Lotus Edition Format
From Legend of the Five Rings Rules
Contents |
[edit] Basic guidelines
To play a game that echoes the events in the Lotus Edition storyline, follow these restrictions: Use only cards and Strongholds printed with the Rokugani symbol for “lotus” in the lower right corner. For the most part, this limits you to cards that appear in Lotus Edition, and later expansions, although many cards from the Dawn of the Empire, Enemy of My Enemy, and Code of Bushido sets are so designated. In the case of cards reprinted from earlier sets, you may use either old or new copies, but remember to play all cards and Strongholds by the wording of their most recent English printing.
[edit] Shadowlands
In Lotus Edition, the Shadowlands Horde is a faction with the following special rules.
- The Shadowlands Horde does not have an alignment keyword. The “Shadowlands” trait is simply a word. There is no way for a Personality to be aligned with the Shadowlands Horde faction.
- You do not experience Honor gains or losses. They simply do not occur. This is not negation and applies even to gains and losses that may not be modified.
- You may not win an Honor Victory.
- You may not take Political actions.
- You may not take actions that cause unconditional Honor losses to other players.
[edit] Ratlings
In Lotus Edition, the Ratlings are a Clan (faction) with the alignment keyword "Ratling." [ADDED July 28 07]
[edit] Card types
Lotus Edition includes these card types.
[edit] Wind
Your Wind card reflects which aspect of the Imperial Court you side with most strongly. It provides you with additional actions you can take, usually including one you can discard the Imperial Favor to pay for. Winds are cards, but they are neither Dynasty nor Fate cards and do not go in either deck. Abilities on Winds may be used any number of times per turn.
[edit] Sensei
Your Sensei card represents the person who was your teacher on your path to adulthood. It provides you with additional actions you can take, and might modify your Stronghold’s numeric statistics; it cannot, however, lower your Province Strength or Gold Production below 0 or your Starting Family Honor below –19. A Sensei can only be played by someone playing a Faction listed on it. Sensei are cards, but they are neither Dynasty nor Fate cards and do not go in either deck.
[edit] Open actions
Open actions on cards printed prior to Khan's Defiance are legal to take during Battle, providing the action meets the normal requirements specified by the Rules for Presence and Location.
[edit] Keywords and special game terms
Under Lotus Edition rules, a card is “a Keyword card” (or “a Keyword”) if:
- It has the word “Keyword” in its title or boldface traits area.
- It is an Action card and one of its individual abilities has the word “Keyword” in its boldface traits area.
EXCEPTION: The Keyword Rule does not apply when referring to a major card type, like “Sensei”, or to a game term that has a formal definition, like “army,” “Defender,” or “Infantry.” It also does not apply to Sensei cards or to Strongholds.
Keywords need not be separated by bullet symbols, or dots (•). Each individual word is its own trait. Example: A Mantis Clan Samurai has both the Mantis Clan and Samurai keywords.
EXCEPTION: Any Faction alignment, “Clan Champion”, “Battle Maiden”, and any phrase ending in “Tribe” are treated as a single keyword. You cannot use a part of a keyword or hyphenated phrase as a separate keyword.
The singular, plural, and possessive forms of a word (such as, “Forest,” “Forests,” and “Forest’s”) are all equivalent, as are different tenses (such as “Corrupt” and “Corrupted”).
Lotus Edition has special rules for the following keywords.
[edit] Delayed Terrain
A Delayed Terrain does not require picking targets or produce effects when it is played. Targets are selected for a Delayed Terrain, and its effects resolve, at the end of the Combat Segment, after all players pass on taking Battle or Open actions (provided the Terrain is still in play).
[edit] Enlightened
A Personality with the Enlightened trait has +1F for each Ring in play. In addition, all players may take the following action:
- Elemental Open: Target and bow an Enlightened Personality you control: Target a Ring. Straighten it.
[edit] Fear
Some cards have the capacity to cause Fear. A Fear effect implicitly targets a unit opposing the card producing it. (If the card producing the Fear can’t be in an army, the Fear instead must target a unit in the current enemy army.) Fear bows each Follower in the target unit that has a Force less than or equal to the Fear’s strength (which may be 0). Fear does not affect Undead cards.
[edit] Formation
Formations are a special type of Action card that represent the capabilities of an organized army.
- When played, a Formation enters play at the current battlefield, and remains in play and controlled by its player until it is removed.
- After a Formation enters play but before it resolves, destroy all other Formations controlled by the same player.
- Each Formation has a requirement listed after the phrase, “Formed by”. You cannot play a Formation unless your army at the current battlefield meets this requirement. Also, unless a Formation is in play and its “Formed by” requirement is met, it produces no effects and its abilities cannot be used. Each condition mentioned must be met by a separate thing. For example, “Formed by a Samurai and a Courtier” requires two cards to meet, and is not satisfied by one Personality who is both a Samurai and a Courtier.
- Actions provided by Formations may be used any number of times per turn.
- Formations are played using the following action that all players may take and that is not actually on the Formation card itself:
- Battle: Any number of times per turn: Play a Formation from your hand. You may then take an additional legal Battle or Open action.
A Formation is not destroyed if its “Formed by” requirement stops being met. It simply stops being useful. It will become useful again if its conditions are met once more. A “Formed by” requirement does not need to be met by the exact same set of cards throughout a battle.
[edit] Fortification
Fortifications are a special type of Holding card. These are defensive structures permanently associated with a particular Province. Fortifications do not enter play bowed, as other Holdings do; instead, they can only enter play by attaching to the Province from which they came. A Province can attach any number of different Fortifications, but no more than one copy of each.
[edit] Ninjutsu
Personalities with the Ninjutsu trait are treated specially at certain times while face-down. While face-down in play or in a Province, a Ninjutsu Personality is a Personality with 2F, 3C, an Honor Requirement of “–”, a Gold Cost of 4, a Personal Honor of 0, and the Ninja trait. Such a Personality in play may attach Items, Spells, and Followers regardless of restrictions on those cards and may attach Spells without being a Shugenja. You may freely look at the faces of these face-down Personalities while you control them.
When a face-down Ninjutsu Personality in play would be flipped face-up, check all play restrictions, including Honor Requirement, of the face-up side. If that Personality cannot join you, discard him and everything attached to him instead of flipping him. Otherwise, flip him face-up, then discard all cards illegally attached to him. The Personality retains all existing effects when flipping in either direction. Flipping does not count as entering play.
Personalities may not be face-down in the discard pile.
In addition, all players may take the following actions:
- Open: Any number of times per turn, pay the Ninjutsu value of a facedown Ninjutsu Personality you control: Turn the Personality face-up.
- Reaction: Any number of times per turn, after an action targets a facedown Ninjutsu Personality you control, pay his Ninjutsu value: Turn the Personality face-up. If he is now an illegal target for the action, negate its effects on him.
[edit] Redirection
Redirecting an action means changing one or more of its effects’ targets before those targets are considered final. Actions can only be redirected to targets that could have been selected originally. Untargeted actions cannot be redirected. Costs cannot be redirected either. Redirecting an Honor loss or gain means changing which player will get it.
[edit] Ritual
A Spell ability with the Ritual trait allows or requires multiple Shugenja to cast it. All the casters must be at the same location, and they must include the one with the Spell attached, who is called the primary caster. Followers with the Shugenja trait may assist with casting Rituals.
[edit] “Soul of…”
Many Personalities in Lotus Edition have the “Soul of…” trait, which is followed by the name of a Personality from an earlier expansion. In Storyline Simulation tournament formats, the newer Personality is treated as the Most Recent Printing of the older one. In the Open format, the old and new cards remain distinct for play purposes, but still count jointly towards per-deck card limits.
Example: Tamori Aoki has the “Soul of Agasha Gennai” trait. In a Lotus Storyline tournament, old Agasha Gennai cards are legal and count in all ways as Tamori Aoki for both deck construction and play. In an Open tournament, both cards are legal and distinct, with different names, traits, and statistics; however, a deck cannot contain a total of more than three copies of them combined.
A Personality may name a “Soul of…” card that is of a different Experience level than himself. When this happens, the level inside the “Soul of…” trait only matters for matching identity between sets. The Experience level of the new Personality is determined only by the keywords that appear outside the “Soul of…” trait.
[edit] Yu
The most capable followers of bushido are able to defeat their opponents even if it means their own death. This is represented in L5R by the Yu trait, which is always followed by a number.
If one or more cards with the Yu trait are in an army losing to another army during the resolution of a battle, each may destroy an opposing Follower, or a opposing Personality with no Followers, that has a Force less than or equal to the losing card’s Yu value. Multiple cards may also combine their Yu values to destroy one card, but one card may not destroy multiple cards. This occurs after determining final army totals but before destroying the losing side. Destroying cards in this way does not alter the outcome of the battle, and it does not earn the loser any Honor. Using the Yu trait is not an action. The Attacker or Defender makes all decisions for all Yu values in his army, and can use the traits in any order.
Example: It’s the end of a battle where Sarah is attacking Jim. Sarah has three units: a 5F ogre, a 3F samurai, and a 2F shugenja with a 1F Follower. Jim has two samurai with Yu values of 3 and 2. Jim’s army was just determined to be the losing one, so, he can: 1) Use his Yu 3 samurai to destroy Sarah’s samurai and his Yu 2 samurai to destroy her shugenja’s Follower, or 2) Combine his Yu values to destroy Sarah’s ogre. Jim can also, of course, use his Yu values in less efficient ways, or only use some of them, or not use any at all. One thing Jim can’t do is use just one samurai to destroy Sarah’s shugenja directly. He must use one to destroy the shugenja’s Follower first, then destroy the shugenja with the other.
Cards with the Yu trait don’t have to die to use it. All that matters is that they’re in an army that was just determined to be smaller than an opposing army.
When giving a bonus to the Yu value of a card that does not have the trait, permanently give the card “Yu 0” first, then add the bonus.
[edit] Rules Archive
The complete list of specific card rulings for cards released before Samurai Edition can be found at the [Archive].
