So, I’ve finished the book, and these are my initial thoughts.
TLDR: While the setting changes are sloppy and present a Rokugan unlike ever before — one that is based off of pan-asian fable, myth, and fairy tale instead of court drama and clan intrigue — the classes, feats, martial techniques system, new invocation spellcasting system, new conditions and weapon properties, and information design of this book are all absolutely superb. It has the best pure martial classes so far published for any 5E game.
This review is a little bit different in structure.
THE SETTING
This is continued from my little mini-review yesterday. The Rokugan here has been changed to be a melting pot of Asian cultures surrounded by Fantasy India, Fantasy Korea, and Fantasy China. The new Rokugan explicitly says ritual suicide has no place whatsoever in this game (I don’t agree with the book that this is toxic and terrible, but this is what the book says).
Or to put it in other words, the new Rokugan is an anime setting. If you’ve ever wanted to play an Asiatic game with a heavy anime influence, this is the setting for you. With a host of non-human playable races (all of which can use illusions to appear human when in public) and a setting where the words “honor” and “duty” have literally been stripped out and replaced by “devotion,” Rokugan becomes the place for high drama punctuated with lots of very different anime-esque fights, duels, and so on.
If you are a longtime fan of Rokugan, this book will not help you run the Rokugan of older editions. While there are some classes and a few mechanics for drama and intrigue, most of that is now delegated to RP and narrative consequences. While the changes to the setting were meant to make it a more broader appeal to the mainstream crowd, I find that the changes themselves are sloppy and inconsistent. Some things are translated while other things aren’t, some foreign words are still used and spelled horribly wrong, and overall this is a setting for 3E or AD&D-style Oriental Adventures. And I mean oriental, with all its negative connotations.
Despite these misgivings, the information delivery for the setting is amazing. Of note are the history, which gives you adventure seeds called flashpoints to run games in different eras, and the gazetteer in the back. The gazetteer gives a functional but stylish map for each individual Clan land, a major city in each clan land, some other maps and locations, and lots of NPCs and storyhooks. Seriously, if you ever are writing a setting and don’t want to use the Radiant Citadel or Spelljammer book model, use the Adventure in Rokugan model. It is very effective. Not perfect, but effective.
THE MECHANICS
This is where the gush begins.
CLASSES
- There are six classes: Acolyte, Bushi, Courtier, Duelist, Pilgrim Ritualist, and Shinobi.
- The Bushi is the best martial class fighter ever designed. Easy to use with its core mechanic of focus points, which you gain every turn and also from some special stances etc. You have martial techniques, all of which are fun and super naughty word anime. I will never play another standard fighter again; the Bushi is everything everyone has ever wanted the fighter class to be, just with more anime flavor. I recommend this class to everyone, and it fits in core D&D very easily.
- The Duelist I feel much the same about. Alongside the Duelist are the AMAZING duel rules, which are evocative, quick, can happen in the middle of combat, have lots of guidelines for narrative frameworks for duels, etiquette, cheating, different types and in-world rulesets, and so on. Duels are amazing, and I will be using them in all my games. THe Duelist itself is also very fun, a non-armored Bushi that is hella fun.
- The Courtier has a mechanic called its Intrigue Die, which it uses to power its Rhetorical Flourishes, which are reactions that do various things in and out of combat. I think the subclasses for the Courtier aren’t as inspired as the Courtier itself, which is an amazing non-magical bard I’ll probably be using as well. I very much recommend this class, especially to people who prefer more narrative as opposed to mechanics in D&D.
- The Ritualist uses the new casting system. When you cast your invocations, you can spend a currency called “Favor” to purchase additional abilities for the invocation when you cast it, upgrading it and changing its effect in different ways. Of note, every invocation (spell) has resonances. A resonance is a place or situation that, if the invocation is cast there, grants you bonus flavor. For example, an invocation might say its resonances are casting this spell in spring time or on the night of a new moon, or in a cave or a bloodied battlefield. AMAZING! AMAZING!!!! GREAT SPELL DESIGN!!! Ritualist also has the coolest archetype in the book, the Artisan, as well as the worst archetype in the book, the Medium, lmfao.
- The Shinobi is a class for people who like to move a lot in combat, put conditions on people, and then deathblow them. Literally, the merciless strikes feature is their sneak attack replacement, which does more damage the more conditions you have on a target. The Shinobi ultimately is a little undercooked; it should have used focus points like the other martial classes IMO, and there are only 5 ninja tools. I will be adding a lot more, but overall, I dig this class a lot.
- The Pilgrim has no place in traditional Rokugan, as it is a yin-yang csater. As a class, it is very experimental and baroque. It has a Yin Yang track that you move up and down in battle which empowers you and your various magical abilities. The Acolyte is also very esoteric, very very very avant-garde. Its subclasses are the Togashi Tattoo Mage Monk thing, and Shadow Ninja Curse Black Mage Ninja thing. I like them, yes, but they are very weird, and not at all friendly for people new to 5E or who aren’t big into mechanics for their characters.
- Of note, the book wants you to multiclass for standard L5R character types. DO NOT MULTICLASS THESE CLASSES. DO NOT MULTICLASS THESE CLASSES! Every class has its own resource and selection of techniques and I could not imagine trying to play a triple multicast, which the book often suggests, between any of them, let alone a normal multiclass. A Shinobi - Bushi - Acolyte….what the naughty word is that. But, if you play these classes straight, they should be dope.
RACES
- This section is brief. You have the Human, Naga, Nezumi, Animal Yokai, Mythic Existence, Specter, and Mazoku (underworld demon) races.
- Needless to say, this is anime Rokugan, this is not normal Rokugan.
- The Mazoku, Specter, and Animal Yokai races are actually all amazingly designed, and I will use them in my wider fantasy games.
- I’d use all of these races in an anime game as well.
- If you want to play a more traditional Rokugan…grab the Tasha’s lineage rules and use those with the book's tremendous (TREMENDOUS) amount of feats to create your character.
OTHER MECHANICS
- The book boasts a background for: every major clan, every minor clan, every foreign place, commoners, peasants, monks in monasteries, non-human backgrounds, and so much more. A huge, huge, huge, huge amount of backgrounds. Just a tremendous amount. I like it.
- The book has just as many feats. A stupid dumby amount of feats, broken into many different flavor categories. When I run this system, I’ll be giving players a free feat at 1st and 4th levels, cuz there’s a lot, and they add a tremendous amount of flavor to the game.
- There are a lot of new conditions, and each new condition in the book tells you what it does whenever it is mentioned in the book. These conditions are good for EVERY D&D GAME. I would suggest every D&D dungeon master start adding these conditions to their game, as they spice up a lot and add some good alternatives to otherwise unfun conditions like stunned or paralyzed.
- The monster design in this book is absolutely stellar. The monsters are fun, with great actions and legendary actions and other designs. Of note: the Sword Saint and Crime Boss. Really the Crime Boss. The Crime Boss has a cool lair action called “I have you at a disadvantage” where a bunch of ruffians step out of the shadows, and another where it pulls a hidden escape route out its ass to get out, and some dope actions that interplay with all this. I will be using these monsters not just in my games, but as guidelines for my monster design in the future.
- Other cool sub-systems are expanded charms, motivation rules for your character, adventuring gear, new weapons and weapon tags, and awakening the spirits inside weapons, armors, and items to give them new powers.
WHO SHOULD BUY THIS BOOK?
- If you’ve never read Rokugan or played L5R and want to do a very stimulating, fun, dynamic action game with anime undertones, this is for you.
- If you have played L5R or read Rokugan, and are ok with a Rokugan based off fable and myth instead of hardcore Game of Thrones-esque court drama, this game is for you.
- If you are a game designer, you ought to buy and read this book. Read the classes. Read the Mazoku and Specter races. Read the monsters. Read the invocations and martial techniques, the conditions, and the dueling rules. This book has the absolute best 5E combat design so far published. Not perfect, but great, and very inspiring as a designer.
