Legend of the Five Rings (often abbreviated "L5R") is a fictional setting that covers in detail the fantastical land of Rokugan, a nation whose culture and history is based on that of feudal Japan. The setting also briefly touches upon many of the different cultures that occupy the same world. This world is the foundation for the Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game, the Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game, the Clan Wars miniatures game, and a series of novels. Legend of the Five Rings was also the "featured campaign setting" of the Oriental Adventures expansion to the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but this book and the line of L5R material based upon it is now out of print.
The Games (AEG era)[]
The Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game[]
The Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game is a collectible card game for two or more players (in tournaments, generally two), each with two decks (a Dynasty deck and a Fate deck) of at least 40 cards each (formerly at least 30 cards each in older versions of the game). The game continues until a player has reached one of several different victory conditions, at which point that player is declared the winner. Originally, there were three primary ways of winning the game: a Military Victory, wherein one destroyed all of an opponent's provinces; an Enlightenment Victory, achieved when a player successfully played all five Elemental Ring cards; and an Honor Victory, claimed when one player started a turn with at least 40 Family Honor. There was also a so-called "Dishonor Victory" wherein a player played cards that reduced the opponent's Family Honor; if it fell below -19 the opponent lost the game (this victory method was highly specialized, requiring specific cards, and was not really viable until after the release of the Shadowlands expansion). Other victory conditions were later added, most as a result of playing combinations of cards (as with the "Wall Victory," where the goal was to play all four of the Wall of Otosan Uchi fortification cards--the North, South, East, and West--and then have the event card The 38th Hantei Falls show up at just the right time). After 2001 when the L5R IP was reacquired by AEG from Wizards of the Coast, some minor rules changes and new card types (Winds, e.g.) were added, but the game was still mostly the same functionally speaking, at least for a few expansions. As time went on, the game was changed to the point that newer expansions became incompatible with pre-2000 (Jade Arc and earlier) cards, although playing earlier editions of cards that were currently in print was not specifically prohibited. With the third major change of ownership of the L5R IP in 2015 to Fantasy Flight Games (FFG), the entire game was redesigned from the ground up as an LCG (Living Card Game) and was completely incompatible with any of the earlier AEG/Wizards products. In essence, L5R as a card game thus had three major iterations, which were incompatible with each other: the first AEG run from 1995 to 2000; the second AEG run from 2001 to 2015; and the final FFG (LCG) run from 2015-2021. FFG officially announced the end of the LCG in June 2021.
The 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. As with many role-playing games, 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 with.
To distinguish this game system from the d20 System mechanics (see below), it is often referred to as the "classic" system or the "Roll & Keep" (or simply "R&K") system. It is officially referred to as the D10 system within the dual stat books.
The Legend of the five Rings game system is designed to be flexible, simple, and efficient. Resolving disputes is meant to be dynamic and exciting, whether the dispute is a social encounter with one's lord or a fierce combat encounter. Situations are intended to reflect the dynamic, heroic style of samurai epics. Because of this, there is a great deal of emphasis on intrigue and combats tend to be both swift and deadly. [1]
Oriental Adventures[]
Oriental Adventures was published originally in 1985 by TSR, Inc. as an expansion for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and was set in a land called Kara-Tur that was based in the highly-popular Forgotten Realms campaign setting. In 2001, Wizards of the Coast re-released Oriental Adventures as an expansion for the prior year's release of Dungeons & Dragons' Third Edition after more than a decade without any official support for the Oriental Adventures product line. It was decided to make this new version of Oriental Adventures a showcase for their recently acquired Legend of the Five Rings intellectual property, and so the default setting was changed from Kara-Tur to Rokugan.
Others[]
In addition to the CCG and RPG, which are the most popular and prevalent L5R games, the setting has also been used in a miniatures game called Clan Wars, a Diskwars game series, boardgames such as Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan, and the tile-based game called War of Honor, as well as several popular micro-card games including Guildhall, Lost Legacy, Love Letter, and Seventh Hero.
The Game (FFG era)[]
The Legend of the Five Rings The Card Game[]
In 2017 the L5R IP was purchased by Fantasy Flight Games, who designed a completely new LCG or Living Card Game (LCGs are released in complete sets, as opposed to CCGs, which are sold in randomized booster packs). They took the history back to the Clan Wars era. The LCG was officially ended in June of 2021.[1]
Others[]
In August 2017, FFG announced a strategic board game based in the Legend of the Five Rings universe, called Battle for Rokugan. There have also recently (2024) been rumors circulating about other potential upcoming L5R games (although not CCGs or LCGs), and there may even possibly be a video game in the works based on the IP.[2]
Ownership[]
The following is from D. J. Trindle's post to the L5R e-mail newsgroups regarding the future -- and the past -- of the role-playing game. It was entitled "Whither the L5R RPG?" and is archived in full at http://l5r.alderac.com/rpg/whither_l5rrpg.html.
| 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. |
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 (although AEG was still designing it). In 1999, Legend of the Five Rings changed hands once more when Wizards was purchased by toy giant Hasbro. Once again, the previous licenses were still in effect, so changes to the games and the development teams as a result were unnoticeable.
In July 2000, Wizards of the Coast decided that AEG would no longer design the L5R TCG, and overtook story and design themselves. AEG would continue to design the roleplaying game and the miniatures game.[2]
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.
In September 11th of 2015 AEG sold the rights to the L5R intellectual property to Fantasy Flight Games. A New Era for Legend of the Five Rings – Purchase of the L5R Brand by Fantasy Flight Games FFG will be re-releasing many of the L5R games and is in the process of designing a Living Card Game (LCG) based on the L5R CCG, expected to be released in Gen Con Indy 2017. A New Emperor Rises, which was accomplished, being its full release expected for October 2017.
International Olympic Committee[]
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. Unfortunately, the International Olympic Committee sued Wizards of the Coast, who at that time owned Legend of the Five Rings, over the logo, because they claimed to hold rights to any symbol consisting of five interlocking rings.
The only way to completely resolve the issue was for Wizards 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.
See Also[]
References
External Links[]
- FFG Product Page
- Alderac Entertainment Group - The former publishers of Legend of the Five Rings.
- Legend of the Five Rings - The former official Legend of the Five Rings home page.
- Rokugan 2000 - An highly popular, but unofficial, futuristic setting based on Legend of the Five Rings created by the former "Story Kami", Rich Wulf.
- Kaze no Shiro, the Castle of Wind - A collection of almost all Weekly Online Fictions.
- Five Rings Story - A Legend of the Five Rings Comic.
- L5R Search - A Legend of the Five Rings CCG database and card-store.
- Roku-Mart - A Legend of the Five Rings card store.