The Winter Gardens of the Kakita
Fan Fiction for the Legend of the Five Rings
My kids are settling into a new RPG, and had their session zero today, where they got to select the Story Axes they wanted to play along, as I described in my previous article. I wanted to note the difference between a story axis and a story engine, since I will use both terms. A story axis, is an emotional line of tension within the story around which conflicts may unfold. They often mirror Real Life lines of tension, because such things have emotional resonance with us. A story engine is a mechanic or narrative element that creates new stories by just existing. For example, the Prosperity System is a mechanical system that spawns adventures as players must find ways of dealing with hazards and perils that have built up in their communities. The existence of a slowly rising Shadowlands threat, or the Elemental Imbalance, might be potentially considered narrative story engines, if they generate multiple adventures for the characters. They, in themselves, are not the emotional crux of play, but they make adventures around which the crux of play can be generated. In my next blog post, I will start a long effort to break down the most powerful, but also one of the most difficult, of L5R's story axes: Honor.
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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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