Ive never even heard of the old game, I just saw the new posts about this new LCG and looks very interesting and I'm hoping to try it out. The question I have is how do the tournaments work with the clans? Do clans play against other clans or can you have a situation where the same clans are fighting each other? Are all the Crab clan working together in a way, and all their wins add together to decide which clan wins? Do the clans mean anything in a tournament besides the continuing story of that clan?

I'm just trying to figure out if clans serve more of a purpose than just being focused on certain strategic aspects during the game. Thanks.

Interesting question.

Technically, everyone plays everyone and mirror matchups can happen.

However, some players of Clans have used story reasons to do otherwise: IIRC, during the first end of story arc tournament, all members of the Crane declined to do a full game against each other, so as not to damage their Clan's economy.

I highly doubt playing Unicorn in a tournament would mean I wouldn't face any of the other Unicorn players in the tournament. That would be a hell of a nightmare for the TO.

Specially if you can be quite sure that out of the 7 clans, some will be a bit better than the others at the start of the environment. I hope for a balanced meta, but I'm not convinced it is possible when releasing a 7-factions game. There will be players that don't care about any clan and just play to win the tournament for the prizing or the bragging rights. I think it won't be the majority of them, on the contrary, but there will be such players.

You couldn't set up a tournament where clan X players never face another clan X until the elimination rounds.

The clan's represent various playstyles (not unlike colors in Magic). Most players in old L5R found the clan they identify with fairly early and play it exclusively. As for why? Well the sort of samurai mental was hammered into the players by the game and the idea of playing a clan with other like minded players is an extension of that. Nothing is more honorable and samurai-ey than striving to better the collective over yourself.

And yes ,as far as prizes go, all anyone ever cared about was the story prize. Even if you didn't make that cut you helped by doing your best to prevent other clans from getting a seat at the final tables.

Lastly, why possible mirror matches are possible, L5R has always been known for an extremely varied play environment making the mirror unlikely. In all of my Koties (large regional tournaments) and Gencon events I can only recall playing against another Crane samurai once.

Short story:

The clans being played has no effect on tournament pairings in any way.

Caveats:

When you get the elimination rounds, it has occasionally effected player behavior. For example: "You can have the physical prize if you let my clan have the story prize."

In the really early days of the game, some tournaments would let you offer challenges to other clans in the first round, which could be accepted by anyone playing the challenged clan. I haven't actually seen that since the late 90's, and I'm not sure if it was ever an official thing.

Conceptually, it is perfectly reasonable for a clan to enter conflicts with itself. For example, a family may find itself at odds with bushido versus its role within the clan and/or what it believes the clan as a whole should be doing for the Empire.

At the point in time that the Old Legend ended, the Unicorn Clan was about to enter into a full-blown civil war. Over marital privileges, oddly enough.

The clans are the the clan play styles, lore, and beliefs that the player most enjoys. They also provide a community of players, besides the game in general, for players to socialize with, via internet, in person, or at tournaments.

This provides an extra dynamic the makes the game more enjoyable for players. It also creates a more thriving community that will help keep the game going longer, thru interest and feedback.

I do seem to remember AEG doing a thing where each participant in a Kotei won points for their clan as a whole - then the clan could vote on how to spend those points for certain story prizes. I thought that was pretty cool! I think it still remains to be seen exactly how FFG will handle that for L5R though.

Just now, YasukiKaito said:

I do seem to remember AEG doing a thing where each participant in a Kotei won points for their clan as a whole - then the clan could vote on how to spend those points for certain story prizes. I thought that was pretty cool! I think it still remains to be seen exactly how FFG will handle that for L5R though.

Yes, there were meta-games in the past, where across a Kotei season, participation by clans impacted the story. However, it didn't directly affect the tournaments themselves. Also, most Kotei's have a "Top in Clan" prize as well, so if you did better than the rest of the crab, you got a Crab-flavored playmat or deck box, or some such.

2 minutes ago, Mirith said:

Yes, there were meta-games in the past, where across a Kotei season, participation by clans impacted the story. However, it didn't directly affect the tournaments themselves. Also, most Kotei's have a "Top in Clan" prize as well, so if you did better than the rest of the crab, you got a Crab-flavored playmat or deck box, or some such.

I'd love to see Top in Clan prizes to continue. It'd go a long way to keep Clan Loyalty in an LCG environment.

2 hours ago, RandomJC said:

I'd love to see Top in Clan prizes to continue. It'd go a long way to keep Clan Loyalty in an LCG environment.

Indeed, that was the whole reason I ever really saw in going to Koteis in the first place, unless you felt you had a good shot of winning the whole thing.

47 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Indeed, that was the whole reason I ever really saw in going to Koteis in the first place, unless you felt you had a good shot of winning the whole thing.

Given that those were supported by the TO and not AEG, I expect those will continue. The store I played Netrunner would do top of faction, especially given the TO used to run L5R stuff.