LCG Clan Descriptions




L5R is full of clans. Unfortunately most players put their clans on pre-built pedastools. Therefore I felt it would be helpful to describe the clans in a more realistic, absolutely unbiased fashion.


The Crab clan are the serious (and large) defenders of the Empire from the might of the Shadowlands

Players View - Politics is for cowards and something the Crab clan have no time for. Brave, heroic and l did I mention large? the Crab sacrifice all for the namby pamby other clans to take advantage of.

Outside View - Crab is quite similar to green in magic so very large, strong units. They also have a sacrifice/not sacrfice stay around for ever theme which seems contradictory becuase it is.

What they actually are - Beyond the obvious fact that they obviously take illegal growth supplements this then affects their brains making them more stupid than other clans. They are also hypocrits. Every time you meet a Crab clan member you just know they will lecture you on how wonderful they are and how they defend this and that whereas history shows that they fail repeatedly and other clans keep pulling their chestnuts from the fire. This distresses the Crab so in old lore they have a tendency to leave their wall unprotected (or let the Shadowlands in) and attack the other clans instead. Then they carry on pretending its all about the wall when it obviously is all about their own sense of inferiority

All hell is breaking lose yet this Crab clan member seems to have fallen asleep. Or is really keen on the sensations of her smooth stick




The popular Crane Clan, often white haired, often challenging in ascertaining sex are next.

The Players View - Three sections exist of Crane players. We have 'political masters' dominating the courts by excellence in art and politics, we have the 'master duelists' solitary skilled honourable warriors and finally the 'dirty fighters' - military players who will do anything to get things done to protect the Crane. There also used to be the 'Iron Crane' -old style masses or defensive Crane but that was a rubbish idea in the CCG days and still is now so lets ignore those players.

Outside View - Closest concept I have found is that the Crane are similar to the Emperors Children of Horus Heresey (wh40k) fame. They follow excellence in all things so have the best courtiers, swordsman etc etc. But when they are bad they can be really bad.

What they actually are - The Crane are pre-eminent in being two faced and pretending they are absolutely not and everyone else pretends with them. Take the Harriers, it is well known in the Empire that the Crane use 'unflagged' soldiers to carry out highly dishourable acts to defend Crane land against stronger militaries but the fact they are 'unflagged' mean no-one can actually acuse the Crane of doing this. Their courtiers and duelists are excellent which is needed as without that they would not get away with having their own blue ninjas..

Equally typical Crane, is it a girl? or a boy?. Has sword and likes standing under falling blossom. So Crane members only move around during two weeks in the year.


The Dragon clan love sitting under waterfalls, perhaps showering or cooling down the latest 'hip' tatoo.


Players View - Two primary veins of Dragon players exist. We have the Monk brand who practice mysticism, tatoo wearing and generally wandering around half naked. The other brand is the other famed dueling school in the land involving a 'two hand style' of fighting.

Outside View - Monks and martial artist style weidors who have strange explanations for everything they do that makes no sense.

What they actually are - The two hand style is nothing but a gimmick really as any Samurai could use one or two weapons dependant on situation. The Dragon are supposed to be enigmatic but the reality is they are more usually vacilitating and weak. The perfect land sect has recently grown from strength to strength on their land and the Perfect land sect is basically 'democracy' and thus being vacilitating some dishonourably agree with the PLS and some honourable act like evil overlords by murdering anyone who dares try to better the common people. The Dragon have strong cards so 'should' be dominant but they are often so boring that no one apart from the famouse MindsDesire actually seems to want to play them at a high level.

Have waterfall, will shower. Typical Dragon clan Monk, 



The Lion Clan  are the closest clan to the historic Japanese Samurai

Players View - The pre-emeninent military in Rokugan the Lion clan has the biggest, most efficient and best army in the country led by the best leaders.

Outside View - Lion is weenie rush so think White in Magic or Zerg in Starcraft

What they actually are - Exactly what they are though they don’t realise it. Due to numbers the Lion clan wins a lot of wars. They then think this was due to talent and skill but no. If 30 ashigaru with fists rip apart an Armoured warrior with a sword then that does not mean those thirty peasants (or their leader)  are tactical geniuses. The Lion think differently though. The Lion are also the clan most likely to randomly kill peasants to test their swords are sharp. This makes them particularly arrogant. Whereas a Crane might want to test his sword but would not due to not wanting to appear to be breaking compassion a Lion doesn’t care. Lion players get irritated when they lose military battles (see 'tactical geniuses' again ) but as is shown they are wrong so can regularly get beaten by actual tacitcal geniuses from other clans. This makes Lions players sad but they can always go and cut up a peasant or two. Amusingly even the Emerald Empire source book notes that the Lion can be tactically moribubd and to refuse to do anything which was not written down by the old masters. They also were slow to even learn to 'read'. This all points at the Lions biggest shortcomings..on the other hand it also says they are quick to adapt but when you outnumber your opponent 100 to 1 this does not indicate tactical astuteness.

Depressed Lion clan member wondering where her horde has gone.


The Phoenix Clan are noted for their Shugenja


Players View - Masters of talking to the Kami the Phoenix posses the pre-eminent Shugenja in the land so are the best warriors as what warrior can stand up to mountain landing on their head? The Phoenix do what is neeeded to protect the soul of Rokugan

Outside View - Wizards in orange. Most of my favourite art in game has been Phoenix. If you like zapping things then Phoenix is for you

What they actually are -  Due to perceived strength there is a strong band of 'pacifism' riding through the Pheonix basically because as without that every war would end with a random Phoenix shugenja dropping another mountain on someone. Since they rarely actually get involved more of their super Shugenja end up opening Black Scrolls (eviiiiil) and then carrying out yet more Evil. Repeatedly as the Phoenix apparently never learn from their mistakes. In LCG terms the Phoenix are the 'Tiny Tims' of Rokugan as their spell recursion stronghold is like an enormous crutch as they cant seem to do anything with their other decent cards without their crutch.


The Phoenix are the fire-starters of Rokugan


Next up we have those lovers of leather and silk, the bondage kings (and Queens, definitely the Queens) of Rokugan the Scorpion clan.


The Players View - The Scorpion players view of themselves is basically as those willing to do whatever it takes to protect Rokugan. As the original Scorpion said to the 1st Emperor - 'I will be your enemy' (or perhaps not it was a Scorpion so he was probably lying) - basically public honor does not count as long as you know privately that your actions saved the world.

Outside view - For players not familiar with L5R the Scorpion are Ninja's, assasins and spies. Oh and they wear a lot of red leather and silk combos.

What they actually are - The reality of the Scorpion is that they are primarily drug dealing criminals who deceive and murder in their attempt to keep a nasty status quo running. They are basically the secret police of adictatorship murdering all the freedom fighters without process to ensure as much corrupt money as possible floods to them.  Oh and they usually muck up and do something so evil and stupid that hundred of thousands of innocents die. They are though popular with the story team, artists and designers.

Red silk? check, Red leather? - perhaps later

Unicorn Clan  - Horse riding warriors bringing a streak of something new to Rokugan

Players View - Magnificent horse riders using new tactics to dominate Rokugan. Unafraid of new things and techniques versus the more hidebound other clans

Outside View - Ghengis Khan and the Mongol horde. Lots of movement tricks as they ride...horses...This should irritate the Phoenix as so what the army has horses - a Phoenix shugenja could make his entire army appear and disppear anywhere even faster. 

What they actually are - Smelly nomads without manners who wear strange clothes. They sodded off for hundreds of year and now they are back should really probably sod off again.  I should love the Unicorn but their artwork puts me off. They look like they have gone to a sale at the local fur store whilst colour blind. When the LCG arrived several clan dominances had existed in the past and were regarded as 'BPE' Bad Play Experiences. These included Crane 'not in the face' defensive honor rush, Scorpion dishonouring anyone, Lion weenie rush and Unicorn military dominance. FFG seem to have taken steps to avoid (almost) all these. Honor running doesn’t currently exist, Lion weenie does but once past core has not been allowed to be strong and the Unicorn were nerfed before release. This meant the Unicorn basically sucked through the first year and in true Card game fashion the designers are about to address this with a too large counter in the other direction probably making the Unicorn totally unbalanced and dominant for the next two years (the only NPE allowed was Scorpion which (as far as I can tell) was because the storyteam lead and designers loved the concept behind Scorpion so gave them all the best stuff repeatedly. Don't ask a Scorpion player though as the fact they make 60% of the top cuts in most comps is pure talent. Oh and they have always played Scorpion and so did their grandparents and they are absolutely not bandwaggoners)

A Unicorn Samurai writing a strongly worded letter concerning how her clan sucks. Even though it doesn't anyomore.


Mantis Clan - Green pirates

Players View - After Yoritomo managed to argue that because his ancestor was related to one of the Kami the Mantis pirates became a great clan as they deserved. This allowed them to be even better pirates

Outside View - Yaaaaarggggh Pirates be here. Shvier me timbers

What the actually are - Pirates with long flowing locks. Yoritomo was an idiot. If his argument held then since all people can find an ancestral link to someone that means every clan should be a great clan so his argument was stupid. Mantis are currently only a bunch of neutral cards that you can add to the deck and long may this continue as Mantis players tend to be insufferable producing reams of writing as to 'why and how we will introduce Mantis' but forgetting the fact that they became so unpopular in the last incarnation of the game that the clan died hence why it was not rebirthed now. 

Not sure why Yoritomo is purple or why he appears to be fighting nothing. That would be Mantis all over

Spider Clan - evil!


Players view - don’t exist so don’t care

Outside view - don’t exist so don’t care

What they actually are - 'non existent' but any players who still like them often have Mantis propensities to think this matters and everyone else should think the same

Why does this armour stand up? who left it in a dark wood? and since its Spider why do you care?

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