Misinterpreting other people's posts is fun.

The old rules didn't work doesn't mean we can't have good rules to convey that idea. It just means the old rules didn't work.

Th old rules at the beginning, when there was simply experienced and not 2,3,4 etc.., worked just fine.

Yeah, I feel that some people are intentionally making the concept of experienced personalities and overlaying seem more complicated than it needs to be.

It doesn't really matter, though, as I really doubt we're going to see it in the LCG.

Here is an idea of how it can work...

1) A character can only be replaced by the same named unique of a higher experience level.

2) You must pay the difference in Fate cost between the two cards.

3) The lower experienced card is removed from the game and the higher experienced card takes its place.

4) The Higher experienced card keeps the Fate that the lower experienced card had.

5) You can pay additional Fate to add even more Fate to the higher experienced card.

These seem like reasonable rules for handling the addition of experienced characters.

I'd say it's very possible that persistent characters who do not die in the rather lethal storyline of L5R could receive new versions in later Dynasty packs, perhaps with growth and development conveyed through heightened or changed stats and effects.

18 minutes ago, Builder2 said:

I'd say it's very possible that persistent characters who do not die in the rather lethal storyline of L5R could receive new versions in later Dynasty packs, perhaps with growth and development conveyed through heightened or changed stats and effects.

I would love to see some military badass get hurt bad and permanently injured, and a later version is either pure political or some sort of training/sensei ability.

Having read through this and thought: it would be really cool if we do get Experienced cards, that they are Unique versions of generics. For example, Matsu Gohei, experienced Matsu Berserker.

How about. An greater experienced (assumed unique) adds 2 fate rather than 1 to the in play character (regardless of experience) a non-experienced or less experienced character can always be discarded to add 1, as per rules. ?

2 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

Having read through this and thought: it would be really cool if we do get Experienced cards, that they are Unique versions of generics. For example, Matsu Gohei, experienced Matsu Berserker.

But why would say Matsu Gohei be the experienced version of the Matsu Berserker card more than any named berserker ? All Matsu berserkers are somehow experienced versions of the Matsu Berserker...

1 hour ago, Katsutoshi said:

But why would say Matsu Gohei be the experienced version of the Matsu Berserker card more than any named berserker ? All Matsu berserkers are somehow experienced versions of the Matsu Berserker...

Why couldn't there be multiple unique Experienced cards that build off the same non-unique base card?

4 minutes ago, Ryric said:

Why couldn't there be multiple unique Experienced cards that build off the same non-unique base card?

What then is the purpose of being Experienced? At that point, you're really just differentiating between Unique and non-Unique, so why have an additional keyword?

From what I can see, any Experienced mechanic is either going to be so complicated and clunky as to be confusing to new players, or else it'll be so streamlined as to be effectively meaningless. Either way, are we really getting enough out of it to bother including it?

16 hours ago, Yandia said:

...but then you had Moto Chagatai who's Experienced 4 dominated the complete Samurai Arc, while is Experienced 5 version was more or less just nice to have.

Aaah, the sweet cries of despair and woe when Chag 4 hit the table. Music to my ears.

double post derp

Chagatai Exp 4 <<<<< Khol Wall..... stupid stupid stronghold

24 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

What then is the purpose of being Experienced? At that point, you're really just differentiating between Unique and non-Unique, so why have an additional keyword?

From what I can see, any Experienced mechanic is either going to be so complicated and clunky as to be confusing to new players, or else it'll be so streamlined as to be effectively meaningless. Either way, are we really getting enough out of it to bother including it?

I think there should be some sort of mechanic to represent the same character growing over the course of the story. Let's say for example's sake that Experienced lets you simply overlay the newer version. Having multiple paths to go down would firstly give a lot more deckbuilding options. Or, imagine as sets go on, each storyline gets its own set of Experienced, unique versions of the basic characters. In that case they wouldn't mix much but each era would have its own flavor.

23 hours ago, Mon no Oni said:

Now that I think of it, I don't think this has been dealt with (for sure not in the web articles, maybe in the AMA) but, has there been any talk about the Experienced mechanic?

For me this was one of the most flavourful mechanics of L5R, seeing a character change and grow over time, and I remember getting one super neat experienced Kakita Toshimoko in the first or second pack I ever opened, so I would be sad to lose it completely.

probably not. In GoT and Star Wars just print new cards with the same character on it.

And we already have rules that would replace overlaying - if you have a copy of a unique character in play and a copy if one in your province or hand, you can discard the one in your province or hand to give the one in place a fate token

I don't see why it even has to necessarily do anything mechanically. They could just include "experienced" as a trait, just like "cavalry," "bushi," etc.

The flavor would be readily apparent, without needing any clunky rules for it.

It annoyed me that people kept getting more and more experienced versions in the later years of the game, despite those characters not really changing at all in the story.

In the earlier days of the game, players were constantly requesting an experienced version of Isawa Taeruko because she had been very prominent in the story line at the time. The problem was that Taeruko was stubborn to a fault and specifically WASN'T learning anything or growing in any meaningful way. This was actually a defining trait of her character. She was actively fighting against learning anything at all from her experiences and actions.

This was the reason given by WotC / AEG (I can't remember who ran the game a the time) for never giving her a new version. I liked that philosophy. It's unfortunate it was abandoned at some point later on.

1 hour ago, Ryric said:

I think there should be some sort of mechanic to represent the same character growing over the course of the story. Let's say for example's sake that Experienced lets you simply overlay the newer version. Having multiple paths to go down would firstly give a lot more deckbuilding options. Or, imagine as sets go on, each storyline gets its own set of Experienced, unique versions of the basic characters. In that case they wouldn't mix much but each era would have its own flavor.

I think something like this is fun.

Having your own kind of custom characters. As long as they start from non-unique generic personalities then it works and I think that would be really cool.

Here's another idea:

What if experienced was handled like an attachment which couldn't be targeted (so you know, you're experience isn't being shot by an archer or bowed or something ridiculous).

What if the experienced cards were kept in a side board, instead of your Deck. Printed on the card is the method that the card becomes experienced. As an example: " Experianced Akodo Foe Thwapper. When Akodo Foe Thwapper participates in a successful Military Earth Ring conflict, overlay this card. "

1 hour ago, clanmccracken said:

What if the experienced cards were kept in a side board, instead of your Deck. Printed on the card is the method that the card becomes experienced. As an example: " Experianced Akodo Foe Thwapper. When Akodo Foe Thwapper participates in a successful Military Earth Ring conflict, overlay this card. "

Huh. Y'know what... I kinda dig it.

23 hours ago, Yandia said:

Me as well... but then you had Moto Chagatai who's Experienced 4 dominated the complete Samurai Arc, while is Experienced 5 version was more or less just nice to have.

Chags is one of the best examples. He absolutely peaked and had to be toned down. It's a shame there wasn't a story reason, like, he irritated an old soccer injury or something.