I believe that L5R will become FFG's number one LCG as soon as early 2018, a few months after its release. The community is so huge, so loyal, so dedicated, and so excited about all this. It is going to garner not only the current L5R players, but those who played the game at some point of their life, and a lot of new players.

Even such beasty franchises such as AGOT and Star Wars will be eclipsed by L5R.

My prediction .

I don't. I've been a part of it for years and years and I don't find it to be any bigger than Netrunner or AGOT today.

The transition to LCG is a good move though, as the game's biggest problem has always been how complicated it can be.

I can take your average Magic player and set them up with a simple Crab/Lion game and most players will still have a hard time picking it up.

AGOT is basically a simplified version of L5R, I have more loyalty to L5R but on any night I will choose to play AGOT over L5R because I just find it more fun to play, and easier to teach.

I think LR5 LCG will start off strong but the real test will be around 2020. See if people are still interested in it by then, when it's likely going to be alien from what we've come to know. For example, I do not expect much of a storyline for the game, unless it has a HUGE sales turnout. A real surprise hit, like X-Wing ended up.

People expecting an RPG line... Well, FFG does make them, for massive appeal franchises. (Star Wars, Game of Thrones.) It might be something better off outsourced to someone like Green Ronin.

"Always in motion the future is"

- Yoda

Would I like to see L5R be that successful, sure. But I guess we should wait and see how the game turns out to be. I mean too many changes might be a deal breaker for some old fans, while too few changes might lead to the game keeping too many of its issues. And it feels like no matter what FFG will be doing, there will be people who are unhappy with the results.

And it all depends on player access. In it's heyday, L5R was huge, almost rivaling magic. Could it be that great again? Maybe, but not likely. As mentioned above: player attrition mostly. The fire that was there in the early days has left, never to be seen again. We don't even know how many former players know the news.

And then, some people didn't play for the story. Some played it to just play it, and there are other games that are doing a better job of that for them. It could also be that magical samurai is no longer en vogue. Psuedo-Asia fantasy is incredibly widespread now, that it is no longer a novelty that draws in the curious. Either you like it (and might be into this game) or despise it (and mock it, like people mock Mists of Pandaria from Warcraft). But I suspect the problems with L5R in the end was that AEG made a few business gambles that did not pay off. You have to wonder how many retailers and distributors simply stopped ordering product because of things like Forgotten Legacy and that one direct to play Expansion

A good game or a compelling story means nothing if no one can play.

May I point out that the L5R boards' messages have almost reached the numbers of the AGOT 2 boards' ones...

L5R LCG is going to be huge, if FFG doesn't mess with it, which I don't expect them to.

May I point out that the L5R boards' messages have almost reached the numbers of the AGOT 2 boards' ones...

L5R LCG is going to be huge, if FFG doesn't mess with it, which I don't espect them to.

I thought about that the other day, but I'm not sure it's a fair comparison.

There's probably a lot of traffic that *could* be on the AGoT 2 boards that's landing on the AGoT 1 boards, just out of familiarity and inertia.

Well, it won't be hard to beat Star Wars when it comes to the competitive crowd. Star Wars ended up being a hit with kitchen table gamers and people in many places report having trouble finding/keeping a game group interested.

I don't know about Thrones, though. L5R certainly has potential. But with the recent AGoT reboot, I think it'll be hard to pull those guys away. The AGoT players that play L5R will probably be the ones that can afford to keep up with both. I doubt too many will leave AGoT for L5R. The big exception are the players who are L5R fans but didn't like the distribution model. I imagine some of them may drop AGoT for L5R.

I anticipate L5R will be the opposite of Star Wars. Most players will be tournament players with a few casuals here and there.

L5R has a large fan base if not player base world wide.

In the US most of the FFG games have a large popularity that exceeds L5R, but if you take it in a international perspective, L5R does have a large following that can rival some of the brands that FFG carries. ie A significant portion of CFV, Yugioh and MTG players locally who don't play L5R actually know how to play both the card game and rpg and some follow the story line even though they don't play.

Against AGot which is definitely popular, L5R has a very rich and diverse history in terms of stories. It is basicly a matter of a single main author with a few others versus a indefinite number of authors and fans. You can see this by events such as Winter Court, Homebrew sites and Fan fictions. There are over 20 years worth of them.

Compared with AGoT that perhaps has a hundred characters, L5R has thousands.

Its simply a matter of what people will want to do and how well the player base promotes itself.

Great. Now I wanna see Unicorn vs Dothraki...

Bayushi Kashiko vs Danerys Stormborn...

and Night's watch vs Shadowlands!

I anticipate L5R will be the opposite of Star Wars. Most players will be tournament players with a few casuals here and there.

Speaking for the casuals, let there be no doubt that this is my prayer. Like literally, whenever I pray from now on, I'm going to try to mention this.

What was wrong with Forgotten Legacy and it scaring off retailers?

It might be a bit early to make an assumption like this, no?

Besides, in regards to Brand Recognition it's not topping Star Wars or Game of Thrones any time soon. Now for the non Smash Pop Culture based games, that might be a different story.

What was wrong with Forgotten Legacy and it scaring off retailers?

Dramatically increasing the power level to guarantee sales of a Direct to Player set, cutting out the retailer.

Wow...

Thats...

Thats pretty impressive. Even when making a good and healthy change (i really liked how game played with forgotten legacy), they managed to slip up and make it damaging somehow.

Wow...

Thats...

Thats pretty impressive. Even when making a good and healthy change (i really liked how game played with forgotten legacy), they managed to slip up and make it damaging somehow.

Are you referring to the Legacy Holding or the Direct to Player set of the same name?

It's very late here and I just finished GMing a 5 hours long RPG session, so my brain assumed that this holding was a reason (and I could see why, it pretty much became obligatory) why everyone wanted a Direct to Player expansion and why retailers got pissed. I always had trouble with following what was when according to set names.

It's very late here and I just finished GMing a 5 hours long RPG session, so my brain assumed that this holding was a reason (and I could see why, it pretty much became obligatory) why everyone wanted a Direct to Player expansion and why retailers got pissed. I always had trouble with following what was when according to set names.

People are referring to the boxed set. Just to give you an example of how bad it was, the Scorpion paragon yojimbo deck got roughly a third of its personalities and four or five deck defining actions only from that set.

So while I loved Forgotten Legacy itself, as a rock an island, it was very very bad for the game for the reasons mentioned above.

Great. Now I wanna see Unicorn vs Dothraki...

Bayushi Kashiko vs Danerys Stormborn...

and Night's watch vs Shadowlands!

* creates a Gate (like the one in the anime)

* places said gate right in the middle of the North wall facing the Shadowland side at the time of the Shadowlands fleeing Kalima.

If the game catches enough traction it can definitely become that card game that is very popular.

Great. Now I wanna see Unicorn vs Dothraki...

Bayushi Kashiko vs Danerys Stormborn...

and Night's watch vs Shadowlands!

* creates a Gate (like the one in the anime)

* places said gate right in the middle of the North wall facing the Shadowland side at the time of the Shadowlands fleeing Kalima.

- Bayushi Kashiko wins on experience and sheer levels of subterfuge

- the Night's watch is shoved aside and the Shadowlands hordes pour through the gate.

If at the same time, through the same gate, the blue eyed undead of AGoT walk through this gate and end up in front of the Crab, the Crab win.

But I might be biased in the latter

Edited: spelling

May I point out that the L5R boards' messages have almost reached the numbers of the AGOT 2 boards' ones...

L5R LCG is going to be huge, if FFG doesn't mess with it, which I don't expect them to.

That's due to agot players being more active on other websites like cardgamedatabase (also owned by FFG) and agot cards :-)

FFG staff aren't active on the forums. (since it's like this for most games I think it's a company policy)

May I point out that the L5R boards' messages have almost reached the numbers of the AGOT 2 boards' ones...

L5R LCG is going to be huge, if FFG doesn't mess with it, which I don't expect them to.

That's due to agot players being more active on other websites like cardgamedatabase (also owned by FFG) and agot cards :-)

FFG staff aren't active on the forums. (since it's like this for most games I think it's a company policy)

A lot of discussion for all of the LCGs takes place on www.cardgamedb.com, except for Netrunner they tend to be over at BGG I think.

FFG staff do read the forums but they do not as a rule post due to company policy.

Keep in mind that the news of the purchase is still very new, and with AEG not hosting an active L5R forum at the moment, this is the default place for everyone in the community to come (aside from the Clan sites), which is no doubt contributing to the flurry of activity.

I think it's been said elsewhere already, but the real test will be how active these forums are in, say, September of 2016.

Yeah, I expect L5RLCG will be HUGE...but I also think that FFG is going to be releasing a DIFFERENT Star Wars card game based on stuff from The Force Awakens sometime soon. THAT is going to be a huge game. I have high hopes that FFG will do their usual "we bought an old engine" schtick and buy Decipher's old Star Wars CCG system and revamp it to make a Star Wars: The Force Awakens-based LCG. I expect that game will become their biggest card game if they pull that off. But L5R is going to be big, too. I look forward to playing both - even if it means letting Netrunner and Conquest go for a bit.

Personally hope that we get an early prototype of how the game looks, like a demo during 2016.

That should help maintain some buzz about the game.

It would also get people trying it out and getting their friends and family involved.