[00:00:00] Speaker A: RPG Lessons Learned. When the game is over, when your players are gone, that's when lessons are learned.
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Hello.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Ah, everybody, and welcome to another star studded episode of RPG Lessons Learned, the show where you can learn from our mistakes.
I am Tanner, your host. And I am also here with Dusty, your main host. Dusty. What's good, man?
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Tanner, I am living the dream. We just played an rpg, one that I have long wanted to play. I have played First Edition actually with Martin one time. Um, I forgot about that. I recorded an episode about it a very long time ago. But we just finished playing 5th Edition Legend of the Five Rings. Is it 5th?
[00:00:59] Speaker B: It is 5th. No relation to 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Um, they just kind of happen to come out near the same time. But yes, the fifth Edition Fantasy Flight at one time I think they swapped owners. Now there's a whole big song and dance about that. But, um, fifth edition L5R with the, uh, with the funny dice and everything, man.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: I do think it's weird that 5e D&D, 5e L, 5R and 5e Vampire were all sort of part of the same quote unquote generation of games.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: That is interesting because they all started at pretty different times too. Oh, yeah, yeah. So that is interesting. I wonder if there's anything to learn there. But we learned a lot about ourselves and we, uh, we learned a lot about games and I think we had a pretty decent time.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: I had a great time. So I was the player, you were the gm.
I'm burning with curiosity. I don't, I obviously don't want to know the name because we're not finished with the adventure yet. But is this a published adventure or is this a Tanner original based on a village map?
[00:01:57] Speaker B: This is a published adventure. You can buy it. Uh, I won't spoil the title for you, but it is 31 pages long and yeah, it's, um. Well, I can. I'll spoil the title for you. It's not a spoiler. The adventure is called Sins of Regret.
Um, it's, uh, credited, uh, to a whole bunch of people at Fantasy Flight. Um, but expansion design and development is Tim Cox and Lisa Farrell, who are, uh, first credited on this. Um, I quite like it. We've played it kind of is in two halves and we've played through the first half and I'm very curious to see how the second half goes.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay, so we spent a good portion of our session. Rolling my character, despite the fact that. So I do own the beginner box of L5R 5E. I've owned it for many years. I bought it when it first came out, and I wouldn't venture to guess how many years ago that was. It's been sitting on my shelf collecting dust. I promised Tanner that I would crack the beginner box and read it to familiarize myself with the system. And like every true player, I did not do that at all. I did zero homework.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's okay. I forgive you. If I showed up to the table and all five of my players had done that, that would have been a little, um, I would have been a little incensed. But, um, I think the, the game has a lot of words to explain something that I find really pretty easy to explain.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Like.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Like it's almost like it's overwritten a little bit. I will say I'm going to be saying good and bad things about this role playing game. This thing is like the previous editions of L5R is a problematic fave of mine. Like, I really, really, really, really like this game. But at the same time I would acknowledge every single fault it has as being true and correct. Does that make sense?
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it does. I listeners to the show for a long time, you know, my friends, my literal, real, real life friends who listen to the show just to amuse me, appease me, would make me happy, be kind to me, whatever, will know that I've always been nervous about playing games that take place in sort of an eastern setting. Samurai, ninja, um, Wuxia, what's that called? Like the, yeah, Wu shit, kind of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon thing. The Chinese, uh, gaming, um, anything based, kind of Japan, China, Eastern quote unquote country.
I've always been a little weirded out by playing. I feel some ownership of western culture where I don't feel weird role playing a knight. But yeah, I also feel just weird about role playing a samurai.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: That's fair. I have done my battles with that privately and publicly, you know, in the past. I think I'm of the opinion now that like, if it's just me and you and we're just playing for ourselves, we're not uh, going out there harming anybody in real life about it. We're just, it's just a different setting. It's not where I don't think I'm anything I'm not, you know, and I think we both have pretty adult brains going into this and understanding the limitations and the uh, the criticisms as, uh, being valid and something to watch out for.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: I convince myself in this way, if, If a. If a medieval Knight from the 1300s watched me play D and D, they would feel as much disgust and disdain with me as the samurai would watching me play this game. So who cares?
[00:05:26] Speaker B: It's very funny. Yeah. You'd both be a heretic to them. Yeah, to both of them. Um, but going to the game. Yes. We did a character creation for the first M, maybe 80, 90 minutes, and then we played a session for about 80, 90 minutes. Um, the first half of the adventure. Let's talk about the character creation it has. It's the game of 20 questions questions which L5R really likes. And it's almost like a life path character creation system that I know you enjoy. Cyberpunk, uh, 2070, not the video game Cyberpunk Red.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: The one that we played had a life path character creation. So what is, uh, what do you think about that in the context of this game?
[00:06:10] Speaker A: I liked the 20 questions. Um, I did my usual crutch of picking a character from, uh, film or TV series that I like to essentially embody. I chose Duncan McCloud from the Highlander series, who is different from Conor McLeod of the Highlander movies. I chose Duncan McCloud to be.
To play as at the very end. We did gender flip him for fun. So now I'm playing, um, Kendon, um, instead of Duncan Kendon. Get it? Hilarious. I'm very funny. But, uh, I liked.
I seemed to surprise you with some of the choices. Like, you commented it was an interesting character, and I really think that's a benefit of picking a book or movie character to embody. I am not flirtatious in real life. Duncan absolutely is. So I rolled all these, like, not rolls. I chose these advantages and disadvantages that had to do with, like, being flirtatious and getting myself into trouble with husbands because I'm after their wives. And that's not something Dusty would do. And that's what role playing is all about, is kind of playing against type. How do you feel about me choosing Duncan McLeod to roll?
[00:07:20] Speaker B: I love it. Um, everything in Rokugan is, like, just different enough that it can be hard to, like, intuit a response to a situation. Like, you do kind of have to. And you and I are familiar with the setting at this point, um, to different levels. But, like, you know, every time there is a stimulus, almost you have to, like, run it through. What would Dusty do? And then you'd have to be like, what is the proper L5R thing to do, and I think that that can be really overwhelming. So having a character, an existing character from a franchise that you really love to ground it in, I think it was awesome. I mean, it worked for you last time when we played. And you were, um, Shredder.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Right. That's right. I played 4e as well. I played 1e with Martin, and I played 4e with you, and now 5e with you. This is my third foray into L5R, and I played an L5R adventure in 5e.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: That's, um, right.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: That I ran. So it's arguably my fifth foray into Rokugon, but my fourth using a true L5R system.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Yeah. But anyway, I'm. I am really a big fan of it. I. I know that I can see you having fun with it, and that makes me happy as a gm, so I'm all for it, man.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: Anything else about character creation? It took a while, but I was not bored at any point. Um, I do. I do feel.
Let, uh, me ask you this. Did I min Max or did I really go after flavor?
[00:08:44] Speaker B: Um, I think that. I think you did a good balance. I mean, you picked things that you thought would be advantageous to you, which I don't think is bad. That's just, like, how, uh, the game is played sometimes. But, I mean, like, you also were pretty true to your. You had this North Star that you revolved around that you said, well, this or that. I'm going to go. Whatever Duncan would. Would do, you know, and you pick something that would be most appropriate. And you came up with this. This cool backstory that is similar to the Highlander stuff, but obviously is different enough, uh, with its own flavor. You are tainted by the Shadowlands, which is awesome. I hope that comes up soon. Um, yeah, I don't know. I think that the game is pretty good at making you pick things that directly arm your character, but gives you a little consolation prize. Or it's like, hey, if you picked a master, you know, a character in your background that was your. Your mentor who led you down the wrong path, get a disadvantage, but you get an extra skill point because they taught you something you wouldn't have otherwise learned. Like, that kind of stuff I think is good. And I think the game design is good when it kind of makes you, you know, you can think you're playing optimally but still come up with a pretty wrinkled character.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: I do think, because I picked Duncan, I made several choices that revolved around combat, which is why I felt guilty about Min Maxing but I mean, Duncan is like a really, really good sword fighter, so.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's fine. It's samurai. It's about sword fighting.
There's any shame should be involved in there.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: I felt very happy when I won that duel. Should we talk about the duel? Like let's get into the game now. How do you want to bring up the adventure?
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Yeah, so I guess I'll kind of just narrate the summary of what's happened so far. Um, you've come across this village that seems to be suffering from an array of maladies, both perhaps supernatural and perhaps, um, mundane. And their taxes are being increased by their lord. Several different peasant villagers have different reactions. Some are more militant about they want to fight back against the samurai. And some are, um, seem to be doing their best to be underhanded about it maybe. And you are now riding off to the castle to see what's really going on and get more information before you kind of render judgment upon the situation. Is that fair?
[00:11:10] Speaker A: It is fair. And I think I also. What will befall this village if we slaughter the Daimyo and his men? Probably nothing good. We're going to leave a power vacuum. They're not going to have any more food. What I'd really like to do is shame the Daimyo and his men into doing what they're supposed to do. We're supposed to pay taxes to our government so that our governments, you know, protect us in times of need, in times of war, in times of disaster, in times of famine. But this government that I'm dealing with is demanding taxes and doing none of that protecting, solving none of the villages problems, doing nothing for the village's infrastructure. So I'd really rather shame the Daimyo into having his men protect the village and solve some of these problems.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: What do you think is going on?
What do you predict? You Dusty predict? Do you just not have enough information yet you feel like, or do you have a theory?
[00:12:01] Speaker A: I have a theory that this village was once, you know, strong. I think something's happened with the Daimyo. I think I'm going to show up and I'm not going to be allowed to talk to the real Daimyo. It's going to be someone else ruling in the Daimyo's place.
That person will be probably a hedonist of some kind. Probably more concerned with their own wealth and comfort than actually performing any duties and forgetting that, you know, with power comes responsibility. Um, I think if the Daimyo is there, they're going to Be like sickly or some. What's the guy's name? I'm not a Lord of the Rings fan. I kind of hate Lord of the Rings, but, you know, Lord of the Rings, there's that king that's been kind of sickened.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: And Wormtongue is in his. Is it Wormtongue? Yeah.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Brad Durif, my goat.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: There you go. I think I'm gonna find a situation like that. That's what I think.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: Okay, cool. I'm excited for you to, uh, to see what you, what you find. Um, yeah. So the duel. Yeah. You, um, you found a headstrong young villager. She is the village headman's daughter. And she very clearly seems militant about the situation, like we have to fight back because otherwise we're getting starved to death.
And you challenged her to a duel to say, hey, if you're going toe to toe with a warrior, this is what you're going to be dealing with. And.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: And I, in one strike, ended the duel and was very flirtatious about it because that's, that's what Duncan would. What would Duncan do? Wwdd. What would Duncan do?
She, uh, was not interested in my advances, but I, I dropped that. I'm no longer gonna pursue her because Duncan wouldn't.
But I would still like to like, empower her, train her, because I think she is on the side of right.
But might is going to take her down.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: I love it, man. Um, so that's kind of the story of what's happened. What do you think of the system that is the big sticking point. Would it be. I'm going to make some assertions at you and you have to answer them, true or false. Okay, Dusty, go for it.
D20 based games with 6 stats are your comfort. Are your home.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Yes.
Yes.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: You think that dice with funny symbols are either stupid or perhaps not worth the time it takes to figure out what the heck's going on with them.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: I don't think it's stupid. I think it's very smart of the gaming company to require customers buy special dice for your system from you and not use everyone else's generic numbered polyhedra. I don't think it's stupid. I think it's very, very clever. I do think it's necessary, by and large.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Now, having played this, do you think this game would work with regular dice?
[00:14:39] Speaker A: Do not. My opinion is softening. I don't know why I had this impression of pictograms on dice.
There being like so many pictograms that it's Kind of unreasonable and comprehensible. And I think I got that from. He's a, he's a renowned designer. Paul Ceers. C Z E R G E I think I backed this Kickstarter like 15 years ago called the Clay that woke about playing as Minotaur. And I got the system and it's just kind of incomprehensible and it's all these tokens and pictograms and I'm like, uh, oh, whatever. So I have this impression that funny dice, like the pictograms are just kind of like really hard to interpret. It's like, it's like the old woman and the chicken bones from the 13th Warrior. It's like I could throw these bones and then say whatever bullshit I wanted is what I thought I was getting into. But the successes, the exploding successes, the opportunities and the strife actually aren't that overwhelming in play so far.
So I'm not hating it.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: Okay. I want to give you a big props. I kind of started this accusatorily in a friendly way, but I think like stepping outside your comfort zone, which, let's be honest, our gaming in the past year or so has been pretty comfort zone gaming. We're running OSR stuff, we're crawling dungeons, we have a little diversion here and there, but I mean like we're. We found a groove. Right. And we picked ourselves up out of the groove. Mainly you because you had not played this before and you found some cool stuff to like about the game. Right. You uh, you ordered the spicy thing off the menu this time and you ended up kind of liking it. Right?
[00:16:15] Speaker A: Yeah. You know the jerk chicken is delicious.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: It is. And I don't mean to infantilize you or anything to say, to say that, but like it is cool that there is still stuff to be found in your gaming career. You know what I mean?
[00:16:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And I don't feel infantilized. I think we often talk about real life encroaching on gaming and I rarely talk about my real life. Um, but I do have quite a professional job. I do have quite a stressful job. I do have a 13 year old daughter, I do have a wife that I love and all of these things demand my time and attention.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: So you're a busy daimyo.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: There you go. And comfort zone, um, relaxation, comfort zone media like movies that I've seen before shows that I know that I like rereading a book that I enjoy sometimes that comfort zone is a purer form of escape and routine. And it just feels like why in my stressful life would I take on the stress of, you know, a weird RPG system, but then you find, you know, the right person to go to the restaurant with and try the jerk chicken where it doesn't feel stressful. And then it's like, okay, well, let me, let me give this a fair shake. I don't feel stressed. I think I can handle this.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: Awesome. That makes me really happy because that, that speaks to.
Not only, um, you know, that speaks to our relationship as friends. And I. And I want to say that I appreciate that, that you trust me enough to. To jump into this.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Um.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: One of the best things that I found about this game that I really adore and that we just kind of started to scratch the surface of is the approaches in this game in that every skill can be approached in one of five ways that is symmetrical kind of to the five rings that you have. Like, there is a water approach to a situation, there is a fire, an air approach to a situation. And did that leave much of an impression on you?
[00:18:10] Speaker A: I thought at first, because water is my highest ring, I thought at first I was going to make everything water.
But then as I role played Duncan or Kindun and I started to like tell off the samurai for not doing their duty and expecting payment despite, I found myself suddenly in the earth ring instead of the water ring. And I felt like, no, I'm. It's mechanically disadvantageous to me, but I'm committed to it. Um, I like looking at this very large 5 by 5 menu of 25 approaches because I don't see it as like 5 ways to approach. I see it as like 25 approaches to a situation. And I enjoy looking at this menu and picking the like three or four that Kindun would be most likely to use.
So long way to say I like it.
Cool.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: I really like it for that reason as well that it like it kind of forces you out of your slot. You know, like for example, you have your highest ring is water, but you are making an earth argument. So like it forced you to kind of through your role play to do something different.
But I also like that if water is your highest stat and you want to power game and just roll water, you have to be charming. Like you have to role play as it as charming. Otherwise me, the GM M, I'd say, really, you're kind of trying to trick this guy. That's more air. And you could say, okay, let me rephrase to make it more water. And like, I think that's a valid way to play it. It Might seem kind of scummy, but like it's the mechanics of the game dictating how your character comes across. You know what I mean?
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Yeah. And I like having both options. Like, I'm going to try to be. If I find. If I don't find the theater situation and I do find the Daimyo, oh, I'm going to turn up the charm Daimyo.
Um, but I'm going to keep trying to reason with them and shame them if I find anything else, probably. And I like that.
I like that that choice is rooted in the story and the character.
[00:20:09] Speaker B: Yeah. One kind of controversial thing about this game, and I want to get your opinion on this, is that in role playing games, in traditional role playing games, we often have control over the way our character thinks and feels and acts. But in this game, there are very specific mechanical things like strife or being compromised or unmasking, which has not come up yet, but which might. Which the game says your character feels strife about this. How do you feel about like the game or me as the GM or the dice affecting your characters point of view? Are you okay with that or.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: I am okay with it. I kind of, I feel like strive for social hit points and D and D tells me when I lose hit points.
So why shouldn't L5R tell me when I lose social hit points and I don't own a copy. I have not gotten any PDFs of it. Uh, but there's this alien role playing game. I think it's by Modiphis, but I forget who it is. I've seen a Seth Sporkowski video of it and there's a similar mechanic of like accruing kind of panic. And that's meant to emulate. Hey, this is a horror movie where you're accumulating tension. And I love, like we can think of the, the Kurosawa samurai films, but we can also think frankly of an old, like a wild western movie where there's this tense gunfighting scene and all of a sudden there's these Sergio Leone type shots going from this gunfighter's eyes to that gunfighter's, uh, eyes to that gunfighter's gun and his twitching finger.
I like, I like, I like. The strife is kind of modeling who moves first, who breaks the tension first, who panics first. I dig it. I have no issues with it.
[00:21:54] Speaker B: It also kind of models that in social situations too. If you want to look for more melodrama or soap opera even, like it determines which character sheds a tear first, which character has had Enough and just has to spout out what the hell's going on here? Like it models that too really nicely. I just didn't know. And that was one of my bigger fears going into this game. I actually didn't know. Your opinion on the game tells me what my character is thinking. But I think you kind of have to imagine that in OSR gaming, I feel very much like our character. Like your character in an OSR game that I'm running for you is you Dusty avatar to interact with this world.
But in Legend of the Five Rings, it almost seems like your character is a really cool action figure that we're playing with and telling a story about, as opposed to it being you. You think that or am I getting too up, uh, my butt about this?
[00:22:54] Speaker A: I still feel like I'm embodying kindun. Like it's a skin that I'm wearing.
But how do I put this?
Yeah, I just feel like it's. I have physical hit points and now I have social hit points too. It doesn't change my attempt to immerse myself in the character and think, what would Kendun or what would Duncan. What would Duncan McLeod do?
[00:23:17] Speaker B: I like it. Um, we've been very nice to the system and, um, you've been very nice to me so far. Any criticisms to either our experience or the game or the story that you'd have so far?
[00:23:28] Speaker A: I would not play this with. I will never run this.
I am. Maybe it's because where I am in my life, I'm over. I'm over 350 page rule books. I am over having to wade through over 100 pages of options or, you know, five pages of options with very lengthy descriptions just to answer one of the 20 questions and then five more pages of options with very lengthy descriptions to answer another question.
I'm over systems that are that long.
So will I enjoy playing this with you, who is already an expert? Yes.
Will I go purchase copies of the L5 R5E Core Rulebook and run a campaign myself?
No.
Will I be inspired by this to go seek a rules Light Samurai system to have some of the same fun or look for some of the same mechanics like social hit points? Probably.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: Actually, I think that there's like a really great 40 page version of this game inside this book somewhere. You know, if you could trim this down, like there's a lot of stuff and it is a very. I think you get your money's worth from. From this book. There's a lot of page count and beautiful art and like you said, it is a 350 page traditional rule book. I think somewhere hiding in this big lump of marble is a perfect, beautiful 30 page version of the system that, like, almost like you run the vampire like, or the Pathfinder beginner box rules or the Vampire quick start rules like. I think that if they made like a very light version of this game, I think I would be all over that and I think I would have fun with that forever. But yeah, this game is a little cumbersome. I would say it's a little unwieldy, but I like it.
Anything, um, else you want to add? Um, what would you rate this session on a scale of 1 to 10? Jeez. We usually do that at the top.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: Oh, man, I had a lot of fun. I told I'd call it. I'd call it a seven.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: I, uh, A lot of it was character creation, but that's fine. I had fun with character creation.
I find myself not rating it an 8 or a 9 or a 10 because I feel frustration and not at, uh, not knowing what's going on. But this is the kind of frustration that I will, that will grow on me and I will feel better about this when we conclude the adventure and I do find out what was going on the whole time. Like, all of a sudden I feel better about the session. But right now I'm in a state of like, agitation and suspense because the story's not over. So it's affecting my rating, but it's also doing what games should do, and it's making me feel emotional.
[00:26:03] Speaker B: I guess I did kind of stop the Godfather halfway through the movie and be like, what do you think was rated on the scale of 1 to 10? You haven't finished the movie yet? I don't know yet.
[00:26:12] Speaker A: What do you think? I guess you have to be careful how you answer this to avoid spoilers.
Did I do anything that you feel was surprising or that the adventure was unprepared for?
[00:26:22] Speaker B: No. And I was really worried about that. Uh, this adventure is not organized in such a way that makes sense to my brain. So I had to retype out, uh, some stuff, make an outline for myself and really read through it. So I was really pretty anxious about running this adventure. And also I've hyped up this game to you. I'm like, Dusty, I really think we should play it. So if I blew it, I think I would have felt really bad about it. But I'm glad it doesn't seem like I blew it because you did have a good time with it, um, I would say of the stuff that is in this part of the adventure, you may be interacted with 30% of it, which is totally fine. A lot of it is like, here's a bunch of stuff going on. What is of interest to you? And then this isn't a spoiler, but the adventure is like, when it seems like the right time, the tax collector should come and move the story forward. So I, uh, kind of felt like that was the moment to do it, and that's what I did. So, yeah, like I said, there's other stuff to find here, but you did not miss out on anything huge. Um, I think your experience with it was totally, totally valid and, um, you know, a good introduction to what the adventure is about.
[00:27:35] Speaker A: Can I tell you what I hope happens?
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: Without it, uh, affecting how you run the next session.
[00:27:42] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: This feels like, to me like this. All the bad things have been set up, and now what I kind of hope happens. Hope. Hope is I go talk to the Daimyo. And the Daimyo is like, you're right, we should solve some of these problems. But you're also a jerk and you're being rude to me. So actually I'm going to make you solve the problems. You go figure out what's in the woods, and then I go figure out what's in the woods and I report back to the Daimyo. And the Daimyo is like, all right, now you figure out what's going on with the water commie. Um, I'm kind of hoping I get missions and like, get paid and I. And I go back into the village to solve some of the issues. I don't think it's going to go that way though. But that's what I'm hoping. That would be a really fun campaign
[00:28:20] Speaker B: is be my troubleshooter because I'm incompetent. Kind of.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: I mean, isn't. Yeah. I mean. Yes.
That feels like a lot of D and D adventures today. Yes.
[00:28:31] Speaker B: Yeah. A lot of L5R games I've run too, for sure.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: But I also want to kill Ren. Um, the former Ronin who I know for sure in my heart of hearts has murdered Imperial Samurai. Mhm.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: All will be revealed. Um, and I hope you have a good time with what comes next. So, um, yeah, I had a great time running it. Man, it feels good to be back in the L5R seat. It really, really does. This is my favorite setting and. And world. And I think the adventure is pretty decent too. And this time we're only gonna have to wait a week before we play again.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: I think I.
[00:29:03] Speaker B: Great.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: Can't wait. Is this your favorite edition of L5R?
[00:29:08] Speaker B: Um, I think I played so much. Okay, so I've only ever played fourth edition and this one I have a lot of fondness for 4th edition but I have played so much of it and I'm so intimate with all of its failings that I don't want to go back to it. So yes, this is my favorite edition of L5R just because I don't feel like I've fallen out of love with it yet. You know, um, just my background. I've run probably around 20 sessions of this game. I did a 10 session campaign like four or five years ago. So even through that 10 session campaign, I mean I was finding new things to like about this game that whole time. But yeah, I do like it. I do think it would be improved if this was a 30 page book instead of a 350 page book. But you know it is the type of game it is and um, I'm excited to play some more with you.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: Would you play one?
[00:29:59] Speaker B: I don't know that much about one. This is what I know. I know that two was like very crossed over with like 3.0 D&D or like AD&D. Wasn't that?
[00:30:10] Speaker A: I have no idea.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: And I know third edition is very similar to fourth edition and fourth edition kind of cleaned up a lot of stuff that third edition had. And then 5e is what we're playing now. I've never played it. I don't know anything about it. I play Kaigaku with you though.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: I would love to run Kaigaku but I have a ton of L5R 1E books that would be fun to play with at some point. Very cool.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: If you're ever downsizing, let me know. I'll take them off your hands for you.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: Oh we'll do.
[00:30:38] Speaker B: I've got listeners can't see but Dusty can see. All that shelf up there is all just my L5R stuff.
[00:30:46] Speaker A: Do you have any oney?
[00:30:48] Speaker B: I do not have uh, I might have like Night of a Thousand Screams and like that, that kind of stuff but none of the core books or anything like that. I've small selection for it.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: I think we are leading toward a conclusion. What lessons did we. Is the lesson learned? Be open minded about funky dice or is there some broader wisdom you can draw from that?
[00:31:07] Speaker B: I have two lessons uh, that I jotted down during our conversation. Lesson number one. Yeah, try something new you might like the jerk Chicken. And it's fine if you would never go and order it for yourself, but if you're going out to the restaurant with your bud tan and, uh, he says it's good and he could take you to a good spot, I think it's okay to try something new. But I think the hesitance to try it for the reasons that you said, we all did live busy lives and we want some comfort gaming, I think that's absolutely valid too. But, you know, just a balance. Have a little moderation in your moderation and try and get out and try something new.
[00:31:44] Speaker A: And what was the second lesson?
[00:31:45] Speaker B: The second lesson I have is fricking pick an existing character. Because it works. It works every time. And I don't do this for some reason. I think I have some sort of complex that, like, I really want to be original. I'm not a stealer, kind of gm, or if I am, I really have to repackage it like I would. And this isn't Satan judgment, but, like, I would never do the thing that you do where, like, you just run an adventure that's a movie, and then the players pick up on it eventually.
I'd be mortified if that happened to me. Um, but that's my own. That's my own complex. That's not a judgment on yours. So I think the next time I play a character, I'm going to challenge myself to pick an existing character and root everything in them.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: And I think it results in me making more original choices. I think I would try to roll Batman in every system that I ever played if I made. If I was trying really hard to be original. Yeah. Um, I think. I think picking a character who's very different than. I mean, Belloq is nothing like Duncan is nothing like Carrot Iron Funderson from Discworld. So, like, every one of these characters are quite different from each other.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: Excellent. Anything you want to add?
[00:32:59] Speaker A: No, I think we've got it. I am really looking forward to more.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: Yes. And I will see you next week, and we'll, uh, we'll play some more, and we'll get to the bottom of what's going on in Closed Shell Castle.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: Oh, thank you for listening.
People call them reviews, postmortems, retrospectives.
We call them lessons learned, and we're sharing ours with you.
