Link works for real this time.

Looks like Office Dog posted the rulebook on Board Game Geek! Sadly, I am not listed as a playtester But see for yourself how to play this game, especially if you have tickets at Gencon!

Before posting all the comments I can already picture you writing, please read for context.

I want to run a TTRPG for my kids and some of their friends (6-10 yrs) but I'm worried about keeping them all engaged. L5R (5th edition at least) is more forgiving when it comes to giving characters options in both social and combat encounters than D&D so I won't have to worry as much about someone feeling left out because Krud the barbarian doesn't have anything to smash.

However, I don't know Rokugan well enough to run a game for adults let alone trying to teach it to a bunch of kids. So i was thinking of trying to modify it for a more traditional western fantasy setting that they would be more familiar with, at least the principles.

Has anyone tried anything similar or got any ideas?

For those unfamiliar, 7 years ago I announced the release of Paper Blossoms, a character generator for the FFG (5e) edition of Legend of the 5 Rings. It's open source, written in C++, and highly configurable.

It's also more than a little antiquated. Written in C++ (Qt), the code is dense, a little fragile, and hard to maintain. While we've continued to make occasional updates (I merged a PR from Cvelth just last weekend! Thanks Cvelth!) the pace hasn't been fast as life took over.

That's why I'm excited to announce the release of a new edition of Paper Blossoms, ported and rebuilt from the ground up in Flutter:

Paper Blossoms - Flutter (Github)

This comes with a variety of advantages, including:

• Builds provided for Windows, OSX, Linux, and Android on day 1! Currently looking at pushing builds to mobile storefronts as well.
• Includes data for all books to date including CotFW and WotW (thanks again to the contributor providing that data for the original!).
• Includes all prior localizations (EN, ES, FR, DE), now fleshed out and finished for all content. [Note: generative AI was used to fill out and clean up missing content, as I do not speak these languages. If people see corrections in the localization, file a PR!]
• Hundreds of long-standing bugs, typos, and other issues resolved due to an end-to-end audit of data and code against the books. The data files were imported directly, then corrected as we ported.
• No longer looks like an application from ~2010. :) Dark and Light Modes!

A few things to know about the new application:

1. You *should* be able to import your existing user_descriptions.csv files -- the application imports and exports JSON instead, but it is hopefully backwards compatible. I haven't tested this too much though, so YMMV.
2. Because the old characters were based on Qt serialization, the old characters are not importable. That said, we now export characters to JSON, meaning you should be able to use your characters in other things like VTTs in the future. Customized json data files *should* import with no changes, if you have those, but you'd need to convert any homebrew export CSVs to valid JSON to import them with the new tool.
3. The application is responsive to screen size -- I'm running a build on my phone; all data formats are shared.

My hope is that this will give folks a friendlier, modern take on the tool. Thanks again to all the contributors over the years -- this is built on the hard work that was done on Paper Blossoms. This is fresh code, and has only had limited testing -- don't hesitate to file issues if you spot problems!

Samurai of Rokugan!

Join us this Gencon at the annual fan run All Clans Dinner at Brothers Bar on Thursday, 7pm! Come meet friends new and old as we reminisce on our long history and look forward to the future!

Also with us is Pine Box Entertainment, makers of Doomtown and 7th Sea, celebrating their 10 year anniversary! 

Come for food and drink, stay for tales and merriment!  KAMPAI!!!

https://www.facebook.com/share/1EuwBwahJF/

My new blog post, coming from a discussion that happened in the Rokugan discord a little time ago, about using different colors of dice to represent Strife in a game without needing specialty dice.

It developed into a full adaptation of Strife rules and complex social combat rules for L5R 4e:

https://jadecrows.blogspot.com/2026/07/new-mechanic-strife-stress-dice.html

for the last 6 years i played a Mirumoto Taoist Swordsman to rank 5 and now i was close to becoming a master sensei rank 2. the other players in the camapaign switched chars and/or died so they are rank 4, 4 and 3. lately i started dominating the encounters a lot and so with a heavy heart i offered my gm to switch character.
so far so good - the others are more rogue like chars and they will be living that part a lot more openly without my hardass samurai. one of em is a fresh ronin (former kakita duelist) and the other basically a wildling unicorn and the last one a stormcaptain of the mantis. my gm asked me if i could imagine playing a monk that ties them a bit more together and i am even allowed to start at rank 3. now i am sitting in front of the books and realize i have no idea how to build a monk i was imagining someone very mobile and a bit stealthy that can fight spirits and tainted things (something like chinese ghost story style wise). what can i do what can i build what can i read ? pls help

Hello there! In a few days I'm going to finally be able to try this amazing game and usually I like getting all lore I can about the class I'm playing. The thing is, for the love of Shinjo, I can't find any info about this school outside the flavour text in Children of the Five Winds.

I'm missing something or the school is that new that we don't have much lore to go with?

Can someone give me some pointers about the Silent Shadow?

Finally managed to format the rules for matchlocks and firearms in general.

Hola! Tengo entendido que por la ley los cadaveres deben incinerarse sin excepción. Pero esos restos, dónde los dejan? Existen así como cementerios o todo va a parar a los templos o altares familiares? O qué hacen con esas cenizas?

My GM is running us through the Topaz Championship. It's our first time playing 5E. I'm playing a Kakita duelist who starts with Iaijutsu Struke: Rising Blade. However, the GM has decided that everyone will effectively start with their weapon "readied", so that nobody needs to spend an action to draw their blade.

My character has spent a bit of XP and has 3 in Air and 2 in every other ring. They also have 2 Melee. 8 Composure. She also has the Sixth Sense ability to help with initiative.

Given the modified rules and techniques, I'm curious as to what people's thoughts are on my best tactics. I'd been thinking I could do something like declare Water stance, use my non-test action as Predict and call Earth, and go straight for a strike with hopes of landing an early crit. Any other tricks I should consider?

https://jadecrows.blogspot.com/2026/07/squads.html

New blog post, this time covering the Squad rules and the Squad Commander advantage, which lets players have their own soldiers!

When cribbing the affiliations for the custom school do I list them in historical context.

I.E. the Sparrow school affiliations would be Crane, Sparrow, Three Man Alliance, and Minor Clan Alliance depending on era. The Hida Pragmatist would be Crab, Badger, Scorpion(all hail the pinche alliance), and Boar.

Or is it just fluff?

Hey all, I'm a fan of the Wolf Clan that was created as homebrew for the 4th Edition, and am attempting to adapt it for 5e, while offering a bit of my own twist on it. I have ideas for the family, but creating a homebrew school is a bit more involved, so I was looking for some advice. I was thinking I would use the Matsu Berserker school as a basis and combining it somehow with the Kitsu Medium school, to create a bushi/shugenja school in which warriors allow themselves to be possessed by the spirit of a wolf in order to fight with even greater ferocity.