The Influence Game
Introduction
Legend of the Five Rings has always been a game about both politics and battle, and there are schools, techniques, and skills that work in both areas of endeavor. However, it is still based on traditional RPG play.
In most role-playing games, the combat game is well-developed. Over a string of one fight or many fights separated by periods of investigation and discovery, the good guys determine who the correct bad guy is and then fight them, taking their health points down to zero and killing them. They may have to kill one or many opponents to get to the end of the goal they are attempting to reach, but their gains are cumulative: each enemy they slay is fewer they need to face until they reach the end. Then you can loot the bodies of those you killed or receive recognition for the deaths you have inflicted, advancing your character in strength. On the way, you feel like you are making progress.
The combat game also has a terminal endpoint that relies on the players being the good guys (in general). Most players are disinclined to have their characters killing other good or innocent people. The game is constructed that the enemies of the player characters are truly evil and need to be vanquished by the player characters.
However, the accomplished endpoint of political 'games' is not death, even in L5R. Often the people you are trying to persuade are simply ignorant of a threat and need to persuaded to act on it. Political accomplishments might gain your character personal credits or favors of various types, but do not necessarily further your party in its overall quest. In past versions of L5R, political challenges were managed with simple dice rolls, modified by a few school techniques that had benefits in and out of a specific political challenge. If you were ever opposed in a plot-important piece of social conflict, the ones opposing you were, by default, in the wrong and therefore bad guys. And if opponents 'persuaded' or manipulated the player characters, especially in Player vs Player, the fun factor of the game is diminished greatly as people are compelled by dice rolls to act in a way other than what they think is fitting for their character. This even raises thorny questions of consent, such as when a character is seduced against their player's will.
In 5th Edition L5R, FFG has introduced a host of new shuji, or political techniques, broadened political skills, and redesigned political schools, and even introduced a social combat mechanic, to broaden the L5R political conflict game. However, these changes in the end make the problem more apparent: Unlike for combat, there is no threshold or loot mechanic in any version of L5R.
The goal of this section is to offer rules for the Influence Game, by which player groups and individual players and GMs can easily frame up and achieve goals in a political game. The Influence Game should work for both 4th and 5th edition L5R and potentially other editions if desired. Total cost estimates are given for both 4th and 5th Edition L5R.
The Influence Game
Credit for the ideas used here goes to Shannon Kalvar, who developed them for L5R 4th Edition in this PDF:
Introduction
Legend of the Five Rings has always been a game about both politics and battle, and there are schools, techniques, and skills that work in both areas of endeavor. However, it is still based on traditional RPG play.
In most role-playing games, the combat game is well-developed. Over a string of one fight or many fights separated by periods of investigation and discovery, the good guys determine who the correct bad guy is and then fight them, taking their health points down to zero and killing them. They may have to kill one or many opponents to get to the end of the goal they are attempting to reach, but their gains are cumulative: each enemy they slay is fewer they need to face until they reach the end. Then you can loot the bodies of those you killed or receive recognition for the deaths you have inflicted, advancing your character in strength. On the way, you feel like you are making progress.
The combat game also has a terminal endpoint that relies on the players being the good guys (in general). Most players are disinclined to have their characters killing other good or innocent people. The game is constructed that the enemies of the player characters are truly evil and need to be vanquished by the player characters.
However, the accomplished endpoint of political 'games' is not death, even in L5R. Often the people you are trying to persuade are simply ignorant of a threat and need to persuaded to act on it. Political accomplishments might gain your character personal credits or favors of various types, but do not necessarily further your party in its overall quest. In past versions of L5R, political challenges were managed with simple dice rolls, modified by a few school techniques that had benefits in and out of a specific political challenge. If you were ever opposed in a plot-important piece of social conflict, the ones opposing you were, by default, in the wrong and therefore bad guys. And if opponents 'persuaded' or manipulated the player characters, especially in Player vs Player, the fun factor of the game is diminished greatly as people are compelled by dice rolls to act in a way other than what they think is fitting for their character. This even raises thorny questions of consent, such as when a character is seduced against their player's will.
In 5th Edition L5R, FFG has introduced a host of new shuji, or political techniques, broadened political skills, and redesigned political schools, and even introduced a social combat mechanic, to broaden the L5R political conflict game. However, these changes in the end make the problem more apparent: Unlike for combat, there is no threshold or loot mechanic in any version of L5R.
The goal of this section is to offer rules for the Influence Game, by which player groups and individual players and GMs can easily frame up and achieve goals in a political game. The Influence Game should work for both 4th and 5th edition L5R and potentially other editions if desired. Total cost estimates are given for both 4th and 5th Edition L5R.
The Influence Game
Credit for the ideas used here goes to Shannon Kalvar, who developed them for L5R 4th Edition in this PDF:
| influence_and_the_courts_of_rokugan.pdf |
