Plenty of other games have flavor text on their generic cards. And the name doesn't have to be as boring as "Niten Warrior"; that was just an example of something generic sounding. Perhaps that wasn't clear. Are flavor texts on generic cards somehow worse? *All* the cards in A:N are generic, and they've got great flavor text IMO. Not a suitable tone for L5R mind you, but clever and fitting to the game.

@Crawd could you point me to the previous debate?

@Crawd could you point me to the previous debate?

It has been discussed in this one:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/189836-impact-of-ffgs-release-model-no-holds-barred/

I guess the bottom line is you either think that non-uniques should have proper names, or you don't. I maintain that it is silly, and that the primary reason to prefer it is that it was the CCG-era standard, and change is bad.

I can see both sides to this. As a tie breaker I'd say keep status quo.

I guess the bottom line is you either think that non-uniques should have proper names, or you don't. I maintain that it is silly, and that the primary reason to prefer it is that it was the CCG-era standard, and change is bad.

I disagree.

I prefer named personalities because the prime mover for the game to me has been the stories we create. Personalities are the focus of the story and the conflicts we place them in.

If they go the route of 'Named' = Unique, I would like to see more Uniques and the unnamed to have a mechanic like....

• Niten Warrior has +1 Force while attached as a Follower to a Named Personality.

As a tie breaker I'd say keep status quo.

I can't say that I agree with this, even though it ends up siding with my position. The status quo is part of what lead AEG to sell off L5R and the more time I'm away from buying the CCG, the more I'm able to see it's glaring flaws.

The status quo is not our friend.

I can't say that I agree with this, even though it ends up siding with my position. The status quo is part of what lead AEG to sell off L5R and the more time I'm away from buying the CCG, the more I'm able to see it's glaring flaws.

The status quo is not our friend.

Agreed, however if they want to keep the spirit of the game they can't go around gutting everything just because they can. In this case in order to retain the fan base an approach of "If it's not broke don't fix it" I believe applies.

IMO it does kill immersion by having multiple named copies of a person in play. How can Doji Makoto win a battle in one place and die over here in another battle at the same time?

Now that you got me thinking about it though... It would make sense if we combine the two decks. Your idea here would make sense in that case:

If they go the route of 'Named' = Unique, I would like to see more Uniques and the unnamed to have a mechanic like....

• Niten Warrior has +1 Force while attached as a Follower to a Named Personality.

IMO it does kill immersion by having multiple named copies of a person in play. How can Doji Makoto win a battle in one place and die over here in another battle at the same time?

This is the crux of the problem. If the idea is that your second Doji Makoto (awkward name choice but I'll use the example) is meant to represent someone who has the same skills and general character skeleton as the first copy, I would argue that Doji Makoto is not unique enough as a character to warrant the distinction. He's an "extra," to put it bluntly, and FFG consistently fills in extras where they make sense.

@Coyote Walks: You say it's about the stories the cards are telling. I agree. But that doesn't mean the game can't tell stories about non-unique personalities; quite the opposite. L5R is all about the bit character arcs coming together to flesh out a greater whole, because it can't be the same main characters saving the Empire over and over. Longtooth , experienced from Unicorn War Dogs , is one example of what I'm talking about. Here's a situation where a specific member of the non-unique personality "rose from the pack" as it were, and became his own thing. (I thought Longtooth was the result of an "Experience a Personality" tournament but it does not seem to be noted as such; interesting.) In any case, this is what I imagine would happen if you liked a non-unique personality enough to award him or her story time as a prize: they would receive a future version with a proper name that in some way references the card that they grew out of (I don't see FFG using the Experienced mechanic as such, but I could be wrong there; I'd be happy either way).

A good post

I get that. I, myself, have had many games trying to explain which Kitsune Kohaki was defending where.

I would like to avoid what I see in Magic games (the card game king of Negative Play Experience) where Legends are too costly or way overpowered. Maybe that is a bad example, considering that the Magic storylines are completely ignorable and have nothing to do with gameplay.

I like the immersion. Nobody liked the faceless decks and I think I'll be sad/disappointed when I see my first opponent playing all Unnamed generics.

I can't say that I agree with this, even though it ends up siding with my position. The status quo is part of what lead AEG to sell off L5R and the more time I'm away from buying the CCG, the more I'm able to see it's glaring flaws.

The status quo is not our friend.

Agreed, however if they want to keep the spirit of the game they can't go around gutting everything just because they can. In this case in order to retain the fan base an approach of "If it's not broke don't fix it" I believe applies.

IMO it does kill immersion by having multiple named copies of a person in play. How can Doji Makoto win a battle in one place and die over here in another battle at the same time?

Now that you got me thinking about it though... It would make sense if we combine the two decks. Your idea here would make sense in that case:

If they go the route of 'Named' = Unique, I would like to see more Uniques and the unnamed to have a mechanic like....

• Niten Warrior has +1 Force while attached as a Follower to a Named Personality.

To be fair, my feeling was always that when you had non-unique personalities so you could have 3 per a deck, it was more that this card was representing a set of abilities or techniques that many individuals within the clan had and that only one of them (whichever survived longest, I suppose) actually represented that person while the other copies represented people with similar abilities/techniques.

I suppose if it really bugged you so much, you could stick a piece of paper in each of your card sleeves that gave a unique name to each of your copies of non-unique personalities. Some people might object to it calling it "marking your cards" and I am not sure I have a defense against it, but in my experience within your local playgroup if it is clear your aren't changing the mechanics of the cards you have just the name and/or artwork via a paper insert then most people won't object to it.