I, personally, believe that many of the rules and interactions in 3rd edition were not well thought out, and not well playtested. It was part of the design goals in 1st edition (“death is a feather, duty a mountain” and all that pop samurai stuff). somewhere.)Īlso, your comment on how easy it is to die from a single shot isn’t a bug it’s been a feature since 1st edition. (both of these are available on the AEG website. Somewhat important for, say, any Unicorn clan character. In particular, their leaving out the chart for Target Number examples, and the complete absence of any sort of statistics for horses. The editing on 3rd edition, while better than 2nd, does indeed fall short. I’d recommend creating minor schools characters can study without taking up their main School’s abilities (thus making them more flexible) and using the optional rules for skills. But the Game master definitely needs to take a look at the above problems and decide how he or she wants to handle them. Another monk ability can combo with Shugenja to let you toss off infinite numbers of spells.Īll in all, the game is pretty cool, and I’d reccomend it. Craft skills don’t see all that great thereafter. Your starting Monk, with no skill in crafting, can make any Legendary item in 30 seconds. It also seems to cut out any time requirement. One ability, for example, is available to every single starting Monk and lets you succeed at any task automatically except combat rolls with 30 seconds of concentration. They aren’t particularly bad on their own, but some of their abilities are extremely troublesome if comboed.
One potential problem point are the Monks. I know Samurai don’t normally worry about money, but having vast fortunes at your beck and call is still a huge disadvantage. In addition, a simple spell enables you to create* any* natural substance in vast quantities. I honestly have no idea which is correct. There’s a blatant conflict with the information in the Magic chapter and the individual Shugenja school listings. One flaw is that it’s not clear which spells you get if you start play as a wizard (Shugenja in the game). The magic system works pretty well, but I do wish they had more non-combat spells. However, they forgot to list some very important information for some schools, like what spells you get, etc. Nonetheless, I think everyone will be eagerly awaiting the chance to increase their school, and eventually trying to learn other schools. The schools are a little too focused, and it looks like characters will have trouble doing anything outside their speciality. Whether you’re a warrior, a wizard, or a monk, a spy, a courtier, or whatever, there are several schools to pick from. The neatest things in the system are the uber-cool schools.
Armor might help, but doesn’t actually add a whole lot of protection and doesn’t decrease the actual damage you take. The combat system needs some fine-tuning it’s dangerously easy to take so much damage from a single shot that your penalties (from taking wounds) renders you useless. You can fairly accurately guess how many “raises” you can bid for, so I 'm not sure this will work out. Not bad in and of itself, but your rolls are pretty reliable, without much chance of getting higher or lower. It uses a “bidding” system for characters to try and roll higher than a base target number. Overall, the system is solid and fairly quick to use. Judging by some information I do have concerning 1st edition, I think they added some bits without thinking about the consequences. I haven’t read earlier editions, so I’m not sure how much was carried over. It’s also clear they didnt’ give enough thought to some poewrs and abilities. Inside the cover, you’ll find it has a nice concept and good central idea but some problems with editing. It’s filled with beautiful color artwork, with a nice background per page which doesn’t affect reading, good formatting, and a handsome cover. never in my life have I seen a more attractive book. I’ve recently picked up a copy of Legend of the Five Rings (3rd edition).