So I was on the Crab Clan Forum getting a link and decided to poke around for any new posts. You know what I found? A link to the last fictions written by the AEG Story Team.
Go check them out here .
Last AEG Fictions
Mark your calendars, a Mantis said something I actually consider awe-inspiring. A Yoritomo, even!
Maybe because they finally learned how to whisper instead of bellowing and thumping their chests.
Mark your calendars, a Mantis said something I actually consider awe-inspiring. A Yoritomo, even!
Maybe because they finally learned how to whisper instead of bellowing and thumping their chests.
Noted....
But I am still really glad that FFG bought L5R. This reads to me like AEG saying We'll get back to the Mantis in four or five years. Maybe.
I see now that the arrogant attitude that
certain
fans have towards the Kitsune was also held by the old story team. The family that many Mantis grew to love and cherish, treated in such a one dimensional fashion. Like they are some bit a flash from a miniature, needing to be removed.
Tch
It's no wonder that the Kitsune were never seen as full members of the Clan, when the old story team wouldn't treat them as such.
Mark your calendars, a Mantis said something I actually consider awe-inspiring. A Yoritomo, even!
Maybe because they finally learned how to whisper instead of bellowing and thumping their chests.
Noted....
But I am still really glad that FFG bought L5R.
Even if they cut Mantis for sure?
Well, I only read the Mantis Fiction, but from the look of it, the Mantis could be gone, or at least the Yoritomo.
I'll read the rest of the fictions when I have more time, but so far, has it been announced somewhere by FFG that their L5R game will take the storyline where AEG dropped it?
Been looking for such a statement but haven't found one so far.
Even if they cut Mantis for sure?
Are you asking if I think it is better to know for certain that the Mantis and my beloved Kitsune are gone, or to wait in limbo for four to six years as AEG 'gets around to" making a decision? I'd respect FFG if they tell us out right who is in and who is out. Better than waiting around for promises that will never be kept.
I made the fictions available on Kaze no Shiro.
As for the fiction themselves, I liked them a lot. Onyx Edition definitely had a lot of potential. I am sad to see it never come to fruition, since I really think that Fantasy Flight games will reboot the setting. I just can't see them wanting to maintain 20 years of story baggage. A reboot will allow new players to come into L5R more easily while maintaining the setting itself for older players. If they do Onyx edition, I won't be disappointed though. :-D
Even if they cut Mantis for sure?
Are you asking if I think it is better to know for certain that the Mantis and my beloved Kitsune are gone, or to wait in limbo for four to six years as AEG 'gets around to" making a decision? I'd respect FFG if they tell us out right who is in and who is out. Better than waiting around for promises that will never be kept.
Ex-Mantis families were meant to be supported by Senseis in Onyx edition (starting with Moshi in base set).
Ex-Mantis families....
Them there fighin' words. I'd even fight for the Moshi. Even though they would never fight for me.
.... were meant to be supported by Senseis in Onyx edition.
Which has never publicly seen the light of day. Those who have seen it won't, or can't, share it. And even if it did come out, somehow, no one in Portland is willing to touch it or play with proxies of it.
Gencon is this week. Looking forward to whatever glimpses of the new L5R that FFG is going to share.
As a proud supporter of the Mantis Clan seeing how bravely the Yoritomo fought for the other Mantis Families was something that I truly loved. That is what the Mantis are about, the Lords dying for the sake of their followers, that is what Yoritomo did after all when he declared he was his twenty strongest. When this other random Yoritomo betrayed the ideals of the clan I understood why the other families would seek to leave the Mantis Clan. The epilogue as it was shows that there is still hope from among the Mantis. Yes they are severely weakened, but their is still hope for the Mantis to grow in power again. It is my hope that with their now being a Clan Champion again then the other families will reunite with the rest of the Clan.
If this is where FFG starts the new LCG from I will not be to upset, as it will let us rebuild the Mantis as the heroes to the Empire that we deserve to be seen as. After all look at what we did for the other clans, look at what we did for the Empire. Finally a story-line of the Clans fighting to retake Rokugan would be a new and interesting story-line to be a part of. The danger of the Shadowlands being truly seen again, hell if it would be easier we can do the first cycle building up our forces in the colonies, and the second cycle the beginning of this new war.
If only we knew :
- whether or not the storyline will be rebooted;
- whether or not the players will be able to affect the story.
I've been a Mantis player for years, from Jade Edition to the end of Lotus (when I took an hiatus from the game) and in Emperor Edition, before joining the Unicorn when Cavalry became interesting. I'll be sad to see them leave the game, but it happened before, and it doesn't mean they won't come back later.
But yes, let's hope GenCon will bring a few answers...
If only we knew :
- whether or not the players will be able to affect the story.
I would not expect to see much if anything at gencon. Still a long time and a lot of work to go before they'd have any kind of finished product and design.
crossposting this from the spider boards, since there seems to be more conversation about this here than there:
This is a super cool thing of you guys to give us. Thanks to you and the whole fiction team, really.
some thoughts, about both this in specific and i guess ivory in general. spoilers is guess?
- seeing the arc in a neat package, i think people would have been really happy with how it went, despite the destruction. the scorpion pulled an epic win out on the spider, and the mantis went out in a fashion that absolutely honored their founder.
- personally, i really like the explanation that Iweko, needing the spider's help, foresaw the possibility of betrayal and planned to try and "corrupt" as much of the spider to Rokugani ways. thats a nice inversion, and explains a somewhat questionable choice to make the deal in the first place.
- that said, i'm sure that the old AEG forums would not have been placated
- up to this point, i didn't really get or buy the split in the spider. the susumu's dual loyalty was traditional but otherwise it seemed kind of forced. but i get it now. in the context of these fictions it works.
- Nitoshi redeeming Shoju is just great. Just great. that whole fic is great. i'm not sure i entirely buy Kanpeki being that gullible, but bringing two champions' heads is a pretty impressive bribe. i guess i can see Kanpeki thinking he could control Nitoshi and underestimating how much he'd be willing to sacrifice. i love how the rest of the scorpion save themselves.
- on the negative side, i don't like the depiction of Kanpeki here. the fictions have always walked a fine line between portraying him as a hulking bruiser and the intersection of all the training the spider and dragon had to offer, even before his "fall". i don't buy that adding the taint would suddenly wash away all that subtlety just because he's got muscles. Especially since the source of said taint is his father, who is unlikely to nuke his brain.
- YUHMI IS A BOSS
- SO IS TAIRAO. Towing an elemental master's arm around like a magic wand is so ******* chuda i can't handle it.
- the time jump at the end, implying an empire in exile in the colonies, with the further implication that this is the whole purpose of the clearing of the colonies, as a place for the survivors of Rokugan to flee to should the seals be broken as the Empress had feared, is good.
- all in all the end of ivory wraps up the arc really nicely. taken as a whole, it works really well, and resolves a lot of the problems people had with the arc.
at the end of the day, mechanically, i really loved where ivory and onyx were going, and this bundle of fictions makes me like ivory a lot more than i had while it was unrolling. For most of ivory, i had a lot of beef. Emperor ended on such a high note for the spider (edit: not because we won, but because Daigotsu's apotheosis really opened up so many narrative doors, and the concept of a great clan spider had so much potential), but for most of it we really felt left hung out to dry. The story team though the last year or so before the sale really stepped it up for us.
generally though, with some time and distance, i gotta say that on the whole i didn't love Kanpeki. This is likely a consequence of my abiding passion for Daigotsu, and the fact that they are nearly polar opposites. The son of two of the most powerful Shugenja of all time, one now a god (dark fortune, whatever) and the other a dark fortune turning out to be a pro wrestler who barely mentioned his parents just felt wrong to me. saying it like this, i guess i wanted more of his father in him, or for him to pay more attention to his lineage. Which arguably was never going to happen, given a) how ragingly unpopular Daigotsu was by the end and b) that he was raised by Daigotsu's enemies. But it just felt wrong to me. I think there were other ways they could have gone with him. Honestly, Shibatsu felt more like Daigotsu's heir than Kanpeki at times.
tl;dr - i wanted more daigotsu from Kanpeki, but that was never gonna happen. The end of ivory ties it all together in a really excellent fashion, resolving a lot of the threads started as far back as Gp4. Mad Props to the fiction team.
Oh wow. Now I feel that my "Imperial Histories III" pitch for "Obsidian Empire" from a year ago was ominous, with Rokugan exiled in the Ivory Kingdoms and all!
I must admit, I almost enjoyed the Unicorn/Phoenix story. And in an unironical way, no less.
I must admit, I almost enjoyed the Unicorn/Phoenix story. And in an unironical way, no less.
I was quietly amused that the choice of the Unicorn playerbase ended up steering Shinjo Min-Hee toward being a kinslayer...
Overall I liked the fictions.
I liked the setup for the Unicorn civil war and the explanation of the Moto Curse functioning similarly to the Yogo Curse.
Nitoshi's story was probably my favorite of the bunch. Lot of stuff to like there and with the Scorpion making use of the Eye I'm hopeful it'll return to it's rightful owners eventually.
I found the fate of the Mantis to be very cathartic.
My only big issue was the theme that shugenja shouldn't be used for military purposes since I'm fairly pragmatic in that regard.
I could have also used more Crab, but seeing Makoto is always nice and even Demi-sama got to cameo so I'm content.
My only big issue was the theme that shugenja shouldn't be used for military purposes since I'm fairly pragmatic in that regard.
Eh...self-defense and blessings on the army were both considered acceptable. I think it's more that shugenja are not supposed to use the kami as weapons against fellow (mostly) honorable samurai.
I really liked Koharu's story! The "Many decades later..." bodes well for a storyline reboot by FFG.
FFG actually had very little to do with this... officially (read:Legally) this is simply really good fanfiction.
What I meant is that a time lapse at the end of AEG's take on the story could be a sign of where FFG will take us.
Although I really liked the Seven Thunders arc, a reboot is ok by me.
really good fanfiction.
You don't read many fanfics, do you?
Maybe your sample has been less craptious than mine, but I've read enough to call this better than the overwhelming majority I've been forced to endure.
I really enjoyed those stories. Some of the most exciting since Hidden Emperor storyline days. The grammar errors regularity made me cringe however.