April 26th, 2004
A lot of things that used to be in the FAQ aren't here anymore. Unclear rules have been reworded and incorporated into the booklet you'll find in Clan Decks, and errata to particular cards has been moved either into the rulebook or onto the cards themselves.
Section One: The Fundamentals
Section Two: Clarifying the Rules
Section Three: Battles
Section Four: Clans and Cards
Section Five: New Business
Section Six: Errata
Section Seven: Contact Information
Section Eight: Obligatory Legal Boilerplate
Q: That title sounds familiar. Was it influenced by anything?
A: The Book Of Five Rings, by Miyamoto Musashi. Imagine warring clans in feudal Japan, then throw in wizards, dragons, and all sorts of legendary creatures. Some of our other influences were Sun Tzu's The Art Of War, the Tao Te Ching, and a bookshelf of Japanese and Chinese history and mythology.
Q: How can I get some?
A: You can get Legend of the Five Rings at most Adventure Game stores, some comic book stores, and some mass market outlets. The Diamond Edition of the basic set is currently on sale, picking up the storyline five years after Emperor Toturi III ascended to the throne. The next expansion, Wrath of the Emperor, is expected in December. L5R is sold in both semi-sorted Clan Decks, which contain enough cards to play a game, and in smaller Destiny Packs that contain random cards.
Q: "Semi-sorted"? Sounds wasteful. I think I'll just buy Destiny Packs so all my cards are different.
A: It's a bad idea to buy Destiny Packs exclusively. You need at least one Clan Deck. First of all, the Clan Decks have a Stronghold in them, which you absolutely need when you play, to determine your affiliation and to generate gold and whatnot. Second, the semi-sorting is a good thing: 50 of the cards in each Deck are deliberately chosen so they'll play well right out of the box. The remaining cards, which include most of your rares and uncommons, are random. Third, the Clan Decks have rulesheets in them. Finally, the only way to get certain nifty Faction-specific cards is to pick up Clan Decks. These cards aren't in Destiny Packs.
Q: So does the semi-sorting mean you can play the game from just a Clan Deck?
A: Right. Sealed Deck is a popular tournament format and is not a bad way of learning how to play the game, either, since most of the work of building the deck has been done for you.
Q: What's this koku I keep hearing about?
A: L5R CCG products have a symbol on the packaging somewhere that
looks like this: 
If you collect enough koku, you can mail it in in exchange for neat
L5R-related
merchandise. A list of what you can get for your koku is printed in every issue
of the quarterly Imperial Herald magazine received by our fan club
members. The list is also available on the World Wide Web -- skip ahead to
Section Seven for information on our website. The
Herald
and web site together comprise the only items we officially have available for
koku at any given time.
Q: Why do I have to pay money and join your fan club just to send koku in? That's not fair!
A: Anyone can redeem koku, either by going through our website or using a photocopy of the order form in the Herald. Assembly membership is not required.
Q: Where else can I get koku? And is there anything else I can use?
A: Winning tournaments is one way to earn koku. The old "One Koku" card is worth just that, as are any cards that say they're worth koku. Cards that are misprinted so badly they're unplayable -- like, say, the back is the wrong color, or the image on the front is shifted and cut off -- can also be sent in and are worth 3 koku each. This only applies to gross misprints, not to cards which simply have erroneous or outdated text or stats or which were mispacked with the wrong rarity.
All koku ever printed or issued for any L5R product, even non-CCGs, is valid. It doesn't have to be from Diamond Edition and later, although earlier editions used a different symbol, so don't get confused. We will also accept Plunder from 7th Sea, Ghost Rock from Doomtown, and Dinari from Legend of the Burning Sands. We don't accept any redemption points except these, and we don't accept any Retailer or Distributor points. Finally, koku from the Forbidden Knowledge expansion is no longer worth double.
Q: How do I pay return postage for a koku order if I live outside the United States?
A: For card orders, if you cannot procure U.S. postage, the preferred method is International Reply Coupons. You buy IRCs from your local post office and include them with your order, then we redeem them for the return postage. A typical order can be covered by one IRC plus one for every ten cards or fraction thereof (so, two for a typical order).
Q: What's all that extra stuff in white down at the bottom of the card?
A: Other than the artists' names, which are there to keep them happy and encourage them to draw more pictures for us, that line contains information to assist those trying to collect entire sets or to trade cards with others.
Before the artist name is the abbreviation of the set the card came from: DE = Diamond Edition, RoB = Reign of Blood, and so on. This abbreviation is left off when a card is not new to a set. (The semi-sorted part of Clan Decks often contains cards reprinted from earlier sets to make the deck more playable right from the box.)
After the copyright date is the card's sequence number and the total number of new cards and Strongholds in that set, separated by a rarity symbol. Again, cards that are not truly new in a set will not have a sequence number (though they'll still have a symbol).
That rarity symbol will be one of these:
 |
Common |  |
Uncommon |  |
Rare |  |
Promotional |  |
Clan Deck only |
Q: What is all this I've been hearing about old cards and clans being banned at tournaments?
A: Legend of the Five Rings is a game with a story. As such, there are occasions, like when introducing the game to potential new players or using tournament results to determine future storyline events, when it is desirable to minimize anachronisms in the play of the cards themselves. To this end, AEG designates alternate tournament formats. We cannot stress strongly enough that the decision to run a tournament in a particular format is ENTIRELY UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE TOURNAMENT ORGANIZER. AEG has always, and will continue to, sanction without prejudice or preference all tournaments that do not deviate drastically from the basic rules.
That said, there are two standard Constructed Deck tournament formats:
There is no "Extended Diamond" Format.
Q: When are promotional cards first legal?
A: Brand new promo cards become legal in Constructed Deck tournaments the next time a base set or expansion becomes legal following the promo's first official release date.
Q: When do errata and other rules changes go into effect?
Changes to existing cards, Strongholds, or the rulebook through reprinting take effect as soon as the reprint is released.
Errata will announce when it takes effect.
Q: Where can I find stories on the history of L5R and Rokugan? Is there any location that's combined everything ever written together in one place?
For a number of reasons, there is no one site, official or otherwise, that has gathered together every single scrap of L5R story-related information ever published. A summary-style timeline of important historic events from the Clan Wars through the Four Winds storylines can be found at http://l5r.alderac.com/rpg/feature_history_01.html and http://l5r.alderac.com/rpg/feature_history_02.html. The vast majority of Four Winds stories can be found on our official Fiction web page, http://www.legendofthefiverings.com/fiction/ .
For more potential leads, and a much better analysis of why there is no one site with everything, please check out Zen Faulkes' L5R Intro for Newbies at http://l5r.shorturl.com/zenfaq.html .
Q: What are the big rules changes in Diamond Edition?
A:
Q: Since I can target my own bowed Personalities now, can I target one of my cards to use its abilities when it's bowed?
A: No. There is still the rule on page 54 that abilities on cards and Strongholds are unusable while that card or Stronghold is bowed unless the ability straightens it. Also, deciding which card to play or which ability to use is not a targeting decision, so the new targeting rules in Diamond Edition don't actually apply here.
Q: Can I attach cards from my hand to my bowed Personalities?
A: Yes, you can do that now.
Q: If a Kiho doesn't require the caster to bow, can a bowed Personality cast it?
A: In general, yes. Just make sure the Kiho itself has not been printed or reprinted to require an unbowed caster. Also remember that Spells do not work this way -- the casting Shugenja must be unbowed, even if he doesn't need to bow to cast.
Q: Didn't the rules for the Tactician trait change? It looks like a Tactician can now give a Force bonus to anyone, not just himself.
A: The trait doesn't work any differently than it did in Gold. There is only one Personality involved -- the Personality you target to receive the bonus is the one performing the action. And since this is a Tactical action, he's the one who needs to have the Tactician trait.
(We changed the way the Tactician rules are worded to make it clear that the standard Tactical action of discarding for a Force bonus is not actually written on Tactician cards. Unfortunately, in answering this Frequently Asked Question, we inadvertently created another. It's amazing how often this happens.)
Q: Is the "Soul of" an Experienced Personality also Experienced?
A: "Soul of" Personalities have two different experience levels, one inside the trait and one outside. The experience level inside the "Soul of..." trait only tells you exactly which version the new Personality counts as for deck construction. The Personality is Experienced only if he or she has the "Experienced" trait outside the "Soul of..." phrase.
Q: If one of my cards is "sent home bowed" and I use something like Right Hand of the Emperor to negate the movement, does the bowing effect still happen because it's separate?
A: No. If a card is sent home bowed but it doesn't move, it doesn't bow either. This is an exception to the usual rule that all effects are separate and happen independently. (The rulebook is supposed to clear this up on page 72, but it confusingly says "do not move the card" where it should say "do not bow the card".)
Q: Does the word "then" mean something special when it appears in a card effect? If a card tells me to "do one thing, then do another," will it still have the second effect if the first one doesn't happen?
A: The word "then" only means that the two effects happen one after the other instead of at the same time. Negating the first effect won't necessarily prevent the second from happening.
Q: What happens when a Region or Event gets revealed outside the usual time?
A: It does not resolve or come into play immediately. It just sits there until either it resolves, which happens during its player's next Events Phase if the card is still in the Province, or until it is discarded, which may be caused by a card effect or may be voluntarily done by its player when he discards unbought face-up Dynasty cards at the end of his next Dynasty Phase.
Even if a card gets turned face-up during the Events Phase, it does not resolve instantly if it turned face-up for any reason other than the normal process of checking your Provinces from left to right.
Q: Do innate abilities produce spell effects?
A: No. Only Spells and Kihos do.
Q: Do Reactions count as actions?
A: They don't just "count as" actions, they are actions! Reactions, along with Limited, Open, and Battle actions, are one of the four types of actions in L5R. (But I should remind you here that Reactions do not count against a player's one chance to "take an action or pass" during a battle or an Action Phase.)
Q: Are Kihos their own type of card, or are they Action cards?
A: Kihos are Action cards with the "Kiho" keyword (much like, say, Retainers are Holdings with the "Retainer" keyword). They have their own page in the Overview of Card Types section of the rulebook because they have a distinct appearance.
Q: How long do effects last?
A: Being dishonored lasts forever. Tokens last forever. If a card makes a Personality "swear fealty," that change lasts forever. Focusing in a duel lasts until the duel ends. Effects of Immediate Terrains last only while the Terrain is in play. Formations only produce effects, and their actions can only be used, while they are in play and their "Formed By" requirement is met by cards in their player's army. Effects that last until a certain card straightens also end if it leaves play. All other effects, including those of Delayed Terrains, normally last until the end of the turn they happened in. This applies to all effects, not just stat bonuses.
Also, remember that effects on a card don't end early if the card leaves play. For example, a Personality who died because her Chi was reduced to 0 still has 0 Chi in the discard pile, and if she is returned to play before her Chi penalties wear off, she will immediately die again.
Q: The current player just declared an attack against me. Can I make him go back so I can take some Open actions first?
A: If you have all been formally following the action sequence, with every player in turn either taking an action or clearly passing, then the answer is "No". The Attack Phase can only start once every player has passed in a row, which means you must have passed, which means you deliberately chose, for whatever reason, not to take your action at that time. You can't go back and change your mind now that you have new information on what the current player is planning to do.
On the other hand, if your opponent is rushing things and not waiting for you, you can call him on it and take one action, then let him either pass or act, then either act or pass yourself, and so on until you both formally pass in succession.
Q: Do I use the rules that make bowed cards count for zero Force all the time, or just in the resolution of a battle?
A: All the time. This is important, since there are cards that care about total unit and army Forces outside of resolution, like To Do What We Must and Outmaneuvered by Force.
Q: What is the Force of a Follower when the number has a "+" sign in front of it?
A: Whatever the number is after the "+". That plus means the Follower's Force adds directly to the Personality's own Force instead of adding separately to the unit's total. Either way, that number is still the Force of that individual card.
One subtle but neat result of this is that such a Follower will still end up contributing its Force even if just that Follower is bowed. Being bowed stops Followers from adding to the unit's total Force, but a Follower with a "+" in front of its Force doesn't add to the unit's to begin with -- it adds to the Personality, and that still happens if the Follower is bowed, much the same way as bonuses from bowed Items still add. (Of course, if the Personality is bowed as well, this isn't very helpful.)
Q: Can I use an effect that discards Dynasty cards "from" a Province or targets cards "in" a Province to get rid of Regions and Fortifications?
A: No. Only unplayed Dynasty cards are "in" Provinces. Regions, Fortifications, and any other cards that have been brought into play and attached to a Province are "on" it, not "in" it.
Focus on... Faction Traits
Q: Where are the rules for Political actions in the rulebook? I've found the part that describes how to tell if an action is Political, but not what it means.
A: There are several recurring traits in the game that don't have special rules of their very own. These traits only serve as extra ways for cards to interact with one another. Some of the more common traits used like this are Political, Elemental, Maho, and Siege.
Q: Does something like a Fire or a Void action automatically count as an Elemental action too?
A: No. The "Elemental" trait must be explicitly present.
Q: If my opponent plays a card that tells me to "bow or dishonor one of my Personalities," can I do something like choose to bow someone who's already bowed, or choose to dishonor someone with an Item that says, "This Personality cannot be dishonored"?
A: Typically, no and no. If your opponent plays a card that forces you to do something or to choose between alternatives, you cannot select an option that is guaranteed to fail unless you have no other choice. You are allowed to choose an option and then negate some or all of its effects with Reactions.
Watch for the exact wording of the card in question, though. If you play a card that says, "Your opponent must bow one of his Holdings," he is not allowed to pick one of his bowed Holdings. However, if your card said, "Your opponent must target one of his Holdings. Bow that Holding," he could.
Q: What happens if another player tries to make one of my bowed Personalities issue a challenge? The Diamond Edition rules don't allow that!
A: The exact rules allow other players to cause your bowed Personalities to issue challenges. They are only forbidden from performing actions for you that do that.
Q: How do the Experienced cards in 1,000 Years of Darkness work?
A: For deck construction, the KYD version is a separate level. It's legal, for example, to have both the Experienced and the ExperiencedKYD versions of a card in your deck, even if the numbers are the same.
With regards to overlaying, the KYD doesn't matter, only the number. You can overlay an Experienced 2KYD Personality on top of the Experienced one, then lay the Experienced 3 version over that. You can't overlay the Experienced 2KYD over the Experienced 2, though, or vice versa.
The Uniqueness rule during the game works just like always: you cannot play or overlay a card if that would cause there to be two cards in play that both have the Unique trait and the exact same title.
Q: I'm being attacked. Am I required to defend my Provinces?
A: No. You may stand aside and let the attack through. You are also free to defend unattacked Provinces.
Q: The rulebook says Battle and Open actions can both be used during battle, but it also says they might not be allowed. That's confusing! How can I tell when I can take an action and when I can't?
A: During an attack, every Battle and Open action is checked against two special rules, called the Rule of Presence and the Rule of Relevance. If the action fails either check, it's not legal. In a nutshell, these two rules basically say, "You can't take a Battle or an Open action unless both it and you are somehow involved in the battle going on right now." That's all there is to it, really. The rest is nitty-gritty details defining exactly what "involved" means.
There are two ways to meet the Rule of Presence. The first is by controlling a unit in the current battle. Any unit will do. It doesn't matter if it's bowed or unbowed, and it doesn't matter if it has nothing at all to do with the action you want to use. It does have to be yours, though. In multiplayer games, your allies' units don't fill the Rule of Presence for you, nor do yours satisfy it for them.
The second way to satisfy the Rule of Presence is if the action itself is going to provide you with a unit in the current battle, whether by moving one in from elsewhere, creating one out of nothing, or some even more exotic method. If it does this, you don't need a unit there beforehand. One small but important side note: gaining that unit has to be something that the action always does. If it depends on a player choice or some built-in random factor, it's not good enough.
The Rule of Relevance is met if the action comes from, targets, or directly affects something at the battle (including cards and tokens in either army, the Province under attack, cards attached to that Province, or cards put into play only for the duration of the battle, such as Terrains); or if it brings something into the battle; or if it affects the battle itself. Unlike the Rule of Presence, it doesn't matter who controls the things that your desired action involves. Also, it's worth pointing out that "target" and "affect" don't mean the same thing! Some actions do one but not the other. Some target one card but affect a different one (like Konetsu, who targets another Personality but affects himself). Either targeting or affecting alone is good enough to make an action Relevant.
An example of a card that "affects the battle itself" would be one that imposes additional costs or restrictions on certain kinds of action for the rest of the battle (and just for the rest of the battle). And notice that targeting or affecting something like other players or the Imperial Favor does not make an action Relevant. It has to fit one of the other conditions to be legal.
As a final and separate matter, some actions require that the acting card always be in the battle itself due to how they're worded. If an action -- any action, even a Reaction -- refers to an "opposing" card, or "this battle", or something like "any other unit in the battle" or "another attacking Personality", that action's card has to be present in the current battle even if the Rules of Presence and Relevance don't call for it. (This only applies when the card is one that can actually be in battles. If something like a regular Holding talks about "opposing" cards, it really means "any card opposing one of your other cards", not "any card opposing this Holding", and if it says "this battle" it means the same thing as "the current battle".)
Q: So I can't play a defensive Terrain card if I don't send any units?
A: That's right. Terrain cards are ordinary Battle actions in this regard.
Q: Wait... Don't all Battle actions require that the card be present?
A: No. Only actions with a special phrase like "opposing" or "this battle" impose this restriction. The action's type doesn't matter.
Q: Someone told me Open actions are always playable, even if I don't have anyone in the battle.
A: You were misinformed. Being an Open instead of a Battle action only means you can use it in the Action Phase as well as the Attack Phase.
Q: What if an action is on a Fortification or Region?
A: These card types don't get special breaks. You cannot use any Open or Battle actions on them if you don't have any real live units with them. Not only that, there's an extra rule that Battle actions on these two types of cards can only be used when their own battle is happening.
Remember that you can always use Reactions, and that traits like "This Province gains +4 strength." are always "on" and don't need to be activated.
Q: Brand new questions now. Imagine that two of my Provinces, A and B, are attacked. My defense at Province A was successful. The Attacker is now resolving the battle at Province B. Can I use my unit-moving card to move a used defender from the first battle into this one?
A: Yes. Although all attacking and allied units bow and return to their controllers' homes as soon as the battle they were in is over, the Defender's own units do not bow at all, and do not leave their assigned Provinces until the entire Attack Phase is over.
Q: Can units move into battles that have already finished? If they can, what happens when one does? Do we fight the old battle over?
A: Units may move into battles that have already finished. Units moved into already-resolved battles don't fight there a second time. You don't recompute Force totals just because somebody showed up too late to do anything but bury bodies. Strategically, this is one way to save a valuable Personality whose army is about to be eliminated.
If an attacking or allied unit is moved into an already-resolved battle, it will still become bowed, though it will wait and bow along with the cards in the last normal battle of that Attack Phase.
Q: Okay, we've finally resolved the battles at both Provinces A and B. My opponent wants to resolve a battle at Province C now, but none of us have any units there. Is he allowed?
A: Not only is he allowed, he's obliged to resolve it at some point before that Attack Phase can end. Each time you're attacked, there will be exactly one battle at each of your Provinces, even ones with no units at all. The Attacker must resolve them all, although he can do them in any order he chooses.
Q: Can the Defender turn a battle into a naval invasion?
A: Yes! The rules were deliberately worded to allow that. The rule about the Naval army's commander taking the first action doesn't apply (and wouldn't change anything if it did, since the players will act in that order anyway in this case), but the other two special rules still hold. This is a good way to prevent someone from using a Sneak Attack against you.
Q: I have a card that refers to Battle actions. Does that mean only actions with the "Battle" keyword, or does it mean any action used while a battle is happening?
A: Only actions with the "Battle" keyword.
Q: My opponent has an 8 Force samurai in a battle against me, but he's bowed. Can I kill him with a strength 2 ranged attack? I think I can. He is bowed, so his Force is 0.
A: You can't. Although the Force total of his unit -- and the Force that that unit adds to his army -- is 0, as an individual card, his Force is still 8. Since ranged attacks care about card Force, a ranged attack below strength 8 won't kill him.
Even when a unit is just one Personality card with nothing attached, there's still a distinction between individual card Force and total unit Force. Some cards and game effects, like To Do What We Must and the Resolution Segment at the end of a battle, care about one, and some, like Test of Might and ranged attacks, care about the other. You need to read the card or the rulebook carefully and decide which kind of Force it refers to.
Q: The City of Lightning is a "Mantis Clan" Stronghold. If I use it, are "Yoritomo's Alliance" Personalities considered part of my clan? I'd like to buy them for 2 Gold less or for Honor, if I can.
A: You can. They are, in fact, aligned with you. "Mantis Clan" and "Yoritomo's Alliance" are completely equivalent. Any time you see one phrase, you can replace it with the other. (There are one or two old cards that work with only one of those two traits, but they're exceptions to the rule and are clearly worded as exceptions.)
Q: If I'm playing with Kyuden Doji, and it's bowed, can I still bow my samurai to enter a duel instead of one of my other Personalities?
A: No. As with cards, actions on bowed Strongholds cannot be used, even when they don't require bowing the Stronghold as a cost, unless the action's effects include straightening the Stronghold. Kyuden Doji is worded in such a way that its Reaction is an ability of the Stronghold itself, not of your Personalities. When it's bowed, you can't use its Reaction.
Q: What about the Yogo Towers?
A: The Towers of the Yogo are worded differently: they add an ability to your Samurai. And they do so by way of a trait. Since traits do not "turn off" when a card or Stronghold is bowed, your Scorpion Clan Samurai always have their special Battle action, whether your Stronghold is bowed or not.
Q: On Castle of the Wasp, what does the phrase "from exactly one of your attacking cards" mean?
A: It means uncombined. It does not preclude a ranged attack made by one card and modified with another.
Q: With the House of Tao, can I wait until I've drawn my starting hand before finding and playing a Ring?
A: No. You must search for and play your Ring "after all players reveal Strongholds," and in L5R, "after" and "before" mean "immediately after/before".
Q: Can I use Morning Glory Castle to put a Personality into a Province that does not have a Dynasty card in it?
A: Yes, if it's empty simply because you've run out of Dynasty cards. The Castle tells you to target "one of your Provinces" -- that can be any of them -- and then says, "Discard a card from that Province and fill it with the targeted Personality". Those are separate effects. The filling effect does not care if the discarding effect did not happen.
Morning Glory Castle will not let you put a card into a Province that cannot hold cards, such as one with Togashi's Shrine.
Q: Are the Elemental Rings reprintings, or are they new cards? Can I use earlier versions to get their old effects?
A: They are reprintings. Their old play conditions and game effects are no longer valid in any official format.
Q: What about the Winds?
A: All the Winds are new cards, save for Black Heart of the Empire, which is considered a reprinting of Daigotsu. In the Open format, you may play with any of the nine.
Q: Do I need to possess the Imperial Favor in order to use the second action on my Wind?
A: No. That also means it doesn't count as a use of the Favor.
Q: What about the actions on the five unique Wind-related Holdings in Winds of Change (Court Chambers, Kyuden Tonbo, Oblivion's Gate, The Shogun's Barracks, Tsudao's Chambers)?
A: The answer is the same: if you do not have to discard the Favor as a cost of the action, you can use the action when you don't have the Favor.
Q: Is Wedge a Force bonus? Can I reduce it to 0 with In Search of the Future?
A: By the Most Recent Printing rule, all versions of Wedge provide a Force bonus. (The previous printing worked differently.) Reactions to Force bonuses, such as Overconfidence, may be played in response to this gain when it happens.
In Search of the Future is not a useful strategy against it, though, because In Search of the Future is a Battle action that only affects bonuses already present, while Wedge does not add its bonus until the Resolution Segment begins -- and in that stage of the attack, Battle actions like In Search are no longer legal.
Q: Can I use a card like Feign Death to bring a Wedged Personality back to life after Wedge's effect kills him?
A: No. Feign Death targets the Personality you wish to return to play. Wedge destroys the Personality "when the battle ends" and prohibits you from targeting him with actions until "after" that time.
Q: Do Onisu count as Oni?
A: Not unless they also say "Oni". You can't use a piece of a trait as another trait.
Q: Is Iuchiban a Clan Champion?
A: No. He is just a Champion.
Q: What can Fall on Your Knees cancel?
A: Fall on Your Knees can cancel any Reaction played at any time during the Battle Action Segment, including those played "when" or "after a battle begins" or "before the Defender's first action," such as Sneak Attack. It can also cancel Reactions to Delayed Terrain effects, since Delayed Terrains resolve just before the Battle Action Segment ends. It cannot cancel a Reaction played "before a battle begins", nor can it cancel anything once the Resolution Segment starts, such as a Feign Death played in response to a unit in the losing army dying. It certainly can't cancel any Reactions played "after a battle" or "after battle resolution".
Q: Obsidian and Jade says, "That Personality cannot assign or move to a battle with other Personalities, and other Personalities may not assign or move to a battle with that Personality." Does that mean it's illegal for other players to assign defenders against the Personality I played this card on?
A: No. Those restrictions apply only to units on the same side as that Personality -- units trying to assign to a battle "with" it.
Q: Was something left off the Experienced Porcelain Mask of Fu Leng? It says to remove a porcelain token every turn, but doesn't say how to gain them! And what happens if I can't remove any?
A: There's no misprint. That text is there solely in case you overlay the Mask over the non-Experienced version, so it still weakens over time. If you play the Experienced Mask directly, it does not get any porcelain tokens to start with.
Note that the Experienced version is not destroyed when it has no tokens, so whether you overlay it or play it by itself, once there are no tokens on it, you simply stop removing them.
Q: Vengeful Dead says, "This Event resolves each time it's revealed, for all players." Does that mean every player gets to kill a Personality each time the Event appears anywhere?
A: No. That line only clarifies that Vengeful Dead does not follow the rule that each Event can resolve only once per game.
Q: How does Barren Fields work?
A: If there are more unbowed attacking cards than the Attacker has unbowed Gold-producing Holdings, the Attacker bows attacking cards until these numbers are equal. Then, if there are more unbowed defending cards than the Defender has unbowed Gold-producing Holdings, the Defender bows defending cards until these numbers are equal.
Q: Can I play Retribution twice against the same attack?
A: Yes. It's hard to visualize at first, since Retribution takes so long to do what it does, but once the whole extra Retribution-created Attack Phase is over, you're back to where you started: an attack against you has just finished, you took the opportunity to react, and now the player to your left gets one chance to react, and so on, in turn order, until all of you decline to react in succession. Until that happens, all Reactions taken "after an Attack Phase in which you were the Defender" are still legal -- including another Retribution.
Q: I want to use Isawa Moriko to move one of my opponent's units. Can I? And does she have to be in the battle?
A: There are no restrictions on Moriko herself that she can only move your own units or that she has to be in the current battle, so, in general, the answers to these questions are "Yes" and "No".
But...
Isawa Moriko interacts more often with the Rules of Presence and Relevance than perhaps any other card in L5R history, and often one of those rules will restrict how Moriko can be used in a particular situation.
With Moriko, there are three distinct cases that come up:
In Case #1, the only legal use for Moriko is to move one of your own units into the current battle from another one.
In Case #2, you can move a unit belonging to any player between the current battle and one of the other battles, in either direction.
In Case #3, you can move a unit belonging to any player from any battle to any other battle.
Q: If two units move into a battle together, can one of them use Slaughter the Scout to kill the other?
A: No. Slaughter the Scout can only be used by a Personality who was already at the destination Province when the other unit moved in.
Focus on... Show of Good Faith
Focus on... Overwhelmed
Focus on... Field of Glorious Slaughter
Focus on... In Search of the Future
This card received a significant change in wording in Diamond over previous printings. Many older FAQs and rulings differ from those below and are no longer accurate.
Q: My opponent has a Samurai (or a Courtier) involved in an honor loss. Can I play Dirty Politics before he has the chance to commit seppuku?
A: Seppuku must be done immediately when the Samurai first performs the loss-causing action, gets targeted by it, or (if the honor loss is conditional) makes the decision that will result in the loss. On the other hand, Dirty Politics is not played until immediately before the loss itself happens. The opportunity to commit seppuku will invariably arise first. Remember, when two Reactions respond to two slightly different things, the Reaction to the first thing will always get played before the Reaction to the second thing. (Although the form of seppuku available to Samurai and Courtiers is not a Reaction, it follows the same timing rules.)Q: What is "a normal Battle or Open action"? I need to know for Lotus at Dusk. And how many actions can I take after playing it? Two or three?
A: Your normal action is the one you get from your one opportunity to take an action or pass. Nothing else counts, not even the extra action you gain after playing a Formation. If you play Lotus at Dusk as your normal action, you may take two more actions after it -- one from its text, and one for the inherent extra action that playing a Formation grants. If you play it some other way, you only get one.
Q: I'm playing Shinden Horiuchi. Do all my Spell cards always count as Items, like when they're in my discard pile?
A: They are both Spells and Items while they are "yours". That means "controlled by you," which requires them to be in play. They are not Items while in your deck, discard pile, or hand. Bringing a Spell into play does quality for Reactions to playing an Item, however, such as the one on Shinden Horiuchi itself.
Q: Does Corrupt Officials stop Holdings from producing Gold?
A: Corrupt Officials only makes abilities unusable. Remember, only things starting with "Limited:," "Open:," "Battle:," or "Reaction:" are abilities. Most Gold-producing effects on Holdings are not abilities and are unaffected by Corrupt Officials.
Q: I have a shugenja with the "Water" trait on one of her actions. Does that mean she has the "Water" trait and counts as a Water shugenja?
A: No. The only time the traits of a card's actions are expanded and treated as traits of the card itself is when you're dealing with Action cards.
Q: Let's say my Shugenja really is a Water Shugenja. If she casts Renewed Energy, does this straighten every Personality in play?
A: No. The Spell applies to "each player" "in turn order" "beginning with the player to your left". Just like with Occult Murders and Rain of Blood, this does not continue around the table indefinitely. Once it has applied to each player, the effect is done. If the caster is not a Water Shugenja, there is a possibility of the Spell's effect ending early, but even in the best cases it cannot straighten more than one Personality per player.
Q: Speaking of poorly worded Spells... What's the deal with Heart of Bushido? Wouldn't using it kill the casting Shugenja and end all its benefits as soon as they begin?
A: The final "Then" clause refers to what happens when the Shugenja stops being bowed or in play. It is not an immediate effect of casting the Spell.
Q: Can I cast Essence of Gaki-Do when I have no units in the current battle? Can I cast it during an Ambush?
A: Yes and yes. It is a Battle action that will give you units in the current battle, so it's allowed even when you have none. It is legal during Ambush because you are not moving units -- you are creating them.
Q: Can a Personality who can attach Spells but not Items attach Inazuma Blade?
A: No. The Personality must be able to attach both Spells and Items -- as well as have room free for a Weapon -- to attach this card.
Q: For Strength In Numbers, must all three cards have the same trait in common, or do I just need three cards that all have a keyword from somewhere in the list?
A: There must be one common keyword possessed by all three cards.
Q: My opponent searched through his deck for a card that needs to meet a certain condition, like being a Spell or having a certain Focus value. Does he need to show me the card to prove he didn't cheat?
A: Only if the card he used to do the search says so. In tournaments, if you question your opponent's integrity, you may ask a judge or tournament official to verify that the retrieved card is legitimate.
Focus on... Rend the Soul
Regarding the card's Battle action:
Focus on... Ranged Attacks
Rulebook
Only cards can bow. Pure tokens cannot be bowed by effects and cannot bow to pay costs. Things that count as both tokens and cards follow the rules for cards.
A player can only assign units that are in his home.
Previous Editions
The House of Tao: In game formats where the earlier version of this Stronghold is legal, either version may be played verbatim. The original version retains its original statistics and its Monk affiliation.
Overconfidence: Is legal in Diamond Storyline Simulation games. [MRP]
1,000 Years of Darkness
Gifts and Favors: The ability now reads,
"Reaction: During your End Phase, if you've brought no
Gold-producing Holdings
into play this turn, bow your Stronghold to search your deck, then face-down
Provinces, for this card. Put the first Gifts and Favors you find into play
bowed and shuffle your deck. If you find none, you lose the
game." [MRP]
The Fall of Otosan Uchi
Tsuruchi Hiro was accidentally reprinted with a Chi of 4. This is an error. His Chi is still only 3. [MRP]
Vengeful Dead: The phrase "another player's card effect" in the first sentence should instead read, "another player's Kolat, Ninja, or Assassin action". [errata]
Private Dojo: The Reaction requires bowing the Private Dojo as a cost. [errata]
Heaven & Earth
Akodo Rokuro: He must also bow as a cost of his Reaction. [MRP]
Kanashimi: Replace "After a player draws a card outside his or her End Phase" with "After a player draws a card outside his End Phase due to his own card or Stronghold effect".
Noh Theater Troupe: This card is Singular. [errata]
Shinjo Guan: His Reaction is used "Once per attack", not "Once per battle". [errata]
Wholeness of Self: Its effect does not apply to focusing in duels. [errata].
Winds of Change
Corrupted Dojo: This card is distinct from the Corrupted Dojo in Fire & Shadow. [errata]
The New Order: The increase in Family Honor required is permanent. [errata]
Diamond Edition
Armor of Earth: Printed Gold cost no longer changes while you control the Ring of Earth. [errata]
Carrier Pigeon: May target a unit that was prohibited from assigning only by rulebook restrictions, such as because its Personality was bowed. [MRP]
Gunsen of Water: Printed Gold cost no longer changes while you control the Ring of Water. Also, add "If this unit has not been in any battle during its resolution this Attack Phase," to the beginning of its ability. [errata]
Koto: Add the Unique trait. [errata]
Kuni Tansho's ability should read as follows:
Battle: Bow Tansho and discard a Fate card to force an opposing player to
discard a random card from his hand. [MRP]
Kyuden Ikoma: You must also bow one of your Lion Clan Personalities in the current battle as an additional cost of the action. [MRP]
Mempo of the Void: Printed Gold cost no longer changes while you control the Ring of the Void. [errata]
Ratling Village: The Followers it creates are tokens. [errata]
Regions of Rokugan: All costs of playing the Region must still be paid. [errata]
Ring of the Void: Bowing a Personality and revealing the Ring are costs. [errata]
Touching the Soul: Bowing the caster is a cost. [errata]
Underhand of the Emperor: First ability should start with, "Discard the Imperial Favor to name a Political Action card." Also, the restriction against naming any given card more than once applies independently to each player using this Wind. [errata]
Reign of Blood
Purification: This card is distinct from the card of the same name in Heaven & Earth. [errata]
Yasuki Trader: The Item-search effect is a Limited action. [errata]
On the World Wide Web, visit the Official L5R Home Page at:
http://www.legendofthefiverings.com/
It contains pointers to several other documents, including this FAQ, checklists, and a much more comprehensive archive of rulings that have been made over the years.
AEG operates several electronic mailing lists for many of its games, including L5R. You can visit http://www.alderac.com/mailman/listinfo/l5r-ccg_alderac.com to sign onto this list, change your subscription options, and unsubscribe.
Send email to jalexander@alderac.com if you have more specific rules questions, comments or corrections to this FAQ, or input or questions about the game in general.
Legend of the Five Rings, Empire of Rokugan, Fu Leng, Shadowlands, graphic design elements and all character names and their distinctive likenesses are TM and (C) 1995-2004 by Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.