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, 30 January 2008
A friend and I were sitting down and discussing some of the rules that seemed the most fuzzy to us with regards to L5R, and the one that neither one of us seems to be able to come up with an answer for, as well as our whole meta, is why the tactician keyword, tactical abilities, and tactical action cards are handled the way they are?
It's not so much a question of the rules so much as to why the rules exist. Using a tactical pump, a printed tactical action on a personality, or targetting a tactician with a tactical action card all use up the tactical ability that personality can perform for the entire turn... why?
It seems to make sense from the ability and action end of things, or from the ability and pump end of things, but all three? This seems counterintuitive to how every other keyword or battle action in the game works. You can target a magistrate/artisan/courtier with as many political actions in a turn as you want so long as you meet the other restrictions on the cards in question. You can target a single card for multiple movements, cavalry or non, in a turn so long as they meet the requirements of presence, location, and are not moving after they have already been at battle resolution (barring Chags 4). A single personality can perform multiple regular actions in a player's turn. A monk/shuggie can perform multiple spells or Kiho actions in a turn. Why then, when all of these rulings/rules seem to go around the same guiding principles, is the tactician trait/ability/action treated differently?
Any input on this would be greatly appreciated.
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 30 January 2008
A friend and I were sitting down and discussing some of the rules that seemed the most fuzzy to us with regards to L5R, and the one that neither one of us seems to be able to come up with an answer for, as well as our whole meta, is why the tactician keyword, tactical abilities, and tactical action cards are handled the way they are?
It's not so much a question of the rules so much as to why the rules exist. Using a tactical pump, a printed tactical action on a personality, or targetting a tactician with a tactical action card all use up the tactical ability that personality can perform for the entire turn... why?
It seems to make sense from the ability and action end of things, or from the ability and pump end of things, but all three? This seems counterintuitive to how every other keyword or battle action in the game works. You can target a magistrate/artisan/courtier with as many political actions in a turn as you want so long as you meet the other restrictions on the cards in question. You can target a single card for multiple movements, cavalry or non, in a turn so long as they meet the requirements of presence, location, and are not moving after they have already been at battle resolution (barring Chags 4). A single personality can perform multiple regular actions in a player's turn. A monk/shuggie can perform multiple spells or Kiho actions in a turn. Why then, when all of these rulings/rules seem to go around the same guiding principles, is the tactician trait/ability/action treated differently?
Any input on this would be greatly appreciated.
This is not really a question for the rules forum. That's really for the design team, not deputy rules guys.