Card features
From Legend of the Five Rings Rules
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[edit] Card features
[edit] Stats
Numerical values possessed by cards, provinces, units, armies, the player, or other things in the game are known as stats. The correspondence of stats to card types is described in Card Types.
[edit] Absent stats
If an area of a printed card that normally contains a stat does not have a numerical or “-“ value in it, or the card type itself does not possess that stat, the card does not possess that stat either.
EXCEPTION: Followers do not have a Chi or Personal Honor stat even though the relevant area may have a 0 or "-" in it.
If something in the game needs to know the value of a stat on a card without that stat, its value is zero.
If a side at a battlefield has no units, its total army Force is treated as absent stats.
Absent stats can not receive bonuses or penalties.
[edit] General rules about stats
Maximum and minimum values, bonuses and penalties: Bonuses and penalties are commonly referred to by a mathematical expression such as +1F or -1 Personal Honor. The terms “gain,” “increase” and “give” for bonuses, and “lose,” “reduce” or “suffer” for penalties, are also used. Use of terms like "lose" together with a negative number refer to a loss and not a double-negative increase, so "lose -1F" is the same as "suffer -1F."
Rules, costs, and effects may specify a maximum value of a stat beyond which its explicit value can not rise, or a minimum value of a stat below which its explicit value can not sink. In the unlikely event that a stat receives a minimum value that is above its existing maximum value, or vice versa, its value will not change at all until the minimum and the maximum cease to contradict each other.
Any change in a stat’s value is considered a bonus (if increased) or penalty (if decreased), with the following exceptions:
- When a maximum or minimum is applied, any change in the stat due to this is not considered a penalty or bonus. [ADDED July 29 07]
- When a bonus, penalty, maximum, or minimum ends or is negated, the resulting stat change is not considered a penalty or bonus.
- A fluctuating bonus or penalty is one that explicitly changes with the game state.
- Example: A card that has +1F for each Samurai in play.
- Changes in the size of a fluctuating bonus or penalty that are due to changes in the game state, are not considered to be bonuses or penalties.
- Example: A card that has +1F for each Samurai in play goes from +3F to +2F when a Samurai is destroyed. This is not a Force penalty.
- Changes in total Force of a unit or army which are not due to changes to the Force of its component cards (for example, a Follower being destroyed or bowed) do not count as Force bonuses or penalties.
When a bonus or penalty is itself reduced or increased by another effect, the reduction or increase is counted as a bonus or penalty to the stat as well as to the original bonus or penalty. In particular, reduction of a bonus cannot turn it into a penalty, nor can reduction of a penalty turn it into a bonus; the minimum value of a bonus, and maximum value of a penalty, is zero. [ADDED 20 May 2008]
A bonus or penalty of +0 or -0 is not a bonus or penalty when you check whether a bonus or penalty was received.
Bonuses and penalties are cumulative with each other.
Bonuses and penalties are never given directly to numerals.
A card type without a stat cannot receive bonuses or penalties to the stat unless the relevant bonus or penalty specifically grants it that stat. The stat is treated as zero at all times for purposes of anything that checks it.
Example: Gold cost of a Region.
To get a stat's current value at any given time, do steps A through C, below:
- A: Apply all current bonuses and penalties.
- B: If the total is below 0, treat it as 0. (Does not apply to Family Honor, Honor Requirements, and stats with a + or – sign such as an Item’s Force and Chi stats.)
- C: If the total is less than a minimum or more than a maximum, treat it as the minimum or maximum.
When a bonus, penalty, minimum or maximum is applied or ends, recalculate the stat.
Example: A Samurai with 1 base Force attacks a Province with a Region that states “Attacking Personalities at this Province’s battlefield have -2F.” When he enters the battlefield this gives him a -2F penalty, making his Force 0 (1-2, or -1, which is treated as 0). His controller then plays an action that gives him +3F, making his Force 2 (1-2+3). The Defender plays an action that says “Target a Personality. His maximum Force is 1 until the battle ends.” This makes his Force 1 (1-2+3 = 2, but maximum 1). He then is moved away from the battlefield; the Region’s -2F effect on him ends, and his Force is recalculated with the +3F bonus and the maximum 1 to still be 1. When the battle ends, the +3F bonus stays (it lasts till the end of the turn) but the maximum from the Defender’s action ends, so his force is recalculated as 1+3 = 4.
A stat's current value is always checked, unless text refers to a base value. [Added 26 August 2007.]
Sometimes a specific bonus or penalty may have a restriction based on the value of the stat; for example, "This will not reduce Chi below 1." Any time the bonus or penalty is applied, or changes in value, this restriction on value is applied and changes the actual amount of the bonus or penalty that is applied at that time (see also Raise and Lower, Rules Glossary). The restriction does not affect stat changes from other sources. [ADDED Sept 20 2007]
Example: A non-Unique Personality with 3 Personal Honor and 3 Chi assigns opposing the Obsidian Dragon, whose trait reads "Non-Unique Personalities have a Force and Chi penalty equal to their own Personal Honor while they oppose Obsidian Dragon; this will not reduce Chi below 1." Normally the Dragon would give the Personality -3C, but the penalty is reduced to -2C because -3C would reduce Chi below 1. Later in the battle the Personality gains +2C; because the penalty was only -2C when applied, the Personality goes back to 3C. Still later on the Personality gains +2PH, which causes a recalculation of the Dragon's continuous penalty on him, to -5C. However, this would reduce his Chi below 1, so the penalty is cut to -2C. Finally, the now 1C Personality receives -1C from a token; this brings him to 0C, as the restriction on the Dragon's trait does not apply to Chi penalties from other sources.
Setting stats to a value: Various effects will set a stat to some particular value, such as effects that switch or copy stats. To set a stat to a value, give an appropriate bonus or penalty.
Example: A 0F/3C Personality has a +1C weapon attached. An effect switches the Personality's Force and Chi. The Personality's Force gains +4F, and Chi receives -4C. Because the weapon's bonus is already part of the stat, it is not reapplied, and the Personality is destroyed due to having 0C.
("Setting stats to a value" added 23 August 2007; clarified 1 September 2007.)
Asterisks: An asterisk (*) appearing after a stat on a card highlights that traits or actions on the card itself may modify the base value, which is printed on the card. The stat is not variable.
An asterisk (*) appearing instead of a stat on a card means that the stat has no base value, but is determined according to other circumstances. This also means that the stat is variable. If such a value cannot be determined at any given time, its base value is zero.
[edit] Specific stats
The Force of a card represents its physical and military power. Force is abbreviated “F.”
The Force stat of an Item is a modifier (see Card types, Item stats) which directly modifies the Personality’s Force, even while the Item is bowed. Followers have their own Force (see Card types, Follower stats), which add to the Personality’s Force only in calculating total unit or army Force.
The Force of unbowed Personalities and Followers is totaled together in calculating Unit Force and army Force. Rarely, some modifiers may directly affect unit or army Force.
A bowed card in a unit retains its own Force stat; its own Force is not reduced to zero from being bowed.
The Chi of a Personality represents the strength and discipline of his or her inner energies. Chi is abbreviated “C.”
The Chi stat of an item is a modifier, which means that it adds its bonus to, or subtracts its penalty from, its Personality while attached.
If the Chi of a Personality in play is ever zero, destroy him. This destruction has special rules about its source.
This destruction from zero Chi is continuously applied. Special rules apply to its negation. Ongoing and instantaneous effects that negate destruction, such as the trait "Before this card is destroyed: Negate the destruction," will not negate destruction from zero Chi (see Effects). Only a continuous negation effect (for example, "This Personality cannot be destroyed" as a trait), or an effect that specifically refers to the zero Chi rule (for example, "Until the end of the turn, he is not destroyed for having 0 Chi") can overcome the Personality's destruction.
This rule also applies to effects that substitute some other effect, such as dishonoring, for destruction. If the substitution is continuous or refer specifically to zero Chi, the substitution is effective. In this case, the substitution happens once, and destruction from zero Chi is suspended while the conditions of substitution hold. If the substitution comes from an ongoing or instantaneous effect, then the substitution fails.
[CLARIFIED and expanded to cover substitution, May 30 2008]
Gold Cost:
It is sometimes necessary to distinguish between Gold Cost as a card's stat, and the Gold cost of bringing a card into play one time. The entering-play cost is based on the Gold Cost stat and any modifiers. References to “paying less gold” or “reducing cost” in the context of entering play are reductions to the entering-play Gold cost, and end when the payment is made.
Focus Value:
When a card receives a bonus to its Focus Value during a duel, the bonus ends at the end of the duel.
Honor Requirement:
An Honor Requirement of “-“ on a Personality is treated as an infinitely low value; in other words, a player’s Family Honor can never be lower than the Personality’s Honor requirement. Likewise, whenever an Honor Requirement of “-“ is compared against any other stat, the other stat is always higher. Two Honor Requirements of "-" are considered equal to each other.
Personal Honor:
The Personal Honor of a Dishonorable Personality has a maximum of zero.
In spite of the fan on their cards, and any modifier that may appear inside it, followers have no Personal Honor.
Honor Production and Gold Production:
These stats appear only on Holdings and represent the amount of Honor or Gold produced by the holding’s relevant traits or abilities. Special conditions of Gold production only change the value of these stats if the condition applies at the time the value is checked.
Example: A Geisha House with 2 base Gold Production produces 3 Gold if its player is Scorpion Clan; because the player is known to be Scorpion Clan at all times, its modified Gold Production is 3 at all times, while its base Gold Production is 2. A Holding with 2 base Gold Production that produces 3 Gold when paying for a Samurai, however, only has a 3 Gold Production when in the process of paying such a cost.
[edit] Card title
The title, text in the curved white bar at the top of a card, is the card’s name. A card’s title does not give it any traits or keywords, although some of its keywords may duplicate descriptive terms in the title.
Example: A card titled “Keeper of the Temples” would not be considered a Temple card unless it had the Temple keyword in its textbox.
Created cards and tokens do not normally have a title. Two cards without a title do not have the same title, or different titles.
Card titles are referred to in card text through a capitalized term or phrase.
Example: “Search your deck for a Strike at the Center”.
Partial words in a title do not satisfy a requirement for a full title. In the above example, a card called Strike at the Center would not satisfy a requirement that you search your deck for a Strike card, or vice versa.
[edit] Card text box
[edit] Keywords
In keywords, parts of words or phrases are not the same as the whole word or phrase.
Example: Dragon Clan and Dragon are different keywords. A Ninjato doesn’t count as a Ninja. A Monkey Clan Personality is not a Monk.
EXCEPTION: Any keyword containing the word Experienced is referred to by the term “Experienced.” See Experienced, Glossary.
Keywords may be granted to a card by other effects. Such effects follow the normal rules on duration of effects.
A created card’s base keywords are those given to it by the effect that created it. A non-created card's base keywords are those physically printed on its Most Recent Printing (MRP).
Some keywords have meaning in the rules. Others are descriptive terms that have no special rules meaning.
Rules, traits, and actions will usually refer to keywords as capitalized terms without boldface type (such as, “Target a Samurai:”). However, when the effect grants or removes that keyword, or creates a card with that keyword, it will usually be in boldface to clarify that it is a keyword and not just a trait (such as, “Give that Personality Samurai” or “… the Samurai keyword.”)
Some terms embedded in the text of traits or actions (that is, appearing in quotation marks and granting a trait or ability) may appear in boldface, but they are not considered part of the card’s keywords.
“Battle,” “Limited,” “Open” and “Reaction” (see Abilities) appear in boldface, but are action designators, not keywords. Effects, however, refer to them in a similar way.
A card either has a given keyword or it does not. Effects that grant a keyword to a card that already has it do not give it an extra copy of the keyword. Nor would such an effect protect that card against another effect that would remove that keyword.
[edit] Different and same keywords
Two cards have the "same" keyword if they share one or more eligible keywords.
When comparing two cards, they have "different" keywords if, when all shared keywords are ignored, each card has an eligible keyword the other does not.
With multiple keywords on cards, two cards can have both the same and different keywords.
Example: A Personality with Dragon Clan and Scorpion Clan has a different Clan alignment from a Personality with the Dragon Clan and Phoenix Clan keywords. The two Personalities also have the same Clan alignment.
Example: A Personality with Dragon Clan and Scorpion Clan does not have a different Clan alignment from a Personality with the Dragon Clan keyword alone. The two Personalities only have the same Clan alignment.
When comparing more than two cards with multiple keywords, in order for all of them to be different from each other, each pair must be different from each other.
In the above kinds of comparisons, a card without an eligible keyword has neither a different keyword nor the same keyword as another card.
Effects that count the number of "different" keywords on cards simply count the number of eligible keywords on those cards, ignoring duplicates. If there is only one eligible keyword, it is still counted; "different" does not imply there have to be two or more keywords.
[Section ADDED June 2 2008]
[edit] Traits
EXCEPTION: If a trait uses a pronoun or other language that can only refer back to something named in the previous sentence, the sentences are part of the same trait.
Example: “Lose 2 Honor. This Personality may not issue challenges.” are two separate traits because they make sense independently of each other. However, “After your turn begins: Target another player’s Personality. This Personality challenges him.” is a single trait because the “him” in the second sentence makes no sense without the previous sentence.
Effects on traits have all the keywords of the card they are on.
Example: A Chi loss from a trait on a Maho card is a Maho effect.
If a single card, player or other thing in the game is given a trait it already has, it does not get an additional copy of that trait or become any more resistant to removal of that trait. This is similar to the rule on keywords.
Triggered traits include a trigger – a timing reference that ends in a colon (:) such as “Before your turn ends:” or “After this Personality enters play:” This trigger is part of a triggered trait's constraints block, as opposed to its effects block, which comes after the colon.
Triggered traits are effects that happen when that trigger occurs in the game. They only are triggered if the card or stronghold they are on is (a) in play, (b) in the focusing area, (c) in a resolution or entering-play area, or (d) if they explicitly say they happen from an area not in play.
If the effects of one trait cause a card to leave play, the subsequent effects of other traits with that same trigger still occur. [ADDED May 20 2008]
Effects of triggered traits are not optional – they must happen if the trigger occurs.
EXCEPTION: Gold-producing traits on Holdings are always optional to use.
A triggered trait on a given card or stronghold occurs once and only once each time that trigger occurs.
Triggered traits may include costs and restrictions before the colon as well. These are references to doing things rather than timing references.
Example: “Bow this card” or “Give one of your Personalities -2F.”
Costs of triggered traits are also not optional – they must be paid if the player can effectively pay the cost (see “Costs”).
If a player cannot pay a cost or meet the restrictions of a triggered trait, none of its effects resolve.
For cards that normally enter play (all card types except Actions and Events), a shorthand is used to refer to the common effects of losing or gaining honor from playing the card. The trait “Lose 3 Honor” on such a card is short for “After this card enters play: Lose 3 Honor” and likewise for “Gain 3 Honor.”
Gold-producing cards also follow special rules for their traits that produce Gold. Gold-producing holdings often have traits written as “Bow this card: Produce X Gold” which is shorthand for, “When paying a Gold cost, you may bow this card: Produce X Gold.”
The trigger “Focus Effect:” refers to a particular point in a duel. (See 14.6)
Traits that are triggered when paying a Gold cost, and whose effects produce Gold, do not have to be triggered when any given Gold cost is paid; they are optional.
Effects, targeting and costs of triggered traits follow the rules for effects, targeting and costs.
The occurrence of a trait's trigger, and the successful meeting of any other conditions or costs, means that its effects are applied in order, even if the card leaves play during the effects' application.
For a comparison of triggered traits and Reactions, see Timing. Triggers on traits follow the same rules as triggers on Reactions, but when a triggered trait has the same trigger as a Reaction, the trait always applies first.
Restrictions in the general form “once (or twice, etc.) per turn (or phase, game, etc.)” have a different meaning in a triggered trait if they come before or after the colon. Such a restriction in the constraints block, before the colon, means that the trait is only triggered once, at the first opportunity in that span of time to be triggered. Such a restriction in the effects block, after the colon, means that the trait is triggered every time the triggering condition is met, but the effect can only be applied once. This matters if the effect is optional; in that case the “once per turn” restriction is only used up if the effect is actually used.
Continuous traits such as “You may not gain Honor” or “Your Samurai Personalities have +1F” do not contain a trigger.
While their card is in play, continuous traits apply their effects.
While their card is out of play, continuous traits affect the card they are on, and only that card, unless the trait states otherwise.
Continuous traits do not have a duration. They are “always on.”
If an effect granted by a continuous trait is negated or undone by another cost or effect, the continuous trait does not immediately apply again.
Example: If a card you have in play says “All your Personalities are Samurai” and an effect removes the Samurai trait from one of your Personalities, the Samurai trait does not immediately re-appear on the Personality.
[edit] Abilities
The boldface text “Focus Effect:” is not an action designator but a special trigger for a trait.
Abilities on a bowed card can not be used, whereas traits on a bowed card have no such restriction.
Abilities can be used only once per turn, unless their action or other card text states otherwise.
Each ability on each separate source is a separate ability, even if they are identical abilities or exist on identical cards.
Example: The “once per turn” limit on using an ability does not prevent a player from using the ability on two identical cards in the same turn.
Unlike keywords and traits, abilities that are given to a card or player do “stack” – a card or player can have more than one identical copy of an ability, each of which is used separately.
Unlike traits, abilities (including Reactions) are always voluntary and are never triggered automatically. (Added 26 August 2007)
The difference in usage between “action” and “ability” is that an ability is text on a card, while an action is a process taken at a specific time and governed by the ability’s text. Nonetheless, the two terms should be treated as functionally equivalent.
Ability and action keywords: Sometimes, an ability carries keywords. A keyword describes both the ability and the action it creates.
Any keywords on a card are inherited by its actions.
Example: An action on a Ninja card is a Ninja action.
EXCEPTION: Keywords that an Action or Spell card possesses only because they are on one of its abilities are not given to other abilities on the card.
Example: An ability on an Action card that is Maho does not give Maho to any other abilities on that card. [CHANGED Jul 17 07]
Sometimes, one or more keywords may come directly before the action designator.
Example: “Ninja Battle:” In this case, the ability is a Ninja ability.
A card that is not an Action card or Spell does not inherit keywords the other way from its abilities.
Example: A Personality who has a Tactical ability is not considered a Tactical card. [CHANGED Jul 17 07]
An Action or Spell card inherits all keywords from all its abilities.
Example: An Action card with a Maho Battle: ability is considered a Maho card. [CHANGED Jul 17 07]
Each word in an action’s keywords is a separate keyword.
Example: A “Bushido Virtue” action is a Bushido action and a Virtue action.
Action designators: An ability must contain one or more of the boldface action designators “Limited:” “Open:” “Battle:” or “Reaction:”
If an ability contains more than one designator, it may be used as either kind of action and counts as both kinds of action.
Example: When searching for a card with a Battle action a player may retrieve one with a Battle/Open action. In Samurai Edition, the most common multiple designator is Battle/Open.
The order of multiple designators does not matter; a Battle/Open ability is functionally the same as an Open/Battle ability. [ADDED March 19 2008]
Effects may refer to an action designator (such as, “Battle abilities on cards in play may not be used”) but the action designator is not a keyword.
Constraints block: An ability may contain a second colon, at some point after the designator’s colon, which separates the constraints block from the effects block. If it does not have this second colon, there is only an effects block. The constraints block contains one or more of the following elements.
- A. Reaction trigger. Like triggered traits, Reactions have a trigger that describes a point in time when they can be taken.
- Example: “After the start of a turn:” “Before a Personality is destroyed:” “When producing Gold:”
- B. Conditions. Some conditions are restrictions, limiting when the action can be taken (such as, “If you control no Courtiers”). Others allow a player to take the action in spite of the game rules or other effects (such as, “Even if this card is bowed” overrides the rule that abilities on bowed cards cannot be used.) Sometimes a condition does both; “If this card is face-up in one of your Provinces” restricts the use of the ability, but also implicitly allows it to be used when the card is out of play, which overrides the basic rules.
- C. Costs. Any text in the constraints block that tells you to do something – bow one of your Personalities, pay gold, lose Honor, and so on – is a cost of the action.
- D. Targeting may appear in the constraints block, as well.
Effects block: An ability’s effects are described in an effects block; after the action designator’s colon if there is no constraints block, and after the second colon if there is a constraints block.
[edit] Flavor text
At the bottom of the text box in italic type is the card’s flavor text, if any. This text merely adds descriptive value, is not part of card text, and has no bearing on play.
[edit] Color text
Color text is text in the body of a card’s traits or abilities that uses terms with no rules definition or implication. This text adds descriptive value, but does not have any implications for keywords or other effects.
Example: “Matsu Benika trains an animal, creating a 1F Creature Follower card.” Because “trains an animal” is color text, the follower does not gain the “animal” trait.
[edit] Reminder text
Italic text in parentheses is reminder text. Reminder text is intended to support a reading of the card that is correct according to the rules, but not immediately obvious upon a casual reading of the card text. Reminder text is not part of card text, and its presence or absence has no implications for the card or for the rules.
[edit] Embedded text
Embedded text appears within a trait or ability in quotation marks (") and usually is part of an effect that grants the embedded text as a trait or ability.
Any features of embedded text are not a part of the text that contains them.
Example: "Limited: Give a Personality "Ninja Battle: This Personality challenges a target Personality opposing him." The Limited ability is not a Battle or Ninja ability and does not create a challenge.
[edit] Other card features
The small text along the lower edge of the card (expansion, numbering, rarity and artist name) and along the right edge of the card (story credits) normally has no bearing on play.
[edit] Created cards
Some effects may create cards in the course of the game. Created cards are not considered to be part of the play deck. They may be represented by face-down cards, markers, custom cards, or other objects. An effect that creates a card will sometimes say it creates just that card type ("a Follower") rather than explicitly saying "a Follower card."
Created cards are not tokens.
A created card ceases to exist when it leaves play. A created card that cannot enter play ceases to exist.
The base stats, traits, abilities, and keywords of a created card are those granted to it by the effect that created it; such granting of card elements does not have a duration. Any stats of a created card not specified by that effect, but that a card of that type normally has, have a base value of 0.
EXCEPTION: Unspecified Honor requirements on a created Personality are “-“ rather than 0.
A distinction should be drawn between the Gold cost of an action or effect that creates a card, and the Gold cost of the card itself. Only if the card is created with a Gold Cost stat does it have a Gold cost other than zero.
A created card has no title.
The effect that creates a card may grant it keywords, which will be indicated by boldface type. In the creation effect, commas are used to separate the keywords.
Example: “Create a Lion Clan, Samurai, Tactician Personality card.”
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