4th Edition

Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition. Published by AEG in June of 2010, entered my world at Gencon 2010 with much squeeing and many gollumesq moments of muttering about my precious. While I had been playing the card game a great deal that year, it had never crossed my mind that it had ever been a role playing game. However life was complicating  my world as it often does so it took me a little over six months to sit down and read the simple roll and keep system. And in the end I found a book filled with lush fictional history, great character concepts and I wanted to run a game. Of course the group I played with was currently submererged in a Dresden Files game at this point and we had already promised someone else they could run a game of their own so sadly L5R was added to the to do list.

For those of you who don't know, now seems like a good time to fill in some blanks about the purpose of the L5R RPG. It is set in a semblance of feudal Japan with an air of magic and ancient wonders. Mechanically speaking it is a roll and keep system. Meaning for example you could have a 5k4 skill. So you would roll five d10 and keep your favorite 4. Having never read the previous editions I won't compare them. If you wish to hear a comparison I suggest here will be a great start. I think at this point I prefer talking flavor. Though I am a bit disgusted they published an entire book that is 90% flavor text. I take great joy in the talkings of ancient lords and the lavish art. I spent a lot of time looking at the art work and flipping through the pages to read something about one of my favorite clans at random. I didn't want to get rusty on the rules while I waited to run. If I do have a pet peeve about this system its the massive amount of fluff you need to understand if you want to play in the world they created for you. Even the authors were saying 'please just use this as guidelines its too much' at one point.

Then it happened. About six months ago the draw was up and the game had had starting obsessing over was due at last to run. I had filled a small notebook with story arcs and monsters. People and places that the group may or may not encounter. I had everything set up perfect for my horror game that would take place in the shadowlands until he popped the question. No I don't mean THE question most women think at this point. He asked me if he could be a social crab clan berserker who gained glory through art. Ok. If you were like me you giggled a bit there but it doesn't really sound like a problem. Not until you actually try to hunt down the crafting rules in the book. They are virtually non existant. Especially if you want to know, well how long and how much does it cost to create an ornate sword with intricate design on it. What is the Target Number for that. I searched the core book with the two expansions out at the time and finnally ended up downloading the 3rd edition of the book for answers.

The 3rd edition book did have a price chart along with some guesstimated times but it was nothing like I was looking for and in the end I gave up on finding an official one and created my own. While the price charts were nice my game was set in a time where Jade was harder to get your hands on that some of the most evil maho magics. I let them all start the game with three fingers and that was more Jade than they had ever seen in their lives. So when one of them asked me, can he make me a blade out of Jade? I laughed and said sure, this is what it will cost you.

For it being my first game I ever ran (Ninja burger rpg doesn't count) everyone said they had shit tons of fun and I learned a lot with them. When everyone was telling me GMing was about flexibility and making sure the players had fun, I don't think I really got it until I had my own lot going the wrong direction chasing a bone they thought I threw when it was really just a nice scenery description. Or when they decided that they wanted to talk to Fu Leng personally about their problem and how to solve it. I guess if I have to assign a morale and a point to all this, official rules don't make the world go round but a rowdy group of gamers that can make you smile, agree to play a game you're dying to run, and offer to bring snacks can go a long way toward helping it.


To all the beginner gm's out there, don't give up.
Listen to advice. You're never to good to grow.
-Girl in a corset