Forays Into the Shadowlands - A Samurai RP - Interest
 

You may have heard this tale before. Once long ago, there was a man who made it his duty to create balance in a world of chaos. He was a great man but he could not do this task alone. His brothers and sisters agreed to help him, and each assumed a duty to aid in his task. Once sister became an artist and created beauty and culture. One brother became a scholar and accumulated the wisdom of the universe. One sister became an explorer and set out to master the world. One brother became a recluse and made it his duty to master the mysteries that lie within the self. One brother became a warrior so that the way of bushido would never be forgotten. One brother became a spy so that his brother's secrets would be well hidden.

The last brother, however, did nothing to help build the Empire. Instead, he took those that would follow him and marched to the southwest. They came here, where the armies of Fu Leng gathered to rend and crush and tear apart the world. This brother made it his duty to stand against the darkness, to defend what his brothers and sisters created, to always stand apart from it.

This was Hida, the First Crab

Welcome to Rokugan, a place not-exactly like Japan but with enough similarities to make you look twice. For example, everyone is Japanese, but if you listen closely they call themselves Rokuganese. Small things.

From what I can gather from the novel my friend lent me, there's seven Clans, but six of them are pussies. This RP is about the Crab, the Clan dedicated to staring down the armies of darkness so that everyone else in the Empire doesn't have their teatime disturbed. They built a Great Kaiu Wall that keeps the beasties out but still find time in their day to go into the Shadowlands and fuck some demonic hordes up, even though doing so means risking insanity or possession thanks to the Taint. So yeah, duty before honor, just straight up balls all around.

You would be in a group of Crab Samurai called the Relievers. As mentioned, sometimes it is necessary to enter the Shadowlands, but this doesn't mean that those who go in come back. This is where you come in. After a predetermined amount of time following any Shadowlands mission, those samurai are assumed to have fallen to the Taint. You are then sent in after them and are only allowed to return if you have the head of the first group's leader. The PR reason for this is to give the leader an honorable death and a nice funeral in their homeland. The pragmatic reason is much more concise; An experienced samurai is a powerful weapon, while a Tainted samurai is a powerful weapon for them.

It's interest only right now because (1) I don't know if anyone is up for this (2) I've been mulling this over between/during exams and don't have a proper sign-sheet ready and (3) I'll probably start this, at the earliest, in late December, early January. However, I figure we can use this thread to gauge interest and present questions I might need to have figured out by the actual deal.

And for those wondering, it's based lahoosely on Legend of the Five Rings, i.e., what I gathered from a few chapters from the aforementioned novel. e.g., Crab.

I always preferred the crane clan, personally. The crab fit into a specific stereotype of huge muscley guys. They take hits and shrug it off, etc.

I've always been more of a crane person, myself. Why show off by shrugging off hits when you can just cut your opponent in half before they even realize you've reached for your sword?

Crane clan.

While that sounds cool, I'm not really looking to explore the social constructs and shifting political allegiances of the world. Really, this is another version of the "Elite squad up against monsters" RP that gets made every month or so, except in this case the elite squad is samurai. Chapters will probably be mission based with a little connecting tissue, but mostly a place to battle monsters.

On the other hand, I guess it wouldn't hurt if you could come up with a reason for having a Crane guy on the Crab squad?

With the Crane involved, there's billions of ways for anyone to be involved in anything, thanks to political machinations. (IE: Being sent to the Kaiu wall is probably the ultimate form of "We're going to murder you but this way isn't entirely illegal.")

Personally I prefer the Lion for direct combat myself, for reasons that are most likely obvious. Like the above, there are probably numerous reasons for a Lion clan samurai to be remotely near anything involving combat. Doubly so for Matsu.

PS: I think the big problem with this RP is going to be that with so many interesting clans, a lot of people are going to be interested in L5R, but not specifically the Crab.

I didn't really think of that (probably because my knowledge of the other clans is that there are seven of them and my friend likes Crab the best). I suppose a multi-clan Reliever squad isn't totally out the question.

Again, this is set in the L5R universe because I like the concept of the Shadowlands and samurai fighting, it probably won't be the best place for the actual 'rules' involved. However, I do think that if you know something about the world you can feel free to use your knowledge, but I'd humbly request that if this thing got started you wouldn't cringe at me if I got something major wrong.

EDIT: Just so things are clear: This is an RP about fighting monsters. From what little I know, usually the Crab fight the monsters so the opening post was about that. If you know an in-universe way to explain why you, a non-Crab, also are in the habit of fighting monsters, more power to you.

I have been in love with the world of Rokugan for many a year, and would relish an opportunity to be involved with such a RP. Though my own personal preferences make me lean towards the Scorpion Clan, I don't mind playing a big bad Hida, if I need to. With a Die-Tsuchi. Imbedded with jade.

And once again I find myself irresistably drawn to an RP based on something I know nothing about.

I'm With you on that one

Ok, after thinking this over, I think I have a way to open this up for the other clans.

For Crab (probably those who want to don't know much about the setting, like me): Being a Reliever is an honor, as it takes real courage to go into a situation that's already proven dangerous just to ensure a fellow Crab's proper death. You've probably shown how much of a badass you are and have been asked to be on the squad.

Non-Crab (some degree of familiarity with something outside what's presented here): Being a Reliever shows honor to the Crab, for the reasons above (suicidal missions to help a fallen Crab), however it probably means that you screwed up relations between your Clan and the Crab and this is a form of punishment 'preferable' to forced suicide. Or maybe you want the Crab to know that your Clan is just as battle ready and so you volunteered for one of the most dangerous squads. Either way, your help is appreciated and used.

Would this smooth out things? And are there any other worries/questions/advice?

Hey... I say, its your game. Your idea. You tell people what you want, whatever you are comfortable with running.