Creation:This years Topaz Championship is sure to be quite the spectacle. Observers from all over the Empire had gathered, as in the previous year, 1122, Agasha Sumiko had hand selected a number of students throughout the Empire to take place in a special intensive training. Now, all of those students have been invited to the Topaz Championship to complete their Gempuku ceremony and compete with the "normal" students of the Empire...
-We will be using ALL Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition books.
-Characters are between the age of 14-16.
-Please familiarize yourself with the New Winds Campaign rules/errata/changes, which can be found Here
-Please look over the cost adjustments found here which have been implemented due to campaign Lore choices.
-Please follow the Banned Advantages and Disadvantages
-Regardless of actual Insight Rank, ALL Characters are considered Insight Rank 1 for the purposes of Spell selection, Initiative, School Techniques, or any other mechanic that references Insight Rank.
-No Lore or setting information outside of what Fantasy Flight Games has published is considered canon, and should not be referenced. This means that the AEG 4th edition RPG books should only be referenced for mechanics (Or, you can use the forum, a list of references can be found Here Outside sources like the L5R Wiki/Google should not be used. Instead, you can find all the information on Setting/Lore either in the Fantasy Flight Games 5th Edition L5R RPG books, Novellas, fictions, and LCG, or use this link Here
-As a reminder, to create a character, first start with a 2 in all traits/rings. Then start with all of your school skills. add your family and School trait bonuses, and gain your School Outfit, starting honor, and Rank 1 technique. Finally, you start with 1.0 Status and 1.0 Glory.
To increase a Trait, the cost is (in order, so from 2-3, not 2-4) the new rank x4. Void is the new rank x6.
To increase a skill, it costs the rank you are purchasing it, in order (so 0-1 would be 1, but 0-2 would be 3.)
Emphasis (which allows you to reroll 1s when the emphasis applies) costs 2 per emphasis.
Memorization of spells costs xp equal to the spells Mastery Level
Kata cost their mastery level in XP and can only be purchased if you meet the Mastery requirements and have a Bushi tag.
Kiho have special prices, and can only be purchased by those who qualify for them
There is no limit to how many advantages you can purchase,
You can gain a total of +10 xp from disadvantages. You may take more disadvantages than +10, but the remaining bonus XP is lost as 10 is the limit.
Returning Characters:
-Characters who participated in New Winds, Part 1(Ended the game with 265xp spent) gain +25XP.
-Additionally, they may purchase Advantages as if this were Character Creation
-Finally, returning characters may earn an additional bonus XP equal to the amount they did not gain from Disadvantages in New Winds Part 2, to a limit of +10. (For example, if a character in New Winds, Part 1 had +5xp from disadvantages, they may earn another +5. If they had +2 in New Winds Part 1, they may earn another +8
-Characters over the period of time between Part 1 and Part 2 may have gone through their clan's own Gempuku, but since they have been invited to the Topaz Championship, they have not been allowed to pick their adult name yet. Additionally, all weapons are forbidden to be carried by the students to any training event and must be left behind in their rooms.
New Characters:
-New characters get 290XP and may earn +10 additional from Disadvantages
-No EXPY characters, meaning do not make a carbon copy of an existing character in literature, TV, movies, anime, etc. You can draw inspiration from them, but they should be noticeably different
-Characters will be from a family from the Approved Family list.
--Note: Yogo characters must select the Bad Fortune: Yogo Curse disadvantage. They do not gain any bonus XP for this disadvantage.
--Note: Imperial family members start at Status 1.5.
-Characters will select a school from the Approved School List (The schools for the most part are all found in the L5R 4th ed books, but have some changes. There are also a few new schools that I have created using 5th edition L5R as inspiration)
-New Mechanic: Bonds are being used Link
-Ancestors and Heritage Tables are not being used.
((The following is borrowed from the Hollow Throne campaign setting, courtesy of Mindshred))
Background Considerations
If you wish to form connections to another PC before the game begins, please keep in mind that real life events might force either yourself or the other person to drop. It is perfectly fine to make a character that has exchanged letters to another or who has encountered another character before, but please do not set up things in such a way that if your partner drops, your character will lose their motivation (and visa versa).
Application Process
Once the character is finished, send the completed character sheet and background to liarastavlo@gmail.com. Then, register an account on this site under your character's name. All character sheets should follow the format listed below; those that do not will be returned unread and unapproved.
Once we've looked over your character, we'll activate your account and send you an email. We won't be starting the game until August 1st, but OOC boards will be open for discussion as well as a potential Pre Game.
Your private forum is yours to use as you see fit. It is the easiest way to contact and hold discussions with the GMs, but it can also be used to make notes about the game in general.
Posting Colors
We would ask that when you speak in character, you do so in quotation marks, without using colored text.
The one exception to this is when your character is speaking in a non-Rokugani language, such as Yobanjin or Nezumi, in which case we would ask that you use colored text to differentiate between the two languages. Placing a note in your signature to note what colors you will be using for non-Rokugani languages would also be appreciated.
Signatures
Your signatures should include your Status, Glory, and current Honor Rank (ie, Untrustworthy, Exceptional, etc), as well as your schools tags (Artisan, Courtier, etc) Additionally, please include your Topaz points.
You should also include any obvious advantages or disadvantages that would be readily noticeable by other characters, such as Lame or Missing Arm, though you are free to include non-noticeable advantages or disadvantages at your discretion. Flavor traits are also perfectly acceptable.
Finally, please include a list of items that your character carries around with them in your signature, so that we might easily determine which items your character may or may not have on their person at any given time. This will be important if you're ambushed by a Grue.
Note that nearly all samurai (including courtiers and shugenja) carry their wakizashi with them wherever they go, as it is symbolic of their honor as members of the samurai caste. Whereas the katana is removed upon entering a home, the wakizashi almost never leaves the side of a samurai and is one of the few weapons that can be worn in court or in the presence of the Emperor.
If your character dies, please do not delete your signature. It makes things confusing for people who read through threads after the game is over. Adding a note about the day you died is perfectly acceptable, and it has become common practice to grayscale a dead character's avatar.