13 minutes ago, WHW said:

Remember these scenes in cinema where two rivals are putting on a friendly front and agreeing for a joyous little competition/bet, being so sweet and nice to each other that their teeth are about to crack, air is vibrating and cracking from electricity from their poorly concealed ALPHA EGO CLASH!, and pretty much everyone seeing it know that under the thin facade of friendly words all there really is is the desire to one up each other?
"Great, they are at it again..."

This is the sort of stuff I can imagine as a viable "DUEL!!" Unmasking. And TBH from this moment on I'm happily extending it to all sort of contests, starting with "I CAN DRINK YOU UNDER THE TABLE, YOU GIMP", through "Naked steel, now, behind the dojo, gimp", ending at "How about a little bet? If I win, your yoriki will work for me for a week, if I lose, well, your choice".
I think it really, really reinforces the competitive nature inherent in the Bushi and Samurai job description.

Sure. So what's friendly about it?

On 11/6/2018 at 8:44 AM, Myrion said:

Nice to see such a positive review from peiple who seem to understand the game.

Too bad it has several factual errors...

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The original game featured two long-running games in the setting; a blockbuster CCG and a rich RPG that fleshed out the world.

Three, not two - the Clan War minis game lasted for a good long while, and was well supported.

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Strife accumulates because of the samurai’s actions and goes away in one of three ways; it trickles away at the end of a scene if the samurai hasn’t picked up too much, it can be pushed away in chunks if the samurai engages in a roll involving one of their passions like armorsmithing or court gossip, or the entire amount can be burned away in an unmasking, where the samurai breaks the rules and expressed emotion in a big way that will likely have repercussions on their honor and status, such as showing up to a public meeting still drunk or challenging a rival to a duel without their lord’s permission.

It does NOT trickle away at end of scene. It drops to half-composure if higher, and remains unchanged if lower. No trickle. They conflated it with the beta rules.

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and a conversion chart for regular fantasy dice are included in the book.)

"fantasy dice"??? Regular gaming dice, yes, but fantasy dice? I'm pretty certain almost every RPG I own expects the use of real dice, not fantasy ones. (Yeah, I'm nitpicking here.)

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Each stance provides a benefit, such as the aggressive Fire stance adding extra damage based on how many strife symbols are kept.

Technically, it adds extra successes, not extra damage, and applies even to non-damage rolls in conflict. And it's not always "aggressive" - it can also be inventive or inspirational. Command and Fire is a pep talk. Sword and Fire is an overwhelming flurry of blows...

20 hours ago, AK_Aramis said:

(Yeah, I'm nitpicking here.)

Your entire post is picking nits. Clan Wars has been dead for a long time, while the CCG and RPG were both still being published up to the sale. "Trickle" is a subjective term. "Regular fantasy dice" is maybe a weird way to word it, but perfectly valid considering this is a fantasy game. And the last one is a specific example of a broader rule. None of these are factual errors.

41 minutes ago, deraforia said:

"Trickle" is a subjective term.

I doubt that this is the case because the whole thing goes like this:

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it trickles away at the end of a scene if the samurai hasn’t picked up too much

It is considerably more effective if the samurai has picked up a lot. There might be some confusion here from the authors' part.

in fact, if you didn't pick up enough, it won't go away at all.

"Not too much" could mean "not enough to be compromised". Regardless, it seems ok for someone who played one or two sessions to find out how everything is supposed to work.

2 hours ago, nameless ronin said:

"Not too much" could mean "not enough to be compromised". Regardless, it seems ok for someone who played one or two sessions to find out how everything is supposed to work.

Early in the beta, it DID trickle away... water per scene.

15 minutes ago, AK_Aramis said:

Early in the beta, it DID trickle away... water per scene.

Which was bad. Good thing it was changed.

Regarding the article, it doesn't seem to be written by an expert - just someone with the basic knowledge needed to play. Not entirely surprising.

4 hours ago, nameless ronin said:

Which was bad. Good thing it was changed.

Regarding the article, it doesn't seem to be written by an expert - just someone with the basic knowledge needed to play. Not entirely surprising.

No argument... but the problem is that the writing seems to be based upon the beta, not the BG nor Corebook. Either that, or a critfail on their Compose check.

Just now, AK_Aramis said:

No argument... but the problem is that the writing seems to be based upon the beta, not the BG nor Corebook. Either that, or a critfail on their Compose check.

I think that might just be a coincidence. It's possible though.

On ‎11‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 9:12 PM, AK_Aramis said:

Three, not two - the Clan War minis game lasted for a good long while, and was well supported.

To nitpick the nitpick, wasn't there an L5R diskwars, too?

7 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

To nitpick the nitpick, wasn't there an L5R diskwars, too?

Not to mention Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan, L5R Love Letter and Mai-Star, I think. Oh, and L5R Button Men.

10 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

To nitpick the nitpick, wasn't there an L5R diskwars, too?

Yes, but it wasn't well supported.
Mai-star was a one-off.
I was unaware of L5R button men.

I think you had to be at a particular Gencon to get the button men.

I'm pretty sure they used L5R art for Mai-Star.

5 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

I think you had to be at a particular Gencon to get the button men.

I'm pretty sure they used L5R art for Mai-Star.

The box mentions rokugan... I was thinking about picking it up at my FLGS (from the used games aisle).

3 hours ago, AK_Aramis said:

The box mentions rokugan... I was thinking about picking it up at my FLGS (from the used games aisle).

I would. It's quite a good little card game. If you don't like 'golden snitch' style mechanics, you can leave out the Monk and the Shogun.