I'd keep it in clan, personally.

If you were to do Crab clan Kuni family, as domain game & corruption fighters, I would focus on the shugenja head family, Kuni, their cultist infiltrator vassal family Meishozo, and their monster catcher vassal family Ugawari.

Here, just visit the L5r Wikia and spec out some ideas:
L5R Wikia, Crab families.

Hida are the crass, battle hardened deciding clan head.
Hiruma were homeless during Clan War, and are great scouts.
Kuni are the mysterious magic users and witch hunters.
Kaiu are the wall builders and engineers.
Yasuki are the merchant traders and nominal courtiers.

Too many big family names will really shift the dynamic of your daimyo domain game and get you embroiled in to too much byzantine politics.  it gets even worse when you start mixing different clans, as parties go nuts and try to etiquette TPK themselves on their first meeting. Keep things smaller and focused first.

Crab is also a great clan to go with because they have a lot of diversity. Last I checked, they have more schools written than any other clan (checked again, apparently Unicorn leads the way now, though Crab has the second most).

I'd probably go for a 4 player group with something like:

2 from the following: Hida Bushi/Pragmatist, Hiruma Bushi/Scout(depending on timeline/desires), Kuni Witchhunter, Kaiu Engineer
1 Kuni Shugenja
1 Yasuki Merchant

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;809645It isn't really a successful L5R campaign until someone does something grandly idiotic because they place ritualized clan honor above such petty concerns as self-preservation, long term planning or basic human kindness.

So true!

I personally like that about L5R. It helps explain the wildly bad decisions that have shaped their empire and history. All that keeps the Shadowlands at bay is that the Crab are psycho-excellent warriors and if the Empire ever got its shit together and unified, the Shadowlands could be beaten back to nothing...but that won't happen because the ritualized honor system that dominates the culture is so ultimately self-destructive.

Quote from: Spinachcat;810118So true!

I personally like that about L5R. It helps explain the wildly bad decisions that have shaped their empire and history. All that keeps the Shadowlands at bay is that the Crab are psycho-excellent warriors and if the Empire ever got its shit together and unified, the Shadowlands could be beaten back to nothing...but that won't happen because the ritualized honor system that dominates the culture is so ultimately self-destructive.

Actually the shadowlands taint is pretty vicious from 1e. The game has gotten progressively (I'm tempted to say exponentially) absurd over the CCG expansion sets. 4e looks pretty, but I am in no way interested in the selectable canon and school/rules bloat since SCC & Clan War.

My favorite time in canon is actually not long after the Clan Wars. Mantis as a great clan, and after we get the Scorpion back, though weakened.

Everything in the whole Clan War arc felt natural. Everything after that is varying levels of "WTF".

Oh look Hida Yakamo and Mirumoto Hitomi became the Sun and Moon! Oh, now lets change that immediately afterwards "because"!

(Actually, I was ok with the storyline having them become the Sun and Moon, it was INTERESTING, but then throwing it back out almost immediately was just like "why did we do this in the first place if it changes nothing")

Quote from: Emperor Norton;810127My favorite time in canon is actually not long after the Clan Wars. Mantis as a great clan, and after we get the Scorpion back, though weakened.

Good choice, although this is also the period when the Phoenix are decimated. Like, seriously decimated (I played the card game, the core set immediately after the war had only about 3 Phoenix personalities to everyone else's 12). This can be cool if you like the "rise from the ashes" vibe, but I personally felt the political setting was awkward when the religious conservative clan was sidelined.

Quote from: Emperor Norton;810127Everything in the whole Clan War arc felt natural. Everything after that is varying levels of "WTF".

Agreed, but looking past the excesses of the larger meta-plot I preferred some of the retcons and new ideas that came about at this time. Despite the occasional nonsense like "Scorpion wander the desert", the post Clan Wars era is when the clans really solidified for me. The nezumi were a great addition as far as I was concerned, much more interesting to me than the naga.

What I didn't like were all the superfluous factions that undermined the identity of established clans. The monks were nice and all, but they were kind of intruding on the Dragon clan's thematic turf. Same with the ninja faction that undermined the Scorpion's claim to ninja stuff.

The Scorpion are basically what would happen if you took Garak from Deep Space Nine and made a samurai clan out of him.  

JG

I was talking to a friend saying he should start a single clan focused game (he really likes L5R himself).

Me: Any Clan would be fun!
Him: I guess we could fit in one person from another Clan if necessary.
Me: Scorpion would be awesome. All Doji Courtiers should live in fear.
Him: The one non-Scorpion could be a Crane.
Me: Just tell him its an all Crane game.

That would be a cruel cruel joke to play on someone.

EDIT:

More Options.

An all Scorpion game where each player believes its an all Crane game.
An all Crane game where you tell everyone at the beginning that one person is a Scorpion traitor, but then don't actually have a Scorpion Traitor.

Quote from: Future Villain Band;809901If you wanted to cover the bases, what kinds of character types would you use?  I figure a bushi school PC, a shugenja school PC, and then...monk?  Courtier?  I'm pre-genning the characters tonight, and stuck on what to make the third character.

If your players aren't familiar with the setting, I would stick to a single clan for all PCs; that makes it simpler. I would also not necessarily recommend a shugenja character, because they are complicated and not strictly necessary for the typical pseudo-Japanese Samurai game, but make the game significantly more complex. I would recommend to stick to a "one courtier, two bodyguards" structure (which also establishes a basic relationship between the characters) and establishes a decent plot hook for a first adventure ("Courtier-san, please deliver this letter/present/hostage/barely-hidden threat to daimyo Whatshisname in Strangeanddangerous City of the Rival Clan. Take these soldiers with you to; they will protect you.")

I've been milling about an all Crane game, as their natural competitiveness in all things ("achieve excellence in all things.") would be an excruciating challenge. Sure you could insinuate Kolat incursion, or Lion threats. But just plenty of Cranes in one spot should be about as vicious as an all-girl school. The flower arranging wars should be legendary.

Quote from: Emperor Norton;810165An all Scorpion game where each player believes its an all Crane game.

I almost pee'd myself in laughter. That would be so  hysterically awesome.

But that's probably because my L5R is often the bastard son of Bushido plus Paranoia.

Quote from: Spinachcat;810295I almost pee'd myself in laughter. That would be so  hysterically awesome.

But that's probably because my L5R is often the bastard son of Bushido plus Paranoia.

Its a test by Scorpion Sensei, each of the students has the goal of choosing one of their companions and framing them as a spy, without realizing they are all technically spies.

I only wanted to chime in to say that, despite my complete lack of interest (and scant knowledge) of L5R, I find this thread to be awesome, interesting and useful. You've actually made me interested in checking out the game.

First, thank you to Beagle for the great play aids.  And thanks to everybody for the advice.

Second, here's where I'm at -- I was lucky enough to have a buddy give me nearly every book out there for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions.  I think I'm missing only two or three, and I bought those in .pdf.  One of those is the boxed set City of Lies, which people have told me is one of the best sandbox settings ever.

So right now, I'm thinking the PCs will be Crane relatives of the Magistrate whose death is one of the key mysteries in City of Lies.  They come to the City for two reasons:

1) To avenge their dead kinsman in preparation for their own ascent into the halls of power.

2) To allow one of their number to be set up and blackmailed by the Scorpion.  The whole idea is for this PC to allow himself to be co-opted by the Scorpion, only for the Crane clan to use him as a double agent.  Since I'm building up to both the extermination of the Hare clan (a plot which gets its start in the City of Lies) and the Scorpion Clan Coup, pitting the Crane against Scorpion like this works pretty well for me.

3) I figure the random element will be a fiancee or suitor from the Crab clan.  One of the two Crane PCs has a suitor from the Crab clan, and he tags along.  All three of my main players will be familiar with Rokugan, but I have a rotating band of players who can only show up once in a while, so a Crab PC would make a suitable character for those guys.

Thoughts?  Anyone have any experience with City of Lies?  Advice?

Oh how I love City of Lies... It's basically a massive smuggling node & pleasure district for geisha, gambling, & opium dens. Any crane openly traveling there should write off their full agency on future ambitions; you're leaving with strings attached.

First, read 1e Way of the Crane & Way of the Scorpion to get a sense of their world view. They are way more similar than they care for.

Throw in a lot of the strict protocol Scorpion have with their peasants, to show a nod to Rokugani orthodoxy. Then slather them with births and wedding invitations (that are continuously happening, even for peasants) as one of the Scorpion's greatest moments is celebrating these things. Play up their felicity and courtesy at these times, the absolutely disarming friendliness of Scorpions at play.

Also play with Scorpion counter-intel, even expecting to take a few 'losses' and 'being duped'. Having a Scorpion be open, friendly, and cooperative (and occasionally incompetent) will be unnerving.

However, remember they are the Empire's underhand, discreet fixers of disgraceful things. Know why your magistrate died and work backwards. It would not be uncommon for a Crane daimyo to circuitously lament to a friend Scorpion about a magistrate who fell into vice (love, gaming, drink, etc.) and thus needs to honorably succumb to Scorpion villainy. You know, keeping up appearances.

The whole thing might be a pro forma investigation and recon mission. Possibly all of it kept secret from the players by the Crane daimyo, too. These clans can be fucked up like that. "Go do this, all I care is that you went and saved us face; screw up this basic task and we'll know where to place you."

Oh, laden them with lots of gifts for their journey, several as unassigned art & treasure, and let the Crane squirm on how to appropriately gift which host where. Leave a few white elephant gifts in there as well. Gifting appropriately is one of the Crane's greatest weapons.