Oppressive RPG Settings?

[BWR]

There are no methods, period, by which a PC can affect any kind of cultural change to the way Rokugan works. Don't give me the names of NPC greats or give me meta reasons for things like the Great Famine - the point is that they struck it from their records completely and changed the calendars to match.

You mean like they can in any other RPG setting? Like how any player at my table can somehow change what WotCF decides to do in FR or Greyhawk. Fun fact, no PCs can ever canonincally change an RPG setting, and L5R with it's player win storylines is the closest thing you can get now. Around the table you can do whatever the **** you want. Honestly, what are you trying to say here?

- the point is that they struck it from their records completely and changed the calendars to match.

That would be like the United States collectively cutting out 1955 to 1975 and resetting the calendar to 1955 because of the horrible debacles that happened in those years. I don't know how that can't be seen as oppressive.

No the Great Famine is not a canonical event, is is presented as an example of what you can add to a game to fill out the 'empty' ears in history and give it a reason to exist. RTFM

You want meta reasons for things? Ok. There is no way, through normal play, a PC can ever reach the same ability of any of the setting's wunderkind. The culture and mechanics themselves turn and punch the hell out of you if you even try. The disparity between players and the "cool" people in all the histories is magnitudes of impossible-to-reach XP levels. You, as a PC, will never change anything. It's a poo-poosack setting that doesn't offer you the chance to change it (as the books read, mind you)..

What the hell are you talking about? There is nothing in the books, flavor of mechanics that says you can't be as awesome as canon characters. There is literally nothing saying or even vaguely hinting at this.

If you read through the histories, you will note that history is full of Crab A coming to the court to ask for food, weapons, or men, the rest of the country laughing at them, then a Shadowlands invasion happening, and then, less than two or three decades later, the whole thing repeats. It. Never. Changes.

Yes, Rokugan is resistant to change, but changes have occurred. We gave you plenty of examples. You want more, we can provide them. Or you could just read the ****ing literature. Just to take a recent example, the Destroyer War. If your complaint is that the setting is resistant to change, well so is basically every other setting. Do you hate those as well?

As for culture-enforcing secret police, yes, that is a thing the Scorpion do, constantly. So does the Otomo, the Tortoise clan, the Crane, and technically also the Kuni (who hunt for blasphemies).
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This is not culture policing, and you bloody well know it. Don't try to pass it off as such. The Scorpion are there to root out conspiracies that threaten the Empire (and make a few themselves), not make sure everyone dresses correctly. The Otomo are not secret police they are politicians with an vested interest in the status quo. You know, like any other political entity with a long history of being in power. The Kuni hunt literal soul-sucking demons and people who will forever damn your soul to hell with black magic. Please tell me how this is the same as making sure you bowed deeply enough to daimyo Doji Dimwit?
The Tortoise? The Tortoise are the empire's spies abroad to keep track of foreign affairs and report directly to the Emperor. They have nothing, literally nothing to do with internal affairs and literally nothing to do with making sure people act like proper Rokugani.

Is your complaint really that the setting is resistant to change? Well so is basically every other setting. Do you hate those as well for this fact?

Yes, basically one guy decides what is essentially uniforms - the Crane clan daimyo. The clan is literally in charge of what Rokugani culture is every year. They can break and ruin someone for wearing the wrong thing to Winter Court.

Unless you are one of those annoying people who use 'literally' when you should use 'figuratively' or 'virtually', then no. They do nothing of the sort. Their power is not enshrined in law, nor in the rules of the game. They are the beautiful popular rich kid in school written large. They cannot by law force you to obey but they can ruin your reputation by turning everyone else against you. You are complaining about people in power having what you consider unfair influence. That's your business but hardly unique to Rokugan.

Really, the most dangerous thing the setting gives you, as a player and a character, is hope - much like how there is a Fortune of Romantic Love, the histories give you hope that perhaps, if you work hard enough and live a true, faithful Rokugani life, you will be rewarded with a spouse (that, mind you, your family has chosen for you) that you actually love, a name that history will remember, and a place among the gods, or a higher station in the next life. Not like it matters, you won't remember anyway.

You can always play it differently, mind you, but at its base, it is a highly conservative setting with some very nasty moral values that it does not expect PCs to attempt to alter.

What on earth are you blathering about now? I honestly cannot get the point of this complaint. Are you really trying to tell me that players do not remember the characters they play if the game happens to be L5R? Because that is what it seems like your are saying here.

You seem to have understood that Rokugan is very conservative, very unfair and has some ethics that most of us modern day westerners find problematic. Congratulations, you have understood something that is spelt out clearly in the books. You don't seem to like that, and fine, whatever, no one is saying you have to. You just seem to be unable to put aside your real world beliefs and roleplay an actual Rokugani person, and act like this makes it a terrible game.

Also, as a side note, I have to say that the Lying Darkness is pretty much the best villain for the setting as a whole, because it takes all of the garbage that you have to deal with on a daily basis and promises to take away all the regret and pain of having to live with a free mind in an unforgiving culture, while all it costs is the removal of the most important and powerful thing you have as a samurai - your name.

Dude, we get it, you don't like Rokugan. Fine. I repeat, no one is asking you to. But please, stop making **** up, stop twisting stuff in the game to stuff it isn't to make it even more horrible to fit your need to have it be bad. We can keep this going, if you wish. We can reduce this whole mess to actual quotes from sources if you want, but you will find that we have our **** together.