The dirt road through the Golden Valley was once known for its gentle hills, immaculately kept inns, and friendly merchants, but in these troubled times, travelers are as likely to meet with bandits as they are fellow samurai.

Rokugan is a land of choice and consequence. Nowhere has this been truer than at Kyotei Castle, a stronghold in the Golden Valley at the junction of Lion, Crane, and Phoenix lands. While the Lion and Crane clans have been clashing at nearby Toshi Ranbo, echoes of the same struggle have reverberated through Kyotei Castle. Now, a wedding meant to shore up the Crane Clan’s claim on the castle might be the very thing to unravel it. It falls to your samurai to decide the fate of the valley.

“Wedding at Kyotei Castle,” (2.5 MB) a standalone introductory scenario for the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game is now available for download!

Love and Duty

Lord Tsume Takashi, a vassal of the Doji family, inherited the strategically placed Kyotei Castle through his ruthless father’s belligerence. One generation ago, the castle belonged to the Damasu family, vassals of the Lion Clan. To shore up the Crane Clan’s logistical lines to Toshi Ranbo (and to fuel his own ambition) Lord Tsume Retsu besieged the castle, eventually overcoming its defenses and slaughtering every member of the Damasu family. It was all the Crane Clan’s diplomats could do to prevent the Lion Clan from declaring a blood feud and to assuage the worries of the Phoenix Clan lords, who feared they would be the next targets of Retsu’s fury. 

But three years ago, Lord Retsu died mysteriously, leaving his sensitive and aloof son, Takashi, to rule. Now, seeking to secure peace with the neighboring Phoenix Clan—and protect the valley’s flank in the process—a match has been struck between Tsume Takashi and Shiba Itsuyo. The bride shall soon travel with her retinue to Kyotei Castle to be wed, and you have been invited as their honored guests. But not all of your fellow wedding guests are in attendance to congratulate the couple…

“Wedding at Kyotei Castle” debuted at Gen Con 2018, and the results of the nineteen sessions played there will help forge the ongoing storyline of Legend of the Five Rings! You can read on to learn how the groups at Gen Con chose to play the scenario and the impact that has for the future.

Warning: the rest of this article contains spoilers for “Wedding at Kyotei Castle.”

Fight for the Heart of the Valley

Before playing the scenario, each group at Gen Con was asked to decide whether party conflict would be permitted during their session, or if their group would have to come to a consensus when making decisions. 63% of all groups decided to play cooperatively and avoid intraparty treachery or secrets, while the remaining 37% chose competitive play, willing to face down their fellow PCs if their agendas ultimately clashed with those of their allies.

The main choice to be made was whether the party would support the Lion Clan’s long-lost heir, Damasu no Akodo Maeda—one of the wedding’s most unexpected guests. Raised as Reika the geisha in Pine House in the shadow of Kyotei Castle, she didn’t know that one of her father’s sworn samurai had smuggled her out of the castle as a baby during Tsume Retsu’s slaughter. This same retainer kept watch over her until she came of age, when they revealed her true identity. She swore revenge against the Tsume family and began training in swordsmanship.

Tsume Takashi was a frequent visitor to her geisha house, so she played at being his lover in order to gain access to the castle, where she murdered his father three years ago. The truth of her crime was never found, and Reika fled the city not long after to rejoin the Lion Clan. The Lion Clan Champion accepted her as the legitimate heir to the Damasu, and she took the name Maeda. She accepted Takashi’s wedding invitation on behalf of the Lion Clan, which the Crane had extended out of courtesy but did not expect to have accepted due to the bad blood. There, she plotted to marry Takashi but rule as lord, returning the castle to the Lion Clan in the process.

Many of the groups who played competitively proved more willing to challenge the Crane’s dominion over Kyotei Castle. Seven groups in total (37%) sided with the Lion Clan and supported Damasu Maeda’s claim to the castle. One group refrained from backing any single clan, instead negotiating a truce during which Maeda’s claim could be validated and a path to peace in the region found. Overall, however, it was the Crane Clan that prevailed (58% of all sessions), but different samurai were installed as lord depending on the outcome of the PCs’ choices. If Tsume Takashi was killed during the ambush on the way to the shrine, his heir and captain of the guard, Tsume Kotonoha, would be lifted as heir instead (27% of the Crane-loyal groups). The same percentage convinced Tsume Takashi to accept his duty and stay on as lord, despite his disinterest in the responsibilities. Ultimately, however, it was the newly married Tsume no Doji Itsuyo who became the custodian of the valley (46% of all Crane groups), sealing the alliance between the Crane and Phoenix Clans.

In the process, Damasu Maeda was slain, either by Shiba Itsuyo in single combat or by the combined might of the player characters. Tsume Takashi, heartbroken at being united with his former lover only to lose her again, resigned his position and committed seppuku after fulfilling his last duty as lord in marrying Itsuyo. Now, Tsume no Doji Itsuyo, a trained warrior and willing leader, has flourished in her new role. Doji Kuzunobu, husband to Doji Hotaru and one of the wedding’s guests, accepted her oaths of fealty to the Doji family and recognized her as the new lord. Though Toshi Ranbo has been named an Imperial City under chief magistrate Bayushi Yojiro, the Crane Clan maintains an outpost in the region at Kyotei Castle. Most importantly, if the Lion Clan threatens the Golden Valley, they know that the Shiba family will defend their daughter’s claim.

A Land Divided

What would you have chosen—and what does Bushidō demand? Does the Tsume family’s sins justify Reika’s past as a murderer? Or does the Tsume family retain the right to the castle? You can still determine the outcome in your own campaigns by attending the “Wedding at Kyotei Castle” and deciding whether love or duty will win the day!

To enter the land of Rokugan, you can pick up the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook (L5R02) at your local retailer or online through our website here! And be sure to download your copy of “Wedding at Kyotei Castle” here!

“I am programmed to resist intimidation.”
   –Kraken, Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Long before the Galactic Empire seized control of the galaxy, the Separatist Alliance also sought to rule through tyranny and fear. Despite their great desire for power, however, the leaders of this faction rarely saw action in the battles that determined the fate of the galaxy. Instead, they fought by proxy, deploying massive groups of battle droids and droid starfighters to fight in their stead.  

As the Separatist Alliance joins the intense space battles of X-Wing™ with the Servants of Strife Squadron Pack, it should be no surprise that the faction is defined by this same attitude. The Separatist’s organic pilots view their droid starfighters as a means to accomplishing their own ends, often content to support their swarms of Vulture-class droid fighters from the safety of their own Belbullab-22 starfighters.

In addition to these utterly unique starfighters, this Squadron Pack gives you plenty of ways to choose your approach to battle. A full suite of 48 upgrade cards invites you to outfit your Separatist ships with new tools that enhance their abilities and make them even more lethal. While many of these upgrade cards are reprints of common neutral upgrades, Servants of Strife also features brand-new upgrade cards exclusive to the Separatist Alliance that further define it as a faction focused on using droid starfighters like never before.

Join us today as we take a closer look at these upgrade cards and what they bring to the Separatists!

Ruthless Calculations

Possessing artificial intelligence that enables them to perform lightning-fast strategic calculations on the fly, droids can make a valuable addition to any squadron as both pilots and crew members. For the Separatist Alliance, however, droid starfighters serve another purpose entirely. While they may be a bit flimsy, Vulture-class droid fighters are also cheap and easy to throw at your opponents in large numbers.

For a faction as

Treacherous

as the Separatists, having plenty of ships in the fight can be an integral part of their strategy. Every ship with this Talent upgrade can either cancel a regular damage or critical damage while they defend against an obstructed attack. While ideally the obstructing ship belongs to your opponent’s squadron, cunning Separatist players could also use their own ships to screen their more valuable pilots from incoming fire.

Understandably, being used as cover isn’t without consequences for any pilots—organic or otherwise. The ship chosen by a pilot with the Treacherous upgrade gains a strain token, making it even more vulnerable to attack—while a strained ship defends, it rolls one fewer defense die. A strain token is removed after a strained ship defends, but it’s far better to remove the token by executing a blue maneuver before being targeted while at an extreme disadvantage.

The V-19 Torrent’s attack is obstructed by a gas cloud, so the Feethan Ottraw Autopilot rolls an additional defense die and changes a blank result to an evade!

In the meantime, a strained ship can gain a measure of safety by hiding behind a gas cloud. These new obstacles introduced in both the Servants of Strife Squadron Pack and the Guardians of the Republic Squadron Pack can be selected instead of the asteroids and debris clouds found in the Core Set, and they offer a defensive bonus to any ship that can position a gas cloud between themselves and their attacker. When a gas cloud obstructs an attack, not only does the defender roll one additional defense die, they may also change up to one blank to an evade.

Although most Separatist commanders see the droids fighting for them as expendable, that doesn’t mean these droids can’t have uses other than cannon fodder. As we highlighted in our earlier preview, swarms of Vulture-class droid fighters are already capable of performing Networked Calculations to act as a single unit and, with the help of some cunning tactical droids, this ability can be made even more potent.

The Servants of Strife Squadron Pack introduces solitary upgrade cards to X-Wing!

On top of strain tokens and gas clouds, the Servants of Strife Squadron Pack also introduces new Tactical Relay upgrades to X-Wing, giving you another way to customize your Separatist ships. These devious droids feed battle information directly to the Separatist commanders, helping both them and their Vulture droids alter tactics on the fly. This information is so valuable that each Tactical Relay upgrade is also marked with the “solitary” restriction, limiting its use. During squad building, a player cannot field more than one solitary card of the same upgrade type.

It’s easy to see, for example, the great value a Tactical Relay like

Kraken

adds to your squadron. You’ll need all the calculate tokens you can get to effectively use a swarm of droid fighters and he allows three of your ships to retain a calculate token into the next round. With so many calculate tokens available, it’ll be a bit easier for all of your Vulture droids to modify their attack and defense dice. Even better, Kraken gives you the calculate tokens you need to repeatedly bombard your foes with

Energy-Shell Charges.

The Vulture-class droid fighter has the Delta-7 in its bullseye arc, so it uses TV-94’s ability to add damage to its attack! 

If you’re looking for other ways to enhance your droids’ attacks, there’s no better option than

TV-94.

 He gives a friendly ship at Range 0–3 the rare opportunity to spend a calculate token and add damage to their primary attack, provided the defender is in your bullseye arc and you’re rolling two or fewer attack dice. Adding a result is powerful on its own, but it’s especially effective if TV-94 is paired with the pinpoint programming of three

Precise Hunters,

 who can already reroll a blank while attacking a ship in their bullseye arc.    

If there’s one thing that the leaders of the Separatist Alliance desire more than power, it’s their own survival. This is most clearly articulated by General Grievous’s personal starfighter, the

 While this Title upgrade synergizes with

General Grievous’s

ability particularly well, any Belbullab-22 pilot can benefit from the extra defenses that it offers.

Tenacious Treachery

With a fleet of droid fighters at their command, the Separatist Alliance has all the strength it needs to bring the Republic to its knees.

The Servants of Strife Squadron Pack (SWZ29) is releasing alongside the rest of Wave III in the first quarter of 2019. Pre-order your copy at your local retailer or through our website today! 

The battles of the Galactic Civil War are won by more than blaster fire alone. A single order issued at just the right moment or the timely intervention of a medical droid can turn the tide in an instant. As they mount a desperate struggle against the totalitarian Galactic Empire, the Rebel Alliance needs as much help as it can get from those with skills other than fighting.

Fortunately, help is on the way in the form of the Rebel Specialists Personnel Expansion for Star Wars™: Legion. Rather than adding more firepower to your Rebel armies, the miniatures you’ll find in this expansion give your armies more tactical flexibility than ever before, keeping your army from falling into disarray, even as chaos afflicts your battles.

Within the Rebel Specialists Personnel Expansion, you’ll find a generic Rebel Officer miniature alongside a Rebel Comms Technician, a 2-1B Medical Droid, and an R5 Astromech Droid ready to support every phase of your operations. In addition to these four new miniatures, this Personnel Expansion also contains three new command cards that can be used by any Rebel commander, an array of upgrade cards inviting you to further augment your specialists, and all the tokens you need to fully incorporate them into your army.

Join us today as we get a glimpse at how the specialists can support your Rebellion!

Take Command

As battles erupt on countless planets across the galaxy, the Rebel Alliance needs leaders who can use the resources at hand to complete their objectives. While the Rebels would always welcome the guiding hand of Leia Organa or the coolly confident leadership of Han Solo in every battle they fight, they must ultimately turn to other commanders to lead their troops in the majority of battles.

Grizzled veterans of past wars or the leaders of planetary militias, these officers have no lack of experience. Even though they may lack the combat prowess of the Rebellion’s other commanders, they present a low-cost alternative that opens plenty of room to field a large and diverse army of Rebel troops. For only 50 points, a Rebel Officer can take command of your army, leading the way themselves or working alongside another Rebel commander.

Just because they lack the name recognition of heroes of the Rebellion like

Luke Skywalker

doesn’t mean Rebel Officers aren’t accomplished warriors in their own right. Rebel Officers are excellent shots, reducing the cover of their targets with their A-180 Blaster Pistols. Better yet, they convert any surges to hits or blocks, making them even more of a force on the battlefield.

More importantly, while Rebel commanders often appear beleaguered and underequipped, what they lack in resources, they make up for in resolve and pure force of will. Given their long odds of success, every Rebel officer needs to lead by example, inspiring their troops to stay in the fight and potentially make the ultimate sacrifice for the cause of the Rebellion. What’s more, years of experience have taught them that the Rebels’ best chance of victory lies in their ability to avoid Imperial fire rather than charging head-on. As a result, every Rebel Officer has the ability to command one of their units to take cover and gain a dodge token.

While Rebel officers may be at a constant disadvantage in terms of weaponry and manpower, the Rebel Specialists Personnel Expansion gives them the means to devise some ingenious battle plans. The three Rebel-exclusive command cards in in this expansion allow any Rebel commander to tailor their orders to the specific units that make up their multifaceted armies and enhance many of the Rebellion’s signature abilities.

For example, you can dispatch your special forces units or operatives to disrupt your enemy with

Sabotaged Communications.

 Not only does this card ensure a unit like a group of Rebel Commandos or Chewbacca are ready to use their skills exactly when you need them, it also forces your opponent to issue orders to one fewer unit than is indicated on their command card.

If your army has an abundance of heavy or support units, on the other hand, you can grant each of them Inspire 2 for a round by playing

Turning the Tide,

 giving any AT-RTs or T-47 Airspeeders the perfect opportunity to lead nearby trooper units into the thick of battle. Finally, lacking the thick armor donned by many Imperial units, Rebel forces must do everything they can to avoid incoming fire and, if they lay down some

Covering Fire,

 they can work together to make the whole army safer. 

Special Forces

Having a strong leader at the head of your army is crucial for success in any battle, but these commanders often think in terms of their larger strategy, rather than the individual unit. Fortunately, the miniatures in this Personnel Expansion can be more directly involved with your troops on the ground. Slotting into any unit with the personnel upgrade icon, these miniatures push your army to perform at its best.

Even if both of your available commander slots are filled, you can still make use of a

Rebel Officer.

 Rather than leading your entire army, when used as an upgrade this miniature assumes command of an individual unit. Not only does having an experienced veteran in the lead raise your unit’s courage by one, it also helps the unit inspire others around it, removing a suppression token from another friendly unit at Range 1–2 after the Rally step.

No matter who you choose to lead your army, they will only be effective if their orders reach the soldiers under their command. Adding a

Rebel Comms Technician

to one of your units, then, can provide many benefits. This miniature adds the comms icon to your upgrade bar, opening up some intriguing possibilities. You could use this as an opportunity to break down the enemy’s lines of communication with a

Comms Jammer.

Alternatively, you could make a unit the linchpin of your own communications by equipping your Comms Technician with a

Comms Relay.

 If they’re in the right position, this relay gives you the chance to not just issue an order to a unit out of your commander’s range, but to ignore any restrictions on the rank of the unit receiving the order.

In war, casualties are inevitable. Even with officers and comms technicians helping your army run at peak efficiency, your soldiers will still come under fire and be removed from the fight. With a

2-1B Medical Droid

treating soldiers in the field, however, your units can remain at full strength a bit longer. Twice during a game, this medical droid can either remove one wound token or restore one mini to a friendly non-emplacement trooper unit, helping your corps units fire on all cylinders or keeping a powerful commander like Luke Skywalker in the fight.

Similarly, the Rebellion often has to repurpose older vehicles like the AT-RT to keep up with the Empire’s vast arsenal. An

R5 Astromech Droid

can be invaluable for making any repairs that crop up in the middle of a battle. These droids can remove wound, ion, and vehicle damage tokens from friendly ground vehicles, helping them retain their full complement of actions and battery of weapons.

New Personnel

The Rebel Alliance may be at a disadvantage in terms of equipment, but they have the personnel to take down any foe.

Look for the Rebel Specialists Personnel Expansion (SWL26) to release alongside the Imperial Specialists Personnel Expansion (SWL27) in the first quarter of 2019. Pre-order your copies of these expansions at your local retailer or online through our webstore today! 

“How long before you make the jump to lightspeed?”
     –Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Hope

Hyperspace travel has been an integral part of the Star Wars galaxy since we first watched Luke Skywalker depart Tatooine aboard the Millennium Falcon. One moment, Luke was a farm boy stuck on a desert planet, and the next, the galaxy lay before him, instantly accessible. With hyperpsace travel, characters can visit multiple planets, traversing light years in moments, focusing the story on critical action.

The upcoming Hyperspace events for X-Wing™ Second Edition lend a similar feel to X-Wing Organized Play. In the Hyperspace game mode, you will jump across the galaxy and explore new ships and squadrons. You’ll race from battle to battle, continually thrilled by the sights and challenges of new battlefields. The galaxy will lie wide open before you. And you’ll find the game constantly refreshed, expanded, and made more readily accessible, especially for newer players!

The Hyperspace Game Mode

We first introduced our plans for the upcoming Hyperspace Trials and Hyperspace Cups as part of our initial look at the changes coming to X-Wing Organized Play with the game’s second edition. We then revisited the events, taking a more in-depth look in the article, “Qualify for Worlds in Less Than Twelve Parsecs.”

That article explored how the Hyperpsace events fit into the tournament calendar, replacing the first edition’s Regional and National Championships and serving as a pathway to the invitation-only X-Wing World Championships. We also pointed out that Hyperspace events would use specific squad-building guidelines to be communicated through the X-Wing Squad Builder.

Now that X-Wing Second Edition is released, the Hyperspace game mode is supported in the Squad Builder, and we have scheduled the first Hyperspace Trials for X-Wing Second Edition, the time has come to revisit the Hyperspace events and the whole idea of the Hyperspace game mode.

First of all, we want to make sure you understand why we’re excited to bring the Hyperspace game mode into the X-Wing Organized Play environment!

• The Hyperspace game mode introduces another means of refreshing and evolving the X-Wing metagame.

Every competitive game is accompanied by its own “metagame,” the unofficial set of rules governing the builds, lists, and strategies that players believe to be competitive at the highest levels. Changes in the metagame are critical to a game’s health. Without shifts in the metagame, players will see the same strategies and tactics employed over and over again and become fatigued by them.

Because changes in the metagame are driven by changes to the available products, there are three primary ways to drive change—add to the existing product, redefine the number of available products, and edit the available products.

As we’ve already seen, X-Wing Second Edition was designed without printed squad points or upgrade bars so that the developers could edit the available products as the metagame demanded. Reducing or increasing the number of squad points allocated to any ship, pilot, or upgrade can send massive ripples throughout the metagame without a single new product list. But if these changes are applied universally, they don’t permit players to enjoy multiple coexisting metagames.

Here, the Hyperspace game mode—with its tailored squad-building guidelines—introduces an entirely new metagame, and it can stand alongside the metagame that players can enjoy at their regular in-store events and at the X-Wing System Open Series. Additionally, because the Hyperspace game mode is redefined with each season, you will be able to enjoy more changes in the metagame, and you can expect to see new ships, squadrons, and strategies rising to the fore with every new Hyperspace season (two per year).

• With the Hyperspace game mode, players gain more ways to play X-Wing—additional game modes that receive the full support of Organized Play.

Just like the System Open Series, the game’s Hyperspace Trials, Hyperspace Cups, and Hyperspace Qualifiers offer top players a chance to qualify for the X-Wing World Championships. Right away, you’ll find other players eager to fly in the new Hyperspace metagame, and because the Hyperspace Trials replace the old, first edition Regional Championships, you’ll be able to enjoy the unique challenges of the Hyperspace game mode as you compete for some of the game’s top prizes.

Best of all, the fact that the Hyperspace game mode can exist alongside the Extended game mode means that you’ll be able to enjoy a greater variety of play experiences—even within a single, weekend-long event!

While the System Open Series featured Extended Qualifiers—in place of Hyperspace Qualifiers—through the end of 2018, 2019 will see the introduction of Hyperspace Qualifiers that adhere to the current Hyperspace game mode. Players who attend System Open Series events may find themselves competing in both Extended and Hyperspace game modes over the course of a single weekend, and they’ll find greater diversity among the squads they face.

• The Hyperspace game mode will offer newer players easier entry into competitive X-Wing.

The squad-building rules for X-Wing offer a tremendous degree of flexibility and customization. Even when you start with just a handful of ships, you’ll be able to field a fantastic range of possible 200-point squadrons thanks to the way the game integrates its ship cards and upgrades.

An X-wing, after all, is not just an X-wing. It could be the no-frills starfighter flown by some Blue Squadron Escort, or it could be Luke Skywalker’s X-wing, loaded with Proton Torpedoes, a Shield Upgrade, and Luke’s trusty astromech, R2-D2.

At the same time, by redefining and truncating the list of potential squad builds within the Hyperspace game mode, we make it easier for newer players to explore these options—and, importantly, to afford the starship expansions that introduce the pilots and upgrades they hope to fly.

As the Hyperspace game mode keeps the game fresh, it adds to the ways you can enjoy competitive X-Wing, and it helps make the game and its competitive environment more accessible to newer players. All of this results in more diversity.

This diversity excites us, and we hope it excites you, as well. More diversity within the game’s metagames means more room for experimentation and innovation, and it means more opportunities for newer players looking to get into the game, as well as more opportunities for skillful players to design and fly innovative new squadrons.

Prepare for the Jump to Lightspeed

There are two periods of Hyperspace events per year, and the first Hyperspace Trials take place from March through June of 2019. You won’t, however, have to wait until March to start exploring the Hyperspace game mode with your friends. The Hyperspace game mode is already available in the X-Wing Squad Builder, and players will want to start testing their mastery of the Hyperspace game mode as they prepare for the first period of Hyperspace Trials.

Where will you make your jump to Hyperspace? Review our list of Hyperspace Trials to find one near you!

“As your spirit is holy, so Æmber, which is the spirit of the earth, is holy.”
   –The Sanctified Scroll

The Crucible’s greatest prizes—the richest knowledge available to the planet’s mysterious and godlike Archons—lie locked within numerous hidden Vaults. In KeyForge, you become an Archon, racing (and battling) other Archons to reap enough Æmber to forge keys and open these precious Vaults.

Now, as KeyForge Organized Play races full speed toward its second age—the Time of Triumph—you will be able to pursue these Vaults in yet another way—as a player attending one of the game’s upcoming Vault Tour stops!

KeyForge demos at Gen Con Indy 2018

What Is the Vault Tour?

The Vault Tour is an ongoing, global series of massive KeyForge tournaments that offer prizes unlike anything you’ll find anywhere else.

Vault Tour tournaments are open to anyone and everyone (some may even be run as Sealed events that place new players and veterans on equal footing). You can play in the main event and hunt for even more Æmber in side events. And throughout the weekend, you can expect to see players elevating their decks to the very highest levels.

With early stops in the Netherlands, at Emerald City Comic Con, and at AdeptiCon, the Vault Tour offers you the chance to redeem the Æmbershards from your Master Vault account for any of the KeyForge-themed prizes from the Prize Wall, and you’ll find prizes that are entirely unique to each stop along the Tour, including the winner’s free flight and lodging to a later Vault Tour event!

As we ramp up toward our first Vault Tour stops, we’ll start offering some looks at our Prize Wall options in the Master Vault Prize Gallery, located in the Organized Play section of the KeyForge Master Vault!

Design not final.

The Vault Tour and the KeyForge World Championships

As a special event series, the Vault Tour sits outside the basic “pyramid” of KeyForge Organized Play. Even so, the Vault Tour connects to the pyramid at the very top—as the Vault Tour will qualify a number of the year’s top points earners for participation in the invite-only KeyForge World Championship.

This means the Vault Tour will work to fulfill a role in the Organized Play schema equivalent to that played by the regional-level Prime Championships and higher-level events. By bringing top-level competition to thousands of players all around the world, the Vault Tour will help ensure that the World Championship truly represents the very pinnacle of the game’s competitive community.

Design not final.

Not only will the Vault Tour qualify top players for the KeyForge World Championship, but the series will help inform players about the decks and players they can expect to see competing for the title of World Champion. We’ll be providing coverage of each Vault Tour stop—including live streams, infographics, and recap articles (with even some custom, celebratory KeyForge Quizzes)—and we’ll follow the progress of the game’s top players and decks as they travel from event to event.

The result is that the Vault Tour will offer you an extended inside look into the highest levels of KeyForge competitive play—so that you can learn new tips and tricks from the game’s greatest players!

Gather Your Æmber, and Head to the Vault!

If there was any question that the Time of Triumph might not feature quite enough triumph… let those worries be dispelled! The Vault Tour stands ready to offer all the triumph, all the competition, camaraderie, craziness, and prizes you could ever hope a Vault could contain.

Review the list of Vault Tour events today, and start making your plans to attend!

Though every clan produces skilled warriors, few place as much significance on the art of dueling as the Crane and the Dragon. With years of training, duelists from these Great Clans hone a steady hand, one that is capable of cutting down all who dare challenge them.

Join us today as we preview dueling in Children of the Empire through the lens of the Crane and Dragon!

Children of the Empire is Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game‘s first Premium Expansion, featuring a massive influx of 234 cards (three copies each of 76 cards and one copy each of six cards) spread across all seven Great Clans, making Children of the Empire the perfect next-step for new players and veterans alike.

Through two very different styles, the Dragon and Crane are renowned for producing the best duelists in the Emerald Empire. As Children of the Empire is a celebration of the land of Rokugan, honoring the legacy of these clans’ legendary duelists is of the utmost importance, and both the Dragon and Crane receive plenty of support for duels in this Premium Expansion. 

One Perfect Cut

Even against great odds, the Crane can find victory through skill alone.

Kakita Toshimoko

 (Children of the Empire, 14) is one of the most prolific duelists in the world, and can single-handedly salvage what would otherwise be an overwhelming defeat. When the Crane would lose a conflict this Duelist is participating in, Kakita Toshimoko can challenge your opponent to a military duel—and should he win, the conflict ends in a wash, with all participants returning home and no victor! Toshimoko can already lend a great deal of military and political skill to a conflict, and this single Duelist can often prevent an overwhelming defeat for the Crane.

Kakita Toshimoko represents the height of Crane dueling, but it is the journey of a lifetime to reach that level of skill. The

Kakita Dōjō

 (Children of the Empire, 15) is where young duelists go to hone their skills and learn this sacred art. While this holding is in play, you may initiate a military duel during a conflict, with the losing character unable to trigger their abilities for the rest of the conflict. This is powerful on its own, but if the Kakita Dōjō training is applied to a Duelist, victory also bows the losing character, making them truly useless during a conflict. The Kakita Dōjō provides a new obstacle for your opponent to consider—if they cannot best a duelist in a one-on-one fight, they are likely to lose their most essential characters during a conflict.

Of course, these abilities are useless if your opponent’s skill is insurmountable. However, with the ability of an

Iaijutsu Master,

 you can often ensure victory. Not only does this attachment provide additional military and political skill, but it can add precision to your duels. Whether it’s giving the edge you need to achieve victory or winning with minimal loss of honor, the skill of an Iaijutsu Master is undeniable.

Two Become One

There are those in the Emerald Empire that would dispute the claim that the Crane are masters of the duel. With their twin-blade Mirumoto style, the Dragon are just as fearsome and skilled, and they have their own methods to achieve victory.

The

Prudent Challenger

 (Children of the Empire, 17) is the Dragon’s representative among the “Challenger” Duelists in Children of the Empire, and it can be devastating to your opponent. With a win during a military duel, you may discard any attachment attached to the loser. This is a powerful reward, but victory may be challenging. Attachments often buff military or political skills, which can make duels difficult to win for the Prudent Challenger. However, should the Challenger’s training lead to victory, discarding an important attachment can disrupt your opponent’s game plan.

Like the Crane, the Dragon must always focus on training the next generation of Duelists, to ensure their legacy continues. The

Mirumoto Dōjō

 (Children of the Empire, 20) allows you to initiate a military duel with high stakes: the loser has one fate removed from them. There is some solace in defeat, as the removed fate goes to the loser’s fate pool. But if a trained Duelist has claimed victory, the fate simply disappears, as the skill of the Dragon overwhelms their foe and inflicts a defeat that cannot be recovered from.

While the Prudent Challenger represents a new generation of Mirumoto-style dueling, the Dragon boast plenty of masters in the field.

Mirumoto Hitomi

 (Children of the Empire, 19) takes on all challengers with her twin blades, able to initiate a military duel against two different characters. These characters add their skill together against Hitomi for one massive battle, and every character who loses the duel must either bow or become dishonored. The Mirumoto style of dueling has several advantages, and the ability to fend off multiple enemies is one of them. Hitomi can devastate your opponent’s forces, either by negating their skill in a conflict or reducing it through dishonor. By choosing your opponents carefully, Hitomi can be a difficult foe for even two characters to defeat in a duel and with attachments like

Mirumoto Daishō

 (Children of the Empire, 58), she can become near unbeatable.

Honed Skills

Every clan can produce an army on the field of battle, but none place as much significance on individual skill as the Crane and Dragon. These duelists are terrifying opponents, using years of training to hone their talents into an unquivering blade that strikes through any opponent. Will you stand among these renowned samurai?

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