I am a day away from hitting Indianapolis. Today I leave with my wife and Burns to stay overnight at my Aunt's home. Tomorrow I cross into the United States of America and drive towards Indianapolis.
Thursday will be the GENCON opening ceremony followed by a quick burst of shopping to snag some GENCON exclusive sales at the Corvus Belli booth. Then I'm off to Broken Egg Games to pick up my token pack for the Legend of the Five Rings inaugural event known as the Kiku Matsuri.
This is the first public release and event for the new take on the IP since Fantasy Flight Games took over the IP from AEG. Legend of the Five Rings is one of my favorite settings. Instead of a fantasy setting taking from a European background the Legend of the Five Rings takes it's inspiration from a Japanese (with some Korean and Chinese) background. When Fantasy Flight Games took over the IP they decided to reboot the history of the setting cutting away 20+ real world years of history.
This makes sense to me. There is a lot to know about the setting and diving into the deep end could get new players lost and discourage them from playing. Rebooting the history is a brave decision by Fantasy Flight Games since this move could alienate the fans of the series. I do believe that this will serve the game as a whole.
One of the reasons AEG sold the IP is because sales have dropped over the years. The plot becomes more and more complex and it became harder and harder to keep folks buying into the products. Outside of a very loyal fanbase Legend of the Five Rings was only mainstream for a short period of time. Small groups of fan does not make sales, so loosing a few long term fans for a large influx of new fans makes sense for Fantasy Flight. This feels like Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition after TSR sold the IP to Wizards of the Coast. I trust many fans will come over and join the new players to the game.
In the Legend of the Five Rings (LCG) Living Card Game you will build a pair of decks representing one of the seven major Clans of Rokugan. Now each clan has something I liked over the 20+ years that makes up the original game. At GENCON I will be playing the Scorpion clan.
My great clan of choice was always the Scorpion. They were the guys who martyred themselves to the rigid Rokugani honor system in order to promote the greater good. They were never trusted and as such they had to prove themselves. They were the bad guy who was on your side. I love their ceremonies and superstition. The Scorpion make sense to me.
I will be one of 700 players who will be the first public group to access and play the new LCG. I am very excited since FFG is making a celebration out of the new launch. I expect them to also announce the new Legend of the Five Rings Role-playing Game, and it will be using the new Genesys universal role-playing game system that is already being used to support Star Wars. The celebration will then move to deck pick up, deck building and hours of gameplay.
The rest of GENCON will have Legend of the Five Rings (LCG) events everyday. All of these events will lead into the establishing the whole mechanic about roles and setting up for the Winter Court world event in November where players will vote on the first story decision point that will change the direction of the IP. I'm really looking forward to being back in Rokugan, and man do I want to play in a Launch event this September.
Thursday will end with plenty of new stuff, a day of gaming, and meeting up with folks for dinner. Friday will be Infinity all day. Saturday will be me and wife having a good time relaxing and checking things out. Sunday will be a final round of Magic the Gathering, before we leave for home.
Next set of posts will be from the trade floor of the "4 Best Days of Gaming"
- Cheers
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