Legend of the Five Rings vs Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Compare Legend of the Five Rings and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Legend of the Five Rings | Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Career-Based, Character Building, Character-Driven, Crunchy, Drama, Faction Play, Lore-Heavy, Roleplay-Heavy, Social Intrigue, Tactical, Theater of the Mind | Gritty, Deadly, Career-Based, Dark Fantasy, Roleplay-Heavy, Atmospheric, Low-Fantasy, Investigation, Corruption, Lore-Heavy, Licensed Setting, Random Character Creation, Roll to Cast, Grimdark |
| Core Mechanic | Roll-and-keep with custom dice. The player picks a skill and an elemental approach (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, or Void) — the approach determines how the action is attempted, so a Fire approach to combat is a reckless overwhelming strike while a Water approach redirects an opponent's force. The pool is Ring dice (d6) equal to the chosen ring's value plus Skill dice (d12) equal to skill rank; after rolling, the player keeps up to ring-value dice. Kept faces show some mix of successes, explosive successes, opportunity, and strife symbols — successes meet a target number, opportunity spends create narrative effects, and accumulated strife eventually drives the character into Compromised. | Roll d100 under skill or characteristic. Success Levels measure degree of success by comparing the tens digits of the target and the roll. Advantage accumulates during combat, adding +10 per point to attack tests. |
| Dice | d6 + d12 custom dice | d100 |
| Complexity | High | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | High | High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | No open license |
| Cost | $$ | $$$ |
| Publisher | Fantasy Flight Games | Cubicle 7 |
| Year | 2018 | 2018 |
| Best For | Groups who want samurai drama where internal conflict between sworn duty and personal desire matters as much as the sword, with structured rules for court intrigues and duels alongside skirmish combat. | Groups who want dark, gritty fantasy where ordinary people face extraordinary dangers in a richly detailed setting. The career system creates unique character arcs from rat catcher to witch hunter. |
| Highlights | Approach choice means the same skill check resolves differently depending on which ring drives it, mechanizing personality and method instead of relegating them to flavor. Strife accumulates from dice rolls and triggers Compromised when it exceeds composure, turning emotional pressure into a tracked resource without a separate sanity subsystem. Ninjō (personal desire) and giri (sworn duty) are written into each character sheet, and the conflict between them is the engine of advancement and downtime scenes. | Detailed grimdark setting, career system creates varied character arcs, combat carries real consequences |
| Considerations | Custom dice are required and not easily substituted — physical sets must be purchased separately or the official dice app used. Honor, glory, status, strife, composure, void points, and conflict-specific resources all track separately, so social bookkeeping is heavy outside of skirmishes. The mechanical structure is tightly bound to Rokugan's clan system and Bushidō expectations — reskinning to other settings unwinds large chunks of character creation and technique progression. | Tightly bound to the Old World setting, Success Level math can slow play, expensive supplement line |