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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The word taint hasn't aged very well. The last time I ran L5R, whenever we talked about "the taint" a few of my players would bust out with a case of the giggles.


I don't own the new Iuchiban book but I do own the original boxed set dungeon. It was very surprising to see Bloodspeaker as playable because in the past they were the worst of the worst. How do you have one in a campaign without the other players killing that character?

Because they compromised the setting so players can play whatever they want.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Yes, AiR is like a reboot of L5R designed to seem an interesting IP to be acquired by other company in the future, and easy to be retconected

And now the bloodspeaker is a class in AiR, but this appears in the sourcebook "the Tomb of Iuchiban". But I don't find the way to can explain the reason because PCs with a great sense of honor could accept in the group a bloodspeaker.

Tomb of Iuchiban - Edge Studio

www.edge-studio.net

I would rather to await to be translated into my first languange.

Practically this setting is a reboot because the "global geography" is radically different, there aren't links to "the Legend of the Burning Sands" (the fact is I didn't miss it too much) but there are names of foreign realms you can't find in the L5R wiki.

* I can't believe a clan with the name of the centipede, because this in the Japanese culture is linked to the poison.

* If I wanted I could merger the worlds of L5R and 7th Sea but this is not wellcome in my tabletop because authors shows some predjudices about History. My idea is to get the names of places and factions from the wiki, but they aren't going to make money from my pocket.

* The kitsu (antropomorphic lions) could be possible in AiR using the Leonins from Theros, couldn't it? And the ningyo as tritons. The Rokugan trolls could be "goliaths".

* Other idea is Fu-leng as "frienemy", an unconfortable ally against a worse enemy, the "darkness". The Shadowlands started to suffer a planar invasion of "Lovecratian alien constructs", but Fun-leng also found the help by "saint missionaries from far stars". The fact is this Fu-leng died and reborn several times, enough to be enough sick and tired. The darkness caused a serious civil war in the Shadowland, although it didn't seem possible. This alien menace was too annoying to worry about the conquest of Rokugan empire. (Something as if in Warhammer 40.000 the chaos marines allied with eldars against the tiranids and necrons).

 

[Dragonhelm]

The word taint hasn't aged very well. The last time I ran L5R, whenever we talked about "the taint" a few of my players would bust out with a case of the giggles.

I had one time right here on EN World where I mentioned "taint" and someone responded much the same. This individual had never heard of the phrase used in any other way.

 

[MGibster]

Because they compromised the setting so players can play whatever they want.

It's been a long while since I've looked at a 1st or 2nd edition book, but if I recall correctly, there were options for PCs to use Blood Magic within the various sourcebooks. i.e. They might come across a scroll, meet a dark kami who teaches them, etc., etc. And while my memory is a bit fuzzy, I thought blood speakers' Honor automatically went to zero.

If I wanted I could merger the worlds of L5R and 7th Sea but this is not wellcome in my tabletop because authors shows some predjudices about History. My idea is to get the names of places and factions from the wiki, but they aren't going to make money from my pocket.

I don't beleive there was any connection between 7th Sea and L5R in the first editions of the game. In fact, Alderac Entertaining was emphatic that they were not connected.

 

[James Gasik]

The card game had occasional references to "Europeans" as mercenary units (usually employed by the Mantis), so they were out there, but I don't think they were ever expanded on (though I don't own every sourcebook for the RPG, so maybe I'm wrong).

 

[GreyLord]

I had one time right here on EN World where I mentioned "taint" and someone responded much the same. This individual had never heard of the phrase used in any other way.

Yeah, those who find the word "taint" amusing because they only apply it in a certain way must be a blast to discuss "The Wheel of Time" with.

 

[MGibster]

Yeah, those who find the word "taint" amusing because they only apply it in a certain way must be a blast to discuss "The Wheel of Time" with.

And to be perfectly honest, it's not like I did get a good laugh out of authors using ejaculate to describe someone shouting in short burst. "Stop!" Tom ejactulated.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

L5R and 7th Sea were created by Alderac, but they didn't share the same universe. That was clear since the begining. Of course we are totally free to mix from different franchises in our homemade setting.

L5R showed two Western-style nations, Merenae (a mixture of France, Italy and Spain) and Thrane (mixture of Germany and Great Bretain), but these weren't too wellcome in Rokugan, and after they were "erasured", terminated by an epidemic or like this. They aren't mentioned in AiR.

Those "gaijin nations" are potentially interesting if you want to try an isekai style, about the conflict and contrast between such different societies. Think about that. Let's imagine Rokugan souls escape from the infernal planes and they are reincarnated in babies from gaijin nations. But here the plot twist. These babies hadn't got a previous soul, because they were fae-changeling, the faes abducten the original babies, believing to be reborn fae spirits, and replaced the "original" with "simulacrum".

But here there is a threat they don't want to touch, the religion of the gaijin nations and the possible impact in the cosmology. For example a bloodspeaker is allowed by the Merenean Church after be converted. Where should this soul be sent in the afterlife?

 

[jayoungr]

I wish my friend Doug could have been around to see this. (We lost him to covid in 2021.) He was a huge L5R fan and even homebrewed his own shugenja class for D&D.

 

[Shardstone]

I just want to say that the AiR game is still my fave version of Eastern Fantasy TTRPG out there and hits a very interesting Anime but still Grounded note for people who want it. And I think the class design in AiR particularly is absolutely stunning and a huge breath of fresh air.