A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from a copy of the forum saved in October 2015, so pages it didn't save are missing. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
A player, 20 December 2012
This came up in a game the other night, and my poor comrade almost went into a fit of shocked anger over it so we wanted to be sure.
He performed the Limited action on Aramasu's Legacy. I defended with no one, so he won the battle. My sole personality was Asako Karachu. He then tried to bow Karachu and negate his straightening, but myself and others argued that it wouldn't work because immediately after Karachu bowed he straightened and therefore the negation didn't work much like a single copy of Caught Unawares wouldn't keep him bowed.
His counter argument was that its a different case then Caught Unawares, because the bow and negation is all one effect, not separate effects. Because CA has a period between the "Bow them" and "Negate their straightening" while AL does not ("you may target a Personality or Holding, bow it, and negate its straightening until after your next Straighten Phase ends.") that it worked differently.
A resolution would be much appreciated.
Asako Karachu After Karachu bows: Straighten him.
Aramasu's Legacy Limited: Create an additional Attack Phase, during which battle resolution does not destroy defending armies or provinces and does not bow your Mantis Clan Magistrates or your attachments. After it ends, if you won any of its battles (even against no units at resolution), you may target a Personality or Holding, bow it, and negate its straightening until after your next Straighten Phase ends.
Alex Jones (rules official), 20 December 2012
This came up in a game the other night, and my poor comrade almost went into a fit of shocked anger over it so we wanted to be sure.
He performed the Limited action on Aramasu's Legacy. I defended with no one, so he won the battle. My sole personality was Asako Karachu. He then tried to bow Karachu and negate his straightening, but myself and others argued that it wouldn't work because immediately after Karachu bowed he straightened and therefore the negation didn't work much like a single copy of Caught Unawares wouldn't keep him bowed.
His counter argument was that its a different case then Caught Unawares, because the bow and negation is all one effect, not separate effects. Because CA has a period between the "Bow them" and "Negate their straightening" while AL does not ("you may target a Personality or Holding, bow it, and negate its straightening until after your next Straighten Phase ends.") that it worked differently.
A resolution would be much appreciated.
Asako Karachu After Karachu bows: Straighten him.
Aramasu's Legacy Limited: Create an additional Attack Phase, during which battle resolution does not destroy defending armies or provinces and does not bow your Mantis Clan Magistrates or your attachments. After it ends, if you won any of its battles (even against no units at resolution), you may target a Personality or Holding, bow it, and negate its straightening until after your next Straighten Phase ends.
According to Definition of effects, bowing a card and negating its straightening are two separate effects: An effect is anything, other than a cost, that creates a card or other thing in the game, changes the characteristics or state of a card, stat or other thing in the game, adds restrictions or permissions to the game’s procedures, or creates a new instance of a game procedure. Each individual change or creation of a card, a player, a game entity (such as Provinces), a game procedure is a separate effect.
Bowing a card is a change to its physically marked state. Negating its straightening is a modification to changes to its physically marked state.
The use of a comma or a full stop (or nothing) does not determine whether one or two effects are created.