D&D 5E Adventures in Rokugan Arrives August 5th

Adventures in Rokugan is Edge Studios' official 5E version of Legend of the Five Rings, announced last year. Legend of the Five Rings is an East Asian inspired setting which goes all the way back to the 1990s, and was purchased by Fantasy Flight Games in 2018, before being moved over to FFG's sister company, Edge Studios in 2020 (which has taken over all the TTRPG operations from FFG, including Star Wars).

The 5E version includes new classes -- Shinobi, Pilgrim, Courtier, Ritualist, Bushi, Duelist, Acolyte -- and various new shapeshifting animal species.

It's coming out on August 5th and will cost $49.99.

Adventures in Rokugan brings the famous setting of Legend of the Five Rings to the ever-popular ruleset of the 5th Edition SRD. Players can explore this rich setting in a whole new light, and the familiar rules promise to engage an entirely new audience of roleplaying fans. Alongside a new focus on roleplaying activities such as dungeon delving and monster hunting, Adventures in Rokugan promises to provide something for all fans of Rokugan.

 

[Shardstone]

So how does AiR handle shugenja?

They are taoists now.

 

[Shardstone]

Eh, I mean the system IS primarily designed for combat focused dungeon crawling though. It starts breaking down the further you get from that. You CAN do other stuff, but it isn't well designed for it, compared to other systems that have stake setting, in depth social conflict resolution systems, and a more narrative tone.

This is a weak argument when you remake every class, spell, race, and add new subsystems to the game, which is what this book did.

 

[Shardstone]

They’ve removed honour and replaced it with devotion, so instead of being unfeeling robots who slavishly follow instructions no matter how evil (a stereotype) they have a more nuanced approach.

They have slightly modified the Code of Bushido to be the Code of Akodo.

There are very few actual changes to the setting that we can see.

You missed the point of L5R its hard to believe you aren't trolling.

L5R 5th Edition is LITERALLY about being feeling people who have to struggle in a horrible institution and the drama that brings about. Your oversimplification of the game is SUCH a GROSS reduction that there is NO WAY you are making this argument in good faith.

 

[vilainn6]

So how does AiR handle shugenja?

Invocation are divided into 3 tiers and, depending of your level, the shugenja know certain number of those invocations. The character also has a pool of favor points that he use to cast or empower those invocations. Also the conditions where or when you use a certain invocation can grant you bonus favor points

 

[TheSword]

You missed the point of L5R its hard to believe you aren't trolling.

L5R 5th Edition is LITERALLY about being feeling people who have to struggle in a horrible institution and the drama that brings about. Your oversimplification of the game is SUCH a GROSS reduction that there is NO WAY you are making this argument in good faith.

With all due respect. Not everyone wants to play a game with that level of irony and negativity. I don’t have anything against people who do want to play that way, but can you appreciate that requirement narrows the appeal.

I actually don’t believe a lot people even in earlier editions played the game that way either. I don’t believe most Daimyo were portrayed as part of horrible institutions. The published fiction regularly didn’t follow that theme. The published fiction was decidedly heroic to be honest.

L5R had many points. It was capable of being many things to many people.

 

[Shardstone]

With all due respect. Not everyone wants to play a game with that level of irony and negativity. I don’t have anything against people who do want to play that way, but can you appreciate that requirement narrows the appeal.

I actually don’t believe a lot people even in earlier editions played the game that way either. I don’t believe most Daimyo were portrayed as part of horrible institutions. The published fiction regularly didn’t follow that theme. The published fiction was decidedly heroic to be honest.

L5R had many points. It was capable of being many things to many people.

The published fiction had much drama, and it doesn't matter if people want to play that way or not, that's what the game was about. Saying that the game was about being EMOTIONLESS SLAVES TO AN INSTITUTION is a straight up lie.

 

[Shardstone]

By the way, my problem is NOT that the setting was changed. My problem is that the setting changes are pretty trash in terms of quality, and do nothing to uplift the setting in my opinion.

 

[Umbran]

You missed the point of L5R its hard to believe you aren't trolling.

Saying that the game was about being EMOTIONLESS SLAVES TO AN INSTITUTION is a straight up lie.

Mod Note:
Okay, I have to ask you to tone it down with the accusations and all-caps shouting here.

They aren't lying if that is the impression they got. You may feel they are incorrect, but that's not the same thing.

So, please dial it back a few notches.

 

[TheSword]

The published fiction had much drama, and it doesn't matter if people want to play that way or not, that's what the game was about. Saying that the game was about being EMOTIONLESS SLAVES TO AN INSTITUTION is a straight up lie.

That isn’t what I said. I said honor systems and the over-stressing of honour systems reinforce the idea that Asians behave that way. It’s a pretty well established argument.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, I think the setting fiddling looks perfectly acceptable to me. The world still exists and functions the same as in existing lore. It seems like all that really got changed was some of the terminology, which was likely because many naming conventions were originally decided by people without a clear understanding of the cultures they were modeling. The new version seems less likely to lean into often-unknowingly-biased tropes.

I just wish my FLGS had a print copy.

Again, if these things are a problem, why didn't they change the other game then? The exact same issues would apply.