Rokugan d20 Review

 

It seems that a lot of people from China are viewing my blog, based on my blog's statistics. Although, I'm no Communist -- and I'm not for dictatorships either -- it seems that I am at least ready to review the Rokugan Campaign Setting for the d20 system.  Produced by Alderac Entertainment Group in 2001, it was written by Rich Wulf, Shawn Carman, and Seth Mason.  This is a beautiful book, lavishly illustrated like the Oriental Adventures book for third edition.  I'm reviewing a PDF copy of this book, and I do own the hardcover.

 The first thing to remember is that Rokugan isn't Japan.  It's a high fantasy land based on the culture of Sengoku era Japan and Miyamoto Mushashi's Book of the Five Rings.  There are some Chinese elements in Rokugan, but it's not China either.  Like I said, it's a High Fantasy land that borrowed a lot from Japan and some from China.  I love this book, Rokugan -- next to Greyhawk -- is a place where I would set an ongoing game.  Also, I did another review of this book on RPG.net. 

So, lets go for it.

The Introduction

The introduction of Rokugan goes on to explain  to players of the d20 system all about Rokugan, the Five Rings, and explains to players that they take on the roles of noble Samurai, mysterious Shugenja, enlightened monks, shadowy ninja, and finally wily courtiers.  Whole games can revolve around one or more of these elements. 

Next, it explains how one can use this book with Oriental Adventures. Since this book, Rokugan, expands on the information explained in Oriental Adventures.  Finally, it does explain why Rokugan is based on Miyamoto's Book of the Five Rings.  The roleplaying opportunities are endless.

Character

 This section goes over the Great Clans of Rokugan, their families, and favored classes for each major family.  Like for instance, the Doji of the Crane Clan make good Courtiers.  While the Isawa family make good Shugenja.  And the Shoshuro family produce good ninja, or so they say. After this, they talk about the minor clans and their schools, along with the Naga (an Indian aspect), and the Nezumi (Rokugan's take on ratfolk).

After this part on creating your character, the various character classes from the 3rd Edition Player's Handbook are talked about.  Along with two classes from Oriental Adventures (3rd Edition).  The Samurai and the Shugenja.  After that, the monk, ninja, and courtier classes are discussed.  

After all this, the Feats are discussed.  And yes, there are a lot of Feats here that are talked about.  Each great clan gets their own feats.  From Kakita's Techique, to Way of the Crab, to Akodo's Technique, to Way of the Unicorn.  All are included.  Especially one of note is Void Use.  This feat, which you can take instead of a Ancestor Feat, grants you two points of void.  Which of course you can use to modify your die rolls.

 After the feats, you get a discussion on Rokugani equipment.  Including new weapons, and old weapons that are expanded upon, new armor types, and other considerations.  After that, Religion in the Emerald Empire is discussed.  After that, Honor is discussed, along with the alignments of the d20 system -- and how they work together.  Like for instance, if someone is Lawful Good, he's considered to have an honor rank of 5.

After that, some prestige classes are introduced.  Although none of these are needed, some are recorded.  As prestige classes are meant for NPCs originally, players would take them.

Magic

 Magic in D&D is supposed to be presented as mysterious. For Rokugan, this is no different.  There are more Samurai than Shugenja in Rokugan. Magic revolves around the Kami, the great kami as well as the lesser and minor kami.  A shugenja learns to importune the kami to produce magical effects.  This can be from a simple sleep spell to a magnificent void spell worked by the mysterious Ishiken of the Isawa family.

Each clan has their own special magical technique.  The Crane works on Tsanguri, or magic items -- for example.  The Unicorn shugenja work with meishodo.  Finally, the Isawa family of the Phoenix teach the Ishiken-do -- or magic of the void.  There are four other examples of magic of the great clans.  Other aspects of magic are also discussed.  After that, there are some new spells for Shugenja to select, learn, and cast. 

Life in Rokugan

This chapter goes over adventures in Rokugan.  It discusses what a Samurai might be and how to act.  Also, the chapter goes over Rokugan itself, and how a party of disparate Samurai and Shugenja (and possibly ninja) might operate.

The culture and layout of Rokugan are discussed.  Along with how campaigns operate in the Emerald Empire.  Also, magic and magic items, how they are viewed -- are discussed.  Also, social hierarchy is discussed.  A lot of Rokugani culture is discussed in this book. This is the most important chapter in the whole book.  If you want to role play your Samurai as authentically as you can, you must read this section.

Geography

The Geography of Rokugan is discussed in this chapter.  This is the geography of the Emerald Empire, as of the Four Winds saga. Important details of each Clan's holdings are discussed in some detail.  Along with writeups for certain NPCs as of the Four Winds saga.

Cosmology 

This chapter teaches the cosmology as seen by the Rokugani.  There are several realms, including the mortal one, that are discussed.  These realms are discussed more simply in the Fortunes and Winds supplement (to be reviewed later).  Also, the worship of the Fortunes and who they are is presented.  There are seven major Fortunes, and thousands of lesser ones. Then Rokugan's mythology is presented.  Including the creation of the world as the Rokugani understand it.

History

The history of Rokugan is presented.  Nearly complete and up to the Four Winds saga.  It's enough to fill a Rokugani DM with adventure seeds and beginnings of a good campaign.  After that, a few appendixes discuss magic items, magical creatures, and finally an index.

Hits

 The colorful aspect of the book is definitely a hit.  There are colorful illustrations throughout the book. Including pictures of Shugenja, Samurai, and even a Ninja.  The writing is concise and well edited.  DJ Trindle, the editor, did a good job of editing the book for press.  The writing is top notch, definitely different than what you get in a modern D&D book (modern D&D books are atrocious in writing, editing, and illustration).  There is more, the layout is in two columns, and uses a ten point font.

 Misses 

 There is little that's missed in this book. The metaplot of the Legend of the Five Rings card game at the time -- used as a backdrop for the campaign -- is definitely a miss.  This book is for players and DMs to get into the setting of Rokugan, and the Metaplot does restrict some aspects.  Is it something I'd change: probably.  I would have started the plot during the Pre-Scorpion Clan Coup saga, as that is the most popular era setting for L5R rpgs.  Including the fifth edition of the L5R RPG.

 The Future

Again, the future looks uncertain.  It seems that Asmodee might keep the L5R property. However, they aren't expecting that someone might come to them and buy Legend of the Five Rings from them.  Fantasy Flight bought L5R from Alderac Entertainment Group in 2017, then Asmodee bought them. However, Legend of the Five Rings is a good property, one I wanted to purchase from Wizards of the Coast when they put it up for sale.  Looks like I'll have to buy it from Asmodee.  Oh well, cheers!

Legend of the Five Rings 5e Review

 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.

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.

Miyamoto Musashi killing a giant creature, from The Book of Five Rings

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.

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.

Oriental Adventures (3e) Review

 Welcome to the third edition of Oriental Adventures (OA).  OA 3e contains all the stuff necessary to play a campaign centered on the Orient (again, Japanese culture is ascendant in OA 3e, but there is a reason for this).  Oriental Adventures introduces a new campaign setting for use with Oriental play, Rokugan.  Now the reason why OA was produced is because Wizards of the Coast sold the Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) card game to Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG).  However, when they put up L5R for sale, I wanted to buy it.  However, I lacked the resources to buy it -- even the resources to consistently support it.  However, AEG was a good steward of L5R for upward to 2017, when they sold L5R to Fantasy Flight Games. 

Despite that, I desired the rights to L5R, and I'm waiting for my time to buy them.  Since I have the resources right now to purchase the rights to L5R.  Plus, Fantasy Flight Games is not doing a good job supporting L5R, despite the beauty of their books.

OA brings Rokugan (L5R's fantasy land) into the d20 System.  At first, I thought that the d20 System would not be a good fit for Rokugan, however when AEG put out Rokugan later, they did a good job making the setting of Rokugan fit the d20 System.  The book was published over twenty years ago.  The writer is James Wyatt.  The book came out in 2001.

Overview

OA is a book trying to play the kid who wants to be a friend to everyone.  OA includes the setting of the Legend of the Five Rings into it's framework, but at the same time it's trying to be an update of the Original OA (reviewed here earlier).  The book tries to be all things L5R and all things Kara-Tur (in the Forgotten Realms).  Still, it's a beautiful book -- printed in full color -- the art in the book brings Rokugan, and other realms in the Orient, to life.

The book starts with an introduction, and James Wyatt did a good job of writing it.  Adventures in the Orient (although L5R takes it's primary inspiration from the Sengoku era of Japan, there is some Chinese and Indian influence).  The idea is to have adventure in an exotic land.  And Rokugan is certainly exotic.

The next chapter goes over character creation, and the players should ask their DM about the setting and rules to play in.  Then races are introduced, including humans and Nezumi (which are found in Rokugan).  Spirit folk, Koboruku (asian dwarves), Vanaras (based on Hamuman from the Ramayana) and Hengeyokai.  The last fit in a campaign that is not Rokugan.

 

Then classes are introduced.  There are few classes from the Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook that are introduced as a way to fit the Asiatic concepts of Rokugan and Kara-Tur.  But the book introduces two new classes: Samurai and Shugenja.  The Samurai class in the original OA is suprisingly very adaptable and flexible.  Player characters would be able to customize their Samurai character in a number of ways.  The shugenja class is the same way, although presented as a variant of the sorcerer class.  Another new class introduced is the Shaman class, which is a variant of the cleric class in the PHB.  Finally, the Sohei and Wu Jen are introduced, which are classes updated from the original Oriental Adventures.  If one is running a Rokugan campaign, then only the samurai and shugenja are the new classes to include in that setting.  After that, there are a few banned classes that don't fit in the world of Oriental Adventures.  But the NPC classes are discussed.  One, the Aristocrat, is included in Rokugan as a courtier.  However, Rokugan introduces the courtier class, which will be discussed in the next review.

After the character classes are introduced, then the prestige classes are talked about.  Of note is the Ninja Spy prestige class.  While not worked as a full class, the idea behind the Ninja spy prestige class is that a group of player ninja start out as another class, and then takes the ninja spy prestige class  when they are ready for it.  This graduates them into full ninja.

Another prestige class of note is the Yakuza, which is good for rogues, apparently.  The yakuza prestige class in Rokugan makes a perfect fit for the Kolat and other organized crime families in Rokugan. There are other prestige classes.  Some of them fit the monk class.

By Aaron Lovett

 

After that, character options: skills and feats -- are discussed.  The skill section includes on how the skills fit the Rokugan campaign setting.  Of course, new skills are introduced in the Rokugan book.  Then a number of feats are introduced.  Most of these feats are ancestor feats, where the characters in a Rokugan campaign takes an ancestor feat for their human bonus feat.  However, Rokugan has a different feat option.  And there are a few feats in OA that are regular feats.

After that there is a chapter on alignment, honor, and equipment.  In an oriental campaign, honor is better to use than alignment.  However, Alignment is discussed anyhow.  In some oriental campaigns, alignment might still be used.  In Rokugan, honor takes precedence over alignment.  Though this still discussed.  Then a number of equipment is also discussed.  After that, combat is covered in another chapter.

After that, magic is discussed.  This is an important chapter, since it goes through the Shugenja spells that are available to certain Rokugani Shugenja schools.  The new spells also update the spells from OA 1e, allowing wu jen and other spellcasters of Oriental campaigns have their magic.  The only schools missing are the schools for the Isawa family of the Phoenix clan.  This was, sort of, rectified in the Rokugan book.  After that comes a chapter on magic items.

Then comes a chapter on monsters.  While the chapter on monsters discusses which monsters from the Monster Manual fit in Rokugan, many more monsters -- such as seven varieties of oriental dragons -- are introduced.  Some of the monsters are introduced fit in Rokugan, but many do not.  After the book on monsters comes a chapter on campaign design.  Which is a good chapter, to say the least.  This next chapter provides options with which the GM/DM can design a campaign.

After this chapter comes an overview of the land of Rokugan.  Plus the setting begins the Four Winds saga (the emperor is killed, and without a designated heir, his four children try to take the throne). Also, the land of Rokugan is described in some detail, with some prestige classes compatible to each great clan.  After that, was a chapter on the Shadowlands.  Taint rules are introduced here, along with the Maho-Tsukai prestige class and a monster template.

 

Hits and Misses

Again, Oriental Adventures tries to be something of a child that wants to be your friend.  While the focus is still on Rokugan as a setting, other options fit other settings. This is a strength, although a weakness at the same time.  Some people still think that the d20 system wasn't a good fit for Rokugan, I beg to differ.  OA does a good job, and Rokugan does a better job, of fitting the setting of Legend of the Five Rings to the d20 system.

Conclusion

I do believe this book is a good book to get if you are planning a game in Legend of the Five Rings, and find the EDGE Studio's version of Rokugan to be unlikable. While the EDGE Studio does a good job (and I was reading the book for purposes of review), I think both AEG and Wizards of the Coast did a finer job of fitting the world of L5R to the d20 system.

Way of the Ninja Review

 

The Way of the Ninja book is a sourcebook on the ninja and shinobi of Rokugan.  It was published containing mechanics for both Legend of the Five Rings second edition by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) and the d20 system by Wizards of the Coast (WotC).  It was published by AEG.  It was written by Shawn Carmen, Rich Wulf, Seth Mason, and Aaron Medwin.  This book is no longer available on Drivethru, and must be downloaded via torrent.

What Way of the Ninja is

It's a book describing how the ninja work in Rokugan, the land of Legend of the Five Rings. If you were expecting something like Kishimoto's Naruto, you're mistaken.  There are no mystical ninja clans with Genjutsu or even Taijutsu; just ninjutsu.  However, the ninja in Rokugan are treated as a myth and fairy tale around Rokugan, which helps the ninja of Rokugan immensely. Unlike the lands of Naruto, where the ninja operate fairly in the open, the ninja of Rokugan operate in the shadows.  However, like the ninja of Naruto, the ninja of Rokugan fulfill various contracts -- which can be anything from espionage to assassinations.

Way of the Ninja also goes into the history of the ninja and how Hantei I, Rokugan's first Emperor, was the first person to give the ninja a job.  He told his brother Bayushi to watch, and thus from this order, the ninja were born.  Of course, the Bayushi and Shosuro ninja first gathered intelligence on each of the Great Clans, and then started to strike on opportune moments to prevent terrible things to happen.  When one of the later Hantei learned of the ninja and their dishonorable acts, he called the then Scorpion champion to explain himself.  His brother, who was daimyo of the Bayushi ninja, was executed. This forced the ninja to work underground.  Splitting up into various factions and ninja families.  And they continued their tasks to watch over the Empire.  For the Hantei never rescinded his order, which was to "Watch!"

Overview 

The book begins describing what a ninja is, and of course they are more than just men and women wearing black and a mask committing the most heinous dishonorable acts.  Some of them do have access to Magic (the Shosuro), some of them work for the shadowlands (the Goju), some for the nefarious Kolat (the Kolat).  Still the book goes into other clans that might have ninja operations.  The Crane Clan, for instance, have the Daidoji harriers -- which act a lot like the ninja -- so they are included.

The book also goes into possible Ninja types that can be played, and a few contracts. Like sabotage and of course, assassinations.  This book also has various information on the dojo of the ninja families, which the Scorpion has two (two different families of ninjutsu is controlled and maintained by the Scorpion).  And also the Kolat has several ninja families working for them.  However, the book doesn't get into genjutsu or taijutsu.  But, it has suggested character classes and prestige classes that are trained in the book.

After the major ninja families are explained, minor ninja clans are covered.  Including a whole village of peasants that operate as ninja.  After this, the enemies of the ninja are explained.  Yes, in Rokugan, the ninja do have enemies.  While in Naruto the ninja war was conducted against another ninja faction, Rokugani ninja face enemies who are investigating their shadowy and criminal acts.  After this, the ninja's equipment, in Rokugan, is given.  Then new treatment on d20 skills and feats are given at the end of the book.

Critical Hits

This book is a valuable book for GMs as well as players.  The first, for information on conducting a ninja campaign within Rokugan.  The second, because it expands on the information given in Rokugan, which will be reviewed later.  While the ninja is given a full class in Rokugan, before that was the ninja spy prestige class given in WotC's Oriental Adventures (which will also be reviewed later). Much of the mystery of the Ninja of Rokugan is explained in this book.  Although to add mystery to an all Ninja campaign, the GM should read the Ninja and their Secret Techniques by Stephen K. Hayes.  Watching Naruto might give the GM some ideas on how to run a ninja campaign, but there are some high fantasy elements in Naruto that won't work in a Legend of the Five Rings campaign.

Critical Misses

The book doesn't go into Taijutsu or Genjutsu, which would frustrate a lot of Naruto fans.  However, it does what it does.  It describes how the ninja work in Rokugan and how they employ their secret arts in the world of Legend of the Five Rings.

Conclusion

You should get this book if you are planning a ninja campaign in your Rokugan game.  Although EDGE Studio hasn't put out a ninja book yet for Legend of the Five Rings 5th edition, they should because there are a lot of ninja fans out there.  Of course, you can get this book and use the information therein to convert to the current edition of Legend of the Five Rings. I would say that the EDGE Studio is missing out on an opportunity to put out a ninja book for their version of the game.  This book is useful, however, if you are running a d20 campaign based in Legend of the Five Rings.