Hi all,

About 15 years ago, I first became aware of the existence of L5R from seeing CCG packs for sale in my local game store. But having had some friends who play Magic, I'm aware of how much a CCG can cost, and deliberately stayed away from L5R because of the CCG distribution model, even though the setting (rather, what little I knew about the setting) really appealed to me. So of course, when I found out that FFG (makers of my current favorite card game, the Lord of the Rings LCG) had purchased the rights to L5R and are going to re-release it as an LCG in 2017, I started getting excited. Here's the game I had wanted to get into, but now I'll be able to budget for it and pay a predictable amount per month for my cards!

I'm very much looking forward to the LCG release, and plan to buy a copy of the Core Set just as soon as I can. (Where I live, it can take 2-3 months for games from the US to get to me). In the meantime, I'm trying to read what I can about Rokugan... and I'm getting overwhelmed. There's so much available at Kaze no Shiro and other sites that I don't really know where to start with it all. Every story I read feels like there are other stories lurking in the background, where if I understood those stories better, I'd get more out of this story.

I know when I'm reading a series, I prefer to read it in publication order, rather than chronological order, because that way you're getting info in the same order that the author decided to reveal it -- and you usually get more out of prequels that way. (For example, take the Narnia series: I find it much better to read it starting with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, rather than starting with The Magician's Nephew even though it comes first chronologically -- because when Lewis wrote The Magician's Nephew, he assumed (for the most part) that his audience had already read the five Narnia books published beforehand and thus already knew who Aslan is, and Aslan is much better introduced in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.) So while I could start out by reading about the founding of Rokugan and the eight (is it eight?) people who ended up founding the Great Clans, I don't actually know if that's the best place to start. And even if that is the best place to start, I actually have no idea what to read about next after that.

Is there any place where I can find a list of Rokugan stories and the date when they were published? Or are there any pieces of Rokugan lore that you would recommend that I read early on, because it will greatly enhance my understanding of later pieces? Basically, any pointers at all would probably help me, since I'm completely new to the whole setting.

Oh, and I should mention that I'm also looking forward to figuring out what clan I want to play, though I'll really have to wait until I see what's in the LCG before I'll know for sure whether it will really encourage clan loyalty the way the CCG did. (I suspect that getting all the available cards each time might offset the clan-loyalty effects the CCG had, though maybe FFG will decide to release clan packs for this game; we'll see). I think I'd enjoy playing a slightly less-than-conventional samurai, so Crab, Unicorn and Mantis all have a certain appeal to me at the moment. (Spider doesn't really appeal to me since I don't particularly enjoy playing the "bad guys" when I'm not GMing, though I'm glad that there are plenty of people who do so that good-vs.-evil games are easy to set up). I'm hoping that by reading more fiction about the not-quite-as-conventional clans, I'll be able to clarify which one I'd enjoy the most. (And if there are other not-quite-conventional clans that I don't currently realize aren't quite conventional, I'd be happy to hear about them).

Thanks in advance to anyone who can give me some pointers to good reading material, and the order in which to read it!

If you like unconventional you might also consider the Dragon, since the Ise Zumi are one of very few groups who can get away with bucking tradition.

Regarding the reading order, I understand what you mean on reading it in the order it was written. In L5R though, it was almost entirely written in chronological order anyway. The only exceptions were the pre-Clan War stuff. I can't tell you the exact order they were released, but in general they went Clan War-->Scorpion Clan Coup-->Hidden Emperor-->Dawn of the Empire. I have no idea when the 1000 Years of Peace fictions were written.

I honestly wouldn't worry about it, though. I took a massive hiatus after the Clan War myself, and then caught up by reading in chronological order. It flowed pretty well like that, and I think the Clan War actually makes more sense if you read about the SCC first.

Well, since printed lore materials can be found in several places (rpg books, cards, online fictions, etc.), it's hard to recommend a clear reading order. If you want something understandable for a total newbie, I actually reccomend the Imperial Histories book. They are RPG supplements, but are very good at presenting the world at different periods.