Alas, the day that Sam Mann​ and I once hoped would never happen has finally arrived. In a collaborative finale with co-hosts Scott​ and Brian​ of the First Planet Podcast​, I present for your listening enjoyment the last planned episode of The Tyrantcast.
 
During this two-podcast-sendoff, we hosts discuss the best and worst cards and warlords for each of the nine released factions, reminisce about some of our favorite card game and community memories, and together, celebrate some of our most treasured experiences involving Warhammer 40,000: Conquest.
 
We close by each explaining our respective plans as to whether or not to remain involved with this LCG, and share any intent to become more active in other gaming communities.
Regardless of any difference in continued interest in Conquest, I think that we can all certainly agree that the “Living” component of this LCG will indeed be sorely missed.
 
So, here’s hoping that you join Sam, Scott, Brian and myself for one final listen. I thank you to everyone for your support of The Hive Tyrant channel, and The Tyrantcast, and I wish you each the best.
 
Take care, community – and know that producing videos would never have been worth it without the engagement, respect, and friendship, of so many of you.
 
The Tyrantcast #29: The End Comes

And even then, probably not.
 
The source material IP may be a Games Workshop property, but the rule book, game mechanics, card design, and text of all existing cards are FFG copyright. It gets legally complicated to continue the game with a new company without paying the original company royalties (unless significant changes are made).
 
Of course, we don't know if GW picked up the rights to the FFG copyright aspects of the games when the license ended, but based on the rumors around how the GW/FFG relationship fell apart, I'd guess it's more likely GW will create a new WH40K-themed card game than continue Conquest in anything resembling its current form.

A expansion to this game is vital -- I mean seeing this huge game box sold in popular high streets shops, everywhere, and THEN to see FF ditching this game would be Heresy. Heresy!
 
First off -- Introducing a 5th Player and thus another Faction is a MUST! They need to build up to having the same number of factions as W40k Conquest. Perhaps adding that 5th Faction like they did the Skaven in Chaos in the Old World expansion...? Hm, but which faction...? Imperial Guard... or is that too close to Space Marines...? Then surely Tau! That would be awesome!!!! Or just go straight for Tyranids, that would be game changing...
 
Second --- New Units would be awesome -- perhaps like with Rune Wars where they created an add-on to the player sheet. Somehow or another it is totally do-able.
 
Third --- Cards... more of 'em! (I think the Combat cards are brilliant, great design with inter-faction warfare relevance and so on. So I think I would like to see more Event Cards. But hey am I getting greedy?!?)
 
Fourth --- A new type of Order???
 
Fifth --- Some more System Tiles -- perhaps with some extra spice... Maybe Warp related, or, or....? (Hm, perhaps I am getting greedy... but **** it this game could grow, grow and out shine Twilight Imperium...I tells ya!!!)
 
Anyhow the FF website is long overdue some news on Forbidden Stars...

Actually a stand alone game with a similar time period with 4 more interchangeable races would be great. Something that is fairly similar but a conflict that does its own thing. Something like instead of Warp Storms you get...
 
An exploring tile flipping mechanism.  An AI faction that tries to push all the player groups out of their system or perhaps a semi coop mode for those that like it.  More building variety with bigger tiles and planet destruction or scaring.  Or other ideas not listed.

No news still...we really could use some official response from FFG

Okay. Here is what you originally wrote:
 

I see no disagreement with the "let's tweak shugenja a bit" camp (broadly defined) here, and in fact I infer that staking out the common ground was your point, so onward~  

So I provided two separate examples (could have thrown in at least one more, but it was getting redundant and I was out of permitted quotes) of participants in the thread making it very clear and explicit that they know shugenja aren't currently mechanically "designed to specifically interact with spirits other than kami just because they are shugenja," but that they're discussing this angle because they're interested in evaluating whether making a change so that shugenja do have some benefit in these interactions would be good for the game.
Then, because you'd suggested that "previously quoted references"--I inferred from context that you might mean references to the RPG books--"doesn't address" this issue, I provided two examples from earlier in the thread of references to the books that do suggest shugenja have a special insight, and expectation of duty, relating to stuff like the Fortunes, the spirits of the dead, the Tao, etc. Those quotes from earlier posts also make clear that these references may sometimes contradict with, or at least aren't very well supported mechanically by, other parts of the RPG material, resulting in considerable ambiguity.
You now say,
 

A perfectly fine post in itself, though it doesn't necessarily follow all that closely from your original post, which definitely did not go so far as to imply "Magic is not required to fulfill the "societal duties" of a shugenja." (I actually think that's quite a radical contention, which no one else has yet made!) If the material I reposted doesn't address what you're writing here, well, that's because this is actually another angle, making different claims and raising different questions than what you wrote before. (The mild frustration I felt while writing my post above does not, alas, imbue me with the powers of telepathy or time travel.)
So, kinda new ground at last! Yay! Though again, I felt as I read this like a lot of the foregoing discussion is still going unnoticed. Some of us, right from the beginning of the conversation, have actually talked quite a bit already about the fact that we feel like spirit-human interactions (other than stabbing) for all types of characters are neglected both mechanically and in terms of guidance like GM advice and adventure hooks, and that indeed dealing with this in a thorough way would be a big step toward solving the "shugenja problem" (always inasmuch as one agrees that such a thing exists). Examples: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/191735-rpg-shugenja-huh-what-are-you-good-for/, https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/191735-rpg-shugenja-huh-what-are-you-good-for/ , https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/191735-rpg-shugenja-huh-what-are-you-good-for/page-3#entry1858944 (a non-exclusive list). So, now that we seem to be in broad agreement that this is or should be the case, any further thoughts on how to actually incorporate it better into the world and mechanical design of the game?
I'll add that when you claim there "exists this assumed correlation between shugenja being spell casters and shugenja being spiritual leaders and, really, that's just not the case," I'm not sure I can really respond well unless you bring in the bits of the books you're thinking of and define your terms a bit more. "Assumed" in-setting, or by real-world readers? "Correlation" as in an observational correlation ("humans who are shugenja are more usually than not also observed being spiritual leaders," which barring a few flashy exceptions I think is pretty hard to argue with), or as in "if A, then B" ("being a shugenja automatically makes you a kind of spiritual leader," for which I think you could make a case either way), or as in an exclusive equation of the two ("spiritual leader = shugenja and only shugenja", which isn't true but I also don't think anyone here has tried to argue it).
 

Okay, you wrote,
...in response to which I quoted:
-One passage asking whether, if non-shugenja PCs can interact effectively with spirits in a variety of ways, that means non-shugenja all around Rokugan also can and do--and if so, what effect that would have on the mechanics feel of the world the PCs are exploring.
-One passage from an interesting article, discussed a bit in this thread, which suggests that an important element of building a game world that truly feels "magical" is really thinking through all the magical stuff that's going on in the background even when the PCs aren't using the "magic" abilities on their character sheets.
-One passage agreeing that even when magic and magical stuff is part of the game, making sure there's some internal logic is important for maintaining the suspension of disbelief.
And I could have added others, but again, quote limits. So there you go--many participants in this conversation, in their own ways, seem to feel it's important to have a game world that's internally consistent w/r/t magic, and in which what's happening in the game--your or my particular tabletop campaign--also feels consistent with what we've been told about its world. Therefore, just saying "NPCs will take care of this when PCs aren't around" doesn't really help much, because we also need to explore what that actually means in terms of worldbuilding and game mechanics.
Finally, there's this bit of your more recent post:

I think it's actually not too accurate to say that "Elemental kami are the only spirits that definitely do not communicate with anyone other than shugenja." People supposedly have interactions with elemental spirits all the time. The relevant distinction is that shugenja can actually speak directly with them, and the resultant problem is that this is the only interaction we're actually given a way to model in-game and so it's the only one that gets any play. (Again, we discussed this a lot a couple of days ago--you can see a whole set of relevant posts on that page, so if you read it, please don't just stop at the top one.) W/r/t interactions with "other types of spirits"... well, in the interests of avoiding redundancy, see above.  

If you do see this described well in the source material in a way you think is being neglected here, it'd be awesome if you could bring some quotes.

Sure, makes sense. It was just that all the examples you gave up until now were, like, "manipulate the other guy into breaching Etiquette", so I wasn't sure if Manipulation was really supposed to be that narrow, or if it had broader applications.
 
 
Right, exactly. There's an important difference between "I'm not lying" and "this thing I am saying is true", and while sincere belief or the appearance thereof is necessary to convince someone of something (in that if you don't seem to believe it yourself, no amount of argument will help), it's not at all the whole story.
 
And yes, I do think the system needs to incorporate a means of convincing someone to change their mind, it just needs to be handled carefully. If you recall my overview of the Exalted 3e Social Influence System, I think that handles it pretty well... you can roll to convince someone of something, but if he wants he can spend Willpower to reject it. Your argument is convincing and he can't find a hole in it, but he's just too invested in what he currently believes to accept it, so he sticks his mental fingers in his ears and goes "LALALALA". A PC can therefore always resist having his mind changed if he wants, at least until he runs out of Willpower; the GM can decide to have an NPC spend willpower, but the player always knows that they can try again if at first they didn't succeed, and sooner or later they will succeed.
 
 
Yeah, that was a fantastic innovation from 4e, and such a brilliant expression of Rokugan.
 
 
That is definitely a potential issue - it's one I've run into playing FRO, as well, where this one random city is full of Glory 10 people after a year, just by virtue of them making art every week. I've been tinkering off an on with a system to have Glory give diminishing returns, similar to Honour - as you become better- and better-known, things that would once have been considered amazing are just par for the course from someone like you. (Basically: when you would gain Glory, first subtract (1-your current Glory rank). I could have gone for a full tables of diminishing Glory gains ala the Honour table, but so many of them scale that I think it would be excessively fiddly.)
 
 
Yeah, the Imperial Archives approach is good, I think... but you can potentially do the same thing with his approach, while giving people even more encouragement to buy ranks in the potentially-dodgy skills, and thus be tempted.
 
 
My first thoughts:
 
Yasuki: Courtier all the way (we really need a different name for this, btw). Bribes and threats are absolutely the Yasuki way. I'd allow Commerce to substitute for Politics (Negotiation) when negotiating trade, incidentally (with Politics (Negotiation) complementing it - if I may be forgiven a GURPSism - and vice versa). That allows the Yasuki to have a school-based aptitude for commercial negotiations without making them peculiarly strong at the other aspects of Politics.
 
Doji: Etiquette. Etiqette, Etiquette, Etiquette. And Sincerity, for sure. I'm not sure which of Politics and Perform: Rhetoric would be more appropriate here... maybe both, but I don't know that you'd want them to have all the skills as school skills?
 
Kitsuki: Well, the Kitsuki thing has never really been about social skills per se. It's always been the Investigation School. I imagine they'd want some amount of Etiquette for its Composure applications, at least?
 
Ikoma: Ikoma are so very much about the Perform skills, both Rhetoric and Storytelling.
 
Yoritomo: Like the Yasuki, Courtier all the way, with a particular focus on Intimidate.
 
Asako: Hmm. Presumably Etiquette? With their Lore skills being used to buff their social actions, as before.
 
Bayushi: Courtier and Sincerity, I would think... although Politics (Gossip) would fit too... hmm. Or all three of them.
 
Ide: Etiquette and Sincerity, all the way.
 
 
Makes sense!
 
Also, some more thoughts regarding the mechanics for insults: first, unless Games: Sadane is removed from the list altogether, I think it needs to be able to perform the same function (and possibly Etiquette: Insult can be used to play Sadane with a couple of Raises?). Second, I like using "insult back, call for a duel, or lose Glory" to incentivise escalating disputes, but I think more could be done to build that into the mechanics. What if the Glory loss for the loser of the insult-volley escalated as the exchange went on, raising the stakes until one party or the other decided to go for a duel or bowed out (thus eating the accumulated Glory loss, of course)? And maybe something to encourage the insults to get more severe as you go... it occurred to me that you could require the party responding to match the number of Raises on the roll made against them, but then it's impossible to win an exchange of insults against someone with higher Void than you, and I do not like that at all.

I was just having a hard time articulating its other uses. :-)
 

Problem is, the only expendable resources of that kind in L5R are Void Points or, if you stretch, Glory or Honor.
Right now I'm leaning toward making it a matter of Raises: a successful roll means you look like you believe what you say, but Raises are necessary to persuade your target. (I'm trying very hard to stick to the core of what Raises should represent -- a core I think 4e lost sight of after a while -- but I think it works here? After all, one of the ways a lie can start to look suspicious is when the liar seems to be pushing too hard to get you to buy it.) How many Raises are required will depend on the magnitude of the lie; a simple thing like "No, my lord, I didn't see anything" might not require any, whereas one that goes against the target's deeply-held beliefs would be a lot harder, e.g. "Your friend has betrayed you; I saw it with my own eyes." And that leaves room for partial belief, such as "I believe you saw my friend do this, but I'm sure he had some other reason for it."
I may also borrow a page from the new intimidation mechanics and say that a successful lie imposes a penalty on subsequent rolls that might reveal the lie, such as Investigation; Raises make the penalty larger. My main reason for hesitating there is that, by the structure of modifiers I've built, it should be a penalty to the target's rolls -- but if that target is a PC, telling the player they have a penalty = telling them they just got snowed. I've personally been known to make Investigation rolls for my players as a matter of course, so they won't know when they're overlooking stuff, but not everybody does that. I could represent the penalty in another fashion -- a boost to other people's rolls/the static TNs -- but that undermines the modifier structure, which I'm reluctant to do.
 

Not just of Rokugan, I think. Most games just handwave that whole truth-telling thing as if it's an auto-success and needs no skill . . . but if that were true, cop shows would be out of business. It's entirely possible to be honest and still not look believable.
 

I had the same thought some time ago. Should a skirmish with bandits really be all that impressive when you're Glory 9? But yes, making the chart would be a paaaaaaaaaaain. Much easier -- and in some ways more interesting -- to have Glory be a resource you can lose/are encouraged to spend. The part that would need playtesting is seeing how, under this arrangement, gains and spends balance out.
Regarding school techniques: I started poking at those last night. It's kind of funny . . . obviously I need to swap in skill replacements where the new setup requires it, e.g. Politics (Gossip) instead of Courtier (Gossip) and so forth. Plus I'll have to tweak anything that's been made redundant by the new basic mechanics, such as imposing a penalty on somebody through successful intimidation; the Yoritomo should be better at doing that than anybody else, not the only ones who can do it at all. But beyond that . . . you know, the title of this thread is "Kinzen's Excessively Ambitious Social Redesign." If I'm going to waste my time rebuilding everything from the ground up, why not go whole hog? Why not replace techniques I think are just boring or unsuited to the school's themes?
It . . . may take a while for me to finish that part. <lol>
 

I've renamed Courtier as Influence in the draft document. Good point about the skill substitution. I've been trying to choose one skill, or emphasis of a particular skill, that I think is the iconic mark of each school -- not that nobody else has it, but nobody else makes it the heart of how they operate. For the Yasuki, it's definitely Commerce.
 

Going through the school skills last night, I was boggled to see they get Perform: Storytelling out of the gate. There's nothing in their techs that uses it, and nothing in the fluff about the Doji being renowned as storytellers (as opposed to poets or whatever).
 

Yeah, they get the Courtesy emphasis in 4e, but I've switched that out for Composure. And Investigation is definitely their iconic skill.
 

OH MY GOD the Yoritomo as written are one-note wonders. Literally EVERY technique they have is at least partially about intimidation. I'm fine with that being their iconic skill, but they're at the top of my list for "I don't have to redesign this just to make the mechanics work, but ye gods I want to, because they are totally lacking in variety."
Not quoting the Bayushi bit because I've hit the forum limit, but: the Bayushi are one of the schools where I could easily wind up giving them All The Emphases. Influence (Manipulation, Temptation), Politics (Gossip), Investigation (Interrogation), Calligraphy (Cipher), Sincerity (Deceit) . . . I'm considering trying to standardize how many emphases each courtier school gets in the starting package.
 

Sadane is . . . a bit of a mess. First of all, I remember some of the game's writers saying it was not originally intended to be what players have turned it into, i.e. a way of insulting other characters. Second, I don't buy it as a "game" in the sense of the Games skill; it doesn't have rules and a victory condition in the way that go or shogi or Fortunes and Winds do. It just has conventions, in much the same way that giving a gift has conventions. (Same for the Game of Letters.) I've always treated it as an emphasis of Courtier. Under these rules, I think Etiquette (Insult) is the way to go.
Regarding the insult escalation thing, look for a new thread from me in a bit, where we can discuss this (and other things) in more detail, without clogging up this one.

This Sunday, two titans clash! It's meta versus counter-meta, as Travis McDaniel's Zarathur seeks to bring down the Packmaster Kith of recently crowned 2015 Dutch National Champion, Dan Jung! I hope you enjoy another spectacular game between two rather talented players, but in any case, have a great weekend!
 
Zarathur, High Sorcerer versus Packmaster Kith - Warhammer 40,000: Conquest

A new week begins, and I can finally unveil a new source of live-action gameplay! In today's video, I'm pleased to present none other than The Tactical Squad's own Elizabeth Malette (Ku'gath Plaguefather), up against Alexander Bosch (Eldorath Starbane), the gentleman responsible for making The Hive Tyrant opening animations. This match is superb, and I thank both players for the footage! Be sure not to let this game pass you by, and enjoy!
 
Ku'gath Plaguefather versus Eldorath Starbane - Warhammer 40,000: Conquest

I have to agree with Terraneaux, though for different reasons and it has mostly to do with who is allowed and not allowed to play winter court. The methods that they use has never done a good job at screening out people who will drop and people who have played it before also had a very good chance of getting in again. Also, this type of event is also not open to those with writing difficulties from things like dyslexia, roughly 10% of the population because of both the format and the method to gain access to play.
 
On top of this the event does not do much to help spread the product or the game, what it does do is reinforce the game for people who allready play. This is not helpful espcecially when you consider how much effor has to go into it, even if it is by volenteers. 
 
If you are looking for something that really reaches out and engages the community, both new players and experienced one,  the should go with something that actually engages the community of players and has a chance to engage people who are not allready interested in the games. Things such as LARPS at conventions, such as the one done at origins. Off Course they do need to make sure people know about these events.
 
Another thing that many of the Winter Court players have not really seamed to understand year after year is that unless it fits within the ongoing narative of the game their thing is unlikely to actually make cannon. Some people come to events with goals and try to achive them. Unless those Narative Align with the plot of the game they are not likely to be mentioned in a story and never be cannon outside the winter court event and if that is the case then it is likely that something will contradict them later

I'm in Tokyo for two days, arriving tomorrow. Anyone up for conquest/netrunner/X-wing? Would love to get some games in. Sadly I'll be relying on other peoples hardware to play: suitcase is too small to bring my stuff!

Hello all,
I recently moved to Tokyo, and am not all that familiar with the area. It is quite massive. I was wondering if anyone on the forums lives in or near Tokyo; or if anyone that has lived here, knows where to look for places to play. Ty in advance!

I think 5 or 6 player expansions are possible but I agree that with the current state of the downtime in the game, that would probobly do more damage than good.  The downtime right now in the game in a 4 player game is tolerable, but only just barely.  Experianced players can get through battles quickly and I think over time this will be less of an issue for people but I think 3 to 5 minutes is about as fast as its going to get which is to say its not much but battles can take place in multiple system and its common for two people to have 2-3 battles in the same round (attacks and counter attacks) in particular in the later part of the game.
 
I'm not sure what they can do to address this, its such a fundemental part of the game that I don't see there being much in the way of expediting it mechanically.
 
I do think that they could design alternative races and I suspect we will see new races coming onboard as well as factions for existing races.  You can probobly expect some new cards and optional variants in the game, that is largely par for the course for FFG.
 
My hope however is that they create some team driven variants where two players fight for the same side, I think that could make for some interesting alternatives.
 
As it stands right now, Forbidden Stars is already a great game, worthy of any fan of the 40k universe's collection and so as far as I'm concerned FFG gets an A+ for bringing yet another awsome game into their library of awsome games.  I know there is this sentiment out there that FFG is too corporate and too greedy but I don't really see it that way, they create, we consume and its a good relationship in particualr given the very high level of quality we get from them.  Sure the hobby is not cheap, but dollar for dollar I get more out of my FFG board games than I get out of anything else so to me the expense of expansions and many great games FFG produces is well worth it.

Yes. The reason for this is that character advancement is a way to simulate the development of the person you are playing. Therefore it adds a development element to the overall exp and also a motivation for the player to strive for the next adventure to see his character growing and developing new skills, talents etc. Also I think if we go for various sub systems like in the Star Wars or Warhammer 40K game. The advancement System should be based on the same building system. So if you decdice to go for the advancement tree make sure each system has the same amount of exp you need to get to the next tier of the tree. Also please try to balance the possible character classes with the thought in mind that you want to play them in a cross system game so that people can use them without the need of rebalancing them first.
 
 
Iam not really oposed to the talent tree advancement they use in Star Wars. The only problem is that I think it is a bit to strict. I think there should be more options to choose from but in general it seems fine.
 
 
I suggest a advancement tree based system for the new L5R. The reason is that I don´t think the insight system is wokring really good and would love to see a system that emphasis the feeling of that you advance a bit more.
 
 
Yes they should stay but become a bit easier to get excess too. At the moment the advanced schools are more the not exsiting schools cause while they are in the book there is not really often someone who is going there becuase soem have ridiculus prequisites like having a ring at 6 etc.  Also there should be good advanced and alternate pathees for each clan and not like it is now that some clans just don´t have reall good ones.
I think both pathes and schools should stay but become way easier to acess. For the advanced classes I think if we go for the trees a seperate tree would be in order while the alternate path just gives you it specific technique and nothing more.

The nail-biting OCTGN matches continue! Today, I'm pleased to present the glorious result of Packmaster Kith (piloted by papakhann), squaring off against everyone's favorite swooping hawk, Baharroth (played by Dan Napolitano).   I hope you enjoy yet another fantastic match! And of course, I'm still looking for volunteers to be recorded, as always. Shoot me a message if you're interested in being in your own video!   Note: this is the last video I recorded in which both players' hands are not visible.
Packmaster Kith versus Baharroth - Warhammer 40,000: Conquest

Recently, I passed the milestone of 500 subscribers on YouTube. As the sole proprietor of "The Hive Tyrant​," and without a regular production crew to casually banter with, I took this as an opportunity to open up the floor to any and all questions the community had for me - you asked, and now, I answer.
 
Ever wanted to know more about the man behind "The Hive Tyrant?" Want to hear (literally) 249 minutes of me rambling about Conquest LCG, my history with the Lord of the Rings LCG, my background in gaming and content creation, as well as my entire (albeit abbreviated), life story? Well, then look no further than my "500 Subscriber Q&A!"
 
DISCLAIMER: topics range from light-hearted to extremely serious, and I divulge a tremendous amount of personal detail. Still, if that doesn't deter you, then I hope you enjoy my most "genuine" video to date, because - with your help - it was a pleasure to create.
 
500 Subscriber Q&A!

I hope everyone has some room for Conquest, this weekend! To get you started, here's my latest, commentated Conquest offering - a match featuring Sam Mann's infamous "Ku'gath's dirty baker's dozen" deck, pit against Parker Ince's "Old One Eye!"
 
Enjoy, and look forward to two special projects coming soon!
 
Ku'gath Plaguefather versus "Old One Eye" - Warhammer 40,000: Conquest

With The Great Devourer now available at retailers worldwide, what better way to celebrate the occasion than with a chance to discuss our game's past, present, and future, with the very keystone of our development team?
 
Please join me for a extraordinarily special interview, in which I had the tremendous honor of sitting down to talk to our esteemed, Associate LCG Designer himself - Brad Andres!
 
I very much hope you enjoy our discussion, as it may well be my favorite interview to date. Don't let this one pass you by!
 
Brad Andres Interview - Warhammer 40,000: Conquest Community Spotlight

Doctor Who is now and has always been about an alien with a police box-shaped time machine who picks up British girls. Where's the reboot, "thematic" or otherwise?
 
If there is any lesson about continuity to be learned from Steven Moffat's Doctor Who, it's that continuity should not get in the way of developers telling new stories so that an IP can do more than simply survive; it can explode to new levels of popularity.
 
When you look at how the existing L5R setting developed, there is a lot of retroactive and duplicative storytelling. Freezing all that in amber and then fastforwarding to X years in the FUTUUUUURE ... what's the point? What does this achieve?
 
To me, this is a schizophrenic argument. The motivation behind preserving existing canon seems to be that it's somehow crucial. But by fastforwarding past it, you're constructively shoving it into the background where it won't matter. So is it important or not?
 
Contrast this to starting with whatever FFG considers are the essential elements and letting the storyline progress organically from there, drawing on the previous canon or not -- whatever makes the most sense for the product line. This is the Disney approach.

How should a company handle a property that is already extensively developed? L5R fans might consider Disney's approach to Star Wars when calibrating their expectations for FFG's coming product lines.
 
But first, who even cares about canon?
 
It's pretty common to hear someone sincerely if rather casually refer to themselves as a "fan" of this or that IP. But the term itself abbreviates "fanatic," which hardly connotes a passing interest. Being a fan traditionally means that a person follows an IP very closely, probably more closely than the IP's creators and subsequent developers ever foresaw much less intended. Pretty often, the folks who develop an IP only care about continuity. Fans, by contrast, are interested in a much stricter sense of cohesion ... even if they had to basically invent it themselves. This is canon. At some point, IP owners figured out that this concept of canon is a powerful way to leverage brand. Canon therefore flipped from being something fans generated to being something that companies manage. Although the notion of canon morphed into an "official" imprimatur, which could only be declared by the IP owner, one aspect of canon remains unchanged: the people who really care about canon are the fan(atic)s.
 
Canon is for us, the fans. But fans will ever only be a niche consumer demographic. In a content-saturated market, however, fans can be opinion leaders for the very reason that we tend to be vocal. Being a fan means you are willing to write (or read) posts like this one. That said, we should never labor under the misconception (despite marketing to the contrary) that IP owners and developers are really catering to us. After all, we are a captive market. We will buy, or at least engage with, products that we don't like even if it's only to complain about them. Strike one. Now obviously, anyone selling something wants to sell to more rather than less customers. Strike two. But the more important and perhaps less obvious issue is, companies sometimes also prefer new customers to existing ones -- including us fans. Strike three. (I'm not going to even get into how it can seem impossible to please us.) So that leaves fans in the situation of not being a primary target demographic even if companies would prefer, all things being equal, not to alienate us. To me, these principles all apply pretty squarely to L5R fans wondering about how we, and the IP we love so well, stand with FFG.
 
Where does this leave canon?
 
Here's where Disney's example may be instructive. With Star Wars, Disney established a clear and fairly narrow basis of canon. Everything else -- a huge sea of information decades in the making -- is left up in the air. Disney markets this 'everything else' category as "Legends," which practically means that Disney may or may not draw on 'everything else' as it develops the property. That means that for the people to whom 'everything else' actually matters, i.e., fans, all this information remains relevant when it comes to discussing Star Wars going forward. Bottom line: Disney managed to de-canonize a huge portion of the IP's existing 'fabric' without invalidating it. This didn't "just happen" -- it's a very clever marketing strategy. And the upshot is, the resulting brand is a lot more accessible, to both consumers as well as to Disney's own creative teams.
 
Disney provides a great example for FFG as the latter approaches the richly detailed setting of L5R, looking to access new customers with new product lines. I think the main question facing FFG if they follow Disney's example is: what constitutes the basis of canon as opposed to 'everything else'? This is where fans can help and hurt. Fans arguably "get" what appeals about the IP better than anyone else because we tap into that appeal so deeply. On the other hand, in the fanatical obsession with mastering details, we sometimes lose sight of the forest for the trees. So for example, we can probably all agree that the Clans are an absolutely essential part of L5R canon. But (as witnessed in another thread), what happens when the question is which Clans are the essential ones? Talk about a loaded question!
 
Right from the announcement, L5R fans have been telling FFG what they want and don't want regarding the coming FFG product lines. It's probably a good idea to put aside this mindset, which is more likely to set us up for disappointments rather than preparing us to be open-minded about whatever FFG produces. In that sense, we'd only be limiting our own enjoyment. Here, too, Disney's approach to Star Wars can be instructive. If FFG does de-canonize what has gone before in Rokugan, those details could still be up for discussion. Just for example, if the setting is rebooted to a point before Mantis attains Great Clan status that does not mean Mantis Clan never will ascend! As fans, imagine how much fun it will be to speculate about how FFG will handle such a story development.
 
Simply put, Disney has proven that de-canonization does not equal invalidation. And the space that this strategy creates is good for product developers, consumers broadly, and even us fans.

You're right; previous baggage should be jettisoned.
 
However, I would also like to see some form of 'background support' that addresses or takes into account previous (and/or existing) L5R history..... thus, bring in a new team (and don't drag in previous L5R brand writers) and sprinkle that with support personnel from existing FFG personnel.  I hope that is making sense, as it seems somewhat cyclical in my opinion. 

You know, I'm finding it somewhat uncomfortable to discuss someone's career right here in front of them...

More often than not, you know you're in a L5R tournament because you can see "samurai" holding brightly colored cards Folks love their faction/clan so much that they actually cosplay it. For a niche hobby such as card gaming, that's huge.
 
I might get some hate from saying this, no doubt, but... I wouldn't rely that stupendously on current FFG customers. No one is going to magically get an extra 100 or 200$ per month to spend on cards. The current customer-base might pick L5R, sure (I sure hope they do!), but a sizable portion of it might actually stop purchasing their current product of choice in favor of L5R. That's a net gain of zero for the company, and a situation that is likely to be a sizable one because, as I mentioned.... money doesn't grow magically on people's wallets. So I would say that the smart move is to try to bring over -more- customers, instead of thinking primarily of your existing ones - because new customers mean new wallets, wallets that aren't already attached to FFG's products. And the easier customer to bring is the current L5R one.
 
And yes, alliances are short-lived and shifty.... making them rather irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Everyone was already allied and at war with everyone else. What matters in L5R, in the setting, is not who your Clan is allied with.... but just which one is your Clan. Going back to the CCG, I'm sorry, but any new rule adds complexity. Even if it's a very simple one, if it means a new mechanic, a new element that needs to be accounted for in the game, that's added complexity. And with every layer of added complexity, you get a game that is harder to balance, and harder to playtest, because more and more variables need to be taken in account. Likewise, you get a game that is harder to explain to new players (which is already a flaw of L5R, its logarithmic difficulty curve)

A few thoughts:
 
1) There are a couple things that are so iconic that they alone identify and separate L5R from the rest of the card-game crop: the dual-deck system is one. The other is the faction loyalty.
 
2) Plenty of people have kept playing the game for over a decade because of faction loyalty. These rabid fans are the ones that recruit more people (to their faction), that publicize the game (and their faction) for free, and generally are an added value to L5R's IP. Multiclan decks would most certainly alienate them.
 
3) It is nigh impossible to shift the game to a multiclan model, while keeping the story both relevant and interactive. Let's keep in mind that in the story the clans are, at the core, rivals and that alliances are very shifty and short-lived... but (again, in the story), the character's loyalty to their clan borders on the fanatical. This is represented perfectly by the "One deck, one clan" approach.
 
4) If you need to add extra layers of complexity to a game in order to slap an extra feature to it, then that feature is likely one that the game does not need.