Sure, the idea was supposed to be that dueling was "risky" and so that is why it awarded better-- but it was rarely actually risky in any way at all.

That was often because most decks (outside of Tacticians, Dueling and possibly Enlightenment) did not care about Focus Values. Cards with 0s 1s and 2s were supposed to be "strong but make you vulnerable to dueling," but the meta made FV meaningless so everyone loaded up on them.

Most Crane characters that they are going to duel with either start 6 chi higher than any opponent they are likely to ever face from most clans or they somehow jump to 6 points higher than the opponent immediately after ending the duel. Focus values mean nothing, in fact-- having high focus values is just likely to get someone to discard their hand because they foolishly think they have a chance at all rather than just surrendering the personality without a fight because they are going to lose regardless.

A person is FAR less likely to have any sort of meta in their hands than a duelist deck is to have a card to ensure they win the duel even if it looks even. Because the more meta cards you need to carry in your deck means less cards to focus on your specialty.

But, I get it-- you only ever played Crane and imagine the whole universe revolves around yourself.

But, I get it-- you only ever played Crane and imagine the whole universe revolves around yourself.

Really? You fall on that kind of stuffs? How about you bring something more decent in argumentation? Why am I saying this? Look below.

Most Crane characters that they are going to duel with either start 6 chi higher than any opponent they are likely to ever face from most clans

May you point me how this is possible in the last edition? Maybe that was possible when you were playing, but most of the time, in Ivory/Twenty Festivals, it wasn't the case, unless it was the Clan Champion with a +2 Chi item or with at least 2 +2 chi items (Armor and weapon). Don't talk about the kensai possibility because the only playable Crane kensai in the last edition is Kakita Daitsu (and his experienced version) but has a special rule that says: "Daitsu will only attach one weapon"... So yeah, in the end, it's not that huge of a gap at the start as you're saying. And I do still have my Duelist Crane Deck, that's because I like most clans and I like to have different playstyle with different deck.

However, I'll also bring up that's mainly the only way to play as a Crane... Can they at least be good at it? Sure, they started to bring the Artisan Dishonor deck, but their main playstyle was the dueling/honor deck. Most other Clans have at least 2 main playstyle, but Crane, remove their dueling strength, they have nothing at all.

Now, I'll say it again, how about you bring something more decent with proof in your argumentation, instead of going with some low quality insults?

--------------------------------

On a side note, while I'm on this topic, I'll at least answer to the topic, since it's been off-topic for a while.

While my favorite clan is Crab, I didn't like the last edition theme, which was the fortification/honor theme, doesn't fit much in my opinion. I wanted to try the Berserker theme, but didn't have the cards to build it, so I went with the Shugenja Buffboyz theme. It was fun, even if I didn't have everything I've wanted, but fun never the less.

I tried to have different decks with different playstyle (as stated above). Some were great, some were okay-ish. Here's the list:

Crane - Dueling/Honor (Great deck)

Dragon - Dueling/Enlightment (Fun deck)

Lion - Blitz deck (Weak but fun, mainly due to the lack of good cards to finish it)

Mantis - Economic bomber (Fun deck, but heavily relied on luck-based to win! Haha!)

Scorpion - Yojimbo/dishonor (Weak, mainly because I should have focus on one side, not both)

Pheonix - Yojimbo/Nuke Shugenja (Fun deck)

I'll probably just play 2 or 3 clans in LCG, depending on how the game is made, but I'll keep a Crab deck 100% sure!

But, I get it-- you only ever played Crane and imagine the whole universe revolves around yourself.

Really? You fall on that kind of stuffs? How about you bring something more decent in argumentation? Why am I saying this? Look below.

Most Crane characters that they are going to duel with either start 6 chi higher than any opponent they are likely to ever face from most clans

May you point me how this is possible in the last edition? Maybe that was possible when you were playing, but most of the time, in Ivory/Twenty Festivals, it wasn't the case, unless it was the Clan Champion with a +2 Chi item or with at least 2 +2 chi items (Armor and weapon). Don't talk about the kensai possibility because the only playable Crane kensai in the last edition is Kakita Daitsu (and his experienced version) but has a special rule that says: "Daitsu will only attach one weapon"... So yeah, in the end, it's not that huge of a gap at the start as you're saying. And I do still have my Duelist Crane Deck, that's because I like most clans and I like to have different playstyle with different deck.

However, I'll also bring up that's mainly the only way to play as a Crane... Can they at least be good at it? Sure, they started to bring the Artisan Dishonor deck, but their main playstyle was the dueling/honor deck. Most other Clans have at least 2 main playstyle, but Crane, remove their dueling strength, they have nothing at all.

Now, I'll say it again, how about you bring something more decent with proof in your argumentation, instead of going with some low quality insults?

--------------------------------

On a side note, while I'm on this topic, I'll at least answer to the topic, since it's been off-topic for a while.

While my favorite clan is Crab, I didn't like the last edition theme, which was the fortification/honor theme, doesn't fit much in my opinion. I wanted to try the Berserker theme, but didn't have the cards to build it, so I went with the Shugenja Buffboyz theme. It was fun, even if I didn't have everything I've wanted, but fun never the less.

I tried to have different decks with different playstyle (as stated above). Some were great, some were okay-ish. Here's the list:

Crane - Dueling/Honor (Great deck)

Dragon - Dueling/Enlightment (Fun deck)

Lion - Blitz deck (Weak but fun, mainly due to the lack of good cards to finish it)

Mantis - Economic bomber (Fun deck, but heavily relied on luck-based to win! Haha!)

Scorpion - Yojimbo/dishonor (Weak, mainly because I should have focus on one side, not both)

Pheonix - Yojimbo/Nuke Shugenja (Fun deck)

I'll probably just play 2 or 3 clans in LCG, depending on how the game is made, but I'll keep a Crab deck 100% sure!

I stopped playing due to pressures around the beginning of Samurai edition.

But as of Gold/Diamond, it was really **** easy to get Crane cards that had massively more chi than any clan other then Phoenix. The personalities had no force, but they certainly had chi in abundance. Weapon equipping helped and usually there were other cards you could use to boost your chi, if temporarily, either before entering a duel or a card you could play to massively boost your chi after entering the duel.

I played dueling decks, granted-- mostly in Jade and Gold, and I never had any trouble beating my opponent's chi by at least 5 points-- so unless I was facing a dueling deck, I got an easy win-- often being able to pretty easily destroy a unit of half a dozen card that easily could have taken a province and getting at least 5 honor for playing a single card.

Nevermind how broken things could become with a ninja duelist and a bloodblade or something. Unlimited duels the opponent couldn't win and each one boosting the character by +2/+2.

Now, later editions Cranes did get hurt it seems, I never really played them in Diamond and I gave up too early in Samurai to see how things panned out. I usually played a deck that could hit so hard so quickly out the gate that they broke Crane before they could get going, had so many personalities that it didn't matter if a couple got taken out, hit with early dishonor that effectively made it so they couldn't get any personality cards in play and/or was a shugenja deck that had plenty of chi and didn't give any good targets.

In fact, the reason Diamond Edition hit Crane so badly was because it was designed in such a way that it wasn't even remotely difficult to take a province on turn 2 with most military decks. By the time the Crane could even duel, there was a good chance they would be down a province. And that meant that their ability to generate honor for the rest of the game was down to worse than 75% of what they would get if they had all 4 provinces. Before that edition, it was only accidental fluke card combinations that created that effect.

But, really, someone posting under a Crane mon saying that all anyone has to do in order to win a duel is to have any half-decent focus values and focus or should automatically be filling their deck with enough meta to keep up with all the duels that could issue seems from my experience someone who really doesn't have a clue what it is like being on the other side of the table-- neither is a viable option because you need to be able to compete against decks that don't duel as well. Certainly high focus values might be advice you can give to Lion (possibly, they tend to have crappy chi as well), Phoenix or Dragon-- but the other 6 Clans? Not really a viable option.

Crab especially. It is slow to get going, you are really forced to invest quite a lot into single personalities that have absolutely no chi value whatsoever. And any weapons or followers you equip are just a waste of gold when someone can pick out anyone with low chi and kill them instantly.

I believe Spider is meant to be more balanced than the insanity that was Shadowlands, but I never got enough experience with them to be able to tell. The only decks I ever saw that were "Spider" were just traditional Shadowlands who had goblins (or was it oni) whose power grew exponentially as more and more creatures could be played for near free and grew every round for being in play.

Meta in general got out of control. The fact that decks were allowed to get away with "we basically automatically win no matter what else you got unless you have precisely the right counter-card that can be utilized pretty much only against this deck and are lucky enough to draw it on turn 1 or 2" is generally poor design. Open format basically became a bunch of "wins on turn 2-3 unless you have the one possible countercard and can ignore anything else you do" decks.

Expecting people to cram their decks full of anti-dueling meta is no different than expecting them to also cram it full of anti-shadowlands meta and anti-tactician meta and anti-cavalry meta and anti-naval meta and anti-dishonor meta and anti-spell meta.... at which point unless your deck is a type that can play entirely from your Dynasty deck because you have no more room in your fate deck for anything but meta-- and you'd best hope that at least one of the three meta cards you need against your opponent appears in your top 8 cards because-- otherwise you are doomed anyway regardless of your precautions.

I stopped playing due to pressures around the beginning of Samurai edition.

Things changed a lot in Ivory and Twenty Festivals. While your complains may fit for the beginning of Samurai edition, It's far from being the same in the latest editions. I guess you should take a look at the latest editions... It's hard to follow up since you talk about something around 2007, which is almost 10 years ago. The game changes and evolved. Some for the best, some for the worst. Sadly, there's no perfect game.

However, this is my last post about that, because that's off-topic.

@The Hobgoblyn

I stopped playing due to pressures around the beginning of Samurai edition.

Things changed a lot in Ivory and Twenty Festivals. While your complains may fit for the beginning of Samurai edition, It's far from being the same in the latest editions. I guess you should take a look at the latest editions... It's hard to follow up since you talk about something around 2007, which is almost 10 years ago. The game changes and evolved. Some for the best, some for the worst. Sadly, there's no perfect game.

However, this is my last post about that, because that's off-topic.

This.

After very crazy Lotus edition, Samurai was full stop edition. It speeded up in Celestial and reached crazyness of Lotus in Emperor Edition. Then everything slow down in Ivory/Twenty Festivals. Incoming Onyx edition was described by playtesters as Celestial+ in term of speed and power level. So as you see L5R was designed in cycles from slow to fast editions. Good ideas were mixed with bad ones. That's why i loved this game, because it was a bit chaotic with all these ruleset changes etc. I think that was one of the reasons this game survived for 20 year, becasue how many times you could utilize this basic 2F/3C Samurai with same rules again and again?

Mantis, because we are the Storm!!!

Scorpion, cause ninjas rule.

I've always liked Mantis specifically because of the Tsuruchi and their ranged attacks (though Kitsune were fun, too)! My favorite deck involved having just enough force to threaten a province, encouraging the opponent to defend, then firing a bunch of arrows and killing enemy soldiers before running home. Eventually, the constant attrition would (ideally) allow me to build up my army enough to not have to run, though Unicorn blitz decks that built up quickly were always a pain (then again, aren't cavalry the natural counter to archers in any game?)

Haven't played before but LOVE the look of the Scorpion Clan. Dishonor, manipulation, assassination, seduction, woo!

Even the name of this Scorpion web site rocks:

http://dojooflies.com/

Played everything through Jade but have always favored the Phoenix and enjoyed some form of Dragon monk deck along the way.

Crane. Dueling, taking that Imperial Favor, Iron Crane scout shenanigans. Doesn't matter.

And some Unicorn Rush in Ivory.

It's been years since I've visited Rokugan, but when I did play I used all the clans at one point. My favorite clan was the Dragon,**** I miss Togashi Mitsu and all his fire tokens...which leads me to ask...Would you rather see the game continue where it left off or do a total reboot back to the days of Mitsu,Yokuni,Hoturi,Toturi and the others from where it all began?

I...which leads me to ask...Would you rather see the game continue where it left off or do a total reboot back to the days of Mitsu,Yokuni,Hoturi,Toturi and the others from where it all began?

I would rather the new game stand on it's own, with as few grumblings about how it was 'all better the first time around' as possible.

A time skip forward to the end of the thirteenth century may be in order.

A time skip forward to the end of the thirteenth century may be in order.

That would be quite a timeskip! I could see 10 or 20 years, but 100? ****, son!

It's been years since I've visited Rokugan, but when I did play I used all the clans at one point. My favorite clan was the Dragon,**** I miss Togashi Mitsu and all his fire tokens...which leads me to ask...Would you rather see the game continue where it left off or do a total reboot back to the days of Mitsu,Yokuni,Hoturi,Toturi and the others from where it all began?

I'd like to see it continue where the previous one left, and not just because I have a personal stake in it (due to the last Winter Court), but I think one of the biggest strengths of L5R over the years was its sense of a continued story.

Yeah, cut/reboot a storyline and upset lot of people at the start!

Yeah, cut/reboot a storyline and upset lot of people at the start!

No matter what they do a fair number of people will be upset at the start. The question will be if the influx of brand new players who join will be greater than the number of upset players who do not return depending on the choices made.

Yeah, cut/reboot a storyline and upset lot of people at the start!

No matter what they do a fair number of people will be upset at the start. The question will be if the influx of brand new players who join will be greater than the number of upset players who do not return depending on the choices made.

New players won't care if it will be reboot or not.

New players won't care if it will be reboot or not.

Those who enjoy storylines will care if the new games starts off as a confused, jumbled mess.

The LCG would benefit from having a solid jumping off point for people to get into the story. Here are the Clans, this is why they fight, rumblings of something bigger on the horizon.

I don't think it is reasonable to expect FFG to pick right up from where AEG dropped the ball on September 11th, 2015. They'll need creative space in which to craft the new story.

To be perfectly accurate, September 11th was the day they announced the license transfer. Any storyline balls that may have been dropped, were dropped much sooner. If you're referring to the license transfer itself, I would have to disagree: they recognized their handling of the license was not what it could be, and rather than let it stagnate and die, they sold it to a company that they saw as capable of continuing L5R.

I think there would need to be some rearrangement of the story overall. Maybe instead of the Spider invading immediately, the empire just loses contact with the colonial Spider as a whole. The Seiken Reforms are taking up all of the clans attention so they pay little attention to what's going on in the colonies. The empire Spider give warning over a few years that "Hey, the conquerors aren't responding to my messages" but they're Spider, so what does the empire care.

Then a few years down the line, once things settle down in the empire the colonies go quiet as a whole...

But this entire discussion is off topic. Favorite clan? Sparrow.

Yeah, cut/reboot a storyline and upset lot of people at the start!

No matter what they do a fair number of people will be upset at the start. The question will be if the influx of brand new players who join will be greater than the number of upset players who do not return depending on the choices made.

New players won't care if it will be reboot or not.

New players will care plenty -- and not be new players for long -- if a brand-new game requires more reading and study then university exams.

A fresh start is the only sensible choice. Cut those apron strings and all the cruft and complications of the setting, story and timeline in recent times can be moved past.

Extensive time jump seems very likely.

Extensive time jump seems very likely.

Yes, and that's that should be best compromise.

Assuming there's a timeskip, if the Spider still exist from the outset (rather than being obliterated offscreen), a storyline bone ought to be thrown to their playerbase to compensate for the fact that the narrative is stepping right over their time in the spotlight.