Evoking the Legend of the Five Rings Setting
Texto
The Legend of the Five Rings RPG is different compared to many other roleplaying games, not only for its unique setting elements inspired by real East Asian cultures, but also because of its thematic focus on personal drama, court intrigue, and folkloric magic and mythology. The following considerations can help GMs bring the emerald lands of Rokugan to life and showcase the unique elements of the game and setting.
Making Locations Memorable
From bamboo forests to sheer cliffs, the geography of Rokugan is as beautiful as it can be dangerous. Arguably, the landscape inspired an entire religion with a focus on honoring nature, and a typical Rokugani samurai will also see wonder in the natural world around them. When describing the characters’ surroundings, keep in mind all six of their senses: what they see, hear, smell, taste, feel, and sense on a spiritual level. You can tailor your description to a particular character based on their advantages and disadvantages: a samurai with a passion for sake will notice sake carts and houses first, while a samurai with an anxiety about dogs will perceive canines to be more vicious and aggressive.
Another tip is to add what could be called “texture” to your descriptions by using a few pointed specifics instead of generalities: compare the mental picture you get and emotions you feel when you think of a “forest in a valley” compared with “a rocky hillside covered in gnarled black pines, their branches all twisted to point toward the mountain’s peak.” One way to come up with pieces of texture is to look in books and online for photography depicting East Asian landscapes and art and record interesting details from those pictures. Take the time to research the flora and fauna endemic to the region, and learn their names and what they look like. Better yet, experience as much of East Asian culture as you can personally. This can be accomplished in ways far less expensive than traveling in those countries, such as by visiting museum exhibitions and attending cultural festivals and presentations held at libraries and universities or in cities and towns with East Asian communities. You may be surprised to discover a cherry blossom festival in your area, or visiting speakers, musicians, and artists.
Bringing NPCs to Life
Many of the same principles used for describing locations can be applied to non-player characters as well, including giving texture to their appearance and mannerisms. What is their style of dress, hair, and facial hair? What colors, fabrics, accessories, and perfumes do they wear? Do they maintain perfect posture, do they slouch, or do they have a limp or a nervous tick? Where can they usually be found, and what do their surroundings say about their personality? What player character personality traits might cause PCs to scrutinize qualities of an NPC or see them in a more favorable light?
NPCs have another dimension to consider, which is their dialogue. GMs can always narrate an NPC’s words, but many find it extremely rewarding to speak as though they were that character. Some of the most basic ways to vary a character’s voice are to give them different emotions or levels of energy. A GM who feels comfortable portraying accents might give peasants and sailors a more freewheeling style of pronunciation, but players should steer clear of accents that invoke stereotypes or caricatures of East Asian cultures.
Beyond varying the pitch, tone, and speed of NPCs’ speech, GMs can do a lot to differentiate characters with diction, word choice, and poetic flourishes. A literary and refined character will use more polysyllabic words and complex sentence structure. For groups that speak English for their games, the GM might use words with Latin and Greek roots to characterize nobility, reserving shorter and simpler words of Anglo-Saxon origin for more practical characters. Samurai besides those of the Crab Clan are much more apt to speak in simile and metaphor, use personification, or make allusions to nature. A wealth of East Asian poetry is available in translation online and in libraries, which can inspire and delight GMs who are interested in the aesthetics and ethos of these cultures and historical periods.
Dramatizing Bushidō
Adhering to the tenets of Bushidō can sometimes be even more limiting than a character’s capabilities. It doesn’t matter whether the character can sneak into and out of the shed—it matters whether they believe such an action is compatible with Righteousness and Honor. The GM should keep the tenets of Bushidō at the forefront of the players’ minds by choosing a particular tenet to feature or test as part of a hurdle at least once per session. When creating the obstacles for a story, look at the lists of possible breaches and sacrifices in the The Tenets of Bushidō, on page 301, to see if any of those actions might be possible avenues for overcoming or bypassing obstacles.
Navigating Status and Hierarchy
Rokugan’s rigid social structure is another limiting factor on the characters’ actions. The characters are usually subordinates to one or more non-player characters, to whom they are expected to show proper deference and respect. Even when characters are placed in a position of authority, they are expected to serve as role models for their own subordinates and follow certain customs to reinforce the status differentials between parties.
These cultural elements represent a significant departure from the emphasis on forthright and individualistic expression found across many contemporary real-world industrialized countries, with their reduced emphasis on class divisions and increasingly informal modes of address compared to those of ancient times. If players are interested in exploring these facets of Rokugani culture as opposed to glossing over them, the protocols and honorifics of this social dance can become additional levers for the GM to use in awarding honor and glory, or in forcing players to stake honor and glory to momentarily ignore social custom. More specifics about status and hierarchy may be found in further supplements detailing the world of Rokugan.
Approaching the Supernatural
That monsters, spirits, and gods walk beside mortals in Rokugan is a tremendous consideration when portraying the world of Legend of the Five Rings. These beings are based on the folklore and mythology of real-world cultures and religions, and while that means that GMs can lean on these tales and legends to provide inspiration for their stories and game, it’s also important to avoid trivializing or being disrespectful of the source material. This can be done by researching and developing the spirits and monsters with the same level of care lavished on locations and non-player characters, as well as by portraying them as beings of power who are not to be taken lightly or ignored by the players.
Such beings might be found anywhere, but they are typically informed by the nature of their surroundings. Creatures and beings dwelling in water tend to take on aquatic or amphibious traits, while mountain spirits have more rugged and stark personalities and appearances. In Rokugan, benevolent spirits are generally beings of beauty, cleanliness, and radiance, while evil spirits embody their corruption through ugliness, filth, and darkness. Ancestor spirits retain the appearance they had in life, while lost souls may appear as flickering lights and ghostly apparitions. Many spirits have the power to shapeshift or cloak their true appearance in order to move among mortals without being detected, so one never truly knows if one is unwittingly speaking to a god or a fox-wife.
Using the supernatural in Rokugan is a way to challenge the players’ way of thinking and methodology. Supernatural phenomena tend to place constraints on the senses that mortals rely on most, since spirits cannot typically be seen, touched, heard, or felt, except by shugenja and those with the sixth sense. Supernatural beings also place constraints on player logic, because these spirits and creatures may well violate laws of nature and physics through their actions. Finally, the supernatural impedes players’ ability to problem solve, as there are limited options for dealing with the metaphysical, and PC groups may need to rely on experts or to complete research in order to understand, placate, or withstand supernatural beings and effects.
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Core Rulebook · Chapter 7: The Game Master › The Role of the GM › Evoking the Legend of the Five Rings Setting · p. 282 p. 285 p. 286 p. 287
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The Legend of the Five Rings RPG is different compared to many other roleplaying games, not only for its unique setting elements inspired by real East Asian cultures, but also because of its thematic focus on personal drama, court intrigue, and folkloric magic and mythology. The following considerations can help GMs bring the emerald lands of Rokugan to life and showcase the unique elements of the game and setting.
Making Locations Memorable
From bamboo forests to sheer cliffs, the geography of Rokugan is as beautiful as it can be dangerous. Arguably, the landscape inspired an entire religion with a focus on honoring nature, and a typical Rokugani samurai will also see wonder in the natural world around them. When describing the characters’ surroundings, keep in mind all six of their senses: what they see, hear, smell, taste, feel, and sense on a spiritual level. You can tailor your description to a particular character based on their advantages and disadvantages: a samurai with a passion for sake will notice sake carts and houses first, while a samurai with an anxiety about dogs will perceive canines to be more vicious and aggressive.
Another tip is to add what could be called “texture” to your descriptions by using a few pointed specifics instead of generalities: compare the mental picture you get and emotions you feel when you think of a “forest in a valley” compared with “a rocky hillside covered in gnarled black pines, their branches all twisted to point toward the mountain’s peak.” One way to come up with pieces of texture is to look in books and online for photography depicting East Asian landscapes and art and record interesting details from those pictures. Take the time to research the flora and fauna endemic to the region, and learn their names and what they look like. Better yet, experience as much of East Asian culture as you can personally. This can be accomplished in ways far less expensive than traveling in those countries, such as by visiting museum exhibitions and attending cultural festivals and presentations held at libraries and universities or in cities and towns with East Asian communities. You may be surprised to discover a cherry blossom festival in your area, or visiting speakers, musicians, and artists.
Bringing NPCs to Life
Many of the same principles used for describing locations can be applied to non-player characters as well, including giving texture to their appearance and mannerisms. What is their style of dress, hair, and facial hair? What colors, fabrics, accessories, and perfumes do they wear? Do they maintain perfect posture, do they slouch, or do they have a limp or a nervous tick? Where can they usually be found, and what do their surroundings say about their personality? What player character personality traits might cause PCs to scrutinize qualities of an NPC or see them in a more favorable light?
NPCs have another dimension to consider, which is their dialogue. GMs can always narrate an NPC’s words, but many find it extremely rewarding to speak as though they were that character. Some of the most basic ways to vary a character’s voice are to give them different emotions or levels of energy. A GM who feels comfortable portraying accents might give peasants and sailors a more freewheeling style of pronunciation, but players should steer clear of accents that invoke stereotypes or caricatures of East Asian cultures.
Beyond varying the pitch, tone, and speed of NPCs’ speech, GMs can do a lot to differentiate characters with diction, word choice, and poetic flourishes. A literary and refined character will use more polysyllabic words and complex sentence structure. For groups that speak English for their games, the GM might use words with Latin and Greek roots to characterize nobility, reserving shorter and simpler words of Anglo-Saxon origin for more practical characters. Samurai besides those of the Crab Clan are much more apt to speak in simile and metaphor, use personification, or make allusions to nature. A wealth of East Asian poetry is available in translation online and in libraries, which can inspire and delight GMs who are interested in the aesthetics and ethos of these cultures and historical periods.
Dramatizing Bushidō
Adhering to the tenets of Bushidō can sometimes be even more limiting than a character’s capabilities. It doesn’t matter whether the character can sneak into and out of the shed—it matters whether they believe such an action is compatible with Righteousness and Honor. The GM should keep the tenets of Bushidō at the forefront of the players’ minds by choosing a particular tenet to feature or test as part of a hurdle at least once per session. When creating the obstacles for a story, look at the lists of possible breaches and sacrifices in the The Tenets of Bushidō, on page 301, to see if any of those actions might be possible avenues for overcoming or bypassing obstacles.
Navigating Status and Hierarchy
Rokugan’s rigid social structure is another limiting factor on the characters’ actions. The characters are usually subordinates to one or more non-player characters, to whom they are expected to show proper deference and respect. Even when characters are placed in a position of authority, they are expected to serve as role models for their own subordinates and follow certain customs to reinforce the status differentials between parties.
These cultural elements represent a significant departure from the emphasis on forthright and individualistic expression found across many contemporary real-world industrialized countries, with their reduced emphasis on class divisions and increasingly informal modes of address compared to those of ancient times. If players are interested in exploring these facets of Rokugani culture as opposed to glossing over them, the protocols and honorifics of this social dance can become additional levers for the GM to use in awarding honor and glory, or in forcing players to stake honor and glory to momentarily ignore social custom. More specifics about status and hierarchy may be found in further supplements detailing the world of Rokugan.
Approaching the Supernatural
That monsters, spirits, and gods walk beside mortals in Rokugan is a tremendous consideration when portraying the world of Legend of the Five Rings. These beings are based on the folklore and mythology of real-world cultures and religions, and while that means that GMs can lean on these tales and legends to provide inspiration for their stories and game, it’s also important to avoid trivializing or being disrespectful of the source material. This can be done by researching and developing the spirits and monsters with the same level of care lavished on locations and non-player characters, as well as by portraying them as beings of power who are not to be taken lightly or ignored by the players.
Such beings might be found anywhere, but they are typically informed by the nature of their surroundings. Creatures and beings dwelling in water tend to take on aquatic or amphibious traits, while mountain spirits have more rugged and stark personalities and appearances. In Rokugan, benevolent spirits are generally beings of beauty, cleanliness, and radiance, while evil spirits embody their corruption through ugliness, filth, and darkness. Ancestor spirits retain the appearance they had in life, while lost souls may appear as flickering lights and ghostly apparitions. Many spirits have the power to shapeshift or cloak their true appearance in order to move among mortals without being detected, so one never truly knows if one is unwittingly speaking to a god or a fox-wife.
Using the supernatural in Rokugan is a way to challenge the players’ way of thinking and methodology. Supernatural phenomena tend to place constraints on the senses that mortals rely on most, since spirits cannot typically be seen, touched, heard, or felt, except by shugenja and those with the sixth sense. Supernatural beings also place constraints on player logic, because these spirits and creatures may well violate laws of nature and physics through their actions. Finally, the supernatural impedes players’ ability to problem solve, as there are limited options for dealing with the metaphysical, and PC groups may need to rely on experts or to complete research in order to understand, placate, or withstand supernatural beings and effects.