Correction: they are against freedom of religion.

This is the first of the fictions I kind if like. This is a good thing. I wonder how much they are basing the Perfect Land Sect on the real world Pure Land sect of Buddhism.

Though I've not played any LCGs before my image of FFG was that they seem like the type to get their templating and such down rather well. It's heartening to hear that their more recent LCGs appear to be more consistent in terms of card wordings and rulings. While I can easily see how @williamobrien's interpretation in this instance is probably correct (i.e. if you can't dishonor a character then you must bow one), the wording on the cards is such that I could also see a ruling saying that players can "choose" options that they know in advance will fail. Maybe this is a good question for the next L5R live? (Though I don't think I've heard an announcement for the next one yet...)

Do we have confirmation that Steward of Law and For Shame! synergize to make For Shame! an automatic bow? This is my first FFG game, so I'm unfamiliar with how they handle selecting effects that cannot be resolved.

I'm resigned to some Shadowlands taint and black scroll opening to happen, I'm just hoping they at least wait until the first dynasty pack.

I want to think positive like you do, but I can't set myself up for the pain of dissappointment yet again.

Nothing really wowed me about these previews, but that is about right, I feel. The Lion as the baseline for what military is feels appropriate. The cards seem solid, aggressive, and honorable. The flavor appears to be there. Unfortunately, the bushi focus of a lot of their conflict cards means I probably won't splash them in my Phoenix decks (unless FFG gives us a more bushi-heavy with shugenja support play style this time around.) The Kitsu recursion theme is cool, but makes me wonder if resurrection/rebirth won't be a Phoenix focus, or perhaps what they'll do to make such effects feel different for us.

It would have been interesting to see Nerishma being the one doing the ambushing for a change.

Tell me about it. #phoenixproblems

Right, if he happened to get pin-cushioned at random, then yes, that's just the Price of War (roll credits!) But Hotaru specifically targetted him, which it seems would be a bit more grey. It seems like it would at least be disrespectful to not honor a person of Arasou's station with a proper challenge. At any rate, I'm sure that's how the Lion would see it.

I don't know if this has been brought up in this thread yet (so forgive me if it has,) but the more I think about it the more I'm thinking the rest of the empire will likely consider Hotaru an honorless coward. Stay with me on this. We don't have all the new setting information, but it seems like specifically sniping an enemy officer, let alone a clan champion, would be the sort of thing that is highly frowned upon in Rokugan. Hotaru calls Arasou out and challenges him to single combat? Very magical samurai, very honorable-warrior type stuff. Shoot him down from a safe and distant location ? Okay for a Wasp (duh) but for a Crane it seems like that would be an insult to her opponent, his clan, and his kin. Holy crap, I thinking I'm starting to see things Tsuko's way. Don't get me wrong, Hotaru's decision was very effective and saved the city from being taken, but this Rokugan, where honor is (supposed to be) stronger than steel. What do other people think? Am I off-base for what Rokugani consider the honorable way to wage war?

I much prefer Ujimitsu to a guy who would raise a Shadowlands army and let his own son be sacrificed and descrated on a banner to a dark god, but hey, to each his own. All (light-hearted, really!) joking aside, for me it's not that Tsukune isn't a great character but rather that I was really hoping we'd get to see Ujimitsu do stuff this time around.

I like the way you think, but for various reasons I don't have my hopes up.

It might have been a retcon to make him look cooler in the end, but as I recall he wounded Tsuke (the Master of Fire) or otherwise made an opening for Isawa Tadaka to kill Tsuke, so it is supposed to be that he sacrificed himself to help bring down the corrupt Master of Fire.

Yeah, I understand that in theory it's supposed to be a surprise, but I think they could have put something like "Akodo Toturi is thrust into the position of clan champion when his brother dies suddenly" in the original article with nothing lost, I feel. The game hasn't even started yet, it seems strange to me for the intro fiction to make drastic changes to the intro blurb. I don't know, I kind of see what they were going for, I just don't feel it was effective.

I really hope that they don't do that; it'd be a rather ignominious end to a character that died a hero in the AEG canon. If they really do off Ujimitsu, it makes me wonder what was the point of the whole bait and switch in the first place with not one but two champions (though at least Ujimitsu's death would be surprising.) At this point we can't rule out the first Scorpion fiction being the entire Scorpion Clan Coup and Shoju to never get a card. Obviously I'm kidding about Shoju...I think.

It's fuzzy and hard to see, but I read it as "Yumino."

Unless that's from a dynasty pack, and if the Phoenix don't get two 5-fate unique characters in the core, it looks like Ujimitsu could be getting the Arasou treatment. Bit of a spoiler, indeed.

What is the source for that card fan?

I assume the bank, but I could be wrong.

Spend a conflict card for conditional economy boost? Hmmm... in the past conflict-side ("fate-side" in O5R) economy boosters could be pretty powerful, but I wonder if the conditions here will limit its usefulness.

Don't get your hopes up; some things are tradition.

Obviously we won't know until the game starts, but I think it's very possible that your "splash" clan will be an important and identifying aspect of your deck. Or rather, I kind of hope it is; I'd like to see some themes of clan alliances and such in the game, and the splash mechanic gives an interesting way for that to manifest.

I don't think FFG has released any hard details yet, but they have heavily implied that the main plot will not be influenced to any great extent by story tournament prizes. It sounds like FFG has a story in mind and that they are going to go through with it how they see fit. So no more weird tournament results that they will be forced to write into the plot, but as a result perhaps a lesser degree of player influence in the story? That's what it sounds like to me at the moment, but we'll have to wait and see what they actually do.

Same here, though I really liked his original artwork, so I'm probably going to hold the new one to impossibly high standards.