Although written for 4th edition L5R, this book provides a detailed overview of a specific province that can be dropped into most clan lands, and is appropriate for nearly all time periods. As the province in question is contested, this can also be used to provide players a chance to find themselves running a province.

The book provides the province's history, geography, and key locations (including cities, shrines, natural points of interest, and numerous villages of various sizes and roles). It also provides information on important NPC's, from their backgrounds to their motivations.

While a gamemaster would have to retool the mechanics present in this book, I recommend it for anyone running any form of L5R game.

Diese Erweiterung stellt auf 96 Seiten eine eigene Provinz in Rokugan vor: Naishou. An Spielmechanik wird hier zwar nur wenig Neues geboten (eine Basic School für Löwen-Clan-Samurai), dafür ist der Schauplatz detailliert und liebevoll ausgearbeitet.

Naishou liegt am Rand von Rokugan, ist geographisch isoliert und war lange Zeit politisch neutral. Naishou Province enthält eine detaillierte Karte, eine eigene Geschichte und die ausgearbeitete Provinz-Hauptstadt: Toshi no Naishou. Dabei ist Naishou quasi Rokugan in der Nussschale. Spieler finden hier auf engstem Raum fast alle Aspekte des Settings repräsentiert. Wichtige NSCs sind ausgearbeitet und zu besonderen Orten – darunter auch Klöster und Ronin-Siedlungen – werden Beschreibungen und Gerüchte geliefert. Besonders mysteriös sind dabei die alten Ruinen in den Sümpfen, die auf eine Besiedelung hindeuten, die älter als das Kaiserreich sein könnte.

Die Herrschaft über Naishou ist seit kurzem in der Hand der Kaiserlichen Familien, doch das gedenken die Großen Clans zu ändern. Für Konfliktpotential und Plotideen ist also gesorgt, von politischen Intrigen bis zu kampflastigen Abenteuern. Spielrunden können leicht eine ganze Kampagne in Naishou verbringen. Das Kapitel A Plague of Crimes enthält ein ausgearbeitetes Startabenteuer um eine Verbrechenswelle und ermordete Samurai. Sogar an vorgefertigte Charaktere für einen schnellen Spieleinstieg und One-Shots wurde gedacht – vorbildlich!

Fazit: Perfekter Schauplatz für Einsteiger. Naishou Province ist eine ganze Region zum Losspielen und damit der perfekte Einstieg für L5R-Neulinge. Aber auch erfahrene Spieler dürften mit der liebevoll ausgestalteten Provinz und den NSC ihre Freude haben. Anders als Second City ist Naishou Province nicht an bestimmte Örtlichkeiten oder Ereignisse des Metaplots gebunden und kann damit problemlos in jede Kampagne eingebaut werden.

I’m really THIS close to declaring Legend of the Five Rings, 4th edition to be the RPG that is most supportive to GMs in my entire experience in the hobby.

The recently released Naishou Province supplement is just more proof of it.

I know that many of those who’v read my previous reviews of L5R books have heard it before, but getting the hang of a setting as exotic and different as Rokugan is difficult for new GMs. The Naishou Province presents an entire province of Rokugan, from locations, to NPCs and plot hooks, all ready for a GM to use in their games.

The Naishou Province is not tied to a specific location in Rokugan, allowing GMs to place it wherever they feel most comfortably in.

The book itself is divided into several sections detailing the Provincial Capital, Settlements inside the province, the Geography of Naishou and a sample adventure which the GM can run or mine for ideas.

The Naishou Province book also allows for different kinds of adventures, from political conspiracies to combat and magic. There’s plenty to see and do in the Naishou province, and the book can easily fuel a long-term campaign as the GM can just keep inserting new complications and the interest of the other Great Clans over the unaligned province.

Mechanics-wise, Naishou Province is a little bit underwhelming, but given that it was meant to be more of a setting book I don’t feel that it is at fault. Lion Clan fans will be happy with the inclusion of a new Basic School in the form of the Lion Elite Spearmen, as well as the mechanics of the Magari-Yari, signature weapon of Matsu Gohei, the Butcher.

One thing of note however is that Naishou Province feels rather short, being a companion volume to another upcoming L5R book: Secrets of the Empire, a book that will detail the Ronin, Minor Clans, Imperial Families and the Brotherhood of Shinsei. I have no complaints about it however, and if I was to get a new GM to start an L5R campaign, I’d easily refer The Naishou Province supplement as one of their first books outside of the core.

Beautifully presented and with a wealth of detail this is much more than an adventure - it is a complete and detailed account of Naishou Province that provides scope for your own adventures, as well as containing plenty of material to get you started.

Starting with a map - beautiful brush-style - and a short piece of fiction, the Introduction explains what you have got hold of: basically a complete setting in which to run your adventures. Naishou Province is a single unaligned province of the Empire with plenty of scope for you and your players to stamp their own mark upon it. The history of the province is outlined - naturally it is right now a bit up in the air as it under temporary direct control of the Imperial family, but it has a long history rich in culture and strife. It is a prosperous area, somewhere - purposely not well-defined - outside areas under the direct control of the Great Clans and somewhat isolated by its geography, but its potential means that it has been squabbled over for generations.

After a brief word on a new fighting group - elite spearmen in the service of the Lion clan - and the characteristics of Naishou citizens, the next chapter is a detailed introduction to the main city of the province, Toshi no Naishou. It is the political and economic capital as well as the largest settlement by far, nestled beside a river. It is divided, in a somewhat haphazard manner, into different districts clustered around the Governor's palace. There's a samurai quarter, a merchant district and one for the heimin population - craftsmen, fisherfolk, farmers and the like. The eta live on the far side of the river in the main, an area regarded as inauspicious. Locals are surprisingly assiduous record-keepers and have a strong sense of their own history and ancestry. They are also very pious.

Important locations are listed, with stories and rumours to bring them to life. This portion reads like a good travel guide and quite makes you want to pay a visit. Then notable locals are listed, to serve as background figures or indeed to be woven into your stories. They include members of nearly all the Great Clans, jockeying for position. Fans of intrigue-based games should find plenty of interest here.

The next chapter looks at the settlements of Naishou Province. There are many fascinating towns and villages well worth a visit, often just for cultural delights even if the party's business does not take them there. For each there are notes on the appearance, culture, notables and whatever might be going on there... you will find plenty of material to help them spring into life. This section includes monasteries, ronin encampments and other locations as well as actual townships.

This is followed by a chapter on the geography of the Province. It's quite a diverse area and, as always, the landscape has shaped both peoples and events. The central fertile river valley is bounded by mountains on two sides, with a swamp to the northwest and forests to south and east. Several options are presented for what precisely is to be found in the forests, giving you plenty of leeway to set things up the way you wish. Within the valley, most travel is by river and there is a single main road. The swamp contains some ancient ruins, hinting at earlier inhabitation than even the citizens' meticulous records show. Finally, local wildlife is also discussed.

The final section, A Plague of Crimes, provides a starting adventure based around a cluster of ten small villages in the eastern part of the Province near a large and renowned monastery. There's been a bit of a crime wave, and the first couple of samurai who investigated met their deaths here. The default suggestion is that the Governor directs the party to take over the investigation, but you may have other ways of getting the characters involved, or may prefer one of the other suggestions given here. Once there, the party has a wealth of clues to investigate and many locations to visit as they do so. Discrete events are scattered throughout, but the investigation itself is quite freeform, allowing the characters to wander as they will, interacting with those that they meet. Once the characters find out what is behind the crimewave, they'll find others taking an interest in them and it all has the potential to turn quite nasty, whilst there are also options for you to force the action if they prove slow to grasp what is going on. A satisfactory brawl should result.

Pre-generated characters are provided for those who want to jump straight into the action. They are well detailed with plenty of background information as well as their stat blocks, but presentation is such that they will need to be transcribed onto character sheets - they're not laid out in such a way that you can hand out pages from this product to different players.

The whole thing is a delight to look at, with apposite and atmospheric art, as well as a joy to read, the places and people seeming to leap off the page into the alternate reality of your game world. Think I'll grab my swords and go visit!