FAQ about the Imperial Assembly Membership
The following is membership information from page 5 of Imperial Herald #14.
- How much does it cost? $__.__ for U.S. and Canadian residents. $__.__ outside of North America.
- What do I get?
- A plastic membership card with your DCI number, often good for discounts at L5R vendors.
- 4 issues of the Imperial Herald
- at least one promotional card in each issue
- a cover letter from your clan
- special limited time bonuses only available as an IA member. This is usually in the form of hard to get merchandise or promotional offers.
- How can I join? There are 3 ways to join:
- Phone: 1-800-324-6496 or 1-888-4-5RINGS
- Internet: www.wizards.com/L5R/imperialcourt/fanclub.asp
- Mail: send a checque or money ordor for $__.__ (in the US or Canada) or $__.__ (anywhere else) made out to "The DCI". Can also pay by Mastercard or Visa. Include the card's expiration date.
- Imformation required:
- Name
- DCI number (if any)
- Favorite Clan
- Street
- City
- state
- Zip Code
- Country
- Phone number (_ _ _) _ _ _ _ _ _ _
- Email address
- New or Renewing member
- Mail to:
- Imperial Assembly
- P.O. Box 707
- Renton, WA 98057-0707
- What is a Clan affiliation (favorite Clan) for? Your Clan affiliation determines which Clan letter is sent with your Herald. It's also printed on your membership card and affects the storyline based on how well you did in tournaments (storyline only). Special note - you CANNOT sign up as a Ninja - it has to be earned in tournament play.
- What's a DCI number?
- It stands for Duelists Convocation International and it's a unique identification number used in tournaments and for members only merchandise benefits. It was originally the suscription number from The Duelist magazine, an early Magic: the Gathering publication.
- When organized tournament competition was started (i.e. the "Black Lotus" Professional Tour), it became an identification number for competitors.
- After the Legends of the Five Rings card game was bought by Wizards of the Coast, it was natural to use the pre-existing tournament structure bureaucracy . The Dualist eventually morphed into TopDeck magazine. The name change probably had to do with Pokemon's surging popularity - Dualist was too closely associated with Magic the Gathering.
- There was a short experiment in publishing Duelist on line, but poor web design made reading of the articles difficult and not everybody has access to a computer.
- The reminants of that experiment were reorganized to form Sideboard magazine on line. Tournament competitors are much more like to have computer access , mainly in search of the next "hot" deck design.
- Why should I join, when I can get the Herald from my Stronghold store for free? The promotional copies of the Herald are to introduce new players to the game. It's not for free loaders who just want to save money. If you just want to read it, borrow a friend's copy. The best reason to join is to obtain promotional cards and special, members only merchandise. Besides, if you're concerned about cost, you can always sell or trade the promotional cards - the better ones more than make up for the suscription price.
- Can I get the current issue or back issues? New subscribers will be sent the current issue without the promo cards; later when they are a "full fledged" member, the promo cards will come with the magazine.
- Can I get past offers or promos? In a word, no. Wizards feels that the money is better spent on future issues, not in stockpiling special promotions. If you really want something from a past issue, you'll have to either trade for it, buy it or bid for it at a auction.
- Andy Heckt is in charge of Fan Club Operations at the DCI.
- He can be reached at frpg@frpg.com.
note: due to turning chicken at the last moment, the actual prices have been deleted. The information is available on the Wizards website.
Legends of the Five Rings CCG and the names of some characters are copyright of the Five Rings Publishing Group and Wizards of the Coast. Artwork is copyright by various artists whom illustrated cards for Wizards of the Coast. Other names, stories and ideas are copyright MountainView. Dragon logo by R. Stier.
