Legend of the 5 rings

[ShadowSandbag]

Has anyone played the 5th edition if Legend of The Five Rings? I just got the starter kit and have been going through that, planning on trying it out with some friends next weekend. I figure I'd ask and see if anyone else has played it and what they think?

Personally, while I haven't played it yet, I like how the system looks. I thing the dice mechanic is interesting, as is using Rings in addition to skills. The setting also seems neat from what I have read.

Anyone else?

[Florian]

I´ll skip 5th edition because I don't like the FFG Star Wars mechanics. Downloaded the beta document, grabbed two players who are fans of FFG-SW and whom I've already played with and did two test sessions.... and it´s still FFG-SW and all that, I just can´t get myself to like it.

[Max_Killjoy]

Yeah, I see no reason to get this edition, I got the last edition mainly for fluff, and as noted, it's just a port of FFG's goofy Star Wars mechanics.

[BWR]

Giving it a miss because I don't like the using the FFG SW system for it, and because I don't need an alternate universe take on the canon. I've enjoyed FFG SW, and thought they made a decent system for that setting, but it shouldn't be applied to every game.

The setting itself is cool, at least it used to be. I haven't bothered to check out the 5th edition, and even the previous canon got pretty stupid in places, enough that I stopped paying attention a couple of years before they stopped. I suggest tracking down 1e books like the "Way of the [Clan]" and "Winter Court" series and reading them. There's also the immense body of rulebook/online fiction for the game.

[Anonymouswizard]

I've decided to miss it as well. I own 4e, I like 4e, and I really don't like FFG's mechanics and dice. 4e I can play with the d10s I already own, and when I downloaded the 5e beta I struggled to work out how this system with special stat and skill dice was supposed to be the same 'Roll and Keep' system I knew. Roll Xd10, sum your choice of Yd10, nice and simple.

FFG had to convince me to drop £40 on the rulebook and at least £13 on dice, for a setting I already own. They failed by showing me a system I think I'd actively dislike, rather than one I'm just apathetic to.

[NomGarret]

I haven’t yet picked it up, and I’ve been going back and forth. A lot of it seems interesting, but I’m not sure I’d ever play it. As you might guess from what’s already been posted, the FFG dice system turns a lot of people off. Beyond that, I’ve always found L5R to be a game where you want to find a particular group of players. They should want something more out of the game thematically than D&D with katanas. Players who play dishonorable are one thing, but those who don’t care about honor are something else. They should be comfortable with a certain amount of cultural references and a lot of terminology. On top of that, you don’t want to open up the group to someone who disruptively knows so much more than everyone else about samurai, ninjas, etc., that they inhibit the fun of those who don’t know as much.

Given those limiters, while reading through the beta there have been lots of things that have piqued my interest, I can’t help but feel I’d be without a group to play it with. After all, those who would be into a game like L5R typically already like previous versions, and often have invested quite a bit into it.

[zlefin]

I hadn't heard it's out; haven't been following that close for awhile though.
I'll take a look over the beta materials to get a sense of how it was looking (how heavily has it changed since the beta material?)

[raygun goth]

I will still be running 4e when I can find players who can approach the material (about half the group I play with regularly would be making new characters every few minutes). I will be lifting the giri and ninjo for my games, though. They're wonderful and perfectly in-setting.

[Faily]

I will not be playing it.

Mind you, I've greatly enjoyed FFG's system for Star Wars, but I don't think it's a system that works for all games and stories. L5R being one of them.

I wasn't a fan of a lot of the stuff I saw during Beta, and I loathe the new rules about losing Face. A lot of the design-approach I saw during the Beta pretty much turned me off.

5E looks very pretty, and I give credit to FFG for the layout and artwork, but... that's not enough to turn me around on the whole thing.

[farothel]

we're currently in a big 4th edition campaign, so it will be a couple of years before we would change. And since in our regular group we all have all (or almost all) books, there will be little animo to spend all that money.