Clans and Factions of the Emerald Stars
The nine Great Clans of Rokugan have changed a great deal in the many centuries that have passed since the days of the first Iweko sovereign, but they remain the driving forces behind the Empire’s progress and the most powerful factions within its borders. Although technology and expansion have transformed all of the Great Clans, they still remain true to the core philosophies of their founders. 

The Crab Clan 

     After the Festering Pit of Fu Leng was closed, the Crab Clan endured a spiritual crisis of sorts, having lost the primary focus of its existence. Soon, however, the children of Hida proved as pragmatic as ever, reorganizing around two areas of focus. First, with the growing importance of science and technology, the Kaiu family became an important part of Rokugan’s development, and much greater resources were allocated to them in order to expand their operations, in mining and engineering particularly. Secondly, the opening of space exploration revealed many planets inhabited by strange and often hostile life-forms influenced by the more dangerous Spirit Realms, occasionally including Jigoku. This gave renewed purpose to the Crab, who took to the stars to fight against the most dangerous and inhuman species, as well as establishing gigantic mining and construction operations for weapons and defense development. Long used to hardship and difficult conditions, the Crab adapted very well to exploring strange new environments, and became a force to be reckoned with in the Empire of Emerald Stars. 

    Unsurprisingly, the greatest number of systems controlled by the Crab are at the ‘southern’ border of the Empire, where there are also many barren worlds where unfortunate incidents have happened. The ever paranoid Crab maintain close watch over the area, wary of possibly sinister forces at work. Their core system, unimaginatively named Hida Prime, holds several moons and planets of great mineral value, which have been put to good use for the production of ships and weapons. Kyuden Hida Prime, a gigantic orbital stronghold located above the largest solid planet, is the center of Crab activities in the galaxy, and quite possibly impregnable. It orbits a planet known as Inferno, a place of extremely high temperatures and toxic atmosphere, populated by a variety of creatures which draw their influence from Gaki-do, Toshigoku, and more rarely Jigoku. The Kuni have developed a process which allows them to turn the already massive radiant cannons of Kyuden Hida Prime into orbital jade strikes able to annihilate all traces of corrupted life in a radius measured in miles. The fact that the creatures still keep fighting back is a testament to the danger they represent, but the surrounding moons are so rich with rare minerals that the Crab would never give up the place. Secondary systems include Hida Secundus, virtually identical to Hida prime if smaller in size, and Hiruma prime, which holds the busiest Crab spaceport in the northern section of the galaxy.
11/07/2023 11:52:00 AM | Category: | 0 comments

The Age of Space Exploration
The universe beyond the confines of the world of Rokugan is nothing like ancient samurai might have imagined. It is at once vastly more horrible and unimaginably more wondrous than any mortal mind could ever have grasped without experiencing it firsthand. Centuries ago, the discovery that other worlds existed beyond Rokugan caused enormous discord among the people of the Empire. The theological ramifications alone were almost enough to cause a complete breakdown of society, and a brief but very intense schism erupted between the various religious viewpoints. This conflict, known as the War of the Tao might have raged on far longer than it did if not for the Emperor of that era. Unwilling or perhaps unable to quell the theological warfare taking place across the land, the Emperor instead funded advances in magical theory and technology that permitted the observation of these distant other worlds. Although this project took nearly a decade to complete, a decade in which war threatened to rip the Empire into many smaller nations, the endeavor was ultimately successful. The nearest planetary neighbor to Rokugan was observed clearly, and the most powerful shugenja in the Empire collaborated on a ritual that allowed them to make very rudimentary contact with the spirits of that world. Their conclusion was that this hot and verdant planet was closely tied to the Spirit Realm of Chikushudo, a reflection of that realm in a manner not much different from the most undeveloped regions of Rokugan such as the Shinomen Mori. This observation allowed the various theologies of Rokugan to accommodate the reality of other worlds with their theological beliefs, and the reigning theory that each alien planet is a manifestation of the Spirit Realms in differing proportions persists to this day. With this peace of mind (whether real or manufactured) attained, the Empire returned to peace and the Great Clans began looking outward in a policy of expansion that continues to this day. 

    The vast interstellar expansion of the Empire of Rokugan has been made possible by the development of an extremely powerful magical ritual, first created by the Phoenix Clan. Thousands of years ago, the rare precursor of this spell was known to many as Walking the Way, in which a single shugenja could create a tunnellike conduit linking two physical locations and a traveler could walk through it, ensuring they were in no danger from environmental difficulties or enemy attacks during this travel. The current spell that operates on the same principle, known as Opening the Way, can require up to one hundred shugenja to cast depending upon the size of the vessel being affected. It opens a similar conduit, but one of vast size that massive spacecraft can enter. This spell allows for immeasurably vast distances to be covered in short amounts of time, essentially giving the Rokugani the ability to move their vessels at speeds faster than light. 

    The state-of-the-art spacecraft currently employed by the fleets of the Great Clans is without question the Katana-class battlecruiser. With its sleek lines and a shape reminiscent of the weapon whose name it bears, the Katana is present in the fleets of all clans, altho ugh the numbers fielded vary greatly due to the vast resources and manpower necessary to create and maintain such craft. At the bare minimum, however, almost every family in each Great Clan maintains at least one of these magnificent ships as its flagship. (A few rare exceptions do occur, such as the Tsuruchi family.) 

    If the Katana is the grand example of spacecraft prowess, it is only fitting that the Wakizashi-class light cruiser is the workhorse. Far and away the most numerous ship found in the fleets of Rokugan, the Wakizashi is slightly less than half the size of a Katana but requires only a fraction of its crew. They are exceptionally efficient vessels, able to traverse known space much quicker than other comparable vessels, and easily modified to serve a number of purposes. The Unicorn have several Wakizashi which serve as light carriers, for example, while the Crab reinforce them with additional armor and weapons to serve a heavier combat role than they normally fulfill in other fleets. 

    Beyond these two models of cruiser, there is a great variety of smaller ships that still generally fall under the category of cruiser. These vary widely in design and function, and many clans have their own particular ship types unique to them. One of the most prevalent is the Atakebune-class cruiser, a smaller ship utilized by the Mantis Clan. The Atakebune are the smallest vessel that can bear the name cruiser, and are remarkably swift craft capable of operating both in space and also in atmospheric conditions. In particular, the Atakebune excel at aquatic operations, and it is not uncommon for large numbers of them to travel through space together and then descend into the oceans of a distant world to harvest specific resources. At the other end of the frequency scale, the Scorpion are rumored to have a light cruiser with advanced stealth technology and unrivaled surveillance abilities, although this may be just a rumor to explain away the clan’s superior intelligence-gathering. 

    The majority of spacecraft that are too small to classify as cruisers are simple transports, used to move goods throughout the many star systems of the Empire. Most are quite simple, little more than interstellar barges. Small single-pilot combat craft also exist and are a vital component of any fleet, and used to great effect during large-scale battles. Much as with cruisers, a great variety of these fighter-ships exist, with many unique models employed by individual clans. The most common form is the Tanto-class combat spacecraft, a ship used in one design or another in every known fleet in the Empire. These ships are unable to access faster-than-light travel and are generally dependent upon larger ships to ferry them through space to engagements. The sole known exception to this are the slightly larger vessels used by the Unicorn Clan. Nearly half again as large as a Tanto, these ships – the Baraunghar class – employ both a pilot and a single shugenja. The shugenja is able to use a variant of Opening the Way to allow these ships to make short faster-than-light jumps, which gives the Unicorn a distinct advantage. 

    Carriers are the least numerous of large-scale spacecraft, and most clans only employ a small number. Although they vary in size, carriers are typically at least as large as a cruiser, with the largest of them exceeding the scale of Katana-class heavy battlecruisers. These vessels are the Daikyu-class carriers, ships of such enormous size that many clans choose not to employ them at all. The Tsuruchi family of the Mantis Clan has one as their flagship in place of a Katana, and the Phoenix and Crane are known to utilize them as well. Each Daikyu is capable of fielding several hundred Tanto-class ships or the equivalent. Smaller variants of the Daikyu include the Yumi (the most common class of carrier) and the much smaller Hankyu, which can carry only a single squadron of fighters. 

    The void of space is an eerie place to the Rokugani, despite that the Ishiken of the Phoenix Clan insist it is distinct from the Void of the Five Elements. It is not occupied by spacecraft alone. Rare indeed is an inhabited world without at least one major orbital facility, and these massive constructs often fulfill the roles once taken by opulent ancestral estates or mighty war-fortresses. The largest stations, able to accommodate multiple cruisers simultaneously and with room for thousands of residents, are often referred to as Kyuden in imitation of Rokugan’s past. It is exceptionally rare for a system to have more than one of these behemoths, and most systems have none simply because the majority of settled star systems do not see enough traffic to warrant such a massive facility. Much more common are the Shiro, smaller stations which can accommodate only a single cruiser at a time. The Shiro is the standard space station, and only the most lightly populated or tactically unimportant systems do not have at least one. Finally, there are numerous smaller stations which lack the capacity to dock a cruised, serving as monitoring posts or orbital defense platforms; these go by many different names, although Torid-e is the most common.
11/06/2023 02:36:00 PM | Category: | 0 comments

Personal Technology in the Era of the Emerald Stars
    The only thing more surprising than the amount samurai culture has changed over two thousand years is the amount of samurai culture that has not changed. Most of the closely held beliefs samurai embraced during the dawn of the Iweko Dynasty thousands of years ago have changed somewhat, evolving in different ways to deal with the massive changes and new discoveries Rokugan has encountered in the intervening years… but few have disappeared outright. The Code of Bushido in particular has changed almost not at all, although the interpretation of the different Tenets of the Code are quite a bit different among certain clans. And of course warfare, the ultimate duty of all samurai, has changed immensely yet remained fundamentally the same. 

    At the start of the Iweko Dynasty, ranged combat was an essential aspect of all samurai training but was still considered largely secondary to the perfection of the art of melee combat (especially with the sword). In the era of the Celestial Empire, however, the balance between the two has largely reversed. Ranged combat is now an absolutely essential component of all forms of warfare, and of course the only means of combat when conducting fleet actions against enemies in space. However, the sacred status of melee combat still exists. Every samurai still carries a katana and wakizashi, the sacrosanct symbols of the samurai caste. The essential techniques used to fight with these weapons remains the same, but the materials and technology used to create them have changed dramatically, resulting in weapons that would seem godlike to the samurai of ancient Rokugan. Even an average samurai now carries a blade of steel encased in an aura of radiant energy, and the wealthiest and highest ranking members of the samurai class wield blades forged from the metals found in the heart of collapsed stars, their incredible mass offset by magical blessings which make them as light as the average sword. 

    As weaponry has advanced with the development of metallurgy and the harnessing of radiant energy, so too has armor been forced to advance in order to maintain its usefulness. Ironically, the armor most widely used during the days of the Celestial Empire is only as successful at stopping melee attacks as it was in millennia past, but the ceremony of utilizing it remains. Most armor is composed of astonishingly thin layers of blended metals and ceramics, and often feels no heavier or more restrictive than a particularly heavy cloth. However, it is also encased in a field of radiant energy, making it more likely to deflect a direct shot or a katana blow. This alone is part of the reason why melee combat is still a part of Rokugani warfare, since ranged weapons are not guaranteed a kill against properly equipped samurai.
11/04/2023 02:29:00 PM | Category: | 0 comments

The True State of the Galaxy
    While the state of affairs within the boundaries of the Empire is as good as can reasonably be expected, there is a great deal amiss beyond its borders, far more than any samurai truly realizes. The region of space to the ‘south’ of the Empire is stripped bare of resources because another alien empire has already laid claim to everything of value, leaving once-verdant worlds in a state of almost complete desolation. This empire is smaller than that of Rokugan, moving constantly and occupying only a single system at a time, but it is warlike in a manner the Rokugani have yet to experience in another culture. Ironically, it is their rampant warlike nature and raging xenophobia that is their greatest similarity to the people of the Rokugani Empire, yet it is also this which will set them against the samurai with incredible fervor and passion. In terms of setting and campaign structure, this alien empire can be seen as a replacement for the hostile gaijin of the canonical Rokugani setting. Alternatively, they can become a vessel for the power of Jigoku to wage war against the samurai, either as directly controlled vassals, willing accomplices, or simply dupes and distractions to avoid the Empire realizing that another Day of Thunder is coming. (If Nazo is being employed in a campaign as the Champion of Jigoku, he will almost certainly deliberately provoke a confrontation with these beings in order to conceal his true agenda.) 

    The power of Jigoku, the Realm of Evil, has been largely dormant since the last and definitive defeat of the Shadowlands some five hundred years ago when the Festering Pit of Fu Leng was sealed forever. The demons of Jigoku have been biding their time since then, waiting for an opportunity to unleash their Spirit Realm’s war on the mortal world once again; the ancient Law of Daigotsu that restrained their actions has long since ended, of course. They have found a new weapon in a long-forgotten race of creatures: the Scarabs. The Scarabs were originally demons in the legends of the Ivory Kingdoms and the Senpet, encountered by Rokugan only in the Colonies of the late twelfth century and so quickly destroyed that they were but a footnote to the many other dangers of that place. However, their unique abilities make them far more dangerous in the fourth millennium. Scarabs look like humanoid man-sized versions of their namesake, covered in chitin and possessing large cutting claws at the end of each leg. They are surprisingly intelligent, and their complex mandibles give them fine manipulation ability. Their most dangerous aspect, however, is their ability to turn a human being into one of them in a matter of hours through a gruesome infection process. Considering the vast numbers of citizens in the Empire of Rokugan, the Scarabs can potentially spread at an incredible rate and pose an existential danger to all, even the Spider. Naturally Jigoku fully intends to unleash such a danger, and the loss of Hida Sedundus is only the first step in this campaign. 

    Finally, in preparation for the impending Day of Thunder, a terrible occurrence has taken place in an uncharted solar system far from anything the Empire has ever encountered. An ancient star on the brink of collapse has combined with a sinister ritual conducted by unknown parties (perhaps human, perhaps alien) to open a gateway to the Realm of Evil on a scale unprecedented in human history. The gateway is of such immense size that unthinkably large demonic entities, previously restricted to the depths of Jigoku, are now able to cross into the mortal realm. These creatures are as far beyond mere oni as the oni are above goblins, and they hunger for the destruction of all life, leaving only an empty universe ready to be filled with their spawn.
11/03/2023 02:26:00 PM | Category: | 0 comments

The State of the Galaxy
    The Empire of Rokugan in the fourth millennium is known by many names depending on who is asked. The most common variants are the Empire of the Emerald Stars and the Empire of the Celestial Heavens, although the various cultures Rokugan has encountered and defeated have much less flattering names for it. The Empire spans a substantial portion of the known universe, at present controlling fifty-seven ritually sanctified solar systems, with perhaps half that many again in as-yet-unconsecrated systems that are in the process of being settled. The era of history when Great Clans controlled simple provinces are long gone, and all clans control at least two solar systems completely, with some of the larger clans controlling many more than that. Some of the sanctified systems on record with the Imperial bureaucracy are small, with only one or two planets, devoid of life-sustaining conditions but rich in mineral resources, while others are enormous, with a dozen or more worlds, literally scores of moons, and multiple planets capable of sustaining life. 

    The Empire of Rokugan is sustained by an almost inconceivably vast administrative organization that is generally referred to as the Imperial bureaucracy. This organization is led and principally staffed by a half-dozen Imperial families, all of whom are blessed to serve the Emperor directly without need of a Clan Champion to stand as an intermediary. Millions strong, each of these families serves its own purpose within the bureaucracy, although crossover between them is common. The significant tithes supplied by the Great Clans and the Minor Clan Alliance ensure the bureaucracy never wants for funding, and indeed its employment of conscripts and volunteers from the ranks of the clans is entirely a matter of heredity rather than necessity; were it to prove necessary, the Imperial families could assemble a fleet capable of challenging even the largest Great Clan, although it would take time to accomplish such a thing and it has never been necessary to do so since Rokugan first took to the stars. 

 Emperor Iweko CXII has been upon the throne for eighty-four years, and despite his advanced years he yet appears claim this is a sign of a strong manifestation of divinity within him, for his blessed ancestor Iweko I ruled for nearly a century before abdicating the throne. Others are more realistic, and refrain from referring to the advanced state of preservative medicine and the ministrations of shugenja out of courtesy and duty. Iweko CXII is a distant ruler, but his judgment is generally regarded as both wise and fair, and there have been no significant uprisings against his reign. He has a minimalist policy with regards to intervention in clan affairs, and on many occasions has permitted hostilities between Great Clans to run their course unless they reach the point of impacting the overall stability and prosperity of the Empire as a whole.

The Emperor is represented most often by his trusted vassal, the Emerald Champion. The man called Nazo is something of an enigma in Rokugani society since his ascension to the position of Emerald Champion some twenty-one years ago. He attended the Emerald Tournament under a veil of secrecy, and his true identity and clan of origin (if any) are unknown to all save the Emperor himself. Most assume he is of Scorpion birth due to his tendency to wear an all-concealing mask, but his reign has certainly shown the Scorpion Clan no favoritism. Described at best as meddlesome and at worst as tyrannical, Nazo takes an extremely heavy-handed and interventionist approach to the execution of his duties, in contrast to his Emperor. His tactics might be less troublesome to the Great Clans were it not for the incredible power at his immediate disposal in the form of his personal flagship, the Emerald Blade. A prototype constructed in absolute secrecy, the Emerald Blade is unique. It is half again as large as a Katana-class cruiser, carrying enough firepower to rival no less than three of those most dangerous craft. The forces of the Jade Champion are housed aboard the ship as well, and their power and magical prowess lend the Emerald Blade protective shields that are vastly superior to anything  commanded by other contemporary craft.

Thus far, no intelligent life has been found within the  Empire that is not ultimately native to or descended from the various Spirit Realms. However, this is not to say there are not populated unaligned planets on the periphery of the Empire’s border. Some are filled with outcasts from  the Empire, those who wish to find their own fate and to escape the rule of a distant and unknowing Emperor. For the most part, these individuals flock to planets of little value to the Empire, and as such they are usually left alone; the effort of returning them to the Empire would exceed any possible benefit for doing so. The handful of profitable planets that are not claimed by the Empire are those ceded to the other cultures from the homeworld of Rokugan in exchange for their vacating that world. The remnants of many cultures can be found lingering in the  border worlds under the watchful eyes of the Unicorn Clan; they include what remains of the Senpet Empire and the culture of the ancient metropolis of Medinaat-al-Salaam, as well as a mere handful of surviving immortal Ashalan, among others.

    The Empire of the Emerald Stars is a vast region of space, but there is an even greater expanse beyond its borders that has proven more difficult to explore. The entire ‘eastern’ edge of the Empire is dominated by an incomprehensibly vast nebula that wreaks havoc on the systems of any spacecraft that draws too near to it, much less actually enters its boundaries. Conversely, the ‘western’ border of the Empire is a strangely empty expanse of space bereft of star systems. The master navigators of the Moshi family estimate it would take enormous resources to allow a ship of any size to cross this gulf of space and reach whatever systems might exist on the opposite side. None have yet attempted this nigh-impossible feat, though there is currently a race of sorts between the Unicorn and Mantis to be the first to find a means of doing so. 

    It is along the ‘northern’ side of the Empire that most exploration continues. Because of the highly competitive behavior of the Great Clans in this regard, recent Imperial edicts forbid exploration of any systems that have not first been examined and properly sanctified by the priests of the Imperial Exploration Corps. Once systems have been opened to exploration, there is usually a brief but intense period of conquest by various clans, often with quite a bit of skirmishing between their expeditionary forces, before planets are fully claimed. In centuries past it was the custom for clans to be permitted to lay claim to entire planets or even whole solar systems, but the current process of exploration generally does not allow a clan to claim more than a single continent on a planetary body at a time, although smaller lunar bodies are allowed to be taken as a whole if the clan has sufficient forces present to defend its claim.

    The systems beyond the Empire’s ‘southern’ border are both widely scattered and largely dead and valueless. Few have any sort of sustainable atmosphere, and other than some meager mineral resources, nothing of any significant value has been discovered along the ‘southern’ border in almost a century. Exploration in this region has slowed almost to a halt, as none of the clans wish to expend resources that could better be spent seeking holdings of value on the ‘northern’ border instead. This point has been driven home rather forcefully of late due to the disappearance and destruction of numerous small expeditionary forces in the southern regions. No one is sure as of yet exactly what is taking place there.
11/02/2023 02:05:00 PM | Category: | 0 comments

Empire of the Emerald Stars
    Isawa Tsutai fell, his mind lost in the void as he spiraled head over heels without any sense of direction. He could not remember how far he had fallen, or for how long, but it seemed an eternity, and he distantly wondered if he would die upon striking the ground… assuming he ever did.
    The answer came in an impact that drove the breath from his lungs in a great gust, but he did not die. Instead he lay on the ground, wheezing and desperately trying to fill his lungs.
    “Be easy, friend,” an unfamiliar voice said. “Do not try to move too much. It will pass in a moment.”
    Tsutai’s disorientation began to pass, replaced by panic. Why was he on a stone floor, or what appeared to be a stone floor? Who was it speaking to him? He tried to get to his feet, but could not gather the strength. “Where…” he gasped, then: “Who are you?”
    “Where you are is not important at the moment,” the voice said. It spoke Rokugani, but with a strange, lilting accent that Tsutai could not place. “We will discuss that in a moment. I am Shiba Dankaro. Is there anything I can get for you? Do you require medical attention?”
    The phrase ‘medical attention’ was very strange indeed, but Tsutai did not have time to consider it. He remembered now. There had been some beast, some strange creature he did not know. It had pursued him, tearing at him with its talons. He had fled, and just when he thought his desperate flight had allowed him to escape, he had burst through some underbrush only to find himself plummeting over a cliff toward a lake impossibly far below. He remembered the pain where the thing had torn at his arm, and looked down… but his flesh was unmarked.
    “What… what is this?” He looked around, finally seeing clearly for the first time since his fall ended. He appeared to be in a simple room with walls and floor made of stone, but he could not recognize the stonework. “What is happening?”
    The man who called himself Shiba Dankaro sat next to Tsutai and smiled. He was dressed in a Rokugani kimono in Phoenix orange, but the clothing was slightly off somehow, as if small details had been misunderstood. And the material was very strange, slick-smooth, shiny. “You were exploring the Colonies,” he said. The man’s accent was still strange, still unidentifiable. “You were one of the clan’s most promising young scholars, and wrote several very important works concerning the things you and others discovered within the ruins of that land. You discovered a group of as yet unidentified creatures, intelligent yet fierce, and were chased. You fell from a cliff into a lake far below.” His smile became somewhat sad. “Your body was never recovered. It was assumed you were consumed by predators. But your work lived on for generations. You became one of the most celebrated scholars of your generation, even if only posthumously.”
    Tsutai looked at him in horror. “I… am I dead?”
    “History considers you dead long ago,” Dankaro replied. “Your loss, and the circumstances under which you were lost, is what allowed the ritual we employed to retrieve you. You are not dead, no. You yet live, and hopefully shall for quite some time. We need your unique talents, you understand.”
    Tsutai frowned and started to ask a question, then stopped. He peered at the floor beneath him. “What is this?” he demanded, glancing around. “This entire chamber is an illusion! You have entreated the kami to deceive me!”
    “Yes,” Dankaro admitted. “It was not meant to deceive you, however. It was done for your comfort. We have discovered it is better to ensure your surroundings are familiar. If you like, I can have the… illusion… removed.”
    “Yes,” Tsutai demanded instantly. “I want to see.”
    “Of course,” the other Phoenix said. “Please, try to remain calm.” He turned and nodded as if to someone unseen, and there was a great shimmering in the air, matched by a low humming sound. The stone room that surrounded them vanished as though it had never been.
    “Fortunes!” Tsutai swore, glancing all about him. “What is this? Is this metal? Some form of prison?”
    “No, not at all,” Dankaro replied. “It is metal, yes, but far from a prison cell. This is… let us call it an audience chamber. It was utilized for the ritual that brought you here. We require a smaller space for the proper preparations to be made, and I suspect you are not quite ready to see the other portions of the… the castle.”
    “You said you required my help,” Tsutai said, his confusion and disorientation now fully giving way to anger. “If you expect anything from me, anything at all, then I demand you tell me precisely what is going on at once. At once, do you hear? I will not be made a fool of!”
    “You are far from a fool, my friend,” Dankaro said. “That is why we need your help, after all. Still, if you feel you are prepared, I will accommodate you. Try to remain calm, if you can.” Again, he looked as if to someone else. “Open the viewing port, please.” There was a loud noise, a sort of whirring sound, followed by a soft hiss, and then Dankaro smiled. He gestured behind Tsutai. “Please, have a look.”
    Confused, Tsutai turned… and then recoiled. There was a large window on the wall where a moment before none had been. Or at least it appeared to be a window, but what was beyond it made no sense whatsoever. Perhaps it was a painting? “What is this? What… what am I looking at?”
    “You are looking at Rokugan, my friend,” Dankaro said softly. “Imagine for a moment you are on board a ship, a ship that could sail through the skies themselves.”
    “Do you mean like the Heavenly Kobune of Suitengu?” Tsuati had studied the history of that relic, which had carried living shugenja into the Celestial Heavens.
    “Yes, precisely,” Dankaro said, nodding. “Now, imagine we sailed so far above the land it was revealed that the Empire was merely one part of a much larger world, and that world itself was shaped like a sphere that hung perfectly in a great void, bereft of the Elements themselves.”
    Tsutai stared. “What are those small lights?” he asked weakly. “Are they stars?”
    “Some of them are other great ships like ours, sailing far above the Empire,” Dankaro said. “The others are distant stars, yes. Sisters of the Lady Amaterasu, may her soul be forever at peace.”
    Tsutai was quiet for a moment. “Are you certain I am not dead?” he asked.
    “Quite certain, yes.”
    “Then something has dramatically changed, and I have slept or perhaps wandered in the spirit realms for a long time,” Tsutai said. “Please tell me, what is the year?”
    “The year is 3122 according to the Isawa calendar,” Dankaro replied. “It is the eighty-fourth year of the reign of the one-hundred and twelfth Emperor of the Iweko Dynasty. And the Empire of Rokugan is in great danger.”
    Tsutai turned and looked at him. “From what?”
    Dankaro’s smile was very sad. “We are hoping you can help us determine exactly that,” he replied.

Rokugan in Space!

    This chapter is designed to show how far both the Rokugani setting and the L5R rules system can be pushed by those seeking unusual or alternate settings for their games. Instead of merely an alternate outcome to a canonical event, or a Rokugan sent on a different path at its origin, this chapter relocates L5R into a science-fiction setting, a hypothetical distant future in which Rokugan is a modern, powerful starfaring empire with a history stretching across more than three millennia.
11/01/2023 11:31:00 AM | Category: | 0 comments

Adventures in Rokugan
Adventures in Rokugan brings the famous setting of Legend of the Five Rings to the ever-popular ruleset of the 5th Edition SRD. Experience thrilling adventures in Rokugan like never before!

Rokugan. The Emerald Empire...

For thousands of years, the samurai of the Great Clans have served the Hantei Emperor in guiding this land’s destiny. But now, danger besets Rokugan on all sides. While the Great Clans march to war with one another, blood magic users corrupt the Empire from within, the spirits of the restless dead haunt its wilds, and to the south, hordes of foul oni batter against the Kaiu Wall, the last defense against the vile demons pillaging Rokugan.

With the Great Clans distracted on all fronts, it falls on brave warriors and adventurers to protect the common folk and fight these threats. Do you have what it takes to defeat these ancient evils and ensure the Emerald Empire stands for another thousand years?

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.
8/05/2022 06:03:00 PM | Category: | 0 comments

Legend of the Five Rings: Skirmish, Part 1
Developer Tyler Parrott Introduces a New Legend of the Five Rings Format

Alternate formats and variants are an important part of any game, giving players new ways to engage with the game and explore everything that it has to offer. Every once in a while, however, a new format comes along that offers something truly special—and today, developer Tyler Parrott is proud to introduce one such format with the Skirmish format for Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game.

 Read on for Tyler’s own thoughts on designing this format!

How I Learned to Stop Doubting My Instincts to Make a Really Fun Game

A friend who plays Legend of the Five Rings once asked me: “If you could make a second edition of L5R, what would it look like?” I didn’t put much thought into it, because when would that really happen? But some adjectives that might describe it are: tactical, challenging, and swift, a game with finite resources that each player is trying their best to maximize. It would be approachable, not overwhelming, and have very strong storytelling potential. Most of all, it would highlight the best elements of Legend of the Five Rigns: the mono no aware of the fate mechanic and the challenging strategy of conflicts.

I never would have imagined, then, that I would be writing this article in which I announce and publish a new format, Skirmish, which is the most fun I’ve ever had playing Legend of the Five Rings. This is not only my favorite version of Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game, this is one of my favorite games, period.

What is the Skirmish format, then? It is an alternate rules set for Legend of the Five Rings that presents the game as a streamlined, accessible, and most importantly, short game experience that feels fun, tactical, and meaningful. There are fewer moving parts, but there are also fewer obvious decisions. A game can be over in 20 minutes, allowing players to better learn and adapt to their opponents’ strategies. It highlights the heart of what makes the game fun without asking players to work for it. While it sacrifices perhaps 30% of the card pool in the process, it is fully compatible with each expansion that is already produced and can be played as early as today.


To empower players who wish to begin experimenting with and sharing this format, three documents are now available: a Learn to Play (13 MB) for players who have never played Legend of the Five Rings before and want to begin with the Skirmish format, a Rules Sheet (3 MB) for players who know the current “Stronghold” format well, and a set of Reference Cards (2.1 MB) that players can print and sleeve alongside their collection. These reference cards provide valuable summaries of the round structure, important phases of the game, the Skirmish ring effects, and a number of changes between the Stronghold and Skirmish formats for existing players.

As much as I would like to keep gushing about how much fun this format is to me, personally, Skirmish has also been an incredible learning experience in its development. Therefore, I would like to share some stories behind its inception and explain why Skirmish is what it is.

Legend of the Five Rings has a small, but passionate, player community. The long game length has been a hurdle for many potential new players, especially in the context of long tournaments. The many variables that a player has to track during a round makes sustained play difficult for many players, even as those variables add to the variety and depth of the game’s many compelling decision points. Legend of the Five Rings was designed to be chess, but with magical samurai, and chess is often a long, mentally involved game by design. But chess doesn’t have to be that mentally involved, if you’re a new player, because it’s easy to explain the basic rules of the game and to learn the complex strategy over time. By presenting the game’s tactical depth-via-high-complexity up front, a lot of players who wanted to play Legend of the Five Rings were turned away.

This taught me an important lesson: if a game can be easily understood, it can reach a much wider audience.


This is why, during the summer of 2019, I started exploring the idea of changing the rules of Legend of the Five Rings to ease the learning curve. In gathering my data, I made a number of observations about the challenges that new players faced when learning the game:


  • There are a lot of card types that all work slightly differently.
  • Players are immediately presented with a lot of cards they can play, which requires a lot of reading and comprehension effort.
  • Five ring effects that new players must remember makes ring selection—and thus conflict declaration—incredibly difficult.
  • There are a lot of automated game steps that are easy to forget.
  • There are a lot of triggered abilities that are easy to forget.
  • The number of decision points in a game—when every decision is made between several options—makes getting through a player’s first game a slow process.
  • The outcome of a game often is the result of accumulated small decisions made throughout the game, which are invisible to new players. This produces the feeling of “I lost, but I don’t know why,” which discourages repeat play.

My goal with any major rules update would be to keep as much of the core identity as possible, while cutting what it didn’t need. The obvious first step was the automated game steps. What would the game look like without unopposed honor loss, the Imperial Favor, fate on unclaimed rings, or discarding cards in broken provinces? Other changes were explored in this process: if players had too many options, was there a way to further incentivize low bids and move away from “Bid 5 meta”? Could the fate mechanic be better communicated so that it wasn’t such a challenge for new players?

One issue with making major rules changes is that they would invalidate existing cards and potentially alienate the players who currently love the game—if I do that, and fail to capture a new audience, I would only succeed at shrinking the game’s audience. When I decided to implement a major rules update to the standard Stronghold format at the end of 2019, I erred on the side of changing less rather than changing more. That update succeeded at cleaning up the game’s rules, but did not succeed at making it easier to learn. To do so would require fundamentally overhauling the game’s rules, and that was a risk I didn’t believe would pay off.

Little did I know, there were some innovative players in Canada who wanted to play a game of Legend of the Five Rings with their sealed 60-card Dynasty Packs.


At Winter Court this past November, I ran side events for a new draft format that I had created earlier in the year. While I was running these drafts, some Canadian players told me they had invented a wacky version of Legend of the Five Rings that could be played in five minutes. Considering a game of normally takes 45–90 minutes, I was both interested and dubious. Could a five-minute version of Legend of the Five Rings be fun?

It turns out, yes, it absolutely can be. Not only was this Battle Box format a functional five-minute game, it was actively very fun, and it succeeded at cutting most of the things that I had outlined as hurdles for new players. This was a game that anyone could pick up and start playing quickly and feel like they (mostly) knew what they were doing. And despite my trepidation about players not wanting to play a simplified version of the game, Battle Box was a breakout hit among the community throughout the weekend.

While I enjoyed playing it several times over the course of the 20 minutes that the Canadian players demoed the format with me, its highly randomized nature (which sees both players playing from the same 100-card dynasty and 100-card conflict decks) made it difficult to stay hooked. It was a fun distraction, but it lacked a lot of the depth that made standard Legend of the Five Rings so attractive.

Nevertheless, Battle Box taught me another critically important lesson that set me down the path towards making Skirmish, which is a lesson I will carry with me for the rest of my game design career: if you make a game that is fundamentally fun, it will create its own audience.


If I were to make a game whose “target audience” was “new players who want a simpler and faster version of Legend of the Five Rings,” and it was fun enough, even existing players would be willing to give it a chance and find it enjoyable. At that point, the idea of a “target audience” really doesn’t matter. I could make the version of Legend of the Five Rings that I had wanted back in the summer: easy to learn, but hard to master. And if people wanted to play this new format, then perhaps they could introduce it to their friends, and now their friends could become Legend of the Five Rings players as well.

After Winter Court, I believed that “20 Minute L5R” could be a success. But what would it actually look like? The answer to this question required months of brainstorming and iteration, beginning with the foundation that Battle Box had provided. As that story is a whole separate article on its own, I will be exploring it next week in another designer journal. If you are interested in reading a discussion of why I made each of the changes from the Stronghold format to Skirmish, then I encourage you to return next Friday to learn about it!

I believe Skirmish has a bright future, and I’m super excited to share it with the community. But just to be clear, Skirmish is not a replacement for the game that people have been playing for the past couple of years. It is a format that I hope ends up being an equivalent and enjoyable alternative for people who may not want to play the Stronghold format, or for longtime players who want the ability to play Legend of the Five Rings in 10-30 minutes.

Skirmish has been both an invaluable learning experience for me and one of the most fun games I’ve played in recent memory. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have!

   ~Tyler Parrott
3/20/2020 06:51:00 PM | Category: , , , | 0 comments

KM: Migeru
Part I:  Core Identity

1.  Which clan's lands did your character grow in?

Migeru was born and grew up in the Scorpion lands.

Ring Increase:  +1 Air
Skill Increase:  Skulduggery
Status:  24

2.  Who is your Family?

Migeru was originally from the Shosuro family of the Scorpion.  His family was pretty influencial.

Ring Increase:  +1 Water
Skill Increase:  +1 Performance
Glory:  40
Starting Wealth:  6 koku

3.  Where did you learn their skills?

Migeru was a playful child but he followed the ways of his family.  He entered the Shosuro Infiltrator School.

Rings:  +1 Air, +1 Fire
Starting Skills:  +1 Fitness, +1 Martial Arts (Melee), +1 Martial Arts (Unarmed), +1 Performance
Honor:  30
Techniques Available:  Kata, Rituals, Shuji
Starting Techniques:
* Ninjutsu:  Deadly Sting
* Shiji:  Sensational Distraction
The Path of Shadows (School Ability): While performing an Attack action against a target who is Compromised, Incapacitated, Unconscious, or unaware of your presence, treat the damage and deadliness of your weapon as being increased by your school rank.

4.  How does your character stand out within their school?

Migeru acts friendly as expected by his parents but at times he was not really happy about it

Adaptability, friendliness, awareness
Ring Increase: +1 Water

Part III: Honor and Glory

5. What is your past?

During one assignment, his group underestimated their target who turned out to be a majo tsukai.  He survived the encounter but has been infected by the Shadowland Taint.

Past:  Failed an assignement and got tainted because of it.

6. What does your character long for?

Migeru longs for normalcy.  He yearns that the Shadowland Taint be cleared but has accepted that it will not go away soon.

Ninjo:  Be cleansed of the Shadowland Taint.

7.  skipped

8. What does your character think of Bushido?

Divergent.  Bushido is useless against that which is really important to self.

Bonus skill: +1 Seafaring

Part IV: Strengths and Weaknesses

9. What is your character’s greatest accomplishment so far?

Migeru has successfully hidden the existence of his Taint and has become used to approaching people as if it really did not exist.

Distinction advantage: Dangerous Allure (Fire)

10. What holds your character back the most in life?

The Taint has affected Migeru that he cannot feel anything physically.  He cannot deny the effects it has done to him and he longs for true companionship.

Adversity disadvantage:  Shadowland Taint (Earth)

11. What activity makes your character feel at peace?

He plays the flute.

Passion Advantage: Playfulness (Air)

12. What concern, fear, or foible troubles your character the most?

Anxiety disadvantage: Irrepressible Flirtation (Earth)

13. Who has your character learned the most from during their life?

A Kasen spirit (Khipapboi) has been tutoring him on how to control his Taint

1 Mentor Disadvantage --> Haunted
1 Mentor Skill  --> +1 Theology

Part V:  Personality and Behaviour

14. What detail do others find most striking about your character?

He has above average scorpion features which he does not keep behind a mask.  He is usually playful to the point that he might break decorum.

15. How does your character react to stressful situations?

When stressed out, his first reaction is to talk to himself.  His mentor sometimes whispers back to him.

16. What are your character’s preexisting relationships with other clans, families, organizations, and traditions?

His yearning to be free of his family's pretentious care has forced Migeru to join up with the crew of the Karasubofu.  He has invested in a pair of mantis escrima weapons during his tenure with them.

Part VI: Ancestry and Family

17. How would your character’s parents describe them?

His parents were well known courtiers and business people.  They tried to instill the lessons to their child but he continues to rebel more so after they ignored the fact that he is tainted.

Bonus Skill: +1 Martial Arts (Ranged)

18. Who was your character named to honor?

A Shosuro ancestor once infiltrated a Maho Tsukai cabal and was able to steal some of their sacred text.  With the help of his mentor, Migeru was able to access these.

Samurai Heritage result: Stolen Knowledge (Honor -5), Maho ritual:  Mark of Desecration

19. What is your character’s personal name?

Migeru or Migu.

Part VII: Death

20. How should your character die?

Burning out his Shadowland Taint to unleash it against his enemies (which he will hopefully defeat) and then rise up as one of the Tainted.

* * *

Migeru

Rings and Ring Values:

Air 3
Earth 1
Fire 2
Water 3
Void 1

Skills and the Dice they add

Artisan
Martial
- Fitness 1
- Martial Arts (Melee) 1
- Martial Arts (Ranged) 1
- Martial Arts (Unarmed) 1
Scholar
-Theology 1
Social
- Performance 2
Trade
- Seafaring 1
- Skulduggery 1

Derived Attributes

Endurance:  6
Composure:  8
Focus:  5
Vigilance:  3

Void Points:  1

Honor:  25
Glory:  40
Status:  24

Equipment:   Traveling clothes, traveling pack, two flutes/escrima sticks/ninja-to.

* * *

Experience

Rings:
Earth 2
Void 2

Endurance:  8
Composure:  10

Skills:
Skulduggery 2

Techniques
Kata - Soaring Slice
Kata - Striking as Air
Ninjutsu - Veiled Menage Style
Ninjutsu - Skulk

Nemur
1/02/2019 06:07:00 PM | Category: , | 0 comments

Alternative Campaign Style: Fate of the Realm
Rokugan is a land where supernatural powers run rampant and, sometimes, provincial intrigues are truly not the greatest threat in a story. GMs and players who wish to explore stories about champions banding together to save cities, provinces, or even the world itself can certainly do so in the Emerald Empire, as the setting is rich with cosmological threats.


Assumptions of this Playstyle This playstyle assumes that the player characters are samurai who are tasked with dealing with a suitably epic problem—or series of problems—that threaten multiple
clans, and perhaps even the Empire itself. Dangers such as massive Shadowlands armies, bloodspeaker sects, lunar cultists, and other, more insidious threats create story opportunities for characters to undertake epic quests to protect their homes and loved ones. This playstyle mirrors more “classic” fantasy adventures of great deeds, mighty heroes, and dire foes to be vanquished.
There are numerous locations in Rokugan where this sort of campaign fits most naturally. The Shadowlands encompass a vast realm surrounding the Festering Pit of Fu Leng, and this region is the grave to countless heroes.

The Shinomen Forest is an untamed wildland within the Empire itself, to which no clan lays claim and in which primal beings still stir. Even within smaller patches of wilds, there are strange and dangerous beings. Not all spirits are friendly to humans, and some see the expansion of towns into the wild lands as an affront to nature. The PCs might need to find compromise between ancient forces and humanity so that both can survive and thrive.

Character Creation Alterations

Apply the following alterations to the Game of Twenty Questions (see page 41) for each character:

Question 5: What is your character’s appointed quest?

Instead of a giri, each PC has a quest: a task given them by their lord, by their own will, by supernatural forces, or perhaps by destiny itself. This task might be to set something right in the universe, recover or destroy a magical artifact, seal a particular evil entity again for another ten thousand years, or face a particular foe who threatens the entire realm. As with a giri, a character’s  quest should be able to conflict with their ninjō, and sets the means by which the character will strive for glory. At the discretion of the group and the GM, all characters might share a quest, or they might have different quests with overlapping objectives.

Extra Experience: After character creation, each character receives 30 XP to spend on advancements.

Nemuranai

Nemuranai, meaning “unsleeping” in reference to the object’s kami, are miraculous artifacts of spiritual power. They are items that, through centuries of use, miraculous origins, or other incredible events, have attained power and even a degree of awareness. While they can appear in any campaign, they are usually vanishingly rare, accessible to PCs only under exceptional circumstances. In this
campaign style, however, each PC chooses one nemuranai with an appropriate sealed invocation of their choice that they possess as their quest begins. They must also determine how the item relates to their quest:


Awakened Weapon

A weapon nemuranai has the standard profile, plus:

  • Its deadliness is increased by +2, and it has the Durable and Sacred qualities.
  • It has a distinguishing quirk with narrative effects.
  • It has one Attack or Scheme action invocation of Rank 1–3 sealed within it. Once per game session as an action, the wielder may perform this invocation, substituting the skill used to wield the weapon for Theology.

Awakened Armor

An armor nemuranai has the standard profile, plus:

  • It has physical and supernatural resistance +2, and it has the Durable and Sacred qualities.
  • It has a distinguishing quirk with narrative effects.
  • It has one Support or Movement action invocation of Rank 1–3 sealed within it. Once per game session as an action, the wearer may perform this invocation, substituting Fitness for Theology.


Awakened Item

An item nemuranai has the standard profile, plus:

  • It has the Durable and Sacred qualities.
  • It has a distinguishing quirk with narrative effects.
  • It has one invocation of Rank 1–4 sealed within it. Once per game session as an action, the holder may perform this invocation, substituting Meditation (or other skill of the GM’s choice) for Theology. While wielding this item, the character adds a kept  set to an  result to their Theology checks using sealed invocation’s Element.
1/01/2019 03:21:00 PM | Category: | 0 comments

Karasubofu Maru

The Lost Sword of Doji Yasurugi is a story of vengeful yorei, ghosts of sea-lost sailors, whose honor has been destroyed by an unwelcome fate.  With  the appearance of walking dad in the Mantis seas, the legend of a cursed nemuranai has resurfaced.  A ronin, dishonored and forsaken, may hold the secret to discovering the final fate of one of the Crane Clan's most valuable artifacts.




Instead of the samurai of the Great Clans and their intrigues and struggles, this playstyle focuses on the forgotten heroes and villains who live on the outskirts of society and struggle to survive in a dangerous world.

While defending a village from bandits, fleeing the consequences of one’s actions, or scraping together a few bu for one’s next meal may not be the stuff of epic poems, it is just as harrowing for those who live it.

Assumptions of this Playstyle

This sort of story hinges on the idea that the player characters are outsiders in the broad scope of society. They are not notable political actors as the default playstyle assumes, and they are not likely to be given any political power they do not seize with their own hands. If they are samurai, they have likely forsaken or lost their titles and become rōnin, but they may also be merchants, ashigaru, peasants, and burakumin.

As a result, the company is often much rougher than the high courts of the Emerald Empire—courtesy is still important to some people, but being discourteous is only as dangerous as the person you have chosen to insult.

Character Creation Alterations

Apply the following alterations to the Game of Twenty Questions (see page 41) for each character:
Question 1: Which clan’s lands did your character grow up in? The mechanical choice is the same, except that your status is a value of your choice from 20 to 24. After all, the peasants and samurai of a given region share many cultural values (even if most samurai are loathe to admit it).
Question 2: Who is your family? Unless you are a fallen samurai, your family falls far beneath the notice of the Great Clans—you might have no family but the comrades you choose for yourself. Use the Rokugani peasant family above unless you are a fallen samurai, in which case choose a family as normal.
Question 3: Where did you learn their skills? Unless you are a fallen samurai, use the Worldly Rōnin school on page 87. If you are a fallen samurai, use a school package as normal, but your starting honor is 30.
All characters use the following starting outfit: Traveling clothes, any 1 weapon of rarity 7 or lower, traveling pack, any 1 item of rarity 5 or lower.
Question 5: What is your past? Instead of selecting a giri, select a past. A past is the set of circumstances that led you to life on the fringes of society. Your past might be a grim reputation as a warrior that you seek to outrun, circumstances of birth that forced you to be a rōnin, or the enemies who pursue you.
Your past should meet the same rough criteria as giri—something that can clash with your desires, and can create drama for your character that you will enjoy during the campaign. To attain glory, you must overcome your past, but the more glory you acquire, the more likely your past is to come crashing down upon you.
Question 7: Skip this question.
Question 18: Who was your character named after? Unless you are a fallen samurai, instead of rolling on Table 2–1: Samurai Heritage (see page 96), choose 1 additional item of rarity 5 or lower that you inherited from the family member, friend, or mentor who gave you your name or outlook on life.
12/31/2018 06:47:00 PM | Category: | 0 comments

Imperial Gazetter
Iconic Locations in the Emerald Empire Setting Sourcebook



“Honored samurai, please present to me your travel papers.”
   –Matsu Hideji, Magistrate of the Lion Clan

The scent of grilled fish and soy, punctuated by notes of incense from the local temple, mixes with the earthy odor of the canal. Riverboats and pleasure barges float beneath the great arched bridge, thronged with pedestrians in cotton kimono, bright coats, and wicker hats. On the main deck of the bridge, peasants hurry to make way for the carts carrying cargo or rich merchants, or the rare palanquin shielding a noble from the rabble. Narrow shops and stalls line the streets, with colorful banners and lanterns overhanging the road. Beyond the walled district high atop the hill, the Emperor’s own palace rises into the clouds, an incredible ten stories tall. Those who attempt to gain entry to the Forbidden City uninvited or carrying ill intent are said to become hopelessly lost—you must trust that the Emperor is expecting you on behalf of your lord.



Travel to the famed palaces, cities, and harbor towns of Rokugan with Emerald Empire, a setting sourcebook for the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game. Each Great Clan molds their holdings in their own image, from the shadowed alleys of the City of Lies to the magnificent palaces of Kyūden Doji, to the tent city of Khanbulak that straddles the border between Rokugan and the plains beyond. In this article, we’ll preview some of the specific locations detailed in the book, and how Game Masters can use them in their own campaigns!

Your Guide to the Emerald Empire

What challenges and intrigues await you in some of the most storied places in the Empire? Will your samurai be tempted by the pleasures of the Licensed Quarter in Ryokō Owari, or will you join the bands of rōnin protecting the City of the Rich Frog? Will you request the spirits’ blessing at the Shrine of the Ki-Rin, or attempt the journey to the legendary High House of Light? What manner of scoundrels and pirates might you encounter as you travel along the River of Gold, and what dangers lurk beneath the canopy of the Shinomen Forest? Emerald Empire highlights these and many more iconic locations, providing GMs with a stage on which to set their stories. A full-page map of Rokugan showcases the locations of the over twenty-four entries highlighted in the gazetteer sections of Emerald Empire.

Each location description includes an overview of the location’s founding, its current political landscape, and its historical or cultural importance to the clan or Empire. Descriptions of the holding’s architecture, condition, and nearby geography provide the GM with cues to include when narrating the sights, scents, and sounds encountered by the player characters. Each section also includes a discussion of the unique cultural elements to be found in that location, as well as some of the most famous landmarks, including city districts, tea and sake  houses, gardens, and more secret holdings. The book also supplies GMs with snippets of gossip centered around each location—these can be used to lend local color to a place, or they could inspire you to spin the rumor into a plotline for your players to explore.

Each location also includes the profile of a non-player character who might serve as an ally, rival, or a mixture of both to the players. These characters serve to supplement the list of  NPCs already included in the Legend of the Five Rings Core Rulebook, now representing more specialized samurai and peasants, as well as the movers and shakers of the setting. From Go masters to acclaimed poets, city governors to guard captains, and warrior monks to tree-spirits, GMs can populate the world with dozens of interesting characters. In-depth discussions of the daily routines for different members of society also lets GMs breathe new life into their NPCs and evoke a realistic world. Finally, each location features adventure hooks to highlight the themes and secrets of a location, embroiling the PCs in a conflict that will challenge their skills and their dedication to their duty—or desires.

Cartography from the Imperial Archives
In addition to the detailed gazetteer entries for specific locations, Emerald Empire also supplies generic maps of commonly visited locations that GMs can use in any city or town. Beautifully illustrated by Francesca Baerald, these lavishly detailed floor plans are meant to inspire GMs and help them describe the setting to their players. A total of eight labeled maps in this style can be found in this setting book, including an example castle, road station, and monastery, to name but a few.

For example, the Estate of Emerald Magistrate Seppun Tatsuko showcases the layout of a mansion typically owned by members of her station. Built in the shinden-zukuri style, the multi-building, one-story complex features an entrance hall, courtyard, and audience hall to receive guests, which also doubles as a dining hall. A sweeping garden and the pavilion overlooking a pond are painstakingly maintained for the enjoyment of the magistrate and high-ranking visitors. Those who are “guests” because they are being held for trial for crimes committed against the Empire are appointed lodgings in the holding cells, watched over by a dedicated warden in a nearby guardhouse. For the family members of the magistrate and their servants, buildings offset from the main complex contain private rooms, the kitchen and larder, and the magistrate’s personal library and armory. GMs can use this map as the foundation for creating their own magistrate’s mansion, or to represent the clan or Imperial magistrate’s dwelling in the city where they’ve set their campaign.


An Invitation to Adventure

Emerald Empire provides players, GMs, and fans of the setting with a guide to Rokugan that is a true companion to the Core Rulebook. The highlighted locations serve as a springboard for GMs wishing to base their campaigns around classic setting locales, and the writeups provide insight to players whose characters might have visited or even hailed from these places. The gazetteer sections showcase the diversity within Rokugan, and how the influence of the clans and the surrounding geography can mold similar places into very different shapes. Where in the Empire will your duty take you?
12/11/2018 03:24:00 PM | Category: , | 0 comments

Enter the Shadowlands
Announcing a New Sourcebook for Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying



South of Rokugan, the foul Shadowlands fester, providing a home to horrid demons and unnatural creatures. Centuries ago, the Crab Clan built the mighty Kaiu Wall to contain these threats, but each day sees new assaults. Without samurai of courage and honor to defend against the threats of the Shadowlands, the Emerald Empire would surely fall.

Protecting Rokugan from the threats of the Shadowlands is an honorable and vital task. But many samurai who join the cause never find their way home. In the domain of Fu Leng, where the very elements are corrupted and hideous monsters lurk around every corner, do your players have what it takes to survive?

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Shadowlands, a new sourcebook for Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying!

Shadowlands is a 144-page hardcover sourcebook that serves as a guide to the dread realms of Fu Leng, where corruption and evil thrive in place of honor and courage. In it, players find information on this region, as well as Crab lands and the great Kaiu Wall that divides the Shadowlands from Rokugan. With new schools, techniques, weapons, and more to aid them, players can fight the Tainted creatures and other terrors that would destroy the Emerald Empire.

Like Emerald Empire before it, Shadowlands provides everything you need to roleplay in Rokugan in a whole new way, tinged with elements of horror and despair that can be found nowhere else in the Emerald Empire!



As a special bonus for pre-ordering Shadowlands through our website, you’ll also a receive a bookmark and eight 5" x 7" art prints showcasing art from the book. This bookmark is the perfect way to mark important sections of the sourcebook such as charts or NPC information. Meanwhile, the art prints represent beautiful moments and characters found within the Shadowlands sourcebook!



A History of Corruption

The Shadowlands sourcebook is split into three chapters, the first of which explores various locations across the corrupted lands, from the Festering Pit of Fu Leng to Daylight Castle. The book not only features detailed histories of these locations, but also introduces their corrupted denizens to use as NPCs in your adventures! Like Emerald Empire before it, each of these locations will also feature adventure seeds for Game Masters to introduce to their players, potentially leading them to the next step on their journey.



Furthermore, rumors about each of these areas brings the Shadowlands to life, and can inspire Game Masters to craft their own adventures in the dread lands. Perhaps your players are investigating the Fallen Chrysanthemum Lake, and the strange disappearances that always seem to happen in its proximity. Or maybe your party has traveled to the False Lantern Grove to retrieve the remains of a Hida commander whose party fell to the darkness of the realm. Either way, Shadowlands gives you all the tools you need to craft a thrilling adventure.

This chapter also details the stalwart defenders repulsing these forces from Rokugan: the Crab Clan. While the families of the Crab are detailed in the Core Rulebook, Shadowlands greatly expands on this information, detailing important locations, NPCs, and adventure hooks for each family. The Hida, Kaiu, Kuni, Yasuki, and Hiruma are all expanded upon, inviting Game Masters to integrate the families' unique history into campaign, or allowing players to expand on their family history.



Finally, the first chapter details the convergence point of these two forces, the massive Kaiu Wall and the brave patrols that explore and investigate the Shadowlands. Here, you can discover what it truly means to patrol in the Shadowlands, with devious NPCs and adventure hooks waiting around every corner.

Honor Against Demons
The second chapter introduces the ghost-hunting Falcon Clan, including rules for creating player characters from the clan. It also includes other new player options, including schools, weapons, armor, and techniques, plus patterns to create customized items to better protect the Empire. There are new advantages and disadvantages relating to the Shadowlands and, for those who dare, there is guidance for using mahō and new techniques for employing such dread blood magic.



These player options introduce even more new ways to interact with Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying, and let you inject your characters with some more Shadowlands-related backstory.

Out of the Shadows
In the final chapter of Shadowlands, you'll find important tips to the Game Master in regards to running campaigns in the Shadowlands. This chapter not only details how to convey the horror themes central to the setting, but also includes advice for roleplaying corruption, new ways to spend opportunity in the Shadowlands, and additional NPC templates for creating characters themed for Crab and Shadowlands adventures. Lastly, there are rules for crafting unique new oni to terrorize and devour the Empire—unless there are samurai courageous enough to stop them.

For some additional inspiration, be sure to check out the Mask of the Oni adventure launching alongside Shadowlands. This adventure plunges your players into the heart of Daylight Castle, and it's the perfect starting point to discover the horrors that lurk in these areas where few dare to venture!



A Realm of Corruption

While running adventures in the Shadowland is alluring, be warned—samurai that venture south of the Kaiu Wall are never quite the same. It is a forsaken land where corruption and madness reign. Do your players have what it takes to venture into Fu Leng’s domain with their body, sanity, and soul intact?
12/10/2018 03:21:00 PM | Category: , | 0 comments

Mask of the Oni
Announcing a New Adventure for Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying



When a group of samurai pursues a dangerous master of blood magic to the ruins of Daylight Castle, they discover a secret that could redeem or stain the honor of the Hiruma family forever. These samurai must overcome threats to both body and soul if they are going to halt a wicked plot that could bring about the doom of the Empire…

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Mask of the Oni, a new pre-made adventure for Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying!

This adventure pits your samurai against the dangers of the Shadowlands and the horrors found within the crumbling walls of the Hiruma family’s fallen castle. Hot in pursuit of a dangerous bloodspeaker, your players will soon find themselves entrenched in a brand-new adventure stemming from a centuries-old secret. Tokens, maps, and an adventure booklet will guide players on their journey, but will they survive with their souls intact?

Mask of the Oni is the perfect companion to the Shadowlands sourcebook, providing an adventure to use the lore and tools introduced in Shadowlands as well as additional context for your adventure.



As a special bonus for pre-ordering Mask of the Oni through our website, you’ll also a receive a bookmark and four 5" x 7" art prints showcasing art from the book! This bookmark is the perfect way to mark important sections of the adventure such as charts or NPC information. Meanwhile, the art prints represent beautiful moments and characters found within Mask of the Oni!

A Dark History
Mask of the Oni begins as your players take a perilous journey to the ruins of Shiro Hiruma, the once-proud stronghold of the Hiruma family of the Crab. There, the characters must face dangerous opponents, stark horror, and their deepest fears if they wish to survive.

While traversing into the Shadowlands is a dangerous quest for any group of samurai, Mask of the Oni gives players and Game Masters all the tools they need to keep their adventure organized and running smoothly, including a 32-page adventure booklet that drives the narrative of the campaign.



The first section of this booklet lays out the adventure background, split between what the players should know and secrets withheld for the Game Master's eyes only. Here, you'll find details on the fall of Daylight Castle prior to the construction of the Kaiu Wall, and the subsequent attempts that the Hiruma family has made to try and reclaim it. Mask of the Oni can also be played as a follow-up to the Dark Tides adventure found in the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Master's Kit or as a completely standalone adventure. Either way, the booklet gives the Game Master plenty of ways for players to become involved in this dark tale.

From there, the adventure booklet gives the Game Master everything they need to guide the players on their journey, providing a narrative that accounts for player choice and dialogue. With the adventure book in hand, any Game Master can run Mask of the Oni with ease.

Uncover an Ancient Secret
The adventure booklet isn’t the only tool for Game Masters and players included in Mask of the Oni. You'll also find a beautifully illustrated, double-sided fold-out map that depicts the lands of the Crab Clan, the Shadowlands, and the ruins of Daylight Castle. These vivid maps not only provide a visual identifier on where the players currently are, but steep your game in atmosphere and allow players to become engrossed in your story. With such a wide swath of land covered by the map, it can also be useful in any of your own adventures that you choose to locate in the Shadowlands. 




More than 50 tokens are also included in the adventure to helps players visualize their surroundings. These tokens represent the various NPCs—both friends and foes—that you may come across during your journey, and they not only convey important locational information during combat, but they can also provide a visual identifier for what these characters look like. The dread, disgusting monstrosities that call the Shadowlands their home are brought to life with these tokens, and like the above maps, they can be used in any adventure taking place south of the Kaiu Wall. 



Under the Mask

The foreboding Shadowlands await your players. If these brave samurai have any hope of survival, they’ll have to reckon with the horrors that await, a dangerous blood speaker, and the knowledge of an ancient secret. Can your players survive the perils in Mask of the Oni? Find out in the first quarter of 2019!
12/10/2018 03:10:00 PM | Category: , | 0 comments