Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Online L5R

So I am going to be trying to restart the L5R game with the new low powered characters.  I will be putting an initial post on the blog (assuming I can still get it to work - I seem to have a backdoor in to Blogger that is working).  After the initial post, I will allow individual characters to start email threads for their interactions.  Here are the basic groundrules:
  • You can only say what your character does, never what anyone else's does, or what the NPCs do. 
  • If you want a private conversation with another character, you must include me in the chat so that I can still arbitrate as GM.
  • If character positions have been described (you are all in the main hall at a tea ceremony), you have to describe on the general  thread (the one with everyone on it) how you separate yourselves or how you perform your private chat before doing it (eg - Rikimaru and Ayame are at a meeting with their lord's rival and two other PCs.  Rikimaru wants to speak to Ayame privately so he gestures to her.  They both get up, bow and leave - have their chat in a private email conversation - then come back.  The rudeness of this action could have severe consequence, so be careful how you excuse yourself.)
  • If you need advice on etiquette, I will give it to you before your action based on how good your etiquette skill is, but once you send something out in character, it's done and you must live (or die) with the consequences - no "backsies" :)
  • In order to expedite the die rolling issues that come online, I will be instituting an automatic success rule,  which will be detailed below.  Basically, I will give you a number and if your skill and trait match up with the number (or exceed it), you automatically succeed.  I will work out a mechanic for raises as well.  This does take some of the risk out of it, and if you still want to have dice rolled, you may.  I will probably not allow as many raises under the automatic success rule, and this rule will not be in place during live gaming sessions.
  • You cannot change your character without GM permission, so to buy up a skill, you must ask me.  It will be possible to buy up a skill during an adventure (say after a gaming session, even though the actual adventure is not concluded) but this will require a die roll; details forthcoming.
  • I will be posting a few house rules as well, that I will include in a word document - it is incumbent upon everyone to be familiar with those rules.  I will also post the abbreviated L5R rules with it - if you have any rules questions, be sure to ask before stating what you are doing; as I said before, once you type it and send it, your character did it.
I am going to try to figure out a way for us to have updateable L5R sheets online, too, and I am playing with some skirmish rules that I want to test for bigger fights (where we can move miniatures around and fight, but not get so bogged down in minutiae that it stops being fun).  Below are the preliminary auto-success rules:

For any skill roll simpl take your trait and add the bonus from the chart below.
Rank        Auto Success Bonus
0                          -2
1                         +0
2 to 3                  +1
4 to 5                  +2
6 to 7                  +3
8 to 9                  +4
10                       +5

If you have an emphasis, add 1 to the Auto Success Number.  To this total add the relevant trait.  This total is compared to the number I assign the task.  If you meet or exceed the number, then you succeed at the skill.  It would be helpful to have each of your skills pre-converted (just write a parenthetical value by the skill on your sheet.

Example 1:  Toku Kurekita is looking for evidence of a crime.  The GM says that it is a Per/Investigation number of 3.  Kurekita's Perception trait is 2, and his investigation skill is 1 (giving him a value of +0) which means his total is 2 - he does not succeed.

Example 2:  Kitsuki Hanegawa is seaching the same room Kurekita is, but Hanegawa's Per is 3 and his investigation is 4 (giving a +2), so his total is 5 - he succeeds in finding the evidence and the GM emails his player the info that Hanegawa found.

Raises:
You can make up to a number of raises equal to your (Void - 2).  To make a raise, just add one to the Auto Success Number that the GM gives per raise.

Example 3:  Kitsuke Hanegawa has a Void of 3, so he can make one raise, raising the Auto Success Number to 4, and since he still has a 5 total, he succeeds, and gets more detailed info.

Note that the player could have made up to 3 raises if he had rolled (or had the GM roll for him) and this would have been a reasonable option.  He would not know the TN for the roll (and it is not a strait linear conversion, so don't necessarily try to guess), but because his Trait and Skill are both high, he might want to make more raises and risk the roll. 

If your skill is zero, you cannot make a raise.


Hopefully, this makes some sense, and it would help to write the bonus out on your sheet for each of your skills, so that you can come up with your total quickly if you need it.

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