2018 Winter Court story options. Those selected are in bold .

Unicorn. Story Choice

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/10/10/a-call-to-stewardship/

Quote

• If selected, a samurai of the Shinjo Family rules the village with compassion and open-mindedness.
• If selected, a samurai of the Iuchi Family commands the spirits of the land to bolster the village’s defenses.
• If selected, a samurai of the Ide Family transforms the village into a vibrant center of trade.
• If selected, a samurai of the Utaku Family instills honor upon the village’s inhabitants by ensuring the tenets of Bushidō are strictly followed by all.
• If selected, a samurai of the Moto Family rules in the style of their ancestors, bringing foreign traditions to the people of the village.

Lion. Story Choice

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/10/12/a-call-to-leadership/

Quote

• If selected, a samurai of the Akodo Family commands with honor and integrity.
• If selected, a samurai of the Matsu Family commands with ferocity and without hesitation.
• If selected, a samurai of the Ikoma Family commands with cunning and subterfuge.
• If selected, a samurai of the Kitsu Family commands with guidance from the recently departed.

Dragon. Story Choice

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/10/17/a-call-to-witness/

Quote

• If selected, a samurai of the Togashi Family observes the coming events to better understand their destiny.
• If selected, a samurai of the Mirumoto Family secures Otosan Uchi against any potential threats.
• If selected, a samurai of the Kitsuki Family investigates the intrigues of the Forbidden City.
• If selected, a samurai of the Agasha Family delves into the darkness and mystical secrets within the Forbidden City.

Crane. Story Choice

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/10/19/a-call-for-diplomacy/

Quote

• If selected, a samurai of the Doji Family brings beautiful gifts for the Fox Clan to remind them of their longstanding friendship with the Crane.
• If selected, a samurai of the Kakita Family protects Doji Kuzunobu from threats that lurk in the perilous Kitsune forest.
• If selected, a samurai of the Asahina Family offers to assist the Fox Clan with locating the clan’s missing nemuranai (spiritually-awoken artifacts).
• If selected, a samurai of the Daidoji Family offers their protection of the Fox Clan in exchange for their support.

Phoenix. Story Choice

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/10/24/a-call-for-unity/

Quote

• If selected, a samurai of the Shiba Family seeks Tadaka by visiting villages in Kuni lands, asking peasants and travelers for news of him.
• If selected, a samurai of the Isawa Family follows Tadaka’s spiritual trail, allowing the kami to guide them to where he has communed with them.
• If selected, a samurai of the Asako Family seeks the leadership of the Crab Clan, that they might aid in convincing Tadaka to return to the Phoenix—and to help point to where he can be found.
• If selected, a samurai of the Kaito Family follows their arrows to where they are needed.

Crab. Story Choice

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/10/26/a-call-to-investigate/

Quote

• If selected, a samurai of the Hida Family reinforces and defends the watchtower by strength of arms.
• If selected, a samurai of the Hiruma Family scouts on the status of the watchtower and tracks the problem to its source.
• If selected, a samurai of the Kaiu Family rebuilds the watchtower if it has fallen and reinforces its garrisons if it has not.
• If selected, a samurai of the Kuni Family purges any Taint from the watchtower or surrounding environments.
• If selected, a samurai of the Yasuki Family recruits aid from their neighboring allies to reinforce and defend the watchtower.

Scorpion. Story Choice

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/10/31/a-call-to-duty/

Quote

• If selected, a samurai of the Bayushi Family cuts down disloyalty with swift decisiveness.
• If selected, a samurai of the Shosuro Family remains in the shadows, wholly unknown until the disloyal are struck down.
• If selected, a samurai of the Soshi Family walks among the clan, unrecognized, and reports disloyalty to Shoju for his retribution.
• If selected, a samurai of the Yogo Family is willing to sacrifice everything and anyone to fulfill their duty.

Each clan will get a choice. This is much better than last year's. Provides some good options and gives stuff for each clan to do.

I am so excited to see all of the options.

Also, confirming a difference in the Burning Sands from AEG-Rokugan: the Caliph is not the Immortal Hannan Talibah, but a man named Harun al-Hakim.

Note on schedule: They will be giving us these letters and choices on every Wednesday and Friday. Basing these on the AMA schedule:

Clan 1 - October 10 - Unicorn
Clan 2 - October 12 - Lion
Clan 3 - October 17 - Dragon
Clan 4 - October 19 - Crane
Clan 5 - October 24 - Phoenix
Clan 6 - October 26 - Crab
Clan 7 - October 31 - Scorpion

I think they actually posted the full clan list somewhere..... Maybe not. I was only paying attention up to the point where I get to name Moto Tsume as steward if I win worlds.

I believe it was posted in the Discord when they made the announcement of the AMA's and I', pretty sure the letters will coincide with those.

On 10/1/2018 at 2:01 PM, Togashi Norikage said:

The ' L5R Discord ' will be hosting a set of seven unique (Great) Clan specific AMA sessions this month with Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game designers Brad Andres, and Tyler Parrott.

Join our server via this link for more information. Once joined, please be sure to read both the 'server_rules' and 'announcements' tab for more information and guidelines.

All dates will have a start time of 14:00 EDT (18:00 UTC), and run for approximately one hour.

• Unicorn Clan - Wednesday, October 10th
• Lion Clan - Friday, October 12th
• Dragon Clan - Wednesday, October 17th
• Crane Clan - Friday, October 19th
• Phoenix Clan - Wednesday, October 24th
• Crab Clan - Friday, October 26th
• Scorpion Clan - Wednesday, October 31st

And in fact

I like the frank addressing of the fact that the Unicorn have holdings outside of Rokugan to be worried about. Hints of... whatever we have for the Burning Sands, as well.

Hmm, from an OOC perspective I feel like Shinjo is the worst possible option, because it'll leave the village the most vulnerable without giving a tangible benefit. In character though there's no way we can allow the Moto or Iuchi to control that village!

Go Utaku... that way, when the Lion retake it (these poor border communities change hands so often, after all...), the locals will be ready for their new overlords!

I think it's safe to assume HMT has plot armor to remain in Unicorn hands for the time being...otherwise it'd really suck for Unicorn to pick a steward at Worlds, just to have the story team turn around and go "Gotcha! Lion took it back anyways, your decision was meaningless!"

1 hour ago, Shiba Gunichi said:

I like the frank addressing of the fact that the Unicorn have holdings outside of Rokugan to be worried about. Hints of... whatever we have for the Burning Sands, as well.

IIRC, the Burning Sands were not part of the L5R IP that FFG bought, so they can’t use that name. Maybe they’ll use the opportunity to change it into something different!

I'm torn. As a Yasuki the trade center appeals to me, but I also don't want the competition getting additional resources. So I guess Let's Go Moto!

Although, the Moto's ancestors were nomads right? How do they traditionally administrate a village?

Managing a nomadic herd is much like managing a village. There are similar logistics issues with both for example, just one picks up and moves which arguably makes it even harder to manage. Moto would make for fine administrators!

7 hours ago, Kaito Kikaze said:

I think it's safe to assume HMT has plot armor to remain in Unicorn hands for the time being...otherwise it'd really suck for Unicorn to pick a steward at Worlds, just to have the story team turn around and go "Gotcha! Lion took it back anyways, your decision was meaningless!"

True, but - without a metagame hat on - the odds of this not spalling into a near all-out war* are pretty low, and Hisu Mori Toride is almost by definition on the front line. So it may not be recaptured but it's definitely in the line of fire. It's not on any map I've seen but it's presumably somewhere near the City Of The Rich Frog, because that's where the evacuees headed, meaning that was probably closer than any Unicorn stronghold.

• It was a Shinjo who recaptured it - although (a) he did so acting on behalf of the Unicorn as a whole, not just his family, and (b) he's left the empire to go play diplomat with the Caliph, so it's not like you can hand it to him.
• The previous commander was supposedly a 'Lady Hisako' - since she died honourably securing the right of the defenders to evacuate it's a bit of a slap to the family not to restore it once it's recovered. Her family isn't mentioned but the presence of an Utaku messenger (Utaku Yumino) from the garrison implies she was Utaku - if you were embedding a dedicated messenger from another family in a key garrison, it'd more likely be an Iuchi Courier.

In terms of the best 'tactical' choice:

• I think the Ide are probably the wrong choice - it's too close to the front line, and making it a more attractive target to raid isn't going to help anyone.
• The Iuchi could indeed bolster the village's defences magically, but right now, a defensive strategy based on we're-only-tolerating-this-under-protest sorcery has a good chance of bringing the Phoenix in on the Lion's side. Not necessarily militarily but definitely politically, which is bad enough.
• The comment about the rivers and forests on the borders with the lion is a fair one. If I remember correctly, most Unicorn heavy infantry (and they don't have much) is Utaku, making them the logical defenders.

Therefore, to me, the correct choice is probably the Utaku.

*The Unicorn aren't mentioned in the Imperial Edict forbidding clan wars, since they weren't in Rokugan at the time - or at least that was the case in the prior version of the history, and since it's a 'backdated' piece of Imperial history pre the 1120's, is probably true 'now'.

I am guessing all the clan choices will pretty much boil down to "pick your favorite family from this clan for a pretty mundane thing".

They probably already have the general stories planned out with some generic character from that clan-- maybe they have already chosen a personal name-- and then they just need to slap on whichever family name the people pick and maybe add an extra couple details regarding appearance or whatever.

You all are over-thinking it, in this case it is just going to be the family name slapped onto whatever the name of the Unicorn character who is in command of trying to save the village from the Lion... and maybe the Lion choice will be whatever the name of the commander who comes to attack it is.

No choice is going to be better than any other choice, it isn't really going to affect the way the story will play out.

9 hours ago, Kaito Kikaze said:

I think it's safe to assume HMT has plot armor to remain in Unicorn hands for the time being...otherwise it'd really suck for Unicorn to pick a steward at Worlds, just to have the story team turn around and go "Gotcha! Lion took it back anyways, your decision was meaningless!"

Would be cool if the Lion options will be to choose the family in charge of retaking HMT. Ikoma for a political way, Akodo for a tactical/siege war, Matsu for an all-front war, Kitsu... I dunno, those guys are weird.

3 hours ago, shineyorkboy said:

Although, the Moto's ancestors were nomads right? How do they traditionally administrate a village?

They burn it to the ground, and gift yurts to everyone.

@TheHobgoblyn You know, if that's the way you feel, you're welcome to not participate in the conversation. No need to crap on everyone else having fun speculating.

Maybe assigning an Iuchi would be a good way for the Champ to throw them a bone and remind everyone that the Clan as a whole still stands behind them, despite their detractors at court.

1 hour ago, Kaito Kikaze said:

@TheHobgoblyn You know, if that's the way you feel, you're welcome to not participate in the conversation. No need to crap on everyone else having fun speculating.

It isn't a matter of "crapping on fun" so much as simply indicating that....

1 hour ago, shineyorkboy said:

Maybe assigning an Iuchi would be a good way for the Champ to throw them a bone and remind everyone that the Clan as a whole still stands behind them, despite their detractors at court.

is a perfectly valid choice with no almost certainly no actual story repercussions for not choosing the biggest, strongest, scariest family.

Rather than "which family would protect the village best", the actual question one should be addressing is "which family would you like like Unicorn defense commander X to be from?" or perhaps cutting to what would be even more relevant "Which Unicorn family do you want the writers to make a new character of who will be introduced in this story and is thus likely to have a card printed of them down the line?"

So even if Ide would be the absolute worst choice for actually defense of the village, if you want a new Ide character, then one should choose Ide.

Right now there is only 1 unique Ide character card, 1 unique Iuchi character card and 1 unique Utaku character card. There are meanwhile 2 Moto and 3 Shinjo. While the unicorn clan pack is likely to raise these numbers, it should at least indicate that Ide, Iuchi and Utaku are all families that could use another proper character.

I want a Moto steward just to see the Lion reaction .

4 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

They burn it to the ground, and gift yurts to everyone.

Nothing wrong with a nice yurt.

5 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

I am guessing all the clan choices will pretty much boil down to "pick your favorite family from this clan for a pretty mundane thing".

Quite possibly. We'll have to wait and see. To be fair, "should the emperor declare Meishodo forbidden in the empire?" was hardly a question which doesn't tilt the game world dramatically, so they are prepared to put that sort of question to the players.

We can, as noted, expect the lion's "question" to be "who's leading the attack" since that's more or less the only thing on their plate right now, since any moves on Toshi Ranbo are verboten .

The Dragon, though, I'm less sure about. The two 'big things' we can see at the moment are (1) the Perfect Land appears to be about to kick off as of Snow and Sun, and (2) we still don't really know where the Dragon army is going and why. Whatever question they ask feels like it should be more significant.

The Crane....dunno. With Toshi Ranbo out of the picture, there's no real military threat in the way there was. So it's mostly looking the other way - now they know the identity of the pirates preying on their ships, I can see a conflict shaping up with the Mantis. Obviously the Crane can't declare war on the Mantis as long as they're a minor clan, but surely there has to be an exemption in that rule for engaging ships actively engaged in piracy? Alternatively, the other big question mark is what Doji Kunawan is going to do, and how he's going to look into his father's death.

The Phoenix - well, they've got all sorts of trouble, even if not many people know about it. The Djinni, their vision about Meishodo at the imperial parade, the tsunami, something's going badly wrong, but right now they have no idea what and no idea how to address it short of slinging poo at the unicorn (okay, not Kaito Kosori, but she's not exactly a high ranking character). Presumably they'll have options on "what the **** do we do?" but they'll have to figure out how to investigate without anyone finding out unless they want to have a jade champion and jade magistrates dropped on their necks again.

I'm equally unsure about the Crab. They've got their off-the-books deal with the Mantis, but aside from that, nothing much seems to have changed on the wall. Something following up from the Kurosunai village might work - if the Crab rebuild it, you could essentially have an identical question of 'pick a family in charge'

The scorpion are right at the middle of things. The big question is how they'll cope with the Regency - if that's being formally announced. There is an argument that Shoju should not hold both a clan champion and regency, but since Doji Satsume and Akodo Toturi held/hold both the status of jewelled champion and clan champion simultaneously, the empires' conflict of interest rules must not be too stringent. Nevertheless, I could see him accept that the regency will consume a huge amount of his time (Shoju is after all extremely loyal to the throne in a way some of the nastier scorpions aren't) looking to appoint a 'deputy clan champion' from one of the families, which is a huge deal for whoever is appointed, and for others in the hierarchy of the clan - if, for example, a deputy champion were to be Bayushi Aramoro, Shoju's half-brother, Kachiko would probably be laughing all the way to the teahouse, whilst if it were Bayushi Ago, Kachiko's brother, she can expect to find herself practically under house arrest....

3 hours ago, shineyorkboy said:

Maybe assigning an Iuchi would be a good way for the Champ to throw them a bone and remind everyone that the Clan as a whole still stands behind them, despite their detractors at court.

True, and a good point. The question is whether bruised egos within the Iuchi family is worth more than the damage high-profile use of Meishodo on a battlefront would do to the Clan as a whole.

On the other hand, almost by definition, the capabilities of a cadre of Meishodo practioners are an unknown to the Lion. Meaning they'd likely walk into a serious nightmare.

The Lion are gifted generals (Right Hand Of The Emperor and all that) but this war is being led by the Matsu, who....at the risk of pandering to stereotypes...have heard of concepts other than 'massive frontal assault' but don't really see the point. If left in charge of the war they're probably likely to attack Hisu Mori again, and a full-blown "what the heck just happened" demonstration of the power of Meishodo might just get the Lion's other families to pause long enough for sanity to prevail. Or get the elemental council to swing in on their side. Odds are about even...

5 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

I am guessing all the clan choices will pretty much boil down to "pick your favorite family from this clan for a pretty mundane thing".

They probably already have the general stories planned out with some generic character from that clan-- maybe they have already chosen a personal name-- and then they just need to slap on whichever family name the people pick and maybe add an extra couple details regarding appearance or whatever.

You all are over-thinking it, in this case it is just going to be the family name slapped onto whatever the name of the Unicorn character who is in command of trying to save the village from the Lion... and maybe the Lion choice will be whatever the name of the commander who comes to attack it is.

No choice is going to be better than any other choice, it isn't really going to affect the way the story will play out.

Well, as one of the people who could potentially write this story, or one of the clan story outcomes from this, I can guarantee you that nothing is preordained. To put it another way, the story I'd write would play out VERY differently depending on whether it's a Moto, Shinjo, Ide, Utaku or Iuchi character or characters I've been given as a focus that results from a player choice. And those choices definitely CAN have ongoing, knock-on effects that ripple down through the story. The meishodo choice might not have appeared to have much direct or immediate impact on the story, but the derived result of having Iuchi Shahai end up a "guest" in Otosan Uchi has had some really interesting implications (and now I slam headlong into my NDA, so this is where I stop!)

So, yeah, the choices are real, will have real effects in the short term and, depending on what they are, can definitely have longer-term implications for the story. How this would impact the LCG or any other game products, if at all, is way outside my purview, though, I hasten to add.

8 minutes ago, DGLaderoute said:

. The meishodo choice might not have appeared to have much direct or immediate impact on the story, but the derived result of having Iuchi Shahai end up a "guest" in Otosan Uchi has had some really interesting implications (and now I slam headlong into my NDA, so this is where I stop!)

All I see when I read this is the future Shadowlands Power couple we all want confirmed.