story – ObakeMerchant

UNRELEASED TALES (II): The Samurai Edition Demo Set

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 20/01/2025. Publicado en story.

Previous arcs had received some form of not-for-sale demo item, released along or very close to the base set. These were simple decks, made out of common and uncommon cards, sent to retailers so they could demo the game to prospective players. Diamond Editiion had a pair of these decks, featuring the Mantis and the Unicorn Clans, while, if I recall correctly, Lotus Edition had one of these for every playable clan in the arc. But not of Samurai… or did it? While no such item was released, a very small bunch of Strongholds with the «SE Demo» indicator in the copyright line made their way...

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Oracular Spectacular! Part 1

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 13/10/2024. Publicado en story.

The Elemental Oracles have been a thing in L5R since the very beginning, starting with Imperial Edition (also reprinted on Emerald and Obsidian Editions). artwork (c) and by Randy Elliott (earth), Ken Meyer Jr. (fire), April Lee (water), and Quinton Hoover (wind) Noticeably, The Oracle of Air was named «of Wind», instead; probably an editing mistake which was later kept to minimize confusion on the playing table. Also, the Void version was noticeably missing at this time. The role of the Oracles was then unknown to us, players of L5R… and probably to the writers, too: something...

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The Cards Tell the Tale (II): The Training Grounds, by Ben Peck

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 12/07/2024. Publicado en story.

The original TRAINING GROUNDS set was released along the Diamond Edition base set, and was the LTP product for the Reign of Blood era, and depicted a battle between the Lion Clan and the Shadowlands forces. The product packaging (a sturdy two row box designed to hold around 800 cards) had a wraparound battle scene which was also used to illustrate several cards in the set. Sadly it seems the full widescreen picture is nowhere to be found, except for the featured central part, with the two enemy leaders facing off, so well need to use our imagination to picture the full scene, as depicted...

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