Monk has another high starting honor of 48 and gets to choose upgrades from Kata, Kiho and Rituals so this is a very competitive combat character.
Initial Kata allows a choice of two from the following
Iaijutsu Cut Rising Blade - This is a duel technique that allows the duelist to draw a sheathed razor edged weapon one handed and strike in the same action. TN3 due to the added difficulty. Extra opportunity can allow a second razor edged weapon to be readied.
Striking as Water – Decrease opponents resistance by opportunity spent until the end of the next round
Soaring Slice – this is an attack action using a one handed grip on a weapon on a TN2 martial arts check targeting one enemy at band 2-3. If successful that weapon is thrown at the enemy doing damage equal to the base plus bonus successes. If that causes a critical then the weapon is embedded 'in' them.
Do you know how hard it is to find a decent picture of a Dragon with a single sword who also looks like a Monk with a picture that’s not 10 pixels by 10 pixels? No?? Well this will have to do though I admit she doesn’t shout ‘Monk’ to me what with the armour and hair but I forgive her.
They also get the Water Fist Kata automatically – This is the same as the default Monk Kata so read that again..
Finally the School ability is ‘Sharpened Ki’- This allows Kiho that affect Martial Arts Unarmed attacks (so they start with one – Water fist) can also affect melee weapons in a one handed grip. Any check to try and use Kiho also gets automatic bonus success results added equal to the school rank (note it has to be a success for these to be added). If the character is using a Katana and this along with Water Fist then that means that the opponent will almost never count any resistance so any attack will be hitting at full strength all the time AND spare opportunity can be used for other things (critical hits!) . Note that you cant (for example) do this whilst in fire stance. The Monk would need to know flame fist and have that active to make that work.
Equipment – Travelling Clothes and a Daisho or any one sword or rarity seven of lower.
LCG
Dragon decks are quite easy to play (if anything in L5R is 'easy' to play. To play well at an elite level is a different thing entirely but the standard Dragon deck is quite simple which makes it a good choice for starting to play as it reduces the decisions a player needs to make drastically down). The only reason Dragon has not won more is that is has been strangely unpopular in the LCG. For a while only MindsDesire, of the elites (a strong U.S player) played (and really dominated) with them but even he has switched over to other clans now (Phoenix and apparently Crane soon). Other strong players have started coming through the ranks but the underlying playing numbers never seem to represent the perceived strengths of the clan (whereas Unicorn at release and Lion recently have seen lower player numbers due to perceived and actual weakness in the card base which is something quite different)
A monk tries to ascertain why Dragon numbers are not high. Perhaps because almost everyone plays Dragon splash so 'everyone' is actually playing Dragon.
The base Dragon attachment deck relies on the qualities of its Dynasty characters and basically attempts to create a tower character with lots of attachments that just mashes through any opponent. Access to the best attachment discard card in the game means that they are far freer to play around with other splashes than almost every other clan.
Dragon has the rare ability to run several different deck types (and their clan pack is not even out yet!) . They have a Monk deck that can be strong but tends to be a little uneven and they also have a potential duelling deck arriving quite soon. Dragon duelling is a lot more targeted at removing fate than Crane duelling that seems more 'action removal and bow'. This makes a nice difference between the two clans styles.
Disadvantages - If running tower then tower destruction concepts can hurt badly but the biggest disadvantage Dragon have is that their deck concept and operation is so logical that I don’t think it teaches the majority of its players how to win and use their deck to win in unusual situations. If the answer is always obvious then they don't get the play experience to force a win by playing the opponent or making the most of a bad hand or when multiple options could be correct. The elite players do not count for this opinion and several very strong Dragon players are out there but I suspect it is also the primary reason why the clan is not as popular as its power level says it should be.
Some Key Cards
Togashi Yokuni - 95% of the time this card will always have something good to copy. With certain copies out this could be of enormous use.
Mirumoto Raitsugu - The early 'nasty' duelist he is still ultra popular being not only useful but cheap for Dragon towers.
Mirumoto Hitomi - A more recent 'nasy' duelist
Let Go - The strongest attachment control in the game
Mirumoto Daisho - Opens up dishonour (and potentially honor) victories for Dragon.
Restoration of Balance - Early favourite for most hated province to hit. A common LCG tactic is the 'bid 5 ' meta and bidding five moving to nine cards and hitting this first turn could force a horrific loss. Instead people try and play cards which helps Dragon as they don't even necessarily hit Resto that turn.
Sacred Sanctuary - An irritating province to attack (if the Dragon is Monk tower or the like) .
Imperial Advisors Dragon purchase advice is here (amongst the other clans)
Play Examples – Though not cutting edge the following vods show the (ex) Dragon greats MindsDesire in action here and here
Great art and strategically placed hair. Takes tattoo placement to a whole new level. I suppose she deliberately avoided the waterfall treatment as she'd look like a drowned rat. I suppose this art is allowed as all the male monks are equally objectified???
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