{"id":22980,"date":"2012-06-15T14:00:51","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T19:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/?p=22980"},"modified":"2012-06-14T15:22:49","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T20:22:49","slug":"review-alderac-entertainment-group-strongholds-of-the-empire-legend-of-the-five-rings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/?p=22980","title":{"rendered":"Review: Alderac Entertainment Group – Strongholds of the Empire (Legend of the Five Rings)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Legend of the Five Rings: Strongholds of the Empire<\/strong>
\nStrongholds of the Empire is a sourcebook for the Asian epic fantasy system Legend of the Five Rings written by Shawn Carman, Robert Hobart, Brian Yoon, Brian Bates, Jess Heinig, Sean Holland, Mike Knabusch, Dave Laderoute, Ryan Reese, Jacob Ross, Todd Stiles, and Doug Sun and published by Alderac Entertainment Group.
\nBy Lawrence \u201cdarth_kwan_doh\u201d Grabowski<\/em>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

See other reviews of Legend of the Five Rings here<\/a>
\nPurchase Strongholds of the Empire here<\/a><\/p>\n

Strongholds of the Empire<\/em> (SotE) is a pdf\/print on demand book that outlines one city belonging to each of the great clans as well as several unaligned cities.<\/p>\n

CONTENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

The outlines of the cities in SotE contain a variety of useful information. In a continuing effort to maintain timeline neutrality throughout 4th edition, the majority of the cities can be placed in any time period. The two most notable exceptions are Toshi Ranbo and Otosan Uchi. Generally, each city exposes a new facet of the clan it belongs to that has been mentioned in the past, but not necessarily explored in detail. For example, the Dragon city is full of craftsmen. In the past the metalsmithing of the Agasha and Tamouri have been touched upon, but in SotE there is an entire city devoted to blacksmithing.<\/p>\n

Each entry also details several specific places of interest, important personages, and new game mechanics. The places of interest are usually an important section of the city or an interesting establishment. The important personages are pivotal members of the city, governors or people with lots of unofficial power. The new mechanics include an advantage and a disadvantage related to being associated with each city. They also include a path or advanced school related to one of the themes explored in each chapter.<\/p>\n

OVERALL<\/strong><\/p>\n

The L5R community has been waiting a long time for SotE. Originally it was supposed to be the book that helped transition between 3rd and 4th edition. Was it worth the wait? Well, it certainly doesn\u2019t appear that the wait wasn\u2019t worth it. There\u2019s new mechanics that haven\u2019t really been touched on in 4th edition and a host of cool new places to explore. Perhaps most importantly, there is a huge shark NPC.<\/p>\n

RATINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Publication Quality:<\/em> 6 out of 10
\nAEG was doing so well until this book. While I can\u2019t comment on the print on demand version of the book, I can say that AEG slipped up here. There was one instance of a page finishing mid-sentence and a whole new section at the beginning of the next page, and an instance of a whole entry for a point of interest repeated under a different point\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Mechanics:<\/em> 8 out of 10
\nLike the majority of 4th edition books, SotE<\/em> features new schools as well as updates to old ones. Some of them however, seem a little specific or not that useful. It also includes several paths related to crafting, which hasn\u2019t been explored much up to this point. Unfortunately, many people feel the rules for crafting don\u2019t work very well. The new advantages and disadvantages are very interesting, allowing for subtle new character options.<\/p>\n

Value Add:<\/em> 9 out of 10
\nSotE<\/em> adds a great deal of value. There is one new city detailed for each clan that is largely timeline neutral. Each city illuminates a previously underdeveloped facet of the clan and there are new mechanics to support each city as well as new rules relating to crafting.<\/p>\n

Overall:<\/em> 8 out of 10
\nI really enjoyed reading SotE<\/em>, much more so than Imperial Histories<\/em>. There was a lot less repetition. I loved the way each city touched on different themes from previous releases. After thinking about it, I think the Unicorn city is my favorite, even though I\u2019m not a huge fan of the Unicorn dueling path. I also think the new advantages and disadvantages are swell. That said, I don\u2019t like the crafting rules at all in L5R and think that crafting should really be an NPC thing. Same goes for the rules related to earning money. The economy of L5R has been a contentious subject for a long time. I think this has to do in part because the rules governing it are so vague and ill-defined. SotE<\/em> is a great book otherwise and a great way to provide players with new and interesting cities to adventure in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legend of the Five Rings: Strongholds of the Empire Strongholds of the Empire is a sourcebook for the Asian epic fantasy system Legend of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1117,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1935,169],"tags":[103,485,336,102,23],"class_list":["post-22980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","category-reviews","tag-alderac-entertainment-group","tag-asian","tag-epic-fantasy","tag-legend-of-the-five-rings","tag-martial-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}