An idea to help the Mirumoto and the Kakita in duels.

An idea to help the Mirumoto and the Kakita in duels.
I had a strange idea. What if you allowed players to trade a Focus for a Void Point that could be used on a roll? Another words, the Kakita is looking at a TN of 40 and has 4 Focuses left. He knows that hitting this TN is going to be unlikely, so he decides to trade one of his future Foceses in for a Void Point to be used on this roll. This might help the Kakita with their dirth of extra Focuses that they can't use. It might make the Mirumoto's Rank 3 a little more useful. Please give feedback.

Mirumoto 3 is only weak against the Kakita, or others with insane numbers of focuses. AGainst 'normals' with iaijutsu 5 and a trait of they will very quickly chew up their opponents focus ability. I just hope their is something to help the kakita out with making focus rolls, its all they need to rock the house in duels. EDIT: also the rank 3 kakita gives them those void points. I think your trade scheme is overkill....

I changed my mind. Instead of giving Void Points, maybe trade Focuses for Free Dice or a Free Raise. That way they can be combined with Void. Also, this does not apply to just the Kakita, but to all characters. I just hope their is something to help the kakita out with making focus rolls, its all they need to rock the house in duels. According to the table of contents from Art of the Duel, Crane only get one new Bushi Path, Daidoji Duelist. They get no new kata. I think it is a fair bet to say that AEG still thinks that the Kakita rules the duels. EDIT: also the rank 3 kakita gives them those void points. I think your trade scheme is overkill.... Kakita are not the only school with a ton of extra Focuses. The Kitsuki Investigators also get a number of extra equal to their Awareness. I decided that perhaps instead of Void, let characters trade for either Extra Dice or an Extra Raise on the Focus roll. It should be balanced because everyone can do it. It is still not as powerful as say, the Toku Bushi's ability, but it is at least something.

You might be onto something here. I think it would be good to let dueling characters trade in an extra focus each turn for *something* extra. what that something is is the big question. an extra die to roll on the "strike" roll doesn't seem overtly powerful to me. a free raise would be, IMHO

You might be onto something here. I think it would be good to let dueling characters trade in an extra focus each turn for *something* extra. what that something is is the big question. an extra die to roll on the "strike" roll doesn't seem overtly powerful to me. a free raise would be, IMHO Bonuses to the strike roll are irrelevant.,

You might be onto something here. I think it would be good to let dueling characters trade in an extra focus each turn for *something* extra. what that something is is the big question. an extra die to roll on the "strike" roll doesn't seem overtly powerful to me. a free raise would be, IMHO Bonuses to the strike roll are irrelevant., I wouldn't say that. They become relevant if you manage to get to your strike without being chopped down. Perhaps you could trade in an extra focus for an extra die (less powerful), or free raise on the next focus roll.

Another thing that can be done is to say that a failed Focus roll does not automatically force you to call Strike, but rather allows you to attempt to immediately Focus again until you either successfully Focus or run out of Focus attempts. If you run out of focus attempts while doing so then you must call Strike.

The downside to houseruling something in favor of the Kakita is that you might end up making extra focuses so powerful that the Kakita go right back to being unbeatable, like they were in earlier editions.

The downside to houseruling something in favor of the Kakita is that you might end up making extra focuses so powerful that the Kakita go right back to being unbeatable, like they were in earlier editions. The Kakita are not the only school that have extra Focus attempts. The Kitsuki Investigators get extra Focuses equal to their Awareness, at Rank 3. Also, I would honestly prefer the Kakita to be the best duelists rather then the Shosuro Shinobi, Toku Bushi, or Ikoma Spymaster. The reasons why each of these schools are so good is an aberation of the wording of their individual techniques and does not reflect any great skill. Another thing that can be done is to say that a failed Focus roll does not automatically force you to call Strike, but rather allows you to attempt to immediately Focus again until you either successfully Focus or run out of Focus attempts. If you run out of focus attempts while doing so then you must call Strike. I like this idea.

The Kakita are not the only school that have extra Focus attempts. The Kitsuki Investigators get extra Focuses equal to their Awareness, at Rank 3. Kakita also get 3 extra VP to be used in a duel at rank 3. Combined with this, I don't think you have to worry about Kitsuki Investigators stepping on their dueling toes. Also, I would honestly prefer the Kakita to be the best duelists rather then the Shosuro Shinobi, Toku Bushi, or Ikoma Spymaster. The reasons why each of these schools are so good is an aberation of the wording of their individual techniques and does not reflect any great skill. I'm all for making the Kakita the best duelists in the Empire, but I draw the line well before making them near-unbeatable (although most suggestions made here seem to fall short of that mark, at least). However, the problems with those other Schools don't go away by simply beefing up the Kakita. Shinobi, Toku and Spymasters will still be much better than Mirumoto and other Schools. If you want to tackle these issues, you need to change the Schools that create the problems, not the Schools that suffer them.

Another thing that can be done is to say that a failed Focus roll does not automatically force you to call Strike, but rather allows you to attempt to immediately Focus again until you either successfully Focus or run out of Focus attempts. If you run out of focus attempts while doing so then you must call Strike. Personally, I feel that a mechanic that adds more rolls to a system already rife with rolls (at least a dozen for the average duel) would slow down the mechanic even more and remove a portion of the suspense in duels.

Another thing that can be done is to say that a failed Focus roll does not automatically force you to call Strike, but rather allows you to attempt to immediately Focus again until you either successfully Focus or run out of Focus attempts. If you run out of focus attempts while doing so then you must call Strike. Personally, I feel that a mechanic that adds more rolls to a system already rife with rolls (at least a dozen for the average duel) would slow down the mechanic even more and remove a portion of the suspense in duels. While I would definitely agree that Inu's suggestion would produce a very roll intensive duel, I actually happen to think that it is also a very elegant solution that actually makes bonus focuses relevant. The only real question that would still need to be answered is if this means that someone may spend a Void Point to re-roll a focus attempt (as Void Points can grant additional Focus attempts).

Another thing that can be done is to say that a failed Focus roll does not automatically force you to call Strike, but rather allows you to attempt to immediately Focus again until you either successfully Focus or run out of Focus attempts. If you run out of focus attempts while doing so then you must call Strike. Personally, I feel that a mechanic that adds more rolls to a system already rife with rolls (at least a dozen for the average duel) would slow down the mechanic even more and remove a portion of the suspense in duels. While I would definitely agree that Inu's suggestion would produce a very roll intensive duel, I actually happen to think that it is also a very elegant solution that actually makes bonus focuses relevant. The only real question that would still need to be answered is if this means that someone may spend a Void Point to re-roll a focus attempt (as Void Points can grant additional Focus attempts).That was my intent. Esentially you have to keep making Focus attempts until you succeed or run out of Focus attempts. As you can spend a Void to gain another Focus attempt, you should be able to do so in this instance. Basically it would not be a re-roll, but rather a whole new Focus roll at the same TN.

Now I like that idea.... Yes, it does detract somewhat from the suspense of a duel -who is going to fluff their focus roll first- but being able to burn Void or additional Focuses when you do fluff it could quite easily bring balance back. Schools that grant Void and additional Focuses (Kakita) would have an edge over those that don't or those that only get one (Kitsuki) which could work. If both parties have spare Void or Focuses though, the tension would still be there which is good. Lets face it, in a duel where one character totally out-classes the other, there shouldn't be any tension, it should be a done deal. The question is, would this give the Kakita an unbeatable edge? Extra Void Points ad Extra Focuses might end up meaning that no-one else could beat them if you could trade these 'extras' against failed Focus rolls.

The question is, would this give the Kakita an unbeatable edge? Extra Void Points ad Extra Focuses might end up meaning that no-one else could beat them if you could trade these 'extras' against failed Focus rolls.I don't think it would be to bad. The Kakita would certainly be consistant against folk who have no benefit in duels, but against people who have ways to ensure that their focus rolls can meet high Tn's then it is not quite as good. Mainly because a reroll is generally not as good as a flat out bonus. The Kakita would be very good at not flubbing rolls they should be able to usually make(which I think is entirely in character), but when they start having to make high TN focus values, then there is a good chance that the number of rerolls they have to make for successive focuses will get exponetially bigger, since L5R's dice roll system is a bell curve of sorts. Don't forget that this is also a mechanic that would be added to the base iaijutsu rules as well, not to the kakita, this means that others could take at least some advantage from it as well. It would probably have to be playtested in real situations in order to determine its actual balance.

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