Simply put: Should tournament and campaign results decide the direction of new card design and overall direction of L5R?

I ask this in all sincerity.

Your thoughts.

I'd say yes, but only in a very broad way, and with much more control by FFG than AEG had.

Card design no (but cards flavor yes) ; story only to guide (as in determine the relevant clan, and their specific action (depending on the nature of the clan)) specific plot point.

EG, "The clan that win this tournament will have a personality chosen by the story team defeat Fu Leng" = YES

whereas "The winner of the tournament can pick any personality from their clan to defeat Fu Leng and will confer with the story team on how they do it" = NO.

The first allow the story team to build characters and let their story arc rise around the plot point they get involved in (and their failures, or the "assists" they get in story events),

Likewise, if they were to keep the idea of Winter court, try to make it a bit shorter with specific story points up for grab, a bit more like the Seasons of the X from Gold Edition but in RPG form, and less like the "Here are broad objectives and anything goes" of letting the players have too much control.

That doesn't mean the story team COULDN'T use cool elements from what happens in a game (or in Winter Court). They could, of course. But it would be at their discretion, based on what can fit with the story.

Yes, but not in the way it has been of late.

Yes, because I think people drastically underestimate how central the interactive story is to an individual's choice to play L5R over another game.

Yes and no. I don't want huge overarching plot twists planned (or rather confered) with a/the story team down to the last detail. More broad strokes like those mentioned earlier in this thread.

Either way its time for the game itself to stand on its own.

Yes, major event should influence the story. Minor events should allow the winner to vote.

I.e. store champions = story result based on clan victories

Regional champions = vote for story choice

National & Worlds champions = choose a story decision to

Yes because otherwise several people will probably just play something else.

Simply put: Should tournament and campaign results decide the direction of new card design and overall direction of L5R?

I ask this in all sincerity.

Your thoughts.

Sparingly, within a framwork.

Player interaction should be important in setting the story of L5R. Personally I hope they addopt the model AEG was going into come onyx with broad player interaction setting a clans goals. I don't want to see broad descisions about clans coming out of the victories nor do I want to see things swing on that.

edit: THis includes winter court like events which must be seriously evaluated for their value to the RPG community and the company. The events so far did little to push the game or involve players beyond those lucky few.

Yes, tournament results should decide the direction of the game.

But they shouldn't be used to micromanage events to the last detail (which was, IMHO, a problem in the past few years). They shouldn't shackle the Story, but help build it.

As long as the story is tied to the tournaments it will never be good.

So I would like it to have stories told in the universe where tournaments results are not involved. Just a writer and an editor.

They can look at the results if they want to but I should not be force with a crowbar into the story like that last years.

Or if you need to do it in someway.

Let the kotei winner vote on 2 or 3 options and whichever option has the most votes will find its way into the story.

But I am very sick of seeing uninteresting fiction after uninteresting fiction, where a writer was clearly tasked to write something to reflect a tournament result.

The way it used to be was that who won the tournament decided what clan would get a specific story prize ("A Crane will be Emerald champion"), and all else ("Yasuki Hachi will become emerald champion thanks to the manipulations of Bayushi Sunetra and Hantei Naseru") was left to the story.

This is how it needs to be again.

Likewise, again, events like Winter Courts, and Votes. If Winter Court, have specific story prizes up for grab depending on how well the clans achieve their objective in the game. Only these specific prizes are guaranteed to show up in story. Anything else is left to story team discretion, if they feel like it'll be good.

I think I don´t want the tournements to effect the Story anymore.

The reason is while I like the option to effect the story through a Win it is to easy to be manipulated.

Also as long as the tournements hold are not equal in each region of the world which plays

L5R there is a high possibility that some tournement results just have no meaning cause the other regions just dominate

the field.

Therefore I really would like something like the votes in a way which is excessible to each player and where each player can

have a voice in the direction of the game. I think the best way would be a internetpage to do this maybe where you can follow

your personal clan and events.

Simply put: Should tournament and campaign results decide the direction of new card design and overall direction of L5R?

I ask this in all sincerity.

Your thoughts.

The direction? No. That's (was?) AEG's schtick, not FFG's.

There are a variety of reasons I'm happy the game is in new hands. One of them is this.

I'm okay with a little bit of influence, at about the level of Netrunner. I think too much has a warping effect on player choices, to say nothing of actual impacts on the card pool and game environment.

Considering that investment in the storyline is by no means linked with ability in the card game... I often get the impression that tournament winners were happier about having their names on a given card than the story effects of whatever they picked.

So....I'd dial it back.

Clan votes are one thing. "Let's kill Tsudao" is something else.

I think the keys are balance and moderation.

Having an interactive, ongoing story seems like part of the appeal of the L5R card game to quite a few players, so it would probably be bad to drop it the concept of player involvement entirely.

However, what the players are able to influence, the level of detail, and via what means, has to be contained within a framework that doesn't allow it to negatively impact the storyline writing or the core design principles of the actual card game.

I actually would like if the continue the Wintercourt events and let this be a influencial point for the setting, not like in the past where it was more like hey maybe we let you influence it maybe we don´t.

I actually would like if the continue the Wintercourt events and let this be a influencial point for the setting, not like in the past where it was more like hey maybe we let you influence it maybe we don´t.

Yes I think having Winter Court was a smart move.

I think when you are in for the RPG you are probably there for the story.

Other with the card game, where you might be in for the story... but are probably only there to flip some cards.

I actually would like if the continue the Wintercourt events and let this be a influencial point for the setting, not like in the past where it was more like hey maybe we let you influence it maybe we don´t.

Yes I think having Winter Court was a smart move.

I think when you are in for the RPG you are probably there for the story.

Other with the card game, where you might be in for the story... but are probably only there to flip some cards.

I seem to remember some CCG players getting a bit salty about RPGers influencing their game some years back, but I can't remember the details. Actually, now that I think about it, I remember the reverse complaint as well -- RPG'ers annoyed their game was getting knocked out of whack by a tournament somewhere or whatever. It might've been just a few posters on web forum somewhere.

Then again, isn't everything?

I suspect that this is why 4th edition RPG was made more timeline-neutral with a bit of "sandbox" approach for the history adopted -- so that poeple would feel more openly free to ignore the outcome of CCG events, especially in ongoing campaigns.

I actually would like if the continue the Wintercourt events and let this be a influencial point for the setting, not like in the past where it was more like hey maybe we let you influence it maybe we don´t.

Yes I think having Winter Court was a smart move.

I think when you are in for the RPG you are probably there for the story.

Other with the card game, where you might be in for the story... but are probably only there to flip some cards.

I seem to remember some CCG players getting a bit salty about RPGers influencing their game some years back, but I can't remember the details. Actually, now that I think about it, I remember the reverse complaint as well -- RPG'ers annoyed their game was getting knocked out of whack by a tournament somewhere or whatever.

Yup, on both accounts. Then again... how many story events were caused/influenced by the CCG and how many were by the RPG? I think that was the main point of the RPGers (and one with merit, IMHO).

But yes, loud posters will always be loud posters

I am a fan of less interaction that has far more targeted results. One of the problems with AEG's model of interactivity is that it is not sustainable. There were too many interactions, events, plot threads, and stories to keep track of at any given time. If you looked at the fiction of late, it felt very tired and exhausted, not because of the story team's lack of effort, but because it seemed that every story had to cram so many tournament results and decisions into what little space was available. There was little room to move the plot forward because we had to spend every moment of the fictions trying to tie everything together.

Additionally, and I feel most importantly, broad story arcs should not be left to players and/or random chance to decide. I know that this position will be very unpopular with certain fans, some of whom might even invoke the nostalgia of the Second Day of Thunder. My opinion rests upon the idea that I prefer consistency over interactions because the only way to keep a large, complex story like L5R's together is through a decisive vision and sharp writing choices, both of which are ultimately gutted by allowing players to make those choices through game events. I would much rather have the larger events in Rokugan (e.g. The Four Winds, Race for the Throne, The Destroyer War, The Brother's Succession, etc.) to be largely out of the hands of the players except in broad votes about Clan directions, similar to, but not necessarily borrowing from the Onyx Path model.

Where interactivity can work from events is on the smaller scale in the setting, such as the tournaments for positions, experienced versions of card persona, unique fictions, and other small prizes that do not necessarily impact the larger metaplot, but still allow winners to have a small, personal impact on the setting. I am completely for a tournament winner (or final league winner, because the Kotei season is its own problem for another thread) getting the opportunity to choose which personality becomes the focus of a story, even inviting them to be part of that collaborative experience. But when it comes to larger plot issues, I would rather see capable writers making the decisions rather than leaving them largely to chance.

Yes. There is a lot of room to discuss exactly what the nature of this interaction should be, but as to whether it should be at all the answer is as loud a yes as possible. The interactive storyline is L5R's single biggest identifying feature.

Short answer, yes.

The interactive story of the game is one of the greatest draws for me personally, and I can also say that this is true for my playgroup. We have won several koteis over the last few years and the story prizes are the most appealing part of the whole tournament scene. That having been said I do not think that any of the RPG events were a particularly good idea. Much less egalitarian in effect.