post for 25 March 2002

Searching Decks

I checked the accumlated rulings, but could find nothing to support my opponents' claims. (By the way, if this has posted multiple times, sorry. I think Alderac was down, & I tried resending.) When searching through your deck for a card (e.g. Kakita Duelling Academy), and the action used to search does not require you to shuffle your deck, must you?

Yes. [AOF rulebook, p. 5]

Hoshi's claw??

Hoshi's claw has the words tattooed printed on it. Does that mean that it can only attach to a tattooed personality or can they attach tattoos themselves?

Neither. There are no special rules concerning the Tattooed trait when it's on anything but a Personality. It exists only for interaction with other cards.

A Matter of Pride

The Spawning Ground You cannot gain or lose Honor, or take Political actions or actions that cause unconditional Honor losses for other players (even if the players are immune to Honor loss). etc

The Dark Path of Shadow You cannot lose Honor from opponents' card effects or your Ninja cards. etc

A Matter of Pride Each player loses Honor equal to three times the number of Shadowlands cards he or she controls. These losses may not be redirected. If an effect prevents a loss, it is halved instead (rounding fractions up).

By my reckoning, A Matter of Pride will immediately cause a Spawning Grounds, Citadel of Daigotsu or Shadowlands Horde player to lose - they're not immune to loss by dishonour, unlike the Sepulchre of Bone or The Ruined Fortress of the Scorpion.

This is, however, nuts...

Yup. So nuts that other posters have already covered it.

On the other hand, the Dark Path of the Shadow has a similar trait, but seems to be the sort of effect where A Matter of Pride should still cause an honour loss, albeit halved.

It would also cause no loss at all.

Gold Personality Cost Requirements (long)

I may be mistaken but i do not believe there is any restriction on taui to stop him from making a range 2 attack..then next action bowing for a ranged 4 attack.

That is correct. He can do that.

Rehonoring Qstns.

The Shrine of Reverse Fortunes says: Limited. Bow the Shrine and one of yopur human personalities with 0 personal honor to gain 2 family honor. If the personality is at 0 PH because of being dishonored, is he rehonored, or do you gain 2 family honor?

Unofficially, he's restored to honor. (I cannot give official answers based onpreviewed card text.)

On a similar note, I remember that it used to fluctuate between attaching a Clan Sword to a dishonored personality would rehonor them, or it wouldn't.

It did?

Which way did it finally become, and what is the reasoning behind that? Thanks!

The Personality is restored to honor, since he is involved in the honor gain.

Rules Questions

A couple of questions that have come up in recent days.

1) If Rekai xp is moving into a battle to shoot someone, can Chagatai xp use his reaction to move out the only available target before she shoots, or is her move and shoot considered one action?

One action, two effects. Chagatai moves the other unit "when" Rekai moves, so it's gone before she shoots it. By the rulebook, since cards in that unit are now illegal targets for her ranged attack, it does not affect them.

If the answer is yes, he can, what happens if there are no other legal targets for Rekai in the battle?

It doesn't matter whether or not there are other units. Rekai's target has already been chosen. She can't pick a new one.

Does she not move in, having not completed all parts of the action?

Don't confuse costs with effects. Preventing COSTS from being paid will cancel an action. Negating some effects -- or, in this case, rendering them unproducable -- will not prevent the others.

2) Dueling situation. Player A plays Poisoned Weapon. Player B plays Judgment of Toshiken. Player A plays a second Poisoned Weapon. It's accepted from the archives that the -6 Chi til the end of the turn still takes effect, but does the second Poisoned Weapon affect the outcome of the duel? It was ruled that it did in a recent game, but after rereading the cards, I would think that it would not.

Judgement of Toshiken says to resolve the duel based on pre-challenge Chi (or other duel stat) plus printed Focus values. No bonuses or penalties applied before or after will change that fact or have any impact on the duel's outcome -- aside from possibly killing a participant before the duel resolves, since actual Chi is still used to determine when a Personality dies at 0.

3) Another dueling question. How does Judgment of Toshiken interact with cards like Burning Your Essence or A Perfect Cut? Do they count as a 0 focus, or do they maintain their text-modified focus values?

Cards which say their "printed" or "base" Focus value changes will use that new value. If neither of these terms is used, then the card is changing its current Focus value but not its printed value. Neither Burning Your Essence nor A Perfect Cut change their own "printed" Focus value, so they both add just the number in the yellow circle, which is 0 in both cases.

Shrine of Reverse Fortunes question

So in order to use the Shrine's Limited action ("Limited: Bow the Shrine and one of your Human Personalities with 0 Personal Honor to gain 2 Honor") to gain Faimly Honor, I need an Honorable Personality with 0 PH anyway, right?

Hey, look, a use for Soshi Eiji!

It's called "Shrine of Reverse Fortunes" for a reason.

(As an adjunct to this, if you used Blessing upon the Land on the Holding first, that would allow you to bow someone with 2 PH for the Honor Gain, correct?)

Blessing Upon the Lands doubles printed numberals. You'd still need to bow someone with 0 Personal Honor, since doubling 0 is still 0. But you'd get 4 Honor. Unofficially.

In search of the future...

Will In Search of the Future negate the Doji House Guards force? I say no since they are attached to the personality and it says there force equals the personel honor of the personality. Same question for Honorable, since it reads that "Honorable's printed Force and Chi equal this Personality's printed Personal Honor." No where does it say "gains a bonus".

According to the archive, it's not treated as a bonus due to that fact. Their Force will stay and not be reduced to 0.

Also, if In Search of the Future is played on a personality with a Celestial Sword "attached" does it reduce the force bonus to 0 or 1, since the personality is giving the sword the bonus and he/she is attached to the sword.

The Sword gives itself a Force bonus before it adds its Force to its Personality. In Search of the Future reduces bonuses that cards give to themselves. The facts that the size of the bonus is based on other cards and that some of those cards are attached to the Sword make absolutely no difference at all.

Question

A question was raised in an open game last night concerning Kakita Toshimoko. I have the non experienced and experienced versions in my deck. I also have The Gray Crane Experienced 3 in the same deck. Are they the same or are they different people?

I know Toshimoko was called the gray crane but on the Exp 3 it refers to nothing concerning Toshimoko. For an example Hitomi Reju Experienced refers to him as "Experienced Doji Reju."

So do I overlay Toshimoko with The Gray Crane or are they separate people.

You may overlay. There's a series of ever-increasing Experienced Personalities leading from Toshimoko to the Gray Crane.

Personal Sacrifice Question

Personal Sacrifice reads:

Personal Sacrifice Text Reaction: Play this card after one of your Personalities stikes in a duel during battle, if the Personality did not focus. If the Personality is destrroyed during the duel, each of your Personalities permanently gains +1F/+1C.

My question concers the "your" aspect of the action. Does this only refer to the personalities currently in play or does it mean those in your deck as well?

Currently in play.

Questions

a) Otomo Motoshi is without Faction traits. . . at first. . . so Friendly Traveller would pay 4 for him, correct?

Correct.

b) Imperial Surveyor grabs a Shinsei Shrine and attaches it to a Province. Regions of Rokugan grabs Plains of Otosan-Uchi and attaches it. And vice-versa. What happens to the cards in those Provinces? Do they (the Provinces with the Regions) get new cards? How many?

A Province is refilled up to capacity at any time it holds less cards than that number. I'll see what the Rules Team says about when the capacity shrinks.

Imperial Assembly????

How do you figure out if you're still in the assembly or not?

You send email to Steve Lepore, aegsteve@earthlink.net . I imagine your assembly number will be a big help.