Depending on who you ask, each clan is a good guy and a bad guy.

Crab (Good): Defenders of the Great Wall of the South, devoted protectors of Rokugan against the monstruosities of the Shadowlands

Crab (Evil): Bloodthirsty berserkers believing the end justify the means.

Crane (Good): Paragons of the Samurai virtues, always striving for perfection in all things, from art to warfare.

Crane (Bad): Manipulative sycophants who bullies those who disagree with them with death threats (aka duels)

Dragon (Good): Monks and Scholars devoted to contemplation and introspection, always looking for the hidden truths.

Dragon (Bad): Isolationists who prefers to hide and let the rest of Rokugan deal with its various problems while flauting their superior understanding of the universe.

Lion (Good): Ultimate followers of Bushido and Honor. They always respect their word and they participate like no other to the Rokugan war effort to protect it against internal and external threats.

Lion (Bad): Warmongers who uses their military might to establish their dominance on the rest of Rokugan.

Phoenix (Good): Scholars and Priests devoted to research for the betterment of mankind, as well as a greater understanding of the different Realms of existence.

Phoenix (Bad): Power-hungry spellcasters who jealously keep their discoveries secret and never hesitate to willingly uncover knowledge man wasn't meant to know.

Scorpion (Good): The most loyal followers of the Emperor, willing to sacrifice their own lives and honor to protect Rokugan.

Scorpion (Bad): Miachiavellian manipulators twisting and corrupting the very concept of honor.

Unicorn (Good): Courageous and honorable explorers, always greeting others with open arms and an open heart.

Unicorn (Bad): Opportunists with no sense of honor, willing to forget millenia of traditions for a momentarly advantage that can be disastrous on the long run.

57 minutes ago, Tetsuhiko said:

Dragon (Bad): Isolationists who prefers to hide and let the rest of Rokugan deal with its various problems while flauting their superior understanding of the universe.

Phoenix (Bad): Power-hungry spellcasters who jealously keep their discoveries secret and never hesitate to willingly uncover knowledge man wasn't meant to know.

These aren't that bad IMO.

All the input is great. Read a bit on each clan and Dragon and Scorpion are calling me. We will see...

53 minutes ago, caseycheesecake said:

These aren't that bad IMO.

Well, because of these mindsets, the Dragon and Phoenix almost caused the end of the world as we know it in the old Lore. Although to be fair, they had help from the Crab and Scorpion at the time.

42 minutes ago, Tetsuhiko said:

Well, because of these mindsets, the Dragon and Phoenix almost caused the end of the world as we know it in the old Lore. Although to be fair, they had help from the Crab and Scorpion at the time.

So is this a brand new storyline - totally self-contained? Or is all the old lore still cannon?

58 minutes ago, Tetsuhiko said:

Well, because of these mindsets, the Dragon and Phoenix almost caused the end of the world as we know it in the old Lore. Although to be fair, they had help from the Crab and Scorpion at the time.

Didn't dragon just make sure everything happened exactly as ordained by fate?

12 minutes ago, caseycheesecake said:

So is this a brand new storyline - totally self-contained? Or is all the old lore still cannon?

They share most of the mythology, past events and characters, but only time will tell how much they will be different.

As a rule of thumb, everything that happened before the current events are pretty much the same thing, everything that will happen in the future will hopefully be different.

Only good guys are the Kolat. They try to free mankind from the rule of the gods.

All the rest are guilty of being part of an unjust autoritarian, theocratic monarchical system that exploits 90 % of the people and discriminates even more another 5% for the benefit of a ruling caste made of 5% of the People.

And from these 15%, maybe 20% really live in opulence.

Kolat propaganda and joke aside, any clan is the good guy.

As long as you stay clear from using shadowlands cards when they'll be released or use maho cards you'll be a good guy.

I remember my L5R Campaign, I played an ishiken from the Phoenix who believed that maho had to be understood before the Shadowlands could truly be defeated. One time I didn't immediately burn a scroll of maho magic. That one act caused caused people to slowly believe I was corrupted and eventually cost me command of an army and drove me to betray everyone. It basically ruined the campaign, for one innocuous act like four sessions in.

So if you ever doubted, never *ever* consort with maho or the Shadowlands

So, I'm reading through the core stories on the main page. Lion and especially Crab have really grabbed me. The Crab story was so good it makes me really consider making them my Clan.

8 hours ago, migs6000 said:

So, I'm reading through the core stories on the main page. Lion and especially Crab have really grabbed me. The Crab story was so good it makes me really consider making them my Clan.

Yeah, probably the best fiction of the initial seven, at least for me. And they’re fun to play, too! Although Lion is better for learning, so if you can, start with them and once you feel you have a solid grasp of the game, go Crab.

On 11/3/2017 at 2:08 PM, Nitenman said:

Only good guys are the Kolat. They try to free mankind from the rule of the gods.

All the rest are guilty of being part of an unjust autoritarian, theocratic monarchical system that exploits 90 % of the people and discriminates even more another 5% for the benefit of a ruling caste made of 5% of the People.

And from these 15%, maybe 20% really live in opulence.

Kolat propaganda and joke aside, any clan is the good guy.

As long as you stay clear from using shadowlands cards when they'll be released or use maho cards you'll be a good guy.

Propaganda or not, you're not wrong....

((Hard for me to get into the setting a bit when I'm like "Oppressive celestial injustice everywhere! Only one clan even dabbles in science and they're thought crazy for wanting to understand the natural world!))

On 06/11/2017 at 8:41 AM, Waywardpaladin said:

Propaganda or not, you're not wrong....

((Hard for me to get into the setting a bit when I'm like "Oppressive celestial injustice everywhere! Only one clan even dabbles in science and they're thought crazy for wanting to understand the natural world!))

To be fair, the Kolat are hungry with power, usually much more interested by their own standing than by social justice. They have no intention of freeing the lower castes from oppression, just to get rid of a dynasty with divine blood so they can rule instead.

So it's basically change ''Oppressive celestial injustice everywhere'' to ''Oppressive injustice everywhere''....

14 minutes ago, Tetsuhiko said:

To be fair, the Kolat are hungry with power, usually much more interested by their own standing than by social justice. They have no intention of freeing the lower castes from oppression, just to get rid of a dynasty with divine blood so they can rule instead.

So it's basically change ''Oppressive celestial injustice everywhere'' to ''Oppressive injustice everywhere''....

Always the problem isn't it? The first Kolat was probably like "Wow, we just got invaded from another dimension, they took over our land, rewrote our civilization, enslaved our people, one of their kin joined **** and almost wiped everything out. We need to reclaim the realm for humanity!"

Generations later it is more "Wee! I am part of this secret society that makes me rich and powerful! Go go power for the sake of power!"

Koluminatti?

We know what's good for the people better than the people does.

Until yasuki karlumarksu writes his treatise on Koku and caste struggle.

On ‎11‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 9:49 PM, Duciris said:

With 1 core, you should be able to get a feel for each of the clans as you play them, but they won't be terribly consistent. Right now, play whatever clan & splash combination you think will be fun.

For story, the core set fiction on the main page is really good.

The first thing I learned by playing was the value of 1 fate. I had some powerful cards, but I couldn't pay for them and/or get enough characters out in game.

There are 2 currencies in the game. Fate will buy you things outright, but keeping your honor pool in balance while playing is something else to learn. If you want a good lesson in that, play against Scorpion.

Team Covenant has put out 3 really good play-throughs. They explain what they're doing, and why they're doing it.

Update. There has been a recent thread highlighting a rule that TC got wrong on each play through: When you mulligan your Dynasty cards, you may look at them before you move on to drawing your Conflict hand and subsequent mulligan. It was ruled as such by Nate French (one of the principle designers of the game) here in the last week or so.

Played as scorpion, it was interesting but I didn't really figure out their playstyle till far into the game. A lot of trickery and making you opponent lose honor. I think I'll try Phoenix next.

2 hours ago, migs6000 said:

Played as scorpion, it was interesting but I didn't really figure out their playstyle till far into the game. A lot of trickery and making you opponent lose honor. I think I'll try Phoenix next.

Nice, nice! Trying them all is the best decision.

..but still when my Dark Kami Fu Leng comes ..."You are NOT PREPARED!"

*Think heard that from someone else hihi*

Lol, I think I'm trying Phoenix or crab next. Any deck building tips? I found a website with starter, 3 core decks and I'm not sure about the builds. Barely any attachments or holdings. A lot of multiples of everything. I can see the main characters but some of the cards kind of sucked.

8 minutes ago, migs6000 said:

Lol, I think I'm trying Phoenix or crab next. Any deck building tips? I found a website with starter, 3 core decks and I'm not sure about the builds. Barely any attachments or holdings. A lot of multiples of everything. I can see the main characters but some of the cards kind of sucked.

For Crab, I’d recommend you to read How to Play Crab Part 1 and Part 2 , written by Joe From Cincinnati. Although a little bit long, it’s a very good guide for both new and experienced players.

Well, I think I found my clan. I will play all of them still to get a feel but holy moly, Phoenix is badass.

Since Phoenix profit most from being Honored, generally your goal is to play someone with multiple turns of fate on them each turn, rather than playing lots of smaller dudes. Once you get a big guy honored, it's pretty easy to attack with them and bring along say an Asako Diplomat, which allows you to honor the next guy you played and keep the ball rolling. They can snowball pretty hard sometimes, but if your attacks start failing you can lose a lot of momentum.

I am horrified at the prospect of Phoenix getting better access to honoring characters.

Take your time, try out all the clans, read their lore.

Then, before committing yourself to a clan, read the Way of the Scorpion sourcebook of the old L5R RPG, especially the short stories in there.

And, inevitably, become a Scorpion for life.

On ‎11‎/‎3‎/‎2017 at 0:06 PM, migs6000 said:

All the input is great. Read a bit on each clan and Dragon and Scorpion are calling me. We will see...

Those are my two favorites.

They had an interesting relationship in the original L5R. There was a strong Dragon-Scorpion alliance that lasted several years (of real-world time). Even before that, the clans were connected in an interesting way.

The fourth or fifth (can't quite recall) Scorpion champion, Bayushi Oshiso, sent his daughter Kuninoko to spy on the Dragon. While there, Kuninoko fell in love with Togashi Kuzejiro, the Dragon Champion of the time. "Kuzejiro" was actually the original Togashi, who had been living for three centuries at that point, but pretended to be a different person each generation. Kuninoko returned to her father with this incredibly secret, and the news that she had married Togashi and was bearing his child. Also, Kuninoko was now blind; seeing Togashi's true form had removed her physical sight forever, but she could 'see' in some mystical sense.

Bayushi Oshiso did not want to allow his daughter to return to the Dragon, as he felt he would never see her again if she did. In the end, though, he chose to allow destiny to take its course. Kuninoko returned to her husband, Togahsi, and bore him a son, Hoshi. Togashi Hoshi was a half Dragon / demi-god, half-human being. His natural form was a massively muscular man from the waist up, and a dragon from the waist down. However, he was a naturally gifted shape-shifter, and had many other mystical powers, as well. By the time of Clan War, where the original game's first release started, Hoshi was around 700 years old. He became Champion after his both Togashi and Togashi's successor Hitomi (it's a long story) were gone.

I loved Hoshi, especially the few times where he got any actual character development. Sadly, after several years of L5R, the then current lead writer decided to get rid of him by making Hoshi choose to leave and wander the Celestial Heavens for eternity. This was probably done because said writer had ret-conned (retroactively changed) Togashi. The original Drgaon kami went from a semi-immortal dragon of Wisdom that lived as long as he needed to and could see visions of the future (but only if he didn't directly interfere in events), into a creature that wasn't really a dragon, couldn't see the future, and had to move his soul into a new body ever generation, destroying the host's soul in the process. The ret-con was not only completely unnecessary, it also made it so that Hoshi's existence made no sense. If Togashi wasn't semi-immortal and an actual dragon, then why was his son both of those things?