8 hours ago, shosuko said:

But Yakamo's card says Crab Hero is considered a distinct card from Crab Oni for Uniqueness. This only matters if they have the same name...

Was there originally a Yakamo card that didn't have this? Or was Yakamo released after Crab Clan Oni?

Or maybe they caught the misprint before running the press and decided to embrace it as fate rather than correct it, and added adjustments?

Those aren't the original printings of the cards. They both appeared in Imperial Edition (the original core set). You can see the cards if you Google image search for something like "Imperial Edition Yakamo" (Imperial Edition/pre-Imperial cards have really obvious orange/red/yellow lines along the borders). The original Hida Yakamo (Hero) printing did not have any text referencing the Oni (or vice versa). There was also no flavor text on the Imperial Edition printing of the Oni.

edit: the original Hida Yakamo Hero did have the oni claw for a hand, however, so not exactly as pure as the driven snow

Wow you're right @Daramere ! You have to look at the Imperial edition specifically, which was the very first set release. I never knew that! That's awesome lol

On 7/18/2017 at 9:56 PM, Daramere said:

the Shadowlands as a physical place was only added later because of concerns about being too similar to the world of another CCG

Which one? I thought it might have been WoT, but that didn't come out until 2000 apparently.

3 hours ago, Ide Yoshiya said:

Which one? I thought it might have been WoT, but that didn't come out until 2000 apparently.

I should remember, but I don't. It was early though, as the Kaiu Wall showed up in Forbidden Knowledge.

All printings are in Oracle. Oracle as default shows latest printing, just choose Imperial versions to see difference.

5 hours ago, Ide Yoshiya said:

Which one? I thought it might have been WoT, but that didn't come out until 2000 apparently.

Shadowfist -- the first expansion was Netherworld, which was the original internal name for Shadowlands.

1 hour ago, SirEuain said:

Shadowfist -- the first expansion was Netherworld, which was the original internal name for Shadowlands.

This explains much. I always thought Shadowlands sounded a little too generic given the otherwise extensive worldbuilding. I suppose calling it the Nether Region wouldn't have worked either, though.

Just to clear up the confusion, here are the original, Imperial Edition cards.

I kinda wonder what the story behind that Crab oni was originally supposed to be. I guess we'll never know, because the retcon happened before it was told.

There is nothing in Imperial Edition which denoted Yakamo's claw as being an oni's claw, or even articulated. When I first saw it, I always assumed it was just a cool-looking prosthetic.

Yeah, originally it was probably just a stylistic choice to make him look more crab-like. Kind of like how early Lion art gave them mane-like hair on their helmets to make them look more lion-like. It got kinda goofy sometimes.

The "mane-like hair" on the helmets was an actual samurai thing, although it was more often styled longer than is commonly depicted on L5R cards. In most cases it was made from horse hair.

Here's a reproduction of the armour of the noted warlord Takeda Shingen.

Sure, but it's still used as part of the animal motifs that were common in the early art. Ryozo's paw-like clasps on the right are another example.

A lot of early RPG art clearly showed Shiba Ujimitsu with a silly-looking winged cloak/cape thing draped from his arms because phoenix=bird, amirite? Sadly, it even got referenced in the newest fiction.

I learned something. Thanks Fumi and Suzume Tomonori.

(Wow, the very old L5R CCG cards had a lot of weirdness.)

4 hours ago, Kitsu Seinosuke said:

(Wow, the very old L5R CCG cards had a lot of weirdness.)

It was the time we lived in. Modern CCG/RPG art is, on the whole, phenomenal.

8 hours ago, Kitsu Seinosuke said:

I learned something. Thanks Fumi and Suzume Tomonori.

(Wow, the very old L5R CCG cards had a lot of weirdness.)

No problem! I'm pretty sure I'd seen that armor before, but for some reason I hadn't connected it to the Lion's early helmets, so that was interesting, too.

And agreed on the weirdness. I'm glad they eventually dropped that whole animal motif thing. The art has gotten better in a lot of ways.

On 21/07/2017 at 9:42 PM, Fumi said:

Yeah, originally it was probably just a stylistic choice to make him look more crab-like. Kind of like how early Lion art gave them mane-like hair on their helmets to make them look more lion-like. It got kinda goofy sometimes.

I gotta wonder why the Matsu women always have such long hair and plumed helmets as well, since lionesses are the ones without the manes...

1 hour ago, Laurence J Sinclair said:

I gotta wonder why the Matsu women always have such long hair and plumed helmets as well, since lionesses are the ones without the manes...

Might send the wrong message if they all were so..butch ?

That and long hair is a standard of feminine beauty in both western and eastern cultures.?

But I'm sure you already knew all that ?

10 minutes ago, Kuni Katsuyoshi said:

Might send the wrong message if they all were so..butch ?

It would make my day if there were a tradition of Matsu women cutting their hair short in emulation of lionesses.

Female warriors who spend all days fighting cutting their hair short, how impractical and unrealistic would that be???

3 minutes ago, WHW said:

Female warriors who spend all days fighting cutting their hair short, how impractical and unrealistic would that be???

Ask the FFG art department ??

1 hour ago, Kuni Katsuyoshi said:

Might send the wrong message if they all were so..butch ?

That and long hair is a standard of feminine beauty in both western and eastern cultures.?

But I'm sure you already knew all that ?

Actually, long hair was a symbol of beauty period in both China and Japan. That's why the super pretty "princes" are all wearing hair often as long as their love interests.

12 hours ago, WHW said:

Actually, long hair was a symbol of beauty period in both China and Japan. That's why the super pretty "princes" are all wearing hair often as long as their love interests.

I've been growing my hair out for nearly a year now in preparation for cosplay at Gen Con for precisely this reason.

I hope the name selling stays a thing. It always had some interesting effects. If I remember correctly a Lion guy sold his name to a oni but he was so honorable that it purified the oni. I think it ended up as a guard for the kami or something.

34 minutes ago, Cold Iron1 said:

I hope the name selling stays a thing. It always had some interesting effects. If I remember correctly a Lion guy sold his name to a oni but he was so honorable that it purified the oni. I think it ended up as a guard for the kami or something.

That would be Kitsu Okura.