Legend of the Five Rings LCG discontinued by FFG

I am saddened by the news I f this games demise. As someone who has played it for most of its existence in this format and also played Nettunner I have come to the conclusion that as much as I like the LCG model over CCGs it’s just not good for competitive games. That said it’s the best format for kitchen sink games or co-ops. But if you are trying to drive a competitive / tournament scene it’s just not good. Or it needs to be bigger than what FFG was capable of doing. More content. More events more play testing. More updates to change the play space. And consistency do all of these things.

I love the L5R setting and desperately want them to do a co-op card game for it. They have all the art. And the licensee. There is a fan base. Likely a good bit larger than the L5R CCG audience.

Sadly this was a game that floundered under its own weight. It’s hard to find a game that had more decision points than this one. It’s a great game as Stated in the first post. The skill required to be good was high.

It is a weird property to kill as well, in terms of it being wholly owned by FFG. I think the LCG model will live on in the cooperative model, Arkham Horror is still going strong. Marvel champions lives under that model as well. I can see Arkham getting a second edition or reboot soon, as it has been going a while and is an intimidating prospect for new players. Rumour is that it might get released more like Marvel in the future: big boxes with all the campaign in them and the player cards released some other way.

I do recommend checking out Nisei. If you don't want to buy in, you can try out the new intro set for free on jinteki.net. They are doing a stunning job of keeping the game alive and I am really excited for what sounds like a great new set designed to get new people into the game and make the game shorter and more dynamic.

I need to check out Nisei for sure. I hope the final big box for L5R is good. I am super stoked for it. If it’s good I imagine that the community will be able to template off it. That will likely be simpler / faster than more player cards for the normal game.

I have found both community’s to be fantastic. They have indicated that the setting timeline will continue to progress in the RPG. So that’s exciting and should provide some fodder for card creation. It’s possible / likely that they do some board game.

For as much as we crap on FFG, and some is for sure deserved, they do some pretty interesting and innovative mechanics. Love it or hate it what they created with L5R plays different than other games.