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Legend of the Five Rings RPG has one of the most misleading covers in gaming history. Looking at the image of a grimacing muscleman about to strike down a foe with his sword, my first impression of the game was that it was just another game about macho uber-warrior sociopaths whacking each other with big magic swords.

Let this stand as a lesson about judging books by their covers. Legend of the Five Rings (known henceforth as L5R) is no hack-and-slash monster bash -- it is a terrific fantasy RPG, with a solid system and one of the best fantasy RPG settings ever: Rokugan, which bears more than a passing resemblance to feudal Japan, but with magic, armies of subhuman monsters, demonic shapeshifters and other fantasy RPG trappings melded seamlessly into it. L5R is a game of mystery and exoticism, honor and glory, loyalty and romance. (And the art, once you get past the cover, is both excellent and well-suited to the game.)

The PCs are men and women of the samurai class, which consists not only of the familiar, katana-wielding bushi of a thousand samurai movies, but also spell-casters -- shugenja, who are the village priests who bless crops for the peasants, the wandering mystics seeking enlightenment -- and the black-hearted sorcerers summoning hordes of monsters to bedevil the innocent.

Whether bushi or shugenja, the characters live (and die) by the strict codes of behavior which govern Rokugan, where politeness is more important than truthfulness, honor is more important than life, and the most practical actions may have the most dire social consequences. This ain't another smash-and-grab treasure hunt.

Samurai society in Rokugan breaks down along clan lines. There are seven major clans, which the PCs can belong to, or they can be ronin. The unstated assumption seems to be that all the PCs will be members of the same clan, though this isn't required. Given the highly image-conscious nature of Rokugan society, however, a noble and honourable bushi would have to have one hell of a good story to explain why he would even acknowledge the presence of a scruffy ronin, let alone go on clan business with him.

Remarkably, while the clans are presented as having unique outlooks and "character," L5R manages to dodge the cookie-cutter characterization that tends to creep into games like Vampire: the Masquerade and Ars Magica, which take a similar approach. There's no "artist" clan, "cool rebel" clan or "brash warrior" clan -- only different individuals united by ancestry, politics and geography. For once, a PC's personality is colored by the group he belongs to, rather than determined by it.

The rules system is solid and well-done, if not strikingly innovative. Most rolls are made by adding an attribute to a skill, rolling that many dice, but only keeping a number of dice equal to the attribute. So attributes are the main determining factor of success, but skills can give an important boost by making bad rolls less likely and good rolls more, and by acting as a kind of "buffer" to reduce the effect of penalties (which are applied to the number of dice rolled, but not the number kept).

The attributes (and magic system, for that matter), are based on five symbolic elements (the "rings" of the title) -- the familiar earth, air, fire and water, plus void, which is a bit of a misnomer -- void isn't well-defined, but it seems to have a lot more to do with "sprit" or "soul" or even "karma," than nothingness.

One feature I especially liked was the notion of "raises" -- before rolling an action, a player can "bid up" the difficulty of a task, making it harder to succeed, but succeeding more spectacularly if he does. While the basic idea of this probably goes back to the first game where you could take a penalty to your "to hit" roll to aim for the head, I've never seen it incorporated into the basic rule concepts of a game before, and it works quite well, adding an element of strategy and drama to many otherwise routine rolls.

For all its strengths, though, L5R is not without flaws. The editing is extremely sloppy -- I still have no idea which of the two contradictory lists of starting equipment the PCs are supposed to get -- and equally irritating are the intentional gaps in the information in the book, which seem a slightly cynical attempt to sell more books (there are at least a half-dozen references in the main text to upcoming sourcebooks). The combat system seems kind of bland, which seems a serious misstep for a game in which swordplay is so important, and the magic system is downright anemic.

Overall, though, L5R is an excellent piece of work, and I recommend it highly to anyone looking for a bit more than the same old rehashed elves, dragons, wizards and magic swords from their fantasy roleplaying.

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 Playtest Review by Eric Brochu on 05/18/98. Genre tags: none	Legend of the Five Rings RPG has one of the most misleading covers in gaming history. Looking at the image of a grimacing muscleman about to strike down a foe with his sword, my first impression of the game was that it was just another game about macho uber-warrior sociopaths whacking each other with big magic swords. Let this stand as a lesson about judging books by their covers. Legend of the Five Rings (known henceforth as L5R) is no hack-and-slash monster bash -- it is a terrific fantasy RPG, with a solid system and one of the best fantasy RPG settings ever: Rokugan, which bears more than a passing resemblance to feudal Japan, but with magic, armies of subhuman monsters, demonic shapeshifters and other fantasy RPG trappings melded seamlessly into it. L5R is a game of mystery and exoticism, honor and glory, loyalty and romance. (And the art, once you get past the cover, is both excellent and well-suited to the game.) The PCs are men and women of the samurai class, which consists not only of the familiar, katana-wielding bushi of a thousand samurai movies, but also spell-casters -- shugenja, who are the village priests who bless crops for the peasants, the wandering mystics seeking enlightenment -- and the black-hearted sorcerers summoning hordes of monsters to bedevil the innocent. Whether bushi or shugenja, the characters live (and die) by the strict codes of behavior which govern Rokugan, where politeness is more important than truthfulness, honor is more important than life, and the most practical actions may have the most dire social consequences. This ain't another smash-and-grab treasure hunt. Samurai society in Rokugan breaks down along clan lines. There are seven major clans, which the PCs can belong to, or they can be ronin. The unstated assumption seems to be that all the PCs will be members of the same clan, though this isn't required. Given the highly image-conscious nature of Rokugan society, however, a noble and honourable bushi would have to have one hell of a good story to explain why he would even acknowledge the presence of a scruffy ronin, let alone go on clan business with him. Remarkably, while the clans are presented as having unique outlooks and "character," L5R manages to dodge the cookie-cutter characterization that tends to creep into games like Vampire: the Masquerade and Ars Magica, which take a similar approach. There's no "artist" clan, "cool rebel" clan or "brash warrior" clan -- only different individuals united by ancestry, politics and geography. For once, a PC's personality is colored by the group he belongs to, rather than determined by it. The rules system is solid and well-done, if not strikingly innovative. Most rolls are made by adding an attribute to a skill, rolling that many dice, but only keeping a number of dice equal to the attribute. So attributes are the main determining factor of success, but skills can give an important boost by making bad rolls less likely and good rolls more, and by acting as a kind of "buffer" to reduce the effect of penalties (which are applied to the number of dice rolled, but not the number kept). The attributes (and magic system, for that matter), are based on five symbolic elements (the "rings" of the title) -- the familiar earth, air, fire and water, plus void, which is a bit of a misnomer -- void isn't well-defined, but it seems to have a lot more to do with "sprit" or "soul" or even "karma," than nothingness. One feature I especially liked was the notion of "raises" -- before rolling an action, a player can "bid up" the difficulty of a task, making it harder to succeed, but succeeding more spectacularly if he does. While the basic idea of this probably goes back to the first game where you could take a penalty to your "to hit" roll to aim for the head, I've never seen it incorporated into the basic rule concepts of a game before, and it works quite well, adding an element of strategy and drama to many otherwise routine rolls. For all its strengths, though, L5R is not without flaws. The editing is extremely sloppy -- I still have no idea which of the two contradictory lists of starting equipment the PCs are supposed to get -- and equally irritating are the intentional gaps in the information in the book, which seem a slightly cynical attempt to sell more books (there are at least a half-dozen references in the main text to upcoming sourcebooks). The combat system seems kind of bland, which seems a serious misstep for a game in which swordplay is so important, and the magic system is downright anemic. Overall, though, L5R is an excellent piece of work, and I recommend it highly to anyone looking for a bit more than the same old rehashed elves, dragons, wizards and magic swords from their fantasy roleplaying. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Legend of the Five Rings<