Hey guys... I'm totally new to L5R, but have decided to get in on this game on the ground floor. I understand that there are 7 clans and that they each have a theme. Is there also going to be an 8th 'neutral clan' of Shadowlands cards? I see that there is a Goblin Sneak in the first expansion. Do you think we'll eventually be able to build a Goblin deck of some sort? I know literally nothing about the background and what to expect from future releases.

Also, what the heck is a seeker/keeper? The preview article says the Lion Clan can't use their new card. Why?

Thanks. If there is a good source for this kind of info, feel free to point me in the right direction!

Seeker and keeper are roles used in official events selected by the hatemoto. You can find the rolls here.

The fist selection will only last a few months but when winter court happens they will choose again. As for shadowlands it's hard to say if it will get its own faction. In the past it has been one but was limited to military only victory mostly because using shadowlands cards usually costs honor as well. For now it's a way to "play dirty" as shadowlands cards usually have a powerful effects but honor loss is a bit more dangerous in this edition.

The Shadowlands refers to the wastelands just outside of the Empire's boarders. These lands are filled with Goblin, Oni, Undead, and all manners of evil. The Goblin Sneak is an unaligned card, so I think at this point it does not indicate there will be a "shadowlands" faction, but it does offer the ability for player to sully the good name of a respectable clan by using Goblins in their deck. The Shadowlands may eventually become a playable faction, but part of the rules for factions and deck construction involves the mon on the card, the symbol at the top right of each personality designating which clan they serve. You need to have a faction icon in order to be put into a faction deck. At this point it just looks like a neutral card that is 2 cost for 1/- so it probably has some awesome ability like "action: bath in the Crane reflection pools so they are murky and the Crane lose 10 honor for not being perfect. Limit 3 times per turn"

The Seeker and Keeper roles are a way to represent the changes over time within the same card pool. You can read more about them here:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/op/l5r-lcg/roles/

53 minutes ago, shosuko said:

The Shadowlands may eventually become a playable faction, but part of the rules for factions and deck construction involves the mon on the card, the symbol at the top right of each personality designating which clan they serve.

Until they make a stronghold that makes something into a faction, like imperial or shadowlands, then it would all be fair game.

Now, on the old game, Shadowlands was not a faction, either. It was a trait that some cards had; mostly neutrals, but eventually some Clan characters become tainted, too; some unwillingly like, let's say, a Crab warrior who got it fighting a tainted creature, or willingly, like a Phoenix shugenja using maho. Eventually some strongholds appeared that sort of mimicked (via honor-loss immnunity, etc) treating those characters with the Shadowlands trait as if it was "your clan". Not that it has to happen in this version of the game but, if the designers want, they just have to print the cards, and cards always trump the rulebook, so it's perfectly possible they'd print, for instance a "neutral" stronghold that allows you to use those cards as if they had the appropiate "mon".

Very late in the history of the game, the Spider Clan appeared. You can consider the Spider Clan an evolution of the Shadowlands. Initially they were neutral Shadowlands characters, but through some long and controversial story, they ended up being sanctioned by the Empress, making an uneasy alliance, and became the Spider Clan. There were some Spider Clan characters that didn't have the Shadowlands trait and, conversely, there were non-Spider characters that did have the Shadowlands trait.

2 minutes ago, Mon no Oni said:

...willingly, like a Phoenix shugenja using maho.

That's racist! Of course you assume Phoenix are all maho users! And I bet you think that Unicorn magistrate was quite articulate too! Ide Tadaji speaks so well for a Unicorn... BAH! Racist!

I resent that! Some of our best shugenja were initially Phoenix!

Some of the best racism jokes I've ever encountered, have been on this forum.

1 hour ago, Mon no Oni said:

...some unwillingly like, let's say, a Crab warrior who got it fighting a tainted creature...

Is it REALLY unwilling when they go charging into battle without a shirt on? Kinda makes me think they want it...

22 minutes ago, Zesu Shadaban said:

Is it REALLY unwilling when they go charging into battle without a shirt on? Kinda makes me think they want it...

4 hours ago, Ide Yoshiya said:

Some of the best racism jokes I've ever encountered, have been on this forum.

It's not even racism as they are all rokugani (unicorns are mixed but they are still primarily rokugani) making fun of another clan could be considered xenophobic but otherwise it's about as racist as a yo mama joke

for example, Hey, Phoenix! Yo champion so dumb they thought maho was a personal concubine.