Reminder Text Paradox (L5R rules board)

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, 26 August 2014

In reference to viewtopic.php?f=59&t=109354&p=1435470

Per the CR

Reminder text is there to help players remember the wording implication of the rules. It carries no rules implications itself, and sometimes intentionally describes effects in a shortened or non-standard way (for example, using the word “dies,” which does not exist in the game rules, for “is destroyed”.)

Per the Ruling

As a rule, Reminder Text should be ignored when comparing the card text to the CR.

Cardinal Rule 1

Cards vs. rules: If the text of any card contradicts these Comprehensive Rules, follow the card text, not the rules. Something that changes one aspect of a rule does not by itself change any other aspects of the rule.

It seems there is a bit of a paradox:

I have Alchemy Lab and Study the Wheel in play.

Study the Wheel

Void Limited, w: Turn a card in a Province face-up (if needed) and give it Kharmic. (Repeatable Limited,[2] : Discard a Kharmic card from your Province and refill it face-up.)

Alchemy Lab

Open, : Increase a positive numeral on your target Spell by 1. (2 is a numeral, two is not.)

I use Alchemy Lab to increase the [2] in the Kharmic reminder text of Study the Wheel to a [3];

The text of Study the Wheel now conflicts with the Comprehensive Rules for Kharmic

From CR

Kharmic Repeatable Limited, (2): Discard a Kharmic card from your hand to draw a card, or discard a Kharmic card from your Province to refill the Province face-up.

The Cardinal Rule #1 is interesting in that it refers to "the" Comprehensive Rules as a single body and NOT specifically the rules within that body that are in conflict.

If the text of any card contradicts these Comprehensive Rules, follow the card text, not the rules

So the way it is currently worded is that if a card conflicts with the CR, then I am given permission to not follow the entire CR.

If that were not the case then the correct wording should have said

If the text of any card contradicts any of these Comprehensive Rules, follow the card text, not those rules

With the example given we have a conflict with the CR, Cardinal Rule 1 kicks in to override the CR. The ruling tries to kick in an say no, you have to ignore the reminder text when comparing to the CR. However, this ruling is in the CR, and per the cardinal rule are NOT followed. It is a very interesting paradox since no matter what you put in the CR to try and fix this, the new card text will still prevail. Changing the Cardinal Rule #1 as I suggested would be the only way to fix the problem.

Alex Jones (rules official), 26 August 2014

In reference to viewtopic.php?f=59&t=109354&p=1435470
Per the CR
Per the Ruling
Cardinal Rule 1
It seems there is a bit of a paradox:
I have Alchemy Lab and Study the Wheel in play.
Study the Wheel
Alchemy Lab
I use Alchemy Lab to increase the [2] in the Kharmic reminder text of Study the Wheel to a [3];
The text of Study the Wheel now conflicts with the Comprehensive Rules for Kharmic
From CR
The Cardinal Rule #1 is interesting in that it refers to "the" Comprehensive Rules as a single body and NOT specifically the rules within that body that are in conflict.
So the way it is currently worded is that if a card conflicts with the CR, then I am given permission to not follow the entire CR.
If that were not the case then the correct wording should have said
With the example given we have a conflict with the CR, Cardinal Rule 1 kicks in to override the CR. The ruling tries to kick in an say no, you have to ignore the reminder text when comparing to the CR. However, this ruling is in the CR, and per the cardinal rule are NOT followed. It is a very interesting paradox since no matter what you put in the CR to try and fix this, the new card text will still prevail. Changing the Cardinal Rule #1 as I suggested would be the only way to fix the problem.

Firstly, you quote the description of the Reminder Text: Reminder text ... carries no rules implications.

Then you quote Cardinal Rule #1: Something that changes one aspect of a rule does not by itself change any other aspects of the rule.

Card text that ignores a rule only ignores that rule, not any other rule.

So, in this case, while you could argue that the Alchemy Lab increases the gold icon in the reminder text of Study the Wheel to 3, this does nothing to let it ignore the rule that "Reminder text carries no rules implications."

On: Alchemy Lab, Study the Wheel