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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Like said previously, it is the same setting with some change of culture like no seppuku or hard following of Bushido or the fact that now Naga, Demons and kitsunes or ghosts openly walk among the human.

Those are significant changes, and not the only ones. Its not the same setting, and you can make the comparison easily between the two Rokugan games both currently made by the same company.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

Not anymore. Now its just about "heroic fantasy" if you want to play 5e with it.

 

[RangerWickett]

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

They didn't change it then because that game that came out four years ago, and the discussion around this sort of cultural insensitivity has moved forward in that time.

For the record, I really do enjoy the style of play where you have characters with contesting ninjo and giri, and I really love the fiction that leaned into that. I have not seen the current book yet, but I don't see why you can't still run that game, while also having the option to run more wuxia style action, or anime Inu Yasha fantasy action.

I guess I don't get why you are so emotionally invested in resisting an effort to expand the options of what the setting can allow. It's like being bothered that fourth edition came out when you still have the third edition books that you can play.

Or is it the cultural sensitivity that you disagree with?

 

[RangerWickett]

Honestly, you are posting a whole bunch about a book you probably haven't even read yet. I don't know that you are doing yourself a service by getting this riled up at this point.

 

[TheSword]

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

It’s possible to design for different target audiences. Though the 2018 edition is four years old now. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out some terminology gets ported across when it gets a new edition.

They may of course be waiting to see what happens with this.

The other possibility Is that D&D Rokugan is for broad appeal, and the Roll and Keep is for traditionalists.

 

[TheSword]

Those are significant changes, and not the only ones. Its not the same setting, and you can make the comparison easily between the two Rokugan games both currently made by the same company.

Can I ask how did Seppuka made the game better? Did characters actually do it? And enjoy it if they needed to? Expectations have changed in the last 10 years.

If it’s for dramatic effect, is it actually necessary or does it simply reinforce the idea that Asians are suicidally insane.

 

[RangerWickett]

Can I ask how did Seppuka made the game better? Did characters actually do it? And enjoy it if they needed to? Expectations have changed in the last 10 years.

If it’s for dramatic effect, is it actually necessary or does it simply reinforce the idea that Asians are suicidally insane.

I think that perhaps you are going too far on the opposite direction to imply that they were people who would read the legend of the Five Rings role-playing game and come away with that kind of stereotype.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They didn't change it then because that game that came out four years ago, and the discussion around this sort of cultural insensitivity has moved forward in that time.

For the record, I really do enjoy the style of play where you have characters with contesting ninjo and giri, and I really love the fiction that leaned into that. I have not seen the current book yet, but I don't see why you can't still run that game, while also having the option to run more wuxia style action, or anime Inu Yasha fantasy action.

I guess I don't get why you are so emotionally invested in resisting an effort to expand the options of what the setting can allow. It's like being bothered that fourth edition came out when you still have the third edition books that you can play.

Or is it the cultural sensitivity that you disagree with?

They are not expanding the setting, they are changing it to accommodate new ideas. They're not advancing the timeline to expand options and improve diversity, they're retroactively rewriting it. I don't object to cultural sensitivity (thanks for the shot, by the way), I object to changing history. If they feel the original setting is no longer appropriate in 2022, retire it and make a new "Oriental Adventures" setting. Don't pretend things have always been better. Make a better world.

 

[RangerWickett]

They are not expanding the setting, they are changing it to accommodate new ideas. They're not advancing the timeline to expand options and improve diversity, they're retroactively rewriting it. I don't object to cultural sensitivity (thanks for the shot, by the way), I object to changing history. If they feel the original setting is no longer appropriate in 2022, retire it and make a new "Oriental Adventures" setting. Don't pretend things have always been better. Make a better world.

It wasn't intended as a shot, but just an explanation of my only sense of why someone would be this riled up.

Why do you need to make a new setting? We've seen Marvel take a bunch of not especially modern comic tropes and modernize them to great success. There's enough in the setting that is staying the same. Like, the overwhelming vast majority of the setting is staying the same. All the stuff that I like about the setting is still there.

Or, like, the recent God of War game had continuity with the previous God of War game, but it did not make a huge deal about some of the stuff that, in hindsight is rather tasteless. Tasteless. We focused on the trauma of our main character having killed his father, whereas we don't focus on the scenes of him having orgies with random people in the middle of destroying a city.

It's just a change of focus, not an erasure of history.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The MCU is separate from the comics, which has continued more or less un-retconned continuously. If AiR exists alongside their original L5R game, then that's fine, even if I don't like the new setting. Like I said, I might even buy it if the mechanics are worth it to me.

I think of it like The One Ring and Adventures in Middle-Earth. If the company that made those changed the setting even a fraction as much as Edge has Rokugan, I fully expect the Tolkien estate would have been up in arms, and I wouldn't blame them.

Of course, Edge owns the IP and can do what they want. But the principle still means something to me.