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, 7 June 2007
Ok, My friend and I played our first game last night and we have a couple of questions.
First, his stronghold card allows him to remove a personality from the discard pile from the game and bow an opposing force in battle. Now can he do this any number of times during the battle or only once per turn. It is a battle action.
Secondly, another card allows for a bowed personality to move to the current battlefield and become unbowed. If there is a personality at that battlefield already, that is currently bowed, can that card be played to unbow the personality at the battlefiled.
Thanks for your help.
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 7 June 2007
Ok, My friend and I played our first game last night and we have a couple of questions.
I hope you had fun; welcome aboard!
First, his stronghold card allows him to remove a personality from the discard pile from the game and bow an opposing force in battle. Now can he do this any number of times during the battle or only once per turn. It is a battle action.
Lotus rules, pg. 20: "All actions are usable only once per turn." Doesn't matter if it's battle or not. And, just to answer something that is often asked, Reactions are actions too, and subject to this rule.
Winds and actions on Formations are the major exceptions to it.
Secondly, another card allows for a bowed personality to move to the current battlefield and become unbowed. If there is a personality at that battlefield already, that is currently bowed, can that card be played to unbow the personality at the battlefiled.
Lotus rules, pg. 43: "All effects are independent. If some get negated, or they partially or completely fail to resolve, the rest still occur."
If the effects are "move" and "straighten," one is not condition on the other. That said, without knowing the cards, it's hard to give a definitive answer, since there are various exceptions and wording issues.