Path of Waves

 

Eijiro sighed. “We can’t go into Lion lands.”
“How much is your head?”
“What? No, Junko, I don’t have a bounty.”
“Oh. Did you anger someone terribly, then?”
“Er, yes...” Eijiro thought of his father, his mother, and his aunt. The arguments. Stealing away at night with a bundle of koku, his katana, and his now long-lost silk kimono. “Yes, a lot of angry people.”
“Then we can just kill them. It’s what we’re good at, after all.”

Welcome to the fringes of Rokugan. Here, masterless samurai known as rōnin wander in the tumultuous places between castes. While they are higher than peasants in the Celestial Order, they do not truly belong in either world, and neither samurai nor peasants readily accept them. Yet tales of wandering heroes are some of the most daring and exciting in Rokugan, inspiring some ambitious commoners to take up the blade. And then there are those who do not fit into the Celestial Order at all—gaijin who hail from strange lands and practice alien customs. The lives of these outcasts are difficult, but they are among the most exciting that any adventurer can ask for.

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the Path of Waves sourcebook and the Sins of Regret adventure for the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game—now available for pre-order at your local retailer or online through our website with free shipping within the continental United States!

As a bonus, when you pre-order the Path of Waves sourcebook from the Fantasy Flight Games website, you will receive a collection of eight beautiful 5” x 7” prints of carefully-selected pieces of Legend of the Five Rings art featuring key characters and locations from the game, as well as a bookmark to help track important sections of the sourcebook quickly and easily.

Sins of Regret, the new pre-built adventure which can be played conjointly with Path of Waves or integrated into any existing campaign, also offers a bonus of four 5” x 7” art prints and a bookmark to immerse you in your adventure in the Emerald Empire when you pre-order through the FFG website. 

Forgotten Heart of the Empire

Path of Waves is a 256-page sourcebook that offers players a comprehensive guide to the rōnin, commoners, and gaijin who live on the fringes of Rokugani society. Inspired by the year-long period where some new samurai choose to travel the land as rōnin with the goal of renewing their allegiance to the security of their clan, this book gives you the chance to experience the Emerald Empire through new eyes, whether they be those of a renegade peasant, a bitter rōnin, or a curious gaijin.

Over the course of seven chapters, several of which we’ll take a closer look at in future previews, you will gain an in-depth look into the little-discussed part of Rokugani society filled with ragtag misfits seeking fame and fortune as they stand against impossible odds in a world set against them. The opening chapters dive into the life of rōnin—how they come to be and their place in Rokugan—and give you an entirely new way to play the game with a brand-new set of twenty questions for building your characters as well as new options for creating outsider characters. Then game masters will have the chance to explore two fully realized settings complete with locations, characters, and adventure seeds that they can choose to visit in their games. They will also find guidance on developing games for rōnin and other outsider characters, as well as a host of new non-player characters with which to populate their stories. 

Path of Waves also journeys further beyond the game you thought you knew than ever before by including information on foreign gaijin and the Ivory Kingdoms, the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game’s first look at the lands beyond Rokugan. When they cross into the Emerald Empire, they are seen as unwelcome foreigners who stand apart from society, and they often find themselves consorting with rōnin and criminals in order to eke out a living. When you are forced to live outside of the comfort of polite society, your struggles may be great, but so is your chance for adventure!

Sins of Regret

As you prepare to send your outcasts into the beautiful but dangerous land of Rokugan, Fantasy Flight Games also offers you a new pre-built companion adventure to throw you into the action with Sins of Regret. This story—which can be used for all player characters but works particularly well for rōnin—takes your adventurers to the small village of Twin Blessings, a town that has fallen on hard times since the elements became imbalanced. The crops fail, bandits prowl the woods, and the daimyō demands his due. Have these people fallen out of favor with the kami or is a darker force at work?

The villagers seek an intermediary to voice their concerns to their unjust ruler, but Lord Jikai faces troubles of his own. Within the halls of Closed Shell Castle, duplicitous vassals threaten to unseat his rule, and ghosts from the lord’s past have returned to haunt him. If you help Jikai hold his power you may win his favor or even prove yourself worthy of the lord’s patronage, but is the daimyo worthy of your assistance? Whether you are rōnin or a samurai loyal to your Clan, you will be forced to test your commitment to Bushidō in the face of looming conflict. It is up to you alone to decide which side you will take. Will you support the suffering villagers in their defiance of their lord, defend Jikai's authority, or will you fight for your own gains?

As you grapple with the complex disputes brewing around you and your own internal struggles, Sins of Regret helps you keep your adventures organized with more than fifty tokens to help track the various non-player characters you may encounter. As each side becomes more heated and the quarrel comes to a head, these may help with the vital task of distinguishing friend from foe and help you keep the conflict contained. This town is a powder keg—if it should explode into all-out battle, you had best be on the right side.

The World of Outcasts

Though the life of a Rokugani outcast is often overlooked, their stories promise to be some of the most harrowing and inspiring in the Emerald Empire. How will you shape your fate? Explore the forgotten heart of the empire and discover the epic adventure that awaits!

Pre-order your copy of Path of Waves (L5R10) and Sins of Regret (L5R11) at your local retailer today or online through our website here! This sourcebook and adventure will arrive at retailers in the fourth quarter of 2019!