LCG News and Previews

By cielago, in Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game

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a quick bump, to keep this thread up top for the 19th

New Dragon Clan logo/mon.

Techncially, we've already seen a low-quailty version of this so I guess he's not spoiling anything yet.

Very disappointed by these mons by the way. What's all the shiny for ? It's a japanese mon, you don't need jewelry and gold : it's totally out of place, it's not the spirit of the thing. And a green dragon out of a green background, it has no contrast at all. It's bad.

Edited by Katsutoshi
59 minutes ago, Katsutoshi said:

Very disappointed by these mons by the way. What's all the shiny for ? It's a japanese mon, you don't need jewelry and gold : it's totally out of place, it's not the spirit of the thing. And a green dragon out of a green background, it has no contrast at all. It's bad.

I find it quite awesome, actually.

I love the new mon. Seems like a great way to keep the shapes of the original designs (which, let's face it, didn't look a bloody thing like actual Japanese mon, apart from being contained in a circle), but updating them to be new. And I think the addition of texture and multiple colors goes a long way toward making shapes that always registered on me as lumpy and unattractive look much prettier.

I agree with Sparks, this is quite awesome. I can't wait to see the rest of them.

These are not Japanese mons, they're rokugani. :)

And I can't see a problem with a green dragon on a green background. There are enough shades (at least 50) of green to have the dragon stand out from the background.

More seriously, I like the idea of a fresh design for something we've not seen change for more than 20 years...

This is a new beginning for our game, a fresh design is a nice thing, in the rules AND in the visuals.

Actually, I kind of agree with Katsutoshi. I'm not knocking the new mons, but I prefer the "classic" mons myself. I like the simple designs better.

But hey, to each their own. And I don't think they'll be doing away with the older mons; I have a feeling both the old and the new will be used depending on the situation.

We can't argue about tastes. One likes it, one dislikes it, ok we won't go very far with this. But we can look a little bit deeper than that, can't we ?

To refresh the looks of L5R is fine with me... if it fits well, which is very subjective again.

I like the fact they wanted to add texture, this is cool. And the details are very nice. But again, what's the idea with the gold and the jewelry ? What's the point, the message, what does it achieve ? My reception of this change is that it is not fit the environment, the utility of the mons and it shows bad taste.

About the contrast of colours, it's simple : the functionality of a mon is to be recognisable at a long distance. You can argue whatever you want about all the green shades there are on earth, green on green is absurd. That's why old mons had different colors, to play with the contrasts.

Another problem, do you see how green the dragon mon is ? Then what will the mantis' color be ? And that's a real question, not just a critism.

And another thing I see : this dragon is more chinese-looking than japanese-looking... :o

Edited by Katsutoshi

It's technically more logo than mon. And it looks, especially with these pearls, a bit '80-ish. ;)

They need to show us mono version as well. Mono mons are much easier to make some gadgets with them, Personally i can't imagine fe hockey jersey with this dragon stuff unless you want to make some "Big Trouble in Little China" cosplay contest. :D

Edited by kempy

Well, considering the amount of details on the picture Steve twitted, I highly doubt we'll see anything but a simplified version on the cards.

My guess is a small mon in one of the corners of the card, not a smaller version of this one. The big, detailed one will probably be for websites, books, deckboxes and such.

The Dragon Clan has always been a mix of Chinese monks (Togashi, Hitomi) and Japanese samurai (Mirumoto).

This is a fantastic mon btw!

1 hour ago, Belechael said:

The Dragon Clan has always been a mix of Chinese monks (Togashi, Hitomi) and Japanese samurai (Mirumoto).

And the Dragon Clan has always wear green. Thanks Captain ! :)

I didn't say it didn't make sense. Although I would personally have preferred a more japanese version of the dragon. I just stated the fact the dragon looked a lot (if not totally) more chinese than japanese, which is a slight or a big (iconographic) change, depending on the eyes of the beholder.

Edited by Katsutoshi

That's nice. Now show us some cards!

25 minutes ago, Katsutoshi said:

And the Dragon Clan has always wear green. Thanks Captain ! :)

I didn't say it didn't make sense. Although I would personally have preferred a more japanese version of the dragon. I just stated the fact the dragon looked a lot (if not totally) more chinese than japanese, which is a slight or a big (iconographic) change, depending on the eyes of the beholder.

Dragon colors were initially yellow, but I suspect you knew that as well.

Anyway, Rokugan is a pastiche of Asian themes so I see nothing wrong with having a Chinese dragon as the mon of the Dragon Clan.

29 minutes ago, Kakita Shiro said:

Dragon colors were initially yellow, but I suspect you knew that as well.

Anyway, Rokugan is a pastiche of Asian themes so I see nothing wrong with having a Chinese dragon as the mon of the Dragon Clan.

Yes and no, (honesty forces me to say) it slipped my mind, which makes it even more funny because it makes my answer very stupid. :)

It's not wrong, but it's an iconographic change. Hence my emphasis on it. I don't like it, but it doesn't mean it's wrong or bad.

I would add, before anyone asks it, that dragons in China and in Japan used to look just the same. It's just a few details that give the feeling that this dragon has more China in it than Japan. And there only has been a new iconography for dragons in Japan until very recently, like Haku in Miyazaki's work. So this adds even more fuel to the fact it's definitely not wrong to use such a dragon for L5R. ;)

Edited by Katsutoshi
55 minutes ago, Katsutoshi said:

I would add, before anyone asks it, that dragons in China and in Japan used to look just the same.

Uncultured as I am; it fits the general eastern dragon form and has three toes, which is Japanese enough for me. : P

10 hours ago, Sparks Duh said:

I find it quite awesome, actually.

Ditto!

7 hours ago, kempy said:

It's technically more logo than mon. And it looks, especially with these pearls, a bit '80-ish. ;)

They need to show us mono version as well. Mono mons are much easier to make some gadgets with them, Personally i can't imagine fe hockey jersey with this dragon stuff unless you want to make some "Big Trouble in Little China" cosplay contest. :D

The 80's rocked! And I think the green dragon looks awesome!

Wasn't sure about the mons when they were displayed at GAMA.

Seeing this one bigger and more close up I really like it a lot!

From a purely heraldic standpoint, i.e. "how visible would this be if you painted it on a banner" -- no, the colors aren't good. Neither are the designs that we've had this whole time. But I'm fine with assuming that Rokugani soldiers paint simple outlines on their banners, while this fancied-up version is what you would see inlaid in the gates of the Clan Champion's palace or whatever.

To be fair, I don't think these will be the new mons that they print on everything. I think that the new, shiny ones will be used as the clan "logo", with something much more simplified to spam print on cards and whatnot.

I think the fancy ones would be too expensive to realistically print on everything associated with that clan, so I fully expect there to be something similar to the mons on the forum here to be the ones that are used more often.

That said, the Dragon one looks great! Looking forward to seeing the others.

Edited by Isawa Kioshi