post for 7 April 2003

will of....xxx question

One of the local players asked this question about the various "will of..." kiho. For instance:

Will of Earth

Kiho Elemental limited: Bow one of your Shugenja or Monks, Remove this card from the game, and reveal the Ring of Earth from your hand if you don't have it in play. Target up to two personalities per opponent. Those perosnalities may not assign or move to attack you before the beginning of your next turn.

His question is this: If you do not have the Ring of Earth either in play or in your hand, can you play this card? Is this a cost? does it target the ring?

The costs of this card are "bow one of your Shugenja or Monks," "remove this card from the game," and "reveal the Ring of Earth from your hand if you don't have it in play." If you do not already have the Ring of Earth in play, you must reveal it in your hand to play Will of Earth. If you cannot do that, you cannot play Will of Earth.

Quick question

Does 'A Test of Courage' effectively negate 'Entrapping Terrain' - that is, does ET try to send you home before resolution, but ToC stops this and lets you proceed (with all your units) to resolution?

Reactions to units leaving a battle cannot be played in response to a battle that ends early, without resolution.

Honor Is My Blade Question

Honor Is My Blade 0G 1Fo * Battle: Target one of your Personalities and an opposing Personality with more Chi and less printed Personal Honor. Switch the Forces of these two Personalities

Q1)Does the "printed" in "less printed Personal Honor" refer to the opposing personality only or to both personalities?

Both. "Less Personal Honor" means his (Personal Honor) is less than mine (Personal Honor). "Less printed Personal Honor" means his (printed Personal Honor) is less than mine (printed Personal Honor). If the card were comparing two different values, it couldn't just say "less".

Question for Jeff A.

Ok say in time of war is in play, and I gain 20 honor. I am capped at a 5 pt. honor gain. Then I use Shrine of the Sun to end all on going effects of in time of war. Do I gain the 15 honor that in time of war has prevented me from gaining that turn?

Your Family Honor will change to reflect the full 20 you have gained so far this turn. This is not a gain and not a change. Your Family Honor is rising because a cap on its maximum allowed value is being lifted.

Reactions...

Say I pay 1 too much gold for something, can I bow multiple storehouses to add storage counters to all of the bowed storehouses(ie reacting to the same trigger multiple times with multiple identical cards)?

Yes. You are not using the exact same printed instance of a Reaction (they're on different cards), and the Storehouses Reaction does not "use up" the unspent Gold.

If I use a Superior Strategist to get a battle action card and immediately play it, can my opponent use an Otomo Sensei to make me discard it?

Yes.

Att: Jeff. Paneki XP

Paneki XP's ability (according to Legendary, traded mine away)

Battle: Once per battle, move a Scorpion Clan Personality into this battle.

What is it about this action that prevents Paneki from moving himself (or another SCP) into a battle he is not in, in the same manner as the use of Superior Tactics or other movement actions?

From the FOU rulesheet:

] An action which refers to "this battle" always refers to the ] battle currently being resolved. In addition, if the card it ] appears on is of a type which can be in battles (such as a ] Personality), the card must be in the current battle for the ] action to be legal.

Personalities can be in battles, and Paneki Exp. refers to "this battle" in his action. Therefore, it's only legal when he is in the current battle already.

Att: Jeff. Paneki XP

So are "this battle" (Accessible Terrain) and "the current battle" (Daidoji Rekai xp2) different things?

Sometimes.

"The current battle" always means nothing more than "the battle going on right now". "This battle" always means at least that, and ALSO means "the battle this card is in" unless that phrase is nonsensical due to the nature of the card (like an Action card or a non-Fortification Holding).

Att: Jeff. Paneki XP

Still, can't Paneki use his printed ability to move himself into the "current battle" from another battle or his fief (due to relevance)?

Paneki's action does meet Relevance (it moves something into the battle). It also meets Presence (it gives YOU a unit there). What it doesn't meet is a restriction on its use built into its own text. Using him when he's not there is the same as trying to use an Archers to shoot something in a different battle.

Kyuden Doji/ For the Empire

A player asked me what would be the result of the following...

Bob is running Kyuden Doji. He attaches Armor of Shadows to Crane Bobby. He then plays For The Empire on Bobby and Fred's samurai. As a reaction, Bob bows non-shadowlands samurai Bobbi to take Bobby's place. Bobbi wins (so Fred's samurai dies). So...

a) Bobby gains +1/+1 permanently. OR b) Bobbi gains +1 personal honor and Bob gets 3 honor. OR c) No other benefit is gained. OR d) Leon's not leaving so we're going to create a new list and not tell him where it is.

c. Only if the winner of the duel is one of the Personalities originally targeted are the appropriate rewards gained.

I'm not impressed, Leon. As has been pointed out, this was asked and answered a month ago. Or are you testing to see if you can get a different answer?

Rules Q

Tamori Hiroko's ability to draw when you discard a card, it is only able to be used when you are discarding during end phase, or the resolution of a duel?

No. It is usable any time you discard a card EXCEPT after playing one for its effect. The error is actually in the rulebook -- although cards do go into the discard pile after being played, this should not count as "discarding a card".

If used from discarding a card focused during a duel you draw after the duels resolution correct?

Correct. [card text]

Can this ability be used to draw if I discard a card for use of tactician?

Yes.

Rules question on Tattoo tokens

Related card text:

Hoshi Wayan exp: Limited: Once per turn, place a Tattoo token on Wayan. Reaction: After Wayan gains a Force bonus, destroy a Tattoo token on him to raise the bonus by his Personal Honor.

Warriors of the Great Climb: The Warriors of the Great Climb gain +2F for each of their Personality's Tattoos.

Do each of Wayan's Tattoo tokens count for another +2F bonus on the Warriors?

No. The Keyword Rule applies to cards only.

Ruling suggestion

I humbly request a change in the current rules regaurding courtiers, as arrogant as that may seem. I request that the liaison trait become sononimous with courtier (c'mon, how can Tanitsu not be a courtier)

Because there will always be odd cases like this when existing cards are retrofit into newer rules.

and that all abilities printed on courtiers are considered political(c'mon, it's what they do for crying out loud, political stuff, and that would be one of the only ways they could see their will done). The second request does have precedent in the fact that a shugenja's abilities count as spell effects.

Not true. Shugenja abilities are "innate abilities", but they are not spell effects. They never have been.

Snowy Fields question [Jeff]

For the purpose of Snowy Fields, do Reactions count as Actions?

Reactions ARE actions. [GE p. 47] They have no assigned phase they are always played in, and they do not count against a player's one chance to "take an action or pass" during the Action Phase or Battle Action Segment, but Reactions are one of the four types of action in L5R, and any reference to "actions" in general includes them.

Snowy Fields is in play. A Shadowlands player uses Kyoku's ability to go "Blackened Fear". When he follows it with a Fear action, he uses Osereru's Reaction to make the Fear affect followers that are immune to Fear (he was playing Ratling). How many actions is that for the purposes of Snowy Fields? 2 (Kyofu and the Fear ability) or 3 (Kyofu, the Fear ability, and Osereru's Reaction)

3.

Another Question

Does the Soul Sword token created when you cast the Soul Sword count as a "card" for the purposes of attaching to Doji Kazo, Tsurayaki, et al?

No. The only type of token that automatically counts as a card as well as a token is a Follower token. [GE p. 40]