Rules for July 3rd

Hi guys! While Zen's apartment-shopping, I get a day or two of everyone's Gold edition questions. Woo hoo! Anyways...

Okay...now I have to ask a follow on question. I've checked the rules, the ruling archives, etc. thoroughly, and can't seem to find this written down anywhere. If I temporarily give a personality, say, the Ninja trait (via "Know the Evil" or Ronin Dojo, for example), and while they have that trait, attach an item that only a Ninja can attach (for example, Poison Dartgun), what happens when the trait wears off? Does the Dartgun:

3. Stay and can be used freely for the rest of game?

That one. The Shugenja/Spell thing is a special case, ditto for Ancestors. The general rule is that once something has entered play or been attached, any conditions that were necessary for its initial play are irrelevant to its continued existence.

Are her [Lady Kitsune] effects cumulative? If I have two of them in play, do my Personalities have their honor requirements reduced by 10?

Yup.

Since the cultist do not actually produce kiho's but actually cast mahos, I am going to assume that they can still do it. Is this a correct assumption, since they are not casting kihos?

No. The text on Cultists doesn't remove the Kiho 'trait' from Kihos they (used to) cast. Maho is an additional, mostly flavor, trait that gets added to the action.

1. Imperial edicts. It is worded - Taking this action is considered using the Imperial Favor. Now this sounds alot like the old 'this action is considered a use of the imperial favor' actions (tsanuri ex for example). My question is, do you still have to discard the favor to use imperial edicts? (of course the card would go into EVERY deck except shadowlands if that was the case) I just don't find the wording on that one very clear.

Well, the wording of each action on the card starts with 'Discard the Imperial Favor to...'. You still have to discard the Favor to use the card.

I seem to remember this coming up a while back, but I can't remember what the official ruling is. If one of my personalities loses a duel with either Hitomi or Kokujin (the versions that steal people and take them back to the opponent's fief), can I A Test of Courage the action? Or do I have to do it immediately upon the action being played (which wouldn't be legal, since I don't know ahead of time if I'm going home or not)?

You can't ToC either Hitomi's duel or Kokujin's duel, for several reasons. For one, you're right, you'd have to play the ToC immediately upon being targeted with the action, at which point you don't actually know if it's going to remove you from the battle. For another, when the personality is actually leaving the battle, they really aren't *your* personality anymore! I mean, if they're walking off the battlefield to go report to their new daimyo, you can't exactly expect them to listen to any of your orders. ;)

Greetings.

I have a question/concern about the Imperial Favor in Gold. If you can no longer take the favor if someone else controls it, doesn't this mean that a player can basically negate the favor by taking it and never using it? It seems problematic to me.

The reverse is actually true. The Favor has become *less* reliable, because in situations where there's only a 3 or 4 point difference in honor totals, a timely duel can remove the Favor from its current controller. The Favor can no longer be held against opposition. If you have the highest honor, and you lobby, you get it. End of sentence.

In Gold, does Avoid Fate when it says 'the province is refilled' ... does that mean face up?

No.

Do Personalities coming into play from a Forgotten Tomb generate Honor gains? Of course this is providing they are of the correct Faction (eg. Matsu Daoquon for Lion).

No. Bringing something into play 'without gold cost' doesn't generate an honor gain.

Quick question....the ability on the new Lion Stronghold that allows your Lion Shugenja to attatch other Factions's ancestors. Factions such as the Brotherhood, Yoritomo's Alliance, Toturi's Army, Yogo Junzo's Army*shudder*? Not Clans. Or is there not a distinction in this?

According to the new Gold rulebook, the term 'Faction' replaces 'Clan' when referring to the game-constructs. So, now there are 15 Factions in the game, but only 9 of them are 'Clans'. The Ancient Halls of the Akodo is still pretty much the same.

So I was looking at the Gold MRPs on Zen's page (thanks Zen!) and came up with the following questions:

1) When Darkness Draws Near

So I send units to ally the attacker at provinces A, B, and C. At province A, the defender plays WDDN. According to the text on the card I lose 2 honor, eventhough we haven't resolved the other battles. I could then lose 6 honor this turn from WDDN. True?

Not by my reading. If you sent units to attack three provinces, and get WDDN'd at the first one, you still have units in the other two battles. WDDN says that if you have no units in *any* battle, you lose two honor, not if you have no more units in the current battle.

2) Soshi's Curse

I'm attacking province A. The defender defends with one unit and one ally. I Soshi's Curse the ally. Does that mean the defender can now play Come One at a Time and get the benefits of it...AND still get the force of the defending ally?

Yes. That's what you get for using Soshi's Curse instead of Earthquake.

3) Bushi Dojo

Reads, "Bushi Dojo 3G Bow the Bushi Dojo to produce 6 Gold when paying for a Follower or an action that creates a Follower token." [MRP, Gold Edition, 1 July 2001]

Bushi Dojo now aids Out of the Shadows and Peasant Levies. True? Can I use Bushi Dojo to pay the 1 gold for a Refugees token? (My opponent's action doesn't inherently give me a token, but gives me the option for a token...key phrase, "opponent's action")

No. When you buy the Refugee follower, you're paying gold for one effect of the action, not for the entire action.

With the new favor rules aren't cards like new kimono, jade throne, and perfect gift all rendered completely without effect?

Yes, I'm afraid that those cards have been rendered largely useless in order to streamline the favor.

So I took a gander at the mentioned cards and saw: "A Perfect Gift Reaction: Bow one of your Personalities with Personal Honor above 1 when another player has bowed a Personality to lobby for the Imperial Favor. If the Favor is uncontrolled, the lobbying attempt is cancelled, and you gain control of the Imperial Favor. This still counts as a lobbying attempt. "

Sounds to me like it can still be used. Sure it's a Gift, but only by the fact that it has "Gift" in the title. Which means that New Kimono has a use! It stops anyone from using A Perfect Gift.

Perfect Gift looks like it still works, yes.

Then I looked at Jade Throne: "While this card is in play, your Family Honor is increased by 15 while any player is lobbying for the Imperial Favor." Does that mean that if I have 10 honor and my opponent has 15, that I can lobby for the favor and that they can't? Or does the favor rule look at honor prior to the attempt to lobby?

According to the Gold rulebook, you can only initiate a lobbying attempt if you have more honor than every other player. So, right now it looks like the Jade Throne is useless.

Three questions.

_1_ Does Strength of Purity give Matsu Domotai its full Force and Chi bonus? If so, why? "Domotais force cannot exceed his chi." If the bonuses are both instantaneous, the result is slightly ambiguous.

The bonuses both happen simultaneously, so Domotai's force never actually exceeds his Chi. He would instantly go from 1/3 to 4/6, with no stops in between.

_2_ Questions on Honorable Seppuku's MRP:

From Zen's Page:

Reads, "Honorable Seppuku 0G 3Fo Political Reaction: Play this card after one of your samurai creates, or is targeted by, or is affected by an effect that dishonors him or her or causes you to lose Honor. Lower the loss (if any) to 0, the Samurai commits seppuku, and then you gain Honor equal to the Samurai's Personal Honor." [MRP, Gold Edition, 1 July 2001]

a) Does the controller gain the samurai's current honor or printed honor? Will the target of a Shame will not gain its controller any positive effect (outside of mitigating the 7-point loss)?

Current honor. Anyone who commits seppuku is rehonored when they do, so a Dishonored personality who gets Shamed and then Honorabled would (in order) reduce the loss to zero, die honorably, and then generate a gain equal to PH for their controller.

b) Is the triggering "unseemly" effect itself canceled? (E.g., the Shame never happened in the first place).

No, it happened. Any related honor losses are just reduced to zero (with stomach-splitting following shortly after).

c) Ambush was one of my preferred ways to make a samurai do something naughty. Ambush's honor loss is now delayed -- according to the MRP on Zen's page, the 5 honor loss happens after the battle. When I Ambush with a samurai and Honorable Seppuku, does --

c1) -- the Honorable Seppuku go off immediately, just like it used to, leaving a very confused but un-Ambushed victim and two samurai bits and some good feelings where I used to have a full samurai?

Yes. You have to play Honorable Seppuku when the samurai is targeted by the action, and that means he feels very sad before he actually gets to do anything naughty.

c2) -- the Honorable Seppuku go off (and can only be played) after the Ambush does its battle, enabling me to bust up some poor, unsuspecting Personality and then off my own peep for honor and negate the honor loss? (This is tantamount to saying "Honorable Seppuku does NOT cancel the action that did the Bad Thing.")

No, it's not. Honorable Seppuku doesn't cancel the action. It's just that in this specific case, the Samurai needs to survive the targeting to create the rest of the resolution. If the resolution of the action were unrelated to the survival of the samurai, and if the action still targeted the samurai and created an honor loss, you could still play the action, Honorable Seppuku the samurai, *and* gain the benefits of the action. Ambush just doesn't happen to work like that.

3) Finally -- a stupid question, just to check -- attaching cards is a targeted action, yes? So, if Matsu Gohei were to attach a Bandit Gang from my hand (lose 2 honor), I could correct his behavior with an Honorable Seppuku, yes?

Sure looks like it.

For discussion purposes, let's say I have (playing Unicorn vs. Lion) three units with 7F each and one unit with 8F, all cavalry. Each unit has one personality and two Followers.

I attack Lion who has four units with 7F each, all infantry, and a Stronghold with 7F. Each unit has one personality and two Followers.

1. Declaration segment Unicorn (me) declares an attack on Lion's Provinces 1 and 2

Whoah. Hold it right there. You never declare an attack on a province, only on a player. So, your later assumption is correct. You do, in fact, technically attack every one of your opponents provinces each time. Kinda.

When you declare an attack, you aren't obligated to send *any* forces *anywhere*. This is, in fact, sometimes a good strategy for Unicorn (just beware of Counterattacks). The first time your opponent has a chance to see where you intend to attack is when you actually do so. Clearer?

Okay,

So they [Shugenja and Monks] can no longer cast kihos.

Yup.

Can they still be used or affected by their trait?

Sure. So long as they're not trying to use it to cast Kihos.

ie, can Cultists participate in Shiba Technique? Can Tsunami Legion be bought off the original Phoenix box?

Yes, and yes (with the Shadowlands trait, too!).

ie, will Inkyo and Temple Guard get the +3 bonus for defending at a Temple of the New Tao? They should also count for Holy Home Village, right?

Absolutely.

(More about Cultists, Maho, and Kihos)

You are not allowed to do "A." But when you do "A" it is actually considered "B." There is nothing that says you can not do "B"

That's not what Cultists say, though. Their text actually means:

When you do "A", it is also considered "B".

It's not a replacement, it's an enhancement. And now, it's an enhancement to something they can't do anymore, so it's irrelevant text (not like it wasn't before. Is there anything that actually interacts with a Maho-throwing follower?).

Please help me!

- Can I cast Heart of Inferno when in the opposing army there is a personality with Kitsuki's Kaagi's Journal?

Sure. Just because you can't target the one guy, it doesn't save the other 42.

- When I cast Hearth of Inferno. Can I target a Tchickchuk (killing him) and then target (and kill) other 2F Rattling card (3F if with Tchickchuk)?

No. Heart targets and destroys everything all at once, not sequentially. If there's a 2f Chuck making a 2f Ratling follower 3f, Tchickchuck will die, but the 3f Rat will be 3f when the spell looks at it to see if it can destroy it. By the time that Chuck is dead, the spell has stopped looking for things to kill, so it wanders on down to the local pub for a drink.

- If I attach Shiryo no Kaiu (bowing the personality) in my actions fase. Can I bow 'the unit' to search for a fortification in this turn? (the personality is bowed, but not the ancestor. ie. Can I bow one of my units if the personality leading the unit is bowed?)

No. In order to pay the cost of Shiryo no Kaiu's action, you have to bow the *whole* unit. If any of the cards in the unit are already bowed, you can't pay the cost, so you can't take the action.

"Judgement of Toshiken 0G 2Fo I have a few questions about this card:

First, can it be played after your opponent plays Poisoned Weapon?

Sure, but only if the Poisoned Weapon didn't straight out kill your personality.

Second, can Poisoned Weapon still be played after Judgement of Toshiken has been played?

Yes, but it won't affect the outcome of the duel.

Thirdly, if the answer to either of the above is yes, am I correct in thinking that the Poisoned Weapon will have no effect during the duel, but can kill people afterwards?

Can...and will.

Fourthly, am I correct in thinking that Toshimoko Sensei no longer benefits a duellist when JoT is played?

Yes.

Fifthly, am I correct in thinking that the "before the challenge" clause negates any Chi bonusses or penalties inherent in the challenge, such as those created by Asahina's Breath and the Dragon's Heart? If so, is the Double Chi trait still lost for a challenge using the Dragon's Heart?

Yes. When you play Dragon's Heart, your personality loses the Double Chi trait until the end of the turn. Playing Judgment of Toshiken doesn't give Double Chi back to him, it just lets it work as normal. By the time you can play JoT, your personality doesn't actually *have* Double Chi, so it can't work in any way for him. That is a nifty way to get around the Chi penalty from Dragon's Heart, though.

I have Kakita Yoshi exp 3 in play, and control the favor. My opponent Breaches me. I pitch the favor to negate the loss. As a reaction to this, he Confusions. I can then get the favor back with Yoshi, but can I pitch it again to avoid the loss, or is this too far beyond the original trigger?

No, you can still react to the original trigger. He plays Breach, you ditch the Favor to get rid of the loss. In Reaction to that, he plays C@C. Also in Reaction to your use of the Favor, you use Yoshi. The two of you then go *back* to Reacting to the hovering 5 point loss, at which point you can use the Favor again.