Oh, and the fact that female heirs and "girls in position of power" seem to be presentedas something natural, instead of "very special occurences that only happened because older brothers got murdered/their husbands died/other intrigue to showcase that this is very abnormal".

1 hour ago, WHW said:

As for writing, just the fact that someone went out of trouble to write Bushidō instead of Bushido colors me optimistic.

Personally, I found that a bit unnecessary. It is English convention to bring over Japanese words without diacritical marks. I mean, do you realize how much of a pain it's going to be to write forum posts?

But seriously, why spend your time adding diacritics to "Bushido" (a term with an already established no-diacritic-using English spelling) but keep the grammatically backwards word order of "Shiro no Yojin?" Are we going to see "Oni no Akuma" as well? Now this is Rokugani, not Japanese, so it's not going to follow Japanese language rules, but what I'm saying is I'm not sure I'd take the diacritic as a sign that someone "gets it" quite yet.

I wonder if we'll get the minor clans back...

Oh and the Spider!

My hand to god, if they just repeat the same character and plot beats that caused the Dragon, Phoenix, and Unicorn to be oddballs who sat out entire arcs while they got re-interpreted yet again...

I wonder if they changed Hoturi and Yokatsu to female characters to make an analogy to the founding Kami. After all, with those 2 changes, we now have a perfect match.

Ooo, now thinking about it, with some of changes so far from what we got from the fluff.... I wonder if there will be any new great families and/or vassal families added.

I may not known about L5R in the beginning (got introduced with the RPG in very late 2009 with 3rd Ed-Rev and went all in with the release of 4th Ed; and the fictions, starting with Emperor Edition), but I am sure interested in this reimagining.

5 minutes ago, KerenRhys said:

I wonder if they changed Hoturi and Yokatsu to female characters to make an analogy to the founding Kami. After all, with those 2 changes, we now have a perfect match.

Deep. That's a very interesting thought.

Not sure how to feel about the story resetting to this point. On the one hand, it is a pretty good spot to introduce new players to the setting and to start over. One the other, the old novels were a large part of what drew me into the setting and this resets it right before the first novel (the Scorpion Coup).

It occured to me. About .5 second (and as a more likely and less atrocious alternative) after the idea that "Of course the clan that got mocked for years as 'girly' get a gender swapped champion". But I feel the kami thing is more likely.

Still going to miss Hoturi, who was as iconic a Crane as we ever had. Hotaru has some bit shoes to fill, especially with so much of the rest of the all-stars squad coming back. Here's to seeing what she can do!

I might be the only one but seeing the Scorpion described as Eddie Guerrero made me smile (I lie, I cheat, I steal!).

No minor clans would make me the saddest panda in the world but it is early days yet. I can see good reasons to remove them entirely from the world, I can see reasons to not mention them until LCG expansion pack 15 or whatever.

If the Thunders are the same people as before, then four of the seven will be women: Kamoko, Kachiko, Hitomi, and Hotaru.

Given how often "gender balance" means "when it's an odd number then men get the extra one," that makes me very happy. :-D

1 minute ago, Kinzen said:

If the Thunders are the same people as before, then four of the seven will be women: Kamoko, Kachiko, Hitomi, and Hotaru.

Given how often "gender balance" means "when it's an odd number then men get the extra one," that makes me very happy. :-D

Or "very old men are considered genderless and get the extra slot" :P.

Assuming, of course, that Hitomi did not swap back the other way (since we already know Kamoko and Kachiko did not).

And assuming that there *are* Thunders, and that they *are* the same people. Of course.

(If AEG were running a reboot, we'd get "top of clan chose their clan's thunder" at GenCon, and then end up with an Elephant, a Gaijin, an undead and an oni among the thunders).

2 minutes ago, Himoto said:

(If AEG were running a reboot, we'd get "top of clan chose their clan's thunder" at GenCon, and then end up with an Elephant, a Gaijin, an undead and an oni among the thunders).

And people ask why I'm not a fan of post-Clan War canon history. :-P

I wonder if the role of Fu-Leng will change, and if the mythology behind the origins of The Empire will remain the same. I don't think they are really that critical, you probably could simply not talk at them at all and still end up with a great story.

Though the note about champions matching the Kami gives me irrational fear of "ALL OF THE CURRENT CHAMPIONS ARE REINCARNATIONS OF KAMI AND STUFF"...

What if Hotaru is Hoturi's older sister and he's just younger now? Cougar Kachiko?

i'm very very curious to what degree FFG is intending to follow the trodden paths here. we're at the doorstep of the scorpion clan coup. the obvious "lets mix it up" is to have another clan do the coup, but i wonder if they're gonna take it one step further. or if they'll do the scorpion bit, then change up the thunders. or just change up who takes the throne after, etc. how their plot interacts with the original plot has to be a huge concern, both for them and for the fanbase, and it was a reason why i was original skeptical we'd get a reboot, but here we are so now i'm very curious a) whats on their minds and b) whats next.

it also makes me wonder whats in store for those characters waiting in the wings. Yoritomo, Daigotsu, Hitomi, Yogo Junzo, Goju, etc. Will they be coming back? will they be changed like Hoturi has been? obviously, i have a somewhat more vested interest in one name on that list than the others (coughDAIGOTSUcough) but i'm really curious, again, how the body of AEG's plot will influence FFG's.

It's kind of disappointing to see so much of the canon removed. My opinion of it is very similar to this when Disney did the same with Star Wars. A lot of great things were lost but hopefully they will be added back into canon and at the same time we could remove some of the more idiotic things.

I'm not thrilled to see the changes to the Crane clan. What happened during the Clan Wars was similar to a Greek tragedy and was one of my favorite story arcs.

My enthusiasm for this game has diminished slightly but I still plan to buy it day one a stick with it for a while to see where the story and gameplay mechanics go.

14 minutes ago, TechnoGolem said:

we could remove some of the more idiotic things.

I think we're all hoping for this . . .

. . . but we all have different targets on our hit list. :-)

The Coup was the spider's work where they framed the Scorpion who owned it instead of trying to explain?

Another thing that I like about the startpoints for different clans is that each one of them starts with a conflict that has a lot of nice ways to refocus the Clans (by showing what they are about) while staying true to them.

- Crane has the whole thing about their *lifestyle* being directly in danger, not only because of the natural disaster, but also due to Lion-Scorpion coalition gunning for them. This also has a nice side effect of allowing them to be BESTEST PRETTIEST COOLEST Cranes Crane love, while not looking like mary sues. It looks like a good state to introduce new people to Crane, without the "ew these guys have EVERYTHING in their favor" kneejerk reaction.
From more personal angle, there is a lot of potential for the showing how much of a burden *expectations of excellency* can be. There is no better way to show that being Crane is not all flowers and being awesome, than showing how much pressure this puts on you and how badly not even failure, but mediocrity is seen. Really hope that Hotaru will have to mimic her founding Kami and work for her excellency, instead of being a super special flower from the start.

- Scorpion is interesting. On the first glance, they have everything; they got a cool Imperial Post, they thrive on Crane's troubles, and in general, it's a good time to be a Scorpion. So how is this exactly supposed to show them in favorable, sympathetic light (other than BADASS EVIL PEOPLE :P)? I hope that success of the Scorpion will be revealed to be their curse. Why? Because Scorpion are trained and born to blossom in the night. They are supposed to dirty their hands. That's their duty.

I would really love a story about Scorpions realizing that their new position is not very good for them. Being in the Imperial Court brings you to light . It binds your hands with expectation. You can't really be the Underhand while living the life of honorable imperials. A story like this would IMHO perfectly sell what Scorpions should be, and paint them in a sympathetic light. Conflict of Duty (IMPERIAL ADVISORS, NEED TO BE CLEAN AND PURE AND STUFF) vs Duty (UNDERHAND, DIRTY AND STUFF) sounds like delicious Scorpion drama to me.

- Dragon, I'm not really sure. It is a mystery. :V But it's ok, as they also don't know it! For a Clan that always prided itself for amazing insight and knowing more than others, their current situation really puts them out of their comfort zone. Something is wrong, and they don't know what. And not knowing is the worst part of this for them!

- Phoenix start point is cool to me, because well, I like Unicorn - Phoenix conflict about magic and stuff. I don't want to make Gunichi rant about it though, so I will just say that IMHO this has potential to show both good and bad sides of Phoenix thirst for knowledge, again, allowing them to be cool and sympathetic while also flawed.

- Crab. I love potential about Crabs getting desperate because Empire has better things to do than to keep them fed and with good resources. I really want to see a story that will both show their amazing determination and power of will, but also their ability to just go "**** it, we are going to tetsubo the reason into your heads before it's too late". Basically, I want Kisada stopping to pay taxes until he is heard out, and things escalating from there :P. This time without nailing his son to a goddamn Shadowlands Banner...

- For Unicorn, I always felt that their internal unity was one of their biggest advantages. After all, they managed to survive outside of Rokugan as one people. It's really interesting that the thing that finally started to crack their unity is not outside evil, but conflict of personal desire for revenge versus what's better for the community. And again, community always like important Unicorn theme to me.

- Lion...Lion looks like they are in great shape. There is no conflict! They are kicking ass and planning to invade their rival and take their stuff! Opportuneous bastards who have everything going for them!
That's what I thought while reading it for the first time. Then I remembered that they are allied with Scorpion, and I hope this will showcase some hard choices for them. Pairing them with Scorpion could really showcase what makes a Lion a Lion simply by contrast, too.

39 minutes ago, WHW said:

- Phoenix start point is cool to me, because well, I like Unicorn - Phoenix conflict about magic and stuff. I don't want to make Gunichi rant about it though, so I will just say that IMHO this has potential to show both good and bad sides of Phoenix thirst for knowledge, again, allowing them to be cool and sympathetic while also flawed.

True story? Had AEG had the fight been about a Phoenix belief that the Unicorn's foreign style of magic was in some way screwing up the spiritual balance? I would have been a LOT less opposed to it.

Because this way, if the Phoenix are right, the awful racism in the setting isn't validated beyond "the spirits here have expectations your Meishodo is not meeting"
And if the Phoenix are wrong, there's room to go, "but what IS causing this spiritual turmoil, then?" without making them look like complete idiots.

It's a better conflict.

I am... intrigued with the BSG 2.0 reboot of the Clan Wars.

I expect we will still see the Scorpion Clan Coup, and it will still lead to the Second Day of Thunder. I would, however, put that event at least six years out at this point. We have a bad situation in plenty of places. But it is rising action where things will be cool.

I am expecting that Akodo Arasou will die at the hands of a Crane during a conflict that suddenly gets out of hand, leading to a Crane vs Lion war, which gives Shoju the cover to be the Villain the Hantei needs him to be. And kill the Emperor.

And then we have a full blown war of succession.

Yeah, I like their current position, but their niche is kinda hard to write stories for and about. "We are masters of knowledge, we know stuff!" is cool...but first instinct to write an interesting story for these guys is to go "but we don't know about this, so strange!". On one hand, it's kinda annoying, because it's like Lion always losing in battles - oh no, this thing is SO very SPECIAL and SO mysterious, that EVEN PHOENIX can't understand it! So it's a slippery slope.

On the other hand, showing how Phoenix operate when they don't know something actually can help reinforce their archetype by showing *how exactly* they became all-knowing. Because, if you think about it, "We know about many things, but this one not!" probably happened before. And showing how they conquered each of these riddles is great way to make them look like actual scholars.

And this is very interesting opportunity, because it shoves them out of their comfort zone. Standard procedure didn't work out/results are not within acceptable parameters! What do we do now?! Do we seek knowledge in the dark and sealed libraries?
(Bonus points if they go for the logic of "well, Unicorn magic has to have roots in the ORIGINS OF THE EMPIRE, right? That's when they departed, so maaaaybe if we look at the stuff from that time frame, we will get it, yes, totally, where is that maho library :P" (Actually, I wouldn't mind if the Phoenix protagonist would serve double purpose as a Exposition Machine, slowly but steadily introducing background elements like Origin of the Empire, How Magic Works, And Stuff; would feel pretty organic, and idea of "let's discover this mystery together, Protagonist and Reader on the same journey of thoughts and research" sounds pretty awesome imho)
THE TRUTH will probably force them to confront their worldview somehow. How they react to that can be a story of it's own.

Thinking about it, one thing that makes me slightly less excited about Phoenix and Dragon stories is the fact they didn't give us anchor/point of view/protagonist material for them (yet). Crane have an obvious candidate of miss Firefly, who could serve as a great introduction to the "All Things Court", and if her father is still alive (who knows, maybe in this canon, he retired early and will end up as a advisor or smth, or maybe we might get some awesome Ancestor right in the story out of the gate), we can have a classic dynamic of newbie learning-master explaining baked right into the story from the beginning, and in the area that new reader will probably pick up first or second.

Lions seem to have a three way conflict set up for them; or at least two-way. I wouldn't be surprised if the drama here would be around Toturi being forced to do his duty as a brilliant general while not really digging what he is doing to fulfill the ruling pair's revenge fantasy. Again, allows for a lot of Lion-development. Hotaru and Toturi sound like great potential "protagonists" if this was a show, if you know what I mean.

Similarly, I can see Crab having unified goal (make Wall great again) while using Kisada and his children to show different approaches to that agenda. Again, this sounds pretty rad and Crabish.

Scorpion doesn't have immediate protagonist character for me...Kachiko and Shoju don't look "newbie friendly" to me. But it's ok, I guess? We have 7 clans, it's ok if some of their stories have little higher "bar" of entry, so to speak; like, "read Crane then Scorpion for maximum understanding", etc.

Unicorn has Kamoko as great potential POV character right out in the blurb.

But Phoenix and Dragon...they don't mention anyone. So I'm not sure what kind of "anchor" they could get. Makes me fantasizing about them little harder :P.

3 minutes ago, sndwurks said:

I am... intrigued with the BSG 2.0 reboot of the Clan Wars.

I expect we will still see the Scorpion Clan Coup, and it will still lead to the Second Day of Thunder. I would, however, put that event at least six years out at this point. We have a bad situation in plenty of places. But it is rising action where things will be cool.

I am expecting that Akodo Arasou will die at the hands of a Crane during a conflict that suddenly gets out of hand, leading to a Crane vs Lion war, which gives Shoju the cover to be the Villain the Hantei needs him to be. And kill the Emperor.

And then we have a full blown war of succession.

I don't want to see Scorpion Clan Coup again, honestly.

But I definitely can see Arasou dying due to Toturi making a decision driven by his wavering faith in the cause he is strategizing for, and Tsuko going full hate on him forever and ever.