Some thoughts on L5R- 5th Edition

[Easy e]

I am a relative newcomer to Legend of the 5 Rings. I have been familiar with it as an Intellectual Property for a long, long time but never really spent much time with it. However, I listened to an actual play of one edition or another on the Happy Jacks Podcast, and was intrigue by what I had heard. I listened to a few more podcasts and was even more interested. Then, one day I was at the Half-Price Bookstore and saw a copy of the Third Edition rulebook. I bought it.

Since then, I have managed to design a short campaign called "One Year in Rokugan" that was edition and stat block agnostic but based on my 3rd Edition knowledge. After all, there are 5 editions of the game! If you are part of my Patreon, you can find this campaign available there for free as a PDF. I have managed to play through the campaign using 3rd edition rules, and we all had a lot of fun. It was a huge difference from our normal D&D 5E games, and I enjoyed introducing the world of Rokugan to my players.



After that enjoyable campaign, there was an interest in updating from 3rd edition to 5th edition. I myself was curious about the differences, but had put off buying it. I all ready had 3rd edition, and figured there was no great need to update to the "newest". However, as I learned more about the new edition the core mechanics seemed markedly different than the AEG versions of the game I owned.

Therefore, with some hesitation; I acquired a copy for myself. Keep in mind Legend of the 5 Rings: 5th edition is NOT the same as Adventures in Rokugan; also by Edge Studios. Adventures is a skin for using Rokugan in D&D 5E. Legend of the 5 Rings: 5th Edition using its own system based on the Fantast Flight Games Genesys system. Genesys is used with games like Edge of Empire. It will be interesting to see where this game maintains and differs from the L5R I am familiar with.

If you are so inclined, you can read more details of the review on my blog:
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.c...rings-5th.html



However, here is some high level details:
- Great world to play in, but very different than your standard D&D world. This is not a lawless frontier setting.... at all.

- Because of the high level of structure, this world can be constraining for players coming from other systems.

- This game is for experienced players.

- They have leaned more into narrative play. Players can choose the Ring (attribute) they are using for tests, and depending on which Ring it can change the difficulty and potential outcomes. That is a lot of heavy lifting for the GM to think about.

- The game does a good job breaking down scenes into types and how to resolve the types of challenges in various types of scenes, such as intrigue, combat, social, etc. However, there is not much for "exploration" in the geographic sense. Exploration is much more "social".

- Proprietary dice! Ugh!

- Stronger mechanics of dealing with Honor, Glory, and "Face" than 3rd edition.

There is a lot to unpack with this game, but those are some high level details.

[Brookshw]

I like what they did with the new edition, the way martial works are, generally, superior to 5e with the different stances or what not, and resources; I'd love to see the concepts expanded into other games. The way they handle DM advise is also fairly good, whether cautioning mechanical or cultural matters, they hit on some important/useful matters. Needs a solid monster manual though.

[Anonymouswizard]

Honestly I just don't like having to get special dice for a game (made worse because I recently picked up Edge of the Empire and discovered that nobody near me stocks the dice anymore). If it wasn't for that I'd be much more open to a new edition of L5R, as it is I have the 4e corebook and am willing to stick to just that.

[Easy e]

Honestly I just don't like having to get special dice for a game (made worse because I recently picked up Edge of the Empire and discovered that nobody near me stocks the dice anymore). If it wasn't for that I'd be much more open to a new edition of L5R, as it is I have the 4e corebook and am willing to stick to just that.

Same problem with the L5R dice. No one seems to be able to get their hands on them. However, there is a digital dice roller.... for now.

To make matters worse, the core rules has a chart to convert regular dice for use in the game. This of course made me question why even have special dice to begin with! It smacks of Game as Product design which I am opposed to on principle.

[Telwar]

Honestly I just don't like having to get special dice for a game (made worse because I recently picked up Edge of the Empire and discovered that nobody near me stocks the dice anymore). If it wasn't for that I'd be much more open to a new edition of L5R, as it is I have the 4e corebook and am willing to stick to just that.

They did reprint the Star Wars dice, but I'm about 99% sure they're out of stock again. That really seems like something they should reprint pretty frequently.

You *might* be able to use the Genesys dice, those MIGHT be available, but if they can't keep the Star Wars dice in stock, and apparently can work on one game at a time...I dunno.

[Anonymouswizard]

They did reprint the Star Wars dice, but I'm about 99% sure they're out of stock again. That really seems like something they should reprint pretty frequently.

You *might* be able to use the Genesys dice, those MIGHT be available, but if they can't keep the Star Wars dice in stock, and apparently can work on one game at a time...I dunno.

Genesis dice are also out of stock (why I decided not to pick that book up), and doesn't have a counterpart to the Force Die. It's a shame, because both EotE and AoR are games I'd really like to run (L5R I'd be more interested in playing).