2 hours ago, Yoritomo Kazuto said:

It seems to me it is a small loud minority that has become openly hostile to the new LCG, even though there is still a substantial amount of information that has yet to be released. FFG seems to have looked at many of the strengths and weaknesses of the old L5R with the intent of making it a faster, sleeker, and more fluid game. It seems to have removed the avalanching of the old game, it looks like the turtleing is gone, honor rockets and honor solitaire is gone, gold screw/flood is gone. So far many of my complaints of the old L5R are seemingly absent while still maintaining a high level of strategic and tactical acumen required for a substantial victory.

Now I will hold final judgement of the game until I play it, but based upon what is currently visible it appears to be a fast paced, tactics based game where every decision you make can swing things in one direction or another. With this in mind it also seems that the chances of developing a fun unique deck built around your strategy will be likely to occur. I hope the game will be as good at it is looking right now, both art wise and game play wise.

I think initially we'll see a lot of similar decks for each clan (since with just a base set, there'll only be so much you can do), but by the end of the first cycle we'll see considerable diversity (and I'm sure some players will find ways to surprise the rest of us, even just with the base!)

2 hours ago, Ryoshun Higoka said:

If you give them $150, aren't you overpaying by $30?

The Emperor had to institute a hefty, 25% tax.

1 hour ago, Ryoshun Higoka said:

At the risk of flogging a deceased equine, what's everybody most excited about (other than playing an L5R game again)? I'm interested in seeing where the story goes and I'm really loving the mechanics that have been previewed so far - if I had to pick a favorite, I'm going to court controversy here by stating that I really like the Fate system! It's flavorful, it's a mechanic that I can see being very enjoyable on the table...

Release date is very far away.

I'm really looking forward to trying the bidding mechanism. Depending on the state of the game, it could have tremendous impact.

8 minutes ago, BuzzsawMF said:

So, the Unicorn are clearly based off of the Great Khan and his hordes. Which makes them the best clan in all of Rokugan right?

The logic checks out...

4 minutes ago, Jedi samurai said:

They said Hotori is still in the game, Hotoru is his sister

Actually, they said the opposite of that:

"Hotaru's only siblings are Doji Kuwanan and (by adoption) Doji Shizue. ~ Katrina"

6 minutes ago, Jedi samurai said:

They said Hotori is still in the game, Hotoru is his sister

Really? From the AMA topic...

3 hours ago, Shikaku said:

On the existence of Doji Hoturi and if Hotaru replaces him:

Hotaru's only siblings are Doji Kuwanan and (by adoption) Doji Shizue. ~ Katrina

EDIT: Ninja'd by a Scorpion. How appropriate.

2 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Really? From the AMA topic...

2 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Really? From the AMA topic...

I am pretty sure Is aw that somewhere - but I could be wrong.

10 minutes ago, BuzzsawMF said:

So, the Unicorn are clearly based off of the Great Khan and his hordes. Which makes them the best clan in all of Rokugan right?

The Moto are more like this. The Moto were a faction in the Legend of the Burning Sands ccg and they called their leader "Khan". They were also the peoples that the Unicorn assimilated with in order to survive their journey in the Burning Sands. Unicorn did not have the title "Khan" until Gaheris rode in to Rokugan.

(removed)

8 minutes ago, BuzzsawMF said:

So, the Unicorn are clearly based off of the Great Khan and his hordes. Which makes them the best clan in all of Rokugan right?

I prefer the pre-Moto Unicorn, to be honest. It was more varied and more Kami Shinjo-like.

That said, considering that every clan considers itself the best one... of course the Unicorn is the best Great Clan ever!!! Barbarians? Moto check. Honorable Bushi? Utaku check. Resourceful diplomapts? Ide check. Crafty shugenja? Iuchi check. Intrepid explorers? Shinjo check. Cute mascot? Horiuchi Shoan check. Kolat influence? Er... er... this was a reboot, right?

5 minutes ago, Mirith said:

The least Rokugani clan. They have adopted barbarian ways!

If the Unicorn were the more rokugani clan after so many centuries outside of it, I would worry. A lot.

1 minute ago, Wintersong said:

I prefer the pre-Moto Unicorn, to be honest. It was more varied and more Kami Shinjo-like.

Funny you should say that, since the Kolat were in charge and they trapped Shinjo under a rock in the Burning Sands.

Just now, C2K said:

Funny you should say that, since the Kolat were in charge and they trapped Shinjo under a rock in the Burning Sands.

I know. But at least seemed more interesting that suddenly getting lots of Burning Sands Unicorns undoing all the rokugani Unicorn efforts for normalization. But hey, nothing against stuff like Chagatai doing war in winter and kicking Lion ass, for example.

7 minutes ago, Wintersong said:

I know. But at least seemed more interesting that suddenly getting lots of Burning Sands Unicorns undoing all the rokugani Unicorn efforts for normalization. But hey, nothing against stuff like Chagatai doing war in winter and kicking Lion ass, for example.

The Unicorn/Lion conflict was going to happen eventually, Moto or not. They both have the best military force and its only natural for both to feel threatened by each other.

One thing that needs to be remembered:

None of the plots from the old version are sacrosanct.

5 hours ago, oDESGOSTO said:

So, where to start... maybe some bulletpoints:

Bet & Draw

Another one that got me off...

So, you're giving a player in a game that is driven by Action cards to win conflicts the chance to draw less cards than his opponent?! Really?? You think any seasoned player will draw less to accumulate Honour?! Oh, c'mon!!
In any card game, any, there's a thing called Card Advantage, and as the name states is an Advantage to win a card game, any card game.

A lot of complaining about mechanics for a game that we don't have rules for yet, I see.

We'll just pick one of your scattershot examples to choose from; the're all pretty typical of your style, though.

Card advantage is useful in card games in that those who see more cards will have more opportunities, but it's not the raw mechanic that determines a card game's playability. In the most famous CCG example, Magic, card advantage is very important because Magic limits players to one card a turn, which puts a huge weight on the draw step, and makes balancing card draw effects difficult to do. A card that costs one mana to draw three cards in Magic, Ancestral Recall, is considered one of the Power Nine cards of the game, and is probably ranked up there tied with Black Lotus as the best card in the game.

In Netrunner, both players can draw a card as an action at any time (on top of game abilities that give you more cards). In addition, too much card draw can especially hurt the Corporation player, as that can lead to Agenda flood in your hand (which is a dangerous state for the Corp to be in, if you haven't played the game). There's a card in Netrunner that draws three cards for *zero* mana/credits (there's actually two, one for each side: Anonymous Tip and Diesel, but they're both mechanically the same). By your metric, Anonymous Tip must be a better card than Ancestral Recall, yet it's a card that rarely sees play in top-level Corp decks (certain types of Corp decks want it, but it's by no means common even there). Winning decks in Netrunner don't always need "pay zero: draw three cards" in their deck. I can't think of many Magic decks that wouldn't want that ability, though.

Unsurprisingly, a card that draws you three cards has different effects on the game state in a game where you are limited to one card a turn versus a game where you could spend entire turns just drawing cards. And that's because you just can't look at one mechanic in any game (card game, board game, etc.) and not compare it to the game system as a whole. Something you're not doing with the new L5R because you literally can't, because the rules aren't out yet, we don't know the card pool, and you haven't played with it yet.

If you don't want to like the new L5R, that's fine, it's your life. You could stop prejudging it based on very faulty analysis, however. You probably should play the game a few times before you decide it's a failure before it's even released. You definitely should wait for the rules and card set to be known before you think about complaining about mechanics viewed in very limited isolation. And leaving out complaints about including dials and "pink tokens" in the game set can only help whatever it is you're complaining over the mechanics about look better, because having tokens or dials or what color they are has absolutely zero to do with the mechanical aspects of the game.

54 minutes ago, Qingtian said:

With some of the Gender re-set...

Doji Hotori was best friend of Akodo Toturi, so Doji Hotoru maybe lover or remain the best freind to Akodo Toturi? Kachiko and Hotoru maybe rival / best friend at the same time?

Maybe they are fighting over Toturi, and they never include the geisha?

I'm digging the implication that all decks will have to actively engage in conflicts in order to advance their victory condition. I'm also liking that there are political conflicts, and that it sounds like the Dragon Clan will be able to try their hand at either.

1 hour ago, Ryoshun Higoka said:

Good catch. Disappointing catch, but good catch.

Maybe there will be a Ancestral Crab Clan Armor attachment card that prevents fate from being removed from the Crab clan bushi it is attached to?

3 minutes ago, Ultimatecalibur said:

One thing that needs to be remembered:

None of the plots from the old version are sacrosanct.

Honestly, this was probably a horrible period to reboot the game to then, because you run the most risk of alienating the older players of the game in terms of story.

5 minutes ago, Ultimatecalibur said:

One thing that needs to be remembered:

None of the plots from the old version are sacrosanct.

It will be interesting to see where the new story takes us. Maybe Shoju makes a different choice. Without Hoturi, maybe Kachiko isn't quite as driven. And we haven't heard anything about Yogo Junzo yet, or even if the history of the Hantei dynasty is still the same! What if there hasn't been a Battle of the White Stag? Or if there have been overtures to the Ivory Kingdoms?

2 minutes ago, Kaigen said:

I'm digging the implication that all decks will have to actively engage in conflicts in order to advance their victory condition. I'm also liking that there are political conflicts, and that it sounds like the Dragon Clan will be able to try their hand at either.

I like the potential to have shining examples of excellence in clans that typically don't emphasize one or the other. The Crab had Yasuki Taka, the Crane had Uji, and so on and so forth. It seems like it could create some really cool decks down the road.

1 minute ago, C2K said:

Honestly, this was probably a horrible period to reboot the game to then, because you run the most risk of alienating the older players of the game in terms of story.

Oh, I don't know about that. I'm looking at it as a good reboot, a chance to form an alternate timeline, not something that's beholden to twenty-odd years of history.

Just now, Ryoshun Higoka said:

Oh, I don't know about that. I'm looking at it as a good reboot, a chance to form an alternate timeline, not something that's beholden to twenty-odd years of history.

In my mind I've likened it to a DC or Marvel universe reboot. The old timeline exists, this is just an alternate one. It makes me wonder which, if any, of the events that we knew as canon are pre-destined, and which can be changed (and how drastically).

27 minutes ago, Wintersong said:

I prefer the pre-Moto Unicorn, to be honest. It was more varied and more Kami Shinjo-like.

That said, considering that every clan considers itself the best one... of course the Unicorn is the best Great Clan ever!!! Barbarians? Moto check. Honorable Bushi? Utaku check. Resourceful diplomapts? Ide check. Crafty shugenja? Iuchi check. Intrepid explorers? Shinjo check. Cute mascot? Horiuchi Shoan check. Kolat influence? Er... er... this was a reboot, right?

If the Unicorn were the more rokugani clan after so many centuries outside of it, I would worry. A lot.

I like to think of the Netflix series Marco Polo when I envision Unicorn.

13 minutes ago, Ultimatecalibur said:

One thing that needs to be remembered:

None of the plots from the old version are sacrosanct.

This. Those plots are a great reference for FGG, lets remain open minded and optimistic.

3 minutes ago, Ryoshun Higoka said:

Oh, I don't know about that. I'm looking at it as a good reboot, a chance to form an alternate timeline, not something that's beholden to twenty-odd years of history.

Alternate or not (XCOM 2's flashbacks here), I feel quite positive about the whole thing. It does not invalidate what was already done by AEG, and we get to experience new stuff in a familiar setting. Kind of A 1000 Years of Darkness, right?

Just now, Wintersong said:

Alternate or not (XCOM 2's flashbacks here), I feel quite positive about the whole thing. It does not invalidate what was already done by AEG, and we get to experience new stuff in a familiar setting. Kind of A 1000 Years of Darkness, right?

I shall light incense to the Fortunes for 1000 Years of Coherence. ;-)