Legend of the Five Rings

Last updated
Legend of the Five Rings
Legend of the Five Rings Logo.jpg
Designers John Zinser, Dave Seay, Dave Williams, Jeff Alexander, Brent Keith, Bryan Reese, and John Wick
Publishers Alderac Entertainment Group (1995–2015)
Fantasy Flight Games(2015–present)
Publication1995–present
GenresAsian Fantasy CCG / RPG
Players2 or more
ChanceSome (order of cards drawn)

Legend of the Five Rings (often abbreviated L5R) is a fictional setting created by John Zinser, Dave Seay, Ryan Dancey, Dave Williams, DJ Trindle, Matt Wilson and John Wick and first published by a joint venture between Alderac Entertainment Group and ISOMEDIA in 1995. The setting primarily involves the fictional empire of Rokugan, though some additional areas and cultures have been discussed. Rokugan is based roughly on feudal Japan with influences from other East Asian cultures such as China, Mongolia and Korea. This setting is the basis for the Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game as well as the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game. Legend of the Five Rings was also the "featured campaign setting" of the Oriental Adventures expansion to the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons , though this book is now out of print.

Contents

The timeline of the Legends of the Five Rings setting can be influenced by players of the collectible card game, and to a lesser extent the role-playing game, with the winners of major tournaments making pivotal decisions that become canonical history in future products. The most significant example of this was the Race for the Throne event, which took place through 2007 and 2008, which allowed players of both the collectible card game and the role-playing game to affect the storyline of their Clan by earning points in various Spheres of influence. [1]

L5R was acquired by Fantasy Flight Games in 2015. [2] In 2020, FFG's parent company Asmodee transferred L5R to another subsidiary, Edge Studio.

Products

Collectible card game

The Legend of the Five Rings collectible card game is played by two or more players (in tournaments, generally two), each with two decks of at least 40 cards each (formerly at least 30 cards each). The game continues until a player has reached one of several different victory conditions, at which point that player is declared the winner. Victory conditions include winning militarily (destroying all provinces of one's opponent), by honour (reaching a certain number of honour points), dishonour (forcing one's opponent under a certain honour point threshold), through enlightenment (by putting cards called rings into play) or via a couple of special cards which essentially mean "game won".

In the game's tournaments players can affect the storyline of the game, their deck construction directly contributing to the lives (or deaths) of the characters involved. This is in turn reflected in future expansions of the game, and the mechanics of the cards therein. The full current rules of the collectible card game can be found at the Comprehensive Rules Site. The Kotei Season runs generally February through June of each year, where regional tournaments occur around the world. Each season incorporates a major event currently going on in the Emerald Empire, with each event determining at least one factor of the larger story. Kotei winners are pre-qualified into major events such as Gen Con and the European Championships, allowing them to skip the qualifying rounds.

Legend of the Five Rings has many cards that are directly influenced by players and their actions. These cards often feature an attribution on the vertical right side of the card, which includes the name of the player, the event, and the date involved in the creation of the card or theme behind the card. Having your name on a card is a goal of many players of Legend of the Five Rings.

The CCG ended its run in 2015 when Fantasy Flight Games acquired the game and converted it to a living card game.

Role-playing game

The Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game is a role-playing game that requires one person to be game master and any number of other people to play different characters. There is no "winner" or "loser", and the players do not generally compete against each other. Instead, the players work together to find a solution to some problem which the game master has presented their characters. The setting allows for stories which are oriented around action, courtly diplomacy or a mix of the two.

The Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game is currently in its fifth edition. The first four editions used an original ruleset designed specifically for the setting.[ citation needed ] To distinguish this game system from the d20 System mechanics (see below), it is often referred to as the d10, "classic", or the "Roll & Keep" ("R&K") system.

In September 2017, after Legend of the Five Rings was purchased by Fantasy Flight, they announced a fifth edition of the RPG, which was released on October 11, 2018. [3] It features an alternate version of the Roll and Keep system using special dice. [4]

In 2020, FFG's parent company Asmodee transferred FFG's RPG lines, including Legend of the Five Rings, to Edge Studio, another subsidiary of Asmodee.

In August 2022, Edge Studio released Adventures in Rokugan, a roleplaying game set in Rokugan but utilizing a system compatible with the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

Live-action roleplaying

In 2004 a live-action roleplay version of the game was released. Live-Action roleplaying has long been a major part of Legend of the Five Rings at events such as Gen Con. Heroes of Rokugan, a fan-run group organizes yearly LARPs as part of their own storyline.[ citation needed ]

Board games

Clan War was a miniature based model strategy game produced by AEG, whose story line is derived from the Legend of the Five Rings setting. This game is currently out of print. In 2010, however, a limited selection of the metal miniatures used to play the game was released by Valiant Enterprises Ltd. [5] A second Legend of the Five Rings board game titled Art of War has been demonstrated several times but never released. [6]

In 2011 AEG released a board game titled War of Honor, which utilized the same cards as the collectible card game in a simplified game. Four complete decks were included with the game, making it self-contained, however additional cards can also be included. [7] A second game, titled Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan was released the same year. This is a board game for 2–4 players in which one player takes the role of a Scorpion Clan ninja attempting to infiltrate a Lion Clan compound, with the other players defending it. [8]

In 2013 a Legend of the Five Rings themed version of the card game Love Letter was released. Using a deck of 16 cards and taking roughly an hour to play, the game simulates the courtly intrigue surrounding the attempts of several players to court a princess. [9]

In 2017, Fantasy Flight Games released Battle for Rokugan, an L5R-themed area-control strategy board game in which the clans fight to conquer regions on a map of Rokugan.

Living card game

After Legend of the Five Rings was purchased by Fantasy Flight Games, [10] they released a new version of the card game. Fantasy Flight's version (renamed Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game) is distributed as an introductory core set with periodical Clan Packs (which focus on a single clan) and Dynasty Packs (which have a variety of clan cards). Unlike the collectible card game version, the cards in the core set and packs are non-random.

The game is played by two players, each with two decks of 40–45 cards each. The game continues until a player has reached one of several different victory conditions, at which point that player is declared the winner. Victory conditions include breaking the province which holds their opponent's stronghold, accumulating 25 honor, or having their opponent run out of honor. In the game's tournaments players can affect the storyline of the game. [11]

Video game

In 2023, Swedish game development studio Palindrome Interactive announced that they had partnered with publisher Asmodee to bring the franchise to the video game genre for the first time. [12]

Novels

Clan War series

The Four Winds Saga

Death at Koten

In May 2009, Death at Koten was published, a graphic novel written by Shawn Carman which takes place in the Legend of the Five Rings setting. It revolves around the death of Hida Kisada and the events that take place as a result of his assassination. [18]

Aconyte Books

Setting

Legend of the Five Rings is set primarily in the fictional land of Rokugan (also known as the Emerald Empire), based on feudal Japan with influences from other East Asian cultures, [19] where samurai, shugenja, and trained courtiers vie for control of the noble courts. Rokugan itself is home to mostly humans, divided into a society based on clans, with eight Great Clans and various minor ones, though at the moment they are all in confusion, and are vying for one of their members to be the new Emperor. They are regularly threatened by evil plots from within, but the main threat still lies to the southwest of Rokugan: the deadly wastes of the Shadowlands, where demonic hordes roam.

The world of L5R, which contains Rokugan, also contains the nations of the Burning Sands as well as the Ivory Kingdoms. A few foreign visitors from these lands have been featured in Legend of the Five Rings, but have not played a major role in the storyline. Much is unknown of these lands, mostly due to the extreme xenophobia of the Rokugani, shown in the story by an Imperial mandate of non-interaction with Gaijin.

History

Ownership

Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG), in partnership with Isomedia, first designed and published the L5R collectible card game in 1995. Eventually, it became obvious that L5R would greatly benefit from the sort of promotion, marketing, and production that costs a lot of money. Some of the original AEG and Isomedia folks found interested investors and formed the Five Rings Publishing Group (FRPG), which purchased the intellectual property (IP) that is L5R. FRPG took over production and marketing, while AEG continued to design the game. In 1997, AEG licensed the role-playing publication rights for L5R from FRPG, and published the first edition of the L5R RPG. The fans liked it enough to vote it the Best RPG of 1997 at the Origins Awards, and the core book went through four printings while spawning two dozen sourcebooks and add-on products.

D. J. Trindle [20]

In 1997, FRPG was purchased by Wizards of the Coast. The existing licenses remained in place, so the same creative team continued work on Legend of the Five Rings, AEG continued publishing the RPG, and Wizards began publishing the card game. In 1999, Legend of the Five Rings changed hands once more when Wizards was purchased by toy-making giant Hasbro (however, "Wizards" continued operations under their original name). The previous licenses were still in effect, so changes to the games and the development teams as a result were unnoticeable. Wizards of the Coast re-released Oriental Adventures (a long out-of-print AD&D supplement), changing the setting from the original Kara-Tur to Rokugan, and updating the supplement to the d20 rules. Several of the following sourcebooks provided dual (d20 & d10/R&K) rulesets.

In late 2000, however, speculation about the future of Legend of the Five Rings – especially the RPG – began to run rampant after Hasbro, during a string of decisions that greatly upset the leadership at Wizards, decided to sell Legend of the Five Rings two years before AEG's long-standing license was due to expire. Any fears turned out to be unfounded when, less than half a year later, AEG won the bidding war for Legend of the Five Rings.

Until 2015, AEG owned Legend of the Five Rings. They designed and published the card game and the role-playing game. AEG released Lotus Edition for the CCG in late 2005, beginning the Age of Enlightenment story arc. Samurai Edition was released in July 2007 and included the Race for the Throne story arc. Celestial Edition was released in mid-2009, followed by Emperor Edition in early 2012 and Ivory Edition two years after that, in 2014. The final arc designed by AEG, Onyx Edition, was to be released in 2016.

On September 11, 2015, AEG and Fantasy Flight Games jointly announced that the setting had been sold to FFG. A new version of the card game (incompatible with the CCG) was released as a Living Card Game at Gen Con 2017. [21]

Story Team

There have been five 'eras' when it comes to the L5R Story Lead/Team.

The previous lead was Rich Wulf, assisted by Shawn Carman. Wulf's works include Way of the Wolf, Bells of the Dead, Rokugan, and many other Legend of the Five Rings products. Large contributions to the Legend of the Five Rings series were also made by Ree Soesbee, who was lead writer of Legend of the Five Rings prior to Rich Wulf, and John Wick before her who along with the founding members of Five Rings Publishing Group created the world. While the property was controlled by Wizards of the Coast, the creation of the Four Winds arc (starting with Gold Edition) was helmed by Paul Allen Timm and Rob Heinsoo with contributions from Andy Heckt and Frank Chafe.

Currently, Shawn Carman is the head of the Legend of the Five Rings Story Team. He has had great success at incorporating player effects into the game in a smooth manner, regardless of how odd the results of a tournament may be to the setting of the game. His team includes Nancy Sauer, Brian Yoon, Yoon Ha Lee, and Robert Denton with Fred Wan acting as co-lead and continuity editor. The team formerly included Rusty Priske and Lucas Twyman.

Five rings in an arrangement resembling those on the original Lot5R cards Five rings.png
Five rings in an arrangement resembling those on the original Lot5R cards

One legal issue for Legend of the Five Rings involved the use of a symbol that consisted of five interlocking rings, arranged in essentially a star pattern. This symbol was used for several years in the role-playing game and featured prominently on the backings of the cards in the collectible card game. The United States Olympic Committee sued Wizards of the Coast, who at that time owned Legend of the Five Rings, over the logo, because a special Act of the U.S. Congress [22] gave them the exclusive rights to any symbol consisting of five interlocking rings.

The only way to completely resolve the issue was to quit using the symbol. For the role-playing game this meant very little, but for the collectible card game it meant that the backing of the cards had to be redesigned, which left players with a mix of cards that essentially resulted in marked decks. In an attempt to appease the players, Wizards released the first set with the different backs – Spirit Wars – bundled with opaque sleeves that would obscure the designs on the backs of the cards, allowing players to use any mix of cards in their decks.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alderac Entertainment Group</span> Game publisher

Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) is a publisher of family board game products. AEG was formed by Jolly Blackburn in 1993. Blackburn left the company in 1995 and the majority of the company is now owned by President & CEO John Zinser. The company is virtual and does not have a physical headquarters but it is legally domiciled in the city of Henderson, Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doomtown</span>

Doomtown: Reloaded is an expandable card game based on the Deadlands role-playing game. It was originally a collectible card game that ran from 1998 through 2001 and was revived as the Reloaded version in 2014. It was published by Wizards of the Coast (WotC) under license to Pinnacle Entertainment Group until January 2000, when WotC quit production and the license transferred to Alderac Entertainment Group.

<i>Legend of the Five Rings</i> (collectible card game)

Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) is an out-of-print collectible card game created by a joint venture featuring Alderac Entertainment Group and ISOMEDIA in 1995 and published until 2015, when it was announced that the game would be discontinued for a rules-incompatible successor that will be part of Fantasy Flight Games' Living Card Game line. L5R takes place in the fictional empire of Rokugan from the Legend of the Five Rings setting, where several clans and factions vie for domination over the empire.

The Five Rings Publishing Group (FRPG) was formed as a spin-out of Alderac Entertainment Group and ISOMEDIA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Wick (game designer)</span> American role-playing game designer

John Wick is an American role-playing game designer best known for his creative contributions to the tabletop role playing games Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea. He self-published Orkworld under the Wicked Press banner, and later co-founded the Wicked Dead Brewing Company with Jared Sorensen. His games under that company include Cat, Schauermärchen, Enemy Gods, and Thirty. He has won the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game and Best Collectible Card Game twice.

The flexibility of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game rules means that Dungeon Masters (DM) are free to create their own fantasy campaign settings. For those who wanted a pre-packaged setting in which to play, TSR, Wizards of the Coast (WotC), and other publishers have created many settings in which D&D games can be based; of these, the Forgotten Realms, an epic fantasy world, has been one of the most successful and critically acclaimed settings. Many campaign settings include standard sword and sorcery environments, while others borrow Asian, Central American, swashbuckling, horror and even space-travel themes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legend of the Burning Sands</span>

Legend of the Burning Sands (LBS) is an out-of-print collectible card game (CCG) published by Five Rings Publishing Group in July 1998. It was a spin-off from the earlier CCG Legend of the Five Rings. Legend of the Burning Sands was set in the same fictional world as Legend of the Five Rings, but with an Arabian setting rather than an East Asian one, with a few characters appearing in both games. Both games had similar mechanics and emphasized a continuing storyline.

<i>Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game</i> 1997 Tabletop fantasy role-playing game

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, primarily the nation of Rokugan, which is based on feudal Japan with influences from other East Asian cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fantasy Flight Games</span> American game company

Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game developer based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, card, and dice games. As of 2014, it is a division of Asmodee North America.

<i>Descent: Journeys in the Dark</i>

Descent: Journeys in the Dark is a two to five player high fantasy dungeon crawl published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005. Descent was designed and produced by Kevin Wilson. The game is based on an improved version of the mechanics of FFG's licensed Doom: The Boardgame. In Descent, players take the roles of adventurers who delve into underground complexes in search of treasure. One player takes the role of the Overlord, who controls the enemies and plays cards to hinder the hero players. Descent differs from other games in the genre in that the Overlord player's goal is to win by exhausting the other players of victory points, rather than merely to facilitate play. The Overlord's resources are limited by the rules of the game, which require them to hoard and expend "threat" points, which are generated in response to the hero players' actions, in order to hamper the other players and to bring out additional monsters to defeat them. This mechanism is very much reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings when playing with the Sauron optional expansion.

<i>Dune</i> (card game) Collectible card game

Dune is an out-of-print collectible card game produced by Last Unicorn Games and Five Rings Publishing Group, and later Wizards of the Coast. Set in the Dune universe based on the books written by Frank Herbert, the game pits two or more players against each other, each in control of a minor house vying for entry in the Landsraad.

Elizabeth T. Danforth is an illustrator, editor, writer, and scenario designer for role-playing games and video games. She has worked in the game industry continuously since the mid 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collectible card game</span> Game played using specialized playing cards

A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards, introduced with Magic: The Gathering in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Vohwinkel</span> German artist and illustrator (born 1964)

Franz Vohwinkel is a German artist and illustrator whose work has appeared in role-playing games.

Ree Soesbee is an American game designer of collectible card games, role-playing games, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), as well as a writer of primarily fantasy novels.

A deck-building game is a card game or board game where construction of a deck of cards is a main element of gameplay. Deck-building games are similar to collectible card games (CCGs) in that each player has their own deck. However, unlike CCGs, the cards are not sold in randomized packs, and the majority of the deck is built during the game, instead of before the game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game</span> 2011 fantasy strategy card game

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a non-collectible customizable card game produced by Fantasy Flight Games. As part of the Living Card Game (LCG) genre, it is a cooperative and strategic card game set in Middle-earth, a fantasy world featured in literary works by J. R. R. Tolkien, including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Its digital adaptation, titled The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game, is published by Asmodee Digital for cross-platform play on Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, being the "first ever digital LCG".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Love Letter (card game)</span> 2012 card game

Love Letter is a card game introduced in May 2012 and designed by Seiji Kanai. Its first English-language edition was produced in the United States by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) until 2018, when Love Letter was acquired by Z-Man Games.

Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game is a Living Card Game (LCG) produced by Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). It is a two-player game set in the world of Rokugan. During the game, players take on the leadership of one of the Great Clans which define Rokugani society, and they are cast into conflict against another clan. The conflicts will decide the future of Rokugan. The game is an iteration of the Legend of the Five Rings collectible card game, produced by Alderac Entertainment Group in 1995. On 17 February 2021, FFG announced the completion of the game, Under Fu Leng’s Shadow being the last pack, released in June 2021.

References

  1. "Legend of the Five Rings – Race for the Throne". www.L5R.com. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  2. "Fantasy Flight Games Acquires Legend of the Five Rings". www.tabletopgamingnews.com. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  3. "Legend of the Five Rings RPG Core Rulebook". www.fantasyflightgames.com. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  4. "Legend of the Five Rings RPG Beta". www.fantasyflightgames.com. Retrieved 2018-01-04.
  5. "Clan War Miniatures Re-Issued". Alderac.com. Alderac Entertainment Group. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  6. "Legend of the Five Rings: Art of War". Board Game Geek. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  7. "War of Honor - Legend of the Five Rings". Archived from the original on 2014-10-12. Retrieved 2014-10-06.
  8. "Ninja | Legend of the Five Rings". Archived from the original on 2011-12-12. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
  9. "Love Letter-Legend of the Five Rings". Alderac.com. Alderac Entertainment Group. Archived from the original on 2014-07-06. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  10. A New Emperor Rises (FFG web)
  11. The Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game (FFG web)
  12. "Palindrome announces a new partnership to expand the Legend of the Five Rings universe in a video game" (Palindrome Interactive)
  13. "The Steel Throne (Legend of the Five Rings: The Four Winds Saga prelude)". GoodReads. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  14. "Wind of Honor (Legend of the Five Rings: The Four Winds Saga first scroll)". GoodReads. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  15. "Wind of War (Legend of the Five Rings: The Four Winds Saga second scroll)". GoodReads. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  16. "Wind of Justice (Legend of the Five Rings: The Four Winds Saga third scroll)". GoodReads. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  17. "Wind of Truth (Legend of the Five Rings: The Four Winds Saga fourth scroll)". GoodReads. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  18. "Legend of the Five Rings: Death at Koten #1". Comics Vine. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  19. Miranda, Iván Pérez, and Severiano Acosta Del Río. "Mitología, cultura popular y juegos de rol." El Futuro del Pasado: revista electrónica de historia 7 (2016): 219-237.
  20. Trindle, D. J. "Whither the L5R RPG?". l5r.alderac.com. Archived from the original on February 5, 2005.
  21. "A New Emperor Rises".
  22. "U.S.C. Title 36 – PATRIOTIC AND NATIONAL OBSERVANCES, CEREMONIES, AND ORGANIZATIONS".