L5R RPG GM's Survivor's Guide (9/24/99)
Reviewed by Kenneth Hite, Roleplaying Columnist, MANIA! (www.mania.com/mania)

While this gallimaufry of a column is looking at gallimaufry sourcebooks, then, let's bend our round gaijin eyes to the Legend of the Five Rings RPG GM's Survival Guide (160 pages for $23.95) by Jim Pinto and sundry divers AEG hands. Many, many L5R RPG books seem light on details and meat. Not this one. Many, many GM companions seem obvious and loosely-written. Not this one. This is a meaty broth of advice, tips, Rokugani factoids, plot constructions (including an adaptation of the famed "36 plots" of dramatic theory to Rokugani situations), using L5R CCG cards in the RPG, indexes to the advantages and skills and so on in all the sourcebooks, campaign advice from the first adventure to the final showdown, samurai lore, and so forth. Much of it will not come in handy, but there's much that will, and which part is which will vary with the length and type of your game. This book, actually, would even be useful for Sengoku players, or anybody else doing stuff in one version or another of gaming-related Japan. Parts of it aren't as clearly written, surely; parts seem rushed or padded, but on the whole, if you can't find many usable tidbits in it, you should check again to see which side of the GM screen you're on. If you're on the side with the little charts and numbers, there's no telling when you'll need a list of Rokugani rice seasonings, or dueling guidelines, or advice on sublimating player knowledge into character knowledge, or ...