Heroes of Rokugan I
- Plans and Storyline Development - A Discussion
- Satsume's Tournament
- Kitsuki Evidence
- A Chance Meeting
- Spiritual Presence
- Legacy of the Dark One
- Winter Court: Kyuden Asahina
- The Face of Fear
- Arrows From the Woods
- Evil Feeds Upon Itself
- A Mantis and His Rat
- The Falling Darkness, Soul of Iuchiban
- The Ties that Bind
- The People's Expense
- Occult Murders, Soul of Iuchiban
- Lies, Lies, Lies
- Drawing Out the Darkness, Soul of Iuchiban
- A Foreign Legacy
- A Magistrate's Duty, Soul of Iuchiban
- Fury of the Elements
- To Do What We Must
- Winter Court: Kanrinrin's Duty, Soul of Iuchiban
- The Fate of a Hantei, Soul of Iuchiban
- Smoke and Mirrors, The Lion and the Crane
- A Hidden Blade, The Lion and the Crane
- Treachery and Deceit
- Winter Court: Shiro Kyotei
- Ancestral Dictate, The Lion and the Crane
- A Heart of Vengeance, The Lion and the Crane
- Soul of Akodo, The Lion and the Crane
- Darkness Beyond Darkness, Shadow's Path
- The Chrysanthemum Festival, The Lion and the Crane
- Kuro's Fire
- Duty on the Wall
- Fist of the Earth, Shadow's Path
- Day and Night
- The Scorpion's Sting
- Flower's Kiss
- In Time of War
- Winter Court: Shiro no Kaiu
- Proposal of Peace
- Way of Deception
- A Walk Through the Mountains, Shadow's Path
- Narrow Ground
- Peasant Defense
- The Price of Loyalty
- Dark Eyes on the Wall
- Tao of the Naga
- The Cost of Duty
- Storm and Forest
- Stain Upon the Soul
- Command of the Kami
- The Jade Championship
- Twisted Forest
- Funeral Pyre
- Time to Pay the Price, Shadow's Path
- Damning Evidence, The Hidden Temple
- Test of Courage
- Winter Court: Kyuden Bayushi
- Corrupted Ground, Shadows of an Iron Citadel
- A Question of Honor, Shadows of an Iron Citadel
- A Last Wish, Shadows of an Iron Citadel
- Blood of Midnight, Shadow's Path
- Fires of Retribution, The Hidden Temple
- Faith in My Clan
- Along the Coast at Midnight
- Unmaker's Shadow, Shadow's Path
- The Dragon's Heart, The Hidden Temple
- Time of the Void
- The Day of Thunder
Heroes of Rokugan II
- Plans and Preparation
- The Topaz Championship
- Treacherous Terrain
- Writ of Justice
- Tears of a Fox's Heart
- Wrath of the Kami, Remorseful Seppuku
- Unrequited Love
- Devoured by the Sea
- Scholarship, Remorseful Seppuku
- Uncertainty
- Unquiet Graves, Remorseful Seppuku
- Way of Death
- The Sapphire Tournament
- Bloom of the White Orchid
- The City of Lies
- The Bon Festival
- Stolen Relics
- Forgotten Shrine, Remorseful Seppuku
- A Say's Sail, Shipping Lanes
- Charge of the Baraunghar
- The House of a Thousand Stories
- Winter Court: Shiro Hanagensai
- In Search of the Future
- Compassion, The Code of Bushido
- Bayushi Lineage: Fathers and Sons
- Unexpected Find
- Legacy of My Ancestors, Shipping Lanes
- Corrupt Officials
- Grave of Heroes, Ominous Portents
- Voice of the Emperor, Ominous Portents
- Imperial Funeral
- Test of Purity, Ominous Portents
- Essence of Yume-do
- Shadows on the Court
- Strength From Weakness, Twenty Goblin Winter
- City of the Lost, Twenty Goblin Winter
- Failure of Courage, Twenty Goblin Winter
- Kharmic Vengeance
- Sleepless Nights
- Honesty, The Code of Bushido
- Journey to the Burning Sands
- The Tortoise and the Hare
- Harsh Lessons
- A Champion's Heart
- Corrupted Region, Shipping Lanes
- Unexpected Betrayal
- Courage, The Code of Bushido
- City of Empty Dreams
- Campaign Fiction: Scenes from the Empire, Summer 1502
- Secluded Village
- Cursed Gift
- Touch of Obsidian
- The Siege of Shiro Usagi
- Campaign Fiction: The Seppuku of Bayushi Tenkai
- Retirement
- Shadows of Beiden
- Into the Darkness
- Heated Discussion, The Code of Bushido
- Campaign Fiction: Scenes from the Empire, Autumn 1502
- Broken Words
- Assigning Blame
- Winter Court: The High House of Light
- Winter Court: Shiro no Shosuro
- Duty and Honor, The Code of Bushido
- The Cherry Blossom Festival
- Campaign Fiction: Scenes from the Empire, Spring 1503
- Undignified Death
- Loyalty, The Code of Bushido
- Marriage Celebration
- Fall Before the Master
- Border Conflict
- Campaign Fiction: A Summer of War, Parts 1-4
- Nemesis of Justice
- Summoned to Justice
- Essence of Toshigoku
- Doom of the Crab
- The Hidden Heart
- A Long Journey, Shipping Lanes
- ➔ Allegiance to the Emperor
- Campaign Fiction: A Summer of War, Part 5 and 6
- Contest of Artistry
- Reverence for Chikushudo
- Masterpiece: Iron Crane Chef
- Mujina Tricks, Remorseful Seppuku
- Spider's Lair
- Words and Deeds
- The Final Interactive: Weekend in Rokugan 2010
- Campaign Fiction: Brother and Sisters
- A Fallen Friend
- Truth and Falsehood
- A Hard Rain Will Fall
- An Arranged Marriage
- Whispers of the Moon
- Fate of the Assassin
- March Unto Death
- Celestial Journey
- Words Cut Like Steel
- To the Last Breath
L5R Homebrew
- A Root Problem: Conflicting Themes
- Power Levels and Power-Creep
- Defense Versus Offense
- Raises
- Narrative Control Mechanics
- Wounds and Death Part 1
- Thugs Versus Characters
- Dueling
- Wounds and Death Part 2
- Schools, Techniques, and Kata Part 1
- Spells and Secrets
- Schools, Techniques, and Kata Part 2
- What's with these Shugenja, anyway? br>
- Unofficial 5th Edition
The GenCon 2009 Interactive, run on Saturday afternoon, was simultaneously the most successful Interactive of HoR2 (we had something like 140+ people in attendance) and the least successful, for reasons soon to be explained.
I had developed the specific concept of this Interactive over a year earlier. The vision in my mind was focused on the climactic moment in which, depending on the PCs’ the Emperor would either regain his Honor and die heroically, or succumb to despair and kill himself. The key measuring-stick would be how many clans backed the Mantis/Thrane ploy to put Hizatoru on the throne… if half or more backed “the Rogue,” the Emperor would give a tormented speech in which he hinted at Hizatoru’s illegitimacy. If a majority opposed the Mantis/Thrane move, the Emperor would give a speech proclaiming the value of Honor and rallying the clans (including the Mantis) to join him in driving out the Thrane. (Whether or not the Emperor would fully reveal the infidelity of his late wife was dependent on whether anyone showed him the contents of the infamous puzzle-box, although I also retained some flexibility based on my “feel” for the event as it was happening.)
Originally, the plan was for the Mantis and Scorpion to already be unified behind Hizatoru, meaning that they would need only two more clans to join them. However, the results of various Interactives had put the Scorpion into a dangerous war with the Unicorn, so they were in a more precarious position at GenCon 2009 that originally expected and would not be able to “come out” as part of the Three Old Men unless other clans also joined their side. Thus, the strongest diplomatic burden at this event was on the Mantis (I specifically included notes in their Clan Orders about how this was a challenging situation in which they would have to employ skillful diplomacy rather than brute-force bullying), with the Scorpion probably supporting them more covertly. In order to make sure the outcome of the event was not pre-determined, I made sure that all the other Clan Orders listed legitimate reasons for them to support Hizatoru (except the Lion, who were immovably opposed). Even the Unicorn had the option to pose as supporting Hizatoru if they judged that would enable their own schemes. I also made sure to have a couple of trustworthy players running clan-leader NPCs, such as my wife playing Doji Akane. I myself played Daniel Hatchermann, while Kevin played Sven Oldarsson (and did a bang-up job, though in retrospect I should have prepped him better for what would happen at the end).
So what went wrong?
A modest part of the problem was that the majority of players went all idealistic and simply refused to even consider backing the Mantis position, Clan Orders be damned. But the real trouble came from a large group of “ringers” who came into the event from the CCG side of L5R. The leader of this group was a prominent figure in the Mantis CCG community who went by the username of Kerisate; she had been playing HoR intermittently for a couple of years (primarily because a couple of her friends were also playing), and had developed some very odd notions about the campaign, its storyline, and how its Interactives worked. However, she never sought clarification of her misunderstandings from me. She chose to deliberately maintain a false image of Interactives and to make decisions and demands based on that false image. (For example, she somehow decided that any character with a Favor/Ally in another clan should be able to force a PC from that clan to do something at an Interactive.) In this case, she convinced herself that the GenCon 2009 Interactive would determine which Imperial child would become Emperor – that this was the campaign’s big “prize” to be “won” – so she recruited a swarm of Mantis CCG players with no experience in HoR and no understanding of the storyline to flood the event. Within the first hour, these people had antagonized everyone else there, including their willing Scorpion allies, a Mantis-aligned Otomo PC, and even the handful of actual Mantis PCs who were present. By the end of that hour, they were trying to conspire to murder PCs and flinging out bizarre lies about putting Tsuruchi assassins on the rooftops.
Unfortunately, because this event was so huge and spread out across multiple rooms, it took a while for me to realize just how badly Kerisate and her gang were sabotaging my event. By the time I was ready to lower the boom and expel them, they had already decided to walk out (parading ostentatiously through the main room on their way out). Amusingly, a few days after GenCon they started a thread on the Mantis fan-forum in which Kerisate spouted an outrageous series of lies about what had happened… unfortunately for her, some of our long-term players were also regulars on that board, and they alerted me to what was happening. I went in, registered, and utterly dismantled all her claims. Whereupon her mod-friends locked the thread.
The upshot of all this was that the ending of the event was rushed and somewhat confused, and the handful of actual Mantis PCs did not really get the chance to redeem their clan once the truth came out. I ended up having to work elements into subsequent modules and campaign-fictions to make clear that the Mantis were not going to be disbanded due to the shenanigans of a pack of interlopers.