post for 16 September 2002

decoy and golden obi of the sun goddess

Recently we had a discussion:

One player loses a battle, his army contains a personality with decoy attached, another has the golden obi of the sun goddess.

- are decoy and golden obi able to safe their personalities from being destroyed since during the resolution phase all cards are destroyed at the same time so might be destroyed before they are they can use their ability?

Both these have Reactions used before the destruction occurs, so they can both save Personalities even if they are going to be destroyed themselves.

- if the personalities survive, will they keep their attached cards since both cards only prevent the personality from being destroyed?

No, they won't. The whole unit is destroyed, so saving just the Personality won't save the cards attached to him.

question for Jeff

If I am using the Shiro Shinjo stronghold and I have an item attached to a personality, lets say Naishi, and i use the open action on the item, then the peep with the item dies and I return it to play using the stronghold, can I use the open action again?

No. It's still the same card, and it remembers its ability being used. Destruction does not erase "card memory" in L5R.

New player

Hello,

Im new to L5r and would like to know where to start? Is there a beginner version to help learn the rules? Whats the best product purchase to start with? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

The last beginner set with rules in it was Storms over Matsu Palace, which is unfortunately out of print. Our latest learn-to- play set, The L5R Experience, was designed to be used by an existing player to teach newcomers, so it has no written rulebook.

You can read the Gold Edition rules online at http://l5r.alderac.com/ccg/rules.html in a variety of formats. An introduction to the game in general has been written by Zen Faulkes, our resident Crab Clan Scholar. It can be found at http://l5r.shorturl.com/zenfaq.html . As for the best deck to start with, a Crane, Unicorn, or Shadowlands stronghold from Gold Edition can make a simple yet effective deck (though heed Zen's advice on playing Shadowlands), as can a Crab deck from A Perfect Cut if you can find one.

thousand years of darkness... disapointment...

I was told that I did not need to be an IA member when I asked when it would be selling online.

I want to buy the set, but it says I have to be an IA member.

what do I do?

At the present time, Assembly membership is required to purchase 1,000 Years of Darkness. I'm sorry if you were misinformed.

Ninja Clan & Encircled T

I was under the assumption that I could use "Encircled Terrain" and then send units home from the battle with the Stronghold as they do not add up to enough Chi, but if the terrain resolves at the end of the battle, then I assume I can't? I thought this was something that worked. Can someone please clarify this for me?

Encircled Terrain resolves (and has always resolved) after both players pass, which does not allow anyone to take any Battle or Open actions between when it sends units home and when the battle resolves. You normally can't use the Dark Path's ability on the one unit remaining.

Forgotten Tomb

This is a two part question.

First: Can you put things under the Forgotten Tomb when it is bowed?

Traits of a card are active even while it is bowed. [p. 33] Yes.

Second: If you put something with 0 Force under it, does it come into play immediately?

Yes.

KyD

Question. I noticed on Palace of Fu Leng there is no Gold Bug. Is this a mistake, or is it not gold legal, or something else completely?

Not every card is Gold-legal in 1,000 Years of Darkness. I can confirm that the Shadowlands Stronghold in it is not.

kitao

When you use the Yoritomo Kitao open action to pay 3 gold to allow a unit to move assing during the cavalry segment; do you have to tell or target which unit you wish to use this action with?

You must target one unit each time you use the action.

1KYoD Questions (Jeff/Dave/...)

Note: 'Gifts and Favors' is IMO a great card. Great idea. The only problem is that maybe a rule will be needed about playing actions on cards in fate and dinasty decks.

Rule of Obvious Legality - if something seems like it does nothing, by a strict reading of the rules, the rules are overridden. Thus, even though you normally can't take actions on things in your deck, by the rule of Obvious Legality, this works.

So, by this rule, can the Cultist cast kiho?

No.

1KYoD Questions (Jeff/Dave/...)

Cultists can not (and hopefully will not ever again) cast Kiho.

So the rule of obvious legality requires you to know if a card was printed before or after a rules change? Try to explain that to a newbie, doesn´t seem that obvious to me.

It has nothing to do with reprints or rules changes. The Shugenja trait on a card does have effects on the game beyond the ability to cast kihos. That ruling applies to things like Gifts and Favors and Mushin -- cards with abilities that do nothing or aren't ever legal under any circumstances under a strict reading of the rules.

Question about Daigatsu as Wind

I have a question for the L5R folks concerning the use of Daigatsu as wind. Is that still an allowable wind to choose for storyline purposes or was the a limited only to gencon decision?

It is only allowed if permitted by whatever agency is collecting storyline information results.

Was 1KYoD Questions (Jeff/Dave/...)Now follower/kihos

WC: I don't see the problem with cultist(A non gold legal card casting kihos in open.) If followers casting kihos was so broken, then why did Personal Sohei get printed? It is a rare with force 1 and acting chi of 1 with a cost of 4. I doubt we will see it any decks in the slower more mellow Gold environment.

The ruling against followers casting kihos, was done in a way that it reversed how the cards had been played for well over 3 years when Crimson and Jade came out in 1997.

Yes sir. Deliberately, too, and with full knowledge that we were affecting Open as well. The ability to add Kiho-casting ability to any deck without suffering any extra gold cost and without changing its Personality mix was found undesirable by the Design Team. The capability of using Spells and/or Kihos in a deck should require design choices. Letting Cultists cast them made it trivial. Letting Followers in general cast them made them too easy to use for Clans we don't want strong in magic, like Lion and Shadowlands.

Now let us look at the Cultist for a second to It says on the card. Shugenja. Any kiho that the cultists bow to produce are considered Maho.

From the Gold Edition rule book Maho A Spell effect based on evil practices forbidden by the Emperor. There are no special rules for creating Maho effects. So the Cultist don't cast Kihos..because they are actually Mahos. (Sun in shadow could not cancel them.)

They're Maho AS WELL AS Kiho, not instead of.

I am still trying to figure out with the new rulings effecting the Steel Throne and Kirin's Shrine Exp why a Toturi Army player can't bring in Toturi Army personality for full and not gain the honor. The same thing can be said for Hiruma Abun for a Spirit Player.(Both of these cards actually have text on them that the player loses honor for bring them into play as well) The ruling now says :"If you bring into play a Personality with your Faction's trait, you may either lower his or her Gold cost by 2 or add his or her Personal Honor to your Family Honor. " IF the argument on not letting in Toturi or Hiruma Abun in for full and gaining their personal honor is about tradition, then why did a traditional rule like allowing Monks or Shugenja followers to cast kihos get changed?

The former is a case of trying to keep something stable that doesn't need to change, but is threatened by a separate change to something else. The latter is a case of us changing something on purpose. Quite a bit of difference.

Holy Open Combo, Batman...

Imperial Palace of Fu Leng + Iron Citadel = Shadowlands deck with 15 Honor & can take political actions.

Yow.

EJS Mirumoto Hiryuu

and then needs only 25 honor to win

25 more Honor...and a way of scoring an Honor Victory, since casting Iron Citadel prevents you from winning that way.