Monthly Archives: June 2012

The Story Behind the Card

Every story has that moment. The moment where the decision is made and the story is changed forever. This was the theme we decided to go with for L5R’s 10,000^th card, The Deciding Moment. However, with 17 years of history, there are simply too many great stories to make one single card.

Thus we decided to make multiple versions of the card, each with its own flavor text and art. The art would be drawn by iconic artists of Legend of the Five Rings across the history of the game; each version would reflects the player involvement in the game and the shaping of the L5R storyline for 17 years. We were only left with picking which moment we wanted to depict and as L5R is the interactive Storyline Game, we chose to represent  in card form the deciding moment of each major storyline arc the game has known, as well as add both the name of the arc and the moment as a side credit to the card.

In reverse chronological order, here are the selected moments.

• The Battle of the Gods.  Celestial Arc: The Destroyer War.  It represents the moment when Kali-Ma and Fu Leng fight each other to the death, resulting in the creation of the Second Wall and the start of the Age of Conquest.

• The Ascension of Iweko. Samurai Arc: The Race for the Throne. This version represents the culmination of all the players’ hard work fighting for their clan, leading to the ascension of Kitsuki Iweko as Empress Iweko the First, chosen by the Heavens through its representatives: the Obsidian and the Jade Oracles.

• The Khan’s March. Lotus Arc: Age of Enlightenment. This represents the moment when Moto Chagatai, Khan of the Unicorn Clan makes the decision to march on Toshi Ranbo during the Winter and take the throne.

• The Return of Kisada. Diamond Arc: Rain of Blood. The victory of Salman Barakat at the World Championships in 2004 resurrected Hida Kisada who came back through Oblivion’s Gate to stop Iuchiban and his Bloodspeakers in their attempt to subdue to Empire.

• The Sacrifice of Tsudao. Gold Arc: The Four Winds. The four children of Toturi fought and struggled over whom should succeed their father after his untimely death. The World Championships in 2003 resolved this conflict when Bryan Reese came out victorious leading to Hantei Naseru taking the throne while Toturi Tsudao selflessly sacrificed herself in the struggle against the Dark Lord Daigotsu in the City of the Lost.

• The Birth of the Shadow Dragon. Jade Arc: The Hidden Emperor. The victory of Justin Walsh at the 2000 World Championships saw the Air Dragon corrupted and mutated into the hideous beast now known as the Shadow Dragon. This transformation has had many consequences on the Empire of Rokugan, some of which have still yet to be seen.

• The Second Day of Thunder. Imperial Arc: The Clan Wars. On the Second Day of Thunder, Seven Thunders from Seven Clans came together to fight and destroy the Emperor Hantei XXXVIII, possessed by Fu Leng, the Dark Kami. As the other Thunders are fighting the Dark God,  Mirumoto Hitomi must decide whether or not to open the 12^th Black Scroll and change the Empire forever.

• The Celestial Court. This card is made for the time before the game, the Pre-Imperial Arc, when the original members of AEG decided to make a game about samurai. This deciding moment has changed all of our lives forever.

The full art for each of those versions will be unveiled the first week of every month starting July 2012 in a special article which will also outline in more detailed fashion how the moment came to be (who made it happen, if you will), how the card will be distributed and how the art was created.

The Card Itself

When we decided upon the theme The Deciding Moment, Design was tasked with creating a card that would best represent this idea. First we had to decide what type of card The Deciding Moment would be. Most of the card types immediately remove themselves from contention, leaving the two best options as a Strategy or Event. Both have equal merit and both could represent our theme well. Ultimately it was decided that we should make the card a Strategy card as it offered more design room.

Once this was decided, it was time to work on the mechanics. We wanted it to be unique, as we felt that best represented the idea of a single point in time when a decision must be made to alter the course of history. We also wanted most decks to be able to play the card, and all decks to at least consider playing it. In a vacuum, this is really easy to accomplish. “Open: Draw 2 cards” would be a card that was played for the rest of time. However, it is dull, not representative of the theme, and simply would make the card an auto-include in every deck, something we did not want. So we started thinking about what all of these moments have in common and the common theme was some sort of fight or struggle. This made us decide that this should be a card themed in favor of a military deck. While this does not cover every type of deck out there in the way “Open: Draw 2 cards” does, military decks do comprise of a large portion of the environment.

The next step was coming up with a mechanic that best represented The Deciding Moment. This moment is the moment when everything has gone haywire and it looks like you are about to lose. The moment when decisive actions are needed to change the course and pull out victory for the good guys. When one brilliant strategy is implemented to turn the tide of battle.

Using this as inspiration, Bryan designed the card as you see it. The Limited action is unplayable until the moment before your opponent is about to win. It is at that time that you may play this card, gather some more forces, and make one last final charge on your enemies. You will notice this only works against honor, dishonor, and enlightenment victories. The reality is that there is no equivalent trigger that remains relevant against a military victory condition. So to make sure this card was not blank when facing a military player, Bryan gave it the ability to cycle itself away, getting you to the next card in your deck to help you fight and defeat your opponent.

The end result is a good card that will be of great help to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat that represents well the theme of The Deciding Moment.

You also have undoubtedly noticed that the card has a special frame. The 10,000^th card in any card game is a significant milestone, one we wanted to make stand out to all our players and what better way than to create a specific frame for it.  L5R used to have one frame per expansion and while that has been rendered unnecessary due to the abbreviation of the set in the bottom credits, it is something we want to get back to for special occasions such as this one.

Re-posted from L5R.com. For more information and details on how to obtain this historical CCG single, see the official announcement.