27 minutes ago, Drudenfusz said:

From the Reddit AMA we know that minor clans do exist and that they are planning to involve them.

All they said was "minor clans may appear in future stories," which is essentially a non-answer.

1 hour ago, Kakita Onimaru said:

Kinda disappointed about the Dueling. Also, using abilities on bowed cards greatly reduces the effectiveness of bow effects.

Yeah, I was hoping they would have followed up on that answer because other than not being able to add skill to conflict resolution it doesn't really seem like bowing is that much of a detriment.

13 minutes ago, Yoritomo Reiu said:

All they said was "minor clans may appear in future stories," which is essentially a non-answer.

Well that was followed be a "Stay tuned!" which sounds to me like an affirmation, since why would be asked to wait for it if there is nothing coming.

I find it slightly disappointing that Gen Con will be having a story price. I'd prefer if they waited until the game was officially out to the general public before they started doing story prizes. Living in the middle of nowhere on a limited budget means all major tournaments are a no go. I will be lucky if I can even find a single interested player in a 60 mile radius. So it would be nice to have other ways to have some kind of influence on the story.

I'm looking forward to seeing more info on the clans and am thrilled that Crane will be the first one to be discussed. It's a safe bet we will get more info on duels and political actions with that article.

2 minutes ago, TechnoGolem said:

I find it slightly disappointing that Gen Con will be having a story price. I'd prefer if they waited until the game was officially out to the general public before they started doing story prizes. Living in the middle of nowhere on a limited budget means all major tournaments are a no go. I will be lucky if I can even find a single interested player in a 60 mile radius. So it would be nice to have other ways to have some kind of influence on the story.

I'm looking forward to seeing more info on the clans and am thrilled that Crane will be the first one to be discussed. It's a safe bet we will get more info on duels and political actions with that article.

How would you like to affect the story line without participating in tournaments?

Like Twitter votes or something?

12 minutes ago, Joe From Cincinnati said:

How would you like to affect the story line without participating in tournaments?

Like Twitter votes or something?

I'd prefer polls on the Fantasy Flight website. It would be nice to be able to feel like I am having a minor impact on the story that way.

15 minutes ago, TechnoGolem said:

I'd prefer polls on the Fantasy Flight website. It would be nice to be able to feel like I am having a minor impact on the story that way.

My only issue with that is that seems like it would be easy to spam. What they need is a variety of different ways to influence the story--sure, have certain things be up to polls to involve non-tourneygoers, but also have tourneys be important so that crowd can have something to fight for. I also hope that they take into account the results of small, local store-level tournaments, to involve people like me who might find a store that runs them but don't have the time or money (or skills, probably) to go out and play in the big tournaments. Obviously no single store would have an impact on the story, but by contributing to your clan's win-percentage worldwide you could still feel like you were contributing.

Its very difficult to incorporate story ideas from every participating source... I can see big tournament's prize being the ability to change or determine outcome of story/event/character etc (particularly in lcg model which lacks prize support) .

AEG started trying to incorporate everything and it caused many problems for the storyline. From a participation point of view the Race to the throne was a good way to show what a community at large could do. Discussion in the clan forums etc what the Clans goals could be so that if a tournament is won the player may decide to follow those ideas. BUT nobody must get upset if that player chooses something different.. he won the tournament and he gets the prize full stop.

What would be nice is online competitions, i.e. haiku, possibly art, or fan stories etc which if you win the comp that gets incorporated into the card game... I am unsure of legal requirements on that though, ffg have to be careful.

At first, the story prize at GenCon stinged a bit. I thought that as a non-USA-citizen waiting for the official release and-non-GenCon-going person (for obvious economic reasons), I would not get the same treatment as other players. It also felt like the game started even before it sarted!

However, taking a step back I realised we have NO idea what the story prize will be. What will be its magnitude of impact?
What is "story" here? Is it the history of Rokugan in the making? Is it a snippet in a fiction?
Will it concern a whole Clan? A single samurai?
Is it an everlasting decision? Does it concern the creation of a building? Is it the colour of the welcoming banner for the Sakura Festival held at the Emerald Champion's party?

Right now, I feel like it is a nice reward for those who made the trip and showed their devotion.

I think earning points for our account could be a good way to vote for stuff. We could earn points by sending in proof of purchases or entering a one time use code. Winning a local tournament or coming in second or third could be worth various points to. This would allow players to spend their points for votes and would help prevent people from voting over and over again. This would give the chance for more people to feel involved with the story.

The big story events should be reserved for major tournaments.

Maybe it was just me, but the impression I got from the answers at the AMA was that story prizes will not have as big of an impact as they used to, almost as if FFG has a story in mind and doesn't want the players to derail it (which if that's the case I would totally understand that.)

12 hours ago, Drudenfusz said:

Well that was followed be a "Stay tuned!" which sounds to me like an affirmation, since why would be asked to wait for it if there is nothing coming.

To what degree could such a thing be called an "interactive storyline," though?

14 hours ago, Drudenfusz said:

From the Reddit AMA we know that minor clans do exist and that they are planning to involve them.

Boo!

1 minute ago, Kakita Shiro said:

Boo!

You hate so many things that so many people love. heh.

Anyway, they didn't actually say "minor clans exist, and we're planning to involve them". Their answer was more "we'll see; stay tuned".

It's likely enough that some minor clans exist in one form or another, but it wouldn't surprise if they just end up being:

A) Neutral characters sprinkled here and there.
B) various minor clans aligned with Great Clans, so they'll just be characters for the 'hosting' clan (Dragonfly would be Dragon Clan, Falcon would be Crab, Sparrow would be Crane, etc)
C) A mixture of A & B

Just now, Togashi Gao Shan said:

You hate so many things that so many people love. heh.

People like olives, too, but there's no accounting for taste.

38 minutes ago, Togashi Gao Shan said:

A) Neutral characters sprinkled here and there.
B) various minor clans aligned with Great Clans, so they'll just be characters for the 'hosting' clan (Dragonfly would be Dragon Clan, Falcon would be Crab, Sparrow would be Crane, etc)
C) A mixture of A & B

Except for story reasons, A) option would be the best. Dual aligned characters are nice if there is some interesting story reason for it and it is not overdone.

I heard Yoritomo and the Mantis clan became a faction (as Yoritomo alliance) because a storyline decision by the players. Is this accurate?

If so, Can some veteran remind us what was the player decision regarding Yoritomo, that procuced the change?

In case the information I have is accurate, it will mean two things: first, as a storyline reboot has been activated, I presume (and hope) that the story could change. Second: mantis lovers will have to earn their place in the future (and they probably will, given the popularity of the figure).

This, of course, unless the storyline determination system changes dramatically, which is also a posibility.

59 minutes ago, Koriume said:

I heard Yoritomo and the Mantis clan became a faction (as Yoritomo alliance) because a storyline decision by the players. Is this accurate?

If so, Can some veteran remind us what was the player decision regarding Yoritomo, that procuced the change?

In case the information I have is accurate, it will mean two things: first, as a storyline reboot has been activated, I presume (and hope) that the story could change. Second: mantis lovers will have to earn their place in the future (and they probably will, given the popularity of the figure).

This, of course, unless the storyline determination system changes dramatically, which is also a posibility.

The Mantis story is quite boring compared to that of the Spider becoming a great clan!

1 hour ago, Koriume said:

I heard Yoritomo and the Mantis clan became a faction (as Yoritomo alliance) because a storyline decision by the players. Is this accurate?

Not really? It was just another of the apocalyptic end-of-the-world changes that the Second Day of Thunder was doing as part of its storyline (in which case every clan was challenged between doing the sensible thing and doing its duty). In this case, the rise of the Mantis showed that the Celestial Order was even more fully upended, as a bunch of minor clans could ascend to Great Clan status based just on ambition and hard work.

I expect that Minor Clans exist, since they call the playable clans already Great Clans, which would be not necessary if there is no other kind of clans. Sure, I think they might make some changes, but I have to say I really liked the idea of minor clans in general, since it gave the world a more living feeling, and compared to 7th Sea where there had been no small nations the setting felt sterile and too much designed.

So, I hope we get some minor clans from the start, like the Fox and Dragonfly. The Wasp and the Mantis are also nice to have around, but I would not mind if they get merged from the beginning. The tortoise are one of the minor clans I think could and maybe should be dropped, and the whole gaijins had centuries ago cannons already crap, and move such a story line possible into the future of the game as something we actually can deal with then.

Also I like the idea of a minor clan becoming a great clan kind of story, so I would like to see something like that happen again, but maybe this time with more player involvement, so that tournaments determine which minor clan is on the rise. And on a side note, I didn't liked that AEG tried so often to destroy the minor clans, merger them or all that useless crap.

Anyway, I would not mind if we would get for example the Kaeru family this time from the start as minor clan.

And of course I hope this time all the minor clans have proper family names from the beginning, and that means I would not mind if the name Yoritomo is already centuries old.

5 hours ago, Drudenfusz said:

I expect that Minor Clans exist, since they call the playable clans already Great Clans, which would be not necessary if there is no other kind of clans. Sure, I think they might make some changes, but I have to say I really liked the idea of minor clans in general, since it gave the world a more living feeling, and compared to 7th Sea where there had been no small nations the setting felt sterile and too much designed.

So, I hope we get some minor clans from the start, like the Fox and Dragonfly. The Wasp and the Mantis are also nice to have around, but I would not mind if they get merged from the beginning. The tortoise are one of the minor clans I think could and maybe should be dropped, and the whole gaijins had centuries ago cannons already crap, and move such a story line possible into the future of the game as something we actually can deal with then.

Also I like the idea of a minor clan becoming a great clan kind of story, so I would like to see something like that happen again, but maybe this time with more player involvement, so that tournaments determine which minor clan is on the rise. And on a side note, I didn't liked that AEG tried so often to destroy the minor clans, merger them or all that useless crap.

Anyway, I would not mind if we would get for example the Kaeru family this time from the start as minor clan.

And of course I hope this time all the minor clans have proper family names from the beginning, and that means I would not mind if the name Yoritomo is already centuries old.

Oh for sure. It would be awesome to see the Spider eat the Sparrow clan and maybe other minor clans again!

On May 12, 2017 at 1:36 PM, JP9 said:

My big concern is the "prerelease" comment at the end. How limited will be the prerelease there? I expected allocated to one per person, but the way they made it sound, it may be EXTREMELY limited. I bought a Gen Con ticket just for L5R, and I will be very upset if I can't get a copy there, and I wasted a ton of money.

On May 12, 2017 at 9:35 PM, Ragudaddy said:

I really hope this doesn't mean limited release events. I literally am only going to Gencon for the release.

There is so much to do at GenCon, and it's expensive enough for admission/hotel/etc. that I think it's crazy to do that just for one game. I guess if you live close enough to make a single-day trip viable I could see it, but otherwise, that just seems like a pretty significant investment of time/money for little return.

3 hours ago, Vlad3theImpaler said:

There is so much to do at GenCon, and it's expensive enough for admission/hotel/etc. that I think it's crazy to do that just for one game. I guess if you live close enough to make a single-day trip viable I could see it, but otherwise, that just seems like a pretty significant investment of time/money for little return.

Of course my family and I are going to partaking in everything Gencon has to offer, but the catalyst for us attending this year was the L5R release. This is an event I've been looking forward to since the announcement, and if I'm not able to get into the event I honestly don't know if we'll be going.

I hope that Minor Clans are not merged with anyone.

All good stuff to my mind. I also like the fact that though they 'may' introduce 'great evils' at some point they are concentrating initially on a storyline relating to clan interactions. It's a bit like Marvel. There are only so many 'vast swarm of cgi creatures threratening the earth' before you start getting tired. There is so many good tales that can be told just nvolving the clans that I am pleased they are (potentially) keeping it less epoch changing. My favourite AEG stuff was always the occassions when they did the same and not days of thunder etc etc.

Also nice to see confirmed that we shall have some ex-AEG storyteam writers involved in the story.

Finally they also confirmed the card game involves snapshot characters so the game can cope with multiple same named (or dead) personalities which some people were high horsing about.