In today’s Focus on Emperor Edition, I am going to talk to you about the contents of the starter decks.

As discussed in previous articles, every starter will come with a fully functioning 40/40 deck, so I won’t bother you with that information again. Instead, let’s talk about everything else besides the 40/40 deck, four random rares, and three booster packs you will get in every starter. Some of this has been mentioned before, but will also be discussed here for completeness’ sake.

As you are probably aware, we are focusing on making Emperor Edition a premium product in where we overload you with cool components to give you a truly amazing product. Every aspect has been improved, including the packaging. Every individual starter deck will be covered with your favorite clan’s colors and artwork. Sized to hold a deck comfortably, this will be a great way to carry your deck around.

• Bio cards – When you open the box, you will notice several cards beyond those included in the deck. First we have the Bio cards, a brief description of each of the characters found in the deck. Now you can instantly find out about the characters that you are playing with.

• Koku – Each starter deck will contain a card worth 5 koku, instead of the standard 4.

• Experienced your favorite personality – Just for buying a starter deck, you can impact the story! Each starter deck will contain a card titled “Experience a Personality”. Upon purchase of your starter deck, you will have the option to mail this card, along with your favorite of the 8 non-Champion bio cards found in your starter deck to AEG. The personality whose bio card is most sent in, once for each clan, will receive an experienced version in a future expansion. All envelopes must be postmarked by April 30^th, 2012 to be counted.

• Collect Glory for your clan – As mentioned in a previous article, we spoke of collectible cards that can be traded in for full bleed versions of Clan Champions, Strongholds, and Rings. These cards come in two forms: “Glory of the X Clan” cards and “Ring” cards, which is simply titled as one of the five elements. You can collect three “Glory” cards of a particular clan and trade them in for one fullbleed stronghold of that clan (i.e. you may trade in three Glory of the Crab cards for any one of the Crab strongholds). Or, if you collect one of each clan, you can trade all nine in for any one Clan Champion you choose. If you collect three of any particular “Ring” collectible card, you can trade them in for a fullbleed version of that ring (i.e. you may trade in three Air cards for a fullbleed Ring of Air). If you collect one of each of the “Ring” collectible cards, you may trade them in for any one of the kanji rings of your choice. Each starter deck comes with two of the Glory cards, appropriate to that starter deck, to get you started towards getting your exclusive fullbleed cards. In tournaments, in order to use any of these cards, you must have access to the correct text for your opponent to read, if they so choose.

For all Redemption Cards, please include a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope along with your cards.

• Tokens – Each starter deck is also going to come with six token sheets, generally themed to that clan. Each of these sheets have six punch out tokens that can be used to track various permanent changes in the game. Force bonuses, Wealth tokens, Sake tokens, Poison tokens (you will notice that Poison tokens are –1F/–1C), and other various tokens. These should be helpful in differentiating the different types of tokens various decks can access.

That is all for this article. We hope you will enjoy these extra features we have added. It is only one of the many ways we have upgraded our product to give you the best experience we possibly can.

With our recent expansion into the area formerly known as the Ivory Kingdoms, we are ushering in a new era of Rokugan. In these times of peace, the Samurai in the Colonies will need an outlet for their competitive nature, just as they do here in Rokugan. Therefore, the Divine Child, long may she reign, has decreed that there are to be tournaments held at the Governor’s Estate in the Second City, to find the Samurai most worthy of the task at hand. Throughout the year, there will be more tournaments held at the Governor’s Estate, just as there will be tournaments held here in Rokugan. The first of these tournaments shall be known as In the Shadow of Greatness.

It shall be the first of two tournaments held to celebrate this new era of prosperity. The second shall be held in Rokugan proper, and will discussed further on another day. All participants of the In the Shadow of Greatness tournament shall be given three stories of Folklore relating to the creatures you are having to fight in the wilderness of the colonies, which shall better prepare you for facing them in battle. Use this knowledge to destroy the enemies of the Empire and bring more glory to the Child of the Heavens. The winner of this tournament shall be awarded a new title, as described in the Imperial missive below.

Kakita Genshi
Crane Clan Master of Ceremonies

No man stands alone. Just as the Master Sensei of the Imperial Explorers makes decisions that impact the whole of the organization, he must depend upon skilled and loyal vassals to see his decisions implemented. For the Explorers to succeed in their mission and hold influence in such distant locations as the Second City and Kalani’s Landing, there must be strong leaders among their ranks.

The clan claiming the most victories in this Global Storyline Tournament will determine the clan affiliation of a prominent sensei working with the Imperial Explorers. Just as the Master Sensei holds sway over the group’s operations in the Second City and the surrounding environments, his vassal will coordinate their efforts along the southern coastline and in other such regions.

However, the deck creates a very Negative Play Experience, a term I do not use lightly, often times never allowing your opponent to buy a single personality. And even though the deck is not likely to ever win a tournament, when it is unleashed on the unsuspecting or the casual player, it is enough to make them possibly want to quit the game, which is bad for everyone. In other words, it may not make the cut at a tournament, and if it does it likely will not make it very far into the elimination rounds, but it can be very devastating to the experience of those at the middle and lower end tables. L5R has always been very concerned with the experience all players have at a tournament, not just those who make the elimination rounds.

So with this I have decided to issue erratum to Raido no Oni. Effective immediately, the following trait will be added to Raido.

Will only enter play from a province.

We hope this erratum will get Emperor back on course where we want it to be, and we look forward to having the most successful arc in L5R’s history!

Citizens of Rokugan and the Colonies,

We’ve been blessed with the honor of hosting the 2012 World Championship in Barcelona, Spain, from the 12th to the 14th of October. We’d like to thank AEG for this opportunity and will give our best to create an event that will be written in the Ikoma Histories in golden ink.

A union of the Kotei TOs of Spain has been assembled for the occasion to offer the knowledge and experience of some of the greatest Kotei of all Europe. We’re TO’s, but we’re also players who really love this game and we’ll give the Community what the Community wants in a huge quantity: fun, games, and party!

The Championship will be held at the Auditorium of “Cotxeres de Sants”, an amazing and really big place at the Sants neighborhood, and 5 minutes walking from the train station that communicates directly with the Airport and the main national and international train lines.

Be prepared to live the Legendary Barcelona WC’2012 Experience!

Together we are stronger!

The time for this tournament has come. This weekend – on January 21st – players in Australia will get the chance to impact the story of Legend of the Five Rings with John Zinser – CEO of AEG – in attendance! Come celebrate L5R Down Under with him during this special charity tournament!

Favored of the Celestial Dragon
A Special Charity Tournament for Legend of the Five Rings CCG

 In the aftermath of the Destroyer War, the stability and the benevolence of the Empire of Rokugan under the rule of the Divine Empress Iweko I has returned the favor of the Celestial Heavens to the mortal realm. Once wrathful and conflicted, the great Elemental Dragons now look upon mankind with interest and appreciation, and find their works pleasing to the divine eye. A handful among men will be chosen and found worthy of the dragons’ favor, and these men will possess blessings such as few in Rokugan have ever known.

The winner of this Tournament will create an Emperor Edition legal personality of the faction he played at the tournament (with Story and Design approval). This personality will, in one manner or another, attract the attention of the Celestial Dragon and be granted that his favor.

The Celestial Dragon is the one that holds the Heavens aloft.
He is the guardian of the path of Immortality.
He is the messenger between Ningen Do and Tengoku.

He will for the first time interfere directly in human affairs  and his favor will manifest in different ways depending upon the strengths of the winning clan, but the Personality will gain significant power in the process, and grow to be a figure of great renown in their generation.

Daniel Briscoe
L5R Events Manager

Many people have asked, will they be able to run the release events after the listed dates. The answer is yes – beginning on the specified weekends, stores will be able to run their release events at their discretion. This means if your local store has players in on the following Tuesday, you can run your event then. They simply cannot begin running events until the specified dates.

We want to reward the hard work of our players and the dedication of our retail stores – despite the Emperor Edition delay, we have worked very hard to get this product into stores across the world in as timely a fashion as able. Realize that some places take longer to ship product to than others, and AEG feels that this release schedule will get product into the player’s hands as fast as we possibly can. There has been a slight misconception with the pre-release, and some players have gotten the idea that AEG has intentionally delayed Emperor Edition to allow Stronghold Stores the pre-release opportunity. What happened was the product was delayed until late February, but we were able to get enough product early to supply our stores, an opportunity we are using to support our Stronghold Stores with the pre-release program. The pre-release program had no effect on the full release date. We hope you appreciate our efforts and will enjoy getting your cards starting in just a few weeks.

In the mean time, we’ve offered you Kolat Edition – a way for you to practice, generate excitement, and transition into the Emperor Edition arc. Despite the name and what Master Tiger will tell you, please know that you do not actually need to claim any loyalty to the Kolat in order to play Kolat Edition. We realize that Kotei tournaments begin at the end of February, and while those tournaments currently fall under the window of Kolat Edition legality, every Kotei needs the chance to succeed, and therefore, we are extended the legality of Kolat Edition to the 19^th of March, 2012, which is 30 days after the release of the starter decks to the stores. This way we can make sure that all players are able to get their hands on cards in a timely enough fashion to practice and play with the product before Kotei tournaments, while also making sure that anyone who wants to play at a Kotei event will be able to.

There is going to be a FAQ posted in the forums that will answer questions about Kolat Edition – please refer there for any questions. Allowing our players to play the game for free is not only new territory for us here at AEG, it is new territory for the CCG industry as a whole. We are really excited to bring you both Kolat Edition and Emperor Edition, and your patience with the delays is appreciated more than we could possibly ever tell you. Thank you all for your continued support as we bring in this new era for L5R, one in which every aspect of the game has been revitalized to bring you the best experience possible.