I think berserker should be dropped, that is just one of those mostly one clan used keywords.

I would like if naval and cavalry could be replaced with different words, so that it doesn't feel wrong when other clans use that feature too.

Also, in the Dueling thread the idea with featuring the five elements on the cards is something I like. That has occationally been a keyword on Shugenja, Monks and on Kiho and spells, but I would like if that could become a general feature, of the game, not necessarily as printed keword, but maybe as a symbol on the cards.

Couldn't agree more about the pitfalls of oversimplification.

FFG designs their cards with elegance and L5R can fit seemlessly into the common layout philosophies they already incorporate into most of their games.

Faction: Clan Mon would just go in up in the corner like Thrones and Star Wars already do.

Gold Cost : Same thing

Loyalty: easily marked underneath the Clan Mon (just like thrones does). So far we've taken up no print real estate on the card and we've identified it's alignment cost and loyalty

Uniqueness: Just put a **** dot by the name. Done!

Keywords: I think you have to keep the standards. These would simply be identifiers that key off of things like holdings and red cards. FFG already does this with; Force User, Spy, Knight, Small Council, Direwolf, etc.

Samurai

Courtier

Shugenja

Monk

Ninja

Magistrate

Artisan

Scout

Commander

Berzerker

Traits: can be listed underneath the keywords as FFG already does with; renown, stealth, shielding, elite, targeted strike, etc). These are descriptors that "do" stuff.

Duelist (wins ties)

Tactician (pitches cards for buffness)

Kensai (hold two weapons)

Naval (goes first)

Conqueror (straightens)

Cavalry (moves in after)

Now you still have TONS of room for art and printed abilities.

You've forgotten key stats such as Force, Chi, Personal Honor, and Honor Requirement (if FFG plans to keep it).

I would not be surprised is Force and Chi becomes one stat and we lose Personal Honor and Honor Requirements. Honor as we know it is like to be the first Sacred Cow sacrificed on the Altar of Change.

I think berserker should be dropped, that is just one of those mostly one clan used keywords.

Yeah, bad example. I was just puking out the ones I could remember.

I would not be surprised is Force and Chi becomes one stat and we lose Personal Honor and Honor Requirements. Honor as we know it is like to be the first Sacred Cow sacrificed on the Altar of Change.

I think Dishonor and Enlightenment are first, but Honor will also probably change dramatically.

As my trusted advisor Asahina Shigemitsu pointed:

"New version of L5R, yes! But not at the cost of honor! Never at the cost of honor!"

You've forgotten key stats such as Force, Chi, Personal Honor, and Honor Requirement (if FFG plans to keep it).

Whoops! I suppose they're important too :-D

See, this is a golden opportunity to "clean up" Kensai.

Neither in the real life inspiration, nor in the setting of Rokugan, has Kensai ever actually meant "guy who uses two single-handed weapons at once."

Which is why despite the Lion being the guys with a lot of kensai in the setting, they very rarely got cards that reflected it.

I'm sure there are other keywords that could likewise do with a frank reappraisal.

I disliked Chi as a stat because it lead into nonsense of Courtiers, Monks and Shugenjas often being better duelists than Samurai.

I disliked Chi as a stat because it lead into nonsense of Courtiers, Monks and Shugenjas often being better duelists than Samurai.

I like Chi as a stat (something to represent spiritual, rather than physical power is nifty in a mystical setting) but peeling it away from the dueling mechanic is hardly the worst idea I've heard this week.

See, this is a golden opportunity to "clean up" Kensai.

Neither in the real life inspiration, nor in the setting of Rokugan, has Kensai ever actually meant "guy who uses two single-handed weapons at once."

Which is why despite the Lion being the guys with a lot of kensai in the setting, they very rarely got cards that reflected it.

I'm sure there are other keywords that could likewise do with a frank reappraisal.

Agreed. There are so many things that fall under this umbrella. This is a great opportunity to get a bit more consistency.

How about this: Clan, Keyword, Keyword, Duelist: X Keyword.

The number behind the Duelist keyword is the stat used in a duel. (Instead of Chi)

For example a personality with Duelist 3 would have a duel stat of 3 (plus any focus)

Expert duelist: X would function the way the Duelist keyword works now (wins ties during duels, etc.)

How about this: Clan, Keyword, Keyword, Duelist: X Keyword.

The number behind the Duelist keyword is the stat used in a duel. (Instead of Chi)

For example a personality with Duelist 3 would have a duel stat of 3 (plus any focus)

Expert duelist: X would function the way the Duelist keyword works now (wins ties during duels, etc.)

How about just having the X value for Duelist give a flat out bonus to whatever the hell dueling becomes?

How about this: Clan, Keyword, Keyword, Duelist: X Keyword.

The number behind the Duelist keyword is the stat used in a duel. (Instead of Chi)

For example a personality with Duelist 3 would have a duel stat of 3 (plus any focus)

Expert duelist: X would function the way the Duelist keyword works now (wins ties during duels, etc.)

How about just having the X value for Duelist give a flat out bonus to whatever the hell dueling becomes?

I really hope neither! Honestly, I thought after the elemination of the Double Chi keyword we would be over that kind of adjusting duels with a numbers game?

By the way - one of things that I feel was really wasted in Destroyer War, was the fact that Kali Ma pretty much was absent from the cards game. No faction to represent her, so it was kinda like...yeah.

By reflavoring actions into events, or introducing "Objective Events" that can be competed for points (so, for example, Military Objective of "These Kami-damned Bandits!", where Military Victory portrays you successfully making the land safe again and showcasing your military muscle to the Empire) and/or playable effects, you can inject current story arcs into game itself.

Got a Story Arc about mad monk leading Peasant Revolts all over Empire? Introduce Events depicting it, so players are not only fighting to grab military victory, but also to protect the Empire from that goddamn monk! New drug is wrecking the Empire by making people addicted and lethargic? Introduce Event that allows players to deal with it at their table!
This way, you can have "Story Driven Game" at your table's level. I mean, we had fun looking at the game turn-per-turn and figuring out later what was the story behind it; turn that into game feature.

EDIT
As for actual story, it also helps open up conflicts from "War" to "all things under the Sun", from assasination plots, spiritual crises that are not about punching monsters in the face, and political/economical schemes. You don't have to make up random wars in order to move story forward; you can have Dragon storyline about Kitsuki Magistrate investigating series of weird murders all over Empire, and then inject this story into the game under Political Objectives reflecting these events; you can have Phoenix actually doing some spiritual stuff, quietly repairing spiritual problems all over the Empire and providing you with cool events to move you forward Enlightement.

Not everything is, and should be, war related.

How about this: Clan, Keyword, Keyword, Duelist: X Keyword.

The number behind the Duelist keyword is the stat used in a duel. (Instead of Chi)

For example a personality with Duelist 3 would have a duel stat of 3 (plus any focus)

Expert duelist: X would function the way the Duelist keyword works now (wins ties during duels, etc.)

How about just having the X value for Duelist give a flat out bonus to whatever the hell dueling becomes?

I really hope neither! Honestly, I thought after the elemination of the Double Chi keyword we would be over that kind of adjusting duels with a numbers game?

Indeed. I personally wouldn't want to see the dueling-monster Kakita Noritoshi make a return.

Every generation Crane needed a dueling monster. Being the Kakita daimyo means something.

Just adding...

Non human + subclass

ie Troll, Celestial Dragon, Ninyo, Ratling, Naga etc

New keywords that represent ideas and mechanics that have come out late in the game are nice as they remove a lot of text boxes, ie resilient, destined, reserved, etc

Duels to be honest are hard to balance as they have too many elements ( hand, deck, printed chi, attachment bonuses, outside effects such as holdings, spells, other personalities, timing, triggers, mechanics, and effects.

It will be one of the hardest parts of the game to balance.

By the way - one of things that I feel was really wasted in Destroyer War, was the fact that Kali Ma pretty much was absent from the cards game. No faction to represent her, so it was kinda like...yeah.

By reflavoring actions into events, or introducing "Objective Events" that can be competed for points (so, for example, Military Objective of "These Kami-damned Bandits!", where Military Victory portrays you successfully making the land safe again and showcasing your military muscle to the Empire) and/or playable effects, you can inject current story arcs into game itself.

Got a Story Arc about mad monk leading Peasant Revolts all over Empire? Introduce Events depicting it, so players are not only fighting to grab military victory, but also to protect the Empire from that goddamn monk! New drug is wrecking the Empire by making people addicted and lethargic? Introduce Event that allows players to deal with it at their table!

This way, you can have "Story Driven Game" at your table's level. I mean, we had fun looking at the game turn-per-turn and figuring out later what was the story behind it; turn that into game feature.

EDIT

As for actual story, it also helps open up conflicts from "War" to "all things under the Sun", from assasination plots, spiritual crises that are not about punching monsters in the face, and political/economical schemes. You don't have to make up random wars in order to move story forward; you can have Dragon storyline about Kitsuki Magistrate investigating series of weird murders all over Empire, and then inject this story into the game under Political Objectives reflecting these events; you can have Phoenix actually doing some spiritual stuff, quietly repairing spiritual problems all over the Empire and providing you with cool events to move you forward Enlightement.

Not everything is, and should be, war related.

This post just got my mind racing! See, all along I've been doubtful about FFG's ability to incorporate story into the LCG since it requires you to change the story as time goes on, but cards from the first cycle will be legal for, like, 5 years or so. That means story-centered cards in that cycle would feel out of place in later cycles.

But! Your post got me thinking about Star Wars: Imperial Assault. Granted, this is a miniatures skirmish game, but hear me out! In that game, there are tons of skirmish missions and each expansion has more and more missions. For each tournament season, a select subset of missions are legal and at the beginning of each round, the TO draws one randomly and that's the map and mission each player uses for that round.

I could see something similar with L5R. Perhaps there is what equates to a story deck in the core and each deluxe expansion. So for the first tournament season, players will be fighting over story-centered objectives of some sort from the core. After the first cycle, a deluxe expansion would be released and it could contain story cards to be used for the following tournament season.

Of course, you could always go back and play old story decks for fun and nostalgia, but each tournament season would feel different as the objectives change from year to year in addition to the cards.

By the way - one of things that I feel was really wasted in Destroyer War, was the fact that Kali Ma pretty much was absent from the cards game. No faction to represent her, so it was kinda like...yeah.

By reflavoring actions into events, or introducing "Objective Events" that can be competed for points (so, for example, Military Objective of "These Kami-damned Bandits!", where Military Victory portrays you successfully making the land safe again and showcasing your military muscle to the Empire) and/or playable effects, you can inject current story arcs into game itself.

Got a Story Arc about mad monk leading Peasant Revolts all over Empire? Introduce Events depicting it, so players are not only fighting to grab military victory, but also to protect the Empire from that goddamn monk! New drug is wrecking the Empire by making people addicted and lethargic? Introduce Event that allows players to deal with it at their table!

This way, you can have "Story Driven Game" at your table's level. I mean, we had fun looking at the game turn-per-turn and figuring out later what was the story behind it; turn that into game feature.

EDIT

As for actual story, it also helps open up conflicts from "War" to "all things under the Sun", from assasination plots, spiritual crises that are not about punching monsters in the face, and political/economical schemes. You don't have to make up random wars in order to move story forward; you can have Dragon storyline about Kitsuki Magistrate investigating series of weird murders all over Empire, and then inject this story into the game under Political Objectives reflecting these events; you can have Phoenix actually doing some spiritual stuff, quietly repairing spiritual problems all over the Empire and providing you with cool events to move you forward Enlightement.

Not everything is, and should be, war related.

This post just got my mind racing! See, all along I've been doubtful about FFG's ability to incorporate story into the LCG since it requires you to change the story as time goes on, but cards from the first cycle will be legal for, like, 5 years or so. That means story-centered cards in that cycle would feel out of place in later cycles.

But! Your post got me thinking about Star Wars: Imperial Assault. Granted, this is a miniatures skirmish game, but hear me out! In that game, there are tons of skirmish missions and each expansion has more and more missions. For each tournament season, a select subset of missions are legal and at the beginning of each round, the TO draws one randomly and that's the map and mission each player uses for that round.

I could see something similar with L5R. Perhaps there is what equates to a story deck in the core and each deluxe expansion. So for the first tournament season, players will be fighting over story-centered objectives of some sort from the core. After the first cycle, a deluxe expansion would be released and it could contain story cards to be used for the following tournament season.

Of course, you could always go back and play old story decks for fun and nostalgia, but each tournament season would feel different as the objectives change from year to year in addition to the cards.

This sounds like it has potential. I'm not going to lie, my two biggest points of anxiety about this acquisition are the death of storyline with some degree of interactivity and the decline of the community (mainly talking about tournaments, but casual too). Without those two things I won't feel like I'm playing L5R, regardless of what the logo on the box says.

It really just sounds like the Call of Cthulhu LCG story cards with the added measure of new ones for each arc. You need several success tokens to win the story and 3(can't really remember) to win the game. Not sure if I'd really want them for L5R but I wouldn't mind some action or fate cards that did create a similar effect.

Present in every clan more or less the basic profession keywords:

• Samurai -> Bushi
• Courtier
• Shugenja

Common profession keywords (common in the sense that they are used by many clans)

• Magistrate
• Scout
• Commander
• Duelist

Uncommon profession keywords:

• Monk (Dragon and Spider)
• Ninja (Scorpion and Spider)
• Artisan (Crane, come other Clans)
• Berzerker (Crab)
• Siege (Crab)
• Tactician (Lion, some other clans)
• Kensai (Dragon, Spider, Scorpion, Mantis)
• Naval (Mantis, some other clans)
• Conqueror (Spider)
• Cavalry (Unicorn, some other clans)

Many of these are easily expandable to other clans. Artisans spring to mind.
And non of them have to be bold faced. However the bold faced ones became more common, among other clans probably due to their rule attachment.
The Berzerker and Siege stuff you only see in Crab, however if you want to focus on the Kaiu aspect I think Artisan is the more interesting keyword.
The Conqueror keyword is also a strange thing. I think you can see from the keywords that they really had no idea what they wanted to do with the Spider.

Uncommon profession keywords:

• Monk (Dragon and Spider) And Phoenix.Henshin a-go-go.
• Ninja (Scorpion and Spider) And Crane. Harriers
• Artisan (Crane, come other Clans) Phoenix, Crab (Kaiu)
• Berzerker (Crab) Lion Deathseekers.
• Siege (Crab)
• Tactician (Lion, some other clans) Unicorn, Crab
• Kensai (Dragon, Spider, Scorpion, Mantis) If cleaned up, would be Lion, Crane, etc. Dual-wielders would be basically Mantis and Dragon, some Spider Monks.
• Naval (Mantis, some other clans) Crane (Daidoji) Crab (Turtle Ships), Phoenix (apparently had enough of a fleet to loan some of it to the Crab as of Winter Court IV)
• Conqueror (Spider) Lion.
• Cavalry (Unicorn, some other clans) Phoenix water shugenja had Cavalray tosimulate movement magic. Lion had some mounted scout types.

I like the concept of seasons, opening up Enlightenment to all factions, and Naming a deck sounds a few core personalities are all things I really like.

Duelling, according to canon, should not be affected pretty much at all by weapons OR magic...I think we can have simplified Duelling. I like the concept of Bushi being unable to pick Champions, but non-duellist Courtiers, Shugenja, and in every case for Monks, can have a Bushi champion them. Refusable duels may then become the norm, with real consequences for refusing. Duels match the "duel stats" of two personalities, with duellists having some sort of advantage starting out.

Since Samurai don't ALL study at their family's school, let alone their own Clan's...and then there's the inter-Clan marriages. Seems fair to me that we can see an artisan out of Unicorn once in a while. If it's popular, it could have an impact on the number of Unicorn Artisans in the future. That, I think, is a fair way to see keywords spread to other Clans, though it's fair that Phoenix will ALWAYS have the most Shugenja, but pure Spider can get some magic love once in a while.

Fatal flaw I see: what about Monks? Well, here's the thing: not every Clan has their own School for Monks...but yes, every Clan should have access. The Order of Heroes are dedicated to bringing out the potential of Samurai, so I can see them helping everyone in the form of advisors, and once in a while one agrees to serve a Clan for a bit, possibly even their former clan - Ifedayo? We can also have unaligned Brotherhood folks, perhaps.

I'll take a look at this post later and revise for coherence...hopefully it's clear enough add it is, though!