I have a dishonored personality in play with a printed PH of 1 and an honorable courtier. I am sitting at -19 honor while my opponent is at -14. My opponent Hired Killers my dishonorable person, loses 3 honor and falls to -17. Would I have the opportunity to play Assigning Blame dropping my opponent to -20 honor before I fall to -20, or am I eliminated from the game before I get the chance?
Dishonorable death and Assigning Blame
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.
I have a dishonored personality in play with a printed PH of 1 and an honorable courtier. I am sitting at -19 honor while my opponent is at -14. My opponent Hired Killers my dishonorable person, loses 3 honor and falls to -17. Would I have the opportunity to play Assigning Blame dropping my opponent to -20 honor before I fall to -20, or am I eliminated from the game before I get the chance?
Well, let's see...
The loss of Honor from a dishonorable Personality dying is a triggered effect from the rulebook:
http://rules.l5r.com/Physically_marked_card_states#Honorable_and_dishonorable: "After a dishonorable Personality is destroyed, the player who controlled him or her loses Honor equal to the Personality's base Personal Honor."
And Assigning Blame is a Reaction.
According to Timing, triggered rulebook effects happen before Reactions:
"A..., B..., C. Apply any triggered rulebook effects that are not part of actions... D..., E..., F. Reactions may now be taken following an action round procedure..."
So, in your example, you will hit -20 before you can bring your opponent down to -20.
To quote the Sorcerer Nakano from Highlander III, "You've already lost."
On: Assigning Blame