The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Grade: C+ for presentation, B- for content

Partly by chance, and partly by choice, I came to Winter Court, Kyuden Kakita with less background than some fans of L5R might have. I did previously absorb a few details of the Scorpion coup from a couple of web pages, but I haven't gotten the full story. I do not have a copy of Otosan Uchi to hand. I have read only the first few pages of Winter Court: Kyuden Seppun. This makes me a good test subject for how comprehensible Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita is to folks who have not read everything that comes before.

The good news is that most of the individual sections are both comprehensible and useful in isolation. There are descriptions of the different types of natural disasters and how the Rokugani deal with them. There are descriptions of an ordinary day for a Lion bushi, a Crane courtier, a Phoenix shugenja, a Phoenix artisan, a monk who used to be a Unicorn bushi, a merchant who is a vassal of the Crab, and an Eta who helps his family run a crematorium. There is a consideration of apprenticeships and an overview of the place of the ronin in Rokugan in general, and in court in particular. All of these sections help GMs and players alike to create a richer game world for their L5R campaigns.

The art is good, as usual, with no bimbo art. The layout is clean, although several paragraphs of text in the Chambers of Court section appear twice.

However, the organization principle of Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita is not always clear. The book is divided into five parts: Introduction, Dawn, Afternoon, Night, and Epilogue. In the Night chapter, there is a delightful section on entertainment. This includes a wonderfully wicked vignette, followed by descriptions of the various competitions that occur at Winter Court, such as artistic contests; games of Kemari, where maintaining ones dignity is more important than officially winning the game; and the fine art of competitive letter writing. The section closes with a consideration of fireworks. All delightful, all useful. The next section looks at ghosts from the pitiful to the inimical. Less sparkling, perhaps, but just as useful. But why are these sections juxtaposed? They're in the Night chapter, so maybe the theme is things that take place at night? This works for ghosts and fireworks, but surely Kemari and artistic competitions take place during the day?

The organization added to my confusion of just what Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita is supposed to be. It does not have an adventure, so it is not a scenario. Perhaps it is intended as part sourcebook of nifty, if unrelated, material, and part overview of Rokugan in the second year of Hantei XXXIX's rule. If so, the combination is an uneasy mix of material useful to everyone, and material only useful to those using the official timeline. And even as someone who is interested in using that timeline, I find the overview less clear than it could have been.

I thought that AEG planned to do a Winter Court book for each year of the chronology, but Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita must be set at least two years after Winter Court: Kyuden Seppun. Did the Emerald Empire cancel one or more courts? Did the folks at AEG change the plan? Does Otosan Uchi or some other L5R product bridge the gap? My complaint here is not that gamers are forced to buy other products to use this one; it is that I cannot tell which products one needs to get full value out of Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita. A couple of paragraphs explaining what has gone before and which L5R products have what information would have cleared up the confusion and improved the product--even if I did not approve of whatever it is trying to do.

Near the end of the book, there is a section about AEG's Otosan Uchiboxed set. If I understand correctly, the boxed set has the material on the Scorpion Coup. If the coup material is used, it makes other material in the boxed set obsolete, as certain NPCs will be dead, and parts of the city will have been destroyed and rebuilt. So, a few pages in Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita describe the post-coup situation in the city. Much of the information is meaningless to me because I do not have the Otosan Uchi boxed set, but I can see that there is a quick overview of what districts exist, how they have changed, and who rules them now.

All of this is useful information, but what is it doing in this book? It belongs in the Otocan Uchi boxed set. I suspect the authors of Otosan Uchi would agree, and that the material got cut due to time or space constraints. Whatever the case may be, it is good that the material is being made available, but this is not the place to put it. Put it on the AEG website, or make it available by mail or in stores. We're talking about the company that's giving away a 64-page booklet explaining the differences between the first and second editions of 7th Sea. Guys, you know how to do this sort of thing with style.

It is possible that there is a unifying principle underlying of Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita, but if so, the principle is unclear. I kept asking myself what the goals of Winter Court are, and while I may have figured this out, I am by no means certain. And, in any case, one should not have to be a detective to understand what a gaming supplement is intended to achieve.

This isn't the sort of thing I used to notice in a sourcebook. Our standards have gotten higher, and part of the reason for this is that companies like AEG have been consistently delivering high quality products. I recognize this and applaud it. However, saying that standards used to be lower does not change the fact that they are now higher, and it is no justification for cutting corners or for sloppiness.

Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita is not one of those products that add up to more than the sum of its parts, and a few of those parts can be annoying, as it is assumed that readers have bought and read all previous L5R products. But most of those parts work well, whether or not you are following the official timeline. The book is not a must-buy, but it has a lot of good material.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita
Author: Ree Soesbee, Rich Wulf, and Shawn Carman with additional material by Rick Dakan, Patrick Kapera, Jim Pinto, Craig Folsom, and Ramon Pena Category: game Company/Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group Line: L5R / Legend of the Five Rings Cost: $19.95 Page count: 128 Capsule Review by Lisa Padol on 08/06/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Horror Conspiracy Asian/Far East	Grade: C+ for presentation, B- for content Partly by chance, and partly by choice, I came to Winter Court, Kyuden Kakita with less background than some fans of L5R might have. I did previously absorb a few details of the Scorpion coup from a couple of web pages, but I haven't gotten the full story. I do not have a copy of Otosan Uchi to hand. I have read only the first few pages of Winter Court: Kyuden Seppun. This makes me a good test subject for how comprehensible Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita is to folks who have not read everything that comes before. The good news is that most of the individual sections are both comprehensible and useful in isolation. There are descriptions of the different types of natural disasters and how the Rokugani deal with them. There are descriptions of an ordinary day for a Lion bushi, a Crane courtier, a Phoenix shugenja, a Phoenix artisan, a monk who used to be a Unicorn bushi, a merchant who is a vassal of the Crab, and an Eta who helps his family run a crematorium. There is a consideration of apprenticeships and an overview of the place of the ronin in Rokugan in general, and in court in particular. All of these sections help GMs and players alike to create a richer game world for their L5R campaigns. The art is good, as usual, with no bimbo art. The layout is clean, although several paragraphs of text in the Chambers of Court section appear twice. However, the organization principle of Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita is not always clear. The book is divided into five parts: Introduction, Dawn, Afternoon, Night, and Epilogue. In the Night chapter, there is a delightful section on entertainment. This includes a wonderfully wicked vignette, followed by descriptions of the various competitions that occur at Winter Court, such as artistic contests; games of Kemari, where maintaining ones dignity is more important than officially winning the game; and the fine art of competitive letter writing. The section closes with a consideration of fireworks. All delightful, all useful. The next section looks at ghosts from the pitiful to the inimical. Less sparkling, perhaps, but just as useful. But why are these sections juxtaposed? They're in the Night chapter, so maybe the theme is things that take place at night? This works for ghosts and fireworks, but surely Kemari and artistic competitions take place during the day? The organization added to my confusion of just what Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita is supposed to be. It does not have an adventure, so it is not a scenario. Perhaps it is intended as part sourcebook of nifty, if unrelated, material, and part overview of Rokugan in the second year of Hantei XXXIX's rule. If so, the combination is an uneasy mix of material useful to everyone, and material only useful to those using the official timeline. And even as someone who is interested in using that timeline, I find the overview less clear than it could have been. I thought that AEG planned to do a Winter Court book for each year of the chronology, but Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita must be set at least two years after Winter Court: Kyuden Seppun. Did the Emerald Empire cancel one or more courts? Did the folks at AEG change the plan? Does Otosan Uchi or some other L5R product bridge the gap? My complaint here is not that gamers are forced to buy other products to use this one; it is that I cannot tell which products one needs to get full value out of Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita. A couple of paragraphs explaining what has gone before and which L5R products have what information would have cleared up the confusion and improved the product--even if I did not approve of whatever it is trying to do. Near the end of the book, there is a section about AEG's Otosan Uchiboxed set. If I understand correctly, the boxed set has the material on the Scorpion Coup. If the coup material is used, it makes other material in the boxed set obsolete, as certain NPCs will be dead, and parts of the city will have been destroyed and rebuilt. So, a few pages in Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita describe the post-coup situation in the city. Much of the information is meaningless to me because I do not have the Otosan Uchi boxed set, but I can see that there is a quick overview of what districts exist, how they have changed, and who rules them now. All of this is useful information, but what is it doing in this book? It belongs in the Otocan Uchi boxed set. I suspect the authors of Otosan Uchi would agree, and that the material got cut due to time or space constraints. Whatever the case may be, it is good that the material is being made available, but this is not the place to put it. Put it on the AEG website, or make it available by mail or in stores. We're talking about the company that's giving away a 64-page booklet explaining the differences between the first and second editions of 7th Sea. Guys, you know how to do this sort of thing with style. It is possible that there is a unifying principle underlying of Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita, but if so, the principle is unclear. I kept asking myself what the goals of Winter Court are, and while I may have figured this out, I am by no means certain. And, in any case, one should not have to be a detective to understand what a gaming supplement is intended to achieve. This isn't the sort of thing I used to notice in a sourcebook. Our standards have gotten higher, and part of the reason for this is that companies like AEG have been consistently delivering high quality products. I recognize this and applaud it. However, saying that standards used to be lower does not change the fact that they are now higher, and it is no justification for cutting corners or for sloppiness. Winter Court: Kyuden Kakita is not one of those products that add up to more than the sum of its parts, and a few of those parts can be annoying, as it is assumed that readers have bought and read all previous L5R products. But most of those parts work well, whether or not you are following the official timeline. The book is not a must-buy, but it has a lot of good material. Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 3 (Average)