The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
Please vote in the Forum Structure Poll. Polling will close at 2PM EST on January 21, 2025.
[Legend of the Five Rings] is a CCG and an RPG!
LibrarianThorne
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Legend of the Five Rings occurs in the fictional empire of Rokugan. It is a place of heroes and villains, tombs and monsters. It is a world of samurai, monks, peasants, and Emperors. It is, above all things, a world where honor is stronger than steel.
Legend of the Five Rings began as a collectible card game designed by John Wick in 1995. It was followed by a role playing game in 1997, which began telling an overarching narrative starting with the Clan War. "Clan War," coincedentally, followed shortly afterwards as a miniatures wargame. It has since spun out into Disk Wars expansions and tabletop games such as War of Honor and Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan.
The card game is currently on Emperor Edition, set decades after the end of the Clan War. The samurai of Rokugan have been conquering and colonizing lands far from the Empire, bringing them ever closer to physical, mental, and spiritual corruption. The latest expansion is Coils of Madness, detailing the struggle between the mad dragon P'an Ku and the enigmatic cult of Fudo.
The role playing game is on its fourth edition. Unlike previous editions of the game, which were tied to specific eras, the current edition can be played in any era of the game. Its most recent release is the Book of Fire, third in the Book of Elements series and a discussion of the element of Fire within the world Rokugan. It also includes large discussions on the art of kenjutsu sword fighting, sword smithing, and various magical weapons throughout the game's history.
So, feel free to use this thread to discuss L5R! I'm a really big fan of the games and the setting.
UPDATE: A quick L5R How To guide can be found here!
LibrarianThorne on
+1
Posts
One of the main things in the setting of Legend of the Five Rings are the Great Clans. There are nine Great Clans, each sworn to serve the Emperor of Rokugan. Information about them can be found here. I play the Mantis and Dragon clans, though the majority of players only play one clan.
Still hoping my local store is able to get a tin in, but I'm not holding out hope. Just hope to get one before GenCon so I can throw that Foothold of the Mad deck together.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
@PMAvers The tin is pretty good! Lots of great stuff for the Crane dueling deck, and a fair few cards that are great in the big deck format.
Of course, if you tell me that Crab or Lion don't suck right now, that'll probably at least get me to take another look at L5R. Don't really have the time I used to to devote to in-person CCGs, though. Instead I'm playing Shadow Era and Scrolls while I wait on Hex.
Lion have two tournament viable decks right now. One is a terrain-heavy Scout deck with tons of search, the other is an honor/swarm Kitsu shugenja deck that gains honor by shattering attacking armies.
Crab have... three decks. One is the standard "I have giant mans, they are bigger than your tiny mans, and smash you" powered by cards like Power of Strength and Deep Roots. The experienced Kyuden Hida powers a brutal military Scouts deck. Finally, the Yasuki family have come back in a big way under the guidance of Yasuki Jinn-Kuen, founding a dishonor deck based around negation and backed up by Yasuki Ikke and The Power of a Word. That Bad Kharma has made a comeback is undoubtedly helpful.
Lion obliterated last year's nationals and world championships, and Crab have been a solid top 8 threat for the entire arc. So if you're into dudes smashing faces, this is a good arc to be in that line of work.
I started playing the card game... crap... uh... before the Second Day of Thunder. Stopped playing during the Spirit War, but checked in every now and again via web site, story updates, RPG supplements, etc...
I loved the setting and how the story was a living thing, influenced by the players' actions.
Started with Tutori's Army and eventually wandered into the Crane clan.
Kinda sad my local store stopped supporting the CCG because no one played it anymore. They still sell the cards, but it has vastly limited shelf space compared to what it had.
I do have a small problem with the RPG though... I seem to want to incorporate EVERYTHING into a game (particularly Court events) but hardly anyone finds that as interesting as I do or doesn't understand the politics.
I always liked the Roll/Keep system in the RPG, too. It made for some interesting character design choices.
And hey, worst comes to it, Ratlings are still playable in the Big Deck format. You can check that out here.
@Nocren Sounds like your group might be great for a Shadowlands campaign. And hey, it's fine that they don't get Rokugani politics, just wait until they see Lost politics out there... Failing that, an Imperial Cartographers type of setup ("Hey you guys who can't handle On and don't know any heraldry, we need these Yobanjin territories mapped. Dark Oracle of Fire? I'm sure that's just a rumor...").
And no, I don't recommend searching Isawa Kaede on it. Her later XP levels got a little... dire....
Oh, yeah, I intend on getting it, it's just the "getting my hands on it" part is going to be tricky, since my playgroup at my FLGS involves me and... oh, yeah, me, so ordering it is going to be tricky. Worse comes to worse I'll order it through the online store next month...
...or run over to the GenCon booth Thursday morning. It's not like I playtest my decks at all anyway... <_<
Got a booster box of Coils, at least, for the shinies.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Also, you'll be at GenCon? I just heard from Reese that the Ivory Edition Learn to Play sets went to the printers today, I wouldn't be surprised to see some surprises at GenCon this year. GenCon 2011 had the Emperor Ed. demo decks, so I'd be willing to bet we'll see the mechanics of Ivory Edition at this year's GenCon. We should meet up at some point there, too, but I'm in Heroes of Rokugan stuffs most of the week.
Also, because L5R's art is really one of the selling points, this is basically the most badass Lion Clan image of all time.
As far as online L5R goes, there is Egg of P'an Ku. It's not officially licensed, but it does work for online games. It does require Hamachi and praying to dark gods in order to find open room in a Hamachi channel though.
Not that they ever were, but if you really tried you might at least create something for a second or even third tier faction that could win just by taking people by surprise. In the Big Oni era, when Scorpion was super weak, I took a Scorpion Yogo Tower samurai weapon deck and made top four with it at Kotei. Mostly I won because Chi death and dueling were the meta and my weapons made it impossible for my dudes to get killed by either method.
Ah well. I look back on that time fondly.
@Mikey You'll be happy to note that original Yogo Towers came back in Emperor Edition, it's in the Honor & Treachery learn to play set (which also comes with original Sacred Temples of the Phoenix!). Lotus Edition was probably the most damaging edition in the game's history, and if you look at tournament attendance numbers dropped by over 50 percent and haven't really recovered since. I've personally never been to a kotei with more than 70 attendees, but it is my understanding that number is really small for tournaments in the Gold/Diamond/early Lotus eras. The game is much better now, though, than it was in Lotus. Most folks seem to call Emperor Edition (the current arc) Lotus 2.0 but I don't know how much I buy into that. The next arc, Ivory Edition, does seem to be starting at a much lower power level than Emperor did though.
Unicorn and Lion are, usually speaking, much stronger early arc than they are late arc. Lion were absolutely dominant in Emperor Edition this time last year, with a deck that took two provinces turn 2 (their turn 2, natch). Unicorn shugenja were really terrifying for a little while, and I fought 3 or 4 Unicorn Tactician/Paragon decks in the Second Chance tournament last year. Cavalry is really good when there's limited movement options. They fall off late arc as their clans' advantages (both of which amount to speed) get negated as big Crab or big Oni come out to stomp multiple units in a fight, or sufficient meta enters the field to slow them down.
EDIT: I will say that, right now, most every faction has at least one playable or tournament competitive decks and some clans have more than one. Even straight Naga will have some power with Coils of Madness giving them Shahadet XP and Asp Warrior. A quick rundown:
Crab: Giant Mans out of Halls of the Forgotten
Crane: Military dueling/honor switch out of Twin Forks City
Dragon: Kensai out of Foothills Keep
Lion: Scout swarm out of The Marshaling Fields
Mantis: Military control/PK out of Kalani's Landing
Phoenix: Nonhuman shugenja out of Library of Rebirth (AKA Lizard Wizards)
Scorpion: Dishonor courtier/magistrate bombs out of Law of Darkness Dojo
Spider: Paragon swarm out of Steel Soul Dojo
Unicorn: Commander Godzilla Blitz out of Journey's End Keep
Unaligned: Lots of options here! Big Oni and Naga run out of The Forgotten Temple, there's an Imperial honor blitz out of Journey's End Keep XP and finally a crazy Ronin Tactician/Scout/Cavalry swarm deck out of Palace of the Breaking Dawn
This list is by no means exhasutive. There are two or three high end Phoenix decks besides Lizard Wizards, a brutal swarm deck for Mantis, and like... four Crab decks. Unicorn are probably in the worst spot right now, but with a solid swiss they can certainly still make the cut.
I don't even remember what I gave him, but I got Yakamo, Jade Hand, all that good stuff... Completely on the spot trade.
I picked it up on a whim here about a year ago and some friends and i played it. For a whim game it's has held a special place in my heart. My friends agreed and now we play it often. New players always have to try it atleast once.
It's a game that puts you on edge from the word go no matter what you play, guards/ninja/traitor. There is so much deception and misdrection. I've loved all the roles you can play, and the strategies you have to come up with to win will almost always vary depending on the role you are, and who you are playing against.
I cannot speak highly enough about that game. If anyone wanted to do a PbP game i'd be in without a doubt! If i wasn't working so much OT right now i'd even consider hosting one, but alas, crunch time is crunch time.
Also, never played the RPG, want to...badly. But can't find anyone familure enough with the world/system to GM it properly.
I was really getting into the RPG and actually had a friend tell me point blank, "I will run this game, so YOU can enjoy it."
Is there a list of what each event is? I can place most but not all of them.
And was it Fu Leng vs Kali-ma, or God!Daigotsu vs Kali-ma in that image?
The former.
Personally, I like the Kisada one the best out of the ones we got.
But the best "Deciding Moment"-esque art wasn't on one of the cards from that series.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
YORITOMO! Really sad when I learned that it was originally him, not Tsuruchi, as the returning Mantis personality in Coils of Madness.
@texasheat Whereabouts are you? There are groups pretty much everywhere for the RPG. Also agreed on Ninja, I was really surprised at how good it is.
...
...No sir, I don't like it.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
EDIT: Seems to work okay, although it's a bit glitchy. Doesn't like to display double-digit numbers, for instance.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
I know that there are large groups in Stillwater, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City for L5R. Don't know how close any of those places are to you though.
It's probably the easiest I've seen to install, since to actually install the L5R stuff it involves
-Go to the Games Tab
-Add the OCTGN Directory game feed. ( http://www.myget.org/f/octgngamedirectory )
-Click L5R
-Click Install.
It doesn't come with images by default, though. And there's typos & engrish out the ying-ying. But it seems to be up to date with EE and promos.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Is there some rules or restrictions we are missing? Is there a maximum number of personalities you can have in play, or anything that forces the action?
I have to say as a Magic player there is some stuff I just don't understand conceptually in this game at all. I don't understand how its possible at all to recover after losing any battle. The game feels instantly over if you lose any battle due to losers personalities all dying while none of the winner's personalities do. Each side having 5+ battle actions in addition to a full grip of 0 gold combat tricks makes combat a complete mess.
I want to like this game, help me out =D
1) Make an honor-running deck. That way you can sit back, defend yourself, then get to 40 honor.
2) Make a Unicorn deck. Abuse cavalry to get yourself two or three early-ish provinces, then outbuild them and take the last province.
Or I guess you could make a ranged attack deck, which would add some attrition to the battles. I played back in the day, where personality (in and out of combat) removal was pretty popular, and even when armies died, you could rebuild. Hopefully it hasn't changed too much.
Has the game changed a lot where followers are no longer a thing? Because if you're clashing personalities vs personalities, that's going to be a problem.