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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2018 10:11:20 GMT -8
Any good ones? Before I played an awesome Doji Courtier, I had an Asahina shugenja. Four minutes after posting this picture to Facebook, he died from a zombie's rusty kama to the neck. 52 wounds. Despite wearing excellent heavy armor for a TN 30... Just his time I guess. So I always point that out to people who wonder about the lethality of L5R. Exploding dice kill. Happy anniversary of being promoted to the Realm of Blessed Ancestors, Asahina Sada. Or, to quote the movie Orange County, happy death-birthday!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2018 3:47:08 GMT -8
I've talked about it before but the HJ listener game SirGuido ran a few years back will always stay in my memory. During the course of the first arc my young samurai had fallen in love and gotten his lover pregnant outside of wedlock. The families had hastily arranged a marriage which was due to take place during the downtime of the second arc, which culminated in an epic battle to retake the governor's palace in the city we were assigned to as junior members of the Emerald Magistrates. While a member of the Crane Clan my character, Doji Okimoto, had been raised as a political hostage amongst the Lion and trained as a Matsu Berserker. Fully aware of the challenge that faced him right before the battle he'd secretly left his daisho behind with instructions that it was to be delivered to his betrothed should he fall. Armed only with his naginata he went into combat, which we played out using the mass battle rules. One of the rolls resulted in a skirmish invoking Okimoto, the group shugenja and 2 or 3 opposing samurai. It initially went well but the numbers, and a few exploding rolls started to take their toll. Keeping track of my wounds I knew how close I was to falling but retreat wasn't an option Okimoto would consider so the fight continued until the inevitable happened. I don't think anybody else in the group realised what had happened until I calmly announced I had fallen. The rest of the group survived and won the fight, restoring order and Imperial rule to the city. Okimoto's final wish, listed alongside his death haiku was to be remembered not as a Crane but as an Oriole, the Clan he was due to marry into should he have lived. That character death will stay with me for the simple reason that it fitted so well with the genre, samurai stories are often built around love and loss so it carried a lot of weight with it. Haven't had a chance to play L5R since but every time I run it I try to hew close to the genre elements that make the setting more than generic fantasy.
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SirGuido
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Posts: 2,127
Preferred Game Systems: L5R, Traveller, Fate Accelerated, Masks
Currently Playing: Nothing.
Currently Running: Nothing.
Favorite Species of Monkey: Anything in a Cage.
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Post by SirGuido on Feb 24, 2018 10:39:06 GMT -8
L5R has allowed me to have SO MANY interesting character deaths. Most of the deaths my characters had were purely my own choosing, and most not in combat.
My most interesting character death was Hida Kitsuga. It was in the Ryoko Owari box set I believe, many many years ago now. Kitsuga was quite a mental guy. One of his big things was finding new ways to fight, so he could bring interesting techniques back to the Wall to help defend the Empire. He was also a very devout Fortunist. Meaning he prayed to the Fortunes often for their blessings. One of the things he learned was something that was part of that box set, a technique being taught by a Dragon at he own dojo. The technique involved the ability to throw your wakizashi with quite a bit of accuracy. He was at her dojo anytime he was not on duty as a yoriki to the magistrate of the city.
Anyway, in this game the Emperor decided to hold his Winter Court in our city(which if you know anything of Ryoko Owari, is a supremely stupid idea). During court everyone was arrayed about the court chamber, listening as the Emperor proclaimed something or other, when Kitsuga saw something that no one else noticed. He noticed the telltale signs of the Taint upon one of the Emperor's 2 primary guards. So he watched the man dilligently, waiting for him to do something evil. Then he saw it, the guard(one of the only armed people in court)started pulling an obsidian tanto from his belt. That's when Kitsuga leaped into action and charged across the chamber, pulling the only weapon allowed to him in such a place his wakizashi, and hurled it with all his might.
He was tackled to the ground so he missed what transpired just then. His face squashed into the tatami matted floor all he heard was the Emperor's voice.
"I will accept his seppukku in the morning."
He was whisked off into a jail cell where he was informed that his wakizashi had struck true and killed the tainted guard who had the obsidian tanto raised to strike, but the blade also cut into the Emperor's arm.
So, in dishonor for harming the Son of Heaven, the following morning he made the 3 cuts and perished. Upon his death the Emperor stood and declared "Hida Kitsugi saved my life at the cost of his own honor and my blood. His deed has washed away this dishonor. For his duty I name him Fortune of Bushido."
So it was, that after his death Kitsugi rose into the Celestial Heavens and found himself in the company of all the Fortunes to whom he had prayed all his life.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2018 16:03:29 GMT -8
I love these stories. It'd be nice, I think, to compile them much like (and honestly better than) Unexpected Allies did back in the day.
Not quite a character death, but an interesting story from a game I ran many moons ago:
The PCs were gathered because they were descendants of heroic samurai who had defeated an ancient evil (no, not Fu Leng). The PCs were all related to this old troupe of bushi and shugenja and were summoned together. Amongst them, the infamous Yogo Onikage.
Yogo Onikage was a Yogo shugenja who had also trained with the Kuni Witch Hunters (this was before they came out about the Kuroiban/Black Watch). He was ugly, ornery, wore full heavy armor, and wore no mask (as his ancestor wore no mask). He also wore the Kuni witch hunter face paint.
During one battle, trying to prevent the use of a Black Scroll by Yogo Junzo, the player made creative use of the 'optional Void use' rules from the GM survival guide and spent his void points to 'get an audience with a family daimyo'. IE, to skirt through the combat, get into the tower and attempt to stop the ritual.
He was at ground zero when the scroll was destroyed.
A later campaign that that player ran, Onikage returned, tainted, evil and bent on destroying the Empire. A fitting foul villain, and a call back to a heroic character turned evil. Somehow, skipping ahead in the story, we ended up in Yomi and rode forth with the Blessed Guard into Jigoku to capture/rescue a soul not meant for there.
We returned only to discover we had found Yogo Onikage's soul. We briefed him on what his... other self... was doing, and he returned to the Empire to wage war upon himself. By doing that, we managed to open a second front on our war to return the Empire to its rightful state after the Scorpion Coup led to Hida Kisada being possessed by Fu Leng.
I love the tales. that's been forever ago, but it'll never go away
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Post by yojimbohawkins on Feb 27, 2018 5:01:26 GMT -8
I generally play Lions, so there are so many deaths. The most satisfying for me:
Kitsu Yobaru - A shugenja with the Imperial Legions, he gave his life in a lifecast to collapse a pass in the northern mountains to prevent a Yobanjin invasion (and prevent a TPK).
Akodo Akemi - Defeated her Crane (and Kolat) opponent in a duel defending a Lion outpost, only to discover she'd been infected by her opponent's poisoned blade, and died in a last stand holding the outpost gate against the Crane forces who dishonorably attacked anyway.
Ikoma Aterasi - an Ikoma Spymaster was fatally wounded in a nasty brawl in an alley in Otosan Uchi, whilst meeting one of his 'little birds'. He managed to make it back to the Lion quarters, breathing his last delivering a report to his sister (one of the other PC's).
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