Rules for 26 June 2004

Your Rules for Saturday, June 26, 2004

So When is "After Taking"?

"Taking an Action" constitutes the full process of playing an Action:

1.) Declare the Action

2.) Select Targets

3.) Pay Costs

4.) Resolve Effects

You are "Taking an Action" throughout this entire process. When that process ends, you can take Actions that happen "after resolving" that Action.

Ok I've got this down pretty much pat now but...

So when is "after taking" ?

Is that after paying costs or is it after effects?

After the Pay Costs step is finished (including Reactions therein).

The Action is now "Taken," "Cast", and "Played" as is appropriate.

You drop anything here that says, "After a player takes," "After taking," "After X is taken," in reference to the Action, unless your response has some other unfulfilled or unconfirmed requirement (IE - "causes you an honor loss" when a decision has yet to be made).

The above suggests to me that "after taking" would be the same as "after resolving" but previous rulings make me think that it is after paying costs.

Yes, it comes after paying costs. I can see how that's linguistically difficult. The differences and similarities between the Perfect Tense (It is done and over with) and Imperfect Tense (I was doing something, and I may still be doing it) are one of the things that drive people up a wall.

Rules (Ruby of Iuchiban XP)

Could Jama Suru be used in this case? Can Jama Suru sacrifice one of his followers to be able to cast Turn of Fortune?

Oh man, that's weird. I'm not sure that Jama Suru XP was originally supposed to add a cost to the Kiho he was going to cast. I forget whether all Kiho had bowing as a cost back in Soul of the Empire at the end of Jade.

I'll ask Jeff about that one and get back to you.

Does my opponent have to discard a card to Egg one of my personalities if I am playing with Razor's Edge Dojo? To Ruby one? To Exp. Ruby one

The Egg of P'an Ku is a Limited Action that targets the Personality it copies. They will have to discard for it.

Ruby of Iuchiban has an Action that targets a Personality. They will have to discard for it.

Ruby of Iuchiban XP. adds an additional cost to the Action of attaching the Ruby. They have to target the victim Personality with their attachment Action to pay the cost. They will have to discard for it.

Stronghold traits that pay costs.

Did the PTB ever get around to saying wether or not the Castle of the Wasp and Shinden Horiuchi are used up if the action gets cancelled? I didn't see it in the rules digests, but I might have missed it.

As it stands now, no, they are not "used up" if the Action they were used for is Canceled.

Folks are discussing how this should be dealt with in the future, though, so it might change for Lotus rules.

shadow's claw and reactions instead of focusing

if I play shadow's claw in a duel, and one fo the cards is a reaction 'instead of focusing" like smoke and mirrors, can I play it? and what if the reaction is in my hand?

No. Shadow's Claw does not say, "Focus that card or play that card if it is a Reaction that you can take instead of Focusing." Smoke and Mirrors does not say, "You may play this card from the top of your Fate Deck as if it were in your hand." You never get the card you focus with Shadow's Claw into your hand to play it instead of focusing.

Ergo, the Smoke and Mirrors you find with Shadow's Claw gets Focuses as a OFV Focus Card, rather than a Reaction.

If you had a Smoke and Mirrors in your hand, however, then you could drop it instead of focusing with one of the 5 cards examined during Shadow's Claw.

1 - Can you explain the difference between scrutiny's sweet sting and well prepared, concerning the moment when the choice has to be made ? We've seen so many posts about the subject, it's quite confusing...

No difference there. Pick "bow" or "straighten" when you declare that you are playing Well Prepared. Pick "Samurai," "Shugenja," or "Courtier" when you declare that you are playing Well Prepared.

Select targets during the Targeting Step. If that Personality lacks the chosen trait or is already bowed / unbowed when you try to resolve the effect on him or her, the effect will just fail since it has nothing to do.

2 - Same for Ikoma Sume : when I asked a few weeks ago, I was told that Sume could use his reaction while in battle, and now I understand by the last posts that he can't ?!

That one was a little confusing, even for me, but we've got it square now.

Ikoma Sume can use his Reaction, but his Reaction says "after a battle resolves," and Actions timed that way have to get played after attacking and allied units have returned home bowed from battle. (DE Rulebook, pages 84-85)

If he was an attacking or allied unit during that battle, you'll need some way of keeping him unbowed or straightening him to use his ability. If he was defending, you don't need to jump through any hoops.

3 - Can Decoy be used if its entire unit is about to be destroyed (Strength in Numbers, To Do What We must, battle resolution) to prevent the personality's destruction ?

Yes. Decoy says, "Reaction: Before this Personality is destroyed, bow and destroy Decoy to negate the destruction." While it is still "before" the destruction of the unit takes place, Decoy is still around to use its Reaction.

Essence of Gaki-do question

Hi List ,

Hi Gary!

a question about the 2F/2C personalities: whet is their personal honor ?

When a card has no defined value in a particular stat, the value of that stat is 0. (Diamond Edition Rulebook, page 63, paragraph 1 in italics)

ie: if I have Ki-Rin in play, peeps with 0,4,5 personal honor cannot be in the battle.

The Ki-Rin says, "While Ki-Rin is unbowed and honorable, Personalities with a Personal Honor of zero, four, or five cannot assign or move into armies attacking your Provinces."

Essence of Gaki-do neither moves nor assigns any Personalities. It instead Creates them in the Battle, right on the spot. Consequently, the Ki-Rin won't get in Essence of Gaki-do's way.

costs and cancellation

If the maws tactician send home battle ability is cancelled, eg with flee can the ability be used again, or has the cost of using the tactician trait been used and cannot?

Using the Tactician Trait is not a cost. In fact, you really don't "use the Tactician trait" anymore. Instead, actions that say to use the Tactician Trait merely require than a Tactician perform them as a Tactical Action.

There is a restriction on page 92 of the Diamond Edition Rulebook, "A Personality may perform only one Tactical action per battle."

Page 72 states that canceled Actions do not count towards any maximum number of uses per turn / battle / game / whathaveyou.

So, in short, the Maw can indeed take another Tactical Action if his first is Canceled, including his built-in one.

That should be everything for Saturday. If I missed your question, please repost it with a clear and distinct subject line containing the [RULES] flag. I'll get back to you at the first opportunity.

Thanks folks,