As a long-time L5R fanatic, I was both excited and honored when asked to fill this space in the Herald. Despite the fact that this column seems to be semi-autobiographical in nature, I've done my best to avoid provocative statements about exwives, ex-managers, and former band members...

My name is Ken Carpenter and I'm the line developer and lead designer for Clan War, the Legend of the Five Rings miniatures game, produced by Alderac Entertainment Group under license from Wizards of the Coast.

I entered the gaming industry like many others - which is to say, through personal investment. I was working as a production planner in the defense industry, but my first love had always been gaming, so I convinced my wife that trying small press would be a good idea (she's usually very bright, but she loves me, so she gave in). We published a little-known booklet called Tradervale which actually paid for itself, but no more. Then I designed a character record sheet that Armory sold until very recently.

Finally, my big chance arrived. Tom Freman, a publisher looking to try his hand in the gaming industry, saw some of my painted miniatures in a local store and hunted me down. His magazine, Stroke & Dagger, was to be a miniatures-based Science Fiction and Fantasy publication. After having me write some sample articles on miniatures painting and modeling, he asked me to be the magazine's editor-in-chief. Those with experience in the industry know that the title "Editor-inChief" is interchangeable with "galley slave" I wrote, and I wrote, and I wrote but I loved every minute of it.

The magazine stumbled and fell, as most gaming magazines do, but the desire to write continued - I couldn't just stop. A few months later I saw issue #9 of Shadis and contacted the guys at AEG about freelance writing. Back then, AEG was all of three energetic guys - John Zinser, jolly Blackburn, and Dave Seay - operating out of a two-bedroom apartment. They agreed to give me a try and my material started appearing in Shadis #11. For the next few years I wrote many articles and columns for Shadis, White Wolf, and Dragon magazines.

When the opportunity to work on Clan War appeared, there was no way that John and Dave could consider anyone else to develop it, mostly because they couldn't get past my tent on their front porch. It was a great match... AEG wanted to get a new miniatures line off the ground and my background in miniatures gaming had left me with a number of important contacts and the experience to generate a system with balanced mechanics.

But what about the game?! We designed Clan War specifically to be compatible with the L5R RPG, but even more so to reflect the conventions of the CCG. It was important to all of us on the design team that the game preserve the flavor of Rokugan, but it also had to be a very tactical game. If our players are right we managed to pull it off.

Clan War stresses the importance of rank-and-file troops, maneuvering, movement, and honor. While all miniatures games are abstract, Clan War removed the traditional player-turn system used in most other games, and replaced it with a unit-based initiative system which, in addition to better representing the fluidity of battle, allows for true multi-player games.

We've done things with Clan War that no miniatures product has ever done before, and we've only been able to do that because of the overwhelming support the game has received from its players. We're also committed to the same customer service that L5R players are used to, so we've worked with the best and the brightest to support a couple of fine Internet sites. The Official Clan War site can be found at www.clanwar.com and the Official FAQ/Errata site, Kyuden Hida, can be found at www.ultranet.com/~valren/l5rs.html. We also support a Clan War listserver that you can subscribe to by sending an e-mail (without subject) to majordomo@clanwar.com with the text of the message saying "Subscribe Clanwar-l" Beyond that you can call us direct at (909) 390-5444 and ask for someone who can answer a Clan War question or e-mail us at Alderac@aol.com.

Andy, Ed, Luke - thanks for this opportunity.

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