2 minutes ago, Zesu Shadaban said:

Just to clarify, Winter Court IS Worlds...

Oh, my bad. I think that there will end up being 2 events where roles are selected. They will leapfrog each other. So you will always have two options.

6 minutes ago, Schmoozies said:

I hope this isn't the case as that could a) lead to a story mess with nonsensical interactions (Lion are supporting Crane who are for some reason supporting Scorpion despite them all being at war with each other) or b) an unnecessary deck building restriction even more onerous than the Keeper/Seeker restriction.

I'm much more inclined to expect we'll see it as you will have the option of using any of the support clan X roles if you want, and if you place highly enough may reflect in the story with the splash clan assisting or playing a prominent role in the result that the story prize generates.

I think there are always going to be story issues, but there are enough ways to write around those roles choices. Double crosses and the like. Are the Crane/Scorpion really at war or is it a plan to work together toward a goal.

There are already restrictions, but this opens up more than one deck option for most clans.

For gameplay wise I would agree that I would like to see people playing whatever they want. But it seems like the developers want them, the support of roles ease this a little.

34 minutes ago, L5RBr said:

Still got the impression the first champion decision in story (Tsuko - Kwanan episode) was too insignificant, and disappointed that the champions of Koteis didn't get anything for their clans, the role choices in worlds are cool but still missing more interaction between game and lore.

Two things: FFG stated prior to the launch that the LCG and the lore will difer some times (such as an evergreen card of a dead character). And regarding story decisions... well, one of the writers already explained it in this forums:

On 7/12/2017 at 7:33 PM, Kinzen said:

This. I'm strongly constrained (as in, an actual NDA) in what I can say about the real story, but I'll use the hypothetical example I made up a while back:

Let's say the Story Team has planned a plotline that revolves around a powerful and dangerous yokai escaping control and wreaking havoc*. There's a story prize linked to this, but the Story Team doesn't publicly announce what all the effects of the choice will be, because otherwise people will choose based on the outcome they want to see rather than on what seems like a good idea in the present moment. Either way you're going to get this yokai causing destruction -- but down one path, the yokai gets released in Kyuden Doji, while down the other, it gets released in the hinterlands of the Empire. The former means much more immediate destruction and risk to important characters, but it also means that the threat gets put down more rapidly, because people are there to deal with it. The latter means it's a slower burn, with the damage being initially limited to rural areas (and who cares about peasants, amirite), but the yokai has more time to grow in strength and cause lasting trouble before anybody takes the problem seriously and goes out there to take care of it.

That's a level of divergence the Story Team can plan for. Either way they still have their "escaped yokai" plot, and can do things like print a card for it . . . but within the story, it makes quite a difference whether the problem crops up in the middle of a major city or out in the boondocks, what gets damaged by the threat, who winds up taking it down, etc. The long-term effects will, surprise surprise, take a while to become apparent, but they're there.

*No, this isn't a badly-coded hint about the meishodo plot.

So be patient. Give it some time. We will see the consecuences of the Worlds' decision eventually.

6 hours ago, Joelist said:

I both like the idea of Clan packs and also that they are putting counters for the other Clans against the new stuff in the same pack. It lets them tailor the packs better while the counters guard against balance being thrown way off.

Agreed, that's the best way to do it, give a solid bonus to the clan, while giving the other clans a way to deal with them.

Do you think all the counter cards will be conflict cards? If so, this will give you 6 answers (the 3 from your faction and 3 from your splash). This would be more helpful if an expanded clan theme really was a runaway meta beast as opposed to just the 3 cards from your own faction.

Just looked at Tadaka’s card in English and you can see “nt cards” in the first line.

We can guess it can be “attachment cards” or “event cards”.

So, maybe Tadaka’s ability is that your opponent can’t play copies of event cards that are in his discard pile unless that opponent has the Earth rings in his reclaimed rings pools.

Which would be pretty dope. Being able to stop For Shame! or Banzais and force your opponent to go for the Earth ring can be a very strong effect.

The other option is that the ability is limited to spell events, which will make it very limited and weak, except in a mirror match.

1 hour ago, Tabris2k said:

Just looked at Tadaka’s card in English and you can see “nt cards” in the first line.

We can guess it can be “attachment cards” or “event cards”.

So, maybe Tadaka’s ability is that your opponent can’t play copies of event cards that are in his discard pile unless that opponent has the Earth rings in his reclaimed rings pools.

Which would be pretty dope. Being able to stop For Shame! or Banzais and force your opponent to go for the Earth ring can be a very strong effect.

The other option is that the ability is limited to spell events, which will make it very limited and weak, except in a mirror match.

Except the earth ring is already a strong ring choice... I find the earth ring is hotly contested in most of my games.

4 hours ago, shosuko said:

Except the earth ring is already a strong ring choice... I find the earth ring is hotly contested in most of my games.

If only the Phoenix had some way of making a ring off-limits...

Oh, wait.

They do.

20 minutes ago, Shiba Gunichi said:

If only the Phoenix had some way of making a ring off-limits...

Oh, wait.

They do.

If only the Phoenix had a card that let them swing for one ring only to claim it and then swap it for another...

If only the Phoenix had a card that allowed you to let your opponent win the earth ring only to steal it from them...

Oh, wait.

They do.

Phoenix has ALL the options for this kind of card. Sure his ability will be limited early game, but late game he becomes a nightmare for the opponent to deal with.

Most opponents I play shy away from earth when fighting phoenix due to the chance of me turning on Solemn Scholar by winning a defense. Tadaka only synergizes with that perspective.

Their design plan for Phoenix was manipulation of the elements, and therein rings (see the FFG FB L5R video pertaining to Phoenix). I love seeing the way they are committing to that with this pack.

On 21/12/2017 at 6:59 AM, Kakita Shiro said:

I don't like this; it makes it difficult to release them all before the final Koteis.

What makes you think there will be any other clan packs before the Koteis anyway?

1 hour ago, Brekekekiwi said:

What makes you think there will be any other clan packs before the Koteis anyway?

One retailer has Disciples of the Void coming out at the end of Q1 2018.

1 hour ago, Kakita Shiro said:

One retailer has Disciples of the Void coming out at the end of Q1 2018.

There went my hope for a mid/late January release with a new cycle starting in Feb.......

22 hours ago, Kakita Shiro said:

One retailer has Disciples of the Void coming out at the end of Q1 2018.

I think the key question there is what makes you think that there will be any *other* clan packs before the end of this Kotei season? It could be six months before the second one. I hope it won’t be, but we don’t know...

1 minute ago, DrDevidents said:

I think the key question there is what makes you think that there will be any *other* clan packs before the end of this Kotei season? It could be six months before the second one. I hope it won’t be, but we don’t know...

This is technically a good point, but the alternative is terrible.

The alternative is normal for LCGs. These are clan packs, rather than Deluxes, but in previous LCGs the faction box has been released in 6 month intervals.

I’d prefer if they released them in sequence, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t.

There has allready been creat whining about the acelerated release rate. It will not happen again. One in 6 month is just fine.

Interesting to see when next cycle will start. Before or after the summer? Maybe we will get second clean pack before the summer and new cycle in the autumn and third clean pack spring 2019? But all this is just quessing, but all in all They will/have to slow down in releases if They don’t wan to get player run out in the first year allready.

32 minutes ago, Hannibal_pjv said:

There has allready been creat whining about the acelerated release rate. It will not happen again. One in 6 month is just fine.

Interesting to see when next cycle will start. Before or after the summer? Maybe we will get second clean pack before the summer and new cycle in the autumn and third clean pack spring 2019? But all this is just quessing, but all in all They will/have to slow down in releases if They don’t wan to get player run out in the first year allready.

I believe the vast majority approved of the accelerated release.

8 hours ago, caseycheesecake said:

I believe the vast majority approved of the accelerated release.

I believe both assertions are based on anecdotal evidence rather than actual data.

I tend towards skepticism about any claims of what "the vast majority" does that aren't actually backed by any evidence.

8 hours ago, caseycheesecake said:

I believe the vast majority approved of the accelerated release.

Not in my playgroup. The ones who bought the cores before the 6 in 6 was announced were pretty pissed, and also I had two people waiting for Christmas to get the LCG, but now that they have to buy 3 cores+6packs for 210€ they decided to pass on it.

But as @Vlad3theImpaler said, this is just anecdotal.

13 minutes ago, Tabris2k said:

Not in my playgroup. The ones who bought the cores before the 6 in 6 was announced were pretty pissed, and also I had two people waiting for Christmas to get the LCG, but now that they have to buy 3 cores+6packs for 210€ they decided to pass on it.

But as @Vlad3theImpaler said, this is just anecdotal.

So they are mad that they have to spend money now when they were going to spend that money later anyway?

1 hour ago, Vlad3theImpaler said:

I believe both assertions are based on anecdotal evidence rather than actual data.

I tend towards skepticism about any claims of what "the vast majority" does that aren't actually backed by any evidence.

I think people that wanted to go to tournaments and can't afford the accelerated release would be pretty pissed off. Those that are casual may be irritated but realistically it probably makes little difference if they are pragmatic, as they will just buy, as and when they can. A little like somebody who starts the game a year after the packs have been released.

52 minutes ago, Lord Ammon said:

So they are mad that they have to spend money now when they were going to spend that money later anyway?

Yes, understandably, it is called a budget... some people cannot just spend all the money at once if they have other more immediate obligations.

2 hours ago, Isawa Tasatu said:

I think people that wanted to go to tournaments and can't afford the accelerated release would be pretty pissed off. Those that are casual may be irritated but realistically it probably makes little difference if they are pragmatic, as they will just buy, as and when they can. A little like somebody who starts the game a year after the packs have been released.

Yes, understandably, it is called a budget... some people cannot just spend all the money at once if they have other more immediate obligations.

Do they HAVE to spend €210 all in one go, though?

1 hour ago, Mangod said:

Do they HAVE to spend €210 all in one go, though?

They could easily just buy two cores and trade someone else in the play group for the third set of cards for the clan they want to play.

I don't think anybody is denying that there is a way around, for most players, with, trading borrowing etc, and I personally don't think that it is the end of the world. But I can understand people who are on a budget getting frustrated, particularly if they want to play competitively. People will still play if they are truly serious about the game, but it may have turned a number of others off as well.

5 hours ago, Lord Ammon said:

So they are mad that they have to spend money now when they were going to spend that money later anyway?

4 hours ago, Isawa Tasatu said:

Those that are casual may be irritated but realistically it probably makes little difference if they are pragmatic, as they will just buy, as and when they can.

2 hours ago, Mangod said:

Do they HAVE to spend €210 all in one go, though?

Ok, let me address this, as it is an argument that I hear too much, although it’s wrong, at least in my case.

I live in Spain. If you go to FFG Spain’s website, you’ll see that the Core and every single Imperial cycle pack is sold out and restocking. And this happened the same day that they were launched. Possibility of restocking? Probably it’ll take a year.

One of my Friends tried to buy the 2nd pack a few days ago. Our LGS was out of stock without possibility of ordering it to the distributor (Asmodee) as it is sold out. He had to move to a bigger city and had to visit 5 different game shops until he found it (the last pack they had). The other option was ordering it online, and then pay 15€ + 6 or 10€ in delivery fees, which makes it a very expensive option

Two others from my playgroup bought 3 cores and splitted by clans. Now they want another 3 cores. They had to bought them online, paying delivery fees, of course.

The guys that wanted to buy the game for Christmas? Our LGS was willing to keep 3 cores for them from launch till Christmas. But it’s not gonna held the 6 packs during 6 months so they can buy them one a month. It was all the expansions or nothing. So we’re back to the online option with the delivery fees, and if you take too long you may not find it.

Thing is, right now, if you want to play L5R in my country you have to buy everything that comes out within a month of launching or risk not being able to find it later. Waiting for reprint is out of question too. Others FFG LCG have been in “restocking” for more than a year...

And, apart from that, the objective of a LCG is having fun, and, even playing casual, if you’re losing all the time and feel underpowered also all the time, you’re probably not gonna have too much fun. The guy who’s buying the packs now was frustrated by playing against those of us who had all the cards. Specially against the magistrates he had too much of a hard time and no possibility of changing his deck to face them, as the core card pool was too limited. Long story short, he ended up caving and is now trying to buy all the packs as fast as his monthly income lets him.