If A challenges B to a duel with card Z, is discarding the focus pools part of Z's effects? If not, what are the effects a part of? The rulebook?
Question about dueling mechanics
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.
If A challenges B to a duel with card Z, is discarding the focus pools part of Z's effects?
Yes. http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Effects#Source_of_effects: "Duels come from the effect that created their associated challenge, not the rulebook."
Update: http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Effects#Source_of_effects: "If a card effect creates a procedure, effects written in the rulebook that are part of the procedure come from the rulebook. [Added 9 September 2009]
"Example: An action on a card creates a duel. Discards from the duel are considered to be rulebook effects, rather than action or card effect, because the procedure for resolving the duel is described in the rulebook."
So discarding in a duel is a rulebook, not action or card effect.