Legend of the Five Rings RPG

This Legend of the Five Rings RPG review is part of my “Best Tabletop RPGs of All Time” article. If you want to check out more TTRPGs and see how other top-tier tabletop RPGs are ranked, visit that page.

My Review – 68 / 100

Legend of the Five Rings is another one of the lesser-known TTRPGs on my top tabletop RPGs of all time list, though it’s been around for a long time. If you aren’t regularly involved in gaming conventions, you might not have ever heard of the game before.

Nowadays, the Legend of the Five Rings card game is much more well-known and popular than the tabletop game. But, of course, we’ll be discussing the TTRPG.

Keep in mind while reading this review that though Legend of the Five Ring RPG does “only” have a score of 68/100, that’s in relation to the absolute best TTRPGs of all time – as in, it only has that score when compared to games like Dungeons and Dragons. Likewise, my review of it may seem harsh at times, but again, that’s only in comparison to the absolute best games.

Bottom line is that Legend of the Five Rings RPG is a great tabletop game, and because of its focus on roleplaying a samurai or someone in that era and region, could very well become one of your new favorite games.

Legend of the Five Rings RPG Uniqueness: (7/10)

There are a number of unique elements in the core mechanics of Legend of the Five Rings RPG. Some of these unique elements are quite cool and add to the game. Others are not so good and definitely distract from the game’s story.

First off, I’m not a big fan of rounding dice/ numbers as a core mechanic, which unfortunately, Legend of the Five Rings RPG features. There isn’t necessarily a ton of that kind of thing, but it is present in key scenarios. Not good.

This game also has unique dice symbols on d6 and d12 that represent special circumstances that come up when you roll them. To play the game, you must either memorize these symbols and what they mean, or else reference the rulebook. This is probably no big deal if you play Five Rings a lot, but will slow you down, otherwise.

One thing I do really like is that for skill checks, each resolution is given an element (as in fire, earth, water, wind, etc.) by the game master, which corresponds with what a player’s trying to accomplish. The use of these elements in the core mechanics certainly fits the game’s lore and overall feel.

I also enjoy the unique approach Legend of the Five Rings takes with character advancement. Instead of simply getting more stats when your character levels up, you get to choose what you want to improve, from stats, to skills, to sword techniques, and more. This game does give you a lot of customization options for character development, over time.

Ease of Learning Legend of the Five Rings: (8/10)

When it comes to characters, there are low-number ranks to character attributes, which keeps things simple. Skills are broken down into “elements” (wind, water, earth, etc.) which also fits the game, thematically.

When building a character, you choose a clan (which gives you skills, stats, and “glory”), and a school (which provides your starting techniques). Unfortunately, to grasp the concepts of your character’s clan, school, and overall stats, you need to really do some digging into this game’s character building pages. And by “some” digging, I really mean “quite a bit” of digging.

Making a basic character isn’t super hard in Legend of the Five Rings RPG, but advancing a character is complex since every level up allows you to improve whatever you want.

Legend of the Five Rings RPG Presentation: (6/10)

I like the samurai/ Asian culture vibe present in Legend of the Five Rings RPG. It’s self-described as a “game of samurai drama,” where “characters are torn between their personal desires and their sworn duties, and must often contend with cunning court intrigues, deadly armed conflicts, and dangerous supernatural creatures.” It’s an interesting setup.

When it comes to presentation, the overall book layout is satisfactory. I did find it odd though that there aren’t clearly marked starts to chapters. As in, font, size, and coloring aren’t very unique when compared to the rest of the game’s text. Speaking of the font, I do think the choice for the main body of text for the game adds to the overall style of the book.

One thing I’ll also get into more later is that there’s virtually no art in the PDF rulebook, which of course, does lower the overall presentation score.

Legend of the Five Rings Lore: (10/10)

Everything about the game adds to the game’s lore. There isn’t a single character-building piece that isn’t filled with lore. From choosing your clan, to choosing your school, to choosing your character’s attributes, every part of it is rich with ideas for building entire RPG campaigns.

If you enjoy the idea of roleplaying a samurai in a Far East culture, you will love the lore of this game.

Combat in Legend of the Five Rings RPG: (6/10)

When getting ready to write this review, I expected to experience quite a bit of high-drama combat in Legend of the Five Rings RPG. Amazingly, I was disappointed.

Basically, there just isn’t anything in Legend of the Five Rings that wows me when it comes to combat. Instead, combat is very basic – something you might find in just about any other tabletop RPG out there.

There are some basic maneuvers available to players, but really combat is determined by your character’s attributes, skills, and a few techniques. Surprisingly, there’s nothing about combat in the game that deeply engaged me, or made me want to fight other samurai in dramatic duels to the death to maintain my honor.

Five Rings is more of a storytelling game, so it’s ok – in a sense – that combat isn’t a major focus. But let’s get real. This is a game about samurai. I feel jipped that combat isn’t a major focus. Why isn’t there a massive list of sword techniques, combat stances, and cool “stuff” for me to do?

One thing I do like about combat (now that I’ve told you how boring it is), is that battles are very fast and very deadly. I do like the realism. Five Rings also rules for mass combat, which is a plus.

Game “Flow”: (6/10)

Caution: this is one of the worst parts of Legend of the Five Rings RPG. If you find that this section doesn’t bother you it may be a good sign that this game might just be a very good fit for you.

Ok, there are a ton of steps to skill check resolutions (6 in total) in Legend of the Five Rings RPG. Additionally, each step has its own extra intricacy (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot).

Skill checks also come with “strife and composure.” Strife and composure explain how well the samurai maintains their proper decorum while completing difficult tasks, and what happens if they don’t. Finally, there are opportunities for narrative flair, according to the “element” (fire, water, wind, earth) and associated attribute of the task.

Compare everything you just read to something that you might see in Dungeons and Dragons: “roll d20 plus modifiers against a DC (difficulty check), and narrate what happens based on whether or not you succeed.”

See the difference? When it comes to Legend of the Five Rings, I both like the game system and I don’t. The game’s core mechanics definitely allows players to build a story from their character’s actions, but damn is it in-depth. And it’s slow.

Basically, an entire game happens in those 6 steps that happen with every skill check. My problem is that a lot of time gets eaten up over what I would consider to be relatively non-consequential pieces of the story.

Legend of the Five Rings Artwork: (4/10)

So, I have the PDF version of Legend of the Five Rings RPG. There’s no art in the PDF. I do not have the printed version, where I know there is art.

When I’ve looked online for Legend of the Five Rings, there’s amazing art everywhere. That art is just not in the PDF, and I honestly don’t know how much art there is in the actual printed book, aside from the cover.

My guess is that a lot of the great art you can find online either comes from the Five Rings card game, or from fan art.

I’m giving Five Rings some points here because I have to assume that there is some art in the printed version of the game, but I can’t in good conscience list the score among the best since the PDF really fell short in this category. In my opinion, every representation of a game that’s listed among the world’s best, whether printed or published as PDF should give the very best foot forward, possible.

Ease of Purchase: (10/10)

It is very easy to purchase Legend of the Five Rings RPG. The game can be found on both Amazon and the Fantasy Flight Games website.

Price & How Many Books Do You Need to Play: (7/10)

To play the game, all you need is the core rulebook that’s meant for players. If you really want it – as in, if you’re certain you’re going to play an entire RPG campaign using Legend of the Five Rings – the Dungeon Master’s guide to the game isn’t too much extra.

Fame & Availability of Supplemental Material: (4/10)

I know of Legend of the Five Rings from gaming conventions and other hardcore tabletop gamers. However, I’ve only even seen Legend of the Five Rings RPG or the card game version in tabletop gaming stores maybe twice.

As I mentioned before, if you do an online search for the game, you mostly find the card game. To find the tabletop game, you have to specifically search for “legend of the five rings RPG.”

At the end of the day, though this game is pretty good, I think it’s becoming so eclipsed by both the card game version and other (better) tabletop RPGs, that it’s on the way out from most player’s gaming tables. That being said, I think you could find some gamers to try out this TTRPG, and have a great time for at least a few sessions.

Legend of the Five Rings RPG is Produced By:

Fantasy Flight Games

Play Sparks of Eternity: Emanation Online

By Jacob Tegtman • October 23, 2026

Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzrUgzvlYE0 Transcription Welcome back to Eternity TT RPG YouTube channel, where I talk about different happenings in the tabletop role-playing universe from D&D to the game that my husband and I have been creating. Um, if you follow the channel, you know that we did come out with a card game combat tabletop role-playing game, and it's awesome. I'm super happy with it. I think we all are. Um, but as great as the physical game is, right, we wanted to expand. So we have it online now. And in this video, I'm just gonna walk you through how to get there, um, what you see, and a quick rundown of how to play. Um, so please, uh, take the time to check out the game and we'll jump right in. So to get to the website, um, that holds the online version of [00:01:00] Emanation, you're gonna go to play.sparksofeternity.com and from there it is gonna open up with a screen asking for your email and if there's any name that you want, like, the game to call you, um, your username, and that's it. You don't need a password. You don't need a credit card. You don't need anything. It is just good to go. And then this is the screen that you get. Um, I am just gonna go ahead and run you through everything that you see, and I may start a game as well. So everybody's, um, system is gonna open up with the assassin, um, the first character alphabetically. And you'll notice at the top that you're gonna have a few different other classes: berserker, druid, judge, oracle, and summoner. Um, at this point in time, players, you and I can only play the assassin, berserker, druid, and summoner. We are currently having just the computers play as the judge and oracle. Um, at some point, we are [00:02:00] going to open those up. We're just not there yet. So on this screen, it gives you a rundown of, like, who the assassin is, um, and how many life sparks they start with, your hit points, if they're more of a tactic player, a magic player, or a mix, um, how many of the cards take a D20 roll for that tabletop role-playing feel. And not to mention you have the amazing art for it, um, that tries to depict more of what the class is Um, other thing that you're gonna end up seeing is that it tells you, like, the cards that you get as you go. So you're always gonna start with your attack, defend, no action. And then for assassin specifically, you do have lethality. But then you can scroll over and you can see all of the abilities for each class so you kind of know what you're getting into before you play, which is really neat if you ask me to get a better feel for it before [00:03:00] you even jump into a game. Um, as far as jumping into a game, there's two different ways to do it right now. You can, um, play against computers or you can share the website with a friend, start a new room, and it's gonna give you a code like this. So you would send that code off to your friend, they would input the code and then they would choose, like, their character and off you go. Um, whatever character you have up here selected is the character you're gonna end up playing. Um, for the sake of just showing you guys, I am gonna do the assassin. Um, and then let's say you don't have any friends to play with, which, you know, I don't always have friends, but that's okay. You can add computer players. So I'm gonna add like three players and then I can pick what they are. So I'm okay with the judge, oracle and [00:04:00] berserker. That all sounds good. And then this last spot here is gonna be how long you want everyone to have to choose their ability or like their action for each turn. Um, when you're just getting started and learning the game, I do recommend more towards like the two or three minutes. Of course, if you don't take that long, the game will just continue anyway. Like if everybody's selected it'll just move on. But if you need that time to read and understand, then please take more time. Um, for, you know, my sake and knowing the game, I'm gonna go with 60 seconds and then we just start the match with four players So now we're on turn one. I do have a countdown timer up in this corner telling me how much time I have left. It does do a turn counter for me. This turn will always be turn zero because you are like a level zero character in the world. You're level zero with combat, you have no actions, you're not a fully fledged whatever class you [00:05:00] are, right? So this turn I am gonna go with defend. It shows me a little bit better and I hit play it. So now everybody's thing is gonna show and they're just gonna run through everything that happens. I am not clicking anything right now, it's just doing its thing. So they all attacked each other. I'm defending. It gives me a quick rundown down here of what happens, what abilities they're gaining, and then it tells you like what happened with health as well, which I think is really cool. Now I am level one. I now have access to assassinate and it also shows me what my other opponents are gaining down below. And now I can choose stuff to play. I'm gonna go ahead and do the assassinate one, which includes rolling a D20. We're gonna play it And now healing will always take priority. So that is what ha- is happening there. And then they decided to attack. They have a passive going on, so that [00:06:00] just got rolled. And now I'm gonna roll to assassinate. I didn't hit, so I won't select a target And now they're just finishing up anything that needs to resolve and onto the next round. So as you can see, it runs really quickly, um, which is just... I think it's great, you know? I think getting to have a feel for the game and see what's going on is just really neat. Um, other thing to note as you get further in the game, you're gonna notice, like, this person now has dual wield. If I scroll over that, I see what it is. It is a passive for them. Um, and that means that it gets rolled every turn and, um, we just gotta see if they hit every turn unless somebody dispels it. Um, or in this case, this one is immune to greater dispel. You can see that at the very bottom. You'll also notice that these little cards at the top right appeared, meaning that my opponents have already picked their cards and they're waiting on me. [00:07:00] Um, I think we're just gonna try to assassinate again 'cause, you know, I'm an assassin. I think that's great. So healing takes place first again. Healing takes place first and now they're doing the rest of their actions. They're rolling their passives And then I'll try to assassinate. Man, the rolls are bad. Um, and then everything else resolves. It goes over what people are gaining, and we go on to the next round. So this goes on for 10 rounds as far as like gaining different abilities, but the game ends at round 20. Um, by round 20, you're looking for, you know, um, being the last man standing or having the most life sparks at the end of the whole game. So that is a quick rundown on how the online game works. I think it's really neat that we do [00:08:00] have the, you know, physical version of it, and now we have an online version. It's crazy to see how quick it's all coming together. Um, I'll drop the link to this down below, so hopefully you guys, uh, decide to check it out. Let us know any questions, comments, concerns. Like and subscribe, and we will catch y'all next time. Thank you

5 D&D Tabletop RPG Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes

October 19, 2026

Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_l3hijcNcI Transcription [00:00:00] Welcome back to Eternity TTRPG YouTube channel, where I go over different things in the tabletop role-playing universe from the game that my husband and I cr- are creating, to D&D, to goodness knows what, right? Um, this go around, I am going to talk about common mistakes you find from new players or longtime players when you're playing D&D. Now, keep in mind, I have only played D&D once or twice. Um, I personally was not a fan of the system. However, these are just common mistakes you can find in just about any tabletop role-playing game when you're just getting started. So I thought they were kind of relevant. Um, so we're just gonna hop right in, and I may rapid-fire these. So common mistake number one is thinking that a nat 20 succeeds at absolutely everything. So this one I find really funny, actually, because you would [00:01:00] think that with the best dice roll, you could do anything, right? Um, turns out you can't. So as far as combat goes, um, a nat 20, it'll always automatically hit. You'll always do damage. There's no question about that when it comes to combat. However, when you're starting to look at, um, ability checks, and you're in these different, um, situations that don't involve combat, a nat 20 does not mean much. So it comes down to your DM and what your DM decides. For example, let's say that you are trying to persuade a king to hand over his whole kingdom, right? And you roll a nat 20, and you're thinking, "Yes, I did it. I have a kingdom now." And DM's like, "Uh, no, you don't." The king may be more likely to put you in a place of power in the kingdom, but he's not gonna hand over everything. [00:02:00] Um , so that just ... It all comes down to the DM regardless of what you're rolling. Um, so that is something to keep in mind, and don't get overexcited about your, uh, rolls. Never get excited about them, honestly, unless it's combat, so keep that in mind. Eternity TTRPG has released a card game battler which emulates combat from the tabletop role-playing genre. Sparks of Eternity Emanation is fast-paced, easy to learn, and features six classes from your favorite TTRPGs. Each class deck comes with its own set of unique abilities, which everyone plays at the same time, so there's never any downtime at your table. Each turn, everyone's characters levels up, giving players access to even more options. If you're interested in taking a look, we have our sales page live now, packed with details Other mistake that I find very interesting that happens a lot is forgetting that [00:03:00] your proficiency in different skills matters. Um, so when I go to build a character, I just build something that's fun and cool, and I don't really care about the stats, and that's probably something that I personally need to change. But I imagine that if I'm like that, I may not be the only one. Um, so whenever you're rolling in D&D combat or ability checks, you do add your proficiency bonuses, right? So it's almost never just the dice roll. Um , so you really should be paying attention to your proficiency, and if you wanna be someone that is really sneaky, for example, then you need to look at your proficiency in stealth because you can't be sneaky without a high proficiency in stealth. So definitely something to think about when you're building a character. Um, another Mistake that's pretty common is trying to maintain two concentration spells. Um, so [00:04:00] the misconception is that you can have one already running and you can cast another and you can maintain both. Um, actual rule in D&D is you can only concentrate one effect at a time. Um, that is very odd to me just because as a normal human being, we are able to multitask. I mean, maybe not well, but we can. Um, so that is one thing that I personally do like about the tabletop role-playing game that my husband and I are creating is that you can have multiple things that you're concentrating, um, as long as you have the proficiency to do so. But anyway, D&D doesn't do that, so don't do it. Um, let's see. Um, let's see. Um, other thing that comes up pretty often is that thinking your turn when you go to do any kind of combat is just for attacking. So this ... We talk about [00:05:00] combat, right? And all you think of is attacking your opponent, but it's really outdoing your opponent, outthinking them, and you can do other things like dodging, dashing, disengaging, hiding, searching, um, and helping others in your party, right? You don't just have to attack the boss. You can do more. So something to think about, right? Um, okay. This is a mistake that I find in every tabletop role-playing game, and maybe it's not even a mistake. Maybe it's just how people are. But I struggled with this extremely. I still struggle with it, is that to play a role-playing game, you think you have to be a professional, like a professional actor. Uh, truth is, you don't. You really don't. You can just use your normal voice. You can, like, have your normal personality. You can just put you on the paper. And that is what I did for multiple campaigns when I first started doing this kind of stuff [00:06:00] with any tabletop role-playing game. So keep that in mind. You don't need to be anything special. You don't even need to know anything. You don't have to know a single thing about the tabletop role-playing universe. Just write stuff down. Just write it down. Try your best. Call it good. You don't have to be perfect. Okay. So with all of that, like I said, rapid fire things, misconceptions, mistakes that we see in D&D and other tabletop role-playing universes. What is something that you thought before you started playing or even as you're playing or even that you see other people do that is a misconception or mistake when in your tabletop role-playing universes? Drop a comment below. Let me know. Also, let us know how we're doing. Like, comment, subscribe, and keep it going.

Our First Convention With a TTRPG Product! Sparks of Eternity

October 1, 2026

Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtIN1OHjTZQ Transcription [00:00:00] Welcome back to Eternity TTRPG channel, um, where we talk about different happenings in the TTRPG universe as well as what's going on with our game, um, with the Sparks of Eternity universe. So I'm gonna try and keep this one short, sweet, to the point 'cause I have a lot of stuff I gotta get done. Um, so this weekend we are gonna be attending our first convention where we, like, have the official product to sell. Um, we have done conventions in the past. Um, I've been a part of two of those conventions. I know my husband has done a few more than that. And at those conventions, it was all about, like, just trying to keep the tabletop role-playing universe alive and explain what, um, we're trying to bring to the table with it, um, explain more about the world of Eternity and all that kind of stuff. Um, this go around, as I said, it's gonna be the first time [00:01:00] that we actually have a product. Um, and I know I've talked about it before. If you're new here, that's gonna be Sparks of Eternity Emanation, and it is a... We're still figuring out the wording of this, so if you've played it and have a better idea, let me know. But it is a tabletop role-playing combat party card game. Okay? So go ahead and, you know, think of your tabletop role-playing. You're gonna have dice rolls, you're gonna have different classes, and you know your classic stuff like the druid is a shapeshifter, assassin is, you know, assassinating and that kind of stuff, right? Well, now you take that, you put all their abilities into a deck and you start at level zero, you work your way up to level 10 and you just try to take out your opponents or survive the longest. You're... I mean, good luck to you either way, right? Um, [00:02:00] so that is what we're gonna be showing off at the convention this weekend. And with this convention there has been a lot of planning and it's just been like a labor of love trying to get everything ready for it, honestly. Because we have to travel for the weekend, you know, stay in the hotel, pack the car, make sure the dog's taken care of, all that kind of stuff, right? Um, but then we also have to think of the booth itself and, well, what do we want the table to look like? Do we need a tablecloth? What should the tablecloth look like? What about a background banner? And all this different stuff, right? And we didn't know we would be doing this convention until about two months ago. So it's been about a two-month scramble getting everything ready for it, all for this three-day weekend. And over this three-day weekend, we have eight hours on Friday, 12 hours on Saturday, and another six hours on Sunday. So [00:03:00] that's 26 hours over the weekend that we're gonna be vending, um, and hoping to do our best with it, right? Um, so one thing that I do wanna show you guys that I am very excited about is we went ahead and worked with an artist. Um, it is our new artist for, um, the Sparks of Eternity franchise, and he created our banner artwork, which I really-- I am so excited with what he created, um, for us to show off what the world of Eternity really is, right? Um, so here it is. And with this, you know, banner, we're trying to show, like, basically you as the player reaching out for all these different ideas, all these different sparks, while also giving itself to the lore of Eternity where you have The Stag and, um, Saint Ranroth on the other side, um, and just their storyline. Now, of course, you guys [00:04:00] don't know all the lore and everything behind all of this. We do and we cannot wait to reveal it all in due time, you know? 'Cause we have these plans that we're setting in motion, and this convention is just another part of that plan. So, as I said, I have a lot of stuff to get done leading up to this convention for the weekend, so we're gonna post this, you know, do all the work with that, and then continue getting ready. Um, we will be at the Pittsburgh Gaming Expo this weekend, and that is what we'll be doing. So if you happen to watch the channel and see us there, say hi. Um, if not, definitely keep following along with our journey and make sure you check out our website for the game that we're selling. Um, wish us the best of luck, and as always, like, comment, subscribe. Let us know how we're doing. Let us know what you wanna hear. Thanks, y'all.