This game was, in a way, an experiment. The GM team was of the opinion that perhaps 'fish out of water' would prove an enjoyable change of pace. It turned out to not be the case, though we hope that you enjoyed the game regardless. The overall choice was to emphasize the xenophobia of the Rokugani instead of a spirit of exploration, which is a very viable (and well roleplayed) choice within the scope of the setting. This is why the game is ending a bit earlier than we had intended and why there will not, after all, be a second game within this setting.
To be clear, there is no rancor from the GM team toward the players for how things played out. We only hope that the lessons learned will be of use to future GMs when planning their own endeavors. To summarize those lessons:
1. Ghost aggressively. The ship battle took far too long because this wasn't done until the end stages. It takes a joint effort between GM's (to use what's provided) and Players (to give good directions and post useful stats like TNtbH) that didn't quite come together this time and needs to be streamlined for any 'large combat' games in future.
2. Tiny settings (the boat) are very, very difficult to get any longevity out of. The lack of places to wander and have any real solitude seems to have a negative impact and so should probably be avoided henceforth.
3. As much fun as an 'in game surprise' is, it's probably best to announce any major changes from the norm you intend in advance. I suspect if we'd had more than an obscure reference to the Ivory Kingdoms in the initial writeup, things might have gone very differently.
Once again, thank you for your participation. We're grateful to those who stayed through to the end and hope to see you all again in future endeavors on both side of the GM screen.
For any who might be interested, I'm moving the IK resources Volsung and I put together into the Rules section. Feel free to use them in the future, though credit would be nice.
