Speculation for fun time, what do you think this dude will do and conflict or dynasty?

My guess, conflict, text; you may pay honor in place of fate when paying this card's cost, covert

At that point, he's an auto-include in my deck whatever his abilities are, simply because he is a goblin. I was expecting a maho spell to be the first ''shadowlands'' card we get, so I'm pleasantly surprised my bakemono itch will be scratched a lot sooner than expected.

Regarding your speculation, I think the pay fate or honor would be an interesting way of handling shadowlands creatures. Not sure about balance for this particular card though. Covert is a powerful ability and 1 honor seems like a bargain.

Please note that we have no proof the card will have the Shadowlands trait yet.

I agree that covert seems a bit likely, and I would be very surprised with a Glory > 0. Maybe something to demonstrate their more underhanded than the Scorpion ways?

Action, target an opposing honourable character in this conflict, -2H : +2M until the end of the conrlict.

If he has Covert he goes right into my phoenix dishonor builds, no questions asked. The ability to get an un defended province is invaluable for chipping of the spare honor here or there.

I think it's going to be some kind of direct payment action for some kind of loss on their part.

Lose 1 honor/Pay 1 fate/dishonour this character(so that the effect is more likely to only be used once more than anything else) - Your opponent loses 1 fate/discards 1 card at random.

Something like that. I feel like Covert that cheap, at neutral, would be extremely powerful.

1 hour ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

Please note that we have no proof the card will have the Shadowlands trait yet.

Well said, Phoenix. And blood magic can be pure. If Isawa did it, you can, too. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise! XD

Will he have "Shadowlands" as his trait, or "Tainted"? I think "Tainted" would be a cool change from "Shadowlands"

I think it would be neat if he cost a chunk of honor to bring out, but is immune to 0-fate discard.

I mean, Shadowlands isn't concerned about fate. pfft. That's for humans with destinies and stuff.

It's either between a new keyword that represents being Shadowlands (Taint/Tainted/A New Phrase), Scout, Shinobi, or Bushi, certainly. I'm interested in seeing what is found when the part we can see is overlaid on a blank card. It seems to be like whatever goes next to goblin is short, since the Goblin trait seems very close to center. Taint or Scout seem the most likely.

If it is indeed a taint character, then perhaps we already know what sort of ability it has by contrasting it to Jade Tetsubo. Maybe taint characters will have a theme of placing fate on themselves to stay alive forever. My best guess is that it takes a fate from your opponent.

4 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

Please note that we have no proof the card will have the Shadowlands trait yet.

I agree that covert seems a bit likely, and I would be very surprised with a Glory > 0. Maybe something to demonstrate their more underhanded than the Scorpion ways?

Action, target an opposing honourable character in this conflict, -2H : +2M until the end of the conrlict.

him not having shadowlands would actually be a pretty huge change. every goblin in the old game was shadowlands, so it would imply either that they've purified goblins somehow, or that they're indicating the taint in a new way.

Scout. Nonhuman (more probable to get cards that trigger nonhuman than goblin ) . Shadowlands.

Dishonor 1 (I love the idea of losing a bit of honor for certain cards, old school). Covert.

Some kind of ability that... looks at the hand of the opponent? Or face down provinces? *shrug*

I'm thinking Action: Bow to discard a holding in your opponent's provinces.

Conflict makes the most sense either way - so you don't show your taint before you play it.

I like the idea of using the trait "tainted" instead of "shadowlands." It gives a better indication of the condition of the card rather than its allegience, which will help the "corrupt with good intentions" theme.

I expect some form of honor loss when it comes into play, and then something with facedown provinces (Maybe reveal?).

The holding action would be far too strong unless it came with an honor loss cost as well.

Lose one honor when you play this character

Action: If you are less honorable then an opponent, steal one fate from that opponent's fate pool and add it to your fate pool.

Flavor text: Mine, mine, mine!

48 minutes ago, shosuko said:

It gives a better indication of the condition of the card rather than its allegience, which will help the "corrupt with good intentions" theme.

May I ask which theme is that? Tainted Crab Berserkers?

Shadownlands taint, Jigoku's influence, was a road to damnation. I think it was in Bearers of Jade where it was stated that it was so bad as to mark the person's soul forever, following through reincarnations. While it's true that having the taint isn't the same as willingly serving Jigoku in some cases, I see no problem with the alliegance part. Either there is a faction that uses them as in clan characters (aka any shadowlands characters in this deck are working for Jigoku) or they are individuals that are tainted and still serving their clan... with maybe good intentions... maybe until they lose control a la Ikoma Ryozo.

But...

nothing prevents a non tainted individual to serve Jigoku, I guess?

While I'm incredibly happy with the inclusion of the Goblin Sneak, I wouldn't be an old school L5R player if I didn't find something to complain about:

I wish they had changed goblin with "bakemono" all the way through. FFG has done many positive steps in the way of removing the most jarring terminology problems, like samurai/bushi, and I feel this would ha been be a positive one, too. Yes I can see everybody knows what a "goblin" is, which is an advantage, but it is part of the problem, too... it makes you immediately think of traditional western fantasy, DnD, Warhammer, etc.. Naming them "bakemono" instead wouldn't change what they are and how they look, but would at least sound more Japan-ish and would distance at least a little from the topical image.

Bakemono is a term for an entire class of supernatural beings, and would not accurately reflect what goblins are.

In old L5R lore "bakemono" was the high-Rokuganese equivalent for the low-Rokuganese "goblin". Of course, that may have changed in bizarro Rokugan.

Frankly I'm glad "Bizzaro Rokugan" has thus far avoided terribly misusing Japanese words. But to each their own.

4 hours ago, BlindSamurai13 said:

Lose one honor when you play this character

Action: If you are less honorable then an opponent, steal one fate from that opponent's fate pool and add it to your fate pool.

Flavor text: Mine, mine, mine!

Somehow, I hope any sort of honor loss is voluntary, like the cost for an action or paying honor instead of fate. That way, I can play with as many goblins as I can without having to wait for a Goblin stronghold that negate that cost.

Looking at the image (a new one, it seems to me), it looks like the Sneak is stealing from some men. Something related to attachment hate, maybe?

8 minutes ago, Tetsuhiko said:

Somehow, I hope any sort of honor loss is voluntary, like the cost for an action or paying honor instead of fate. That way, I can play with as many goblins as I can without having to wait for a Goblin stronghold that negate that cost.

Openly using tainted creatures in a Great Clan should not include voluntary honor loses to put them into play, imho.

9 minutes ago, Mon no Oni said:

Looking at the image (a new one, it seems to me), it looks like the Sneak is stealing from some men. Something related to attachment hate, maybe?

That's what I gathered; a stealing theme with this card. Unless the Design Team just gives it Covert and call it a day.

1 hour ago, Wintersong said:

Openly using tainted creatures in a Great Clan should not include voluntary honor loses to put them into play, imho.

They would have to be rather good then or they won't see play with the new honor system.

I would rather see some sort of clan story effect if winning decks use tainted stuff instead. FFG could even give these guys a special type of influence cost that has a little shadowlands symbol instead of the bamboo one.

I'm going with 1 honor loss, covert, and rather some item theft (which would totally go into my crab police deck, "I am commandeering this favored mount") or blank a characters box like himura ambusher.