The series is now concluded and all the links should be active, Hopefully these sites stay up but if not I will try to stay on top of re-linking them here on the FFG site.

Really good work here. I've enjoyed most of these interviews, they're really amazing inside view in the past. Especially for people like me, who joined this game in 2006/2007.

Thanks, Kempy

It was fun to put together, I am glad people enjoyed reading it.

A bit late to the party maybe, but here is my piece:

Name: Jean-Baptiste (aka Kakita Kasukaru)

Where are you from, tell us about your playgroup? I am a French guy but I've lived in various countries (most notably the Netherlands, England and now Greece). I participated in expending the play group in Southern Holland at the time I used to live there. Now I'm part of the Athens group. It's one of the nicest bunch you can imagine: always ready to help you with cards or tactics. And they have deadly tsipouro.

How did you hear about or get involved in L5R? A friend of mine in Lyon talked to me about the RPG. We used to read Yoshikawa's books too, translated of course. And I remember reading the old AEG fictions in English. But I did not play at the time. After moving to the NL in 2001, I was invited to play the RPG (1st Ed) by a guy in my play group in Gouda. I accepted enthusiastically. After a while I started mastering as well (3rd Edition). Frustrated by the inability of RPG players to significantly influence this living setting, I took on the CCG at the end of Samurai, learning in the Rotterdam CCG group. I kept playing both RPG and CCG (and Love Letter Rokugan) since then.

Did you/Do you consider yourself a clan loyalist? Yes, without a doubt. I am a true Crane: politics and culture first, but backed up by fast deadly steel.

What did you like about or what drew you to your clan of choice? Politics and art? What's not to like? There is a certain attraction to a charming and polite aesthete who can still cut your head off in one perfect draw...

What was your first L5R tournament experience? My first tournament experience was the Lille Kotei in France in 2009 I think. I had a blast there, even though I lost a LOT of games against a lot of good players.

Favorite story or quote from the fiction? Why? My absolute favorite quote is one from a Kolat about the Crane: " The Crane have better food, better entertainment, and the charming custom of killing their enemies in broad daylight, in front of witnesses" (Shiba Yoma).

Favorite character? Why? I liked Kakita Noritoshi. The doomed "badass" type that can kill one of the best ninjas through a wall, because she had killed his beloved wife, that was something. And what an end to his life!! Also he had flaws. He was not perfect: he was human and you could feel his pain. And the mistakes he made.

Best memory or experience you had playing L5R or because of L5R. Simple: moving from one country to another and always having a group of friends waiting for you, that's priceless. I know I'm not the only one who changed country for work or love and just could rely on the community to help integrate.

Favorite deck that you built or played and why. My favorite deck used to be a Scout honor deck at the start of Celestial. That deck was a thing of beauty, mechanically. Everything worked with the rest. It wasn't a super fast honor runner, but it could slaughter military decks in defence.

Favorite Arc and why. Celestial. I preferred the duelling rules then. Even though the focus effects were too overpowered, at least the duelling rules made deckbuilding interesting and duelling decks feared. Now it's just boring and a bit useless.

Favorite Tournament experiences. Getting to the EU Championship in Dublin. That was an absolute top experience of friendliness, great games and even the thrill of playing at the 1st table for one game during the second chance tournament. It didn't last, but it was intense.

Anything else you would like to tell players about L5R at that time, or any stories to bring back some fond memories for old school players or inspire new ones? Not much to say but that this game used to be one of the best there is. Not because of great mechanics or super design. But because you always had the feeling to be part of the family. And the RPG is probably the only one which inspired me to write actual poetry.

Name: Joe Yull

Where are you from, tell us about your playgroup?: I played in the Santa Rosa area.

How did you hear about or get involved in L5R? Scrye Magazine, I remember seeing some articles about the SCC expansion and being intrigued by the character of Bayushi Shoju - an ends-justify-the-means character who would do anything for the empire he's sworn to protect, even hurting it in the process, seemed cool.

Did you/Do you consider yourself a clan loyalist? I stuck with Scorpion for a while, but the direction the clan took in gold combined with an extremely unflattering portrayal of Bayushi Shoju during Fu Leng's assault on heaven got me away from them. I played Shadowlands for a long time, and then Spider for a bit. In the end, I would pick Crab now if Shadowlands doesn't become a faction in some way.

What did you like about or what drew you to your clan of choice? For Scorpion, it was their 'ends justify the means' and 'I won't let morality prevent me from doing the right thing' kind of attitudes, but for Shadowlands, its more of their opposition to the fundamental Celestial Order of the setting, which makes them sort of arch-anarchists. The political and cosmological order of the setting is fundamentally unjust, and while the Shadowlands are diabolical in nature, there's a certain attractiveness towards fighting the unjust power anyway.

What was your first L5R tournament experience? Had a thrown together Scorpion deck, went down to a local, lost every game sans one against Phoenix Player who I double breached on the first turn, causing her to kick me so hard in the knee I had a bruise for a week and forfeit. She was in her 20's, I was 14, so real mature on her part lol. Didn't care, won a game.

Favorite story or quote from the fiction? Why? Fu Leng's assault on heaven stuck with me, because it humanized an otherwise unknowable character. I don't know if it's the best, but it's one I remember.

Favorite character? Why? That's tough... probably Kyoso no Oni, just because she was a bad, bad lady, and knew it. She was written somewhat poorly compared to Daigotsu, who was unquestionably the villain in l5r who's been given the most depth (except for the Crane clan Champions, natch), but I dug her attitude and perspective anyway. Used to be Shoju before his character was butchered. To be fair, though, I stopped playing before Kyoso was purified.

Best memory or experience you had playing L5R or because of L5R. There are so many... probably no one experience, but the friends I've made, friend who I wouldn't have made otherwise. Gaming has a way of bringing people together, and the diehard nature of the l5r fanbase can do that even more strongly. There are people who have moved away that I still keep up with on Facebook just because we used to play together. Plus, I liked that when you rolled to a tournament the other players of your faction tended to take the time to get to know you and be sociable. Mad respect to all the Spider players that still treated me like one of their own when I was running The Maw's Grave in Samurai!

Favorite deck that you built or played and why. Definitely a weird deck I came up with during Gold that used Yogo Towers and Superior Swordplay/Armed and Ready. If I had given it a corrupt gold scheme it probably would have won tournaments, but I didn't understand game theory and deck construction too well at that point. In any case, I had a TO at my first kotei (Dan Tibbles) straight up break the rules to force me to lose a game with it against who I presume was one of his buddies, so I never really got the chance to show off. Beating down my opponent's army with two weenies who just bowed out everything was pretty amazing.

Favorite Arc and why. Probably Gold, because I came into not expecting to like a lot of the new characters but I ended up really appreciating some of them.

Favorite Tournament experiences. So many... any time I traveled around the state to a different store/playgroup and the people were super hospitable. The community could be pretty tight sometimes. The tournaments themselves... I was not hung up on winning or losing, I just tried to bring the best deck possible within my faction and kick butt.

Anything else you would like to tell players about L5R at that time, or any stories to bring back some fond memories for old school players or inspire new ones? No real stories, just some advice - we're serious when we're telling you to should 'Utz!' as loud as you can!

Name: Stephen Ryan. Moto Ess-Ry on most of the forums.

Where are you from, tell us about your playgroup?: San Antonio Texas. I also played in the Fullerton / Anaheim area in summers through Gold. San Antonio's playgroup has been huge at times, and for a while, had 3 groups of people playing at the same store on different days, with no overlap or knowledge of the others until we started getting big tournaments. We were hitting 24-32 people for store tournaments in Jade and cracked 150 at our kotei a few times.

How did you hear about or get involved in L5R?: I knew a couple playtesters for AEG, and a bunch of competitive magic players were playing it on the side. Once my Magic team moved to other parts of the state, I switched to L5R almost exclusively

Did you/Do you consider yourself a clan loyalist?: All my storyline prizes and honor wins go to Unicorn. I wont play them if theyre not at or around top tier though. I think I played Unicorn at one kotei in EE.

What did you like about or what drew you to your clan of choice?: The Way of the Unicorn 1st edition. Notably Yokatsu's letter to Satsume. I knew right then that my clan of choice was Unicorn. Though whoever it was that issued me my DCI card at the AEG offices when I took a tour of it said that was a dumb idea and officially signed me up as Ronin. No joke, I still have that card.

What was your first L5R tournament experience?: Sword Tournament in JadEx, I collected a lot of useless prize things in Jade. I had 20 something t-shirt redemption certificates that all expired before I could send them in, I have 2 or 3 Unicorn tshirts floating around, since some of them were filled in by the TO as to what clan you played and therefore what shirt you could get. Such a great quote on that shirt though.

Favorite story or quote from the fiction? Why? : Yokatsu's letter. Or Unicorn Leadership vs Death Priests. Or Shono dueling with arrows. Or Good Little Wife. L5R has a lot of incredibly written Vignettes. The strength of the lore is when it sticks to the 1-sheets that leaves a bit/lot to the imagination.

Favorite character? Why? : I assume I probably have one somewhere.

Best memory or experience you had playing L5R or because of L5R: Its probably the people. I remember the people a lot more than I do the story. Not 'Best', but I wrote a eulogy for a very good friend and we then got him carded through a charity honor event.

Favorite deck that you built or played and why. JadEx Purple Province Crushers. It lost 1 tournament game total from the release of SCC2 to Gold edition.

Favorite Arc and why . Jade. I was a lot better at the game back then than I seem to be now. Though I also cared more back then too.

Favorite Tournament experiences : Beating Holy Home Village Monk Enlightenment in force at a battle by having 3 superior tactics and 3 Kamokos charge in hand at a battle he had to win (He was my loss, in the finals, at the tournament the week before). Top 8'ing every kotei in Ivory was a very close 2nd.

Anything else you would like to tell players about L5R at that time, or any stories to bring back some fond memories for old school players or inspire new ones?: L5R was a very strange game in the time before most people had regular internet access. I used Medium Cavalry because nobody knew Moto Chargers or Moto Fanatics even existed, and nobody owned one. Also, if you didnt have a Herald subscription, I have no idea how you would know anything about the story at all.

A bit late to the party maybe, but here is my piece:

Never late to the party. I enjoy reading everyone's stories so if you guys keep posting them. I will keep reading them.