Played through the first scenario and enjoyed it very much. Somehow it incorporates some of my favorite aspects of Runebound 3rd, Descent with app, and Mansions of Madness. All wrapped up in my favorite setting. I can't complain. 
I say bring on the comparisons to Gloomhaven. I say this because I think Gloomhaven is the largest over-hyped puzzle game with zero immersion ever Kickstarted or produced normally. I own it and have played 20+ times and expected to "get" what other people see in it, but never did. Hey, you just got a super duper chest reward, what is it???? Oh, another scenario unlocked, aren't there already 100. Oh, I have a really cool Ability, but must wait about 10 minutes until I get my energy up enough (cycle through my cards) before I can do it again. Oh, we cleared all the bad guys but I'm just too tired (ran out of cards) to go over there and finish. 
Then there are some things that are innovative but weird. Ex. The way you can manipulate your modifier deck was super cool but how you gained 'experience' enough to do it was wonky. Secret Objectives that were random and un-immersive. The enemy AI had great potential but fell flat. I actually like the AI in Descent app (and moreso the Imperial Assault app) better in effect although again the GH AI had potential. 
I hate de-railing the topic but have to jump in and let others know GH is not the bomb. I seriously think if Descent had never existed before but some indie company Kickstarted it right now with a high price point and with all these unlock-able stretch goals, such as new Heroes or Item Cards or Monster groups, then it would have been a Huge Hit like GH. Maybe moreso because the dice mechanic with the innovate Surges that can be spent for a myriad of different Abilities is much more immersive and fun then the slog of a deck building mess that GH is. 
Back on topic, I am very excited for what JiME offers out of the box and can't wait to see what they do with it with expansions! Happy Gaming!

I thought that with no IP to pay for that FFG would stick through longer to see if a larger following would ever be made. Too bad because this game was a great way for people interested in mini war games to play without the larger time and money investment of the bid dawgs. I even liked Warhammer Diskwars that FFG did and which RWMG borrowed some of the innovations from, so for me this is the second FFG mini war game that was ditched. I don't blame them but was just hoping. There will be many that will say why complain since we already have a near complete game which will give years of enjoyment but, to me, it seems like part of the fun of a MWG is to have a living community that is continuously releasing new products. 
 
Also, it seems a little weasely to announce this the same day they make a huge announcement for a new LotR product. 

OP, how dare you say something positive about the future of this game?
This game, that was dead before FFG formed as a comic seller in 1965.
This game, that is so bad I had to spend $200 to unload my original investment of $200 (the bank made me do it, or maybe it was the Deep State, I am so mad at this game that I cannot remember).
This game who is so red headed stepchild to Legion that Bill Shakespeare himself revived himself (he had a green mana) to document the horrid tragedy of it. 
This game. Wait, I like this game and also wish it well and will continue to have fun playing and playing with it. Oh crap, I became optimistic too, see OP,  your contagion spreads. 

I am sure they did their market research. Hoping they did. I want them to keep making games.
They obviously felt they could sell more copies to current L5R fans then they could in a future unknown quantity in Genesys/SW fans. I am personally disappointed because I was hoping they they would bring everything under one system. I was excited for Genesys for this reason. Now I am on the fence. Will they release future RPGs under the Genesys system? That depends on whether it's a new setting or an established setting I guess. 
Business 101 is keep current customers and bring in new customers. The problem being that L5R fans will probably buy the game no matter the system. There will be a vocal minority that won't and will make their opinion heard on forums of course.  They obviously felt that they could attract more new customers with this system they have designed.
I see too much fragmentation. If my players are playing Genesys or SW, will they want to take the time to learn a new L5R system. At all the tables that I run, the answer is no. I will have a hard enough time converting them from Star Wars to Genesys. Vice versa if my table was playing L5R would they want to learn Genesys or Star Wars? Again guessing, very few. 
 
Who is in charge of their RPG line? Can we contact him or her. :-) 

I think they weighed their potential audiences: Genesys fans (who may or may not be familiar with L5R) and L5R fans (who may or may not be familiar with Genesys). It seems they took the middle option in an attempt to appeal to the new while also respecting the history, which is an awesome way to piss off people from both sides.
Personal observation, but I think FFG are fighting a losing battle trying to work with the license. It may be a vocal minority, but there seems to be a great deal of 'fans' that show very unpleasant traits that make creating anything difficult. Rock and hard place, damnmed if they do, damnmed if they don't situation.

Well, from Genesys this beta has:
The custom dice are from Genesys Rivals and minions (idk why they cut off nemesis) Motivation / obligation Combat, silouette, mechanics Abstract band sizes From L5R this beta has:
The five stats (four elements + void) Clans, families Massive combat Honor Special maneuvers Combat stances

FYI: In the original editions, each non-Void Ring was subdivided into two Attributes - one mental and one physical representation of the element, as follows:

Earth: Stamina, Willpower
Water: Strength, Perception
Fire: Agility, Intelligence
Air: Reflexes, Awareness
So all they're really doing is cutting down the potential sources of dice from 8 to 4.

In a Genesys adaptation, we'd be doing this too.
EDIT: No, the non-D20 editions were "Standard D10s only".

And the very second they confirmed that L5R won't be based on Genesys I lost interest in it. If I ever want to play L5R again I'll use the D20 I already own. Functioned for my group.
I am growing older and lazy, so I am reluctant to learn a new system  every other week  
It's a bit sad though, L5R in Genesys could've been a perfect litmus test for their home grown sandbox system.

Sure it's a quick glance from me but I think it's enough to say L5R RPG certainly is not Genesys. I wasn't that interested in the setting so I'm ok with this but it does blow my theories about the path of Genesys. Now L5R is different in that it has a LONG history (I think four editions) of being an RPG so maybe FFG is aiming to please fans of the old system. I can't tell because I have no knowledge of the old L5R systems beyond it was called Roll and Keep (R&K) I believe. So enough on that. 
What does this mean for Genesys? Will it be a stand alone sandbox system, will FFG release settings like Runbound or will Runebound be a seperate system that is very similar to Genesys. My guess is a setting inside of Genesys because I played Runebound Genesys at Gen Con and it seemed like a nearly done entity. I'm hoping to see a setting book for Runbound soon after the Release of Genesys Core sometime in the next couple of months. This is mostly because I loved playing,it at Gen Con and what I saw of what they did with the Archetyoes from Descent was really cool and seemed to work in the narrative dice system better than I had imagined. 
Anyways, that is still my hope. And I do hope the L5R RPG fans will be happy with their product.  

Sure it's a quick glance from me but I think it's enough to say L5R RPG certainly is not Genesys. I wasn't that interested in the setting so I'm ok with this but it does blow my theories about the path of Genesys. Now L5R is different in that it has a LONG history (I think four editions) of being an RPG so maybe FFG is aiming to please fans of the old system. I can't tell because I have no knowledge of the old L5R systems beyond it was called Roll and Keep (R&K) I believe. So enough on that. 
What does this mean for Genesys? Will it be a stand alone sandbox system, will FFG release settings like Runbound or will Runebound be a seperate system that is very similar to Genesys. My guess is a setting inside of Genesys because I played Runebound Genesys at Gen Con and it seemed like a nearly done entity. I'm hoping to see a setting book for Runbound soon after the Release of Genesys Core sometime in the next couple of months. This is mostly because I loved playing,it at Gen Con and what I saw of what they did with the Archetyoes from Descent was really cool and seemed to work in the narrative dice system better than I had imagined. 
Anyways, that is still my hope. And I do hope the L5R RPG fans will be happy with their product.  

I was lucky enough to have DarthGM as my GM (we were the group from Mobile, AL that kept trying to kill horses) and first I'd like to say thanks Phil, that was one of the best experiences my group had at Gen Con. I would also like to chime in and say that it was fascinating to me how effortless and well the narrative dice system worked in this fantasy setting. Armor seemed intuitive and balanced, Magic made sense and was in fact very fun and more malleable than in 5e. Social Actions also worked very well. Maybe this shouldn't be surprising since a similar system was used in WHFRP 4e, right? I think for me I have enjoyed SW so much in this FFG system and fantasy so much in 5e that I thought there was something inherent in each that facilitated its setting but turns out this was wrong. I came away very excited about this particular setting for Genesys, to me overall it felt like a much more fleshed out and uninhibited Descent encounter and I mean that in the most fun and exciting way possible. 
 

I was lucky enough to have DarthGM as my GM (we were the group from Mobile, AL that kept trying to kill horses) and first I'd like to say thanks Phil, that was one of the best experiences my group had at Gen Con. I would also like to chime in and say that it was fascinating to me how effortless and well the narrative dice system worked in this fantasy setting. Armor seemed intuitive and balanced, Magic made sense and was in fact very fun and more malleable than in 5e. Social Actions also worked very well. Maybe this shouldn't be surprising since a similar system was used in WHFRP 4e, right? I think for me I have enjoyed SW so much in this FFG system and fantasy so much in 5e that I thought there was something inherent in each that facilitated its setting but turns out this was wrong. I came away very excited about this particular setting for Genesys, to me overall it felt like a much more fleshed out and uninhibited Descent encounter and I mean that in the most fun and exciting way possible. 
 

I was lucky enough to have DarthGM as my GM (we were the group from Mobile, AL that kept trying to kill horses) and first I'd like to say thanks Phil, that was one of the best experiences my group had at Gen Con. I would also like to chime in and say that it was fascinating to me how effortless and well the narrative dice system worked in this fantasy setting. Armor seemed intuitive and balanced, Magic made sense and was in fact very fun and more malleable than in 5e. Social Actions also worked very well. Maybe this shouldn't be surprising since a similar system was used in WHFRP 4e, right? I think for me I have enjoyed SW so much in this FFG system and fantasy so much in 5e that I thought there was something inherent in each that facilitated its setting but turns out this was wrong. I came away very excited about this particular setting for Genesys, to me overall it felt like a much more fleshed out and uninhibited Descent encounter and I mean that in the most fun and exciting way possible. 
 

I'm thinking more in lines of how FFG will do it as opposed to how I would want a generic fantasy magic to work with the narrative dice. With this in mind, an important place to start is Setting and so I will use Runewars (Terrinoth) as the Setting since it is what is being used at Gen Con and therefore probably one of the templates used in the Beta and then Core book.
Runewars is unusual because of the need for Runes. Not as funny as the 'Winds of Magic' in Warhammer Fantasy yet not typical fantasy. To me the best place to look is how Magic work in their RPG board game Descent. In Descent you have 5 classes of the Archetyoe Wizard thus far. To me the Runemaster would be the most generic. If you look at its advancement tree, represented by Class Cards one can acquire by spending XP, a lot of their abilities are tied into Runic Weapons that are Ranged Weapons that they can equip. This may be a good place for FFG to start and work from there. You have a Ranged Magical (Runic) Weapon that you make an Attack with and using Range, cover, etc you set the # of Difficulty Die. Like in Descent, Damage Done will not only be net Successes but also modifiers from Abilities, Runes acquired and placed in the Weapon (modifications) and the Wepon itself.  The amount of green/yellow dice will be from the usual innate ability vs skill determination. 
This is my jab at how they just may place the most basic forms of Magical Damage in the game.

Not in my view. I prefer artwork, screen shots from movies make a game look cheesy.

My current elves deck can beat every Quest in the game reliably except four (not counting Nightmare):
Dol Guldur (not bad if I choose the prisoner)
A Journey to Rhosghobel (after side boarding it becomes easy)
Shadow and Flame (needs heavy side boarding and is still difficult)
Siege of Cair Andros (needs a good draw and a bit of luck at the start)
That said, I have been with the game from before the beginning and have every pack.

Greetings, forum goers!

My name is Mitch, and I'm one of the co-hosts of the Cardboard of the Rings podcast. I haven't posted here in an age, but I wanted to share with those in the LOTR LCG community that are as of yet unaware of it, a project I've been working on for some time now.

Since December of last year, both myself and a gentleman named Matthew (user Dain Ironfoot of these forums), have been slowly but steadily creating HD-quality video play-throughs of each and every existing scenario. We just recently published our 50th Episode, are looking to release many more installments in the near future, and wanted to spread the word.

The name of our project is The LOTR LCG Progression Series, wherein he and I play through each and every expansion for our beloved franchise in the order of its chronological release; for instance, when playing through Conflict at the Carrock, we built decks as though A Journey to Rhosgobel and other, future releases do not exist. However, we also adhere to the most up-to-date version of the FAQ, so that all of these cards nevertheless function as the developers intended them to. In this way, hopefully the videos appeal to beginners and veterans alike. At the present moment we are working our way through The Hobbit: On the Doorstep Saga Expansion, and in our very latest installment we try our hand at playing The Battle of Lake-town.

Beyond merely releasing scenario play-throughs, we also do in-depth card analyses for each and every release, and the series has been a blast to produce thus far. For an example, check out our recent review of The Hobbit: On the Doorstep Player Cards. If you've never heard of our videos, I strongly recommend you check them out, and if you've only seen our early episodes, I would definitely encourage you to take a look at some of our later adventures - we had a great time with Heirs of Numenor.

In any case, we hope you enjoy the series! We love sharing our passion for this game with everyone.