Hm, having the players as Pythons puts more work on the GM, since there is no Boss of the Pythons, plus the GM has to figure out how exactly this particular group of Samurai joined together into a Python cell. Presumably, some Python somewhere recruited at least one of the players. The players should decide whether they are a covert or overt Python cell, especially as they all need to cooperate, if on nothing else, at least on that point. They can also split between Official Python and sneaky undercover Python.
Conversely, this gives you a lot more to write about. You'll get to 100 pages for your book yet!
Players as Pythons does have the advantage in that they're more like the traditional adventurer troupe. They can take work or decline work based upon the group's opinion. Other than coming off as dregs, there is no penalty for declining to help.
Reading through the Mechanics, what is an Advancement?
Under Clan Moves and Starting Gear, for Jiyū Federation the move is listed as Body Move.
Retire, becoming a useful NPC or FamilyWould totally take that Advancement on every character as my first Advancement. Guess who recruited my next character? ;D
QuoteConversely, this gives you a lot more to write about. You'll get to 100 pages for your book yet!
I actually hope to not write more pages, at least for this core rulebook. The more pages you have, the harder it is to people to onboard themselves into the setting and to remember all the details afterwards. That being said, I'll be more than happy to consider writing expansions or follow-up material for this setting if it proves popular enough.
But, how are you going to charge $50 for a hardcover release if you don't have 100 pages?I have a feeling that's going to have to happen, as there's more stuff that I discover that needs to be fleshed out during play. I might make another book later on that will contain more fluff.
More seriously, I've played in like 10-15 role playing sessions my entire life, and I've had to GM most of them. I've bought/read an equal number of role playing books, more if I include "mostly read" at the bookstore. Some people like Role Playing sourcebooks for the world, setting, and details, and for them, longer is better. Fluff it up!
If you're worried about overburdening the players/GMs, you can divide it up into Player Info, GM Info, and Fluff Info. The only canon is the one that the GM uses to shoot players who argue with them.
Void as an element is very clumsy.Yeah, I think I'll try to think of a better name to use. Mechanically, there are three main stats: Focus, Vigilance, and Void. Void is kinda the odd one out, and need a retheme.
The over specialization of clan always bugged me in L5R and I believe should be revisited.Well, the number of "clans" got reduced from 8 to 5, which I think should stop the overspecialization. Mechanically, the only difference between the "clans" is your starting inventory, "energy credits", and unique Move. All clans have access to specialists and "armed katana-spear samurai". The fluff does mention sectors that the clans specialize in, but it's a minor detail that can be ignored for the sake of gameplay.
So I read the fluff a bit, and I feel like I'm missing something.
Why samurai ? Most of the fluff is western coded philosophy - be it the ancap tones or greek philosophy. The samurai side of the fluff looks like it's painted over and doesn't fit the setting. Samurai were a class comprised mostly of warriors and only make sense in a feudal, fractured, hierarchical society. If "anyone can be a samurai", we're not talking about samurai anymore.
I would add that it is true for any warrior nobility class to be incompatible with a democratic republic. Knights and other warrior elite are simply made obsolete in a society that can mass produce soldiers. In europe and in japan, the advent of democracy is what put an end on armed nobility, despite concerted and violent efforts to make them fit the mold - it just doesn't work. If people can vote, their first move is almost always to remove blood privilege.
But the samurai class is especially incompatible with the corpos, as confucianist philosophy woven in the samurai's education forbids them to partake in commerce (merchants are at the bottom of the social pyramid).
I think fleshing out the Peasant Militia would answer a lot of questions, since they're what the players would be if they weren't Samurai.I think so too. If we understand how peasants existed in this society, then we could understand how samurai managed to keep power for so long...and why they ultimately lost it.
That "anyone can be a samurai" quote was there because I was kinda stuck how to justify how people could become samurai in this "corporate feudalistic" society
The Samurai Republic is inspired by the real-life Republic of Ezo.
but at what point do the samurai change so much that the term "samurai" itself become a mere anachronism?
First of all, I want to insist on the fact that I'm not criticising you out of malice, but because as you asked for feedback, I'm trying to give the best feedback I can on a topic I'm passionate about.Yeah, I understand and I really appreciate the feedback.
Also, being an old L5R player myself (crab ftw) I know where you're coming from and I feel compelled to warn you that L5R is a very, very specific, ultra fantasy view on medieval japan, was written by commitee and may not be the best source material for new, personal work.Got it. I will look at those other sources more closely then.
Better sources of inspiration are, well, history, medieval litterature (Heike Monogatari is my next read), you can also find youtube channels dedicated to ancient japan culture and history. And also the whole Kurosawa filmography.
I think you try to work backward ; I believe you assume that a corporate future is the only possible one and try to fit the samurai in it. A better world building method, in my opinion, would be to first ask yourself, what kind of future the samurai class would build, and then work from there.
In that hypothetical future, the samurai would likely do what they do when they are in power ; chose a "first samurai" to rule their class (the shogun) and have him bully the civil administration, and maintain peace until it appears weak, in what case it's a free for all civil war to take his place.
This in turn would create a fractured society united by the appearance of strengh of the central military government, but in effect ruled locally by warlords ready to jump at each other throats given the occasion. I don't think technology would prevent that scenario from happening - you need strong local governments justified on military might and a fragile peace maintained by a central government himself justified on might.
This hypothetical scenario would give results very different from the top down republic style that you propose, in which problems are resolved by consensus, reason and rule of law.
I'm giving those ideas to maybe bounce over yours. Maybe just something for you to consider. Corporate samurai sounds very wrong in my ears.
I'm very familiar with the republic of Ezo as a complete simp for Jules Brunet. I will cut short on how much I love this guy because I could write an essay on how much of a gigachad he was, from his fuck you I'm not coming back to france" letters he sent to Emperor Napoleon III to his very idea to establish a republic, while france itself had a conservative counter revolution that brought the second empire, or to his unbroken trail of victories from Edo to Hokkaido with an army comprised mostly of peasants. This man is a hero and deserves a kebab.
Give me the republic of Ezo in space and you have all my yes.
But this is a very different scenario. You are right to point out it was a republic by name only, with nobility privilege to vote, the Shogun president by default, and no election ever held. Also, it was a foreign concept, france imported. And it was actually opposed by the samurai class for all the reasons you imagined (they feared the republic, they feared foreigners, they feared the rise of the merchant class). In the end, the republic of Ezo surrendered to the traditionalist-minded imperial forces that promised the samurai that they would keep their blood privileges (they lied and did a 180° turn on that issue after that but this is beside the point)
If anything, the republic would be a model for the peasant militia : a isolated, foreign, progressive, besieged attempt at progressivism in a setting that is mostly ruled by strenght.
I guess my point is, a japan where samurai privileges would not have been abolished would be very different from the usual cyberpunk. Samurai, for one, do not need to produce anything. They don't need to be useful. They rule because they behead people who say otherwise. So in my opinion, making them fit into a setting that respects the NAP may result in contradictions.
I probably missed a lot of things but thats what I have for now
Bit of a misnomer: You say that death does not end the feuds, yet memories are eliminated by death, ergo only those souls that respawn in the same faction know about their feuds to continue them (presumably opposing factions would hide this fact, if they even knew).That is true, and I am okay with the feuds ending when a person dies, work for a new faction, and proof of said feud get covered up or forgotten. What I meant to say was that reincarnation meant people weren’t afraid of death, and thus aren’t afraid of dying in a feud (since if they do die, they simply come back alive later on).