On the new Province System and hidden information significantly impacting how it feels to attack provinces:
Yes! Imagine that you are going into enemy territory. You don't know what is waiting for you...a trap? An ambush? A mob? This mechanic adds a layer of tension and uncertainty to making an attack, and it also allows players to set up some surprises for their opponents. Both of these enhance the sense of tension and immersion during this part of the game. -NF
I appreciate your going through the AMA and posting the questions/responses here, Shikaku, because Reddit's thread layout is confusing and terrifying to me.
On how FFG handles employees working on multiple IPs:
The entire LCG team tends to work on multiple projects simultaneously. We generally work as a team, and while there are project leads and designers that work specifically on a project, everyone is involved in most projects that we make.
A really cool thing that we did with L5R is to specifically bring in another person or two in when designing each individual clan. This helped to give each clan their own feel and playstyle. For example, Damon and Katrina came in and shared her ideas when we were designing the Scorpion clan. -BA
On the presence of Spells and Kihos in the game:
Yes! -NF
On Crabby-ness of Crab players doing Crab things:
3. Did anyone in your internal testing at any point say the words "Crab Battle!" when facing off against the crab clan?
the answer to 3 is yes. Very Yes. -BA
On the setting and realistic depictions vs western values in kimonos:
Rokugan is and will be an imperfect society so long as it is populated by imperfect mortals. The Code of Bushido both tries to encourage a harmonious society, but it also causes its own share of suffering. We believe that the fictions are a perfect place to explore how the ideals of the samurai are a double-edged sword, both for the individual and the culture itself.
Eastern storytelling and cultural values will continue to inform the stories we want to tell in this setting. ~ Katrina
.... so. many. questions...
On who the Phoenix Elemental Masters are:
We can't wait to reveal the Council of Five through the fictions. ~ Katrina
On the Q&A session:
EDIT: Thank you all for joining us and sharing your wonderfully thoughtful questions. Officially, we're done for the day, but you may see our team poking around in the thread via their personal reddit profiles. We'll also be hosting various opportunities to ask more questions in the coming months, so follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up on those events! Thanks again for your questions and contributions, and we hope to meet you all at GenCon!
5 minutes ago, Shikaku said:.... so. many. questions...
Shikaku, thanks for doing this. I figured out a way to do something similar, but Reddit is new and strange to me too.
So much new information to dig through for sure. Shikaku you are a true god among men/women for your patience and dedication to gathering all this information in a single easy to view space.
Indeed. For future reference, for Shikaku or anyone else wishing to go through these faster, you can apparently click a username in reddit and see all of their recent posts, as well as get a link to the the original post and all other ones in response to it and in that response chain thingy. I quickly just gave up going through the official AMA once I found that feature.
3 minutes ago, fyrm said:Indeed. For future reference, for Shikaku or anyone else wishing to go through these faster, you can apparently click a username in reddit and see all of their recent posts, as well as get a link to the the original post and all other ones in response to it and in that response chain thingy. I quickly just gave up going through the official AMA once I found that feature.
That's what I ended up doing. Then you can click "context" to their replies to see the question being answered.
2 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:Right, it sounds like time for a pure Phoenix movement.
Well said. 
1 minute ago, FelixPhoenix said:Well said.
Pure...ly Maho! 
2 minutes ago, Kiseki said:Pure...ly Maho!
Hehehehe, I'll call it job security.
2 hours ago, cielago said:"Surely the samurai in the Phoenix Clan would root out any shugenja who fell to the dark promises of maho"
HAHAH poor @Shiba Gunichi
Don't pity me. Pity the moron who forces my hand.
2 hours ago, Shikaku said:On Crabby-ness of Crab players doing Crab things:
3. Did anyone in your internal testing at any point say the words "Crab Battle!" when facing off against the crab clan?
the answer to 3 is yes. Very Yes. -BA
Best question of the entire AMA. What fine gentleman asked that question?
3 hours ago, Shikaku said:On storyline prizes and how Organized Play will work:
We are excited to continue the tradition of story prizes at tournaments and through Organized Play, but fan involvement may look different compared with what AEG did for the storyline. ~ Katrina
I'm looking forward to discovering what they mean here. AEG's approach was interesting, but I can see how it could easily get out of hand and could do with some improving.
While I miss the old story team, I gotta say, AEG's practice of giving a story prize to every stupid kotei did the story team, the quality of the narrative, and the playerbase no favors.
12 minutes ago, JJ48 said:I'm looking forward to discovering what they mean here. AEG's approach was interesting, but I can see how it could easily get out of hand and could do with some improving.
Most of the time it felt like AEG painted themselves into a corner. If choices amounted to "kill or corrupt a person from the list," there was often a bloodbath as the top dogs ate the low performers. If choices amounted to "someone paints a pretty picture or writes a poem," no one got excited enough to care. The result was a ton of largely meaningless story prizes with occasional gems.
I'm really curious what the new model will look like.
I read that FFG designs expansions with a long period of time ahead of release date. Like the very first cycle must have been already designed along the Core. So that makes one wonder how can work the whole influence the story side and how fast will story actually develop (aka Second Day of Thunder Take 2 lasting like 4 real time years of expansions?).
16 minutes ago, Kiseki said:I'm really curious what the new model will look like.
Fewer choices, but perhaps more meaningful.
7 minutes ago, Wintersong said:I read that FFG designs expansions with a long period of time ahead of release date. Like the very first cycle must have been already designed along the Core. So that makes one wonder how can work the whole influence the story side and how fast will story actually develop (aka Second Day of Thunder Take 2 lasting like 4 real time years of expansions?).
That is usually the case from my understanding, even AEG worked a year or two in advance. However, they could, to some extent, keep card change options either limited to non-existent, but keep the story hopefully alive and vibrant. You might not get your name on a card, but you might be able to direct some aspect of the game, like which faction gets to pick the Emperor, or who the next clan champion is, etc.
I honestly hope they severely limit the playerbase's ability to "Choose character X" to live or die, or get a prize, or whatever. Make it be "if the Flying Purple Hippo Clan wins, they'll be the ones to discover the True Threat to the Empire" or whatever.
Part of the problem with the story from Emperor through Ivory was a lack of focus on any given individual character for many clans- we had a banner to root for, but no actual heroes.
While characters should never be protected from the writers or the plot, they should definitely be shielded from "wingnut with an axe to grind or who thinks it's funny derails things"