Well, guessing Shadowlands does have to be soon, we're getting announcements on a new sourcebook, Courts of Stone .

This book is all about castles and palaces in rokugan, and the politics that occurs inside them. It will focus on the Crane Clan similar to how Shadowlands is with Crab, but will talk about castles and courts all over Rokugan. It will have a player-focused chapter which introduces the new Deer Minor Clan, another new set of schools and techniques as well as equipment, and will appear to be focusing a bit on shinobi with new ninjutsu and notes about including these characters in your campaign. The third chapter for GMs will detail how to set up a Winter Court, and advice for intrigue focused campaigns, including ways to track and invest in bonds between characters.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/3/1/courts-of-stone/

Also, got a new adventure, Winter's Embrace, which is a winter court adventure.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/forum/561-legend-of-the-five-rings-the-roleplaying-game/

I'd say we have our release template - three chapter sourcebooks which are about a general topic, but will also focus generally on a Great Clan and Minor Clan but every Clan will have new options in the book.

The Deer Clan seem to have stolen the Otomo's job...

2 minutes ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

The Deer Clan seem to have stolen the Otomo's job...

That's funny, my first thought was "So Deer is if Togashi actually did stuff?"

They sound like they're playing in a few others' yards, I expect the difference will come out in their apparent divine gift. If they were forked off Seppun or Otomo I wouldn't be surprised.

I am pleased with the amount of stuff coming out. Lots of lovely things to look forward too. Well done FFG...

I wonder if we will meet Hitoshi, the young Mantis from the Beginner Game again.

18 minutes ago, Alisair Longreach said:

I wonder if we will meet Hitoshi, the young Mantis from the Beginner Game again.

That will be really cool.

I'm pretty sure he will be there.

1 hour ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

The Deer Clan seem to have stolen the Otomo's job...

Would have prefered some love for one of the existing Minor Clans, but whatever.

More apprehensive about what we'll get for the Scorpion: a book about courts and castles, yet it looks like we're getting no new Scorpion courtier school nor a first Scorpion bushi school. Shinobi, really (also, if we're going into it wouldn't shinobi be an excellent topic to shed some light on the Cat Clan, instead of yet another previously unheard of MC)?

I am actually looking forward to this;

"With new rules for governing and resolving bonds, your characters will be able to forge deeper relationships than ever before, creating the perfect environment for players to discover their own true natures as loyalties are forged, tested, and betrayed."

These type of relationship mechanical rules between PC-NPC or even PC-PC are quite trendy with some of the newer indie RPG systems and I'm curious to see their take on it.

I have a question who are the shield bearer' i thought l5r samurai hated the idea of shields?

4 minutes ago, wargames-qcf said:

I have a question who are the shield bearer' i thought l5r samurai hated the idea of shields?

Not really "hate", more "have little use for". Of the six great weapons of the samurai (according to Akodo's Leadership) only the short sword really lends itself to being used with a shield and even that isn't a good fit given it's shape - designed for cutting, like the katana.

11 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

yet it looks like we're getting no new Scorpion courtier school nor a first Scorpion bushi school.

No confirmation on that. I'm pretty sure a chunk of the ninjutsu element is because this book will include the Daidoji harriers, since >Crane Clan. This is also probably why not the Cat clan, the shinobi thing is probably more of "how you work them into a normal social campaign" and there might be a espionage or "underworld" focused book which is more suited to Cat.

Scorpion I can see this going either way. They REALLY don't need another Courtier school (no matter how much people say "I wanna play a regular Shosuro actor!"), and their next flavor of shinobi would probably be their shadow arts, which does not seem on theme for this book. Of courts and castles, I could see representation for the people who would be standing around guarding Scorpion castles and courts. But we may have to see how Shadowlands plays out with schools and see just how obvious or on-theme everybody is.

Also, again with the "pre-order directly from us to get these extra goodies" while simultaneously telling you to please order through your local store. Can't have it both ways, FFG.

4 minutes ago, UnitOmega said:

This is also probably why not the Cat clan, the shinobi thing is probably more of "how you work them into a normal social campaign" and there might be a espionage or "underworld" focused book which is more suited to Cat.

This one's more of a "why spend time on another new Minor Clan when we barely know anything about the previous new Minor Clan yet and we'll be waiting for another 10 books before all the old ones will be covered at the rate we're going" annoyance of mine, admittedly.

previous minor clans don't mean much to me.
and Centipede is not as sexy as DEER, and badger is not as weaaboo as CAT (here's hoping).

I've played more MC characters than GC. I'd hoped for a little more love.

Yeah, the existing minor clans could use some more love... Fox for example, same with Hare.

No idea what the goal with the Deer is. It's...strange.

2 hours ago, wargames-qcf said:

I have a question who are the shield bearer' i thought l5r samurai hated the idea of shields?

There's a shield and short spear combo that is used by some Mantis - it turns up in their DLC pdf. In real life, it's a fighting style used by Okinawan martial arts.

I would have figured the Sparrow would feature here....

Given the pattern....

Monastic Book] Dragon, Dragonfly
[Military Book] Lion, ??? (Tiger?)
[Spirt Book] Phoenix, Centipede
[Ninja Book] Scorpion, Wasp
[Exploration Book] Unicorn, Fox (or Hare or Ox?)

We're gonna be missing out on some of them unless they make another book or include other supplements like the mantis one.

I wonder what's the status of the Yotsu? Since the Empress and Daisetsu are around did the Bloodspeaker attack not happen at all or was Yatoshin more sucesful than in Old5R? Because at this point with the new clans being introduced I'm starting to be surprised if they didn't make the cut.

They could honestly release a minor clan in each clan book and still have enough to make a whole sourcebook of minor clans, detailing rules on how to make your own.

And remember that just cuz us AEG fans have 25 years of lore we want out immediately doesn't mean that's a good idea for the new fans FFG hopes to attract with their new game. Having 40 classes is a lot. Having 40 factions is overwhelming.

6 hours ago, nameless ronin said:

More apprehensive about what we'll get for the Scorpion: a book about courts and castles, yet it looks like we're getting no new Scorpion courtier school nor a first Scorpion bushi school. Shinobi, really (also, if we're going into it wouldn't shinobi be an excellent topic to shed some light on the Cat Clan, instead of yet another previously unheard of MC)?

Courtier tend to need yojimbo, so this could be the book for Scorpion Yojimbo. Perhaps a [Bushi, Courtier] tagged like the Shiba Guardian. A bit of the left-handed duelist flavor would be cool.

8 hours ago, nameless ronin said:

More apprehensive about what we'll get for the Scorpion: a book about courts and castles, yet it looks like we're getting no new Scorpion courtier school nor a first Scorpion bushi school. Shinobi, really (also, if we're going into it wouldn't shinobi be an excellent topic to shed some light on the Cat Clan, instead of yet another previously unheard of MC)?

I think you are over focusing a bit on the line about integrating shinobi characters. Not all new schools in the book are likely to be Shinobi schools. Remember, the Unicorn school in Shadowlands is a shugenja school. A Bayushi Yojimbo school makes a lot of sense to appear in this book.

8 hours ago, UnitOmega said:

No confirmation on that. I'm pretty sure a chunk of the ninjutsu element is because this book will include the Daidoji harriers, since >Crane Clan. This is also probably why not the Cat clan, the shinobi thing is probably more of "how you work them into a normal social campaign" and there might be a espionage or "underworld" focused book which  is more suited to Cat.

I don't think the Harriers are likely to make an appearance. I think the shinobi focus will be on spying/assassination rather than the battlefield sabotage of the Harriers. The Harriers are more likely to appear in a book focused on War and Mass Battles.

I suspect the shinobi stuff will be more along the lines of Ikoma Spymaster.

I dunno, castles are also part of this, softening up an enemy fort or sneaking into the camp of a sieging force could be Harriers. We'll have to see when Shadowlands hits just how tight "on theme" all those extra schools are. If the book has a lot on Crane and you make ninjutsu a selling point, I don't know how you can not do harriers, themes or no.

Yes please! Harriers...No Harriers...Sign me up for this book. Winter's Embrace also looks good.

And hurry up and take my money!