As was always the case with duels in all versions of the game...
A duel can be any two of the following:
-Tense, risky affairs where both sides might win.
-Balanced cards that don't single-handedly overwrite the state of the game.
-Playable cards that are worth including in your deck compared to other cards. 

A duel that's tense and balanced is not going to be playable, because the risk taken is much too high for a reward that's not that much higher than other action cards. A duel that's tense and playable is going to need very large rewards so that they're worth the risk you're taking. And a duel that's balanced and playable is going to have to be pretty low risk so it compares to other actions that offer slightly smaller rewards. 

Duels that are tense, balanced AND playable essentially don't exist. 

As the Attacker you will resolve the Ring twice, once normally in Step 3.2.6 (resolve the Ring) and then again in Step 3.2.7 (Claim the Ring).
As the Defender you will resolve the Ring in Step 3.2.7, even though normally you wouldn't get to resolve the ring.

We have an exclusive first look at the amazing cover for AconyteBooks #L5R book 'The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons’ along with an interview with the author Marie Brennan who tells us why she loves Legend of the Five Rings.
https://imperialadvisor.com/2020/10/27/the-night-parade-of-a-hundred-demons/

 

A lot of this sounds like theory crafting that doesn't apply to how the game actually plays.

A lot of this sounds like theory crafting that doesn't apply to how the game actually plays.

Yeah, sure....
It's very annoying to pronounce Asako Kenji but Shub Niggurath or Nyarlathotep are easy.

Greetings fellow samurai of Rokugan!
It is time for another Imperial Census!  The purpose of this survey is to gauge the current interests and opinions of players of the Legend of the Five Rings LCG, RPG, and other related things.  The survey is broken up into a few parts, some general information about the player, some more general questions about the LCG, Story, and RPG, and some detailed questions about particular mechanics and aspects of the LCG and RPG.  However, the survey assumes at least some vague knowledge and interest in L5R.
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Yeah, I can see how Icon of Favour is really blowing up the scene, and Dragon have definitely been going all in on Niten Student. Or perhaps it's just a coincidence that just as in cards without Role Restrictions, some cards with Role Restrictions are bad, and some are too good. Certainly Supernatural Storm and Voice of Honour and Let Go and Censure and Shinjo Ambusher have all been kept in check by their Role Restrictions.
 
But this was the whole point of freeing the Roles... The top players had their best Role more often than not. But now everyone gets to play the one they want. A Role doesn't no longer has to be competitive for someone to build a deck out of it, and people aiming to be competitive very little has actually changed.

Yeah, I can see how Icon of Favour is really blowing up the scene, and Dragon have definitely been going all in on Niten Student. Or perhaps it's just a coincidence that just as in cards without Role Restrictions, some cards with Role Restrictions are bad, and some are too good. Certainly Supernatural Storm and Voice of Honour and Let Go and Censure and Shinjo Ambusher have all been kept in check by their Role Restrictions.
 
But this was the whole point of freeing the Roles... The top players had their best Role more often than not. But now everyone gets to play the one they want. A Role doesn't no longer has to be competitive for someone to build a deck out of it, and people aiming to be competitive very little has actually changed.

I think it's simply a data interpretation issue. Odds are if I was playing in an Elements Unbound event I would have played the same deck that was currently legal, because it had the best Role for the deck. And that is true for a lot of Clans- it wasn't hard to always have access to one of the best Roles for you Clan. And if there's Regular and Elements Unbound events running at the same time, it makes sense for me to play in the one where I can better predict the format, as it gives me a better chance of winning. And even going forward, most of the competitive players in the game will continue to play what is considered the Clan's most competitive Role. However, now that 25% of the players that wanted to play something new and different can do so in official events, regardless of what the top tier players think. For me that was the entire point of the freeing the Roles.
 
I'm also not super convinced there's a large proportion of the game's competitive US playerbase that isn't active online, simply because I don't think the game has that many players.

That's the whole point? Citation needed, please - that's not an interpretation of the Roles choice that I'm familiar with.
It's pretty safe to assume all ToCs have, since the very first Role Ceremony, picked with the best interests of their chosen clan in mind - there has yet to be any kind of troll pick. There absolutely were players among the ToCs at Worlds this year that would have preferred to keep the Roles, but by conducting the vote in public (and stating it had to be unanimous to pass), it removed their ability to make the choice they wanted to make. Instead, they were bullied into a different outcome, which was absolutely unfair to the players involved.
As I've said before, I'm ultimately on board with the decision, and I think it will prove to be beneficial to the game as a whole. There's just so many better ways it could have gone down - if the system wasn't working, FFG should have owned up to that and made the decision themselves, or if they wanted a democratic vote, they should have just required a majority to let it pass... handily there was an odd number of voters.

I'd be very interested to see what the result would be if voting among the top of clans was done as a secret ballot instead (each player simply marks yes or no with no identifying features on the votes). Remove peer pressure and coercion if you want a fair vote.
Note I'm fine with the Roles being freed, but intensely dislike the manner that it was done - it seems pretty obvious with the Roles ceremony being absent from the schedule/description and the stone versions of the Roles not actually at Worlds that the decision was made beforehand. Just announce that rather than use the ToCs as a scapegoat in case things go wrong.
 

The idea that changing roles constantly created new decks and playing styles is a fallacy that has been disproven repeatedly by tournament results. It rarely created new decks, it only ever temporarily weakened good decks until the Roles cycled back around again 4 months later. New cards created new decks, and the Roles were more likely stop people being able to play those new cards as enable them. Role Locking wasn't an amazing tool that constantly allowed the tournament environment to rotate and change- just ask anyone who has played against Crab since the start of the game how different that matchup feels. 
I have played the same deck since before the first Gencon event- Bid 1 Scorpion Dishonour. The most impactful changes to my deck were not due to Roles changing, but due to the Restricted List. Not once was I put in a situation where I felt I had to change my playstyle because of the available Roles.  The top Clans had access to the Roles they wanted for their best decks. Scorpion were never stuck suffering with a poor Role and forced to build entirely new decks. Nor were Crane. Or Dragon. Or Crab. In fact that only Clan to really suffer from poor Role choices were Lion, who went into Worlds with no Keeper Role in the Clan perhaps best able to take advantage of those Role locked cards. 
Role locking didn't balance the environment in even the slightest way. And in reality since the top players in a Clan were picking the Roles that best suited how they wanted to play, which was generally the same way they got into a position to be involved in that decision, the only people who were seeing their deck building opportunities lost were those that wanted to try something new. 
 
There was some merit to Role Locking when the card pool was so small that variety was otherwise impossible. But now there are enough good cards in each element that decks can be built to fully take advantage of most of them- Air, Earth and Water each have cards that most Clans will happily build around. And now there's a chance for people to do that, instead of every Scorpion deck using whichever Air/Keeper Role is currently available but otherwise playing a weaker or stronger version of the same deck. And if in the unlikely scenario that everyone just ends up playing the same deck, we are in absolutely no different a position than we would have been had Role Locking remained.

The idea that changing roles constantly created new decks and playing styles is a fallacy that has been disproven repeatedly by tournament results. It rarely created new decks, it only ever temporarily weakened good decks until the Roles cycled back around again 4 months later. New cards created new decks, and the Roles were more likely stop people being able to play those new cards as enable them. Role Locking wasn't an amazing tool that constantly allowed the tournament environment to rotate and change- just ask anyone who has played against Crab since the start of the game how different that matchup feels. 
I have played the same deck since before the first Gencon event- Bid 1 Scorpion Dishonour. The most impactful changes to my deck were not due to Roles changing, but due to the Restricted List. Not once was I put in a situation where I felt I had to change my playstyle because of the available Roles.  The top Clans had access to the Roles they wanted for their best decks. Scorpion were never stuck suffering with a poor Role and forced to build entirely new decks. Nor were Crane. Or Dragon. Or Crab. In fact that only Clan to really suffer from poor Role choices were Lion, who went into Worlds with no Keeper Role in the Clan perhaps best able to take advantage of those Role locked cards. 
Role locking didn't balance the environment in even the slightest way. And in reality since the top players in a Clan were picking the Roles that best suited how they wanted to play, which was generally the same way they got into a position to be involved in that decision, the only people who were seeing their deck building opportunities lost were those that wanted to try something new. 
 
There was some merit to Role Locking when the card pool was so small that variety was otherwise impossible. But now there are enough good cards in each element that decks can be built to fully take advantage of most of them- Air, Earth and Water each have cards that most Clans will happily build around. And now there's a chance for people to do that, instead of every Scorpion deck using whichever Air/Keeper Role is currently available but otherwise playing a weaker or stronger version of the same deck. And if in the unlikely scenario that everyone just ends up playing the same deck, we are in absolutely no different a position than we would have been had Role Locking remained.

The idea that changing roles constantly created new decks and playing styles is a fallacy that has been disproven repeatedly by tournament results. It rarely created new decks, it only ever temporarily weakened good decks until the Roles cycled back around again 4 months later. New cards created new decks, and the Roles were more likely stop people being able to play those new cards as enable them. Role Locking wasn't an amazing tool that constantly allowed the tournament environment to rotate and change- just ask anyone who has played against Crab since the start of the game how different that matchup feels. 
I have played the same deck since before the first Gencon event- Bid 1 Scorpion Dishonour. The most impactful changes to my deck were not due to Roles changing, but due to the Restricted List. Not once was I put in a situation where I felt I had to change my playstyle because of the available Roles.  The top Clans had access to the Roles they wanted for their best decks. Scorpion were never stuck suffering with a poor Role and forced to build entirely new decks. Nor were Crane. Or Dragon. Or Crab. In fact that only Clan to really suffer from poor Role choices were Lion, who went into Worlds with no Keeper Role in the Clan perhaps best able to take advantage of those Role locked cards. 
Role locking didn't balance the environment in even the slightest way. And in reality since the top players in a Clan were picking the Roles that best suited how they wanted to play, which was generally the same way they got into a position to be involved in that decision, the only people who were seeing their deck building opportunities lost were those that wanted to try something new. 
 
There was some merit to Role Locking when the card pool was so small that variety was otherwise impossible. But now there are enough good cards in each element that decks can be built to fully take advantage of most of them- Air, Earth and Water each have cards that most Clans will happily build around. And now there's a chance for people to do that, instead of every Scorpion deck using whichever Air/Keeper Role is currently available but otherwise playing a weaker or stronger version of the same deck. And if in the unlikely scenario that everyone just ends up playing the same deck, we are in absolutely no different a position than we would have been had Role Locking remained.

The idea that changing roles constantly created new decks and playing styles is a fallacy that has been disproven repeatedly by tournament results. It rarely created new decks, it only ever temporarily weakened good decks until the Roles cycled back around again 4 months later. New cards created new decks, and the Roles were more likely stop people being able to play those new cards as enable them. Role Locking wasn't an amazing tool that constantly allowed the tournament environment to rotate and change- just ask anyone who has played against Crab since the start of the game how different that matchup feels. 
I have played the same deck since before the first Gencon event- Bid 1 Scorpion Dishonour. The most impactful changes to my deck were not due to Roles changing, but due to the Restricted List. Not once was I put in a situation where I felt I had to change my playstyle because of the available Roles.  The top Clans had access to the Roles they wanted for their best decks. Scorpion were never stuck suffering with a poor Role and forced to build entirely new decks. Nor were Crane. Or Dragon. Or Crab. In fact that only Clan to really suffer from poor Role choices were Lion, who went into Worlds with no Keeper Role in the Clan perhaps best able to take advantage of those Role locked cards. 
Role locking didn't balance the environment in even the slightest way. And in reality since the top players in a Clan were picking the Roles that best suited how they wanted to play, which was generally the same way they got into a position to be involved in that decision, the only people who were seeing their deck building opportunities lost were those that wanted to try something new. 
 
There was some merit to Role Locking when the card pool was so small that variety was otherwise impossible. But now there are enough good cards in each element that decks can be built to fully take advantage of most of them- Air, Earth and Water each have cards that most Clans will happily build around. And now there's a chance for people to do that, instead of every Scorpion deck using whichever Air/Keeper Role is currently available but otherwise playing a weaker or stronger version of the same deck. And if in the unlikely scenario that everyone just ends up playing the same deck, we are in absolutely no different a position than we would have been had Role Locking remained.

You'd think something this big would merit a post on the main page. I know FFG can be slow with updates but some official word for those of us not at worlds would be nice.

It’s not really always have access to them. I mean you aren’t getting soul beyond reproach and fight on together. The balance portion wasn’t really about people not having access part of the year. That would be unintelligent at best as it creates even more lopsided power skewing for a meta. It really was as incentive prize for winning. In part that makes sense but it is a rich keep getting richer scenario and bad for new players so...

This is great and will hopefully revitalize the game.

It is likely that a standalone multiplayer product wouldn't be profitable enough to exist, so they needed to include some otherwise legal and useful cards to justify it. It sucks for people who don't like multiplayer, but means that the option can exist for the people that do, which to me is a a fair trade off.
 
And honestly, if only 30% of the cards are completely unusable in regular play that's still a better percentage than most Cycles  

It is likely that a standalone multiplayer product wouldn't be profitable enough to exist, so they needed to include some otherwise legal and useful cards to justify it. It sucks for people who don't like multiplayer, but means that the option can exist for the people that do, which to me is a a fair trade off.
 
And honestly, if only 30% of the cards are completely unusable in regular play that's still a better percentage than most Cycles  

Nope.

Or you don't see the Kaiu Daimyo and have a deck clogged with Holdings.

Nope.

I'd be careful liking my posts, Jon. You may get shame heaped upon you.