Legend of the Five Rings
BGG Geek Rating
6.2
based on 1,726 ratings
BGG Average Rating
7.2
community average
BGG Ranking
#2272
all board games
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Players
2-8
Weight
3.29/5.00
Playtime
45 min
Age
12+
⚙️ Game Mechanics
How this game works - core systems and player actions
📂 Categories
🎨 Artists
Brian Snoddy
Miguel Coimbra
Jeff Menges
William O'Connor
Jim Pavelec
Mark Tedin
Malcolm McClinton
David Horne
Charles Urbach
Mike Raabe
Diana Vick
Alayna Lemmer-Danner
John Donahue
Lisa M. Hunt
Susan Van Camp
Michael Kaluta
Mike Capprotti
Randy Liu
Ozan Art
David Trowbridge
Kevin Wasden
Ron Spencer
Thomas Biondiolillo
Anthony Grabski
Brandon Leach
Quinton Hoover
Eric Polak
Beth Trott
Michael Apice
Max Degen
Shane Coppage
Julie Baroh
Matt Busch
Edwin David
Luke Stelmaszek
Glen Osterberger
Brent Chumley
K. C. Lancaster
Steve Argyle
Jaime Jones
Jeff Himmelman
Franz Vohwinkel
Aaron Acevedo
Mario Wibisono
Kevin Daily
John Moriarty
Kari Christensen
Anson Maddocks
Paul Herbert
Monte Moore
Nate Barnes
Matthew S. Armstrong
Doug Kovacs
Dave Kendall
Kevin Ward
Patrick McEvoy
Ed Cox
David Fooden
Stacy Drum
Daniel Gelon
Robin Wouters
Mark Poole
Eric David Anderson
Cline Seigenthaler
Steve Ellis (I)
Sławomir Maniak
Britt Martin
April Lee
Monika Livingstone
Tony Moseley
Ellym Sirac
Mark Hyzer
Noah Bradley
Pete Garcia
Bob E. Hobbs
Nicola Leonard
Chuck Lukacs
Thomas Manning
Peter Mohrbacher
Jarreau Wimberly
Rob Alexander
Randy Gallegos
Cristina McAllister
Audrey Corman
Jason Juta
Brad Williams
Margaret Organ-Kean
Andrew Hepworth
Stacy Fitz
Ben Peck
Jason Engle
Leonardo Borazio
Chris Seaman
Edward Fetterman
Bryon Wackwitz
Sandra Garavito
Drew Baker
Heather Bruton
Michael Phillippi
Doug Shuler
Steve Ellis (II)
Liz Danforth
McLean Kendree
Michael Williams
Eric Lofgren
Jonathan Moore
Chris Arneson
Jesus Barony
Manuel Calderon
Jose Cua
Adam Denton
Adam Bray
Gonzalo Ordoñez
Bonnie Hill
Joachim Gmoser
Corene Werhane
Ancor Hernandez
Angga Satriohadi
Michael Lavoie (I)
Veronica Jones
Troy Graham
Alberto Tavira
Chris Pritchard
James Hall
Erich Schreiner
Bradley McDevitt
Bob Stevlic
Raymond Gaustadnes
Joe Wilson
Heather Kreiter
Lissanne Lake
Theodor Black
David Bollt
Robin Wood
Llyn Hunter
Randy Elliott
Janine Johnston
Ted Galaday
Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Jeff Reitz
Michael Komarck
Carl Frank
Matt Wilson (I)
Christina Wald
Craig Maher
📖 About This Game
A collectible card game, set in a fantasy empire called Rokugan, based loosely upon medieval Japan and Japanese Mythology.
The factions available have changed over the editions, but generally include the 7 Great Clans: Crab, Crane, Dragon, Lion, Phoenix, Scorpion, and Unicorn. Each has specific thematic elements, which are consistent across editions and descendant games. The other currently legal factions include the Spider, Mantis, and an unaligned ronin stronghold.
The Rokugan setting has been changed over the years by participation in the storyline tournaments for the L5R CCG.
Legend of the Five Rings is different from other collectible card games due to the concept of Clan loyalty. The Clans of the game are what you build your deck around, and the communities that have built up around the Crane Clan, Lion Clan, etc are the backbone of the game. When you say "I'm a Crab player" you instantly find yourself with hundreds and thousands of clan-mates who are there to help you become a better player. When one member of the Clan wins, all benefit.
L5R was the first CCG to introduce cards that players directly influenced. These are still a core part of the game.
The L5R CCG has spun off a number of related games:
Clan War, a miniatures game.
Diskwars: Legend of the Five Rings, a Rokugan-themed set of the Diskwars tabletop combat game.
Unpublished Prototype, an as-yet unpublished wargame set in Rokugan.
Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game
As of 2006, only the CCG and Clan War have had storyline tournaments. Though the RPG players have been heavily involved in the ongoing plot in recent years.
In 2008, L5R held the first "Mega-Game" which incorporated various methods of competition for the Clans and their supporters, not only in CCG form, but in contests (art, writing, poster-design, etc.), community work (charity, fundraising, food-drives), and more. The Dragon Clan ultimately won the first mega-game, and as such earned the privilege of having the next Empress come from their clan.
In 2009, L5R released its first graphic novel, Death at Koten, which also included exclusive story-themed cards for the CCG.
Also in 2009, L5R released The Imperial Gift the first completely free expansion in CCG history.
In 2010 L5R celebrated its 15th Anniversary with many major events, new prizes, more free cards, and a special flashback set that brought back some of the most popular cards in the history of the game. 2010 also saw the largest World Championships event at Gen Con in the past 7 years.
2011 saw the release of War of Honor, an all new tile-based multiplayer format for L5R that comes with 4 pre-constructed decks.
In september 2015, AEG and Fantasy Flight Games announced that FFG had bought the L5R brand from AEG and will relaunch the card game as a LCG (non-collectible), with significant rules changes and a new design. The game is to go on hiatus following the release of Evil Portents, the final expansion from AEG, and will be relaunched at Gencon 2017. FFG has also plans to continue the RPG at some point (in what form and with which ruleset is yet unknown).