Hello, I'm from the bay area CA and just got the main core deal and the new Greyjoy starter. I'm a long time L5R player and heard this game was fairly similar, and I'm in the middle of Storm of Swords so I figured I'd look at the game for posterity. Looks really cool, haven't had a chance to really play it yet. I'm trying to avoid any major spoilers on the card for the book series, is there anything that will do that?

Other than that, where do I go from here?

Thanks!

Always good to see a fellow bay area player

I am also fairly new and one of the things that drew me to it (other than my affinity for the books and the more recent LCG concept) was indeed how similar it seemed to L5R, which is probably my favorite CCG but just too expensive for me to keep up with. There are some definite similarities, such as card synergies, subtle politics in multiplayer, etc.

I haven't noticed any major spoilers in the cards as of yet, which was a concern, as one of the people I play with has yet to even finish the first book. There's probably some late first book, early second book stuff that someone astute could pick up on, but generally it seems to be pretty free of spoilers.

Where to go from there is up to you - depends on what house(s) you want to run, whether you want to go for having every card or not (if not I think a number of CPs are skippable, depending), and so on.

Anyways, welcome!

Welcome fellow Bay Area Thrones fan! Hop on over to the Metagame discussions, and check out either the Threat from the East Bay, Peninsula, or South Bay threads. Depending on where you're at, you should be able to find some people to play with..

Other than that, I suggest playing with the starter decks for a little while to get the feel of the game, and see if you like it. You will.

Rock on. I'll probably build 2 decks solid so I can play with new people from L5R and show them. After L5R I'm wary of playing a faction because I like them storywise...because it doesn't always end up meshing with playstyle. Storywise, I'd want to play Stark. I <3 Lady Catelyn.

Each faction definitely has their own unique playstyle, some of which may or may not mesh with your own (although there's always different ways to run each faction as well). From my knowledge so far as a newer player, the general themes among factions are:

Stark: Military challenges, some good kill effects, perhaps some other themes I'm not aware of yet
Lannister: Intrigue challenges, lots of kneeling effects, a bit more gold production and card draw than other factions
Targaryen: Somewhat well rounded, also a focus on attachments and killing characters by reducing their strength to 0, can sneak characters into play (Ambush and other methods)
Baratheon: Power challenges, and gaining power in general (renown especially), lots of speed, untapping (Vigilant and other methods)
Greyjoy: Effects that trigger from winning uncontested challenges (stuff like the Intimidate keyword helps with this), general kill and some speed I think
Martell: Good defense, can untap characters from losing challenges (via Vengeful keyword), not sure what else

Otomo Huzoku said:

There is one Lannister event in Core Set, but it will be very hard to avoid looking at...

Also, there is Targaryen character in Epic Battles chapter pack which spoils a little surprise, but you will soon finish "A Storm of swords" so no problem here I think.

Rogue30 said:

If you think the same as I do, finishing Storm of Swords will help you with this one too, but I think it does not spoil enything, because before I read the books I didnt know that this event refers to that

It's part of the story, so it spoils a little. Just a tiny little, but still it counts.

Another welcome to the game and look forward to hopefully seeing you to play some thrones.

It was great to meet you Otomo! Stop by BDG any wednesday, we would love to have you. Good luck with your deck building...im sure you'll find it agravatingly addictive!

Was good times. Thanks a lot for playing with me! Now I've got to obtain 3x of all of those silly cards that I only have 1x of...