Close
Close
Advanced Search

Legend of the Five Rings RPG Beta RulebookClick to magnify
Quick Preview
/gs_flipbook/flip.php?xml=/demo_xml/223045.xml&w=500&h=324
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.drivethrurpg.com/pdf_previews/223045-sample.pdf

Legend of the Five Rings RPG Beta Rulebook

ADD TO WISHLIST >
In the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Open Beta, players take on the role of individual samurai whose honor and loyalty will be put to the test. These samurai serve their lords as warriors, courtiers, priests, or monks and embark on adventures filled with drama, suspense, humor, romance, and horror. All the while, they must grapple with their human emotions and choose between following their heart’s desire or doing what society—and the Code of Bushid—demands of them. These personal stories of triumph and tragedy will reverberate across the Emerald Empire and shape the very future of Rokugan.
The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game will contain rules for creating characters sworn to the service of the Great Clans and running game sessions filled with intrigue and conflict. A wide variety of skills, techniques, advantages, disadvantages, and more allow players to customize their character mechanically and narratively. Custom dice mechanics enable players to contribute to the unfolding story and decide whether their character succeeds, by how much, and how much it will cost them. And the fantastical feudal setting of Rokugan provides a rich tapestry of majesty and wonder where these stories can unfold. 
The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Open Beta is available for free download. The Open Beta will not include every mechanic in the final game, but will give players everything they need to start running samurai-inspired adventures in the land of Rokugan. The beta will run for twelve weeks, giving players the oppurtunity to submit feedback about the upcoming Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game.

Save

Explore the world of Legend of the Five Rings in these new fiction eBooks...

Across the Burning Sands First Scroll The Eternal Knot Swords and Spirits Whispers of Shadow and Steel

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (7)
Discussions (8)
Customer avatar
Vincent R November 11, 2017 7:56 am UTC
PURCHASER
Well here we go.
I have been on the beta since it was released by FFG.
My thoughts on the Beta are.

1. This is not a beta its a errata/proofreading club.

2. The dice system is not an issues, as the custom dice kind of work here.

3. The issues are with the character creation system(4), skill system(5), weapons(6), strife system(7), and abilities(8).

4. Character creation in this game is for lack of a better word a game of mad-lids.For those that are unfamiliar with these. A mad-lib is a story with missing nouns, verbs, etc that you fill in the blanks to form a story. The current system does just that. You go through and at the points it tells you you pick a skill, ring, or advantage/disadvantage. This takes one of the most important parts of role-playing out of the players hands and turns it into a MMO. FFG answer is, this is how they want it to fight power-gamers and force players to take disadvantages.

5. The skill system is a mess....See more
Customer avatar
Harm-Diercks G October 07, 2017 8:56 am UTC
PURCHASER
I skimmed through the "reviews" and I am downloading it now. I started roleplaying 30 years ago with "das schwarze Auge" and the first German edition oF D&D. Just keep that in mind before you call me a "kid" because my opinion differs from yours. I invested quite a lot of money in Warhammer 3rd Edition. FFG lost the licence and all the stuff is wiped from the market. With that comes my first point against special Dice.

1. When the game is dicontinued all special stuff you need will become expensive, rare and then unavailable.

2. IMO the limit your imagination, because they tell you what happens in wich area. For me it is ahindrance for good and exciting roleplay. Bur I guess some players need that help from the Dice. How good it works without special Dice can be seen each week in critical role, when matt mercerinhales life into boring rolls of dice.

3. I don´t trust FFG anymore. And now bring the hate.

4. the rulebooks usually...See more
Reply
Customer avatar
Jesse T October 10, 2017 4:07 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Eventually, yes, Warhammer 3rd Edition material will become expensive and rare, but the same can be said for most dead RPGs, and there's /tons/ of the material still out there in the market, often available for much cheaper than when it was new.

I'm sorry you feel it limits your imagination. I find the unique dice mechanics drive the games in interesting, unexpected ways that everyone is involved and invested in, rather than just one storyteller's vision.
Reply
Customer avatar
Harm-Diercks G October 12, 2017 7:30 am UTC
PURCHASER
Yeah but the discontinuation came pretty fast and not even the PDFs were not longer for sale here on drivethrough. It felt like FFG said a big FU to the fans.

First I thought the same, but when the players are not able to spin a story around the dice the GM has to do it, then it is the storytellers Vision again. Then he/she has to spin around the dice and cannot use the own imagination. It usually ends in the usage of the same sentence constructs "You manage to hit because your XX is so high but it took more time so it will take more time to use it again, also it was more exausting than expected and you get 2 fatigue tokens". Maybe I programm a database were you put in the Dice rolls an it spins a story from it. I think it is an illusion of inspiration because it limits the story you can spin around an action to the types of dice you use.

Also I love to play with candleligght and so the dice must be very visible and easy to read. The Symbols in this look great but are hard...See more
Reply
Customer avatar
Robert L October 12, 2017 6:03 pm UTC
Yeah it's so horrible that FFG lost the license and isn't willing to get sued by a historically litigious company just to bring you more WHFRP 3rd edition products and PDFs, legality and IP be damned! /sarcasm
Reply
Customer avatar
Harm-Diercks G October 12, 2017 8:37 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Why don t you take your sarcasm an stick it in your northern end when you travel south :)

They did not "lose" the license, they did not renew it.
Reply
Customer avatar
Peter H November 24, 2017 9:55 pm UTC
PURCHASER

No- Workshop took it back so that they could produce their own stuff. FFG were given no choice.
Reply
Customer avatar
Harm-Diercks G January 19, 2018 2:03 pm UTC
PURCHASER
And that is why I am not buying anything with custom Dice ever again.
Reply
Customer avatar
Drew O August 28, 2018 3:01 pm UTC
PURCHASER
In the official announcements, neither company blamed the other for the loss of the license. A lot of people blamed it on Terrenoth (as if Runewars was going to overshadow 40k sales numbers).

Here's what happened- Games Workshop (under their new CEO) decided that they wanted to make the deal non-exclusive (so that other companies could also make GW themed games).

FFG demanded that they be given exclusive rights.

Both companies expected the other to cave, but both were stubborn enough that the license was completely revoked.
Reply
Customer avatar
Harm-Diercks G August 30, 2018 1:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
That is a interesting Theory! Thanks
Customer avatar
Charlie S October 06, 2017 10:33 pm UTC
Kevin is right, the whiners are really bringing the rating down, and I love the dice mechanic, all they have to do is try the game, if they choose not to, well shut up about it.
Customer avatar
Kevin D October 06, 2017 9:00 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Every "review" but one so far ought to be deleted. These children can't get over their hate for unique dice and have literally nothing else to say about the game.
Reply
Customer avatar
Harm-Diercks G August 30, 2018 1:31 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Buddy, I habe the complete second edition here in my shelf, do not tell me I have nothing to say about LOTFR
Reply
Customer avatar
Kevin D November 02, 2018 7:54 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I'm not your buddy, pal. And I'm not even talking to you. That you took my comment as directed at you speaks to your own insecurity. Do you often find people on the internet not talking to you personally offensive?
Reply
Customer avatar
Rod P March 28, 2020 1:18 am UTC
He's not your pal, friend.
Reply
Customer avatar
Kevin D June 07, 2020 9:00 am UTC
PURCHASER
But are you my friend, mate?
Customer avatar
Nicholas K October 06, 2017 12:10 am UTC
PURCHASER
TL;DR: There is nothing stopping you from using standard dice with this game, just have a print out of a small table next to you.

For those of you concerned about the utility of the custom dice, don't worry. Like the Star Wars products there is a table at the very beginning of the book that lays out what the die faces are and those can be used as a translation table for any standard dice that you have. It takes barely a moment and you start to memorize what number corresponds to what symbols as you use it.
Customer avatar
Corwyn C October 05, 2017 9:18 pm UTC
PURCHASER
There's a Legend of the Five Rings Dice App available for $6.99 CDN on the App Store and Google Play for people who don't want to cut and paste the symbols onto physical dice. The app is similar to the Star Wars Dice App.

"...the fastest way to begin playing is to purchase the Legend of the Five Rings Dice App, available on the App Store and Google Play. The Legend of the Five Rings Dice App is a comprehensive physics-based dice roller that can be used to roll the custom six- and twelve-sided dice used in the game, as well as the ten- sided dice occasionally used during character creation. The app allows you to manually change die faces, group dice, display total results, and explode dice, as well as create custom presets for any combination of dice."
Customer avatar
John R October 05, 2017 5:40 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Doesn't "The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game" already exist? how can you open beta something that has existed for years?

Shouldn't it be "The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game, Xth edition" or something? Neither the title nor the text indicate it's a new edition, or which edition, or ...
Reply
Customer avatar
Marcel H October 05, 2017 9:16 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I think they can't exactly do that because the brand is under a new management and the entire lore is getting retconned.

Similar to how the different Star Wars roleplaying games are called "Star Wars Roleplaying Game" or something like that and the fandom needs to add something to differentiate them.
Reply
Customer avatar
Corwyn C October 05, 2017 9:32 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Roleplaying game lines don't typically indicate the edition number in the title unless it's a new or updated edition of an existing game being produced by the exact same company. If a new company takes over an existing property, such as in this case where Fantasy Flight is producing an entirely new version of the game with different rules from AEG's version, they almost always leave out the edition number in the books titles.
Customer avatar
Levy K October 05, 2017 12:56 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hey what happened to Mantis and Spider clans?
Reply
Customer avatar
Alex T October 05, 2017 4:14 am UTC
PURCHASER
They're doing a hard reboot so they don't exist yet.
Reply
Customer avatar
Nathaniel B October 05, 2017 5:24 am UTC
PURCHASER
Good to know its a reboot when I read this -- I have friends who like the game but they have memorized all the lore from all the versions and it gets annoying sometimes when it keeps changing. Hopefully a reboot is what we need -- I'll review the system and see if I like it
Reply
Customer avatar
Levy K October 06, 2017 4:39 am UTC
PURCHASER
Man I love my samurai pirates. Are they planning to bring Mantis back?
Reply
Customer avatar
Kevin D October 06, 2017 8:54 pm UTC
PURCHASER
@Levy K
There's no official word on in what capacity the Mantis may return. In this beta, the get a mention in a section talking about Minor Clans and that's it.
Reply
Customer avatar
Randall T October 28, 2017 1:28 am UTC
PURCHASER
The Mantis rules will be in the next version of the Open Beta.
Reply
Customer avatar
mathew R March 21, 2018 3:02 pm UTC
Mantis are in the FFG story. Yoritomo himself was featured in several stories. They are a minor clan. Also their lore is in one of the beta updates so the will be in the game most likely (if not in the core book then eventually in some expansion). Spider clan is not so lucky. The current timeline for FFG's story is well before the Spider clan founding so it's very unlikely they'll be in the RPG any time soon.
Narrow Results
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!















Product Information
Pages
233
Publisher Stock #
L5R00
File Size:
6.82 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Information
Watermarked PDF Click for more information
Watermarked PDF

These PDF files are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the PDF containing your name and the order number of your purchase.

Warning: If any files bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.

Here is a sample of a page from a watermarked title:

File Last Updated:
October 04, 2017
This title was added to our catalog on October 04, 2017.