My friend Nik was one of those Naga players who refused to fight each other at the Day of Thunder. He passed last year. Thanks for mentioning that. Feels good seeing a little of his legacy as a gamer living on across the internet.
i never heard about this game till MANY years later (because there was a TTRPG based on the card game I THINK i know it was the early 2000's by the time i heard about it)
When I saw a video talking about the best story in gaming and L5R I thought you were going to tell the story of the Mantis Clan Standard Bearer -- the man who was hit by a car on day one of a big con, but checked himself out of hospital to come back and play his clan. The art on the card is him, and that's why Yoritomo Furikae can't be killed in the game.
I can't find further information online about this card or the player. Would love to read more if you can point me in the direction of an article or something similar.
I did do some Googling to try and confirm the story but there doesn't seem to be anything. Like Matt says in the video, this is all oral history -- someone who was there told a friend of mine, he told me, now I'm telling anyone who'll listen. I suppose it could all be made up, but I hope it's not.
I'm late to this, but my L5R tale. I played, but the guy that taught me did tournaments as a Scorpion. He went to a mid-level tournament once with a pile of Koku. Koku was essentially a money that you could win, or collect, and send in to AEG for merch or cards. At one point, he sat down against a guy he was pretty sure would beat him. So he told him, essentially, that he was happy for the opportunity to have this battle, and was so grateful that, should he win, he would offer this koku to the player to make up for his time spent with this lowly scorpion. So the other guy flagged a judge, and said "hey, this dude is trying to bribe me to throw my match". And the judge asked me friend if that was true, to which he replied "No, he gets koku no matter the outcome, he just didn't know that. But he would get more if he bears the shame of losing." And the judge looked at him for a moment, looked at the other guy, pondering the issue. Then my friend added "Also, of relevance, is that I am Scorpion". To which the judge went "Ah, carry on then". Amazing interactions were the hallmark. I miss this game.
@@yukitadano5098 Scorpion clan is known to be the underhand of the emperor. Their highest value is loyalty, and they do whatever it takes to comply their duty. And that means being masters of secrets, assassins, manipulators, bribers and spies. All those actions are dishonourable in the world of L5R, so other clans see them as unworthy. Where those other clans will kill themselves to die in honour, scorpions will dishonour themselves in pride knowing that they've played their part.
@@yukitadano5098 I can't speak to now, but historically the Scorpion clan was always the shady, darker side of the empire. In the lore, they were the secret intelligence, assassins and whatnot for the emperor. Thus, playing that way, with a quasi-but-not-really-subtle bribe if the player throws the game would 100% be in character for a Scorpion.
I think I average 5-6 viewings of every Colville video. This is one of his best, probably only behind the Critical Role finale which is maybe the finest video ever made on our hobby.
"Honor is stronger than steel." That's going to be the foundation of my new character for our next Pathfinder campaign. Likely a clan assassin, he/she was raised by a falsely imprisoned ninja & a hedge witch, will "collect" art/artifacts, helps street kids by teaching them his/her skills, & can throw a mean frisbee (perhaps modified star knife).
The greatest game I ever saw being played at a tournament was between a Dragon and Crane player. Both decks were geared towards dueling and if you knew the history of both clans, you knew how significant that was. The players themselves decided to take their deck and turn it into a staring contest. They would each in turn draw a card and this would go on until one of them blinked. When one of them finally did, they added the focus value (each card had a value at the bottom of it) and the person with the highest value would win. It was a tie. Karmic Strike. Both duelists die as a result. Again, if you knew the history of both clans, you would understand the significance of it. I'll never forget that game or the community during those years.
Matt, I loved hearing your version of the Clan war, I was a Crab Clan player from launch through many years beyond the Day of Thunder. Hida O-Ushi was the heart and soul of my Clan. She was the younger sister of Hida Yakamo the Crab clan Thunder. I will in short tell you my favorite portion of her story. After her father and died and her older brother became the Sun. She was the Crab Clan Champion for many years. When she was old enough to already have two fully grown sons her clan was at war with the Crane Clan. The Champion of the Crane led an army many times the size of her own and she knew her fate. She challenged Doji Kurohito to a duel she knew she would lose but he could not refuse. But as she was her Clan's Champion he would be forced to wait 24 days before attacking to honor her death. In that time her son's arrived and the Crab won the war.
Gotta love Cow Grandma. Oh yeah, she was in her mid-60s at that point, and way past her prime. Still as angry as she was in youth, and could still kick it like a bear (like her dad).
I remember way back when I was playing the game, I got interested in one of the minor Crane clan characters, a blind swordswoman whose name I did not even know (I merely saw her depicted on the card “The World is Empty”). And I sent an email to the AEG asking about her, their writer wrote me back, giving me a huge write up about her, her sister and their personal conflict, and talked about the direction this side story was going to take in the future. Can you imagine what kind of passion was in these AEG people for this world? People working on L5R loved and, indeed, lived this game! Still blows my mind...
@@jameshebert5182 It’s like asking a magician how does he done his trick. You will never gat an answer for it. But if I could have just one question, I would have asked how did he managed to get the Lion/Toturi (Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Sengoku) first place and Crane/Doji Hoturi (Akechi Mitsuhide) second place. Now that is the real magic. So I add to my previous comment in some of the upper ones, that John Wick is not simply a storyteller / Dungeon Master genius, but also one of the most talented magician. :)
Got another one: Kojima Yataro is Hida Yakamo in L5R! He was also called an Oni because of his power, and was also fighting with a Kanabo just like in L5R and there is a Crab on his helmet in the historical paint! :) So far the historical connections to Sengoku: Oda Nobunaga - Hantei the 39th Nohime / Kicho (Oda Nobunaga's wife) - Bayushi Kachiko (Hantei's wife) Toyotomi Hideyoshi - Toturi Date Masamune - Dairya Akechi Mitsuhide - Doji Hoturi Kojima Yataro - Hida Yakamo Jodo Shinshu Buddhist monks - Brotherhood of Shinsei Kodai-in (Toyotomi Hideyoshi's wife) - Isawa Kaede (Toturi's wife) Nakano Takeko - Otaku Kamoko Shizuka Gozen - Shiba Tsukune (?)
I don’t know if it’s Matt’s sheer vocal/facial enthusiasm, or the idea that you could lose a game and still walk away amazed by what transpired, or the flowing and (apparently) incredible story told by the players and only the players... but this game seems badass. I feel some kind of nostalgia for an event I wasn’t even a part of. Pretty cool.
Legend of the five rings was a treasure. I started playing when I was 12 up until a few years ago when the game died. Now it's come back under another company and I'm beyond excited.
i remember when a Guy from our local weekly organised play round always said how badass Hida Kisada was and how much he wished there would be any character as cool as him. And when AEG anouncec the storyline events of the Legion of Dead and that a Hero of the winners clan would come back he told us he would win the tournament at gencon and resurect Hida Kisada. And, ohhh Boy, he did. xDD Greetings going out Salman.
My friend Eric was memorialized during the very last Storyline tournament of the original L5R CCG. Fantasy Flight printed his RPG character (Daidoji Nerishma) in the base game for their new version. To say that we were engaged with this story is a grand understatement.
I absolutely disagree that L5R was bad at multi-player. The rules for multi-player were in the very first rulebooks and they worked quite well. Frankly, I think it was best in that format, because in multi-player you couldn't run a straight speed deck, so it facilitated much more interesting game play. In fact, I played in a series of multi-player tournaments in Denver during the heyday of the game (won two of the five, but lost in the finals because I was seen as being too dangerous, which is entertaining in itself, though not as entertaining as winning, of course.) It's not as good as Seventh Sea CCG for that, but until that point I thought it the best multi-player CCG on the market. I was registered as a Toturi's Army player, but that was maskirovka. I ran Unicorn and dark Phoenix decks at the time, both of which were fairly strong, ... and really strong in multi-player. I was also at GenCon during the Days of Thunder, but I was editor of Games Quarterly Catalog at the time and was working the dealer floor talking to our advertisers and looking for new advertisers. (It's possible that I talked to you at the time. 8-) ) As an aside, KC Lancaster, who was the art director for L5R (both the CCG and RPG) for a long time, is a very good friend and former roommate of mine and I have several pieces of her original art from the game. My Crane Clan Banner is only a print, though.
We used to have massive 8 player games. They took hours, but there was so much diplomacy and player interaction. It was very similar to playing Commander in MTG. We developed some house rules over time as certain play styles or card combinations were extremely hard to interact with, but we made some great memories.
Now that MCDM is in the game-making business, would you consider making a finite game with a beginning, middle, and end similar to the way you described L5R?
I would really love to be part of something like this, but it sounds like something that could only happen in the specific time and place it happened in.
I'd have to disagree! I'm a new player and we play Clan Wars (the earliest part of the card game) and the older players relive the glory days of L5R and they take me with them in it. This game is so good
Do not let the bluster of the Crab blind you Mr. Colville. As Bayushi Kachiko demonstrated in your tale, there is no GREATER Clan, than the Scorpion. :-) Let the others bicker and posture. Let them stomp their feet and draw their blades. The Bayushi know what they fear, the Yogo know what they won't learn, and the Shosuro know what others believe.
I suppose it was the honorable thing to do but I really doubt anyone else would have cared if he'd closed the booth for 6 hours in order to go to the tournament.
I watched all 47 minutes! You immersed me in this story just by telling me about it; talk about verisimilitude! I understand why you've written books now, and I must say I can see a bit of L5R's influence in your book series. You're a great storyteller Matt, please never stop doing what you do!
I always come back to this video every 6 months or so. I can't explain why, but It's honestly one of my favorite videos that you've made. I don't know how you did it Matt, but you made me feel nostalgic for a game I've never played, and an event I've never heard of. It sounds like it was one for the books. Thank you.
Late to this. But when not videogame I have always been interested in this game. Thanks for explaining this element as others haven't done the best on doing so.
There is something MAGICAL about being a part of things like this. I was part of shenanigans in an mmo and while it wasn't nearly as epic it was amazing to hear people talking about it and being like "Hey! I was there at the Southern City Gates, you missed something cool! Here's what happened-"
It reminds me a little bit of Twitch Plays Pokemon in some ways. As in, the entire first year of it. Somany who dropped off after the initial Red run have no idea what they missed. Stories started cropping up in very different ways at a very different pace after that. And while yes, we have recordings and stuff, because we all had a measure of control over the game, and we all interpreted the happenings in different ways, there is no true timeline, no single correct interpretation of the events. The only canon was headcanon, if you will. You kind of had to be there to really appreciate it. The fanart still remains, as to the recaps and the logs of the live updates, but. Well. It's kind of a mess to try and understand the stories now - especially in gen five and onward when people were really starting to drop off and we got through the games faster than any particular interpretation started to grow dominant. Still, it was quite the experience. The TPP events that were Emerald and Platinum will always be close to my heart.
I remember loving gen 1 and hating gen 2, but then loving gen 2 by the end before ultimately falling off. What made Emerald and Platinum so special? Was Emerald the one where players figured out how to keep resetting the game at the very beginning?
I kept reading this large message, expecting some kind of explanation, but all there is to it is just some confusing sentimental fluff Stories? Timeline? What the fuck its a pokemon game, do tell how can it be so heartwarming to see thousands of people spam right left up and down for hours, i am honestly very confused and curious
@@okokpokjijpij1242 Thing is, it was an event where people got to participate in a stream. Everyone's imput counted, and people were to spam their move. When anarchy and democracy were implemented, it was even more interesting because then people would get even more involved, and the story was pretty good with lots of events like the day lots of pokemon were released, and such.
Hey Matt. DW here - I absolutely guarantee that what Zinser told you was the truth. That was ABSOLUTELY the plan. It's what we planned and wanted to do. In the end, it was the community of players demanding that we continue the game that basically forced us to change the plan and instead continue things (with a new storyline, of course). The L5R community is and was an incredible group of people that really took ownership of the game and the story. Absolutely incredible.
I have to say that this video is a testament to both the L5R CCG and your own story-telling ability. 40+ minutes listening about a game I've never played and never cared about and the whole thing is fascinating. Thanks for sharing this piece of history and a great idea which may never be repeated.
I swear I could listen to you narrate twilight and could still enjoy it. You have an unusual way of expressing things you love. You can just hear the passion and excitement in your voice as you told this story.
L5R is not forgotten by those of us who loved it. I still have my Scorpion Clan tattoo to remember it. 20 years on, I'm still friends with people I met through playing L5R. An incredible game with an unrivaled community.
i watched 45 minutes and still have no idea about L5R. I have no relationship to these events or games, so they don't mean anything to me, but I understand what Matt is trying to convey, the feeling of being a part of building and creating a story with a community. And that is really powerful and I love that. For me, it really helped me to understand what L5R is all about when I watched Gamers 3, because that whole movie is about that. I didn't know beforehand, but now I see "Oooh! This is the game where they got the idea for the Movie from!" :D
I know it's new and unplayed by many, including Matt, but I wish that a little more time had been given to mention the new version of L5R. It's back, it's out, and now it's a "living card game," so theoretically, players won't have to drop as much money on it. It might not have the same formula and impact, but it could certainly be fun.
The way they handle story and hand out fluff related storyline wins is pretty impressive as well. A vast upgrade to how it was being handle the previous decade.
I'm a player of the new version, and was a player of the original (not way back, but for several years). The FFG version of the game really feels like it brings out the soul of the story in a streamlined way. It's still super complicated, but not at all to the point of being convoluted. My first game took two and a half hours to play, and now I'm "blasting" through them in forty minutes or so. And now that military and politics have both been separated from honor/dishonor victories, it feels like they're both viable options, and you can accurately represent the fact that military or political victories and losses can translate into honor or dishonor victories and losses. It's so hard to describe but it feels amazing.
Been playing the LCG and it's a blast, the complexity only adds depth to the game, even if in the begging things are rough and it will probably take some time to get the hang of it, it opens up an enormous pool of different plays and strategies.
Well, since you even said "unplayed by Matt" why would he talk about it...this is obviously a video of great personal experience, and he has no experience with the new L5R....
Michael Ramm because he knew about it. I haven't played the new version either, but I know about it. I was merely saying that he could have done a better job of mentioning the new iteration. Many people were commenting about how cool the game sounded and how they wish they could have been a part of that era, but maybe this new L5R will be great and give the same feeling.
Thank you for rambling! This really brought me back to my early days with L5R, where a whole group of us in college would regularly play multiplayer, and try to piece together what was happening from all the small snippets. A bunch of us joined the Imperial Assembly (the fan club), and to my knowledge I was the first to sign up as a member of Junzo's Army - months before the actual stronghold was printed. None of us were able to get to tournaments of any real size until after the original story arc ended, so at the time all any of us could do was dream of contributing to the storyline someday. In my case, I did a lot more years later, when I was given the honor of becoming the lead designer. Over the years the player base grew and shrank in cycles, and during my tenure our key to making it grow again was to capture as much as we could from those early days. Thanks to the pervasiveness of the web the early method of storytelling was simply no longer feasible, but with the Race for the Throne we managed to get a far greater number of players directly involved in shaping the storyline. Even in our high points, though, our guiding question was: "What is the essence which made it great in the original arc?"
Good video and a great overview of the L5R story. I was a Crane clan player up in Seattle back in the late 90s and I was lucky enough to play L5R back in its golden (jade!) days. Your video brought back a lot of fond memories. Good lord I would love to see this game come back in some way. We had a large group of players at Everett Community College and would play almost every day. We actually came up with a good way to make this game multi player- Emperor games. 3 v 3. Each side had two guards and an 'emperor' between them. The guards could only attack their opposite guard and emperors could assist either guard. Guards and emperors could not attack the opposing emperor until one of the guards had been eliminated. Honor win requirement was increased to 60. Made for some great fights.
A friend of mine worked on L5R as a writer some years after the day of thunder. He also loved going to cons and playing. He said that the rivalry between clans extended to the real world so much so that some players refused to drink at bars where they saw rival clans drinking.
Recently I took the concepts of this video and engineered it into a monster. I took the Legend of the Five Rings, mixed it with Diplomacy, put in characters and court rules based on the L5R CCG, set a limit of seven turns, one turn every two days, and then cut it loose. The result has been far more amazing and terrifying than I could have predicted. I've had players staying up all hours of the night deciding actions, group therapy sessions turned shouting matches over the game, and despite everything, no one wants to quit. I blame you for this madness.
I am glad to have come across this. L5R is, by far, one of the best story driven games I've ever experienced. I was a scrub that went from Kotei to Kotei then eventually would place as top Ratling or top Dragon (though I never had the chance at top 16). I met so many wonderful people : one AEG employee would sometimes come by and play with our group; I remember being introduced to the player that would become Hida Yagamaki. L5R is full of just awesome memories, especially some of the cosplayers such as Utaku Yui. I would love to see a CCG resurgence instead of the LCG version. EDIT : And that multiplayer L5R variant you're describing, we reproduced at the local store. I never got to play the Gencon version, but it was absolutely awesome to experience. I recall being the daimyo for the Dragon clan, and all I could do was trust my shogun to do what needed to be done.
Matt, the closest I ever came to experiencing what you were last describing was when we used to play Battletech at my place. The players sat facing away from each other, each with their own boards and could only see the mechs that the moderator placed on the boards in their lines of sight. They had little to no idea where things were that their teammates could see, except by the descriptions they were able to give, but since none of them could see the entire board it was difficult for them to coordinate things over distances, as they saw and lost sight of their enemies. It made for a much longer game, since everything had to be updated on all of the boards each turn and all of the moves were resolved by notes and such that way no one could know what was going on except the players directly involved, but it was a whole lot more fun. The climax of the one night was quite accidental as one of the smaller and lighter mechs came around a street corner in a very urban setting only to find the back of the leader of the opposing group facing him. Suddenly the other team could no longer communicate with their leader and they had no idea why. By the time they found his ruined mech, the light mech had moved several streets over and until the game was over they had no idea what had happened or what they were facing. Those games, where you only had access to part of the story at a time, were a whole lot more satisfying to play in than those where everyone was together, everything happened out in the open, and everyone knew everything. I wish I had known about the game you have been describing. I never heard of it back then but it sounds like it was a lot of fun and it is refreshing to hear of a company that was so responsive to its players and what they were doing, until they betrayed them so to speak.
I don't normally comment on UA-cam videos like this, but I've been enjoying your series and something you said grabbed me. Telling the story of burning the envelops at the GenCon tournament reminds me of an ongoing tabletop war game that my friends and I currently play. It's called Guild Ball by Steamforged Games in the UK. We often describe it to interested viewers as "medieval murder soccer". At any rate, they have been having these global events where people can play games and pledge the results to one Guild or another. Those results change the game, forever. Last season the global event was a civil war within the Butchers Guild. Whoever won the global results event between the leaders of two sides would get a new card, a new version of one of their player, and the other would get nothing. One side one, two new veteran versions of characters were reveled and the event ended. My friends and fellow players debated endlessly, and still talk about, who the new players would have been if the other side won. Steamforged to has never revealed, at least to my knowledge, on what would have happened if the result had been different. I love that about their ongoing story of Guild Ball. Your envelope anecdote reminded me of that and I thank you for it
Poor Scorpion caught in the Dead Zone. I feel they're due the greatest honour because they dishonoured the clan and accepted the appearance of evil for the sake of prophecy.
I only started in the second story arc, after the Day of Thunder. But this still took me back to the excitement our tiny local gaming community shared about the game and story when we played it on the other end of the world
I've always known about L5R, but only until a few days ago have I dived a bit it! I'm saddened to know it has ended (for a second time, in 2021, it seems) and that it was as huge as it was.. but poorly documented. So :D I'm so happy this video was made, and that I got to see it. Thanks Matthew
I played so much L5R that I still say "the table is yours" when I play card games. It is also my favorite story in gaming, and my favorite setting to run. I just wish someone else in my group would run it once in awhile so I could play.
I interned at AEG in 2000 with their minis department (when they still did a minis game). I even have a writing credit in a scenario book called Thunder's Challenge.
Everything about this sounds amazing. I play MtG and while I enjoy the flavor and story of it and occasionally read story posts, this L5R stuff is clearly a whole other -level- tier. I love everything about this. I've heard people mention L5R as an amazing card game from the past, but I would never have guessed the scope of it. Sweet video, Mr. Colville.
As someone who was born in 96 and has only heard of L5R in passing as a RPG, this video is absolutely fascinating and wonderful to me. Watching you talk about this game, the stories that came out of it, and seeing how excited it makes you (along with seeing how real these stories are to you) is probably the best part of this video. And, I get exposed to new stuff that I never knew I would love so much! I wish I could have been a part of a tale like this, especially one that involves such wonderful gaming!
Not going to lie, that story made my eyes crossed a few times, but I absolutely loved your enthusiasm and passion that is apparent as you speak on your experiences. I would love to see something that dynamic come back and be done well and think it'd be great if local game stores hosted something like this.
What, what?!? My brother was the art director for Last Unicorn Games. I still have Aria Roleplaying and Worlds books, plus a large collection of Heresy cards. Later on I got into some of the Final Fantasy LCGs and loved Netrunner, of which I have most the cards. But I also loved the CCG for L5R after playing the RPG and being a fan of the Miamoto Musashi's book, the name sake of the game. Though I never played in any of the tournaments, but in 2009 I was judging for the WoW TCG at GenCon and I will never forget how the L5R players started each day with a combined three part cheer to signify the day's battles to begin. That is the kind of passion for a game that no other CCG/LCG/TCG has ever shown in my experience.
Matthew, thank you SO much for just a great narrative of Gaming History! I know one of the original artist, Troy Graham, and he, just like you: get SO excited and impassioned when he talks about those founding years. Thank you for sharing and what an inspiration for Game Designer's to TRY and create something on that level. Thanks again for sharing!
The community around L5R was absolutely amazing. People really identified with certain factions and characters, and the storyline being affected by tournaments was such an original concept. So many cool elements came from that. Clans becoming corrupted, ancestral weapons being destroyed, the reveals of the Kolat Masters, redemption arcs, experienced characters becoming aligned with weapons commonly attached to them during tourneys, it was so well done.
This is certainly an intriguing idea. It would be almost impossible to recreate, but it is extremely interesting. It would allow for a very "real" story since there isn't much of a system in place to force things back on track if the unexpected happens. With everything controlled by players, it would very much reflect some level of actual strategy mixed with actual human emotion, enabling the story to flow with a realistic level of unpredictability. However, I can't really imagine it happening again. Beyond the fact that it would be hard to have the same feel with today's culture and technology, I also find it hard to imagine that there are too many companies ready to make a game that has an inherent shelf life. It would have to be a company that is willing to prioritize the art and experience over long-term profit. It's something where the game would become obsolete when the story was finished. It also would have a story that would be difficult to license in any way due to how tied it is to the medium it existed in. Further, the difficulty is that it almost requires the game to gain a fan base pretty quickly. If there were only a hundred people who cared about the game, it's hard to imagine that it would have the same feel.
Every now and then I come back to this video because the whole concept is amazing. It's sort of what Everquest Next had aspired to do before that was cancelled, with players impacting the world itself, for thousands of players, if not more.
I’m honestly jealous of this, but I’m also glad you let me know this happened. I’ll forever envy an experience like this, but I’m also really happy knowing that something like it can and has happened, and therefore could happen again.
Thank you Mr. Colville you took me down memory lane with this one. I can’t tell you how many night where spent wagering war with friends with this game. It was great as we had every clan represented. It was these huge games with all the clans around the table that for us is where it shines. Unless you where crane clan players as they got stomped to stop that honor run. Well I wanted to say thanks you put a smile on an old mans fave with this one. So I end this with a quote from MY clans champion “ENOUGH TALK “ Hida Yakamo Crab clan Champion
Mr. Colville, this is an old book, even by L5R standards. But if you ever get a chance to read the Way of the Scorpion, do so. You will INSTANTLY fall in love with L5R as an RPG :-)
Ha.. one of the best, and funniest books, is the Way of the Merchant.. the opening few pages are awesome, just graphs and charts of rice production. A few comments on preferred trade routes.. and then you flip the page and go straight to the gangs ... and more importantly the 5th column of the game, an sorcery and shadows equivalent of the Yakuza.
Matt (and whoever is interested ;) ), you might want to have a look at the Dark Eye roleplaying game. It is not completely comparable, but it as a continous narrative for over 20 years in Germany, a bi-monthly newspaper and major events are played out in multi group sessions at conventions. Great video anyway :D
This video was great. One thing I always heard as a fledgling L5R player was that as incredible as it sounds, The Day of Thunder was even more amazing than any story could make it sound; it was truly an event where you had to be there.
Man, I ACTUALLY HAD Legend of the Five Rings cards as a kid! I can't even remember who I inherited them from, but I got no context whatsoever. This video actually changes my whole perspective on the game and the great times I had playing it. THIS IS AMAZING! THANKS! I'll try to see if I can find them them stored somewhere!!
What an elegant design for a game. I have the RPG 3rd Edition D&D books for this and it reads so well. I'll probably pick up the FF version. Because I hate having money. And food.
My old l5r playgroup in socal included the shadowlands warlord (Darrin dalingini), highly ranked unicorn then phoenix (art reed) and crane (ron) players. One of the guys in our playgroup ended up murdering his wife in long beach CA and I stopped playing with them. I remember a bunch of us renting a van and going up to SF for a battle of otosan uchi tournament. Great time
Eve Online has some similarities with this game. As far as oral history about things that have taken place between the various player groups within the game.
Happy to see I'm not the first to say,. The thing that keeps me amazed and involved in Eve is the way CCP interacts with the players and makes them an integral part of lore and development.
Matt, I do not know you personally and did not experience L5R at its height; however, I would just like to thank you for providing such a genuine and passionate description of its events so that even a person so remote to this experience as I can feel the ups and downs as if I had been there in the heat of the moment. Thank you for telling the story - Not for the those who were there, but for those who weren't. Arigato.
Watched this for the second time in as many years. I have many fond memories of playing the game and some great stories about victory at the last moment. I also enjoyed playing in the tournaments hoping that my clan at that moment would prevail and get something great for the next expansion. I do have to disagree about multiplayer though. It enhanced the game. Making alliances to support attackers or defenders so they could win or to backstab them as they were almost at victory. One person even left our gaming group because of the strategies of multiplayer. This is a great game and I am also sad that no one has tried to do a similar immersive game. Even bridging live action role playing to affect the story was a great aspect. L5R is in my opinion the best game that had been made.
About the league of Legends: There used to be extensive back stories, weakly newsletters (presented as a newspaper made by for in game civilians) and events popping up every so often. However it wasn't met with a lot of interest and ultimately cut out, Seems that most players of LoL were just interested in bashing eachother up.
They used to offer you the opportunity to make an in game item if you introduced X friends to the game, and a new character if you introduced Y friends to the game. They never actually honored that promise though. So fuck those guys, fuck Riot.
Thanks for covering this - our game club at the local university was hooked on L5R for a long time in that era. I think part of what made it so magical for those involved was, as you say, there was no exposition (until the RPG - kinda). The participating players had to weave their own narrative and develop their own personal mythology around what little was recorded as canon. For those seeking similar vibe in an RPG, John Wick's Houses of the Blooded is a lot of fun. Also, Toturi's Army. :)
Bayushi Shoju, Scorpion clan champion, lead a coup against the Imperial Palace and killed Hantei... XXXVIII. They held the capital for 6 days before Shoju was slain and Hantei Sotorii (XXXIX), his son, took back the thrown. In his anger, he disbanded the scorpion clan, and took Shoju's wife as his concubine. This pissed off a certain Scorpion Shugenja, Yogo Junzo, who decided to open the first black scroll as a way of taking vengeance, letting Fu Leng back into the world and releasing a deadly Wasting Disease which would eventually claim the life of the new Hantei Emperor. I also haven't read the books, I DM the tabletop RPG and it should be noted if you like this style of "The things that happen in X game can affect the future of the game", look into Heroes of Rokugan which is a long running living campaign that works the same way where players actions in different games at conventions and online etc.. change what happens in the future of it. For aspiring DMs there's around 60 modules on their website to look into for ideas on running stuff.
This is incredible, my dad used to play this game heavily as a Unicorn Clan member it's really interesting to hear your retelling of the events compared to everything he told me about the Day of Thunder. All I can say is I'm jealous.
Thanks for taking the time to retell this story. I remember being totally engrossed by the L5R storyline and had some friends that played in the Day of Thunder, but had largely forgotten it. Really amazing story and game.
That was amazing! I am brazilian and a player from my local Community managed to go to USA and got in the quarterfinals being the best mantis player on the event. The designers offered him a decision in the name of the mantis clan. On the next edition, they released a card based on it with his name on the edge!
This kind of story takes me back. I got into L5R during the 90s as well and it was the greatest game ever! I easily abandoned playing Magic for L5R because the story was just so much better. My original clan was the Lion Clan and I really hated the Crane Clan. My friend played the Crab Clan and together we would constantly go after a third friend who played the Crane Clan. He used to complain about being picked on but that is what you get for being effete snobs! Later on when Yoritomo's Alliance came out I would switch over to playing them, and as it turns out, they were related to the Lion and Crab clan. But boy those early days of L5R were exciting.
This video popped up on my feed and ..wow!... your story took me back to 96-97. L5R was huge during those times and the way you told your tale is exactly how we felt and experienced playing this wonderful game!
This video caused me to finish my collection of imperial -jade L5R. I play-tested 0 edition with my friends who knew some of the creators, (lucky for me) truly inspirational. Thanks.
My friend Nik was one of those Naga players who refused to fight each other at the Day of Thunder. He passed last year. Thanks for mentioning that. Feels good seeing a little of his legacy as a gamer living on across the internet.
how did he pass
@@johnzamer3142 cancer
@@jackfair4758 god rest his soul. Sounds like an awesome dude
Fortunately, he will be reborn in the next generation of Naga, so he will never truly die.
Jack! I recognize ya. Our Toledo L5R group was amazing!
"I was at the Day of Thunder."
And with those words, I am officially jealous.
i never heard about this game till MANY years later (because there was a TTRPG based on the card game I THINK i know it was the early 2000's by the time i heard about it)
This is one of the most badass things to say.
When I saw a video talking about the best story in gaming and L5R I thought you were going to tell the story of the Mantis Clan Standard Bearer -- the man who was hit by a car on day one of a big con, but checked himself out of hospital to come back and play his clan. The art on the card is him, and that's why Yoritomo Furikae can't be killed in the game.
Chris Longhurst That's so Metal!
I can't find further information online about this card or the player. Would love to read more if you can point me in the direction of an article or something similar.
Dude, what a boss! That is dedication, I love it.
I did do some Googling to try and confirm the story but there doesn't seem to be anything. Like Matt says in the video, this is all oral history -- someone who was there told a friend of mine, he told me, now I'm telling anyone who'll listen. I suppose it could all be made up, but I hope it's not.
403, access forbidden
I'm late to this, but my L5R tale. I played, but the guy that taught me did tournaments as a Scorpion. He went to a mid-level tournament once with a pile of Koku. Koku was essentially a money that you could win, or collect, and send in to AEG for merch or cards. At one point, he sat down against a guy he was pretty sure would beat him. So he told him, essentially, that he was happy for the opportunity to have this battle, and was so grateful that, should he win, he would offer this koku to the player to make up for his time spent with this lowly scorpion. So the other guy flagged a judge, and said "hey, this dude is trying to bribe me to throw my match". And the judge asked me friend if that was true, to which he replied "No, he gets koku no matter the outcome, he just didn't know that. But he would get more if he bears the shame of losing." And the judge looked at him for a moment, looked at the other guy, pondering the issue. Then my friend added "Also, of relevance, is that I am Scorpion". To which the judge went "Ah, carry on then". Amazing interactions were the hallmark. I miss this game.
New player here, what is the relevance of Scorpion
@@yukitadano5098 Scorpion clan is known to be the underhand of the emperor. Their highest value is loyalty, and they do whatever it takes to comply their duty. And that means being masters of secrets, assassins, manipulators, bribers and spies. All those actions are dishonourable in the world of L5R, so other clans see them as unworthy. Where those other clans will kill themselves to die in honour, scorpions will dishonour themselves in pride knowing that they've played their part.
@@yukitadano5098 I can't speak to now, but historically the Scorpion clan was always the shady, darker side of the empire. In the lore, they were the secret intelligence, assassins and whatnot for the emperor. Thus, playing that way, with a quasi-but-not-really-subtle bribe if the player throws the game would 100% be in character for a Scorpion.
While we enjoyed the Day of Thunder, Matt Colville stood the watch.
Steven Voss The booth fell before the Colville did.
@@mightyminotaur5056 For Cadia!... I mean, erm, fantasy Japan
I think I've watched this about 5 or 6 times in the last couple years, it never gets old
Same. Matt's passions and nostalgia are contagious in a very compelling way that rings true. I can hear Heden in this video.
I think I average 5-6 viewings of every Colville video. This is one of his best, probably only behind the Critical Role finale which is maybe the finest video ever made on our hobby.
I saw your comment and wanted to like it. I already liked it in the past 😂
I agree and am now running a L5R-themed campaign right after the death of the emperor
"Honor is stronger than steel."
That's going to be the foundation of my new character for our next Pathfinder campaign.
Likely a clan assassin, he/she was raised by a falsely imprisoned ninja & a hedge witch, will "collect" art/artifacts, helps street kids by teaching them his/her skills, & can throw a mean frisbee (perhaps modified star knife).
The greatest game I ever saw being played at a tournament was between a Dragon and Crane player. Both decks were geared towards dueling and if you knew the history of both clans, you knew how significant that was. The players themselves decided to take their deck and turn it into a staring contest. They would each in turn draw a card and this would go on until one of them blinked. When one of them finally did, they added the focus value (each card had a value at the bottom of it) and the person with the highest value would win. It was a tie. Karmic Strike. Both duelists die as a result. Again, if you knew the history of both clans, you would understand the significance of it. I'll never forget that game or the community during those years.
That is a fantastic story. I love the level of dedication the players felt in fulfilling the essence of their clans.
Matt, I loved hearing your version of the Clan war, I was a Crab Clan player from launch through many years beyond the Day of Thunder. Hida O-Ushi was the heart and soul of my Clan. She was the younger sister of Hida Yakamo the Crab clan Thunder. I will in short tell you my favorite portion of her story. After her father and died and her older brother became the Sun. She was the Crab Clan Champion for many years. When she was old enough to already have two fully grown sons her clan was at war with the Crane Clan. The Champion of the Crane led an army many times the size of her own and she knew her fate. She challenged Doji Kurohito to a duel she knew she would lose but he could not refuse. But as she was her Clan's Champion he would be forced to wait 24 days before attacking to honor her death. In that time her son's arrived and the Crab won the war.
Never played the card game, but im Crazy about the rpg. We are the Wall, brother.
@@leonardopavaoborges The Crab Clan will remain and endure, brother.
Gotta love Cow Grandma.
Oh yeah, she was in her mid-60s at that point, and way past her prime. Still as angry as she was in youth, and could still kick it like a bear (like her dad).
Genius tactics
That is amazing :D
I remember way back when I was playing the game, I got interested in one of the minor Crane clan characters, a blind swordswoman whose name I did not even know (I merely saw her depicted on the card “The World is Empty”). And I sent an email to the AEG asking about her, their writer wrote me back, giving me a huge write up about her, her sister and their personal conflict, and talked about the direction this side story was going to take in the future. Can you imagine what kind of passion was in these AEG people for this world? People working on L5R loved and, indeed, lived this game! Still blows my mind...
Reading this in 2023 hoping this world persists...
If it is ok for me to ask what was her story?
"Doji Hoturi is the best duelist in the empire." Excuse me but Kakita Toshimoko would like to have du-word with you...
Nah, the combo Doji Reju + Kharmic Strike was enough to make Reju the best duelist ever. Until Kharmic Strike was patched...
@@thulsa_doom OMG I remember that move. Back in the days of the original dueling rules. As opposed to those stupid focus pools.
The water dragon going to Yorotomo on the day of Thunder. "Bring your 10 best men."
Yorotomo "I AM my best 10 men."
Yoritomo is a badass and I LOVE the art on his card.
As always, you're very generous, Matt. Thanks! :)
People need to know this happened, John. This is important. ❤️
What was in the envelopes, John?! What could have been?
@@jameshebert5182 I'll never tell.
@@jameshebert5182 It’s like asking a magician how does he done his trick. You will never gat an answer for it. But if I could have just one question, I would have asked how did he managed to get the Lion/Toturi (Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Sengoku) first place and Crane/Doji Hoturi (Akechi Mitsuhide) second place. Now that is the real magic.
So I add to my previous comment in some of the upper ones, that John Wick is not simply a storyteller / Dungeon Master genius, but also one of the most talented magician. :)
Got another one: Kojima Yataro is Hida Yakamo in L5R! He was also called an Oni because of his power, and was also fighting with a Kanabo just like in L5R and there is a Crab on his helmet in the historical paint! :)
So far the historical connections to Sengoku:
Oda Nobunaga - Hantei the 39th
Nohime / Kicho (Oda Nobunaga's wife) - Bayushi Kachiko (Hantei's wife)
Toyotomi Hideyoshi - Toturi
Date Masamune - Dairya
Akechi Mitsuhide - Doji Hoturi
Kojima Yataro - Hida Yakamo
Jodo Shinshu Buddhist monks - Brotherhood of Shinsei
Kodai-in (Toyotomi Hideyoshi's wife) - Isawa Kaede (Toturi's wife)
Nakano Takeko - Otaku Kamoko
Shizuka Gozen - Shiba Tsukune (?)
I don’t know if it’s Matt’s sheer vocal/facial enthusiasm, or the idea that you could lose a game and still walk away amazed by what transpired, or the flowing and (apparently) incredible story told by the players and only the players... but this game seems badass. I feel some kind of nostalgia for an event I wasn’t even a part of. Pretty cool.
That is a great description. I feel the same way.
Legend of the five rings was a treasure. I started playing when I was 12 up until a few years ago when the game died. Now it's come back under another company and I'm beyond excited.
i remember when a Guy from our local weekly organised play round always said how badass Hida Kisada was and how much he wished there would be any character as cool as him. And when AEG anouncec the storyline events of the Legion of Dead and that a Hero of the winners clan would come back he told us he would win the tournament at gencon and resurect Hida Kisada.
And, ohhh Boy, he did. xDD Greetings going out Salman.
My friend Eric was memorialized during the very last Storyline tournament of the original L5R CCG. Fantasy Flight printed his RPG character (Daidoji Nerishma) in the base game for their new version. To say that we were engaged with this story is a grand understatement.
Jeph, share your story!
Wow that's awesome!
That card's one of my go-to for military conflicts. Glad to know its backstory!
I absolutely disagree that L5R was bad at multi-player. The rules for multi-player were in the very first rulebooks and they worked quite well. Frankly, I think it was best in that format, because in multi-player you couldn't run a straight speed deck, so it facilitated much more interesting game play. In fact, I played in a series of multi-player tournaments in Denver during the heyday of the game (won two of the five, but lost in the finals because I was seen as being too dangerous, which is entertaining in itself, though not as entertaining as winning, of course.) It's not as good as Seventh Sea CCG for that, but until that point I thought it the best multi-player CCG on the market.
I was registered as a Toturi's Army player, but that was maskirovka. I ran Unicorn and dark Phoenix decks at the time, both of which were fairly strong, ... and really strong in multi-player.
I was also at GenCon during the Days of Thunder, but I was editor of Games Quarterly Catalog at the time and was working the dealer floor talking to our advertisers and looking for new advertisers. (It's possible that I talked to you at the time. 8-) )
As an aside, KC Lancaster, who was the art director for L5R (both the CCG and RPG) for a long time, is a very good friend and former roommate of mine and I have several pieces of her original art from the game. My Crane Clan Banner is only a print, though.
We used to have massive 8 player games. They took hours, but there was so much diplomacy and player interaction. It was very similar to playing Commander in MTG. We developed some house rules over time as certain play styles or card combinations were extremely hard to interact with, but we made some great memories.
I've forgotten how many times I've watched this throughout the years. I swear I'll never get tired of it and I really miss this game.
I'm on my fourth watch.
Now that MCDM is in the game-making business, would you consider making a finite game with a beginning, middle, and end similar to the way you described L5R?
GREAT idea!
Matt, Your memory is phenomenal. btw thats my name on the Darkest magics card.
I own the original art to The Darkest Magics; it's very striking in full size.
Ah, what a nice trip down memory lane. I was also at the Day of Thunder in 1997. :)
I would really love to be part of something like this, but it sounds like something that could only happen in the specific time and place it happened in.
I'd have to disagree! I'm a new player and we play Clan Wars (the earliest part of the card game) and the older players relive the glory days of L5R and they take me with them in it. This game is so good
A long rambling video, not entirely unlike the last one, in which I often repeat myself. Next video will be better.
Matthew Colville crab clan best clan
It's all good dude!
Long rambling videos are perfect for these unusual upload times.
Don't sweat it. This video is great.
Do not let the bluster of the Crab blind you Mr. Colville. As Bayushi Kachiko demonstrated in your tale, there is no GREATER Clan, than the Scorpion. :-) Let the others bicker and posture. Let them stomp their feet and draw their blades. The Bayushi know what they fear, the Yogo know what they won't learn, and the Shosuro know what others believe.
22:55 My next characters alignment will read: Not evil, just fulfilling my destiny!
*proceeds to murderhobo for #reasons
So....Thanos. :)
missing it by a hallway. Just hearing that I felt empty and robbed.
Broke my heart to hear that part of the video, and I've never even played L5R!
I suppose it was the honorable thing to do but I really doubt anyone else would have cared if he'd closed the booth for 6 hours in order to go to the tournament.
I don't think I have ever sympathized so totally with somebody. If it's any comfort, Matt... I know that feel.
Matt is lawful good.
26:41 When I heard this part it was like seeing a little kid wake up on Christmas morning with no presents under the tree. Heartbreaking. :(
I watched all 47 minutes! You immersed me in this story just by telling me about it; talk about verisimilitude! I understand why you've written books now, and I must say I can see a bit of L5R's influence in your book series. You're a great storyteller Matt, please never stop doing what you do!
I always come back to this video every 6 months or so. I can't explain why, but It's honestly one of my favorite videos that you've made.
I don't know how you did it Matt, but you made me feel nostalgic for a game I've never played, and an event I've never heard of. It sounds like it was one for the books.
Thank you.
Late to this. But when not videogame I have always been interested in this game. Thanks for explaining this element as others haven't done the best on doing so.
Ree Soesbee deserves a Pulitzer for her work keeping the story contained. Always loved her work.
Listening to this video for the third time, over the years. It is THAT good!
No on can make me feel for imaginary characters the way Matt Colville does.
There is something MAGICAL about being a part of things like this. I was part of shenanigans in an mmo and while it wasn't nearly as epic it was amazing to hear people talking about it and being like "Hey! I was there at the Southern City Gates, you missed something cool! Here's what happened-"
It reminds me a little bit of Twitch Plays Pokemon in some ways. As in, the entire first year of it. Somany who dropped off after the initial Red run have no idea what they missed. Stories started cropping up in very different ways at a very different pace after that. And while yes, we have recordings and stuff, because we all had a measure of control over the game, and we all interpreted the happenings in different ways, there is no true timeline, no single correct interpretation of the events. The only canon was headcanon, if you will. You kind of had to be there to really appreciate it. The fanart still remains, as to the recaps and the logs of the live updates, but. Well. It's kind of a mess to try and understand the stories now - especially in gen five and onward when people were really starting to drop off and we got through the games faster than any particular interpretation started to grow dominant. Still, it was quite the experience. The TPP events that were Emerald and Platinum will always be close to my heart.
I remember loving gen 1 and hating gen 2, but then loving gen 2 by the end before ultimately falling off. What made Emerald and Platinum so special? Was Emerald the one where players figured out how to keep resetting the game at the very beginning?
I kept reading this large message, expecting some kind of explanation, but all there is to it is just some confusing sentimental fluff
Stories? Timeline? What the fuck its a pokemon game, do tell how can it be so heartwarming to see thousands of people spam right left up and down for hours, i am honestly very confused and curious
@@okokpokjijpij1242 Thing is, it was an event where people got to participate in a stream. Everyone's imput counted, and people were to spam their move. When anarchy and democracy were implemented, it was even more interesting because then people would get even more involved, and the story was pretty good with lots of events like the day lots of pokemon were released, and such.
@@okokpokjijpij1242 The same way that dice can tell a story in DnD.
Hey Matt. DW here - I absolutely guarantee that what Zinser told you was the truth. That was ABSOLUTELY the plan. It's what we planned and wanted to do. In the end, it was the community of players demanding that we continue the game that basically forced us to change the plan and instead continue things (with a new storyline, of course). The L5R community is and was an incredible group of people that really took ownership of the game and the story. Absolutely incredible.
I have to say that this video is a testament to both the L5R CCG and your own story-telling ability. 40+ minutes listening about a game I've never played and never cared about and the whole thing is fascinating. Thanks for sharing this piece of history and a great idea which may never be repeated.
17:52 I legit heard "and he's a commie"
MOTHERLAND!?!?
Kami = japanese for (a) God
I swear I could listen to you narrate twilight and could still enjoy it. You have an unusual way of expressing things you love. You can just hear the passion and excitement in your voice as you told this story.
Now I want to see him narrate Twilight.
:D
L5R is not forgotten by those of us who loved it. I still have my Scorpion Clan tattoo to remember it. 20 years on, I'm still friends with people I met through playing L5R. An incredible game with an unrivaled community.
I can swim.
i watched 45 minutes and still have no idea about L5R. I have no relationship to these events or games, so they don't mean anything to me, but I understand what Matt is trying to convey, the feeling of being a part of building and creating a story with a community. And that is really powerful and I love that.
For me, it really helped me to understand what L5R is all about when I watched Gamers 3, because that whole movie is about that. I didn't know beforehand, but now I see "Oooh! This is the game where they got the idea for the Movie from!" :D
7:07 "The Emperor Hentai the 38th" made me laugh :D
The old pervert on the throne...
I know it's new and unplayed by many, including Matt, but I wish that a little more time had been given to mention the new version of L5R. It's back, it's out, and now it's a "living card game," so theoretically, players won't have to drop as much money on it. It might not have the same formula and impact, but it could certainly be fun.
The way they handle story and hand out fluff related storyline wins is pretty impressive as well. A vast upgrade to how it was being handle the previous decade.
I'm a player of the new version, and was a player of the original (not way back, but for several years). The FFG version of the game really feels like it brings out the soul of the story in a streamlined way. It's still super complicated, but not at all to the point of being convoluted. My first game took two and a half hours to play, and now I'm "blasting" through them in forty minutes or so. And now that military and politics have both been separated from honor/dishonor victories, it feels like they're both viable options, and you can accurately represent the fact that military or political victories and losses can translate into honor or dishonor victories and losses. It's so hard to describe but it feels amazing.
Been playing the LCG and it's a blast, the complexity only adds depth to the game, even if in the begging things are rough and it will probably take some time to get the hang of it, it opens up an enormous pool of different plays and strategies.
Well, since you even said "unplayed by Matt" why would he talk about it...this is obviously a video of great personal experience, and he has no experience with the new L5R....
Michael Ramm because he knew about it. I haven't played the new version either, but I know about it. I was merely saying that he could have done a better job of mentioning the new iteration. Many people were commenting about how cool the game sounded and how they wish they could have been a part of that era, but maybe this new L5R will be great and give the same feeling.
Thank you for rambling! This really brought me back to my early days with L5R, where a whole group of us in college would regularly play multiplayer, and try to piece together what was happening from all the small snippets. A bunch of us joined the Imperial Assembly (the fan club), and to my knowledge I was the first to sign up as a member of Junzo's Army - months before the actual stronghold was printed. None of us were able to get to tournaments of any real size until after the original story arc ended, so at the time all any of us could do was dream of contributing to the storyline someday.
In my case, I did a lot more years later, when I was given the honor of becoming the lead designer. Over the years the player base grew and shrank in cycles, and during my tenure our key to making it grow again was to capture as much as we could from those early days. Thanks to the pervasiveness of the web the early method of storytelling was simply no longer feasible, but with the Race for the Throne we managed to get a far greater number of players directly involved in shaping the storyline. Even in our high points, though, our guiding question was: "What is the essence which made it great in the original arc?"
You were a fan that got to design for a game you loved? That's awesome!
Man, this is fascinating. L5R was my first pen and paper RPG, and I remember having a dragon clan deck. I had no idea how deep this went!
Good video and a great overview of the L5R story. I was a Crane clan player up in Seattle back in the late 90s and I was lucky enough to play L5R back in its golden (jade!) days. Your video brought back a lot of fond memories. Good lord I would love to see this game come back in some way.
We had a large group of players at Everett Community College and would play almost every day. We actually came up with a good way to make this game multi player- Emperor games. 3 v 3. Each side had two guards and an 'emperor' between them. The guards could only attack their opposite guard and emperors could assist either guard. Guards and emperors could not attack the opposing emperor until one of the guards had been eliminated. Honor win requirement was increased to 60. Made for some great fights.
Oh black SCROLLS. I kept hearing black SQUIRRELS and I was like "WTF is this game?"
The dark squirrels of Fu-Leng, the most evilly adorable rodent of the shadowlands. .
OMG! YOU MISSED THE DAY OF THUNDER!!!! MATT YOU LAWFUL NEUTRAL FOOL!!!! 😭😭😭
"I'm gonna lose, but I'm gonna see something amazing happen" -my philosophy when building encounters in my campaign
I just love people being passionate about things, and that definitely scratches that itch
A friend of mine worked on L5R as a writer some years after the day of thunder. He also loved going to cons and playing. He said that the rivalry between clans extended to the real world so much so that some players refused to drink at bars where they saw rival clans drinking.
Recently I took the concepts of this video and engineered it into a monster. I took the Legend of the Five Rings, mixed it with Diplomacy, put in characters and court rules based on the L5R CCG, set a limit of seven turns, one turn every two days, and then cut it loose.
The result has been far more amazing and terrifying than I could have predicted. I've had players staying up all hours of the night deciding actions, group therapy sessions turned shouting matches over the game, and despite everything, no one wants to quit.
I blame you for this madness.
I am glad to have come across this. L5R is, by far, one of the best story driven games I've ever experienced. I was a scrub that went from Kotei to Kotei then eventually would place as top Ratling or top Dragon (though I never had the chance at top 16). I met so many wonderful people : one AEG employee would sometimes come by and play with our group; I remember being introduced to the player that would become Hida Yagamaki. L5R is full of just awesome memories, especially some of the cosplayers such as Utaku Yui. I would love to see a CCG resurgence instead of the LCG version. EDIT : And that multiplayer L5R variant you're describing, we reproduced at the local store. I never got to play the Gencon version, but it was absolutely awesome to experience. I recall being the daimyo for the Dragon clan, and all I could do was trust my shogun to do what needed to be done.
Matt, the closest I ever came to experiencing what you were last describing was when we used to play Battletech at my place. The players sat facing away from each other, each with their own boards and could only see the mechs that the moderator placed on the boards in their lines of sight. They had little to no idea where things were that their teammates could see, except by the descriptions they were able to give, but since none of them could see the entire board it was difficult for them to coordinate things over distances, as they saw and lost sight of their enemies.
It made for a much longer game, since everything had to be updated on all of the boards each turn and all of the moves were resolved by notes and such that way no one could know what was going on except the players directly involved, but it was a whole lot more fun. The climax of the one night was quite accidental as one of the smaller and lighter mechs came around a street corner in a very urban setting only to find the back of the leader of the opposing group facing him. Suddenly the other team could no longer communicate with their leader and they had no idea why. By the time they found his ruined mech, the light mech had moved several streets over and until the game was over they had no idea what had happened or what they were facing.
Those games, where you only had access to part of the story at a time, were a whole lot more satisfying to play in than those where everyone was together, everything happened out in the open, and everyone knew everything.
I wish I had known about the game you have been describing. I never heard of it back then but it sounds like it was a lot of fun and it is refreshing to hear of a company that was so responsive to its players and what they were doing, until they betrayed them so to speak.
The story of L5R is what made me start really getting into tabletop gaming hardcore. The L5R story is all kinds of epic!
I don't normally comment on UA-cam videos like this, but I've been enjoying your series and something you said grabbed me. Telling the story of burning the envelops at the GenCon tournament reminds me of an ongoing tabletop war game that my friends and I currently play. It's called Guild Ball by Steamforged Games in the UK. We often describe it to interested viewers as "medieval murder soccer". At any rate, they have been having these global events where people can play games and pledge the results to one Guild or another. Those results change the game, forever.
Last season the global event was a civil war within the Butchers Guild. Whoever won the global results event between the leaders of two sides would get a new card, a new version of one of their player, and the other would get nothing. One side one, two new veteran versions of characters were reveled and the event ended. My friends and fellow players debated endlessly, and still talk about, who the new players would have been if the other side won. Steamforged to has never revealed, at least to my knowledge, on what would have happened if the result had been different. I love that about their ongoing story of Guild Ball. Your envelope anecdote reminded me of that and I thank you for it
"I will be your villain Hantei." Scorpion clan player forever.
Poor Scorpion caught in the Dead Zone. I feel they're due the greatest honour because they dishonoured the clan and accepted the appearance of evil for the sake of prophecy.
Scorpion clan player for life is right. I shadow tattooed the mon with the words by any means necessary around it. It's concealable. I can swim too.
We can swim! Even in the books Kachiko Bayushi deserved Empress. Scorpion clan always!
My favorite clan. Shoshuro Nabiki forever!
Scorpion clan forever loyalty above all else
I only started in the second story arc, after the Day of Thunder. But this still took me back to the excitement our tiny local gaming community shared about the game and story when we played it on the other end of the world
I've always known about L5R, but only until a few days ago have I dived a bit it! I'm saddened to know it has ended (for a second time, in 2021, it seems) and that it was as huge as it was.. but poorly documented. So :D I'm so happy this video was made, and that I got to see it. Thanks Matthew
I played so much L5R that I still say "the table is yours" when I play card games. It is also my favorite story in gaming, and my favorite setting to run. I just wish someone else in my group would run it once in awhile so I could play.
I do that as well. I'm even teaching my son to bow and say it when he plays other games.
I interned at AEG in 2000 with their minis department (when they still did a minis game). I even have a writing credit in a scenario book called Thunder's Challenge.
I played gold edition as it came out while I was 11 years old. I needed this video, such good memories. Thank you good sir.
You made me get into the 1990s version of the game and I bought the battle of baiden pass and I bought the obsidian edition for the crane clan
Everything about this sounds amazing. I play MtG and while I enjoy the flavor and story of it and occasionally read story posts, this L5R stuff is clearly a whole other -level- tier. I love everything about this. I've heard people mention L5R as an amazing card game from the past, but I would never have guessed the scope of it.
Sweet video, Mr. Colville.
Now I wish I could have played this game back then! Amazing story, Matt.
As someone who was born in 96 and has only heard of L5R in passing as a RPG, this video is absolutely fascinating and wonderful to me. Watching you talk about this game, the stories that came out of it, and seeing how excited it makes you (along with seeing how real these stories are to you) is probably the best part of this video. And, I get exposed to new stuff that I never knew I would love so much!
I wish I could have been a part of a tale like this, especially one that involves such wonderful gaming!
Not going to lie, that story made my eyes crossed a few times, but I absolutely loved your enthusiasm and passion that is apparent as you speak on your experiences. I would love to see something that dynamic come back and be done well and think it'd be great if local game stores hosted something like this.
What, what?!? My brother was the art director for Last Unicorn Games.
I still have Aria Roleplaying and Worlds books, plus a large collection of Heresy cards. Later on I got into some of the Final Fantasy LCGs and loved Netrunner, of which I have most the cards.
But I also loved the CCG for L5R after playing the RPG and being a fan of the Miamoto Musashi's book, the name sake of the game. Though I never played in any of the tournaments, but in 2009 I was judging for the WoW TCG at GenCon and I will never forget how the L5R players started each day with a combined three part cheer to signify the day's battles to begin. That is the kind of passion for a game that no other CCG/LCG/TCG has ever shown in my experience.
Matthew, thank you SO much for just a great narrative of Gaming History! I know one of the original artist, Troy Graham, and he, just like you: get SO excited and impassioned when he talks about those founding years. Thank you for sharing and what an inspiration for Game Designer's to TRY and create something on that level. Thanks again for sharing!
The community around L5R was absolutely amazing. People really identified with certain factions and characters, and the storyline being affected by tournaments was such an original concept. So many cool elements came from that. Clans becoming corrupted, ancestral weapons being destroyed, the reveals of the Kolat Masters, redemption arcs, experienced characters becoming aligned with weapons commonly attached to them during tourneys, it was so well done.
This is certainly an intriguing idea. It would be almost impossible to recreate, but it is extremely interesting. It would allow for a very "real" story since there isn't much of a system in place to force things back on track if the unexpected happens. With everything controlled by players, it would very much reflect some level of actual strategy mixed with actual human emotion, enabling the story to flow with a realistic level of unpredictability.
However, I can't really imagine it happening again. Beyond the fact that it would be hard to have the same feel with today's culture and technology, I also find it hard to imagine that there are too many companies ready to make a game that has an inherent shelf life. It would have to be a company that is willing to prioritize the art and experience over long-term profit. It's something where the game would become obsolete when the story was finished. It also would have a story that would be difficult to license in any way due to how tied it is to the medium it existed in.
Further, the difficulty is that it almost requires the game to gain a fan base pretty quickly. If there were only a hundred people who cared about the game, it's hard to imagine that it would have the same feel.
Every now and then I come back to this video because the whole concept is amazing. It's sort of what Everquest Next had aspired to do before that was cancelled, with players impacting the world itself, for thousands of players, if not more.
I’m honestly jealous of this, but I’m also glad you let me know this happened. I’ll forever envy an experience like this, but I’m also really happy knowing that something like it can and has happened, and therefore could happen again.
Thank you Mr. Colville you took me down memory lane with this one. I can’t tell you how many night where spent wagering war with friends with this game. It was great as we had every clan represented. It was these huge games with all the clans around the table that for us is where it shines. Unless you where crane clan players as they got stomped to stop that honor run. Well I wanted to say thanks you put a smile on an old mans fave with this one. So I end this with a quote from MY clans champion “ENOUGH TALK “ Hida Yakamo Crab clan Champion
Mr. Colville, this is an old book, even by L5R standards. But if you ever get a chance to read the Way of the Scorpion, do so. You will INSTANTLY fall in love with L5R as an RPG :-)
I second this big time!!
I think all ways of the clan books, from first edition, have some allure in them. L5R is an incredible rpg. -so said the unicorn
Ha.. one of the best, and funniest books, is the Way of the Merchant.. the opening few pages are awesome, just graphs and charts of rice production. A few comments on preferred trade routes.. and then you flip the page and go straight to the gangs ... and more importantly the 5th column of the game, an sorcery and shadows equivalent of the Yakuza.
I revisit this beautiful rant about this beautiful game every few years and it genuinely reinvigorates me.
Matt (and whoever is interested ;) ), you might want to have a look at the Dark Eye roleplaying game. It is not completely comparable, but it as a continous narrative for over 20 years in Germany, a bi-monthly newspaper and major events are played out in multi group sessions at conventions. Great video anyway :D
This video was great. One thing I always heard as a fledgling L5R player was that as incredible as it sounds, The Day of Thunder was even more amazing than any story could make it sound; it was truly an event where you had to be there.
I am impressed with how Matthew could remember so many Japanese names and pronounce them without stumbling through this video. Wow.
You do it the same way people remember Pokemon facts!
Man, I ACTUALLY HAD Legend of the Five Rings cards as a kid! I can't even remember who I inherited them from, but I got no context whatsoever. This video actually changes my whole perspective on the game and the great times I had playing it. THIS IS AMAZING! THANKS! I'll try to see if I can find them them stored somewhere!!
What an elegant design for a game. I have the RPG 3rd Edition D&D books for this and it reads so well. I'll probably pick up the FF version. Because I hate having money. And food.
My old l5r playgroup in socal included the shadowlands warlord (Darrin dalingini), highly ranked unicorn then phoenix (art reed) and crane (ron) players. One of the guys in our playgroup ended up murdering his wife in long beach CA and I stopped playing with them. I remember a bunch of us renting a van and going up to SF for a battle of otosan uchi tournament. Great time
Eve Online has some similarities with this game. As far as oral history about things that have taken place between the various player groups within the game.
Talon Jasra I was hoping to find a comment about Eve here. The stuff Matt talks about happens in New Eden nullsec all the time!
Happy to see I'm not the first to say,. The thing that keeps me amazed and involved in Eve is the way CCP interacts with the players and makes them an integral part of lore and development.
came to say this. Never heard of L5R but it sounds a lot like EVE.
Published books have been written about the history of EVE, especially after VileRat's death.
Matt, I do not know you personally and did not experience L5R at its height; however, I would just like to thank you for providing such a genuine and passionate description of its events so that even a person so remote to this experience as I can feel the ups and downs as if I had been there in the heat of the moment. Thank you for telling the story - Not for the those who were there, but for those who weren't. Arigato.
Watched this for the second time in as many years. I have many fond memories of playing the game and some great stories about victory at the last moment. I also enjoyed playing in the tournaments hoping that my clan at that moment would prevail and get something great for the next expansion.
I do have to disagree about multiplayer though. It enhanced the game. Making alliances to support attackers or defenders so they could win or to backstab them as they were almost at victory. One person even left our gaming group because of the strategies of multiplayer.
This is a great game and I am also sad that no one has tried to do a similar immersive game. Even bridging live action role playing to affect the story was a great aspect.
L5R is in my opinion the best game that had been made.
My smile literally dropped when you said you worked the booth that day. that really must have stung
About the league of Legends: There used to be extensive back stories, weakly newsletters (presented as a newspaper made by for in game civilians) and events popping up every so often. However it wasn't met with a lot of interest and ultimately cut out,
Seems that most players of LoL were just interested in bashing eachother up.
Especially verbally.
the lore is though way more expansive now it's just that it has nothing to do with the actual game except for the characters
Leo Chantziaras if you dont have that element of gamers affecting that story is hard to keep the interest
Damnit, you scared me. You look the spitting image of my ex...
They used to offer you the opportunity to make an in game item if you introduced X friends to the game, and a new character if you introduced Y friends to the game. They never actually honored that promise though. So fuck those guys, fuck Riot.
Thanks for covering this - our game club at the local university was hooked on L5R for a long time in that era.
I think part of what made it so magical for those involved was, as you say, there was no exposition (until the RPG - kinda). The participating players had to weave their own narrative and develop their own personal mythology around what little was recorded as canon.
For those seeking similar vibe in an RPG, John Wick's Houses of the Blooded is a lot of fun.
Also, Toturi's Army. :)
Bayushi Shoju, Scorpion clan champion, lead a coup against the Imperial Palace and killed Hantei... XXXVIII. They held the capital for 6 days before Shoju was slain and Hantei Sotorii (XXXIX), his son, took back the thrown. In his anger, he disbanded the scorpion clan, and took Shoju's wife as his concubine. This pissed off a certain Scorpion Shugenja, Yogo Junzo, who decided to open the first black scroll as a way of taking vengeance, letting Fu Leng back into the world and releasing a deadly Wasting Disease which would eventually claim the life of the new Hantei Emperor.
I also haven't read the books, I DM the tabletop RPG and it should be noted if you like this style of "The things that happen in X game can affect the future of the game", look into Heroes of Rokugan which is a long running living campaign that works the same way where players actions in different games at conventions and online etc.. change what happens in the future of it. For aspiring DMs there's around 60 modules on their website to look into for ideas on running stuff.
This is incredible, my dad used to play this game heavily as a Unicorn Clan member it's really interesting to hear your retelling of the events compared to everything he told me about the Day of Thunder. All I can say is I'm jealous.
Is this what the Gamer's series "Hands of Fate" was based on?
yes
Yes, and there are actual people from AEG in it.
Quite sure yeah, I thought the exact same thing when I was listening to Colville talking about this
yes, absolutely.
This was my exact thought throughout Matt's whole video...
Thanks for taking the time to retell this story. I remember being totally engrossed by the L5R storyline and had some friends that played in the Day of Thunder, but had largely forgotten it. Really amazing story and game.
Anyone else get a unus annus vibe from the whole ending the game after two years?
Blast from the past! I remember playing this game for hours when I was in High School. Naga clan and Scorpion clan decks right here.
I wonder if I'll speak the same way about critical role and the community surrounding it in a decade or two from now
That was amazing! I am brazilian and a player from my local Community managed to go to USA and got in the quarterfinals being the best mantis player on the event. The designers offered him a decision in the name of the mantis clan. On the next edition, they released a card based on it with his name on the edge!
I thought for a second when you said kami (Japanese word for God) you said commie instead. I was confused and shocked like you but in a different way.
so that's what he meant xD I kept hearing commie too and I was confused
Same here. Was wondering, "Did they come out with a Mao expansion?"
Yeah the closed captioning heard it that way too...spelled it comi
Le gasp! Firebreathing tattooed shaolin monk commies!
It showed up in the CCs too, I thought this game's plot took a huge left turn and honestly? I was all for it
Every few months this video pops into my head. Really makes me want to design a story-driven card game with an expiration date.
This kind of story takes me back. I got into L5R during the 90s as well and it was the greatest game ever! I easily abandoned playing Magic for L5R because the story was just so much better. My original clan was the Lion Clan and I really hated the Crane Clan. My friend played the Crab Clan and together we would constantly go after a third friend who played the Crane Clan. He used to complain about being picked on but that is what you get for being effete snobs! Later on when Yoritomo's Alliance came out I would switch over to playing them, and as it turns out, they were related to the Lion and Crab clan. But boy those early days of L5R were exciting.
This video popped up on my feed and ..wow!... your story took me back to 96-97. L5R was huge during those times and the way you told your tale is exactly how we felt and experienced playing this wonderful game!
I love your videos like this; pure gems.
This video caused me to finish my collection of imperial -jade L5R.
I play-tested 0 edition with my friends who knew some of the creators, (lucky for me) truly inspirational. Thanks.