post for 8 January 2002

Overwhelmed and A Test of Courage

Wow, are there a lot of wrong answers flying around about this card and the kinds of things that might or might not be able to cancel it. Rather than correct everyone else, I'm just going to give my answers.

The effects of Overwhelmed happen in sequence. The player's Personality is destroyed before the opponent decides what happens to his army. If Overwhelmed is canceled when it's played, none of it happens. If it is not canceled until the opponent is forced to target his Personalities (Asako Towers) or until the opposing Personality is sent home (A Test of Courage), the first Personality has already been destroyed and so stays destroyed.

A Test of Courage, by the Most Recent Printing, is played "when an action is moving one of your target Personalities out of battle." It does not trigger off an action targeting your Personalities any more -- that's an old, no-longer-current wording.

A Test of Courage also, by MRP, targets one of your Personalities being moved. That one Personality is the only one prohibited from bowing or being targeted by you for the rest of the turn, regardless of how many units were being moved out of the battle. Yes, this means that another Test of Courage cannot be played on that Personality by you for the rest of the turn.

Choices In Diamond Edition

. . .we expect to bring back some previously printed cards that are currently only legal in Open. We're looking at cards like Doom of the Dark Lord, Feign Death, and other such popular cards.

I found this a very, very curious list. Most of my associates did as well. Acknowledging that it is short, it also contains some extremely strong cards from Open, each of which wasn't amazingly thematic or clever. They don't add much flavor, but they add a lot of strength, especially for the Horde -- which already needs to be reigned in.

Those are the kinds of cards we're *looking* at. We pass over the upper stratosphere of too-strong cards like Wedge and begin just below, working our way downward. We want cards that players will be excited to find in their packs and want to use in their decks. Yes, it will be a tricky balancing act due to so many cards being well-used simply because they're extremely cost-effective or relatively mindless. On the other side of the coin is how quickly interest in the game will surely wane if we produce a 550 card set full of Dispersive Terrains and Archers.

By "popular", is merely "strong" meant, or are there "popular" cards being researched that do not fall into the "every deck of archetype X runs it" category?

There is a very high correlation between "popular" and "strong". I don't think there has ever, in any game, been a weak card that lots of people loved to use. I think there's room for a card to be both strong and interesting, though, and there's ample empirical evidence that cards can be strong without being automatic inclusions in all decks that persue the same victory condition.

Herald Promo - Rant and Rave

I'll start by saying I'm sorry right off the bat. If you don't want to hear someone kvetch about what they perceive as blantant foolishness stop right here.

Now on to the rant...

Ok, I receive the new Imperial herald, the second of which I have received. Within are two non-unique cards...TWO...not three, not one...TWO...Maybe I'm insane but this confuses me...

We had an increase in membership that outstripped the amount of this card we allocated for Herald insertion. Two per subscriber is all we could manage.

Next problem...I received this herald in January...Not November, not December....January. Just checking, but when did FOU come out....So, why am I getting a sneak peek of a set that is already tournament legal? I've already got the darn cards, why on this green earth would I care about a sneak peek???

# of cards in L5R?

Actually, we checked this recently (we're creating an L5R "Oracle of the Void" database) and we have 3800 distinct cards. Magic would be around 4500-5000 I think.

This sounds good. Is it going to include rulings? clarifications? What about rewordings of cards that aren't going to be reprinted?

It's going to have our "dream wordings" -- how we would word them if we could go back in time and change them to head off all the questions that ended up being asked about them.

Deep in Meditation

From L5Rsearch.com:

Deep In Meditation Action "Reaction: Play after an opponents turn begins. At the end of the turn, gain honor equal to the number of units that opponent controls unless he or she assigned at least as many units to attack you during an attack phase as you had rings in play when you played this card. Ignore this effect if he or she could not assign that many units in any attack this turn."

What does the last sentence mean?

It means you don't get the honor if your opponent was forcibly prevented from attacking you with sufficient units to void your gain. You will only gain honor if he chooses not to attack you.

Assorted L5R questions [JEFF]

1) Can a bowed personality perform a ranged attack that's printed on an unbowed item (that does not require him to bow).

Yes.

If so, can he use Not Another Step ["Reaction: Play before one of your Personalities with 3 or greater Chi performs a ranged attack. This ranged attack may target a card in an unresolved adjacent battle."]?

Yes.

2) Let's say I use Delicate Calculations ["Limited: You may attack two players at once this turn. Each player may ally with only one other Player. Each Maneuvers Segment occurs only once. During each battle, only the Province's controller is the Defender. Effects that move cards into or out of battles may move them into or out of any battles in the attack."] to attack players A and B. Are any of player A's provinces ever adjacent to any of player B's provinces for cards that refer to an adjacent province or battle (e.g. Moto Chaozhu, Not Another Step)? Does it matter whether players A and B are sitting next to each other?

No and no.

3) This particular question does not reflect my opinion, but has been raised periodically in my play group when someone attempts to play the Ring of Water after destroying the target of an Ambush.

Ambush reads "Limited: One of your units begins an attack against another player's unit. No other units can be assigned or move to the battle, and the battle cannot destroy a Province. The units cannot move to other Provinces from the battle. This does not replace your Attack Phase. After the battle, lose 5 Honor."

The objection that has been raised is that units at an Ambush are not part of an army, and hence neither an army nor a province is destroyed, meaning the Ring of Water cannot be played.

I'm going to have to put on my Designer Hat here: the units in an Ambush are in armies.

One more dumb question

Say I have Atarasi's Armor attached to a personality. ["Open: Once per turn, this Personality gains either the Double Chi trait or the Tactician trait until the turn ends."] I use the action to give the Personality Double Chi. In the duel that ensues, the personality is destroyed, and I use Shiro Shinjo to move the Armor to another of my personalities. Can the new Personality use the Armor's action? "This personality" has not used it yet this turn...

The "once per turn" limits how often the Armor's action can be used. It's already been used once, so it can't be used again.

Effects stack in L5R

I have two questions about the effects stack in the L5R CCG.

1) Is there one?

No. This was very, very, very, very, very much done on purpose.

2) How does it work?

See #1.

An action, when taken, resolves immediately. There is no overall way built into the rules to respond to or interfere with this. There are Reactions that do this, but each one tells you exactly when it's played.

Dueling Question

I bow Kozue to give one of my personalities the double chi trait then in a battle I play heroic sacrifice in that personality does he gains again the double chi, because kozue is still bowed?

The last effect is the one that matters. If Effect A grants a trait and Effect B takes it away, your card does not have the trait. If Effect B is continuous and ends, and Effect A is also continuous, like Kozue, the trait will return. You will also get the trait again if Effect A ends and starts again.

What if the personality already had double chi?

A card either has a trait or it doesn't. Giving a card a trait it already has does not render the trait extra resistant to removal.

Ratling, Ratling for every one!!!!

Greetings fellow bushi and rememberer's of the great rat!!

Is it just me or does the rat's get the shaft in every set that comes out!!!

We've stated repeatedly that the Ratling Faction will not receive the same level of support as the others in Gold.

I didn't find in my manual what this tattooed trait means. Could anyone please tell me what it is?

It's like "Elemental" and "Maho" -- there are no special rules for it. It's merely a trait that some cards have. Its only purpose is for other cards to interact with it.