Legend of the Five Rings was a good game (Jordan and I used to play quite a bit, actually), with fun world background stuff in a geeky kind of way. The big problem was that it was a fucking pain in the mental ass. See, whenever you go to a battle you commit many troops (and their personal items, honorable wives, etc.) to go to the battle. The winner of each battle is basically the one with a higher battle value (I don't remember what it is--it's been a long time--there may have even been more than one factor). At each battle you go back and forth playing a bunch of card which affect that value. Anyway, it's a card game, there are a billion variables. The thing is, whoever has the advantage completely wipes out the other side. And those troops and things you've been buying are not necessarily cheap or easy to get.

It's a fun system, but what it led to was a paralyzation about entering combat. The number of variables was so scary, and you had so much to lose, that normally we'd kind of dare each other to attack and then finally someone would do it, and then lots of cards would bite it. It was fun, but very tense and complicated, and the strategy was just a bit too much for me to grasp.

As a "fuck it, I'll attack" game it's fun, but I found it difficult to treat it like that. The armies are distinct and fun. I wouldn't buy any more cards ever or read the rules again, but I'd play it again.