So, I dont get to talk about L5r as much as I'd like with my friend group, they are interested but not quite as fervently as I.

so in the interest of having somewhere to just gush about my love of the setting, what is everyone's favourite thing about the setting or game, either Nu5r or O5r?

I like the easy flow of the game and the awesome lore.

The mechanics seem simple, but the card text and bidding provide a myriad of possibilities. With that comes complex planning in the deck building and execution.

Well... I have quite a list...

But some stuff I always go back to-

1. The community. Everybody says this, yes. But there's a reason.

2. From a Phoenix perspective- The Battle of the Broken Daisho, Mizuhiko's doomed ride with the Bloodsword Judgment, Aikune's death (most of his life he was a friggin' plot device unstoppable monster, but his final moments showed the end of a character's journey, as he finally heard his ancestors), Isawa Tadaka's art, Winter Courts 4, where Isawa Taisho surprised me despite my having created him from whole cloth...

3. From an idiosyncratic but not purely Phoenix focus, The War of Dark Fire, Part 12, wherein Munkjin the Yobanjin becomes a fully realized character in the span of a couple of paragraphs. This story singlehandedly got me more interested in Yobanjin culture than I had ever imagined I would get.

4. Winter Court 3, Wherein a Shiba-Trained Dragonfly Imperial Explorer proved to be a lousy samurai but a good man.

The art. Other card games don't hold up.

The art looks amazing. I am a fan of the new looking clan mons too.

So long, the art.

There are many other things in the rules and the game, with the potential to be brilliant, but it´s too soon to be sure of.

But the art, and the card artistic design, got me hyped.

i really like the new Mons, i think they make the lion look much better, and the unicorn one too.

personally i think i love the setting generally, but the original origin story is one of my favourite things. i know it was kinda just greek myths with a reskin, but the whole thing captures my imagination.

and i really love how strongly my friends and i can identify with 'our clans' to the point that we can have full debates from an IC standpoint.

Agree with all of that. Clan loyalty makes the fictions, and personal interactions a lot more interesting for me.

As far as the game itself - I always loved that the majority of games felt to me like they were determined by player decisions (split my forces to defend 2 provinces, or stack them at one / accept or deny the duel / use my kill action now or save it, etc.). That involved feeling I got from L5R games was what really kept me interested over a long period of time. I feel like other games I've played just haven't given me that sense of control and impact over the outcome (as opposed to games where unstoppable combo #2 goes off and there is nothing in the world that could stop it).

2 minutes ago, YasukiKaito said:

I always loved that the majority of games felt to me like they were determined by player decisions (split my forces to defend 2 provinces, or stack them at one / accept or deny the duel / use my kill action now or save it, etc.)

On the plus side i feel like that will be the case for a lot of the mechanics in the new game. at least it seems that way to me

Kitsune

The world needs more trickster spirits.

I've always had an interest in Asian culture, especially anything to do with martial arts or samurai. So it's no surprise that I bought one of each starter deck, Imperial and Emerald edition, that a shop had on clearance because no one was buying them.

I only ended up paying $36 for 12 starters, 6 Imperial and 6 Emerald, and couldn't wait to get home and open them. After a few minutes of debating which deck to open first, I opened the Emerald edition Dragon (I had no clue what the difference between Imperial and Emerald was at this point). The first card that I pulled out, read, and immediately fell in love with was Togashi Mitsu. There are many things that I love about L5R, but I'll never forget that first character that pulled me in.

I love what FFG is doing with the game and am looking to get a fresh and updated version of the game that has always been my favorite...I just hope and pray that my boy Mitsu will be around to share the journey once again.

My favorite part of L5R was that the world was shaped by the players and the welcoming community.

I got into L5R during Diamond Edition right before I shipped off to Afghanistan with the US Army. I packed one of each clan starter in my foot locker and had a year to learn every clan with a couple of buddies.

Despite never having played competitively, I was welcomed by my clan brothers and sisters when I went to my first Gen Con with one of those buddies and got to vote for Hida Sozen to be the next emperor during the Crab Clan council at the start of the Race for the Throne. Some of them having remembered me from the forums, made me feel like I was among old friends.

In what other game can you say they have an awesome community AND your decisions can shape the world in which you game in? That's what I've always liked best.

I don't play the card game (yet), but I was introduced to the L5R 4th edition RPG, and quickly fell in love with it. It's been the game my group has played the most consistently, to the point were we've actually created a whole setting of our own (shamelessly advertised here).
I'd say the complexity and thoroughness of the setting is what intrigued me so much about L5R. I fell in love with each clan's traditions, politics, culture, and especially the wide breath of characters. I also must admit to adoring the art they have. I remember one person reviewing an old RPG book (Way of the Unicorn, I think), and pointing at a picture of Horuchi Shoan taking care of a pair of children. The reviewer said something along the lines that in other RPGs, they don't waste money showing families or people in everyday life. In L5R, however, that's perhaps the most important art of all. It's incredible how true that is. The game really does try to get players into the mindset of playing different than any RGP I've seen, focusing on families and careers more than dungion crawling and looting (both of which are actually discouraged here).

I cant make it to Gencon this year, but im hoping to make enough of a presence on here before Gencon 2018 that when i get to go, i have a similar experience to you Shigure, because what i have experienced of the community on here is generally amazing and these are the sorts of people i want to hang with in my first trip and con.

1 hour ago, Chron73 said:

I've always had an interest in Asian culture, especially anything to do with martial arts or samurai. So it's no surprise that I bought one of each starter deck, Imperial and Emerald edition, that a shop had on clearance because no one was buying them.

I only ended up paying $36 for 12 starters, 6 Imperial and 6 Emerald, and couldn't wait to get home and open them. After a few minutes of debating which deck to open first, I opened the Emerald edition Dragon (I had no clue what the difference between Imperial and Emerald was at this point). The first card that I pulled out, read, and immediately fell in love with was Togashi Mitsu. There are many things that I love about L5R, but I'll never forget that first character that pulled me in.

I love what FFG is doing with the game and am looking to get a fresh and updated version of the game that has always been my favorite...I just hope and pray that my boy Mitsu will be around to share the journey once again.

It is that kind of excitement this game is going to need, and I hope I have your same excitement when I get the new core box at gencon. I think I will.

9 minutes ago, KnightofSquires said:

I cant make it to Gencon this year, but im hoping to make enough of a presence on here before Gencon 2018 that when i get to go, i have a similar experience to you Shigure, because what i have experienced of the community on here is generally amazing and these are the sorts of people i want to hang with in my first trip and con.

This is going to be my first gencon and I echo your sentiments.

Just now, HidaYama said:

This is going to be my first gencon and I echo your sentiments.

i am jealous i cant make it, but the pond is too far to cross this time for me. good luck over there, i hope its as awesome as i want it to be.

The community from my short and small experience is amazing. No other gaming community has clan dinners at conventions and tournaments. Most gaming communities do truly care about the other people outside their play group. The L5R community does, and that is awesome.

I have no interest in the story, art, setting, or characters. I really like the revealed gameplay mechanics. It looks like FFG took good stuff from multiple games and made up a cohesive amalgam strategy design.

I have played almost all LCG type card games including some non-FFG titles such as Doomtown and Ashes over the last 5 years. Star Wars is my current favorite, but L5R looks to be the new title to beat. So far the game looks like a lot of fun with potential for high competition. Hopefully, the balance will last for at least the first few years and create a thriving community for local tournaments and worldwide events.

I always loved the bitter sweet aspects of the settings, the personal drama and the tragic romances. Stuff that was even uphold during epic stuff in the beginning, but in later years to much of it got lost in the endless waves of faceless enemies. But FFG seems to be back on track and I hope they will ride that for a long time!

There are actually numerous reasons for me.

1. For starters it's a nice change of pace just being non-Tolkien fantasy.

2. For me it's always been the only CCG that's been fun for longer than a month. I could play L5R using decks only made of commons from a single base set and have fun longer ten times longer than I could playing Magic with unlimited card selection.

3. The art is awesome.

4. The world is great escapism. It ties back to number one, but it's easy to go mentally wandering through Rokugan and not come back for hours. It's fleshed out and feels alive in the same ways that make Middle Earth and Tamriel truly stand out.

5. The community and player aspect. While the online community can be a bit more vitriolic than most, the community at large is awesome. You'll never have more fun getting your teeth kicked in during a tournament than at a Kotei. And the ability to influence the storyline and direct the path of your clan is the final icing on the cake.

The mechanics of the old game were pretty good, and the new ones look even better with plenty more tactical choices to make. What more does one need?

The personalities.

Each card had their own story. Although their were legends like Daidoji Uji, Kakita Yoshi, Kakita Toshimoko, Doji Reju and Doji Kuwanan their were lesser known ones like Daidoji Sembi.

A quiet man, who did what was needed, and when his time had faded renounced his caste and became a wandering monk. Never to be seen again.

The Ide. Unicorn in general, Ide specific.

Also an RPG/Card game around samurai in general. I'm a fan of that.