For those who do not know L5R or legend of the five rings is a fantasy role playing game set in a fantastical asian setting that combines bits from japanese, chinese, korean, and indian lore and culture into a truly unique and interesting world in which samurai and shugenja serve their daimyo by taking part in court intrigue or defeating foul oni and undead that stalk the land.
The first thing about the L5R core book that really caught my attention was how absolutely beautiful the book is. The lay out is nice and the text very easy on the eyes and further every page is a pleasure to look at. The art is top quality through out.
The actual rules system will be familiar to anyone who ever played the first edition with a few changes made to streamline play and dare i say it, make the characters a bit more survivable. Rules are given that simulate the fatal nature of the 1st edition for the purest and rules are given to make the characters even harder to kill for those that like a easier game. Duels have been streamlined when compare to the earlier system and do nt tend to be dominated by the character with the highest void rank.
The system is roll a set number of die, keep a portion of them, and compare to a target number. Very elegant and simple system that easily covers any situation and lends itself to a more immersive form of rpg than does some other systems such as d20.
The only con to the core book in my opinion is that I would like to have had more details about the great clans and the emerald empire but that is a minor quibble about what is other wise a great book.
This book gets a 5/5 rating in my opinion but dont take my word for it. Give the system a look, I do not think you will be disappointed.
