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, 29 May 2007
Some more context for this:
viewtopic.php?t=57010
The original debate was on bowed cards being able to use their abilities to straighten themselves, more specifically Horiuchi Rikako. My argument was, as you confirmed elsewhere, that no because it was conditional. Then the debate became that "conditional" as defined by the rulebook was too ambiguous. The rulebook reads:
An effect is conditional if, at the time the action, Event, or trait
producing that effect begins resolving, it has not yet been determined whether the effect will occur.
(bolded for emphasis)
Then it became important to know when the action begins to resolve. Again, by the rules the steps of taking an action are:
1. Announce the action or card.
2. Select all required initial targets, if any. Decide upon and select any
optional initial targets.
3. Pay all costs.
4. Resolve all effects in the order written.
If "Resolving the action" is not the same as "resolve all effects" then the action could be considered to "begin resolving" at a different time.
If it's at the same time as announcement (step1) (or "after" announcement, or "before" targets), then a card like Asahina Sekawa XP2 would not be able to straighten itself since it hasn't picked targets yet (step2) and therefore doesn't know that he will be his own target - making it conditional. Is this logic correct (assuming the if statement is true)?
If it's at the same time as targeting (step2) then it would seem to fall to the active player to decided whether you "begin resolving" the action first or chosing targets first. Right?
If it's at any other time (after targets, before, during or after costs...) then Asahina Sekawa XP2 could straighten himself if he had already picked himself as a target. However, if "begins resolving" is after announcement, then an action that has a conditional straightening effect and is therefore illegal to use while bowed (like Horiuchi Rikako, for example), only becomes illegal to even announce after it's already been announced, since you don't check if the effect is conditional until after you announce it (assuming again that "begins resolving" is after announcement)
Does that make anymore sense?
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 29 May 2007
Some more context for this:
viewtopic.php?t=57010
The original debate was on bowed cards being able to use their abilities to straighten themselves, more specifically Horiuchi Rikako. My argument was, as you confirmed elsewhere, that no because it was conditional. Then the debate became that "conditional" as defined by the rulebook was too ambiguous. The rulebook reads:
An effect is conditional if, at the time the action, Event, or trait
producing that effect begins resolving, it has not yet been determined whether the effect will occur.
(bolded for emphasis)
Then it became important to know when the action begins to resolve. Again, by the rules the steps of taking an action are:
1. Announce the action or card.
2. Select all required initial targets, if any. Decide upon and select any
optional initial targets.
3. Pay all costs.
4. Resolve all effects in the order written.
If "Resolving the action" is not the same as "resolve all effects" then the action could be considered to "begin resolving" at a different time.
If it's at the same time as announcement (step1) (or "after" announcement, or "before" targets), then a card like Asahina Sekawa XP2 would not be able to straighten itself since it hasn't picked targets yet (step2) and therefore doesn't know that he will be his own target - making it conditional. Is this logic correct (assuming the if statement is true)?
If it's at the same time as targeting (step2) then it would seem to fall to the active player to decided whether you "begin resolving" the action first or chosing targets first. Right?
If it's at any other time (after targets, before, during or after costs...) then Asahina Sekawa XP2 could straighten himself if he had already picked himself as a target. However, if "begins resolving" is after announcement, then an action that has a conditional straightening effect and is therefore illegal to use while bowed (like Horiuchi Rikako, for example), only becomes illegal to even announce after it's already been announced, since you don't check if the effect is conditional until after you announce it (assuming again that "begins resolving" is after announcement)
Does that make anymore sense?
Oh, so the question is really about bowed cards using actions that can straighten cards. I've been thinking on that one. I'm pretty sure the solution to that is not going to depend on when actions resolve, though.