Hey all,

The background for L5R can be pretty intimidating to start into. With the upcoming LCG we already have a lot of new players interested in finding out more. I've put together an article which I hope will give new players a quick Introduction to the world of Rokugan . The goal is to keep. it simple and concise but provide the important basics.

If you are an experienced player already, I would appreciate if you had a read through. If you can see anything that could be improved, pop me a message or reply here and I'll update the article.

Thanks,

Bazleebub

Edit - This article is posted on Medium but also ImperialAdvisor.com, I'll continue to use both but I've changed the main link above to ImperialAdvisor.com.

Thanks for putting this together!

Just one minor detail, change the caption of the picture with the bushi of the seven clans to actually say Bushi, and not Samurai, since you know, shugenja are also samurai. This is something FFG finally gets right, so it would be better to not confuse peopel by continue to doing that wrong.

Excellent spot! I even talk about it elsewhere, durh. I've updated it now.

Thanks,

Bazleebub

Love the article, perfect for us new guys! Did you miss a 'be' in the Crab overview "looks like they will at their strongest on the defence"

This might put FFG's attempt to shame if they release something similar

Though they will show off with more new art.

Another good spot. Updated.

Thanks

Bazleebub

Really good but I have one minor complaint.

Could you add a reference to shugenja being some form of priest or spiritual advisor? Maybe something like "mechanically they are like wizards and thend to fill this and that role in Rokugan".

Maybe it's not necessary since in the game they will likely work like wizards and it could be confusing to add another description, but some people seem to find that their role as priest gets ignored too often.

Any way, I think it's a great job, thank you for doing it.

Looks good! Though the "hundreds of small clans" probably isn't accurate. In the AEG version at least, there were 10 minor clans at this point: Mantis, Fox, Badger, Centipede, Sparrow, Tortoise, Dragonfly, Hare, Falcon, and Wasp. We don't know how many survived the transition, though. Maybe just say there are "many" minor clans, and leave it at that for now?

Both good points. I've updated the article.

The Shugenja Priest part is a bit of a challenge. Talking about D&D is possibly a mistake as Priests in D&D don't get to cast bad *** spells like Fireball which the Shugenja do get to cast. I've updated it now and hopefully, it is a little clearer.

Thanks,

Bazleebub

I love your article, but noticed a few minor typos and punctuation things. What would be the best way to send that to you to polish it out? Are there any parts of it that you want to flesh out, but don't know what to put?

You can email me directly at [email protected]

Right now I'm happy enough with the overall parts, but I could have missed something.

• History of the game itself
• The physical continent
• The social structure
• The spirits and religion
• The Clan Founders
• The Clans themselves
• The current situation

3 hours ago, Bazleebub said:

Both good points. I've updated the article.

The Shugenja Priest part is a bit of a challenge. Talking about D&D is possibly a mistake as Priests in D&D don't get to cast bad *** spells like Fireball which the Shugenja do get to cast. I've updated it now and hopefully, it is a little clearer.

Thanks,

Bazleebub

The shugenja really has powers that look a lot more wizardly than anything else. No wonder we tend to forget what their role is supposed to be.

Jokes aside I think your description is pretty good.

6 hours ago, Bazleebub said:

Edit - This article is posted on Medium but also ImperialAdvisor.com, I'll continue to use both but I've changed the main link above to ImperialAdvisor.com.

Would you also like to do some community work over at the wiki?

https://l5r.gamepedia.com/Legend_of_the_Five_Rings_Wiki

We always enjoy having more determined people around, and I guess we have the same goal, to make it easy for old and new players to find into the new game.

You keep adding an extra letter to color. Why do you add extra letters to words?

Someone please remind me:

We tended to make decks with one major Clan (with your stronghold that began in play, etc) and additional cards from another Clan, for the purposes of strengthening your deck. Note, the last time I gamed the CCG was easily over 10-11 years back, and have since forgotten many aspects of the game)

Will this still be true in the LCG? Are players free to add cards from various Clans into their deck with no restriction(s)?

1 hour ago, LordBlunt said:

Someone please remind me:

We tended to make decks with one major Clan (with your stronghold that began in play, etc) and additional cards from another Clan, for the purposes of strengthening your deck. Note, the last time I gamed the CCG was easily over 10-11 years back, and have since forgotten many aspects of the game)

Will this still be true in the LCG? Are players free to add cards from various Clans into their deck with no restriction(s)?

The set up looks more or less identical to the CCG. In Dynasty decks it is just your clan and neutral cards. The Conflict (Fate) deck allows however for some inter-clan meddling. However it is the first time that we have clan restrictions in the Fate deck.

The speculation is that the number on the lower right corner of the strongholds (10 "scrolls") is to "buy" cards from other factions when deck building.

So far, we've seen cards ranging up to three "scrolls" (like blackmail). I heard it's similar to Netrunner's "Influence" mechanic.

3 hours ago, Ser Nakata said:

The speculation is that the number on the lower right corner of the strongholds (10 "scrolls") is to "buy" cards from other factions when deck building.

So far, we've seen cards ranging up to three "scrolls" (like blackmail). I heard it's similar to Netrunner's "Influence" mechanic.

In the https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/4/26/crafting-a-dynasty/ article, it's specifically called the "Influence Value" of the stronghold card (in the diagram halfway down the article), and is described as "how much influence can be included in its associated conflict deck." So I think you're exactly right about how it will work: you can include any conflict cards that match your stronghold, or neutral cards, for no influence cost; but if you include conflict cards from other clans, you have to be able to "pay" their influence cost to be able to include them in your deck. So a Lion player playing with the Yōjin no Shiro stronghold (with an Influence Value of 10) could include three copies of Blackmail (3 influence cost each) in his deck, but then he'd only have 1 influence left to "spend", so he couldn't include Rebuild (influence cost 2). He could, however, include a single copy of Breakthrough (influence cost 1). He could include 3 copies of Vengeful Oathkeeper (influence cost 2) without having to pay influence for it, though, as Vengeful Oathkeeper is a Lion card.

Also, now that I notice the scroll markers (influence cost) at the bottom of the cards, it becomes clear which cards will be in conflict decks and which ones will be in destiny decks. Vengeful Oathkeeper has 2 influence cost (two scroll symbols along the bottom edge), so he'll be a Conflict card, drawn and played from your hand. Borderlands Defender has no influence symbols, so she'll be a Dynasty card, drawn and played from your Provinces. And so on.

(BTW, I talked about "paying" influence cost in quote marks because if I'm right about how it works, it's not a cost you pay during the game; it's a limitation on which cards you can include in your deck, and you "pay" the cost at deckbuilding time.)

It's worth noting that some Conflict cards don't have any influence symbols either, though. Like the Way of the (Clan) ones. Those are locked to their specific clans, so no chance of ever using influence to git 'em.

My only suggestion for the article would be to replace the map of rokugan with one that only has the 7 great clans. With the extra mons and everything the map appears too busy.

2 hours ago, Smobey said:

It's worth noting that some Conflict cards don't have any influence symbols either, though. Like the Way of the (Clan) ones. Those are locked to their specific clans, so no chance of ever using influence to git 'em.

Why do you automatically assume that? It seems if there is no influence cost, then those cards are free to put in your deck. Zero = 0 cost, One = 1 cost, Two = 2 cost, Three = 3 cost, etc...

That could be, but based on Netrunner and the way FFG has marked other games, it seems unlikely. If it is marked for a clan, and doesn't have any influence symbols, I'd bet on it being unavailable for other clans. Now, it's possible they'd have a special symbol for 0 influence vs. 'no influence,' similar to the difference between 0 and - strength for a combat type. In that case, I'd be inclined to bet that 0 influence means anyone who can use that clan's cards could use the 0 influence cards for free.

All guesses, of course, but it's fun to try to guess in advance of hearing the rules...

What, then, would be the difference between a 0 Influence clan card and a Neutral card? I agree with Smobey's first assessment: a Clan card with no Influence marks on it cannot be played out of Clan.

15 minutes ago, Sparks Duh said:

Why do you automatically assume that? It seems if there is no influence cost, then those cards are free to put in your deck. Zero = 0 cost, One = 1 cost, Two = 2 cost, Three = 3 cost, etc...

There's also the fact that some of the cards with no influence we have seen are the 'way of' cards, which would feel kind of weird to be played outside the corresponding clan.

Just now, Doji Tori said:

There's also the fact that some of the cards with no influence we have seen are the 'way of' cards, which would feel kind of weird to be played outside the corresponding clan.

Well sure, but wouldn't it make more sense that if a card wasn't meant to be influenced that it would have like an infinity symbol or a dash or some such to let you know it can't? Having no influence cost seems like it's free to play to me.