If I use Sneak Attack to issue a challenge with Kakita Kado, and my opponent plays Reinforce the Gates in response, what happens? I understand the duel does not occur, but was a challenge issued? Namely, does Kado gain Force from his trait even if the duel is negated?
Kakita Kado vs. Reinforce the Gates
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 I use Sneak Attack to issue a challenge with Kakita Kado, and my opponent plays Reinforce the Gates in response, what happens? I understand the duel does not occur, but was a challenge issued? Namely, does Kado gain Force from his trait even if the duel is negated?
Kado's trait would not trigger in the scenario you describe.
For an action that creates a duel, all of the duel (even the challenge part) is part of the "effects" of the action. Reinforce the Gates make the action's effects "not" happen, so no challenge would even be issued.