Costs and restrictions
From Legend of the Five Rings Rules
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[edit] Costs and restrictions
[edit] Costs
A cost is usually a change to the state or stats of a card, player or other game entity. A cost must fully occur, or be “paid,” for effects of an action or trait to happen, or for a card with a cost to enter play.
A player can not pay a cost by changing the state of another player's cards.
Targeting may occur in a trait or ability's constraints block but is not itself a cost.
Costs are sometimes worded to depend upon the game state.
- Some costs do not apply if a certain condition is met; this is indicated by the wording “[pay cost] unless [condition is met]”
- Example: “Bow this shugenja unless he has the Fire keyword.”
- Other costs are conditional, and added if a certain condition is met. These are worded “[pay cost] if [condition is met].”
- Example: “Bow this Samurai if he is attacking.”
Conditional costs can be told apart from restrictions on playing an action or card, because the condition (“if” statement) comes after the cost is described.
Example: “If he is attacking, bow this Samurai:” can only be taken while attacking. “Bow this Samurai if he is attacking:” means that you do not have to bow him as a cost unless you are attacking.
Changes to the game state created by costs follow the rules for duration of effects according to the type of effect they resemble.
[edit] Mandatory costs
Actions, cards entering play, and triggered traits can have mandatory costs. The mandatory cost of an action is found in the constraints block (see Card Features, Abilities). The mandatory cost of a triggered trait is found before the colon (see Card Features, Traits).
Additionally, the Gold cost of an Action card, found in the gold coin symbol, is a mandatory cost of taking any action that appears on that card.
The mandatory costs of a card entering play are its Gold Cost (if any) and any other costs for entering play listed in its traits.
Example: “Discard the Imperial Favor as an additional cost to play this card.”
Costs are mandatory by default.
Mandatory costs sometimes present more than one option for payment.
Example: “Bow your Stronghold or discard the Imperial Favor:”
At the time costs are paid, the player paying the cost chooses which alternative cost to pay, but must choose one in order for the cost to be paid. He or she may not choose to pay both costs.
Multiple mandatory costs must all be paid for the effect to resolve.
Costs must be payable when an action is announced under the Good Faith Rule. If, due to interference from other effects, a mandatory cost cannot be paid at the point when it must be paid:
- No remaining costs need be paid, but costs already paid are not refunded.
- No effects of the action or trait resolve, and the ability or trait is considered to have been “used.”
- If the cost was for a card to enter play, it is discarded.
[edit] Optional costs
Actions and traits can also have optional costs.
Optional costs located in the effects block are indicated by the phrase “may … as a cost” followed by one or more associated effects.
Example: “He may bow his Stronghold as a cost to gain 2 Honor.”
Costs in the constraints block are optional if they are preceded by the term “may.”
Example: “Bow your Stronghold; you may also pay 4 Gold:”
These costs will usually be referred to in the effects block with associated effects.
Example: “If you paid 4 Gold, gain 2 Honor.”
If an optional cost is not paid, only its associated effects do not happen.
Optional costs in the constraints block are paid in any order relative to each other and to mandatory costs. Optional costs in the effects block are paid at the point they appear in the order of effects.
If an action brings a card into play, being able to pay the card's cost is required under the good faith rule. However, the card’s Gold is not a cost of the action.
[edit] Timing of costs
Costs are paid in the order they are written.
Gold costs indicated by a Fate card's gold coin icon are paid before any costs indicated by the card's text. [ADDED Jan 2 2008]
Some additional costs can come from sources other than the card that is the source of the action or trait being paid for, or the card entering play that is being paid for - for example, an Event that says "All Political actions have an additional cost of 'Bow one of your Courtiers.'". These additional costs are paid after costs from the card itself. If more than one additional cost applies, the active player decides in what order they should be paid. [ADDED Jan 2 2008]
Multiple costs indicated by a number, or the word "all," in the same piece of text are applied simultaneously.
Example: When instructed to "Bow 2 Samurai," or "Bow all Samurai you control," the samurai are chosen and bowed simultaneously.
[edit] Costs and changes
If a cost involves a change to card state, the change must actually, fully occur at the time of payment for the cost to be paid.
A card already in the cost’s end state cannot normally pay the cost.
Example: A Dishonorable Personality cannot be used to pay the cost “Dishonor one of your target Personalities.”
Effects that prevent or negate the change will also prevent or negate the cost payment. Likewise, effects that delay the change prevent the cost payment -- L5R actions do not accept credit.
Example 1: A player who cannot lose Honor cannot pay the cost “Lose 2 Honor.”
Example 2: If a cost involves destroying a card, but a Reaction before the card is destroyed negates the destruction, the cost is not paid.
Example 3: If, in Example 2, a Reaction after the card was destroyed returns it to play, the cost is paid because the card was actually destroyed.
If a cost involves a change to a stat, the explicit value of the stat must change by the full stated amount or the cost can not be paid. Minimum or maximum values can interfere with the payment of such costs.
Example: The cost “Give Daizu -2C:” cannot be paid if Daizu has 1C, due to the minimum value of 0 that Chi has.
[edit] Alterations to costs and payments
If any specific payment of a cost is negated, delayed, or made impossible in the process of paying costs, the player paying the costs may use alternate available sources to pay that cost, or may choose not to pay the cost.
However, if the cost was a change to the state of something in the game, and the change was negated, delayed or made impossible, the same change to the same card may not then be used as an alternate payment. [ADDED Oct 22 2007]
Some effects may add, waive or substitute costs. These effects influence the costs of an action when it’s taken, but do not directly influence the costs as described in the ability.
Added costs: A cost added to an action becomes a cost of that action when it is taken.
Waiving: An effect that waives a cost removes the need to pay that cost, but other costs are not altered.
If the waived cost was an alternate cost, it is considered paid; the cost need not be paid using the other alternative.
Substitution: An effect that pays a cost substitutes itself for the original cost.
Example 1: “You may move your Samurai Personalities home to pay the cost of destroying them.” The movement is an alternative cost, and is optional. If the movement is negated, the cost is not paid, but you still have the option of destroying them.
Example 2: “Reaction: Before paying a cost by destroying one of your Samurai Personalities: Move him home instead to pay the cost.” Once this reaction is taken, the cost changes entirely; if the movement is negated, the cost is not paid, and can’t be paid by destroying the Personality.
Changed costs: A substitution of a cost or a change in the numerical value of a cost, in the context of playing a card or taking an action, applies only to the time the cost is paid.
Example: “Bring the Personality into play paying 2 less Gold” or “bring him into play reducing his Gold cost by 2” do not reduce the Gold Cost stat of the Personality after the payment is made.
[edit] Gold production
Gold is a resource in the game that is used to pay a Gold cost.
When a Gold cost is paid, Gold may be produced from any number of sources, including bowing one’s Stronghold as a cost to produce an amount equal to its Gold Production. If one source of production is interfered with, other sources may be used instead.
The total value of the Gold production must equal or exceed the modified Gold cost for the cost to be paid. Any excess Gold produced is “taxed by the Emperor” (color text) and lost; it does not apply to other payments.
Gold from a single source may not be split to pay multiple costs.
Additional Gold costs that are imposed by separate effects, as opposed to changes to the amount of a Gold cost, must be made as separate payments.
Example: If an effect makes all Political actions have an additional cost of 2 Gold, and a Political action already costs 4 Gold, the 2 and 4 Gold payments may not be combined into 6.
Gold production effects from multiple sources to pay a single cost happen in an order chosen by the player paying the cost. In an exception to the normal timing rules on triggered occurrences, no distinction is made between rulebook effects, triggered traits, and Reactions with a trigger such as “When paying a Gold cost.” These Gold sources can be activated in any order desired when paying a single cost. [CHANGED from simultaneous production, Sept 13 2007]
It is permitted to overpay a Gold cost by any amount, including producing Gold to pay a Gold cost of zero on (for example) an Action card. It is not permitted to pay a Gold cost for a card with no Gold cost at all, or for an action on a non-Action card (e.g., Personality, Follower) with no Gold cost.
Example: A Samurai Edition Ring or a normal Region has no Gold cost at all.
A Gold cost of zero need not be paid at all and does not count as a cost.
[edit] Conditions
Cards may have conditions that govern when they may or may not enter play. Likewise, actions may have conditions that govern when they may or may not be taken. When these conditions limit the circumstances under which the card can enter play or the action can be taken, they are known as restrictions.
All conditions that limit whether a card can enter play, including effects from other cards and from the rules, are restrictions.
Examples: “Can not attach to a Samurai,” honor requirements, the Loyal and Unique keywords, or “Can only enter play if you have lost a Province this game.”
Things that bring a card into play “ignoring restrictions” apply only to conditions placed on the card’s capability to enter play. They do not allow the card to break other rules, such as where it comes into play.
Conditions on a card derive from its own traits, and from effects and rules in the game. Conditions, including restrictions, are checked before costs have to be paid. If a card or action fails to meet restrictions, it fails before reaching the stage of cost payment.
Some conditions refer back to past occurrences, such as, “If he has brought a Shadowlands card into play.” Most references to past occurrences will give a backwards-looking time period.
Example: “If he has brought a Shadowlands card into play since your last End Phase.”
Such references that do not give a duration refer back to things that may have happened in the whole game up until now.
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