Legend of the Five Rings ™ Frequently Asked Questions

Legend of the Five Rings ™
Frequently Asked Questions

Version 3.3 / 14 January, 1997

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 Anvil of Despair Clan Decks, and errata to particular cards have been moved either into the rulebook or onto the Emerald Edition cards themselves. Even if you're well-versed with earlier editions of the rulebook, it's recommended that you read through the new version to re-familiarize yourself, or if you have a question that this FAQ doesn't answer. -- Jeff Alexander, Phoenix Clan Scribe

Table of Contents

Section One: The Fundamentals

Q: Rings? Oh, boy! Frodo and Gandalf!

A: No, you want I.C.E., next door.

Q: Where did your rings come from, then?

A: The Book Of Five Rings, by Miyamoto Musashi. Imagine warring clans in feudal Japan, then throw in wizards, dragons, and all sorts of beasties. 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: You mean like Shadowfist ™?

A: Not exactly. If Shadowfist is John Woo, L5R is Akira Kurosawa.

Q: How can I get some?

A: Find a Hobby Game store. Selection is at an all-time high, with the Emerald Edition of the basic set, the Anvil of Despair expansion, and the Battle at Beiden Pass introductory set currently in production, plus quantities of the earlier Shadowlands and Forbidden Knowledge expansions still in many stores. The Emerald Edition, Shadowlands, and Anvil of Despair are available in random 15-card Destiny Packs (11-card for Anvil) and in 60-card Clan Decks, which are semi-sorted. Forbidden Knowledge is sold only in 11-card Destiny Packs.

Q: "Semi-sorted", huh? Sounds dangerous. I think I'll just go pick up a bunch of boost--uh, Destiny Packs instead.

A: Bad idea. You need at least one Clan Deck. First of all, the Clan Decks have a Stronghold on them, which you use in play to determine your clan affiliation and to generate gold and whatnot. Second, the semi-sorting is a good thing: 25 of the cards are predetermined in each Deck so that they'll play well right out of the box. You also get 35 random cards in each Clan Deck; your rares and most of your uncommons are random. Third, the Clan Decks have rulebooks in them. Finally, the only way to get the Ancestral Armors is to pick up Clan Decks; each one has an Armor in it. You won't get an Ancestral Armor in a Destiny Pack.

Q: So does the semi-sorting mean you can play the game from just a Clan Deck?

A: Right. It's become a favorite method of play around the office. Break the seal, sort your cards, and have at it!

Q: What's the rarity distribution like?

A: In the Imperial Edition, there were five levels of rarity. There are 100 common cards, 100 uncommon cards, and 91 rare cards. There are also 6 "rarer" cards; the rare cards were printed 2 to a sheet, and the "rarer" cards were printed 1 to a sheet, making them twice as rare.

Also, there is a special rarity level for the Ancestral Weapons. There is one Ancestral Weapon for each Basic Clan (Crane, Crab, Dragon, Lion, Phoenix, and Unicorn). These cards only appear in the decks of their appropriate Clan. In production quantities, the Ancestral Weapons are rarer than the "rarer" cards, but they are easy to get -- if you want the Dragon Clan Ancestral Sword, buy an Imperial Edition Dragon Clan deck. You'll get one.

In the Emerald Edition, things are much simpler. There are 100 rare, 100 uncommon and 100 common cards. There are also six new Ancestral Items, the Ancestral Armors. These are sorted into the decks just like the Ancestral Swords were in the Emerald Edition. The Ancestral Swords are not in the Emerald Edition.

Shadowlands is a bit more complex. There were 50 rare, 50 uncommon, and 50 common cards in Destiny Packs. Shadowlands contains two new Clans, the Naga and the Scorpion. There is a Clan Weapon in each of the new Clan Decks that only appears in those decks, just like the Ancestral Swords from the IE. Furthermore, there is a Scorpion Clan Personality, the Poison Master, who only appears in Scorpion Clan Decks (though it is also a normal rare in the Emerald Edition). Confusing matters further, there is a Common card, Defend Your Honor, which appears on the Uncommon sheet as well. Thus, there are 49 uncommon cards that appear on the uncommon press sheet twice, plus the Uncommon Defend Your Honor (which is identical to the common DYH). To fill the last slot in the 100 card sheet, there is an Uncommon card that appears only once (Levy Troops). This card is more rare than the uncommons, but less rare than the rares.

Forbidden Knowledge is very simple. There are 50 rare, 50 uncommon, and 50 common cards. There are no variant rarities.

Anvil of Despair follows the same 50/50/50 pattern, plus Clan Decks include deck-specific cards as in Shadowlands, although this time they're Personalities that already exist in the basic set rather than brand-new Items.

Beiden Pass contains two fixed, pre-built 80-card decks for the Crab and Dragon Clans. It includes two cards previously available only as promos: the inexperienced Dairya and the Monstrous War Machine of Fu Leng.

Q: How many cards are in each set?

A: Imperial Edition: 303 cards, six strongholds. Shadowlands: 153 cards, two strongholds. Emerald Edition: 306 cards (2 from Shadowlands), six strongholds. Forbidden Knowledge: 150 cards, no strongholds. Anvil of Despair: 152 cards (2 from Emerald), two strongholds.

Q: Does the Imperial Edition card total include the promo sheet cards?

A: No. We ran a 100-card sheet (with about eighty different cards) in early August of '95, so we'd have something to show at GenCon(tm). Almost all of the promo cards ended up in the Imperial Edition; some of them were changed (see Section Six). Promo cards were printed at a lower line screen than the Imperial Edition, so they're a bit fuzzier.

Q: "Almost all," huh? How can I get hold of the others?

A: Aside from bribery or violence perpetrated against a Five Rings Publishing employee, your sole recourse is to send us a self-addressed stamped envelope. Include a note telling us that you're participating in the Legend of the Five Rings Promo Card Giveaway. (And say "please.") We'll stuff the cards in whatever you send us, so if you want your promos protected from the depredations of the U.S. Postal Service, include a card holder or something for us to put your cards in. The address is: L5R Card Giveaway, 4045 Guasti Road, Suite 212, Ontario, California 91761. It's also on the back of the rulebook.

Q: Have you made any other promo or special cards since then?

A: Why, yes, we have. "The False Hoturi" was printed en masse and given away in card game magazines and at a few conventions during the initial release of Shadowlands; it is also available from the above address. A pre-release of "Seikua", a common Personality from Forbidden Knowledge, was given away at GenCon '96, among other places. And each mailing of the Imperial Herald includes a new card available exclusively to Imperial Assembly members. So far this includes "The Farther You Fall", "Seppun Baka", "Annexation", and "Otomo Sorai".

Q: What's your release schedule?

A: Anvil of Despair and Beiden Pass are now on sale. After these, we'll have Crimson and Jade (March '97) and Time of the Void (GenCon '97). That last one is not an "Expansion Set," but rather a "Conclusion Set," in which the story begun last October in the Imperial Edition comes to an end.

Section Two: Magic

Q: I'm a little fuzzy on this whole magic thing.

A: OK. It works like this. Only the Personalities which have the trait Shugenja get to do magic. Ordinary samurai and the like can't read the scrolls.

You have to attach the spell scrolls (cards) out of your hand to the shugenja. The more spell scrolls they have, the more versatile they get. However, you can only give a shugenja as many spells as he has Chi. (For instance, Isawa Tadaka, the Phoenix Clan's Master of Earth, has a Chi of 3, so he only gets to carry three spells.) You can't cast a spell straight out of your hand.

You have to bow the shugenja to produce any of those cool effects. However, the spells don't go away unless they say so. Most spells stick around the whole game, or at least the lifetime of the shugenja -- which is often short.

Q: I have a spell card which doesn't say I need to bow the Shugenja it's attached to. Can I use it and then another spell on the same Shugenja?

A: No. All spells bow the Shugenja who's using them. Most of them say to do so, but a few don't say one way or the other, and some accidentally say to bow the scroll instead. There are official corrections against all of these, though, so unless the spell clearly says the shugenja doesn't need to bow, he does.

Q: Isawa Natsune can't bow to produce spell effects. What if something like Celestial Alignment is in effect, which lets shugenja use spells without bowing?

A: Then he can use them. Natsune isn't completely incapable of casting spells, he's just out of practice and can only do it if something makes it easier. Also, he's allowed to bow to assist Rituals, since the rulebook says only the primary shugenja is considered to be casting the spell.

Section Three: Provinces

Q: OK, I've got magic. How about Provinces?

A: Such as?

Q: Well, first off, what are they?

A: A Province is an area on the table with a Dynasty card in it. You start the game with four of them. They represent the resources you can call upon as the Daimyo of your house.

Provinces have been described as "resource windows," and that's not a bad way of looking at them. Assuming you live long enough, your entire Dynasty deck will eventually show up in one Province or another, but you can't always be sure that the card you want is going to be there at the right time.

Q: If my opponent attacks one of my Provinces, what effect does the card in the Province have on the battle?

A: None at all. Cards in Provinces aren't "in play", and cards not in play don't have any effect on cards which are in play.

Q: When I bring out a card from a Province into play, does it stay associated with that Province?

A: No, not unless it's a Fortification or a Region, which the rules tell you to attach to the Province it came from (pp. 25 & 45). Personalities, and Holdings other than Fortifications, roam freely about your Fief, defending any of your Provinces, beholden to none. They do not automatically get destroyed if the Province they originally came from does.

Q: I'm playing Dragon, and I've had a couple of my Provinces destroyed, so they're at a Province strength of 9. The event Crysanthemum Festival pops up, and everybody adds a Province. Does my new Province have a strength of 5 or 9?

A: Five. The Dragon ability refers to your "remaining Provinces." This new Province wasn't around when your other Provinces got the bonus to their strength, so it has the unadjusted Province strength of 5.

Q: What if one card gives me a bonus to my Province strength, then the base strength of all my Provinces gets changed? Do I lose the bonus?

A: No. If something grants you a permanent bonus or penalty to the strength of one or more of your Provinces, that change will stick around for the rest of the game, even if your base strength changes or the original source of the change is destroyed or altered.

Q: I'm being attacked. Am I required to defend my Provinces?

A: No. You may stand aside and let the attack through. (Just don't do it too often.) You are also free to defend unattacked Provinces.

Section Four: What's Legal in a Battle

Q: When can I do an Open or Battle Action?

A: Go get your Anvil of Despair rulebook and follow along. On pp. 36-37, we have the dissection of the Battle Action Segment. You'll want to keep these pages handy for this whole answer.

"If a player does not have a unit in the battle, he cannot conduct any actions. The only exceptions are cards which specifically allow you to bring your own unit into the battle, such as Superior Tactics."

A little further down, it adds:

"While the battle at a particular Province is being resolved, all Open and Battle actions must either *) come from a card or token at that battle; *) move a card or token into that battle, or; *) target or affect one of the following: a card in the battle, a token in the battle, or the Province under attack".

So the first thing you do is check whether you have any units in the active battle right this moment. If you don't, you can't do anything except bring one of your own units in. If you do, you can act much more freely, though you still have to directly affect the battle being resolved, in one of the ways listed.

There are two exceptions to these restrictions. The first, of course, is any card or effect that says it's an exception, like the Castle of Water spell or giving up the Imperial Favor. The other is Reactions. It's always legal to use a Reaction if its trigger event happens, whether you have units in the battle or not.

Q: So I can't play a defensive Terrain card if I don't send any units?

A: No. Terrain cards are Battle Actions, too.

Q: What about an Open action?

A: Being an Open instead of a Battle action doesn't matter -- these two types of action follow identical rules during the Attack Phase. If you have no units in the battle, you can't use an Open action unless it brings one of your units into the battle or it's an explicit exception to the rules.

Q: What if the action is on a Fortification or Region?

A: Same answer as before. These card types don't get special breaks. Any Open or Battle actions on these cards suffer the same restrictions as those on other cards. Remember that you can always use Reactions, and that traits, such as "+4 Province strength", are always active.

Q: Does a Personality need to be in a battle to use a Battle action?

A: This is a very frequent question, and it's almost always answered incorrectly. The answer is "not necessarily". Any Battle or Open action only requires that its performer be in the battle if it calls for a target in the "opposing" army (which includes Ranged Attacks), or "this battle", or "another attacking Personality", or has some other phrase which clearly implies the user has to be there. Simply being a Battle action does not, by itself, require that the user always be present.

(This doesn't override the rules in the past three answers, by the way. Take Kakita Yuri, for example. Yuri allows you, as a Battle action, to send home a unit that's attacking you. Since he doesn't affect an "opposing" unit, he doesn't have to be assigned to the battle himself. But you still need someone in the battle to make taking this action legal. If Yuri is the only Personality you have in play, he's going to have to risk bodily harm and be assigned.)

Q: Let's say I've got a card that can move a unit from one Province to another. Can I use it to bring in a unit that I haven't assigned anywhere?

A: No. Units not committed to an attack or defense remain in your Fief, and are not at any particular Province. They cannot be moved "from a Province" or "to another Province". (They can switch places with committed Units, though -- your Fief is still a "place".)

Q: Let's say that two of my Provinces, A and B, were 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 Province A into B?

A: Yes. Although all attacking and allied units bow and return to their controllers' Fiefs as soon as the battle they were assigned to is over, the defender's units do not bow at all, and do not leave their assigned Province until the entire Attack Phase is over.

Q: How about if I move a unit out of the battle at Province B into the battle at Province A, which has already been resolved?

A: It just sits there. You don't recompute Force totals just because somebody showed up too late to do anything but bury bodies. This is a good way to save a valuable Personality whose army is about to become dogmeat, though. 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 cards in the last normal battle of the 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: Yes. Each time you're attacked, there will be a battle at each Province, even ones with no Units at all. The attacker must resolve them all, although he can do them in any order he chooses.

Q: My opponent has played Accessible Terrain against me, and has already moved one Unit into the current battle. Now he wants to move another one in. Can he do that? The card says we can both only bring in one Unit.

A: As long as Accessible Terrain is in play, both the Attacker and the Defender have the ability to take a Battle action to move any Unit they control (except bowed Units -- see pp. 21-22) into the current battle. The word "one" refers to how many Units can be moved by this single action, not the final total. Both of you may perform this action multiple times if the terrain card is not destroyed.

Q: What happens if I put a Personal Standard on the leader of a Unit which can't be targetted by Ranged Attacks?

A: He remains untargettable. A Personal Standard only overrides the rule prohibiting shooting at a Personality if he has Followers. It won't override an effect which makes the entire Unit untargettable.

Q: Can I play Ambush against a Personality who can't defend, or that can't defend by himself?

A: Yes.

Q: Since Feign Death doesn't make you bow the Personality you save anymore, if I use it to save someone who is killed by an action during battle, that Personality will still add to my army's Force at the end of the battle, right?

A: No. Feign Death returns Personalities to their controller's Fief, since that's where all newly-played Personalities start.

Q: Does Ikoma Tsanuri prevent terrains from being played in the battle she was originally assigned to, or the one she's currently at?

A: The one she's at. If she moves away or dies, her opponents can start playing terrains again. She won't destroy an existing terrain if she's moved into a battle, either.

Section Five: Rules Clarifications

"Who makes the rules? Someone else!" "No Spill Blood," [Oingo] Boingo

Our crack squad of rules lawyers is perpetually busy hammering out general applications of rules under which entire classes of questions can be answered. These general rulings will make it into the next edition Rulebook, but until then they'll be here. If you have a question, check to see whether the same question about a similar card is here. -DJT

Q: When a player calls for allies, does he have to invite either everyone or no one, or can he invite just some players?

A: He can just invite a few, and deny the privilege to the others.

Q: I've got a card that says it "can only be attached to a ninja". Does this mean it counts as a "ninja card"? After all, the word "ninja" is in the card's text.

A: No. Single words such as Ninja and Cavalry must appear in bold type at the top of the text area for a card to have that trait. Appearing in the middle of a sentence doesn't count.

Q: Junzo's Army can't have allies. Does that mean he can still be an ally to someone else?

A: No. Junzo can't have allies in any way, and no one can ever take an action which would make him an ally, like playing Tides of Battle. He also can't make use of the Alliance event.

Q: If Junzo's Army can't lose honor, how can he use all those Shadowlands cards that cost honor to use? And what about the Dark Oracles? Their honor losses can't be changed.

A: Honor loss is never a cost for playing a card. It's more like a side effect. And Junzo's Army doesn't change honor losses, it outright ignores them. The Dark Oracles work just fine for him.

Q: I'm not sure how to figure out what cards Junzo can't use, or why he's allowed to use the ones listed in the rulebook.

A: For one, he can't do anything Political. Besides actions which say Political right on them, the Glossary tells us that anything that alters an honor loss or gain is Political, as are both lobbying for the Favor and giving it up to play an action or a card. Note that actions which cause an honor loss or gain aren't necessarily Political, nor are Reactions which involve the Favor.

He also can't perform any actions which immediately and consistantly cause an honor loss to another player. He's allowed to use effects which aren't actions (Dragon Sword is Broken), which don't cause an immediate loss (Utter Defeat), or that don't always cause a loss (Iaijutsu Challenge).

Q: What happens if I spend full price for the inexperienced Toturi in a Toturi's Army deck?

A: You waste 2 gold. Since Toturi enters play dishonored, his effective Personal Honor is 0. You gain no honor, and he remains dishonored with his lower Force and Chi.

Q: Can Toturi's Army play Alliance and pick Dragon Clan, and get dual- Clan Personalities for 4g less or 2g less plus honor?

A: Yup.

Q: Is it really legal to use the Dark Oracle of Water to do something like sending a single card-heavy Unit on a suicide attack against yourself, so that you gain lots of honor by killing it?

A: Okay. This question strikes a common chord with a lot of other questions, and that chord is this: when, exactly, does card text really override the game's general rules? The answer is, "not as often as you might think".

Let's read that Dark Oracle:

"Bow the Oracle after Cavalry have been assigned in the battle phase. You may now assign any of your unassigned units to attack or defend any of the Defender's Provinces."

At first glance this card lets you commit your own Units into any battle, even on both sides, and regardless of whether you've been invited by either side as an ally. But nothing on the card specifically allows this. Any rules the card doesn't clearly allow you to break must still be obeyed, and it's against the rules to attack yourself, help both sides, or commit uninvited troops. So, all the Oracle lets you do is assign the troops that you could have assigned normally, just after everyone else's.

Here are some other examples:

The Imperial Edition Wyrm Riders didn't say that they needed to bow to make their Ranged Attack. But unlike Togashi Rinjin, the Riders didn't explicitly say they could make it without bowing, either. Since the Rulebook says that Ranged Attacks bow the shooting card, the Riders still needed to bow.
Kaiu Suman allows you to attach a new Fortification to any of your Provinces. However, you cannot use Suman to attach the Moat that just appeared in one Province to another Province which already has one. Suman only overrides the rule governing where Fortifications may be placed -- he doesn't override the rule that Provinces can't have duplicate Fortifications.
The Kaiu Pass Region allows you to attach one weapon or armor to Personalities that enter play from its Province, for 4g less. But this doesn't let you attach an item to someone who can't have one, like a Dragon.
Many cards allow you to challenge "any Personality", or "any Shadowlands Personality", or whatever. But the Glossary defines a "challenge" as always happening between one Personality which you control and another which you do not, so none of these cards allow you to challenge your own Personalities, despite the word "any".

"Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself. (I am large, I contain multitudes.)" -Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"

Q: Which Personalities are Unique? They all seem to have particular names. Can I really have three of all of them?

A: Unique cards have the word "Unique" in their traits area. Though almost all Personality cards depict specific individuals, most are merely representative of their particular station in Rokugan and have many peers, thus allowing you to put three in your deck. It'd also be much less fun if you had to play cards like "Young Lion Samurai" or "Mysterious Phoenix Shugenja."

Q: Can I overlay a Unique version of a Personality with a Unique, Experienced version?

A: Yes. In fact, that's they only way you can put the Experienced one into play if the original is already out. You can't play it separately because of the Uniqueness Rule.

Q: Can I overlay a Personality with the Experienced version if my Family Honor is below the Experienced version's minimum honor?

A: Yes, you can do this. Overlaying an Experienced Personality represents that Personality going through some personal change. Since you're not really bringing someone new into play, story-wise, you don't need to meet that person's minimum tolerance.

Q: Do I get honor for overlaying a Personality with her Experienced version? I'm paying the full price, which is zero.

A: No. You're not hiring someone new.

Q: The rules say I can overlay a normal card with the Experienced

A: Just "if". Any time you have the original version of a Personality in play and the Experienced version face-up during your Dynasty Phase, you can overlay it, even if the Experienced one appeared first.

Q: Can I give one of my Personalities multiple bonuses in a turn? For instance, can I play Meditation on a Personality and then give him +2F with the Retired General? What about 2 Meditations?

A: Sure. These are all legal.

Q: What about responding to an event with more than one Reaction?

A: That's also legal, though remember, you cannot play your second Reaction until you've given everyone else a chance to play a Reaction of their own. One of their Reactions (or even your first one!) could make your second Reaction illegal or much less effective.

Q: Can I use an Open action at the start of someone else's turn, before he does anything? I thought Open actions were usable anytime.

A: You can't do this. Re-read p. 33. The active player has the first option to either perform one legal act (a Limited or Open action, attaching or exchanging Fate cards, or lobbying for the Favor) or pass during his or her own Action phases. This option then passes clockwise, though everyone else can only use Open actions. Everyone has to wait his turn, and no one can do more than one action at a time. This means that whoever's turn just ended must always wait for everyone else to get "first digs" before he can do anything himself.

Also, Open actions aren't usable at any time, just during any player's Action Phase and during battle. You can't use them during the Events Phase, for instance.

Q: Do Personality cards which I've discarded from my hand count as Honorable or Dishonorable dead?

A: Neither one. They're discarded, not dead.

Q: I just discarded a Follower card. Can I use Animate the Dead to attach him to a Personality?

A: Nope. Animate the Dead specifically says "...back into play," and discarded Followers never made it into play in the first place. You only get to Animate those cards which are authentically Dead.

Q: Does this mean I also can't use Enlightenment to "return" a Ring "to my hand" that went straight from my Fate Deck to my discard pile?

A: Uh...actually, that's allowed. It's one of the things Enlightenment was designed to do.

Q: My opponent has a samurai with a Medium Infantry attached, which has a minimum honor of 1. What happens if I dishonor that samurai, so that her Personal Honor drops to 0? Does the Infantry get destroyed?

A: No. Once any sort of card or token has been legally attached to a Personality, nothing will make it "fall off". If you want to get rid of it, you'll have to destroy it directly.

Q: I've got a Personality with a Master Smith weapon token. Can I bow him and another Personality to move the token between them?

A: No. The Moving rules on pp. 23-24 only allow you to exchange cards, and Follower tokens are the only tokens which count as cards.

Q: Can I use Passing on the Soul to save an item which normally can't be moved, like the Jade Hand?

A: No.

Q: I'm targeting a 1F Personality with an effect that makes him lose 2F until the end of the turn. Does he have a 0F or a -1F?

A: 0F. The only thing in the game that goes into negative numbers is Family Honor. You will have to compensate for the leftover -1F penalty if you want to increase his Force later this turn, though.

Q: Explosives says "Destroy any one Holding." Does this include Retainers?

A: Yes. (Splat.) Retainers are a class of Holding -- look at the border -- and are affected by anything that affects Holdings in general as well as by things which only affect Retainers. This also means they come into play bowed, and so won't typically be usable until your next turn.

Q: Can I use Alliance on the Unaligned Personalities?

A: No. Unaligned isn't a clan.

Q: The Ring of Fire says I can only play it if I win a duel against an opponent who had a higher Chi before being challenged. Does that mean I can't play the ring unless my Personality is the challenger?

A: No. You can play the Ring of Fire no matter who issued the challenge.

Q: Say I'm holding the Ring of the Void and some other cards, and I'm forced to discard my entire hand. Can I discard them one at a time, holding the Ring for last so I can play it?

A: No. You discard your entire hand at once. It is also illegal to use a discard-and-redraw effect, such as the Mempo of the Void, to discard your entire hand except the Ring and then play the Ring before drawing your replacement cards.

Q: Why isn't the Phoenix Clan Champion Unique?

A: This is semi-intentional, based partly in story reasons and partly in the original rush to get the cards to the printers. According to our story continuity folks, there are tales that the Phoenix Clan Champion has been seen talking to himself. Some people have been concerned that there are play-balance considerations; we don't think there are, but we have some folks trying to make a degenerate Phoenix deck based around him. If it's possible to break the game with him, he's likely to be errata-ed, but until then play him as he's written.

Q: The Event Rise of the Phoenix just came up, and two players both want to bring back the same Unique Personality. Who wins?

A: It goes around the table clockwise from the active player (the one who just turned up the Event). This is also true for Unexpected Allies.

Q: My opponent has a Personality in play that won't normally join my Clan. Can I play Kolat Master on it and steal it?

A: No. Coming under your control from someone else's still involves joining your Clan, which that Personality cannot do.

Q: Can I copy him with the Egg of P'an Ku, too? Or can I put him in my Dynasty Deck anyway and hope for a lucky Unexpected Allies to bring him out? What about Return of the Fallen Lord?

A: The Egg will work, as you're not asking the real person to join you, you're creating a copy which enters play already in your service. Unexpected Allies won't, though, since the Personality would still be joining your clan (he's just not asking for compensation). Return of the Fallen Lord won't work either, for the same reason.

Q: My Crab Clan Oni gains a +1F/+1C for every Crab in play. Does this include itself?

A: Yes. Cards may gain bonuses from themselves. It's a Crab, so it gives itself a +1F/+1C.

Q: What happens if I play Oath of Fealty in a non-Naga deck and convert some Naga Personalities to my clan? Do they stop receiving Naga card bonuses?

A: It depends. Remember, "any card with 'Foo' in the title or trait area is considered to be a 'Foo' card" (p. 28). The Naga trait acts like a Clan affiliation (p. 58), so it gets added/removed by Oath of Fealty, but card titles don't change. A card with the word "Naga" in its title will always be a "Naga card", no matter what Clan it is.

Q: So if I'm playing a Naga deck, and I Oath some two-leggers, they now get Naga card bonuses?

A: They have the Naga trait now, so they fully count as Naga cards.

Q: How can a Naga deck use Dashmar to win a game through honor? Their Stronghold says they're not allowed to do that!

A: Using Dashmar isn't an Honor Victory, it's a special victory generated by a card. The Naga can win this way, as can other Clans which manage to steal him, or copy him or his ability.

Q: Now that Follower tokens also count as cards, the Naga Shugenja and such give them force bonuses, right?

A: Wrong. Naga Follower tokens can't get force bonuses because the Stronghold says so. It has nothing to do with whether they're cards.

Q: Can I use Sympathetic Energies to move Togashi Mitsu's +1F/+1C fire tokens onto any other Personality, or only onto another Mitsu? The spell says the new recipient has to be legal, and only Mitsu creates fire tokens.

A: Here's the deal. Unless there is specific text to the contrary somewhere, any token may be placed on any Personality. This means that tokens which are always created on one particular card, such as Togashi Mitsu's and Shuten Doji's, can generally be moved to anyone, while tokens that give you a choice of where to put them, such as the Revered Sensei's and the Naga Stronghold's, can only be moved onto someone who could have been given them in the first place.

Q: Since I can move fire tokens onto anyone, what happens if I move one onto a bowed Personality? Does he have to remove the token instead of straightening?

A: Only if he's another Togashi Mitsu. You see, the only things written on Mitsu's fire tokens are the +1F/+1C bonus and the word "fire". If a token with the word "fire" winds up on a Personality who has special text regarding fire tokens, then the two interact. Otherwise, all the token does is bestow its +1F/+1C bonus. For example, you could not move a sixth fire token onto a fully-loaded Mitsu, since his card says he "may not have more than five fire tokens". On the other hand, you can move as many as you like onto someone who doesn't say this (which is everyone else). Likewise, fire tokens will not cause anyone but Togashi Mitsu to stay bowed during the Straighten Phase, or to bow even after defending in a battle.

Note that if the token is something universally meaningful, such as a Follower or Item rather than a "fire" token, you're more likely to run across a rule in the rulebook or on the cards that makes moving the token illegal. You can't move a Master Smith token onto someone who already has a weapon, for example, nor could you move a Follower token onto an Ogre Bushi, or a non-Cavalry Follower token onto Otaku Kamoko.

Q: Speaking of Togashi Mitsu, what happens if I somehow manage to get some Mantis Samurai on him, and he becomes bowed with fire tokens? Will he lose one token during every players' Straighten Phase?

A: Yes. This works.

Q: If I end up with NO Personalities with plague tokens while Rampant Plague is out, can I become immune by killing "all" of them?

A: You sure can. Destroying all your plague-bearing Personalities is easy when you don't have any. (Point of interest: there are other cards, such as Plague Zombies, which generate plague tokens too. You'd need to destroy anyone with these tokens as well if you want to become immune to Rampant Plague. On the other hand, once you do, those other plague-bearing cards won't give you plague tokens anymore either!)

Q: Can a Bog Hag steal the same ability more than once?

A: Yes. And she can use them all, too.

Q: If I've only played one First Shout, does that let me play as many Second Shouts as I want?

A: Yes. Ditto with the Second and Third.

Q: Can I ignore the special requirements on the Second and Third Shout by playing them face-down as regular focusses?

A: No. You're still restricted.

Q: What if I play a First Shout against someone who is only able to focus against me with some of the cards in his hand?

A: You pick his focus randomly from the cards he can legally use.

Q: Do the focus values of The First Shout and Moving the Shadow get added like normal?

A: Yes (we ran out of space to be clear about this).

Q: A couple cards, like The Second Shout, say their focus adds to your duelist's Chi as normal. What if the duel isn't a duel of Chi?

A: Then it adds to whatever the duel is based on. This is true of anything that "counts as a Focus" or "adds to Chi as normal".

There are some Chi-changing, duel-related effects that don't have one of these two magic phrases in them (Togashi Yoshi is a common example). These always affect Chi.

Q: How does The Coward's Way work with Poisoned Weapon or poison tokes? Do these affect both Personalities?

A: These effects aren't duel results. They only affect your original participant, like normal.

Q: Speaking of poison tokens, could you explain how Shosuro Hametsu, the Poison Master, works? Why would I want to poison my own people?

A: The poison tokens aren't -2C tokens. They cause no ill effects to the person holding them. If a Personality with a poison token enters a duel, you can destroy the token as a reaction, and this will cause your opponent in the duel to suffer -2C until the end of the turn when the strike is declared. Like Poisoned Weapon, if this should kill your opponent immediately, the duel is cancelled without a winner or loser. Unlike Poisoned Weapon, Another Time won't prevent the penalty from being applied.

Q: I just played Iaijutsu Challenge on my opponent's Personality, and he refused the duel. Can I play Court Jester to double his honor loss to 14? It was his refusal that made him lose honor.

A: It may have been his decision to refuse the duel, but the action causing the loss is your own Iaijutsu Challenge, so you cannot use Court Jester to double the loss. For the same reason, your opponent can use Defend Your Honor against it.

Q: Speaking of Defend Your Honor, what if I play it and step forward a samurai when my opponent has no Personalities? Is he forced to refuse the challenge, since he has no one to accept it?

A: Yup.

Q: Can I use Bayushi Goshiu to duplicate an honor loss at an opponent, then use another reaction to reduce my own loss?

A: That would be nice, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, you can't. Read Goshiu's card carefully. His ability can only be used "after you have lost Family Honor". After you've actually taken a loss, you can't change the amount.

Q: My opponent is at -18 honor. I have one Province left, and no one to defend it. He attacks and destroys it. Can I play Plea of the Peasants so he loses 5 honor and the game ends in a tie?

A: This question is actually quite similar to the one we just had, and like it, the answer lies in carefully reading the Reaction to see whether it gets played before or after the event it's reacting to. In this case, Plea of the

Peasants gets played "when another player has destroyed" one of your Provinces. "Has destroyed" is past-tense -- this Reaction gets played after the event. Unfortunately, you were eliminated from the game the moment you lost your last Province, and you can't play anything after being eliminated. Looks like your opponent is victorious.

The moral is this: read your Reactions closely! Most of them don't happen at the same time as the occasion they're reacting to.

Q: What about Kusatte Iru? I can use it even if my last Province gets destroyed. This will tie the game if I have only one opponent, and he has only one Province left too.

A: Actually, it won't. Remember, Reactions don't retroactively counter anything unless they say so. Because of Iru's wording, you destroyed your opponent's last Province after he destroyed yours. He was the last player in the game, and achieved a Military Victory. Iru doesn't change that.

Q: The Marsh Troll says it "destroys one card in its unit". Since it doesn't say "one other card", can I have it destroy itself?

A: No.

Q: An opponent keeps using Kolat Infiltrator to cancel my purchases. Is this right?

A: Yes. Kolat Infiltrator counters the "effect" of a Holding. This includes gold-gathering as well as normal abilities.

How it works is like this: when you play a card, announce what it is and indicate everything you're doing to generate the money for it. If any reactions stop you from getting enough gold, you can generate more to make up the loss if you're willing and able. Otherwise, the insufficient amount is completely taxed, and the card you tried to play goes back to where it came from. You can't spend the money you've already made on something else, though you can change how you're trying to play the original card if that changes how much it'll cost (for instance, paying for a less-skilled Geisha Assassin, or deciding not to gain 2 honor from an aligned Personality).

Q: Speaking of Kolats, can I put the Night Medallion on the Experienced Lion Sensei? What happens if I do?

A: The Experienced Sensei has the Kolat trait, so he can wear the Medallion. If you've played him over an original Sensei, the Medallion modifies all his abilities and lets him place +3/+3 sensei tokens, up to 4 on each Personality. Existing sensei tokens don't change to +3/+3, though, and any normal Sensei can still only place a first or second token on a card.

Q: Since the Medallion adds +2 to the real mathematical value of numbers, if I put it on a card whose ability makes me "lose 1 honor", would I actually start gaining 1 honor? After all, "lose 1 honor" means I adjust my honor by -1, and -1 + 2 = +1.

A: You're reading too much into that ruling. The number printed on the card is "1", and 1 + 2 = 3. You would "lose 3 honor".

Q: What if I have just enough Family Honor to bring a Personality out, but I lose some honor while gathering gold for her? Can I still hire her with the money?

A: No way. She will turn her nose up at your filthy lucre (though the Emperor's tax collectors won't). You must meet all minimum honor requirements after gathering your money for a card.

However, you no longer have to meet those requirements when you START gathering your payment. All that matters is how you stand when you approach her with the money. This is a REVERSAL.

Q: Can I pay 7 gold for a really expensive shugenja with the Phoenix Stronghold, then take advantage of its new Shadowlands trait with something like the Kuni Wastelands, which makes Shadowlands cards cheaper?

A: No. The shugenja doesn't gain the Shadowlands trait until she's in play.

Q: I want to do something to one card, but I'm not allowed to target it. Can I aim my effect at some other card, then use something like the Ring of Air to redirect it to the card I really want it to hit?

A: No. You can only redirect actions to things they could have been aimed at in the first place. (This also means you can't redirect Ranged Attacks back to another card in the firer's army, unless your effect specifically lets you.)

Q: If I use my Ninja Shapeshifter's copy-ability to copy the Unique ability, are all my opponents' Shapeshifters destroyed?

A: Check out the new definitions on p. 30. "Unique" is not an ability, it is a trait, and the Shapeshifter cannot copy traits. Only Limited, Open, Battle, and Reaction actions are "abilities".

Q: So I can't copy the Crab Oni's ability to gain +1/+1 per Crab Personality I control?

A: Again, that isn't an "ability". The NSS can't copy it.

Q: But the Emerald Edition NSS says he can copy traits too.

A: Yeah, we know. That was a MISTAKE. He can't copy traits. This is Very, Very Official. Spread the word!

Q: I have a Ninja Shapeshifter, initially 2F/2C with a +2/+2 weapon token, and I want him to copy an Ogre Bushi's Force of 6. That means the Ninja becomes a total 8F/4C creature, right? Six for the Ogre, plus two from the weapon?

A: Actually, no. Check out p. 31 again:

"If a card copies a value from another card, the current value of the card being copied replaces the current value of the copying card."

The important phrase is "current value", which is the base value plus all modifiers. The current value of your Ninja's Force before the shapechange is 4: a base of 2 plus 2 for the weapon. After the change it's 6, since that's what the Ogre's current Force is. Since this 6 is now the Ninja's current Force, we don't add anything to it -- "current value" already includes all bonuses.

If your NSS has any kind of a weapon, you'll almost always end up in a situation where The Whole is Not Equal to The Sum of the Parts if you copy someone else's Force or Chi. In our example above, the +2F from his own sword apparently "disappears". The sword doesn't change from a +2/+2 weapon into something else, nor does the NSS's base Force of 2 change. What does happen when you copy a stat is that you stop using basic math to figure his total and just use the copied value on faith (plus or minus any further changes that happen after the shapeshift, of course). That's ninja trickery for you.

Q: What other cards work with current stat values like this?

A: Most of them. Every card that refers to or alters another card's stat and doesn't mention "printed" or "base value" works with the total current value. For example, Energy Transference "switches the current Chi and Force of any one Personality". A base 1F/4C Personality with a Wakizashi (+0/+1) who has Meditated (+1/+2) would become 7F/2C, not the 5F/4C you'd get if only her base stats were swapped.

Q: Is there anything else I should know about the 'Shifter?

A: Two things. The first is that using another card's ability is a two-step process, since you have to take one action to copy the ability first, then another to actually use it. You can't just duplicate an effect cold-turkey -- it takes planning and forethought in some situations to use it right.

The other thing is that the NSS's ability is a targetted action, since you have to pick which card to copy. This means your opponents can use Mamoru or Investigation to counter an attempt to copy their cards, and it means you can't copy anything from your own bowed Personalities.

Q: Can I use Mamoru or Investigation to stop a ninja from being assigned to attack me?

A: No. These cards can only stop an action which targets you, your Stronghold, or one of your cards (which includes your opponent's own Mamoru trying to cancel one of your ninja actions). Being assigned to attack is not an action.

Q: When is Hoseki, the Ninja Mystic, treated as a ninja, and when is she treated as a shugenja?

A: When she "casts" her spell, she performs a ninja action instead, but the spell is always a spell, and anything it does to "this shugenja" will affect her. Doom of the Phoenix destroys the spell, Black Scrolls corrupt her, spells that destroy their caster destroy her, and so on.

"Those darn ninjas. They're wacky." - The Tick, issue #3

Section Six: Cards. "Oops."

Into every 300-card set a few errors must fall...

Imperial Edition cards:

A: This card has not been superceded by Bayushi Hisa, although the deck-building limitation on the latter still applies. You may have any combination of up to three Hisa and/or Bayushi Hisa in your deck.

Shadowlands cards:

Q: It looks like some Oni are stealing names again! What's up with the Oni no Ogon?

A: Those Oni! They never grew out of the "let's fool the substitute sensei" phase. The two versions of the Oni no Ogon are considered different cards. Arcane sources tell me that the one that bows your Stronghold when played is really named "Oni no Titsu", and has the following official correction: it is Unique. Also, as a clarifi- cation, it is not destroyed until the end of your third full turn after coming into play (and anything that causes it to return to play, like Feign Death, resets the timer).

Q: I've noticed a lot of minor differences between the semi-sorted Personalities in my Shadowlands Clan Decks and the ones I got in Destiny Packs. Do these all get played as written?

A: Sigh... Yes. Note, though, that one in particular is not as different as you might think. The costlier version of Shosuro Taberu, the Scorpion Clan Manipulator, lacks the Political trait on his ability, but since his ability alters an honor gain, it is Political anyway (Glossary, p. 58).

Also, the Mountain Goblin always has a Personal Honor of 1 now.

Corrupted Iron Mine: this card does not count as an "Iron Mine" card with respect to increasing the gold production of Blacksmiths. It will just give a -1g penalty, and not a +1g bonus as well.

Emerald Edition cards:

Any card which "starts a duel" should be read as though it "issues a challenge which cannot be refused".

Anvil of Despair cards:

Shahakar: This card counts as the Naga Shugenja for purposes of being Experienced, not Unique.

Mikaru: This card does not count as a Naga.

Elemental Vortex, Kusatte Iru: These cards are Nonhuman.

Arrival of the Emerald Champion: This card's destruction at the conclusion of the battle is unpreventable, and happens even if there is no resolution segment.

Promotional cards:

Promotional cards, like all cards, get played by their most recent wording (p. 65). Any promo card which underwent a spelling fix or minor title change is considered the same card as its Emerald Edition counterpart. For the most part, the correlation will be obvious. Two that might not be are Inversion of Energies, which is considered the same card as Energy Transference, and Motto Seiki, who is considered the same as Yotsu Seiki.

Matsu Turi is no longer a distinct card. He is now considered to be Matsu Gohei.

DairyA: This card now has the Unique trait.

Monstrous War Machine of Fu Leng: This card now has the Shadowlands trait and a Minimum Honor of "-".

Section Seven: Contact Information

On the World Wide Web, visit the Official L5R Home Page at: http://www.frpg.com

A list of promotional card differences, and several other lists, may be found at: http://www.zzz.iipo.gtegsc.com/jwa/l5r

Send email to l5r@lightside.com if you have rules question or any questions or comments about the game in general.

Comments about this FAQ itself should be sent to jwa@zoot.zzz.iipo.gtegsc.com.

Keep an eye on the newsgroup rec.games.trading-cards.misc, as we post there fairly often and monitor the traffic for questions and comments.

You can sign onto the L5R electronic mailing list by sending email to majordomo@frpg.com. Use a blank "Subject:" line and include this command as the only line in the body of your mail:

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Section Eight: Obligatory Legal Boilerplate

Legend of the Five Rings, Empire of Rokugan, Fu Leng, Shadowlands, graphic design elements and all character names and their distinctive likenesses are ™ and © 1995-1997 by Five Rings Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com