Card Game

General Rulings and Previous Expansions

Q: What happens if an Experienced Personalities that I've overlayed goes to my dead pile or back into my deck then comes back into play later?

A: An overlayed cards under an Experienced Personality are removed from the game if the top one leaves play in any way. Keep them around for reference though, since the top one will still have the abilities she acquired from them if she returns to play. She'll just be a single card from that point.

Q:Some cards that give other cards permanent bonuses, like Sysh, have limits like "this can only be done once" Is that once for each booster card or once, period, for all of them?

A: Once for each Three Syshes can all train the same card separately, gwing it a +3. (This is a reversal for some cards, like Kaiu Kenru.)

Q: What, exactly, constitutes "performing" an action? If another player puts down a Careful Planning on someone I control, is my card still performing it? What about bowing to activate an ability printed on another card, like a spell?

A: Any time a Personality uses an ability written on his own card or bows as part of the cost of using an action on any card, he's performing that action. As for Action cards played from the hand, there's no hard-and-fast rule, but generally any targeted card that's not purely detrimental is considered performed. One thing that doesn't matter is which player plays it.

Q: If more than one player is tied for lowest honor, can any of them use Dark Lord's Favor, or is it like lobbying for the real Favor and none of them can play it?

A: This card isn't worded like the rulebook entries covering the Imperial Favor. Any of the tied players can use iL

Q: How does Dark Lord's Favor work on a Personality with a weapon? With Followers?

A: Anything in L5R that just refers to a number on a card, without saying the "base" or 7rinted" value, refers to the entire current total for that number. From the rulebook we see that the Force and Chi bonuses from all Items, and from Folloruers that use the "+" symbol, add directly to the Personality they're attached to. Since these are part of the Personality's current total Force, they'd also be lost to the DLF: Normal Followers add to their unit's total, not the Personality. Their contribution would be unchanged.

Scorpion Clan Coup

Q: Garrison says that I'm always considered to have a unit in its banle. Can it be sent home? Challenged? What's its Force?

A: The units provuled by Garrison and Whispers of the Land aren't really there. They can't be targeted or affected by anything and they don't contribute to your army. You only consider them when deciding whether it's legal to play an action.

Q: There are so many cards now that let someone act before the Defender in a battle. How do I tell which one goes first?

A: For simplicity, these have all been ruled to work at the same speed, no matter whether they say "before the Defender's first action" "before any other actions', "immediately after the start of a battle", or whatever. The first chance to use one of these goes to the player whose turn it is, then it proceeds normally around the table in turn order.

Q: Are these cumulative? Can I act twice before the Defender if, say, I have two Daikuas in the battle?

A: Cards that give you the exact same kind of extra action aren't cumulative with each other. Even if you have ten cards that give you "one action before the Defender' what you get is exactly that: "one action" Different types of extra action (for example, a general action from Daikua plus a terrain from a Scout) will stack with each other. Also notice that Sneak Attack is subtly different. It doesn't give the attacker an extra action, but rather changes the order of play for the normal actions for that battle. It's cumulative with cards like Daikua - but, again, not mth itself.

Q: I'm confused by the Monk Advisors. Who is the "current controller"? Can the player I give them to really destroy them immediately? And does the phrase about one player having units on both sides in a battle let me attack myself if I give the Advisors to someone else?

A: If you play this card on another player's Personality, she is their controller and, yes, can immediately dispose of your "aft" And since you asszgn the Monks' unit as though you controlled it, you can't attack yourself with it That clause just clarifies that you can attack a player wzth her own unit.

Q: Can I really bow Yoritomo's Stronghold for infinite gold while Political Distraction is in effect?

A: Reread your Stronghold. The honor loss you suffer when you generate extra gold cannot be altered if it were alterable, you wouldn't be able to use it at all, since this is one of a very fezu effects where the honor loss is part of the cost, not a side effect-)

Q: The People's Champion sets my honor to 39 if l refuse or lose its challenge. Can I cancel this loss with the Favor? What about using something like the Crane Poet to gain honor even if I lose, so I immediately go back over 39?

A: People's Champion causes an ordinary loss - there's nothing unusual about it except that the amount is flexible - so the Favor can prevent it. But reactions played during the duel won't help. The reduction doesn't happen until after resolution (otherwise it would replace the normal consequence of the loser dying)

Errata and Mod-Recent Postings

Yogo Junzo's Army

Changed. Nozo produces 4g for Shadowlands cards instead of reducing their cost.

Soshi Bantaro Changed Personal Honor is now akuays 0, not the printed value.

Bayushi Sholu (Inexp)

Errata: The two point honor loss applies to any card played or used, not played

Errata: Stolen cards go into their owner's discard piles when discarded or destroyed.

Hida Kisada (Inexp)

Errata: Will only join Crab Clan.

The Ancestral Sword of the Scorpion and Bayushi Yojiro are correct as printed.

RPG Game

Q: How does Path to Inner Peace work?

A: Healing spells are very handy, but they can also get a little out of hand if they aren't managed properly. The idea of a shugenja firing off healing spells while his samurai buddies get back up from getting their skulls crushed by an ogre's fist kind of knocks me for a loop. It goes against nearly everything the samurai believe about fighting: if there's no chance to get killed, there's no honor. With that in mind, let's look at Rokagan's one and only "healing spell." Path to Inner Peace heals Wound Points, but it does not heal wounds The spell allows a shugenja to keep a samurai's soul from leaving a dying body. When the body takes an inordinate amount of damage, something happens to the link between the body and the soul. No-one is really sure how this zvorks out. Path to Inner Peace is a spell that soothes the soul of a zoounded samurai convincing it to stay put until the initial shock of the damage is over. Once the body has calmed down, the soul decides to stick around.

Path to Inner Peace will not heal broken bones, internal bleeding or organ damage. As a general rule, I usually say that this kind of "heavy damage" is caused when a samurai receives damage while Incapacitated. That's when I start handing out Permanent Wounds. Path to Inner Peace does help abrasions and contusions to heal very quickly. The spell is really the shugenja appealing to the flesh to speed up the healing proces& Raises probably indicate the shugenja even helping out the flesh a little with its job.

Q: Can Path to inner Peace work on poison?

A: No. I mean yes. Okay, kind of.

Path to Inner Peace keeps the soul in the body long enough for it to be convinced to stay for supper. The problem with poisons is that they are all trying to convince the soul to take a hike. I'd say that Path can be used to keep the soul around in the body until the effects of the poison run its course. This can be anywhere from ten minutes to four days, which would require a lot of shugenja casting one spell over and ouer again while the victim suffers the symptoms of the poison for a prolonged period of time.

Q: Can I meddle with the whole Wound Rank system?

A: By all means, yes! Please do. Like I said in the GM screen, increase the Earth multiplier to x3 or x4 Add more 0 boxes if you want. On the other hand, forget the whole Wound Rank thing and just say that if you get hit with a katana, your character is tomorrow's tuna casserole. Try playing a game like that for a while and see what happens.

Q. Why can't I use a tetsubo in an iaijutsu duel? I can do it in the card game.

A: There's been a lot of talk about this partia`Jar question on the net, and here's my final of ficial ansaJer. In a card game, the most important thing (besides having fun) is game balance. That means that story elements often have to take a back seat to number crunching. It's a fact of life, and one that I will never complain about. There have been too many really good card games that allowed story and/or setting to take precedence over game play, and they suffered for it.

Now if that means that you can have an iaijutsu duel with a tetsubo in the card game, that's fine. I don't care. But then we cross that fine delicate line from card game to roleplaying game . . . and that's when things get a little different. "Iai" is a specific skill. It is the skill of drawing a sword - specifically a sword - from a sheath and striAzag your opponent with it in one fluid motion. Iai is not a general term that refers to "quick drawing" a weapon. Bringing a tetsubo to a iai duel is like bringing a gun to a karate match and saying "It's a fight, isn't it?" I'm sorry we did not clarify that in the main book and that my ambiguity caused a bunch of confusion. Hopefully, this clears things up.

Q: Exactly how did the fight between Hitomi's brother and Hida Yakamo go? There's two different stories in the main book and the Way of the Dragon.

A: The reason Hitomi remembers the duel differently is because ... well, she remembers it differently than the way it actually happened Hitomi was very young when the duel occurred, and between the reality of the act and her continued obsessive dreams, she's muddled the facts a little bit. I hoped this would come across in the story, but I was a bit too ambiguous and things didn't work out. Sorry.

A: Well, that's not really a question now, is it? But, you're right. It doesn't work At least not well. That's why you should try this out, instead. When a character goes to Full Defense, roll a number of dice equal to his Defense score and keep the highest. Add that total (the highest die) to his TN to be Hit. That's the new Full Defense rule. Try it out and tell me what you think.

Q. When is the due date for the Tell Me About Your Character Contest?

A. The official due date is August 1, 1998.

Yes.

Q: I have never been a real fan of hit point based systems in which each weapon can transmit some basic amount of damage, because they never seem to capture the inner reality of their genre. Why are there "hit points" in L5R?

A: Many of you know just how deadly a katana is. On the History Channel the other night, they had a guy saying "In 500 years, we still have not been able to improve the technique of swordsmanship the Japanese developed. In 500 years . . . " A katana can cut through 4 - 6 human bodies, bones and all! It's a 4' razor blade, for Shinsei's sake! You can drop a silk scarf on it, and the silk scarf will fall in two pieces!

And when we told Sensei Tony about the way traditional RPGs handle damage (Strength + Weapon damage) he said "Strength has nothing to do with it. It's all in the wrists." And he's right. After studying for over a year with the guy we've learned that kenjutsu is indeed all in the wrists. Anybody who plays drums can attest to this. Playing drums has absolutely nothing to do with the arms; it has everything to do with the wrists. So, here's the dilemma. Do we follow tradition and go with Strength+Weapon, or do we break with tradition and go with Reflexes+Weapon? The second is obviously more correct, but it is so weird that we couldn't get our minds around it. Then, there was the practical aspect of the question. We were already breaking so many traditions, we didn't dare break another. So, we compromised reality for play and went with Strength. At least, that's the way it's printed. How I handle damage is entirely different. If it were entirely up to me (and it isn't always up to me, sometimes it's up to you) if a character got hit with a katana, that would be it. Game over. You lose. You die. I've seen what a REAL katana does to things. It scares the hell out of me. I never wanna get near one of those) The real ones, that is.

So, with this in mind, let's take a look at the way samurai live in Rokagan.

They live four feet from their death. Every day.

Every duel is fatal.

Every duel is a 50/50 chance you'll die. It's just that simple.

Now, there's a lot of folks who don't dig that. I can clearly understand why. I like my character, too. I want him to live a long and glorious life. I want to see him get to Rank 5 Bayushi School. I understand, folks. Really I do. But then there are folks who are intrigued by the danger. Imagine how many sword fights would occur if they were just that deadly. None, if you want to play a more heroic game, make more heroic characters.

HEY! GM! THIS IS THE LINE DEVELOPER!
LET YOUR PLAYERS MAKE RANK 3 CHARACTERS!

Go ahead. That's just fine. Start off as something a little bit more than a wimp. But if you, you'd better know when to back down . . . or at least call in your big brother (he's right behind me, Mr. Troll . . . and he's so much bigger and fatter than meJ).

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