Legend of the Five Rings

**Release Date**: August, 1999

**Set Size**: 10 Buttons, 2 Rares

**Publisher**: Five Rings Publishing / Wizards of the Coast

**Designer**: James Ernest

**Artist**: Various

**New Rules**: Focus Dice

**Rares**: Kakita and Mirumoto

**Printrun**: 300 sets

**Related Sets:** Save The Ogres! and Everything 2 Gain

## **Official *Cheapass Games* Description**

Five Rings Publishing Group created these 10 Button Men as part of a continuity tournament for their trading card game, Legend of the Five Rings, at Gen Con 1999. The buttons were sold in a set of 10 at Gen Con, and later two more Rares were added and the entire set of twelve buttons were made available directly from Five Rings. This is one of the most popular, rare, and sought-after promotional sets of Button Men ever made.

This set is one of the few that used a slick cardboard as the button blank stretched directly over a metal button backing. Most Button Men commercially available used the more traditional paper blanks stretched behind a clear mylar sheath. For this reason, the L5R set is difficult to find without any form of damage to the buttons.

**Design Notes**

Focus Dice were created specifically for Five Rings. Because they were clearly more powerful than standard dice, Focus Dice were compensated by the removal of all variable dice. The result is an appropriate and very playable set.

Today, Focus Dice are represented by a downward-pointing arrow on the die frame. In the Five Rings set, the dice are denoted only by a different color of die frame, which is a marking Cheapass Games has never explicitly defined.

## "Historical Account"

Two "official' sets of L5R buttons have been produced, and two "unofficial." The first were originally available at GenCon 1999. Each came with a small piece of paper with a few paragraphs of flavour text about the character pictured, and some explanation of the rules. A story tournament was held during the course of GenCon, and the winner was Dragon, defeating Scorpion. This result was commemorated by a personality card in The Spirit Wars expansion set: Mirumoto Ukira, a Dragon Clan samurai with the title of Topaz Champion.

One interesting facet of the tournament is the early rules for Focus dice. By one account found online, focus dice had to be reduced to 1, not simply enough to go first.

This result dovetails nicely with a later Button Men tournament at the Y2C ("Your 2000th Card") party. There were two Button Men, Dragon and Crane (both featuring new art by April Lee). This tournament was to decide whether the Mirumoto "two-handed" technique or the Kakita "one blade, one stroke" technique would be recognized as superior. Dragon Clan again won. Y2C took place right before Y2K. It was a celebration of the printing of the 2000th L5R card, which was titled, "Legion of Two Thousand, " a follower card. It was released in a set later, but the Y2C version had a red foil stamp indicating it was the 2000th card published. Y2C took place at the Anaheim Convention Center and included skits of the stories that occurred during the clan wars saga. The celebration also included a Japanese dinner and taiko drummers in addition to the gaming that took place during the event.

The Katkita and Mirumoto buttons were later distributed through the 5 Rings webstore as a set with the previous ten buttons. Strategy guides specific to the L5R set could also be found online.

### **Save The Ogres**

**Release Date**: Summer 2000

**Source**: Save the Ogres

**Designer**: James Ernest, Todd Rowland, and Scott Schultz

**Artists**: Troy Graham (Ginzu), Matt Wilson (Gratch, from the card Ogre Outlaw.)

The third set of L5R Button Men was produced in the summer of 2000 by L5R fans behind the "Save the Ogres foundation." They are a pair of ogres (naturally) called Gratch and Ginzu, with Gratch sporting Matt Wilson's art for the Ogre Outlaw (from Crimson & Jade). These Button Men were given out at summer tournaments as bribes -- er, incentives -- for players to use ogres in their deck.

According to James Ernest,

> "On a whim, a little foundation called Save the Ogres, who are apparently concerned with the continuity of the Legend of the Five Rings Card game among other things, created this pair of Button Men for a pickup tournament at Gen Con 2000. For flavor, James Ernest designed them both with Twin Shadow Dice, which suggest overpowering strength and no idea how to use it."
>
>

(6) s(8,8) (20) s(20) (X)
Gratch steals from the
rich to give to himself.
He likes bonsai gardens,
redistributing the wealth,
and beating people up.
(8) (8) s(12,12) (20) (X)
Ginzu thinks samurai taste
like chicken. He enjoys
senseless destruction,
contemplating the Tao,
and beating people up.

### **Everything 2 Gain**

**Release Date**: 2001

**Source**: 2001 Seattle Kotei

**Designers**: Steve McLaughlin and Dan Tibbles

**Artists**:Anson Maddocks (Kolat, from the Diskwars Imperial set as Akodo Kage, Lion Clan Sensei), Unknown.

The fourth L5R set was made for the 2001 Seattle Kotei (L5R regional championship tournament), more widely know as Everything 2 Gain. This set is notable for debuting "Thief dice." Why the dice are lain out opposite to what is typical is unknown.

$(12) (10) (6) z(4) (1)
(20) $(10) (8) (6) ps(4)

1. ↑ http://beatpeopleup.cheapass.com/button-men-stats/legend-of-the-five-rings/
2. ↑ http://www.oocities.org/tokyo/island/4970/buttonmen.html
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20040803113257/http://pages.sbcglobal.net/sarah-and-zen/l5r/buttonmen.html
4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20021022081717/http://www.geocities.com/stormson\_2000/buttonmen.html
5. ↑ http://www.oocities.org/tokyo/island/4970/buttonmen.html
6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20010421043113/http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Lair/3170/ogremembers.html
7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20021204054300/http://www.geocities.com/darkmoto/ogrebuttonmen.html
8. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20080625220413/http://pages.sbcglobal.net/sarah-and-zen/l5r/buttonmen.html#Everything\_to\_Gain
9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20040803113257/http://pages.sbcglobal.net/sarah-and-zen/l5r/buttonmen.html