BigDeck is a Legend of the Five Rings variant created to encourage casual gameplay. It was a way to play L5R without the stress of Kotei playtesting or the brokeness that can accompany Legacy games.

BigDeck was based on another casual format created by local Philadelphia area players for Magic: the Gathering. The Magic version required 200 cards per deck and had stricter deck construction guidelines. Magic BigDeck died out after a short period of time (the strict deck construction guidelines led to everyone building almost the exact same deck), but a few of us L5R players decided to try to modify the format for L5R. Unfortunately, as we were getting started with this new format, our L5R group slowly fell apart (one player moved to the west coast, others started to quit the game for various reasons).

Fortunately, I found a new family of L5R players, and the idea for the format was revitalized. The launch of our format was well received by the community. BigDeck tournaments were being run around the world, and we even inspired the formation of other formats.

Today, with games still being played everywhere, from kitchen tables to breweries to GenCon, we look to keep BigDeck alive as a way to continue to enjoy the game we played for so long.