Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying 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 feudal Japan 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. 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. 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. Fantasy Flight Games released a new role-playing game based on the Legend of the Five Rings setting in October, 2018.
Setting
The fictional setting of Legend of the Five Rings is similar to feudal Japan, 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 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
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, 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
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, five dice would be rolled. Out of those five, the player would choose three whose values would be added together for the total value of the roll.Rings
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" : 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
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. 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. 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.
Lethality
The Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game is renowned for its lethality. 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''
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 update of Oriental Adventures to the v.3.5 rules can be found in Dragon Magazine #318, 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
Listed by AEG reference number in parentheses followed by titleFirst Edition (AEG)
Legend of the Five Rings – Roleplaying in the Emerald EmpireGame Master's Pack: The Hare Clan
Way of the Dragon
City of Lies box set
Way of the Unicorn
Book of the Shadowlands
Way of the Crab
Way of the Scorpion
Way of the Crane
Way of the Lion
Walking the Way: The Lost Spells of Rokugan
Tomb of Iuchiban box set
Way of Shadow
Way of the Naga
Game Master's Survival Guide
Winter Court: Kyuden Seppun
Way of the Phoenix
Unexpected Allies
Bearers of Jade: The Second Book of the Shadowlands
Otosan Uchi: The Imperial City box set
Way of the Minor Clans
Game Master's Pack : The Silence Within Sound
Merchant's Guide to Rokugan
Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita
Way of the Wolf
Way of Shinsei
Honor's Veil
Night of a Thousand Screams
Code of Bushido
Twilight Honor
Midnight's Blood
Legacy of the Forge
Void in the Heavens
Lesser of Two Evils
Character Travelogue: Crab
Character Travelogue: Crane
Character Travelogue: Dragon
Character Travelogue: Lion
Character Travelogue: Phoenix
Character Travelogue: Ronin
Character Travelogue: Scorpion
Character Travelogue: Unicorn
Second Edition (AEG)
Secrets of the LionSecrets of the Scorpion
Secrets of the Unicorn
Way of the Shadowlands *
Winter Court: Kyuden Asako *
Way of the Ratling
Time of the Void
Secrets of the Mantis
Secrets of the Phoenix
Secrets of the Crab
Secrets of the Crane
Secrets of the Dragon
Secrets of the Shadowlands
Complete Exotic Arms Guide supplement
Legend of the Five Rings Live-Action Roleplaying
Way of the Open Hand
Way of the Daimyo
Way of the Thief
Complete Exotic Arms Guide
The Hidden Emperor
Legend of the Five Rings – Player's Guide
Legend of the Five Rings – Game Master's Guide
Rokugan – Oriental Adventures Campaign Setting
Creatures of Rokugan
Magic of Rokugan
Way of the Samurai
Way of the Ninja
Way of the Shugenja
Fortunes & Winds
Bells of the Dead
Mimura: The Village of Promises
Non-AEG second edition compatible books
Oriental AdventuresBloodspeakers
Third Edition (AEG)
Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Third EditionThe Four Winds: The Toturi Dynasty from Gold to Lotus
Creatures of Rokugan
Art of the Duel
Emerald Empire: The Legend of the Five Rings Companion
Masters of War
Prayers and Treasures
Masters of Court
Legend of the Burning Sands Roleplaying Game
Masters of Magic
Fealty and Freedom
The Vacant Throne
Fourth Edition (AEG)
Legend of the Five Rings – 4th EditionLegacy of Disaster
Game Master's Screen and Adventure
Strongholds of the Empire
Enemies of the Empire
Emerald Empire
The Great Clans
Imperial Histories
The Book of Air
Second City box set
The Book of Earth
Imperial Histories 2
The Book of Fire
Naishou Province
Secrets of the Empire
The Book of Water
Sword and Fan
Book of the Void
Atlas of Rokugan
Unexpected Allies 2
The Imperial Archives
Fifth Edition (FFG)
Legend of the Five Rings Beginner's GameLegend of the Five Rings - 5th Edition
Game Master's Screen with Dark Tides
Emerald Empire
Wedding At Kyotei Castle
Shadowlands
Mask of the Oni
Courts of Stone
Winter's Embrace
Path of Wave
Sins of Regret
The Highwayman
Celestial Realms
Wheel of Judgement
Fields of Victory
Blood of the Lioness
Writ of the Wilds