(Message ryand:186)
Date:    Thu, 27 Aug 1998 11:33:58 PDT
To:      "l5rinfo" <l5rinfo@frpg.com>
cc:      <l5r@lightside.com>, <shadis2@aol.com>, <scottm@frpg.com>,
	 <lukeout@frpg.com>
From:    "Ryan S. Dancey" <RyanD@frpg.com>
Subject: Explanation of Card Selection for Hidden Emperor Episode 3

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Dear Readers,

As some of you already know, and most of you will discover tomorrow, Hidden
Emperor Month 3 contains three card selection errors.

These errors are the result of a process that has already been changed in
response to other issues discovered internally at FRPG.  The switch to 3
tiered rarity in Hidden Emperor was not as smooth as we would have liked,
and the somewhat frustrating collation in Episodes 1-3 and the card
selection errors in Episode 3 are the result of the decision to make the
adjustment to a 3rd rarity level.

We have been working with Yaquinto to find a more reliable way to pack out
the combos and boosters to ensure a more even distribution of the cards, and
the results of that work will start to be felt in Hidden Emperor 4-6, and we
will continue to monitor the situation and work on the system in preparation
for HE/7-9.  Again, I need to reiterate that these issues are solely the
responsibility of FRPG.  We assemble the collation grids and determine how
the sheets move through Yaquinto's facilities to achieve our planned
distribution of cards.  Any time we vary from established patterns, we spend
a substantial amount of time determining how to best make the existing
equipment fit our revised needs.  In the course of Hidden Emperor, we
overcame several challenges related to the collation and booster pack
assembly, but exposed new problems in the process, which we have hopefully
addressed for the next round of releases.

The problem with the card selection in HE/3 stems from the way the sheets
are assembled internally at FRPG.  A master database is used to track each
card by a unique code number.  Those code numbers are entered onto a
computerized grid that represents the final press sheet.  That grid is then
used by the prepress team to assemble the Quark Xpress document that is used
to output the film used for printing.  For HE/3, errors in our database
resulted in three cards being "miss-selected" for the set.  As a part of a
separate review of the process, we had already changed the way the sheets
are built, adding redundancy which would have caught these errors in HE/3,
and we're confident that similar problems won't occur in the rest of the HE
run.

A Quick Pressheet Primer:

We use a 10x10 grid for our press sheets.  The cards on that grid for HE are
arranged in a tiled pattern on that sheet.  The pattern running left to
right, is Uncommon/Uncommon/Rare, repeated across the whole sheet.  This
gives us 33 rare cards and 66 uncommon cards (the common cards come from a
different sheet).  The 100th card slot is currently being filled with the
Stronghold card for that month's faction, a card that also appears in the
deck boxes.  In the future, we hope to put a few more interesting goodies in
that slot.

For Hidden Emperor, there are 15 distinct rares and 15 distinct uncommons.
That means that each rare appears on the sheet at least 2 times, and three
appear 3 times.  (Call them R2s and R3s).  Each uncommon appears on the
sheet at least 4 times, and six appear 5 times (U4s and U5s).

When the sheet goes through the packout process, it is cut into 100 distinct
cards, which are then round-cornered and loaded into the machinery that
fills the booster packs.  Each booster pack gets three cards from the
rare/uncommon sheet (in addition to the 5 commons).  Since those cards are
always in some combination of U/U/R, each booster should receive two
uncommons and one rare, though the order of those cards can vary due to
quality control adjustments made to the packout line.

All the boosters in a combo or booster display come from sequential cards.
In other words, if you looked at 34 boosters that were all packed in a row,
you could essentially assemble the complete 100 card press sheet, plus 2
cards from the next sheet.  Because of the way the press sheets are
assembled, there >must< be two complete sets (and parts of a 3rd) every 34
boosters.  So buying all 36 of the boosters in a combo should give you 2
complete sets of cards, every single time.  Likewise, buying the 72 boosters
in a booster display should give you 4 complete sets of cards.

That the observable results of the collation don't match that theory is the
area we've been working on (and have hopefully solved) with Yaquinto.  The
variation from the expected result happens when boosters that >are not
sequential< get packed into a display (either combo or booster).  Doing so
throws off the collation and introduces a frustrating number of "excess
duplicates" into the mix.  Because we print and pack three Episodes at the
same time, our earliest opportunity to fix the problem detected with HE/1
comes in HE/4.  Likewise, if we need to tweak the system again, the results
won't be felt until HE/7.

I have personally opened nearly ten displays of HE/1-3 that came right off
the line just like the product on your store shelves.  My advice to everyone
after opening all those booster packs is pretty simple:  Buy the number of
packs you feel comfortable purchasing.  Sort the rares and uncommons, and
figure out where the duplication occurrs (you'll probably have between 1 and
5 Rares that you have 4 or more of), and then start trading to complete your
sets.  Trying to complete sets through additional booster purchases is
expensive, and difficult, especially since the problems that plague one
display problably plague all the displays ordered by your retailer at the
same time.  One excellent strategy is to agree to split a combo with a
friend, buying all 36 packs from one display, opening all the boosters, and
building sets from the total cards purchased.

To help support that effort, I am going to post a complete rarity list to
HE/1-3 on the FRPG web site before this weekend is over, including which
cards are R2s, R3s, U4s, U5s, and now R1s, to make identifying the cards you
need to trade easier and to help you valuate the trades your are offered in
return.

The additional problems with HE/3:

The card "Ascension of the Mantis" is an Event that falls into the "rare"
slots.  Instead of appearing on the sheet twice, it appears only once.  In
the spot where it should first appear, the card "The Hiruma Dojo" appears in
its place.  The net result of that error is that Ascension is going to be
twice as hard to collect as it should be, and it will make collecting a set
through normal means very, very difficult and expensive.

The second and third errors are that the card "Ginawa X2" appears in place
of the uncommon Moto Soro.  Luckily, Soro is one of the U5s - so the net
effect of the error is that Soro becomes a U4, and Ginawa X2 becomes an R1.
However, it's the same Ginawa X2 that appeared in Episode 2, so the
resulting final effect is that Ginawa X2 is now >less< rare than the other
R2s from HE/2 (because now there's more of him in print).  There is no
physical way to tell a Ginawa X2 from HE/2 from one in HE/3, so the
"collectability" of the card shouldn't be affected.

What do we intend to do about this:

We don't know yet.  Those of you who remember our response to the reduced
uncommons in the Obsidian Edition and Time of the Void will recall that it
took a few weeks to come up with an equitable solution, and the same is true
here.  As a part of the Koku program, we produce about 250 or so copies of
each card in addition to the normal print run.  Those 250 "Ascention of the
Mantis" cards will certainly be a part of whatever solution we finally
arrive at.  We may place the card on the next L5R promo sheet and give them
away through some promotion.

I do want you to know that we are aware of the problem, we agree that it
needs to be addressed, and we're working on a solution.

For now, all I ask is that you not judge the collation in HE/3 by the
difficulty to complete a "set" including Ascention of the Mantis.  Based on
my own collation checks of random boxes, I was able to complete sets in
approximately the number of boosters I expected based on our previous
experiences - with the exception of Ascention.

Sincerely,

Ryan S. Dancey
Brand Manager, FRPG
Wizards of the Coast, Inc.


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