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Samurai Edition brings Legend of the Five Rings back to its roots as the most interactive CCG on the market. Players of Legend of the Five Rings not only play the card game, they live the lives of a member of their Clan. Being a Crab Clan player is more than simply flipping cards. They rally together for the glory of their Clan, and the effect of this dedication is seen in continued sales and customer retention.

Samurai Edition will be released in Starter Decks and Booster Packs, with starter decks for all nine playable Clans. The Starter Decks include exclusive cards such as the Clan strongholds and Champions, necessary for play. The booster packs contain a mix of 350 other randomly sorted cards, including collectible holo-foil rares.

Samurai Edition starter decks go beyond the call of duty to capture the customer with their very first purchase. The decks are playable straight from the box. While you may not win a tournament, you will definitely have everything you need to field a legal deck. The Samurai Edition rulebook has been completely redesigned in full color with all new illustrations to assist the customer in learning the game. Each Clan starter has an exclusive rulebook customized for that Clan. For instance, the Crane Clan rulebook will contain Crane oriented fiction and Crane deckbuilding strategy, while the Lion deck contains all the same but for Lions. The building of Clan identity starts right away.

You can download sample images of the Samurai Edition starter decks and display boxes. (462k Zip file).

The Race for the Throne
The Race for the Throne is the first ever Legend of the Five Rings “Mega Game.” This completely interactive experience takes CCG gaming to a whole new level. By earning points for their Clans in the various Spheres of Influence, the players around the world work together to put a member of their Clan on the Imperial Throne in 2008. While CCG prowess earns the points in the Military Sphere, the players creativity takes over in others. Spirit points are earned by charity events run at stores, Political points are earned by L5R costuming at events as well as RPG events. Economy points reward travel to events and the collection of Koku (proof of purchase points on L5R boosters and starters). In just the first leg we saw many amazing things. Among them:

• In a bid to secure the Economy sphere early for the Lion, Noah Decter-Jackson earned the farthest traveled award at ten US Kotei events. That’s right, ten! Noah, now known affectionately as the Wandering Lion, clocked several thousand miles of travel. He does not know it yet, but he’s also earned himself a character card of his online Lion Clan persona in an upcoming expansion! Watch for the Wandering Lion in Honor’s Veil.

• Micah Thomas of the Crab Clan showed his natural design skills winning the Crab both the online signature banner contest and the L5R poster design contest. You’ll see Micah’s poster work in a store near you soon!

• Pablo Rojo hosted the largest Kotei in his home country of Spain, earning the right to award 5 economy points. While giving these points to his Clan, Unicorn, would not change the winner, he was able to award them to the Dragon which shifted the Lion out of first place in the leg.

• John Ling brought the plight of the peasants to the masses, earning multiple Most Spirited awards for his rousing speeches for the workers at the Kotei Events.

• Legend of the Five Rings took to video with clips from many Kotei showing up on the internet, including a rousing speech from Erykha Fasset of the Unicorn at the Chicago Kotei.

• The Crab sent in the most Personalities in our Personality contest, earning Hida Tenshu the right to a new story, but the Mantis truly blew us away with the amount of Koku they sent in for the Economy sphere right at the end of the leg. We had enough koku to literally cover our employee Daniel Ray. Not only did they send enough koku to take the Economy sphere, but they sent it in a green bag embroidered with the Mantis Clan mon! The grand total was over 70,000 Koku for the Mantis. At $3 a booster pack, that’s a lot in sales!

We are now in the 2nd Leg of the Race, with many new ways to earn points for your Clan.

Crafting the World Means Community
We invite you to take a look through our whole site, with special emphasis on the Story. While many games have a background story, Legend of the Five Rings is unique in that the players craft the story through their own actions, both in the game and in the community. To see just how a players actions can change the course of their Clan, sometimes not for the better, read The Cautionary Tale of Bayushi Shinzo. This community building has made Legend of the Five Rings a success through the past 12 years, and with the Race for the Throne and Samurai Edition it is poised to grow to new heights as more new samurai rally to their respective Clans.