I keep hearing about Influence and/or Clan Splashing on podcasts. How exactly does that work? Are there loyal cards and splashable cards? How can you tell what's splashable? Are there extra costs involved?

On the bottom right hand corner of the Conflict cards you should see Bamboo pips, 1-3 of them, so far. The number of Bamboo pips represents the cards Influence cost. These cards can be played by other clans and count towards the Clan's influence total which is found in each Clan's Stronghold. So far we have seen both Lion and Crane have an Influence total of 10, so, they can include cards from other clans totalling 10 Influence.

You cannot include dynasty cards or cards without influence costs from other clans in your deck. At least that is what we know so far.......and hopefully I explained that correctly.

I like the splashing idea. I am going to run a crab clan deck, and I am going to splash unicorn for military and mobility or lion for military and honor.

Okay I see the pips. Let's say I'm playing Crane (with 10 influence to spend). If I want to include a play set (3) of Know The World... does that cost me three to include that card in my deck? or does it cost me three for each copy of the card (9)? Or do we know yet?

And can you splash from multiple clans? Or just from one?

4 minutes ago, Fluke Starbucker said:

Okay I see the pips. Let's say I'm playing Crane (with 10 influence to spend). If I want to include a play set (3) of Know The World... does that cost me three to include that card in my deck? or does it cost me three for each copy of the card (9)? Or do we know yet?

And can you splash from multiple clans? Or just from one?

It would cost you 9 (3 per card).

You can only splash from 1 other Clan.

Okay I'm glad it's "per card". Otherwise it could get a little ridiculous. Thanks for all the responses!

4 hours ago, Ishi Tonu said:

On the bottom right hand corner of the Conflict cards you should see Bamboo pips, 1-3 of them, so far. The number of Bamboo pips represents the cards Influence cost. These cards can be played by other clans and count towards the Clan's influence total which is found in each Clan's Stronghold. So far we have seen both Lion and Crane have an Influence total of 10, so, they can include cards from other clans totalling 10 Influence.

You cannot include dynasty cards or cards without influence costs from other clans in your deck. At least that is what we know so far.......and hopefully I explained that correctly.

It's also worth mentioning that the Influence value is printed on the Stronghold cards. The two Strongholds we've seen so far, one each from Lion and Crane, have an Influence total of 10. But it's not inconceivable that future stronghold cards could have higher or lower Influence values, so that the choice of your Stronghold helps determine your deck. Do I pick the Stronghold that gives me 1 extra Fate per turn but has 0 Influence*? Or the one that gives me less Fate per turn, but lets me splash cards from other clans?

* We haven't yet seen such a Stronghold card; I'm only speculating about its existence. +1 Fate per turn would be a powerful ability, so I could see balancing that by forcing you to play a one-Clan deck with no splashing cards from other Clans.

4 hours ago, rmunn said:

It's also worth mentioning that the Influence value is printed on the Stronghold cards. The two Strongholds we've seen so far, one each from Lion and Crane, have an Influence total of 10. But it's not inconceivable that future stronghold cards could have higher or lower Influence values, so that the choice of your Stronghold helps determine your deck. Do I pick the Stronghold that gives me 1 extra Fate per turn but has 0 Influence*? Or the one that gives me less Fate per turn, but lets me splash cards from other clans?

* We haven't yet seen such a Stronghold card; I'm only speculating about its existence. +1 Fate per turn would be a powerful ability, so I could see balancing that by forcing you to play a one-Clan deck with no splashing cards from other Clans.

Also, some people are speculating that the clans in the Core set that start with lower Honor might get a bit more than 10 influence, to balance things out.

While possible, it seems more likely that they would instead design the clan's card mechanics around their lower honor. Having even a couple more influence could make a huge difference in deck building variables, which would make the game harder to balance.

54 minutes ago, Togashi Gao Shan said:

Also, some people are speculating that the clans in the Core set that start with lower Honor might get a bit more than 10 influence, to balance things out.

While possible, it seems more likely that they would instead design the clan's card mechanics around their lower honor. Having even a couple more influence could make a huge difference in deck building variables, which would make the game harder to balance.

That's probably true. Android: Netrunner makes quite a lot of use out of the 'influence' mechanics and as a general rule of thumb those 'strongholds' in Netrunner that have a lot of influence tend to be stronger as a result (if only because they have access to a larger card pool when deck building). Netrunner has fewer restrictions however (as if you could mix and match from any Clan) so this may not be such a big impact for L5R.

Reduced Fate, starting Honor or some other card ability might also be applied where the Influence score is higher than the norm (or, of course, the reverse being true).

Another option is if they ever included something like Sensei/Agenda's that modify the amount of influence or the amount of clans you can use for deck construction.

Their are 5 personality cards in the core set, and so far, we don't know what they do. Some think they might be for the multiplayer aspect of the game (like titles in A Game of Thrones) or perhaps they are like sensei and they give extra abilities/ influence.

22 hours ago, HidaYama said:

I like the splashing idea. I am going to run a crab clan deck, and I am going to splash unicorn for military and mobility or lion for military and honor.

The Unicorn proudly accept the Crab's petition for an alliance.

The person I play against thought we could splash more than one clan and now that I am trying to find the place where it says only one clan, I can't find it. Anyone remember where that was posted at?

Never mind. I just found the answer...

1 hour ago, Shosuro Nasunaka said:

The person I play against thought we could splash more than one clan and now that I am trying to find the place where it says only one clan, I can't find it. ...

I have a feeling that there will be a mechanism (possibly a Stronghold?) that will allow the inclusion of 2 or more (?) Clans with your chosen Clan... just a thought I would like to posit. ?

4 hours ago, LordBlunt said:

I have a feeling that there will be a mechanism (possibly a Stronghold?) that will allow the inclusion of 2 or more (?) Clans with your chosen Clan... just a thought I would like to posit. ?

Such a mechanism would have to go on a Stronghold, because deckbuilding permissions and restrictions that apply to the whole deck have to go on the card that's visible from the start of the game.

9 hours ago, Khudzlin said:

Such a mechanism would have to go on a Stronghold, because deckbuilding permissions and restrictions that apply to the whole deck have to go on the card that's visible from the start of the game.

And this is what we've seen in A:NR as well. Deck building restrictions were on the Identity. We could also see something like "Toshi Ranbo - Lion: 20 influence, You can only include Crane Cards" (or some better phrasing, that is pretty awful). But it gives you more influence but restricts its use.

Yes, such restrictions appear on identities in A:NR, on agendas in AGoT (faction cards have no text) and on warlords in Conquest. Arkham Horror goes even further in that each investigator has his or her own deckbuilding permissions and restrictions.