replies to the 7 June digest
A rules digest from the L5R CCG rules team, copied from the mailing list archive for Oracle of the Void. The askers' names are left out. Rulings are as they stood on this date; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
Can I get conformation on Clan Status in Gold?
Do the Ratlings get full clan status in Gold (meaning they can gain honor or reduce cost of peeps)?
Unless Ray comes in and says he changed that part of the rulebook before it printed, yes, Ratlings become a full-fledged Clan in Gold.
Taeruko Debate
Half yes, half no. PART of the story is driven by player input, but never has design be a part of player input. This isn't Pendragon. The Designer make their choices according to what they, as professionals, think is best for the game. The designers never have asked player input for MRPs or something. Be it Osugi, Shiba Halls, Hida Yakamo, Matsu Turi, or anything, a design decision has always been taken by the DESIGNER. That's his job.
Actually, Dave did call for a vote on whether or not Merchant Caravan should be changed to cost 1G. But that was the only mechanics issue, I believe.
There's an epilogue to this story. There was some indignation when Bandit Attack and Plague of Locusts were printed following this vote. Some players interpreted the "Should we change Merchant Caravan's cost?" vote as a "Should we ever do anything bad to Merchant Caravans at all?" vote. One in particular was quite peeved at the "sham" of being offered a vote when Dave knew all along that he was going to do *something* to try to counter MC's effectiveness. He told me personally he'd much rather have had Dave do what he wanted in the first place instead of leading players on and letting them think they had a say in the matter.
I think there's a moral there.