I'm just curious how the current L5R card game plays. I'm familiar with Magic, LOTR and Thrones and so I have a decent grasp of card games in general. What is the play structure etc.? Note that I'm not asking what you think the new LCG will be, I'm curious how the existing game works.
Thanks in advance. BT
As a person who doesn't play any game except L5R, I may not be the best person to explain this, but the very basic outline is as follows:
You have two decks: Dynasty (mostly Holdings (which allow you to buy things, and sometimes have special abilities) and Personalities (which are necessary to do anything, though 'faceless' decks have on occasion been viable) and Fate (Attachments and action cards). Some personalities and attachments have abilities, some only contribute Force (and/or Chi- Chi doesn't do anything on its own, but several action types key off it). The Dynasty deck is cycled through four Provinces, from which Dynasty cards are bought with gold from Holdings (everyone starts with one Clan-specific special holding, called the Stronghold). There are four ways of winning:
1) Honour- reach 40 Honour before your opponent. This generally means playing as many uncontested honour-gaining actions as possible, though some Honour decks depend to greater or lesser extents on in-battle gains, and preventing the other player from reaching their victory condition first. Several Clans have had access to Honour decks of one kind or another throughout the game's history.
2) Dishonour- push your opponent to -20 Honour. These decks are generally slower (though there is usually some degree of choice to focus on explosive but combo-dependent honour-losses, or smaller but more reliable losses), and often play markedly differently depending on their opponent's deck or Clan of choice. Only a few Clans have access to dishonour deck-types at any one time- it used to be pretty much only the Scorpion, but AEG made efforts to allow other Clans to play with it towards the end of their tenure of the IP.
3) Enlightenment- put all five Rings into play. Rings are special action cards, which can be played and discarded like any other for a one-off effect, or put into play if certain conditions (which change from edition to edition) are met, allowing their effect to be repeated. Enlightenment decks rely extremely heavily on Fate deck manipulation and card draw, to the point of being more or less completely unworkable without it. Traditionally, Enlightenment has been the hardest, and least-played, deck-type- only the Dragon Clan have ever really specialised in it, though it has been more or less possible for other Clan and deck-types at various times.
4) Military- destroy all 4 of your opponent's Provinces. Every Clan has always had more or less viable military options, and it has always been the core of the game. The Battle phase is quite complicated - probably too much so for this kind of brief overview - but the idea is basically to have more Force left unbowed (untapped?) at the end of the battle than your opponent. Since destroying Provinces reduces the opponent's ability to cycle through their Dynasty deck, as well as getting the Military player closer to their victory condition, it has usually been the most effective, and by far the most played, of all deck types, though other victory conditions have always been viable in one form or another.
I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for, and going into more detail risks getting quite complex quite quickly (it's not an excessively difficult game, just very difficult to explain without playing simultaneously), so I'll leave it there for now. Ask away if you have any other questions, and/or if I've completely missed the mark!
AEG released a learn to play set called A Matter of Honor to prepare for the 2014 release of Ivory Edition. They made a couple of YouTube videos to help new players learn to play. They follow a match between the Lion and Crab Clan decks in the Matter of Honor set. They don't provide the most in depth example of play, but they give a pretty decent visual of how combat works at least. There were some minor rules changes for Twenty Festivals in 2015, but for the most part this video is how the game is currently played saved for cards that have cycled out of the most current legality.
Intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iiqktGGafw
Advanced Rules (not nearly as good a video but does give some more information about the game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKLp6Jf_pqQ&feature=iv&src_vid=6iiqktGGafw&annotation_id=annotation_1259624157
Check my YT channel to see some L5R CCG gaming in Sun and Moon program: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBy7VjvtymXr4to2av9k7xw
There is a steep learning curve which alienates some new players but the roleplaying aspect (yes even in the ccg) is great!
I'm just curious how the current L5R card game plays. I'm familiar with Magic, LOTR and Thrones and so I have a decent grasp of card games in general. What is the play structure etc.? Note that I'm not asking what you think the new LCG will be, I'm curious how the existing game works.
Thanks in advance. BT
This is a little old and it has been some time since I played L5R but I'll give it a go.
Your deck is two decks. The Dynasty deck and The Fate Deck.
To compare to Magic the Dynasty deck is primarily your creatures (personalities) and mana (holdings.) The Fate Deck is your instants and sorceries (start duels, combat tricks, et al) and enchantments (weapons and followers to put on your personalities.) You have four provinces which you draw cards from your Dynasty deck into. Cards from your Fate Deck make up your hand.
You also have a House/Clan card which is a bit like having some land already in play to start a game. The House card "bows" (bow=tap) for gold (mana), gives a static global effect/triggered effect/activated effect, your starting honor, your province strength, and determines which cards you'll want in your Dynasty and Fate decks. Cards from different houses/clans don't typically play well together and there are typically drawbacks to trying to play cards from outside your clan in your deck.
You play cards from your provinces to increase your holdings allowing you to play your personalities. Your personalities then can be "pumped" and sent to attack your opponents provinces. You mostly win by destroying your opponent's provinces. See above for other victory conditions.
This is all set in a Samuraii/Kung Fu cinema "oriental" setting that includes various fantasy elements such as magical spells and undead creatures.
MTG was the first card game i played, followed my L5R and now Netrunner, so learning new systems outside of magic was difficult at first as not all games use a stack. I'll use MTG terms for simplicity as they function similarly in L5R with some differences, but none are incredibly important for a general explanation.
But essentially for L5R the game starts at being aware that there are Major clans (there are other factions, but for simplicity we'll start with the major clans). Each major clan has a central theme in how they play with different strengths and weakness. Each clan has a very unique tangible feel to how they play so your play style or your personality will usually determine which clan you prefer. You can splash creatures from other clans as long as they
do not have the loyal
tribal tag on their card. However out of clan creatures will cost you more gold(mana) to buy. Splashing creatures out of clan happens, but you're typically running your own clans creatures for the most part.
As others have mentioned your clan is constructed of two decks, one with creatures/lands called your dynasty deck, and the second with your enchantments, auras, sorceries, and instants. The major resource in the game is Gold, which can be equated to mana. But however instead of playing a land per turn you buy it. This is because everything has a gold cost(0-X). As you can imagine things that do more cost more. Land that produces more gold or has activated abilities cost more than straight gold producing lands for the same value, and the same can be said true for creatures. Bigger Better creatures cost more.
Your Fate deck(spells) contains more clan neutral cards. They often times might contain triggers for specific targets but can be used between each clan interchangeably for the most part. Oh, this fate card gives my Sugenja some cool ability? cool, every clan has creatures with the shugenja tribal that can be legal targets.
When the game starts you will have a stronghold that will determine your Clan Affiliationm, starting stats, produces gold, and has some sort of powerful effect. From your Dynasty deck you will place 4 facedown cards that represents provinces. You can buy what shows up in your provinces with the gold your lands produce. Each land produces a printed amount of gold per turn, so in that sense it works like mana, essentially tap to summon/cast. You can also play cards from your fate deck buying them as well if you have the gold to do so and the appropriate legal targets. It is important to note that many creatures in L5R are tribal, but unlike MTG they have the equivalent of a lot of tribes they belong to. I.E. MTG might say Human-Soldier whereas an l5r creature might have the following tribal tags, Shadowlands, Loyal, Experienced 2, Naval, Shugenja, Calvary, Monk, Kensai. This might seem confusing at first but many spells, enchantments, and sorcerys will require a tribal target to work. I.e. "Give your Monk + 5 Force at the current battlefield." Other tribal designations might have mechanics built in. I.E. a Kensai creature is allowed to equip two weapons (dual wield).
As you build up your forces you need to figure out how to are going to win. As others have already covered, you can win through military, Dishonoring your opponent, honoring yourself, or putting all 5 rings in play. There is plenty of support for each style (though winning through the 5 rings is pretty hard), and some clans are geared toward certain styles. i.e. Scorpion and Crane are the most political of the clans and the go to for winning through dishonor(scorpion) or honor(crane).
For military styles clans like the crab rely on giant beserker units with huge force values and crush provinces. Unicorn relies on Calvary unit and are able to redeploy their forces forcing you to make tough choices on how to defend your forces, and etc. Not to say these are the only styles of playing but very general ones.
When you send creatures (usually all banded together) to attack a province assuming they don't die and you win, they reuturn tapped and unless you have a card to untap them, they cannot participate in defense. Attachments such as weapons, followers(think of these as +x+x buffs that sometims confer activated tap abilities) also serve a dual purpose in that they protect your creatures as many times you have to peel away the layers of weapons, followers, enchantments before you can straight kill a creature. But most of this happens during the battle phase and is easier to be shown than explained. But just know that creatures often run around with a couple of enchantments attached to them and give them more more abilities, power/toughness, and also serve as an additional layer of protection.
With the basic game design in place the strategy starts in several phases. The first happen at deck building, Which clan do i pick? What Stronghold from in that clan? What gold scheme do i want? How do i want to achieve my victory with my Clan, Stronghold, and strategy? Let's say i want to play as the Spider Clan utilizing Kensai (monks who can dual wield weapon enchantments). Turns out there's a stronghold that allows me to recur weapons? Excellent! Time to find some Spider creatures with Kensai tribal, Some weapons to equip, some lands for gold, some spells that allow me to buff/manipulate monks/kensai or battlefield manipulation in general, and other creatures with annoying abilities.
Want to make a deck around dishonor? There's a scorpion stronghold that tacks on an extra point of dishonor when i play certain cards and gives my enemies creatures -power if they're dishonored? Excellent, let's build a deck around dishonoring my opponents creatures and cards that will trigger my stronholds ability, and speed up the rate at which they get dishonored.
The second phase of strategy is during gameplay. As a military deck, or any deck in general, you have to look at your windows for scoring. And this is the hardest part of the game. Knowing when you can relatively safely win an engagement, start your dishonor engine without suddenly finding yourself losing two provinces. Destroy a province profitably without suddenly finding yourself completely open to a counterattack.