post for 18 January 2002

A Couple of Quick Rules Questions

Here's a couple of questions I had over the last week or so of playing:

1) My Scorp is in a duel and I'm playing Shosuro Gardens. My opponent plays a Poisoned Weapon. Can I redirect it to another personality using the Gardens?

No. Poisoned Weapon does not target the Personality. [Gold Edition printing] You cannot redirect untargeted actions. [rulebook]

2) My opponent plays Earthquake on a personality during a battle. Can the followers still use their battle actions (Fear, Range, etc) since they are not bowed, or does bowing a personality only take the unit out effectively.

Earthquake bows only the Personality card. While this stops all cards in the unit from adding Force, it doesn't stop his Followers from bowing to use their own actions.

3) A personality has the powers: "Battle: Range 2 without bowing. Battle: Bow for Range 4". Can these be combined since it is one unit for Range 6?

No. When combining ranged attacks, each must come from a different card. [AOF rulebook p. 63]

4) Is there any way other than a Tea House to stop a Poisoned Weapon? Does it make sense that if you lower the Chi of a Personality using the Poisoned Weapon, but don't kill them before the resolution of the duel, that you still gain a point of honor?

It does if no one notices you using the poison.

Mantis Question.

With all the talk about the Mantis rejoining the Gold fold lately, I thought up a question. With the original stronghold, where you can bow to lose honor to gain gold, on a one for one basis, can another player discard the Naseru Favor to cancel the honor loss?

Yes.

If so, does it cancel only one of the honor losses, or the whole honor loss?

Only one point worth. And the Mantis player can just lose another point, since he's still in the middle of paying a cost and the option to lose honor to produce gold is still there, making that use of the Favor a waste.

Rules questions

Will In search for the future negate

a) doji house guard

Yes, because it gives itself a Force bonus.

b) shiba house guard

No, because the Shiba House Guard changes its own PRINTED Force, not its current Force. That's not seen as a bonus.

after the event new emerald champion resolves.

personality A becomes emerald champion, personality B gainst the ability to bow(open) the emerald champion.

if personality A is in a battle with an opposing personality, can personality B who is outside of the battle, bow to bow personality A.

If Presence and Relevance are satisfied, then yes. If the battle with Personality A is the one being resolved, you satisfy Relevance since the action's target is in the current battle. If the Personality opposing A is yours, you satisfy Presence.

post for 15 January 2002

For the rest of the game, no player's Family Honor may rise over 5 pts. from what it was when the turn began.

which means if both Suspicians and In Time of War are in play you can regain the lost 1 honor and gain a further 5.

Correct.

;;;;;

Jeff, this only applies to the player who actually played Suspicions, correct? The other player(s) would not be able to gain 1+5 honor, since the 1 honor lost would be enforced before their turn(s) began.

That would be right, yes.

post for 16 January 2002

2. If for example one of the players in the team is playing Crane, and the other Shadowland (not able to win by honor). How much honor should the Crane player collect to be able to win (honor victory) at the start of his or Shadowland player turn: a) 40, because "Do not count the Family Honor of players who cannot currently win by Honor or who have been eliminated." means the player does not increase the minimum to 80. b) 80, because "A team wins an Honor Victory when the team has a combined total of 80 Family Honor at the beginning of either of its member's turns."

b)

This is me being anal, but doesn't the Shadowlands player have -19 Family Honor? So the correct answer for "How much honor should the Crane player *collect* to be able to win (honor victory) at the start of his or Shadowland player turn?" should be:

c) 99 honor -x (where x is the starting Family Honor of the Crane). I guess the Taint has made its presence known...

A player who can't win an Honor Victory doesn't add his Family Honor to the team's total. That's still true if it's negative. The Crane player's Family Honor alone is added to the team, so he only has to reach 80.

On another note, exactly how many Shadowlands Trait cards does it take to corrupt a Gold deck?

That depends entirely on why "corrupt" decks are being watched for.

Gold Questions

Could someone clarify a few things for me please?

Is Matsu Turi (Exp) Gold legal?

No, but he is a legal proxy for Matsu Hataki exp who is gold legal and has the same stats.

Is Matsu Goemon Gold legal?

Yes.

Does ISotF negate Force gained from Ikoma Sume/Kaoku's ability?

Yes.

Right, right, right.

Comments for 16 January

I know this issue has already been decided, but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents. The wording of Hataki Exp. is "If you are the Defender, straighten Hataki (if bowed) and move him into the current battle." The operative word to me is "AND". An AND statement can only be true if both parts of the statement are true.

While true, this is irrelevant. "Straighten Hataki and move him into the current battle" is not a statement.

Hataki's action has one condition on its use: "If you are the Defender". That's it. If you're the Defender, he can use his action. It then produces as many of its effects as can be produced, just like every other card.

With this latest ruling, it seems to me you have a choice... you can straighten Hataki, and NOT move him into the battle. What is stopping you from taking Hataki exp., happily bowed at your fief or in another battle, and straightening him, but not move him into the current battle?

There are no choices as to which of his effects get generated. Everything that can happen, does. If parts of it can't happen, then those (and only those) don't. Being unable to apply all the effects of an action does NOT make that action illegal in L5R.