A: Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) is a collectible card game (CCG); Magic: the Gathering, Pokémon and Yu-gi-oh! are other famous examples of the genre. While it may not be as famous as those games, L5R is now the second-longest running CCG in the world. L5R has been in continuous production since October 1995 and will celebrate its tenth anniversary in 1995. Only the very first CCG, Magic: the Gathering, has had more durability. L5R also spawned several spin-offs, but only the role-playing game is still actively in production. The Clan War miniatures wargame, ButtonMen, Diskwars wargame, and sister card game called Legend of the Burning Sands are mostly fond memories. This article has nothing more to say about any of these.
What makes things more complicated is that L5R is also a story. Other CCGs have stories now, but they follow the trail blazed by L5R. There's a real narrative in L5R, and each new expansion acts like the chapter of a book.
L5R is set in Rokugan. Rokugan has a striking resemblance to feudal Japan, with a liberal dose of Asian mythology. In flavour and style, L5R owes much to the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa, especially The Seven Samurai. But L5R is less staid, with some elements that could come from Hong Kong fantasy adventure movies (but if that's what you really dig, try Shadowfist). L5R has some of the aesthetics of Chinese fantasy, such as the wuxia genre made popular by Jin Yong.
A: There are L5R novels published by Wizards of the Coast, which chronicle the the first and third story arcs. But the novels only provide a small window into the world of L5R.
The L5R story defies easy summary. Learning what's going on, especially in the current story, requires you do a bit of gaming archeaology. You have to scrape together pieces here and there and try to assemble the thing into a coherent whole. It's told on the flavour text of the cards, in the card art, in snippets at the start of each new rulebook, on "clan letters" given out only to fan club members, in the role-playing game (lot of information in there) and miniature wargame, spontaneously by the design team at major cons (typically not recorded except by the ears of players), in discussion on the 'Net, and, in a very real way, by the players themselves.
This approach to storytelling has given L5R an unexpected richness, and freedom of interpretation not unlike historical legends. There are many stories that fit the observed facts. (How many versions of Robin Hood have you seen?) In an excellent article in Salon magazine, Robert Rossney wrote, "Although -- or, more likely, because -- the story of L5R is so hard to pin down, it lives in the minds of its audience like no other," adding, "I realized that I was doing more than just playing a card game: I was participating in a tradition of oral folklore."
A: There are enough expansions now that it's easier to see this list of sets. The game is in its fourth major story arc.
The first story, called "The Clan Wars," started with Imperial Edition and officially ended at the now legendary Day of Thunder tournament at GenCon 1997. It describes the threat to the Empire posed by the dark god, Fu Leng, and his ultimate defeat by the Seven Thunders. (Much later, a set called "1,000 Years of Darkness," answered the question, "What if evil had won The Clan Wars?" with what they used to call an "imaginary story" in comics.)
This was followed by "Scorpion Clan Coup," a prequel set before The Clan Wars, describing a failed attempt to avert the return of Fu Leng by usurping the throne.
The next story arc, "The Hidden Emperor," began with Jade Edition. This story ended with the Battle of Oblivion's Gate at GenCon 2000. The most ambitious and complex story, this revolves around the removal of Emperor Toturi from the throne, and the efforts of a mysterious force (variously referred to as the "Goju," "ninja," "the Shadow," and "the Lying Darkness") to unmake the world.
A set titled "The Spirit Wars" was a stand-alone story linking The Hidden Emperor and Four Winds story lines.
The third major storyline, "The Four Winds," began in Gold Edition, and ended at GenCon 2003. This story revolved around which of the late Emperor Toturi's four children would succeed him, and the establishment of a dark empire in the Shadowlands.
"The Bloodspeaker Saga" is the fourth major story arc. It began with "Diamond Edition," released in October 2003. It concerns the return of Iuchiban, one of the most powerful sorcerors the empire has ever seen.
A promo set released in the middle of this arc, "Dawn of the Empire", is the earliest in the story chronologically, and tells the story of Rokugan's founding.
The fifth story arc, set to begin in 2005, doesn't have an official title yet, but the basic set will either be called "Lotus Edition" or "Dark Lotus Edition," depending on tournament results in 2005.
A: You play a warlord in Rokugan, and you are trying to become the Emperor. One of the nice things about L5R is that you've got several ways of winning: Honor, Military, and Enlightenment. You can win by accumulating Family Honor, becoming so popular that you are acclaimed to the Imperial throne. You can win by eliminating your foes through battle, or shaming them, becoming the only person who is able to claim the throne. Finally, you can demonstrate your mastery of the five elements (which involves playing cards -- the "five Rings" of the game's title -- after you accomplish certain tasks) and achieve Enlightenment. Be warned, though: Enlightenment is pretty hard for new players! (You can win by being popular, powerful, or recognised as a spiritual master. Which do you think is the most likely way to win the throne of an empire, eh?)
There are other cards that give you new victory conditions, too. You'll know 'em when you see 'em.
A: You play with two decks: Dynasty and Fate. Your Dynasty cards contain cards that produce gold, which is your main resource in the game. (Magic players: Think of gold as colourless mana.) There's also personalities, like samurai, magicians (called "shugenja" in L5R), or courtiers that you can hire with said gold. There are other types of cards that can be found in the Dynasty deck, but gold and personalities are the two biggies.
Your Dynasty cards show up in one of four provinces, which are where battles occur. Because there are four places where you can win or lose a battle, a major part of the game's strategy lies in figuring out how you'll spread your military forces among those provinces.
Your Fate deck contains items, followers and spells to give to your personalities. It also includes various actions that you take as a daimyo, generally military or political ones.
A: In L5R, you play a member of a particular clan, each of which has particular strengths. The starter decks show a particular clan "stronghold." In the early days, there was no card to use for your stronghold, so the box was actually used in the game.
A: There are 15 factions, and most have variant strongholds (listed below). Only ten factions are being actively supported in Diamond Edition. The clans are:
Crab: Masters of defense, who protect the Empire's borders
from the Shadowlands.
Crane: Money and politics. The power behind the throne.
Dragon: Swords (duelling) and sorcery (shugenja). The most balanced,
mysterious clan.
Lion: Noble warriors who are widely considered the masters of
tactics.
Mantis: Controllers of ocean trade routes and masters of naval warfare.
Phoenix: Magicians and spells.
Ratling: A race of rodent beings. They like shiny things.
Scorpion: Dirty politics, dishonor, backstabbing.
Shadowlands: EVIL! Undead, oni, goblins, and the just plain
bad.
Unicorn: Famed for their mounted troops, and the most familiar with
foreign ways.
These are the "legacy clans" that have no Diamond-legal stronghold.
Naga: Hordes of snake centaurs, famed for their skill with a bow.
Toturi's Army: Once a ragtag army led by a fallen champion, they went
on to form the core of the Imperial guard.
Brotherhood of Shinsei: Monks seeking enlightenment. Now largely
incorporated into Dragon.
Ninja: The major villians of the second storyline; more than just
sneaky people dressed in black.
Spirit: Escapees from the afterlife.
A: Pick a Clan active in the Diamond environment. The future for other factions is dim; they won't be getting many cards in coming sets, if any.
A few things to warn you about if you're interested in playing Shadowlands. Shadowlands decks often can't use many of the personalities you'll get in your first few boosters, because most of the personalities in the game won't work for someone at negative honor. Further, Shadowlands is so different from the other clans that there are big chunks of the game that you don't get exposed to when you play them. Shadowlands may be more challenging for beginners to play because they can't win by Honor, which is the easiest and most common way of winning, particularly in multi-player games. On the other hand, Shadowlands make for pure combat decks that allow you to concentrate on learning how to fight. It simplifies the game.
Keeping that in mind, I always say you play the clan that appeals to you the most, for whatever reason. Read the boxes, see what each of them is all about. Look at a few singles in other player's decks or in binders.
A: Yes. L5R makes a very smooth transition between two player and multi-player games. In fact, it was the first game to play both ways with no major differences in the rules between the two versions. There are often quite animated between players about whether it's better as a two-player or multi-player game.
A: Yes. No need to carry around multiple decks to ensure you can have a game!
A: Pretty much. I say "pretty much" because there are oddball instances where if you buy only a single deck, you'll get cards you can't use. Most of the cards in Diamond Edition are fixed, however, so that shouldn't happen very often. Sealed deck play is typically quite good.
A: Diamond Edition. Those really are the core cards you need to make a workable deck.
A: There have been various learn to play" sets. The last one was called "Training Grounds," featuring Lion and Shadowlands. There are also four older "learn to play" sets. You can see this list for more details. Those are old enough you're not liable to find them readily.
A: You typically don't have to take out a mortgage to make a good deck. There are many rare cards that are powerful, highly sought after, and dang fun to play with. Nonethless, you can make some extremely good decks using mostly common and uncommon cards and a few rares and beat a deck juiced up with a lot of rare, especially if you're a good strategist.
A: "It's complicated." Touché. L5R is the most complex CCG out there. But for many people, game complexity "is not a bug, it's a feature" (as computer programmers say). Some players love the intricacies. Lead designer Dave Williams has said that he thinks the ad campaign should be, "Are you good enough for L5R?" My advice: be patient. The strengths of L5R take a little time to reveal themselves, but discovering them is very rewarding.
A: Here's a couple to get going. In your Dynasty deck, gold-producing holdings should make up almost half of your cards. You should be able to bring out most those holdings using only your Stronghold.
The composition of your Fate deck varies wildly depending on what you want your deck to do, but probably around half of your Fate cards should be Actions. You'll want to keep your Fate deck as close to the minimum deck size as you can. Managing your Fate hand is vitally important in this game, so choose your Fate cards carefully.
A: One question that seems to come up a lot is "During battle, does a card need to be in the battle or not to do something?" The rulebook does a good job of specifying what can and can't be done from inside and outside the battle. Read it carefully -- it will pay off. (Too many players, methinks, learn from other players and never take the time to read the rulebook from front to back.)
A: You're talking about tournaments here, right? It's not like the CCG police are going to come knocking on your door with a ticket for playing with an old card! That said, there are a two common tournament formats.
"Diamond" means that those cards with a little black circle with a "diamond" kanji (complex symbol in white) in the lower left corner are Diamond legal.
"Open" means all cards allowed. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
A: This started with "The Spirit Wars" expansion. The publisher at the time, Wizards of the Coast, were forced to change the card backs by the U.S. Olympic Committee, who -- by no less than a special act of the U.S. Congress -- have exclusive rights to any symbol of five interlocking rings. The old cards are legal for play, provided you have opaque sleeves.
A: L5R tournaments are looked after by Organized Play. This is a good place to mention that there's also a fan club called the Imperial Assembly. Joining gets you a magazine called the Imperial Herald, which is published quarterly. You also get an "Assembly members only" card in most issues.
A: As of November 2004, there are over 4,500 cards (excluding variations in artwork, flavour text, borders, etc.) and 71 strongholds are out there. Old cards can usually be distinguished by their borders; newer sets have short acronyms on the bottom of the card next to the artist credit. Again, click here for a breakdown.
A: The official web pages are here: http://www.l5r.com.
A: There is a listserver called "l5r-ccg", which you can join here. When you go to that page, you will see an option to receive the list messages in digest mode, which I recommend. You get just one message a day, and it helps reduce repetition on the list. The downside to getting messages in the digest mode is that many people break netiquette and post in rich text formats (e.g., HTML, MIME, etc.), which makes posts hard to read. Please post in plain text!
Lots of fan web pages have their own forums now, too. Arguably the top one right now is The Kobune Port.
If you're on IRC, join the #l5r channel on Undernet (http://www.undernet.org/). When you arrive, Pan_ku, the channel bot, will give you instructions on how to sign up. The channel admin is Joe Fulgham (a.k.a. Puck, puck@holycow.com). If you'd like to learn about IRC, check out http://www.mirc.com/ where you can also get a Windows IRC client (clients exist for almost all platforms, look around). Further help is available in #help. (Thanks to Trevor Stone for this info.)
A: Zen Faulkes (Crab Clan Scholar). I've been playing this game since Christmas 1995, and have written about it for the Imperial Herald, InQuest Gamer, webzines, and an old weekly card analysis column called "Zen's Card of the Week" on rec.games.trading-cards.misc (it's archived here). I'm currently one of the game's deputy rules guys and I look after the L5R Rules Archive.
I wrote this intro as a way of giving back. When I started the game, there were a lot of people on rec.games.trading-cards.misc that answered my questions, gave me ideas, and set me straight. I like to do the same for new players whenever I can.
This text is Copyright © 2004 Zen Faulkes.
This text can be reproduced or translated freely as long as due credit
is given, and the copyright notice is retained.