Enter the vibrant world of Rokugan with Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game, a Living Card Game of honor and conflict for two players! Drawing on the legacy of AEG’s original Legend of the Five Rings collectible card game, and now reimagined with new mechanics, story, and the Living Card Game distribution model, you are invited to join the Great Clans, uphold the tenets of Bushidō, and fulfill your duty to your daimyō and the Emperor in a world shaped and changed by a dynamic, player-influenced story.

During the game, players take on the leadership of one of the Great Clans which define Rokugani society, and are cast into conflict against another clan. These conflicts will decide the future of Rokugan, whether you’re battling with a katana or with cutting words, but the samurai of your clan cannot remain by your side indefinitely — once their destinies are fulfilled, you must find new allies to continue your conflicts. Ultimately, it’s your choice whether you will fight with honor or use unsavory means, but in every game, it is your role to lead your clan to victory.

The Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game Core Set comes with everything a player needs to explore the seven great clans of Rokugan, the Crab Clan, Crane Clan, Dragon Clan, Lion Clan, Phoenix Clan, Scorpion Clan, and Unicorn Clan. It also includes a variety of tokens, cards, and rule sheets that make the Core Set the definitive starting point for Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game.

~ Prepare for Battle ~

Each player commands their forces with two separate decks: a Dynasty Deck fills their provinces with characters and holdings, while a Conflict Deck consisting of tactics, maneuvers, followers, and attachments can be used to turn the tide in a struggle for supremacy. During a game, players will engage in conflicts, both political and military, with the goal of breaking their opponent’s stronghold and winning the game. But the rules of society are absolute, and even in the fire of battle and heat of Rokugan’s courts, clans must remember the tenets of Bushidō, lest they lose everything in their single-minded pursuit of glory.

A game of Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game begins with players laying out five province cards and populating four of them with cards from your dynasty deck, while the fifth holds your clan’s stronghold. Players then take turns sending clan members to their home area to participate in conflicts by paying for them with fate tokens. Fate is not just the currency used to recruit characters to your battlefield, but also determines how long your characters will remain in your service.

In Rokugani culture, there’s a concept known as ‘mono no aware’ which translates loosely to “the pathos of all things.” It is an understanding that nothing lasts forever, that there’s an impermanence to everything in life.  All things must pass, and just as the great warriors of Rokugan will fall in glorious combat or ascend into legend, new allies will come to take their place.

When you pay for a character, you may place any additional amount of fate on it from your supply. At the end of a game round, characters with no fate on them are discarded. Then, you remove one fate from every character on the battlefield. Every turn then sees your warriors’ time running out — as the number of remaining conflicts both on the battlefield and in the courts begins to diminish, will they have enough time to achieve victory for their clan?

~ A Contest of Honor ~

After playing cards from their dynasty decks, players begin the draw phase, drawing cards from their conflict deck to supplement their tricks and battlefield maneuvers. The number of cards they draw is not static, and depends entirely upon how much of their precious honor they might bid. Players use a unique honor dial to specify how many cards they want to draw (between one and five) from the conflict deck during the draw phase in secret.

Players then reveal their dials to each other, with the player who bid more honor paying the difference to their opponent before both players draw an amount of cards equal to their honor bid. For example, John, playing the Dragon Clan, decides to bid five honor during the draw phase and Jenny, a Crab Clan player, decides to bid one. John would pay four honor to Jenny before he draws five conflict cards and Jenny draws one. Drawing five cards every turn will see your clan’s honor quickly disintegrate, but compromises must be made to ensure you have enough tricks to get the edge over your opponent — finding this balance will be key to victory.

~ The Fires of War ~

Once both clans are properly prepared, the conflict phase begins, during which each player takes turns attacking their opponent’s provinces through military and political means. Players alternate declaring these conflicts on one another to both break a province and claim one of the five elemental rings of Rokugan, which allows the attacking clan to perform a powerful effect should they win that conflict. For example, the Air Ring effect allows you to take an honor from your opponent or two from the bank, while the Void Ring effect allows you to remove a fate counter from a character, pushing the ticking clock of their destiny.  Players will send their strongest warriors and politicians to the battlefield, and then take turns revealing their surprises from their hand of conflict cards, whether it’s a powerful magical spell or last-second reinforcements.

After the conflicts have ended, Clan provinces are filled with new warriors and holdings from the dynasty deck, and characters are removed or lose a fate. Rings that were not contested have a fate placed on them, with the next player to declare a conflict of that type gaining all accrued fate on that ring. Players are now ready to play another round!

Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game offers three paths to victory. First, you may break your opponent’s stronghold. If you successfully attack and break three of your opponent’s provinces via any combination of military or political conflicts, you are then allowed to attack your opponent’s stronghold directly. If that becomes broken, you win the game! Alternatively, if you ever accrue twenty-five honor, you have proven yourself the more honorable clan in conflict and immediately win the game. Conversely, if you ever lose all your honor, your clan has abandoned the tenets of Bushidō and you immediately lose the game.

~ Choose Your Clan ~

Raise your sword, rally your clan, and prepare for battle in Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game with a pre-release at Gen Con and a wide release in the fourth quarter of 2017!