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Preview — Legend of the Five Rings Character Travelogue by Steve Hough(Legend of the Five Rings RPG 1st Edition)
[Librarian's Note: All Travelogues are similar inside, only the covers vary]
'Every man's life is a story.' - The Tao of Shinsei Some of the greatest works in Rokugan's literary history have been the journals and travelogues of her samurai. Now, you can add your own voice to that great literary tradition. The Legend of the Five Rings Character Travelogue is more than just a ch..more
Published 1997 by Alderac Entertainment Group
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Legend of the Five Rings RPG 1st Edition(1 - 10 of 40 books)
(Redirected from Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game)
The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game originally written by John Wick and published by Alderac Entertainment Group, under license from Five Rings Publishing Group, in 1997. The game uses the Legend of the Five Rings setting, and primarily the nation of Rokugan, which is based on feudalJapan with influences from other East Asian cultures.
Like most role-playing games, Legend of the Five Rings is played by one or more players and a game master, who controls the events that happen during the game as well as the non-player characters (NPCs). Legend of the Five Rings features many courtiers and other non-combatant character types as valid player characters.
In 1998, Legend of the Five Rings won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game of 1997.[2] In 2008 the L5R RPG 3rd Edition sourcebook Emerald Empire won the Scrye Players Choice Award.
In September 2015, AEG and Fantasy Flight Games jointly announced that the intellectual property had been sold to FFG.[3] Fantasy Flight Games released a new role-playing game based on the Legend of the Five Rings setting in October, 2018.[4]
Setting[edit]
The fictional setting of Legend of the Five Rings is similar to feudalJapan, though it also includes aspects of other Asian cultures, as well as magic and mythical beasts. There is no given name for the entire world which the setting describes, so 'Rokugan' is used alternately to refer to the specific nation within the setting or to refer to the entire world.
Rokugani society is based on a clan structure, with seven (and later eight) so-called 'Great Clans', as well as a number of minor clans. Great Clans are made up of several family lines, each with their own general purpose within the clan. Minor clans generally only have one family. Each clan also has areas of land bequeathed by the emperor under their control. The emperor retains ownership of all lands, however, and the clans essentially rent the lands by paying annual taxes.
System[edit]
The game system of Legend of the Five Rings uses 10-sided dice exclusively. Usually, when a die is rolled and the result is 10 (normally marked '0' on the die), the die is said to 'explode'. In this situation, the player rolls again and the new result is added to the original result. If this second result is a 10, the player rolls a third time, totaling all three results. This process is repeated until the player rolls something other than 10. The second edition and most books made for it were written to work both with this system and with D20 rules as presented in the Oriental Adventures D&D setting; this was discontinued after 3rd edition was published.
Roll & Keep[edit]
The mechanic for which the game is most widely known is the 'Roll & Keep' system, designed by Dave Williams and John Wick. When dice are rolled, there are two quantities given: a number of dice to be rolled and a number of dice to be 'kept'. The totals of the kept dice are added together, giving the player the total sum for his or her roll. For example, if a roll called for five dice to be rolled and three kept (said simply 'five keep three' or written '5k3'), five dice would be rolled. Out of those five, the player would choose three (generally, but not necessarily, the player would choose the three with the highest values) whose values would be added together for the total value of the roll.
Rings[edit]
Legend of the Five Rings uses eight traits: Stamina, Willpower, Strength, Perception, Agility, Intelligence, Reflexes, and Awareness. The Traits are grouped into pairs associated with four elemental 'Rings' (respectively to above): Earth, Water, Fire and Air. The four Rings represent a limitation in character development, because in order for a character to advance, the level of his Rings must increase, and to increase a character’s Rings, both of the Ring’s associated Traits must increase.
There is a fifth Ring, called Void. This ring, like the other four, is taken from Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings, although 'Nothingness' is a better translation of the text. In the game, Void represents a character’s inner strength, and its use allows a character to perform extraordinary actions, or to perform normal actions more efficiently.
Character creation[edit]
There are primarily two methods of creating characters in role-playing games: to roll dice to randomly generate attributes or to begin with a set number of points and a formula by which attributes can be purchased with these points. Legend of the Five Rings uses the latter method. Each new character begins with 40 'Character Points' to spend to create the character (except for ronin characters, which begin with 55). These points are spent to raise the level of the character’s Traits and Void Ring, to raise the level of the character’s skills, and to purchase new skills. In previous versions of the game, characters started with 30 points, or 45 for ronin.
These points may also be used to purchase Advantages, which give the character some extra bonus or ability that is designed to help in certain situations (such as 'Large', which increases the damage a character can inflict, or 'Social Position', which increases that character’s standing in the courts of the land). Conversely, if a player so chooses, he can select a number of Disadvantages for his character, which give extra Character Points to spend in other areas, but imposes some penalty on the character during play (such as 'Small', which decreases the damage the character can inflict with certain weapons, or 'Bad Reputation', which causes a great number of NPCs to dislike the character).
Lethality[edit]
The Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game is renowned for its lethality.[5] Players who charge into combat unaware will often find their characters killed in the first session. Proper role-playing is encouraged to avoid combat when unnecessary, but the characters do have requisite abilities to survive if combat is forced in the early stages.
Oriental Adventures[edit]
Oriental Adventures was published originally in 1985 by TSR, Inc. as an expansion for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and was set in a land called Kara-Tur. In 2001, Wizards of the Coast released a new edition of Oriental Adventures as an expansion for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons. It was decided to make this new version of Oriental Adventures a showcase for their recently acquired Legend of the Five Rings. An official (but not 100% comprehensive) update of Oriental Adventures to the v.3.5 rules can be found in Dragon Magazine #318 (April 2004), pp. 32-48.
For the entirety of its Second Edition, with the exception of the Player's Guide, Game Master's Guide, Way of the Shadowlands, Winter Court: Kyuden Asako, and Time of the Void, books published for the Legend of the Five Rings RPG had two different sets of game mechanics: the mechanics from the Legend of the Five Rings Second Edition Player's Guide and corresponding mechanics for d20 System, such as those presented in Oriental Adventures. Beginning with the Third Edition of the Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game, and because of the lack of availability of the now out of print Oriental Adventures, the d20 System rules have been dropped from current Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game books.
Books[edit]
Listed by AEG reference number in parentheses followed by title
First Edition[edit]
(3001) Legend of the Five Rings – Roleplaying in the Emerald Empire (first edition core rule book)
(3002) Game Master’s Pack: The Hare Clan (3003) Way of the Dragon (Way of the Clans: Book One) (3004) City of Lies box set (L-1 City of Lies) (3005) Way of the Unicorn (Way of the Clans: Book Two) (3006) Book of the Shadowlands (3007) Way of the Crab (Way of the Clans: Book Three) (3008) Way of the Scorpion (Way of the Clans: Book Five) (3009) Way of the Crane (Way of the Clans: Book Four) (3010) Way of the Lion (Way of the Clans: Book Six) (3011) Walking the Way: The Lost Spells of Rokugan (3012) Tomb of Iuchiban box set (S-1 Shadowlands Series) (3013) Way of Shadow (3014) Way of the Naga (Way of the Clans: Book Eight) (3015) Game Master’s Survival Guide (3016) Winter Court: Kyuden Seppun (3017) Way of the Phoenix (Way of the Clans: Book Seven) (3018) Unexpected Allies (3019) Bearers of Jade: The Second Book of the Shadowlands (3020) Otosan Uchi: The Imperial City box set (O-1 The Imperial City) (3021) Way of the Minor Clans (Way of the Clans: Book Nine) (3022) Game Master’s Pack (Revised): The Silence Within Sound (3023) Merchant’s Guide to Rokugan (3024) Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita (3025) Way of the Wolf (Way of the Clans: Book Ten) (3028) Way of Shinsei (Way of the Clans: Book Eleven) (4001) Honor’s Veil (I-1 Intrigue Series) (4002) Night of a Thousand Screams (L-2 City of Lies) (4003) Code of Bushido (B-1 Bushido Series) (4004) Twilight Honor (S-2 Shadowlands Series) (4005) Midnight’s Blood (M-1 High Magic Series) (4006) Legacy of the Forge (B-2 Bushido Series) (4007) Void in the Heavens (M-2 High Magic Series) (4008) Lesser of Two Evils (S-3 Shadowlands Series) (4500) Character Travelogue: Crab (4501) Character Travelogue: Crane (4502) Character Travelogue: Dragon (4503) Character Travelogue: Lion (4504) Character Travelogue: Phoenix (4505) Character Travelogue: Ronin (4506) Character Travelogue: Scorpion (4507) Character Travelogue: Unicorn Second Edition[edit]
(3026) Secrets of the Lion
(3027) Secrets of the Scorpion (3029) Secrets of the Unicorn (3030) Way of the Shadowlands * (3030) Winter Court: Kyuden Asako *(both marked 3030, there is no 3031) (3032) Way of the Ratling (3033) Time of the Void (3034) Secrets of the Mantis (3035) Secrets of the Phoenix (3036) Secrets of the Crab (3037) Secrets of the Crane (3038) Secrets of the Dragon (3039) Secrets of the Shadowlands (3040) Complete Exotic Arms Guide supplement (3041) Legend of the Five Rings Live-Action Roleplaying (3042) Way of the Open Hand (3043) Way of the Daimyo (3044) Way of the Thief (3046) Complete Exotic Arms Guide (3047) The Hidden Emperor (3101) Legend of the Five Rings – Player’s Guide (second edition core rules) (3102) Legend of the Five Rings – Game Master’s Guide (second edition core rules) (3103) Rokugan – Oriental Adventures Campaign Setting (3104) Creatures of Rokugan (3105) Magic of Rokugan (3106) Way of the Samurai (3107) Way of the Ninja (3108) Way of the Shugenja (3109) Fortunes & Winds (4009) Bells of the Dead (4010) Mimura: The Village of Promises Non-AEG second edition compatible books[edit]
(WTC 12015) Oriental Adventures (d20 System)
(PCI 2101) Bloodspeakers (d20 System) Third Edition[edit]
(3200) Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Third Edition
(3201) The Four Winds: The Toturi Dynasty from Gold to Lotus (3202) Creatures of Rokugan (3203) Art of the Duel (3204) Emerald Empire: The Legend of the Five Rings Companion (3205) Masters of War (3206) Prayers and Treasures (3207) Masters of Court (3208) Legend of the Burning Sands Roleplaying Game (3209) Masters of Magic (3210) Fealty and Freedom (3211) The Vacant Throne Air traffic control game for pc free download laptop. Fourth Edition[edit]
(3300) Legend of the Five Rings – 4th Edition (core rules)
(3301) Legacy of Disaster (3302) Game Master’s Screen and Adventure (Descent into Darkness) (3303) Strongholds of the Empire (3304) Enemies of the Empire (3305) Emerald Empire (3306) The Great Clans (3307) Imperial Histories (3308) The Book of Air (3309) Second City box set (3310) The Book of Earth (3311) Imperial Histories 2 (3312) The Book of Fire (3313) Naishou Province (3314) Secrets of the Empire (3315) The Book of Water (3316) Sword and Fan (3317) Book of the Void (3318) Atlas of Rokugan Unexpected Allies 2 (pdf and print-on-demand) The Imperial Archives (pdf and print-on-demand) References[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Legend_of_the_Five_Rings_Roleplaying_Game&oldid=891712016'
(Redirected from Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game)
The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game originally written by John Wick and published by Alderac Entertainment Group, under license from Five Rings Publishing Group, in 1997. The game uses the Legend of the Five Rings setting, and primarily the nation of Rokugan, which is based on feudalJapan with influences from other East Asian cultures.
Like most role-playing games, Legend of the Five Rings is played by one or more players and a game master, who controls the events that happen during the game as well as the non-player characters (NPCs). Legend of the Five Rings features many courtiers and other non-combatant character types as valid player characters.
Legends Of The Five Rings
In 1998, Legend of the Five Rings won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game of 1997.[2] In 2008 the L5R RPG 3rd Edition sourcebook Emerald Empire won the Scrye Players Choice Award.
In September 2015, AEG and Fantasy Flight Games jointly announced that the intellectual property had been sold to FFG.[3] Fantasy Flight Games released a new role-playing game based on the Legend of the Five Rings setting in October, 2018.[4]
Setting[edit]
The fictional setting of Legend of the Five Rings is similar to feudalJapan, though it also includes aspects of other Asian cultures, as well as magic and mythical beasts. There is no given name for the entire world which the setting describes, so 'Rokugan' is used alternately to refer to the specific nation within the setting or to refer to the entire world.
Rokugani society is based on a clan structure, with seven (and later eight) so-called 'Great Clans', as well as a number of minor clans. Great Clans are made up of several family lines, each with their own general purpose within the clan. Minor clans generally only have one family. Each clan also has areas of land bequeathed by the emperor under their control. The emperor retains ownership of all lands, however, and the clans essentially rent the lands by paying annual taxes.
System[edit]
The game system of Legend of the Five Rings uses 10-sided dice exclusively. Usually, when a die is rolled and the result is 10 (normally marked '0' on the die), the die is said to 'explode'. In this situation, the player rolls again and the new result is added to the original result. If this second result is a 10, the player rolls a third time, totaling all three results. This process is repeated until the player rolls something other than 10. The second edition and most books made for it were written to work both with this system and with D20 rules as presented in the Oriental Adventures D&D setting; this was discontinued after 3rd edition was published.
Roll & Keep[edit]
The mechanic for which the game is most widely known is the 'Roll & Keep' system, designed by Dave Williams and John Wick. When dice are rolled, there are two quantities given: a number of dice to be rolled and a number of dice to be 'kept'. The totals of the kept dice are added together, giving the player the total sum for his or her roll. For example, if a roll called for five dice to be rolled and three kept (said simply 'five keep three' or written '5k3'), five dice would be rolled. Out of those five, the player would choose three (generally, but not necessarily, the player would choose the three with the highest values) whose values would be added together for the total value of the roll.
Rings[edit]
Legend of the Five Rings uses eight traits: Stamina, Willpower, Strength, Perception, Agility, Intelligence, Reflexes, and Awareness. The Traits are grouped into pairs associated with four elemental 'Rings' (respectively to above): Earth, Water, Fire and Air. The four Rings represent a limitation in character development, because in order for a character to advance, the level of his Rings must increase, and to increase a character’s Rings, both of the Ring’s associated Traits must increase.
There is a fifth Ring, called Void. This ring, like the other four, is taken from Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings, although 'Nothingness' is a better translation of the text. In the game, Void represents a character’s inner strength, and its use allows a character to perform extraordinary actions, or to perform normal actions more efficiently.
Character creation[edit]
There are primarily two methods of creating characters in role-playing games: to roll dice to randomly generate attributes or to begin with a set number of points and a formula by which attributes can be purchased with these points. Legend of the Five Rings uses the latter method. Each new character begins with 40 'Character Points' to spend to create the character (except for ronin characters, which begin with 55). These points are spent to raise the level of the character’s Traits and Void Ring, to raise the level of the character’s skills, and to purchase new skills. In previous versions of the game, characters started with 30 points, or 45 for ronin.
These points may also be used to purchase Advantages, which give the character some extra bonus or ability that is designed to help in certain situations (such as 'Large', which increases the damage a character can inflict, or 'Social Position', which increases that character’s standing in the courts of the land). Conversely, if a player so chooses, he can select a number of Disadvantages for his character, which give extra Character Points to spend in other areas, but imposes some penalty on the character during play (such as 'Small', which decreases the damage the character can inflict with certain weapons, or 'Bad Reputation', which causes a great number of NPCs to dislike the character).
Lethality[edit]
The Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game is renowned for its lethality.[5] Players who charge into combat unaware will often find their characters killed in the first session. Proper role-playing is encouraged to avoid combat when unnecessary, but the characters do have requisite abilities to survive if combat is forced in the early stages.
Oriental Adventures[edit]
Oriental Adventures was published originally in 1985 by TSR, Inc. as an expansion for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and was set in a land called Kara-Tur. In 2001, Wizards of the Coast released a new edition of Oriental Adventures as an expansion for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons. It was decided to make this new version of Oriental Adventures a showcase for their recently acquired Legend of the Five Rings. An official (but not 100% comprehensive) update of Oriental Adventures to the v.3.5 rules can be found in Dragon Magazine #318 (April 2004), pp. 32-48.
For the entirety of its Second Edition, with the exception of the Player's Guide, Game Master's Guide, Way of the Shadowlands, Winter Court: Kyuden Asako, and Time of the Void, books published for the Legend of the Five Rings RPG had two different sets of game mechanics: the mechanics from the Legend of the Five Rings Second Edition Player's Guide and corresponding mechanics for d20 System, such as those presented in Oriental Adventures. Beginning with the Third Edition of the Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game, and because of the lack of availability of the now out of print Oriental Adventures, the d20 System rules have been dropped from current Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game books.
Books[edit]
Listed by AEG reference number in parentheses followed by title
First Edition[edit]
(3001) Legend of the Five Rings – Roleplaying in the Emerald Empire (first edition core rule book)
(3002) Game Master’s Pack: The Hare Clan (3003) Way of the Dragon (Way of the Clans: Book One) (3004) City of Lies box set (L-1 City of Lies) (3005) Way of the Unicorn (Way of the Clans: Book Two) (3006) Book of the Shadowlands (3007) Way of the Crab (Way of the Clans: Book Three) (3008) Way of the Scorpion (Way of the Clans: Book Five) (3009) Way of the Crane (Way of the Clans: Book Four) (3010) Way of the Lion (Way of the Clans: Book Six) (3011) Walking the Way: The Lost Spells of Rokugan (3012) Tomb of Iuchiban box set (S-1 Shadowlands Series) (3013) Way of Shadow (3014) Way of the Naga (Way of the Clans: Book Eight) (3015) Game Master’s Survival Guide (3016) Winter Court: Kyuden Seppun (3017) Way of the Phoenix (Way of the Clans: Book Seven) (3018) Unexpected Allies (3019) Bearers of Jade: The Second Book of the Shadowlands (3020) Otosan Uchi: The Imperial City box set (O-1 The Imperial City) (3021) Way of the Minor Clans (Way of the Clans: Book Nine) (3022) Game Master’s Pack (Revised): The Silence Within Sound (3023) Merchant’s Guide to Rokugan (3024) Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita (3025) Way of the Wolf (Way of the Clans: Book Ten) (3028) Way of Shinsei (Way of the Clans: Book Eleven) (4001) Honor’s Veil (I-1 Intrigue Series) (4002) Night of a Thousand Screams (L-2 City of Lies) (4003) Code of Bushido (B-1 Bushido Series) (4004) Twilight Honor (S-2 Shadowlands Series) (4005) Midnight’s Blood (M-1 High Magic Series) (4006) Legacy of the Forge (B-2 Bushido Series) (4007) Void in the Heavens (M-2 High Magic Series) (4008) Lesser of Two Evils (S-3 Shadowlands Series) (4500) Character Travelogue: Crab (4501) Character Travelogue: Crane (4502) Character Travelogue: Dragon (4503) Character Travelogue: Lion (4504) Character Travelogue: Phoenix (4505) Character Travelogue: Ronin (4506) Character Travelogue: Scorpion (4507) Character Travelogue: Unicorn Skyrim map marker mod. Second Edition[edit]
(3026) Secrets of the Lion
(3027) Secrets of the Scorpion (3029) Secrets of the Unicorn (3030) Way of the Shadowlands * (3030) Winter Court: Kyuden Asako *(both marked 3030, there is no 3031) (3032) Way of the Ratling (3033) Time of the Void (3034) Secrets of the Mantis (3035) Secrets of the Phoenix (3036) Secrets of the Crab (3037) Secrets of the Crane (3038) Secrets of the Dragon (3039) Secrets of the Shadowlands (3040) Complete Exotic Arms Guide supplement (3041) Legend of the Five Rings Live-Action Roleplaying (3042) Way of the Open Hand (3043) Way of the Daimyo (3044) Way of the Thief (3046) Complete Exotic Arms Guide (3047) The Hidden Emperor (3101) Legend of the Five Rings – Player’s Guide (second edition core rules) (3102) Legend of the Five Rings – Game Master’s Guide (second edition core rules) (3103) Rokugan – Oriental Adventures Campaign Setting (3104) Creatures of Rokugan (3105) Magic of Rokugan (3106) Way of the Samurai (3107) Way of the Ninja (3108) Way of the Shugenja (3109) Fortunes & Winds (4009) Bells of the Dead (4010) Mimura: The Village of Promises Non-AEG second edition compatible books[edit]
(WTC 12015) Oriental Adventures (d20 System)
(PCI 2101) Bloodspeakers (d20 System) Third Edition[edit]
(3200) Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Third Edition
(3201) The Four Winds: The Toturi Dynasty from Gold to Lotus (3202) Creatures of Rokugan (3203) Art of the Duel (3204) Emerald Empire: The Legend of the Five Rings Companion (3205) Masters of War (3206) Prayers and Treasures (3207) Masters of Court (3208) Legend of the Burning Sands Roleplaying Game (3209) Masters of Magic (3210) Fealty and Freedom (3211) The Vacant Throne Fourth Edition[edit]
(3300) Legend of the Five Rings – 4th Edition (core rules)
(3301) Legacy of Disaster (3302) Game Master’s Screen and Adventure (Descent into Darkness) (3303) Strongholds of the Empire (3304) Enemies of the Empire (3305) Emerald Empire (3306) The Great Clans (3307) Imperial Histories (3308) The Book of Air (3309) Second City box set (3310) The Book of Earth (3311) Imperial Histories 2 (3312) The Book of Fire (3313) Naishou Province (3314) Secrets of the Empire (3315) The Book of Water (3316) Sword and Fan (3317) Book of the Void (3318) Atlas of Rokugan Unexpected Allies 2 (pdf and print-on-demand) The Imperial Archives (pdf and print-on-demand) References[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Legend_of_the_Five_Rings_Roleplaying_Game&oldid=891712016'
Legend of the Five Rings (often abbreviated L5R) is a fictional setting created by John Zinser, Dave Seay, Dave Williams, and John Wick and published by Alderac Entertainment Group in 1995. The setting primarily involves the fictional empire of Rokugan, though some additional areas and cultures have been discussed. Rokugan is based roughly on feudal Japan with influences from other East Asian cultures such as China, Mongolia and Korea. This setting is the basis for the Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game as well as the Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game. Legend of the Five Rings was also the 'featured campaign setting' of the Oriental Adventures expansion to the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons, though this book is now out of print.
The timeline of the Legends of the Five Rings setting can be influenced by players of the collectible card game, and to a lesser extent the role-playing game, with the winners of major tournaments making pivotal decisions that become canonical history in future products. The most significant example of this was the Race for the Throne event, which took place through 2007 and 2008, which allowed players of both the collectible card game and the role-playing game to affect the storyline of their Clan by earning points in various Spheres of influence.[2]
L5R was acquired by Fantasy Flight Games in 2015.[3]
Legend of the Five Rings Products[edit]Collectible Card Game[edit]
The Legend of the Five Rings collectible card game is played by two or more players (in tournaments, generally two), each with two decks of at least 40 cards each (formerly at least 30 cards each). The game continues until a player has reached one of several different victory conditions, at which point that player is declared the winner. Victory conditions include winning militarily (destroying all provinces of one's opponent), by honour (reaching a certain number of honour points), dishonour (forcing one's opponent under a certain honour point threshold), through enlightenment (by putting cards called rings into play) or via a couple of special cards which essentially mean 'game won'.
In the game's tournaments players can affect the storyline of the game, their deck construction directly contributing to the lives (or deaths) of the characters involved. This is in turn reflected in future expansions of the game, and the mechanics of the cards therein. The full current rules of the collectible card game can be found at the Comprehensive Rules Site. The Kotei Season runs generally February through June of each year, where regional tournaments occur around the world. Each season incorporates a major event currently going on in the Emerald Empire, with each event determining at least one factor of the larger story. Kotei winners are pre-qualified into major events such as Gen Con and the European Championships, allowing them to skip the qualifying rounds.
Legend of the Five Rings has many cards that are directly influenced by players and their actions. These cards often feature an attribution on the vertical right side of the card, which includes the name of the player, the event, and the date involved in the creation of the card or theme behind the card. Having your name on a card is a goal of many players of Legend of the Five Rings.
The CCG ended its run in 2015 when Fantasy Flight Games acquired the game and converted it to a living card game.
Role-Playing Game[edit]
The Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game is a role-playing game that requires one person to be game master and any number of other people to play different characters. There is no 'winner' or 'loser', and the players do not generally compete against each other. Instead, the players work together to find a solution to some problem which the game master has presented their characters. The setting allows for stories which are oriented around action, courtly diplomacy or a mix of the two.
The Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game is currently in its fourth edition. All four editions used an original ruleset designed specifically for the setting.[citation needed] To distinguish this game system from the d20 System mechanics (see below), it is often referred to as the d10, 'classic', or the 'Roll & Keep' ('R&K') system.
In September 2017, after Legend of the Five Rings was purchased by Fantasy Flight, they announced a fifth edition of the RPG, which was released on October 11, 2018.[4] It features an alternate version of the Roll and Keep system using special dice.[5]
Live-Action Roleplaying[edit]
In 2004 a live-action roleplay version of the game was released. Live-Action roleplaying has long been a major part of Legend of the Five Rings at events such as Gen Con. Heroes of Rokugan, a fan-run group organizes yearly LARPs as part of their own storyline.[citation needed]
Board Games[edit]
Clan War was a miniature based model strategy game produced by AEG, whose story line is derived from the Legend of the Five Rings setting. This game is currently out of print. In 2010, however, a limited selection of the metal miniatures used to play the game was released by Valiant Enterprises Ltd.[6] A second Legend of the Five Rings board game titled Art of War has been demonstrated several times but never released.[7]
In 2011 AEG released a board game titled War of Honor, which utilized the same cards as the collectible card game in a simplified game. Four complete decks were included with the game, making it self-contained, however additional cards can also be included.[8] A second game, titled Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan was released the same year. This is a board game for 2-4 players in which one player takes the role of a Scorpion Clan ninja attempting to infiltrate a Lion Clan compound, with the other players defending it.[9]
In 2013 a Legend of the Five Rings themed version of the card game Love Letter was released. Using a deck of 16 cards and taking roughly an hour to play, the game simulates the courtly intrigue surrounding the attempts of several players to court a princess.[10]
In 2017, Fantasy Flight Games released Battle for Rokugan, an L5R-themed area-control strategy board game in which the clans fight to conquer regions on a map of Rokugan.
Living Card Game[edit]
After Legend of the Five Rings was purchased by Fantasy Flight Games, [11] they released a new version of the card game. Fantasy Flight's version (renamed Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game) is distributed as an introductory core set with periodical Clan Packs (which focus on a single clan) and Dynasty Packs (which have a variety of clan cards). Unlike the collectible card game version, the cards in the core set and packs are non-random.
The game is played by two players, each with two decks of 40-45 cards each. The game continues until a player has reached one of several different victory conditions, at which point that player is declared the winner. Victory conditions include breaking the province which holds their opponent’s stronghold, accumulating 25 honor, or having their opponent run out of honor. In the game's tournaments players can affect the storyline of the game. [12]
Novels[edit]Clan War series[edit]
The Four Winds Saga[edit]
Death at Koten[edit]
In May 2009, Death at Koten was published, a graphic novel written by Shawn Carman which takes place in the Legend of the Five Rings setting. It revolves around the death of Hida Kisada and the events that take place as a result of his assassination.[18]
Rokugan[edit]
Legend of the Five Rings is set primarily in the fictional land of Rokugan (also known as the Emerald Empire), based on feudal Japan with influences from other East Asian cultures, where samurai, shugenja, and trained courtiers vie for control of the noble courts. Rokugan itself is home to mostly humans, divided into a society based on clans, with eight Great Clans and various minor ones, though at the moment they are all in confusion, and are vying for one of their members to be the new Emperor. They are regularly threatened by evil plots from within, but the main threat still lies to the southwest of Rokugan: the deadly wastes of the Shadowlands, where demonic hordes roam.
The world of L5R, which contains Rokugan, also contains the nations of the Burning Sands as well as the Ivory Kingdoms. A few foreign visitors from these lands have been featured in Legend of the Five Rings, but have not played a major role in the storyline. Much is unknown of these lands, mostly due to the extreme xenophobia of the Rokugani, shown in the story by an Imperial mandate of non-interaction with Gaijin.
Ownership[edit]
Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG), in partnership with Isomedia, first designed and published the L5R collectible card game in 1995. Eventually, it became obvious that L5R would greatly benefit from the sort of promotion, marketing, and production that costs a lot of money. Some of the original AEG and Isomedia folks found interested investors and formed the Five Rings Publishing Group (FRPG), which purchased the intellectual property (IP) that is L5R.FRPG took over production and marketing, while AEG continued to design the game. In 1997, AEG licensed the role-playing publication rights for L5R from FRPG, and published the first edition of the L5R RPG. The fans liked it enough to vote it the Best RPG of 1997 at the Origins Awards, and the core book went through four printings while spawning two dozen sourcebooks and add-on products.
— D. J. Trindle[19]
In 1997, FRPG was purchased by Wizards of the Coast. The existing licenses remained in place, so the same creative team continued work on Legend of the Five Rings, AEG continued publishing the RPG, and Wizards began publishing the card game. In 1999, Legend of the Five Rings changed hands once more when Wizards was purchased by toy-making giant Hasbro (however, 'Wizards' continued operations under their original name). The previous licenses were still in effect, so changes to the games and the development teams as a result were unnoticeable. Wizards of the Coast re-released Oriental Adventures (a long out-of-print AD&D supplement), changing the setting from the original Kara-Tur to Rokugan, and updating the supplement to the d20 rules. Several of the following sourcebooks provided dual (d20 & d10/R&K) rulesets.
In late 2000, however, speculation about the future of Legend of the Five Rings – especially the RPG – began to run rampant after Hasbro, during a string of decisions that greatly upset the leadership at Wizards, decided to sell Legend of the Five Rings two years before AEG's long-standing license was due to expire. Any fears turned out to be unfounded when, less than half a year later, AEG won the bidding war for Legend of the Five Rings.
Until 2015, AEG owned Legend of the Five Rings. They designed and published the card game and the role-playing game. AEG released Lotus Edition for the CCG in late 2005, beginning the Age of Enlightenment story arc. Samurai Edition was released in July 2007 and included the Race for the Throne story arc. Celestial Edition was released in mid-2009, followed by Emperor Edition in early 2012 and Ivory Edition two years after that, in 2014. The final arc designed by AEG, Onyx Edition, was to be released in 2016.
On September 11th, 2015, AEG and Fantasy Flight Games jointly announced that the setting had been sold to FFG. A new version of the card game (incompatible with the CCG) was released as a Living Card Game at Gen Con 2017.[20]
Story Team[edit]
There have been five 'eras' when it comes to the L5R Story Lead/Team.
The previous lead was Rich Wulf, assisted by Shawn Carman. Wulf's works include Way of the Wolf, Bells of the Dead, Rokugan, and many other Legend of the Five Rings products. Large contributions to the Legend of the Five Rings series were also made by Ree Soesbee, who was lead writer of Legend of the Five Rings prior to Rich Wulf, and John Wick before her who along with the founding members of Five Rings Publishing Group created the world. While the property was controlled by Wizards of the Coast, the creation of the Four Winds arc (starting with Gold Edition) was helmed by Paul Allen Timm and Rob Heinsoo with contributions from Andy Heckt and Frank Chafe.
Currently, Shawn Carman is the head of the Legend of the Five Rings Story Team. He has had great success at incorporating player effects into the game in a smooth manner, regardless of how odd the results of a tournament may be to the setting of the game. His team includes Nancy Sauer, Brian Yoon, Yoon Ha Lee, and Robert Denton with Fred Wan acting as co-lead and continuity editor. The team formerly included Rusty Priske and Lucas Twyman.[21]
International Olympic Committee legal issues[edit]
One legal issue for Legend of the Five Rings involved the use of a symbol that consisted of five interlocking rings, arranged in essentially a star pattern. This symbol was used for several years in the role-playing game and featured prominently on the backings of the cards in the collectible card game. The United States Olympic Committee sued Wizards of the Coast, who at that time owned Legend of the Five Rings, over the logo, because a special Act of the U.S. Congress[22] gave them the exclusive rights to any symbol consisting of five interlocking rings.
The only way to completely resolve the issue was to quit using the symbol. For the role-playing game this meant very little, but for the collectible card game it meant that the backing of the cards had to be redesigned, which left players with a mix of cards that essentially resulted in marked decks. In an attempt to appease the players, Wizards released the first set with the different backs – Spirit Wars – bundled with opaque sleeves that would obscure the designs on the backs of the cards, allowing players to use any mix of cards in their decks.
See also[edit]References[edit]
External links[edit]
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