Rules for 1 January 2003

Greetings,

Questions

How exactly does Vengeful Dead work?

Just like the card says, of course! ;) The "for all players" clause means that it resolves again regardless of who owns it. That's all.

Does Judgement of Toshiken cancel Another Time?

Hey, this one's in the Rules Archive. Which makes it a snap for me to cut and paste: "Cannot prevent Another Time from taking effect, because it resolves as soon as it is revealed."

I can see how you might have missed that, though, seeing as how it's buried in the middle of the rulings for "Judgment of Toshiken." ;)

(When your question is already answered in the rulebook or the Rules Archive, I'm allowed to rib you. Just a little.)

Slaughter the Scout

I am confused about the past tense of the wording, "a battle your personality WAS in".

That's the wrong wording. Please see the erratum in the Rules Archive (http://l5r.alderac.com/rulings/). Aw, what the heck, I'll be nice and post it here (though you should get to know the Rules Archive!):

Reaction: Bow one of your Personalities after a target unit moves into the Personality's battle to destroy the moving unit.

I also got caught up in wondering about whether a reaction could be played as she didn't have any units in the battle my unit was moving into.

Reactions are not subject to the rules of Presence and Relevence (The Fall of Otosan Uchi rulesheet; http://l5r.alderac.com/ccg/fou_rules_sheet.pdf).

I'm not going to answer the longer question, since it involves the wrong wording for Slaughter the Scout.

Rules for 21-25 December 2002 [Re: Engage the Enemy]

I could have swore Jeff Alexander ruled the opposite a few weeks ago; that bowing were effects that happened one at a time and so the aforementioned situation was legal.

Good thing you didn't swear on a Bible or anything. ;) Check Jeff Alexander's rules post of 5 November 2002 in the Yahoo groups archive or the Deathseeker archives. He made the same ruling I did.

And the moral of the story is: Memory cheats.

Rules for 30-31 December 2002

Is Kharmic strike considered an action card? I used to think yes, but I only see a trait, so I am not sure.

Thanks for the prod to elaborate. I should have done so in the first ruling.

Here we have an odd little thing. A card can be an action card (one of the basic card types, as shown on pg. 13 of the Gold Edition rulebook)... but not have an action on it! Focus and "No More Games, Yasuki" are other examples. They're still Action cards, even though they have no action.

One Life, One Action has a broad wording. It cares about when a player "resolves an Action card." Not an action, nor an action on an Action card. I'm willing to give benefit of the doubt and say that special effects of traits on Action cards also resolve, and are valid triggers for One Life, One Action.

Jeff Alexander may have a different opinion on this, though, so please consider this a *tentative* ruling.

That said, I do see another matter I missed the first time. One Life, One Action then says, "cannot play any copy of that Action for effect" -- now it *doesn't* say Action card. But considering that it refers to a "copy" of the Action, I think this is a simple omission (or is meant as shorthand), and it should say "Action card" again.

Rules for 30-31 December 2002

Gold Edition rulebook, "Abilities and traits," page 33: "When a card gains a trait or ability, consider it printed on the card." Yes.

This is reversed in the BB rule sheet.

It's not so much a reversal as a minor correction.

A gained or copied ability is still "on the card" (i.e., the effect source) even though it's no longer considered "printed" on it. I can see, however, how the Broken Blades rulesheet could give the wrong impression of what it's trying to convey. I'll have to bring that up with Jeff Alexander.

Nevertheless, the answer to the original question was the right one. Investigation can be used against a dual-aligned Scorpion / Ninja Personality using the ability granted by the Towers of the Yogo stronghold, because the source of the effect is the (Ninja) Personality.

Vengeful Dead

Does the death of a Personality due to Vengeful Dead itself count as death from a card effect that could trigger a later use of Vengeful Dead by your opponent?

Vengeful Dead is a card. Yes.

Rules for 30-31 December 2002

[One Life, One Action vs. 2 A Perfect Cut]

can I play "One Life One Action" on the first one, rendering the second null? Or, do their effects actually resolve when focused, not when revealed?

The latter. A Perfect Cut says, "When played as a focus in a duel..." and Focus cards add to a stat as soon as focused.

Rules for 29 December 2002

The whole ruling about duels and ranged attack deaths being card effects bothers me. [snip] To say that duel and ranged attack deaths are card effects is going against the idea that the effect comes from where it is printed in ink.

Bring it up with Jeff when he gets back. I can't change this ruling, even if I thought it was a good idea. And I don't think it is. For one thing, there's now one simple and (I think) intuitive, rule for duel effects: they're card effect. If we were to strictly apply the ink test, duels would suddenly become this weird, heterogeneous mix of card and rulebook effects.

There's other bizarre effects that would occur if "follow the ink" was a hard rule rather than a guideline. (Cards that copy abilities would be an instant headache.) I'm perfectly happy leaving it as a rule of thumb. To paraphrase Jeff Alexander, "L5R players a notorious for disliking *too* much consistency."

Zen Faulkes! * Crab Clan Scholar * Deputy Rules Guy