Matsu Tsundere

Can't wait to see Ikoma Tsanuri all "AHH PLEASE NOTICE ME SEMPAIIII"

"Toturi, let's go over the battle plan." "Okay Arasou." "The main force will be me. You will take command of this other squad of every other important person in the entire Lion Clan." "Uh, okay." "If Tsuko starts acting like she has rabies and has no idea what even the most basic tactics in war are, it's fine. Also, if I die, please give an awkward and strangely overdramatic soliloquy." ".... Okay."

*sad trombone noise*

Our local GS has already warned us that under this new system they will be having a much harder time stocking FFG Products and getting restocks in. That's probably more of an issue, because those of us who have placed preorders may know eventually we'll get our product, but if the stores can't restock, then it'll be that much harder to get newer players to buy in to the game.

I'm assuming that's a joke. She's supposed to be the teacher in that picture.

I think we're all now interested to see what they do with Bayushi Yojiro and the case of the mysterious swapping genders. Or if they go with Doji Shizue's inexplicable age regression from her basic to XP version.

How can you hate the "I Want You To Join The Naga" Qamar? Besides, isn't it a title, not a name? If you're the leader of the Naga, you're the Qamar, as I have always understood it.

Shouldn't Qamar be the Champion of the Naga?

"Magic"

I believe they paid to license that art specifically for those reprints, but I might be wrong. I was specifically told several times when I was an AEG employee that they don't own the art to anything before Gold Edition.

They probably won't be able to do alt art using the original rings, as above. FFG only bought the art rights that AEG owned, and AEG didn't own the rights to any of the art from either the Clan Wars or Jade arcs.

Just gotta say she is also one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. I always try to find time to see her at DragonCon.

We can only hope!

Nerishma's ranks in Unluck and his personal mon of a bullseye with the phrase "Here I Am" finally come back to haunt him.

Now I'd like to think it does.

Oh no, death threats and hate mail came to me because of design, not story. I'm not aware if anyone on ST ever got something that bad, I only know about the threat to punch one of them. But, hey, it's an internet fandom, that stuff comes with the territory these days. You kinda have to just roll with it if you intend to keep being involved at that level. I'm a big fan of this first fiction and I hope old fans give it a fair chance. I'm really interested to see if they take the opportunity to breathe new life into old, extremely underdeveloped characters like Shiba Ujimitsu or anyone in the Unicorn Clan from this era not named Kamoko.

Don't forget to add the part where teenage Toturi drives around in a vintage car listening to the Beastie Boys before he's pulled over by that robot cop.

I know of at least one Story Team member that was threatened with physical violence by someone because of a story. I myself regularly received hate mail and even a couple of death threats, even when I was an unpaid volunteer, before I was formally hired as an actual employee. It was definitely something you did because you loved L5R, even if sometimes parts of the fandom left you wondering why exactly you did so much. I'm really looking forward to just being a fan again.

This is correct, though I'm not 100% sure about Shawn. Design Team wise, the PDT members were more or less paid a small commission for each set they completed design on, and were also "paid" with product. Bryan Reese and myself were the only actual designers who were technical employees, with regular paychecks et all, on Design.

Kolat don't want equality. They just want to be the ones in charge instead.

I think as the first official fiction in two years, the amount of hype and expectation people had built around this was something this story was never going to live up to, even if it was the greatest L5R fiction of all time (not saying it was, but it wouldn't have been enough).

Sure, I remember Gobei. Granted I dont have CoL anymore but I do recall people mostly reacted to him with kind of an eye roll, which I certainly would classify as disdainful. But you also have to consider that any kind of romantic expression tends to be frowned upon as inappropriate in the first place, and you couple that with the fact that generally speaking you're going to be in an arranged marriage and therefore have to have an affair to be involved in that kind of relationship, plus the general disdain in a feudal society for people who are seen as unable (or unwilling) to produce an heir and you have a combination for a slight bit more disdain than society would have for a more 'normal' relationship. But, in general it's frowned upon to engage in any sort of passionate romantic relationship in the first place, and logically if people are aware that you are homosexual, it's because you've failed to hide that you were engaged in one, which makes people inclined to be disdainful. That's always the impression I got from it all, anyway. Of course I'm willing to concede that my time at AEG and their own attitude towards the subject may be coloring that perception.

I imagine Hotaru, as presented in her interactions with and feelings about her father, probably grew up feeling rather lonely and generally resentful, and most likely had or has a very low opinion of herself and her worth. If canon holds true then her brother Kuwanan was a non entity in her life being raised among other clans, and we notably didn't get any scenes of her being trained by Toshimoko. Given his reputation I find it highly unlikely that he played the surrogate father/drinking and adventuring buddy role with Hotaru as be did with Hoturi, it would have been wildly inappropriate. Add to it even in Rokugan being a homosexual isn't 100% okay, it's just something people try hard to ignore or pretend doesn't exist, but there is an underlying impression that the person is wrong for being 'that way'. I would absolutely not be surprised if the story turned out to be that the Scorpion discovered Hotaru's proclivities and Kachiko was ordered to work her magic on this lonely, vulnerable, extremely unhappy girl (probably by Shoju) for their own purposes. Having someone like Kachiko make Hotaru not only feel special but also "normal" would be a huge appeal for someone in Hotaru's miserable position. If they decide that Kachiko isnt putting on an act anymore and actually ended up falling in love with Hotaru, which wasn't part of the plan and is probably something she isn't keen to let Shoju or anyone else know about, you're also setting up an interesting depth of internal conflict to her character as well.

Plot twist: Doji Kuwannan killed Satsume and is plotting to kill off Hotaru in an ambitious bid to become champion. Maybe they will pull a Lannister with Kuwannan and Shizue and they will both be in on it.