Has anyone seen any new fiction since December 13th? Was that a thing that we were notified about and I missed?
Am I Blind (No New Fiction)?
I haven't. We also haven't seen any new articles about L5R at all in nearly two weeks, and the only articles we've seen in the past month have been a trio of articles about organized play in various forms.
Maybe it's just a "normal" quiet spell following the mad rush of the Imperial Cycle.
FFG said after the last fiction that fiction udpates would be on hiatus for awhile. It's not quite clear how they're handling a lot of the story aspects of the game but this will not be the AEG weekly-fiction style of the old game.
This is a drawback of the 6 in 6 weeks. I think if those dynasty packs would have been released monthly as usual, we would have gotten a new fiction every 2 weeks: one in the pack, two weeks later- one on the site, two weeks later- another pack, rinse, repeat...
Edited by HirumaShigureI get the impression that overall the buzz about L5R has lessened considerably. Perhaps new info on the Phoenix clan pack or any other expansion great or small could revive the community a bit.
18 hours ago, windforce10 said:I get the impression that overall the buzz about L5R has lessened considerably. Perhaps new info on the Phoenix clan pack or any other expansion great or small could revive the community a bit.
L5R is just another title in FFG catalogue. There was buzz in the start but later hype is focused on brand new games. It may be confusing for old game fans, as L5R for long time was AEG's flagship and they had to keep interest all the time with constant flow of news/previews etc.
Edited by kempy44 minutes ago, kempy said:L5R is just another title in FFG catalogue. There was buzz in the start but later hype is focused on brand new games. It may be confusing for old game fans, as L5R for long time was AEG's flagship and they had to keep interest all the time with constant flow of news/previews etc.
I agree in part here dude - new releases are always going to be promoted heavily, especially those with strong pop culture tie-ins like the various games in the Star Wars Line - but you're underselling the importance of L5R as a brand for FFG. It belongs to them, and they can shape and craft the game world as they see fit, which is something they're just unable to do with almost all of their other top sellers. It is and will remain a prominently featured title for the company, not just another in a line of licensed properties.
While I don't pretend to speak for FFG--I'm just a freelance writer for them--I'd suggest that it has more to do with the simple practicality of writing fiction. The "six packs in six weeks" thing resulted in a LOT of fiction coming out very quickly; it kinda drained the well, which is being refilled. But there's a significant lead time to get fiction designed, assigned, contracted, written, edited, revised, potentially edited and revised again, and doing it all in a way that meshes everything into a coherent, overarching story. I can guarantee you there's more fiction coming, but I couldn't say when...that particular ball is in FFG's court!
1 hour ago, DGLaderoute said:While I don't pretend to speak for FFG--I'm just a freelance writer for them--I'd suggest that it has more to do with the simple practicality of writing fiction. The "six packs in six weeks" thing resulted in a LOT of fiction coming out very quickly; it kinda drained the well, which is being refilled. But there's a significant lead time to get fiction designed, assigned, contracted, written, edited, revised, potentially edited and revised again, and doing it all in a way that meshes everything into a coherent, overarching story. I can guarantee you there's more fiction coming, but I couldn't say when...that particular ball is in FFG's court!
If it "drained the well" there's a huge probability - as many people suspected - whole six for six idea was just rush unexpected decision that probably disturbed whole standard LCG production cycle (including story support). But we'll see. History shown that in case of Conquest and Star Wars huge gap in release schedule caused collapse of local tournament scenes as people went angry and skipped to other games.
Edited by kempy2 hours ago, kempy said:If it "drained the well" there's a huge probability - as many people suspected - whole six for six idea was just rush unexpected decision that probably disturbed whole standard LCG production cycle (including story support). But we'll see. History shown that in case of Conquest and Star Wars huge gap in release schedule caused collapse of local tournament scenes as people went angry and skipped to other games.
Can't speak to that. What I can say is that the story-writing process simply accommodated it. As for the local tournament scene, I again can't speak for others, but in my store, the players are quite happy with the much-expanded card-base they now have and are busy beavering away building, trying out and revising decks. No "angry skipping" here...at least, not so far!
2 hours ago, DGLaderoute said:As for the local tournament scene, I again can't speak for others, but in my store, the players are quite happy with the much-expanded card-base they now have and are busy beavering away building, trying out and revising decks. No "angry skipping" here...at least, not so far!
It's too early. I'm just saying what happened in case of Conquest where there was huge gap between 1st Deluxe and second Cycle that nearly wiped tourney scene here (it was like 5 or 6 months long break).
Edited by kempyOn 1/23/2018 at 7:59 AM, DGLaderoute said:While I don't pretend to speak for FFG--I'm just a freelance writer for them--I'd suggest that it has more to do with the simple practicality of writing fiction. The "six packs in six weeks" thing resulted in a LOT of fiction coming out very quickly; it kinda drained the well, which is being refilled. But there's a significant lead time to get fiction designed, assigned, contracted, written, edited, revised, potentially edited and revised again, and doing it all in a way that meshes everything into a coherent, overarching story. I can guarantee you there's more fiction coming, but I couldn't say when...that particular ball is in FFG's court!
That's neat insight, and is somewhat reflective of my expectations.
On 1/22/2018 at 8:39 AM, suburbaknght said:FFG said after the last fiction that fiction udpates would be on hiatus for awhile. It's not quite clear how they're handling a lot of the story aspects of the game but this will not be the AEG weekly-fiction style of the old game.
This too is not out of the realm of my expectations.
Now, I personally am VERY far behind in the fiction (I tend to binge) so this is not a criticism nor complaint on my part. I just refresh the FFG page at work some 10-50 time per day to see what new things are being promoted and it had been a while for L5R.
Truly, the only fiction I want RIGHT NOW pertains to Shiba Tsukune. And I'm not a Phoenix player. Yet. I just really like her fiction.
What do you mean, the well has been drained? Development budget (most plausible), writers' ideas (surely not), permissible amount of plot progression, something else?
5 hours ago, Duciris said:Now, I personally am VERY far behind in the fiction (I tend to binge)
For ease of binge: The Fiction Library
1 hour ago, Manchu said:What do you mean, the well has been drained? Development budget (most plausible), writers' ideas (surely not), permissible amount of plot progression, something else?
I think it just mean that they had a “buffer” of fiction already wrote prior to release, and they have been writing more. But they released a big part of that fiction too quick, in six weeks, when it should’ve been in six months. So now they have to wait a little bit to refill that buffer before releasing another fiction. And that’s not done in two days; as Laderoute said, it’s a lengthy process, so we’ll have to wait a bit more, if we want quality fiction.
The six-week marathon of fiction definitely altered expectations...
16 hours ago, Manchu said:What do you mean, the well has been drained? Development budget (most plausible), writers' ideas (surely not), permissible amount of plot progression, something else?
Much more simple than that. We (the writers) wrote a bunch of fiction, and it got published very quickly. The process of writing MORE fiction immediately got underway (as soon as the last round of it was done, actually), but the process takes time--hence, at least one reason for a gap in fiction publication. There may be other reasons, too, but again, I can't speak for FFG and their strategies/policies/etc. around things like publishing L5R fiction.
What Dave has said. I can say that I have a piece coming up (don't know when), and I'm on deck for more that haven't yet been assigned; there is definitely more on its way. It's just that FFG gave you guys six months' worth of material all at once, and so there's a gap left where those things ought to have been. Like when you eat all your Girl Scout cookies in a week instead of rationing them out like you swore you would, and have to wait until next year to get more. :-)
Six packs in six weeks!
Can't quite think of how to put it without seeming a total ingrate so here we go anyhow ... the six months' worth of writing we have so far honestly doesn't measure up as six months' worth of plot development. So I kinda get why FFG ultimately pushed all of it through very quickly.
So what I definitely DO NOT mean by that is, the writing is not up to snuff. On the contrary, I really dig 99% of the fiction released so far. Like, I am a fan in the sense of a fan atic. (I can only assume that comes across in some of my posts here.)
With that out of the way, my hope is that the first cycle of fiction pieces has largely dispensed with exposition so we can now move on to plot-in-chief. If you look back on the meatier discussions we've had here, there's been a lot of focus on what kind of person a given character is, largely because that's what these stories have focused on. Secondarily, we've had discussions about what certain indefinite setting elements may mean. These kind of discussions are necessarily limited. OK, Kakita Yoshi is both harsh and righteous - but let's see him do something. Or, I know almost nothing about meishodo, so how can I really discuss its implications?
The way pop culture is these days, there seems to be a widening gap between set up and pay off. The recent Star Wars movies are illustrative. You get writers who delight in set up despite having no plans for pay off. And you get writers who delight in undercutting set ups with ironic pay offs. Please o merciful Fortunes do not let Rokugan be corrupted by these trashy trends. So I am really, really hoping that the next fiction cycle is allowed to capitalize on the exposition of the first and provide some meaningful answers/resolutions.
Edited by ManchuL5R novels would be auto-buys for me.
1 hour ago, Manchu said:L5R novels would be auto-buys for me.
Get Brandon Sanderson to write them and I would be all over that.
1 hour ago, Manchu said:L5R novels would be auto-buys for me.
Are Mantis getting thrown under a bus again?
18 hours ago, Kinzen said:Like when you eat all your Girl Scout cookies in a week instead of rationing them out like you swore you would, and have to wait until next year to get more. :-)
I like your writing.
But this unrealistic fairy tale of rationing Girl Scout
Mafia
Cookies takes it too far. As a fan that put up with the Old L5R story, my suspension of disbelief is quite robust. But this? That anyone would engage in such rationing defies all reason. Humf!
Walks off with his box of Thin Mint cereal....
Edited by Coyote Walks
Thin Mint Cereal found at Safeway, Winco, and other fine establishments.
3 hours ago, Ishi Tonu said:Get Brandon Sanderson to write them and I would be all over that.
Better start passing the hat, then, because Brandon doesn't come cheap.