History TabletopGame / LegendOfTheFiveRings

* FirearmsAreRevolutionary: This is the main reason for Rokugan's extremely strict ban on gunpowder. Their society believes strongly in the Celestial Order, and their legal system is based on duels where the winner is considered to have the blessing of the Kami and thus must be right. Guns and cannons allow untrained peasants and criminals to kill samurai and daimyo with ease, violating the Celestial Order and threatening to eliminate the culture of swordsmanship they had cultivated for millennia. The tipping point was the Battle of White Stag, when a group of Gaijin pirates managed to kill the Empress with cannons during an attempted coup, and gunpowder became illegal and Gaijin deported unless they had sponsorship by a powerful samurai.

** Rokugan is a sort of feudal Japan counterpart, with splashes of China, Korea, Mongolia, and Southeast Asia. While the original setting was strictly based on feudal Japan and feudal China, the Unicorn were given a more Mongolian flavor and the Mantis more traits of Southeast Asia to make them standout from the other Clans.

* HighlyVisibleNinja: [[SubvertedTrope And if you actually think that, the Scorpion will be]] ''[[OneBornEveryMinute very eager]]'' [[UnwittingPawn to do business with you]]. Sure, there's a category of shinobi who do this. They're called "still in training" and "distractions so you don't notice your courtier has [[BackStab procured a knife]]".

Like the other [=RPGs=] created by FFG, the company's restructuring under Asmodee saw the L5R RPG's development moved to its sister company, EDGE studio. While no details have yet been announced, there has been no indication that this move represents a new "edition" of the game, especially since some announced books for the game line have yet to be released.

On September 12, 2015 it was announced that AEG [[https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/9/11/a-new-emperor-rises/ sold the rights to the Legend of the 5 Rings IP to Fantasy Flight Games.]] In light of this announcement, FFG announced that they would be discontinuing the CCG in its current form for the time being, with intent to relaunch it under their LCG (Living Card Game) design paradigm. This also resulted in a full blown ContinuityReboot.

Details on the RPG are forthcoming.

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: The Imperial Court of Otosan Uchi (later Toshi Ranbo), or for that matter, any High Ranking Daimyo. The Court of Kyuden Bayushi, the central palace of the Scorpion Clan, is probably the deadliest and most decadent of all, especially for anyone with interests that run counter to the welfare of the Empire.

* FiveRaces: Invoked, but subverted. Lore establishes that before the existence of humanity, the land of Rokugan was literally ruled by five different races, who are even recorded in the game's lore as "the Five Races": the Kenku of Air, the Zokuijin of Earth, the Trolls of Fire, the Kitsu of Void and the Ningyo of Water. However, they weren't the first races in Rokugan, having been preceded by beings like the Naga, the Ashalan and the Jinn, and most of them have fallen to some extent or other -- the Kitsu are extinct, and the Trolls have been consumed by the Shadowland.

* BiggerBad: The Dark Lord Daigotsu, formerly the Big Bad, became this after his death and subsequent ascension to divinity. Now the ruler of Jigoku (hell), he is the ultimate force of darkness in the setting.

** Most of the place names are technically Japanese, as well. At least, they use real Japanese words that make sense and were probably intentional... Just not in the right order. A notable example (which is both common and understandable, among novice speakers) is the usage of "no" as equal to the English word "of" rather than the possessive "'s".

* OutOfFocus: With nine great clans and several other groups, this is inevitable. As of the Emperor Edition arc, the Kolat are next to extinct after their primary stronghold was taken by the Scorpion and now mostly exist as glorified {{Yakuza}}. Additionally, the Shadowland Hordes, the traditional BigBad of L5R have been notably quiet all through Emperor, though this can be attributed to [[DragonAscendant being under new management]] and the focus mostly being on the Colonies.
* PhysicalGod: The founding kami of the Great Clans all walked the earth in the Empire's early days. One of them, Togashi, even stuck around by pretending to be a series of different Dragon Clan Champions in order to [[XanatosGambit set the stage for Fu Leng's return and subsequent defeat.]]

* IceCreamKoan: Usually a source of hilarity when invoked by Togashi ''Ise Zumi'' monks, or by characters quoting Shinsei (the messiah monk who saved the Empire). One of the most hilariously baffling sayings of the ''Ise Zumi'' was "Even a goblin is beautiful at eighteen" (they're really not).

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: With so many characters, some inevitably just drop through the cracks. One good early example is [[http://l5r.wikia.com/wiki/Yogo_Asami Yogo Asami]], a relatively significant member of the Scorpion clan, connected to many of the most important characters- Bayushi Kachiko's former body double, trained by Bayushi Aramoro who she fell in love with, married Aramoro (accepting that she was his ReplacementGoldfish because of his unrequited love for Kachiko), bore his son Bayushi Aramasu... and never appeared in the story again after her card was initially released in ''Forbidden Knowledge.''

* IceCreamKoan: Usually a source of hilarity when invoked by Togashi monks, or by characters quoting Shinsei (the messiah monk who saved the Empire).

* AmbitionIsEvil: there exist a set of four "Bloodswords", powerful weapons crafted by an evil sorcerer. They are named Passion, Revenge, Judgement, and Ambition, and greatly increase the given emotion/feeling in their wielder to an extremely unhealthy level. Throughout the story, two separate individuals have wielded Ambition. Both tried to murder the Emperor and take over his throne. Both ended poorly for the individual in question.

Gameplay for the card game is pretty good, and is well-received. First off, you have to have two decks: your "Dynasty" deck comes with a black design on the back, and the "Fate" deck has green backing. Fate cards go to your hand, whereas Dynasty cards go to one of your four "Provinces" (IE a little patch of territory on your table), where you flip them right side up and then deploy them if you want to (or can). The main kinds of cards you'll find in your Dynasty deck are "Personalities" (characters, essentially) and "Holdings", whose Gold totals are used to deploy things. But there's also "Region" and "Event" cards; one modifies the province it popped up at, and the other modifying the ''game'' until the end of turn. Meanwhile, your Fate deck provides you with "Items", "[[PlayerMooks Followers]]", "[[VancianMagic Spells]]" and "[[SpiritAdvisor Ancestors]]", all of which which essentially {{Status Buff}}s that you deploy on a Personality. There are also "Action" cards that you play out of your ownself.

* GunsAreWorthless: Semi-Averted, Guns actually have some advantages, the most notable being that they ignore Armor, Defense, and other Technique based {=TNtBH=} modifiers. This is balanced by both the fact they take long time to reload between shots (the only guns available in the world are Flintlock Muskets) and that owning them is [[FantasyGunControl tremendously illegal]] in Rokugan.

* GunsAreWorthless: Semi-Averted, Guns actually have some advantanges, the most notable being that they ignore Armor, Defense, and other Technique based TNtBH modifiers. This is balanced by both the fact they take long time to reload between shots (the only guns available in the world are Flintlock Muskets) and FantasyGunControl.

** In the "Legacy of the Naga" short fiction, the second last fiction of the "Jade Edition", this actually results in the Golden Pearl going to the Unicorn Clan instead of to the Emperor; when the Naga arrived to present the Golden Pearl to Emperor Toturi I, his stunned silence at the sight of it caused a courtier named Miya Arugo to instinctively refuse it. In Rokugan society, one refuses a gift twice and then accepts it on the third presentation, in order to show proper modesty. Amongst the Naga, however, things are taken straightforward, in no small part because of the communal mind-link they share through the Akasha, and once a decision is made, they almost never change their mind. As a result, the Naga apologized for bothering the Emperor and took the Golden Pearl to the Unicorn Clan, the next-most-trusted Rokugan faction in their eyes. Miya committed {{seppuku}} for his actions.

* HeroicSacrifice: Quite a lot over the years. See the above note for CrowningMomentofAwesome.

On September 12, 2015 it was announced that AEG [[https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/9/11/a-new-emperor-rises/ sold the rights to the Legend of the 5 Rings IP to Fantasy Flight Games.]] In light of this announcement, FFG announced that they would be discontinuing the CCG in its current form for the time being, with intent to relaunch it under their LCG (Living Card Game) design paradigm, with more details to be given at GenCon 2017. Details on the RPG are forthcoming.

** Geisha are notable in that they are free to interact with samurai socially, but are considered non-persons like the eta and the peasants.

* UnfortunateNames: As mentioned earlier, the Otaku family has been renamed Utaku. The [[{{Dojikko}} Doji and Daidoji]] families still have their original names (although it may be [[SpellMyNameWithAnS a matter of transliteration]] and both were intended to have "long o", pronounced "ou" like [[Manga/CardcaptorSakura Daidouji Tomoyo]]). There was once a ronin named [[PrecisionFStrike Kuso]], a courtier named Baka (although [[WhatAnIdiot he ended up living to his name]]) and the Crab clan poster girl Hida O-Ushi (which means "Great Cow"). And some people refer to the pacifist healers of the [[{{Moe}} Asahina]] family as the [[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya SOS Brigade]].
** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in Hida O-Ushi's case as her birth name was Hida Yoritoko. Her two brothers nicknamed her O-Ushi ("Ox") because of her great strength and stubborness.

* PrimordialChaos: One of the villains, responsible for "real" ninjas, is the leftover bits of the primal darkness, which hate being forced into shape and so would like to undo all creation. The ninja powers of its servants comes form them being "unnamed": they don't have true names and as such aren't set in reality, so their shape is a matter of whim.

AEG also produced a strategy miniatures called ''Clan wars'' that uses a [=d10=] based rolling system with a card deck to make special moves.