Rulings for 23 January 2001

Sensei

Because this is a confusing issue and lots of people are still posting wrong or outdated rulings and explainations, I'm going to reiterate for a bit.

Starting Family Honor has a minimum of -19. This works exactly like the minimum of 0 that most other stats have. A player using a Stronghold that starts at -19 may legally begin the game with a Sensei that has a Starting Honor penalty and still start at -19. This is because he's already at the minimum and can't go any lower. It is NOT because the penalty is treated as an honor loss and ignored. (That USED to be the reason, but it was a bad reason and it was reversed.)

Playing a new Sensei with a Starting Honor modifier AFTER the game begins doesn't change your current Family Honor total. ONE result of this is that a player -- ANY player, not just a Horde or Sepulcher player -- currently at -19 can play a Sensei with a Starting Honor penalty and not immediately lose. This has nothing to do with the first ruling.

Cancellation and Political Mistake

I have to chime in here as I am one of those "people" spoken too. The rulings attained from the book clearly indicate that to cancel an Action that Action must OCCUR FIRST, then it is reacted too and then it goes away. The fact that the mechanic in question creates an effect that removes the Action without it happening "in reality" (in the game) makes little sense to someone just reading the rule book. I read the rule book and it was clear to me that Yager was right but then I remembered the Technology of the game and how it worked and realized that he would be challenged on this, just as he was. Truthfully I read about the question first and felt that he was wrong. Once I read the book, I felt he had a good case. The rule book, clearly, supports him without a doubt. If the Action occurs then it can't happen again. neh? This difference in game tech and rules is obviously detrimental to the game in my opinion.

Okay. You've lost me. I have NO IDEA what you mean by "game technology".

Hantei a Sensei

Tom O'Brien writes: Hello everyone. Some people I know decided that they wanted to use Hantei Sensei to Hantei a Sensei already in play. Is this legal?

It's legal in that one can name a Sensei, but it won't do much in most games - basically, it would prevent a player from playing a new copy of the same Sensei (through the Temple of the Crow, or A New Teacher).

Basically, it won't work. But it's legal. :)

Correct. Sorry I missed this question the first time around.

Political actions and Shadowlands

I have a question about using Political actions (As Pressure) on the Shadowland player. If Shadowland player don't take political actions is Pressure unusable and don't have efect or not? By me yes! They don't heve efect. :)=

Political actions can be played AGAINST a Shadowlands player just fine. Sorry, but it's legal to Pressure your ogres into accepting challenges.

Why does Yogo Ichiba cost 10G ?!?

Combined with the little remembered rule that if a player begins to purchase a card, then cannot meet the gold cost or honor requirement, they have to discard it.

So what happens to the extra gold? If I Kolat Bookkeeping someone who had already bowed a pair of Jade works and was about to bow their stronghold to bring out an 11G personality, what do they do with the 6 gold they already generated? Can it be used to buy another personality?

Payments in L5R can only be spent on the costs they were originally generated for. The 6 gold in this example would be lost if the original Personality can't be bought.

Kolat Bookkeeping just keeps getting better and better for my agressive attack decks.

It hasn't gotten any better. It's always been this powerful. People are just learning more about the rules it interacts with, that's all.

Why does Yogo Ichiba cost 10G ?!?

The one thing I'm not sure about Kolat Bookkeeping is this: can one generate Gold "in sequence" to pay for a card? Like, suppose I have 2 Jade Works and a 4 Gold Stronghold, with a third Jade Works, a 3 Gold Personality, and a 10 Gold Personality in Provinces.

Can I bow my Stronghold to buy the 10G Personality, then, once my opponent declines to Kolat Bookkeep me, bow the two Jade Works for the rest (and, if KB is played, I'll then bow the Jade Works for something else)? Or do I have to first try to meet the full cost, and then see whether something happens?

According to the FAQ, you need to meet the full cost first and then see whether something happens.

For more complicated questions about such timing, one could add corrupt holdings, an Honor Requirement on the Personality, and various tricks like The Wind's Truth with possible reactions to it - basically, the question is, can the cost payment be lumped into one big trigger for possible reactions, or is there a sequence?

It's lumped.

Asahina Tamako

[SNIP] Jeff A. has confirmed new Archetype Personalities are identical to the previously published Personality they're based on.

I'm going to be cruel Zen, BUT, is this via private email or something posted to the list? Can we have the quote? I specificly remember Daidoji Rekei being mentioned as an archtype

According to the list Paul Allen Timm sent to deathseeker.com, Rekai was NOT going to be archetyped. She was going to be herself. Here's the link:

http://www.deathseeker.com/article.pl?sid=2000/08/19/153328

and Jeff A. saying "we won't be seeing that power level in Gold". The obvious implication is that Archetypes != Old Personality.

I was talking about the Strict Gold format in general, and new cards in the expansions to come following Gold Edition in particular. Obviously, if Rekai herself is in GE, you will see some small instances of cards of her power in GE.

Note, however, that the guaranteed accuracy of that list dropped way, way down when Wizards stopped making L5R.