On the subject of rules, the core mechanics will feel instantly familiar to anyone who has played one of Fantasy Flight’s recent Star Wars RPGs or the Genesys system. It says a lot about L5R that each of these is given roughly equal prominence when it comes to rules and focus. Once the party is assembled and outfitted from a dazzling array of equipment it’s time to battle monsters, scheme your way though political intrigues and fight ritualised duels.

Depending on how you feel, and how the lengthy character creation process works out, you might emerge as a bare-fisted monk, a magic-wielding priest or even a skulking shinobi spy.

Fortunately, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to be running around as a half-dozen identical sword-wielding stoics in fancy armour, as the game is quick to remind us that samurai is a social class rather a job description. If nothing else, that means every member of the party takes up the role of a samurai. While it makes for an incredible path into the game world and riffing on traditional tropes of honour and duty, it quickly breaks down if you try and prise it from its comfort zone. This is both its greatest strength and most obvious weakness. It’s a game utterly dedicated to tales of samurai, shinobi and the Japanese-inspired mythology of Rokugan. The only attack that doesn't involve a roll (that I'm aware of) is the ise zumi dragon tattoo.beyond what said:school techniques and skill mastery levels can give bonuses to the attack and damage rolls, as can advantages and disadvantages.weapon emphasis allow you to re-roll 1s on the attack roll, but not the damage roll.This latest incarnation of Legend of the Five Rings is a shining example of how an RPG can commit so deeply to a setting and playstyle that it’s impossible to imagine one existing without the other. Must've been something I house ruled years ago and had nobody question. Mistake I made when I first started running, had one very OP shugenja due to that.Tried to space everything out and bold/format it to emphasize the important bits.EDIT: Clarified damage rules, no idea how I miss understood it. So he'd instead roll 5k3 whenever casting an Earth Spell.But if he were casting an Air Spell, which he is Deficient in, his School level would be considered one level lower, which for a level one shugenja means he'd just roll his Air Ring, keeping his Air Ring.That clear it up or did I muddle it further for you?Spellcraft, the Skill, is for figuring out spells/making new ones/learning new ones et cetera.

L5r dice roller