Introduction
I was and is a huge fan of Legend of the Five Rings (L5R). I have read almost every supplement of the first edition. I bought the third edition a year ago, but haven't gotten around to reading it. I picked it up a few weeks ago and at the same time was made aware of Legend of the Burning Sand and decided I would read that one instead. What follows are my thoughts and opinions of Legend of the Burning Sand (LBS).
Legend of the Burning Sand
First off, the book is the same high quality print as the third edition L5R, with heavy glossy paper. Immediately one notice that the book is organized differently. It starts with a long section of game rules, whereas L5R starts with the setting and culture.
The rules are easy to follow and are very close to the original 1st edition. I never looked at the second d20 edition. They seem highly inductive of a good gaming experience.
The setting is not as unified as that of L5R. There are several nations, and several cultures presented in the book. This is, in my opinion, the first mistake. Even though they have far more information about each culture than the average fantasy setting they are falling way behind the masterpiece L5R.
The setting information and the history of the Jewel (the major city) is not very interesting and it did not fascinate me. When reading L5R I get ideas for stories to tell immediately, not so with LBS. Having said that, they have chosen a very nice way of telling the story. Instead of one huge section containing all the information on the history, as other games do, they have split it up based on faction. As each factions story is told pieces of the larger history gradually falls in place. This makes the history easier to read, even though it is a not very fascinating story.
Conclusion
The system is an abbreviated version of that in L5R and is well suited for any fantasy settings. There are a few factions and their history that could be used more or less as written in other settings. However, the setting as presented is not nearly interesting enough to be used as is.
Compared with other settings, LBS is better than your average fantasy game. However, as it is a spin-off of the great Legends of the five rings, I was disappointed because I expected it to hold the same high standards. So now I'll just take the original third edition L5R book off the shelf again. (I ended up buying a copy of the revised edition... I'll let you know what I think when I'm done with it).
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Legend of the Five Ringes third edition reviced
Introduction
The first edition of Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) was published in 1997. At the time I read it, and it became my absolute favorite game. I have read most of what was published for the first edition. I have been game master in several campaigns of L5R.
The second edition of L5R used d20 and it didn't get any god reviews. I never got around to reading it.
When the third edition (L5R 3E) was published I bought the main book very early, but I never got around to reading it. For those of you that have read some of my reviews this seems to be more the rule than the exception. Anyway I have finally gotten around to reading it, well reading the third edition revised (L5R 3ER) and here is what I think.
Review - The book
It's printed on high quality glossed paper, with easy to read coloring. They have not made the mistake so many does by making the layout so fancy that it gets hard to read. It might just be that I'm a bunch of year older now, but I feel the drawings and illustrations were better in the first edition.
The 3ER is not as well organized as the Legend of the Burning Sands (LBS), and the history section is presented in a much less entertaining way than in LBS. In L5R the history is presented as a very long list of events. The list contains the year and a brief summary of the event. I guess this is god for referencing the history if your already familiar with it, but it's not a very god introduction to the history.
The map of Rokugan is much better than in the first edition. Now it looks like something you might expect a Rokugan map make would draw. There are two different maps, one in the front and one in the back of the book. They present different things. One presents cities, castles and such the other important sites. As almost all maps of this type they are dotted with codes telling you of the important place. In the back of the book there is a long list explaining about each side. I find the organization of this to be very anoying. It is broken up into clan area. This allows you to know which city or major site belongs to which clan, but it makes it more difficult to find. If you know the name and want to find the place, then your in trouble. Because you'll end up scanning through the whole list. There should have been a key list sorted on the name of the place too.
Review - The Setting
The setting of L5R is that of a Samurai world. Though it has always been sort of a merge between Japanese and Chinese culture. It it a very entertaining setting with lots of opportunity for role playing. The best thing about the setting is that the culture and customs are theraly presented. It's not just a page about the culture, there are pages upon pages. This is what makes it an awesome game.
The L5R setting has been expanded ever since the first edition. They have published countless source books and novels gradually bringing the setting forward from the starting year presented in the core book. When I played first edition I got as far as the Scorpion Clan Coup. The events up to this point was in-line with what I expected of the setting.
However, the development between the coup and 1170 are not. I think the events presented in the new editions are way to high-fantasy and high-magic. They are something I would expect from at DnD setting, not from L5R. It became clear to me early that I would have to make an alternate time line before planing my first campaign in L5R 3ER. Most of the stuff about the Naga, Lying Darkness, Fu-Leng awakening and the Spirit War has to go.
Review - The System
The system is returning to the first edition and expanding. It stands as a more complete and throughout system than the first edition, but still keeping the charm of that edition. You roll a number of dices based on skill + trait, and you keep trait number of dices. It's clean, simple and I haven't seen any better system.
Conclusion
This is a very god product, that I'm looking forward to play. It is unfortunate that the history developments are not to my liking. Having said that, I do not think it will require much time to undo the history mess, and make it into some thin I can enjoy. This is a nice product.
The first edition of Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) was published in 1997. At the time I read it, and it became my absolute favorite game. I have read most of what was published for the first edition. I have been game master in several campaigns of L5R.
The second edition of L5R used d20 and it didn't get any god reviews. I never got around to reading it.
When the third edition (L5R 3E) was published I bought the main book very early, but I never got around to reading it. For those of you that have read some of my reviews this seems to be more the rule than the exception. Anyway I have finally gotten around to reading it, well reading the third edition revised (L5R 3ER) and here is what I think.
Review - The book
It's printed on high quality glossed paper, with easy to read coloring. They have not made the mistake so many does by making the layout so fancy that it gets hard to read. It might just be that I'm a bunch of year older now, but I feel the drawings and illustrations were better in the first edition.
The 3ER is not as well organized as the Legend of the Burning Sands (LBS), and the history section is presented in a much less entertaining way than in LBS. In L5R the history is presented as a very long list of events. The list contains the year and a brief summary of the event. I guess this is god for referencing the history if your already familiar with it, but it's not a very god introduction to the history.
The map of Rokugan is much better than in the first edition. Now it looks like something you might expect a Rokugan map make would draw. There are two different maps, one in the front and one in the back of the book. They present different things. One presents cities, castles and such the other important sites. As almost all maps of this type they are dotted with codes telling you of the important place. In the back of the book there is a long list explaining about each side. I find the organization of this to be very anoying. It is broken up into clan area. This allows you to know which city or major site belongs to which clan, but it makes it more difficult to find. If you know the name and want to find the place, then your in trouble. Because you'll end up scanning through the whole list. There should have been a key list sorted on the name of the place too.
Review - The Setting
The setting of L5R is that of a Samurai world. Though it has always been sort of a merge between Japanese and Chinese culture. It it a very entertaining setting with lots of opportunity for role playing. The best thing about the setting is that the culture and customs are theraly presented. It's not just a page about the culture, there are pages upon pages. This is what makes it an awesome game.
The L5R setting has been expanded ever since the first edition. They have published countless source books and novels gradually bringing the setting forward from the starting year presented in the core book. When I played first edition I got as far as the Scorpion Clan Coup. The events up to this point was in-line with what I expected of the setting.
However, the development between the coup and 1170 are not. I think the events presented in the new editions are way to high-fantasy and high-magic. They are something I would expect from at DnD setting, not from L5R. It became clear to me early that I would have to make an alternate time line before planing my first campaign in L5R 3ER. Most of the stuff about the Naga, Lying Darkness, Fu-Leng awakening and the Spirit War has to go.
Review - The System
The system is returning to the first edition and expanding. It stands as a more complete and throughout system than the first edition, but still keeping the charm of that edition. You roll a number of dices based on skill + trait, and you keep trait number of dices. It's clean, simple and I haven't seen any better system.
Conclusion
This is a very god product, that I'm looking forward to play. It is unfortunate that the history developments are not to my liking. Having said that, I do not think it will require much time to undo the history mess, and make it into some thin I can enjoy. This is a nice product.
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