Product Review
First
Impressions:
You get a fresh chance to impress the World every
24 hours. Use it wisely.
A journey of a thousand miles starts
with a single step, and my collection of Legend of
the Five Rings books started with a single purchase.
I bought the original rulebook from my local RPG shop,
little did I know that in six or seven month’s
time I would be a LoT5R’s junkie and I’d
own every single book they had released. Do I regret
that initial addiction forming purchase? Not for a
second.
I bought the rulebook as I fancied
a new game, preferably fantasy (having recently bought
Trinity I didn’t really need another Sci-fi)
and most of all it had to be a game which no one else
I knew owned. So LoT5R’s was the perfect choice.
It was fantasy with an eastern twist and most of my
friends had never even heard of it let alone purchased
a copy.
Purchasing the new Second Edition
Player’s Guide was as inevitable as Obama becoming
the President (well done by the way… on the
off chance he’s reading this). As I flicked
through the book I realised my money hadn’t
been wasted and that the new edition had a lot to
offer a current player as well as any newcomers.
The
Look: Does this book make me look fat?
I have to say that I was actually
slightly disappointed with the cover art of the new
edition. The old rulebook had a great picture of a
surrounded samurai ‘selling his life dearly’
as he fights off his attackers. The new book however
has a very stationary feel to it and doesn’t
really inspire any kind of feeling at all from me,
which is a real shame as almost all the interior art
is great and really captures the feel of Rokugan (the
land where the game is set, more on this in a few
seconds depending how fast you read).
The
Content: So
what’s between the sheets?
The real strength of this mighty
fine game is the setting.
In this book you’re introduced
to the land of Rokugan, which is where the game is
set. The best way to describe Rokugan is by comparing
it to ancient feudal Japan. It has a very similar
feel but with a fantasy twist, almost as if all their
old myths and legends had been real… and then
some. The society is much like ancient Japan with
the very defined classes of emperor, warrior, merchant
and peasant, with this intricate system of order set
against great dark fantasy background. Rokugan is
a patchwork of grassland, open plains and forest with
a range of mountains and coastline protecting its
borders. There are many small villages and towns dotting
the countryside and several large cities which act
as centres of commerce and culture.
So where is the fun in that? I hear
all the brave monster slaying guys and gals among
you yell, let’s face it peace doesn’t
make great roleplaying. Luckily, for gamers at least,
there is a large wall in the south defended by the
crab clan (more on the clans in a sec); this wall
stretches from the coastline in the east to the mountains
in the west. On the other side of this wall lies the
Shadowlands. This is a dark corrupt area, which is
home to the main bad guy, Fu Leng and all his evil
minions. These range from the common fantasy antagonist
‘goblin’ to the new and varied evil of
the ‘oni’. Oni is basically an all encompassing
name for the weird monsters and beasties that inhabit
the Shadowlands, some of which are huge muscle bound
brutes and others are sneaky innocent looking deviants,
but one things for sure they're all nasty as hell.
Very original and great for throwing something new
at a gaming group that thinkgs they've seen it all.
Next up we have the clans, who under
the emperor, rule Rokugan. Most characters will either
be from or have come from one of the clans so here's
a little info on them. First off we have the major
clans; the unicorn (outsiders), the crab (crude and
tough), the crane (elegant and political), the lion
(warlike and honourable), the phoenix (studious and
magical), the dragon (mysterious and religious) and
the scorpion (sneaky and underhand). There are also
some minor clans who have been growing in power recently
and are beginning to have more of an effect on the
big picture.
So in a very small nutshell that
is Rokugan and the Legend of The Five Rings setting,
to fully appreciate how it all works you will need
to read to book, trust me its well worth it as this
is one of the finest settings I’ve ever read
and excels in every area.
Second
Edition: Being
first isn’t always good, take landmines for
instance.
Lets get one thing straight - nothing
was wrong with the first edition of the game. The
system is great and has remained largely un-changed
in the new version. In fact to be honest I love this
rules system so much that if I ever made my own game
I would use the ‘roll and keep’ system.
It's simple to learn and easy to teach to new players.
It also makes a lot of sense and works really well
in combat and skill tests.
The main differences between the
first and second editions of this game have been in
the setting. The second edition has taken the storyline
a few years down the line from the original game and
I think Alderac have handled the storyline progression
very well. They have been releasing various books
and adventures, which gradually changed the storyline
and worked characters into the new version and let's
them feel like they helped bring the new setting about.
Another big advantage of this book
is the collected info it has from all the old books.
They have collected info from all The Way of The Clans
books and the GM’s Survival Guide. They have
even now included the new faction on the scene, which
are worth mentioning as the characters can choose
to play one of the with the GM’s consent. These
are the Naga, who are an ancient race of half snake
beings. They have yet to show their true colours,
remaining in the shadows for the most part so far
observing the humans and trying to decide whether
two-legs are a good or bad thing.
Final
Thoughts: Last
words are for fools who haven't said enough…
so here goes.
Is the book really any good then?
Yes, I think it's well worth considering if you want
to buy a roleplay game and if you already have the
original and liked it then this should be on your
list without a doubt. It adds an exciting new chapter
to your current LoT5R’s games and lets you characters
carry on their adventures in Rokugan. The Clan War
storyline can be hard to work round and in some ways
I’m not sure it was the right way to go, but
I can see it has a purpose and is surely leading to
bigger things.
The oriental setting may put some
gamers off but trust me this is truly original and
you’ll experience roleplaying situations you
would never get in other games. The huge range of
other books that have already been released for the
first edition are still all fully compatible with
this new edition and provide you with a mammoth selection
of game types to draw from. Do you set you game in
the realms of mystery where Rokugani culture can get
in the way of investigations and honour can provide
moral dilemmas, or do you go all out in the war settings
with the characters commanding troops and missions
against the enemy. There is even the ‘old skool’
option where your characters can do battle with the
monsters of the Shadowlands for honour and personal
glory. For a fantasy game you could do far worse than
this, and not a great deal better.
Reviewed By Jon Simpson
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