The Winter Gardens of the Kakita
Fan Fiction for the Legend of the Five Rings
Fields of Victory came out this week as a PDF on DriveThruRPG.net, so it's once more an excuse to answer an age old question: What do we do about Lion Honor?
In L5R, as I've kind of rattled on about before, honor is defined as 'How well you compare, through your actions, to the image of the "perfect" samurai', with that image of 'The Perfect Samurai' being something that has been taught to you from birth by your society. And, for samurai, that 'Image of a Perfect Samurai' is shaped by the code of Bushido, a set of virtues that a perfect samurai is supposed to have to the fullest. However, in the code of Bushido, one of those guiding principles of Bushido is Meiyo, or Honor. So how can your honor be evaluated by how well you adhere to the principle of honor? It's self-referential, to start off with. It also makes this principle very different from the other principles of Bushido, such as Compassion, Courtesy, Righteousness, and so on. If those are parts of honor, do they count in the principle of honor twice? Then you have the principle of Meiyo being placed foremost for the Lion clan, so how does that color their interactions with the other principles? Do they get double points for everything? It seems like a different translation of the word Meiyo is in order. In English, we also use Honor in a different sense. "I defend my honor!' is something a knight or duelist might shout after receiving an insult. When used in this sense, honor means 'dignity' or 'self-respect'. It is also used to encompass a set of professional ethics, implying craftsmanship and skill. Both of these definitions fit together in a respect for the role and 'job' one has in society. It is a very classist definition. An insult from an inferior is not treated the same as an insult from a superior or an equal, but a superior can offend an inferior's sense of honor if the breech is egregious enough. Because taking the insult is so significant it violates the respect due that person due to their role in society, even if they are lower class than the person making the insult. If we translate Meiyo, then, as Dignity, Self-Respect, and Respect for the role and obligations of Samurai, it makes the principle clearly 'part' of Honor, but not the same as honor. It sets it up as something that is violated when someone insults you or harms you or treats you badly, but also gives you something to sacrifice for other principles. In Legend of the Five Rings, we are always setting up virtues of Bushido in conflict with one another. Your lord gives you an order to cover up a crime. Do you follow duty or righteousness? The battle is lost, but if you retreat now you can lead the villagers to safety. Do you follow compassion or courage? These conflicts keep honor scores from going out of control, for every gain is likely to come with a (lesser) lost that negates some, or all of it, and the higher in honor you go, the more likely the honor gains will be negated, or even wiped out, by the losses. If Meiyo is Dignity, then you have something to contrast with the other virtues of Bushido in this dynamic equilibrium without making it all about substituting glory for honor. If you are insulted, you lose Dignity if you don't defend. But if the person who insulted you is much weaker than you, for example, a child, do you choose Compassion or Dignity? A superior disrespects you. Do you choose to respond in kind, keeping your dignity, or do you respond with Courtesy? Meiyo as Dignity can be seen, like the other virtues of Bushido, as the key to the whole thing. If you lack respect for your role as a samurai, why even try to follow Bushido at all? What does Bushido even mean, when you cannot value the ones who follow it? How can you serve your lord when even you do not know what you are good for? Without respect for what a samurai is, you cannot respect your brothers in arms. Is not an insult to you an insult to the Lord who trusts you and the clan that trained you? This sets up many of the traditional conflicts and behaviors of the Lion Clan. In the ancient battle between Kakita and Matsu, Kakita bowed to every opponent he defeated, embodying the principle of Courtesy. However, Matsu did not. She knew what she was worth, and what her skill was, and her Dignity was such that she knew she was superior to those she defeated and did not bow to them. When Kakita defeated her, and did not bow, he indicated to Matsu that he saw her, as a Samurai and follower of Lord Akodo, as inferior even to those Kakita had defeated. This was an unforgivable affront to her Dignity, causing her major honor loss. The feud as a result continued for generations. Anyway, I think it's a good switch. Hopefully it will help. Let me know what you think.
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I spent last weekend writing a new fiction for Emerald Legacy, and got a lot off my chest with the week before's article, so I didn't have an article last week. But today I thought I'd take the easy way out and give you an example of how an RPG created around the Nurture Game might run. For this example, I'll use the relatively simple scenario laid out in The Scroll or the Blade. This scenario is free, not too complex, and is kind of a good example at how close L5R at its most courtly could get to what I'm trying to grasp at. This example will have spoilers for the module, so please be warned. STandard RPGSpoilers for The Sword and Blade
In the module, a child is found by an Imperial Herald that has great magical potential. The Dragon and the Phoenix share parentage of the child. PC's of different clans are given different direction about how to use the child to get them what they need, and those plans are in direct opposition with each other. Either the Phoenix or the Dragon get the child, and clans that support one or the other benefit. A Deer NPC has to invite the PCs to get involved directly. A kemari tournament is held that the PCs can choose to join, but while they can gain XP or Glory for winning in the tournament, it does not relate to the decision about where to allocate the girl or how to benefit their clan. The 'action' is that a duel is declared during the tournament. An NPC may ask a PC (or a PC can offer to take the place of an NPC) in the duel, but the duel does not require the PCs to contribute and it does not settle the case or change the stakes considerably. Then Masako is kidnapped, and again, the PCs can find and beat some opponents, but this does not resolve the issue with Masako. Finally, there is a final intrigue which will determine the girl's fate, modified by circumstances from the previous events. The whole scenario boils down to two objectives: 1) Win a persuasion to get the girl to your scenario, or 2) Discredit the other side's candidate. Basically, make your side win, or the other side lose. The Scroll or the Blade is actually a fine little module, and is very much in the vein of expressing how L5R manages to get to negotiation and compromise rather than being a straight-forward domination game. It does suffer from a few areas of reasonable criticism. For the chase and combat, there's no purpose to it for the story, to the point where it's only 'extra' to choose to have the PCs investigate it. The duel, also, has minimal purpose to the story. The main reason that these events occur is that the PCs, by dint of having a PC tattoo tagged on their forehead, happen to be there and able to act, and therefore are in a stronger position to go into the final discussion. And in the end, those negotiations end with someone winning and someone losing. There's no chance for a middle ground. This is not that far off from a full "nurture" game. Elements of the game, like the combats, seem artificially plugged in, and the concluding intrigue seems like it captures the entirety of the conflict with little use for discussion outside the scene. If there were a way to let people work together better, set up compromises, and make the conflicts and games more directly serve the overall goal, I'd consider it a good nurture game. A Non-Domination Oriented RPG If I were to improve upon this and make it a full a non-domination style game , I would want to add a bit more depth into the characters of the NPCs. I'd also make sure the PCs had a strong agenda of their own, either shared or conflicting. This is because because playing in a nurture game requires seeing each of the NPC and PCs as a well-rounded person, with more than one objective. If the only purpose of the NPC is to advance the main talking point of the clan agenda, and two clan agendas are directly opposed, then it's very hard to find compromises The clan motivations also need to be expanded: It is not enough to just know that each clan wants the child, but each clan should have a general idea of exactly why they want that child so badly. You also kind of need to take the PC tag off the PCs. To begin the scenario, instead of having the clans or players be asked to intervene, a GM would first want to make it clear that intervening is in the characters' best interest. The letters from the clans can do this, or, better, the players could need assistance from the Dragon, Phoenix, or Deer clans, or from the Miya. This would cause them to seek out the members of these families who could share this situation with the child with them, and ask them for their help in swaying the decision to be made to their end. Spoilers
In the module itself, you would use the initial funeral of the child's parents for the first opportunity for the PCs to win favor (influence) in the eyes of the court, by their heroic deeds in dealing with the crisis. The fewer people that are hurt, the more respectful the PCs are, and the more honorably they act towards the child would increase their influence in the court's eyes, giving their first 'deposit' of influence.
Their participation in the Kemari tournament would give them another opportunity to earn more influence. As a GM, I would probably add a few other contests or events that they could use to gain more influence. There is no need in a non-domination game for the PCs to deal with ninja, though you can treat that as an event that can impress 'the court' too, if you like. An intrigue about the fate of the child, again, is seen not as 'forcing them' (or persuading an NPC to force them) to give up the child, but is another opportunity for the PCs to increase their influence in the court. In the table that I set up for the PCs, I would give them the option of 'buying' a rendez-vous with the Miya and the child with their influence, to learn more about them. This puts the initiative in the players hands, if they care to learn it. At the end of the game, I, as GM, would look at tallies. The Phoenix and Dragon will have certain influence they have accumulated in the course of the game (based on how their representatives did in the various events). The Miya would also have some amount of influence if you want him to factor in. The PCs will have the influence they earned through the events. At that point, the PCs are given a choice: Throw their personal influence to the Phoenix, to the Dragon, or to the Miya? Do they pool their influence together, or does each individual PC spend their influence on their own? If they give their influence to the Phoenix or the Dragon, do the Phoenix or Dragon offer something they want in return so it was a trade? Do the PCs convince the Phoenix to spend their influence on something much more immediately useful to them, maybe even spend their influence on something they want from the Dragon and giving up their claim to the child? Once the decision is taken out of the realm of black and white choices, but is more a matter of trade, of exchange and negotiation, then it doesn't have to be a domination game with a single winner or loser. But influence as currency is the way to make players see how these negotiations can happen. The way I'd do that is turn this module into a session of The Influence Game. |
Author
Kakita Kaori, also known as Jeanne Kalvar, has played the Legend of the Five Rings Role-playing game since 1st Edition. If you want to read her thoughts on things other than gaming, you can find them here:
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