Omg MLP
Funnily enough MLP reminds me of another L5R player/ friend I know who was CRAZY about them - although oddly enough she plays crane mostly haha
So, first, V's usual questions.
My favourite scene with Prash - this one is tough. REALLY tough. I liked many scenes and many things about this game, as I've said a few times. So I'll go and say quite a few things here...
I really liked pretty much all the 'team Uni' scenes in Part 1, drinking,
not really stealing Sake, fighting
not really ninja, and the market excursion on the last day - which I'd say set the scene for some things in Part 2.
I also
loved the scenes with Nesrin
and Jiro in Part 2 - those were emotionally deep and really defining for Prash, and would have made the game for me if nothing else had.
The fight scenes Prash was in were really fun too - and that last fight was
tense! Prash is never too far from the frontline, and he was really worried he might lose a friend there...
Also, although some of the events weren't so deep RP-wise, a number of posts in some of them were really fun and/ or deep and/ or interesting. I particularly liked the
Artistry event here in Part 2 - lots of nice and well thought-out pieces of poetry, as well as many really interesting descriptions there! I enjoyed that greatly. And despite the misgivings some people had with the
Extra Credit event in Part 1, some descriptions there were really fun, and I found the final scene with the Miya there was really touching to me - the 'trust without words' and the 'balance instead of competition' there really made sense for how I had been envisioning Prash, so it was a defining moment. Thanks for that, Wyn!
But all that said, I'll go with two other, maybe 'minor' scenes for favourites.
One was
this scene with Aiichiro in part 1. I haven't had so many scenes with Aii, so that one moment to connect was really interesting. Also - I was in a tight spot IRL at the time, and re-reading some things about the buddhist view of suffering and so on while doing that thread had a strong positive impact for me.
And then, for Part 2, I"d say the
Fire! event. I mean, there are some design things there that might have been different, we beat it quickly and all, but: a) it made a lot of logical sense after what happened the day before, which b) made it even more significant for those of us who had been in the Bar Fight; and then c) even if the event had been beat fast, there was quite some space for heroism there - that scene with Ichiro was brilliant, and it read like a life-changing moment for his character. And of course, also d) Wyn mapping all sources of water, then pretty much changing the course of the river to go through the city, and the resulting changes to spellcasting, all that was HILARIOUS, and actually quite immersive. I LOVED all that, and it made the event into something memorable despite players beating it qiuckly.
For my preferred scene
without Prash - I have actually not had as much time to read through everything as I'd liked, but:
- the
Goblin Attack from Part 1 (Prash was kinda involved in that background RP thread, but not in the fight itself) was kinda tense and had some fantastic, if unusual strategy, and
Ginkarasu completely oblivious to it all and trying to practice right at that time was just brilliant and made me laugh hard!
- for Part 2, there were a few interesting things going on which I read through only part-way (i.e. stuff to do before Part 3! yay), and all the little romance bits that made this pretty much into a Shoujo were/ are really fun to read through. But I'll have to go with
Moto Ichiro and Otomo Nobuko's duel. I didn't expect that at all, and her winning made it all the more awesome!
Phew, that was long-winded. Sorry!
So
Utaku Nesrin wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2020 11:07 am
Otherwise, we've chatted enough that most of my IC questions have been answered, other than things that may be hanging in a scene.
Ever regret doing a Meishodo shugenja rather than a more traditional one? I have not yet played one, myself and am curious what your impressions are of the experience.
I know right? But it's been fun too : ) I hope to keep in contact at least a bit. And hoping to hop into some other games too!
But for the question:
I think it's only my second time playing a Shugenja in a PbP - iirc I played a 4e Kitsune quite a while ago, and I think I've had to drop out of that game midway. So... my experience with Shugenjas in general in PbP is somewhat limited. But that said: I thought the experience would be quite different from playing a traditional shugenja from the time I read the changed School. Not being able to cast spells normally at ALL is something completely new, and it actually
feels new and different, in a number of ways.
Not being able to call Raises at all was a great challenge in some senses. I mean, Path to Inner Peace becomes pretty much useless at Rank 1, and it's not bound to be very useful until we hit Rank 3 or 4, depending on how high one's Water Ring is. In a way, your character can do some stuff, you know what that stuff is, and you're not gonna get
more out of what she can do with magic by spending a VP or getting lucky with a roll. That might even be a bit frustrating at times, but I knew what to expect since the start of the game, so I tried to build Prash in a way that would make sense with that. I mean, I've got Jujutsu 5 for him, because I thought in some cases it might be more useful to actually go ahead and fight if my usual tricks wouldn't be much help.
On the other hand, your tricks ALWAYS work - no questions asked, regardless of Wound Ranks or anything else - and they go off in 1 round. So there IS a positive side, and that positive side is actually great.
In the actual fights, I ended up pretty much 'always' deciding to cast something, I think every round. And in that last fight, being able to cast ML2 spells AND Fire Spells reliably after being down to a -10 and regardless of the extra Raise usually needed for Fire spells was a real boon.
All in all, I've found it pretty fun and refreshing. And... I've got plans for Prash for Part 3, and even for Part 4 if the game gets there and Prash reaches there alive. That Jujutsu 5 is gonna get used at some point, AND I plan on making him 'more' tanky and adding some tricks to his repertoire. Let's see! It will be fun to fight alongside Nes and the other Uni again (maybe including Dao now!
)
so that leaves me Ginger...