L5R Character Generation

Creating a character in Legends of the Five Rings

This seems to be quite difficult in the 3rd edition book, not so much because it's complicated, but because the process is spread out all over the book. For my sanity and for the sake of my players, I've put together this small cheat sheet of pages, which is another complaint I have of the book, nothing is on the page the book says it is. So I'm attempting to simplify matters.

The Basics First

20 Questions

All characters are required to have at least 15 of the 20 questions answered on pg.82-84 of the 3rd edition core book.

1. What Clan does he belong to?
2. What Family does he belong to?
3. How would others describe his appearance?
4. Is he a Bushi, Shugenja, Monk or Courtier?
5. What is his main motivation?
6. Who is the person he trusts most?
7. What is his greatest strength? Greatest weakness?
8. What does he think of Bushido?
9. What is his opinions of his own clan?
10. Is he married?
11. Does he have and prejudices?
12. To whom does he owe the most loyalty?
13. What are his favorite and least favorite things?
14. Does he have any recurring mannerisms?
15. What about his emotions?
16. How would he handle a subordinate's improper behavior?
17. How would his parent's describe her?
18. What is his highest ambition?
19. How religious is he?
20. If you could, what advice would you give him?

For further explanations, one would have to reference the book.

Clan and Family

This is a very important step of character creation process, it pretty much tells you who your character is, this is half the dirty work of figuring out the character's personality because each clan and family have their own teachings and outlooks on Rokugan and the various aspects of it.

There are eight major clans to belong to, a character also has the option to belong to one of the nine minor clans, four imperial families or even be a ronin. Here is some additional Clan Information. To each clan there are a number of Families to belong to, each will have it's own advantage specific to those family members. With the family name comes a general appearance, out look, and sometimes superstitions. It's wise to read up on the families before choosing one.

School

Schools can be the easiest part, but also very crucial. Once you have your family and clan chosen, there's generally only three or four choices for school without the advantage of learning from another clan's schools. Generally there is a Bushi School, a Shugenja School, a Courtier school, and sometimes a specialty school, these are the monk teachings, the scouts, or the battle maidens. Some clans offer them, some don't. Each school then has a set of Techniques, and shugenja schools get spells. There's generally no customization when it comes to techniques, you take them in order, and as a starting character you generally only get the first choice. Each school comes with a set of skills it teaches, standard honor for being a student of the school, standard equipment, and each school gives a specific trait bonus also.

Customization Second

I usually do enjoy both the World Cup and the European Cup. (The Netherlands is a major socecr country: it's our national pastime. Normal socecr competitions get us hot and bothered, so the EK and WK are truly awesome.) But this year I'm in the middle of finals and can't find the time to go watch them with friends in a bar somewhere the way world cup games should rightfully be enjoyed. But it's been interesting, to say the least, to watch the streets turn orange (our national color) while not participating in the orange-craziness (as we call it in Dutch) myself.