The Left Hand's Path - Crane Story Paths

[Daidoji Tacticus]

[Asahina Shimato]

[Martino]

No it's not. Daigotsu never won. No villain ever won. The best they ever had were minor successes.

[Doji Satevis]

[Kakita Shiro]

[Himoto]

What I'm going to say, I say as a founding member of the Jade Hand, and someone who's been pro-Crane fighting the Shadowlands for a long time.

Option #1 is the death knell of the Crane. Too many people here seem to bank on the idea of going military for the crisis, and then going back to honor and culture to restore it. That, to me, feel like the story team allowing us a takebacksie once the crisis is over. It's not impossible, but to bet on it is just bad thinking.

The Crane are THE honor faction. Abandoning that to go military while screaming "HONOR IS MY BLADE!" or whatever other slogan is trading the CRane, what they are and what they have always meant for a bunch of powder blue lions. We are not Powder Blue Lions, and this game doesn't need a second Lion Clan. What it need is one clan that's still focused on honor - one thin powder blue line between L5R and the final, absolute victory of Legend of the Four Provinces.

You say that Rokugan's culture are its people, that to preserve its culture means to fight...but that's wrong. Rokugan's culture is its traditions. Not the art themselves, nor the Lion's strategy, nor the Crab's wall ; but the Lion's honor, the Crab's duty, and the Crane's dedication to the arts. If we abandon our dedication to the art, we are already changing Rokugan beyond recognition ; we are already taking the bloody knife to rokugan's culture. Who needs the Spider?

Option #2 is also the death knell of the Crane. We would retain our true identity, but at the cost of painting a target sign on our head for any clan that chose to fight Jigoku (ie, most everyone). With so many enemies as we have already, we couldn't survive it in the long term ; we'd end up in a Scorpion Clan Coup situation. We cannot take that path, plain and simple.

That leaves Option 3. It may appear weak. It may appear cowardly. But it's also the one that's truest to our duty. Ensure a kernel of what makes Rokugan, Rokugan, survives beyond Jigoku's touch, so that in time, the clans may have something worth fighting for.

It's not an ideal option. What it is is better than the alternatives.

[Kakita Mitsuhide]

Tacticus: Okay lots of good points that I really can't counter with anything other than 'but you don't know for certain what will happen after this initial choice is made'. That no clan/faction has even considered, or is even willing to consider, the equivalent of our option 2 because they don't want to be on the 'losing side' is not surprising and really boring. It'll result in another storyline that ends the same as all those before it: no change is made (whilst we'd still have players complaining taht nothing changes when they had the choice to make something change).

Now as for player created paths... everyone I've read is either 'having your cake and eating it' or 'just like that option or X clan but for us instead'. Without exception.

Himoto: I'm glad I'm not the only one that doesn't want the Crane to be a blue Lion clan.

[Daidoji Tacticus]

[Himoto]

Re the honor thing: perhaps there is a post somewhere in this thread from an AEG type that I missed ; it's a long thread. If so, fair enough. If not, then that's your interpretation, and while it may be right, I consider gambling on the possibility that we MIGHT be allowed later to decide to go with honor to be unacceptable.

"In what way does fighting to defend our culture constitute abandoning it? Explain this to me, please."

Because that's not what the path proposes. The path explicitly propose that we would abandon our fundamental identity - the arts and culture - to fight this battle. If we set that aside, then what are we protecting exactly? If there's no one left to create the art, to *be* the culture, because we're all sharpening swords, then how are we preserving that culture?

If you lose yourself to defeat an enemy that seeks to destroy who you are, then they have already won.

[Kakita Mitsuhide]

Jigoku hasn't been the big bad threat since what, the 4 Winds-arc? It's been Daigotsu/Iuchiban/Daigotsu, then no-one, then Kali-Ma then... back to Jigoku. When since Lotus has Jigoku been the the big bad guy? And no the Destroyer war was not a war or even a fight against Jigoku but another foreign force. I'm not saying Jigoku hasn't been used in some element during those stories but it's not been the antagonist that affects the Empire.

The assumption that going more towards the dark side of things guaranteeing the "mutant hell-soaked parodies" is just wrong. You have no guarantee on that, just like there is no guarantee that after we go all military that we can then just simply and easily walk back into being the political honour clan again.

As for my opinion on the player made paths: I just tried to read all of the ones in the the other thread. I found few that were actually linked to something that expands on more than just a name, and those I did were "expanding on the Unicorn alliance option", "Option 3 but without moving to the colonies", "elements of #1 and #2 but in one package" and "#2 but Iweko not Kanpeki". None of which are interesting (to me) and none of which try and remove something from us. In fact they're nearly all presented as positively good things that aid in the 'good guys vs Kanpeki/Jigoku' scenario. But that's just my opinion, you may see it as not a constructive thought but that's where I stand.