| Legend of the Five Rings | |
| Publisher: | Alderac Entertainment Group (1995–2015) Fantasy Flight Games(2015–present) |
| Genre: | Asian Fantasy CCG / RPG |
| Designer: | John Zinser, Dave Seay, Dave Williams, Jeff Alexander, Brent Keith, Bryan Reese, and John Wick |
| Date: | 1995–present |
| Players: | 2 or more |
| Random Chance: | Some (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.
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.
See main article: Legend of the Five Rings (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.
See main article: Legend of the Five Rings 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. 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.
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.
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.
In 2024, Office Dog Games released River of Gold, an economic board game in which the players take the role of river merchants aligned with one of six clans from Rokugan, developing ports, trading resources, and accumulating local influence. [10]
See main article: Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game. After Legend of the Five Rings was purchased by Fantasy Flight Games,[11] 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.[12]
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.[13]
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.[19]
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,[20] 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.
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]
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.
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.