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, 6 March 2013
This is in reference to and slightly repetitive of viewtopic.php?p=1334433#p1334433, but I'd like to make sure I understand correctly (and that a firm/direct ruling exists, as I intend to implement this strategy if my understanding is correct).
If I'm ever in a situation where I "may" take an additional action, I can choose to not take that additional action. And if I choose to decline the additional action, my act of declining that extra action is NOT a "pass". The Killing Grounds wouldn't trigger, the phase wouldn't end if my opponent then passed, etc. Correct?
Thank you!
A player, 6 March 2013
Correct. If you choose not to gain the action (thanks to the "may" wording), you never have to pass and therefore you never trigger The Killing Grounds.
Alex Jones (rules official), 7 March 2013
This is in reference to and slightly repetitive of viewtopic.php?p=1334433#p1334433, but I'd like to make sure I understand correctly (and that a firm/direct ruling exists, as I intend to implement this strategy if my understanding is correct).
If I'm ever in a situation where I "may" take an additional action, I can choose to not take that additional action. And if I choose to decline the additional action, my act of declining that extra action is NOT a "pass". The Killing Grounds wouldn't trigger, the phase wouldn't end if my opponent then passed, etc. Correct?
Thank you!
Note that if you pass a non-optional additional action (or if you choose to have an optional additional action and then pass), while you will trigger The Killing Grounds, you do not count as passing for determining the end of the action round. Only normal opportunities to take an action count for that, not additional ones.