So I got into L5R late into the game so they were long gone game play wise. But, thanks to a few hours on the wiki and a DM who used 2ed of the RPG so my crab scout had a nezumi ally (as well as a secret admirer all in one. Yep he was that kind of gm who likes mixing your feats with your flaws) but it was still fun to have and I love how they played into crab clan culture particularly with the coming of age ceremony (for those not familiar with it clan members are sent into the shadowlands and must come back with the head of a monster. A goblin head is a pass, oni head means you will do well, nezumi head gets you banished because you can't tell friend from foe.) Anyway the question I have is if the nezumi make it back into the game will they be crab clan cards (as crab were the only ones who would really deal with them) or will they be neutral? Personally I feel they should be a in faction thing as how close the groups work while the rest of the clans treat them as pests.

I would assume they would be treated like in the old game for the most part, that means as neutral cards, until FFG prints a stronghold that probably simply says every card with the Ratling trait counts as your clan/faction. I the RPG and in general in the lore there have been plenty of Nezumi tribes that did not even lived near the Crab Clan lands and thus had no connection to them, while then on the other hand the Lion and teh Nezumi had at one point also something to do with each other. And well under AEG we often saw all kinds of nonhumans show up in all kinds of clans too, so maybe they might make some Ratlings to be Crab Clan, but that doesn't mean all of them have to be... also even the RPG, the Nezumi Ally is something that not only Crab can take, so why do you think that teh Ratling should belong to just that one clan?

FFG confirmed yesterday they write new canon. So in their version there could be zero Nezumis, Five Races etc.

1 minute ago, kempy said:

FFG confirmed yesterday they write new canon. So in their version there could be zero Nezumis, Five Races etc.

Which is why I said if.

42 minutes ago, Drudenfusz said:

also even the RPG, the Nezumi Ally is something that not only Crab can take, so why do you think that the Ratling should belong to just that one clan?

I had to check the book and you are correct crab clan gets a discount not exclusivity. Still, if they are added back I would like to see some crab/ratling synergy down the line.

I loved the non-human races. My wife played Naga (who were actually a full playable faction before Mantis), and was one of the people who mostly quite the game when they left. I like the Nezumi a lot, and always wanted to see more Kenku and free Ogres.

That said, I think FFG won't be doing much, if anything, with nonhuman races in their version of the game, at least not for quite some time (a year or two, at least). On one hand, this disappoints me, especially since the Naga were about to come back as a full playable faction on the next set / arc of the CCG. On the other hand, having just the seven Great Clans (and maybe Mantis and Shadowlands in some form sometime in the future) makes the game easier to balance.

It's also possible that the nonhuman races don't even exist in this version of Rokugan, but I'll be very disappointed if that's the case. Rokugan is a very fantastical setting. Yes, it is based quite a bit in 'gritty / realistic' samurai drama, but it was always meant by the original creators to be very mythical. I feel that every time later writers tried to de-mythologize the setting, it created far more problems than it 'solved'.

I think Nezumi were a joke that unfortunately caught on and went way, way too far.

Various aspects of them were made as goofball and outlandish as possible and their general role was to be comic relief.

I really don't see any benefit to bringing them back.

I prefer my samurai melodrama sans talking bipedal rats.

I wouldn't mind a few cards here and there, but a full-blown faction? No, absolutely not.