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, 13 October 2010
Question: I know that an ability has any keywords that are on its card, and that a card has any keywords of its abilities. However do these rules apply to copied abilities?
Here is an example. Bayushi Jutsushi (basic) is a Courtier and a Magistrate with a Political Open ability, therefore his ability also has the keywords: Courtier Magistrate. What happens if Jutsushi receives a Poison token and Bayushi Suboru uses his own base ability on Jutsushi? Does Suboru's new Open ability get the keywords: Courtier Magistrate Political? If so, does Suboru himself gain those three keywords while he has this new ability?
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 13 October 2010
A player, 14 October 2010
Was looking at this. Zen, I hope you know I love you man!
But Suboro's ability only copies the ability on the card, not any of the traits(card text), so since the copied ability doesn't have "Magistrate","Courtier", how then does the copy of the ability magically end up with those traits?
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 14 October 2010
Was looking at this. Zen, I hope you know I love you man!
But Suboro's ability only copies the ability on the card, not any of the traits(card text), so since the copied ability doesn't have "Magistrate","Courtier", how then does the copy of the ability magically end up with those traits?
As always, thanks for the catch. The original rules were right; I just happened to say yes when I meant no.
(Actually, it's more an example of what happens when start get thinking about a general question more than the specifics.)
To clarify: If you copy an ability, the ability is treated as though it is on the copying card, which means that ability will gain keywords from it. The keywords on the copied card do not apply to the copied ability.