Hey Everyone,
This post is way overdue and I apologize for that. I know a lot of you
have concerns and questions about what is going on. I'm going to try and
address as many as I can now and the rest hopefully in the next couple of
weeks.

First I want to thank Dave Williams, Ree, Erik Yaple, Ray, DJ, Maureen,
John Z and all of the rest of the people who currently work on or have in
the past (John Wick, who taught me how to play and Matt Wilson) along with
everyone else I've failed to mention. They are all great people, each and
everyone of them. I have nothing but respect and admiration for all of
them. Many have asked why this is happening, let me try to explain. We want
the players to have an even bigger impact on the story and we have asked
countless times why we are not more responsive with the results of
storyline events and the impact the players have now. The answer to that
question is simple, the system as it stands is just to slow. Currently we
work anywhere from 9 months to a year in advance, a great example of this
is that it took us a year to produce the promo card reflecting the Monks
win at The War of the Heavens last Gen Con. That just is not exceptable,
we are the storytelling TCG and ourselves and the players want the game to
be more interactive. No one is to blame for the way things have been it's
just the way the system works and the only way to fix it is to bring the
game in-house, this will allow us to make the game much more interactive
and for us to be more responsive.

As Luke will mention in the next Herald we also have plans to introduce
the world of L5R to other venues as well, more info when it's available.
We have very big plans for L5r. NO ONE hear wants to do anything that will
hurt this game, everyone that works on this game is a fan and puts much
more time and effort into it than is required. Why? Thats easy, we love
the game, I've been playing L5R since before it was release to the public,
it's more than just a game to me it's part of my life, an old friend. One
that I would NEVER betray. Every we make will be to help the game grow and
get better.

To be clear our relationship with AEG is as strong as ever, though this is
an emotional time for everyone involved. They are still going to continue
to produce the Role-playing game and let me tell you now that Daimyo ED.
of Clan Wars kicks serious @ss! AEG and Wizards of the Coast are also
working on other project together as well. As I said earlier these guys
ROCK and we look forward to keep on working with them.

I know there are still more question to answer and I will ASAP. The
transition process is going to take awhile and AEG will still be working
on L5R through Gold ED. All I ask is that you give us the benefit of the
doubt and be patient, I'm confident that you will be happy with the result.

One last note is that I will be at all of the major conventions this year
starting with Origins, this includes San Diego Con and Wizard World (we
have touraments at both). I'm looking forward to meeting those of you I
don't already know and most of all playing some games!


Stephen Horvath
Brand Manager, Legends of the Five Rings

P.S: Thanks to everyone who played at the Sacramento Kotei I had a blast
running it and hanging out with all of you.