Apologies for the fairly scattershot approach to this but I'm just typing as thoughts come to me...

Have a read of the rules for the Star Wars LCG then pop back here...

Objectives - A fantastic way to tell the L5R story, the cards that come with the objective sets can also relate to the story. They also present a way to get around strongholds and allow you to feature multiple clans in your deck (still a balancing act to make it effective). Objectives generate gold to purchase units.

You attack Objectives which can also be story driven tying the warfare together with the characters. Objectives also interfere with he game in various ways.

Objectives also drive deck building in a very story driven way.

Comitting characters to the Force - Honour Victories - send honorable character to the imperial court to tell your tale. Whoever has the most honour at this point can advance their honour dial OR they can add damage to an objective. This kind of blends the Imperial Favour in with the win conditions.

Military Victories become destroying 3 Objectives.

Battles can be very similar - Edge battle allows for maneuvering/tactics tricks etc and then striking allows plenty of ways to make warrior type characters different from courtiers and Shugenja.

The more I think about the more I think a slightly fiddled with re-skinned SW LCG would be quite fun as an L5R LCG.

Another bonus - the games are shorter.

Dear game gods, and devs, please oh please do not recreate the Star Wars LCG and give it an L5R skin. Pretty please. Amen.

The star wars LCG is probably the weakess LCG because of his deckbuilding rules and the awfull deck it made. You dont want your favorite card game turn into that mess.

What issue do you have with it?

As far as I know, several of the people who designed Star Wars used to work on L5R, thats why the two games do have some similarities.

However if they were just going to re-skin Star Wars with L5R they wouldn't take 2 years to relaunch the game

Oh no, of course I wouldn't want a reskin, but the way the game plays and the certain ways the mechanics interact feel like they could be appropriated for L5R. I think plenty would need to change.

I would absolutely hate this. While there are many superficial similarities between L5R and SWLCG (racing a clock, "dueling," alternating strikes during combat), both need to be their own games. While I very much like the deckbuilding system as it makes sense for a game set in the Star Wars universe (my recent gripes about its execution aside), it simply doesn't belong in this brand, a brand which is synonymous with the longest-published CCG aside from Magic.

All that, and while I completely suck at both games, L5R always lets me feel like I have a chance, but SWLCG doesn't. If a board full of tactics doesn't destroy me, a well-timed Twist of Fate invariably will.

No.

(you don't even deserve a 'no, thanks', because we do not thank you for this very wrong " "idea" ")

I have a feeling when FFG unveils the new L5R and it bares little to no mechanical similarity to L5R as it was, there is going to be many hurt people out there who can't see beyond their Fate Decks and Dynasty decks...

Mind you there are just under 2 years for everyone to come to terms with their loss...

Not likely. They are likely to take some ideas from it, but not nearly enough to be even close the SWLCG.

The best bets is that they will tweak Military Victories to just destroying 4 provinces, that refresh with a new card after destroyed to help with the resource issues. Also, the using of tokens for "tapping" a card. I think this is something FFG really has loved, since they added it to AGOT. And maybe, just maybe, adapting the Edge battles.

Other than that, SWLCG is a really bad template for any other game.

Oh yes, you can bet there will be a veritable plethora of tokens in the new game!

Oh its not improbable in the slightest that certain elements will be used as a template for L5R. Star Wars, Netrunner, and AGoT share many things in common with L5R. It won't be a wholesale template of course, but that is fine.

It will be a familiar set of rules, but not identical, when it comes to the NR or AGoT player wanting to try out this new L5R product from FFG. It will allow for an ease-of-use as newer players will be able to learn the game quicker.

I have a feeling when FFG unveils the new L5R and it bares little to no mechanical similarity to L5R as it was, there is going to be many hurt people out there who can't see beyond their Fate Decks and Dynasty decks...

Mind you there are just under 2 years for everyone to come to terms with their loss...

We have no evidence one way or the other. A big asset that L5R has is the loyal (rabid? fanatical?) playerbase. While there will always be naysayers and bittervets, that is a valuable asset for any business. It doesn't make sense to me that FFG would want to completely flush it. A game that old fans, even fans from 20 years ago, can recognize as L5R at its core is going to be something that brings players to the table day one. New players will come, but they will come after launch, especially if they see other people playing.

I own a special order bakery. Sometimes we have orders cancel at the last minute leaving us with cakes. When we do, I'll post on Instagram and I'll start calling our best past clients to try to save sale. One way generates lots of "likes" and one puts money in my pocket.

To be clear, I don't expect L5R *not* to have significant changes, but a reskin of Star Wars would be the death of the game. There is literally no incentive to switch from a world famous brand about magical space samurai owned by one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world, to a niche setting about magical samurai previously owned by a tiny company who now make Love Letter.

Star Wars Player: Hey, what's that game?

L5R Player: It's called L5R. It plays just like Star Wars, you don't even need to read the rules, I'll just fill you in as we go.

Star Wars Player: Can I use my Darth Vader in the deck?

L5R Player: No, but here's Daigotsu Kan...

Star Wars Player: I'm out.

There might be some aspects or elements that they lean on Star Wars for (the best I can think of is ubiquitous dueling), but a wholesale template? Nope.

I appreciate I used the words re-skinned but I'm not advocating a name swap and calling it a day, I was just suggesting that the way the game plays and the way it's various elements work together could be an interesting fit. There would have to be plenty of changes to make sure the game was L5R and not a re-names SW:LCG.

I think they will incorporate lots of things from their existing LCGs. For example, I wouldn't be surprised to see some resource card that allowed you to mix in personalities from another clan in your Lion deck - you just have to pay for the Mantis guys with at least one resource generated from a Mantis-affiliated card, right? I could totally see that happening. I wouldn't mind it as long as (as others have said) we don't get the deckbuilding by pod style from SW:LCG. That's one thing I hate about that game. The system they use to "balance" it out makes it where you can't tweak a deck with one or two new cards. It's different enough to be a pain to an old hand like me when it comes to deckbuilding.

And maybe, just maybe, adapting the Edge battles.

EDIT: Though I suppose it would be difficult to make such a mechanic work with a game that uses traditional deck-building. That alone gives me hope.

Trolling Twist of Fates was my favorite thing to do. I have done with 1-2 other cards in the stack. Boy, was my opponent surprised. Interestingly enough, they just made a counter to it.

Since I play and love Star Wars and even won the Arizona regional in 2013 (my first and only successful tournament), I'll give your idea more time of day than some of these other folks.

Deck Building

First, I think the deck building system was a stroke of genius for Star Wars. I've recently read from other competitive Star Wars players who, after playing this for so long, found it cumbersome to get back into traditional deck building card games. The system if fast, fluid, streamlined, and builds theme directly into your deck. The other half of that genius isn't that the system just works, but it's super friendly toward casual gamers. You can just throw 10 objective sets together and you've got a deck that's going to run. Will it run well? Probably not super efficiently, but you're also not as likely to get yourself resource locked as you are with games like Magic where you really have to pay attention to mana curves or else suffer silently as your opponent builds a board.

I don't think this system works as well for L5R because I don't anticipate a huge casual following like we seem to see in Star Wars. Also, the L5R fan following is going to feel very constricted by those deck building rules. While the ones who stick with it may learn to appreciate it, I doubt the majority of the player base could stomach the change and L5R would be a sad shadow of its potential.

Objective System

The objective system works great in Star Wars. Star Wars caters to what is termed 'cinematic' play. The design philosophy behind Star Wars is not to tell a story through the course of the game, but to allow for card interactions that make you say, "Wow! That was just like in the movie!" Cards and their interactions carry this theme. Objectives help in this sort of "storytelling" by giving you an abstract idea of what one side is doing to further their causes. Attacking those objectives represents stopping those plans (in a very abstract way).

L5R needs a deeper sort of storytelling, in my opinion. Events throughout the game need to tell a plausible series of events. So if objectives were implemented, I don't think those would be the driving force of the story.

Resource Matching, Affiliation Cards, and Multi-Affiliation Decks

The other thing objectives do is provide resources (gold). Most objectives have a specific affiliation (clan). Other cards also have affiliations (represented by colors and symbols) or may be neutral. Any resource can pay for neutral cards, but to pay for a Jedi card, for instance, one of your resource-generating cards must also have the Jedi affiliation symbol.

In addition to your objectives, you also have an affiliation card that shows your main affiliation (clan). It provides a resource of that affiliation and can be used for resource matches. At the beginning of each game you'll have 3 objectives in play and your affiliation, so you start with at least 4 resources (some objectives generate more than 2 resources). If you are running a dual-affiliation deck, you need at least 1 resource of each of your two affiliations in your opening draw of objectives. Well, if you have 10 objectives and your affiliation is Rebel, you expect to see more than half of the deck be Rebel and the remaining objectives be Smuggler or Jedi. But that's not what you see. Because your affiliation guarantees a resource match with Rebel, you usually put 3-4 objectives of Rebel in your deck so that you have 6-7 Jedi objectives in your objective deck so that you will be all but guaranteed to have a resource match to each affiliation. The result is that you are almost always represented by your minor affiliation. Needless to say, in a clan-centered world like L5R, that would be very, very off-putting.

So there would have to be some change to the way resources and clan identities work together. Maybe clan cards don't produce resources but do provide discounts on in-clan cards. I don't know.

Objectives as Targets

As I said above, objectives are the cards your opponent attacks instead of provinces. I do think these could serve that purpose really well since objectives are refreshed at the beginning of your next turn. Of course, this doesn't require an objective system and could be implemented easily by just refreshing your provinces to prevent the downward spiral of L5R in the late game as others have mentioned.

Force Commitment

In Star Wars, units (dudes) can commit to the Force to give your side a bonus toward your victory condition. Being committed to the Force represents doing something behind the scenes to increase the light or dark side of the Force. But while units may focus on the Force, they could still attack and defend, they just get "double-tapped" for being used, so they're out of the fight for longer (it takes 2 turns for them to be ready again).

I think you're right that this could be adapted in an interesting way to L5R. As you suggested, it could represent going to court. One difference I would suggest, though, is that this unit cannot participate in battle. This makes sense because he's not at the front lines. But! Wouldn't it be cool if an enemy unit could confront him and duel him on his way to court? I think there's potential in this mechanic, but I don't know for sure since I haven't played L5R yet (though I did watch those awful YouTube tutorials last night).

Edge Battle

I LOOOOOOOVE edge battles. It's always been one of my favorite parts of Star Wars. Every card is a resource because it can be used for it's normal game play effect or saved to win edge battles. It means you almost never have a dead card. Edge battles only work because of the draw mechanic in Star Wars (which is awesome!). You always draw up to your hand size toward the beginning of your turn. This means you need to save cards in hand for defense if you want to win an edge battle. Edge battles are blind-bid events where you try to see who goes first in battles. They are tense, engaging, and powerful.

I'm not sure I'd like to see the same mechanic used in L5R, though, just because I'd like to see something new. I think an edge-battle type thing could work well in duels. Except instead of blind bidding, you'd bid face up to see if your opponent can match your edge values to keep up in the duel. If you fall behind in edge count, you lose the duel. I'm not super attached to this idea, just throwing it out there. But unless the draw mechanic changed, I don't think anything like edge battles would be viable unless it was a different set of duel cards that you don't draw from your deck.

But with that said, Twist of Fate is my kryptonite, and I will not be playing this if they make a repeat of that card without there also being a direct answer to it.

Really? That card is so sweet! I think Star Wars wouldn't be the game it is without Twist of Fate. That card alone is what led to tension in the early days and is what keeps edge battles interesting. The stakes are so high with that card floating around and it can do exactly what it says -- twist fate.

When I won my regional, I had 4 copies of Twist of Fate in my deck and I just manipulated my opponents every edge battle. I think there was only one edge battle the whole game where the outcome was different from what I expected. After the first few Twists, you can then put a high-edge-value card like Vader as your first card in the edge stack, pass, and watch as your opponent passes on 2, expecting a Twist. And then their optimism melts as they realize your supposed Twist was actually a 4! It's too good.

And there are ways around it. The core Obi-Wan Kenobi makes the first card played in an opponent's edge stack face-up and Sensors Are Placed from the Hoth cycle does that as well. That makes it so you have to put at least one other card in with your Twist, so you can't just use Twist and have a full hand of edge cards. You have to lose at lest one other.

So I was ninja'd a lot while writing this, so my apologies if someone said something already that I've said here.

The star wars LCG is probably the weakess LCG because of his deckbuilding rules and the awfull deck it made. You dont want your favorite card game turn into that mess.

If you feel that way, I pity you. You're missing out on a great system that has more benefits than you realize. It's not for every game, but it does great things for Star Wars.

The core of the SWLCG is a very fun game. I wouldn't exactly call it a great tournament game, with all the high variance it can have within the game (seriously, a bad hand can just end the game). And I don't think the designers have designed to the game's strengths that well (combined with someone on the design team having a bit too much SWCCG nostalgia).

There are good ideas to take from it for L5R, but the new L5R shouldn't be a close relative to SWLCG.

Really? That card is so sweet! I think Star Wars wouldn't be the game it is without Twist of Fate. That card alone is what led to tension in the early days and is what keeps edge battles interesting. The stakes are so high with that card floating around and it can do exactly what it says -- twist fate.

When I won my regional, I had 4 copies of Twist of Fate in my deck and I just manipulated my opponents every edge battle. I think there was only one edge battle the whole game where the outcome was different from what I expected. After the first few Twists, you can then put a high-edge-value card like Vader as your first card in the edge stack, pass, and watch as your opponent passes on 2, expecting a Twist. And then their optimism melts as they realize your supposed Twist was actually a 4! It's too good.

And there are ways around it. The core Obi-Wan Kenobi makes the first card played in an opponent's edge stack face-up and Sensors Are Placed from the Hoth cycle does that as well. That makes it so you have to put at least one other card in with your Twist, so you can't just use Twist and have a full hand of edge cards. You have to lose at lest one other.

Like many things about Star Wars: The Card Game , Twist of Fate is something that I don't consider poor design, but simply an element I dislike in terms of preference. I don't get the same thrill out of it as you, in fact it feels more like a reinforcement of a status quo than something to challenge it. To phrase it in a "cinematic" way, it's like I know all along that this seemingly-friendly smuggler is going to betray us, but because our group's DM has decided that we're going to fall into his trap, I'm not able to do anything about it. Not saying that that's bad gameplay, nor even that it's not my fault as a player, just that it leads to situations I dislike.

Force Commitment

In Star Wars, units (dudes) can commit to the Force to give your side a bonus toward your victory condition. Being committed to the Force represents doing something behind the scenes to increase the light or dark side of the Force. But while units may focus on the Force, they could still attack and defend, they just get "double-tapped" for being used, so they're out of the fight for longer (it takes 2 turns for them to be ready again).

I think you're right that this could be adapted in an interesting way to L5R. As you suggested, it could represent going to court. One difference I would suggest, though, is that this unit cannot participate in battle. This makes sense because he's not at the front lines. But! Wouldn't it be cool if an enemy unit could confront him and duel him on his way to court? I think there's potential in this mechanic, but I don't know for sure since I haven't played L5R yet (though I did watch those awful YouTube tutorials last night).

Edge Battle

I LOOOOOOOVE edge battles. It's always been one of my favorite parts of Star Wars. Every card is a resource because it can be used for it's normal game play effect or saved to win edge battles. It means you almost never have a dead card. Edge battles only work because of the draw mechanic in Star Wars (which is awesome!). You always draw up to your hand size toward the beginning of your turn. This means you need to save cards in hand for defense if you want to win an edge battle. Edge battles are blind-bid events where you try to see who goes first in battles. They are tense, engaging, and powerful.

I'm not sure I'd like to see the same mechanic used in L5R, though, just because I'd like to see something new. I think an edge-battle type thing could work well in duels. Except instead of blind bidding, you'd bid face up to see if your opponent can match your edge values to keep up in the duel. If you fall behind in edge count, you lose the duel. I'm not super attached to this idea, just throwing it out there. But unless the draw mechanic changed, I don't think anything like edge battles would be viable unless it was a different set of duel cards that you don't draw from your deck.

So I was ninja'd a lot while writing this, so my apologies if someone said something already that I've said here.

I checked out demos of all the FFG LCGs when the announcement came, and those are interesting things that can be adapted to L5R I think. I'd love to see a military battle and a political battle depicted, sometimes each impacting the other, but able to operate independently. Clans could then have a mix of strengths, and even family specializations that impact which field they play best in.

My knee jerk reaction was very much in response to the idea of being a reskin of anything, not because I don't think there aren't systems in Star Wars that couldn't be adapted and made relevant and interesting.

I don't mind if L5R would get some ideas from other games, but like so many other here already said, it should not become just a reskin of another game, so take only some aspects, not the whole game.