Is it just me or has FFG done nothing to hype us up about the new L5R that will be releasing next year? There wasn't even anything at gencon about it either. If any one has any news or recent updates please send me the link.

They won't release news until there is some.

Well youd think that when they bought the rights to it, they would have had some type of plan for it. Just saying its been a while, even some spoilers about some of the mechanics that run the game would be a nice teaser. Its been almost a year im sure they have something, especially if they plan to release next year.

It's still a long way and a lot of work to go.

Is it just me or has FFG done nothing to hype us up about the new L5R that will be releasing next year? There wasn't even anything at gencon about it either. If any one has any news or recent updates please send me the link.

(This is Trevor). It takes time to prep a game. After getting the rights, hashing out all of the legal issues, taking inventory of what they have, and then redesigning the game all takes a while. Even the most die-hard players know that the game had issues that needed correcting that AEG simply could do without a hard stop to re-tool things, which they couldn't do as long as they wanted new cards to be compatible with older ones. FFG has a golden oppertunity to properly re-balance and test the game before launching.

Also, they have the good sense not to talk about things until they are ready. Companies who start talking about things too early end up in trouble when the things they talk about early on change in development. Especially if you hype up the base who will do nothing but eat up every drop of info they get and theory craft some utopian scenario that nothing can live up to. An excitement that is really hard to maintain for 2 years because they don't have anything solid to share. Besides, they have other products out right now that they would much rather focus on instead of something that wont even be out for another year.

Now THAT is more like it.

Well youd think that when they bought the rights to it, they would have had some type of plan for it. Just saying its been a while, even some spoilers about some of the mechanics that run the game would be a nice teaser. Its been almost a year im sure they have something, especially if they plan to release next year.

its gonna be a long, hard road for l5r fans to adjust to the new world of FFG style management after years of being in a dysfunctional, borderline abusive relationship with AEG. resetting expectations around previews, communications, fan interaction, etc is gonna produce a really bitchy and loud minority on forums who aren't down with the changes.

Well youd think that when they bought the rights to it, they would have had some type of plan for it. Just saying its been a while, even some spoilers about some of the mechanics that run the game would be a nice teaser. Its been almost a year im sure they have something, especially if they plan to release next year.

As has been pointed out in this forum (and other forums, if you follow L5R news) multiple times, that's not how FFG does their business. They will say nothing, and preview nothing, until they have the product already in post-assembly at the printer, and then start a roughly three-month countdown of more-or-less biweekly preview articles on the front page of the homeship. They *do* have a plan for marketing L5R, and it will be the same plan they follow for every other one of their games.

On the rare occasions when something *very* unusual happens to a game in post-production, they will give their fans an update without a front-page update, but there will still be no mechanics or art previews. Last time I can remember that was when their Star Wars LCG was demoed and was coming out, but in a co-operative mode, not the competitive style that the game actually ended up. The development team found that the game came across so badly when released to the wild that they scrapped *the entire game*, went back to the drawing boards, and came out, months later, with the Star Wars LCG that we eventually have today. Scrapping the entire game design, setting their entire release schedule into limbo, and redoing the entire game, warranted a small notice on the web site to update fans on why the promised release date would not be made. Hopefully the same won't happen to L5R, but believe me, if the design team decides to pull the release at the last moment, they will, and then there will be about another year of waiting here without any other news except "We're working on making the game even better".

FFG is not AEG, especially in corporate culture. Get used to it.

Well youd think that when they bought the rights to it, they would have had some type of plan for it. Just saying its been a while, even some spoilers about some of the mechanics that run the game would be a nice teaser. Its been almost a year im sure they have something, especially if they plan to release next year.

As has been pointed out in this forum (and other forums, if you follow L5R news) multiple times, that's not how FFG does their business. They will say nothing, and preview nothing, until they have the product already in post-assembly at the printer, and then start a roughly three-month countdown of more-or-less biweekly preview articles on the front page of the homeship.

This. FFG takes its time and works with a very small hype window.

I do not mind the hype delay as it shortens the time Spider players have to complain that their so-called clan has been redacted to the Shadowlands. Do not get me wrong, as a Phoenix, I embrace the knowledge of the Shadowlands!

Game is pre-released at Gencon - August 2017 - and probably the full release shortly after, around Sept/Oct.

They've got literally nothing to gain from building hype/giving previews this early out.

Announced Sept 2015

Released August 2017

So 23 months.

- Minus approx 6 months for printing and shipping leaving
- 17 months for:

- complete redevelopment of the game from the ground up,
- bringing together design and development teams from across the company that has tons of other lcgs and product lines,
- ironing out any kinks in the acquisition of the IP,
- presumably getting all the new art and graphic design sorted
- a period of playtesting and redevelopment

Makes sense to me

FFG used to like to have around 6 months of previews/news trickling through between announcement and release, but in recent times that's shrunk to around 2 months (see recent IA releases and Arkham Horror LCG) So we're likely to see previews around May 2017 at the earliest?

Tiny hype https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/9/2/the-stories-of-games/ L5R and Rokugan mentioned...

I do not mind the hype delay as it shortens the time Spider players have to complain that their so-called clan has been redacted to the Shadowlands. Do not get me wrong, as a Phoenix, I embrace the knowledge of the Shadowlands!

That's a helpful comment. Exactly the kind of trash that made the AEG forums a welcoming and supportive environment

What do we prefer?

- A huge hype with hints of the direction of the game and lots of nice features that ends up not being in the game? (Think about No Man's Sky)

or

- Few to no hype until the core game is in their polishing state revealing the game as it is?

In my opinion, right now, I don't mind the no hype, even if I thought I would have some info on a general idea at Gencon 2016 like: "Will a game will be more friendly for 3+ players?" or "Will there be all Great Clans right off the start?", etc. In other words, simply the general idea of the biggest changes, based on the old game. But now that we know that there was nothing, I'm fine with it.

I do not mind the hype delay as it shortens the time Spider players have to complain that their so-called clan has been redacted to the Shadowlands. Do not get me wrong, as a Phoenix, I embrace the knowledge of the Shadowlands!

Considering how ingrained the Spider clan and Mon is now associated with the Shadowlands and Kanpeki's relevance in the after destroyer war era as the champion of the Spider, I have no doubt that should they implement the shadowlands as a formal faction in the game it will be a Hordes/TheLost combination with the mon and name of Spider clan and with the flavor and awesomeness of the Hordes/Lost. This is especially likely if they stay in the post-destroyer war era. Giving Shadowland Hordes a clan name was one of the few actually smart moves since celestial and the best move in Onyx was going to have been the merging of the best of both worlds as we were seeing happen. Seeing as they have mentioned the colonies when they originally bought the IP its probably going to still have the Spider clan involved in some way or sort, as the Spider are how the colonies happened in the first place.

But Spider persecution went out the window the minute Thunderous Acclaim came out and Spider turned back into the glorious hordes of yonder. Unless your talking about the "walk the light"ers... in which case I was cool with their little online rebellion until they had my favorite courtiers taken from me... right when they were going to be the most relevant... let them rage all they want .

I just want them to give me back my Susumu courtiers and dark paragons and they can make the rest as Hordesy as they want.

___________________________________________

As for hype...

- A huge hype with hints of the direction of the game and lots of nice features that ends up not being in the game? (Think about No Man's Sky)

or

- Few to no hype until the core game is in their polishing state revealing the game as it is?

The reference to No Man's Sky, a game so hyped that it destroyed the game on launch, is what I feel would happen.

Granted, I miss the old, "spoilers for sets going up on clan forums at midnight over a month and staying up with friends to see them, card a day with the names spoiled so hype went nuts, various fan pages getting a card here and there to tease" era but this is probably better in the long run as those days were nuts. I expect them to hype around April-May period and then go on from there. Anything earlier and I really don't think they would have answers to any questions, and anything they DID say would be taken so far it would drive probably negative perceptions of the game.

How many clans is a big example, if they said "all 9 Great Clans are in" already you would have grumbles from players who left because of the Mantis or how they feel about Spider. Imagine if they said "Only 7 were in" that would invoke far more controversy as well, leading people to conclusions about timeline, mechanics, and everything else. I know players that would flat out complain all the way until release or just give up on the game right now if their favorite faction was shown to not be relevant or even present in the game. The longer FFG wait the more likely they are able to express their vision, with all the features and traits, to try to encourage those players that would normally oppose their decisions to still stick around. First impressions mean everything, especially with a classic IP like L5R being reintroduction to the gaming market at large.

It would be NICE to have a little bit of info, but too much info or the wrong info I could easily see as toxic to them in the long run.

I know some people will never let go of the old Shadowlands, but they never really worked well within the clan structure of the game. I doubt FFG would go backwards with the game just to appeal to a niche crowd.

With the hype issue, why not have some early previews that simply take a look at the changes in the lore and the upcoming setting? Later on, in accordance with their usual preview style, actually show us the new game, individual clan mechanics, and everything else?

I know some people will never let go of the old Shadowlands, but they never really worked well within the clan structure of the game. I doubt FFG would go backwards with the game just to appeal to a niche crowd.

With the hype issue, why not have some early previews that simply take a look at the changes in the lore and the upcoming setting? Later on, in accordance with their usual preview style, actually show us the new game, individual clan mechanics, and everything else?

i think the thing people are gonna hafta get used to is separating what is theoretically a good idea from FFG SOP. they have a system, as has been described above, and thus far only in EXTREME circumstance has it been deviated from. The fact that we're used to a different style doesn't qualify, i don't think.

that said, there is a caveat. With everything else FFG has done so far, its been licensed properties. L5R is their first totally owned world. while we should be careful about assuming that will mean the game will be treated any differently, i would say there is a very remote chance that it could. personally, i don't think it will. but if you are dead set on holding out hope for l5r to be treated differently than any of the other FFG properties, that would be the thing you probably want to hold on to.

It's not their first wholly owned world. Lcg or otherwise. For LCGs they fully own Netrunner setting and for Arkham Horror the setting and the mechanics are all theirs. For other games they have all the Rune-- stuff which is all set in their own world of Terrinoth.

I'd rather see the old Shadowlands return. I hated what aeg did to them.

It's not their first wholly owned world. Lcg or otherwise. For LCGs they fully own Netrunner setting and for Arkham Horror the setting and the mechanics are all theirs. For other games they have all the Rune-- stuff which is all set in their own world of Terrinoth.

I'd rather see the old Shadowlands return. I hated what aeg did to them.

they don't own the netrunner setting, its licensed from wizards. Arkham Horror is likewise owned by a company called Skotos. i dunno about runebound, but at the time of the sale they made a big deal of the fact that L5R was their first fully owned property.

Isn't Lovecraft stuff public domain?

Isn't Lovecraft stuff public domain?

lovecraft is, but the arkham horror game and the various specifics to it aren't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkham_Horror has the full history, which is actually pretty interesting. like so many cthulhu based properties it used to be a chaosium thing apparently

It's not their first wholly owned world. Lcg or otherwise. For LCGs they fully own Netrunner setting and for Arkham Horror the setting and the mechanics are all theirs. For other games they have all the Rune-- stuff which is all set in their own world of Terrinoth.

I'd rather see the old Shadowlands return. I hated what aeg did to them.

they don't own the netrunner setting, its licensed from wizards. Arkham Horror is likewise owned by a company called Skotos. i dunno about runebound, but at the time of the sale they made a big deal of the fact that L5R was their first fully owned property.

Android is their own setting. They made it. Netrunner the mechanics is licensed from wotc.

Runebound etc is their own world. They created it over a decade ago for disc wars.

Isn't Lovecraft stuff public domain?

Not... really. Some, yes, but by no means all. And when it comes to having a specific critter, you can get lost forever in a hall of mirrors about which author created which beastie for which take on which entity....

I know some people will never let go of the old Shadowlands, but they never really worked well within the clan structure of the game. I doubt FFG would go backwards with the game just to appeal to a niche crowd.

With the hype issue, why not have some early previews that simply take a look at the changes in the lore and the upcoming setting? Later on, in accordance with their usual preview style, actually show us the new game, individual clan mechanics, and everything else?

i think the thing people are gonna hafta get used to is separating what is theoretically a good idea from FFG SOP. they have a system, as has been described above, and thus far only in EXTREME circumstance has it been deviated from. The fact that we're used to a different style doesn't qualify, i don't think.

that said, there is a caveat. With everything else FFG has done so far, its been licensed properties. L5R is their first totally owned world. while we should be careful about assuming that will mean the game will be treated any differently, i would say there is a very remote chance that it could. personally, i don't think it will. but if you are dead set on holding out hope for l5r to be treated differently than any of the other FFG properties, that would be the thing you probably want to hold on to.

Remember that there is a big difference from the other lcgs in the form of a existing player base that's going to transition from an older, relatively popular ccg to an lcg. Having something to tantalize the taste buds wouldn't be a bad thing, even if that's just a teaser article or two that doesn't go into really anything about the game itself.