That was apparently messed up by a basically surprise move of company. A French player (who I consider trustworthy) says they have direct connections into EDGE though, and that they are finally ready. So next few week, probably even next week.

According to Asmodee’s release schedule Celestial Realms is released on Tuesday in the UK. 🙂

I wonder if with Edge taking point, things will be reversed. With Europe getting the books first (not on time, first) and North America getting it 3 months later.

3 hours ago, Scott McFarland said:

According to Asmodee’s release schedule Celestial Realms is released on Tuesday in the UK. 🙂

Yep. I just got that info from my FLGS. It will apparently be delivered alongside Tasha's Cauldron.

27 minutes ago, DSalazar said:

I wonder if with Edge taking point, things will be reversed. With Europe getting the books first (not on time, first) and North America getting it 3 months later.

Here's hoping... 😄

On 11/13/2020 at 7:17 PM, DSalazar said:

Edge Studios answered me and the answer was: “we are working on it”, which I guess is better than “we are not working on it”.

Makes me think of Yes, Minister.

"It just says "The Minister has asked me to thank you for your letter"; then we say something like "The matter is under consideration", or even, if we feel so inclined, "under active consideration."

"What's the difference?

"Well, 'under consideration' means we've lost the file; 'under active consideration' means we're trying to find it."

I had to look it up. Yes, it definitely feels that way.

Just got a mail that my copy is on it's way. I'll believe it when I see it.

In Europe, btw.

Well, colour me (positively) surprised! It has arrived!

On 11/23/2020 at 3:10 PM, Tenebrae said:

Just got a mail that my copy is on it's way. I'll believe it when I see it.

In Europe, btw.

Well, colour me (positively) surprised! It has arrived!

When and where did you order?

https://www.kelz0r.dk/magic/legend-the-five-rings-l5r-rpg-5th-edition-celestial-realms-sourcebook-p-227837.html

A few weeks back - they did warn me that there would be a wait, as they were still waiting for deliveries.

I hold Celestial Realms in my hands.

4 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

I hold Celestial Realms in my hands.

🥳

How many new regular invocations (non-Void) are in the book?

Edit: Found it, it's 3 per element.

My copy delivered this morning.. Thank You Shiny Games (UK)

2 hours ago, ExpandingUniverse said:

My copy delivered this morning.. Thank You Shiny Games (UK)

Glad Europe is finally getting them. If only there was a way to digitally sell this book... 🙄

15 hours ago, DSalazar said:

Glad Europe is finally getting them. If only there was a way to digitally sell this book... 🙄

I'm STILL trawling through SW Edge stuff for my homebrew so all the L5R stuff is just waiting to be read. I did start a flick through of CR as I'm considering a Shugenja PC for a friend's L5R game - if we ever get back to 'normal'. What I read I thoroughly enjoyed, If I ever run a L5R myself I will chuck in the concept of the 1000 Hells from White Wolf's Kindred of the East setting.. just to add another spin on the karmic cycle although CR 'he-ll' regions seems to cover all bases... the idea would be that first a soul gets sent to a specific he-ll from 1000 Hells to strip them of their initial sin or memories, THEN is reincarnated into a CR he-ll to continue their karmic cycle...

..just fluff really... unless the players need to go an rescue a soul...

Ha, so the plural works fine, it’s just the singular for ‘inferno’ that gets censored. This is stupid.

Still no dead-tree or PDF for me … disappointing … 😔

On 11/30/2020 at 7:18 AM, burningcrow said:

Still no dead-tree or PDF for me … disappointing … 😔

It’s on sale on drivethru now... 🙂

That’s great to hear. It just took them 96 days.

Now, interesting that this time FFG didn’t put in their main page like they had done for previous products, which makes sense considering EDGE is the one taking point on that now, except of course for the fact that you can still buy L5R RPG products with FFG while EDGE doesn’t have a functioning website yet...

I guess this is an extremely late review of the book but I'll do it anyway.

All this is just for chapter 2 and 3, that contain actual mechanical stuff.

• Centipede Clan: great to have some fleshing out of this minor Clan and I admit I don't know so much about it from AEG time, but they look cool. They provide 3 possible schools for the minor clan, and the book provide only one. The Sun Sentinels, that for some bizarre reason have the shugenja AND bushi tags, even though they just mentioned that the Moshi do have a bushi school and it's a shugenja school with no access to invocations, except the ones given in the curriculum which is only Fire invocations, which would be fine, except that 9 pages ago, they mention how the Sun Sentinels are famous for their Air and Fire invocations. I guess someone failed on their proofreading check...
• I had discussed this with others that had already given their opinion on the schools but now actually having the chance to read them, let's go through the other schools:
  • Agasha Alchemist: a waste of a page. They are what the Yogo Wardmasters are but with potions instead of wards. Besides, the Agasha Mystic alredy have in their fluff, if not their mechanics, that they already use alchemy to fuel their invocations anyway, so having another Agasha school called Agasha Alchemist, is redundant to say the least. If this was an Agasha smith instead, to do a homage to the the Tamori...
  • Asahina Envoy: another Crane Courtier school but at least they are not Doji. This school is actually interesting, providing another way to play an Asahina that is not a Shugenja and providing another way of playing a Crane Courtier that doesn't have to always deal in favors and gifts.
  • Ishiken Initiate School: after almost 2 years of waiting we finally have the Ishiken. I gotta say I am actually surprised how interesting this school is compared to previous iterations of the Ishiken.
  • Kaito Spirit Seeker: I like this different aspect of the Kaito obligations. Really cool school.
  • Kaiu Architect: another waste of a page. We have a Kaiu Engineer already, why have a Kaiu Architect? What are we going to have next Kaiu Surveyor? Kaiu Interior Designer? (which actually makes me think a Kaiu Shugenja/Sage based on geomancy could be a really cool school for them).
  • Kitsu Realm Wanderer: a way better Kitsu School than the Kitsu Medic from Shadowlands. With an interesting fluff and interesting mechanics. Besides, they are from the only interesting family in the whole Lion Clan.
  • Shosuro Shadowweaver: ooooh, look at me, I am so edgy I have 3 different tags and even though I have a misleading name, I don't have any Shadow Brand mechanics. Also, I am yet another Shugenja and Shinobi school in a clan where 6 out of 7 schools are Shugenja or Shinobi... It's interesting that they can work better inside obscuring terrain but their school ability is like creating a sphere of darkness from DnD on the battlefield and hope an adversary will decide to go inside? Granted, on Rank 4+ that's the entire battlefield covered in darkess but stil... As assassins, the Shosuro Infiltrator from the core works better than them, as Bushi, the Deathdealers are way more interesting, as Shugenja they have a different role than the Soshi, but still feels like a waste of a really good page for a better school.
  • Utaku Stablemaster: another waste of a page. A school that feels like an NPC school or if someone wanted to play the Lone Ranger in a High Fantasy Samurai game... Guys, look, I can summon a ride when I whistle...
• The new advantages and disadvantages are really good and offer some interesting ideas for more.
• Ancestral Swords: I mean, I guess it can have some value for those that want to know what the equivalent to a DnD artifact could look like in L5R but they are more interesting for fleshing out their stories than their actual mechanics.
• Agasha Pattern: that would have worked amazingly with an Agasha Smith school in this book. Instead, I guarantee in the future we will have an Agasha Smith school that won't have this pattern because they won't reprint this pattern in that book.
• Techniques: lots of invocations. It would be nice if we had had some kihō as well, we could have definitely removed some schools to have 4 pages that could be filled with a dozen new kihō...
• Inversions are strange, which I guess was the intention. I like the way they use the dice, focusing on blanks which is like a really insightful idea.
• Places of power are really nice.
• The Bond with a Spirit title is awesome and creates some awesome storytelling hooks. The moon cultist title on the other hand, feels like something that an NPC would have and in this case, it could just be an NPC profile instead.
• I am honestly disappointed that there's a single new NPC. I was hoping for more supernatural creatures being shown here.

Overall, I would give this book a 4 out of 10. I had so many expectations for it and waited so long that I feel cheated. I honestly don't have much hope for Fields of Victory AT ALL, after this book.

2 hours ago, DSalazar said:

• • Shosuro Shadowweaver: ooooh, look at me, I am so edgy I have 3 different tags and even though I have a misleading name, I don't have any Shadow Brand mechanics. Also, I am yet another Shugenja and Shinobi school in a clan where 6 out of 7 schools are Shugenja or Shinobi... It's interesting that they can work better inside obscuring terrain but their school ability is like creating a sphere of darkness from DnD on the battlefield and hope an adversary will decide to go inside? Granted, on Rank 4+ that's the entire battlefield covered in darkess but stil... As assassins, the Shosuro Infiltrator from the core works better than them, as Bushi, the Deathdealers are way more interesting, as Shugenja they have a different role than the Soshi, but still feels like a waste of a really good page for a better school.

I have a more favorable view of the book, but just a detail: The size of the Obscuring effect is based on Air ring, not school rank, so affecting the whole battlefield should be possible from level 1 at least in most battles.
I really like the Shadow-Weavers. I also prefer that they seem to have no connection to the Lying Darkness, as one would expect knowing 4th Edition The Way of Shadows. Playing what is essentially a potential marionette to the power that wants to undo creations isn't my kind of heroic journey.
In 5th Edition, the Soshi and Shosuro do not seem to channel the Lying Darkness, in the novel " Whispers of Shadow and Steel ", working with Shadow Brands is a crime to the Scorpions. Instead, being marked by the Lying Darkness seems to be the Shadowlands Taint [One with the Darkness] Disadvantage from the Shadowlands book.

Just finished a first pass through. I love the sidebar on Inversions:

Summoning holes in existence in a populated area or in front of a powerful figure has severe social consequences if an ishiken cannot adequately explain themself.

Also the one in the Ancestral Blades chapter:

If ever Kunshu were to draw the blood of one of the Imperial line, it would surely become a cursed sword. It would lose the Sacred quality, gain the Unholy quality, and any who held it or even stood too near it would hear the accusing whispers of the slain demanding revenge.

.....Ooh, Awkward.

4 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Also the one in the Ancestral Blades chapter:

If ever Kunshu were to draw the blood of one of the Imperial line, it would surely become a cursed sword. It would lose the Sacred quality, gain the Unholy quality, and any who held it or even stood too near it would hear the accusing whispers of the slain demanding revenge.

.....Ooh, Awkward.

That's harmless compared to https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2020/11/18/the-yogo-curse-part-1/ ...

And indeed https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2020/12/2/the-yogo-curse-part-2/

On behalf of all the RPG players of The Highwayman at GenCon who didn't manage to kill off Lady Atsuko before this point in the story...... "Oops."