Like everyone, I was happy to see that FFG Live was getting back up and running and eagerly went to see what was going to b shown. And then I was disappointed because there was nothing for L5R. Again. So I wondered just how long it had been since there had been something.

I went back through the FFG Live Youtube channel to see the last time Legend of the Five Rings was the topice for one of their videos. It was the third of December 2019. We are over half way through the year, and the setting hasn't been mentioned even once since before Christmas.

Does anyone have any idea what's up? Is there anyone who has closer contact with someone at the company who can ask this question?

Most likely l5r just is not succesfull enough and will be the next Lcg to go dead lcgs pile.

New Marwell Lcg is much more popular. Lotr is still selling well. AH is AH and is selling well enough. Competative games needs more player and more support than Ffg can provide! It is just like that. This is a game where volume rules and you have to sell a lot of stuff to get attention and players.

i like lt5 but to most normal players it is too complicated and too slow to become popular. I have run l5r demos in Many events and it seems that only l5r veterans Are interested in. And those who come to try first time, get intimidating by the game. Other Lcg get much more players in those conventions. Lotr and AH being the most popular... and I Expect that new Marwel Lcg can even beat those. This year cov19 prevented conventios, but I can see that it potentially would be big success in the next year if cov19 regulations soften up...

AGOT was very popular while the tv series was running and did lose popularity fast after that. Star wars was Also reasonable popular and Many people were willing to play again, because of the speed! So the game has to be fast or it has to be coop or it has to have very popular fransize behind it. L5R has none elements of those.

To be fair though there's been no big news for L5R. The last big announcement was Skirmish rules, which right now isn't supported by a product. That was probably their last opportunity to get some Live coverage. Though it came at the worst time for a competitive game unfortunately. I believe we did get a Live stream for the multiplayer rules and before Skirmish that was the last logical time to get some live coverage.

6 hours ago, phillos said:

To be fair though there's been no big news for L5R. The last big announcement was Skirmish rules, which right now isn't supported by a product. That was probably their last opportunity to get some Live coverage. Though it came at the worst time for a competitive game unfortunately. I believe we did get a Live stream for the multiplayer rules and before Skirmish that was the last logical time to get some live coverage.

I'm hopeful we are getting a new board game to replace Battle for Rokugan. Possibly a Descent re-skin to tie in with the Roleplaying line

And we will likely get a hint of the next Cycle as they are approaching the period where pre-covid this Cycle was due to wrap up and they would have been prepping for the next cycles announcement and warm up blitz.

15 hours ago, Schmoozies said:

I'm hopeful we are getting a new board game to replace Battle for Rokugan. Possibly a Descent re-skin to tie in with the Roleplaying line

I am so surprised something like that hasn't come along yet. I would be so excited for any L5R games they put out and the Descent style game feels perfect for the setting.

I'd like some indication that the RPG lines are either done or will continue (just with another Asmodee entity at the helm). Personally I'm still confused about that. I feel we've had conflicting second hand information on the individual RPG product lines' fates.

2 hours ago, phillos said:

I am so surprised something like that hasn't come along yet. I would be so excited for any L5R games they put out and the Descent style game feels perfect for the setting.

I'd like some indication that the RPG lines are either done or will continue (just with another Asmodee entity at the helm). Personally I'm still confused about that. I feel we've had conflicting second hand information on the individual RPG product lines' fates.

They confirmed during the Gama trade show presentations that all their RPG lines (and yes L5R was called out as one of those lines) will be continuing under Edge Entertainment (along with the long talked about Zombiecide RPG and other products soon to be named) and that it was part of the trend to consolidate different design streams to specific studios across the Asmodee group. I suspect we are still several months away from any formal announcements of new product from the studio as they will be getting up to speed with the new lines and consolidating what ever freelance work may have been underway prior to the shift.

They also did confirm in another interview that they were separating the in house FFG studios into two branches. One to deal with miniature game products (so X-Wing, Legion and Aramada) and the other for board and card games (and interestingly they did say that Imperial Assault was being kept under the board game umbrella instead of the other mini's games) which does make me wonder if they plan to move those aspects of the studio over to another wing (possibly Atomic Mass) as part of the further consolidation.

My statement still stands that it feels like they aren't communicating this stuff too well so hopefully they do touch on it at the Inflight. Maybe some of that is because it's still a work in progress, but I certainly wasn't aware and I think I'm fairly attentive to FFG's news. If I didn't know... GAMA isn't really the best venue for your fans. The Inflight Report on the other hand is something on alot of fans' radars so hopefully they say something.

There's been alot of uncertainty in product lines this year given they layoff, restructuring and obviously the pandemic. It's a good opportunity for them to send a message of stability (or at least give people closure on things). A simple message that a product line is healthy and has releases coming in the future was always a comforting statement to hear from Christian and Andrew when they've done this in the past even if there was no tangible announcements attached.

Maybe they'd want to announce the next Cycle (Temptations)...

We did get the following confirmation today on Discord:

Quote

Hello everyone! My name is Sam Gregor-Stewart, and I'm the RPG manager for Edge Studios. I just wanted to pop in and mention that I'll be appearing on FFG's livestream (twitch.tv/ffglive) at 12 PM CST to talk about our plans for future RPGs, including L5R.

Later, Sam clarifies:

Quote

Oh, sorry all!

I meant I'll be appearing at 12 PM CST on Thursday! I can't believe I left the day out!

I am ashamed.

That's thursday, July 30.

Well that's good, because there's nothing on their Gencon programme mentioning L5R at all.

I have some hope that one of those new product announcements is L5R related or Android related. I'd like to think they don't need to announce more for Star Wars and Arkham right now considering that audience is being serviced. That said who knows considering they will be without a Star Wars card game once Destiny concludes.

Update: Hopes unfulfilled. Oh well, though at least they confirmed that the L5R RPG is alive and well and they will continue to products new books in the line through Edge.

It pains me to say this but I don't like FF's L5R. I loved the old game and was extremely excited for a relaunch but the game wasn't fun for me. I stopped buying shortly into the second cycle.

I really want to love the game since I love the story to L5R. I keep hoping they drastically improve the gameplay or announce a 2.0 version.

Tend to check these forums once a month or so to see if things have improved.

TechnoGolem, you might try Skirmish, an official rules variant that shortens each game to 20-30 minutes, adds more tension to duels, eliminates several fiddly steps, and shrinks the card pool and hand size so players have less to keep track of. It makes the game less exhausting. If this sounds fun to you, you might want to read the Skirmish rules or an article from L5R's head designer explaining the new format .