Sidenote: Lawyers, please plesse correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard before that you can't copyright game mechanics... though you can copyright the text in which they are written. So I'm pretty sure anyone can publish a game using R&K, but they might not be allowed to say "R&K."

Do we know that Insight will still exist under a different rpg developer? If it doesn't, what alternatives can it replace?

Isn't part of the IP itself, just like all the Ring concept and the R&K?

However, in both case, I don't feel it's a problem because I feel like it's a very generic concept. I feel it's kinda like the victory of Samsung against Apple on the graphical concept if: "Rounded rectangle screen with a grid of icon on a black screen." Yes, I agree it's not the same thing but just look at the concept for both case. So calculating a progression step based on character trait feels very generic to me, compared to the specific way of the R&K system. So I don't think it should be a real problem. However, they sold the entire IP with the system to FFG, so I don't think it should be a problem.

Something tells me that even if we get reused words like insight, honor, kami, etc. that they might be used very differently mechanically. We'll see how much the game changes when the lcg is fully revealed next year.

L5R is far from a monopoly in samurai RPGs

It does not have a true monopoly in the strictest sense, but I think it is the single samurai RPG with a living ruleset. Also, the CCG probably only hurt its popularity. Like, I've seen some videos from the golden age, and oh boy I can see where that was going.

The FFG house system is, if anything, faster in resolution than the roll'n'keep system

I strongly disagree. Those five sessions I had with the special dice system were all my single longest games in my whole RPG career. And I'm a guy who has played FATAL. The whole process of the GM assessing the situation, picking his dice, the player doing the same, everyone rolling, comparing/subtracting/calculating results (on two axis no less!), and then waiting for the GM to work out what's happening is crazy slow, especially if the group has a knack for detail. Of course, this fits the style of Star Wars, because action tends to be slow-paced there with a focus on cinematic presentation, but L5R is not such kind of a game. L5R should be fast (even faster than now in my opinion) and simple: roll the dice, meet the TN (or not), succeed (or not) - the details should be up to the character and story and not the dice.

Hmm. Intriguing. I've been involved in half-a-dozen-plus campaigns of both systems, with different players, and in all cases the FFG system was found to be faster for resolution than roll'n'keep. "Everyone rolling" seems a bit odd; by rules, only one person rolls dice at a time in FFG's system. The dice pools really only have four symbols to compare/contrast, and they're linked to dice color and size, so they were easier to sum up and grasp than, for instance, a typical roll of 8K5 for more advanced characters in roll'n'keep, which requires you, for each dice pool, to look over all the dice, recognize the highest numbers, rank them in order to keep, reroll 10s if necessary, and then sum them up (and do additional maths if raises were called).

Some people do have a good head for numbers, but in each FFG group I was with we found one or two people who could nearly instantly sort out the symbols on the Star Wars dice to see if they win or lose without having to sum up 4 to 6 d10s.

I'm very surprised that you say that Star Wars is typified by "slow-paced" action, as that's hardly the style of the films (or the game system).

Some people do have a good head for numbers, but in each FFG group I was with we found one or two people who could nearly instantly sort out the symbols on the Star Wars dice to see if they win or lose without having to sum up 4 to 6 d10s.

The problem was not really sorting out the symbols (it was a chore, but a manageable one), but translating the symbols into events. One of the extreme cases, that had us spend almost half an hour with brainstorming a feasible consequence, was when a player failed a roll with two(!) Despairs but scored something like 5-6 Advantages - so he was doomed, but he wasn't.

This article sums up my problem pretty well.

I'm very surprised that you say that Star Wars is typified by "slow-paced" action, as that's hardly the style of the films (or the game system).

The SW movies are traditionally slow paced, even with the action sequences. That's why the pod racing (a fast paced sequence) in Ep1 was so popular.

Some people do have a good head for numbers, but in each FFG group I was with we found one or two people who could nearly instantly sort out the symbols on the Star Wars dice to see if they win or lose without having to sum up 4 to 6 d10s.

I said a few time that I prefer numbers to symbols but it's not the part I want to talk about now.

It may sound weird but working with numbers is actually better because it helps with numerical cognition which is pretty useful in life, while sorting off few symbols... no longer helps the brain development after a very young ages. So yeah, sticking with the R&K has advantages outside of the game.

As for mental calculus, honnestly it's pretty quick when you use some tricks, like finding the most 10s as possible. For example, if you roll 10, 6 (on the 10), 8, 4 and 2 on a 3k4, regroup the 6 and 4 together, you'll have 2x10s and a 8, result 28. The other trick is to find 5s factor, which are also easy to calculate. So yeah, to speed up the mental calculus, it's mainly grouping up stuffs to have fewer numbers to add...

This being said, I will not storytell a L5R game with a "Narrative dice" system, worst case scenario, I'll stick to the 4th edition. Of course, there will have no system where everyone will be pleased with.

Also... L5R RPG first edition was released in 1997, which means that next year it will be the 20th anniversary of the RPG. (Kinda said that there's nothing from FFG about it... since it's a great milestone) In 20 years, L5R players used the R&K system. So it would be stranged to see a huge change like that after 20 years of R&K. Of course, the R&K could use some tweeks to make it better and keeping it will keep a lot of the current player base. It would hurt a lot if they completely turn their back on the current players since most of them were loyal to L5R RPG for a long time now.

However, FFG seems to follow their business with very few "respect" to their communauty, so we'll see what will happen... By "respect", I mean their lack of communication... Specially with the L5R communauty who's displaying a huge display of loyalty while waiting almost 2 years for the LCG, yet, the only "communication" we had so far is a slide in the last Gencon. At some point, it would be great to hear a little from them and by communication, I do not mean a sneak preview, but at least to know how far they are in their development or at least clear information on the RPG, because right now, there's nothing about it... You know, just a little: "Hey guys, thanks for sticking around, it motivates us to know that, despite the huge downtime, you're still with us!" That kind of respect...

They are still a small company, and any communication has to be made with official approval. That means a person has to verify the post with marketing, game design, and sales (or whomever, I don't actually know who is involved at FFG with that). I suspect they will be reaching out to former champions and what-not to beta test what they got soonish. But that will be all NDA'ed. If the game debuts at Gencon next year, they might stay tight-lipped to increase the impact of the reveal.

They are still a small company, and any communication has to be made with official approval. That means a person has to verify the post with marketing, game design, and sales (or whomever, I don't actually know who is involved at FFG with that). I suspect they will be reaching out to former champions and what-not to beta test what they got soonish. But that will be all NDA'ed. If the game debuts at Gencon next year, they might stay tight-lipped to increase the impact of the reveal.

At some point, they have to remove their "small company" tag. If you reread what I'm saying, I'm not saying any sneak previews, it's still early, I'm just saying some information on their time frame or, like I said, something just as simple as a "Thank you for sticking around." This is a display how you grow bigger. As far as I know, saying thanks don't go against NDA or needs an official approval... If that's the case, then, I would agree that things I've read about FFG having a bad management is kinda true.

It's not like L5R was dead and bought to revive the IP, it was bought while being alive. This is a big difference, it toss a huge bomb to every players, so at some point, there's a need to keep the current players around, which involve communication. This is true to every size of company. In fact, the smaller the company is, the closer they are with their clients. I'll repeat myself, but being close to their clients doesn't mean to spoil every bit of information, but it means more than a single slide at last Gencon, that's for sure...

Of course, it will not be the same as with AEG, but I have to admit that their way of being close to their communauty was fun. Lots of people were used to have the preview of each sets and was looking tight at the schedule. Kinda hard to accept their silence after that. This is something to take in consideration.

So yeah, for me, it's time to stop the excuses of "They are still a small company", they exist since 1995, which means more than 20 years, I think it's time for them to "grow up". So if they are still around and well living, I don't think it's a viable excuses anymore... I don't want to be mean, while I'm not being gentle in the critic I'm saying, but at some point, like every company and everybody, there's a need to do some retrospection on what goes well and what goes wrong.

Well, first i'd scrap the current CCG created Canon in favor of a completely new one (Going back to 1118 or possibly earlier), then i'd try to combine a bit of 1st Edition with the bulk of 4th. (Mostly in Limiting the Minor Clans to 3 Ranks of Techniques to help show their weakness compared to the Great Clans and cutting the Advanced Schools for everyone except the Imperial Families as they are suppose to be the most powerful in the Empire). As far as mechanics, I loved 4e and would make only a few necessary tweaks here and there to the explanations of the system to make it appear a bit less daunting to new players.

This being said, I will not storytell a L5R game with a "Narrative dice" system, worst case scenario, I'll stick to the 4th edition. Of course, there will have no system where everyone will be pleased with.

Also... L5R RPG first edition was released in 1997, which means that next year it will be the 20th anniversary of the RPG. (Kinda said that there's nothing from FFG about it... since it's a great milestone) In 20 years, L5R players used the R&K system. So it would be stranged to see a huge change like that after 20 years of R&K. Of course, the R&K could use some tweeks to make it better and keeping it will keep a lot of the current player base. It would hurt a lot if they completely turn their back on the current players since most of them were loyal to L5R RPG for a long time now.

Well Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying started in 1987 and it got switched to a Narrative Dice system...

Well Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying started in 1987 and it got switched to a Narrative Dice system...

True. However, it worth mentionning that Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay had a generic D100 system unlike L5R, which has a trademarked system, the R&K system. For me, this is a huge difference because that means more than a simple setting. I played WHF and,to be honest, I didn't play it for the system, because the system wasn't the focus of the game and wasn't really good neither. So, WH is and will always be based around the setting, which has a great setting. (I'm only talking about the RPG of course, because the wargaming was great, before AoS...)

In my point of view, if we compare some RPGs, here's how I see them:

- Games like D&D are based around it system;

- Games like WH and SW are based around their respective settings;

- Games like L5R are in the middle where the setting and the system works together (With some flaws).

I'll pointed out Star Wars in the same direction as WHF, since SW didn't created his own system, it was always a generic system or D20 system. So based on this, yes, changing the system to a Narrative Dice system is easy. However, now, they also have the trademarked system of the R&K, which was the signature system for L5R. So I feel like the comparaison is weak because of that.

I think any future system has to include the original Mechanics. Or possibly at least keep the 5 ring system somehow?

Well Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying started in 1987 and it got switched to a Narrative Dice system...

As far as I know, it also crashed WFRP with no survivors.

Well Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying started in 1987 and it got switched to a Narrative Dice system...

As far as I know, it also crashed WFRP with no survivors.

My point exactly, unless AEG specifies in it's licencing that it has to keep, but tune up R&K, FFG can make any changes it wants.

Well Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying started in 1987 and it got switched to a Narrative Dice system...

True. However, it worth mentionning that Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay had a generic D100 system unlike L5R, which has a trademarked system, the R&K system. For me, this is a huge difference because that means more than a simple setting. I played WHF and,to be honest, I didn't play it for the system, because the system wasn't the focus of the game and wasn't really good neither. So, WH is and will always be based around the setting, which has a great setting. (I'm only talking about the RPG of course, because the wargaming was great, before AoS...)

In my point of view, if we compare some RPGs, here's how I see them:

- Games like D&D are based around it system;

- Games like WH and SW are based around their respective settings;

- Games like L5R are in the middle where the setting and the system works together (With some flaws).

I'll pointed out Star Wars in the same direction as WHF, since SW didn't created his own system, it was always a generic system or D20 system. So based on this, yes, changing the system to a Narrative Dice system is easy. However, now, they also have the trademarked system of the R&K, which was the signature system for L5R. So I feel like the comparaison is weak because of that.

True, if logic and tradition overruled greed 100% of the time irl. Remember when AEG tried going with 3.0 D&D to branch out Rokugan? Or when WotC got rid of THAC0? My point is this, if we get a 5e through FFG, pray that the Dice Gods and Contract Demons work together to keep R&K if you feel it indispensable to the game... or that Narrative Dice replaces it if you feel that the Narrative system would work better for the game.

Well Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying started in 1987 and it got switched to a Narrative Dice system...

As far as I know, it also crashed WFRP with no survivors.

My point exactly, unless AEG specifies in it's licencing that it has to keep, but tune up R&K, FFG can make any changes it wants.

...and my point is that crashing L5R with no survivors is not something FFG wants, considering how they burnt themselves with WFRP. They probably have enough trouble with selling the CCG as a LCG, messing up the RPG system too is most likely not a risk they are willing to take (unless they go YOLO, but I can't see that happening).

True, if logic and tradition overruled greed 100% of the time irl. Remember when AEG tried going with 3.0 D&D to branch out Rokugan? Or when WotC got rid of THAC0? My point is this, if we get a 5e through FFG, pray that the Dice Gods and Contract Demons work together to keep R&K if you feel it indispensable to the game... or that Narrative Dice replaces it if you feel that the Narrative system would work better for the game.

I think I've said it in the past, but I'll say it again because it's still the case. What's the point of buying the RPG if they will throw the R&K system? Let's be honest here, L5R RPG is kinda empty without its system because its setting is from the CCG. Knowing this, FFG could easily could simply create a fantasy samourai LCG game without buying L5R, but they bought the whole IP, meaning that some stuffs in it worth something.

Based on this. Let's create a game where people are living under a kind of ruler divided in several provinces. In which each provinces with distinct traits are struggling to keep their distinct position under the ruler fighting each others, while some evil forces are roaming around. All we need to add is the theme of the people and voila, a setting is created. Most setting are based around this. Change the theme in medieval era, you have an RPG like a D&D setting or Warhammer. Change the theme in modern era, you have an RPG like a D&D Modern or (o/n)WoD. Change the theme in the future, you have a RPG like SW. Change the theme in samourai era, you have a RPG like L5R. And so on.

This being said, FFG surely bought L5R for more than just the theme, since it's impossible to restrict people from creating games based on oriental culture. For sure, they bought it for the timeline and the ring aspect of the setting, because this is very unique to the IP. Surely, they bought the CCG because of the player base, now, as AtoMaki very well said, they have to sell it to the CCG players. They probably bought some game gimmick of the CCG, otherwise, why buy the mechanics and simply drop it, specially when AEG was showing some sign of ending L5R? This leads to what's left to buy to the RPG? The rights of the name, of course, but we all can say that most of the name comes from the CCG...

Only two things are very unique in L5R: the R&K system and the distinct school's progression. While character progression can be easily changed, it is something to consider because it's very tied to the oriental culture and since character progression are distinct from a game to another, it something that FFG surely thought when buying the RPG. As for the R&K, it's the signature of L5R RPG. It brings a lot of random because of it's unpredictable nature. While some people says it's tough to evaluate and guess the probability without relying on tools, I feel it's part of the positive aspect of the game. It's unpredictable nature creates a better feeling on how unpredictable the real life can be. Sure, some people hates when random filler monsters kills a character, however, in my opinion, it should stay this way. It's things that happens in real life where a homeless person could come out of nowhere and kill someone with great combat skills. And whenever a Storyteller decide to place a enemy, no matter how strong it is, it's an obstacle to the players, so yes, it could be catastrophic.

So yeah, unless FFG wants to gamble this much with L5R, I doubt we would see a huge difference with both the card game and the RPG. I'm pretty sure, they would bring more idea on the table, like some mini-wargaming. Which would be very nice to see a two armies, let's say one Lion and the other Dragon, on a 6x4 feet table. Or a L5R boardgame where the Thunders fight Fu Leng, kinda like Talisman.

I really hope we get to see something new, instead of a new edition of R&K. We have 4e. 4e has R&K. It works well enough. People have house rules.

Imagine we get a 5e version of R&K. It will also work well enough. It won't satisfy everyone, especially hardcore forum fans. People will have house rules. And we'll have basically the same thing we had before.

OR. We could have something new, a new take on a setting we're all into, with a fancy new set of rules to deliver it to us in an innovative way. I like this option much more.

Okay, onto some replies:

Some people do have a good head for numbers, but in each FFG group I was with we found one or two people who could nearly instantly sort out the symbols on the Star Wars dice to see if they win or lose without having to sum up 4 to 6 d10s.

I said a few time that I prefer numbers to symbols but it's not the part I want to talk about now.

It may sound weird but working with numbers is actually better because it helps with numerical cognition which is pretty useful in life, while sorting off few symbols... no longer helps the brain development after a very young ages. So yeah, sticking with the R&K has advantages outside of the game.

That doesn't sound weird at all. The more practice you have, the better you get. I like improving/maintaining my mental math ability. But I get my fix of that in daily life and GURPS character creation. Personally, I don't need it in L5R. I'd rather have a snappy, interesting system that makes me think on my feet than do more arithmetic.

On the subject of keeping the R&K system.

It is more likely then not that R&K will make a comeback in the FFG version of the game.

There are to many fans of the game for them to do a conversion to "special dice".

Do we have data/evidence? An answer like "the game has fans" doesn't seem very strong... especially on these forums where so many people house rule so extensively.

Case in point:

Personally, I like the Roll & Keep system for reasons beyond simply legacy. It allows for a precision of skill which is actually very thematic to a game about human beings striving towards a divine perfection that they can only achieve is momentary transience.

I have experimented a lot with making Roll & Keep more playable. It is not a perfect system [...]

So, I see where you're coming on precision of skill. I want a system that can model different levels like "beginner, amateur, professional, pretty darn good, remarkable, world class"... something more than "sucks, kinda okay, awesome".

For me, R&K is too granular. How do you describe a katana swing of 26 vs. 27? Or even 26 vs. 30? In my group, we really only start varying are descriptions for every 5 on the dice, or thereabouts. Probably more around 7. Sure, someone might say "You're being lazy, that roll of 26 better sound different than a roll of 27." But honestly, when I regularly see dice hit the table in 40s and 50s and 60s... I can't be bothered with a 26 vs. a 27. Too much work.

I actually really like the precision in the One Roll Engine. The difference between a 2 and 3 in a skill is really meaningful. The difference between a height of 7 and 8 is pretty meaningful as well. I was working on an ORE hack of L5R for awhile. Got most of the basic stuff done. I started on schools and lost momentum.

The FFG house system is, if anything, faster in resolution than the roll'n'keep system

I strongly disagree. Those five sessions I had with the special dice system were all my single longest games in my whole RPG career. And I'm a guy who has played FATAL. The whole process of the GM assessing the situation, picking his dice, the player doing the same, everyone rolling, comparing/subtracting/calculating results (on two axis no less!), and then waiting for the GM to work out what's happening is crazy slow, especially if the group has a knack for detail.

And now I strongly disagree with you My group can parse FFG special dice much faster than R&K. And I'm a guy who's played GURPS (wait is that not what we're doing?)

Gee, aren't anecdotes fun? We could, as a community, by our own initiative, develop some usable data for FFG, but everyone has politely ignored me when I've suggested that before.

Some people do have a good head for numbers, but in each FFG group I was with we found one or two people who could nearly instantly sort out the symbols on the Star Wars dice to see if they win or lose without having to sum up 4 to 6 d10s.

The problem was not really sorting out the symbols (it was a chore, but a manageable one), but translating the symbols into events. One of the extreme cases, that had us spend almost half an hour with brainstorming a feasible consequence, was when a player failed a roll with two(!) Despairs but scored something like 5-6 Advantages - so he was doomed, but he wasn't.

That does sound like a pickle of a roll... but it also sounds like a highly improbable outlier, and given the variables brought by any given group, I don't think it's an anecdote on which we can judge the merit of the system as a whole, nor on its suitability for L5R. Also, I 100% hope I'm at a table where that roll comes up. That sounds super fun to resolve.

OR. We could have something new, a new take on a setting we're all into, with a fancy new set of rules to deliver it to us in an innovative way. I like this option much more.

I'm all in for a major revision (the combat and spell casting systems desperately need an overhaul), but I also think that changing the whole system is kinda extreme.

For me, R&K is too granular. How do you describe a katana swing of 26 vs. 27? Or even 26 vs. 30?

Without Raises in the roll, there shouldn't be much difference between 26 vs 30 or even 26 vs 140. The character swings his katana, the attack connects, that's all. The nifty details are up to the GM and/or the player (and the consequent Damage roll). All extra effort must be intentional (via Raises) and thus something the GM can calculate with from the beginning and say "no" if the player has crazy/inappropriate ideas.

At this point it is largely up to playing experience vs story experience. The former is when your party tries to move from Point A to Point B as per the story requires it, then one of the PCs suddenly decide to make a Survival roll... and the next thing you know the party is chased by an Imperial army because the PC rolled 9 Threats and 3 Despairs, and the GM couldn't do anything about it just roll with the result and let the story go loose. The latter is when your party tries to move from Point A to Point B as per the story requires it, then one of the PCs suddenly decide to make a Survival roll... he fails to meet the TN, nothing happens, the party reaches Point B as planned and their story goes on. Both scenarios have their own merits and failings, but they sure result in vastly different gaming environment. At which point we must decide whether we really want the first scenario to get into L5R or not.

That does sound like a pickle of a roll... but it also sounds like a highly improbable outlier, and given the variables brought by any given group, I don't think it's an anecdote on which we can judge the merit of the system as a whole, nor on its suitability for L5R.

While that roll was indeed an extreme, its lesser relatives (results with only Despair+Advantage) were somewhat common tho, and the "lethal joke result" (a roll of supposedly little consequence turns dead serious because Threat overload) quickly became group favorite. So yeah, in my experience , while the system does have its charm, it is unfit for L5R because it is too slow, too unpredictable, and too restrictive. It is good for space-fantasy rebels and smugglers having wacky adventures, but I simply can't imagine it working for your Standard Rokugani Samurai Drama .

I really hope we get to see something new, instead of a new edition of R&K. We have 4e. 4e has R&K. It works well enough. People have house rules.

Imagine we get a 5e version of R&K. It will also work well enough. It won't satisfy everyone, especially hardcore forum fans. People will have house rules. And we'll have basically the same thing we had before.

OR. We could have something new, a new take on a setting we're all into, with a fancy new set of rules to deliver it to us in an innovative way. I like this option much more.

I seriously disagree with you on that mentality. A new mechanical system will not necessarily be innovative and may very well kill the game. The far larger player bases of far more popular RPGs have fractured and been seriously injured by "innovative" design. Innovation for innovation's sake is not necessarily a good thing.

Yep. Look at when D&D/AEG did the Hidden Emperor Saga using D&D 3.0... how many people actually followed Rokugan to that system? Out of those who did, who actually liked the change? All i'm saying is that IF they plan on trying it, try doing a single adventure and Beta-ing it in select stores/conventions/online with a mix of diehard fans and new players OR releasing an edition with BOTH sets of rules and let groups decide for themselves which to use as I know fans of Roll and Keep and fans who'd love Narrative Dice. As for why they purchased an existing Franchise instead of developing a new one, it's cheaper to crash and burn an existing franchise than to develop everything for a new franchise and have it never lift off the ground. After all, they still get money from the older editions still being sold online. For example: Drive-Thru RPG sends the developer's share of 1st-4th Edition books to FFG instead of the defunct AEG. Honestly, as GW still owns Warhammer Fantasy and they rented the Licencing to FFG for the WFRPG, that was a bigger risk than L5R to crash and burn it since Games Workshop can, and did, take the Licence back.

I really hope we get to see something new, instead of a new edition of R&K. We have 4e. 4e has R&K. It works well enough. People have house rules.

Imagine we get a 5e version of R&K. It will also work well enough. It won't satisfy everyone, especially hardcore forum fans. People will have house rules. And we'll have basically the same thing we had before.

OR. We could have something new, a new take on a setting we're all into, with a fancy new set of rules to deliver it to us in an innovative way. I like this option much more.

You may like the idea of fancy new rules, but I'll have to say that it took a while before being able to have a L5R campaign on my side. Only me and a friend was playing L5R and most of the others was like: "Oh... I don't feel like learning a new system." I am not denying that R&K is not as simple as D20 system for the rolling. We are used to, so it's simple, but there's some complexities and I do admit it. However, I don't see another "fancy set of rules" beside the narrative dice and I am miles away from being interested with that kind of system. I like the flexibility I have with R&K since I don't use it as a binary system.

We already know that L5R RPG wasn't played by a large number of players and in my region, it's not because of the system, it was more because it wasn't known. I manage to have a small group and we're enjoying the system as it is. I also own every L5R 4th edition books, so, I will not invest in a 5th edition if I hate the system. Which will mean that the 5th will not work in my group. I'm not saying it will be the case everywhere, but L5R had a successful 4th edition because of the hardcore fans. I always felt like the marketing of AEG was killing L5R, they did basically nothing and hoped on the players to talk about it. However, unlike some others RPGs, it wasn't as big...

To my FFG needs to revive the L5R RPG and give it more visibility and making sure to keep the special flavor that L5R has and that flavor was built around the R&K system.

Of course, at this point, it's a matter of taste and opinion, so we'll never agree. I really like the R&K system and I've tried a lot of systems...

Edit: Fixed typo

Yep. Look at when D&D/AEG did the Hidden Emperor Saga using D&D 3.0... how many people actually followed Rokugan to that system? Out of those who did, who actually liked the change? All i'm saying is that IF they plan on trying it, try doing a single adventure and Beta-ing it in select stores/conventions/online with a mix of diehard fans and new players OR releasing an edition with BOTH sets of rules and let groups decide for themselves which to use as I know fans of Roll and Keep and fans who'd love Narrative Dice. As for why they purchased an existing Franchise instead of developing a new one, it's cheaper to crash and burn an existing franchise than to develop everything for a new franchise and have it never lift off the ground. After all, they still get money from the older editions still being sold online. For example: Drive-Thru RPG sends the developer's share of 1st-4th Edition books to FFG instead of the defunct AEG. Honestly, as GW still owns Warhammer Fantasy and they rented the Licencing to FFG for the WFRPG, that was a bigger risk than L5R to crash and burn it since Games Workshop can, and did, take the Licence back.

AEG is not defunct they made the choice to sell their L5R licence to FFG and concentrated on Board-games.

The problem with AEG is they tried to be to many things to many people. as a small company they carried way to many gamelines.

as for L5R what you stated above, this is the best reason for them to keep the R&K system.

with so many book out there if they keep the systems compatible they have a great source of income in drive-thru without any work.

IMHO The main issue with L5R right now is the card game.

Don't get me wrong I started with a Phoenix demo deck back in 95.

But the CCG has controlled the story for to long.

and the story telling has become a the same rinse and repeat stale old arc.

The Idea of for lack of a better word " living card game" was a great idea at the time and helped FRPG/AEG compete with Magic.

This has run it's course now and need to stop. the problem with a card game writing the story is it hamstrings the writers into narrating the results and not writing a story.

And as a card game you need the baddy of the arc so you have sets to sell. which leads to some kind of story macguffin having to be use to in a way reset for the next arc.

The RPG doesn't need this since the baddy of the week can be just a local issue.

Some of the best stories in the L5R world come from the Adventure books for 1st ED where the threat was local and could be handled by a 4-6 man party of magistrates.

And all this was before the Scorpion clan coup during a time of relative peace in Rokugan.

FFG has the chance to divorce the two system from each other, and make them individually unique.

See, I feel that what is wrong with Shugenja in L5R RPG is the CCG.

Spells in L5R RPG are the worst combination of the D&D "Spellbook" set up and the CCG "collectible card that attaches to a shugenja". Spells make shugenja into wizards, rather than the priests of the kami that they should be. I would personally put it on a wishlist for the L5R Shugenja in its next iteration to have a Technique, a robust set of Skills related to their profession, and Spells in the place of a Bushi's Kata.

See, I feel that what is wrong with Shugenja in L5R RPG is the CCG.

Spells in L5R RPG are the worst combination of the D&D "Spellbook" set up and the CCG "collectible card that attaches to a shugenja". Spells make shugenja into wizards, rather than the priests of the kami that they should be. I would personally put it on a wishlist for the L5R Shugenja in its next iteration to have a Technique, a robust set of Skills related to their profession, and Spells in the place of a Bushi's Kata.

Not gonna lie: as someone who played the ccg and is now coming to grips with the rpg, I was not fully aware of the priestly-Ness of them, and this idea sounds pretty sweet.