1 minute ago, JRosen9 said:

The difference is Game of Thrones is based on an IP that is fixed (at least until GRRM releases a new book). L5R is based on an IP that is fluid and changes based on game outcomes (at least that is the current assumption). Having a Kisada or Shoju legal until the game ends could cause thematic problems, Especially if down the line you play with a deck that is nothing bug clan clan champions (hyperbole I know).

This assumes an almost one-to-one relationship between decks and story. That is, if Clan Champion Soanso is in my deck and I participate in a storyline tournament, that means they must be present in the story. Have we seen any indication that FFG intends to take the player interaction that far? Or could it just be that because my deck won, my clan has a favorable outcome in the story, and maybe I get to make a choice that influences the decision? If they want to reference particularly memorable bits from the winners' decks, they can do so, but just because AEG did things a certain way is no reason to assume FFG will do the same, especially since I believe they've already said that player interaction will probably be handled a bit differently.

1 minute ago, JRosen9 said:

It wouldn't cause a mechanical issue, just thematic. And in the CCG, yes you could play with dead characters, until the new arc started and all the dead characters were rotated out.

I seem to recall that "Siege: Clan War" introduced characters into the arc which had been dead for some time. Yes, it was a special product, but that still didn't explain how Bayushi Kachiko or Toturi should be participating in events at the time of 20F/Onyx.

The main problem, as I see it is what alternatives does FFG have? They either have to make every single character in the core set generic (which could make it less interesting to many players and less likely to draw in new folk), or else they need to have the core itself cycle out (which makes the game just that much more expensive and goes against one of their basic LCG design principles). Honestly, I'd rather have a few decks include Unique characters who died out in the storyline than go either of those two routes.

"Gameplay trumps realism" seems to be rather applicable here.

Maybe not the right place for it, but is anyone else slightly terrified of the Unicorn tempo cards we've seen so far?

With 'Way of the Unicorn' to steal the initiative for a turn, and 'Breakthrough' to take two consecutive conflicts (and so lockdown your two preferred rings) it seems like they've got a pretty strong, and thematic, toolset right out of the gate, and we still haven't seen what Cavalry does now (personally I think Cavalry should do what Naval used to and vice versa, but we'll see).

Definitely not saying the sky is falling. They just seem to stand out as strong cards with a coherent design philosophy, which I'm quite excited about. Looking forward to seeing if the themes behind the other clans come across so clearly.

1 minute ago, Fumo said:

... we still haven't seen what Cavalry does now (personally I think Cavalry should do what Naval used to and vice versa, but we'll see).

The AMA said that Cavalry does nothing on its own.

14 minutes ago, Fumo said:

Maybe not the right place for it, but is anyone else slightly terrified of the Unicorn tempo cards we've seen so far?

With 'Way of the Unicorn' to steal the initiative for a turn, and 'Breakthrough' to take two consecutive conflicts (and so lockdown your two preferred rings) it seems like they've got a pretty strong, and thematic, toolset right out of the gate, and we still haven't seen what Cavalry does now (personally I think Cavalry should do what Naval used to and vice versa, but we'll see).

Definitely not saying the sky is falling. They just seem to stand out as strong cards with a coherent design philosophy, which I'm quite excited about. Looking forward to seeing if the themes behind the other clans come across so clearly.

Hey, we are also said to suck at defense! At least Cavalry will be ok this time around and no more Ancestral Hate on Cavalry.

6 minutes ago, Fumo said:

Maybe not the right place for it, but is anyone else slightly terrified of the Unicorn tempo cards we've seen so far?

With 'Way of the Unicorn' to steal the initiative for a turn, and 'Breakthrough' to take two consecutive conflicts (and so lockdown your two preferred rings) it seems like they've got a pretty strong, and thematic, toolset right out of the gate, and we still haven't seen what Cavalry does now (personally I think Cavalry should do what Naval used to and vice versa, but we'll see).

Definitely not saying the sky is falling. They just seem to stand out as strong cards with a coherent design philosophy, which I'm quite excited about. Looking forward to seeing if the themes behind the other clans come across so clearly.

On the other hand, they are cards that do not actually help you win conflicts. They help you get the ring effects you want, so at best you can argue that they are worth bowing/straightening a guy with Water or the two card Earth swing after the first conflict. But they don't contribute at all to winning that first conflict per turn. Drawing those cards means you haven't drawn other cards that help you win the first conflict, which means you have to bid more honor to draw those other cards.

Also, chances are that Unicorn is not a major threat in Politics conflicts, so in many cases they might not win both challenges, in which case the Breakthrough card will only rely be about denying your opponent a particular ring.

Way of the Unicorn might still be good if only because that Water ring seems really important, but Breakthrough seems pretty weak to me.

25 minutes ago, Kakita Shiro said:

The AMA said that Cavalry does nothing on its own.

Well that's good to know.

10 minutes ago, williamobrien said:

On the other hand, they are cards that do not actually help you win conflicts. They help you get the ring effects you want, so at best you can argue that they are worth bowing/straightening a guy with Water or the two card Earth swing after the first conflict. But they don't contribute at all to winning that first conflict per turn. Drawing those cards means you haven't drawn other cards that help you win the first conflict, which means you have to bid more honor to draw those other cards.

Also, chances are that Unicorn is not a major threat in Politics conflicts, so in many cases they might not win both challenges, in which case the Breakthrough card will only rely be about denying your opponent a particular ring.

Way of the Unicorn might still be good if only because that Water ring seems really important, but Breakthrough seems pretty weak to me.

And I think this was really my point, the cards are a strong means of achieving a certain end, that being tempo disruption, but they definitely don't seem all conquering as, like you say, they aren't actually helping you win the conflicts you get into.

On Breakthrough, I might have missed something here too, but couldn't the Unicorn player just declare two military conflicts?

13 minutes ago, Wintersong said:

Hey, we are also said to suck at defense! At least Cavalry will be ok this time around and no more Ancestral Hate on Cavalry.

Just to be clear, as an Archer, I still reserve the right to hate Cavalry simply on principle.

You can only do one conflict of each type per turn.

1 hour ago, Fumo said:

With 'Way of the Unicorn' to steal the initiative for a turn, and 'Breakthrough' to take two consecutive conflicts (and so lockdown your two preferred rings) it seems like they've got a pretty strong, and thematic, toolset right out of the gate, and we still haven't seen what Cavalry does now (personally I think Cavalry should do what Naval used to and vice versa, but we'll see).

Calvary, Duelist, and any other Traits on cards do nothing on their own. They're just Traits. They may be referenced by other cards, but have no innate rules associated with them.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EDqXn

Not exactly cards, but card art.

Though I really hope "Bayushi SHOYU" is just a typo... >_> please don't give the Scorpion a Soy Sauce Champion.

26 minutes ago, Bayushi Karyudo said:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EDqXn

Not exactly cards, but card art.

Though I really hope "Bayushi SHOYU" is just a typo... >_> please don't give the Scorpion a Soy Sauce Champion.

It has to be, since he is called Shoju on the product page.

15 minutes ago, Drudenfusz said:

It has to be, since he is called Shoju on the product page.

Is he going to tear out my still beating heart?

8 hours ago, Drudenfusz said:

No, just a typo, didn't even noticed that I have not pressed the "I" key enough for my keyboard to registered it. But wait, this is the internet and nobody here ever admits to make any mistakes... so maybe I should claim it was intentional.

Your post was specifically referencing the lack of the "I" in "Nerishma", so I thought it was a really clever meta-joke.

2 hours ago, Bayushi Karyudo said:

Though I really hope "Bayushi SHOYU" is just a typo... >_> please don't give the Scorpion a Soy Sauce Champion.

Oh, please DO give the Scorpion a Soy Sauce Champion.

2 hours ago, Bayushi Karyudo said:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EDqXn

Not exactly cards, but card art.

Though I really hope "Bayushi SHOYU" is just a typo... >_> please don't give the Scorpion a Soy Sauce Champion.

Small note: Shoju here is openly wearing his swords as though he were left-handed. Could be any number of reasons for this, naturally.

3 minutes ago, SirEuain said:

Small note: Shoju here is openly wearing his swords as though he were left-handed. Could be any number of reasons for this, naturally.

Well, didn't he had issue with his right arm in the AEG canon? I think to remember somethng like that.

24 minutes ago, Drudenfusz said:

Well, didn't he had issue with his right arm in the AEG canon? I think to remember somethng like that.

Right, but I think there was also something about him at least pretending to be right-handed to keep people off guard. That way when he put his swords to his right side (where they would be difficult for a right-hander to draw) in situations where Rokugani custom made such a show of unpreparedness to fight a social politeness, he actually had his swords in an advantageous position for him should the encounter turn to swordplay.

Or I might have made that up in my head.

I think that's three new character names:

• Togashi Kazue
• Isawa Atsuko
• Warrior Poet

3 hours ago, Suzume Tomonori said:

Right, but I think there was also something about him at least pretending to be right-handed to keep people off guard. That way when he put his swords to his right side (where they would be difficult for a right-hander to draw) in situations where Rokugani custom made such a show of unpreparedness to fight a social politeness, he actually had his swords in an advantageous position for him should the encounter turn to swordplay.

Or I might have made that up in my head.

Nope, that was in the Scorpion CB. Pretty sure he also trained some with the right arm.

Bear in mind, this wasn't unique to Shoju, even if his reason to fake being right-handed was. Supposedly an entire Kitsuki sect was dedicated to figuring out which Scorpion were lefties and faking it.

2 hours ago, SirEuain said:

Supposedly an entire Kitsuki sect was dedicated to figuring out which Scorpion were lefties and faking it.

"Bayushi Taro is a leftie, and I have the evidence to prove it."
"TRAITOR TO THE EMPIRE! Have him executed immediately!"

Do yous think I should be including the Clan Champions as known cards? We've seen art for nearly all of them (alas, Arasou and Ujimitsu), including alongside art that is definitely on cards.

We added most stuff to the wiki: https://l5r.gamepedia.com/Core_Set

Except for the cards with incomplete titles, because this list is populated by including the card pages.

* ? Fashion
* ? Scout
* ?the Greater Glory
* Lion's ?
* Phoenix Holding without name

Also we do not have entries for

*Akodo General
*Enlightened Monk

And "Way of the Unicorn" is twice in your list.

Do you have a picture of these cards?

2 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

Do yous think I should be including the Clan Champions as known cards? We've seen art for nearly all of them (alas, Arasou and Ujimitsu), including alongside art that is definitely on cards.

I wouldn't manly because I am not sure if they are actually cards or just pretty artwork at the moment.

There was someone over on BGG who sounds like he has access to image enhancement stuff and good eyesight. He was able to get more detail out of the 'sample game' on the product Showcase page, which is where the Akodo General and Enlightened Monk come from (the Monk is a Crane).

By the way I think Borderlands Fortifications is #36

29 minutes ago, Yandia said:

By the way I think Borderlands Fortifications is #36

Hmm, that would give the Crab three different holdings. Then again, they're said to be Holding-heavy, so 1 seems to be a small number. Since holdings have no cost, the only way to arrange them would be alphabetically...

Seems feasible, I'll do some staring when I get a chance