Hello all! Hope everyone is enjoying Shattered Empire, and is ready for more content, because it's coming very soon! But first, let's address the things included in the new update releasing today, which we've dubbed the Minor Clans update. Why do we call it this? Well, for both consistency with other legal ShE cards that are from minor Clans, such as Heichi Tadama, and for future possible design or story angles, we felt it was necessary to go back and add Minor Clan affiliation keywords where necessary. This is in cards across Onyx Edition, RoJ, RtR, and ROU.
Then, we thought, it might be nice to give players flavorful "alternate templates" for each of these Minor Clans, akin to the Imperial borders, so that's what we did! The cards remain Unaligned, these are purely aesthetic options for those who want that little bit of flavor.
This includes 15 Personalities in total, including an Imperial border for Seppun Nanase and a Boar Clan border for Heichi Tochiko. We have also applied proper artist credit to these cards, where appropriate. Expect to see these minor clan/faction borders continue to be made available in the future, not just for these clans, but for others as well.
For those who prefer the standard Unaligned frames, copies of those are also being made available. We also took the opportunity to 'un-MRP' one card from Onyx Edition.
Kitsune Yoshioka uniquely gained in Onyx Edition the ability for its Elephant to swear fealty. This quirk has been removed, to bring it in line to previous versions, and to standardize it with other Kitsune cards that had not been developed at the time Yoshioka was designed. Corrective Errata/Clarifications
The following cards require non-mechanical changes for clarification, or to correct unintended errors and allow the cards to function as intended. In the case of Oblivious Scout, we felt it was best to simply take the opportunity to bring into play a keyword that was intended to be 'phased out' back when Onyx was originally developed in 2014/2015. However, we felt it was far simpler to just start using it again in cases like this where it easily solves a problem that otherwise would require sometimes painful rewording to get around.
We also took the opportunity to add missing legality bugs to Daigotsu Kanpeki, Shadow Emperor. It can be found in the Onyx Edition Image Pack zip file.
Rebalancing/Environmental Errata
As part of our ongoing effort to balance the play environment, our team are monitoring games and seeking to address issues as we believe are necessary, or to curtail future concerns. To this end, the following changes are included in this update. They are designed to address three deck types we have concerns about: Kitsune Honor, Naga Pearl military, and Lion Blitz.
As a very small design/playtest team, operating in a digital only format allows us the option to identify and correct these problems as we see the games play out in, what we are happy to say, is a steadily increasing play environment. Speaking of the play environment, now that all that is out of the way, let's address Chaos Reigns, Part I (of III). This 60 card expansion is intended to cover the first few years in the Colonies following the fall of Toshi Ranbo and the return of the Hantei Dynasty. As CRI and GS were originally planned to be released together, both are smaller than normal sets. Expect a return to larger set sizes in expansions to follow. The release date of this set will be May 10th, meaning previews week will begin on Monday, May 6th. We are also planning something new (yet old) in how we will try to bring you the story of this set, with the return of Clan Letters. Ten Clan letters will be released along with the set, helping to (we hope) paint a picture that honors L5R's rich narrative traditions. UPDATE: Slight error in the actual previews schedule. Because of the return of Clan Letters, previews will now be structured to release alongside those letters, over a 5 day period, to reveal the story of the set over that time, instead of blocking cards by type. Sorry for the confusion! The set previews will still begin on the 6th, and the set will do a full release on the 10th! We leave you with the now-traditional Promo Reprint for Chaos Reigns, Part I.
Thank you all for your continued support!