Fantasy Flight Games Acquires LEGEND OF THE FIVE RINGS

Fantasy Flight Games has purchased Legend of the Five Rings! Created in 1995 by Alderac Entertainment Group, L5R is set in the world of Rokugan, a place based roughly on feudal Japan. Over the years, it's been a card game, an Oriental Adventures setting for D&D, novels, and, of course, a roleplaying game. FFG, of course, is known for boardgames, card games, RPGs, and more, with big licenses such as Star Wars, Warhammer 40K, and many more. new products are slated for Gen Con 2017.

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AEG's announcement reads:

"For twenty years, Legend of the Five Rings has held a unique place among Collectible Card Games (CCGs) and Role Playing Games (RPGs). It is not only one of the oldest around, it stands out by being driven by its story…a story that has, in turn, been driven by legions of devoted fans over the past two decades. We at AEG are thankful beyond words to all of the awesome players of our games for making these past twenty years so special.

The time comes, however, when any healthy enterprise has to take a step back and look hard and critically at itself. We’ve now reached that time in the life of the L5R Brand. The focus of AEG has progressively shifted toward other types of games over recent years, so, after some hard and detailed analysis (and, yes, some deep soul-searching), we’ve concluded that it’s time to start a new chapter in the story of L5R. Accordingly, the upcoming Evil Portents expansion for the CCG, and the “Atlas of Rokugan” for the RPG, will be the final products for L5R produced by AEG. The L5R Brand will continue under a new owner, Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). We believe that the good folks at FFG, some of whom have themselves been involved with the L5R Brand for many years, will do an excellent job of carrying the L5R Brand and the story of Rokugan on into its next twenty years. Fantasy Flight Games anticipates that its first L5R product will be a relaunch of the card game as a Living Card Game (LCG), with a debut event at Gen Con 2017.

One major implication of all this is that our staffing will be dramatically changed. Many of our current members of the L5R Brand Team will be leaving us either immediately, or in the near future. We want to express our most sincere gratitude to these awesome people, who have helped bring L5R to where it is today.

Of course, many questions will almost certainly occur to you as you read this. Foremost among them, you are probably wondering what will happen to our upcoming events, including the Fall Kotei Season and the European Championships. All of these events currently scheduled will go on as planned, as CCG events. We’ll continue collecting the results, and will add those to our list of all currently outstanding tournament and event results. All of this will be provided to FFG, who will do their best to incorporate it into L5R and its setting once they’ve relaunched the Brand.

You will also have noted that Evil Portents will be the last CCG product, and would reasonably ask, why would I want to spend money on a product that’s essentially obsolete the moment it hits store shelves? Why would any retailer even bother carrying it? Well, we’re going to be making Evil Portents available to retailers and players through a pretty remarkable deal–essentially, we’ll be virtually giving it away for free. Details of this will be forthcoming shortly.

We realize that these are probably only a few of your questions. We will be sharing more information with you about the transition of the Brand in the coming days. In the meantime, you can direct your enquiries to L5RBrandLead@alderac.com and we’ll do our best to answer them. Again, all of us at AEG want to thank all of YOU for your dedication to the L5R CCG, the RPG, and the story of Rokugan for the past twenty years. We can’t wait to see how L5R evolves under the stewardship of its new owners at Fantasy Flight Games!"

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FFG's announcement reads:

"Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce that it has entered into an agreement to purchase the Legend of the Five Rings intellectual property from Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)!

Legend of the Five Rings is a legacy brand collectible card game (CCG) and roleplaying game (RPG) with a dedicated, passionate community and a story that spans the last two decades. Legions of players have traveled to the land of Rokugan and the Colonies, joined the noble samurai and shugenja of their favorite clan, and taken an important hand in shaping the story. Now, as Legend of the Five Rings moves over to Fantasy Flight Games, certain changes are coming to the realm of Rokugan. To learn the initial details of these upcoming changes, read below.

Honor Is Stronger than Steel

“The queen of ants cannot count her servants, but she knows that they are loyal. Though the Emperor does not know of me, still, I know of him. And it is the Emperor, and Hantei alone, that I follow. With every word and deed, I do his bidding.”
–Seppun Murayasu

The current incarnation of the Legend of the Five Rings CCG will be complete with the release of the Evil Portents expansion from AEG. After that release, the game will go on hiatus until FFG relaunches Legend of the Five Rings as a Living Card Game®, or LCG. The Legend of the Five Rings LCG is scheduled to be released in two years at Gen Con Indy 2017.

For players unfamiliar with the LCG model, a Living Card Game offers regular, non-randomized releases that include full playsets of every card. In its new form, Legend of the Five Rings will use this release format, rather than “blind” boosters that contain randomly assigned rare, uncommon, and common cards. Instead of spending their time chasing hard-to-find cards, the LCG distribution model allows players to focus on building decks by buying a single expansion that includes a full playset of every card in that expansion. For more information about Living Card Games, click here.

The transition of Legend of the Five Rings from CCG to LCG impacts far more than just distribution model. As the game is reimagined and relaunched as an LCG, we will be implementing significant design changes, but we will ensure that the spirit and emotional impact of Legend of the Five Rings remains intact. By introducing a new mechanical design, we hope to open the game for a new generation of players to join the veteran samurai who still battle for Rokugan. Across the transition to LCG, our developers will ensure that the game maintains its pervasive themes of honor, nobility, magic, intrigue, duty, and warfare and that these themes continue to drive the game and the narrative forward.

In addition to the new incarnation of the Legend of the Five Rings CCG as a LCG, we are excited to explore new possiblities for Legend of the Five Rings in the roleplaying space. At the current time, we don't have many details about this, but we will reveal more as the details become clear.

FFG and AEG on the Legend of the Five Rings Transition

Regarding the agreement to purchase Legend of the Five Rings, Steve Horvath, SVP of Communication at Fantasy Flight Games, said, “The prospect of working on Legend of the Five Rings is very exciting for us. The AEG team has done an amazing job creating a truly rich history and a universe with a deep narrative that fans have connected with for twenty years, and we are looking forward to the potential to build on that legacy moving forward.”

John Zinser, CEO of Alderac Entertaiment Group, said, “L5R is and will always be our first gaming love, but over time, we've changed our company focus further and further away from those roots. Our friends at Fantasy Flight Games have staff with a long history with the L5R property and its games, who are excited about the prospect of taking the brand into the future. When we recently decided it was time to end our own work on the story of Rokugan, we knew they were the best possible stewards for the world, the story, and the community we love and want to see continue to succeed and grow into its next twenty years.”

Enter the Emerald Empire

“Understand the Will of Heaven and you make all things possible. Ignore it, and you will accomplish nothing.”
–The Tao of Shinsei

Vast changes are coming to the land of Rokugan, leading to a new chapter in the history the Emerald Empire. Prepare for a new era to begin at Gen Con Indy 2017!W

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

I can totally see either a Game of Thrones type board game or a Twilight Imperium type of board game set in Rokugan. Both would be amazing and fit well within the Emerald Empire.

I can see them doing a duelist focused, two player game of some kind.

Of course the already mentioned LCG. This is the first time they have ever announced an LCG two years ahead of time. This will sell like bonkers.

Of course they will do an rpg for L5r. FFG is one not to let an idea sit on the side. They will milk their new property for everything its worth, and make it really impressive along the way.

I can see them doing a Battlelore style, miniatures skirmish game set in Rokugan also. Expect it. With each clan being its own source of minis and expansions it's a total cash cow for them, and I'll get suckered into it.

It's the board games I am most excited for, as we've never really had a major board game that took advantage of this world.

Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they made a board game or separate card game that focused on the Winter Court and explored court intrigue as the game. That would be really cool.

 

[Li Shenron]

I played and loved Rokugan as a RPG setting, but I have a very squinted perspective at L5R as a whole because I have never played the CCG, and I have played the setting only using its D&D 3.0 / d20 version, which is widely regarded as inappropriate

I am in general not a fan of card games, especially collectible ones which are anathema for me. However I find it very interesting that they are changing it from collectible to non-collectible... in general I think the collectibility was a huge part of the hobby, so my guess would be that the new model won't be as successful, but since I always loathed the idea, I will be interested to see the results.

My current interest related to L5R is only to resume playing D&D campaigns in the Rokugan setting, and since now I am fully on board with 5e, the FFG acquisition of L5R actually makes me wonder whether there is a chance for a 5e version of it. Until yesterday I gave it zero chance, now I think there is a significant possibility. I know that fans of L5R RPG always said that D&D is not an appropriate game system for Rokugan, but I believe that 5e is a lot better than the 2 previous editions for supporting the different ideas of adventuring (and combat!) of L5R. I give it a 70% chance that FFG will just design and release a new edition of the L5R RPG, but a 30% chance that they will instead design and release a campaign setting for D&D 5e. And if they don't, I still have my own conversion to use with it

 

[Benji]

This is MASSIVE. From a perspective of an roleplayer I hate the FFG model (release bare bones in core book, release 50 expansions at stupid prices at a pace that I can't afford with a product end I can't afford but they game scope is very limited without, also invent 50 new dice for no reason) but I suppose it beat the release model AEG had going on for the rpg (get huge demand, forget to reprint, make unavailable, listen to no one about it). I am curious if as a Living Card game they'll keep the 'player driven narrative' thing. If not, they'll anger a lot of peeps and make a load of others happy.

 

[Agamon]

From a perspective of an roleplayer I hate the FFG model (release bare bones in core book, release 50 expansions at stupid prices at a pace that I can't afford with a product end I can't afford but they game scope is very limited without, also invent 50 new dice for no reason)

I assume this exaggeration for effect? I can, and have, played Edge of the Empire with nothing but the core book and a couple sets of dice (far less than 50). It was a complete game and lot of fun. The game's scope is no more limited than playing Call of Cthulhu (investigators) or Pendragon (knights) or Ars Magica (mages) or Vampire...etc. L5R 4e has dozens of splats, so I'm not sure I understand the issue?

To my original post, concerning the fact the books might go bye-bye, I've been reminded that FFG took Black Industries stock of Warhamer RPG books and continued to sell them, so L5R 4e shouldn't just up and disappear too quickly.

 

[aramis erak]

I can totally see either a Game of Thrones type board game or a Twilight Imperium type of board game set in Rokugan. Both would be amazing and fit well within the Emerald Empire.

one was developed for it already... it never made it out of playtest. (grumble.)

I can see them doing a duelist focused, two player game of some kind.

Of course the already mentioned LCG. This is the first time they have ever announced an LCG two years ahead of time. This will sell like bonkers.

depends, the 1.25 to 2.35 year hiatus may be a problem, or a boon, especially with new mechanics and a new format.

Of course they will do an rpg for L5r. FFG is one not to let an idea sit on the side. They will milk their new property for everything its worth, and make it really impressive along the way.

Undoubtedly, there will be an RPG. The question is, will it be Roll & Keep, as per Eds 1-4, or a SW/WFRP3 style custom dice game, or a Roll the pool mechanic ala End of the World, or a d100 mechanic borrowed from the 40K rpgs, or something else?

I can see them doing a Battlelore style, miniatures skirmish game set in Rokugan also. Expect it. With each clan being its own source of minis and expansions it's a total cash cow for them, and I'll get suckered into it.

I'd rather see a relaunch of Clan War - whcih was the minis game, and tied into the RPG pretty easily. Easily enough that I used it in my RPG campaigns. Going Battlelore with it might be doable, and would make the minis readily available, but... the question then becomes "How can I tie it into the RPG?"

It's the board games I am most excited for, as we've never really had a major board game that took advantage of this world.

Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they made a board game or separate card game that focused on the Winter Court and explored court intrigue as the game. That would be really cool.

The L5R property is really 3 main games already: The CCG, the Minis Game, and the RPG.
Plus there's an L5R flavor of Love Letter.
There's also a non-collectible card game, Mai-star, which is Rokugan themed.

 

[Brodie]

I can totally see either a Game of Thrones type board game or a Twilight Imperium type of board game set in Rokugan. Both would be amazing and fit well within the Emerald Empire.
****
I can see them doing a Battlelore style, miniatures skirmish game set in Rokugan also. Expect it. With each clan being its own source of minis and expansions it's a total cash cow for them, and I'll get suckered into it.

It's the board games I am most excited for, as we've never really had a major board game that took advantage of this world.

Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they made a board game or separate card game that focused on the Winter Court and explored court intrigue as the game. That would be really cool.

A Game of Thrones style board game would be AWESOME and work quite well for L5R and I would play the hell out of it with my friends. (Never played Twilight Imperium.) Same goes for a Winter Court intrigue style game. I've played Ninja (by AEG, and an L5R board game) a few times and it's okay but not quite that great a board game, which is a shame since I'm the one that bought it for my group. Doesn't help that it caps at 4 players and my group consists of five (formerly six) so we couldn't play it all that often.

I have to admit, it never even occurred to me that FFG could do a miniatures game with the setting but now that you've brought it up I'm sold on the idea. FFG has their strengths and weaknesses, and miniatures games is a strength. Pricing would be a weakness, sadly. They even make minis for all the investigators in Arkham Horror and there's a ton of those. Each is sold individually, which is another weakness.

My current interest related to L5R is only to resume playing D&D campaigns in the Rokugan setting, and since now I am fully on board with 5e, the FFG acquisition of L5R actually makes me wonder whether there is a chance for a 5e version of it. Until yesterday I gave it zero chance, now I think there is a significant possibility. I know that fans of L5R RPG always said that D&D is not an appropriate game system for Rokugan, but I believe that 5e is a lot better than the 2 previous editions for supporting the different ideas of adventuring (and combat!) of L5R. I give it a 70% chance that FFG will just design and release a new edition of the L5R RPG, but a 30% chance that they will instead design and release a campaign setting for D&D 5e. And if they don't, I still have my own conversion to use with it

I doubt FFG would use a D&D system for L5R. Don't get me wrong; I'm a fan of role playing games and enjoy D&D. But I think systems that come with a default setting and history/background for the setting shine the best. L5R is the best example I have, with World of Darkness being a close second. The L5R rpg can be quite lethal when it comes to combat and the more damage you take the more difficult it becomes to hit stuff and make it count. It can be a disaster in the hands of the wrong gm, be a gm that doesn't like killing pcs and always finds a way to avoid the killing blow or a gm that simply doesn't care about the pcs and is constantly putting them through a meat grinder and having them make new characters. A good gm (like the one I have) knows the play styles of his group, the strengths of the player characters, points of abilities they could be using, and doesn't throw stuff at the pcs that's beyond their ability to handle. There was one Burning Sands campaign (L5R system, alternate setting) where my character took so much damage he was going to die. The gm (brother of the L5R gm) didn't know what to do because he didn't quite want to see my character to die, but it was the Big Fight, I'd had a good run with the character, and my character's action was going to help bring done the big bad so I told him not to sweat it.

Wow. Sorry. That kind of went off on a tangent. My point is that L5R just doesn't have the same feel when not used with its roll-and-keep system. I don't think it fits well with any version of D&D. Just my opinion, mind you; I love 5E and would love to be part of a 5E game. Plus, FFG would probably have to work with WOTC and I don't see that happening if they just use their own system.

This is MASSIVE. From a perspective of an roleplayer I hate the FFG model (release bare bones in core book, release 50 expansions at stupid prices at a pace that I can't afford with a product end I can't afford but they game scope is very limited without, also invent 50 new dice for no reason) but I suppose it beat the release model AEG had going on for the rpg (get huge demand, forget to reprint, make unavailable, listen to no one about it). I am curious if as a Living Card game they'll keep the 'player driven narrative' thing. If not, they'll anger a lot of peeps and make a load of others happy.

I agree about the way AEG handled the rpg when it comes to keeping books in print. I've been playing since 2nd Edition. Didn't own any 2E books and only owned the core book for 3E (a friend had all but one 3E book and the one he was missing was due to AEG not keeping stuff in print and having a small print run). With 4E, I've made sure to get copies of the physical books when they come out. To be honest, I hope FFG - if/when they start making rpg books - sticks to 4E rules since 4E has been the cleanest, rules-wise, the rpg has ever been. If they have to do a 5th edition, all I can hope for is that they tidy up wording in some areas. That and provide a better way to be a ronin for players that want to play such characters. It's horrible right now if you want to play a ronin and stay at the same power level of clan samurai who rank up during play. Clan samurai can easily train with their clan to get their next technique, but ronin have to find a another ronin to teach them a new technique and that involves not only tracking one down but also convincing them to teach you. AEG had a good story/setting based explanation (that it should be harder for ronin, and that at it's core, L5R is about the clans) but it doesn't really help fans that have a burning desire to play a ronin but settle for clan samurai because of the security of getting a new technique at each rank.

As for the card game, I think that no matter what they do, people are going to get angry while other people are happy. They'd be dumb to not keep the narrative driven releases going; that's part of the draw for fans. I've mentioned before I'm torn on the switch from CCG to LCG but I'm kind of looking forward to being able to easily get into the card game.

I assume this exaggeration for effect? I can, and have, played Edge of the Empire with nothing but the core book and a couple sets of dice (far less than 50). It was a complete game and lot of fun. The game's scope is no more limited than playing Call of Cthulhu (investigators) or Pendragon (knights) or Ars Magica (mages) or Vampire...etc. L5R 4e has dozens of splats, so I'm not sure I understand the issue?

To my original post, concerning the fact the books might go bye-bye, I've been reminded that FFG took Black Industries stock of Warhamer RPG books and continued to sell them, so L5R 4e shouldn't just up and disappear too quickly.

Edge of the Empire does have a small amount of different dice and I love the design of them. But my group has a total of three sets and that's starting to not be enough for some of the specific dies. Just yesterday, someone unbelievably received eleven boost dice and we only had six. I'm getting ever closer to reaching the end of another force tree and thus needing a fourth force die. With L5R, the amount of dice that can be rolled caps at 10.

4E only has 17 (this includes the core book and upcoming Atlas) books since 2010. That's about three books a year, which really isn't that bad of a release schedule. Each splat has been a significant amount of content, mostly specialized, but ultimately not needed. I can't think of anything from the peripheral stuff that could be considered essential to play the game, thankfully. I just don't want to see FFG use their model for Star Wars for L5R, releasing 90 page splat books for $30 a pop. And they easily could: there's nine major clans and twelve (total over the course of history) minor clans, and then the whole ronin caste. Each class in Star Wars has received a splat book with more appealing options available in them.

 

[Torg Smith]

One good thing with this purchase is that FFG can produce a non-licensed property. All their stuff other than the survival RPG is licensed. Their Twiter feed pretty much confirmed they are going to do an RPG. Star Wars took some time after they got the license.

I don't mind the Star Wars dice, but I hope they keep the fiddly bits (in WFRP 3E) out of the role playing game.

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

I'll echo what some other posters have mentioned: FFG makes a whole other line of RPG's that do not use the Star Wars/Warhammer dice system. I never played much L5R or 7th Sea but I did like the roll & keep system. I don't know that they keep it as-is, but it seems like it might be an option.

That said I think the above post that mentions they finally own an IP now means that it's a strong candidate to get a version of their in-house system. If they end up making a break from the background, why not make a break from the mechanics too. If it's any comfort to existing players, being part of FFG will give the game a much higher profile than it's had the last few years.

 

[Benji]

I assume this exaggeration for effect? I can, and have, played Edge of the Empire with nothing but the core book and a couple sets of dice (far less than 50). It was a complete game and lot of fun. The game's scope is no more limited than playing Call of Cthulhu (investigators) or Pendragon (knights) or Ars Magica (mages) or Vampire...etc. L5R 4e has dozens of splats, so I'm not sure I understand the issue?

My problem with it really was that if you wanted to say, have a Jedi in the group, it was a kind of 'bodge it together, knowing whatever you've created will have to be re-written in a few years' sort of thing. I've played it and as a player enjoyed it but it's stuff like that which will stop me from buying it and running it.Yes I was exaggerating. It was less for effect and more a factor of the fact my brain is a kind of Hyperbole chamber that likes to make light of things that annoy it by blowing it all out of proportion. If it helps, I like both games and studios, just wish they could produce a game which would make me go 'Yes. That's how I want it.' I'm also aware of how unlikely ANYONE doing this is. But I can dream.

 

[Benji]

I agree about the way AEG handled the rpg when it comes to keeping books in print. I've been playing since 2nd Edition. Didn't own any 2E books and only owned the core book for 3E (a friend had all but one 3E book and the one he was missing was due to AEG not keeping stuff in print and having a small print run). With 4E, I've made sure to get copies of the physical books when they come out.

I think some of the disagreement I have with this point stems from the fact that you got the books when they came out. I was unable to and came to the game a bit later than I'd of liked. By that point something with really good integral setting information (Great Clans) and any historical setting information (Both imperial histories) were unavailable. With only a basic knowledge of the setting, I found large parts of the core setting information vauge and unfathomable and had to kind of guess what it meant without those books. I managed to find copies of the histories by physically ringing British stores to see if they had any in stock and paying over the phone while my quest for Great Clans ended when I found it was going for £966 minimum on amazon due to the fact it was out of print and counted as 'collectors'. Needless to say I didn't get hold of it. I managed to get by becuase a friend of mine is an obssessive and was able to fill in the missing bits, which took a long time and a notepad becuase it was easier than searching a wiki.

Having said that, I'll agree with the clean, friendly products. The Books I do own are some of coolest stuff I've got.