So I'm wondering how the LCG business model where folks buy every card in the game is going to jive with a game where players have strong clan loyalties?

Are there nutral faction cards. Decks that mix factions?

I have no idea how L5R deck building works

We will soon have an article to confirm, but here's my speculation:

Pick stronghold, note clan and influence.

Build a dynasty deck of only clan and neutral cards.

Pick 5 provinces, one associated with each ring, restricted to clan and neutral. (The provinces have one of the rings in the corner.)

Build a conflict deck with up to influence worth of non-faction cards (the bamboo in bot right of all conflict cards), rest is clan and neutral.

6 minutes ago, profparm said:

We will soon have an article to confirm, but here's my speculation:

Pick stronghold, note clan and influence.

Build a dynasty deck of only clan and neutral cards.

Pick 5 provinces, one associated with each ring, restricted to clan and neutral. (The provinces have one of the rings in the corner.)

Build a conflict deck with up to influence worth of non-faction cards (the bamboo in bot right of all conflict cards), rest is clan and neutral.

This is exactly as I expect it to go.

As far as loyalty goes, I expect most people to have 2-3 that they naturally gravitate to based on playstyle or art. If the interactivity of the story is done well, we'll also start having people who can point at things and say either "I did that" or "I was there for that". Those kinds of memories help give you characters to root for, and increase the likelihood of people choosing to play the same clan again when that character is involved.

Yea, I see no reason not to play with every Clan in casuals. But I will definitely only be repping Scorpion at all events.

I know when I had a mentally intense deck (like dishonor) that I had tuned, I'd need to switch to something as far from that as possible for a bit to prevent burnout - for both me and my opponents. Sometimes it was Crab, sometimes it was Lion. Sometimes just a military Scorpion deck.

I was hoping dishonor would be easier to play this time around, but I think it will be harder.

With the Dial guessing and game and all that. I honestly expect us to be the MAIN dial manipulator, which means even Crane won't mess with it as much as us.

2 minutes ago, BayushiCroy said:

I was hoping dishonor would be easier to play this time around, but I think it will be harder.

With the Dial guessing and game and all that. I honestly expect us to be the MAIN dial manipulator, which means even Crane won't mess with it as much as us.

It does seem tricky, but I wonder if the threat of dishonor might not be enough to make your opponent make suboptimal choices.

26 minutes ago, profparm said:

We will soon have an article to confirm, but here's my speculation:

Pick stronghold, note clan and influence.

Build a dynasty deck of only clan and neutral cards.

Pick 5 provinces, one associated with each ring, restricted to clan and neutral. (The provinces have one of the rings in the corner.)

Build a conflict deck with up to influence worth of non-faction cards (the bamboo in bot right of all conflict cards), rest is clan and neutral.

There could be a different mechanic for allowing out of clan personalities to go into your dynasty deck. Perhaps costing one more fate for playing out of clan/non neutral personalities. This is probably not the case and i dont know that i would like it, but I was just thinking it would be a similar approach to the old L5R model of splashing out of clan personalities.

5 minutes ago, Kiseki said:

It does seem tricky, but I wonder if the threat of dishonor might not be enough to make your opponent make suboptimal choices.

I think probably this. There's a lot of ways it could go, but I doubt there will be dedicated dishonor decks that only or almost only win that way. I think it will be much more of an opportunistic win condition, and a threat that keeps people from doing things they might otherwise want to (draw lots of cards and win duels).

It could even be that Scorpion LOSE more to dishonor than they win with it. Looks like the mechanics reward Scorpion dropping dangerously low, and Fire or Air conflicts could be used by any clan to potentially drop those few extra points.

1 minute ago, Eugene Earnshaw said:

I think probably this. There's a lot of ways it could go, but I doubt there will be dedicated dishonor decks that only or almost only win that way. I think it will be much more of an opportunistic win condition, and a threat that keeps people from doing things they might otherwise want to (draw lots of cards and win duels).

It could even be that Scorpion LOSE more to dishonor than they win with it. Looks like the mechanics reward Scorpion dropping dangerously low, and Fire or Air conflicts could be used by any clan to potentially drop those few extra points.

That's what I was thinking too. If someone gets greedy and neglects their honor you help them fall off the cliff.

Just now, Eugene Earnshaw said:

I think probably this. There's a lot of ways it could go, but I doubt there will be dedicated dishonor decks that only or almost only win that way. I think it will be much more of an opportunistic win condition, and a threat that keeps people from doing things they might otherwise want to (draw lots of cards and win duels).

It could even be that Scorpion LOSE more to dishonor than they win with it. Looks like the mechanics reward Scorpion dropping dangerously low, and Fire or Air conflicts could be used by any clan to potentially drop those few extra points.

I have definitely thought about Scorpion getting greedy with honor. But I am shifting my thoughts from "low honor" to "less honor" I really do expect to be playing in the mid range often, just lightly less than them. I have realized how interesting it is though, that in the mid game you want to be less than them so that they drop and we can play our dirty actions. But at some point you have to commit to the honor swap and allow them to drop under you. Once they are teetering and you are just above them in th 1-7 range, I expect, you just bid low to starve them out.

I love this.

1 minute ago, BayushiCroy said:

I have definitely thought about Scorpion getting greedy with honor. But I am shifting my thoughts from "low honor" to "less honor" I really do expect to be playing in the mid range often, just lightly less than them. I have realized how interesting it is though, that in the mid game you want to be less than them so that they drop and we can play our dirty actions. But at some point you have to commit to the honor swap and allow them to drop under you. Once they are teetering and you are just above them in th 1-7 range, I expect, you just bid low to starve them out.

I love this.

There were a few types of decks back in the day - there were "bomb decks" that tried to get one glorious dishonor bomb to go off and take the opponent to -20, and then there were "walk decks" that relied on giving honor dings to players with higher honor than you where you would often get yourself dangerously low in order to send them to the bottom.

Lots of interesting possibilities. I'm curious if dishonor is going to be more of a win condition (ie: you actively try to pursue it from the start of the game) or more of a lose condition (ie: your opponent makes a mistake and you capitalize on it).

I love how the title has "loyalty" in it, and the responses are almost a sea of Scorpion mons.

16 minutes ago, Kiseki said:

I love how the title has "loyalty" in it, and the responses are almost a sea of Scorpion mons.

I can't let this continue unimpeded.

I will be playing exclusively Unicorn in competitive events. Also playing whatever I enjoy in casual settings, which will likely be mostly Unicorn also. Been a Pony player ever since getting that free Unicorn starter at GenCon '96 even if I didn't really learn to play until almost a year later.

34 minutes ago, Kiseki said:

I love how the title has "loyalty" in it, and the responses are almost a sea of Scorpion mons.

Ask and ye shall receive

Crab in casual games, Crab in events, Crab at home, Crab for life!

1 minute ago, TheShinyYasuki said:

Crab in casual games, Crab in events, Crab at home, Crab for life!

Crab is for fite! Fite is good!

9 minutes ago, TheShinyYasuki said:

Crab in casual games, Crab in events, Crab at home, Crab for life!

Can I have all your non crab cards? =P

So how will it feel to get a new pack of cards that only has one or two crabs in it? Unlike a TCG there is really no one to trade with.

2 minutes ago, TylerTT said:

So how will it feel to get a new pack of cards that only has one or two crabs in it? Unlike a TCG there is really no one to trade with.

That's a potential downside, but on the upside it still means that people who only play with each other can split a set relatively easily.

Not necessarily.

Let's say you like lion and scorpion, and your friend likes crane and dragon. You each buy a core and trade all dragon/crane for scorpion/lion. You take turns buying data packs and split cards by clan.

Edit: that is to say, trading will be more like card sharing than proper trading, but that's how LCGs work.

I heard there weren't enough Scorpion mons in the Clan Loyalty thread, so I came to play.

I'll do the same thing I've always done, which is the opposite of what the scorpion players do. I'll play crab most of the time and I'll make bitter lies scorpion berserker decks in my off time.

9 minutes ago, profparm said:

Not necessarily.

Let's say you like lion and scorpion, and your friend likes crane and dragon. You each buy a core and trade all dragon/crane for scorpion/lion. You take turns buying data packs and split cards by clan.

Edit: that is to say, trading will be more like card sharing than proper trading, but that's how LCGs work.

Yeah but who gets the nutral cards?