Early Days Again

By Brent Keith
Lead Designer

So there we were, sitting in a circle on the floor of our new apartment with four friends with a bunch of cards from some new game scattered in the middle. It was late summer of 1996, and some friends had just picked up a bunch of starters for a new card game called Legend of the Five Rings. We each took one pretty much at random, broke off the cello-wrap, shuffled the two decks, and started working our way through our first game. This was so early in the game that the stronghold boxes were all from Imperial Edition and Shadowlands, the first expansion. Both Scorpion and Naga were part of that first game, as were many of the original six clans.

We were hooked.

In the weeks that followed, we hooked about a third of the local Theta Chi chapter on the game, leading to many evenings and weekends of large multiplayer games going on in the living room and dining room, with new decks every game as we would wheel and deal to direct attacks at other player’s provinces instead of our own. Ours was a very casual environment, with decks built around all kinds of concepts: story based, weird art themes (like the all female deck or the Matt Wilson deck), decks with odd mechanical intents (including a successful Lion holding destruction deck), and attempts at every possible victory condition - including a Junzo deck that managed to win via honor (and I don’t mean Dashmar!). The crowning game was a massive 12 player game, with each person playing a different faction. (Our Imperial Favor marker for that game was a 3 foot tall inflatable emperor penguin!)

Many things drew us to the game. Most of us were veteran card players, experienced with everything from other CCG’s to Bridge. The CCG concept was still new and fresh, and that alone was enough to pull some in. The mechanics were a step (or more) above most games on the market at that time. With others playing locally, it was easy to organize games. We could build our decks for different kinds of victories. The biggest hooks, though, were the flavor and storyline. Many of us joined the Imperial Assembly, and all of us would try to piece together the story from flavor text, the backs and sides of the boxes, snippets found online, the rule book, the Imperial Herald, and any other source we could find. Cards like Yuki no Onna captured familiar Japanese mythology with art, mechanics, and flavor text blending together for a highly thematic whole. The five Rings captured the essence of Musashi’s works, especially in the art of a samurai going through sword kata, while the original terrains went down the list described in Sun Tzu’s Art of War. Personalities like Toturi begged the questions of what happened to make him come into play dishonored, and why he wouldn’t join clans like the Phoenix. Coolest of all, we knew that if we could make it to a convention, we had a chance of influencing the story!

Eleven years later, I find myself in the seat of lead design for L5R - something I never imagined back then! In that time, there have been many changes. Advances in network technology have changed the way we tell the story. Factions have risen and fallen, coming into and then out of tourney legality. Ownership of the L5R brand has changed hands multiple times. A slew of related spin-off games using the license has emerged, some going strong while others have faded away. Some changes have been very beneficial in the long run, such as some massive cleanups of templating. Others have had down sides, such as the period when there were 15 playable factions all at the same time! A third group is those changes which made the game more and more exciting and interesting for experienced players, but had the down sides of raising the barrier for beginning players and removing some of the close connection between flavor and mechanics.

Since I took on the role of lead design, I have had one overwhelming goal: steer the game in a direction which is fun and exciting for the largest player base possible. The tournament scene can not be ignored, of course - especially since that is by far the most visible aspect of Legend of the Five Rings! However, L5R is more than just tournaments. L5R is also players coming to the tournaments in clan attire. L5R is LARPs with over 100 people involved, all trying to win glory and power for their clan. L5R is a game of honor, which is displayed not just in mechanics but also in the way players act towards one another as well as in charitable activities. (Witness the string of Gencon Challenge Booths and Eric Devlin’s charity events for proof of that!) L5R is a game where you can build a deck around the virtues of Bushido, or you can try to corrupt a clan with the slippery path of its dark mirror. L5R is a community of players who care deeply for the game, for their clans, and for each other. When I wrote the first draft of the Race For the Throne rules, I was trying to capture all these elements and reward all the different ways of expressing pride in clan and game. When John, Todd, Mark, Shawn, and the rest of us have been in brainstorming meetings for the different sets, a major emphasis of the meetings and the ideas generated has been how to further integrate all the different aspects of L5R so it feels like an even greater whole. As we go forward, you can expect to see an even stronger connection between art, story, and mechanics, a wider variety of theme decks possible, and even more ways to have an impact on the continuing story of Legend of the Five Rings.