CE Card types

Card types

Stronghold

A Stronghold represents a player's base of power. It is represented by a Stronghold card, or an object incorporating a Stronghold card.

The Stronghold does not go into the Fate or Dynasty decks. The player starts with one Stronghold in play in his or her home face-up.

Stronghold Immunity: Effects and costs will not make a Stronghold leave play unless they specifically mention Strongholds.

Clan alignment: To the left of the title is a symbol that shows you what Clan the Stronghold belongs to, or no icon if it is unaligned (with no Clan alignment).

Players, Strongholds, and Personalities with no Clan alignment do not have the "same" or "different" Clan alignment from each other, or from Players, Strongholds, and Personalities that do have a Clan alignment.

Base Province Strength: The topmost of three numbers at the right of your Stronghold gives your base Province Strength. It represents the strength of the existing defenses of the player's home lands. When a province is created, either at the beginning of the game or in the course of the game, it is created with the base Province Strength of its player’s Stronghold, to which any appropriate modifiers to Province Strength may be added (e.g., ongoing effects).

Gold Production: The middle of your Stronghold’s three numbers is its Gold Production. It represents the starting wealth and influence of the player. When paying a Gold cost, a player may bow his or her Stronghold as a cost to produce Gold equal to the Stronghold’s Gold Production.

Starting Family Honor: The bottom number on a Stronghold is Starting Family Honor. The player's Family Honor score starts at this value.

Dynasty card types

Celestials

Celestials are a card type with graphics of clouds in their frame. They represent the influence of powerful supernatural beings in Rokugan. They have no stats.

Playing Celestials

If any Celestial cards are revealed in a player's province at any time, after any triggers to the card(s) being revealed take place, the player follows this sequence for any Celestials still in the province:

A. The Celestial cards enter a specially created entering-play area.

B. Any restrictions on their entering play are checked. If these conditions are not met for any of these Celestial cards, they return to the province they came from. If these conditions are not met for all of them, Steps C and D do not happen.

C. The player discards any Celestials he or she controls.

D. The Celestial cards enter play from the entering-play area.

E. The entering-play area ceases to exist.

Holdings

Holding cards have metallic bronze frames and represent a player's resources.

Holdings enter play bowed by default no matter how they enter play.

Gold-producing holdings often have traits written as “Bow this card: Produce X Gold” which is shorthand for, “When paying a Gold cost, bow this card: Produce X Gold.”

Playing Holdings

When bringing a Holding into play, a player follows this sequence:

A. The Holding enters a specially created entering-play area.

B. Any restrictions on its entering play are checked. If these conditions are not met, the Holding returns to where it came from (shuffling the deck if it came directly from a deck search) and the sequence ends.

C. The player pays the Holding’s Gold cost, then pays any other costs of bringing it into play. If costs are interfered with and not fully paid, the Holding returns to where it came from and the sequence ends.

D. The Holding enters play bowed.

E. The entering-play area ceases to exist.

Starting Holdings

The holdings a player may start play with, Border Keep and Bamboo Harvesters, follow special rules. These holdings do not count against deck construction limits. Copies of them may not be included in decks when constructed. However, during play, if something puts either of these holdings into the Dynasty deck, they enter it normally.
These rules apply to all versions of Border Keep and Bamboo Harvesters regardless of experience level. Only one Border Keep and only one Bamboo Harvesters may be included in deck construction regardless of experience level. See also Sequence of play, Start of game.

Personalities

Personality cards have backgrounds of various colors according to their Clan alignment. They represent the leading characters of the world of Rokugan.

Personality stats

Personalities have Force, Chi, Honor Requirement, Gold Cost, and Personal Honor as stats.

Chi Death Rule: if a Personality's Chi is ever zero, destroy him immediately. This destruction for having zero Chi is continuously applied. See Negating conditional ongoing occurrences. The source of Chi death is the rulebook, not the card or player that caused it. Destruction for having zero Chi may only be negated or prevented by effects that specifically negate or prevent destruction for having zero Chi.

Honor Requirement. A dash (–) Honor Requirement means that the Personality has an infinitely low Honor Requirement; lower than any numerical Honor Requirement and equal to any other dash Honor Requirement. Honor Requirements may be a value lower than zero (for example, when an Honor Requirement of 0 is lowered by some amount).

Personal Honor. A Personality’s Personal Honor has a maximum value of 5.

Playing Personalities

For a Personality to enter play at any time, his or her Gold Cost must be paid.

A Personality normally enters play in his or her controller's home.

When bringing a Personality into play, a player follows this sequence:

A. The personality enters a specially created entering-play area.

B. The personality’s Honor Requirement and other restrictions on its entering play are checked at this point and at no other time. If the Personality is aligned to the player's clan, in a Province, and it is the player's Dynasty Phase, the player may waive the Personality's Honor Requirement and increase his Gold cost to enter play by 2. If these conditions are not met, the Personality card returns to where it came from (shuffling the deck if it came directly from a deck search) and the sequence ends.

C. If requirements and restrictions were met in step B, the player pays the Personality’s Gold cost. If the Personality is aligned to the player's clan, in a Province, and it is the player's Dynasty Phase, the player may choose to pay 2 less Gold for the Personality. Taking this choice is known as the “Clan discount.” The player then pays any other costs of bringing the Personality into play. If costs are interfered with and not fully paid, the Personality card returns to where it came from and the sequence ends.

D. The entering-play area ceases to exist.

Events

Events, with white and gray scroll frames, represent unpredictable occurrences in the world of Rokugan. Events have no stats. They do not normally enter play.

An Event only resolves during the Events Phase.

Events usually have a trait, which is treated as a triggered trait, even if there is not an explicit trigger. All separate sentences of an Event's text box are treated as the same trait, unlike with other cards. An Event that is resolving leaves the province or other area from which it is resolving, a resolution area is created, and it goes there. Once in the resolution area, the Event's trait is triggered. If conditions in the trait's constraints block (if any) are met, and costs in the constraints block are paid, then the effects of the Event resolve in order.

The player for whom an Event resolves – that is, the "you" in the Event's effects - is the player whose Province it was revealed in. If the Event resolved from some other area, the Event resolves for its owner.

After the resolution of any of the Event's effects (even if they were prevented), if the Event card is in the resolution area, discard it. Then, if necessary, the province it came from is refilled. Events are not optional; if revealed at a time when they would resolve, they must resolve.

Regions

Region cards have a light brown background, and represent geographical areas that define a player's provinces. Region cards have no stats.

Regions normally enter play from provinces during the Events Phase. They do not enter play just by being revealed in a province at any other time.

Regions about to enter play exist briefly in an entering-play area, where their legality of entering play is checked.

Regions that can enter play do so attached to the Province they were revealed in. Normally, this is shown by putting the Region partway behind any card in the Province, with its title or text box showing. If an effect lets a Region enter play without being revealed in a Province, it may be attached to any Province unless otherwise stated.

A province will not have more than one Region attached. Attaching a Region in the Events Phase is not optional. If revealed, it must attach if legal. EXCEPTION: Attaching a Region with one or more costs is optional. If the Region's player can't or doesn't want to pay its costs when it would enter play, the Region is discarded instead. Regions that are about to enter play illegally are discarded instead. If a province somehow has multiple attached Regions, the order in which they attached should be tracked, for example by stacking the later Regions in front of the earlier ones. If two or more Regions have conflicting effects on the same province (for example, if one says the province can hold one extra card, while the other says the province can hold no cards), the most recently attached Region takes precedence over the earlier ones.

Fate card types

All Fate cards have a Focus Value stat.

Strategy cards

Strategy cards have a red background, and represent one-shot tactics, intrigues, and feats.

Gold Cost: A Strategy card's Gold Cost stat is part of the base costs of each of its abilities. While the number in the coin is a cost of the Strategy card, it is not paid upon playing the Strategy, but at the appropriate point when the action is taken. When Gold costs derived from a Strategy card's Gold Cost stat are paid, this is "paying for" both the action and the Strategy card.

Playing Strategies

Strategy cards are normally played from the hand to use an ability on the card. Note that an ability granted to a player or card as part of the Strategy’s ability does not fall under this prohibition.

To play an Strategy for one of its abilities, a player first checks whether the action can be legally taken (including appropriate point in time, being able to met required costs, required targeting, and other restrictions). If these conditions are met, the player then follows this sequence:

A. The player puts the Strategy card face-up in a resolution area created for that card.

B. The player announces which ability on the card is to be used, and the action sequence proceeds from there (see Abilities and actions.)

C. After the action ends, the player discards the Strategy card, even if the action did not resolve. Then, the resolution area ceases to exist.

EXCEPTION: If the action's own costs or effects put the Strategy card into play, it is not discarded after the action ends.

Rings

Rings, with a blue-black background, represent mastery of the insights of one of the five elements.

Each Ring enters play in a specific manner triggered by a game condition, as described in its text box.

If you are taking an action on a Ring out of play (for example, in your hand), and it has a choice between discarding it or bowing it as a cost, you may only choose the discard cost, not the bow cost -- even if you have an effect that pays the bow cost as a substitute.

Attachments

Followers, Items and Spells are all attachment cards, a subtype of Fate card. Attachments have a Gold Cost stat.

Playing attachments

Attachment cards enter play by being attached to a Personality, placing the card under the Personality with the title showing.

Attaching a card requires choosing or targeting a Personality to attach to. Attachments may only enter play by being attached to a Personality, and they are the only card type that may attach to a Personality.

A player may only attach attachments to a Personality he controls.

To play an attachment card, a player follows this sequence:

A. The attachment enters a specially created entering-play area.

B. If the Personality being attached to has not already been designated, the player chooses a legal Personality for the attachment.

C. The attachment's restrictions on entering play are now checked. If restrictions can not be met, the attachment goes back where it came from and the sequence ends; if the attachment came directly from a search of a deck, it is shuffled back into the deck.

D. The player pays the attachment's Gold cost and any other costs of bringing it into play (see Costs). If costs are interfered with and not fully paid, the attachment card returns to where it came from and the sequence ends; if the attachment came directly from a search of a deck, it is shuffled back into the deck.

E. If restrictions and costs were met, the attachment enters play in the Personality's unit.

F. The entering play area ceases to exist.

An attachment's Gold cost and other costs on the card apply separately to the effect of attaching; they are not costs of the action or trait that allows attaching.

An attachment that finds itself in play without a Personality is immediately and continually discarded, unless an effect allows this state.

Once attached, an attachment remains attached even if changes to it, or to its Personality, mean it would no longer be legal to attach.

When a Personality leaves play, all his attached cards leave play in the same manner as he did. This leaving play is a rulebook effect contingent on the effect that took the Personality out of play, so the attachments are destroyed "for" (as a consequence of) the original effect, but not "by" the original effect.

If the source of an attachment to be attached in an effect is not specified, it must come from the player’s hand.

A Personality card is not considered attached to its attachment card. Thus, Followers, Items, Spells, and so on are always "cards without attachments."

Units

A Personality and his attached cards make up a unit. See also Glossary, Unit.

The total Force of a unit is the sum of the Force of the Personality and each Follower in the unit, whether these cards are bowed or unbowed. Items contribute directly to the Personality’s Force and are not added separately. See also Glossary, Total Force.

Effects and procedures that say they happen for a unit are activated for each card in the unit simultaneously. EXCEPTIONS: Moving a unit only moves the Personality; targeting a unit only targets the Personality.

Followers

Followers, with a yellow-brown background, are attachments that represent military units commanded by a Personality and other members of his entourage.

Follower stats

Followers have Force as a stat. Followers do not have a Chi or Personal Honor even thoug, their card has those graphic elements on it , for symmetry.

Honor Requirement: As an additional restriction on attaching, the Personal Honor of the Personality attaching a Follower must be equal to or greater than the Honor Requirement of the Follower.

Items

Items, with a dark blue background, are attachments that represent special objects in a Personality’s possession.

Unlike the separate Force of Followers, Items have a Force modifier stat in the upper left hand icon that directly raises or lowers their Personality’s Force. Items likewise have a Chi modifier stat that directly raises or lowers their Personality’s Chi.

If something in the game needs to check an Item’s Force or Chi separately from its Personality’s stats, use the value of its modifier (minimum zero).

Force and Chi bonuses or penalties to an Item affect the modifier; for example, a +1F Item that suffers -2F now has a -1F modifier.

See also Weapon and Armor.

Spells

Spells, with a blue background (or greenish-black background for Black Scrolls), are attachments that represent magical scrolls cast by a Shugenja.

Spells have no Force or Chi bonus. They will only attach to a Shugenja. Actions on Spells that have somehow become attached to a non-Shugenja Personality may not be taken.

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