CE Special wording rules
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Special wording rules
Ambiguous wordings in the cards and rules of L5R should be read according to a number of rules of grammar that are more precise than those used in ordinary language. Note that these rules should not be used to force an unnatural reading onto a phrase; they are meant to clarify ambiguous usage only. [ADDED July 27 2008]
Numbers of things
When something checks for the presence of "a [thing]" or "any [things]," the check is met by one of those things even if you have more than one in play.
Example: "If you have a Samurai in play" is met if you have one, two or any higher number of Samurai in play.
When something checks for the presence of a number of things that is two or more, the check is met by more than that number of those things.
Example: If you have four Shugenja in play you meet the condition “If you have two Shugenja in play.”
If the presence of an exact number of things is being checked for, this will be noted by language such as "exactly two" or "only one," or by mentioning two or more specific numbers such as “zero or one.”
The phrase "any number of" something includes zero.
Example: "Bow any number of your Personalities" can be satisfied by bowing zero Personalities. [ADDED 25 February 2008, revised 7 March 2008.]
"All" does not include zero. A cost that refers to affecting "all" of a certain thing requires that one or more of those things is affected. A requirement that refers to "all" of a certain thing requires that there be one or more of those things. [ADDED 18 July 2009]
Example 1: “Bow all Rings you control: Gain 3 Honor” the cost cannot be paid if you control no Rings.
Example 2: “If all Samurai you control are Lion Clan” requires that you control one or more Samurai.
If required targeting calls for all of a certain thing to be targeted, effects that change targeting will not work, because a different legal target cannot be chosen.
Something that allows a “second” use of an ability only allows the second use of the ability. Multiple effects that allow second uses do not allow the ability to be used three or more times.
Numbers and values
The difference between two numbers is the absolute difference between the two; it is always positive, and does not care which number is higher.
As a quantity, the phrase "up to" [a certain number] indicates a number chosen by the player taking the action or using the trait, between zero and that number, inclusive.
A variable value is a numerical value whose amount depends upon a decision or upon the game state.
Example: “Pay an amount of Gold equal to the number of units you control:” is a variable cost.
A card with a variable Gold Cost has only an asterisk in its gold coin icon.
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are connecting words; these rules cover usage of the conjunctions "and" and "or."
The phrase "a [keyword 1] and a [keyword 2]" refers to two different cards, each with the relevant keyword.
Example: "Bow a Samurai and a Courtier" is not fulfilled by bowing a single card with both Samurai and Courtier as keywords.
Modifiers attached to a phrase in the form of "a [modifier] X or Y" or "a X and Y [modifier]" modify both things in that phrase.
Example: "A Shadowlands Shugenja or Monk" means "a Shadowlands Shugenja or a Shadowlands Monk." If "a Monk or a Shadowlands Shugenja" is meant, it will be written that way. Likewise, "a Shugenja or Monk without attachments" means "a Shugenja without attachments or a Monk without attachments."
EXCEPTION: Multiple effects preceded with modifier "may" must be chosen together in an all-or-none fashion, although each resolves separately and can be negated separately. See Effects, Choices.
Conditions are treated like modifiers; they also carry through to both clauses separated only by a conjunction.
Example: "If Ono is honorable, gain 2 Honor or give him +2F" means he must be honorable to activate either of those effects.
[ADDED Sept 12 2007]
Modifiers attached to a phrase in the form of "a [modifier] X or a Y" modify only the first thing in the phrase; they do not carry over the "a."
Example: "A Shadowlands Shugenja or a Monk" does not imply that the Monk has to be Shadowlands.
Effects that check for a condition phrased as “X or Y” are also satisfied if both X and Y are met.
Example: “Destroyed during a duel or a battle” would apply even if the duel was during a battle, and “target a Samurai or Shugenja” could target one Personality with both keywords.
Pronouns
In card and rules wording, the male form of pronouns ("he," "him") is used to save space, and can refers to Personalities and players of any gender. Any game entities other than Personalities and players are referred to as "it." Some Nonhuman Personalities are also referred to as “it.” Players should never be referred to as “it.”
Pronouns and pronoun-like terms, like "him," "it," "them," or "that Personality," refer to the last possible thing mentioned in the text that the term would logically refer to.
Examples:
A. "Target a Samurai and a Shugenja. Bow him." "Him" would refer to the Shugenja.
B. "Target one of your Personalities: Bow a target Personality opposing him." "him" would refer to your Personality, as a Personality cannot oppose himself.
C. "Target a Personality and an Item. Give him +2F". "Him" refers to the Personality because an Item would be referred to as "it."
Pronouns referring to "each" of a number of players refer separately to each of those players.
Example: "Target another player. Each of you discards a card from his hand." "His" in this example refers to the other player discarding from his own hand, and you discarding from your own hand.
[ADDED Oct 20 2007]
Possessive case
The possessive case – terms such as “your,” “his” or “a player’s” – is used in a number of different ways.
When referring to the relationship between a player and a card or cards, possessive terms refer to a card in play controlled by the player, or a card out of play owned by the player.
The possessive case referring to a card’s player is the reverse of its use referring to cards.
Example: “His player” refers to the card’s owner if it is not in play, or controller if it is.
Attached and attaching cards in a unit refer to each other with the possessive case.
Example: A Follower’s Personality is the Personality it is attached to, and a Personality’s Followers are those attached to him.
Possessive case referring to a unit’s cards indicates cards in that unit.
Example: “The unit’s Personality” or “the unit’s Followers.”
Possessive case can also refer to a card’s stats, traits, or abilities
Example: “His Chi,” “its abilities.”
When referring to actions (as distinct from abilities), the possessive case refers to the player who took the action, regardless of the owner or controller of a card it is on.
Example: If a player is able to take an action from an ability on one of your cards, the effects come from that player’s action, but come from your cards and are considered your card effects.
Possessive case relating units, or cards in units, to an army refers to that side on the battlefield, and does not imply that the two cards have to be there together at any one time. Specifically, if an effect looks for things that happened in the past to a card in another card's army, the two cards need not have been present at the battlefield at the same time. [ADDED 24 May 2011]
Possessive case is used in a number of other ways than these specialized meanings, which should be interpreted accordingly.
Example: “This Province’s battlefield.”
References
A card’s text can refer to itself or other cards in a number of ways.
Most simply, references to “this card” or “this (card type)” refer to the card itself.
Restrictions in a card’s traits that don’t explicitly refer to anything are understood to refer to the card itself.
Example: “Will only attach to a Samurai” should be read as “This card will only attach to a Samurai.”
References to the card’s title, or to a shortened form of the title in the case of Personalities (such as “Kei” as short for “Mirumoto Kei”), refer to the card itself. Such references by title refer only to that copy of the card, not to any other copy that might exist, unless they use wording such as “a Mirumoto Kei” or “a copy of Mirumoto Kei.” These references change in a copied ability; see Copy.
References to attachments
Attachments with continuous traits that refer to “this Personality” refer to the personality it is currently attached to.
Attachments with triggered traits or actions referring to "this Personality" refer to the Personality the card was attached to at the time when the trait was triggered or the action taken. Ongoing effects of such traits or actions do not change their reference if the attachment is later transferred.
Example: if you use an Item's ability "Limited: This Personality has Tactician until the end of the game" and later transfer the Item to another Personality, the original Personality still keeps Tactician, and the old one does not gain it until you use the ability again.
Attachments that refer to “this [keyword]” refer to a keyword that must be found on the Personality it is attached to for the effect to be satisfied.
Example: An item with the cost “Bow this Shugenja” cannot have the cost paid by a non-Shugenja personality.
References to keywords
Terms that are specially capitalized in text either refer to special game terms (such as “Action Phase”, “Dynasty deck,” “Clan alignment,” “Attacker”) or one of four possible things:
- Keywords (“Samurai”)
- Card types (“Personality”)
- Action designator types (“Limited”)
- Card titles (“Tsuruchi Nobumoto”)
If a term could refer to more than one possible thing, it refers to them all, keeping in mind that plural and other grammar variants of terms in titles are their own words.
Example: “Bow a Berserker” would be satisfied by bowing a card with the Berserker keyword or card with the title “Berserker” but not a card with the title “Berserkers.”
EXCEPTION: A term that is pluralized in text can refer to both singular and plural forms of the term in a title or keyword.
Example: “Bow one of your Berserkers” or “Bow two Berserkers” can be satisfied by Berserker and/or Berserkers cards.
Partial words do not satisfy text that asks for a full title or multi-word keyword.
Example: Text that asks for a “Battle Maiden” is not satisfied by a card with “Battle” or “Maiden” alone.
Likewise, text that asks for a single word is not satisfied by a multi-word keyword or title that contains that word. For instance, text that asks for a “Battle ability” is not satisfied by a Reaction ability on a Battle Maiden, nor is text that asks for a Temple satisfied by the keyword or title “Temple Guardian”.
References to other points in time
Once a card or other game element is identified by a keyword in a trait or action’s text (such as, “Bow one of your Samurai”) further references to that keyword within that trait or action are meant to only identify the particular game element clearly (such as, “Your Samurai gains +2F”). Specifically, if the Samurai somehow loses the Samurai keyword between the first and second references, the second effect still applies.
References to a game element that mention what happened to it in previous effects or costs of the same action or trait (such as “the discarded card” or “the Samurai you bowed”) should also be treated this way – as a reference to the particular element intended, rather than a requirement that the thing actually happened. When one thing is truly conditional on the other, it will be stated explicitly.
Example: In “Target two of your Samurai and bow one of them: Give +3F to the one who did not bow and give a +1F token to the one who bowed,” if the second Samurai pays the cost in some other way than bowing, he still gets the token. However, if the same effect ends “…attach a +1F token to the other Samurai if he bowed,” the Samurai who paid the cost in a different way does not get the token.
References involving a game state in the context of a past occurrence check the game state only at the time of the occurrence. See also the reference rules above and under "This".
Example: The rules for rehonoring Personalities say a Personality is rehonored, "Before a player gains Honor from an action or trait that targeted, came from, or was performed by one or more of his or her dishonorable Personalities, the Personality is rehonored and the player does not gain the Honor." Dishonorable status is checked only at the time the targeting, origin or performing of the action or trait is established.
Miscellaneous usage
If an action compares one stat to another without specifying one of the stats being compared, the performing card or unit's own stat is meant.
Example 1: “Target a Samurai and a Personality opposing him with lower Chi” means “lower Chi than the targeted (performing) Samurai.”
Example 2: “Target a unit and a Personality opposing it with lower Force” checks your target’s total unit Force against the Force of the opposing Personality.
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