When it comes to story and expansions... I would prefer it if the world setting were stagnant, giving every RPG a good cookie-cutter Rokugan they can play in, so it is easy to build the story the GM and Players want. Then give mission supplements for the story line that we can buy if we want to run it - but always keep the core book this standard, cookie cutter rokugan.

The Naga were around at this point in the original setting, as well, with their own playable characters in the RPG, and faction deck in the CCG (iirc, they got a deck at the same time that the Scorpion Clan did).

13 hours ago, shosuko said:

When it comes to story and expansions... I would prefer it if the world setting were stagnant, giving every RPG a good cookie-cutter Rokugan they can play in, so it is easy to build the story the GM and Players want. Then give mission supplements for the story line that we can buy if we want to run it - but always keep the core book this standard, cookie cutter rokugan.

As devil's advocate: If you want the world to remain stagnant, you don't have to advance the timeline in your game... that said, I am being devil's advocate as I tend to feel slavishly attached to a setting and when it's future is written I find it very hard to deviate from it.

20 hours ago, bloodycelt said:

Keep in mind, the core set is perennial, FFG MIGHT do a Scorpion Coup, but the next year Scorpion decks will still be legal. I could see them having a few big events to move the storyline forward, but in the RPG and CCG they will still mostly be handled via options like a ronin version of Totouri, not blocking the player from still using the Core Set version.

I could also see FFG representing big events like a Day of Thunder via a challenge deck.

the core set being perennial won't prevent the story moving forward. they've said that the card game depicts an era, while the story moves through it. so there will be cards available of people who are dead, and events depicted in cards that are now past or that have changed.

On 10/6/2017 at 1:20 AM, bloodycelt said:

- Rules for the Spider. Again presented as a GM option of "What if a bunch of lost form their own 'Clan'"

If they're going to be something playable, I'd rather see them presented as something that can be used in other eras / timelines, with a sidebar on how to use them as the Spider clan.

8 hours ago, Bazakahuna said:

As devil's advocate: If you want the world to remain stagnant, you don't have to advance the timeline in your game... that said, I am being devil's advocate as I tend to feel slavishly attached to a setting and when it's future is written I find it very hard to deviate from it.

I don't advance the timeline in my game tho - I've been playing 1st ed pre-coup all the way until now where I'm 5th ed and possibly pre-coup (if there is a coup)

I don't mind if they release supplements that help people advance the story as the official narrative advances, but I'd like the core book to at least be a point of stasis, a static world that I can use for any type of tale. My games tend to be low-fantasy games taking part in the day to day struggles of duty, honor, honesty, and reality. I don't need the spider clan bringing taint to court, or the moon being slain, or iuchiban rising back up interfering with a samurai contemplating the seppuku of their superior in defiance of their daimyo over the treatment of peasants...

Anyway, even if they stick to the events that were existing in previous timeline, which I hope not, Spider should not show up until at least 2020, they are many things to happen before, at the very least the birth of Daigotsu.

You know what I would very like, a good setting book for the Dawn of the Empire.

Best I did once was tell my players we would use the 3e rules to play in a fantasy world similar to old China, so we could be free from the heaviness of the samurai setting and go for something light and funny. started in a rural village with a bunch of young childhood friends: a peddler, a priest, and a village guardian and an aspiring Xia engaged in a love triangle with the tomboyish daughter of the village Chief. After a couple of sessions where they were trying to recover an Idol sacred to the village stolen by bandits, went to the big City and ended up near the coast, they witnessed 9 stars falling from the sky...( If you know Dawn of the Empire, well you may guess the rest...) they then realized that some of the Human NPCs they had met previously were Ikoma, Mirumoto, Matsu, Kakita and Lady Seppun. hey had opportunity to be counted among the first followers of the Kami and follow The Hantei on the battlefield of the Day of Thunder.

We followed this by a series of mini campaigns (2-4 sessions) that explored the timeline of Rokugan : The Reign of Hantei Genji, 1st Gozoku reign, Gaijin at the White Stag, 1st rise of Iuchiban, and return of the Kirin. As we had played Clan war before in 2e, I skipped it, and took them instead to finish the cycle in the 1000 years of Darkness

I care not much for Rokugan's future, it's past is much more interesting.

1 hour ago, Nitenman said:

a fantasy world similar to old China, so we could be free from the heaviness of the samurai setting and go for something light and funny.

I've read some weird sentences, but this one takes the cake for the time being !

Just now, AtoMaki said:

sentences, but this one takes the cake for the time being !

Mind explaining?

5 minutes ago, Nitenman said:

Mind explaining?

Old China was one of the grittiest, edgiest places on Earth. Historical Japan with its samurai was pretty much a bad Benny Hill show. If you want laughs, you want to go with the latter. If you want some real crap raining down on the players then go for the former. You kinda had that mixed up .

Not much more than probably Old Gaul or Old Germany or Old Scythia or even Old Persia...

Which is why I referred to a fantasy world... mostly a rural setting, with values similar to Confucianist teachings (respect of the ancestors, men are brothers, deference to the parents ) and spirit focused religion.

Its not because real world china was gritty (like the whole old world was...) that the setting had to be, particularly when it was absolutely not Old China but pre-Kami Rokugan, just a trick for my players.

The ideas behind the trick were:

Let's not use the samurai setting

Let's make something funny and light

maybe try to read what I actually wrote instead of what you think I wrote and trying to be an history buff

Never said Old China was all fun and games...

2 minutes ago, Nitenman said:

Not much more than probably Old Gaul or Old Germany or Old Scythia or even Old Persia...

It was a lot worse than those. That's the joke here.

By the way I knew what you meant, I just wanted to point out that considering history, it was quite funny. No offense intended.

ok, none taken (actually a little bit, but forgotten alteady ).

I still think that Scythia was probably as bad, with all them being raiders and slavers, and Gauls were still barbarians practicing raid and captive sacrifice when China had evolved to a relatively refined culture (more or less warring states era) . I know, I descend from those barbarians (actually from the Galates), and still live where they dwelt.

But indeed Old China was a harsh place to live in. There's an awesome movie from Tsui Hark, The Blade, that convey quite well this grittiness.

My "Old Fantasy China" in my mind was more Ashes of Time than The Blade. (I'm not even talking a bout Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain)

the beta explicitly says that not everything that will be in the core book is in the beta.

Actuallly the Falcon Clan is the first confirmed minor clan in the fictions.

Yoritomot was named but his follower were called pirates not mantis.

On 6-10-2017 at 4:43 PM, kelpie said:

@VaeVictis , i started playing with L5R 1st edition book, then read story from 2nd edition and we decided to continue playing 1st edition.
I honestly don't know what's the story of CCG (i already disregarded CCG, not just L5R, after my youth disastrous experience with Magic).

I don't whant a static, boring, nothing-will-ever-happen setting. As i said, something about the scorpion coup and clan war afterward is good.
However, the pre-coup setting was wonderful: lot of hidden secrets, secret plots, lot of people working "behind the scenes". Apparent peaceful world, where many changes are happening slowly, so slowly noone seems noticing.

2nd edition setting, the Clan War setting, had something interesting, but in my opinion something was done in a bad manner, and it feels to me very very uninteresting: there was no real secret plots, no real pathos. Everything "special" was achieved by NPC and great heroes, so great no PC could even compete. So, they are just pawn in an big war without anything more to say
I don't care if that's the original CCG setting or if it's a follow-up from 1st. It's a lot of good ideas (because there are many good ideas), done in an awful manner who add nothing to the game and also removed some feeling. That's just an opinion, of course, and there will be someone who thing different from me. I'm good with it and i'm happy we all think differently
But the fact many people still play at 1st edition setting, is a good measure of how much pre-coup era was good.

Honestly i don't see many people arguing about post-second day of thunder era so i guess there are not many fans for it
Frankly i stopped playing while third edition book came out so dunno if in the end would be a good setting or not, but even you says it could be thrashed aside and noone will complain so i guess i'm not really far from truth when i say is a pile of ****

Now, back in topic: i hope they will put lot of minor clans into final book (and maybe also someone more, 'cause there are a lot of interesting plot about it...) and also both Three Man Alliance and Mantis Alliance where a good ideas of how far minor clan can grow. But i disagree about letting them become Major clans... :|

As for Spider Clan: they can do whatever they whant, spider clan will be forever Shadowlands and then forbidden in my games u_u

I think you're looking at the forest but missing the trees when it comes to the Clan War setting. There is tons of stuff you can do that doesn't involve the major events but uses them as a backdrop for your players to build their characters around. And if your players achieve Glory to rival the new Thunders, what of it? Just because it's not in the history part of a sourcebook doesn't mean it can't happen. Any 1st ed module can be reset to the Clan War era, the only real changes are how the relationships between the clans differ. Any adventure idea you have can be tailored for any period you want. The 1st edition setting is undoubtedly very popular, the most popular by far, but there are many reasons for that beyond how good it was by itself. The Clan War era is less popular among other things because 2d ed is arguably the least popular edition in terms of mechanics (leaving the non-R&K d20 version out of it for a moment), so most groups I know largely skipped that edition entirely. They tried it and went back to 1st ed rules and then jumped to 3rd when that was released.