I figure I'll probably do Phoenix main with Crane sub, but I might do Scorpion sub for the fun tricks plus honoring the twins Shiba and Bayushi (though that might not be in the new canon.) Though honestly, it's probably going to depend if there are clan-specific spells and what they are.

I don't know, the idea that the members of any given family can only do one thing is one that I always felt was a bit unrealistic. I mean why shouldn't there be Isawa bushi, Isawa courtiers, Isawa insurance salesmen, etc. Card balance-wise I see the point of keeping the families specialized, but it seems like in the world itself family would only imply tendencies, not set-in-stone career paths.

Tsuke went bad, yes, but Ujimitsu was clean. In fact, it was Ujimitsu that helped Tadaka kill Tsuke on the Second Day of Thunder, and Ujimitsu received a mortal wound in the process. What I mean is, our honored champion's name is not one to be spoken ill of. #waytoointothestoryandcharacters

Thematically I think the three Phoenix families are enough; there aren't really any holes in the clan identity, I feel. Having Asako and Shiba courtiers should be enough to fill the political role. I mean, speaking from a Phoenix perspective, why do you other clans even need more than three families?

All I'm hoping is that Ujimitsu won't be unique.

I would think it very possible for minor clan cards to be introduced as unaligned, like how the Miya mystic is an imperial but unaligned. But unless LCGs involve stuff like MRPs ("most recent printings"), they'll have to decide if Mantis/Yoritomo's Alliance will be a thing from the beginning (if they want everyone to have borders and such.) So far, none of the faction alignments appear to come from traits, only card borders.

Given that there will be a tournament at Gen Con, I think (hope?) they will release a full rulebook online, and maybe even a text card spoiler, before the event. But this is my first FFG experience, does anyone know how they usually do this?

From the way they were talking in the live stream I get the feeling that unless the action states otherwise characters in homes are fair game, but yeah I would like confirmation of that, too. For Cloud the Mind, it looks to me like you could play it in the action windows before and between conflicts at any rate, so you don't even need to wait for the conflict. But I'm just guessing; I might be wrong.

The way I'm reading Cloud the Mind seems to imply that while you need to control a shugenja to use it, none of your shugenja appear to actually "use" the spell; you as a player use it once you meet the "controls a shugenja" requirement. We still don't know a lot about spells, so Cloud the Mind could be unique in this way, but it could also be the new norm for spell casting. I assume we'll find out around the time of the Phoenix preview.

Thread's over, Xealous wins.

I think they said during the live stream last week that clan previews will be done every other week, which if my count is correct means the last clan will be previewed on August 9th, and if they gave two weeks to each clan the previews would finish right on August 16th, the day before Gen Con starts. They've said they are done with general rules overview stuff, so two weeks per clan seems possible to me, but they could just spend the off weeks doing fiction.

That's one thing I think fantasy worlds in general suffer from; the belief or insistence that there is one gospel truth as to how things happened in the past, when in the real world such tales and myths often change or exist in multiple versions. I think it would be much more organic for the people in the "modern" Rokugan time frame to have multiple versions of events in the ancient past, each seen through the lens of their clans values and ideals, and for there to be no single objectively "correct" version of the past at all (though of course each clan would believe their version is correct.)

Maybe it was just me, but the impression I got from the answers at the AMA was that story prizes will not have as big of an impact as they used to, almost as if FFG has a story in mind and doesn't want the players to derail it (which if that's the case I would totally understand that.)

I was hoping for the ability to include at least some out of clan characters in the dynasty side as well, but alas.

Yeah, I was hoping they would have followed up on that answer because other than not being able to add skill to conflict resolution it doesn't really seem like bowing is that much of a detriment.

Yeah, I take responsibility for this misunderstanding. If it so pleases my lord, I will perform the three cuts. Who will be my second?

Cloud the Mind is starting to look better and better.

The video has been posted to the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FantasyFlightGames/

Also, is it just me or did it seem like the person in charge of choosing the questions from the stream comments made a mistake by touching on multiplayer at all?

You mean the traditional alphabetical order?

15. Clan champions for all seven clans will be in the core set. 16. Out of clan cards in your deck are based on influence scores (like we assumed) but also limited to one other faction, and conflict deck only (also like we assumed.) 17. All AEG fiction and lore (including the world/setting stuff) is no longer canon. What have I missed?

Rules-wise: 11. Bowed cards can use abilities as long as they don't require bowing to use. 12. Abilities do not require a character to be at a conflict unless specifically mentioned. 13. Broadly speaking, a design philosophy was that bushi and courtiers would have to be at a conflict to affect it, while shugenja generally do not (but this is just a design philosophy, not a rule.) 14. Specifically, Isawa Masahiro can burninate stuff from home.

I saw the whole thing but didn't think to take notes, but here's some stuff I remember: 8. Clan previews will be bi-weekly, starting with Crane next week. 9. We will get the first fiction(s?) next week. (Duplicate information from above.) 10. There will be more live events like today.

I have a feeling that I am 100% going to get these backwards constantly.

Someone in another thread assumed it was a streamed game too, so you might have read it there.