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, 8 August 2008
Devious Explorer's Relevant text: "Reaction: After you announce a Battle action: Target an enemy Personality. Your action's effects that move him home cannot be negated."
Since it says the action's effect itself can't be negated, if it would move him home, how does that interact with cards that move multiple targets home? Is the movement effect itself immune to negation as long as the target is one of its subjects, or just that singular instance of movement as it pertains to the target, and the others can be negated?
Alex Jones (rules official), 9 August 2008
Devious Explorer's Relevant text: "Reaction: After you announce a Battle action: Target an enemy Personality. Your action's effects that move him home cannot be negated."
Since it says the action's effect itself can't be negated, if it would move him home, how does that interact with cards that move multiple targets home? Is the movement effect itself immune to negation as long as the target is one of its subjects, or just that singular instance of movement as it pertains to the target, and the others can be negated?
Cannot: When found in card text, and when referring to a type of cost or effect (e.g., bowing, Force bonuses), “cannot” (or "can not") means that a certain type of effect or cost is negated whenever it occurs.
This means that Devious Explorer negates any effect that would negate any effects of the Battle action on the target Personality that would move him home. However...
Definition of effects: Each individual change to a card, a player, a game entity (such as Provinces), or the game state is a separate effect.
This means that an effect that moves a target Personality... is just that: it doesn't move anyone else; it doesn't do anything else to the Personality. Furthermore, if an action creates a group of effects (including negating all the effects of another action), each effect is negated individually. See Negating effects: Effects are negated individually; negating one effect of an action does not automatically negate the others, for instance.
Devious Explorer only ensures that the target Personality moves home. It does not negate movement effects on other Personalities; it does not negate other effects on the target Personality.
Alex
REVERSAL - ALJ