There are a few standout pieces but when I come away from the book I’m not remembering the iconic pictures of the first or second edition so much. While the overall presentation is pretty good there is something lacking in this version when it comes to visuals. All things considered its a pretty damn amazing feat and I was very, very surprised. Somehow they’ve managed to squeeze in most of the additional material from the sourcebooks of the previous editions, give you a comprehensive overview of the history, cover magic, the Shadowlands and everything else all in the one, slimmer, book. It is, however, crammed to the fucking gills with information. It is thinner than the first edition and, I think, slightly thinner than the second edition corebooks.
This is a solid, but slim feeling (for the price) hardback book and forms the corebook of the new edition, back to a single hardcover rather than a player’s guide and GM’s guide seperate as with the last edition. Still, I have very fond memories of the game and this was a great way to catch up. Thus some of the updates in 3rd edition came as combinations of delight and shock. I do not follow the card game, or the war game and while our campaign (by chance) tied in with some of the events of the ongoing metaplot it was by no means all. And like The Big Dice, now's a great time to get invested in the game, before too many splats have come out.I ran a very successful and very fun (if a little unconventional) L5R game across first and second edition, diverging from the official plotline because I allowed the characters in my game to determine the course of some of the events, skipped over the whole d20 version mess and have now picked this version up largely for reasons of nostalgia and curiosity. I can't decide which one I like more - 1st or 4th edition.but the fact that I'm even contemplating it means that 4th edition is a solid, solid game. Doing so, they managed to wrestle the game back to it's rules-light, narrative-heavy, high-lethality roots that made the 1st edition of L5R such a hit with gamers. They've removed a LARGE number of the difficult-to-track-and-balance static bonuses from the system, cleaned up and vastly simplified the Raise/Free Raise mechanic, removed a goodly number of both totally useless and totally overpowered Techniques from the game (*looks pointedly at the Bayushi Violator and the entire Tsuruchi Bounty Hunter school*). Thus, 4th edition was a breath of fresh air. I can go into it at length if desired, but suffice to say that it was Rocket Tag of a like not seen since actual Doom-inspired Rocket Tag. There are few games more fundamentally broken, mechanically, than D&D 3.x.but L5R3e (and to a slightly lesser extent, L5R3eR) is very clearly one of them.
I'm generally a fan of L5R, although I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with the esteemed Mr. It's fun, it's different and it's got something uniquely it's own. There's no nonhumans in the core book, and those that are in Enemies of the Empire aren't likely to be well relieved by most people.Īll that said, I heartily reccomend that anyone with an interst in Japanese culture and history, or samurai flavoured manga and anime, should check the game out. I really like that casters and melee types are fairly balanced against each other and that every faction has a role for people who are more interested in social interactions than in hitting things and taking their stuff.īe advised, though. I love that a starting character has a chance (an outside one, but still very real) to one shot even the most experienced of characters. What I like is that Rokugan is a detailed world, where there's always more to learn, more subtlety to things and more depth than most game setting allow for. There's a new edition with only two books, including the core rules, in print. I found 4th to be a bit bland, but that said it's a perfect time to jump into all things L5R. I'm more of a fan of 3ed/3rd revised L5R.