It is with great reluctance and trepidation that I release unto you the Legend of the Five Rings Genesys Conversion Project .

PLEASE READ : You will need a copy of the Genesys Core Rulebook and a copy of Realms of Terrinoth to get full use out of this. You will also need a primer of some sort for the Legend of the Five Rings setting; any copy of an L5R core rulebook will do, though this cribs the most from Fourth and Fifth (beta) Edition.

The content is not 'complete,' but should be entirely playable. The schools provided only cover the core bushi/shugenja/courtier for each Great Clan, and the time frame I was basing material off of is roughly concurrent with FFG's current story, though I have cut as much fluff as I could, so it doesn't matter much.

Updated (6/11/2018):

• Book I: Earth
• Book II: Water
• Book III: Fire
• Book IV: Air
• Book V: Void
• Optional Rules: Lethality , grid maps , mass combat , squads , alternative archetypes .

Book 1 covers the steps of character creation, with a 20 questions twist. Book 2 covers skills, schools, and talents. Book 3 covers equipment. Book 4 covers new rule(s) kind of important to L5R and magic. Book 5 covers adversaries and entirely optional rules that can be included or ignored at your discretion.

On the to do list...

• A 'complete' selection of schools and other gubbins for each Clan.
• Finish some of the spells (a few were giving me headaches, so I skipped them).
• Add Void magic.
• Add kiho.
• Minor clans and stuff.
• Add maho and Shadowlands PC options. This is low on the list.
• Other odds and ends.

OLDER VERSIONS :

For your viewing displeasure (split up to be as inconvenient to everybody but me as possible): Book 1: Earth , Book 2: Water , Book 3: Fire , Book 4: Air , and Book 5: Void .

I like what I've read so far. I might not have hit this yet, but how will you account for a very lethall system like l5r in a pretty hard to die system like genesys?

1 hour ago, Zieche said:

I like what I've read so far. I might not have hit this yet, but how will you account for a very lethall system like l5r in a pretty hard to die system like genesys?

Like you do with any game of Genesys: deal more critical injuries, pack in more Vicious. You can also remove painkillers or make them rarer.

I'm more looking forward to seeing what you do with this than what FFG does with the official RPG. I can't wait to see the "complete" set of schools and "other gubbins."

I’m really enjoying book 4, the spells are great. I just have one question, is invisibility usually that easy in other L5R systems?

4 minutes ago, Richardbuxton said:

I’m really enjoying book 4, the spells are great. I just have one question, is invisibility usually that easy in other L5R systems?

I'd have to cross-check. When you're trying to design as many spells as I did, details like that slip through the cracks.

It’s the Cloak of Night on p2, Average Difficulty to be completely invisible. You could perhaps use the degrees of concealment rules in Genesys Core, the Basic Spell would Increase you concealment by 2, with a +D additional effect to make it +4 concealment.

2 minutes ago, Richardbuxton said:

It’s the Cloak of Night on p2, Average Difficulty to be completely invisible. You could perhaps use the degrees of concealment rules in Genesys Core, the Basic Spell would Increase you concealment by 2, with a +D additional effect to make it +4 concealment.

So I based the spells I selected off of the ones in the 5E beta. It uses a varying difficulty based on the silhouette of the target. A human in that game is listed as silhouette 2, with TN 2 being average. I should point out, though, that the description only covers invisibility, and doesn't cloak sounds and other senses. I think there I just wrote "become invisible" in the interest of saving time.

There are a few cloaking devices in Star Wars, and I have been leaning some of those mechanics to clarify what stuff does.

Grasp of the Air Dragon was giving me trouble because it's a telekinetic grab/slam, with the possibility of it being a gentle lift and carry. My biggest concerns were not repeating the mistakes of Move and addressing the dual-purpose of the spell (as most Genesys spells have one use).

Earthquake would be the earth equivalent to Wrath of Kaze-no-Kami, which I was unsure about to begin with. Symbol of Earth is a ward, and I've been wanting to develop wards for Genesys independently, so I skipped that one. Tomb of Jade is complicated, as it essentially binds and petrifies tainted targets, but replicating it with Genesys is more complicated. Essence of Jade can use a slight revision, I believe.

I've gone and converted everything to GMBinder, and made some significant changes. I'm going to call this version 1.0, and the previous version 0.5.

Links:

• Book I: Earth
• Book II: Water
• Book III: Fire
• Book IV: Air
• Book V: Void
• Optional Rules: Lethality , grid maps , mass combat , squads , alternative archetypes .

Changes are pretty extensive and across the board, including but not limited to changes to school talents, changes to the talent list, and changes to gear.

Perhaps most extensively is the changes to magic system. I say that, but all I did was switch back to Genesys ' normal way of doing things (with some tweaks). Like an idiot I deleted the spell list I had made up for the previous version from GMBinder, so I may release it as a separate document when I get around to typing it back out again. I mention Kiho a couple of times, but there's no Kiho skill yet. I will add that in a separate doc discussing some of the monk schools, eventually.

I also split the optional rules into their own documents to reduce clutter.

Excellent job!! I will review it later and if necessary make appropiate comments.

I've noticed a lot of school abilities are tier 3 or higher, which while it's in-line with Genesys' way of handling talents, meaning most characters aren't getting the real meat of their schools until later in a campaign. I dunno how to put it, but it doesn't feel "L5R." Having access to school techniques was more than just a mechanical thing that separated school trained characters from random Joes, and a lot of starting bushi not getting anything from their schools beyond a handful of skills and starting gear really goes against the setting, they should all at least get access to a tier 1 talent of some kind.

You could look into Rank 1 school techniques from previous editions for ideas for talents for tier 1. Something that gives a small benefit suitable to the theme of the school and is the prerequisite talent for the other school techniques.

39 minutes ago, narukagami said:

I've noticed a lot of school abilities are tier 3 or higher, which while it's in-line with Genesys' way of handling talents, meaning most characters aren't getting the real meat of their schools until later in a campaign. I dunno how to put it, but it doesn't feel "L5R." Having access to school techniques was more than just a mechanical thing that separated school trained characters from random Joes, and a lot of starting bushi not getting anything from their schools beyond a handful of skills and starting gear really goes against the setting, they should all at least get access to a tier 1 talent of some kind.

You could look into Rank 1 school techniques from previous editions for ideas for talents for tier 1. Something that gives a small benefit suitable to the theme of the school and is the prerequisite talent for the other school techniques.

Definitely something I'll consider.

After some review I can say this document has improved a lot and its becoming a great ruleset. I have though found some things you may consider:

- IMHO there is a bit of skill bloat. I believe some skills like Cryptography, Engineering and Sailing are unnecessary. Cryptography is too specific to be its own skill and could be included in Skullduggery. Engineering is not goind to be used much. How frequent if for a PC to design/build a structure? Normally that would be just a narrative thing. Likewise, Sailing will be infrequent in game as normally PCs won't operate their own ships and if they do rarely will require to check on thet. Naval combats are rare in L5R and thus checks for that are rarely made. Check page 191 of the CRB for comments on the problem of Skill bloat.

- I still think that Cloathing providing +1 Soak is too much. This makes them comparable to Hard Leather in the CRB which I believe is not appropiate. Normally Cloathing/Robes are the default-no benefir outfit. Certainly it could be argued that Robes are more wide and give more protection. For that reason, I will change them to +1 Defense. Like written, the typical image of a shirtless Dragon monk is wasted as everyone will always wear at least Robes.

On the other hand I concur with Swordbreaker about the need to create Tier 1 school talents and I believe the techniques found in the LR5 5th Beta ruleset can be easily converted into Genesys.

Hope this helps.

A couple of additional things:

- Do really characters start with 12 career skills? Isn't this too many? Maybe Upbringing should onlu allow you to choose 4 general skills and not 8.

- You should include a Honor stat that ranges from 0 to 100 and give each clan/school an starting honor value. It improves the feeling of L5R and it does not overcomplicate things.

Hope this helps.

4 hours ago, Erahard said:

After some review I can say this document has improved a lot and its becoming a great ruleset. I have though found some things you may consider:

- IMHO there is a bit of skill bloat. I believe some skills like Cryptography, Engineering and Sailing are unnecessary. Cryptography is too specific to be its own skill and could be included in Skullduggery. Engineering is not goind to be used much. How frequent if for a PC to design/build a structure? Normally that would be just a narrative thing. Likewise, Sailing will be infrequent in game as normally PCs won't operate their own ships and if they do rarely will require to check on thet. Naval combats are rare in L5R and thus checks for that are rarely made. Check page 191 of the CRB for comments on the problem of Skill bloat.

- I still think that Cloathing providing +1 Soak is too much. This makes them comparable to Hard Leather in the CRB which I believe is not appropiate. Normally Cloathing/Robes are the default-no benefir outfit. Certainly it could be argued that Robes are more wide and give more protection. For that reason, I will change them to +1 Defense. Like written, the typical image of a shirtless Dragon monk is wasted as everyone will always wear at least Robes.

On the other hand I concur with Swordbreaker abou  t the need to create Tier 1 school talents and I believe the techniques found in the LR5 5th Beta ruleset can be easily converted into Genesys.

Hope this helps.

I suppose skills is something of a design philosophy. I will say that I have more clan-specific content is forthcoming, so those skills might see more application.

I based the clothing on the name "traveling clothes," so it would be heavier than typical. Please ignore any slapdash fluff description I added. I suppose a fix would be to split robes and traveling clothing. Any future changes would be 2.0 however.

3 hours ago, Erahard said:

A couple of additional things:

- Do really characters start with 12 career skills? Isn't this too many? Maybe Upbringing should onlu allow you to choose 4 general skills and not 8.

- You should include a Honor stat that ranges from 0 to 100 and give each clan/school an starting honor value. It improves the feeling of L5R and it does not overcomplicate things.

Hope this helps.

As regards to career skill numbers, yes. It's not always 12, as this allows for overlap, potentially giving a character 2 free ranks in a skill if they put enough thought into it.

I'll add honor to the "to-do" list.

OK, fair enough. I am still wary of the 12 career skills as I believe players will go forth and back between upbringing and school to maximize the number of career skills but I may be overzealous.

Thanks for your work.

I have been reviewing the Duel ruels and I have a few comments:

1- I believe you should a a short text explaining the different Duel objectives:

- Duel to First Strike: Wins whoever hits the other even if he/she does not cause any damage.

- Duel to First Blood: Wins whoever causes the other 1 or more wounds.

- Duel to the Death: Wins whoever kills the other.

2- During the Assessment Phase you can add another option:

- Focus: The character makes a Discipline check with a difficulty of Daunting (or maybe Hard). If the character succeeds, they upgrade their next combat check once once, plus once per additional ss on the check.

- Provoke: The character makes an opposed Deception vs Vigilance check. If the character succeeds, they upgrade their next combat check once once, plus once per additional ss on the check (or maybe the opponent dowgrades their combat check once, plus once per additional ss on the check) .

I believe those add more options for other types of characters different form Cranes (Quick and with high Cool skill) and Crab (high Coercion skill).

3- I would remove the option of spending 3 Advantages during the Assessment check to Force the target to drop a weapon they are carrying as it seems odd to cause this effect even before drawing your sword. I would remove this option from the Table 4.1 and leave it as a normal spend for normal combat rounds. I would probably substitute it for Add +20 to the first critical injury the character inflicts before the end of their next turn.

4- Maybe you should add some tables like Tables 6-2 and 6-3 found at page 163 of the L5R 5TH Edition Beta rules. They allow for scoring points and valuing the duel when in doubt. I have used them and they add a lot of emotion to the duel.

Well, I hope this helps you.

On 6/11/2018 at 6:34 AM, Swordbreaker said:

I've gone and converted everything to GMBinder, and made some significant changes. I'm going to call this version 1.0, and the previous version 0.5.

Links:

• Book IV: Air

16 hours ago, Erahard said:

I have been reviewing the Duel ruels and I have a few comments:

1- I believe you should a a short text explaining the different Duel objectives:

- Duel to First Strike: Wins whoever hits the other even if he/she does not cause any damage.

- Duel to First Blood: Wins whoever causes the other 1 or more wounds.

- Duel to the Death: Wins whoever kills the other.

2- During the Assessment Phase you can add another option:

- Focus: The character makes a Discipline check with a difficulty of Daunting (or maybe Hard). If the character succeeds, they upgrade their next combat check once once, plus once per additional ss on the check.

- Provoke: The character makes an opposed Deception vs Vigilance check. If the character succeeds, they upgrade their next combat check once once, plus once per additional ss on the check (or maybe the opponent dowgrades their combat check once, plus once per additional ss on the check) .

I believe those add more options for other types of characters different form Cranes (Quick and with high Cool skill) and Crab (high Coercion skill).

3- I would remove the option of spending 3 Advantages during the Assessment check to Force the target to drop a weapon they are carrying as it seems odd to cause this effect even before drawing your sword. I would remove this option from the Table 4.1 and leave it as a normal spend for normal combat rounds. I would probably substitute it for Add +20 to the first critical injury the character inflicts before the end of their next turn.

4- Maybe you should add some tables like Tables 6-2 and 6-3 found at page 163 of the L5R 5TH Edition Beta rules. They allow for scoring points and valuing the duel when in doubt. I have used them and they add a lot of emotion to the duel.

Well, I hope this helps you.

I took a look at this and I am impressed with the Duel Rules.

Would it be ok if I adapt what you have for the Showdown rules in New Frontiers? (My Edge of the Frontier Conversion...)

16 hours ago, Erahard said:

I have been reviewing the Duel ruels and I have a few comments:

[snip]

Well, I hope this helps you.

I'll look it over.

5 minutes ago, TCArknight said:

I took a look at this and I am impressed with the Duel Rules.

Would it be ok if I adapt what you have for the Showdown rules in New Frontiers? (My Edge of the Frontier Conversion...)

It's not really mine to begin with, so have at it.

Minor nitpick:

Folding armor is called Tatami Armor, not Tatari armor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatami_(Japanese_armour)

On 6/11/2018 at 5:34 AM, Swordbreaker said:

I've gone and converted everything to GMBinder, and made some significant changes. I'm going to call this version 1.0, and the previous version 0.5.

Links:

• Book I: Earth
• Book II: Water
• Book III: Fire
• Book IV: Air
• Book V: Void
• Optional Rules: Lethality , grid maps , mass combat , squads , alternative archetypes .

Changes are pretty extensive and across the board, including but not limited to changes to school talents, changes to the talent list, and changes to gear.

Perhaps most extensively is the changes to magic system. I say that, but all I did was switch back to Genesys ' normal way of doing things (with some tweaks). Like an idiot I deleted the spell list I had made up for the previous version from GMBinder, so I may release it as a separate document when I get around to typing it back out again. I mention Kiho a couple of times, but there's no Kiho skill yet. I will add that in a separate doc discussing some of the monk schools, eventually.

I also split the optional rules into their own documents to reduce clutter.

Definitely cannot wait to see your Kiho abilities. I am doing a magictech/kitchen sink world and am seriously considering Rokugan to be a secluded country.

I know it's a matter of taste, and the fact that it will need a ton of work, but I do feel as if the Dojos of L5R require a more structured Talent purchase, like that found in Star Wars, with each school a specialization, and you have a Talent Tree for each. Maybe with a bunch of more universal Talent Trees to represent general archtypes that any Clan might have, even if they do not a dedicated Dojo for it. (So, you can be a Kakita Duelist, or you can be a general Duelist, and you can be a Shiba Yojimbo, or just a regular Yojimbo.)

I am trying to do this myself, but I do like some of the things you've done, and am using them, either as a base to build/adjust, or wholecloth.

Is this project still alive? I am very interested in this. BTW In Shadow of the Beanstalk CRB there is a talent called ¨Iajutsu Training¨ that would be very useful to this conversion.

I have no idea whether this project is still alive, but I hope within the next month or two to post my own version of n L5R conversion, that draws some inspiration from this work.