Three Dynasties Primer: Rules Changes
Part Two — Fate

Hello, all! I'm back to talk a little about changes to (mostly) the Fate side of the equation in Three Dynasties. We'll be covering a few topics here that, for the most part, are less rules changes and more formatting adjustments to remove redundant or unnecessary text by moving it to the rulebook instead. 

One of the issues with ShE and Onyx was what we call 'text compression', and it is owing partially to the system we use to generate these card images. So shaving off things to unclutter cards and make them both easier to read and to have more space for things like flavor text was a high priority. You may have noticed this in the previous article, with things such as the reversion of entering play gains or losses on Personalities back to stating the loss or gain rather than 'After this Personality enters play, gain/lose X Honor.' This will also be carried over to Fate cards.

In our previous 3D article, you probably noticed the 'Rulebook Terrain ability' referenced in Far Traveler Castle. Terrains are now a boldfaced keyword. Terrains still enter play by an ability that reads, 

"Battle: Destroy a Terrain (if able). Put this Terrain into play.” 

This is technically on/from the card, just is now granted from the Rulebook via the Terrain keyword. This frees us from having to print that text on every single Terrain card. Every other aspect of Terrains remain the same — this is more of a streamlining than a real mechanical change.

We've also codified and streamlined effects of the Ring cards to avoid the issues of tiny text that plagued Shattered Empire-era Rings. The ability to put Rings into play is now a trait, rather than an action. As usual, a Ring’s ability is normally used while in play, but it may also be used while the Ring is in your hand. In this case, if you choose to do so, you ignore the cost of bowing it and, like a Strategy, the Ring enters a resolution area while the relevant ability is resolving, and it is discarded afterwards. 

On the attachment side of things, we have streamlined effects that occur when something is equipped to something more clean: 'Equip'. We've also done something similar with Focus Effects.

We've also moved things like 'Political' and 'Iaijutsu' back up to the keyword line. While not necessarily saving space, it does meet our goal of uncluttering the text box itself, and makes it far easier to glance at a card and know its relevant keywords. This is almost exclusively something we have done for Strategies; other card types will still have descriptors on the actions themselves. It would run counter to our objective to clean things up to add possibly multiple keywords to, for example, a Personality with both Political and Iaijutsu actions.

One of the new icons we've decided to employ in Three Dynasties are actually found in both the Dynasty and Fate sides. By now you're familiar with the Shadowlands icon that replaced the old Shadowlands keyword back in Onyx/ShE. With the opening of the gateways and the flooding of the Celestial Heavens into the mortal realm, we decided that a similar icon should exist for these semi-Divine creatures. After some initial debate ('Celestial Icon' was briefly discussed as a name for old times sake, but there were concerns raised about a keyword/icon sharing a name with an existing, albeit defunct, card type), we settled on calling it the 'Tengoku Icon'.

The Tengoku Icon won't just appear on Dynasty cards, however; the influence and power of the Celestial realms rivals that of Jigoku, and will appear with just as much frequency and diversity as its corrupted kin. And as you can see in the Voice of the Heavens, there is also a smaller text version of the Tengoku icon, as with our other former Element keywords and the Shadowlands.

 The final subject we wanted to touch on was that of Winds. In ShE, the Winds disabled the normal Rulebook Favor and Lobby actions, instead granting the player use of an alternate Lobby ability, and two Favor actions. This led to badly compressed text on the Winds that made them largely difficult to read. With the CRIII Iweko Miaka version of the Kano's Alliance Wind, we did a trial run on a version we were considering for this next base set, much like what we were doing with Kimiono Sensei and the new Cavalry Rule.

We've simplified our Winds in Three Dynasties. They no longer replace the Rulebook Lobby action or the Rulebook Favor abilities — which means everyone is back to bowing a Personality to Lobby. Each Wind will have a simple Lobby bonus, some modification of the Lobby Rule (though not a replacement), and one Favor action you may use in tandem with the existing Rulebook Favor abilities. We've provided an example above: The young ward of Otomo Suikihime and child of the deceased Iweko Ayameko, now of age and ready to claim his birthright from his domain in the former Colonies, the self-proclaimed Empire of New Rokugan.

That sums up the changes you can expect to see to 3D rules. We hope that these lead to a more dynamic, cleaner, and easier play experience for our community. So what's next? Release information, of course! And while we won't have exact dates, you can expect articles to begin later this month or in September discussing each of the nine Clans in Three Dynasties and their themes, followed by a Previews Schedule as we approach October. There are also plans to create another Learn to Play mini set this winter, similar to Gathering Storms in ShE.

For now I will leave you with my usual thanks and appreciation for your support and interest in this project as it continues to expand far beyond what we has ever hoped it could be. I'll also leave you with our two base set Promos.