Rules for 4 November 2004
A rules digest from the L5R CCG rules team, copied from the mailing list archive for Oracle of the Void. The askers' names are left out. Rulings are as they stood on this date; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
Your Rules for Thursday, November
Moved and sent
When a card moves home from a Province, is it considered being "sent home" in all cases?
Only when it is considered to be "moving." Neither assigning to a Battle nor returning to the Fief when a Battle ends are considered to be "moving," thusly units involved in such are not "sent home."
Some older cards might understandably be worded or function a little bit differently, but you shouldn't have to worry about anything in Diamond.
bonus/penalty
No values in the game except Family Honor and Honor requirements can drop under 0. Rulebook, p.62
- Is this true of Focus Values as well?
Yes.
If I focus a 1, I get a bonus to the applicable stat. If I focus a 0, do I still get a bonus? (That is to say, is a bonus of 0 still a bonus?)
You still get a bonus, because the rulebook says you get a bonus. It is merely a +0 bonus, though, and would have to be increased in some fashion to actually change the stat's value.
Dark Ring of Fire reduces the focus value of a card by 2. If I focus a 1, do I get a stat penalty of 1 or do I get a "bonus" of 0? (I.e. can focus values go below 0?)
The card's stat gets reduced by 2, to a minimum of 0. The game gives you a bonus based on that stat - a "+0 bonus." That bonus could be increased directly by other effects.
Keep in mind the difference between modifying the Bonus and modifying the Focus Value of the Card, too. While one is generated off the other, they are completely distinct once the effect is generated. You'd need a 2 point increase in the Focus Value of the card to get it above 0. (1 - 2 + 2 = 1). You'd only need a 1 point increase to the Bonus Effect created by Focusing, however (0 + 1 = 1).
Finding the Voice of the Emperor
if i use Finding the Harmony on a ring if have in play because of the Voice, it will stay in play ad infinitum, and the ring that subsequently went back into my hand gets reshuffled, correct?
Finding the Harmony puts the Ring into play until something else removes it from play - ad infinitum if nothing else happens - sure.
Why would you reshuffle the returned Ring, though? Unless I'm misreading something, the Voice of the Emperor's action only makes you do the "discard or reshuffle" effect while the Ring is in play. Once the Ring leaves play (via Finding the Harmony in this case), the effect's duration has expired.
That should cover everything for Thursday, November 4, 2004 unrelated to Web of Lie. If I missed your question, please repost it with the flag [RULES] as part of a Clear and Distinct subject line. I'll get back to you at the first opportunity.