Before I review Rokugan, I thought I should review something a little more current. Like the current Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game by Fantasy Flight Games (now Asmodee North America). Like in my review of Oriental Adventures 3e, this roleplaying game is set in the land of the Legend of the Five Rings, Rokugan. Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) is a colorful book that promises to deliver a good game to the masses. Now I haven't been able to run a game in the lands of L5R, so I can't give you a review on how it plays. But I did have some opinions on the game as well as the company itself. I'm here to tell you that I was wrong with some or most of those opinions. Most of my criticisms go to how the game is played now, rather than anything else. The game was mainly written by Max Brooke and Katrina Ostrander.
Expectations
Like most games I bought on my budget, the new Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game aims to be a skill based system. Unlike Dungeons and Dragons, the L5R RPG is not a heroic roleplaying game. This is because it retains the roll and keep system from earlier editions, and combat promises to be quite deadly. I don't know if players of this game try to avoid combat, but I'm running an L5R game on Paizo as a play-by-post using the previous 4th edition rules by Alderac Entertainment Group. So far, my group has avoided combat except when it's necessary. Unlike Dungeons and Dragons (and OSR clones), where players can take more risks in combat, the new L5R RPG promises to be mainly a social game. Don't worry, you will be able to see many roleplaying opportunities in playing the game. One thing to keep in mind is that Rokugan is a High Fantasy land inspired by the culture of Sengoku Japan, especially the writings of Miyamoto Musashi, and his book the Book of Five Rings.
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| Miyamoto Musashi in his prime, wielding two bokken. |
No Elves?!
No, there are no elves in Rokugan. Most of the races in Rokugan are human or ratling, although there were a group of feline humanoids called Kitsu, who were changed into humans and founded the Kitsu family of Shugenja for the Lion Clan. However, there is magic, monsters, and wonder in Rokugan that makes it the equal of any thing like Lord of the Rings has to offer.
There are seven great clans, each embodying one tenant of Bushido. Take for instance the Scorpion clan, who embody the tenant of Loyalty. They make up the clan you love to hate. The scorpions play the villains, even though they are in the business of protecting the Empire.
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Playing the Game
The first chapter is probably the most important. This chapter deals with playing the game. And there are some different aspects from the AEG versions of the game. For instance, you are expected to use different dice. This probably my most warranted criticism of the game. I don't like that you have to use different dice to play the game. I just want to use my traditional six sided dice and my traditional icosohedric (20 sided) dice to play the game. However, how the different dice are there to help you roleplay your character. I almost got a set myself, though, then I remembered I can't run a tabletop game right now.
Before you play the game, you create a character. Character creation goes by twenty questions. However, if there is one fault to this game, it's that all the schools of the various clans are listed -- along with skill bonuses for your character learning in that particular school is remunerated. What sucks, and yes, it is a problem, many of the schools could have been reserved for Clan Sourcebooks (like the Way of the Lion or Secrets of the Phoenix). Players of the new system could fork over the cash on a certain clan sourcebook they'd enjoy. That sourcebook could contain new rules and ways of looking at your clan. This is true when I picked up and read Way of the Crane.
However, reading through this chapter a second time, it seems that Asmodee North America has kept the high fantasy feel of Rokugan. After that, the rest of the game deals with skills, techniques -- including magic -- and playing the game.
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| Contemporaneous portrait of Miyamoto Musashi (Edo period) |
Critical Hits
You should know that at first, I thought this game didn't capture the feel of the original game I was used to. However, like I said, the current L5R RPG isn't a heroic fantasy game. I don't think it was meant to be a heroic fantasy game. Of course you can run a campaign where the PCs go out on adventure and slay monsters. And of course, you can probably run an all ninja campaign. The rules do let you do that. However, in keeping with previous editions, I feel that the game is more suited to social roleplaying rather than combat. I didn't get any of the adventures for the new game to see how they interpret the RPG as they meant it to be played, though.
The art, however, is certainly colorful. The book contains examples of art from traditional Japanese Samurai art to realistic colorful art to bring Rokugan to life in the imaginations of the players or readers. The art gives the book a five star rating for art direction.
Critical Misses
Where the game fails is that you are expected to buy a new set of dice to play the game. This was a feature that I didn't like -- but was introduced in all the games from Fantasy Flight Games of the period. If you are like me, and run most of your games online, you would hopefully not find this to be a barrier from purchasing the game. If you are considering a new roleplaying game to give to the gamer in your family, you should get this game.
A word about Asmodee North America
If you are Christian, and are looking for a gaming company to support. You can't do better than Asmodee North America. The company -- and thankfully is not Wizards of the Coast -- is certainly doing its best to maintain an atmosphere of honesty and integrity. As far as I know, the company has been supporting Christian values. If you care about supporting a good company that you will feel good about, then Asmodee North America is that company.
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