6 hours ago, judoka13 said:

1. The removal of enlightenment: Removing it as a core win condition is a blow to the flavor of the game. If they make a card to make it an alternate win condition, then that makes enlightenment seem gimmicky rather than something worth striving for.

As opposed to every other incarnation of the game where you dinked around, drew half your deck and fiddled at unopposed provinces til you won and if you screwed up the timing on the rube goldberg machine you could take yourself out of the game entirely?

Three thoughts on the T1 blitz concern:

1) Players are buying characters at the same time, meaning your opponent will have the opportunity to defend against you or even attack your own provinces. This isn't the old situation of "First turn, buy a personality, opponent's turn, buy a holding, turn two attack before they have the ability to establish Presence."

2) Breaking provinces doesn't wreck someone's economy, as they can still get personalities/holdings. You can't count on your opponent's economy being in shambles by the time your initial burst burns out. If you spend all your Fate on early attackers/events and your honor on drawing cards and don't take that stronghold, you're going to have a bad time.

3) Turn one conflicts might be encouraged by design. They might be going for a game where players are actively pursuing their victory objective from the get go instead of taking three or four turns to get their economy running first.

51 minutes ago, Kaigen said:

Three thoughts on the T1 blitz concern:

1) Players are buying characters at the same time, meaning your opponent will have the opportunity to defend against you or even attack your own provinces. This isn't the old situation of "First turn, buy a personality, opponent's turn, buy a holding, turn two attack before they have the ability to establish Presence."

2) Breaking provinces doesn't wreck someone's economy, as they can still get personalities/holdings. You can't count on your opponent's economy being in shambles by the time your initial burst burns out. If you spend all your Fate on early attackers/events and your honor on drawing cards and don't take that stronghold, you're going to have a bad time.

3) Turn one conflicts might be encouraged by design. They might be going for a game where players are actively pursuing their victory objective from the get go instead of taking three or four turns to get their economy running first.

Yeah, it's way too early to be designing a decktype around what amounts to a teaser trailer. Card advantage is a big deal, but anything you can do your opponent can do too. If they successfully predict that you plan to get five cards (or get four so they get the free honor), then you're on level ground, or nearly so, and if they also buy two personalities, or just one that's better than either of yours, where does that leave you? There will probably be some sort of all-in blitzy strategies, but I think it's way too early to announce the winner of Worlds.

3 hours ago, McDermott said:

As opposed to every other incarnation of the game where you dinked around, drew half your deck and fiddled at unopposed provinces til you won and if you screwed up the timing on the rube goldberg machine you could take yourself out of the game entirely?

Yeah, one of the two Koteis I attended, I faced not one but two Dragon Enlightenment decks who both enlightened around turn 5. The Enlightenment mechanic never felt to me like it was my Military deck vs the opponent's Enlightenment deck. It was always just their deck against itself. If they had built their deck correctly, played it correctly, and didn't have abysmal luck, they'd win regardless of what I had. If they made a single mistake or didn't draw one of the cards they needed, I'd win regardless of what I had.

Personally, I'm glad to see the Rings interacting with the game in other ways.

7 hours ago, Buhallin said:

This. We honestly don't know if 7 military will be a lot - I believe the only province we've seen so far needs 5 power to break, which means it wouldn't take all that much to block that solo berserker.

We also don't know what the deckbuilding restriction will be. 3 is pretty standard for FFG, but their recent games have trended towards 2. Who knows how common this combo will be?

We do know that 3 is the limit: " Some cards will require two core sets to collect a full playset of three cards , while others will require three core sets. "

7 hours ago, Hidatom said:

"it's not fair that I have to spend ~$120 to have a COMPLETE SET of all the cards! I miss the old days when I only had to buy 2-3 booster boxes at $80-$100 each and then still no guarantee I would get a full set!"
also
"This set sucks because no spider...spider iz kewl"

absolutely fine if these two types of players stay away from this game.

A) You seem to be assuming that everyone is coming into this from the perspective of being a ccg player. While I think the lcg model is better than collectible games, which I hate the model of, this is also a step backwards from Arkham Horror requiring only 2 cores for a playset of all card, or even the new edition of VS. system that only requires one.

B) instead of bludgeoning that poor straw man with your tetsubo, perhaps you could acknowledge that faction loyalty is a thing, and it is disappointing for players to find that their favorite faction is not present? People have mostly expressed that disappointment civilly, but you're being rather rude and condescending about it.

4 hours ago, oDESGOSTO said:

No, I meant the topic where I said explicitly I wanted to play a L5R game and not a card-game-based-in-Rokugan, which is exactly what this is.

If you can't understand that I feel sorry for you. You maybe should try some cognitive disorder medication.

Can we maybe quit escalating the belligerence and try disagreeing politely and respectfully?

I know tokens are a contentious issue with folks. But there is going to be some mighty fine acrylic made for this game...

2 minutes ago, Sithborg said:

I know tokens are a contentious issue with folks. But there is going to be some mighty fine acrylic made for this game...

I'm really hoping to see some really nice premium tokens shortly after launch. I don't like cardboard, but acrylic...

Give me those acrylic Rings...

I love non-monetary coins. Make them in metal and I'll buy them.

Kind of irritated that multiplayer seems to have been ditched. Its the only way I play card games these days, especially the old L5R. Lack of multiplayer in games tends to make them less accessible for me. I can never get just one player to show up to my game nights.

15 hours ago, Shikaku said:

Gender swapped intentionally is the question... someone back at the office is either going, 'Oh ****, we have a typo and we meant he instead of she, and the image we assigned to the Crane Clan is a female! Now what do we do!' or they are saying, 'Yeah, buddy.'

Not only did they gender swap Hoturi but they misspelled his name. "Hotaru"???

16 hours ago, Toqtamish said:

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/4/19/legend-of-the-five-rings-the-card-game/

and read the product page spotlight for a ton more info:

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/legend-of-the-five-rings-the-card-game/

There is a 3rd page that is the Showcase Page:

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/legend-five-rings-showcase/

Has other tidbits, including some cool background images to steal for your wallpaper.

I have been looking at the new art purely for its own sake and it is beautiful, the Hida O-Ushi picture in particular is freaking gorgeous. I would have that as a poster in a heartbeat.

26 minutes ago, DarkHorse said:

I have been looking at the new art purely for its own sake and it is beautiful, the Hida O-Ushi picture in particular is freaking gorgeous. I would have that as a poster in a heartbeat.

If that's the blonde woman in the light blue robes then I agree. Would like it as a playmat as well (which will probably happen).

5 minutes ago, slowreflex said:

If that's the blonde woman in the light blue robes then I agree. Would like it as a playmat as well (which will probably happen).

No O-Ushi is the female Crab with the big Die Tsuchi (long-handled hammer). AKA Crab Clan Bully.

17 minutes ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

No O-Ushi is the female Crab with the big Die Tsuchi (long-handled hammer). AKA Crab Clan Bully.

I thought Horvath confirmed that it WASN'T O-Ushi?!?!?!

41 minutes ago, Sparks Duh said:

I thought Horvath confirmed that it WASN'T O-Ushi?!?!?!

Maybe she's not earned her nickname yet, and it's just Hida Ushi?

Because really, that picture is just perfect for her.

49 minutes ago, Sparks Duh said:

I thought Horvath confirmed that it WASN'T O-Ushi?!?!?!

I pointed it out to him on twitter that it was O-Ushi, and he replied to me with caps of "NOPE" . This was before the reveal so I call shenannigans!

13 hours ago, Smobey said:

I'm curious as to how people would see a Shadowlands faction working with the honour/dishonour mechanic. Surely it wouldn't make much sense for them to lose for hitting 0 honour, right? So they'd need some completely alternative rules for card draw. And even then, if they can't be dishonoured out, they negate a lot of decks that now stand no chance against them.

Which admittedly was a problem in the original card game as well, but it's one of the biggest design problems the game had, and a big reason as to why Spider Clan became what it is in the first place.

This is actually one of the things that I think the LCG will do better than the old game. Let me explain what I mean by this.

In the old game there was this constant debate since its inception of what a "corrupt" deck consisted of, and balancing factions that did not obey the dishonor limitations of the game. Dishonor also wasn't considered a win condition but loss condition. This was because they the theme of corruption and falling from grace (ala phoenix opening the black scroll, the crab shadow lands alliance) played heavily into the first story line. Now they have an opportunity to portray corruption as a meaningful mechanic rather than simply playing a faction is immune from core mechanics of the game. We haven't really gotten into whether or not they are going to have sensei or agenda-esk types of cards but the inclusion of shadow lands provinces, characters and will have more interaction with the concepts of fate and honor(draw) and even the elements (however they are involved beyond). It also means that restraining the hyper explosive nature of shadow lands aggro decks is possible. Playing with shadow lands cards means losing honor which means that you might be more inclined to bid low on the honor bid in order to not just lose, which means that you are sacrificing card advantage for board position.


Aside from that why is everyone just assuming that enlightenment is gone. Has it not occurred to people that they might have just not said anything about enlightenment because other previews are going to go more in depth into the elements and how they will play a role in the game...particularly since pheonix seem to have an entire part of the color pie invested into playing with elements. (take a look at the phoenix province card...there is something going on there).

Same thing goes with the spider clan....seems to me that a "rogue sect of shinseism" was in the spider wheel house in the original story line.. just saying the potential is there...

I've been looking at the various Characters and their stats.

Remembering that you add your Glory to your Skill if Honourable, and subtract it if Dishonourable, I would predict that the Unique personalities (with a Chrysanthemum in front of their name) will have higher glory and some intriguing Actions or Reactions, but the base Skill numbers won't go very much higher.

I wonder if characters are considered honorable when they enter play or if they enter play neutral and must be made honorable through an effect.

31 minutes ago, shineyorkboy said:

I wonder if characters are considered honorable when they enter play or if they enter play neutral and must be made honorable through an effect.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere in ffg's posts that they enter play neutral (with probably some exceptions).

6 minutes ago, MrMenthe said:

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere in ffg's posts that they enter play neutral (with probably some exceptions).

That was the impression I got, although I don't think it was explicitly stated.

If being honored adds to a character's stats, and everyone starts honored by default, that would mean the base stats are pretty much never used. And that would be really awkward.

I started playing with Jade (altough managed to get previous editions) and played until Toturi's scions decided to go nuts over each other, where different reasons, like money or lack of group, lead me away from it. Hopefully, it will be easy to get a new group in my country because FFG's L5R does look promising. Note to FFG: please stop releasing interesting LCGs for a while? After Conquest, I thought that I could manage having only Arkham as LCG. How naive of me.

Faction presence:

• Does impact the "Core" count, unfortunately. Not a fan of needing 3 to saciate my collector impulses but those are my own fault and not FFG's.
• It sucks if you liked other than any of the basic 6 plus Scorpion (Scorpion Clan Coup?). From a balance point of view (gameplay and story), it does seem better than tons of factions. Plus it is not feasible to get all the factions on release any way. That would mean very few cards for each faction to start with. If we see a Tsuruchi, Ryosei or Yoritomo with some colourfull not-great-clan mon, we could assume that they will get stronghold at some point. That could happen as promo card or deluxe (either 4 years from now or just after the core release).

Visual design: Wow. Most beautiful card game I have ever seen. Are the design team Asahinas or what?

Story reboot:

• Good idea. Familiar, yet new. Hoturi is now a woman? It is an otoko no ko! Joking aside, it will be exciting to see what FGG does. But please, oh please, not a Day of Thunder every other weekend or a Kill the Emperor Day every other month?
• I would hope for Horiuchi presence and their survival forever. Fox being independent too. No Spider (it takes away from the potential inner corruption of the other clans, between other reasons).
• If players can influence the story, there will be bounties. FFG should state clearly that they will deny any influence that makes no sense or is harmful to the story. I understand that some people only care about gameplay and/or screwing story players, but "wallets" should not be allowed to create bad ripples in the game.

Mechanics:

• It does certainly play quite different than the original but I see no trouble with the changes.
• People seem to focus too much in the "I draw 1 and you 5" part? Only reason to draw only 1 is because you are very low on honor or are trying to boost your honor victory (while having some nice hand, I guess). And even then, I don't htink that is something that you could afford every single turn. Will also depend on available alternate methods of drawing cards. In any case, bad hand? Draw 5!!!
• I will not miss enlightment but it is sad to have less ways of winning. Considering that we have rings during conflict, they may develop something based on that. Maybe. Ask the Dragon.
• At first it was weird to have characters to stay only for one turn but as it is explained it does make sense and it is not a bad thing, specially considering that you can invest Fate on the character. Having to save fate for the expensive characters will also be nicely tricky if also want to give them staying power. Plus the tokens are so beautiful!
• Choosing regions for the provinces? Neat! I love the idea. As do I love that players do not lose the provinces, just get the opponent close to attack your stronghold (another neat idea).
• I wonder if dueling will be around fate (conflict card and/or fate pool).
• Unnamed characters are welcome but if they are too common, may lead to: Eager Scout, Intrepid Scout, Valiant Scout, Stealthy Scout, Veteran Scout, Careless Scout, Master Scout, Out of the Gempukku Scout, Sitting Scout, Angry Scout, Another Scout,...

Where is a leak like that of Path to Carcosa when you need it??? What do you say, mister Oni? You can get me one in exchange of my name, you say?

for those of you who don't know how. On the showcase page (I used chrome other browsers might be different) right click the background image behind the moving panes and select view background image. Then you can save it and get the full screen view