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The world of Rokugan is saturated in flavor, with untold detail illuminating a distinctive culture. And that’s what really draws people to Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying. But, once you have a character concept to fit in that world, it can still be important that your character concept is embodied in the numbers that are on the character sheet. It’s one thing to create a character who is bad at a certain activity because that’s your concept. It’s another to end up with one who’s bad at something on accident.

1. Character Creator Games
2. L5r Character Creation Rules

L5R Character Generator. Rokugen is a project to develop a character generator to L5R RPG. It aims to use te 3rd edition rules, multiplatform and fully. L5RCM GM tool for the RPG game 'Legend of the Five Rings' 4th edition. You have an L5R character! A Sample of Character Generation. Even though I'm usually very prone to playing a Unicorn character, I decided to branch out for this example, and have chosen to create a Crab character. This gives me the following choices for families: Hida, Hiruma, Kaiu, Kuni, and Yasuki.

Legend of the Five Rings (often abbreviated 'L5R') is a fictional setting that covers in detail the fantastical land of Rokugan, a nation whose culture and history is based on that of feudal Japan. The setting also briefly touches upon many of the different cultures that occupy the same world. This world is the foundation for the Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game, the Legend of.

Some of the advice in this article is agnostic as to character concept. For example, if there are several interesting options for which Skill or Ring to increase by 1, it doesn’t hurt a character concept to consider the mechanical advantages of ‘stacking’ Ring and Skill increases during character creation. Some of the advice may assist in achieving a character concept, because it can help make sure that the character is actually competent at what the concept says they are – magistrate characters likely want the Government skill to know the law, while artisan characters likely want a high Fire Ring in order to be able to create their art.

Rings

Unbalance the Rings. Characters start with a value of 1 in all Rings, and will get five increases during character creation (1 for clan, 1 for family, 2 for school, 1 free choice). This means an average Ring value of 2. There is also a maximum of 3 in any Ring at character creation, so the most unbalanced character will be 3/3/2/1/1. From a min-max point of view, there is an advantage to starting unbalanced. During character creation, the ‘cost’ of all increases is the same. Once experience points come into play, it is cheaper to raise lower rings. So starting with 3/1 will take 9 xp to raise to 3/3, while starting to 2/2 will take 12xp to raise to 3/3. Plus, even if there wasn’t an xp benefit to starting unbalanced (6 bonus xp for starting 3/3/2/1/1 instead of 2/2/2/2/2), a character who is unbalanced will mostly end off more effective than one who isn’t. They will naturally favor approaches they’re good at, and get to roll those 3s a lot more than they have to roll those 1s. Note that there are often limited ways to unbalance Rings for some character concepts. This is particularly true where Clan/Family/School all increase the same Ring. This forces the Family increase into its other Ring option, which leaves the character with a 3/2/2/1/1 spread, and thus only two choices (the Family increase and the second School increase) to end up 3/3/2/1/1.

Void is the least-rolled Ring for most characters – the Void approach is incredibly niche for most skills. And, while a higher Void allows a character to store more Void Points, it doesn’t generate more – so a lower Void Ring can serve as an encouragement to use them. After character creation Void acts as a limiting factor on the advancement of other Rings, so eventually it will need to be raised (with Void and something else at 1; you can’t raise any other Ring above 2). But at at character creation, it can readily serve as a ‘dump stat.’ Or, really, for most characters just don’t bother using your free choice on it, since few clans/families/schools give it a bonus (Phoenix and some shugenja). Void Stance can be handy in combat to avoid strife, but for the same reason it’s easy to dump Void, it’s hard to build it to three – very few clans/families/schools have it as a bonus. So, for most characters, going Void means a weaker roll.

An Artisan will likely want to start with a Fire Ring of 3. For the Artisan Skill Group, Fire is the approach to inventing a new piece. Without a high Fire, your character will not be very good at creating new things. I don’t know about you, but I will generally want my artisan character to actually be able to create stuff. Note that this limits the options for the classic Crane artisan, as only the Kakita family and Asahina shugenja provide bonuses to the Fire ring, forcing a non-shugenja into the Kakita family to start with Fire 3. Conveniently for the Crane, however, they very easily hit Air 3, which is probably the second most useful Ring for an artisan. Other than, that is, for a smith, where Earth is needed for repair and restoration. Helpfully, the paramount smiths in the world, the Kaiu, are locked and loaded, with a +1 Earth from clan, +1 Earth and Fire from school, and +1 of choice (so Fire) from family.

Courtiers (or anyone who wants to excel socially) have several avenues to cover. Even the most honest of courtiers, however, will have difficulty getting by without a solid Air Ring – deflection and concealing unpleasant truths are too commonplace. Water should also be a focus of most courtly types – unless the strategy is to not get along with people, Water’s going to come up. There’s a reason why most of the courtier families have Air/Water as their two ring boost options. That leaves Earth or Fire for a middling ring (Void, of course, should still be a 1). Clans that will be able to lead with Air 3/Water 3 with their ‘standard’ courtiers include Crane, Lion, and Unicorn. Typical Dragon and Phoenix courtiers will not be able to hew to this advice, because their spread of Ring options will force them to have a 1 in Water if they also want to follow the ‘unbalanced rings’ suggestion.

It isn’t as easy to say what the “right” Ring to emphasize is for bushi. Approaches don’t really matter for the martial skills, except for the stance they put the character in. Earth and Air are defensive – Earth prevents hits from becoming criticals, while Air can prevent hits in the first place. Fire is offensive, turning strife into successes. And Water allows greater flexibility, such as increased movement while still striking, or ‘healing’ while still attacking. For a bushi, which Ring to emphasize may come down to out-of-combat considerations. For example, a bushi who wants to be tricky (be that sneaking around or in social situations) will prefer a high Air Ring – while a character concept who sees such activity as distasteful will generally be willing to leave the Air Ring at 1. Earth is the Ring for logical, reasoned interaction and the Ring for raw recollection. Water is the Ring for being generally pleasant and figuring stuff out. Fire can be more socially restrictive, focusing on inciting emotion in others and coming up with new things – both of which can be frowned upon in Rokugan. All other things being equal, I believe that Water and/or Earth are probably the easiest Rings to employ in the broadest variety of situations outside of combat. As noted above, however, this choice is significantly influence by the Clan/School selection.

Skills

There isn’t a ton of flexibility in skill selection, but there are at least a few options. Note that, as with Rings, doubling up on skills at character creation is more xp efficient. Additionally, while the guide does not seek to advise on what the best Techniques are, it can be helpful to look at what Techniques the character starts with, and what Techniques they may learn early on, and ensure that the necessary Skills are in place to effectively use those.

Courtesy is by far the most important member of the Social Skill Group. Every character should take it as high as they can (which, I know, mostly just means choosing it as a school skill if it is one, or else choose it for Question 17). Every samurai needs to be able to comport themselves well in court – or, at least, avoid embarrassing themselves. The rest of the social skills pale in comparison, although Command can be more useful than you might think, because it often applies in interactions with non-samurai (in addition to military applications). Of course, if being something like a musician is part of your character concept, you’ll need Performance, but beyond that it will most commonly be used for tea ceremony (however, unlike the Artisan skills, Performance is featured in a variety of shuji). Games is generally to be avoided.

The Scholar Skill Group is broader than it might seem, with three skills handy for most characters – Culture, Government, and Sentiment.
Sentiment is the defensive social skill (including detecting deception), and so can end up getting rolled a lot. Note that possible ‘lie detector’ approaches exist for Water (general intent), Fire (lies of omission), and Air (direct lies) rings, so there won’t be many characters who can’t generate a solid roll here. Government, bringing knowledge of the law and an ability to work with bureaucracy, is particularly important even if the characters aren’t magistrates. This is especially true for characters with a high Water Ring, as that governs identification of illegal acts, figuring out how to get things done, and recognizing when bureaucratic maneuvers are being employed against you. Culture, while less concrete than Government or Sentiment, covers a very broad range of topics – heraldry, geography, customs, etc., etc. This is another one that can fit with a broad range of Rings, too. Of course, if your GM doesn’t actually make you roll Government to know the law, or roll Culture to know what’s going on when the party visits a new province (or the game is set entirely in one province), then these skills will be of less use. Shugenja will want to raise Theology, as it is used in many, many of their Invocations.

The Martial Skill Group is fairly straightforward – make sure you take whatever skill covers the fighting style (if any) you’re going to be using (and doubled if you can). Fitness (Air) is used for sneaking, so it’s a must-have for shinobi types (or actual scouts). It can also be used for chases – burst speed (Fire), moving through crowds (Water), or long distance (Earth). A rank in Tactics doesn’t hurt, if only because it’s the skill used for initiative in conflicts, and hitting first isn’t shabby. Monks should look into Fitness and Meditation, as their Kiho typically rely on those two Skills and unarmed combat.

Many aspects of the Trade Skill Group will not come into play for many characters – most samurai have little concern for labor (seriously, don’t take ranks in Labor), for example, and only a handful of characters are concerned about seafaring (although if you do want to be a sailor, make sure to have a good Water Ring). However, one skill stands out – Skulduggery. Although this skill won’t be practiced by many characters, it can be highly useful for characters in the common magistrate role, because Skulduggery is used to detect and investigate a lot of criminal activity. When in doubt, choose a rank in Skulduggery in response to Question 8. However, if your campaign will involve a more time outside of cities than in them, Survival can be a good option, with applications across several elements – Earth (creating shelter), Water (foraging/fishing), and Air (tracking).

Similarly, while samurai are supposed to care about the things covered in the Artisan Skill Group, these skills are not great for most characters (if your character is an artisan, the applicable skills will be necessary for the concept, of course). Aesthetics, composition, design, smithing – none of them will be used by most characters. Note that, if a campaign focuses on something like Winter Court, these skills can become more significant. A courtier cannot live on social skills alone, and they may be called upon to interact on these higher-minded subjects. Aesthetics is the most generally useful in such a circumstance, as it covers a variety of artistic topics (while composition’s conversational aspects are mostly limited to poetry). Shugenja, on the other hand, may need Composition to prepare invocations.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Which Advantages and Disadvantages to take is probably the broadest array of options available during character creation. And they are not created equal. If an Advantage is too narrow, you’ll rarely get to use it. If a Disadvantage is too narrow … well, if you’re optimizing, is there really such a thing as too narrow a Disadvantage? Just remember – your GM can always make sure that these come up as often (or not) as they want, so don’t think that just picking the ‘good’ ones means you’re going to escape unscathed.

Distinctions let you re-roll two dice in certain situations, and also provide a more story-based advantage. Strong distinctions will get to re-roll dice a lot, or have broadly useful story boosts. Note that many ‘strong’ distinctions are not strong for every character – but when they fit the character’s concept, they can come up a lot.

• Strong Distinctions: Benten’s Blessing, Bishamon’s Blessing, Daikoku’s Blessing, Dangerous Allure, Famously Honest, Famously Reliable, Indomitable Will, Jurojin’s Blessing, Keen Hearing, Keen Sight, Quick Reflexes, Small Stature, Subtle Observer.
• Weak Distinctions: Ally, Ambidexterity, Blackmail, Blessed Lineage, Blissful Betrothal, Famously Lucky, Famously Wealthy, Keen Smell, Kisshoten’s Blessing.

Passions let you remove strife when you engage in them, and also give a story-related boost. Strong passions are ones that make it easy to clear strife, and/or where the story boost is particularly handy.

• Strong Passions: Armament, Brushwork, Curiosity (if your GM is generous in supplying additional routes), Fortune-Telling, Gossip, Provocation, Tea.
• Weak Passions: Daredevil, Enlightenment, Fashion, Sake, Secrets, Wordplay.

Adversities force the re-roll of successful dice, and also apply some story-related penalties. A ‘strong’ adversity is one where these situations will relatively rarely come up (if you never fail rolls and need your Adversity to generate Void Points, then you’re doing well). Whether an adversity is strong or not is dependent on what the character wants to do, but is less dependant than it is for Distinctions (partially because GM’s will from time to time make sure that your Adversities come up; this particularly applies to the variety of Adversities that apply physical limitations that might otherwise not be relevant, such as tiring easily or not being able to lift much). Similarly while many of the Distinctions that give extra access to a particular person are not that helpful (because they GM was probably going to have some way for the party to get what they needed anyway), the Adversities that involve specific characters holding something against the character are more problematic, because an attentive GM will make sure to insert that character in. In other systems, I would say that the GM making the enemies be your enemies is almost a bonus (because there are going to be enemies, so why not make them ones you care about), and would recommend this sort of drawback. But in L5R the adversary isn’t just showing up, you’re bad against them – not as fun.

• Strong Adversities: Benten’s Curse, Daioku’s Curse, Disdain for a Bushido Tenet, Kisshoten’s Curse, Lost Memories, Momoku, Nerve Damage, Whispers of Poverty.
• Weak Adversities: Blindness, Bluntness, Clumsiness, Cognitive Lapse, Deafness, Discomfiting Countenance, Gaijin, Haunting, Lost Arm/Hand, Lost Leg, Maimed Arm, Muteness, Shadowlands Taint (any), Whispers of Cruelty, Whispers of Treachery.

Anxieties hand out extra strife under certain circumstances, and also have some story-based drawback. ‘Strong’ anxieties are ones where the strife-granting situation is relatively rare and/or the story-based drawback isn’t that bad.

• Strong Anxieties: Cynicism, Delusions of Grandeur, Fear of Death, Ferocity, Intolerance, Materialism, Painful Honesty.
• Weak Anxieties: Battle Trauma, Impatience, Meekness, Paranoia, Phobia, Softheartedness.

Wrap-Up

I hope you’ve enjoyed this wonderful trip through the rich tapestry that is the Emerald Empire. Maybe next time I can update this story-driven advice with the mechanical content from Emerald Empire. Until then, may your GM always forget your Adversities and your Delusions of Grandeur always lead to greater success.

The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game originally written by John Wick and published by Alderac Entertainment Group, under license from Five Rings Publishing Group, in 1997. The game uses the Legend of the Five Rings setting, and primarily the nation of Rokugan, which is based on feudalJapan with influences from other East Asian cultures.

Character Creator Games

Like most role-playing games, Legend of the Five Rings is played by one or more players and a game master, who controls the events that happen during the game as well as the non-player characters (NPCs). Legend of the Five Rings features many courtiers and other non-combatant character types as valid player characters.

In 1998, Legend of the Five Rings won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game of 1997.^[2] In 2008 the L5R RPG 3rd Edition sourcebook Emerald Empire won the Scrye Players Choice Award.

In September 2015, AEG and Fantasy Flight Games jointly announced that the intellectual property had been sold to FFG.^[3] Fantasy Flight Games released a new role-playing game based on the Legend of the Five Rings setting in October, 2018.^[4]

Setting[edit]

The fictional setting of Legend of the Five Rings is similar to feudalJapan, though it also includes aspects of other Asian cultures, as well as magic and mythical beasts. There is no given name for the entire world which the setting describes, so 'Rokugan' is used alternately to refer to the specific nation within the setting or to refer to the entire world.

Rokugani society is based on a clan structure, with seven (and later eight) so-called 'Great Clans', as well as a number of minor clans. Great Clans are made up of several family lines, each with their own general purpose within the clan. Minor clans generally only have one family. Each clan also has areas of land bequeathed by the emperor under their control. The emperor retains ownership of all lands, however, and the clans essentially rent the lands by paying annual taxes.

System[edit]

The game system of Legend of the Five Rings uses 10-sided dice exclusively. Usually, when a die is rolled and the result is 10 (normally marked '0' on the die), the die is said to 'explode'. In this situation, the player rolls again and the new result is added to the original result. If this second result is a 10, the player rolls a third time, totaling all three results. This process is repeated until the player rolls something other than 10. The second edition and most books made for it were written to work both with this system and with D20 rules as presented in the Oriental Adventures D&D setting; this was discontinued after 3rd edition was published.

Roll & Keep[edit]

The mechanic for which the game is most widely known is the 'Roll & Keep' system, designed by Dave Williams and John Wick. When dice are rolled, there are two quantities given: a number of dice to be rolled and a number of dice to be 'kept'. The totals of the kept dice are added together, giving the player the total sum for his or her roll. For example, if a roll called for five dice to be rolled and three kept (said simply 'five keep three' or written '5k3'), five dice would be rolled. Out of those five, the player would choose three (generally, but not necessarily, the player would choose the three with the highest values) whose values would be added together for the total value of the roll.

L5r Character Creation Rules

Rings[edit]

Legend of the Five Rings uses eight traits: Stamina, Willpower, Strength, Perception, Agility, Intelligence, Reflexes, and Awareness. The Traits are grouped into pairs associated with four elemental 'Rings' (respectively to above): Earth, Water, Fire and Air. The four Rings represent a limitation in character development, because in order for a character to advance, the level of his Rings must increase, and to increase a character's Rings, both of the Ring's associated Traits must increase.

There is a fifth Ring, called Void. This ring, like the other four, is taken from Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings, although 'Nothingness' is a better translation of the text. In the game, Void represents a character's inner strength, and its use allows a character to perform extraordinary actions, or to perform normal actions more efficiently.

Character creation[edit]

There are primarily two methods of creating characters in role-playing games: to roll dice to randomly generate attributes or to begin with a set number of points and a formula by which attributes can be purchased with these points. Legend of the Five Rings uses the latter method. Each new character begins with 40 'Character Points' to spend to create the character (except for ronin characters, which begin with 55). These points are spent to raise the level of the character's Traits and Void Ring, to raise the level of the character's skills, and to purchase new skills. In previous versions of the game, characters started with 30 points, or 45 for ronin.

These points may also be used to purchase Advantages, which give the character some extra bonus or ability that is designed to help in certain situations (such as 'Large', which increases the damage a character can inflict, or 'Social Position', which increases that character's standing in the courts of the land). Conversely, if a player so chooses, he can select a number of Disadvantages for his character, which give extra Character Points to spend in other areas, but imposes some penalty on the character during play (such as 'Small', which decreases the damage the character can inflict with certain weapons, or 'Bad Reputation', which causes a great number of NPCs to dislike the character).

Lethality[edit]

The Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game is renowned for its lethality.^[5] Players who charge into combat unaware will often find their characters killed in the first session. Proper role-playing is encouraged to avoid combat when unnecessary, but the characters do have requisite abilities to survive if combat is forced in the early stages.

Oriental Adventures[edit]

Oriental Adventures was published originally in 1985 by TSR, Inc. as an expansion for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and was set in a land called Kara-Tur. In 2001, Wizards of the Coast released a new edition of Oriental Adventures as an expansion for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons. It was decided to make this new version of Oriental Adventures a showcase for their recently acquired Legend of the Five Rings. An official (but not 100% comprehensive) update of Oriental Adventures to the v.3.5 rules can be found in Dragon Magazine #318 (April 2004), pp. 32–48.

For the entirety of its Second Edition, with the exception of the Player's Guide, Game Master's Guide, Way of the Shadowlands, Winter Court: Kyuden Asako, and Time of the Void, books published for the Legend of the Five Rings RPG had two different sets of game mechanics: the mechanics from the Legend of the Five Rings Second Edition Player's Guide and corresponding mechanics for d20 System, such as those presented in Oriental Adventures. Beginning with the Third Edition of the Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game, and because of the lack of availability of the now out of print Oriental Adventures, the d20 System rules have been dropped from current Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game books.

Books[edit]

Listed by AEG reference number in parentheses followed by title

First Edition (AEG)[edit]

(3001) Legend of the Five Rings – Roleplaying in the Emerald Empire (first edition core rule book)
(3002) Game Master's Pack: The Hare Clan
(3003) Way of the Dragon (Way of the Clans: Book One)
(3004) City of Lies box set (L-1 City of Lies)
(3005) Way of the Unicorn (Way of the Clans: Book Two)
(3006) Book of the Shadowlands
(3007) Way of the Crab (Way of the Clans: Book Three)
(3008) Way of the Scorpion (Way of the Clans: Book Five)
(3009) Way of the Crane (Way of the Clans: Book Four)
(3010) Way of the Lion (Way of the Clans: Book Six)
(3011) Walking the Way: The Lost Spells of Rokugan
(3012) Tomb of Iuchiban box set (S-1 Shadowlands Series)
(3013) Way of Shadow
(3014) Way of the Naga (Way of the Clans: Book Eight)
(3015) Game Master's Survival Guide
(3016) Winter Court: Kyuden Seppun
(3017) Way of the Phoenix (Way of the Clans: Book Seven)
(3018) Unexpected Allies
(3019) Bearers of Jade: The Second Book of the Shadowlands
(3020) Otosan Uchi: The Imperial City box set (O-1 The Imperial City)
(3021) Way of the Minor Clans (Way of the Clans: Book Nine)
(3022) Game Master's Pack (Revised): The Silence Within Sound
(3023) Merchant's Guide to Rokugan
(3024) Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita
(3025) Way of the Wolf (Way of the Clans: Book Ten)
(3028) Way of Shinsei (Way of the Clans: Book Eleven)
(4001) Honor's Veil (I-1 Intrigue Series)
(4002) Night of a Thousand Screams (L-2 City of Lies)
(4003) Code of Bushido (B-1 Bushido Series)
(4004) Twilight Honor (S-2 Shadowlands Series)
(4005) Midnight's Blood (M-1 High Magic Series)
(4006) Legacy of the Forge (B-2 Bushido Series)
(4007) Void in the Heavens (M-2 High Magic Series)
(4008) Lesser of Two Evils (S-3 Shadowlands Series)
(4500) Character Travelogue: Crab
(4501) Character Travelogue: Crane
(4502) Character Travelogue: Dragon
(4503) Character Travelogue: Lion
(4504) Character Travelogue: Phoenix
(4505) Character Travelogue: Ronin
(4506) Character Travelogue: Scorpion
(4507) Character Travelogue: Unicorn

Second Edition (AEG)[edit]

(3026) Secrets of the Lion
(3027) Secrets of the Scorpion
(3029) Secrets of the Unicorn
(3030) Way of the Shadowlands *
(3030) Winter Court: Kyuden Asako *(both marked 3030, there is no 3031)
(3032) Way of the Ratling
(3033) Time of the Void
(3034) Secrets of the Mantis
(3035) Secrets of the Phoenix
(3036) Secrets of the Crab
(3037) Secrets of the Crane
(3038) Secrets of the Dragon
(3039) Secrets of the Shadowlands
(3040) Complete Exotic Arms Guide supplement
(3041) Legend of the Five Rings Live-Action Roleplaying
(3042) Way of the Open Hand
(3043) Way of the Daimyo
(3044) Way of the Thief
(3046) Complete Exotic Arms Guide
(3047) The Hidden Emperor
(3101) Legend of the Five Rings – Player's Guide (second edition core rules)
(3102) Legend of the Five Rings – Game Master's Guide (second edition core rules)
(3103) Rokugan – Oriental Adventures Campaign Setting
(3104) Creatures of Rokugan
(3105) Magic of Rokugan
(3106) Way of the Samurai
(3107) Way of the Ninja
(3108) Way of the Shugenja
(3109) Fortunes & Winds
(4009) Bells of the Dead
(4010) Mimura: The Village of Promises

Non-AEG second edition compatible books[edit]

(WTC 12015) Oriental Adventures (d20 System)
(PCI 2101) Bloodspeakers (d20 System)

Third Edition (AEG)[edit]

(3200) Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Third Edition
(3201) The Four Winds: The Toturi Dynasty from Gold to Lotus
(3202) Creatures of Rokugan
(3203) Art of the Duel
(3204) Emerald Empire: The Legend of the Five Rings Companion
(3205) Masters of War
(3206) Prayers and Treasures
(3207) Masters of Court
(3208) Legend of the Burning Sands Roleplaying Game
(3209) Masters of Magic
(3210) Fealty and Freedom
(3211) The Vacant Throne

Fourth Edition (AEG)[edit]

(3300) Legend of the Five Rings – 4th Edition (core rules)
(3301) Legacy of Disaster
(3302) Game Master's Screen and Adventure (Descent into Darkness)
(3303) Strongholds of the Empire
(3304) Enemies of the Empire
(3305) Emerald Empire
(3306) The Great Clans
(3307) Imperial Histories
(3308) The Book of Air
(3309) Second City box set
(3310) The Book of Earth
(3311) Imperial Histories 2
(3312) The Book of Fire
(3313) Naishou Province
(3314) Secrets of the Empire
(3315) The Book of Water
(3316) Sword and Fan
(3317) Book of the Void
(3318) Atlas of Rokugan
Unexpected Allies 2 (pdf and print-on-demand)
The Imperial Archives (pdf and print-on-demand)

Fifth Edition (FFG)[edit]

Beginner Game with The Topaz Championship (adventure, completed by In The Palace of the Emerald Champion adventure and 3 more pre-generated characters, pdf)
Core Rulebook
Game Master's Kit with Dark Tides (adventure, completed by The Mantis Clan sourcebook, pdf)
Emerald Empire (sourcebook)
Wedding At Kyotei Castle (2018 Gen Con adventure, pdf)
Shadowlands (sourcebook)
Mask of the Oni (adventure, completed by The Knotted Tails supplemental storyline, pdf)
Courts of Stone (sourcebook)
Winter's Embrace (adventure, completed by The Scroll or the Blade supplemental adventure, pdf)
Path of Waves (sourcebook)
Sins of Regret (adventure, completed by Cresting Waves supplemental encounters, pdf)
The Highwayman (2019 Gen Con adventure, pdf)
Celestial Realms (sourcebook)
Wheel of Judgement (adventure, completed by Deathly Turns supplemental encounters, pdf)
Fields of Victory (sourcebook)
Blood of the Lioness (adventure, completed by 'Legacies of War' supplemental content, pdf)
Writ of the Wilds (sourcebook, announced 7/21/2020)

Reception[edit]

The reviewer from the online second volume of Pyramid stated that 'I have a great deal of nostalgia for FGU's classic game Bushido, and Legend of the Five Rings captures much of Bushido's Oriental swords & sorcery feel, with, thankfully, much more comprehensible rules.'^[6]

References[edit]

1. ^[1]
2. ^'Origins Award Winners (1997)'. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
3. ^'A New Emperor Rises'. Fantasyflightgames.com. Retrieved 2020-02-06.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
4. ^'Legend of the Five Rings RPG Beta'. Fantasyflightgames.com. Retrieved 2020-02-06.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
5. ^'Legacy of Disaster pg.5 sidebar'(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-12-03.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
6. ^'Pyramid: Pyramid Pick: Legend of the Five Rings'. Sjgames.com.

External links[edit]