The realm of Rokugan is vast, stretching from the tainted Shadowlands in the south to the towering northern mountains—yet all of Rokugan is only a small part of Ningen-dō, the Realm of Mortals. And Ningen-dō lies between the Spirit Realms, below the Celestial Court of Tengoku, beside the enchanted land of Senkyō, and above the torturous realms of the dead. In most circumstances, mortal samurai stay in Ningen-dō, but the influence of these other realms cannot be underestimated.
Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Celestial Realms, a new sourcebook, and Wheel of Judgment, a new adventure for Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying!
Celestial Realms boasts three chapters packed with information on the spiritual side of life in the Emerald Empire, covering the cosmology of the Spirit Realms and the Phoenix Clan’s roles as the caretakers of Rokugan’s soul. With new player options and adventure seeds sprinkled throughout, from the introduction of the Centipede Clan to the ancestral swords belonging to each of the Great Clans, this 144-page full-color sourcebook is an indispensable resource for Game Masters and players alike.
Then, armed with the knowledge of the Spirit Realms, you’ll be ready to embark on the Wheel of Judgment adventure—an adventure designed specifically for deceased PCs. From Meido, the Realm of Waiting, you and your fellow samurai face a journey unlike any other, leading you across the realms to hunt down the corrupting influence of Jigoku… and perhaps, if you’re lucky, to return alive to Ningen-dō.
Power of Worship
Even for the inquiring minds of the Phoenix, the Celestial Realms hold many mysteries. In the first chapter of this sourcebook, you’ll find a wealth of gazetteer information on each of these realms, from Yomi, the Realm of Blessed Ancestors, to Gaki-dō, the Realm of the Hungry Dead. Alongside this discussion of the realms, you’ll find the spotlight cast on three sample shrines from around Rokugan, with NPCs and adventure seeds for each shrine. Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion of the Phoenix Clan families, key locations and characters.
Celestial Realms also introduces the Centipede Clan to the game as a new Minor Clan! This clan falls among the foremost followers of the Lady Sun, Amaterasu, and they view themselves as bulwarks of sacred traditions. They sing their greetings to Amaterasu each morning and tend to one of the most revered locations in all of Rokugan, the place where it is said Amaterasu herself descended from the Heavens to speak with their founder. In addition to the Centipede, this chapter also brings a new school for every clan, a wealth of character creations options, information on the ancestral swords of every Great Clan, plenty of new invocations, and the game’s first inversions (a new kind of technique used by ishiken and Void wielders).
The final chapter of Celestial Realms brings the discussion home to the Game Master with plenty of advice on roleplaying and patterns to create your own religious groups and supernatural encounters within the game. With dozens and dozens of plot hooks and conflicts, corresponding to each of the realms, your samurai will find a thrilling adventure set before them no matter which realm they enter.
Wheel of Judgment
A vast plain stretches away on all sides, one great field of whispering grasses, dotted with distant figures. People, horses, wolves, and even what appear to be goblins all walk toward the horizon, where the towers of a palace rise into the white sky. You feel a compulsion to join them…
In the Wheel of Judgment adventure, you and your fellow samurai are, unfortunately, deceased. You have awoken in Meido, with an endless queue of souls before you and at its terminus, the prospect of judgment by Emma-Ō, the Fortune of Death. You must contend with the bureaucracy of the underworld and the vile machinations of oni, and to escape the underworld, your souls must first go deeper—into the torturous hell of Jigoku!
Like previous Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying adventures, Wheel of Judgment is a complete 32-page booklet, that also comes with a full double-sided map and more than 50 punchboard tokens that help you bring your journeys to life and easily convey the location of every player and enemy.
Death Is Only the Beginning
You may be travelling across Phoenix lands, praying at a spartan Crab shrine, or setting foot on the tainted terrain of Jigoku itself—no matter where the spiritual or the supernatural finds you in Rokugan, you’ll be able to enhance your games of Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying with the Celestial Realms sourcebook and the Wheel of Judgment adventure.
You can pre-order your own copy of Celestial Realms (L5R12) and Wheel of Judgment (L5R13) at your local retailer or online through our webstore today, and look for these to release in the second quarter of 2020!
