As you’re probably aware, beginning in early December and
continuing until some point in February, AEG will be conducting the
fourth Winter Court “play-by-post” role playing game (RPG) event. If
you’re not familiar with what this is, in summary, we will be running an
online, multi-player role playing game set in the Imperial Winter
Court. Players will assume the roles of either “carded” characters (that
is, characters who represent existing personalities in the collectible
card game (CCG)) or “home-brew” characters (these are new characters
that players create themselves). Players will post the things their
characters say and do, ultimately in order to influence the proceedings
of Imperial Winter Court to the benefit of the Empire, their clan and/or
themselves. Everything that happens in the upcoming Winter Court 4
event will be canon, with important events, notable characters and
significant outcomes being reflected in the ongoing story of Rokugan, as
well as potentially being incorporated into the CCG and/or the RPG.
This is a major opportunity for fans of the RPG to have a major impact
on the story!
So, a little bit about where we currently stand. We opened applications for Assistant Game Masters (AGM) throughout June, and received 20 applications. We’re just about done reviewing them, and will be contacting everyone who applied before the end of July regarding the status of their application. Once we have our stable of Game Masters (GMs) and AGMs in place, we’ll be getting the entire GM team organized; this will include conducting a “mini” Winter Court event for the GMs only in the late August-early September period, in order to come together as a team, refine our own role playing skills, and confront, discuss and resolve issues that are likely to arise during the actual event. This way, we intend that our GM team is working as a finely-tuned machine when Winter Court kicks off in December.
In the meantime, on or about August 1, we will be opening the player applications; the application period will run throughout the month of August. We would like to get as many applications as possible, in order to ensure that we have about ten players per clan, or about 100 players, ready to launch in December. Past experience has shown us that some of these players will, for any number of reasons, end up dropping from the event, so we also want to maintain an “on deck” list. If and when players drop, we want to be able to have those in the “on deck” list quickly move in to fill those places. Ideally, we will maintain roughly ten active players per clan. Again, past experience has shown us that this is optimistic–it’s great if we manage it, but we’re likely to see some clans reduced to fewer than that many active players. We hope that’s not the case, but real life unfortunately doesn’t get put on hold while we’re playing Winter Court.
Once player applications have closed and we’ve done our selection process, then in mid-September, we expect to be contacting players and offering them a slot in the event, along with either a “carded” personality to play, or else the opportunity to create a “home-brew” character. As much as possible, we will try to adhere to players’ wishes regarding the clan they play, what sort of character they get assigned, and so on. However, it may turn out that we have too many applicants for, say, the Crane Clan, and too few for the Crab, so some of those who hoped to play Crane may end up being offered a Crab character instead. We hope that players will understand and accept this, but ultimately, it’s your call if you accept the offer or not.
Finally, a brief comment on the characters themselves. If you’re playing a “carded” character, you will be given that character’s role playing data, based on the Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition rules (this being the edition of the role playing game upon which Winter Court will be based). We’re currently working with the Story Team to finalize our list of “carded” characters for the event, and will shortly be creating role playing stats for them (if they don’t already have them in one of the various 4th Edition RPG supplements). If you’re playing a “home-brew” character, then you’ll use the 4th Edition rules to create your own character, given the constraints we provide. Since we know that some of you are already pondering what sort of character you might create, here’s a few, very general guidelines. First, your character should be one that your clan would logically send to the most important political event in the Empire. This Winter Court will be extremely influential in selecting the next Imperial heir, so characters with no courtly or political skills, or Disadvantages such as Black Sheep, will require some significant back-story explanation to convince the GM’s to accept them. Second, having said that, we will be looking for characters that are unique and colorful–to a point. Truly weird characters may be facing an uphill struggle to get into Winter Court; remember that Rokugan is a (generally) conservative place! Finally, as we’ve said before, we really want to play up the ruthless, cut-throat nature of Rokugani politics, so make sure you consider how you will handle your character getting into a situation that may require him to sacrifice his honor, or even his life. We fully expect there will be characters dying in the upcoming Winter Court…but that’s okay. Death is a huge and important part of samurai drama, so give some consideration not only to how your character lives, but how he might die, as well.
So, if you’re interested in throwing your hat into the proverbial ring as a player in Winter Court 4, watch out for the announcement on or about August 1 regarding player applications. In the meantime, make sure you familiarize yourself with the Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition role playing game–it contains almost everything you’ll need to know!
So, a little bit about where we currently stand. We opened applications for Assistant Game Masters (AGM) throughout June, and received 20 applications. We’re just about done reviewing them, and will be contacting everyone who applied before the end of July regarding the status of their application. Once we have our stable of Game Masters (GMs) and AGMs in place, we’ll be getting the entire GM team organized; this will include conducting a “mini” Winter Court event for the GMs only in the late August-early September period, in order to come together as a team, refine our own role playing skills, and confront, discuss and resolve issues that are likely to arise during the actual event. This way, we intend that our GM team is working as a finely-tuned machine when Winter Court kicks off in December.
In the meantime, on or about August 1, we will be opening the player applications; the application period will run throughout the month of August. We would like to get as many applications as possible, in order to ensure that we have about ten players per clan, or about 100 players, ready to launch in December. Past experience has shown us that some of these players will, for any number of reasons, end up dropping from the event, so we also want to maintain an “on deck” list. If and when players drop, we want to be able to have those in the “on deck” list quickly move in to fill those places. Ideally, we will maintain roughly ten active players per clan. Again, past experience has shown us that this is optimistic–it’s great if we manage it, but we’re likely to see some clans reduced to fewer than that many active players. We hope that’s not the case, but real life unfortunately doesn’t get put on hold while we’re playing Winter Court.
Once player applications have closed and we’ve done our selection process, then in mid-September, we expect to be contacting players and offering them a slot in the event, along with either a “carded” personality to play, or else the opportunity to create a “home-brew” character. As much as possible, we will try to adhere to players’ wishes regarding the clan they play, what sort of character they get assigned, and so on. However, it may turn out that we have too many applicants for, say, the Crane Clan, and too few for the Crab, so some of those who hoped to play Crane may end up being offered a Crab character instead. We hope that players will understand and accept this, but ultimately, it’s your call if you accept the offer or not.
Finally, a brief comment on the characters themselves. If you’re playing a “carded” character, you will be given that character’s role playing data, based on the Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition rules (this being the edition of the role playing game upon which Winter Court will be based). We’re currently working with the Story Team to finalize our list of “carded” characters for the event, and will shortly be creating role playing stats for them (if they don’t already have them in one of the various 4th Edition RPG supplements). If you’re playing a “home-brew” character, then you’ll use the 4th Edition rules to create your own character, given the constraints we provide. Since we know that some of you are already pondering what sort of character you might create, here’s a few, very general guidelines. First, your character should be one that your clan would logically send to the most important political event in the Empire. This Winter Court will be extremely influential in selecting the next Imperial heir, so characters with no courtly or political skills, or Disadvantages such as Black Sheep, will require some significant back-story explanation to convince the GM’s to accept them. Second, having said that, we will be looking for characters that are unique and colorful–to a point. Truly weird characters may be facing an uphill struggle to get into Winter Court; remember that Rokugan is a (generally) conservative place! Finally, as we’ve said before, we really want to play up the ruthless, cut-throat nature of Rokugani politics, so make sure you consider how you will handle your character getting into a situation that may require him to sacrifice his honor, or even his life. We fully expect there will be characters dying in the upcoming Winter Court…but that’s okay. Death is a huge and important part of samurai drama, so give some consideration not only to how your character lives, but how he might die, as well.
So, if you’re interested in throwing your hat into the proverbial ring as a player in Winter Court 4, watch out for the announcement on or about August 1 regarding player applications. In the meantime, make sure you familiarize yourself with the Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition role playing game–it contains almost everything you’ll need to know!
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