[L5R] Intro to Legend of the 5 Rings for newbies and curious
Zen Faulkes
Legend of the Five Rings Mini-FAQ for Newbies
This unofficial mini-FAQ is intended for absolute beginners; people
who've thought about trying Legend of the Five Rings (L5R), or people who
have just bought their first starter deck. All you experts, go 'way!
- Zen Faulkes! * Crab Clan Scholar
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Q: What's Legend of the Five Rings about?
A: That is actually a more complicated question than you might think. The
short version is that in this game, you play a warlord in a mythical
country called Rokugan. The current Emperor is dying, and you are trying
to become Emperor of Rokugan. Rokugan just happens to have a striking
resemblance to feudal Japan, with a liberal dash of Chinese and Japanese
mythology thrown in. L5R is somewhere between the fairly realistic
samurai films of Akira Kurosawa and the completely wild Chinese ghost
movies of Ching Sui-tung.
What makes things more complicated is that L5R is also a story being
told through a trading card game. The story being told in L5R is big and
sprawling and I don't want to try encapsulating it in a few short
sentences, because I won't do it justice. The one thing you should know
about the game is that because it is a story, it's going to have a
definite *end*.
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Q: Whaddya mean, "The game is going to end?"
A: Well, the theory is that good stories have an ending; just ask
Aristotle, Neil Gaiman, or J. Michael Straczynski. The L5R story started
when the basic game was released. We got introduced to the Clans and
various people living and fighting in Rokugan. Each expansion set sort of
acts like a chapter in a book, where new events unfold and some
Personalities change. At GenCon '97, there will be a "Conclusion Set"
released that will wrap up the story. There won't be any more expansions
after that. You can, of course, still *play* the game after the Conlusion
set is out; the cards won't self-destruct!
The other Very Cool Thing about the L5R story is that its direction is
being directly influenced by the people who play it. The results of games
played in big tournaments often get reflected in cards. Votes are held to
determine some of the plot twists.
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Q: Story aside, how do you win a game?
A: One of the nice things about L5R is that you've got several ways of
winning. 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 a card -- the
"five Rings" of the game's title -- after you accomplish a certain task)
and achieve Enlightenment. Be warned, though: Enlightenment is hard!
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Q: Can you give an idea of what the game involves?
A: You play with two decks: Dynasty and Fate. Your Dynasty cards contain
cards that produce gold, which is your man-- er, main resource in the
game. There's also Personalities like samurai and magicians (called
"Shugenja" in L5R) that you can hire with said gold. There's a few other
card types that can be part of a Dynasty deck, but gold and Personalities
are the two biggies.
Your Dynasty cards show up in your Provinces. Players start the game
with four Provinces, and these Provinces 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.
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Q: Can I play with just a single starter deck?
A: Yes, L5R has playable starter decks. Game play with just one starter
may not be scintillating, but it'll give you a good idea of how the game
works.
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Q: Why do the starter decks look different?
A: In L5R, you play a member of a particular Clan, each of which has
particular strengths. The card box of a starter shows a particular Clan
Stronghold, so the box is actually part of the game.
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Q: How many different Clans are there?
A: Currently eight, with two more coming very soon. The "six great Clans"
are:
Crab -- Masters of defense and military strategy
Crane -- Hinges on money and political power
Dragon -- Swords (duelling) and sorcery
Lion -- Aggressive "blitzkreig" style of combat
Phoenix -- The best in magicians and spells
Unicorn -- They ride horses, don't they?
The "Shadowlands" expansion added these two clans:
Naga -- Hordes of snake centaurs
Scorpion -- Honor? Who needs it?
And coming soon (in the "Anvil of Despair" expansion)...
Toturi's Army -- A ragtag gathering of ronin
Junzo's Army -- EVIL! EVIL EVIL EVIL!
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Q: What's the best clan to play?
A: What are you trying to do, start a holy war? Why don't you go over to
the Star Trek groups and ask who the best Captain is while you're at it?
This is a question that provokes a lot more partisan opinion than
anything else. Look, I've been beat up by every Clan, and I've won with
every Clan. I always recommend that you pick the Clan that appeals to you
the most, for whatever reason, and make that Clan the best it can be.
That said, Scorpion and Naga *are* more challenging to play than the
other Clans right now, particularly for beginners. This is because these
two Clans can't win by Honor, which is the easiest and most common way of
winning, particularly in multi-player games.
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Q: So you can play with more than two players?
A: Yes. L5R makes one of the smoothest transitions between two player and
multi-player of any CCG around.
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Q: What's *the* card to get?
A: Inheritance is far and away the most sought after card, with School of
Wizardry a consistent second. Both are from the basic game.
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Q: Is this a game where "Whoever has the most money to spend on cards,
wins?"
A: I'm going to have to sit on the fence for this one. On the one hand,
there is no question that there are rare cards that are very powerful,
highly sought after, and fun to play with. On the other hand, you can
make an extremely good deck using only common and uncommon cards and use
it thump a deck juiced up with a lot of rare cards, especially if you're
a good strategist.
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Q: What else has L5R been criticised for? No game is perfect.
A: Many people who are just starting find that games take a long time. I
generally set aside at least an hour for a two player game. If you want a
game that can be played in 15-20 minutes, you'd probably best look
elsewhere. As you start understanding the strategy (and if you get more
cards), however, the games speed up.
Multi-player games sometimes result in players "turtling," with people
holding back from attacking or reaching any of the victory conditions for
fear of being trampled by the combined might of other players. Destroying
eight or twelve enemy Provinces is just that much harder than whacking
four.
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Q: Any deckbuilding suggestions?
A: Here's a couple to get you started. In your Dynasty deck, you probably
want to have somewhere between a third and a half of your cards to be
gold-producing holdings, most of which you can bring out using only your
Stronghold.
There are no real guidelines for particular card ratios in your Fate
deck, because its composition varies wildly depending on what you want
your deck to do. What I can suggest is that your Fate deck should have no
more than 30 cards. Only a very unusual, highly tuned deck goes through
more than 30 cards with any regularity. Managing your Fate hand is
vitally important in this game, so choose your Fate cards very carefully.
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Q: Is there a tournament organisation?
A: Yes. It's called the Imperial Assembly. You can find the address to
join in any rulebook. You can play in any tournament, of course, but you
don't get any points towwards the national standings if you're not an
Assembly member. At GenCon '97, whoever has the highest tournament
standing will be declared Emperor!
You also get some "Assembly members only" cards, and a magazine called
the Imperial Herald. You also have to be an Assembly member to trade in
your koku, which are proofs of purchase on each pack that you can redeem
for cards and other goodies.
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Q: How many cards have been released?
A: Just over 600. There's about 300 cards in the basic game, and 150 each
in the Shadowlands and Forbidden Knowledge expansions. The third
expansion, Anvil of Despair, will come out REAL SOON NOW, and have about
150 cards, bringing the total to just over 750. After that, there's
Crimson and Jade (early 1997; probably about 150 cards) and Time of the
Void (GenCon, 1997; the conclusion set, probably big, maybe 300 cards).
There's also a few other odds and ends, promo cards and such, but I
don't want to take the space to list them all and where they were
released.
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Q: How do you tell which expansion a card is from?
A: The borders.
* Imperial Edition cards (1st printing of basic game): marbled black with
a red and gold ribbon.
* Emerald Edition (2nd printing of basic game): marbled black.
* Shadowlands: purple and green border (we're told it's supposed to look
like rust).
* Forbidden Knowledge: rusty red-brown border (we're told that is
supposed to represent "a swirling mist." Right.).
* Anvil of Despair: steely blue.
* Promo cards: either marbled black with a mainly red ribbon, or brown
with neon flashes through it.
* Battle for Beiden Pass (boxed set): Jet black.
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Q: Is there a Web page with a full FAQ and such?
A: Yes. Start with these two. They have links to other pages, too.
http://www.frpg.com
http://www.zzz.iipo.gtegsc.com/jwa/l5r/
Zen Faulkes! * Crab Clan Scholar