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, 21 June 2012
We got into a bit of an argument about the minutia of the wording of the ability of Yogo Adi in a recent game.
Relevant Text:
Political Open: Target another player's Personality: If he is dishonorable, his controller loses 1 Honor. Otherwise, give your provinces +2 strength.
My opponent, who was playing Adi, argued that since the 'otherwise' clause is a separate sentence from the 'if he is dishonorable' clause that Adi's player gets the province strength boost regardless. I told him that this didn't magically change the meaning of the word 'otherwise' and after some back and forth he let it drop but clearly wasn't happy about it. So to settle the issue I'm asking here: Does the fact that 'otherwise' is in its own sentence change what seems (to me) to be the obvious reading of an either-or situation? (Either the target is dishonorable and his controller loses 1 Honor or your provinces get +2 strength)
Alex Jones (rules official), 22 June 2012
We got into a bit of an argument about the minutia of the wording of the ability of Yogo Adi in a recent game.
Relevant Text:
Political Open: Target another player's Personality: If he is dishonorable, his controller loses 1 Honor. Otherwise, give your provinces +2 strength.
My opponent, who was playing Adi, argued that since the 'otherwise' clause is a separate sentence from the 'if he is dishonorable' clause that Adi's player gets the province strength boost regardless. I told him that this didn't magically change the meaning of the word 'otherwise' and after some back and forth he let it drop but clearly wasn't happy about it. So to settle the issue I'm asking here: Does the fact that 'otherwise' is in its own sentence change what seems (to me) to be the obvious reading of an either-or situation? (Either the target is dishonorable and his controller loses 1 Honor or your provinces get +2 strength)
Your opponent is clutching at straw.
"Otherwise" here means, "If he is not dishonourable".