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, 14 August 2007
concerning this http://rules.l5r.com/Abilities_and_actions#C._Pay_costs: If paying an action’s mandatory costs is interfered with between announcing it and this step, no effects of the action resolve; the ability is considered to have been used; and the action is considered to have been taken, but not resolved.
Political Interference reads: "Political Reaction: Before a player pays an action’s gold cost, bow one of your target Courtiers: The player may choose to raise that Gold cost by 2. If he does not choose this, he loses 2 Honor."
If you go according to the cost payment section listed above:
Suppose I declare that I am playing a Stay Your Blade in a battle. I target one of my samurai that I intend to send home. I wish to proceed to cost payment section of the action. My opponent declares that he plays Political Interference before I pay costs. I choose to raise that gold cost by 2. The Stay Your Blade now has a cost of 2 gold, as well as bowing and sending home a samurai. As per Cost Payment section above, the mandatory zero gold cost was interfered with between announcing it and cost payment. As per Cost Payment section above, no effects of the action resolve. Even if I have 2 gold that I wish to spend on the action, no effects of the action resolve because the opponent interfered in any way at all with cost payment. The same situation should arise if the opponent targets any Crab Clan personality you control while you also have Kuni Daigo in play. The same This does not seem right.
Could the cost payment section be reworded in such a way that Political Interference does not automaticly cancel any effect if you choose not to lose 2 honor? The word "interfered" should probably be reworded to "prevented". If this is not the case, please explain why?
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 14 August 2007
concerning this http://rules.l5r.com/Abilities_and_actions#C._Pay_costs: If paying an action’s mandatory costs is interfered with between announcing it and this step, no effects of the action resolve; the ability is considered to have been used; and the action is considered to have been taken, but not resolved.
Political Interference reads: "Political Reaction: Before a player pays an action’s gold cost, bow one of your target Courtiers: The player may choose to raise that Gold cost by 2. If he does not choose this, he loses 2 Honor."
If you go according to the cost payment section listed above:
Suppose I declare that I am playing a Stay Your Blade in a battle. I target one of my samurai that I intend to send home. I wish to proceed to cost payment section of the action. My opponent declares that he plays Political Interference before I pay costs. I choose to raise that gold cost by 2. The Stay Your Blade now has a cost of 2 gold, as well as bowing and sending home a samurai. As per Cost Payment section above, the mandatory zero gold cost was interfered with between announcing it and cost payment. As per Cost Payment section above, no effects of the action resolve. Even if I have 2 gold that I wish to spend on the action, no effects of the action resolve because the opponent interfered in any way at all with cost payment. The same situation should arise if the opponent targets any Crab Clan personality you control while you also have Kuni Daigo in play. The same This does not seem right.
Could the cost payment section be reworded in such a way that Political Interference does not automaticly cancel any effect if you choose not to lose 2 honor? The word "interfered" should probably be reworded to "prevented". If this is not the case, please explain why?
This looks like it belongs in the Troubleshooting thread in CCG strategy main forum.
See also http://rules.l5r.com/Costs_and_restrictions for more detail.