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

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?

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?

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!

Preview the New Player Options in Emerald Empire



"To serve the Tao is to serve the Empire. The one cannot be parted from the other, no more than the sea can be parted from the land."
   –The Tao of Shinsei

Your duty to your lord sends you traveling across Rokugan. As a samurai, you have studied the proper etiquette for dealing with your superiors, and you have been shown how to deal with your lessers. You have trained in the arts of court and war, and you have performed the proper prayers to ensure your safe return. Your travel papers are in order, and your horse is fresh, for you will not be following the roads for long. But if you have never before ventured beyond your home province, you may not be prepared for the spectacular beauty of this mystical land, whose very forests and mountains are alive.



Prepare to embark upon your journey with Emerald Empire, the essential setting guide to the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game. New lore and tools for players, Game Masters, and fans of Rokugan fill its 256 pages, along with a key to the locales and ways of life of those dwelling within the Empire. Today, we’ll take a closer look at some of those new player offerings, as well as the cultural and roleplaying guidance detailed in this sourcebook.



Servants and Disciples
If you're a player of the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game, Emerald Empire begins by offering you new answers to the Game of Twenty Questions, including three new families, nine new schools, nine new titles, and over two dozen new advantages and disadvantages.

Whereas the Core Rulebook focused on the samurai of the seven Great Clans, Emerald Empire expands players’ options to include the Imperial families, who serve not one single clan, but the entirety of Rokugan. Members of the Miya family who have trained in the Miya Herald School ride across the realm to deliver the Emperor’s news and edicts, while the family’s school of Miya Cartographers are experts at navigating and recalling the landmarks and geography of the Empire. The Otomo family ensures that no clans or alliances become a threat to the Emperor, and the actions undertaken by the Otomo Schemers are shielded from rebuke by the majesty of the Throne itself. Finally, the family dedicated to the Emperor’s spiritual and physical protection—the Seppun—divines the future to warn against potential threats with the help of the Seppun Astrologers, and overcomes any physical dangers thanks to the Seppun Palace Guards.



While the Imperial Families occupy the very top of the Celestial Order, monks stand outside that order. Initiates of the Fortunist Monk Order devote themselves to a Great Fortune or one of the ten thousand other deities that oversee aspects of nature or daily life. In exchange for their prayers and service, the monk may be granted special boons by the Fortune. When selecting this school, you choose a single invocation that represents the Fortune’s power, which your character can perform despite not being a shugenja, and you gain one additional invocation each time your school rank increases. Disciples of the Shinseist Monk Order focus instead on the wisdom of the Little Teacher. By understanding that all reality flows from the Void and must one day return to the Void, they can catch glimpses of Enlightenment. When you spend a Void point to Seize the Moment, you may treat your ranks in the skill as being equal to your school rank. The order’s curriculum also focuses on Kihō techniques as expressions of their elemental studies.

Away from the monasteries and civilized places of Rokugan, the Realm of Animals sometimes bisects the world of mortals. Kitsune, or fox spirits, possess powerful shapeshifting abilities that permit them to travel across Rokugan and dwell among humankind undetected. Sometimes, these mythical creatures fall in love with a mortal or find themselves part of a lord’s court or retinue, where they can serve as cunning tricksters with other potent magical powers. The False Identity adversity models the stress that arises from maintaining the ruse of mortality, but at the GM’s discretion, a character in this situation who reaches Rank 2 in their actual school may spend 2 XP to learn the basics of their false school's regimen through direct exposure, deepening the deception. In addition to these trickster spirits who can be found in the most surprising of places, further secrets and conspirators span the breadth of the Empire.



Castes and Customs
The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game offers a roleplaying experience like no other. With its strong focus on the complex dynamics of a society markedly different from our own, it can seem daunting to try to roleplay a character who's familiar with Rokugan’s traditions and taboos, much less try to bring the world to life as a Game Master. Complicating matters further is the overlap—and divergences—between the fictional setting of Rokugan and its real-world counterparts. Emerald Empire delves deep into the etiquette, culture, and daily life for the inhabitants of castles, cities, towns, villages, and wild places across the Empire. It also calls attention to parts of the setting that should be treated with additional consideration and respect.

In each chapter, the book explores the culture underpinnings of a particular locale central to samurai life. In Chapter 1, “Strongholds of Power,” the book details the prescribed behavior of retainers in a castle during times of war or the games of court. Gempuku ceremonies and matchmaking methods, gift-giving and hostage-taking customs, and guests’ rights are all covered at length. Chapter 2, “Centers of Trade,” offers a deep dive into city life and the nuance of law, enforcement, and crime for those playing as Emerald or Clan Magistrates, or as one of their assistants. Chapters 3 and 6 explore life in the villages, countryside, and remote outposts, while Chapters 4 and 5 look at the cosmology, deities, and religion of the Empire, and how samurai are expected to act in the presence of the sacred. A detailed index also assists both players and GMs to locate important cultural concepts when they arise at the game table.



Lands of Wonder
With the Empire plunged into turmoil, samurai, nobles, and monks will be called upon to serve, but their oaths of fealty and devotion may be challenged by what they encounter across the Empire. Other unexpected allies will be drawn into these same stories—but will they have a change of heart, or stay true to their original intentions? With these new player options and cultural guides, Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying groups can explore new themes and mechanics, and better understand the setting itself. Join us next time for a closer look at the gazetteer elements of the sourcebook, as well as the setting’s history and legends!

Preview Non-Player Characters in Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying


From the lowliest peasant to the Emperor himself, non-player characters (NPCs) are the lifeblood of your adventures in Rokugan. These characters are everyone in Rokugan who is not one of your heroes—and though they may enter the story as enemy or ally, friendly rival or reluctant compatriot, NPCs are a Game Master’s most important tool in bringing the rich world of Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying to life.

Join us today as we take a closer look at the denizens of Rokugan, as featured in the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Core Rulebook!



Who’s Who in Rokugan

Generally speaking, NPCs are divided into two classifications. Minions are simply the tools of drama—they exist to do a thing. They are the guard who must be fooled, the farmer who sweats in the fields, and the bandit who meets razor-sharp justice to increase a samurai’s glory. Adversaries, however, fulfill the recognizable supporting roles in your drama. They have motivations and methods, and they can be hindered or aided by the actions of the characters. Some may be purely antagonistic, the foulest of the foul, but most enemies will simply be those whose ambitions run contrary to the goals of the players. Some adversaries may even not be adversarial at all, instead representing opportunities for knowledge, resources, or favor.

Every NPC has an array of stats, just like the player characters, but they also have a unique characteristic: their Conflict Rank. This rank is a rough measure how dangerous this NPC can be in combat or intrigue situations.






For example, a Seasoned Courtier has a combat value of one, yet an intrigue value of five. This NPC could be defeated in armed conflict by even a young bushi, yet he would provide an appropriate social challenge for a group of characters to convince that the urgent business they bring to the castle is, in fact, as urgent as they say.



Conversely, the Loyal Bushi can represent a young samurai roughly on par (or a bit more advanced) than an individual player character, having a combat value of four and an intrigue of two. Though not completely at the mercy of a silver-tongued courtier, a skilled negotiator will certainly have a strong advantage. In a skirmish, however, the Loyal Bushi could be a threat to be taken seriously or a potential ally to help the players battle injustice.

Ultimately, though, the Conflict Rank is merely a guide, and Game Masters should take into account the players’ resources, skills, and tactics that can make opposition more or less difficult. And of course, the devil is in the details—journeying into the Shadowlands poses much different threats than attempting to uncover a conspiracy at the Emperor’s Winter Court. In fact, even within the Shadowlands, there’s no end to variation between the enemies that you may encounter.



Servants of Jigoku

Born in darkness and hatred, the spawn of the Shadowlands poses an eternal threat to Rokugan. But for the Kaiu Wall and generations upon generations of spilled samurai blood, the realm would surely be overrun. The cunning and power of these incredible monstrosities cannot be overstated, and their danger cannot be ignored.

You may find yourself set upon by one of the lowliest threats of the Shadowlands: the diminutive Goblin. Alone, a Goblin poses not much more threat than a farmer armed with a sharp field implement. In their typical swarms, however, these ravening miscreants can overwhelm a samurai without warning. Though their spears and bows are small, the swarm brings them to bear viciously. In fact, whenever a Goblin attacks with the assistance of other Goblins, they may spend opportunity from the attack roll to deal additional damage to nearby targets—bringing an avalanche of bloodthirsty frenzy to bear against the players.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Sinister Oni. These hulking demons spill forth from Jigoku to ravage and destroy with their teeth, claws, and horns. Truly fearsome in battle, the Sinister Oni boasts a combat rating of twelve, which means it would make short, bone-grinding work of novice samurai, and even a group of senior warriors would wish to bring the aid of their allies and a fair amount of jade. To stand against this Oni is to test your resolve against destruction itself. A Sinister Oni’s unholy flesh provides protection from most weapons and spells, meaning that its formidable endurance is especially difficult to chip away. The terror of this beast truly shines in its special abilities, though. The Oni may unleash a horrific roar with Dread Bellow, forcing all creatures in the vicinity to pass a Meditation check or become afflicted and forced away from the Oni!

And there are far more eerie and equally dangerous creatures lurking in the darkness of the Shadowlands…


Way of the Warrior

Whether you’re facing down a pack of Goblins or engaging in a battle of wits at court, the story of your adventures in Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying is the story of Bushidō. Every plot point, every story arc, every struggling peasant, every haughty noble, every Jigoku horror; all are the ink in which your path of Bushidō is written.

Your legend begins soon, samurai. Serve your Emperor. Bring honor to your family and clan.

Announcing the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook



In the land of Rokugan, the Emerald Empire has lasted for a thousand years. Under the guidance of the noble Hantei emperors, the samurai of the Great Clans have protected the lands from threats within and without, since the Kami came down from the heavens and established Rokugan as the most favored of kingdoms.

But after centuries of prosperity, cracks appear in the Empire’s foundations. The spirits of the land have become restless and wild. Armies of evil horrors march from the Shadowlands. Members of the Great Clans have begun to wonder if the time of the Hantei is over, and whether the heavens would favor new rulers…

As a samurai of the Emerald Empire, your duty lies in service to your lord, your clan, and your Emperor. Will you stay true to your duty, no matter what sacrifices it demands of you? Or will you hold true to your own code of honor, even to the point of death?



Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Core Rulebook for the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game!

At 336 stunning, full-color pages, the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Core Rulebook allows Game Masters and players alike to enter the world of Rokugan like never before. The Core Rulebook is the next step after the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game, and offers players new and deeper ways to customize their characters and craft their own adventures in the Emerald Empire.



Craft Your Story

The first section of the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Core Rulebook is dedicated to character creation, giving players the tools they need to craft their own samurai in the world of Rokugan. Rather than using pre-made characters, as in the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game, the Core Rulebook gives you everything you might want to invent your own characters, weaving yourself seamlessly into the Emerald Empire.

Since the very first edition of the game in 1997, the Game of 20 Questions has helped Legend of the Five Rings players establish a complete and complex character in the world of Rokugan, and this process returns in the new version of the RPG.

By working through twenty questions about your character that ask everything from your character’s clan alignment to their heritage, players are able to establish their characters both thematically and mechanically in a simple way. Answers to questions like “What is your character’s school, and what role does that school fall into?” will help determine your starting skills and their ranks, as well as having mechanical implications. Meanwhile, questions like “How should your character die?” have no mechanical  purpose, but serve as a powerful impetus to flesh out your samurai and develop your story.

In addition to the massive number of schools, advantages, and disadvantages included in the Game of 20 Questions, you'll find entire chapters devoted to the skills that you can hone and perfect as a samurai, alongside the kata, kihō, invocations, rituals, shūji, mahō, and ninjitsu techniques that you can master. Finally, a chapter on Equipment gives you everything that you need to equip your samurai with the weapons, armor, items, and other personal effects that he or she needs to thrive in Rokugan.

Once your character is created, the world is yours to explore. The book contains several chapters designed for the benefit of the Game Master, featuring advice on running a game in the world of Rokugan, including different ways to run a campaign, as well as a wealth of mechanical rules and non-player characters that can be used to populate your world and bring it to life.

While the Beginner Game contains the rules you need to roleplay in a pre-made adventure, the Core Rulebook provides a more in-depth explanation of these rules and lets you truly make the Emerald Empire your own. Furthermore, as your samurai grows throughout a campaign, the Core Rulebook's experience paths invite you to upgrade your samurai throughout their adventures in Rokugan, growing in experience and learning new skills and techniques.



A Samurai’s Tools

Launching alongside the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Core Rulebook are two different products designed to enhance your roleplaying game experience!

Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying uses a set of custom dice to determine the success, failure, strife, and narrative opportunities generated by every test. (We'll take a much closer look at how you can use these dice in practice in future Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying previews!) You can claim your own set of these dice with the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Dice Pack—this pack contains ten custom dice, five black and five white. The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Dice Pack will launch alongside the Core Rulebook in the third quarter of 2018. The dice are also available through our Legend of the Five Rings Dice App on Apple and the Google Play Store!

Launching alongside the Core Rulebook and the Dice Pack is an indispensable tool for Game Masters: the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Master's Kit.

The centerpiece of the Game Master's Kit is the GM screen. One side features beautiful art of the world of Rokugan, while the other side of the GM Screen is filled with rules reminders and tables. This allows the Game Master to keep notes and skill checks hidden if they desire, but also features helpful rule reminders and charts right at their fingertips—such as an index of commonly referenced rules, steps to making a check, examples of spending opportunity, and more. Every table, chart, and reminder also features the page in the Core Rulebook from which it is referenced, giving GMs a simple way to check a rule with an option for a more in-depth explanation.



The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Master's Kit also provides a perfect beginning adventure for players, inviting them to take their first steps into Rokugan. “Dark Tides” sends players to the mysterious and obscure town of Taimana Choryū, and the entire adventure is designed to challenge characters socially and emotionally, as well as with action and detective work. What secrets await in the Slow Tide Harbor?



Keep the world of Rokugan at your fingertips with the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Master's Kit and Dice Pack!
A New Beginning

The world of Rokugan is at your fingertips with the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game. Experience Rokugan with help from the Beginner Game, or choose to go all in with the Core Rulebook, Dice Pack, and Game Master's Kit!

An Introduction to Roleplaying in Rokugan


In Rokugan, it is said that honor is stronger than steel. While even the finest blade can bend and break under the heat of the forge, the Emerald Empire’s society has been folded in the forges of politics and war for more than a thousand years, and it has not yet broken. The society of Rokugan follows a divinely ordered pattern set down by the eight Kami, who shared their celestial blessings with the mortal realm. Rokugan is a land of strict social stratification, where an improper look at the wrong time can mean death.

This is an era of sudden change and upheaval, however. Mortal schemes, natural calamities, and celestial turmoil alike have disrupted the political, military, and spiritual equilibrium of the land. Long-simmering rivalries and fresh betrayals ripple through the courts and on the battlefield. The Chrysanthemum Throne is beset by threats from without and within, and the honor of the seven Great Clans—the families descended from the heroes of legend and sworn to rule their lands in the Emperor's name—shall be put to the test.

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game, a new roleplaying experience in the land of honor and steel.

The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game allows anyone to take on the role of a samurai in Rokugan. With four in-depth character folios, a fully realized adventure book, a set of custom dice, a map of Rokugan, a variety of tokens, and a set of rules including an example of play, the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game gives newbies and veterans alike the perfect door to the Emerald Empire.



A Pathway to Adventure

The recent mysterious death of the Emerald Champion, Doji Satsume of the Crane Clan, has thrown the Emerald Empire into turmoil. Each of the Great Clans suspiciously eyes the others and wonders whether the death was no tragic accident, but a dishonorable act of murder.

In these times of strife, a group of youths approaches the village of Tsuma for the Topaz Championship and their gempukku, the coming-of-age ceremony that will mark them as fully- fledged samurai. Each contestant has come from a different clan and dreams of being the highest-scoring contestant in the tournament, earning the title of Topaz Champion. Despite being pitted against one another, they are all united in their desire to succeed and bring honor to their clan and family.



The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game invites you and your fellow players onto this adventure, introducing the Emerald Empire through intrigue, action, and a test of will and character. Most of the players in the game will emobdy these young samurai, taking on the role of a player character. The final player becomes the Game Master, who controls the actions of all non-player characters and helps to move the story forward. Even if you're new to roleplaying or the role of the Game Master, the beginner game's pre-made adventure gives you all the tools you need to run a smooth game that introduces the mechanics and world of Rokugan to your players. Look for not only a guide to the Topaz Championship, but maps, player tokens and more that serve to immerse both you and the players in the Emerald Empire.

A Test of Character

The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game allows new players to dive into the action with four pre-made character folios. These folios give players the opportunity to play as a youth in the world of Rokugan, looking to represent the Lion, Crane, Phoenix, or Dragon in the Topaz Championship. Choose between playing as the cunning and diplomatic Doji Ren; Togashi Yoshi, a master of compassion and the fist; Akodo Masako, whose skill with a weapon is only rivaled by her steadfast honor; or Isawa Aki, who wields the power of the elements themselves.



These folios not only introduce you to your characters, but provide all the relevant information you'll need to guide you on your adventure. A completely filled-out character sheet, complete with beautiful artwork, is your stepping stone into the Emerald Empire, and a variety of reminders and special abilities will let you roleplay your character with ease. If you're not sure which character to select, a helpful guide on the back of every folio can easily guide you to a selection that's right for you!

The Hand of Fate

Within the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game, you'll find a unique way to start your roleplaying adventures: an updated version of the Roll and Keep system found in prior versions of the Legend of the Five Rings RPG. By using the set of custom dice included in the box, you'll be able to help your characters overcome the trials ahead, while informing the world around them and their inner turmoil.



Every skill check in Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game will see players rolling these custom dice, choosing a few to keep, and getting a result that not only demonstrates success or failure, but also unique opportunities and an accumulation of strife. Too much strife can lead to you choosing how your character must release their emotions in a fashion ill-befitting a samurai, and it can have drastic story repercussions.

This fusion of style allows player choice in the form of Roll and Keep to thive alongside the variety of story options presented by the narrative dice system. Player choice is further emphasized by the approach that characters must take to every skill check, choosing one of the titular five rings that can represent everything from careful planning, to a spur of the moment decision, to using the environment to your advantage. These different approaches affect both how many dice you roll and how many dice you're allowed to keep. 



Enter Rokugan

Take your first steps into the Emerald Empire with the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game. Between a pre-made adventure ripe with action and a set of characters that represent the best of Rokugan, the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game is the perfect introduction to Rokugan for new players and veterans alike.

Download the Legend of the Five Rings RPG Beta Now



The land of Rokugan is under siege from all sides. Intrigue lurks around every corner as the seven Great Clans compete for superiority. Danger threatens the land from natural calamities and celestial inteference both. Caught between all of this is you, an honorable samurai of the Emerald Empire. The first steps into adventure are yours to take—but what awaits you in the mystical land of Rokugan? Adventure? Horror? Romance? All this and more arrive in the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game.

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beta is available now, and can be downloaded here!



Adventure Awaits

The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game is a game of samurai drama, drawing inspiration from real world literature and history and taking place in the fictional land of Rokugan. Characters are torn between their personal desires and their sworn duties, and must often contend with cunning court intrigues, deadly armed conflicts, and dangerous supernatural creatures.

In the game, each player takes on the role of an individual samurai whose honor and loyalty will be put to the test through adventures featuring suspense, romance, action, and more. All the while, you must grapple with your human emotions and choose between following your heart’s desire or doing what society—and the code of Bushidō—demands of you. These personal stories of triumph and tragedy will reverberate across the Emerald Empire and shape the very future of Rokugan.

The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game provides players and Game Masters with the tools to tell stories of samurai drama within the Emerald Empire. The game contains rules for creating characters sworn to one of the seven Great Clans and running game sessions filled with intrigue and conflict. A wide variety of skills, techniques, passions, flaws, and more allow players to customize their character mechanically and narratively. And the fantastical feudal setting of Rokugan provides a rich tapestry of majesty and wonder where these stories can unfold.

The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game employs custom dice, but it uses a system completely unique from the Narrative Dice System employed by Genesys and the Star Wars™ Roleplaying Games. The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game revolves around a concept from previous editions called roll and keep, now using unique custom dice. When attempting to have their character resolve a task in the story, a player rolls a number of dice and then chooses and keeps a number of these dice. This activity (rolling and keeping dice to see the consequences of a character’s effort) is called a check. Only kept dice are resolved, which gives the player the strategic opportunity to decide which symbols will make for the best story. Many die faces contain both positive and negative outcomes together, and a player must decide if the benefits of keeping that die outweigh the costs—greater success may cost more than you are willing to bear.



A Warrior's Weapon

The dice used for the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game are unique in nature, using custom symbols. While the beta contains a conversion chart that allows you to use standard six-sided and twelve-sided dice for checks, Fantasy Flight Games has also created a dice app which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play! The app features a standard set of dice as well as the custom dice featured in the game, inviting you to perform checks with just the click of a few buttons!



The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Dice App gives you all the dice you need to play a game of Legend of the Five Rings.

The Legend of the Five Ring Roleplaying Game Beta gives players everything they need to start running adventures in the world of Rokugan. Though it does not contain the full contents and character options of the future release, it has more than enough for you to begin roleplaying in Rokugan. You can download the beta here, and sign up for our mailing list here! After providing an email address for our mailing list, the Legend of the Five Rings development team will send out surveys every other week for players to provide feedback and distill their experiences in the world of Rokugan. This feedback will be read and taken into account when creating the final product, giving you a chance to influence what roleplaying in Rokugan looks like!



The First Steps

If you want more information on Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game, be sure to sign up for our mailing list located here. The emails you receive will feature information on Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game development and updates on how the beta is progressing.

The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Beta has arrived. Find out what adventure awaits you by downloading the beta here!