L5r

[Dross Swordra]

Has anybody played the role-playing version of Legend of the Five Rings? Is it d20? Is it good? I played the card game a few times with some friends, and ended up really enjoying the history and storylines.
I was hoping to get some feedback before dropping a bunch of money.....I've been burned by gold painted lead before.

Thanks
-Dross

 

[wmasters]

I've played the roleplaying game, and the card game (quite extensively).

I think they're excellent. I love the setting, and the background, and the rpg is great fun and obviously much more involved in the story. There certainely was a d20 version but I think that's 2nd edition. The current version is a d10 system they call Roll & Keep and it works very well for the setting etc. The closest thing in d20 is probably Oriental Adventures

It's plus points; it's a great system for the setting. It's can be very deadly, which is about right for that sort of game, the dueling mechanism is excellent, the spells system is good, and the background and setting material, as you'll know is exceptional. I think it leans towards more roleplaying than combat compared to a d20 system. The art work is fantastic as well.

There are bad points as well. The core rulebook was poorly laid out, and I still find it difficult to find some things in there after playing for quite a while. There's also simply not that much support for it. Some adventures would be useful, for example, particularly for people new to the game, but it's all homebrew stuff normally based roughly on the L5R fiction etc.

I'd recommend it and I've had great fun playing it, and if you're a fan of the setting already then it's all the better.

The other place to check might be Heroes of Rokugan a kind of Living Rokugan persistant world. I know there are games in various places in the USA and also in Southampton in the UK, and they might be a good introduction to the game.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

I've played the d10 version of L5R a few times, both 1st and 3rd edition as a Phoenix Shugenja and Ronin Duelist respectively.

A lot of the fun to be had comes from a GM being familiar enough with Japanese culture to present those aspects, enforcing the fact that most characters are samurai and thus have duties and responsiblities to their lord and to those beneath them, and as such cannot run around adventuring as they please, but also adding those little touches that makes the setting all the more robust.

Being a Ronin frees you up from a lot of the hassles of being of the noble class, but then you're just a small step up from a peasant, which brings a whole new host of difficulties. It can get rather rough being a solitary ronin when you're stuck sleeping in a smelly barn while the rest of the group gets the best rooms in the local inn.

Also, combat should not be the party's first choice, as it's incredibly lethal compared to d20 (though 3rd edition is somewhat less so). That can be quite a shock to players that are used to the Hit Point system's "gas tank" approach to taking damage, as a lucky roll from a single opponent can kill even a veteran character in a single hit, and magical healing is far from plentiful.

 

[Dross Swordra]

Thanks for the tips. I think i should probably see what sort of interest I can drum up from my players in order to see if it buying into a new system is justified. Otherwise, I guess I'll have to try to incorporate Rokugan into our DnD game.

Thanks
-Dross

 

[GwydapLlew]

I love L5R. The d20 system is fairly solid, although I will always prefer Roll-and-Keep.

I have this urge to convert AoW to L5R, but I have to wait until my current AoW game (I'm a player) ends before I can start reading the source material.

 

[The Black Kestrel]

The D20 system version of L5R was quite good. Unfortunately with the publishing of the 3rd Edition L5R game AEG dropped d20 from L5R and concentrated on thier Roll and Keep system. I have played both versions and enjoyed them immensely. Like Donovan mentioned it's the GM (and player's) that really make the game. If you hew towards role-playing your character correctly you find the game experience very rewarding. The dilemma's introduced with having to obey a lord and the ever-shifting alliances and politics of Rokugan make for some truly challenging role-playing.

 

[GwydapLlew]

/OFF-TOPIC

TBK, I love that quote. Those novels are some of my favorite ever.

/ON-TOPIC

My largest issue with L5R is well....there's so MUCH out there, and so hard to find (at least whenever I'm a-lookin') that it's hard to keep track. The RPG is set in a different time than the CCG, but they mesh together nicely.

I would love for there to be more adventures, and less involving the big name NPCs. (People like to complain about FR, but it's got nothin' on Rokugan name-dropping!)

 

[wingsandsword]

I liked the d20 version a lot, it was very solid, and the learning curve for a D&D player to learn it was very shallow.

The d10 version seemed just too insanely deadly to actually play, very "gritty" in feel. The one time I played it, out of 8 PC's, in the first round of the first combat (against a handful of bandit archers), 2 PC's were dead, and by the end of the fight, half the party was dead. I didn't go back to that game, but all the stories I was told from that campaign was that the system was extremely deadly, and several PC's died each session (and over the course of several sessions the entire party would change since everybody died so often), and heroic deeds from the card game (like "Come One At A Time", where one samurai challenges an army) just can't happen, while in the d20 version, one high-level samurai might be able to whittle away at a lot of 1st level warriors for a while.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Well, I kind of like that combat can be deadly if you just brazenly rush in, though as I mentioned it was a lot deadlier in 1st edition than it now is in 3rd edition, as there's a much larger buffer zone between severly injured and dead.

Dross Swordra,
There should still be copies of the 3e Oriental Adventures available, especially if you're not overly focused on Rokugan, though there may also be copies of Rokugan d20 still in stock as well.

I picked up 3e OR when it came out, and there is some neat stuff that can be transported to a regular d20 game, particularly some of the classes (a friend played a sohi monk in one game I was in).