Koku Redemption Error

Thanks to an inventory error, AEG has been forced to re-issue the most recent koku redemption form with a different set of cards. Imperial Assembly members can access the new form in their account.

Prayers and Treasures announced

A new RPG supplement has been announced: Prayers and Treasures will release early next year and will include large amounts of information spells, shugenja and enchanted items.

Lion wins Blood of the Anou

Aaron Barto playing Lion has won the Blood of the Anou tournament in Maryland, taking home 2 military points for his clan. Other points awarded were 1 economy to Corey Baehon (Dragon) for furthest traveled, 1 politics to Alex Jacobs (Dragon) for best clan attire, 1 knowledge to Matt Tyler (Scorpion) for best theme deck and 1 spirit to Barry Kunz (Dragon) for best sportsman.

Emerald and Jade Champions Previews: Round 3

More previews, including two new Test actions and the death of Kokujin, have been posted at l5r.com. Check them out!

Mantis Takes the MACE Tournament of Stife!

After some problems with the agreement that the two finalists Raymond Daniel Roth (Mantis) and Jeff Jung (Scorpion) made the day of the tournament, we have finally come to a resolution. Jung has conceded to Roth and Roth had chosen the tournament to represent an origami contest!

Van Kraanen, Earnshaw to leave player design team

According to lead designer Bryan Reese, Faber Van Kraanen and Eugene Earnshaw will be leaving the player design team for parts unknown. Their shoes will be filled by returning designer Justin Walsh, who last helped design Hidden City.

Congratulations to Justin, and we wish Faber and Eugene all the best. They created a fantastic environment.

Kumitae results!

Josh Griffis and Dan Jacobson take the top two places at the Kumitae annual charity tournament, choosing Hida Nichie to win the tournament. There's no word on whether or not she is a valid choice.

All told, the event raised nearly $2,000 for the Leary Firefighter Foundation, as well as a large amount of canned goods for the local food shelter. A smashing success.

Emerald and Jade Champions previews

Previews for the next direct-sale set have begun: check them out at the l5r website, including Emerald Champion Bayushi Jimen, Kakita Daimyo Kakita Noritoshi, the shogun's widow Doji Yasuyo, and more.

The set is due to release in December, and is now available for preorder.

Race for the Throne
Temptation votes are in!
Crab: YES
75% Yes - 25% No
Dragon: YES
64% Yes - 36% No
Mantis: NO
48% Yes - 52% No
Scorpion: NO
30% Yes - 70% No

Kansas City Wedding Tournament

This weekends tournament to honor the wedding of Scott Rixson and Sara Schemmel was won by Chris Nicol with Dragon. He choose a political wedding. Congratulations to all involved.

Kuni Daigo is the new Jade Champion

Congratulations to Christoph Donatt of the Crab for winning the European Championships and choosing Kuni Daigo to be the new Jade Champion.

Additional EC results:
- As a result of the Koku auction, Mirumoto Tsuge will receive an experienced version.
- The Commanders of the Jade Legion will be Moshi Minami, Kuni Umibe and an unknown Lion. Matsu Satomi was chosen, but as she is currently part of Daigotsu's court and corrupt, it seems unlikely that choice will receive storyline approval. Hida Rohiteki was the Crab player's first choice, but suffers from the same problem, and Umibe was his second choice.
- Dragon won the Legacy event and chose Hida Yoson to receive a fiction. (Not sure if this is a valid choice, since the storyline prize specified a Clan Wars-era personality, and Yoson was printed at the end of Gold, early Diamond, almost 40 years after the Clan Wars.)

Congratulations to all involved!

Race for the Throne Leg 2 breakdown

Todd has posted a mostly-complete breakdown of all of the points awarded in Leg 2 of the Race here. I'm still working on him to include names, numbers and explanations for some of the points (like the pictures and send-ins that actually won).

European Championships: Legacy and booster draft tourneys

Two new storyline tourneys have been added to the European Championships. Untold Valor, a Legacy event, will result a story about a hero from the Clan Wars, while Guidance of Sun Tao, a booster draft, will result in a hero being given the ancient tessen of Sun Tao.

Leg 3 Deadlines

Todd has added deadlines right next to the events on the list of events for the 3rd leg. So if you ever need to recall when something is due just check back with the events page where the deadline for an event will be posted.

Jade Championships

Just one week left before the next Jade Champion is determined. So if you haven't dropped by the web page to see whats new and exciting about the Jade Championship please do so. :)

Fiction: Scenes from the Empire II

What are the random people the empire doing while the Fire Dragon's running the place? Hanging out with goblins and courtiers and vanilla characters, in Scenes from the Empire.

New Story: Prophecy

A new L5R fiction by Shawn Carman. Learn more about our beloved vanilla characters Kakita Hideo and Kitsuki Taiko, and meet Narako.

History of the Empire

Congragulations to Walbert Ibarra for winning the History of the Empire story line event.

Scorpion took first gaining military points and a knowledge point.
Crab gained a politics point and a military point. The Spider gained first traveled netting them a Economics's point. And the Phoenix got a Spirit point

Dragon, Crab, Scorpion, Mantis receive temptations

Four clans have received temptations in the second leg of the Race for the Throne. Dragon placed first in both Economy and Spirit. Scorpion placed first in Politics for two legs in a row. Mantis placed first in Military for two legs in a row. And Crab placed first in Knowledge for two legs in a row. Imperial Herald members will now have the opportunity to vote on whether or not their clan accepts the temptation. If they do, then their points in this leg's highest sphere will be halved in the third leg. The temptations are:

Dragon:
In the final moments before his death, the Mad Dragon issued a dark prophecy to Togashi Matsuo, foretelling the fall of the Togashi order and of Togashi Satsu. If this temptation is accepted, Kokujin's final prophecy will be deciphered, and perhaps avoided in the process.

If this temptation is accepted, you will also be eligible to order a newly discovered set of ancestral Dragon Clan items to be designed and printed with the L5R set following Honor's Veil.


Scorpion:
The Scorpion value, above all else, loyalty. Betrayal is the ultimate crime. Decades ago, a Scorpion lord and his Lion lover betrayed the clan, and a castle was lost as a result. Although the clan has pretended to dismiss the incident, the Scorpion never forget such an insult. If this temptation is accepted, the descendants of Tsuruchi shall pay for their founder's folly.

If this temptation is accepted, you will also be eligible to order a newly discovered set of ancestral Scorpion Clan items to be designed and printed with the L5R set following Honor's Veil.

Mantis:
Centuries ago, out of a fleet of forty vessels, nine magnificent gaijin ships survived the legendary Battle of the Raging Seas outside Otosan Uchi. Commanded by the ruthless Captain Garen Hawthorne, the ragtag fleet sailed south in hopes of finding harbor and striking back at the Rokugani who had cast them out. Instead, they found the Sea of Shadows, where Garen and his men perished. It was believed that all nine of his ships were destroyed, but that is not the case. If this temptation is accepted, the Mantis will discover the wreckage of three of Garen's ships, battered and broken, but not beyond repair. With the secrets of their construction available to them, the Mantis will at last have the means to challenge the might of the Lion Clan's legendary Deathless.

If this temptation is accepted, you will also be eligible to order a newly discovered set of ancestral Mantis Clan items to be designed and printed with the L5R set following Honor's Veil.

Crab:
Directly between Shiro Hiruma and the Great Carpenter Wall lies the Tower of Fear, a dreadful blight that was once a watchtower along the Wall before it was permanently infected with the Taint. All attempts to destroy or purify it have failed. If this temptation is accepted, however, the Crab will discover a means by which the Tower can be destroyed permanently, and all remnants of its disgrace eradicated.

If this temptation is accepted, you will also be eligible to order a newly discovered set of ancestral Crab Clan items to be designed and printed with the L5R set following Honor's Veil.

Race Leg Two Results

The results of the second leg of the Race for the Throne have been posted on the AEG forums.

Several clans have earned temptations as a result of their performance this time around, more to come as we find out about them!

New Fiction: Tendrils of Silk

The new fiction by Rusty Priske can be found here. YAY! for Minor Clan involvement.

Jade Championship Candidates

Meet the full cast for the Jade Championship here.

Jade Championship update

There is new information on the Jade Championships. For general information you can go here to see whats new. Also the Crab contestants have been previewed.

Fiction: The March Begins

The latest friday fiction is up: The March Begins. The Lion and the Unicorn are at war.

Dawn of the Orgres

This new event looks to be alot of fun. Makes me wonder whats in store. At any rate details can be found here. Enjoy.

3rd Leg Events

The events for the 3rd Leg are now up on the AEG page and can be found here

Kitsuki Edogawa wins bounty contest

Kitsuki Edogawa has won the Race to the Throne Gencon bounty contest with his CSI: Rokugan bounty. Second place went to Roguemoon, third to Doji Hiromi, and fourth to Atarasi Jitenno. Although it is unknown what clans they will choose, the likely beneficiaries are Dragon, Spider, Crane and Crab, respectively. More information on the contest is here, and Todd's post with the results is here.

Lion wins Guardian of the Crow

Nicholas Jones running pure Lion has won the third leg Guardians of the Crow storyline event in Chicago. He chose Matsu Kenji to discover Reihaido Shinsei. More information here.

New Fiction: Stronger Than Steel

The new fiction by Nancy Sauer can be found here. Be prepared for significant power change in Toshi Ranbo.

Online Triva Day

The online trivia details have been announced and can be found here

Best Gen Con Bounty Vote

Ok the vote for who had the best Gen Con Bounty is up. You can vote here. Vote ends Thursday Sept 27

New Fiction: Scenes From The Empire

The new fiction by Shawn Carman, including several of our beloved Rokugan n00bs, available here.

Home of the Crane address change

Due to domain name issues, the Home of the Crane site and forums have been relocated to www.thecraneclan.net

Update your bookmarks!

New Fiction: Family Troubles

This week's friday fiction is Family Troubles, by Rusty Priske and Fred Wan.

(Edited to give proper credit where credit is due, as Fred Wan was accidentally left off the authoring credits)

StS Lion Personalities

The Lion have arrived and are at the Swift Sword. Check out Ikoma Tatsunori, a personality created from Winter Court! Congratulations to Tatsunori's player.

StS Unaligned Previews

The Stronger Than Stell's Unaligned previews are in town. Ronins and Fox people available here.

AEG's Very Own Online Forum Debate!

"Why should your Clan put forth the next Emperor?"

Read the rules, think about it, then write your thoughts down here.

StS Scorpion Previews

Take a look at the Stronger Than Steel Scorpion Clan's previews here, but be careful. The shadows are watching, too.

StS Crab Previews

Crab previews have been posted at the Crab Clan Catastrophe. Check them out, including the new Topaz Champion's mortal enemy.

2008 Kotei Application

Ok the 2008 Kotei appliaction is up. You can find it here. The thread discussing the application is here. Good luck to those applying.

StS Shadowlands Previews

The Stronger Than Steel classic Shadowlands previews can be found here. Who needs meek Spider samurai if you have a few big, hungry oni at your disposal? (Or pi**ed off Goblin warmongers, while we're already at it.)

Samurai Ed and Stronger than Steel sell out

According to Todd here, Samurai Edition is on the verge of selling out, and Stronger than Steel is already sold out (despite not having officially released.)

So how are we doing?

So we've been at this for three weeks now. Looking for abit of feed back from our readers. How are we doing? What do you feel we need to work on?

Thanks :)

StS Crane Previews

The Crane Clan's Stronger Than Steel previews, available here. Excellent.

The Mad Dragon

The new fiction written by Shawn Carman. Find out about Kokujin's fate. Meet the new Shosuro daimyo. Read about remorse, redemption, heroism and how former Hitomi monks seek enlightenment.

Everything, including Togashi Matsuo's crazy poser tattoo and more, here.

Guardians of the Crow - Storyline Event

Chicago will be hosting a storyline event called Guardians of the Crow. The event will be held Saturday September 29 at the Odeum Expo Center 1033 North Villa Avenue Villa Park, IL 60181

Entry fee is $20 and registration starts at 11AM with play starting at noon.

For more details go here or here.

StS Unicorn Previews

The Purple Ones arrive, offering their Clan's Stronger Than Steel previews to all the gaijin. You will find them here. Let's ride!

Mountain Shadow Dojo Errata

Design has announced an errata to the Crane stronghold, Mountain's Shadow Dojo.

http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=61235

New Promo's

Dojo Days has listed two new promo's. It looks like the Bounty Hunter Program is back and running. Check it out.

Lion/Dragon wins Festival of the Sea Dragon

Bob Purcell playing Lion has apparently made a deal with Drew Allen playing Dragon for the victory at the Festival of the Sea Dragon tournament. The Lion and Dragon together will find an item of Lady Doji's, which the Lion will then return to the Crane. More details here.

Lion wins Gencon UK

Damien Desperez playing Lion has won Gencon UK - More information here.

STS Mantis Previews

The Mantis previews have been posted. Lots of Ashigaru and Magistrate love.

Test of the Emerald Champion Part II

Shawn posted it early. You can find it here. I must say this was one well written story. I can't wait to see more of Jimen. Bringing the villain back to the Scorpion clan.

New Art from Steve Argyle

For those who haven't seen them yet Steve drew some pretty wicked banners for Dojo Days featuring the Scorpion and the Crab. I'm still waiting for him to post his Sunetra and Mitsu picture though. *shakes fist*

StS Dragon Previews

Today, let us all celebrate the Dragon Clan's Stronger Than Steel previews. You shall find them here.

Race for the Throne Points Updated

At long last the points for the second leg have been updated. To see them in full click here.

For a brief look at the leaders though

Military: Mantis
Economy: Dragon
Politics: Scorpion
Knowledge: Crab/Spider
Spirit: Dragon

The Dragon have the lead in two spheres. If they maintain this then we get to see whats tempting to the Dragon :). Scorpion maintain their lead in Politics and the Mantis maintain theirs in Military. It's intresting to see the Crab and the Spider duke it out for Knowledge.

StS Spider Previews

Stronger than Steel previews continue. Today the Spider Clan's previews went up here. Mmmmm tainty goodness

9/11 Charity Event

It's that time of the year again. Thats right Eric Devlin's 9/11 Charity event is rolling around in a couple of months. Full details can be found here.

The event will be Feeding Hills, MA on Nov 17. No storyline has been announced yet but I'm sure it will be secured by the time the event rolls around. As always we'll keep you updated.

Test of the Emerald Champion

Shawn Carman has posted a new fiction: Test of the Emerald Champion, Part I.

New L5R Lead Designer

According to Todd (here), Brent Keith has moved on from being the L5R lead designer, to take up a Research & Development position (preparing new games).

Stepping up to the plate as L5R lead designer will be veteran player and PDT member Bryan Reese.

AEG Office temporarily closed

A water issue has forced the AEG offices to be closed for the day. They are expected to be open for business as usual Monday.

More details here

StS Prerelease in high demand

According to Todd Rowland here, the number of applicant stores for the Stronger than Steel prerelease has gone sharply up (additional 75%) from the Truest Test number.

Todd states that this is most likely the result of increased player participation surrounding the release of Samurai Edition.

Emerald Empire releases

The latest book for the L5R RPG, Emerald Empire, has released and should be available at your local gaming store. For a preview of the first few pages, visit here.

Storyline Event in Chicago

Chicago is getting a storyline tourney: Guardians of the Crow will take place on Saturday, Sept. 29 at THEgamecon. Visit www.thegamecon.com for more details.

StS: Phoenix previews

The Phoenix previews for Stronger than Steel have been released. Personalities can be found on http://www.thelionclan.com and spells are at http://www.asako.de.

Their stronghold, Brilliant Rebirth Temple, has been added to the thirty-day countdown.

According to Todd Rowland here this will be the only clan-specific batch sent out this week.

StS Countdown

The preview countdown for the next set, Stronger than Steel, has begun! Check out Akodo Hiroyuki, Lion Clan Samurai.

Welcome to CSI: Rokugan

What is CSI: Rokugan? We are the Rokugani news service. Whenever an interesting piece of information is posted, regardless of where it is - we will be there, and will report on the information (while respecting any hard-earned exclusivity other webmasters may have, of course).

This does not mean everything will be there. Announcements and result of minor local tournaments, for example, (including the local part of a global storyline tournament) would simply bog down the project, so we will not report them.

Now, who is working on this ambitious project?

Tamori Shosei, is the founder of CSI: Rokugan. He is probably best known as the webmaster of the Legion of the Jade Hand website, where he has worked tirelessly to keep up one of the most complete archives of storyline results of all sort.

Dace is a well-known figure throughout the L5R community. Very knowledgeable about Rokugan, he is perhaps best known for his participation in debates in the story forum, and for his interpretation of Bayushi Kaukatsu in the 2006-07 Winter court.

Doji Tsukaede needs little introduction. His in-depth knowledge of the L5R RPG has earned him the position of official rules deputy. He is also a moderator of the AEG forums for the RPG.

Enlightened Madness is a frequent poster on several L5R forums. He is probably best known for his interpretation in Winter Court 2006-07 of his custom-created character, Kitsuki Sasuke

Guillaume Hébert-Jodoin, probably better known as Kakita Himoto, is a long-time member of many of the L5R message board. He was involved in the creation of the Legacy Format and its rules.

Hiruma Teri is a long time member and forum moderator of the Jade Hand. He is also a frequent sight on several of the other forums.

We are also discussing with a few other potential members regarding their joining ; more on this as it develops!