In others LCG's, I feel the taste of FFG to mix factions.

In The Call of Cthulhu the sistem requires it and was possible to mix 2 or more factions, in a dedicated deck it was possible mix of 4 or 5 factions.
In A Game of Thrones 1 it was difficult, but until the end we saw a lot of cards published with the purpose of mix the houses.
In A Game of Thrones 2e it is a very common reality play with 2 factions deck, unthinkable meta at 1.0.
For Netrunner FFG created a sistem of influence and a lot of factions only with the objective to mixing them.
In The Lord of the Rings mixed spheres is mandatory to win.
Warhammer 40k: Conquest has a alignement wheel to control the mix factions.
In Star Wars is also possible mixing.

So, FFG likes a lot all of mixing factions in a card games, I assume changes in order to help the mixing of clans in L5R, but L5R is about very closed clans in war between other, a lot of possibles combinations are very difficult with the game lore.

So, what do you think about the possibility of a new sistem that facilitates a lot the mix of clans?

What sistem you prefere? Influence like Netrunner to put a limit of cards in other faction? A wheel like 40k? A stronghold similar to AGOT agendas? Resurces only availibles for one clan like CoC and LotR?

I think a wheel like 40K might be most appropriate. Only problem is oftentimes alliances shift in the setting which obviously would be not possible for balance reasons.

I think it woul dmake sense to go one of two ways.

1) Allow clan mixing as it makes sense in the ongoing story. Currently, for example, Scorpion/Crab decks would make sense while Dragon/Unicorn decks wouldn't. The mechanical way of governing this would depend on how the game works.

2) Don't allow clan mixing, but have some factions - Ronin, Shadowlands, Minor Clans - that exist only to mix with the great clans, which are not able to mix with each other.

The more factions FFG plans to begin with, the more you need to have faction mixing. Alliance cards, like the ones A Game of Thrones uses, provide the most flexibility with the least stagnation in a smaller card pool.

Isn't there an Event (New Alliance or something like that) already that allows Clan-mixing?

Isn't there an Event (New Alliance or something like that) already that allows Clan-mixing?

Game doesn't exist yet lol.

Isn't there an Event (New Alliance or something like that) already that allows Clan-mixing?

Game doesn't exist yet lol.

No, I mean, the "old" CCG game has/had one such card. I can even remember that I have it somewhere in my collection.

Isn't there an Event (New Alliance or something like that) already that allows Clan-mixing?

Though with a strong economy you could have added them into the deck anyway.

Isn't there an Event (New Alliance or something like that) already that allows Clan-mixing?

Game doesn't exist yet lol.

No, I mean, the "old" CCG game has/had one such card. I can even remember that I have it somewhere in my collection.

Sure but we are not discussing the CCG in this particular case.

I've been thinking about this a bit, and have an idea somewhat inspired by Netrunner and Romance of the Nine Kingdoms. The term 'faction' isn't perhaps the best one here, but it will have to do.

Like Netrunner, you have factions and identities. But there are two axes of factions, rather than one.

The first is more like the Runner side than the Corp side. They are Air, Earth, Fire, Void and Water, and they represent the ideals that your ID holds to, and how they plan to win: Air could be courtly and use the honour mechanic; Earth might be endurance, and win by outlasting the enemy; Void would be Enlightenment; Water an aggressive military.

The second would be your great clans, whatever arrangement that might be.

Every ID would have 2 keywords: Kyuden Doji might be Crane Air; High House of Light, Dragon Void; Daidoji Crane Water etc. You can have cards in your deck which match either of the keywords or are neutral.

Thus, you could do something like the Netrunner core box, and have a bunch of cards that fit in many decks, and then other ones that get added in as necessary, depending on the ID.

Honestly, while almost every Clan has both fought and allied with every other Clan (to say nothing of Shadowlands influence across the board), I could see nearly every combination being represented by a "historical alliance" card. Like, "Battle of the Tidal Land Bridge" for Crane/Crab, "The Second Pit" for Crab/Scorpion, "Lady Doji's Mirror" for Crane/Unicorn, that sort of thing.

The Spider, Mantis, and Phoenix all come up a bit short that way, since none of them really have more than one or two alliances worth mentioning on the books, but it'd be a good place to reach for obscure bits of lore to give a sense of history...

Why not simply leave it up to the player to mix as they wish. As I recall, in Call of cuthulu the starting deck where already mixed faction as there wasn't enough card to go faction pure before you bought a few carde pack, I also don't remember of the start if there was any hard restriction on faction mixing outside of the cost requirement on some card. I'll admit I had a hard time getting people to keep playing it and eventually stopped following it so thing might have changed.

In L5R CCG I am not aware of any hard clan restriction either for deck building, only gold cost penalty that a good economy will shrug away, and as other mentioned almost all the alliance combination was seen at one point or another in the story so why not. Then again I'm not designing and balancing the game but i know how hard it can be so we'll see how it goes.

Honestly I just want to see how they will go at it, I'm really hopeful FFG will do a good job of it, if they can have a way to prevent the information paralysis that was plaguing Cuthulu LCC two player it will be a blast.

I think they should maintain any clan mixing just add a penalty to buying the personality. Some L5R decks simply works well as a superfriends deck, i dont think i want that flavour to be lost really.

Maybe it's a idea for "storyline game" by FFG? Imagine a wheel of alliance like in Conquest but which changes every Kotei season because of people votes or tourney results! Yeah it could be superfun and make game vibrant. There's a really small pool of cards comparing to CCG and i think it's possible to test it.

Maybe it's a idea for "storyline game" by FFG? Imagine a wheel of alliance like in Conquest but which changes every Kotei season because of people votes or tourney results! Yeah it could be superfun and make game vibrant. There's a really small pool of cards comparing to CCG and i think it's possible to test it.

That won't work. Either people vote for the pattern they like, so it doesn't change every Kotei season and there's no point, or it DOES change every Kotei season, and people's decks stop working. It would be like a one-year set rotation period when it comes to "having to remake your decks", which only works for a game as big as Magic.

And the problem with adding a cost penalty to out of faction guys is, it's really good to ensure that all cards play exactly like they look like they play, without hidden changes to the numbers. This is why AEG originally changed the rule from "buy in faction for 2 gold cheaper" to "buy out of faction for 2 gold more", because that lowered the number of cards in (almost all) decks that did not cost what they said they cost. But a better solution would be something that makes all the cards cost what they say they cost.

I think a Game of Thrones-style "This is your main faction, you can bring their cards including their loyal guys; this is your ally faction, you can bring their cards but not their loyal guys" setup is probably the best bet. Especially with faction-aligned cards other than Personalities / "guys". Let's face it, L5R needed a better way of dividing its action cards. And actual costs for them.

Hopefully there are advantages for both playing within one's clan, and for mixing.