post for 1 May 2003

Anyone seen the Encyclopedia for sale yet?

* I was a bit disappointed at not seeing the reprinted cards appear with their respective expansion sets.

That would have added a significant number of pages and production cost to the book. There are only certain sizes we can make a book like this and get a nice price point

* I suppose I have printing delays to blame for this, but to not find the erratum to Vengeful Dead was also a disappointment.

Production delays are always going to cause problems like this, unfortunately.

* Warrens of the Nezumi. Errata: None. Oops. Now I _know_ other errata are missing. I only need to hunt them down. Yuck.

Well, there is no errata on the Warrens. There's an MRP, which is different. And since that MRP is also in the book, on the very last page, its differences weren't typed out separately.

Dumb question: Kyofu vs. Face Me!

I've looked for about an hour now (that's on dial-up, folks), and I can't seem to find the answer to this one:

Timing on Chi-Death. Does a personality whose chi is reduced/replaced by zero die immediately, or do they have a "window" of reaction time to try and raise their chi so that they don't croak?

"If a Personality's Chi drops to 0, destroy the Personality." [GE p. 29] There is no "stack" in L5R. Each action resolves fully before the next one begins. [GE p. 47] The only exception is Reactions, and even those will only interrupt an effect if they are Reactions TO that effect. In other words, if some trigger occurs (such as Personalities entering a duel), and two different Reactions are played that both respond to that trigger rather than to each other (Face Me! & Private Dojo), then the Reactions are played and fully resolved one at a time.

Touch of Death

Because you can never target your own bowed personality unless a card specifically allows it.

The card does specifically allow it; it specifically targets bowed personalities.

It needs to do more than that. It needs to clearly override GE rulebook p. 47:

"You cannot target your own bowed Personalities with your actions, except actions that straighten cards."

Touch of Death doesn't straighten a card, doesn't have explicit text making it an exception, and doesn't have implicit text that must be honored in order to make the card usable under any circumstance at all. You cannot use it to kill your own bowed people.

Besides, when you redirect the spell with Ring of Air, it is as if you are now the caster of the spell.

Also untrue.

"You can redirect an action only to something else it could have targeted originally. Should you redirect an action, treat it as though it had been aimed at its new target all along." [ibid.]

The second sentence says nothing about treating the action as coming from you now instead of its original source and player. More to the point, the first sentence addresses the matter directly: any Personality that your opponent could not have aimed Touch of Death at originally is also an illegal choice for whomever is redirecting it.

This is why you can use it to redirect magical Ranged Attacks back at the player's own army.

You can't, actually.

Duel Timing questions

I play and win and Iaijutsu Duel, my oponent plays Wind's Truth, can I negate that reaction with Keen Eyes, as it is played during a duel?

Yes.

Now I am playing with Kyuden Doji, I Iajutsu Challenge with Okakura (personal honor =2), my oponent accepts. As he has the first go on reactions, he plays Kakita Technique with a 3 ersonal honor personality, I proceed to react and switch Okakura with Kurohito exp (4 personal honor). Who gets to focus first?

Your opponent.

A Few Questions

The first two have to deal with Encircled Terrain 1) If I play an Encircled Terrain and then move my only unit out of the battle, will the Encircled still work even though I don't have a unit for it to target?

Yes.

2) If I have a Garrison, can I play Encircled Terrain if I don't have a unit for it to target?

Yes.

3) Do Item Tokens (such as weapon tokens created by Kaiu Forge) count as cards?

No. [GE p. 40]

Soul Sword and Arms Merchant

I use Soul Sword to give someone a weapon token. Zen ruled that it was an item. Do my Arms Merchants now produce 4 gold?

No. See above. It is not an Item CARD.

Encircled Terrain

Another Question about terrain,

I can play Encircled Terrain if I have only unit in the battle and this unit is bowed?

Yes.

I should put this in the rulebook for Winds of Change: Delayed Terrains are exceptions to the rule that you cannot take a targeted action without a target. You can play one regardless of whether you have something in the battle for it to affect and regardless of whether the cards that it CAN affect will still be there when it resolves.

post for 30 April 2003

Can I take reactions to the house of tao putting a ring in play at the beginning of the game? (introspection)

Yes.

Since all you have in play at the time House of Tao puts a ring into play is your Stronghold and Wind, and you haven't drawn your Fate Hand yet, how would you play Introspection? Or are you just ruling that reactions to the House of Tao's ability are legal, even though it's unlikely that there would be one available for it to trigger?

I'm answering in the general sense. You're right, there is no possible way to play a Reaction out of your hand to something that occurs before you draw your first five cards, but it is *technically* legal. There is always the possibility of usable Reactions on Strongholds, Winds, and Sensei.