Here at AEG, we are constantly striving to improve the quality of L5R product that we bring to you. As part of this ongoing improvement, we felt this would be a good time to give you an update on AEG’s plan to make a printer change. As you all know we have had some collation, scheduling and other print issues throughout the last year. Printing L5R is tough at times, and our printer partners do more than just print the game, they help us get it shipped and deal with getting it collated.
In our search to fix these issues we have found that there are only a few printers in the world who can do CCG sorting and printing. Sorting is the big problem, but paper is also important. We have searched all over the world for print partners from China to Italy and from Belgium to the USA. We are working with a few new print partners over the course of the next few sets so we expect some growing pains – but we have found that they can do so much more for L5R moving forward, in terms of packaging and special print runs, that it is worth the change.
We are also going to take this opportunity to make a few print upgrades, which may mean minor changes to the cards. This in turn will mean, starting with Imperial Gift 3, sleeves will be required through the end of this arc for tournament play. Given the abundance of good, quality sleeves, and the desire for most players to protect their cards from wear and tear, we feel the increased quality of the cards will far outweigh the need for sleeves for the rest of Celestial Edition. We expect the long-term benefit to be clearer printing, fewer collation issues, better quality cards, and more options for you.
Another new tournament policy for Gen Con will come into effect this year. In Gen Con’s main event, you can play whatever clan you wish on Saturday, regardless of what clan you used to qualify with.
Also, for this year only, players who won seeds prior to Gen Con (Kotei Winners, past European and Gen Con Champions, and Arc Champions) will receive those seeds at both Gen Con AND the World Championships. For this year only, you do not need to pick between one or the other.
We will keep you updated and look forward to your opinion, thoughts and constructive feedback as we go through this process.
Thank you,
The L5R Team
