It's great reading everyone's intro to their Clan stories, as well as the History lessons; I'll make my contribution only to the former (for now)!

In I think 1999, the game introduced itself to me via this "learn to play" pack that included some personalities who quickly faded from existence (e.g. Isawa Sze), and others who became legends among men (e.g. Otaku Kamoko, Shosuro Yudoka). I had fallen in love with Kamoko, personally, though I thought the art for Matsu Ketsui, Yudoka, and Hitomi Dajan were all fabulous. The fan (Personal Honour) I thought was ridiculously cool, too. Fast-forward a year, and I'm making decks for a card game I've never even played! Mostly Crane, due to the interactions with that little fan on the cards, combined with their beautiful hair - white is still my favourite hair colour! In typical ENFP fashion, of course, I was interested in the Hare, Fox, Crane, Unicorn, Brotherhood of Shinsei, and Ninja all at once, but Crane Honour seemed to have the most appeal mechanically.

Fast-forward to Ivory Edition. I was gonna stick with Lion because I liked the thought of squeezing out an army with almost no gold, and yet being able to Blitz like there's no tomorrow. But there was one problem: NOBODY was playing Phoenix. So, naturally, I switched teams to give them some much needed love! Haven't turned back since, and have really hunkered down in my loyalty. The faction chose me, but there's a lot to resonate with - the colour orange, liking multiple colours, picking one's battles (it's not peace for the sake of peace; it's weighing the cost of war with the cost of surrender...even if we haven't won a war since the 10th century or sooner), ludicrous Monks, secret societies, the concept of the Scholarly Bushi, the founder of nearly every Shugenja family in the Empire, an Elemental Council...yeah!

I also love, love, LOOOVE playing Dishonour...and Donni happened to have a killer one after a few weeks of Ivory Kotei season. After Resounding Thunder or whatever came out, I made a Dishonour deck of my very own, and it shall forever hold a dear place in my heart. I like to toy around with stuff from other Clans, mostly because I like a concept or two (e.g. Battle Maidens), and I do generally like all of the Clans...but the Phoenix are MY Clan. I love Kinuye AND Tsukimi...though I've gotta say, Tsumaro is THE Phoenix I dislike; I would love to take him/her down, although the thought of marrying a gender-swapper seemed appealing, since my only (thus far) Winter Court character is an only child, and therefore probably will be forced to marry; why not let him be with a man, as he would prefer...sorta? (In terms of actions, though, Tsumaro has had too many wtf moments already.)

I like soheis => Spider.

My favorite clan overall is probably Hare Clan. Just right blend of inquisitiveness, fun combat style, and smallness in contrast to greatness of Great Clans (yo, I like ronins more than Great Clan Samurai, because tales of lone ronin wandering around were what made me come to samurai genre in the first place, not Game of Great Clans politicking).

I had some hopes for post-Emperor War Spider Clan by emphasizing Shourido more and deemphasizing Taint and babyeating, but I got disillusioned. Still, I like their potential.

As for actually playing the card game, funnily enough, I bash Crane Clan as my least favorite in RPG and complain about them all the time, but themes I enjoyed and mechanics I liked somehow always worked best with the Crane, so...

When I first got into the game but I wasn't sure who to actually pick. The lore, personalities, play style, and clan situation all led me to the Scorpion clan. I occasionally tried out other clans for individual story lines and mechanics, but always stuck by the clan until the Spiders came around as the "fixed" Shadowlands with Sohei monks and even more ninjas (I mean, how do you top a ninja dragon?).

I'll admit that Kachiko helped my first clan choice! Always loved that character and her struggles.

When I first got into the game but I wasn't sure who to actually pick. The lore, personalities, play style, and clan situation all led me to the Scorpion clan. I occasionally tried out other clans for individual story lines and mechanics, but always stuck by the clan until the Spiders came around as the "fixed" Shadowlands with Sohei monks and even more ninjas (I mean, how do you top a ninja dragon?).

I'll admit that Kachiko helped my first clan choice! Always loved that character and her struggles.

I love this card!!!

But she is so terrible by any metric imaginable from any arc in recent memory. But I love that card!

First deck I ever played was Kyuden Otomo XP and I managed to put both Doji Dainagon XP and Doji Makoto (both have a stunning art) into play (I won that game). Thus my Crane obsession started .

Don't worry about picking a clan until you see the cards and play a few games. Nothing worse than being disappointed because the old theme of your clan you chose doesn't translate or get support in the card game.

Good thing about LCG is that you are not picking a Clan, you are picking a Game.

When I first got into the game but I wasn't sure who to actually pick. The lore, personalities, play style, and clan situation all led me to the Scorpion clan. I occasionally tried out other clans for individual story lines and mechanics, but always stuck by the clan until the Spiders came around as the "fixed" Shadowlands with Sohei monks and even more ninjas (I mean, how do you top a ninja dragon?).

I'll admit that Kachiko helped my first clan choice! Always loved that character and her struggles.

I love this card!!!

But she is so terrible by any metric imaginable from any arc in recent memory. But I love that card!

Oh yeah, the card is pretty bad by the standards of today but I'll generally choose the older cards just because of how much flavor there is.

My favorite clan overall is probably Hare Clan. Just right blend of inquisitiveness, fun combat style, and smallness in contrast to greatness of Great Clans (yo, I like ronins more than Great Clan Samurai, because tales of lone ronin wandering around were what made me come to samurai genre in the first place, not Game of Great Clans politicking).

I had some hopes for post-Emperor War Spider Clan by emphasizing Shourido more and deemphasizing Taint and babyeating, but I got disillusioned. Still, I like their potential.

As for actually playing the card game, funnily enough, I bash Crane Clan as my least favorite in RPG and complain about them all the time, but themes I enjoyed and mechanics I liked somehow always worked best with the Crane, so...

So....., you are a Crane who got along with his clan so bad he turned Ronin?

The nice thing about moving to LCG format is you will be able to play them all.

Though I think it would be cool to have the initial Clan boxes at release or maybe faction boxes later down the line like they do with AGOT LCG.

As for picking a clan, if you're a new player AEG actually has a cool test somewhere on the L5R site. "What clan are you." or whatever It was pretty well done.

BTW in 2017, Shinsei is reincarnated and is reborn as Diagotsu Shinsei. He merges The Spider Clan with the Brotherhood. A Ikko Ikki type revolution ensues and the Spider Clan is reborn. After this period they troll the empire in a new way by being even more honorable than the Crane and Lion, preaching pacifism, having a reason to wear white while infuriating Crane and Scorpion courtiers with their new found purity and enlightenment. The Crab do not care, The Unicorn wait and see what happens, the Mantis steal from them and they do nothing in return, so the Mantis approve. The Lion want to march on them but nobody wants to support a Lion bloodbath inflicted on a bunch of reformed monks, The Phoenix embrace the new-found pure again spiders, corrupted or not and The Dragon stay up in the mountains laughing in madness, but secretly hoping Kokujin does not show up.

:D

Though I think it would be cool to have the initial Clan boxes at release or maybe faction boxes later down the line like they do with AGOT LCG.

I bet we're going to get "clan rival" boxes, or something along those lines, that emphasize 2 clans each, when the time comes for deluxe expansions.

I could be wrong about this, but I think the format of the AGoT boxes was because, at least at first, they were introducing entirely new houses into the game, so they needed full boxes to be competitive. I believe the starter box began with only 4 houses. I could easily be misremembering that, but I do clearly remember the ad copy for the expansion boxes were things like, "At last, faction X arrives in A Game of Thrones LCG!"

Though I think it would be cool to have the initial Clan boxes at release or maybe faction boxes later down the line like they do with AGOT LCG.

I bet we're going to get "clan rival" boxes, or something along those lines, that emphasize 2 clans each, when the time comes for deluxe expansions.

I could be wrong about this, but I think the format of the AGoT boxes was because, at least at first, they were introducing entirely new houses into the game, so they needed full boxes to be competitive. I believe the starter box began with only 4 houses. I could easily be misremembering that, but I do clearly remember the ad copy for the expansion boxes were things like, "At last, faction X arrives in A Game of Thrones LCG!"

You are pretty much right, and the Greyjoy and Martell boxes were fantastic. I like your idea of Clan rival boxes as well. I think the reasn we got a Baratheon box was because of the success of the Martell and Greyjoy boxes. It was a good addition.

Though I think it would be cool to have the initial Clan boxes at release or maybe faction boxes later down the line like they do with AGOT LCG.

I bet we're going to get "clan rival" boxes, or something along those lines, that emphasize 2 clans each, when the time comes for deluxe expansions.

I could be wrong about this, but I think the format of the AGoT boxes was because, at least at first, they were introducing entirely new houses into the game, so they needed full boxes to be competitive. I believe the starter box began with only 4 houses. I could easily be misremembering that, but I do clearly remember the ad copy for the expansion boxes were things like, "At last, faction X arrives in A Game of Thrones LCG!"

I like your idea of Clan rival boxes as well.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if the new deluxe boxes for AGoT even follow the 2 faction formula. 8 cycles is a long time to wait for your favorite house to get a box.

Yeah this is why the "all boxes for each Clan" model at release may be a cool idea. They would not be too much different than the old L5R format of boxes, except 3X of every card. You might get a reprint of one or two cards over each boxand the initial investment may be a bit steepr but I think it would do well, being as l5R has so many factions.

And it helps with draft format if we ever get a draft box and it's nice to have a playable starter deck right out of the gate and a bigger card pool.

Yeah this is why the "all boxes for each Clan" model at release may be a cool idea. They would not be too much different than the old L5R format of boxes, except 3X of every card. You might get a reprint of one or two cards over each boxand the initial investment may be a bit steepr but I think it would do well, being as l5R has so many factions.

And it helps with draft format if we ever get a draft box and it's nice to have a playable starter deck right out of the gate and a bigger card pool.

The problem with clan boxes is there's no economy of scale. On the consumer end, we'd be paying way more on a per card basis. Defeats the purpose of being an LCG.

I know FFG has a draft format (with randomized draft packs that they sell) for Netrunner and AGoT, but I'm not sure how well they work or if they're well-received. I'm interested to see how/if that'll translate to L5R.