Guess I could add a post about what's not in the setting book for those who are curious.

There are no tables of goods and prices. Theres an extensive section on Trade within the empire, but its setting material, not mechanics and numbers.

There are no new schools specific to any of the seven great clans. Yes, the kitsune spirit and kolat saboteur choose a clan and family, but there's no "Scorpion Bushi" for example.

Theres no premade adventure in this book. Like the core rulebook, it's purely rules and information cover to cover. Seems like they're keeping the progression of "Beginners box, free DLC, GM Kit, then Mask of the Oni"

Theres no expanded explanation for how range bands should work in play.

Theres mention of the other races... tengu, kitsu, ningyo, trolls, zokujin, and naga. But that's about it. I assume there will be an ancient races book down the line to probably tie in with an adventure book that encounters one or more of them.

Again, this book is just over 250 pages of "how does Rokugan function?" And anyone who's been asked by a player about Rokugan's structure, logistics, specific locations, or even what's still canon and what's not will find this book an absolute gold mine.

My only gripe is that because every few pages theres a block about rumors for the area or the sketched out plots, I wouldn't feel comfortable lending the book to my players to peruse on their own like an encyclopedia.

4 hours ago, davidnusse said:

Theres no expanded explanation for how range bands should work in play.

Again, this book is just over 250 pages of "how does Rokugan function?" And anyone who's been asked by a player about Rokugan's structure, logistics, specific locations, or even what's still canon and what's not will find this book an absolute gold mine.

My only gripe is that because every few pages theres a block about rumors for the area or the sketched out plots, I wouldn't feel comfortable lending the book to my players to peruse on their own like an encyclopedia.

range bands design... dunno why they didn't reuse the star wars one that worked much better than theirs... anyway. they made a range band system and a grid system and both are weak lol. so they probably dropped the towel at this point!

and i'm ok they kept it thin on the rules... because that is not their strong point...

lore wise and graphic wise the book is reeeaaaally pretty! (amazingly good looking) and full of informations that I wanted. 5/5.

a high recommend from me.

Not available in Europe yet, it seems. Annoying! 😛

waiting for pdf version... not going to pay it twice due the cost of mailing it to EU ^^'

I bought it from my FLG tonight and very excited to start reading.

11 hours ago, davidnusse said:

Guess I could add a post about what's not in the setting book for those who are curious.

There are no tables of goods and prices. Theres an extensive section on Trade within the empire, but its setting material, not mechanics and numbers.

Regretable but not wholly unexpected. A table with services would be really useful.

12 hours ago, In the middle of the night said:

waiting for pdf version... not going to pay it twice due the cost of mailing it to EU ^^'

I'm enough of a sucker that I paid for shipping to Japan and I'm going to buy the PDF version when it comes out. I dare to dream of a world where they release the PDF day and date with the book instead of waiting 3+ weeks for no discernible reason. It's mind-boggling, really. The only thing delaying the PDF release does is inconvenience (or in the worst cases, drive away the business of) people who do not want to or cannot acquire a hard copy.

1 minute ago, IonicSquid said:

I'm enough of a sucker that I paid for shipping to Japan and I'm going to buy the PDF version when it comes out. I dare to dream of a world where they release the PDF day and date with the book instead of waiting 3+ weeks for no discernible reason. It's mind-boggling, really. The only thing delaying the PDF release does is inconvenience (or in the worst cases, drive away the business of) people who do not want to or cannot acquire a hard copy.

It seems that for some reason, distribution outside the US starts a few weeks later than inside. It wouldn't help sales in European game shops if digital versions were available online weeks before they can start selling the books.

14 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

It seems that for some reason, distribution outside the US starts a few weeks later than inside. It wouldn't help sales in European game shops if digital versions were available online weeks before they can start selling the books.

I'm sure that there are some people who only buy whichever version becomes available first and those sales would be lost by the local game stores, but I would be willing to bet that a significant amount of people buying the books prefer either hard copy or digital (or want both) and are going to buy that version no matter what.

1 minute ago, IonicSquid said:

I'm sure that there are some people who only buy whichever version becomes available first and those sales would be lost by the local game stores, but I would be willing to bet that a significant amount of people buying the books prefer either hard copy or digital (or want both) and are going to buy that version no matter what.

Sure, but game stores usually aren't super profitable to begin with and every sale counts. There are several economic reasons for FFG to want to see their products in as many different stores as possible and this is a really easy way to tell stores they support them that doesn't cost them money either. I know a couple of game store owners: the ones that do well are the ones that are very picky about what goes on their shelves.

33 minutes ago, IonicSquid said:

I'm enough of a sucker that I paid for shipping to Japan and I'm going to buy the PDF version when it comes out. I dare to dream of a world where they release the PDF day and date with the book instead of waiting 3+ weeks for no discernible reason. It's mind-boggling, really. The only thing delaying the PDF release does is inconvenience (or in the worst cases, drive away the business of) people who do not want to or cannot acquire a hard copy.

I feel you bro! Me, I’ll just wait for the PDF to hit drivethru.

I do understand the need to sync it with games stores and am sympathetic with that, but is the release in Europe really that much delayed ? (Not a factor for Japan though... I think I started seeing 4e books in stores around the time AEG was throwing the towel 😛 )

6 minutes ago, Franwax said:

I feel you bro! Me, I’ll just wait for the PDF to hit drivethru.

I do understand the need to sync it with games stores and am sympathetic with that, but is the release in Europe really that much delayed ? (Not a factor for Japan though... I think I started seeing 4e books in stores around the time AEG was throwing the towel 😛 )

For Star Wars, it was/is a couple of weeks for each sourcebook. I do hope that's not the case here, would like to be able to get my hands on Emerald Empire before the holidays.

15 hours ago, davidnusse said:

Book says "they choose a clan and family normally" (sidebar pg.228)

Looks like they do this either because they've chosen that family as their cover identity, or because they're quite literally born into that family as the child of a kitsune spirit and a human.

They get the False Identity disadvantage (new in this book), and they can shapeshift into different forms. So you do creation normally and weave a pretend-life.

As for titles... advisor, clan magistrate, daimyo, gunso, monastic acolyte, priest, spy, yojimbo, and yoriki.

Thank you!

TItles look pretty nice... though I am curious about priest, as that seems to be shugenja only, maybe with some monks attached?

Shapeshifting as a school tech? Innnteresting.

Any new kata or shuji that spring out at you as fun, interesting or anything like that?

11 minutes ago, Horvagab said:

Any new kata or shuji that spring out at you as fun, interesting or anything like that?

The only new techniques are 2 shuji.

1 exclusive to imperial families, 1 exclusive to kolat.

Ah I missed that.

Still cool

Do kitsune still have their ears/tail/feet pop out (as the NPC version does) if they become compromised?

22 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Do kitsune still have their ears/tail/feet pop out (as the NPC version does) if they become compromised?

They do indeed!

I'm just waiting for the first "Wile. E. Coyote in a person suit" moment during a court intrigue.

Kitsune seem pretty fun. You get to be a druid, and then you devour peoples soul at rank 6. Kinda dark, but fun.

I also like how they (and the Kolat) have a mandatory disadvantage (false identity).

Necessary to have it, but allows you to pick something a little specific to your character.

My LGS says they might have it in December.

Does the book mention any of the missing Daimyo names? We're still short of Seppun, Asahina, Agasha, Kitsu, Moto and Utaku.

I’m really curious about what those shinseist/ fortunist monks do... are they Kiho oriented? Shaolin punchy types or more wisened advisors?

9 minutes ago, Franwax said:

I’m really curious about what those shinseist/ fortunist monks do... are they Kiho oriented? Shaolin punchy types or more wisened advisors?

The shinseist monks are kiho powered. The forunist choose a fortune and then based on the fortune they have chosen they get access to a handful of invocations and gain them in a similar way to the togashi monk.

6 hours ago, Franwax said:

I’m really curious about what those shinseist/ fortunist monks do... are they Kiho oriented? Shaolin punchy types or more wisened advisors?

The Shineist Monk is defiantly designed to be a Sohei (Warrior Monk) more than an advisor due to open Kata and Kiho access and a lack of open Shuji access. It is the school of those who want to play Benkei.

15 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

My LGS says they might have it in December.

Does the book mention any of the missing Daimyo names? We're still short of Seppun, Asahina, Agasha, Kitsu, Moto and Utaku.

Moto Ogodei is stated as the Moto Khan... I'll let you know if I see any others.

On 12/14/2018 at 2:13 AM, Horvagab said:

Thank you!

TItles look pretty nice... though I am curious about priest, as that seems to be shugenja only, maybe with some monks attached?

Shapeshifting as a school tech? Innnteresting.

Any new kata or shuji that spring out at you as fun, interesting or anything like that?

The book goes into detail about how younger children of samurai families (often the youngest) often get traded off to be trained at shrines as, usually, priests. Priest is a non-shugenja title, or should I say, one that non-shugenja can take (and it's not likely a shugenja would want it, but they could still get it, after all, they are highly qualified to become priests). Shugenja are specifically said to rarely stay at one shrine for long, presumably either acting as advisors/sensei (something stable, but not related to a temple/shrine), or travel regularly (checking on shrines, dealing with problematic kami, officiating marriages outside the cities, etc...). Right now the only disappointing thing priest/shuggie wise from the game, was no Emma-O shugenja school, because the book claims that shugenja touched by Emma-O are identified early, and trained separately from the typical elemental/general training. Since they're rare, I'd guess there's only one or two such schools... who runs them. Urgh. One of the few parts of the book that only raises more questions.