originally written by John Wick and published by Alderac Entertainment Group, under license

from Five Rings Publishing Group, in 1997. The game uses the Legend of the Five Rings setting,
primarily the nation of Rokugan, which is based on feudal Japan with influences from other East
Asian cultures.

Like most role-playing games, Legend of the Five Rings is played by one or more players and a
game master, who controls the events that happen during the game as well as the non-player
characters (NPCs). Legend of the Five Rings features many courtiers and other non-combatant
character types as valid player characters.

In September 2015, AEG and Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) jointly announced that the intellectual
property had been sold to FFG.[1] Fantasy Flight Games released a new role-playing game based
on the Legend of the Five Rings setting in October, 2018.[2]

Setting
Main article: Rokugan

The fictional setting of Legend of the Five Rings is similar to feudal Japan, though it also
includes aspects of other Asian cultures, as well as magic and mythical beasts. There is no given
name for the entire world which the setting describes, so "Rokugan" is used alternately to refer to
the specific nation within the setting or to refer to the entire world.

Rokugani society is based on a clan structure, with seven (and later eight) so-called "Great
Clans", as well as a number of minor clans. Great Clans are made up of several family lines, each
with their own general purpose within the clan. Minor clans generally only have one family.
Each clan also has areas of land bequeathed by the emperor under their control. The emperor
retains ownership of all lands, however, and the clans essentially rent the lands by paying annual
taxes.

System
The game system of Legend of the Five Rings uses 10-sided dice exclusively. Usually, when a
die is rolled and the result is 10 (normally marked '0' on the die), the die is said to "explode". In
this situation, the player rolls again and the new result is added to the original result. If this
second result is a 10, the player rolls a third time, totaling all three results. This process is
repeated until the player rolls something other than 10. The second edition and most books made
for it were written to work both with this system and with D20 rules as presented in the Oriental
Adventures D&D setting; this was discontinued after 3rd edition was published.

Roll & Keep

The mechanic for which the game is most widely known is the "Roll & Keep" system, designed
by Dave Williams and John Wick. When dice are rolled, there are two quantities given: a number
of dice to be rolled and a number of dice to be "kept". The totals of the kept dice are added
together, giving the player the total sum for his or her roll. For example, if a roll called for five
dice to be rolled and three kept (said simply "five keep three" or written "5k3"), five dice would
be rolled. Out of those five, the player would choose three (generally, but not necessarily, the
player would choose the three with the highest values) whose values would be added together for
the total value of the roll.

Rings

Legend of the Five Rings uses eight traits: Stamina, Willpower, Strength, Perception, Agility,
Intelligence, Reflexes, and Awareness. The Traits are grouped into pairs associated with four
elemental "Rings" (respectively to above): Earth, Water, Fire and Air. The four Rings represent a
limitation in character development, because in order for a character to advance, the level of his
Rings must increase, and to increase a character's Rings, both of the Ring's associated Traits
must increase.

There is a fifth Ring, called Void. This ring, like the other four, is taken from Miyamoto
Musashi's The Book of Five Rings. In the game, Void represents a character's inner strength, and
its use allows a character to perform extraordinary actions, or to perform normal actions more
efficiently.

Character creation

There are primarily two methods of creating characters in role-playing games: to roll dice to
randomly generate attributes or to begin with a set number of points and a formula by which
attributes can be purchased with these points. Legend of the Five Rings uses the latter method.
Each new character begins with 40 "Character Points" to spend to create the character (except for
ronin characters, which begin with 55). These points are spent to raise the level of the character's
Traits and Void Ring, to raise the level of the character's skills, and to purchase new skills. In
previous versions of the game, characters started with 30 points, or 45 for ronin.

These points may also be used to purchase Advantages, which give the character some extra
bonus or ability that is designed to help in certain situations (such as "Large", which increases
the damage a character can inflict, or "Social Position", which increases that character's standing
in the courts of the land). Conversely, if a player so chooses, he can select a number of
Disadvantages for his character, which give extra Character Points to spend in other areas, but
imposes some penalty on the character during play (such as "Small", which decreases the
damage the character can inflict with certain weapons, or "Bad Reputation", which causes a great
number of NPCs to dislike the character).

As of 5th edition, characters are created using a 20 question system, with each question
determining skill, social, and ring stats.[3]

Lethality

The Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game is renowned for its lethality.[4] Players who
charge into combat unaware will often find their characters killed in the first session. Proper role-
playing is encouraged to avoid combat when unnecessary, but the characters do have requisite
abilities to survive if combat is forced in the early stages.

Oriental Adventures
Oriental Adventures was published originally in 1985 by TSR, Inc. as an expansion for
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and was set in a land called Kara-Tur. In 2001, Wizards of the
Coast released a new edition of Oriental Adventures as an expansion for the third edition of
Dungeons & Dragons. It was decided to make this new version of Oriental Adventures a
showcase for their recently acquired Legend of the Five Rings property. An official (but not
100% comprehensive) update of Oriental Adventures to the v.3.5 rules can be found in Dragon
Magazine #318 (April 2004), pp. 32–48.

For the entirety of its Second Edition, with the exception of the Player's Guide, Game Master's
Guide, Way of the Shadowlands, Winter Court: Kyuden Asako, and Time of the Void, books
published for the Legend of the Five Rings RPG had two different sets of game mechanics: the
mechanics from the Legend of the Five Rings Second Edition Player's Guide and corresponding
mechanics for d20 System, such as those presented in Oriental Adventures. Beginning with the
Third Edition of the Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game, and because of the lack of
availability of the now out of print Oriental Adventures, the d20 System rules have been dropped
from current Legend of the Five Rings Role-Playing Game books.

Books
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Listed by AEG reference number in parentheses followed by title

First Edition (AEG)

 (3001) Legend of the Five Rings – Roleplaying in the Emerald Empire (first edition core
rule book)
 (3002) Game Master's Pack: The Hare Clan
 (3003) Way of the Dragon (Way of the Clans: Book One), June 1997[5]
 (3004) City of Lies box set (L-1 City of Lies)
 (3005) Way of the Unicorn (Way of the Clans: Book Two)
 (3006) Book of the Shadowlands
 (3007) Way of the Crab (Way of the Clans: Book Three)
 (3008) The Way of the Scorpion (Way of the Clans: Book Five)
 (3009) Way of the Crane (Way of the Clans: Book Four)
 (3010) Way of the Lion (Way of the Clans: Book Six)
  (3011) Walking the Way: The Lost Spells of Rokugan
 (3012) The Tomb of Iuchiban box set (S-1 Shadowlands Series), January 1999[6]
 (3013) Way of Shadow
 (3014) Way of the Naga (Way of the Clans: Book Eight)
 (3015) Game Master's Survival Guide
 (3016) Winter Court: Kyuden Seppun
 (3017) The Way of the Phoenix (Way of the Clans: Book Seven)
 (3018) Unexpected Allies
 (3019) Bearers of Jade: The Second Book of the Shadowlands
 (3020) Otosan Uchi: The Imperial City box set (O-1 The Imperial City)
 (3021) Way of the Minor Clans (Way of the Clans: Book Nine)
 (3022) Game Master's Pack (Revised): The Silence Within Sound
 (3023) Merchant's Guide to Rokugan
 (3024) Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita
 (3025) Way of the Wolf (Way of the Clans: Book Ten)
 (3028) Way of Shinsei (Way of the Clans: Book Eleven)
 (4001) Honor's Veil (I-1 Intrigue Series)
 (4002) Night of a Thousand Screams (L-2 City of Lies)
 (4003) Code of Bushido (B-1 Bushido Series)
 (4004) Twilight Honor (S-2 Shadowlands Series)
 (4005) Midnight's Blood (M-1 High Magic Series)
 (4006) Legacy of the Forge (B-2 Bushido Series)
 (4007) Void in the Heavens (M-2 High Magic Series)
 (4008) Lesser of Two Evils (S-3 Shadowlands Series)
 (4500) Character Travelogue: Crab
 (4501) Character Travelogue: Crane
 (4502) Character Travelogue: Dragon
 (4503) Character Travelogue: Lion
 (4504) Character Travelogue: Phoenix
 (4505) Character Travelogue: Ronin
 (4506) Character Travelogue: Scorpion
 (4507) Character Travelogue: Unicorn

Second Edition (AEG)

 (3101) Legend of the Five Rings – Player's Guide (second edition core rules)
 (3102) Legend of the Five Rings – Game Master's Guide (second edition core rules)
 (3030) Way of the Shadowlands *
 (3030) Winter Court: Kyuden Asako *(both marked 3030, there is no 3031)
 (3032) Way of the Ratling
 (3033) Time of the Void
 (4009) Bells of the Dead
 (4010) Mimura: The Village of Promises