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Celestial Edition 15th, how I hate thee? Let me count the ways… (2)

In my previous entry in this series I went over why I consider re-do sets, like CE15 was, were a bad idea and may have affected negatively the long term of the game by causing retailers to hold back on stocking the game, fearing these kind of products that would devalue existing stock. I also put forward that, while players were very happy about getting extra rares in their product for the same price, what they were getting was also worth less. The same way printing money without control causes said money to be worth less and causes overall prices to rise, when you get three, instead of one,...

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Celestial Edition 15th, how I hate thee? Let me count the ways… (1)

Some of you probably have noticed it has taken me a long time to update the L5R store database after The Harbinger. That’s because CE15 is a maddening h*ll of a hassle to collect and even make a complete list of. First of all, CE15 is a «re-do» set of the original Celestial Edition base set. I have issues with this kind of product, so this part of my… rant applies to the all them and not just to CE15 in particular (even if CE15 was the worst offender of the lot) . At this point, AEG had already done something similar with Samurai Edition Banzai! (SEB) sets, which was itself a re-do of the...

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The L5R Experience, a Gold era Learn-to-Play product. Decklists and other info.

The L5R Experience was one of several Learn-to-Play (LTP) products. designed by AEG as a free promotional tool to encourage existing L5R players to teach the game and expand the player base. This product included two small, basic preconstructed 50-card decks (Crane vs. Scorpion) created to be balanced against each other, while showing the core mechanics of the game. It used only existing cards,  none of them valuable (one worry being that players hoarded those cards for themselves, thus diluting the intent of the product). Maybe the most valuable cards, then and today, were the two Strongholds...

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UNRELEASED TALES (III): Lost in the cutting room

    At this point, we know part of AEG promo policy was to not release and destroy those promos that remained unreleased when the legality period for them ended. We only know of them becase of unintended leaks, or mispacks that had a few scarce copies end in the hands of players. Then, we have these… To my knowledge, the only proof of their existence was in them appearing in some old playtest documents. They didn’t even had art assigned at this point (but they had flavor text!). I wonder if at some point they got their art, if they were even printed at all (maybe they didn’t...

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DECK ANATOMY: Khan’s Defiance

  Release date: January 22nd, 2007. General description: Regular-size expansion for Lotus Edition; the first to include dual Lotus/Samurai legality bugs. Sets size: 156 numbered cards (50 common, 50 uncommon, 50 rare, 6 fixed). Extra cards: 50 rare foils, plus 59 fixed deck reprints. Total size: 265 cards.       CRAB DECK (fixed portion)  Stronghold: Kaiu Shiro Events (1) Birth of the Blood Heir Holdings (11) A Favor Returned Gifts and Favors Crystal Mine Iron Mine x2 Personal Librarian Rich Coffers Secluded Village x2 Secluded Waystation x2 Personalities (12) Hida Daizu x2 Hida Dayu...

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The Cards Tell the Tale (I): Training Grounds II, by Miguel Coimbra

Repeating the trick used for their previous LTP product, the art department decided to use this wraparound image for the product packaging of Training Grounds II. LTP (that Learn to Play) products usually appeared once for each legality arc, near the release of the basic set for a given story arc (in this case, Lotus Edition, or The Age of Enlightenment). Again they usually featured a more discrete conflict, limited to two factions. In this case, they were the Crane and Dragon Clans, and the conflict was called the War of Silk and steel. This widescreen artwork, by newcomer to L5R Miguel Coimbra,...

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What’s in a Sect

While belonging to a Clan (or bloodline) is part who what a Vampire IS, and it can’t be changed (well, there are exceptions, as we already have seen). A Sect is an organization that you chose to BELONG to. Of course, the circumstances of your Embrace (sort vampiric birth), like who is your Sire, which city, and when it happened has lots to do with it, it is not something that is in your blood and you need a super duper arcane magic ritual to switch. THE CAMARILLA When the game was first published, this was the default sect. It didn’t even say so in the cards, because… of course you are Camarilla....

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Homunculus II: Search Harder

For searches by Clan, Sect or Type, go to: Homunculus Helper   Basic V5 Disciplines (11) ANIMALISM – alphabetical or set order AUSPEX – alphabetical or set order BLOOD SORCERY (also THAUMATURGY) –  alphabetical or set order CELERITY –  alphabetical or set order DOMINATE – alphabetical or set order FORTITUDE – alphabetical or set order OBFUSCATE – alphabetical or set order OBLIVION ***coming soon POTENCE – alphabetical or set order PRESENCE – alphabetical or set order PROTEAN – alphabetical or set order   Legacy Disciplines...

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On Disciplines (or lack thereof)

What are disciplines? In essence, disciplines are blood-powered “superpowers” a vampire can have in the World of Darkness. Some of these disciplines are more common to many vampires of a particular clan, even the younger ones, while others require centuries of experience to learn by a few vampires outside that clan. Here, you can search our stock of VTES cards, filtered by Discipline In VTES game terms, icons on crypt cards determine which powers that particular vampire has access to. Also, these icons come in two flavors: basic, with the icon inside a square, and superior, with the same icon...

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Antitribu no more

Antitribu were a concept introduced to VTES in one of the earlier sets, the fifth and final one by WOTC.  Until that point there were only vampires from the 7 clans of the Camarilla (8 if you count the Caitiff), plus the four Independents (and, back then, Camarilla was the default sect, with the Independents specifically spelled as “non-Camarilla”. With the release of THE SABBAT in 1996, this changed, and the titular sect was explicitly indicated in all the crypt cards in the set. Besides the 2 clans who were specifically aligned with the Sabbat (Lasombra and Tzimisce), we got the antitribu...

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Bloodlines: Harbingers of Skulls

What is a Bloodline? A bloodline is a small “family” of Vampires, usually an off-shot of one of the main 13 Clans, with some common characteristics, history and/or outlook. Sometimes it is more complicated than that! HARBINGERS OF SKULLS When a Bloodline is not an off-shot? When they are the main tree of the “family”. The Harbingers are what’s left of the Capadocians, one of the original 13 Clans, which was “usurped” by one amongst them, Augustus Giovanni, who killed the clan Founder, all but hunted his progeny to extinction, taking his place as the head of the new clan Giovanni. As things usually...

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Bloodlines: Ahrimane

What is a Bloodline? A bloodline is a small “family” of Vampires, usually an off-shot of one of the main 13 Clans, with some common characteristics, history and/or outlook. Sometimes it is more complicated than that! AHRIMANE The Ahrimane Bloodline is usually considered an off-shot of the Gangrel antitribu. It is, and it isn’t… not exactly. Over kindred history there have been two branches of this bloodline. The original Ahrimanes were born (and, apparently, were extinct) during the Dark Ages, in Scandinavia. However, the branch related to VTES is the more modern branch, born again through...

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