Multiplayer Format
From Legend of the Five Rings Rules
Multiplayer is an alternate format allowing more than two players to participate in a single game of Legend of the Five Rings. Only a few alterations/clarifications to the normal Rules are required.
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The Players
Winning and losing the game
In Multiplayer, an Honor or Enlightenment Victory is achieved normally. A player who loses by Military, Dishonor or other means is eliminated from the game, and the other players continue. A player for whom the last remaining other player is eliminated by Military or Dishonor means, wins that kind of victory.
Player elimination
If a player is eliminated from the game:
- all cards from his play deck, plus his starting Holdings, are removed from the game;
- all created cards under his control are removed from the game;
- any of his remaining provinces leave the game (without literally being destroyed);
- and he leaves the game.
An eliminated player’s tokens that are still in play after this, as well as his created cards that are controlled by other players, remain in play.
Effects generated by eliminated players’ cards or actions persist for their normal duration. For effects that will end during some future turn of the eliminated player, end them after the previous remaining player’s turn and before the next remaining player’s turn.
Sequence of play
Turns and turn order
Beginning with the starting player, turn order proceeds around the table to his or her left (regardless of the other players' starting Family Honor), with each player taking a turn.
At any time after the start of the game, turn order starts with the active player and continues clockwise, to each player’s left.
Whenever an effect asks “each player” to do something, the default is to start with the active player and continue once in turn order, skipping any players who are not eligible to do that thing.
Start of game
In multiplayer, any player who is not going first starts the game with a bowed Bamboo Harvesters.
Action Phase
Each player in turn order, starting with the active player, has the opportunity to pass or take a legal action, continuing around the table any number of times until all players pass consecutively.
The active player can only take Limited and Open actions at these opportunities. All other players can only take Open actions at these opportunities.
After all players have passed consecutively, the Action Phase ends.
Attack Phase (optional)
The last of the Multiplayer Format Rules concern the Attack Phase.
Declaration Segment
In the Declaration Segment in Multiplayer, after the player creating the Attack Phase declares an attack and thus becomes the Attacker for that Attack Phase, he or she then chooses another player. That other player is then the Defender for this Attack Phase, and battlefields are created at only each of his or her provinces.
After battlefields are created, there is an additional step to the Declaration Segment:
Invite Allies.
The Attacker may invite any number of players other than the Defender to ally with him or her. The Defender then may then invite any number of players other than the Attacker to ally with him or her (even ones the Attacker also invited).
An "ally" is any player, neither Attacker nor Defender, who has had units on one side or the other in the current Attack Phase. The Attacker's allies, or attacking allies, are allies who have had units on the attacking side, and likewise for the Defender's allies or defending allies. Units, Personalities, and other things in the game are also allied if they are controlled by an ally. You are not an "ally" until you have units on a side in a battle.
Invited players do not need to accept or decline.
The Attacker and Defender may each choose not to invite any players.
Being invited by the Attacker or Defender gives a player the option to assign or move units to battlefields.
Any player other than the Attacker who was not invited by the Attacker may not have his or her units assign to the attacking side, move into the attacking side, or be brought into play on the attacking side during a battle.
Likewise, any player other than the Defender who was not invited by the Defender can not have his or her units assign to the defending side, move into the defending side, or be brought into play on the defending side during a battle.
The first time each Attack Phase that an invited player has one or more of his or her units assign to, move to, or enter play on an attacking or defending side, he becomes an ally of that side’s leader. The invited player is now known as an attacking ally or a defending ally. The invited player’s units are allied units of the player whose army he joined, and that player is considered to be his allied leader. The other player involved in the attack is considered to be the enemy leader from the invited player’s point of view.
A "leader" is the Attacker or Defender in a battle or attack, compared to other allied players. The friendly leader is yourself if you are the Attacker or Defender, or the player you are allied with if you are an ally. The enemy leader is the Attacker if your friendly leader is the Defender, or the Defender if your friendly leader is the Attacker. If you have not yet allied, you have no enemy or friendly leader.
Once a player’s status as an attacking or defending ally is established, he is no longer considered invited by his new enemy leader.
Effects that move, assign, or create units controlled by another player on a side at a battlefield can establish the other player's allying status, keeping in mind that he or she must currently be invited to ally by the appropriate leader for those effects to work in the first place.
Effects will not move or assign a non-allied player’s units to an attacking and defending side simultaneously – if this is about to happen, that player must choose one set of movements or assignments that do not happen.
After the first time each attack an invited player assigns one or more units, he gains 2 Honor. If any of the assigned Personalities are dishonorable, they are all restored to honorable status instead of gaining Honor. Honor is not gained in this way for moving units or bringing them into play.
Maneuvers Segments
During the Infantry Maneuvers Segment, after the Attacker assigns his units, the first player the Attacker invited to his left (and then each other player he invited, continuing in turn order) may assign, from his home, any number of his units led by an unbowed Personality to any battlefields, in any arrangement desired.
Then, likewise, after the Defender assigns his units, each player the Defender invited may assign units.
These same procedures are followed for the Cavalry Maneuvers Segment.
Battles
Combat Segment
In the Combat Segment, as usual, the Defender gets the first opportunity either to take a Battle action or pass. After that, the next opportunity goes to the player to the Defender's left and follows leftwards in turn order after that. However, if an effect changes who gets the first opportunity to take an action, the next opportunity goes to the player to his left (not the Defender's). Note that this change occurs only due to a specific change of who receives the first opportunity to act, not if any player receives "additional" actions before the Defender's first, outside the normal sequence.
Also, due to some actions excepting the Rule of Presence, a non-allied player may sometimes be able to take an action at a battle where he controls no units. When this happens, he takes it as if he were an attacking player if only the Attacker invited him, and as if he were a defending player if only the Defender invited him. If neither player invited him, he may not take such an action. If both players invited him, he chooses after announcing the action whether he will take it as an attacking player or a defending player. Such decision, by itself, has no implications for allying.
After all players pass in sequence, the Combat Segment ends and the battle proceeds to the Resolution Segment.
Final Steps
During the final steps after the Resolution Segment ends, when attacking units return home and bow, allied units also return home and bow, regardless of whether they were controlled by an attacking or defending ally.
