Ninjas, Pirates, Samurai: Legend of the Five Rings RPG

One of the games I run regularly is the Legend of the Five Rings (abbreviated L5R) Rleplaying Game. The game is set in Rokugan, a fantastic empire based loosely on the Warring States period of feudal Japan. Created by AEG, the game world has more than 15 years of development and the RPG is in its 4th edition. AEG also produces a card game of the same name which is also set in Rokugan.

Rokugan is an extremely rich setting filled with story opportunities. There are several central conflicts in Rokugan. The first, and most important, is the struggle between the honorable Empire the the corrupt and twisted power of the Shadowlands. From the beginning of the Empire's history, the people of Rokugan have been threatened by the oni (demons), goblins, ogres, and corrupted samurai (known collectively as the Lost) directed by the dark god . Periodically, the forces of the Shadowlands muster and test the strength of all Rokugan. Additionally, there is significant conflict between the Great Clans of the Empire.

The basic assumption in running the game is that the players will be members of the samurai caste that make up the Great Clans of the Empire. Standard characters can be bushi, the traditional image of a samurai warrior, though often with a twist based on their clan; shugenja, powerful spellcaster-priests who draw their power from the elemental spirits of Rokugan; and courtiers, who represent their clans in the courts of Rokugan. Each of the eight Great Clans has their own variation of the standard character types, sometimes more than one, which allows tremendous diversity even among characters of the same type. For example, a Kakita samurai from the Crane Clan is a perfect duelist, a Hida samurai of the Crab Clan is a heavily armored demon slayer, and Tsuruchi samurai from the Mantis Clan is a master archer. Additional schools allow you to play characters ranging from ninjas, to master smiths, to pirates.

Clan is probably the most important factor in playing a character in L5R. Each clan has at least four character schools (like classes in other RPGs) each with a unique set of techniques as well as four or more families with different bonuses. The clans and families also carry a great deal of personality; each clan exemplifies a particular archetype and the family focuses on one facet of that archetype or creates an interesting contrast to it. The history of Rokugan lays out rivalries and alliances between the clans as well, producing and interesting social dynamics for characters to follow or eschew.

Doji Seo, Samurai of the Crane Clan as seen in the core rulebook.

The character possibilities don't stop with the Great Clans, however. Using the core rulebook, you can also create characters from the Minor Clans, monastic orders, Imperial families, or even ronin (outcast samurai). A particularly unusual group could even play tainted Lost characters seeking the overthrow of the empire. The first supplemental book, Enemies of the Empire, also gives details for playing the rat-like Nezumi and the snake-like Naga.

What I think makes L5R (both the RPG and CCG) really amazing is the interactive and evolving world. With more than 15 years of story development, Rokugan has seen three Imperial dynasties, countless internal wars and conflicts, and innumerable existential threats. All of these events were influenced by player input and game results over the years. Long time L5R fans and players get a real sense of ownership of the world. There are three previous editions of the roleplaying game, as well as a number of novels, which flush out the world in tremendous detail.

For L5R (and for other games in the past) AEG utilizes the roll and keep system. Players roll a certain number of 10 sided dice based on their attributes and skills, and add up a smaller number of dice in an attempt to reach a particular target number based on the difficulty of the task. It is an extremely elegant system which fits the setting perfectly. Combat can be easily modified to suit the style of the group, but the basic assumption makes it fast and deadly (most combats last 2-3 rounds).

The core rulebook is beautiful and full of artwork depicting the world and people of Rokugan. The pages are decorated with Japanese style watercolor painting and printed in full color. There is so far only one additional book in fourth edition, the aforementioned Enemies of the Empire, which gives details on many of the threats the Empire faces. Future planned supplements include a book with more information on the Imperial Families, one that goes into greater depth on each of the Great Clans, and a book that details the various historical periods of Rokugan.

If you want more information on L5R in general, you kind find the official website here.

In a future post, I will go into more detail on the L5R game I run as well as include the thoughts of some of my players. I was hoping to include some of that in this post, but this weeks game session was unfortunately cancelled. I also hope to have a large picture post of my newly finished Space Wolves in the near future.

Until next time, keep on rolling dice.

All images in this post are the property of AEG and are used without permission.

Games Summery for Karak XII

I began Saturday with the disadvantage of staying up all night drinking rum with a group of really great Czech guys. They were happy to keep the conversation in English or translate it for me and it went a long way to making me feel welcom. I had only two hours of sleep before my fist game at 9 in the morning. My focus got progressively worse throughout the day.

My first game was against shooty orks with Wazdakka, lots of bikes and deffkoptas in an Annihilation mission. It was a bad match up for him, I was able to crush his bikes and nobs (in trukks) in assault. Named characters were worth an extra kill point in this mission. The Redeemer's Flamestorm cannons also assisted in burning down the bikes. I scored 18 out of 20 battle points pushing me close to the top tables.

My second game was a much more difficult match up against Imperial Guard. We played Capture and Control (aptly named "roll dice and tie" by The 11th Company). He was using veterans in Vendettas (though only two of them), a large infantry platoon, a psyker battle squad in a Chimera and three Leman Russ varients including Pask. He set up his tanks at the back of the deployment zone and bubble-wrapped them with his infantry to prevent my scouts from assaulting. I tried to push forward but couldn't get close enough to contest his objectives. He managed to kill most of the units I sent forward. My crowning moment of the game was assaulting his parking lot with my scouts. The turn before they came in, he moved one of his tanks (the Chimera with the psykers) out of position. I left just enough room for my scouts to come in and destroy his Russes (including Pask). As per the name of the mission, we ended up with a tie.

My third game was against Toshiro (Martin Szolár) of the Czech ETC team. He was playing Blood Angels and our mission was seize ground with dawn of war deployment. His army included two units of terminators with sanguinary priests in Redeemers, two 10 man units of assault marines, and a librarian. We set up the objectives along the center line of the table and both tried to push to control them. I made several early game mistakes which Martin took advantage of and he won the game 15:5. It would have been a 18:2 victory if not for a couple of fluke dice rolls. Overall, I'd say it was my favorite game of the weekend.

I went to sleep fairly early Saturday so I would be rested for my Sunday games. The first game was against a Tau suit list. The mission was Capture and Control again with an additional objective in the center of the table worth 2 points. My scouts came in on turn 2 and assaulted one of the broadside squads. I beat them in combat and they ran off the back of the table. They were shot to death the next turn. The rest of the game involved me seeing how far across the table I could get before being shot to death. It really underscored the need to put extra-armour on my Land Raider to keep in moving. The game ended in a draw.

The final mission was unique to the tournament. There were 4 objectives, 2 placed by each player. At the end of each turn, you scored one point for each objective you controlled. I played against an Eldar player. He took 3 Vypers with Shuriken Cannons, 2 Wraith Lords, 2 units of Jetbikes, Dire Avengers and Fire Dragons in Wave Serpents, a Fire Prism, and a Farseer on a Jetbike with guide and fortune. I had the first turn and pulled ahead early, taking one of his objectives on my turn two. Unfortunately, I got careless in turn 3 and left Grey Hunters in two squads in charge range of his Wraith Lords; I got pulled of my objectives and he moved in with his Jetbikes. At the end of turn 5, the game was tied but he was up by 2 points by the end of the game after turn 6. My opponent was really great and it was a hard call between him and Toshiro for my favorite game of the weekend.

I came in 27th place for combat points (which I'm pretty happy with). My overall score wasn't as good since my army wasn't fully painted. I'm really looking forward to playing in more Czech tournaments. In fact, I have another one this weekend (4 games, 1500 points). It's a one day tournament at one of the local game stores. (Černý Rytíř) My list is now fully painted and based so I expect to do quite well in my overall score. Again, my goal is to win half my games. I'll let you know how it goes.

My next post won't be so Warhammer focus; I plan to write about L5R RPG after I run game this weekend.

Edit: I also need to credit my wife for all the photos of my miniatures. I'm terrible with a camera so I need to thank her for the good photographs.

Karak XII: Chaos Incursion

Last weekend, I went to my first Warhammer 40,000 tournament. I've heard a lot about the tournament environment both from other blogs and in podcasts so I was a little apprehensive going in. I've never been a very competitive player since I've focused more on the hobby and collection aspect of the game.

Karak XII is one of the biggest tournaments in the Czech Republic. It is held annually in Hradec Kralove. This year, there were about 60 participants. It is a two day, five game tournament with a variety of missions, mostly out of the rule book. The rounds are incredible relaxes, they simple lasted until all the games were finished. Armies are 1750 points. For painting requirements, players had to have one unit painted from each force organization type present in the army list.

One of the really interesting things about the Czech Warhammer community is that Forge World models and lists are accepted in the tournament environment (excluding flyers and super heavies). I saw both Vraksian Renegadess and Death Korps of Krieg armies. I also saw Forge World models included in Sister of Battle and Orks. Players who used Forge World models were required to have fully painted armies.

Additionally, the tournament was not overrun by Imperial Guard and Space Wolves. For the most part, Czechs have army loyalty which used to be more common in 2nd and 3rd edition. There were even three Necrons, two Dark Angels, and a Black Templar player. The only army book not represented was the Demon Hunters.

Another difference from what seems to be the standard in US tournaments was the terrain. All the tables had 25% coverage or more including large, line-of-sight-blocking structures, often in the center of the table. They had modular city blocks spread out across the tables and the Fortress of Redemption on one of the top tables.

The weekend was amazing!

I played five great games against a wide variety of armies and met a lot of really great people who I hope to play with in the future. I need to thank Watchdog for all the help he gave me getting to the tournament and translating for me when needed. (The Czech gaming community primarily uses their gamer handles.) I'd also like to thank all of my opponents for using English and putting up with my lack of Czech. I really appreciated it.

Now, a little bit about this tournament. The entry fee was quite low compared to American standards; less than $10 if you preregistered. This fee also included a place to stay if you brought your own sleeping bag making the whole weekend extremely affordable. Many people arrived Friday night and everyone pitched in to help the TOs set up tables. Afterwards a few friendly games were played. I tested my Space Wolves against a mixed CSM list in a Capture and Control mission and ended up with a draw. Following that game, I play a very light hearted 'FPS style', multiplayer version of 40k called Fraghammer (more on this to come).


My list included a large hammer unit consisting of a Wolf Lord and Wolf Guard in terminator armour mounted in a land Raider Redeemer. For troops, I took a large unit of Grey Hunters in a Rhino, a small unit in a Razorback, and two small units on foot. I attached a Rune Priest to the unit in the Rhino. I took a unit of Wolf Scouts and a mixed unit of Long Fangs to fill out the list.

I was quite please with my results as it was my first tournament. My record was 1/2/2 and I scored a total of 51 battle points (out of a possible 100). I came in 27th place for battle points and 38th overall because my army was not yet entirely painted.

More to come on this tournament in my next post including a summery of my games and more on Fraghammer.

Inaugural Post

I originally planned to post my gaming origin story in post #1 but I just couldn't get it to come out right. So...

...what is the blog about?

This blog is a general gaming blog. It will include reviews, play reports, painting posts, and the occasional original adventure for you to use at home. It will also have my observations on being a gaming in a foreign country where the primary language isn't English and my inclusion into the gaming community here.

What games will be covered?

I'd love to say I will cover ALL GAMES! Unfortunately, I have neither the time nor money to do so. Most of the time, I will cover Warhammer 40,000 or my rpg of the month. I will also cover board and video games as I play them.

What games do I play?

I am an omni-gamer. I play or have played all kinds of games. I currently play Warhammer 40,000, D&D4E, Legend of the Five Rings (rpg and ccg), Exalted, and Warhammer 40,000 role play (in the form of Dark Heresy at the moment). My current top board game is Dominion and my current video games include Final Fantasy 13, Mass Effect 2, and Star Craft II. I hope to do something with Changeling: the Dreaming or Mage: the Awakening in the near future and I am working on putting an Warhammer Fantasy army together after a long hiatus from the game.

I'll talk about all of these topics in the future. My current plan is to post at least one update per week.