Legend of the Five Rings, Find A Mark

Legend of the Five Rings is a game that I have basically no  experience with. I have always heard people say good things about  it. This is one of those games that I had the misfortune of  missing as it came out during the period of time where I was  under the influence of the addictive ink that use on Magic cards.

As I have mentioned before I fell in love with the idea of  playing in an oriental setting back when TSR released their  Oriental Adventures but never had the chance. I had seen Legend  of the Five Rings first as another collectible card game. I had  fallen prey to other card games such as Wyvern and Star Trek  which both failed to live up to Magic, I had even tried Jyhad  which was later Vampire: the Eternal Struggle. Having spent time  and money on these I avoided the L5R card game and then this when  released.

This is the first edition of the game and never having played it  I can not say how the newer editions compare to this. From  reading this version the game seems to be as much about setting  as it is about game mechanics which is a good thing. I find that  games with fewer rules often lead to more role playing. I am not  sure if it has ever been put forth as a correlation or the like  but I think there is an indirect relationship between the  complexity of the rules and the ability to role play. If this has  not been done perhaps it can be called the Wymarc Scale.

Getting back to the task at hand though I think that Legend of  the Five Rings in the AEG editions at least would be a fine  addition to anyone's game collection. I know that there have been  at least four editions put out by AEG and then the setting was  used for the 3e OA products. I can only make educated suggestions  though as I have no direct experience with the game play.

Published: 1996
Pages: 256

From the introduction:

Welcome to Rokugan, the Emerald Empire(TM). Rokugan is a place of  mystery and wonder, inspired by the legends of feudal Japan and  other places in the far East. It's a world of samurai and ninja  and spellcasting shugenja, where dragons soar the skies and  danger lurks in every shadow. The Legend of the Five Rings Role- Playing Game (L5R RPG) allows you to take the role of one of  those legendary figures in search of honor, glory, and adventure.



Spell:

Find A Mark

Level: Third
Range: 6"
Duration: 1 Round/Level
Area of Effect: One Missile Weapon
Components: V,S
Casting Time: 5 Segments
Saving Throw: None

When this spell is cast by the magic user it must be cast on a  hand held missile weapon. It will cause any ammo shot from that  weapon to hit something.

When ammo is shot/fired or slung from the missile weapon it will  have a +2 to hit the desired target. If this does not occur even  with the bonus to hit the projectile will continue on trying to  hit another target.

After the initial target the next possible target would be chosen  at random, excluding the shooter, from all inside the initial  range of the missile. The missile can travel as far as needed to  hit further than it's range would allow but can not exceed that  in a maximum distance from the point of origin.

If it misses it's second target it will continue on until all  possible targets have been exhausted. If the only possible target  remaining is the individual shooting the missile then they will be  struck by it. If by some means the shooter is incapable of being  hit by the missile by means of other spells or abilities then the  whole process begins again.

Disclaimer: The spells that you will see, for how ever long the  write ups last, were all written up or conceived of back in the  80's so the terminology may not appropriate for anything other  than 1e and depending on how well I did back then it may be  slightly off for that as well. If there is any duplication of  spells that exist now it is most likely I wrote mine first :)  Please feel free to comment on them but try not to be too hard on  me. If anyone wishes to use these in anything they print please  let me know in advance and all I ask is proper credit.