So Toturi just won the Emerald championship with Scorpion doing some weird shenanigans. At first, deciding to cheat and then giving him a hind so he won't lose.

I guess it was like:

Aromoro: Lets bid 5 and steal this duel, the lion guy is definately going for 1!!!

Yojiro: Sure I will set it up.

"Yojiro looks at honored, Duelist Training Toturi, quickly re-runs the calculations"

Yojiro: **** we cannot win no matter what so forget it lets bid 1 instead!!

And what's up with Hotaru and her uncle enjoying the show so match??

Discuss folks!!

No, it went like this:

Kachiko: Yojiro, find a way to make sure my brother-in-law wins.

Yojiro: Of course, mistress, I am loyal and will follow your orders. Aramoro, I have set up a distraction for you.

Yojiro: *this is cheating, and I am honest. I can't tell him we cheated, but maybe if I give a hint.*

Toturi: ?????

Aramoro: I'm going to win this.

Toturi: I get it now! *WINS*

Toshimoko and Hotaru both understood the subtle insult that Toturi just gave to Aramoro. Hotaru is trying to be a good samurai so tries not to react. Toshimoko finds it hilarious and grins like a madman, the Rokugani equivalent of a loud belly laugh.

By the way, we have a thread in the lore sub-thread.

I normally like these stories, but not really fond of this one. Main reason... Its certainly a big event in Rokugan and it was dispatched with a short story of the final duel.... Really? I feel this was a missed oportunity.

Also... A iaijutsu tournament for a political position... Ehem... Where is the Crane?

What I don't understand is... So Crane is concerned with their hold on Toshi Ranbo and plan to support Unicorn 's move of having the site declared an Imperial holding. They go and talk to Yoshi yada yada yada

Ok I get that Toshimoko isnt even remotely interested in holding the position but couldnt they send someone competent to try and grab the title. I bet he has trained a lot of decent duelists. Cause... You know... It looks like an important political position...

Edit: Also... Aramoro showing off cutting fruit...

I haven't checked the website yet, I'll just pretend this is a really late April Fool's joke.

4 minutes ago, Waywardpaladin said:

I haven't checked the website yet, I'll just pretend this is a really late April Fool's joke.

It’s not in the website, it’s one of the fictions in the packs. You can find it in Kolat Informant.

I took for granted that all clans competed, but we only see the final. So the unnamed Crane duelist tried and lost.

On the Scorpion side, I see it more like this:

- Kachiko: Go Aramoro and be my champion! Yoijiro, help him win

- Aramoro: Sure thing, I'll cheat my way to glory and be closer to you *hint hint*

- Shoju: we should be in the shadows and not ruling, Yojiro take care of that

- Yojiro: Sure thing, I'll double cheat the cheater with pleasure

54 minutes ago, franzvong said:

I took for granted that all clans competed, but we only see the final. So the unnamed Crane duelist tried and lost.

On the Scorpion side, I see it more like this:

- Kachiko: Go Aramoro and be my champion! Yoijiro, help him win

- Aramoro: Sure thing, I'll cheat my way to glory and be closer to you *hint hint*

- Shoju: we should be in the shadows and not ruling, Yojiro take care of that

- Yojiro: Sure thing, I'll double cheat the cheater with pleasure

Pretty much confirmed by the latest story on the main page.

50 minutes ago, Tetsuhiko said:

Pretty much confirmed by the latest story on the main page.

Well not so much confirmed as implied that Yojiro assumed that would be Shoju's preference so Yojiro went with it. I think we can see that Yojiro is a character torn by his contrasting loyalties and trying to find a balance between his obligations to the two that let him fulfill one without betraying the other.

1 hour ago, franzvong said:

I took for granted that all clans competed, but we only see the final. So the unnamed Crane duelist tried and lost.

On the Scorpion side, I see it more like this:

- Kachiko: Go Aramoro and be my champion! Yoijiro, help him win

- Aramoro: Sure thing, I'll cheat my way to glory and be closer to you *hint hint*

- Shoju: we should be in the shadows and not ruling, Yojiro take care of that

- Yojiro: Sure thing, I'll double cheat the cheater with pleasure

Sounds about right, with the added benefit that Toturi being the Champion will help push the Lion towards war with the Crane and the Unicorn. Not that the Scorpion want that at all, heavens forbid.

I'm shocked they didn't hold this out as the storyline prize for 2018 Worlds. Seemed like they were going for a much longer setup.

13 minutes ago, suburbaknght said:

I'm shocked they didn't hold this out as the storyline prize for 2018 Worlds. Seemed like they were going for a much longer setup.

I'm kind of glad they didn't actually. As much as I loved the idea of tournament results being reflected in story line they sometimes led to very odd results as they tried to shoehorn things that were completely unrelated to the story to reflect a dark horse tournament result. I like the approach we've seen so far where we have two choices that affect the story and the winner is picking from those choices, lets the story team actually craft the story they want as they can plan for x or y and how the plot would unfold from there. It also means that we can see results that much quicker as they can have everything ready to go depending on which of the two choices the winner picks rather than needing to refine everything because a Unicorn had say won the Lion/Crane conflict centered event.

13 minutes ago, Schmoozies said:

I'm kind of glad they didn't actually. As much as I loved the idea of tournament results being reflected in story line they sometimes led to very odd results as they tried to shoehorn things that were completely unrelated to the story to reflect a dark horse tournament result. I like the approach we've seen so far where we have two choices that affect the story and the winner is picking from those choices, lets the story team actually craft the story they want as they can plan for x or y and how the plot would unfold from there. It also means that we can see results that much quicker as they can have everything ready to go depending on which of the two choices the winner picks rather than needing to refine everything because a Unicorn had say won the Lion/Crane conflict centered event.

I understand that, though I think there's a big difference between, "Choose something to happen," and "Choose from this list of choices." I imagine if FFG did the Emerald Championship as a storyline prize it would be much more, "If Crab win then Hida Yakamo becomes Emerald Champion. If Crane win then Kakita Kaizen becomes Emerald Champion. If Dragon win then Kitsuki Yaruma becomes Emerald Champion. ..." and so on.

4 minutes ago, suburbaknght said:

I understand that, though I think there's a big difference between, "Choose something to happen," and "Choose from this list of choices." I imagine if FFG did the Emerald Championship as a storyline prize it would be much more, "If Crab win then Hida Yakamo becomes Emerald Champion. If Crane win then Kakita Kaizen becomes Emerald Champion. If Dragon win then Kitsuki Yaruma becomes Emerald Champion. ..." and so on.

The problem becomes the further along in the story you go the more you end up with odd choices. Plus if you have one clan that for whatever reason has a superior deck to the others you end up with everything being about that Clan. I still recall in O5R where during the Hidden Emperor period Crane had a much better game position and had two rally strong deck types (an honor rocket and an honor military switch) and they were winning everything, so much so that most finals were Crane vs. Crane and it got so bad that the story team started a Crane Civil War to explain why all the crane were fighting each other. I don't want to see a repeat of that.

3 hours ago, Shosur0 said:

Edit: Also... Aramoro showing off cutting fruit...

I initially didn't like the fact that they proceeded with the "Emerald Championship" that fast, without putting it into the fanbase's hands (with a grand tournament and all).
However, I begin to like it now, because it gives FFG a way of measure, letting them to present us a consistent story with all its shades of "black", "white" and "gray".

What I would really love at that point, is for FFG to show us more things that transpired to the "Emerald Championship" and come up with a cool boxed set filled with cards concerning this event!

We can get cards of all 7 competing candidates!
We can get attachments commemorating gifts and favors traded between Clans, given to the candidates for good or bad!
We can get events that depict various pieces of that unique storyline!
We can even get neutral characters, holdings, or even the province where the contest was held!

I would have definitely gone out and bought it directly!

a ninja and lion bump around for the Emerald Championship... i just vomited over my keyboard

keep it that way, FFG. Bad storytelling and bad card design. you are my heroes #thumbsup

3 hours ago, suburbaknght said:

I understand that, though I think there's a big difference between, "Choose something to happen," and "Choose from this list of choices." I imagine if FFG did the Emerald Championship as a storyline prize it would be much more, "If Crab win then Hida Yakamo becomes Emerald Champion. If Crane win then Kakita Kaizen becomes Emerald Champion. If Dragon win then Kitsuki Yaruma becomes Emerald Champion. ..." and so on.

The way FFG have been doing things, it's much more likely that the winner would choose between Aramoro and Toturi for the Emerald Champion. A binary choice is relatively easy to plan for (though man, it startles me that they're writing alternate-outcome fictions and then just binning the one that didn't happen); seven different possibilities is much harder. Either it becomes unmanageable, or it becomes irrelevant, with the choice of Emerald Champion becoming a find-and-replace issue rather than one that meaningfully shapes the story.

I should add -- because this may not be visible from the outside -- that these fictions don't get knocked out overnight. There's a lead time of several months on any given story, what with outlining, drafting, revision, and so forth, and the lead time for overall story planning is a good deal longer than that. So offering up seven different choices of Emerald Champion, one for each clan, would require the Story Team to come up with seven different equally interesting plotlines going forward, one for each potential EC . . . and then throw out six of them. While putting in limbo any of the fictions currently in the pipeline that reference or are affected by the consequences of the championship. At that point, the only feasible way to handle it is to reduce the EC to a cosmetic change: have them show up in one story, say a few lines, and check off the "story prize delivered" box, without really affecting anything of substance.

I don't know if FFG is ever planning on offering a story prize that isn't a binary choice, but I'll be surprised if they do. The amount of work involved gets grotesquely large, very fast.

5 hours ago, Fumo said:

Sounds about right, with the added benefit that Toturi being the Champion will help push the Lion towards war with the Crane and the Unicorn. Not that the Scorpion want that at all, heavens forbid.

On the contrary, I think that Toturi will make sure that he remains BFF with Hotaru and resolve the hostilities peacefully.

I'm a bit disappointed that it came so fast - I was hoping we would get a story involving the awkwardness of the Imperial Decree, and some exploration for how this effects everyone, and maybe a bit of Dragon clan story since they were first in line after Unicorn stepped out and I'm interested in what they are thinking about the PLS...

Anyway - I loved this story for how it was told, and I really appreciate Yojiro's position. Trapped between loyalty for clan and empire, and between Shoju and Kachiko. Great writing!

Hmm maybe there will be an anime for those fights we didn't see.

Seems like a lot of work to make a “Fruit Ninja” reference.

Dang, I was hoping that they'd make this a tournament story prize so that the Unicorns could pull a surprise victory and name War Dog Master as Emerald Champion :/

Joking aside, I'm surprised that they dealt with this so quickly. Even if it wasn't a tournament prize, the story of Toturi becoming Emerald Champion seems to me to be at least major-expansion worthy. Still, it makes me wonder where they'll be going with this new version of the story. I just checked the wiki--O5R Toturi never became Emerald Champion, right? And doesn't being Emerald Champion mean he's not the Lion Champion any more? Or am I wrong? If he can't be, I'd be curious to know who the next head of the Lions' pride is....

14 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

By the way, we have a thread in the lore sub-thread.

As far as I can tell, the main thing that getting a separate lore section on the forums accomplished was getting a bunch doubled up threads, like this. I'm really not sure what the point of having a separate subforum is.

10 hours ago, Theoloc said:

What I would really love at that point, is for FFG to show us more things that transpired to the "Emerald Championship" and come up with a cool boxed set filled with cards concerning this event!

We can get cards of all 7 competing candidates!
We can get attachments commemorating gifts and favors traded between Clans, given to the candidates for good or bad!
We can get events that depict various pieces of that unique storyline!
We can even get neutral characters, holdings, or even the province where the contest was held!

I would have definitely gone out and bought it directly!

I think that would have been a lot more exciting before the results of the tournament were known. Before the tournament, any one of those characters could have been winners. Now it would be "here's all the runner-ups."

6 hours ago, blackheartz said:

On the contrary, I think that Toturi will make sure that he remains BFF with Hotaru and resolve the hostilities peacefully.

The point is that his duties as emerald champion will keep him busy away from his duties as Lion champion. And while he's occupied, that leaves more volatile people like Matsu Tsuko running things. Look in this very fiction for an example of her authorizing an attack that Toturi would not have, while he was away for the tournament.

49 minutes ago, Vlad3theImpaler said:

As far as I can tell, the main thing that getting a separate lore section on the forums accomplished was getting a bunch doubled up threads, like this. I'm really not sure what the point of having a separate subforum is.

Makes it vastly easier for those of us who are following the story, but aren't playing the card game, to find the threads we're interested in.

And the incidence of duplicate posts is dropping steadily as people get used to having subforums.