L5R: River of Gold

For a few brief moments today, I was delighted to learn that there is a new Legend of the Five Rings game in development. I finished grieving for the original L5R many years ago and never gave the Asmodee version a chance, so I was hoping for something different, like Battle for Rokugan. Or better yet, I have always suspected that the L5R setting would someday yield a great game about courtly intrigue, complete with duels of honor, blackmail, and currying favor with the emperor.

After those brief, giddy flights of fancy, I continued reading, and my heart sank. The upcoming game, River of Gold, will be a resource management game. Yes, I suppose that every setting, fictional or otherwise, must involve some sort of resource management. But Rokugan, the land of the L5R setting, has always been a lively fantasy version of Japan, featuring samurai, ninja, mystics, geisha, warrior monks, several species of exotic sentients, and a wasteland overrun by monsters and undead. How drab to set all those exciting elements aside to focus on yet another bean counting game.

Link: www.dicebreaker.com/categories/board-gam...ld-legend-five-rings

Board game design often reminds me of that old saying "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"

It's a shame because I ended up enjoyed the LCG quite a bit. I miss not being able to play it.