EE Costs and restrictions
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Costs and restrictions
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 may not pay a cost by changing the state of another player's cards or tokens.
Targeting may occur in a trait or ability's constraints block but is not itself a cost.
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, negate, or delay the change will also prevent the cost payment.
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 a Reaction after a card was destroyed by a cost 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 Chi's minimum value of 0.
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).
- The mandatory costs of a card entering play are its Gold Cost (if any) and any other costs of entering play listed in its traits.
EXCEPTION: The Gold Cost of a Strategy card is a cost of its actions. See Strategy cards.
EXCEPTION: If text anywhere describes a game state change “as a cost,” that change is a cost of any action or triggered trait it is part of. “As a cost” can also be used in a trait to add a cost of bringing a card into play.
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.
Conditional costs
Costs are sometimes worded to depend upon the game state.
Example: “Bow this Shugenja unless he is Fire.”
Conditional costs can usually be told apart from restrictions on playing an action or card. A restriction often uses “if” and comes before the cost. A conditional cost’s condition often uses “unless” and comes after the cost is described.
Example: “If he is honorable, bow this Samurai:”means the action can only be taken while honorable. “Bow this Samurai unless he is dishonorable:” means that you only have to bow him as a cost if you are honorable.
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 the order they appear 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 Gold cost is required under the Good Faith rule. However, the card’s Gold cost is not a cost of the action.
Duration of costs
Changes to the game state created by costs follow the rules for duration of effects according to the type of effect they resemble.
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.
Additional costs can come from effects outside the card, action or trait being paid for. 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.
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.
Changes to costs and payments
Some effects may ignore or substitute costs, or interfere with payments.
Ignoring costs: An effect that ignores a cost removes the need to pay that particular cost. If the ignored cost was an alternate cost, it is considered paid; the cost need not be paid using the other alternative.
Substituted costs: Some effects substitute a different payment for the payment specified by the original cost.
If there are multiple alternate costs (such as "Bow him or pay 3 Gold"), substitution of costs comes after the choice has been made and the particular form of paying the cost is known.
Whether a substitution refers to the cost requirement, or the actual payment of the cost, has consequences for the scope of the substitution.
Example 1: “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.
Example 2: “Reaction: Before paying a cost by destroying one of your Samurai Personalities: You may move him home instead to pay the cost.” This reaction's effect, unlike Example 1, adds an additional cost payment method; if the movement is negated, the cost can be paid by destroying the Personality.
Example 3: “You may move your Samurai Personalities home to pay the cost of destroying them.” As in Example 2, 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 your Samurai.
A substitution that is phrased in the general form "Before you pay a cost by/of [doing X], you may pay the cost by [doing Y]" does not require that you are able to do X in the first place, because it refers to the point when the cost requirement is set.
Example 4: “Reaction: Before paying a cost of discarding the Imperial Favor: You may bow this Personality to pay the cost.” This action does not require that you have the Imperial Favor in the first place.
A substitution that is phrased in the general form "Before you [do X] to pay a cost, you may pay the cost by [doing Y] instead" does require that you are able to do X in the first place, because it refers to the actual carrying out of the cost payment.
Example 5: “Reaction: Before you discard the Imperial Favor to pay a cost: You may bow this Personality to pay the cost.” This action does require that you have the Imperial Favor.
Interference with 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 cost may use alternate available sources to pay it, or may choose not to pay it.
Example: If “Move your Personality home” is a cost, and the movement home is negated by a Reaction, you cannot choose to move him home again to pay the cost.
If no alternate payment is made, then any costs already paid are not refunded, no further costs are paid, and:
- If the unpaid cost is for a card entering play (including entering play as part of an action), it goes back to where it came from.
- If the unpaid cost is for an action, the action fails, and its effects do not happen. The action is still taken and ended, but not resolved, and the ability that created it is used. If the action was on a Strategy card, the card is discarded.
If a cost requiring a target is interfered with (such as a Reaction that prevents the bowing in the cost “Bow your target Samurai:”), a player cannot choose a new target to try to pay the cost, because the targeting step is already completed.
Variable costs and interference
Sometimes an action, trait or card has a mandatory cost with a variable value, and this value depends on an element of the game that another player’s' effect interferes with at some point between announcement and the point when the cost is paid.
Example: An action’s Gold cost depends on the total Gold cost of a target unit. After announcement but before costs are paid, a card is added to the unit or the targeting of the unit is changed.
When the basis for a variable cost changes due to interference, this is treated the same way as interference with the payment of the cost.
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” and lost; it does not apply to other payments.
Gold from a single source may not be split to pay multiple costs.
Gold costs that are added by a separate additional effect, as opposed to changes to the amount of a Gold cost, must be paid in a separate payment.
Example: If an effect makes all Political actions have an additional cost of 2 Gold, and a Political action has a cost of 4 Gold, the 2 and 4 Gold payments may not be combined into 6.
It is permitted to overpay a Gold cost by any amount, including producing Gold to overpay a Gold cost of zero on (for example) a Strategy card. It is not permitted to pay Gold to bring into play a card with no Gold cost stat (such as a Ring or Region), or for an action with no Gold cost on a non-Strategy card (such as a Personality or Follower).
Example: A Ring or a normal Region has no Gold cost at all.
A Gold cost of zero does not need to be paid by Gold production; it is always considered to have been paid.
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.
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 time period refer back to things that may have happened in the whole game up until now.
Restrictions
When conditions limit the circumstances under which something can be done, they are known as restrictions. Honor Requirements are a type of restriction, as are the Loyal, Unique and Singular rules.
The phrase “ignoring restrictions” should be interpreted in the narrowest possible way.
Example: An action that says “bring the card into play, ignoring restrictions” means that only the restrictions on entering play are lifted, not other restrictions on the action, or where the card comes into play.
Restrictions on number of occurrences
Some effects restrict the number of times a type of occurrence can happen in a time period.
Example: “You will only issue one challenge per turn.”
If such a restricting effect takes place in the middle of the time period covered, previous occurrences of the restricted effect count against the limit.
Example: When “You will only issue one challenge per turn” resolves, any challenges you issued that turn count against the limit (even if you issued more than one) and any further challenges you issue that turn fail.
Permissions
Some text permits things to happen in violation of the rules, using terms such as “can” or “may.” Such permissions override specific restrictions and prevention effects in the rules; for example, “He may assign even if bowed.”
A permission does not break rules that it doesn't specifically refer to.
Example: “Your target Infantry Personality may assign in Cavalry Maneuvers” does not allow a bowed unit to assign.
Likewise, a permission does not overcome restrictions or negations from card sources, unless overcoming card effects is specifically mentioned.
Example: If a card says its Ranged Attack "may target Personalities with attached Followers," this does not overcome another effect that says "This Personality may not be targeted by Ranged Attacks."
As in English, the difference between "can" and "may" is one of usage, and in most contexts the two terms are equivalent. "Can" most often appears when a rule about effects is allowed to be broken, while “may” refers more often to a rule about choices, such as targeting or assigning.
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