Greetings samurai of Rokugan and welcome to the renewedImperial Herald Or rather welcome to an interim version ofthe renewed Imperial Herald Yoursquoll recognize this format asbeing the one used for the Herald until the effective end of itspublication many months ago Wersquore phasing this format outthough because we intend to relaunch the Imperial Herald inan entirely new way as we move towards and into Ivory Edition

The L5R Collectible Card Game (CCG) will feature prominentlyin the new Imperial Herald of course but we wonrsquot focus solelyon the current tournament scene and the ldquostandardrdquo constructeddeck format Wersquore also keen to present articles on otherformats such as Draft Sealed and War of Honor as well as BigDeck Legacy Highlander even Suicide or any other formatsthat might come along and prove popular

Therersquos much more to Legend of the Five Rings than just theCCG however We plan to offer articles on the Role PlayingGame (RPG) dealing both with ldquocrunchrdquo--game mechanics and

rules--and ldquofluffrdquo--background information about the setting ofthe Emerald Empire its people culture society politicseconomics and so on This will include both the ldquopen and paperrdquoRPG as well as web-based play such as AEGrsquos occasionalformal ldquoWinter Courtrdquo RPG events or any of the various webforum-based games run by fans

Of course the Imperial Herald will also provide another vehiclefor delivering L5R fiction to the fans and players both generaland more Clan-specific material such as the aforementionedClan Letters And wersquoll certainly delve into the setting in a moregeneral way offering up articles about aspects of Rokugan itselfand how these can be incorporated into your RPG campaignsor just be available for your general interest

The Imperial Herald will also offer articles on just about anyother aspect of L5R you can imagine As related game productsare developed wersquoll cover them in these pages This includesgames like ldquoNinja Legend of the Scorpion Clanrdquo (in fact anarticle about that game appears in this issue on page 4) and theupcoming L5R Edition of ldquoLove Letterrdquo as well as any otherL5R game products that might come along Perhaps wersquoll evenrevisit some older games after all there may still be someplayers of the old Clan Wars miniatures game out there

Last but not least are things like Live Action Role Playing andCostume Play (cosplay) These tend to popular at larger gamingevents such as Kotei GenCon the European Championshipsand the like Some folks put enormous effort (and expense)into their costumes and personae so we want to give them aforum to show off their stuff as well as share their methods andtechniques

All of this relies of course on you the fans We donrsquot simplywant you to read and enjoy the Imperial Herald we want youto help produce it In these pages wersquore showcasing some

articles by folks from outside AEG sent in response to our ldquoCallfor Submissionsrdquo back in August We received some terrificstuff and only some of it appears in this Special Edition of theHerald We have much more sitting ldquoon holdrdquo that wersquoll be usingin future editions of the Imperial Herald And wersquore not donelooking wersquoll be seeking more articles from you Therersquos someamazing writing talent out there as the material wersquove receivedshows Irsquom sure yoursquoll find the fan-submitted articles in thesepages proof of that There will be more about the submissionprocess coming as we move into the beginning of Ivory EditionIn the meantime if you have ideas for articles go ahead andstarting working on them Just keep them to no more than 1500words

In the meantime enjoy this Special Holiday Season 2013Edition of the Imperial Herald Have a safe happy and healthyholiday season and wersquoll talk more in the new year the year ofIvory Edition

Legend of the Five Rings Interactive Storyline Collectible Card and Role Playing Games

The New Imperial HeraldBy Dave Laderoute

Holiday Season 2013 Special Edition

1

Ivory Edition Previews

Page 2Big Deck

Page 3

Ninja

Page 4

New Fiction

Page 5

Also In This Issue

There are many ways to die in Rokugan Most samuraiespecially those of a more military inclination expect to die bysteel or bow-shot in battle or in desperate struggle against somefoul monstrosity or gaijin fiend threatening the Celestial OrderHowever samurai may come to more sinister ends by poisonor by terrible magic that drains the very life force the chi fromtheir bodies To help your samurai avoid that awful fate in IvoryEdition you can let them draw on the calming steadyinginfluence of the Tea House

The Tea House does double-duty in your deck acting as a 1Gold Cost Holding that produces 1 Gold (in the gamersquos usualshorthand this would be a ldquo1-for-1 Holdingrdquo) or as a means ofnegating Chi penaltiesndashor both if you can manage to straightenit after doing one or the other A 1-for-1 can certainly help yourdeckrsquos Gold scheme especially with the way that Gold can beldquopooledrdquo in Ivory Editionndashyou might very well want that extra1 Gold in case you need to make an odd amount of GoldMeanwhile being able to negate Chi penalties on yourPersonality from cards such as the Red Hungerrsquos Fang orBayushi Jin-e can help ensure his survivalndashat least until the endof the turn Note that it only negates such penalties from otherplayersrsquo cards and tokens though so beware those that you endup putting on your own personalities The Tea House wonrsquot helpyour Personality then

Next we have a Follower a powerful albeit expensive one inthe Oriole Imperial Vanguard The Oriole are a Minor Clan ofrelatively recent origin being formed in 1168 by the EmperorToturi in recognition of their long service as the skilled smithsof the Tsi family Although closely aligned with the DragonClan the noble Oriole will give players in Ivory Edition theopportunity to recruit them as a hefty 4 Force Follower for 7Gold Some of the best things about this Follower though areits Traits Its Personality gains 1 Personal Honor whichsynergizes well with a number of effects we know are going tobe in the Ivory environment For example this is an extra 1Force for a Personality who attaches Seppunrsquos Blessed Bladeor who is defending and has been targeted with the Spell Soulof Earth It also gives a Personality a little more protectionagainst Akodo Dairuko Experienced or Kitsuki KinaroExperienced (of course it also makes those two Personalities alittle more dangerous if they have it attached) The cardrsquos otherTrait negating the effects of the first Political action that targetsits Personality each phase can be also be extremely usefuloffering significant protection against many powerful effects inthe environment including the send-home action of the ImperialFavor The 4 Focus Value and the Imperial keyword are justmore good things about an already strong card

Finally we see the return of an old card the Gumbai-UchiwaIn addition to being just a fun name to sayndashGumbai-Uchiwandashthisweapon offers an impressive 2 Force bonus to its Personalityfor only 3 Gold It is also One-Handed a new keyword comingin Ivory Edition The real strength of the Gumbai-Uchiwathough is in its utility as a reusable discard Need a 3 Forcebonus for your Tactician Discard Gumbai-Uchiwa then Equipit right back out of your discard pile with a later Battle ActionNeed to discard a card for the Imperial Favorrsquos Limited actionor for some other action that needs you to discard a cardGumbai-Uchiwa will take the hit then wait in your discard tobe Equipped later on Be wary thoughndashonce itrsquos Equipped ifit comes out of play for any reason itrsquos gone removed from thegame

Ivory Edition isnrsquot far off now Here are some more previews of cards from the upcoming Ivory Edition Base Set of the Legend of theFive Rings CCG to help tide you over until you have the actual cards in your hands

The first ever Kotei to be held in Walt Disney World inOrlando Florida will be May 28 through June 1 2014 TheKotei have long been an important part of the Legend of theFive Rings tournament scene and this will be an experiencelike no other

The event will be hosted at the beautiful Coronado SpringsResort on the Walt Disney World property Staying onproperty affords attendees many excellent perks includingfree pickup from the airport bus service all throughoutDisney World and more The Coronado Springs is the homeof Disneyrsquos Conference Center where the event will takeplace The Coronado features a lush pool area and severalexcellent dining options and best of all we have a group rateon the rooms In addition all attendees and theirfamiliesfriends can get discounted tickets to the parks

The event will feature the storyline event as well as a sideeventndashthe Legend of the Five Rings Love Letter storylineevent If attendance is high enough we may also have asecond chance storyline tournament

Breakfast and lunch will be catered during the tournamentand the next morning the finals move to the Japan pavilion inEpcot Yoursquoll have another catered breakfast while youwatch the final match play out (or play in it) at the samuraifortress in Epcot After our winner is crowned wersquoll have aday to enjoy all the fun of Epcot including Test TrackMission Space the world showcase and more In the

evening will be a private dessert party and fireworks viewingfor our attendees

This will be one of the most memorable Kotei in L5R historyAEG is offering additional rewards for attendees providingprizes and Ivory product equivalent to the event price This ison top of the normal Kotei event prizes

Not only is the event going to be a blast wersquoll be at DisneyWorld where we can enjoy the parks and the Star WarsWeekends at Hollywood Studios All weekend long actorsfrom the Star Wars films will appear throughout the park aswell as many other special events all geared towards StarWars If you just canrsquot get enough card playing you can playDisneyrsquos own interactive CCG Sorcerers of the MagicKingdom throughout the Magic Kingdom park Free boostersare given to anyone who visits the Magic Kingdom

We are extremely excited to bring this first of its kind eventto the L5R community For more information on the eventand to inquire with agent handling reservations please visitl5rcomwdw-kotei We hope to see you there in May

Walt Disney World KoteiBy Todd Rowland

2

Looking for something to do at the end of May 2014 How about combining your love of Legend of the Five Rings with the magic ofWalt Disney World Read on to find out how

By Dave Laderoute

There are many ways to die in Rokugan Most samuraiespecially those of a more military inclination expect to die bysteel or bow-shot in battle or in desperate struggle against somefoul monstrosity or gaijin fiend threatening the Celestial OrderHowever samurai may come to more sinister ends by poisonor by terrible magic that drains the very life force the chi fromtheir bodies To help your samurai avoid that awful fate in IvoryEdition you can let them draw on the calming steadyinginfluence of the Tea House

The Tea House does double-duty in your deck acting as a 1Gold Cost Holding that produces 1 Gold (in the gamersquos usualshorthand this would be a ldquo1-for-1 Holdingrdquo) or as a means ofnegating Chi penaltiesndashor both if you can manage to straightenit after doing one or the other A 1-for-1 can certainly help yourdeckrsquos Gold scheme especially with the way that Gold can beldquopooledrdquo in Ivory Editionndashyou might very well want that extra1 Gold in case you need to make an odd amount of GoldMeanwhile being able to negate Chi penalties on yourPersonality from cards such as the Red Hungerrsquos Fang orBayushi Jin-e can help ensure his survivalndashat least until the endof the turn Note that it only negates such penalties from otherplayersrsquo cards and tokens though so beware those that you endup putting on your own personalities The Tea House wonrsquot helpyour Personality then

Next we have a Follower a powerful albeit expensive one inthe Oriole Imperial Vanguard The Oriole are a Minor Clan ofrelatively recent origin being formed in 1168 by the EmperorToturi in recognition of their long service as the skilled smithsof the Tsi family Although closely aligned with the DragonClan the noble Oriole will give players in Ivory Edition theopportunity to recruit them as a hefty 4 Force Follower for 7Gold Some of the best things about this Follower though areits Traits Its Personality gains 1 Personal Honor whichsynergizes well with a number of effects we know are going tobe in the Ivory environment For example this is an extra 1Force for a Personality who attaches Seppunrsquos Blessed Bladeor who is defending and has been targeted with the Spell Soulof Earth It also gives a Personality a little more protectionagainst Akodo Dairuko Experienced or Kitsuki KinaroExperienced (of course it also makes those two Personalities alittle more dangerous if they have it attached) The cardrsquos otherTrait negating the effects of the first Political action that targetsits Personality each phase can be also be extremely usefuloffering significant protection against many powerful effects inthe environment including the send-home action of the ImperialFavor The 4 Focus Value and the Imperial keyword are justmore good things about an already strong card

Finally we see the return of an old card the Gumbai-UchiwaIn addition to being just a fun name to sayndashGumbai-Uchiwandashthisweapon offers an impressive 2 Force bonus to its Personalityfor only 3 Gold It is also One-Handed a new keyword comingin Ivory Edition The real strength of the Gumbai-Uchiwathough is in its utility as a reusable discard Need a 3 Forcebonus for your Tactician Discard Gumbai-Uchiwa then Equipit right back out of your discard pile with a later Battle ActionNeed to discard a card for the Imperial Favorrsquos Limited actionor for some other action that needs you to discard a cardGumbai-Uchiwa will take the hit then wait in your discard tobe Equipped later on Be wary thoughndashonce itrsquos Equipped ifit comes out of play for any reason itrsquos gone removed from thegame

Ivory Edition isnrsquot far off now Here are some more previews of cards from the upcoming Ivory Edition Base Set of the Legend of theFive Rings CCG to help tide you over until you have the actual cards in your hands

The first ever Kotei to be held in Walt Disney World inOrlando Florida will be May 28 through June 1 2014 TheKotei have long been an important part of the Legend of theFive Rings tournament scene and this will be an experiencelike no other

The event will be hosted at the beautiful Coronado SpringsResort on the Walt Disney World property Staying onproperty affords attendees many excellent perks includingfree pickup from the airport bus service all throughoutDisney World and more The Coronado Springs is the homeof Disneyrsquos Conference Center where the event will takeplace The Coronado features a lush pool area and severalexcellent dining options and best of all we have a group rateon the rooms In addition all attendees and theirfamiliesfriends can get discounted tickets to the parks

The event will feature the storyline event as well as a sideeventndashthe Legend of the Five Rings Love Letter storylineevent If attendance is high enough we may also have asecond chance storyline tournament

Breakfast and lunch will be catered during the tournamentand the next morning the finals move to the Japan pavilion inEpcot Yoursquoll have another catered breakfast while youwatch the final match play out (or play in it) at the samuraifortress in Epcot After our winner is crowned wersquoll have aday to enjoy all the fun of Epcot including Test TrackMission Space the world showcase and more In the

evening will be a private dessert party and fireworks viewingfor our attendees

This will be one of the most memorable Kotei in L5R historyAEG is offering additional rewards for attendees providingprizes and Ivory product equivalent to the event price This ison top of the normal Kotei event prizes

Not only is the event going to be a blast wersquoll be at DisneyWorld where we can enjoy the parks and the Star WarsWeekends at Hollywood Studios All weekend long actorsfrom the Star Wars films will appear throughout the park aswell as many other special events all geared towards StarWars If you just canrsquot get enough card playing you can playDisneyrsquos own interactive CCG Sorcerers of the MagicKingdom throughout the Magic Kingdom park Free boostersare given to anyone who visits the Magic Kingdom

We are extremely excited to bring this first of its kind eventto the L5R community For more information on the eventand to inquire with agent handling reservations please visitl5rcomwdw-kotei We hope to see you there in May

Walt Disney World KoteiBy Todd Rowland

2

Looking for something to do at the end of May 2014 How about combining your love of Legend of the Five Rings with the magic ofWalt Disney World Read on to find out how

By Dave Laderoute

Many of us have been here before--the current arc is coming toan end so soon it will be time to take our current decks apartand put those cards away Those of us who play Legacy mighttry to convert our current decks to Legacy versions only to findthat some of the personalities that wersquove come to love are justtoo slow for the format This was our predicament inPhiladelphia as the Samurai arc was coming to a close Wewanted a way to keep playing with some of our favorites butwe didnrsquot want the games to be too fast or end too quickly Wedecided to copy another format that had begun locally for adifferent game That format required players to play with onedeck of 200 cards and only allowed for 1 copy of each card Toour surprise applying these restrictions to an L5R deck was nota hindrance at all It was for instance very possible to build afunctioning gold scheme Coming up with 200 cards for a deckwasnrsquot that much of an issue either even for those of us whohad not played prior to Samurai We decided to use the samename for our format and so BigDeck was born

So what is BigDeck exactly Really its just another way to playwith your old cards but with two basic rules applied to deckconstruction which are quite frankly designed to slow the gamedown and allow for some of the more expensive personalitiesto become playable The first rule is that the Dynasty and Fatedecks must each contain exactly 100 cards The second rule isthat you are limited to only running 1 copy of each card in yourdeck Trying to come up with 200 cards for a deck may soundpretty daunting at first but actually most people find that theproblem is trying to cut down to 200 cards You have toremember that you have over 15 years of L5Rs evolution as aCCG and over 10000 unique cards to choose from which isactually a big part of the fun For those who have played foryears every province flip and every card draw is another chanceto play with some old favorites For those new to the game itrsquosa nice glimpse at the history of the game and it gives some ofthe old timers the opportunity to be the first to explain to youthat for example the Ability on Bayushi Kachiko Experienced3 is not in fact ldquoonce per turnrdquo

Personally I feel that one of the biggest draws to the BigDeckformat for people is that every game you play can and will bedifferent That is the nature of a Highlander (that is every card

being considered Unique) format You could play against thesame deck 10 or more times in a row and each time you willwin or lose due to a combination of different cards Youropponent may be running Boundless Sight to help search forBayushi Kachiko Experienced 3 but it is pretty much a giventhat they will still not get to play her in most games Makingsure that not every game plays out the same way is in fact oneof the core ideals of the format It is also this ideal that makeshaving a Ban List a necessity It is no mistake that the majorityof the cards on the current BigDeck Ban List are cards that startin play and would allow a player to search for the same cardsin their deck game-after-game While eliminating this type ofconsistency might be a turn off for some players it does allowfor some of the more powerful cards to remain legal in theformat After all it is difficult to really abuse a card or comboif youre not guaranteed to see it every game

One thing that has been an asset in making the format moreaccessible for players has been the Oracle of the Voidmaintained by AEG Being able to have such easy access to themost recent information on every card ever printed in the gamehas been great It has definitely made things simpler when itcomes to deck-building and making rulings on older cards For

those who are trying to come up with ideas for a deck the Oracleis always a good place to start I would also recommend takinga look at the Strategy section of our forum at for deck ideas anddeck lists from others in the community

There really is no bad place to start though You can pick yourfavorite Stronghold from your favorite clan or you can selecta clan and try to build around one of their themes Some themesmay not be possible but it doesnrsquot mean that the idea canrsquot leadto a deck There are definitely not enough Lion DeathseekerPersonalities to fill out a 100-card deck but there might beenough to build a military deck that tries to honor out in battlesThere is also nothing stopping someone from trying a theme ina clan that is not considered the ldquostrongestrdquo clan for that themeWant to build an honor deck but donrsquot enjoy playing CranePerhaps you might prefer trying out Lion or Phoenix Not a bigScorpion fan Perhaps you could try dishonor out of Crab orDragon Kaede Sensei is available to all clans so enlightenmentis always an option as well Even better you could be the firstto build a solid deck out of The Dark Path of Shadow or Shrineof the Spirits With over 10000 cards to play with thepossibilities are out there

The cool thing about a format like BigDeck is that it can be ascompetitive or as casual as you and your group want it to beYou can run a tournament for it at your local store or you canplay games of BigDeck in between testing decks for KoteisOver the summer of 2013 BigDeck was chosen by AEG to bepart of GenCon for the first time ever and the current WinterCourt season will feature several BigDeck events The formathas definitely come a long way in a short time and with thecommunityrsquos help it will just get better

I understand of course that not everyone will enjoy playingevery format However when people say they have as much funlosing as they do winning then the format canrsquot be that bad Ifyou havent tried it yet then I hope you will give BigDeck ashot And if you already play then perhaps one day wersquoll sitdown for a game or two Just donrsquot try to remove my AkodoHachigoro from the game

BigDeck or Having Fun WithLots of Cards

By Tony Calderon

Tony Calderon gives us a rundown on ldquoBig Deckrdquo an innovative alternate format for the Legend of the Five Rings CCG Read on tofind out how to play with a deck of 200 cards all of them unique

Whether caused by a karmic imbalance or an offense to theHeavens a character with the Momoku Disadvantage isdoomedndashor is he

In the 4th Edition of the L5R RPG the Momoku Disadvantagegrants 8 Character Points that can be used at character creationHowever it restricts the use of Void points for anything exceptthe activation of Techniques that require it For this reasonmany players refuse to take it Void points are entirely too usefuland are the de facto source of against the odds victories in thegame Gaining 8 Character Points simply isnrsquot enough of a drawfor many players Itrsquos simply terrible which is why itrsquos the bestDisadvantage Why Well consider the flavor text for Momokuldquohellipharmony is a state virtually unknown to yourdquo What doesthis mean in a characterrsquos story

At the most basic it means that you feel at odds with the worldof Rokugan strange otherworldly and off Such a characterwould feel as if they were drowning on land uncomfortable intheir own skin and that strangeness would be evident to anyonearound them In the xenophobic society of Rokugan it wouldbe like seeing someone who claimed to be your neighbor but ison the wrong side of the so-called uncanny valley They blinktoo often breathe at odd intervals and clothes hang from themat weird angles As word spreads about this individual shugenjaexamine them and find them to be a blank void in their sensesThe Ishiken test them and find that they are not Tainted theyjust donrsquot exist and donrsquot belong They arenrsquot Spirits either asthey have flesh and blood and belong to none of the SpiritRealms beyond Ningen-do Tests are done and they arenrsquotspecial in any real meaningful way they are just wrong

It would be dishonorable however to not give these peopletheir birthright a dutiful role so they are sent to unimportantschools with bland mentors to learn just enough to serve where

they are likely to be as inoffensive to the universe as possiblePeople are certain that this nothing will die having donenothing meaningful with their lives

This effect is also present out of character around the gamingtable Without the ability to spend Void points for that little extraoomph to their actions Momoku characters are harder to relyupon At best these characters may be paired up with otherswho regardless of actual skill are seen as more reliable becausethey can spend Void points The advantage is only taken bythose who want a challenge because from a mechanicalstandpoint itrsquos hard for characters taking Momoku to excelunless they spend the Experience to become great at what theydo But specialization forces these characters to be less adept inother areas There is no +1k1 to die rolls or boost to Initiativewhen the need is there The character has to rely much more onherself in a land that breeds killers of gods

This brings us to why it is the greatest disadvantage for roleplaying purposes The Empire is filled with stories of heroeswho came from humble or shameful origins Toku and Kaneka

for instance Such heroes are the subject of literature and playsthat teach how with Honor and Courage even the lowliest mancan strive to increase their station in the Celestial Hierarchywhile serving the Empire So why couldnrsquot someoneunconnected with the universe be able to reach the same levelof fame

Tying Momoku with the Great Destiny advantage provides adeep well of role playing fodder for GM and player Imagine acourt scene where you have the shintao monks proclaiming thatyour character has signs pointing you to doing something greatin defence of Clan or Empire On the other end of the room youhave the practical characters whispering about you beingldquoNothingrdquo and ldquoAbsentrdquo from the elements spreading the seedsof doubt that you will get the chance to overcome If you prefera smaller scale goal for your character perhaps taking HigherPurpose would be better Imagine the duelist who meditates andtrains constantly to become the premiere duelist for her clan orthe personal yojimbo for her lord in spite of her spiritualhandicap

Imagine also the Momoku student of enlightenment who studiesThe Path of Man because more worldly accepted paths feelclosed to her This could lead the character to either falling intoDisbelief or rising into a Fortunersquos blessing or even to be Chosenby the Oracles or to become a Paragon of Virtues All of thesestories can spring forth from taking a single disadvantage andmany more can come with a little thought crafting into the roleplay causes and effects of Momoku

At the beginning of their life the shugenja and diviners of theempire would consider a character with Momoku to be doomedBut Rokugan is defined by defying the odds in order to proveonersquos mettle Sometimes like with this Disadvantage the enemycomes from within and fighting it is no less glorious a struggle

Momoku The Best DisadvantageBy William Maldonado

Players of the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game typically try to make their characters as strong as possible Herersquos a look ata Disadvantage that can make your character much weakerndashand why you should consider using it

3

A Community of ResourcesBy Seth Anthony

As the L5R Community Organizer I field a lot of questionsfrom folks looking for resources or background information onthe L5R CCG The community that has developed around L5Ris its biggest strength and getting new players to connect to thatgroup is key in keeping them active and playing Some of theseresources are fairly obvious ndash the Imperial Assembly the Oracleof the Void and the Clan Forums Others however are a bitless known especially to new players

For those who really enjoy the story and background of L5R Isend them to Kaze no Shiro and the L5R Wiki Kaze no Shiromaintains a database of L5R fiction from the early days up untilrecent times Everyonersquos favorite stories remain available atKaze no Shiro and it provides a fantastic resource for thoseplayers who are returning to the game but want to bridge thegap between the story from the time when they played and wherethe story is now The L5R Wiki provides an encyclopedichistory of the world of L5R from its inhabitants to major plotpoints from the story It contains information from the CCG andthe RPG enabling players to make connections between the two

products If you use these two websites in tandem yoursquoll becaught up on the story in no time

A potential barrier to entry into the L5R Community is jargonJust like any social construct the global community of L5Rplayers has developed a lingo all its own One of the bestresources Irsquove found to help players decipher some of theseterms is a Google Doc entitled ldquoL5R Vocabularyrdquo As a playerof earlier editions it was extremely useful for me when Ireturned to the game in the Emperor Arc as it defined acronymsand nicknames that I kept running into on forums and othercommunity sites

For those that really want to keep up to date with L5R as a gamethere are several news sources While known to many veteranplayers new comers to Rokugan may not have found theseresources yet leaving them out of the loop On the ldquoofficialrdquofront the L5R Facebook page and the L5R Twitter feed remaintwo great sources for information from the L5R brand As thegame grows we plan on sharing information through these

social media channels Make sure you have ldquolikedrdquo and areldquofollowingrdquo us to keep up with all the latest news

On the other hand there are also some great fan resources thatshouldnrsquot be overlooked The Strange Assembly Podcast at isone of the best and longest running sources for commentary onL5R and their interviews with members of the L5R Staff arevital to the community as a whole Also entering the podcastarena is the Kolat Informant which has begun a radio programcalled the Onirsquos Eye focusing on all things L5R

The internet is a big place and I couldnrsquot begin to list every sitethat discusses L5R but these resources will provide a new playerwith several options to get information on the game andhopefully draw him into this world of Samurai and Shugenjathat we all love

In October 2011 the hype for Emperor Edition was great butits possible that you might have missed a little gem of a gamealso released by AEG called Ninja Legend of the ScorpionClan This game of hidden movement focuses more on strategyplanning and reading your opponent than do most games Asthe game unfolds youll unconsciously hold your breath as thepatrol passes your hidden traitor Youll catch yourselftriangulating the ninjas position from your two carefullyplaced sentries And most importantly youll have fun whileyou do it

Ninja Legend of the Scorpion Clan is a 2-4 player turn-basedhidden movement game that centers around the Scorpion Clansneaking into a Lion Clan stronghold One player or twoplayers control the Ninja and the Traitor They are to infiltratea Lion stronghold accomplish their mission and get out beforethey either fall to the Lions blade or 20 turns pass The Lionplayer or players must locate and kill the Ninja and Traitor orkeep the Scorpion from accomplishing their mission until timeruns out The Scorpion characters are hidden using a mini mapto track movement and they choose a handful of cards thatallows them to move over walls into secret passages and attackthe guards The Lion can only find them by listening or movinginto their space actions accomplished by playing cards fromtheir hand They are able to draw cards as the Scorpion clantakes actions and makes their presence known Its a simplegame that hides an in-depth experience Though youll developstrategies and learn new things each time you play here are afew basic tips and strategies that will help you if you are justbeginning your journey into Ninja

As the Scorpion Clan player your goal is to infiltrate the LionClan compound complete your objectives and get out aliveYoull accomplish this by using stealth trickery and varioustools at your disposal You control two charactersmdashthe Ninjaand the Traitor They play similarly but each has differentstrengths The Ninja focuses more on stealthy movement andquiet assassination The Traitor is more about manipulation ofthe Lion Clans guards You will be using both independentlyand as a team in order to complete your objectives before timeruns out

As the Lion Clan player your goal is to prevent the ScorpionClan intruders from completing their mission either by killingthem or holding them off until dawn It sounds simple but thisis by no means an easy task The intruders will intoxicate onesentry kill another and in the end all you will hear is a catPositioning is key and youll need good intuition as well

For both sides making good notes on your personal map is keyMake notes about everything that can help you This goesbeyond just where youve been or what areas youve searchedMake a note of when you played a Listen card heardsomething and how far away it was Make a note for everyguard that comes out of his barracks Make note of everyending position where you didnt find a secret passage Notonly will good notes allow you to resolve possible conflictsabout who was where and who should have heard what but italso allows you to be able to replay certain situations and figure

out better solutions after the fact Encourage your opponent totake good notes as well

Playing as the Scorpion intruders youll get to choose a handfulof cards that will help you either deal with guards andobstacles or avoid being spotted The Ninja and Traitor willhave options available to them like Rope Shuriken PotentSake and so on These cards will define your style of playWhile it might seem beneficial to have a wide variety ofoptions available to you it might actually be more helpful tocenter your strategy around one particular strength Forinstance picking all Shuriken and Kenjutsu as your Ninja andPotent Sake and Kenjutsu as your Traitor allows you a veryformidable Smash-and-Grab approach On the other handpicking Shadow Walk Rope and Secret Passage with yourNinja and Rope Cats and Secret Passage for your Traitorallows you to play a very manoeuvrable stealthy game

Playing as the guards your cards are what allow you to do yourjob Its best to pick a solid variety of Search Listen Kenjutsuand Awaken cards although finding the secret passage can alsobenefit you as well The key is to not use your cards untiltheyre needed Remember you have the ability make a freeSentry Listen action if you didnt play any cards during yourturn so learn to use this until the intruders have tipped theirhand A lucky guess with a free Listen can earn you the cardsyoull need later in the game

Also keep in mind the state of the game Much like the CCGknowing what cards a person has played and how many cardshe has in his hand will allow you to make better decisionsregarding what actions to take For instance if you notice thatthe Lion Clan player has taken a lot of actions with his patrolsand has four cards left in his hand its a safe assumption thathes very unlikely to be able to take more actions with his patrols

Very much like an actual ninja misdirection is a majoradvantage for the Scorpion player the Traitor having It Was

A Cat gives you the ability to potentially confuse youropponent Though its best to use it to cover your ownmovement from a nearby patrol playing it as a response to aListen can make your opponent waste cards desperatelylooking for your Ninja who might be on the other side of themap Similarly both the Ninja and the Traitor can use Rope inapparently useless areas to make the other player believe theyhave gone over a wall Another advanced tactic is having yourTraitor in open view of a isolated drunk Guard This can makeyour opponent scramble to pull sentries and patrols to pursuehim You are free to climb over a wall or duck into a secretpassage and avoid any conflict safely

As the Scorpion player you can play the game conservativelyminimizing the enemys chances of finding or hearing youHowever you are often pressed for time and as you search forthe Objectives your opponent will start to get a good idea ofwhere you are At this point youll need to act quickly beforeyour opponent has a chance to corner you Therefore do yourbest to cover as much ground as possible early in the gameEven if you die as long as its before Turn 11 you still have achance to win possibly with a whole new objective whoselocation you know preventing the opponent from sitting on aunsearched zone In fact though the advantage it gives youropponents is great death is sometimes a good way to reset abad situation

As the Lion Clan player you have a few tricks of your own Atthe start of your turn you can play two Awakens from the samebuilding and move the guards on a patrol track creating a patrolin an area that might have seemed like a gap in your defencesYou can do this for the first two turns when its more likely thatyour opponent will be trying to dodge around your patrolsmaking it more difficult to deal with sheer number of Guardson the table

As the Lion player you also hold an advantage over youropponent in knowing where all the Traps Hidden Sentries andObjectives are Though three Objectives must be placed in bothCastles Traps and Hidden Sentries may be placed in any areain any Castle Therefore you can have all of them in a hightraffic area and hope your opponent is unlucky enough tostumble onto multiple ones and not have an answer for themAlso later in the game if the intruders have not completed theirObjectives you can place Patrol on a few unsearched spots inorder to prevent them from completing it or to lead them untothe Hidden Sentry theyve yet to find

This barely scratches the surface of the level of complexstrategy you can find in this deceptively simple game Eachtime you play its entirely possible to learn something new andquite often what will work for you one game might workagainst you in another Its definitely something you need to tryfor yourself if you havent

Ninja - Legend of the Scorpion ClanBy Mason Mangrum

4

During most of the year Tsuma was a quiet little villagewith very little in the way of attractions to outsiders Its onlytruly remarkable feature was the large dojo of the Kakita BushiSchool found there one of the largest in all the Crane landsDuring the spring season this meant that it was home to theTopaz Championship the most illustrious and ostentatiousgempukku ceremony in all of Rokugan During the weeks thatsurrounded the championship hundreds or even thousands ofpeople from all across the Empire flocked to Tsuma Businessesopened and made their earnings for the year in a matter of daysIt was utterly chaotic and then when it was over the entiretown seemed to vanish Shops closed not to open their doorsagain for nearly a year In an instant the thriving hub ofcommerce and ceremony was reduced to a silent strangelyempty monument to the success of the Crane Clan Kakita Mitohime had always preferred it during the emptymonths The young samurai-ko had trained at the Tsuma dojoonly a few years ago but it seemed much longer At the timeshe had not understood that her presence there was socontroversial little more than a child when she began hertraining she was blissfully unaware of her motherrsquos disgraceand how that stain had clung to her as well She had learnedquickly the barbs of her fellow students were an excellentsource of instruction The punishments of her sensei when sheresponded to those barbs with violence were even moreeducational She had wondered why she was ever admitted toTsuma but it was until at least a year afterwards that shediscovered her mother still had some friends who wished to seeKakita Korihimersquos daughter elevated from her shamefulcircumstance of birth If they had hoped attending the dojo atTsuma might accomplish that surely they had been grosslydisappointed Mitohime had not returned to the dojo in nearly a year notsince she had completed the mastery tasks for her most recenttechnique The sensei were largely indifferent to her when shearrived although they did often bring younger students in towatch her perform It was a safe thing to do she imaginedEither she would do well and they could tell the students toemulate the nameless kinsman they had seen or she would failand they would identify her to them and caution them againstthe burden of dishonor It was a constant effort on Mitohimersquospart to never betray how much she hated them The serving girl appeared and with a smile wordlesslyrefilled her cup of steaming hot tea Mitohime nodded absentlyin her direction and the girl withdrew revealing a flash of redas she turned a simple cloth tucked into her obi to use asnecessary to handle hot items being serve Mitohimersquos eyes weredrawn to it at once and it reminded her suddenly of somethingfrom her childhood something she had forgotten long agohellip

Her mother reached down angrily and pulled away thered cloth that little Mitohime had wrapped around her headldquoMamardquo the little girl screeched ldquoMama I want itrdquo

ldquoWhere did you get thisrdquo Korihime demanded ldquoYoushould not have itrdquo

ldquoFound itrdquo Mitohime wailed ldquoPlayrdquoldquoThis is not for playingrdquo her mother scolded ldquoThis ishellip

this ishelliprdquo her voice trailed off and her lip quivered ever soslightly ldquoI should not have kept thisrdquo she said softly as if toherself ldquoIt was a mistakerdquo

ldquoWhat is it Mamardquo the child asked noticing thechange in her mother

ldquoSomething I wanted to rememberrdquo Korihime saidldquoBut I was keeping it for the wrong reasons It must bedestroyedrdquo

ldquoNo PrettyrdquoKorihime knelt down and looked into her daughterrsquos

eyes ldquoLook at this closely little flowerrdquo she said softly ldquoThisis a Scorpionrsquos mask You must never trust a Scorpion not forany reason They take things from you and hurt you and theyare our enemiesrdquo

Mitohime frowned ldquoDid a scroprsquoun hurt you MamardquoKorihime brushed a lock of hair from her daughterrsquos

face ldquoYes darling Yes one didrdquo

Mitohime had not thought of the incident with the maskin perhaps ten years and it was a sharp biting memory to leapunbidden into the forefront of her mind She blinked it awayher eyes stinging and she returned her attention to the matterbefore her She was using what pitiful few coins she hadremaining on the least expensive tea the house had to offer andstill it was leaving her with nothing She had expended whatmeager funds she had to her name with her other efforts in the

city first in securing a room in this particular ridiculouslyexpensive inn and the rest in hiringhellip well that was for laterThe tea was piping hot and incredibly flavorful She understoodat least how they could charge so much She could not imaginewhat the more expensive blends must taste like

There was another guest across the large room oneattended by many servants and the owner of the tea house Theman was strikingly handsome and was dressed in attire thatMitohime was sure cost more than she had ever seen in herlifetime His bearing suggested not only wealth but stationalthough he did not see overbearing by his actions He smiledgraciously even to the lowest serving girl causing her to blushuncontrollably Normally such display would disgust her buteven Mitohime could not deny how utterly genuine the manseemed She knew him of course She was in fact sworn toserve him above all others save for the Crane Clan Championand the Empress herself He was Kakita Ikaru daimyo of theKakita family lord of all he surveyed in this city and thisprovince

His gaze crossed her on occasion as she sat and sippedher tea Her saw her of course He saw everything Mitohimedid not think that he knew her name but it was possible Ifsomeone had asked her if she believed the Crane Championwould know her name she would never have said so but onlya few years prior that had proven to be the case Might the Kakitalord know her as well Possibly but it seemed more likely thathis affairs in court would occupy his attention Her eyes glanceddown to the wakizashi that he bore on his hip She could seethat the stories were true it was bound to its saya with iron linkslike those of a chain The stories held that some prophecy orcurse of some sort indicated the Kakita would fall to ruin if theirlord ever drew his blade Mitohime was not certain that shebelieved in such things but she hard heard the man had trainingby the Togashi and she doubted he was defenseless Still sherespected him for his dedication the thought of drawing hisblade would apparently not even cross his mind so great washis dedication to his familyrsquos well-being

Mitohime placed the last of her coins on the table andtook up her things She bowed once in the daimyorsquos generaldirection He seemed to nod back but it could have merely beenthe light of the lantern blowing in the wind as the door openedIt was time for her to retire to her chambers before she becameany more philosophical than she already was

The Obsidian Moon was a mere crescent high in the nightsky but Mitohime had not yet slept It was the fifth night shehad waited in the darkness listening intently for any sound thatseemed ill at odds with her surroundings This was the lastchance she would have After tonight there would be no morecoins to pay the woman she had hired There would be no coinsto purchase a room at this ridiculously overpriced but admittedlyvery comfortable inn There would not even be coins to pay forthe tea she had come to appreciate so much There would benothing And if the thing she had been waiting for did nothappen tonight she would have nothing to show for all hereffort Then she would have no choice but to simply return toher motherrsquos house and wait It was a death sentence but therewould be no other choice There was a gentle rustling sound like cloth against clothbut it was out of place No one who was sleeping would everhear it but Mitohime was not sleeping and she was keenlyaware of what might be taking place in the corridor just a fewinches away from where she waited exhausted She waitedevery muscle tensed at once hoping and fearing that the momentshe had been waiting for had arrived at last There was the tiniestcreak from just outside her door just from the point where shehad carefully modified the floor to ensure that it would makejust such a sound and then she struck

Mitohime threw the sliding door open and lunged in onefluid movement striking out with the pommel of her blade withall her force It struck home and someone was sent sprawlingacross the hallway To his credit he did not lose his footing nordid he lose his grip on his weapon and he recovered almostinstantly ldquoYourdquo he hissed ldquoMerdquo she said quietly She was surprised at how weary herown voice sounded ldquoStand asiderdquo he demanded ldquoI will not forfeit my unclersquosvengeancerdquo ldquoNordquo she replied His blade glinted in the dim light of the hooded lantern ldquoIhave no wish to spill my familyrsquos bloodrdquo he said ldquoDo not forceme to test my resolverdquo She nodded and lowered her blade slightly ldquoI do not havethe same compunctionrdquo she whispered and she struck The man fell dead on the floor There was shouting from elsewhere in the inn butMitohimersquos head swam and she collapsed

Dawn was several hours away yet but it seemed that theentire staff was already awake and catering to the needs of theKakita daimyo and his entourage Mitohime sat at one of thetables feeling altogether numb One of the serving girls haddraped a blanket over her shoulders but she did not rememberthat Another of them or perhaps the same one had given hera cup of hot tea It was probably even better than the one shehad enjoyed earlier in the evening but she could not tell rightnow Even her tongue was numb Someone sat down across from her After a moment shelooked up at the person blankly before she finally realized thatit was Kakita Ikaru Dully she realized that even his simplenight clothing was fantastic ldquoMy lordrdquo she said Her mouthfelt as if she had not drunk anything in weeks ldquoOne of my people told me your namerdquo Ikaru saidthoughtfully ldquoI have heard it before but not recently Tell meabout yourselfrdquo Mitohime thought for a moment but could think of nothingsignificant to say ldquoI am Kakita Korihimersquos daughterrdquo she saidfinally ldquoAhrdquo Ikaru replied ldquoThat tells me muchrdquo He gesturedtoward the upper floor ldquoMy hatamoto is concerned that theassassin intended to kill me He assures me that somehow Iowe you my life Would you agreerdquo She thought about it for some time ldquoNordquo she finally saidldquoHe was not here for yourdquo Ikaru shrugged ldquoI did not think so It seemed wrongsomehow But you do know why he was here donrsquot yourdquo ldquoI dordquo she said with a nod ldquoThis is not the most rewarding conversation I have hadrdquoIkaru said allowing just a hint of exasperation to his toneldquoWould you care to explainrdquo It was phrased as a question butit clearly was not ldquoThat man ishellip washellip my cousin The nephew of my fatherHe discovered a truth that I only found out a relatively shorttime ago which is that my mother killed my father to preventhim from taking me to the Scorpion to be raised He consideredit an unacceptable shame on his familyrsquos honor His intentionwas to kill my mother and Ihellip I could not allow thatrdquo ldquoOf courserdquo Ikaru said ldquoWhy would he think your motherwas hererdquo She shrugged ldquoI have spent everything I have spreading therumor that Korihime is here and hired an actress to impersonateher It was not a reasonable ruse but a man seething with alifetime of rage and intending to fulfill his familyrsquos debt of honoris not a reasonable manrdquo Ikaru nodded ldquoAnd nowrdquo Mitohime shrugged again ldquoI have nothing left I will returnto dwell with my mother at her estate I have few other optionsavailablerdquo The Kakita daimyo reclined for a moment ldquoI find that Irequire an additional yojimbo to ensure that nothing of thisnature happens again I assume you are availablerdquo Mitohime blinked ldquoYes my lordrdquo ldquoVery goodrdquo Ikaru rose ldquoI will see to the arrangements Beready by dawnrdquo ldquoOf course my lordrdquo

Family MattersBy Shawn Carman

Sometimes the most difficult relationships are those bound by blood Shawn Carman shows us how true this is in a tale of the Kakitafamily of the Crane Crane

5

Despite what you may think this article is not about math butabout deck-building Probability is a major deck-building con-cept that many people overlook but its important to have atleast a basic understanding of it After all you are drawingcards randomly from a deck thats all about probability Sowhether an experienced player or a new one if you donrsquot knowhow odds affect your game of Legend of the Five Rings orwould like to learn more then read on

Letrsquos start with the Fate deck In the Fate deck we have threebasic types of cards--Strategies Rings and attachments whichinclude Followers Items and Spells We can further dividethese into Unique cards and Non-Unique cards Unique cardstend to be powerful but from a probability point of view theyhave issuesmdashafter all it its harder to get that Unique card intoyour hand when you need it

Attachments are permanent effects that typically offer youextra Force (and sometimes Chi Personal Honor Gold Costand the like) Actions and protection for your Personalitiesfrom many of your opponents actions On the other hand theyusually offer no surprise effect against your opponent since hecan see what they can do once they enter in play and they alsousually cost Gold Strategies are generally one-shot effects thatnormally dont cost Gold but often involve other costs such asBowing a card So here we face a choicemdashdo I include acertain Strategy instead of a certain Attachment or the otherway around This presents what is called an Opportunity CostThis results when you have to choose between several optionsthat are mutually exclusive in this case cards that you want toinclude in your deck but you donrsquot have room for all of themif you want to keep your Fate deck close to 40 cards in size

And generally you want exactly thatmdash40 cards in your FateDeck This is because the fewer cards your deck contains thegreater is the chance to draw any particular card In L5R youusually want to have the maximum limit of three copies of eachnon-Unique card again to maximize your chances of seeing atleast one of a particular card when you draw That said someplayers employ a ldquotool boxrdquo approach which uses sets of twoor even only one of a Non-Unique card in the Fate deck Thisgives them more options because their deck contains a widerrange of cards so the deck can better adapt to playing against awider range of opposing decks The trade-off of course is areduced chance of seeing any particular card unless you em-ploy one or more of the methods described below to draw morecards andor draw cards more quickly Unless you are anexperienced player however I suggest you avoid the toolbox approach until you have a better feel for the game andyour deck My advice for a new players is to start with sets ofthree copies of each Non-Unique card youve chosen to use inyour Fate deck

Now we come to meat of the mattermdashdigging into the deck forthose precious cards we desperately need In Emperor Editionwe start the game drawing six cards from our Fate deck so wewill see six cards of 40 (abbreviated to 640) in our openingFate hand This gives us about a 15 chance to get one of thecards we need in the case of Unique cards or sets of one cardabout a 26 chance for one of set of two cards and about a34 chance for one of a set of three cards Microsoft Excelcontains a handy function called HYPGEOMDIST whichallows you to quickly calculate these odds For example letssay Im worried about a blitz deck attacking me so Id like to

know my odds of drawing a particular Absent Battle StrategyIve included in my deck Its Non-Unique and Ive included afull set of three in my 40-card Fate deck Assuming Im draw-ing six cards in my opening hand I can plug these numbers intothe Excel function as =HYPGEOMDIST(16340) giving aresult of 034 which means a 34 chance of getting that vitaldefensive card in my opening hand Now lets say Im reallyworried about blitz and want to know how likely I am to gettwo copies of this card in my hand HYPGEOMDIST tells meI now only have a 5 of that If blitz worries me that muchthen I could include a second suitable Non-Unique AbsentBattle Strategy which changes the third parameter of HYP-GEOMDIST to 6 Now my odds of drawing two copies ofeither of these defensive Strategies into my opening hand hasincreased to 18 Thats a lot better than 5

Were obviously now at the point of making choices Do Iinclude more cards in my deck of a type I want to see quicklyas above Do I use up some of my precious Gold to cycle aKharmic card Do I find other ways to draw cards more quick-ly such as trying to make use of the Imperial Favors Limitedaction or attempting to get the Ring of Void into play Theseare some of the choices youll face when building your deckand during the game Just keep in mind that every time youdraw a cardmdashno matter how your draw itmdashyou reduce the totalnumber of cards left in your deck thereby increasing theprobability youll to draw a particular card the next time youdraw This is often called deck thinning and is somethingexperienced players look for every opportunity to do To thinyour deck like this you have a number of options in L5RmdashCard Draw Card Cycle Fate Manipulation Fate Recovery andFate Search

Card Draw and Card Cycle are self-explanatory With CardDraw you get one card to add to your hand This is whathappens in the End Phase of your turn every turn With CardCycle you add one card to your hand and then immediatediscard a card (or vice-versa) Again the Limited action of theImperial Favor is an example of this The odds associated withdrawing a particular cardwhen youre Cycling are thesame as when youre Drawing

Fate Manipulation is a littlemore complicated This allowsyou to increase your chancesof getting a particular card byallowing you to rearrange yourFate deck For example theIvory Edition Phoenix ClanStronghold The Eternal Tem-ple of the Phoenix allows youto look at the top 3 cards ofyour Fate deck as a Limitedaction draw one of them intoyour hand if its a Spell orKiho Strategy replace the rest in their original order thendiscard a card if you went first (meaning its Card Cycle if youwent first and Card Draw if you went second) By drawing thatone card you can ensure that you will see the other two morequickly Another form of Fate Manipulation allows you to lookat some cards from the top of your Fate deck and send some ofthem to the bottom of your deck Rokkaku Master of Scrolls isan example of this Youre unlikely to see cards sent to the

bottom of your Fate deck again during the game which meansyouve virtually thinned your deck by the number of cardssent to the bottom Of course this also means you are reducingthe chances of getting those cards drawn again unless you areable to use an effect that allows you to draw from the bottom ofyour deck or shuffles it Including such effects in your deckare of course another choice with their own Opportunity Costs

Fate Recovery also known as Fate Recursion depends onhaving a particular card in your Discard pile so that it can beretrieved and put back into play This is a conditional effect thatonly works if you have already played the desired card and putit into your Discard pile The recovered cards are ldquovirtualrdquocopies of the cards already played An example of this is theweapon Gumbai-Uchiwa (previewed elsewhere in this copy ofthe Imperial Herald) This may seem like having 4 or evenmore copies of a certain card in your deck but this isnt quitetrue because until you actually get the card you want to Recov-ery into your Discard Pile the associated Fate Recovery effectis effectively blank (Gumbai-Uchiwa recovers itself avoid-ing this problem as do cards with the new Discipline keyword)The good thing about many Fate Recovery cards is that theytend to work for several cards not for just one For exampleClaiming the Ruins allows you to put any non-Unique Item inyour Discard Pile into yourHand

Finally we have the FateSearch option which allowsyou to simply hunt through yourFate deck (and sometimes yourDiscard Pile too) for a card youwant Cards like Asahina Ki-tiaru Experienced and Dark Au-dience are examples of thisSearching for cards is likebreaking the rules because theonly odds you care about arethose that allow you to get thatFate Search card that in turnallows you to dive into yourFate deck Searching for cards generally works against FateManipulation because it usually requires your deck to beshuffled afterward However it does help improve the odds fordrawing particular cards after the second variant of Fate Manip-ulationmdashputting cards on the bottom of your deckmdashsince itshuffles those cards sent to the bottom of the deck back into arandom distribution

So mindful of all the above what do I do Do I use one of thesemethods to draw more cards andor draw them more quicklyfrom my Fate deck Many of them will require me to spendGold use Actions Bow cards or some combination thereofmoreover including these effects will themselves use up pre-cious card slots in my Fate and Dynasty decksmdashall Opportuni-ty Costs

The Fortunes may sometimes smile on mortals but the For-tunes also favor the prepared mindmdashand L5R player Now youknow how to draw cards from you Fate Deck how to calculatethe odds to draw any particular one how every card you drawaffects your odds and how to manipulate them all Knowledgeis power Use it responsibly or fall into darkness

Oh My OddsBy Ariel Alvarez

Having a basic understanding of concepts like Opportunity Cost and how to determine the probability of drawing particular cards canbe of enormous help when building your deck for Legend of the Five Rings

6

The Gamer Spotlight

The Gamer Spotlight is a new feature on the AEG website intending to showcase game groups and the people who run andparticipate in them All of these groups are dedicated to having fun with AEGrsquos various games we also know that some do moregathering to help their members in difficult times contribute to their communities and raise money for good causes

If yoursquod like to feature your gaming group please email the article to jgoodenoughalderaccom with the subject as ldquoGamerSpotlightrdquo Be sure to include something unique about yourself and the group that you want the world to know Also include apicture or two that yoursquod like to be used in the Gamer Spotlight In the meantime visit the site and check out the groups alreadyfeatured there

Tim Anderson battling cancer has received over $4600 from generous members of the L5R community to date

Despite what you may think this article is not about math butabout deck-building Probability is a major deck-building con-cept that many people overlook but its important to have atleast a basic understanding of it After all you are drawingcards randomly from a deck thats all about probability Sowhether an experienced player or a new one if you donrsquot knowhow odds affect your game of Legend of the Five Rings orwould like to learn more then read on

Letrsquos start with the Fate deck In the Fate deck we have threebasic types of cards--Strategies Rings and attachments whichinclude Followers Items and Spells We can further dividethese into Unique cards and Non-Unique cards Unique cardstend to be powerful but from a probability point of view theyhave issuesmdashafter all it its harder to get that Unique card intoyour hand when you need it

Attachments are permanent effects that typically offer youextra Force (and sometimes Chi Personal Honor Gold Costand the like) Actions and protection for your Personalitiesfrom many of your opponents actions On the other hand theyusually offer no surprise effect against your opponent since hecan see what they can do once they enter in play and they alsousually cost Gold Strategies are generally one-shot effects thatnormally dont cost Gold but often involve other costs such asBowing a card So here we face a choicemdashdo I include acertain Strategy instead of a certain Attachment or the otherway around This presents what is called an Opportunity CostThis results when you have to choose between several optionsthat are mutually exclusive in this case cards that you want toinclude in your deck but you donrsquot have room for all of themif you want to keep your Fate deck close to 40 cards in size

And generally you want exactly thatmdash40 cards in your FateDeck This is because the fewer cards your deck contains thegreater is the chance to draw any particular card In L5R youusually want to have the maximum limit of three copies of eachnon-Unique card again to maximize your chances of seeing atleast one of a particular card when you draw That said someplayers employ a ldquotool boxrdquo approach which uses sets of twoor even only one of a Non-Unique card in the Fate deck Thisgives them more options because their deck contains a widerrange of cards so the deck can better adapt to playing against awider range of opposing decks The trade-off of course is areduced chance of seeing any particular card unless you em-ploy one or more of the methods described below to draw morecards andor draw cards more quickly Unless you are anexperienced player however I suggest you avoid the toolbox approach until you have a better feel for the game andyour deck My advice for a new players is to start with sets ofthree copies of each Non-Unique card youve chosen to use inyour Fate deck

Now we come to meat of the mattermdashdigging into the deck forthose precious cards we desperately need In Emperor Editionwe start the game drawing six cards from our Fate deck so wewill see six cards of 40 (abbreviated to 640) in our openingFate hand This gives us about a 15 chance to get one of thecards we need in the case of Unique cards or sets of one cardabout a 26 chance for one of set of two cards and about a34 chance for one of a set of three cards Microsoft Excelcontains a handy function called HYPGEOMDIST whichallows you to quickly calculate these odds For example letssay Im worried about a blitz deck attacking me so Id like to

know my odds of drawing a particular Absent Battle StrategyIve included in my deck Its Non-Unique and Ive included afull set of three in my 40-card Fate deck Assuming Im draw-ing six cards in my opening hand I can plug these numbers intothe Excel function as =HYPGEOMDIST(16340) giving aresult of 034 which means a 34 chance of getting that vitaldefensive card in my opening hand Now lets say Im reallyworried about blitz and want to know how likely I am to gettwo copies of this card in my hand HYPGEOMDIST tells meI now only have a 5 of that If blitz worries me that muchthen I could include a second suitable Non-Unique AbsentBattle Strategy which changes the third parameter of HYP-GEOMDIST to 6 Now my odds of drawing two copies ofeither of these defensive Strategies into my opening hand hasincreased to 18 Thats a lot better than 5

Were obviously now at the point of making choices Do Iinclude more cards in my deck of a type I want to see quicklyas above Do I use up some of my precious Gold to cycle aKharmic card Do I find other ways to draw cards more quick-ly such as trying to make use of the Imperial Favors Limitedaction or attempting to get the Ring of Void into play Theseare some of the choices youll face when building your deckand during the game Just keep in mind that every time youdraw a cardmdashno matter how your draw itmdashyou reduce the totalnumber of cards left in your deck thereby increasing theprobability youll to draw a particular card the next time youdraw This is often called deck thinning and is somethingexperienced players look for every opportunity to do To thinyour deck like this you have a number of options in L5RmdashCard Draw Card Cycle Fate Manipulation Fate Recovery andFate Search

Card Draw and Card Cycle are self-explanatory With CardDraw you get one card to add to your hand This is whathappens in the End Phase of your turn every turn With CardCycle you add one card to your hand and then immediatediscard a card (or vice-versa) Again the Limited action of theImperial Favor is an example of this The odds associated withdrawing a particular cardwhen youre Cycling are thesame as when youre Drawing

Fate Manipulation is a littlemore complicated This allowsyou to increase your chancesof getting a particular card byallowing you to rearrange yourFate deck For example theIvory Edition Phoenix ClanStronghold The Eternal Tem-ple of the Phoenix allows youto look at the top 3 cards ofyour Fate deck as a Limitedaction draw one of them intoyour hand if its a Spell orKiho Strategy replace the rest in their original order thendiscard a card if you went first (meaning its Card Cycle if youwent first and Card Draw if you went second) By drawing thatone card you can ensure that you will see the other two morequickly Another form of Fate Manipulation allows you to lookat some cards from the top of your Fate deck and send some ofthem to the bottom of your deck Rokkaku Master of Scrolls isan example of this Youre unlikely to see cards sent to the

bottom of your Fate deck again during the game which meansyouve virtually thinned your deck by the number of cardssent to the bottom Of course this also means you are reducingthe chances of getting those cards drawn again unless you areable to use an effect that allows you to draw from the bottom ofyour deck or shuffles it Including such effects in your deckare of course another choice with their own Opportunity Costs

Fate Recovery also known as Fate Recursion depends onhaving a particular card in your Discard pile so that it can beretrieved and put back into play This is a conditional effect thatonly works if you have already played the desired card and putit into your Discard pile The recovered cards are ldquovirtualrdquocopies of the cards already played An example of this is theweapon Gumbai-Uchiwa (previewed elsewhere in this copy ofthe Imperial Herald) This may seem like having 4 or evenmore copies of a certain card in your deck but this isnt quitetrue because until you actually get the card you want to Recov-ery into your Discard Pile the associated Fate Recovery effectis effectively blank (Gumbai-Uchiwa recovers itself avoid-ing this problem as do cards with the new Discipline keyword)The good thing about many Fate Recovery cards is that theytend to work for several cards not for just one For exampleClaiming the Ruins allows you to put any non-Unique Item inyour Discard Pile into yourHand

Finally we have the FateSearch option which allowsyou to simply hunt through yourFate deck (and sometimes yourDiscard Pile too) for a card youwant Cards like Asahina Ki-tiaru Experienced and Dark Au-dience are examples of thisSearching for cards is likebreaking the rules because theonly odds you care about arethose that allow you to get thatFate Search card that in turnallows you to dive into yourFate deck Searching for cards generally works against FateManipulation because it usually requires your deck to beshuffled afterward However it does help improve the odds fordrawing particular cards after the second variant of Fate Manip-ulationmdashputting cards on the bottom of your deckmdashsince itshuffles those cards sent to the bottom of the deck back into arandom distribution

So mindful of all the above what do I do Do I use one of thesemethods to draw more cards andor draw them more quicklyfrom my Fate deck Many of them will require me to spendGold use Actions Bow cards or some combination thereofmoreover including these effects will themselves use up pre-cious card slots in my Fate and Dynasty decksmdashall Opportuni-ty Costs

The Fortunes may sometimes smile on mortals but the For-tunes also favor the prepared mindmdashand L5R player Now youknow how to draw cards from you Fate Deck how to calculatethe odds to draw any particular one how every card you drawaffects your odds and how to manipulate them all Knowledgeis power Use it responsibly or fall into darkness

Oh My OddsBy Ariel Alvarez

Having a basic understanding of concepts like Opportunity Cost and how to determine the probability of drawing particular cards canbe of enormous help when building your deck for Legend of the Five Rings

6

The Gamer Spotlight

The Gamer Spotlight is a new feature on the AEG website intending to showcase game groups and the people who run andparticipate in them All of these groups are dedicated to having fun with AEGrsquos various games we also know that some do moregathering to help their members in difficult times contribute to their communities and raise money for good causes

If yoursquod like to feature your gaming group please email the article to jgoodenoughalderaccom with the subject as ldquoGamerSpotlightrdquo Be sure to include something unique about yourself and the group that you want the world to know Also include apicture or two that yoursquod like to be used in the Gamer Spotlight In the meantime visit the site and check out the groups alreadyfeatured there

Tim Anderson battling cancer has received over $4600 from generous members of the L5R community to date

Ivory Edition Retailer Promotion

Near the end of Celestial Edition I had spent nearly a monthdesigning and putting together a deck that would dominate mylocal tournament scene It would be a deck to which no one hadan answer one that my opponent wouldnt be able to see cominguntil it was too late I waited with anticipation as each card Ineeded arrived in the mail before the capstone of the deckfinally arrivedmdashthe card Yoritomo Ascends

It was a strange deck depending on a number of recently-released cards to create small samurai personalities during the

game It also required a numberof promotional and otherwiseunconventional cards But thelook on my friends face whenYoritomo Ascends came up inmy last province and Iremoved twenty of my highest-Force samurai from the gamewas priceless An almost suredefeat had given away to avictory my opponent hadntexpected I was my twentystrongest

Even when I took the deck toa Kotei knowing full well thatId be facing more effective

decks it was still an enjoyable experience Even if the matchwas going totally against me I knew that I was playing outsidethe normal boundaries of the game When Yoritomo Ascendscame up in my province it was met with a mixture of surpriseconfusion occasionally fear and inevitably amusement by myopponent Even though I walked out that night with a 1-5win-loss record I actually received more compliments andpraise than the winner did

Alternate Win Conditions are a rather strange beast inLegend of the Five Rings L5R already has more win standardwin conditions than your typical collectible card gamemdashMilitary Honor Dishonor and Enlightenment Adding otherways to achieve victory would seem to be both complicated andredundant Attempting to achieve these unusual victoryconditionsmdashwhich are normally based on Eventsmdashwilldefinitely challenge your deck building skills But when builtcorrectly decks that exploit these Alternate Win Conditionsallow you to play decks that are unique often using Personalitiesand combinations of cards that normally wouldnt see playMoreover even if they arent terribly competitive they arealways hugely satisfying when they work out

Yoritomo Ascends wasnt the only card ever printed with anAlternate Win Condition in L5R Earlier in Celestial Editionwas Claiming the Throne This Event specified that if your turnended and during that turn you destroyed a Province in battleresolution put two Rings into play by their own text gainedseven or more Honor during that turn discarded the ImperialFavor and paid 10 gold you won the game That might seemincredibly difficult and for the most part it was as only ahandful of decks could pull it off at all

More recently weve seen An Empire of Madness a cardthat states that if a player has 20 or more Madness Tokens on

his Personalities at any time he immediately loses the game Atthe time of writing this a new Alternate Win Condition has justbeen revealed for Ivory Edition the Event Political StandoffBy starting his turn with 50 Influence Tokensmdashtokens gainedby gaining Honor or causing his opponent to lose Honormdashaplayer can win the gamePolitical Standoff may beintended more as a way tobreak the stalemate that oftenresults between an opposingHonor deck and Dishonor deckthan strictly speaking anAlternate Win Condition likethe other discussed here but itis still an alternative way towin the game

Alternate Win Conditionsgo farther back in the gameshistory however In theImperial Edition Arc there wasThe Darkest Magics whichstated that if you have either seven of the Black Scrolls (aparticular category of Spell) attached to your personalities orhave used an action from all twelve of the Black Scrolls then inexistence you won the game This is not only great for flavorbut some of the Black Scrolls were pretty powerful cards in theirown right This allowed you to not depend entirely on one wincondition but gave you several options for winning Forexample one of the Black Scrolls The Wasting Diseaseallowed you to hand out -2C tokens to your opponentspersonalities making it a potentially powerful reusable killaction while The Black Wind from the Soul allowed you todestroy one of your opponents Provinces This gave you anopportunity for say a Military victory as well as the AlternateWin Condition from The Darkest Magics The Darkest Magicsstill represents a powerful Alternate Win Condition in theLegacy format of L5R

Another card from the Imperial Edition Arc offering anAlternate Win Condition was The 38th Hantei Falls This eventallowed you to win if you had all four of the Fortification cardstitled the Walls of Otosan-Uchi in play Unlike the variousAlternate Wins described above though which create anongoing victory condition that applies for the rest of the gameThe 38th Hantei Falls requires that the various Walls of Otosan-Uchi cards be in play when the Event resolves This required alot of luck and strategies to postpone or recycle the Event toeven have a hope of pulling it off However the card-base hasexpanded greatly since then adding the experienced Walls ofOtosan-Uchi gives you more opportunities to reveal theFortifications The 38th Hantei Falls would definitely beinteresting for use in the Legacy Format

The Master of Five offers another Alternate Win Conditionthat actually gives you two new paths to victory The first iscontrolling five Oracles with different Elemental keywordswhen this card comes into play This can be difficult much likeThe 38th Hantei Falls However the other option is to playActions from cards that have all five Elemental keywords in oneturn before the game ends That is a much easier Alternate WinCondition to achievemdashtoo easy perhaps when The Master of

Five is combined with personalities like Naka TokeiExperienced 2 Naka Mahatsu Experienced and Asahina SekawaExperienced 3 which have all five Elemental Keywords Asingle action from one of these was all that was needed forvictory a good indicator as to why The Master of Five isnt legalin Legacy Format

One of my personal favorite Alternate Win Conditions willalways be the one offered by Bushido A Diamond EditionPromotional card it offered an apparently simply Alternate WinAny time you played a Strategy with the Bushido VirtueKeyword entitled Compassion Courage Courtesy DutyHonor Honesty or Sincerity you drew a card this alone madeit worth playing in a deck that used Bushido Virtues Howeverif you happened to play all seven Bushido Virtues in a singleturn you won the game This was more difficult than it seemedhowever Duty required an opponent to kill one of yourpersonalities before you could use the reaction and Courtesyand Sincerity could help your opponent more than it could helpyou Much like a real Samurai the path of Bushido oftenrequired personal sacrifice Was it difficult Yes Risky VerySatisfying Unbelievably so

Strange Assembly was interesting in that it didnt provideyou with an alternate way to win but made a standard wincondition better Normally starting your turn with the Honorrequired to win gave you an Honor victory This promotionalDiamond Edition Event stated however that if you were ableto win an Honor victory and your honor was 8 or more over theamount required to win such a victory you won immediatelyStrange Assembly meant that even if your opponent was hadmore than enough force to take your final Provinces gainingthat addition eight Honor meant that there was little he coulddo to stop your win

Death of Onnotangu wasan Alternate Win Conditionthat exemplified the gamesfocus on storytelling Byattaching Lord Moons BloodLord Moons Bones and TheObsidian Hand to anyversion of Mirumoto Hitomiyou won the game Playerswho knew of MirumotoHitomis descent intomadness followed by herchallenging defeating andreplacing Onnatangu LordMoon understood why the Death of Onnatangu was such apowerful event in Rokugans history Players who didnt knowthe story behind the card would often want to learn more aboutHitomi and her story and why this particular combination ofcards would allow you to win

Though not strictly an Alternate Win Condition Doom ofthe Dark Lord deserves a special mention This Event causedevery player to draw an additional card during their End phaseHowever if you were ever required to draw a card but had nonein your Fate deck you lost your rightmost province This couldeasily end your game as a military loss This made decks withgood card draw riskier to play and cards that forced your

An L5R Retrospective -Alternate Win conditions

Most players plan to win games of L5R through Military Honor Dishonor or even Enlightenment victories The game however hasseen a number of alternate ways to win Mason Mangrum takes us on a tour through some of these unusual paths to victory

For fans of the Legend of the Five Rings CCG there is little that is more exciting than a new base set being published Ivory Edition the latest such set in the historyof the game is sure to bring exciting new ways to play the game even after close to twenty years of expansions AEG wantrsquos to make sure that every person interestedin playing L5R can pick up the game at their ldquoFriendly Local Game Storerdquo With this is in mind wersquove decided to offer an amazing deal to give stores incentive tocarry Legend of the Five Rings beginning with Ivory Edition

There are thousands of stores in the United States that could carry the L5R CCG Naturally we want to reach as many of those stores as we can If you know of astore that should be carrying the L5R CCG send them this link httpwwwalderaccomstore-locator have them complete the form and wersquoll have someonecontact them The long story short is that your store can stock every Ivory Edition product right out of the gate for less than $400 Oh and did we mention thatunsold product is 100 returnable Yes itrsquos that good of a deal Ivory Edition is going to mean big things for L5R and we look forward to having you and yourfriends be part of the excitement

7

By Mason Mangrum

Having drafted Aftermath several times now under IvoryEdition rules both with a Gates of Chaos mix and without Ihave found the following to be true (in no particular order)

bull There are not many Holdings in Aftermath so pick them upwhenever you can This includes Personalities who produceGold such as Yoritomo Yashinko even if out of clan A solideconomy is key to victory This is doubly true if going for anHonor victory as you will need 4 Gold to fuel your Strongholdability I would say my first pick over any other card inAftermath is Yoritomo Yashinko with Nexus of Lies being a

close second (and it will berare you have to make thatchoice) The reason I argue forYashinko is that if going firsta Turn 1 Yashinko (assumingout of clan) leaves you with 5Gold which is a good numberfor buying PersonalitiesHowever if you are going anHonor route even Crane orMantis Honor I would pickNexus first as it gives you the4 Gold you need for yourStronghold ability

bull Be careful not to overloadyour deck with too much stuff

that costs Gold Aftermath has a lot of good cards that costGold It is very easy and certainly I fell into this trap to pickthem up and add them to your deck gleefully However unlessyou got an incredibly lucky gold scheme you likely will be leftwith too many cards in your hand that cost Gold and notenough ways to make that Gold

bull Dying Remonstration is a very good pick Honor is a strongchoice in Aftermath and causing them a 2-3 point loss fromDying Remonstration could very well buy you a turn And it isa 4 Focus Value card making it very powerful for yourStrongholdrsquos ability

bull Shugenja have some really strong options especially whenmixing Gates of Chaos and Aftermath The Windrsquos Championis a very powerful Spell often times able to get a 5 Forcesamurai out of the deal There are some incredibly powerfulRare cards if you get lucky such as Sailorrsquos Warning SearingSiege Blistering Rain Yojimbo of Earth and even HitomirsquosDevotion If you are doing a Gates of Chaos mix it adds inSteal the Candlersquos Flame as a Common which is incrediblypotent It also adds Focus on the Flame and Kiyoshirsquos Wrathtwo more strong Rare cards The hidden strength of shugenjaand Spells though is that often times depending on the size

of your drafting pod you can expect these powerful cards towheel making it all the way around back to you In one packfor example I was able to pick up a powerful Common andThe Windrsquos Champion wheeled back around to me This is abenefit that you get as asomeone playing Spells inDraft that most other strategiesdonrsquot get

bull Be careful of thosePersonalities that cause anHonor loss especially ifcombining Gates of Chaos andAftermath Nexus of Lies willturn all of those Fallen Fudoand Yodotai cards amongothers into 5 and 6 pointlosses You should be able tohandle a couple of these lossesbut not many

bull There are a LOT of good Strategies in this set This may seemlike a no-brainer type of statement but it is not the same asGates of Chaos where there were a few key Strategies worthyof attention Aftermath has a plethora of Battle actions so ifyour opponent has six cards in his hand you can expect thatafter his Stronghold use at least 4-5 of those will be relevantto winning the battle I wouldnrsquot expect more than 1 maybe 2ldquodeadrdquo cards in his hand Keep this in mind as you decidewhether to attack or defend

bull Because of this last fact people seem to generally be playingfewer Attachments than normal Often times in Draft you useattachments to fill in your deck after you run out of good Battleactions But with the Stronghold ability a good number ofBattle actions and fewer Holdings in the set people seem to

be playing fewer attachments As such donrsquot overload yourdeck with attachment meta In sets past there was no such thingas too much attachment meta But in Aftermath it is a realdanger

bull Unholy Strike is good but needs help With a lot of 3-4 Forcecards around I often found that Unholy Strike had no legaltarget Make sure you getsome good Force penalties toset it up or otherRangedMelee Attacks inorder to make your UnholyStrikes more potent StrategicWithdrawal is a good ifunderestimated combination togo with Unholy Strike In mostbattles your opponent will usetheir Stronghold or some othercard to neutralize one of yourPersonalities Send thatPersonality home withStrategic Withdrawal and handout a 3 Force penalty settingup your Unholy Strike to killOr even just retreat with it and save a Province StrategicStrategic Withdrawal is a very versatile card

bull Pay attention to your Focus Values Playing with some weakeror more situational 4 Focus Value cards is perfectly fine Cardslike Dying Remonstration Respect Absolution and ReverseFate are all good cards to have I wouldnrsquot suggest having morethan four cards in your deck that are blank 4 Focus Values buttry to keep your other Focus Values up as well It is easy toplay with all the good cards you can get your mitts on and thenfind yourself with an ineffectual Stronghold

bullPay attention to the Single-Bugged Emperor Edition cards inthe set such as Chagatairsquos Wrath This has come up a numberof times especially when drafting Gates of Chaos with Ivoryrules Remember Single-Bugged cards are not Ivory Editionlegal

Certainly there is a lot more to drafting with Aftermath for theIvory Edition environment but these are some of the thingsyou should be keeping your eye on Whether you are paying atyour ldquoFriendly Local Game Storerdquo (FLGS) or trying to win theTopaz Championships keep the above in mind to improve yourchances of taking home the gold

Aftermath - A Draft AnalysisBy Bryan Reese

Bryan Reese Lead Designer for the CCG offers his thoughts and some things to consider when drafting the latest expansion forLegend of the Five Rings Aftermath

8

In the provinces of the Lion Clan the peace of the plains is shattered by the appearance of an oni a monstrosity from the Realm of Evil Once the beast is defeatedat the cost of many samurairsquos lives the Lionrsquos ire turns to the Crab Clan Are the Crab not the guardians who protect the Empire from such nightmares Surelysuch a terrible thing would never have occurred if the Lion had stood guard over the Carpenter Wall Ill will turns to bold words and bold words soon turn tobloodshed With the two greatest armies of the Empire at one anotherrsquos throats who will emerge victorious

A Matter of Honor is the ultimate Learn to Play Set for the Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game featuring the streamlined and comprehensive rules ofIvory Edition Discover the game and delve into its rich history as a member of the stalwart Crab Clan or the proud Lion Clan and in doing so get ready to face thechallenges that lay ahead of the samurai of the Emerald Empire of Rokugan in the years to come In this set you will find

2 Ivory legal and ready to play L5R CCG decks (one Crab one Lion)

4 Ivory legal boosters to improve your deck

A 16-pages story book detailing the events that led to the war

A comprehensive and fully illustrated rulebook

An envelope containing secrets to be discovered at your own risk

Releasing on December 18 2013