Card Focus: The Plain of Fast Troubles

The Plain of Fast Troubles surround the Imperial City, Otosan Uchi. According to the L5R RPG, "It is illegal to move armed men through this area. Those who do so soon find the whole of the Empire moving against them."

Before talking about strategy, let's clear up any possible confusion about how this region works. There are two main rules to remember when using the region's battle action. First, there is atways a battle at every province when an attack is declared. Second, it's legal to perform actions where you have no units if it will move a unit into attack is declared. beyond, its legal to perform action units if it will move a unit into battle. Therefore, if your opponent attacks, it doesn't matter whether or not any units get sent to Plain of Fast Troubles. When the battle at that province is resolved, you can bring any personality in the region into play. Coincidentally, Hizuka doesn't work this way. Hizuka requires that he be in a province "being attacked" Although "being attacked" isn't formally defined in the rules, the official clarification is that there must a unit attacking Hizuka's province for him to enter play with his action.)

Although Plain of Fast Troubles effectively gives a personality a zero gold cost, you won't gain personal honor when you bring a clan-maligned personality into play. Although you did hire him or her at full price (zero), you can only gain honor for hiring personaliffes during the Dynasty phase. Aiso note that it doesn't Waive any other costs, like those of Hantei ffie 38th or Kyoso no Oni.

Plain of Fast Troubles is great in a deck with lots of power personalities. Quite often, personalities with a high gold cost or honor requirement don't flnd their way into many decks (especially two player decks), way into many decks (especially two player decks), regardless of how strong or nifty they are. Against a fast attack deck you're often flghting tooth and nail for your very life before you have an opportunity to meet the requirements for those top ranked pewnalities. But Plain of Fast Troubles can give fast attack decks reason to pause. If you've got an big, expensive penality sitting in the Plain, your opponent should think hard about attacking you. With the attack be worth letting you bring a Clan Champion level personality into play for free? The possibility of a Counter- attack makes this dilemma even more pressing.

For example, Plain of Fast troubles would be ideal in a "Seven Thunders" Dragon deck. After all that's a deck that typically has nine expensive pewnalities: the seven thunders, the Experienced Hooded Ronin, and the Experienced 2 Togashi Yokuni. The Seven Thunders are all awesome, but they cost more gold than anything etse in the game and several have steep honor requirements. By the time you've added gold and a couple of events to your list of personalities, your Dynasty deck is pretty much full. In that deck an early Plain of Fast Troubles may be enough of a deterrent to an aggressive opponent to buy you the time you need to get into the game.

Of course, there's no guarantee that your star personalities will show up in Plain of Fast Troubles instead of Toku or a Jade Works. One solution is to use Shosuro Ikawa's ability put your personalities in the right province at the right time. You can use Ikawa to flip, say, the Inexperienced Bayushi Sholu (a great example of a personality that people do not want in play) into Plain of Fast Troubles. Be wary, though: if your opponent has Ikawa out, however, he can just as easily flip a personality out of the province j with Plain of Fast Troubles as into it.

One small drawback to bringing someone into play during a battle is that you miss your the normal opportunity to attach Fate cards to him or her. If you're using Plain of Fast TroubleS you may want to consider adding personalities that can attach cards as they enter pkg: Matsu Goemon, for instance, Shinjo Goshi, Akodo kaw4 or Fusaki (who even gets his spell for free). If you want to get elaborate, try using As Far As The Eye Can See to combine Plain of Fast Troubles with the purchasing power of The Kalu Pass, The Hub Villages, or the isawa Woodlands. Alternately, Troops from the Woods lets you attach followers in battle, perhaps saving your newly arrived personality from Ranged Attacks or Stand Against the Waves. Of course, ancestors can atso be attached when a personality comes into play, but because that bows the personality, only do it if you're sure that you don't need that pewn right away. Shinobi and Blood Oath also react to bringing a pewnaiity into play, and these may be useful in some cases.

The order of battle resolution can be quite important when Plain of Fast Troubles is out and occupied. If you're attacking, you'll usually want to resolve the battle at the Plain of Fast Troubles last. This prevents your opponent from bringing someone out of the Plain, then moving it (with Superior Tactics, say) to the province your units are attacking.

Conversely, if you're playing defense with this region in pisy, and you can move things around, yDull often want to resolve the battle at Plaln of Fast Troubles first. This lets you empty the province and then yank your pewnaiity into battle as reinforcements Familiar Surrounding~ kls you force the issue, by taking away the attacker's privilege of choosing the order of battle resolution.

While you may not be able to mobilize ail the Empire with Plain of Fast Troubles, you can ohen get some game-winning personalities into play using this region.

A Tribute to Toshiro Mifume

We didn't have the space to talk about it last issue, but someone has recently passed on who meant a great deal to L5R and its creators. Toshiro Mifune, the Japanese actor who defined the samurai to the western world, died last Christmas Eve at the age of 77. He has been sorely missed.

Mifune was born to Japanese parents in the province of Manchuria; after an inauspicious military career, he found himself at Tokyo's Toho studios, pursuing acting along with hundreds of other extras.

There, he was discovered by director Akira Kurosawa, who began to cast him in some of his films. Mifune played small parts in several Kurosawa films before moving on to meatier roles in The Stray Dog and The Quiet Duel.

But it wasn't until 1950, and the release of Rashomorz, that Mifune's career really took ofœ In it, he played a condemned bandit asked to recount the events preceding his capture. The film was a huge hit, and established an international reputation for both director and star. Over the next fifteen years, they

produced a series of movies together that established Mifune's samurai image and left a legacy that

western filmmakers have been copying ever since.

In The Seven Samurai (1954), Mifune played Kikuchlyo, a self-important bushi who proves his heroism in the film's final battle. The film was remade as the classic western The Magnificent Seven several years later.) 1957 brought Throne of Blood, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth set in feudal Japan. A year later, he played a heroic general trying to lead a young princess through enemy territory in 77ze Hidden Fortress (George Lucas has cited the film as his chief inspiration for Star Wars" and supposedly wrote the role of ObiWan Kenobi with Mifune in mind.) He made another lasting impression in Yojimbo (1961), playing a cocky ronin who orchestrates the destruction of two rival gangs. The film inspired a sequel Sanjuro, and was remade by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars, which made Clint Eastwood a star. Eastwood cited his love of Yojimbo as his principle reason for taking the parL Mifune made his last film with Kurosawa, Red Beard, in 1965, but he continued to play the samurai throughout the 60s and 70s. A Japanese survey in 1984 ranked him as the epitome of Japanese ideals and manhood.

Legend of the Five Rings is a fantasy game based on an oriental society that is, and yet is not, Japanese. From its raging heights of magic to its dark melodrama, Rokugan owes much of its splendor to Mifune's work. When watching A Hidden Fortress it's hard not to see a little Toturi in Mifune. Likewise, echoes of Kisada's dark ambiffon can be heard while watching ~hrone of Blood But our true homage to Mifune is in Ginawa, the doomed ronin seeking the murderer of his lord. Many have asked us 'When are you going to do the L5R movie' Since December 24, 1997 our answer must be: "It can't be done. Master Mifune isn't available"

L5R LARP at OrcCon

The first Legend of the Five Rings Live Action Roleplaying Game was held on Feb 13-15 at OrcCon in Los Angeles. Over fifty people attended, and all clans were represented. The storyline for the game was set at the Grand Festival celebrating the two year anniversary of Toturi's coronation as Emperor.

Rather than ask the players to create characters for an unfamiliar system, each participant was asked to play one of the established characters from the L5R CCG. Some of the famous faces included Daidoji Uji, Bayushi Aramoro, and Matsu Turi.

At the game, it was revealed that the Emperor had been kidnapped, replaced by a Scorpion bushi, although the plot was revealed by some quick-witted thinking from the players. An investigation led by the Emerald Champion condemned the Scorpion clan as guilty, and exiled them from Rokugan, thus beginning the storyline of Hidden Emperor.

Although the AEG staff was impressed by the amazing (and highly entertaining) roleplaying of the players at the LARP, honorable mention goes to several of the characters represented: Matsu Turi, for his victory in a spontaneous laijutsu Challenge; Yoritomo and Hida Yakamo, for being so incredibly imposing; Shinjo Yasamura and Hida O-Ushi for playing out their betrothal; Kakita Shijin, for spontaneously writing and performing the haiku in the sidebars throughout the game; and Togashi Mitsu, for actually having a dragon tattooed on the side of his head. Talk about role-playing!

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