Customer Reviews

Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition RPG

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Buyers who are familiar with the Revised 3rd Edition may be reluctant to buy the 4th Edition. That's understandable. I was wary myself, but I am grateful I took the plunge and purchased 4th Edition. This makes up for many of the mistakes of the past while forging a new future.

First, the book looks very nice. The artwork is exceptional, and the layout is professionally done. The type is on the small side, but the contrast is good. The fact that the type is so small in a book so large gives you an idea of just how full of information this book is. I'm not a fan of the section headings (Book of Water, et al.), but it's a stylistic decision that simply isn't my cup of tea. Others may disagree. Certainly, it's nothing I'd dock point off of. There have been a few typos, but they are mild; nothing like previous editions!

The book is very robust. The world of L5R has several years of stories crammed into it, and it's simply impossible to fit everything into one book. Still, this book has the most vital parts, while leaving some areas open for GM interpretation or sourcebooks. You have what you need to start a campaign, though the book intentionally makes some things vague so that it'll fit in almost any L5R campaign.

The rules are also well done. I understand this book has undergone some rigorous playtesting, and the hard work is apparent. A lot of the power differences between comparable Schools have been toned down so that while one school clearly has an advantage, it's usually not a runaway. The rules have been retooled so that success is based more on the dice than on what Advantages and Schools you have. Static bonuses are an endangered species; if a character receives a set numerical bonus or a "Raise," then it is indicative of how that character is supposed to be really good at what he does. L5R veterans may recall saying things like "7k3 +30." You're less likely to hear it in 4th Edition.

Veterans of L5R will also notice other changes, mostly for the better. The five stances make combat more dynamic and tactical--without resorting to battle mats with 5-foot squares. The Wounds distribution makes it likely that a character can withstand a solid hit and grit through the pain, rather than spiral down into ineffectiveness; I believe the idea I heard is that, "Combat should not be determined by who rolled the best initiative," and I think the book succeeds here. Also, the list of Advantages and Disadvantages has been expanded, including being blessed (or cursed) by a major Fortune, being positively or negatively influenced by one of the spirit realms, and even epitomizing or rejecting an aspect of bushido (or even its opposite, shourido).

There are still some things I do not like. While I praise the designers for balancing the rules, I am bemused by the Dragon tattoo, which seems to be considerably ahead in the power curve. I also did not like the maximum number of Raises being limited to your Void (I thought 3rd Edition was a step forward by eliminating that). These are very minor disagreements, which can be easily changed in a home game if you feel like it. They may make me roll my eyes, but I wouldn't reduce my score because of them.

Another down side is the price. Once you see and feel the book, you can see where the money has gone. This is obviously not a basement print job. Some may argue that no book should cost this much, but most RPG books nowadays are on the pricy side. At least you get excellent artwork, well-thought-out rules, and a fairly low typo-to-page-count ratio (page count is 400 FYI). Considering the hours of entertainment you can derive from this book, the price is actually rather reasonable.

Finally, this book has made me do something for the first time: Run my own L5R home game. That is high praise indeed if the shelves full of dusty game books are any indication. I've purchase and read many game books, but I never take the serious step in running a game based on them. L5R 4th Edition has gotten me excited enough to hunt down players and begin a new campaign.

The book starts with the traditional foreword for people that don't play RPGs and this is their first one, with some other parts for returning players, fairly short and to the point.

The book is then separated into 5 "books", Air being Setting info, Earth being basic general mechanics, Fire being character creation, Water being optional advanced mechanics, and Void being the GM chapter.

This book has helped resolve one of my largest complaints in L5R, where the setting and culture fluff is overall spread through out the core book and some of the details and nuances can get lost without a thorough reading. The Air Chapter completely fixes that, being full of basic overarching info about how the society of Rokugan works with some history information. I honestly feel that I could have a new player read the book of air alone, and they would have a sufficient grasp of Rokugani customs and history and would not feel lost. This is important, because L5R chooses to focus on the social aspects of roleplaying and not so much the hack and slash of other settings, as in L5R combat by default is pretty lethal. It also paints the world in broad, full brushstrokes, which does mean some detail is lost, but this leaves the world open for individual interpretation without adhering to a canon storyline.

The Earth Book is straightforward explanation of the pure basics of the system and how it works, and is the shortest chapter in the book. This is a GOOD thing, as you have all the basic mechanic info in one concise and straightforward place. I feel it explains the process of Target Numbers and the Roll and Keep system thoroughly enough that minimal confusion would occur even with people who have never played an RPG before.

The Fire Book is the character creation chapter, and is fairly robust. It includes the basic info on how many points compose a character, how to spend initial points, and how to spend XP gained later. It also holds the 8 basic clans of L5R, and 4 schools (or classes) for each clan. Each clan is given one melee (bushi), one Magic (Shugenja), and one diplomat (Courtier) school, and a fourth school that helps further expand the flavor of the clan. In -most- cases this is a melee variant, with the Lion, Crab, Unicorn, and Crane getting additional bushi schools that fit the theme overall of the clan. The Mantis gets the game's only dedicated archer school, the Scorpion get a Ninja school, the Dragon get their tattoo monks, and the Phoenix get another magic school. The book then details the various skills of the setting, seperated into seperate categories based on how the typical rokugani views them. IE, Calligraphy, being viewed as a cultural skill, is a "High" skill, athletics is a "Bugei" or warrior skill, Craft being a "Merchant" skill, and Poison being a "Low" (or criminal) skill. There is then a list of Advantages and Disadvantages, which are basically perks or penalties you can choose to help flesh out your character. Advantages give a benefit and cost creation points, Disadvantages cause a penalty and give you extra points to use. There's finally a list of spells for each element and an explanation of the magic system, and an equipment list.

The Water Book includes additional character creation and system options. It includes additional "Minor" Clans with one school each and a brief fluff section explaining the clan's founding and purpose, 4 "Imperial" schools for characters that may be tied to the emperor, rules for playing a Ronin, or clanless character, or a monk character, and an explanation of a possible "Mass Battle" system. It adds further details to the 8 basic clans with advanced schools and alternate "Rank" paths, where you essentially choose a different ability for a "Rank" (or level, in more common RPG terms) than what your school would normally allow. It also includes systems for Maho, (or Blood Magic something that's a huge no-no in Rokugan), Kiho which are a hybrid of the spells of the magic classes and abilities of the melee classes that are primarily used by monks, and rules for Shadowlands taint infection.

Finally, the Void Book includes things for the Game Master including how to create adventures, lists of basic plot possibilities, an atlas of geographic locations, and a few basic creatures to threaten your Player Characters with. L5R being a social game foremost, the list of creatures is fairly small, and there's going to be a new supplement book with more options in the near future.

I could honestly say I could play multiple campaigns and not just sessions out of the core book alone, without the need for additional supplements, and it also does not contradict or devalue any previous books I have purchased for previous editions fluff wise, due to the decision to paint the story with broad strokes. Sure, the clans do suffer a extremely short explanation of their own individual histories and view points, but I feel I can still use my 1st Edition clan specific books for more info without major retooling or history rewriting. The mechanics however, would need to be retooled, which is natural for changes in RPG editions.

The layout of the book is well done, the editing is well done to the point there's no memorable mistakes (for those who have purchased L5R books in the past, this is a huge improvement), and the page quality seems fairly nice, with glossy full color pages. It's construction honestly reminds me of a high quality high school yearbook. I only say this as I do not buy a -lot- of books, and this is meant as a compliment, the yearbooks I'd be comparing it to are still intact and in good condition 15 years later, so it gives me hope the book won't just fall apart in a few months.

Overall, I think it's a great book and well worth the price.

I've been playing L5R since 1st edition. I love the world, and the core mechanics. I've played it more than any other RPG, and I've played my share. I have to admit, the previous edition of L5R was a jumbled mess. Poor layout, bad editing, and ludicrously unbalanced mechanics. I found myself apologizing for the poor appearance and behavior of my beloved game, and made hybrid versions of 1st, 2nd and 3rd just to make it playable. Well, no longer.

The first thing that struck me was the art. I was blown away. The traditional japanese-style paintings that open the chapters and set the theme for the ensuing pages are gorgeous. The illustrations are great, and so is the layout, for the most part. It's inspired me to take up graphic design again. My elderly father, who doesn't even game, spent an hour looking through it page by page, admiring it and asking questions about the world presented in the art.

Gone are the insanely unbalanced mechanics and nigh-incalculable piles of bonuses and modifiers. Gone are the contradictory paragraphs and sloppy typos. The Schools are balanced and simple while maintaining their flavor. Power gamers may be upset at toned down abilities, but I view that as a good thing. You can still make very powerful characters, that are much easier to play and much more flavorful, rather than mechanical. One school that needed nerfing was the Mirumoto Bushi, though they might have been a little too hard on them. We'll see. My least favorite technique from 3rd Edition, due to sheer complexity, was the Akodo Bushi Rank 1. Sadly, it's still just as complicated and conditional, but virtually all the other techniques are streamlined and simplified beautifully.

AEG achieved their goal of getting back to basics; back to the essence of L5R. Something, as a fan of 1st Edition, I can really appreciate. But all the stuff from 2nd and 3rd are still there! You can run in any era or make up your own. I can hardly believe how much stuff they crammed into this book.

The Advantages and Disadvantages are worth noting. Many of the new ones are awesome. Bursting with flavor. Paragon, and Dark Paragon, Consumed, Touched/Cursed by the Realm, Lord Moon's Curse, etc. are really great. All the classics are there, reworked to be simpler and more sensible and with added flavor. A couple of the mechanics are a little too similar, but the flavor differences are enough to encourage taking one over the other. A couple of the point values seem a little out of whack, but for the most part are very fair. This game was clearly playtested heavily, and is well-edited.

I can't say enough about this game, but I'll stop now. This is my favorite RPG release of the past 5 years, and the best edition of L5R to date, in my not so humble opinion. It's pricey, but buy it. You get what you pay for and then some!

This book, to me, marks the beginning of a new L5R and it is a good start. L5R in 3rd Edition was unbalanced and a lot of mechanics were broken making characters too over powered (case in point was in one game I was in someone was able to sneak up to the 'final boss' and stab him twice, killing him without ever knowing we were there.) 4th Edition sees everything toned down and balanced out, on top of that the game play has been smoothed over making it flow better. On top of mechanical overhaul the quality of the book its self has been drastically improved. Before there wasn't much wrong with the books (if you ignored the typos and several Schools having Techniques that belonged to another School) but with 4th Edition everything has improved:

- The artwork has vastly improved from previous editions.
- The layout of the book has been modified to make it easier to use.
- The index is not full of errors (like in 3rd Edition).
- All the mechanics have been included in the Core book (So you don't have to go searching through multiple books to find answers to rules questions).

All in all while I liked 3rd Edition (I have every book), I have to say that I like 4th more and I'm looking forward to the upcoming books.

Now about those reviews that have been over attacking 4th Ed. (it's not perfect but it's also not that bad).
With all do respect, have you really read this book? I ask this because it seems to me as though you missed the point of the new edition. The idea was for the Core book to contain all the mechanical parts needed to play the game so people wouldn't have to search through a dozen or more books to find out how something works. All the Clans are given a brief description and their general view of the other Clans, while this isn't as detailed as it was in 3rd Edition this is for a reason: 4th Ed. is time line neutral, were as 3rd Ed. was limited to the most recent point in the story. Now if someone wants more info on a Clan or Family all they have to do is go to [...] it has all the information on them and it's free.

Short review: a great game and a nice improvement over the previous iteration of rules.

For those familiar with 3E/3ER: L5R 4E is a more relaunch than redesign (think Pathfinder vs. 3.5 as opposed to d20 Star Wars vs. d6 Star Wars) - its main aim seems to be the (much needed) rebalancing of the game, addressing such problem areas as Mirumoto bushi TNtbH and the prevalence of free raises. It's also much more well edited (though still not perfect) and in general a gorgeous product. I will say I regard it as a "must" have for L5R aficionados - it is well worth the upgrade from 3ER (unlike the many cases of new edition backslide, such as D&D 4E and d20 Star Wars, with L5R older is decidedly NOT better...)

L5R4E is a mechanically simple enough game that a relative novice can pick it up quickly, yet rich enough (and open-ended enough) as to allow complex skill use and character development; it's worth grabbing a copy of an introductory scenario (which was offered on Free RPG day) called "Legacy of Disaster", which introduces a number of "samurai" themes relating to "face" and "honor" as well as a summarized rundown of the rules - great to hand out to one's gaming group or run at local cons.

The book itself is lovely to behold, and the art is gorgeous (though a number of kimono in the pictures are worn incorrectly and some illustrated kanji are the wrong stroke order, but those are a purist's complaint!). I bought two copies, one to lug around in the gaming bag and the other for the bookshelf...

As D&D 4E's popularity wanes, I see a lot of folks casting around for new games to play; here's a good one.

I dont have as much to add as other reviewers, but I had to rate my enthusiasm for this book. The layout and art are breathtaking. L5R has a long history of fantastic art, but they've merged it flawlessly with a Japanese watercolor and ink style that really fits the setting. I can't say enough about the design, its incredibly immersive to the setting. There are some other reviewers who comment that this book does not have enough of the elaborate history of Rokugan, but as a newer player, I can't say that I'm all that interested in the ongoing History thats derived from the L5R Card Game. This book gives enough history and setting information to get the basics of Rokugan across, and leaves room for play in any Era of L5R.

I was not a long time L5R gamer before I picked this up, and was only casually familiar with previous edition's rules. The rules seem to be streamlined and less mechanically clunky, which suits my tastes. I like a game that has a solid dice system that fun to use, then gets out of the way so my friends & I can get on with having fun. This newer version of L5R seems to do that.

I don't have much to add to the in-depth reviews, good or bad, that you have on this site. So I'll just touch on a few things that are important to me.

The Mechanics: Its a cleaner, less clunky version of the game rules. Serious effort has been made to make all of the schools fun and playable for their various roles. Some options for those who prefer cinematic or anima-inspired games are included. Overall the game is a tad less lethal than previous editions...but only a tad. You still need to be a wily and tenacious samurai to 'win' in L5R.

The Setting: I think I might have to agree slightly with the detractors who think that not enough setting material is included. The history, customs, and religion of Rokugan is spelled out but there is no definite starting place or time. Granted...this was an effort to avoid the worst aspects of older editions trapped in a runaway metaplot with hordes of excessive details. But I think at least one area of Rokugan could of been fleshed out with important NPCs, plots, monsters, and places to give GMs and players a campaign start point. This would of solved the problem to my satisfaction since I don't want more than the bare minimum included in the corebook.

The Book: Its beautiful. Very classical Japan in flavor and the illustrations never disappoint.

Overall its important to remember that this edition has a toolbox approach to gaming in Rokugan. Without any supplements it will take a little work to get started but you have all the tools to make it happen.

I knock a point off for my little setting complaint but its very strong in all other areas. So 4 Stars.

Reworked streamlined rules, excellent layout, good value for my money and unexpectedly good copywriting leads me to give this core book top marks.

From the moment you unpack this book you are astonished by the quality of the hardcover art, and smoothness. The pages are excellent quality glossy and almost all of them are touched with color or a mindblowing illustration from artists like Steve Argyle amongst others.

The book is organized in the traditional "book of elements" chapters, so old L5R players can find their way in it quite easily (my case for example). Most of the broken game mechanics from older editions are fixed in this 4th edition. Clan Schools got balanced somewhat, more clans included, anything a L5R rpg fan could ask or hope for (coupled with Enemies of The Empire).

I have been an Avid L5R junkie for years. After First Edition, the game sort of went downhill. I still played, and still had a lot of fun, but nothing compared to good ol' first Edition...

Until now. All of the fun, new ideas added in 2nd and 3rd that were clunky and hard to use have been cleaned up and streamlined.

All the rules are simple and fit into nice, neat little categories, so it minimizes wasting game time to look up super complex rules.

And the book is Gorgeous. Each page is full color. All the new chapters begin with a splash page picture that takes up two pages. Even the cover is beautiful. Well worth your time and money to get this product. If you are a fan of any edition of L5R, or even of Samurai Role Playing games, then this book is for you. I can't praise it enough.