Rules for 23 December 2004

Your Rules for Thursday, December 23, 2004

Durations vs. additional effects

What is a duration in L5R and what is an additional effect?

Duration is the amount of time an on-going change endures in the game.

Some changes aren't considere to be on-going unless specifically noted - like drawing cards, creating objects (tokens, cards, provinces, etc.), discarding cards, bowing something, straightening something, creating honor gains, creating honor losses, producing gold, and bringing something into play. That might not be an exhaustive list, but I think it covers everything major.

Other changes are considered to be on-going effects - the most typical examples include giving a card a Force Bonus or Chi Penalty. These effects always have durations. If not explicitly noted, they last until the end of the turn. Common explicit durations include "permanently," "while this remains bowed," or "until X happens."

"Additional effects," in Jeff's ruling refers to effects that take effect after the card has already been removed from the game - including both newly played effects and effects of aleady played actions that have delayed resolutions - such as Fury of Hida's "Remove the Followers from the game at the end of the turn," clause.

I would have thought that both Fury of Hida and Geisha Assassin indicate an additional effect on the cards that you created rather than a duration because there different wording for a card that does create followers with an explicit duration - Yoritomo Utaemon.

You are correct. Utemaro's ability has a Duration. Fury of Hida has an "additional effect." There was some miscommunication on this issue. Sorry for the confusion.

Shosuro infiltrator and "original personality"

This followup question was not answered as far as I can see and Jeff's answer still leaves the question of *which* of the N personalities that Shosuro Infiltrator was attached to gets the Shosuro Infiltrator back at the end of the effect's duration

I thought I covered this in my own ruling. Oh well.

Multiple conflicting simultaneous effects. Apply the Cardinal rule. Once the Infiltrator is back in play, any pending effect which try to return it to play will fail due to it already being in play.

So, under normal circumstances the player will simply pick one of the legal Personalities to return it to, return it, and let the other return effects fail.

That should cover everything for Thursday, December 23, 2004. If I missed your question, 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.