Review of 4th Edition Legend of the Five Rings
OK, I have now had enough time to give a fairly detailed review of the new L5R 4th Edition. I will be doing this by section, mostly to organize my own thoughts.
The Book of Air: This book contains the setting info, including customs and history. This section suffers greatly from the timeline neutrality, as only the most important events are mentioned in the history section. The previous editions had a timeline that included most events, but this edition has only one or two events from each century. Granted, that event or two gets more detail than the previous versions, but still, it is basically useless. As are the descriptions of the great clans, sure you can get the broad philosophies of a clan, but all of the clans have undergone some significant changes over the years, the unicorn as an example have been a very different clan during the clan wars period than the Khan’s Defiance.
The Book of Earth: The basic rules. I actually like most of these changes. Dueling has been simplified so that it is actually useable both in and out of combat. I also like the five stances, both thematically and mechanically. Also the changes in types of actions are definitely for the better. Now keeping track of what you can do in a round is much easier. Consolidating and standardizing the various conditional effects also makes them quite useful in the various school techniques.
The Book of Fire: Character Creation and the schools. First off I am saddened by the reduction in character points and a simultaneous increase in the void costs. Regarding the former I simply like having more XP to play around with (especially at creation for advantages) for the latter I can understand why void is now more expensive, but I always thought it added great flavor to the game that the best way to become more powerful (higher insight) was to become more enlightened and in touch with the void.
The removal of insight bonuses really disappoints me as well, I liked that those who studied theology could advance quickly, I liked that any skill at 5 provided a small bonus, and that lore skills got a few extra bonuses. Now a lore skill that doesn’t come up frequently is even more useless. No huge changes in advantages and disadvantages, some new ones, but nothing huge.
There were some changes in the schools however: The Hiruma school is awesome once again (they chose the ancestral school instead of the scout school, I hated the scout school, but the ancestral school was one of my favorites). The elimination of the Ronin schools really bothers me. While it made perfect sense that ronin don’t have the resources to start any sort of school, it also eliminates the samurai of the great and minor clans who study a different path, you can no longer play a character who doesn’t fit properly into one of the clan schools without looking outside the clan. Not to mention the fact that a few of the minor clans only list shugenja schools, which means that their bushi have no place to train at all.
There are a few changes to how shugenja schools work. The working of an affinity changed rather significantly. Previously they just allowed you to cast spells from one rank higher. Now they effectively increase your school rank in regards to that element, which gives an additional +1K0 to spellcasting rolls, not to mention all of the spell effects that mention school rank.
The only problem I have with the equipment section is that neither it, nor the crafting rules have any mention of exceptional items, or items of great value, despite other portions of the book mentioning them.
The Book of Water: Optional rules. This is where the minor clans and imperial families are located and I don’t quite see that as ‘optional rules’ but whatever. The advanced schools and paths are pretty decent, even if there are only a few of them for each clan. I really like that paths now replace a level instead of inserting an extra one, which means that you don’t have to deyal getting the good techniques.
I dislike the new ancestor rules, mostly because they are hugely expensive metits that you can lose with no recompense. Some like Bayushi, are decent (you can only lose it through a deliberate betrayal of the clan) but some are ridiculously easy to lose, like Kakita (if you ever lose a duel, oh and PS, every Matsu ever born hates you personally, so be prepared for lots of duels)
Kata are pretty decent, even if there aren’t many of them, I expect more in future books. I like them a lot more now that they are simpler to activate and use.
Kiho are basically the same, although shugenja can finally use them, which makes me happy.
Maho and Taint are finally scary! This makes me so happy. There are no longer any ways to get rid of any amount of taint at all. This makes taint so much scarier, especially considering that there are some cursed weapons and maho spells that can give points to almost anyone.
Book of Void: GMing stuff. Contains pretty much all the standard stuff that a GMing chapter would have, plus a few nice bits on how Japanese stories tend to be different than their western counterparts. Also a decent selection of monsters and animals for the PCs to encounter, but nothing truly special.
At some point in the not so distant future I will probably do a comprehensive evaluation of all the various schools, but that will wait. Right now I am kinda obsessing about preparing for a LARP I won’t be able to be in for a couple of months, figuring out which character I want to play and what not. Speaking of that, to any involved in the Madison LARP: what is the level of costuming there? Roughly what Beloit had? Or do I need to try and go for something more?
The Book of Air: This book contains the setting info, including customs and history. This section suffers greatly from the timeline neutrality, as only the most important events are mentioned in the history section. The previous editions had a timeline that included most events, but this edition has only one or two events from each century. Granted, that event or two gets more detail than the previous versions, but still, it is basically useless. As are the descriptions of the great clans, sure you can get the broad philosophies of a clan, but all of the clans have undergone some significant changes over the years, the unicorn as an example have been a very different clan during the clan wars period than the Khan’s Defiance.
The Book of Earth: The basic rules. I actually like most of these changes. Dueling has been simplified so that it is actually useable both in and out of combat. I also like the five stances, both thematically and mechanically. Also the changes in types of actions are definitely for the better. Now keeping track of what you can do in a round is much easier. Consolidating and standardizing the various conditional effects also makes them quite useful in the various school techniques.
The Book of Fire: Character Creation and the schools. First off I am saddened by the reduction in character points and a simultaneous increase in the void costs. Regarding the former I simply like having more XP to play around with (especially at creation for advantages) for the latter I can understand why void is now more expensive, but I always thought it added great flavor to the game that the best way to become more powerful (higher insight) was to become more enlightened and in touch with the void.
The removal of insight bonuses really disappoints me as well, I liked that those who studied theology could advance quickly, I liked that any skill at 5 provided a small bonus, and that lore skills got a few extra bonuses. Now a lore skill that doesn’t come up frequently is even more useless. No huge changes in advantages and disadvantages, some new ones, but nothing huge.
There were some changes in the schools however: The Hiruma school is awesome once again (they chose the ancestral school instead of the scout school, I hated the scout school, but the ancestral school was one of my favorites). The elimination of the Ronin schools really bothers me. While it made perfect sense that ronin don’t have the resources to start any sort of school, it also eliminates the samurai of the great and minor clans who study a different path, you can no longer play a character who doesn’t fit properly into one of the clan schools without looking outside the clan. Not to mention the fact that a few of the minor clans only list shugenja schools, which means that their bushi have no place to train at all.
There are a few changes to how shugenja schools work. The working of an affinity changed rather significantly. Previously they just allowed you to cast spells from one rank higher. Now they effectively increase your school rank in regards to that element, which gives an additional +1K0 to spellcasting rolls, not to mention all of the spell effects that mention school rank.
The only problem I have with the equipment section is that neither it, nor the crafting rules have any mention of exceptional items, or items of great value, despite other portions of the book mentioning them.
The Book of Water: Optional rules. This is where the minor clans and imperial families are located and I don’t quite see that as ‘optional rules’ but whatever. The advanced schools and paths are pretty decent, even if there are only a few of them for each clan. I really like that paths now replace a level instead of inserting an extra one, which means that you don’t have to deyal getting the good techniques.
I dislike the new ancestor rules, mostly because they are hugely expensive metits that you can lose with no recompense. Some like Bayushi, are decent (you can only lose it through a deliberate betrayal of the clan) but some are ridiculously easy to lose, like Kakita (if you ever lose a duel, oh and PS, every Matsu ever born hates you personally, so be prepared for lots of duels)
Kata are pretty decent, even if there aren’t many of them, I expect more in future books. I like them a lot more now that they are simpler to activate and use.
Kiho are basically the same, although shugenja can finally use them, which makes me happy.
Maho and Taint are finally scary! This makes me so happy. There are no longer any ways to get rid of any amount of taint at all. This makes taint so much scarier, especially considering that there are some cursed weapons and maho spells that can give points to almost anyone.
Book of Void: GMing stuff. Contains pretty much all the standard stuff that a GMing chapter would have, plus a few nice bits on how Japanese stories tend to be different than their western counterparts. Also a decent selection of monsters and animals for the PCs to encounter, but nothing truly special.
At some point in the not so distant future I will probably do a comprehensive evaluation of all the various schools, but that will wait. Right now I am kinda obsessing about preparing for a LARP I won’t be able to be in for a couple of months, figuring out which character I want to play and what not. Speaking of that, to any involved in the Madison LARP: what is the level of costuming there? Roughly what Beloit had? Or do I need to try and go for something more?