Today several Legends of Runeterra Devs took part in an "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit.

In total there were 74 responses to community questions and we've recapped all the important highlights below for you. Below that you will find a full transcript of the AMA if you'd like to read everything that was talked about.

Runeterra AMA Recap

Before going into the full recap, it's important to note how often Rioters mentioned that they want to see Legends of Runeterra built with the community. They value our feedback and will tailor systems for the game to our overall desires instead of forcing their way. Testing and feedback from the community is super important to them.

Accounts
  • Once you've received an invite, you're in for good! Players in now can play in the Preview Patch 2, Closed Beta, and beyond.
  • There will be an account reset at some point due to everyone getting tons of wild cards.
  • After the account reset, any coins purchased will be reimbursed in full.
  • There will be crossplay between devices - your progression follows you.
  • Your friendslist in League of Legends will be used for Legends of Runeterra.
Timeline
  • Preview Patch 2 will include Expeditions - draft mode.
  • Closed Beta will include ranked mode, new boards, and guardians.
  • The goal is to get every League of Legends Champion into Legends of Runeterra.
  • New sets should come out every 4 months. (Starts at launch)
  • Balance patches should be monthly.
  • Adding additional cards between sets is something being looked into.
Economy
  • Duplicate cards get turned into shards which can then be spent on crafting new cards.
  • Top-tier decks should be accessible to everyone, even if they don't spend any money on the game.
  • If top-tier decks aren't accessible enough, progression will require some adjusting and they will commit to doing so.
  • They have a unique, paid currency with Legends of Runeterra because of platform restrictions and that it lets them tune it without interfering with their other games.
Cosmetics
  • New gameboards will be coming next year and can be purchased with coins.
  • New guardians will also be available next year and can be purchased with coins. Currently, your guardian is the Poro on the left corner of the board.
  • They are open to additional ideas for cosmetics - they want players to be able to express themselves.
Systems
  • A top priority is to ensure the team can make and push changes quickly and with ease.
  • They want to allow you to rearrange attackers positioning - its in the backlog.
  • Making many of the card draw and healing spells Burst is to keep the game running fast. It would slow down if opponents could react to them.
  • They are not yet sure about what to do about a Standard format / rotating sets.
  • The game is currently only supported on Windows, Android, and iOS because those are the most popular platforms.
  • The newest Mac OS being able to run iOS apps in iPad mode excites the team.
  • Having quests that require participation in League of Legends to earn Legends of Runeterra rewards are not off the table, but they should not feel like chores.
  • Keyboard shortcuts were removed from the game due to bugs. If you want them, what keyboard shortcuts would you want?
Tone
  • More factions will be added to the game, but they aren't saying which ones.
  • Neutral cards, or cards without a faction, are not currently planned.
  • It is important that they keep true to the overall tone of League of Legends, unlike how Hearthstone deviates from World of Warcraft.
Expeditions / Draft Mode
  • Draft mode, Expeditions, will be a unique take on a limited format.
  • Expeditions will be a hybrid between MTG Sealed and MTG Draft formats.
  • Cards drafted will not be added to your collection, but rewards and cards can be unlocked by playing draft.

Full Transcript

Quote From Runeterra Devs AMA

Hello Team!

First. Great job!

Second. Will the invites you sent out already persist till release? Or will each time you open up the game come with fresh new invites and previous ones expired?

Thanks so much! Your invites will persist until release, so once you get invited you can continue to play in Preview Patch 2, PC Closed Beta and beyond! There will be a account reset for content at some point, mainly because we are giving everyone a ton of extra Wildcards in the Preview Patches so they can experience the content in a condensed period of time.

(RiotKassadin)

@JeffJew, What do you think of the new Iron Hands FAQ nerf? How will you change your IH list for the upcoming SoCal open in response to this?

Amazing question! Overall, I'm ecstatic with how quickly GW responded to the Iron Hands meta (80% win rate against the field last week is simply unacceptable). With most new metas, I personally believe that you want to give the system time to self-correct, up to a point. At that win %, a large shift needed to happen and it's great for the community that the change was swift. I do feel that they may have touched too many elements at once (as we were more apt to do in early League of Legends balance), but in this particular case, I think the community's reaction will be overwhelmingly positive.

I do need to dramatically change my list for SoCal open (3x Repulsor Executioners) as they're now very vulnerable without the 5++. However, I'm way too busy playing / watching / reading about Legends of Runeterra to play practice games, so I'll probably run my current list and just enjoy my games :)

(RiotKassadin)

Guys, I dont have any questions, I just wanted to thank you for the great experience. You struck the perfect balance between Hearthstone and Magic (two games I play and love), and managed to surpass both.
Good luck, I'm really excited about the future of LoR!

<3

(RiotKassadin)

I’ve had a lot of fun theorycrafting and trying out decks so far in this game! What have been some of the most fun strategies you’ve seen, regardless of whether they’re successful or just straight inting?

To all the players playing 1-ofs in order to summon the Cat driving a mech - I salute you!

(RiotKassadin)

Yo devs intro yourselves here.

Hi I'm JJ, I have a really fancy Riot title (executive producer) but at the end of the day I'm a huge fan of card games and strategy games in general. I started as a game designer in the early days of League of Legends, and became a producer managing our Champs, Skins, and Maps teams for a few years. I'm incredibly honored to work with this amazing team and ecstatic to see the positive reception to Legends of Runeterra thus far! Hope to see you all in the Closed Beta soon!

(RiotKassadin)

Wait does that mean when we buy the starterpack that the cards from that will also get reseted ?

When the reset occurs, you will get all the coins you spent in game returned to you. So if you spent 500 coins on wildcards/starter pack etc, you will have 500 coins waiting for you again.

(RiotKassadin)

I’ve managed to get Cat a couple times and damn is it satisfying!

Well played!!!

(RiotKassadin)

How do you emote in LoR? I play against people and they'll flash a sticker. How do I do the same?

Click on the :D smiley face next to your screen name in the bottom-left, it should bring up the stickers

(Riot_G-Mang)

What are the chances a new Champion is introduced through LoR before LoL?

Edit: Additionally, any wacky ideas for Twisted Fate in LoR?

It's something we're excited to do some day, but I wouldn't expect it in the short-term–there are already so many champs players love and wanna see!

(Riot_G-Mang)

Hey Team,

Thank you for doing the AMA!

How did y'all decide on the three different spell categories and nailing down when each of could be cast and what not?

Got into the game yesterday and have been enjoying every second of it!

At a high level, we wanted to balance satisfaction/pacing with counterplay.

Things that will greatly disrupt the board (like removal, or spawning multiple units) are the kind of things your opponent will wanna interrupt, so those will tend to at least be Fast or Slow. Slow ensures the most counterplay (the opponent can respond with new units or slow spells of their own) but also contributes less to combat and spell interactions, so I'd say we tend towards Fast unless the card reliably changes the unit advantage by more than 1.

On the other end, incremental stuff like card draw or healing were cumbersome when they involved full reaction windows. For those, giving them Burst resolution kept the game moving at a good pace. Stat buffs generally ended up in this camp, since there are lots of ways to deal with a unit even after it's pumped (though some extreme cases go too far for Burst, like For Demacia).

Additionally, there are some cases where the card outright doesn't work at a different speed. Anything that can only target battling units (like Judgement) must be Fast, or it doesn't actually make sense in the rules (Burst wouldn't work even if we wanted it, since you can cast Burst before committing to the attack). And in the future you'll probably see mechanics that only work at Slow and Burst speed. :P

There are a bunch of other nuances (you've be surprised how many design meetings were about this topic haha) but hopefully that clarifies some of the general thinking. :)

(Riot_G-Mang)

Do you plan to add other factions and if so which ones would be first to come? I'm absolutely in love with Shurima and I'm hoping it gets added ASAP.

Yep, we're planning to add more! Can't say where or when tho 👀

(Riot_G-Mang)

In the current iteration of the game, I've noticed that there's a distinct lack of card draw through typical means except in one faction. Is this intentional, and meant to be designed around in future sets, or will more card draw options become available through either future factions/sets, or factionless options?

(I'm assuming you're referring to the lack of simple "spend mana to draw card" effects, hope I'm interpreting correctly!)

Yeah I'd call it intentional. Card flow is something we wanna keep an eye on, since it can have a big impact on pacing, variance, and complexity. That said, it's also a fun and satisfying mechanic, so we wanna look for ways to deliver it. By giving different regions unique ways to access card draw, we can deliver that satisfaction to many decks without saturating the overall environment with card flow (we've seen that in playtests at times and it's not pretty haha).

I think it's also a good design strategy for future cards. Since most decks are happy to draw cards at most points in the game, it's a pretty compelling output to put on a card to reward gameplay patterns. The more specialized we keep card draw, the more functional those reward cards will be. On top of that, those conditions also give us more levers to tune if we wanna buff/nerf card flow in targeted ways in the future.

Sorta an abstract topic but hope that makes sense :) Thanks for the question!

(Riot_G-Mang)

In your progression post, you say that you want to slow down the meta solving, but after 2 days it seems like the select few streamers and playtesters have already figured it out. Is there more coming that we should be aware of?

That’s definitely something we’re going to track closely. As an engineer on the content/gameplay team I can say one of our top priorities is making sure our design and balance team have the ability to make and ship changes to cards quickly and easily. We’re not at the speed we want to be yet, but it’s something we’re working towards. I don’t know what our exact cadence will be, but the goal is to strike a balance so that the meta stays fresh, without players feeling like they constantly have to switch away from their favorite decks.

In terms of the meta being solved, I would keep in mind that we don’t have ranked or as hard of skill based matchmaking as we will in the future- this can have a huge impact on personal win rates of decks!

(riot_kuaggie)

How frequently and aggressively will you likely be addressing balance? LoL has a break-neck patch and balance schedule compared to digital card games I've played, let alone physical card games that are loathe to errata, restrict or ban cards.

I saw that drafting will be a thing in the future. Will we actually be drafting with a pod of players or will it be an approximated system? If approximated by bots, then how would that avoid becoming easily exploited like it is in MtG:O? Also, will we keep the cards we draft?

Are there any plans for a sealed format, possibly as pre-release events? Are there any plans at all for pre-release events?

I assume you will have different MMR for competitive and casual play. Have you also considered seperate MMR for different factions, ala role queue? Split difference with 2-faction decks?

Will grinding a ladder be the only competitive format or will there be brief, periodic open-entry tournaments? If so what would the rewards look like?

How long should we expect a competitive season to be, and will it be broken up in to sub-seasons like LoL? Monthly? Yearly? Coinciding with every expansion?

Will you be selling starter decks, theme decks and/or event decks and will players be able to purchase these more than once (to get playsets of included cards)?

Re: your draft questions - our draft mode will be our unique take on limited. If you're familiar with mtg limited, expeditions should feel like a bit of a hybrid between sealed and draft. So although you won't be drafting with a pod of players, we anticipate a pretty diverse meta of decks! If this turns out to not be the case, we have quite a few knobs to turn that can improve any under-performing archetypes. To your second question: You will not keep the cards you draft, but you will earn rewards & unlock cards by playing.

(riot_kuaggie)

Yo devs intro yourselves here.

Hi! I'm an engineer on the gameplay team. I work primarily on our game server (the rules engine for how cards work & what happens in-game), and wrote most of the backend for expeditions (which I can't wait to fully dive into with you all next month!) If you're confused on how a card works or how certain interactions in our game work, I can do my best to answer :).

As a player, I'm a former competitive MtG player, and main the least complex champions you can name in league (Annie & Tibbers are my besties)

(riot_kuaggie)

The answer is that they haven't figured it out.

I have yet to see a streamer play the deck that haunts my dreams at night, so yeah, I'd agree with this.

(DyQuill)

why are you guys so cool?

considering there are many lifelong card game nerds on the LoR team, it sure isn't from years of practice

(DyQuill)

There's a stream going right now where the guy is 28-1. There's already a best deck

drop that link fam

(DyQuill)

Shurima and Bilgerwater are missing. Does this mean we are getting more "factions", like Demacia and Noxus? Since they are so big in of themselfs, I also find it hard to believe they just wouldn't show up in the game.

Runeterra is a big place and we clearly have a lot more to explore…

(DyQuill)

https://www.twitch.tv/tidesoftime

ah ok yeah i just watched him take on dogdog

(DyQuill)

Will other mechanics such as viewing someones hand and discarding a card be added or ways to counter creatures entering the battlefield

Will other mechanics such as viewing someones hand and discarding a card be added or ways to counter creatures entering the battlefield

Hi! My name is Jeff and I am a UX designer and the producer for our Gameplay Features team. Thanks for the question!

We will definitely be adding more mechanics or as we call them Features. Being able to better look at your opponent's hand is something we're looking at especially as we get closer to mobile. And I promise we will fix the annoying flutter when you hover on one of your opponent's revealed cards!

(JeffExpress)

I feel there is a lot of wasted potential design space by having the cards simply fill the board left to right (adjacency bonuses, cards that interact with opposing minions directly across, etc) instead of being allowed to position units as we see fit. Is that a design choice to allow for easier mobile gameplay or is there a philosophical reason behind this design choice?

Hi Leaga! I'm a UX designer on LOR and the producer for our gameplay features team. Hopefully, I'm understanding your question…let me know if I got it wrong…

Being able to place attackers in a particular position and rearrange them after placing is a feature that many of us on team are very excited for. It is on our project backlog and we've done some very early thinking of how to make it work for both PC and Mobile.In the meantime you can always use Scoop. Click & hold on a unit and you can now grab other units to attack with. It even pays attention to order you grab units!

(JeffExpress)

I have been using scoop but did not realize that it takes order picked into account and/or that it even rearranged positioning at all. I thought it was simply always in played order. Silly me! Very excited that it’s something y’all are already looking into, thanks for the response.

Thank you for playing and for the feedback!

(JeffExpress)

any plans for keyboard controls?

clicking next phase button constantly is starting to irritate my wrist a bit.

Yes! We had keyboard shortcuts in the past, but had to remove them due to some nasty bugs. I am curious…What other keyboard shortcuts would you want? The Button, Attack All/Retreat All, etc

(JeffExpress)

Yo devs intro yourselves here.

yea, but why

edit: alright alright

/wave

hey everyone! I'm wander, I'm an engineer on the gameplay team. I worked on a lot of things, but most importantly helped make the audio and the animations shine.

I'm super big on card games. played mtg, yugioh, pokemon, hs, the naruto card game, dunno you name it.

I'm also a really big fan of she who wanders and will attempt to stealth buff her every patch. It will be an arms race for the history books.

(w4ndr)

Guys, I dont have any questions, I just wanted to thank you for the great experience. You struck the perfect balance between Hearthstone and Magic (two games I play and love), and managed to surpass both.
Good luck, I'm really excited about the future of LoR!

<3

(NeoLexical)

Is a pop tart a sandwich?

A poptart is not a sandwich. I put it the same category as a pizza pocket by which they both have fillings. To be a sandwich, it needs to fit snugly "aka sandwiched" between 2 or more pieces of bread.

(NeoLexical)

Any cosmetics besides boards coming? Sleeves/backs? Alternate shinier art cards? emotes?

We are definitely looking into cosmetic content! The world of Runeterra is large and we'd love to bring that to you through not only cards, but personalization items as well to give you flexibility in how you want to express yourself.

To start, we will have Guardians and Boards. These will be coming in the Closed Beta next year (edit: and will be available for purchase with Coins). We are actively exploring other features that we think would be cool, but we are always open to new ideas. If you have a great personalization idea that you want to see in LoR, we'd love to hear it!

(RiotZhuology)

Guys, I dont have any questions, I just wanted to thank you for the great experience. You struck the perfect balance between Hearthstone and Magic (two games I play and love), and managed to surpass both.
Good luck, I'm really excited about the future of LoR!

<3

(fizznchips)

Do you plan to keep the tone of the game "serious" or for it to become a "parody" of the world of Runeterra. It's a weird question , but something that i hate in Hearthstone is that everything is so cartoonish and exagerated it all seems like a mockery of the Warcraft universe, meanwhile i really like the more Fantasy, serious, type of feeling, more like Magic the Gathering.

From what i've seen i think you are striking the right balance so keep it that way!

Hey Macilento! Thanks for the question.

Our plans generally are to stay true to the tone of League, and specifically to the tone of the champions we recreate in LoR! So, for example, Braum's got a bunch of cute poros by his side, while Thresh is accompanied by some pretty awful and dark chaps. We don't want to steer the overall character of the game into something that's inconsistent with League, which is specifically why we bounce around a little to properly capture all the goof, macabre, patriotism, showmanship, and whatever else that already exists in our shared universe.

Hope that answers your question, and I'm glad you're happy with where we've landed!

(fizznchips)

Before I asked my questions I wanted to say thanks to the team for making this, I've been blown away with how refreshing and fun the game has been.

A couple of questions here

  1. Do you guys plan to release any kind of draft format (maybe permanently like Hearthstone's Arena, or on an event based system)?
  2. Are champions limited to the current league champion pool or is it possible we get new a new addition (or characters in the lore that aren't champions)?
  3. Will my riot account be used for legends of runeterra mobile (Does progress on pc and mobile co-exist)?
  4. Will we get to choose a different "little legend" instead of the poro in future updates?

And finally the most important question of all.

  1. What's your best grilled cheese recipe?

I'm just replying for the grilled cheese recipes tytyty

(fizznchips)

It's something we're excited to do some day, but I wouldn't expect it in the short-term–there are already so many champs players love and wanna see!

coughs in Senna

(fizznchips)

Do you have any plans on what to do with duplicate cards found in packs?

Yeah! Dupes get turned into shards, which you can use to make other cards. :)

(fizznchips)

First of all thank you for this amazing game!

Do you have a roadmap in mind post-release for the game? What kind of content can we expect and will it be seasonal or permanent? Will the game offer a campain or some kind of adventures to explore Runeterra's lore? Thank you so much!

We have an early roadmap up on our website, which covers the first two preview patches as well as early 2020!

tl;dr - Our next preview patch will focus on Expeditions, our take on a limited draft mode. Will also include constructed, and everything currently available in this preview as well. Early next year, we'll be back with closed beta, which will include ranked and a new set of boards and guardians.

(RiotCalad)

Wait Wheel of Time has a CCG?? Iv read the books like 4 times at LEAST.

I love Brandon Sanderson

This team has the most obscure collection of CCGs I've ever seen. I had no idea there were so many.

(RiotCalad)

Is there a "best way" that someone in the dev team enjoyed leveling the most? For instance doing every faction 2 levels at a time or just trying to get 20 on the the best faction (piltover & zaun)

I'm most drawn to Piltover/Zaun, so I end up spending most of my time there (with occasional excursions to other parts of Runeterra.)

Fun story - pastrytime played so much on one of our early iterations that he went went past all the available levels and broke the system.

(RiotCalad)

This is a little late, but if we have access to the announcement preview patch will we retain that access come the expeditions preview patch? Loving the game so far and excited to see it grow!

Yep, you'll continue to have access for the next one!

(RiotCalad)

I’ve had a lot of fun theorycrafting and trying out decks so far in this game! What have been some of the most fun strategies you’ve seen, regardless of whether they’re successful or just straight inting?

My favorite combo so far is using leveled up Karma to cast Winter's Breath twice and kill all enemies :D

(some__other__guy)

  1. What's your best grilled cheese recipe?

This is a serious question at Riot.

For me, I like:

  • white bread, maybe a sourdough
  • grated very sharp cheddar
  • mayo on the outside so the bread gets crispy

if you put mayo in/on a grilled cheese, it is no longer a grilled cheese. it has become a melt.

(some__other__guy)

Before I asked my questions I wanted to say thanks to the team for making this, I've been blown away with how refreshing and fun the game has been.

A couple of questions here

  1. Do you guys plan to release any kind of draft format (maybe permanently like Hearthstone's Arena, or on an event based system)?
  2. Are champions limited to the current league champion pool or is it possible we get new a new addition (or characters in the lore that aren't champions)?
  3. Will my riot account be used for legends of runeterra mobile (Does progress on pc and mobile co-exist)?
  4. Will we get to choose a different "little legend" instead of the poro in future updates?

And finally the most important question of all.

  1. What's your best grilled cheese recipe?

i make my grilled cheeses with either sourdough or fresh homemade french bread (bread machines are amazing). put a ton of butter in a hot cast iron pan, add bread, then a bunch of sharp cheddar, then more bread.

(some__other__guy)

Guys, I dont have any questions, I just wanted to thank you for the great experience. You struck the perfect balance between Hearthstone and Magic (two games I play and love), and managed to surpass both.
Good luck, I'm really excited about the future of LoR!

<3

(some__other__guy)

Is there a "best way" that someone in the dev team enjoyed leveling the most? For instance doing every faction 2 levels at a time or just trying to get 20 on the the best faction (piltover & zaun)

i switch faction when someone beats me with a cool strategy and im like "damn i gotta try that"

(some__other__guy)

Is a pop tart a sandwich?

i think the ones with fillings might count as sandwiches.

(some__other__guy)

why are you guys so cool?

it's probably just the air conditioning

(some__other__guy)

give me your air conditioner

i think our facilities team might be mad at me if i try to do that :(

(some__other__guy)

Do you have plans to release the game for MacOs? When could we expect the release of the client?

copied from our discord AMA: "To get the game out to players sooner, we focused on developing for operating systems with the most players - Windows, iOS and Android. In the course of development, Apple has announced that the newest Mac OS can run iOS apps like its an iPad on your computer. We are very excited by this feature, as it allows Mac users to play Legends of Runeterra using the supported operating systems."

we'll be keeping an eye on this and may have more info later.

(some__other__guy)

Will a Mac port be made anytime soon?

copied from our discord AMA: "To get the game out to players sooner, we focused on developing for operating systems with the most players - Windows, iOS and Android. In the course of development, Apple has announced that the newest Mac OS can run iOS apps like its an iPad on your computer. We are very excited by this feature, as it allows Mac users to play Legends of Runeterra using the supported operating systems."

we'll be keeping an eye on this and may have more info later.

(some__other__guy)

How can I survive without this game in between betas?

i recommend subscribing to cat subreddits such as https://www.reddit.com/r/Meow_Irl or https://www.reddit.com/r/CatsStandingUp/

(some__other__guy)

Yo devs intro yourselves here.

hey! i'm Guy, and i'm Tech Lead on LoR Release Engineering. We work on tools, automation, and infrastructure related to builds, automated testing, and deploys.

in the past i've written a couple tech articles you might have read, https://technology.riotgames.com/news/running-automated-test-pipeline-league-client-update and https://technology.riotgames.com/news/using-perforce-complex-jenkins-pipeline

in my free time i like to play Singed in LoL, hang out with my cats (Fat Cat and Peaches), and play with open source static analysis tools.

(some__other__guy)

Did the narrative team have a say in the card descriptions? I wonder if LoR serves as world building for LoL.

Hi Necrit! I'm Mel, the LoR Narrative lead. Both LoR and LoL are part of the same universe, and we base our world building efforts off of the same material though we have different Narrative teams. Our team is responsible for things like new character/setting creation, developing existing characters in our game, art concept descriptions, character VO, flavor text on cards, in-game vocabulary/text, and any player-facing descriptions of any of our new stuff. We collaborate often with Narrative teams from League, from comics, and other products around Riot that are working on the same characters and settings. Our overall goal is to provide a variety of different stories/art about the parts of Runeterra that players know and love while staying true to their essential elements. So we do world building for LoL and they do world building for us!

(melell)

One of my favorite things about the game so far are the quips/interactions between cards when played.

Are there any plans to expand these types of interactions? For example, a champion card reacting to an opponent using a taunt emote would be super fun and interesting.

Would also be interesting to see reactive boards as a possible paid cosmetic. i.e. an Ionian board that changes when an Ionian champ is played.

Thanks for all your hard work! It's really shown through in the preview! 😁

Thanks, I'm so glad you're enjoying the game! We had a great time imagining conversations between our favorite characters and putting them into the game. This is our first shot at building our VO system and we're looking for player feedback just like this to help guide us to make improvements or add moments (the ones you've suggested here are really cool) along the way! I know our team has some big plans for new boards in the works too, I'll pass this one on to them!

(melell)

I know this is a space for questions but I choose to ignore that fact and post a statement anyway:

Thank you for making this game feel awesome.

A friend of mine was sceptic about all the announcements. "They are just copying all the popular games", he said. He has a point, I thought, but you can never know until you experienced it. So I did exactly this. Got early access via stream and played it.

One thing made me drool on my keyboard a bit. Hear me out. My friend and I love to play Magic the Gathering every once in while. When we build decks we are into themed decks. We like to connect with the cards and build a story around our favorite one. In Form of a deck that is.

And this is where you knocked it out of the park. It is so easy to connect with your favorite champions. They feel so alive. They have quotes, they interact, they level up. It is insane.

There are certainly other things to like (or dislike) about the game. But this is what sold it to me. Thank you. I can only hope that in the future the same level of love, lore and detail will be put into the game.

Cheers

Thank you so much for the kind words–so glad you're enjoying it! I'm on the Narrative team and I love playing MtG Commander and theme decks too, so it's been wonderful to work with a whole team of talented people who are passionate about creating a polished thematic experience. These kinds of messages are what keeps the us excited about what we do and we're looking forward to adding even more features in the future!

(melell)

Before I asked my questions I wanted to say thanks to the team for making this, I've been blown away with how refreshing and fun the game has been.

A couple of questions here

  1. Do you guys plan to release any kind of draft format (maybe permanently like Hearthstone's Arena, or on an event based system)?
  2. Are champions limited to the current league champion pool or is it possible we get new a new addition (or characters in the lore that aren't champions)?
  3. Will my riot account be used for legends of runeterra mobile (Does progress on pc and mobile co-exist)?
  4. Will we get to choose a different "little legend" instead of the poro in future updates?

And finally the most important question of all.

  1. What's your best grilled cheese recipe?

Thank you for playing and for your kind words!

  1. Do you guys plan to release any kind of draft format (maybe permanently like Hearthstone's Arena, or on an event based system)?
    1. Yes! We're working on a draft format calling Expeditions. You'll be able to play it in the next preview patch, and we'll share a little more info soon! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDgLQBwIWGw
  2. Are champions limited to the current league champion pool or is it possible we get new a new addition (or characters in the lore that aren't champions)?
    1. We will be definitely expanding our roster. Personally, I would love if League took some of our characters and made them champions - like Cithria!
  3. Will my riot account be used for legends of runeterra mobile (Does progress on pc and mobile co-exist)?
    1. Yes! There will be full crossplay, with shared progression. You can swap between your PC and your phone as you want and keep the same content!
  4. Will we get to choose a different "little legend" instead of the poro in future updates?
    1. There will be more Guardians coming in future updates! :D

And finally the most important question of all.

  1. What's your best grilled cheese recipe?

I'm a simple girl. I love sourdough bread, lots of butter on the outside, cheddar, and sliced tomatoes. Sometimes mayo on the outside if I'm feeling crazy!

(RiotTinyBun)

Wouldn't it be a good idea to be able to get both game rewards playing only one?

Like missions on LoL: you either do something specific and get a quick reward (like winning a game with Hecarim on your team) or play 10 games and automatically unlock it doing basically what you do anyway.

An example would also be "Win a game using Ashe on LoR AND in LoL", or "Play Ashe 10 times on LoR OR Destroy 15 turrets on LoL" to get it anyway. This way I think everyone would be happy.

That would be a really cool thing to have! The challenge is getting those two systems to talk to each other: we have vastly different architecture for the quest systems in the two games. That said, I would love to have the ability to do that some day!

(Riot_AlphaLvSim)

Yo devs intro yourselves here.

(_A_Small_Man)

In your progression post, you say that you want to slow down the meta solving, but after 2 days it seems like the select few streamers and playtesters have already figured it out. Is there more coming that we should be aware of?

Hey there! We totally expect players to think that they know what the best meta decks are. Those assessments might be right, but we also hope that what players think is the best thing changes over time.

Some of the most exciting formats are the ones that players repeatedly think are "solved" and then have the community find new interactions and options over time.

We will be watching how this plays out with card unlock pacing as well as monthly balance patches too!

​

edit: hit enter too soon!

(Riot_AlphaLvSim)

Is a pop tart a sandwich?

No, it is a ravioli!

(Riot_AlphaLvSim)

I've played a ton of artifact and hearthstone. Interested for this game, the biggest point for me will be draft.

Can you tell us about what your plans are for draft? I've not seen it in the twitch streams, is it coming to the game? I'm guessing this game will have a competitive scene, since Riot has been such big historic investors into esports in terms of LoL, so my follow up would be if you have any idea about the competitive format and if there's any chance at draft having a spot.

Hey there! We are absolutely working on a draft mode and it will be showcased in our next Preview Patch in November. Details of the mode itself will come Soontm but I can share that we consider draft an important part of the game and we hope players will feel the same :)

We are also working on a competitive (Ranked) mode and that will come in early 2020!

(Riot_AlphaLvSim)

Any plans to have some sort of connection between LoR and LoL as far as rewards go?

That is a really good question! On one hand, it is cool to see connections between the games, but on the other, it can feel bad if you mostly enjoy playing LoR and feel forced to play LoL (or vice versa) to unlock something you want.

We want to make the best play experience we can, so quests/rewards/events like this are not off the table, but we would want to make sure that none of them felt like chores. So tlrd is: in the short term no, but long term it is not out of the question

​

edit: spacing

(Riot_AlphaLvSim)

Three main questions/concerns based on issues I have with other online card games:

  1. Do you guys have any idea on how you are going to handle competitive play? Specifically official tournament play and viewer experience? My issues with other card games are that they are too RNG/coinflip based to take any outcomes seriously (Hearthstone), which I think is vital to any competitive/sport/esport. I'd hoped MTG would take the "esport" world by storm with Arena with their much more complex/skillful game and better rulesets (Bo3/sideboard), but they are deciding, for some reason, to mimic Hearthstone formats and do away with Bo3/Sideboard, their whole criteria for being a pro is very arbitrary and a mess (savj randomly getting a spot??!?), and their advertising/promotion for it is some of the worst I've ever seen (more pointedly not seen).
  2. I'm curious how you plan to handle control decks. I think a lot of card games (MTG) handle control poorly by promoting strategies that end up basically becoming solitaire gameplay. Where one person takes 10 mins a turn, then just quickly counters everything the other player does so they can get back to playing solitaire. I love how you guys are focusing on lots of interactions and room for outplays. How is this philosophy going to work into control decks in ROL?
  3. Monetization… A lot of card games end up being very predatory. Loot boxes, most meta decks "coincidentally" always needing tons of the most expensive/rare cards, very difficult to have multiple or competitive decks without spending significant amounts of money. I'm OK with spending money on games I enjoy, but in other card games it would take hundreds of dollars to keep up with the meta or to just have fun with more than 1-2 jank decks. Am I going to be able to play ROL competitively without dumping tons of cash every time a new pack comes out? Am I going to be able to get friends to download it and get a decent deck without them having to spend lots of money? As an add on to this - I've always loved how with League I could play and be on even footing. Money only really got cosmetics. Do you guys plan on adding cosmetics, possibly using this as your main income source, like with League, and then this allowing players to easily maintain large/competitive collections without dumping much money?

Hey there! To answer your questions:

1: We are still developing ideas around competitive play, but part of the equation is YOU! We care about the community and want to support the forms of competitive play that you find compelling instead of us sitting back and saying "XYZ is the tournament format". It should be a dialogue between us and players to find the fun together.

2: This is a really interesting one. Personally, I love playing control in a lot of games, so this is near and dear to my heart. We think that control is most satisfying when it can win in short order after establishing control (assuming that the control deck can of course).

What we don't want is a long drawn out game where you are 5% likely to win but you feel obligated to hang in because your control opponent miiiiiight not be able to finish you off. So, we discuss a lot the importance of having cards advance the game state and bring games to a close. But, we will surely get some things wrong and will have to adjust along the way to prevent the 10 minute solitaire experience you described.

3: We care a lot about making players feel good no matter how much or how little they spend. That is part of why we are so committed to never selling random packs. Our goal is tier decks to be in reach for engaged players even if they don't spend a dime. And by "engaged player" I don't mean "I need to grind forever". We want to respect your time, so if our progression needs adjusting we will absolutely do so. Decks should be goals that are in reach for everyone.

We do plan to add cosmetics of various flavors as well, and over time we will be able to share more details of what those will look like.

(Riot_AlphaLvSim)

hey is it possible to make something to show missions in deck editor? maybe a little button.

​

i guess later we will have more missions than one per day? and in that case we dont have remember every condition. otherwise thanks for the game :) having a lot of fun.

Hey there! Super glad that you are enjoying yourself!

I am the design lead on daily quests. Finding a way to let players view quests in deckbuilder is something that we have talked a lot about: after all, if the quest asks you to build a specific deck, being able to see your quests while building a deck makes sense.

We have not finalized any specific plans, but we are currently still exploring options for ways that quests could be viewed from more places around the game.

Also, your quest log can hold up to 3 quests, so if you go a couple days without playing you will build up a few quests :)

(Riot_AlphaLvSim)

Why did you decide to combine Piltover & Zaun into one faction?

Do you have any plans to add Kindred to the game at any point? What faction would you put them in?

Will there be factionless cards?

Will we be able to add more than two factions to a deck in the future or will this stay as the norm?

Hi Caitnip! Great questions.

Why did you decide to combine Piltover & Zaun into one faction?
Well first, a minor clarification: we're using "Regions" instead of "Factions" which we think provides a little more leeway to be creative i.e. We can have two factions that are co-located within a single Region.

Practically - Piltover is a really important piece of our Lore, but didn't have enough Champions to be support being a standalone region as we expand into the future with more releases!
Narratively - We really like the sister-city relationship that Piltover & Zaun have, and we were excited to explore that a little bit.
Design-ly (There's no way that's a word) - We found P&Z to work really well together from a mechanical standpoint and have a lot of similarities despite thematically being different. There's probably a meta-note that maybe those that we think are the opposite of us might be more like us than we know…but I digress :)
One example - Both Piltover & Zaun tend to be very spell heavy due to their reliance on technology. Their technological approaches are VERY different! But the end result is that their spells often complement each other really well.
Another example - Both tend to gravitate towards elusive playpatterns, whether that's Ezreal and his crew having the technological advantage (Amateur Aeronaut), or the inhabitants of Zaun slinking around below the city (Sumpworks Map).

Do you have any plans to add Kindred to the game at any point? What faction would you put them in?
No plans to share right now, unfortunately. Our eventual hope is to get every LoL Champion into LoR, but it's going to take us a lot of time to work towards that.
Good awareness in terms of region-less champions like Kindred! It can be a little tricky to find a home for them, but our general approach has been to look at a combination of thematics, expected game mechanics, and stories we're trying to tell. Teemo for example we all know is from Bandle City, but we thought we could tell a really awesome story about the mushroom network he has set-up in Zaun, and we could build out some really fun mushroom card synergies.

Will there be factionless cards?
We don't have any current plans for those. I think we're really excited that one of the tradeoffs you make when building around any deck is that region restriction that it creates for you, but we'll have to see! We still have a LOT of player feedback to get back to understand where our biggest problems and areas of improvement are.

Will we be able to add more than two factions to a deck in the future or will this stay as the norm?

Stay tuned for expeditions in the next preview patch! For Constructed, however, we expect to stick to two regions for now.

(riotstrokke)

I’ve had a lot of fun theorycrafting and trying out decks so far in this game! What have been some of the most fun strategies you’ve seen, regardless of whether they’re successful or just straight inting?

Awesome! I'm glad to hear that theorycrafting has been fun.

I saw a deck last night that legitimately made me laugh AND feel bad for my opponent when they didn't get to live their dream. It was the most extreme mushroom deck I had ever seen. There was literally 0 removal, and my opponent didn't interact with me at all. They just played every card imaginable to try to max out the amount of mushrooms in their deck, including counterfeiting mushrooms. That was probably the closest I've seen to inting :) It did not end well for them.

In retrospect, I wish I had passed every round to see just how high that mushroom count would have gone! If we ever get re-matched, I'll know what to do.

I also saw a really cool Lucian + Elise deck that I've never thought of before.

(riotstrokke)

  • What happens when decked? It feels marginally unlikely to happen at the moment unless both players are actively seeking it, but important information.
  • What plans are there for the future? Every CCG ends up having difficulties as new sets are rolled out, almost always creating a division between Eternal and Standard formats. Is this problem already on the radar with a clear idea of what will be done, or are we just planning to deal with it when we get there?
  • Are there plans to expand on the single player content, or will it generally just be "play against a small selection of AI run decks?"

What happens when decked? It feels marginally unlikely to happen at the moment unless both players are actively seeking it, but important information.

What plans are there for the future? Every CCG ends up having difficulties as new sets are rolled out, almost always creating a division between Eternal and Standard formats. Is this problem already on the radar with a clear idea of what will be done, or are we just planning to deal with it when we get there?

Are there plans to expand on the single player content, or will it generally just be "play against a small selection of AI run decks?"

Hey PenguinTod!

Our rule for decking is: If you go to draw a card, but there are no cards there: You lose. We will also end games in a tie if no winner has been declared after round 40. Now I'm curious to see if that's happened at all yet in this Preview Patch:) The circumstances to get there are incredibly rare, but we'll be monitoring how well the rule is working.

The Eternal vs Standard Formats is definitely a problem on our radar! We're excited to release lots of new content to players, but as you know there are definitely challenges associated with that. We have a pretty clear idea of where we want to go, but we'll need to test and get feedback along the way. Like anything, no matter what our plans and ideas are, what matters most is how it resonates with and is valued by the players.

The amount of single player options is something that's on our radar, but we're waiting to better understand how big the demand is relative to other players needs before we make any big commitments or announcements.

(riotstrokke)

What's your plan for releasing new cards? Are you going to break away from large releases like HS and mtg?

If I send you a video of me uninstalling hearthstone will you let me into the beta?

What's your plan for releasing new cards? Are you going to break away from large releases like HS and mtg?

If I send you a video of me uninstalling hearthstone will you let me into the beta?

Hello! Our current plans are to combo monthly live balance patches with new sets every 4 months (starting with launch), but we're also discussing other ways to get cards out to players in addition to the 4 month drops. We're really curious to see how quickly metas solidify globally, and we'll build around that, but unfortunately these 5 day preview events aren't going to give us a great read.

We'll likely have to wait until Closed Beta starts in 2020 to get a better understanding of what the demand is going to be for more/updated cards. If you have any thoughts or desires let us know!

Most importantly: No, that will not get you into the beta! Although we hope that players will LOVE Legends of Runeterra, we also know that fans of the genre, including us, LOVE card games of many different shapes and sizes. Each game fills different needs, so it won't hurt our feelings if LoR players enjoy other card games too :)

If anybody ever visits the Riot office and wants to play the Wheel of Time CCG, let me know! I've got boxes and boxes.

(riotstrokke)

If we got into this 5 day playtest will we guranteed get into the next one of try and get a key again?

Yep! Getting in to this means that you'll have access in the next.

(riotstrokke)

I love the lack of neutral cards, it adds a ton to trade-offs and adds depth to deck design. This games design is top notch, keep it up!

I will take credit for 0% of the game's design (I'm a product manager), but I'll pass your kind words along to the team!

(riotstrokke)

Holy shit…I have two boxes of the WoT CCG sitting in my garage! Holy crap I loved that game. It was one of the MANY late 90 niche CCGs I enjoyed, but easily one of my favorites. I swear you’re the only other person I’ve ever heard of knowing about the game without me telling them about it. LOL!

There are two of us!!!

(riotstrokke)

Before I asked my questions I wanted to say thanks to the team for making this, I've been blown away with how refreshing and fun the game has been.

A couple of questions here

  1. Do you guys plan to release any kind of draft format (maybe permanently like Hearthstone's Arena, or on an event based system)?
  2. Are champions limited to the current league champion pool or is it possible we get new a new addition (or characters in the lore that aren't champions)?
  3. Will my riot account be used for legends of runeterra mobile (Does progress on pc and mobile co-exist)?
  4. Will we get to choose a different "little legend" instead of the poro in future updates?

And finally the most important question of all.

  1. What's your best grilled cheese recipe?
  1. What's your best grilled cheese recipe?

This is a serious question at Riot.

For me, I like:

  • white bread, maybe a sourdough
  • grated very sharp cheddar
  • mayo on the outside so the bread gets crispy

(ivey)

What does the "ready your attack" keyword do? If it just lets you choose your attackers, why would i use a 3 mana spell to start it than just choosing them instead? Does it let you attack twice if you used it after youve already attacked? Can you use it when the enemy has the attack token to attack on their turn when you can normally only block?

Yes, it gives you an attack token, so you can attack twice in one round, or attack on a round where your opponent does too.

(ivey)

Mayo on the outside? Not butter? Please expand this. I must know.

If you like the tangy flavor of mayo in a grilled cheese normally, putting it on the outside is not only easier than spreading butter, it also browns up for a really nice crispy but still moist texture. Highly recommend.

If you don't like mayo on a grilled cheese you won't like it because it's still mayo.

(ivey)

Never had it. This is going to up my level. Came here to see if I can get a beta key because I’m a disgusting whale with three kids looking for a new hobby, found a way to up the lunches for my kids. You, Ivey, May have impacted lives on a scale you never would have guessed. Do you do tomato soup on the side?

for me, tomato soup only exists as a thing to dip grilled cheeses in.

(ivey)

if you put mayo in/on a grilled cheese, it is no longer a grilled cheese. it has become a melt.

:mayo:

(ivey)

Why doesn't LoR share a friends list with LoL? I know a friends list will be coming soon but will it be shared? Also it should just share RP with LoL and use it as a universal currency for all Riot games. It feels really shitty to have 5 games with 5 different currencies.

Great questions. I’m the Visual Designer currently working on Friends List, and have worked on both Currencies and Store very recently.

When our friends list launches, it will indeed be shared between LoR and LoL. You’ll be able to see your LoL friends from the LoR client, and challenge them to a match if you’re both in LoR.

As for currency, you can read a detailed explanation here, but the TLDR is A) Because we’re releasing multiple games on mobile (TFT, Wild Rift, and LoR), the Google Play Store and Apple App store do not allow us to share currencies between them. And B) Having our own currency lets us tune it according to our business model without interfering with the business models of our other games!

Hope that answers your questions.

(RiotTomukus)