The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Legend of the Five Rings is one of that new breed of RPGs, the RPG spawned by a collectable card game. I was unaware of this when I bought it, and it's probably just as well, because otherwise I might have ignored a damn fine game.

For those of you not in the know, the Five Rings are a concept created or at least popularised by the swordsman/philosopher Miyamoto Musashi, based on the five traditional Japanese elements. These elements are the same as the standard European, except for the addition of Void, which is a union of the other four (sort of like Orichalkum). Anyway, the five rings are a recurrent motif throughout the book, being used in both magic and attributes.

On to the game then. Starts reasonably enough with the standard introduction.. y'know, "What is roleplaying?", "What are dice?". Also there's a handy pronunciation guide for people who still can't get wakizashi right.. although here there is more call for it than usual.

So, then we get to the history of the world. It begins with a short piece of fiction, which continues at the beginning of each of the four other books, but I really didn't read it, so I can't comment on quality of that. The rest of the chapter is an explanation of Rokugan's (the gameworld) history and economy, social system.. everything you need to know. The game takes pains to point out Rokugan is NOT Japan.. They just use the same language, pronunciations, social systems.. just a coincidence. Apparently. The chapter closes with a brief explanation of the rules, which are essentially very similar to RTG's Interlock system, and thus none too complex.

The Book of Water (a.k.a chapter 2), details character creation. Like Shadowrun, it uses the 20 Questions systems to flesh out characters. The questions do go into somewhat more detail, which is useful as it may force characters to think. One of the more important question is what Clan does he belong to. There are seven of these and much like the clans in Vampire, they basically set out your worldview, etc. More importantly, Samurai of each clan know different fighting techniques (Disciplines, if you will), whilst Shugenja get different bonuses. Basically a lot hinges on clan, including the surname of the character.

The attribute system hinges on the five rings as I mentioned. Each of the rings is split into two traits appropriate to the elemet (i.e. Earth is split into Stamina and Willpower, Fire is Agility and Intelligence). In addition, you are given a set of skills, based on various other factors, especially clan. Then you get some character points to break your character from the norm. I should point out at this stage you can play Ronin, who gets more character points but also gets various disadvantages.

Yes, there are disadvantages and advantages (only game where True Love is a disadvantage), and there's a nice selection, although by no means exhaustive. An interesting feature is some advantages cost less for different clans, something I haven't seen before. In addition, characters have Honour (although being American, it is of course Honor), which represent social standing, basically. Insight and School Rank are interlinked stats, with Insight determining School Rank, which lets characters do "special moves" if you will, based on Clan. Glory is a stat similar to Honour, but more complicated and harder to gain. Characters are finished off by getting their outift (base starting equipment). Then they can buy odd n' sods, basically round everything out.

Onto book 3, Fire. Which is systems to you and I. Herein are contained the more complicated explanation of the game systems. An interesting concept is Raises, which probably existed previously, but I haven't seen it before. It's a simple concept, rather like betting, you choose to raise the target number you're rolling against, in return for some sort of benefit (i.e. a called shot). It also explains spending Void points, kinda like Karma from Shadowrun, but it lets you add a point per point to your traits. A handy couple of paragraphs explains the benefits of skills over attributes, useful to give to some players.

The combat system is adequate, but I'll refer to it in more detail when I get to things that pissed me off. Iaijutsu duels are great, but characters who engage in them will quickly get dead. Basically, Iaijutsu duels are duels in which the opponents stare at each other, sword sheathed, until one of participants kills his opponent in the same move he draws his sword (Iaijustsu being the art of striking whilst drawing). This is all governed by a special system, and really damn fine, in my opinion. It has a battle system, which is also remarkably well realised. Further information on Glory rewards and losses in useful, important and pretty self evident.

The damage system is interesting. For example, the Katana's damage is 3K2, or 3 keep 2. In other words, you roll Strength + 3 (in this case) and keep two dice (presumably the highest). Good thing is, the Katana is not regarded here as the be all and end all of Japanese (pardon, Rokugan) weapons technology. You get things like the Yari, Tetsubo, etc. Adds a bit of variation.

Chapter four deals with Magic and Religion, combined in the Warrior Priests of the Shugenja. The spells themselves and systems are adequate, if not overly exciting, although in their defence they do have the decency to emphasise the non-combat side of magic. No Void spells though.. not sure why. Oh, and spell effects can be "edited" by taking raises, so you can increase range, duration, etc.

Chapter five, Void, is the Gm's section and explains the usual Gm stuff. Handy here are the sidebars, which give little capsule adventures, which can be drawn up in a few minutes. Magic items are here, but in distressingly little detail, but with reference to Japanese legend, magic swords, etc. are rare in them too. A section on the Ninja is handy (Note: Characters generally do not believe in the ninja, which some might say is like not believing in science, but there it is, live with it.) It's nice, but too short, but apparently they have their own book coming out. Monsters are generally nothing we haven't seen before, Kappa, Ogres, etc. Except for the Oni. They're downright deadly and one could a party a run for its money.

Ah, the sample adventure. It could be quite good, if run correctly, otherwise it could devolve into "Roll your dice.", "I succeed", "The other guy loses". It's about a contest obviously. Main problem though is characters from one family, could if particularly unlucky, end up being expected to commit seppuku. There's some nice intrigue in it though, if a tad obvious. The book rounds out with geography and important locations. And on page 246, we find page 146 reprinted with the sidebar it was meant to have.

So things that pissed me off: Combat. Yeah, it works, but it's not like filmic samurai combat. You have three maneuvers to choose from and only one clans fights two sword style, and even that doesn't fight two sword properly. I'd have preferred a system like say, WoD: Combat, where moves interact with each other and there's some strategy. Their system currently resemble Stone-Paper-Scissors, but I suppose you could always tune it yourself. Ronin. I know what they are, but it doesn't adequately explain about them.. can they learn from Clan schools? Doesn't say no, but that wouldn't make sense.. but otherwise, they will lose to a skilled Clan samurai.. Hmm. The Bushido Code.. they seems of two minds about it.. the implication seems to be you can just disgard it at will and just suffer a little shame, but having read a bit of Hagakure myself, with it's precepts like "You must decide to die the moment you enter battle", it hardly seems mutable. It's not "You might want to decide t! o die when you enter battle.", it's "You must.." Enough of my whining. It's a good game, sort of like an Oriental Pendragon..

P.S: Oh yeah, despite AEG's admirable aim to release one book a month, they don't appear to have kept to this aim. Oh well. Perhaps it's just being in Britain.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Legend of the Five Rings
Author: John Wick Category: game Company/Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group Cost: $30 Page count: 250 ISBN: 188795300-0 Capsule Review by Professional Cynic on 09/19/97. Genre tags: none	Legend of the Five Rings is one of that new breed of RPGs, the RPG spawned by a collectable card game. I was unaware of this when I bought it, and it's probably just as well, because otherwise I might have ignored a damn fine game. For those of you not in the know, the Five Rings are a concept created or at least popularised by the swordsman/philosopher Miyamoto Musashi, based on the five traditional Japanese elements. These elements are the same as the standard European, except for the addition of Void, which is a union of the other four (sort of like Orichalkum). Anyway, the five rings are a recurrent motif throughout the book, being used in both magic and attributes. On to the game then. Starts reasonably enough with the standard introduction.. y'know, "What is roleplaying?", "What are dice?". Also there's a handy pronunciation guide for people who still can't get wakizashi right.. although here there is more call for it than usual. So, then we get to the history of the world. It begins with a short piece of fiction, which continues at the beginning of each of the four other books, but I really didn't read it, so I can't comment on quality of that. The rest of the chapter is an explanation of Rokugan's (the gameworld) history and economy, social system.. everything you need to know. The game takes pains to point out Rokugan is NOT Japan.. They just use the same language, pronunciations, social systems.. just a coincidence. Apparently. The chapter closes with a brief explanation of the rules, which are essentially very similar to RTG's Interlock system, and thus none too complex. The Book of Water (a.k.a chapter 2), details character creation. Like Shadowrun, it uses the 20 Questions systems to flesh out characters. The questions do go into somewhat more detail, which is useful as it may force characters to think. One of the more important question is what Clan does he belong to. There are seven of these and much like the clans in Vampire, they basically set out your worldview, etc. More importantly, Samurai of each clan know different fighting techniques (Disciplines, if you will), whilst Shugenja get different bonuses. Basically a lot hinges on clan, including the surname of the character. The attribute system hinges on the five rings as I mentioned. Each of the rings is split into two traits appropriate to the elemet (i.e. Earth is split into Stamina and Willpower, Fire is Agility and Intelligence). In addition, you are given a set of skills, based on various other factors, especially clan. Then you get some character points to break your character from the norm. I should point out at this stage you can play Ronin, who gets more character points but also gets various disadvantages. Yes, there are disadvantages and advantages (only game where True Love is a disadvantage), and there's a nice selection, although by no means exhaustive. An interesting feature is some advantages cost less for different clans, something I haven't seen before. In addition, characters have Honour (although being American, it is of course Honor), which represent social standing, basically. Insight and School Rank are interlinked stats, with Insight determining School Rank, which lets characters do "special moves" if you will, based on Clan. Glory is a stat similar to Honour, but more complicated and harder to gain. Characters are finished off by getting their outift (base starting equipment). Then they can buy odd n' sods, basically round everything out. Onto book 3, Fire. Which is systems to you and I. Herein are contained the more complicated explanation of the game systems. An interesting concept is Raises, which probably existed previously, but I haven't seen it before. It's a simple concept, rather like betting, you choose to raise the target number you're rolling against, in return for some sort of benefit (i.e. a called shot). It also explains spending Void points, kinda like Karma from Shadowrun, but it lets you add a point per point to your traits. A handy couple of paragraphs explains the benefits of skills over attributes, useful to give to some players. The combat system is adequate, but I'll refer to it in more detail when I get to things that pissed me off. Iaijutsu duels are great, but characters who engage in them will quickly get dead. Basically, Iaijutsu duels are duels in which the opponents stare at each other, sword sheathed, until one of participants kills his opponent in the same move he draws his sword (Iaijustsu being the art of striking whilst drawing). This is all governed by a special system, and really damn fine, in my opinion. It has a battle system, which is also remarkably well realised. Further information on Glory rewards and losses in useful, important and pretty self evident. The damage system is interesting. For example, the Katana's damage is 3K2, or 3 keep 2. In other words, you roll Strength + 3 (in this case) and keep two dice (presumably the highest). Good thing is, the Katana is not regarded here as the be all and end all of Japanese (pardon, Rokugan) weapons technology. You get things like the Yari, Tetsubo, etc. Adds a bit of variation. Chapter four deals with Magic and Religion, combined in the Warrior Priests of the Shugenja. The spells themselves and systems are adequate, if not overly exciting, although in their defence they do have the decency to emphasise the non-combat side of magic. No Void spells though.. not sure why. Oh, and spell effects can be "edited" by taking raises, so you can increase range, duration, etc. Chapter five, Void, is the Gm's section and explains the usual Gm stuff. Handy here are the sidebars, which give little capsule adventures, which can be drawn up in a few minutes. Magic items are here, but in distressingly little detail, but with reference to Japanese legend, magic swords, etc. are rare in them too. A section on the Ninja is handy (Note: Characters generally do not believe in the ninja, which some might say is like not believing in science, but there it is, live with it.) It's nice, but too short, but apparently they have their own book coming out. Monsters are generally nothing we haven't seen before, Kappa, Ogres, etc. Except for the Oni. They're downright deadly and one could a party a run for its money. Ah, the sample adventure. It could be quite good, if run correctly, otherwise it could devolve into "Roll your dice.", "I succeed", "The other guy loses". It's about a contest obviously. Main problem though is characters from one family, could if particularly unlucky, end up being expected to commit seppuku. There's some nice intrigue in it though, if a tad obvious. The book rounds out with geography and important locations. And on page 246, we find page 146 reprinted with the sidebar it was meant to have. So things that pissed me off: Combat. Yeah, it works, but it's not like filmic samurai combat. You have three maneuvers to choose from and only one clans fights two sword style, and even that doesn't fight two sword properly. I'd have preferred a system like say, WoD: Combat, where moves interact with each other and there's some strategy. Their system currently resemble Stone-Paper-Scissors, but I suppose you could always tune it yourself. Ronin. I know what they are, but it doesn't adequately explain about them.. can they learn from Clan schools? Doesn't say no, but that wouldn't make sense.. but otherwise, they will lose to a skilled Clan samurai.. Hmm. The Bushido Code.. they seems of two minds about it.. the implication seems to be you can just disgard it at will and just suffer a little shame, but having read a bit of Hagakure myself, with it's precepts like "You must decide to die the moment you enter battle", it hardly seems mutable. It's not "You might want to decide t! o die when you enter battle.", it's "You must.." Enough of my whining. It's a good game, sort of like an Oriental Pendragon.. P.S: Oh yeah, despite AEG's admirable aim to release one book a month, they don't appear to have kept to this aim. Oh well. Perhaps it's just being in Britain. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)