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Jaime Lawrence
Australia
Sydney
New South Wales
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Evil Bob: Lawful good since 2038!
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Welcome to the final installment of ‘Engaging Enemies’, a series of reviews in which I’ve been looking at the approaches taken to books about adversaries in RPGs. The previous parts are just here if you’d like to see them:
Engaging Enemies, Part 1 – IR #18
Engaging Enemies, Part 2 – IR #19
Engaging Enemies Part 3 – IR #20
Enemies of the Empire is, in its general approach, quite similar to The Creature Guide; chapters detail a group of enemies, talk about their history, attitudes and ecology and have some stats tucked away at the end. The focus is on the narrative. There is one significant difference here, however; the sheer volume of information offered. Whereas most books of this type offer brief details, the setting of L5R makes it necessary that the enemies are shown in context, that their stories are revealed in full and that it is clear to the reader how these creatures exist in the different eras of play. To achieve this, there are also a number of shot stories in the book, designed to give the reader an idea of how to narrate and use the creatures and troublemakers in the book.
After an initial chapter on how to read the entries and the stats for simple beasts, the bok moves into The Bloodspeakers, sorcerous cultists who use Blood magic to corrupt the souls of others. Specific, notable bloodspeakers are discussed here, as is the history of the cult (a seven page entry). There is a sample Bloodspeaker cell, a number of new spells for them to use, some artefacts they might posess and then finally some stats (including personal stories) on the individual Bloodspeakers who would make good ‘boss’ villains in a game.
Part of the intriguing nature of this book is the inclusion of different human groups as enemies, rather than just creatures or the generic ‘human’ entry in some other books.
Similar to the Bloodspeakers, the Kolat, a conspiracy who believes that humans, not gods, shape the world, have a significant entry (13 pages of history and organization) with stats for your ‘typical’ assassin, agent, trader or Kolat Master. There are a number of new character options here for anyone who wants to succumb to the dark side and items they can obtain by doing so.
The chapters then go on to cover the Lost (Samurai who have become Tainted, but resist total corruption), the Naga (a race of serpent people who aid the Rokugani in their battle with the shadowlands), The Nezumi (rat people who are again allies of humanity), The Nothing (the faceless consumptive force that gives power to true Ninja), Oni (monsterous demons from the pits of Jigoku, the hellish realm of suffering), Ronin (Masterless Samurai whose adherence to Bushido may waver), The Five Ancient Races (mostly gone now, but who ruled the Earth before the coming of mankind), Spirits (Ghosts of all sorts) and The Undead (raised to do the foul bidding of evil masters). Finally, there is a small appendix with some encounter tables.
Enemies of the Empire is a fabulous resource that gives insights into the world of L5R beyond simple accounts of a monster’s physiology and feeding habits. The edition of this book released for 3rd edition L5R had a far less impressive approach. The fourth edition book is also strikingly illustrated throughout and looks simply amazing.
This series of reviews has been great to write because of both the opportunity to compare systems based on their approach to a standard product and because of the feedback I’ve been receiving from the community. In the end, it’s clear that whether you like a functional book with entries that offer only the detail you need to use the creature in question or a narrative approach that treats stats like a bane, there’s an enemy book for you out there somewhere. The true beauty of these books is in both the inspiration that they provide us and the reasonably standard format they use – ignoring the stats, it really wouldn’t be hard to work a Penogollan into a D&D game or Tribbles into your Warhammer Fantasy adventures – all you need is the right book!
On a related note, be sure to check out the 2011 RPG Geek - Critter Creation Contest (Oct 16th - Oct 31st) this week and submit an entry – we could make our own RPGG book of encounters!
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