Legend of the Five Rings

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 06 Aug 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Sullanciri2002	06 Aug 2002
I may be going out on a limb here, 'cause I'm guessing that not too many tarotists also have an interest in fantasy-fiction and/or gaming universes ... but what the heck, if other people can make fools out of themselves, why not me. Seriously though - Legend of the Five Rings (for those who don't know anything about it) is a roleplaying and trading-card game, and one the best known ones out there. The concept is set in a fantasy universe that combines many elements from different oriental-feudal settings, religions, and myths ... and it has great artwork on many of the cards. Knowing this game - and knowing a bit about the tarot, I'd love to see a tarot-deck created with this art and character-reference. Believe me - choosing characters from the game for each of the major and minor arcana would be the most fun any L5R (Legend of the Five Rings) fan could have with his or her pants on. There are powerfull wizards/shugenja, elemental dragons, mighty daimyo's and samurai, courtiers, heralds, enchanted weapons etc Only one big problem stopping me from making such a deck myself - I'm an absolutely zero with graphic-software and the likes, so I'll probably be extinct soon (help). If there's anyone out there who knows both tarot and L5R - or who's a wiz with graphic-software and might be interested in setting up some sort of project ... please contact me.

Laurel	06 Aug 2002
I'm a RPG designer and gaming geek girl, but have never been involved with LO5R (just White Wolf and indie stuff). However, I do know the universe somewhat and could imagine a wonderful tarot made from it. As always, licensing issues come up when projects involve someone else's intellectual property, even for personal use. My advice would be do find out how much of the material you can use for a non-commercial fan project and to go to a LO5R forum and find your graphic artist there. As long as you have the tarot knowledge and you both love Legends of the Five Rings, it should turn out spectactularly. Laurel

Jeannette	06 Aug 2002
Quote: Originally posted by Sullanciri2002 I may be going out on a limb here, 'cause I'm guessing that not too many tarotists also have an interest in fantasy-fiction and/or gaming universes... That's one bet I wouldn't take. In my experience, there's quite an overlap. Speaking as a long-time (albeit lapsed -- having two kids and two businesses sorta "horns in" on your RPG time) gamer, I've known lots of other gamers with a peripheral-to-serious interest in tarot. I think the fact that you find much tarot lore running through the source materials of various RPG systems bears this out. From the early D&D "Deck of Many Things" to White Wolf's "Mage: the Ascension," there's RPG/tarot connections out there everywhere you look, and I'm guessing that it isn't all made up by people with no knowledge of, or interest in, the subject matter. [sidenote: i wrote the rules/guidelines for the "tarot mage" character class for iron crown enterprise's "rolemaster" system -- for which i retain the rights, as i never signed them away, nor was i fully paid for the publication thereof before i.c.e. went "belly up." one of these days, when i've got time, i'm going to post all that material in the Tarot Garden website Library. It was originally published in I.C.E.'s [i]RoleMaster Companion VII[/i].] Quote: Believe me - choosing characters from the game for each of the major and minor arcana would be the most fun any L5R (Legend of the Five Rings) fan could have with his or her pants on. There are powerfull wizards/shugenja, elemental dragons, mighty daimyo's and samurai, courtiers, heralds, enchanted weapons etc. I've never even looked at the LO5R game, but my husband has it. Now you've got me motivated to go give it the once over -- if I can find a few spare minutes over here... -- Jeannette http://www.tarotgarden.com

divinerguy	06 Aug 2002
Maybe a Warhammer 40,000 deck. Lots of races to choose from.

Sullanciri2002	07 Aug 2002
To Laurel - I've already tried several contacts at Alderac who produce the trading-card game in question ... alas, yet no reaction. I've considered the legality-issues, and kinda hoped to avoid it as I don't have any commercial plans for such a deck - selfish, ain't I ? To Jeanette - glad to know I'm not alone in having these combined interests. Go ahead, take a look at L5R on l5r.alderac.com - the short fiction is spectacular, as is the card-art - you won't be disappointed.

Mateo06	07 Aug 2002
U know, i would also like to see a deck made by the artists that created magic the gathering!!! I am sure u could get some splendid cards out of that, and not to mention, the cards would be easy to handle!!! Which is always a plus!

The Legend of the Five Rings thread was originally posted on 06 Aug 2002 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.