How is the community in your country / region, and what do you expect for the new game?

Here in Brazil we have few survivors of past editions, perhaps a hundred or less, but people who really love the game and the history of the l5r.

There have already been some koteis here, in São Paulo and Curitiba, where the majority of the fans are.

Our biggest problem is the dollar, which today costs almost 3.5 reais (our money) each. Take into account that our minimum wage is less than 300 dollars per month.

A national company Copag (produces and sells pokemon in Brazil) launched here a card game called Battle Scenes, about the marvel universe, is becoming very popular mainly because a single booster costs around 5 reais (a l5r booster of ivory 15).

Still MtG and Pokemon communities have a lot more players around here, and in São Paulo Yu-gi-oh is still a popular game among the younger ones.

Who knows in the future the FFG could make a partnership with them and cheapen the cost of their products here.

Anyway, we are excited about the new format and I believe it will bring a lot of new players to our local communities.

I would say the scene here is strong, with many players who have come in and out of L5R before ready to return, and new players ready to buy in.

I'm sorry to hear the economical situation hikes the price of the cards. Do you play on OCTGN much to offset the cost? I find OCTGN to be a great money saver, allowing me to test decks and experience games without buying full-in.

The US is big so I'm just going to speak for MN.

Seems like a large portion of the o5R crowd is back in. We have a new meta in my area that didn't exist in the CCG and most of the CCG era metas are coming back. We will just have to see how many new players we can get in.

I believe we will have two groups in the Twin Cities (if not more), one out of the FFGC and other at The Source. I think there is one in St. Cloud, here in Hutchinson and possibly one in Cambridge.

I'll speak for Louisville, KY: there was effectively two groups of players originally. A lot of players stopped playing during Emperor and a different group that started playing at the start of Ivory. I didn't care for Ivory, so I stopped as it started.

A bunch of the old guard seem interested and a lot of the LCG players in the area seem interested even if this is a new game for them. I'm trying to organize some launch events now to get players back in and cards in their hands.

19 hours ago, shosuko said:

I would say the scene here is strong, with many players who have come in and out of L5R before ready to return, and new players ready to buy in.

I'm sorry to hear the economical situation hikes the price of the cards. Do you play on OCTGN much to offset the cost? I find OCTGN to be a great money saver, allowing me to test decks and experience games without buying full-in.

Yes, octgn is very usefull.

Great to find players and test decks too.

17 hours ago, SHARKOSAURUS said:

I'll speak for Louisville, KY: there was effectively two groups of players originally. A lot of players stopped playing during Emperor and a different group that started playing at the start of Ivory. I didn't care for Ivory, so I stopped as it started.

A bunch of the old guard seem interested and a lot of the LCG players in the area seem interested even if this is a new game for them. I'm trying to organize some launch events now to get players back in and cards in their hands.

I'm also from the Louisville area. I do know many LCG players and non-LCG players are interested in this. At the very least, we should have a strong group to start. But, a variety of people in this area have been burned from groups seeming to start strong and then outright disappearing within a few months (Conquest and VS was this way), so some are hesitant to jump in to this at launch. My hope, if the game is good, it stays strong within the first year and then continues to grow from there if we have active organizers and proper support from FFG and LGSs.

7 minutes ago, KingOfOdonata said:

I'm also from the Louisville area. I do know many LCG players and non-LCG players are interested in this. At the very least, we should have a strong group to start. But, a variety of people in this area have been burned from groups seeming to start strong and then outright disappearing within a few months (Conquest and VS was this way), so some are hesitant to jump in to this at launch. My hope, if the game is good, it stays strong within the first year and then continues to grow from there if we have active organizers and proper support from FFG and LGSs.

I know the majority of the group I used to play with is coming back. All I can do from there is try and demo the game and get people interested. LCG launches always seem to be based on product, for a bit.

39 minutes ago, SHARKOSAURUS said:

I know the majority of the group I used to play with is coming back. All I can do from there is try and demo the game and get people interested. LCG launches always seem to be based on product, for a bit.

Which is good to hear. I think I know who this is I'm talking to-Giles?

But yeah, demoing and organizing events will be the first part to get it to grow. And from there, we'll need support from LGSs to host events. I also hope to be able to advertise the group through multiple channels. It's surprising how often people don't realize a game exists or there is a community to play with. I was talking to someone about Netrunner recently and they said they use to play a couple of years ago but stopped since there wasn't anyone in Louisville to play with...and we had one of the biggest groups in this region. Apparently, the information is getting out there about these various games and places to play. Although, often times, it's just lack of initiative or resourcefulness on a player's part to see out info and people to play with.

I'm a bit lucky to live in the Twin Cities - about 30 minutes from FFG.

The game shop I usually visit hasn't had any interest, but they do 30% off if you pre-order any game before it is released. So basically I can buy 3 boxes for almost the price of two. I'm trying to figure out how to use this to my advantage. Start an unofficial release event? Sign up for the event before the game is released, buy at least one box, then have some sort of prize for winning? I've also thought about starting up a L5R gaming league with one-month seasons....to coincide with each expansion. Anybody have any info on if this type of league has worked before?

1 hour ago, KingOfOdonata said:

Which is good to hear. I think I know who this is I'm talking to-Giles?

But yeah, demoing and organizing events will be the first part to get it to grow. And from there, we'll need support from LGSs to host events. I also hope to be able to advertise the group through multiple channels. It's surprising how often people don't realize a game exists or there is a community to play with. I was talking to someone about Netrunner recently and they said they use to play a couple of years ago but stopped since there wasn't anyone in Louisville to play with...and we had one of the biggest groups in this region. Apparently, the information is getting out there about these various games and places to play. Although, often times, it's just lack of initiative or resourcefulness on a player's part to see out info and people to play with.

Nope - Dalton. There's also another group who snuck in and started playing as I stepped away from the old game. I know Colin at the Louisville Game Shop is very excited to carry and support this game again. He was one of the only Stronghold Stores under AEG's banner.