The Great Walls of Kaiu

One of the few Kickstarters I have been able to back is The Gamers: Hands of Fate. Yesterday I got my digital copy to download, and immediately had to start watching it, despite the late hour (which I am paying for now). For those not in the know, The Gamers was a low-low budget film, made with home video cameras, and really cheap special effects. However, it is hilariously bad, and I often use it, and the sequel, Dorkness Rising, as a way of explaining what playing D&D is actually like.

Anyways, Dead Gentlemen Productions, the group of gamers who made both films, have steadily increased their quality. The third movie was funded with Kickstarter, and much of it was filmed on location at Gen Con. This installment centers around a fictitious Collectible Card Game (CCG) called The Nine Empires. And aside from the great stories, decent acting, and geeky references, the whole thing is bringing back a flood of memories.

Many moons ago, in the early 2000’s, I had moved from San Diego to Salinas (just outside of Monterey). I hooked up with a gaming group, and we played a lot of D&D. But, we also got sucked into playing the Legend of the Five Rings CCG. In fact, like a crack dealer, the local game store owner gifted me with an entire card box full of Jade Edition cards. At the time, Jade was on the way out, and Gold was just about to be introduced.

I had already latched on to the Crab Clan, and by extension, the Nezumi (ratlings). The Nezumi actually had a stronghold, and by the rules, your stronghold card didn’t need to be an actual card. So, I found an image of it, printed it, and put it in a sleeve. I then proceeded to build a Nezumi deck that was all kinds of military badass. That was a fun deck to play!

Once Gold came into play I switched focus to my Crab decks. The most successful one I had was an Honor Runner based on "The Great Walls of Kaiu" stronghold. The CCG led to us playing the RPG, and therein was born Hida Gotetsu, one of my all-time favorite characters (and probably the subject of a future Monday memories post).

So, why do I bring this up? Because Gamers 3 has me almost jonesing to play CCG’s again. However, I can’t afford to invest any money into an expensive hobby like that. And, I don’t actually have to. If I can find people willing to play a little, I have about a dozen L5R decks, some of which have never even been opened. I had taught my wife how to play a few years ago. So she would probably play with me again.

Hmmm. I may have to push for this.