New Mechanic: Strife, Stress Dice, Unmasking and Complex Social Conflicts

 

Uma versão em português desse documento pode ser acessada aqui.

Recently, I had a conversation in the Rokugan discord about taking more rules from L5R 5e to use with 4e, specifically Strife. I always liked this mechanic from 5e and have used it in 4e with mixed success once or twice. 

Here’s my latest attempt at making it work in a satisfactory way. Soon, I intend to playtest these rules with my own group. When I do that, I’ll post an addendum with the results and an example of play using our experiences here.

Here’s a Player Reference Sheet to help you and your group with the rules presented in this article.

Rules for Squads and a New Advantage: Squad Commander

 

Regras em português aqui.

Squads represent the faceless nameless masses of antagonists in any good action movie. These rules focus on allowing the GM to use these large groups of enemies against the player characters in a simple yet engaging way, simulating action scenes against dozens of foes who are defeated in droves.

Be aware that, while easily defeated, squads can still be quite lethal. One squad for each PC in a combat, plus one extra per bushi can make for a fun fight with real danger. When having actual NPCs with full sheets as opponents, maybe just a couple of Squads to round-up the action economy in favor of the NPCs can help create a more equiparable challenge.

These rules were originally created MANY years ago by a user from the old AEG forums that I unfortunately don’t have the name anymore. Since then, I refined them until they got to the present state.