Rules for 11 October 2004

Your Rules for Monday, October 11, 2004.

Hey, Marty!

Comments Below:

I asked a question about Tenshu Sensei and Senpet Scimitar on October 5th.

Yahoo message ID 54551 on the archve, title [L5R-CCG] [rules] tenshu sensei + Senpet Scimitar

Essentially, the question was this. Berserker + Senpet Scimitar: does it get an extra +1 on the Tenshu Sensei force bonus for being opposed when you have the Scimitar attached?

[MARTY] Tenshu Sensei gives the opposed Personality a +2F bonus. Since the Personality is opposed and gets a bonus, that bonus is increased by 1 by the Senpet Scimitar, as per the Scimitar's card text.

- Marty Lund Deputy Rules Monkey

<jimandandrealetters@h...>

Scimitar and Small Fry

Situation: I have Shinjo Reizo with a Senpet Scimitar, attacking a Dragon province with a region. He defends with his ubermonk, Satsu. I get a terrain into play, but after Satsu twice plays Chasing Osano-Wo on himself, I decide to reduce the odds a little by playing In Search of the Future. What is Reizo's current force?

In Search of the Future says, "Battle: Lower all Force bonuses for cards currently in this battle to 0 for the rest of the turn, except bonuses from cards in the same unit."

Reizo is in the same unit as the Senpet Scimitar, so the +4 from the Scimitar isn't affected by In Search of the Future, nor is the +2F that Reizo gives himself with each trait.

The Scimitar increases the +2 bonus from Reizo for having a Terrain in play since you played it while Reizo was opposed.

Depending on the order in which Reizo and Satsu assigned or moved to the battle, Reizo will have either 10 or 11 Force.

- If Satsu was already at the Battle when Reizo showed up there, then Reizo is opposed when he gives himself +2F for the Region, and consequently Senpet Scimitar will increase that bonus to +3F. (1 + 4 + 3 + 3 = 11)

- If, however, Reizo gave himself that bonus while unopposed (got there through moving or assigning before Satsu), then the Scimitar will not increase it. (1 + 4 + 2 + 3 = 10)

Rules for 5 October 2004

Anything that affects a card's cost happens before or during the "pay costs" step . Anything that refers to a card entering play happens after, as that trigger does not exist until the cost is satisfied. I don't see an inconsistency. written on the card may be used to satisfy the requirement for relevance. If you are not examining the future, you could not "begin" declaring the action that isnt directly possible to play. Otherwise you could endlessly try to perform gozoku action, only to fail as you cant pay the cost (which comes from a reaction).

Correct, although I don't see how you can derive that from what you quoted. You cannot declare an action in L5R that you know you can't pay for. (We clean up this little weirdness in Lotus, but for now, it's worked for ten years, so we're still using it.)

On a somewhat related note.

Wouldnt a ruling saying "Reactions to declaring, targeting or paying the cost of an action are revealed and performed after all costs have been paid." simplify things? This would essentially make declaring,targeting and paying costs a single atomic operation.

Overall, it introduces a lot more complexity than it removes. There would be Reactions that aren't played when they say they're played. If more than one Reaction, total, is involved in any purchase, There would be simultaneous actions that the active player would need to put in sequence. This would make all Reactions that produce Gold or reduce costs completely useless. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "revealing" a Reaction.

Rules

I hate to raise this issue again but I can't find the ruling on Gozoku Sensei in the Accumlated rulings. I play with an English teacher, who is adamant that the literal reading of the card is....

You may not play this card if you have a Wind.

Political Open: Discard the Favor to bow a Personality. He may not straighten until after you discard the Favor again or his controller pays 6 Gold as an Open action.

Political Reaction: Once per turn, before any player gains or loses Honor, bow your Stronghold or one of your Courtiers to reduce the loss or gain by 2.

And that the Open: means that when he pays his 6 gold the personality may straighten right then. Cost to bow - discard favor Effect - Personality bowed Cost to straighten - 6 gold Effect - personality straightened

The detail is because the word until is used. This indicates that when either favor is discarded or 6 gold payed conditions are met to straighten.

This is not correct. Gozoku Sensei forbids the victim from straightening until the during expires - either through use of the Imperial Favor or the payment of 6 Gold. Until that point, effects which would straighten the victim are Negated. They don't hang around waiting until the prohibition ends, they are simply Negated and gone for good.

After that point, the Personality may straighten as normal. However, cards do not just straighten because we'd like them to. You need a card or rulebook effect to instruct you to straighten the Personality. Gozoku Sensei isn't one of those.

performing Gempukku

If I play Gempukku on a personality, is that personality considered to be performing the Gempukku? (Gempukku must target a personality who fulfills the Human, Non-Samurai, Non-Shugenja requirements, after all.)

No.

Gempukku does not "require you to target your own Personalities or Follower who meet certain conditions," as per page 71 of the Diamond Edition Rulebook, because you can use it on other player's Personalities, and even Personalities in Provinces - none of which are "your own Personalities."

Shrine of Fu Len

You pay costs then resolve effects correct?

If so then I have a question on Shrine of Fu-Leng which reads:

Unique. Shadowlands Limited: Bow Shrine of Fu Leng and destroy one of your Personalities to search your Dynasty discard pile for a destroyed Oni Personality and put it into play without Gold cost.

Since you pay costs first, can I destroy an oni personality and then search my discard pile to find that oni I just destroyed and put it in play?

'An Action targets something if it uses the work "target" or if any player sometimes has to choose what it affects.' (Diamond Edition Rulebook, page 72)

If you have more than 1 Oni in your Dynasty discard pile, you have to choose what Shrine of Fu Leng affects. Ergo, Shrine of Fu Leng targets the Oni it brings back.

'You must choose all targets when you announce an action, before you being paying any costs.' (Diamond Edition Rulebook, page 73)

So you have to target an Oni Personality to bring back in your Dynasty discard pile - before - paying the cost of Shrine of Fu Leng.

Shrine of Fu Leng is confusing because it says, "to search your Dynasty discard pile," which is just plain incorrect templating.

Note that cards in DECKS (and only cards in decks - not in Discard Piles, Hands, Provinces, or anywhere else) are NOT considered to be targeted by Actions that say to Search the Deck for a card. (Accumulated Rulings, "Targeting")

Jusai's Tokens

Since Jusai's action is specific, "Jusai cannot ... while he has any ... he cannot," I am thinking the Fire tokens are simply +1/+1 tokens. If I spread them around, Jusai straightens that much faster and the other Personalities just inherit token bonuses. If the other player is correct, why aren't the Scorpion Gozoku players using him yet? :)

Once Jusai uses his ability, he permanently restricts himself from Straightening when he has an Fire Tokens on him (even Fire Tokens he didn't create with his ability!).

This restriction does not extend any further than Jusai. If you move Fire Tokens onto other Personalities, they can straighten as normal, just like any other situation in which they've gained some random +1/+1 Tokens.

That should cover everything from Monday, October 11, 2004. If I missed your question that was unrelated to Dawn of the Empire, please repost it with the flag [RULES] as part of your Clear and Distinct subject line. I'll get back to you at the first opportunity.