Mission Statement and Legend of the Five Rings

Greeting and salutations ladies and gentlemen. This, being your humble Captain's first post, will endeavor to make my mission here clear as well as turn a critical eye to my favorite role playing game.

Mission Statement:

I, Captain Emberwrath, am a nerd and a gamer. I've been playing videogames since the days of the Atari 2600 and role playing games since my early twenties. I realize that I don't have the history that others do with the medium but I feel like it has been an outlet for me and has helped me branch out and make friends and associates all over the place.

That being said I make it my personal mission to turn my eye towards examining the games I enjoyed and still play and talk about them openly and honestly. The good, the bad, what I did and didn't play and the reasons why. I make this blog a place I will turn my gaze towards many different games, critiques of characters and franchises and generally making an nuisance of myself.

I will also make it a point to talk about nerd and gamer culture and the issues there in. I have strong opinions on these matters and I want to make it clear that, while I welcome honest disagreement, I will not tolerate belligerent jerkery. Disagree all you want but if you act like a moron about it I will openly mock you for it. I do not suffer fools lightly. I also will not tolerate misogynist or racist comments. It falls under my don't be a jerk rule.

I can guarantee that I will make someone mad, this is the internet after all. I write because I want to and because its my passion. I love the gaming community and I love games of many different varieties. I'm also honest, and any criticisms I have of the community will be born of that honesty. If I think something is wrong I will say it. I won't mince words, I'll just come out and say what I think. I won't use harsh language because I intend this to be a mostly all ages blog, but I'll be as open as I can be.

Now on to the games.

What is there to be said about Legend of the Five Rings? It is a fantastic system and setting. Definitely not for everyone, and it is meant to be heavy on the role playing, with very deadly combat. System wise it uses d10's and only d10's. You have five rings Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Void. To the Earth, Water, Air, and Fire rings there are attached two traits. Everything is a roll and keep system. For example in the third edition, which I am currently playing with my Saturday night gaming group,  a katana has a damage rating of 3k2 if you have a Strength of 2 it becomes 5k2. Meaning you roll 5d10 and keep the best 2. It sounds more complicated than it really is once you get used to it. It has a disadvantage/advantage system that can really hamstring your character and I like that about it. If you're not careful you can really get into trouble.

Setting wise it is different than western fantasy. It is set in an eastern setting where samurai of various clans keep the people safe from the ever present danger of the Shadowlands. Sometimes the clans go to war, and having a multi-clan party can be hard to run unless you take special steps to do so. I recommend beginners stick to one clan groupings until you are more familiar with the world and its ins and outs.

One thing that stands out is that the game doesn't have an alignment system. You can be a completely evil git, as long as you maintain your honor. Honor is what matters to the people of Rokugan and corruption is an ever present threat, mostly represented by the Shadowlands.

The books recommend several books and movies, several Kurosawa films, to get a feel for what the society is like. Honorifics are used, and one's place in society matters a great deal. Peasants, for example, don't talk back to the samurai. There is a strict social order that is meant to be role played out, and sometimes that might be difficult for people not familiar with the setting. In fact that might be one of the criticisms that I have for the setting, much that I love it. It requires you to think in a non-western way. What you or I might see as compassion wouldn't be the same in this particular setting. For example a young boy tainted by corruption might be killed by a samurai and the samurai would be considered to be showing compassion. In the world of L5R there is no cure for the taint, it gnaws at you constantly and is an ever present threat to your very soul. Killing a peasant tainted in this way at least frees them of the taint and lets their soul go back and be reincarnated. There are many players who might feel uncomfortable with this aspect of L5R and I recognize that.

There are plenty of other odd little things that many western gamers would have to get used to, and I had the benefit of playing with my best friend in two of the living campaigns run over eight years at various cons. I was able to get used to it and build up a collection of books that I love.

For hard core role players I really recommend this setting.

For the record the game is in its fourth edition and, full disclosure, I know one of the writers. He ran two of the campaigns I ran in and loves the setting more than anyone I know. Give it a shot you won't be disappointed.