The Alderac Entertainment Group has announced its Gen Con board game release for 2011, Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan, which will have a special preview release at Gen Con and then hit stores in October.  The new game is designed by veteran board game designer Frederic Moyersoen and represents the first board game based on popular long-running Legend of the Five Rings property. 

 

L5R has won numerous awards in both its collectible card game and role-playing game versions, plus the property has also spawned novels and a miniatures game.  Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan brings the complexity and detail of L5R’s fantasy samurai world to board games.  The game features fast play (less than an hour per game), hidden movement, limited information, and plenty of opportunities for bluff and guile.

 

The game takes place during one night at the castle in the provinces of the Lion Clan.  The Scorpion Clan sends one ninja in to infiltrate the castle, but the defenders don’t know the intruder's goal, it could be to assassinate an imperial guest, poison the castle’s well, or steal the daimyo’s war plans—and one of the “defenders” is actually a traitor.

 

The game is designed for 2-4 players.  With three players, one handles the guards, one is the ninja, and one is the traitor. With four players the guards are split into two teams, which has its own benefits and challenges.

 

The intruders move in secret and mark their positions on a small copy of the game board.  They can move quickly, but the faster they move the easier they are to detect and moats, walls, and sentries all slow them down.  As incidents occur the Alarm Level is raised, which allows the guard player to take more actions each turn.  Over time the alarm level diminishes unless a new incident occurs.  Ninja have climbing ropes, shuriken, drugged sake and other tricks, but actions against the guards may raise the Alarm Level.

 

The Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan board game comes with over two dozen 28mm miniatures, four pads of secret maps, 58 playing cards that delineate the player’s actions, a full color map and all the other items needed to play.