We didn’t see this one comic. Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) and Fantasy Flight Games have come to a deal where Fantasy Flight will purchase Legend of the Five Rings from AEG.

L5R has been a popular game for two decades, and their events at Gen Con are always packed, so the deal is a bit of a shocker to me. Fantasy Flight has said it expects its first product for the relaunch will be for Gen Con 2017, and the game will be a Living Card Game (LCG) instead of a collectible card game (CCG).

AEG has cited their focus on other things beyond the CCG as a reason for the deal. Fantasy Flight does have a history with the property, and I’d expect to see it in more than just an LCG.

The current incarnation of the Legend of the Five Rings CCG will be complete with the release of the Evil Portents expansion from AEG. After that release, the game will go on hiatus until FFG relaunches it.

For players unfamiliar with the LCG model, a Living Card Game offers regular, non-randomized releases that include full playsets of every card. In its new form, Legend of the Five Rings will use this release format, rather than “blind” boosters that contain randomly assigned rare, uncommon, and common cards. Instead of spending their time chasing hard-to-find cards, the LCG distribution model allows players to focus on building decks by buying a single expansion that includes a full playset of every card in that expansion.

This will also see significant design changes in the newest version, including a new mechanical design.

(via Bell of Lost Souls, Tabletop Game News, Fantasy Flight)