Legend of the Five Rings Ronin Generation
Reprinted w/out permission from the main source book, L5R RPG
Ronin ("wave men") are samurai who, for one reason or another, have no family and no Clan, and so they have no family name. Ronin are considered to be just above non-warrior samurai in the Celestial Order. The most common reason for a samurai to become ronin involves losing a Lord. Either in a battle or by an assassin's blade, men and women who have lost their lord are in disgrace because they were unable to give up their lives for his. They wander the countryside looking for the one who stole their honor. Ronin have the advantage that they have no lord or honor to answer to, but will find great difficulty in finding a teacher. Few wish to stain their family honor by teaching their family's art to a fallen man.
As far as these basic rules are concerned, there are two types of ronin characters. The first is called a "Clan Ronin." This is a character who once belonged to one of the Great Clans, but has lost favor with his Lord. The second kind of ronin is called a "True Ronin." True Ronin have never had a Clan.
Process for Generating a Ronin Character
First, you must decide if you want to be a Clan ronin, or a "True" ronin.
Clan Ronin:
- Create a character from one of the Great Clans.
- Then, take the Social Disadvantage: Ronin disadvantage.
- Clan Ronin gain the Rank 1 Technique, but may not gain further Ranks in their School. They must seek out other Schools to gain further Ranks.
True Ronin:
- True Ronin recieve no Clan or Family benefits.
- They must take the Social Disadvantage: Ronin disadvantage.
- Instead of 25 Character Points with which to customize their character, True Ronin recieve 45.
- True Ronin may still only raise a Trait or skill by 2 Ranks with Character Points.
- True Ronin shugenja start with Sense, Commune, and Summon, plus any seven other spells with Mastery Level less than or equal to their Ring Rank plus one.
- Ronin begin with Hunting, and any six skills. Ronin may also use Low skills without losing Honor.
- True Ronin beginning Honor: 2, plus 5 boxes.
Outfits:
Clan Ronin |
True Ronin |
True Ronin Shugenja |
Clan Ronin take the outfit of their Clan. |
(All considered to be average quality; two items of poor quality) arrows (10 any type), bow, katana, wakizashi, light armor, kimono, traveling pack, 10 bu |
(All considered to be average quality) tanto, wakizashi, kimono, scroll satchel, traveling pack, 3 koku |