Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game’s beginner-friendly starter set is the first big release for the revived RPG

The resurrected Legend of the Five Rings RPG has revealed its first major release: a starter set out later this year.

Fantasy Flight’s new version of the classic ‘90s roleplaying universe – which it has also expanded with an excellent living card game and fantastic strategy board game spin-off Battle for Rokugan – was announced with an open beta late last year.

The original Legend of the Five Rings RPG’s ‘roll and keep’ system has been combined with the narrative dice system used in Fantasy Flight’s setting-free roleplaying canvas Genesys, requiring a set of custom dice that will be included in the newly-unveiled Beginner Game box alongside tokens and a map of the world of Rokugan.

Skill checks are resolved by players rolling the dice before picking some to keep, which denotes whether they succeeded or failed at each task. The results can trigger various events and cause ‘strife’ in characters, forcing characters to unleash their emotions and potentially impact the story.

The universe’s titular five rings also play a central role, as one of the symbolic loops must be chosen during each skill check, representing a particular way of dealing with the situation – from patience to recklessness – and influence how many dice are rolled as well as how many are kept.

The Beginner Game set leans towards a very introductory approach, packing in four pre-made characters with detailed folios and ready-to-play character sheets. The characters include members of the Lion, Crane, Phoenix and Dragon clans, ranging from a words-over-weapons diplomat to a warrior able to control the elements.

These characters can be taken on a pre-made adventure set after a mysterious murder of a Crane clan champion and during the Topaz Championship tournament between the factions.

The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Beginner Game is due for release in Q3 2018, and will set you back $40 (£29). A complete set of rules is included in the set, which is the only release confirmed so far for the RPG.