a bad thing, but it is truly difficult to find something that breaks that mold and manages to do
it with style and excitement. Enter me, a errant RPG pilgrim on my quest to find something
unique and something different. My journey takes me down to one of my favorite bookstores
(sadly gone now) where I begin browsing the role playing games. Skimming titles and
covers I stumble across a strangely titled book, Legend of the Five Rings. Having heard of
the Book of Five Rings and knowing it to be a work devoted to martial prowess, written by a
rather well know samurai duelist (Miyamoto Musashi) I was immediately curious to discover
what this game had to offer. Pulling it off the shelf I was excited to see a screaming samurai
preparing to slash a nameless villain down on the cover. Now, being a big fan of samurai
and feudal Japan I immediately opened the tome and began to read. That is how I landed
myself square into an exciting world born out of Japanese, Chinese and Korean myth a land
known as Rokugan.
Legend of the Five Rings is a tabletop role-playing game in the same vein as Dungeons
and Dragons and the World of Darkness games, but the similarity ends there. Legend of
the Five Rings or L5R is you prefer (and why not since it rolls off the tongue quicker), is a
fantasy world were you assume the role of honorable samurai adventuring in the dark and
very flavorful world of Rokugan. Rokugan is based off of Japan’s feudal era. Eight great
clans all vie for power and control in a land ruled over by a single Emperor and bordered by
a dark and sinister force that grows like a cancer in the land itself. As a player you assume
the role of a honorable samurai (or not so honorable samurai) and immerse yourself in all
that Rokugan has to offer from quick and bloody skirmishes, full out warfare, tense duels,
scheming politics, courtly manipulation, and dark magics. Perhaps one of L5R greatest
strengths is that it caters to a wide variety of gaming types. If political intrigue is your cup of
sake, you can run a campaign without ever leaving the courts and castles of the Empire, yet
still decide the fate of lives, land and an Empire. If classic adventuring is your calling then
look no further than assuming the role of an Imperial Magistrate and enforcing the laws of
the Emperor far and wide as you are called on to deal with bandits, border skirmishes
between the clans, Maho (dark blood magic) users, rampaging Oni (demons) and arcane
mysteries. If a good old fashion dungeon crawl style hack-and-slash appeals to you then
Rokugan invites you to cross the Kaiu Wall and journey into the Shadowlands were hell
itself has infested the land and the Empire has waged a 1000 year war against the forces of
evil that seek to destroy Great Clans and the Empire itself. The very air and land itself infects
your body and mind with a wasting condition simply known as Taint, for which there is no
cure.
With so many things to offer Legend of the Five Rings stands as an excellent departure from
the classic Tolkien world of High Fantasy. If this sounds of interest to you then I invite you to
don your daisho, tie back your top knot, and down that cup of warm sake and journey into the
world where honor is more powerful than a blade and one word can bring you from the
heights of power to the shadows of being a Ronin.
Focus
L5R is tabletop role playing game and you play it just the same as would with Dungeons
and Dragon. You and your fellow players all gather together, with your dice, pencils and
books, one player assumes the role of the Game Master, while the other player assume the
role of active protagonists on the story. The Game Master tells the tale your characters will
act within. He plays the parts of those you interact with from the simple heimin (half-people,
the peasants) to the mighty damiyos (lords) you serve.
The mechanics of L5R have undergone significant revisions in its three editions over the
last 10 years. The 3rd edition uses L5R’s original dice system introduced in the 1st edition,
with some updating and polishing. L5R calls their dice system the Roll and Keep system.
The Roll and Keep system uses only ten sided dice or d10s for those familiar with table top
gaming.
The Roll and Keep system of L5R is very simple once you have seen it once or twice. In
short you roll a number of d10s equal to your skill plus the relevant stat and keep a number
of those dice equal to your stat you used. Total up those dice you kept and if your total is
equal to greater to the difficulty set (referred to as a Target Number or TN in L5R) by your
Game Master you succeed. Here is an illustrative example to help cement the idea:
Doji Charles swings his katana at Ronin James. The Target Number (TN) to hit Ronin
James is 15. Doji Charles has a Kenjutsu skill of 2 and an Agility of 3. Totaling Doji
Charles’ skill and stat we see that he has to roll 5 dice. Doji Charles rolls a 1, 5, 6, 7, 9.
Doji Charles now gets to choose to keep a number of dice equal to his stat, in this case 3.
So Doji Charles chooses the 6, 7, and 9, totaling those up Doji Charles got a 22. Since the
22 is equal to or greater than the TN of 15, Doji Charles has successfully struck Ronin
James.
In L5R any time you roll a 10 on a die it is considered open ended (or exploding in L5R’s
terminology). This means you get to keep the 10 on that die and re-roll it, adding the result
of that roll to the 10. If you roll another 10, add it on and keep going until you roll something
besides a 10.
Another unique aspect of L5R is the system of Raises. Once your Game Master sets a TN,
you may opt to raise the TN by increments of 5. For each raise you make your TN becomes
higher but if you succeed at the new TN your success is increased. These raises can be
used to achieve greater damage, perform special combat maneuvers (disarm, knockdown),
increase certain aspects of spells (area, range, influence), learn additional information or
disguise the use of certain skills (deceit, courtier) or to craft finer quality items just to name a
few uses of raises.
As Legend of the Five Rings is a game of honorable samurai you have an additional stat
that is not related to your physical, mental or spiritual abilities. This stat is simply called
Honor. Honor is rated on a scale of 1 to 5 ranks with 10 points in each rank. Your honor
rank can greatly influence how the world interacts with you. Those with a high honor exude a
calming sense of purpose, sincerity, and greatness. Those with a low honor tend to exhibit
less desirable traits like roguishness, untrustworthy, and deceit. Honor is also used
mechanically in many techniques and if your samurai is called on to do something that
would go against bushido you may opt to make an honor role to resist the effects that are
compelling you to act without honor, such as magical effects, seduction, intimidation etc.
Your honor can fluctuate a great deal based on your actions as a player. Breaking your
oaths, cruelty to those under you, and lying can all result in a loss of honor. However, just as
you can lose honor you can gain it by acting in accordance with Bushido.
Character creation is pretty straight forward using a point buy system to create your
character. Each player is allotted 45 character points, which they use to advance stats,
purchase and raise skills, and purchase advantages and disadvantages. Each player
chooses a clan to come from and a family to belong to. Your choice of clan determines a lot
about how you are perceived in the Empire at large (for a description of each of the clans
see below) and your choice of family determines a lot about your place in your clan. Your
choice of family also grants you a mechanical advantage in that it gives you a stat boost.
The families that favor bushi tend to give a physical stat increase, while those that favor
shugenja or less physical demands tend to give a mental stat increase. The next choice is
to choose one of four main paths to follow: a bushi (warrior), a shugenja (a wizard/priest), a
courtier (diplomat/politician), or a monk. Within each of the paths there is a wealth of
options to choose from, the main rulebook has over 40 different schools to choose from.
Each of the great clans in the main rulebook offers a bushi school, a shugenja school, a
courtier school, and one other school that can range from a second bushi school to a monk
to a ninja. You choose one school to begin in, but as your character grows and develops
you can branch out and join additional schools, however you can never be a bushi and a
shugenja so choose wisely. Your initial school choice grants you a set of skills you receive
for free, another stat boost, your starting equipment, your beginning honor and a technique
unique to that school and spells if you are a shugenja. As you advance in Insight levels you
learn more advanced techniques from your school or more spells if you a shugenja.
Despite their being a bushi , shugenja and courtier school for each of the clans, they are all
extremely different from each other. The bushi of the Dragon Clan practice a sword style that
uses both the katana and wakizashi simultaneously, while the bushi of the Crab Clan favor
heavy weapons and heavy armor to weather their opponent’s blows. The shugenja of each
of the clans run a similar gamut of different types as the bushi do. The shugenja of the Lion
clan focus on the worship of the clan’s ancestors, while the shugenja of the Crane are
pacifists who excel in making magic artifacts. The courtiers are all focused on their
interactions in the court and politics setting, however their methods are extremely varied
between the clans. The courtiers of the Scorpion Clan can sense weakness in their foes
and undermine their power base, while the courtiers of the Mantis Clan get the job done with
pure intimidation.
The surprising diversity of the schools can leave one pondering their character choices for
sometime, but the great thing is they all have something unique to offer to the player. If you
want to play the quintessential honorable warrior look to the Lion Clan where bushido is
more than a way of life, it is the very definition of your soul. If the more introspective and
philosophical way appeals to you then take a look at the Dragon Clan. If the pursuit of the
arcane and mysteries of the world sound interesting then the Pheonix Clan is where you
need to be. If in the end you want to be a pirate and a master of your own destiny then the
Mantis Clan is your port of call.
Each of the eight Great Clans have such a huge impact on the setting of the game that they
each deserve a little individual attention:
The Crab: The Crab Clan are sturdy and stalwart warriors first and foremost. The Crab Clan
is primarily responsibility for guarding the Kaiu Wall that separates the Shadowlands from
the Empire. Their life is one of constant warfare against goblins, ogres, trolls, the undead
and Oni. Since their focus is surviving on the Wall from day to day they do not have the time
to cultivate an appreciation of court life and fine etiquette. As a result of their life style duty is
more important to them than any other aspect of bushido.
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