Despair and Wisdom: Imperial March

I still don't much like 5E and Kaigen doesn't strike me as a particularly interesting guy vis a vis other people, but if anyone has any questions, let fly.

Second Kaisha represent!

But why the beef with horses, you monster?! /jk

Utaku Mukai wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 04, 2024 1:37 am

But why the beef with horses, you monster?! /jk

Jokes aside, one of the only things about him that really landed for me was his role as the voice of the infantry in the horse-happy Second Kaisha As a Minor Clanner, I saw him as more NCO than officer type, and that definitely includes having Views on expensive and bad-tempered manure factories

What did you like most about the game narratively? What did you like least about the game narratively?

What did you like most about the game mechanically? What did you like least about the game mechanically?

What would you really like to see in the next game that wasn't in this game?


We always love having our grumpy Alaskan around, thanks for coming, despite your hatred of what we're doing XD

Saibankan wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 04, 2024 1:49 am

What did you like most about the game narratively? What did you like least about the game narratively

Best- I liked the baseline premise- samurai from different clans tossed together in the Legion

Needed work- We had an army's worth of NPCs but ultimately, they kinda felt... surplus to requirements. None of them really got enough time to breathe or feel important. The poor doomed Mirumoto's fate didn't really have any pathos because he was just some dude leading a unit none of us were in- but if he'd been any other kaisha's leader, the vibe would have been much the same.

As a corollary, by having us all in different kaisha, it sort of forced you guys to spread thin, and reduced plausible reasons for some PCs to interact during the March. Especially since none of us had the rank to really justify saying much beyond "Yes, sir!"

What did you like most about the game mechanically? What did you like least about the game mechanically?

Asking me for stuff I liked in a 5E game? Bold! Uhhhh... Not starting as a complete starting-XP milquetoast softened some of the game's more punishing edges. It let us feel good, as opposed to merely not-sucky, at things we worked at.

Worst downside... gonna pick on the Kuni event- having everything gated beyond a randomly determined TN meant that the second I happened to roll well for Kuni Rando, Kaigen was only ever going to advance on an absolute miracle, which resulted in my throwing a whole shitliad of dice at a brick wall purely because I rolled a double explosion for the opposition out the gate. I honestly only made those rolls out of morbid curiosity to see how far the Mud-Hare could go down the strife-hole.

What would you really like to see in the next game that wasn't in this game?

I think the kaisha experiment was an interesting idea, but its absence would be welcome XD It wasn't the sole reason for the relatively... absent inter-PC interactions, but it didn't help.

Always appreciate your feedback, but not as much as your participation in the game!

Whither next for the mud-Hare?

Fukurokujin wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 04, 2024 1:48 pm

Whither next for the mud-Hare?

Does it matter?

He performed pretty well in the battle, but it was a one-off, so I'm pretty sure the Kuni still don't like him very much psychologically (and to be fair they have a point- Kaigen is in some respects only a step or two removed from being a serial killer ), and he has a "fuck you, you snotty bastards" just under the surface of his skin directed at the Kuni in particular, but also at the Great Clans and the Imperials in general.

His big character moment was looking at Kyuden Doji and going, "huh, you shitheads have enough resources to keep that place looking shiny, but you can't keep bandits from torturing and murdering your farmers," so with that, his Bluntness, and his Provocation passion, I don't see him climbing the ranks. He did zero advancement on the Legionnaire title, he doesn't care which heir takes the throne, he didn't make any particularly good friends on this march (Nobu came closest, and he and the ronin with the long and hard for my brain to remember how to spell name got along okay, but that was it). I figure he'll stick at his post until someone finally gets the paperwork through to transfer him somewhere else. Possibly still in the Legion, possibly not. He doesn't really care.

Having survived the game, he'll likely marry Tonbo Yukiko, who will almost certainly be marrying into the Hare, and it's a damned good thing he's actually fond of her and she's fond of him, because in many ways, she actually offers everything that's absent in military life and made him not connect with people for most of the game