Absolution + End To Hostilities

L5R CCG Rules board, 2 April 2014

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, 2 April 2014

In reference to this ruling.

the rules reference says...

An Interrupt may modify the effects of the action it interrupts – including preventing some or all of these effects – and it may also have effects of its own. An Interrupt’s effects do not change actions other than the one it interrupted, unless explicitly stated.

Emphasis mine.

The problem with your ruling as I see it is the text of Absolution.

Negate an Event's effects.

As opposed to other interrupts like this, and this or even this.

Where the text of the Interrupt specifically refers back to "the Action" being interrupted. Where as Absolution does not, by simply referring to "an Event's effects". By rule interrupts are allowed to have other effects of their own outside of anything that modifies the action being interrupted. And the text of Absolution seems to fall in to this category by it's own text by use of the Indefinite article "an" versus the definite article "the" used in most of the other Interrupts.

I'm not pointing this out to be difficult, but rather to point out that the templating for interrupts seems to be a little wishy, washy with regard to what they can do. For instance I think Absolution should probably read something like "Negate the Events effects." or "Negate the Action's effects if they come from an Event.". I also found several other instances of this apparent templating problem here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

It is not even consistent between effects of the same type. For instance Steal the Candle's Flame and Unholy Strike use the indefinite article "a" while Tsuruchi Natsuki and The Turtle's Shell use the definite article "the". The difference implies a difference in functionality intended or not. Granted in many cases like the two I just sited, the difference is irrelevant and trivial. But in Absolution's case it is not. Similarly, the difference between Yogo Hanami's Interrupt using "the", and Susumu Neya's using "a" could be interpreted as the later setting up an indefinite conditional effect that modifies the next or any future Proclaim on the turn it is activated.

A player, 2 April 2014

An Interrupt may modify the effects of the action it interrupts – including preventing some or all of these effects – and it may also have effects of its own. An Interrupt’s effects do not change actions other than the one it interrupted, unless explicitly stated.

Emphasis mine.