What's What

I've tried to minimize redundancy, too. If you're having problems with an obviously tricky or broken card that isn't listed here, chances are very good that it's already been covered in the latest rulebook, the FAQ, or the Text Change and Errata List. This document is a catch-all for everything that slips through their cracks.

Who's Who, Where's Where

netnews -- Usenet newsgroups, almost exclusively rec.games.trading-cards.misc
l5rinfo -- FRPG's own L5R mailing list
FAQ -- rulings in current or previous versions of the FAQ
MRP -- the Most Recent Printing of the card

What's New

• Ratling Personalities fully acquire your Clan's trait. [REVERSAL].
  • This effect applies continually to all Ratling Personalities under your control and in your deck, Provinces, and discard piles. A card which changes controllers or traits may gain or lose your alignment.
  • This effect is not considered swearing fealty.
• Shadowlands faction players are excluded from the "pay 2g less or gain honor" option when purchasing Personalities. [rulebook]
• With respect to the Heart of the Shinomen Forest Stronghold:
  • Does not allow you to build a deck with 4 copies of Ratling cards. Your deck must be legal before Sensei are chosen. [l5rinfo, 2/3/2000]
  • Note that only cards with the printed Naga trait are automatically Nonhuman. [Ibid.]

Rise from the Ashes

• Is Political by rulebook definition. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/4/2000]

• You use this card's focus instead of the discard's focus but you must still make the discard. [card text, and l5rinfo, 1/24/2000]

Hirariko

• Her trait should read "Items provide no bonuses or special effects against Hirariko in a duel." [l5rinfo, 1/24/2000]

• The "if able" clause applies to both assigning a unit and declaring the attack. [l5rinfo, 1/27/2000]

• May be played to full effect by a Clan which cannot gain honor, as the sensei changes your fundamental benefit from winning/tying battles. [DW, email, 1/2000]

• The effect is instantaneous, affecting only those cards in play at the moment. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/25/96] [REVERSAL]
• As with all Open actions, may be played during battle provided you have a unit in the battle and this action affects the stats of at least one card in the battle. [l5rinfo, 1/30/2000]
• The word is "portents", meaning "warnings" or "omens". It's not "portence" (which isn't a word) or "potence" (as in "Necro-").

Isawa Taeruko

• May use her ability even if no retrievable cards exist in the Dynasty deck. This still counts as a successful use. [l5rinfo, 2/1/2000]

• The destruction of a Holding is worded as an effect of coming into play, not a cost. If you control no Holdings, she can still enter play. [l5rinfo, 2/2/2000]
• May target and destroy a bowed Holding. "You may not target your own bowed Personalities with actions", but Holdings are not Personalities and this isn't an action. [Ibid.]

• The Ring is completely ignored. It does not count towards an Elemental Victory, Prayer Shrine gold production, etc. [l5rinfo, 11/27/99] It cannot even be targetted. Pretend the Ring isn't there at all. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/5/2000]

A Personality's Minimum Honor must be met both before and after his payment is produced. If it's not met to begin with, you cannot even start to pay for him. [partial REVERSAL]

Eternal Halls of the Shiba

• All existing alignments are kept. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/13/99]
• Your human shugenja Followers also gain the trait. [REVERSAL]
• May not retrieve a kiho which goes somewhere other than the discard pile (for example, attaching to a Personality instead due to the Blessings of Isawa). [Stronghold text]
• May retrieve Kiho Terrains immediately following their destruction. [l5rinfo, 2/5/2000]

• While in effect, personalities swearing fealty to Yorotimo's Alliance gain the "Mantis Clan" trait instead. [l5rinfo, 2/5/2000]

If a card lets you do something like "get an XXX card from your deck" but does not require that you reveal it, you do not need to. Your opponents may, however, call upon a neutral party to confirm its legality. [l5rinfo, 2/5/2000]

Bend Like a Reed

• Though its focus value is added normally, playing this card is not considered focussing. It may be played by a Personality who cannot focus. [DW, l5info, 11/4/96]
• When played for effect, the bonus of 2 is affected by things that alter the focus values of cards when played "in a duel", such as the Double Chi trait and Toshimoko Sensei. The bonus of 2 is not affected by things which have already changed the card's actual focus value, such as Touch of Amaterasu. [l5rinfo, 2/6/2000] [partial REVERSAL]

General Rulings

Actions/Abilities

Decisions are typically not actions. [summary of other rulings]

Only an ability printed on a shugenja (or copied from another card) is as an "innate ability". Actions such as lobbying, performing an action via an attached card or a card from hand, or discarding for a Tactician bonus, are not innate. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/3/98, and person correspondence, 12/17/98]

If a player passes her action during the Action Phase or a Battle Action Segment, she is NOT locked into passing for the remainder of the phase/segment. She is free to either act or pass every time the turn sequence comes around to her. [netnews, 7/2/99]

Attaching and Moving Cards

• Attaching a card which "can only be attached to a Foo Personality" is an action which targets only Foo cards [extension from Kitsuki Kaagi's Journal].
• If the attaching action is cancelled, the card goes back to where it came from. [DW, email, 2/17/99]

The controller of a Personality is the controller of all cards attached to that Personality, regardless of who owns or attached them.

Battle

An ability which lets you replace an existing terrain can be used in a battle in which you have no units if the new terrain is one which can, itself, normally be played in such a situation. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/10/96]

Reactions which require you to destroy the opposing army may be played if the result of the battle is a tie. [DW, l5rinfo, 4/17/96]

Reactions which require you to "destroy an opposing army", "destroy an army in battle", or "win a battle" require that there actually be at least one opposing unit on the board during Battle Resolution. Eliminating all opposing cards during the Battle Action Segment doesn't count. [extension from Ring of Water, DW, l5rinfo, 9/3/96]

Cards which cause an honor gain or loss as a result of winning or losing a battle, or destroying a Province, cannot be played so as to affect allies. Only the Attacker and Defender can normally receive honor bonuses or penalties as a result of the outcome of a battle.

You are not allowed to assign or move troops into a battle unless you are the Attacker, the Defender, or an invited ally, or you use a card which specifically allows you to do so. [DW, email, 1/8/97]

If you are invited as an ally but commit no units during the Maneuvers Segment, you are still allowed to use actions which bring units into battle on that side during the Battle Action Segment. You will not gain 2 honor for doing so, however.

It is legal to aim a Ranged Attack at a target which is too large to be killed by that attack. [DW, l5rinfo, 10/29/96]

Attacking and allied units bow after the resolution of each individual battle they're present at, not all at once at the end of the Attack Phase. [l5rinfo]

All cards in allied and attacking units bow upon battle resolution, not just the Personalities.

Strength 0 Ranged Attacks and Fear effects are legal and will affect Force 0 cards as appropriate. [DW, 7/9/97]

The Force of a Follower that uses a "+X" notation instead of just "X" is still X, and requires at least a strength X Ranged or Fear attack to be affected (although Fear is pretty useless, since its +X bonus is still added to its Personality while bowed).

The honor gain from destroying cards at battle resolution is one single gain.

The phrase "this battle" is not synonymous with "current battle". "This battle" refers to the battle that the card with this phrase is in. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/13/98]

"Sending a unit home bowed" is one single effect. If a unit cannot be sent home, it does not become bowed in place. [DW, personal correspondence, 9/29/98]

References to "an opposing player" during battle mean "someone who has units in the opposing army". References to "the opposing player" or "your opponent in the battle" mean either the Attacker or the Defender, as appropriate, regardless of whether he has units present. [DW, personal correspondence, 10/22/98]

"Opposing army" is now defined as "one or more units involved in the attack or defense of a Province". Cards referring to the total Force or Chi of the opposing army, such as Crushing Attack and Flattery, can no longer be played if there are no opposing units. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/13/99] [REVERSAL]

The terms "assign" and "commit" are synonymous and refer only to unit placements made during a Maneuver Segment, or via Reactions that take place during or immediately after one. Cards that enter a battle via Battle or Open actions are never "assigning" or "committing", regardless of whether one of those terms is used on the card. [DW, email, 4/8/99]

Switching the positions of units counts as movement, with the explicit printed exception of Way of Deception.

All units being assigned by one player during one Maneuvers Segment enter the battle simultaneously. [DW, email, 4/8/99]

If, during battle, the Province under attack is somehow destroyed (the Defender reveals a Blackmail, for example, or brings Oni no Akuma into play with The People's Hero), the battle continues normally. The only difference is that the Province cannot be destroyed during resolution (obviously). [DW, l5rinfo, 7/10/97] Even effects that move cards into/out of/between "Provinces" are still legal until the battle ends. [netnews, 7/1/99]

The strength of a strengthless special ranged attack, such as Nogoten's Bow's chi-reducing token, is considered to be 0 by effects which refer to its strength, but effects which modify its strength have no effect on it. It will remain strengthless. [DW, personal email, 8/99]

You cannot destroy a Province by reducing its strength to zero. It will still require an attacking army with a total Force of at least 1 if undefended or 1 greater than the defending army's Force.

Bowing & Straightening

As with Followers, abilities on Items which do not require the attached Personality to bow can still be used when he is bowed, provided the Item itself is not. [DW, email, 2/7/97]

The rule about bowed Personalities and Followers not contributing to the total unit/army Force is used any time that particular total is needed, not just during battle resolution.

The Force of a card is not affected by bowing -- only the Forces of units and armies are. Even if a unit is just a Personality with no other cards attached, an effect that refers to his Force must be double-checked to determine whether it refers to a "card's" or "Personality's" Force or whether it refers to a "unit's" Force. Only in the last case will the value always be zero.

There is no rule prohibiting Regions and Fortifications from bowing. They may be bowed as the cost or effect of other cards. [DW, email, 6/27/97]

Battle actions on Regions and Fortifications can only be used during the Battle Action Segment of a battle in that Province. [DW, personal correspondence, 12/2/98]

Cards in discard piles are never considered bowed. [l5rinfo, 7/14/99]

Cancelling

When an action is cancelled, no costs are refunded. This includes, and is not necessarily limited to: gold, Fate cards, discarding the Favor, and bowing and/or destroying cards in play. If a card says "Do X to do Y", the X is probably a cost, though not always (example: honor loss is never a cost, except when necessary to prevent obvious infinites). And this should not be taken to imply there is never a cost if the card is phrased differently.

Copying

Only the copied ability itself, tokens created by it, and effects whose durations depend on the originating card (for example, "until this card straightens") disappear at the end of the turn. Non-token changes with set durations (like "permanent" or "until your next Straighten Phase"), changes in state (bowing, destruction, etc.), and changes to Family Honor persist normally. [rulebook, and DW, l5rinfo, 3/11/97. also l5rinfo 2/99]

Destruction and Elimination

All cards controlled by an eliminated player are removed from the game completely and returned to their owners. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/29/96] [REVERSAL of an erroneous entry]

Tokens and effects caused by eliminated players persist for their normal duration. This includes effects which will wear off during some future turn of that player. Just pretend it's that player's turn for a brief moment. [DW, l5rinfo, 3/3/97]

A destroyed card goes in the discard pile of whoever controlled it at the time. If someone else owns it, the card does not change piles when the change-of-control effect would normally wear off. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/2/97]

An attachment card which grants you some bonus effect when destroyed (example: Lesser Oni) must be destroyed directly to collect the reward. Destroying it indirectly by destroying the Personality doesn't count. [DW & RD, personal email, 4/16/98]

Being discarded from play or removed from the game does not count as destruction. Reactions to destruction may not be used. [5/24/99]

Dishonor

If several dishonored Personalities are involved in the same honor-gaining event, such as winning a battle, they are all restored to honor.

Dishonored Personalities in a tied battle are restored to honor before they die.

If a dishonored Personality gets reshuffled into your Dynasty Deck, he will still be dishonored when he reappears in one of your Provinces. If he's aligned with your Clan, paying full price will gain you 0 honor and not restore him to honor. [extension of Akodo Toturi ruling, netnews, 7/15/99]

Drawing

A "draw" happens any time you take the top card(s) off a deck, regardless of whether the term "draw" is used. Going through your deck to retrieve a specific card is not "drawing". [DW, email]

Dueling

You cannot, by any means, end up controlling both Personalities in a duel. [DW, personal correspondence, 10/22/98]

A challenge always preceeds the duel itself, timing-wise. Personalities with built-in reactions to "entering a duel" cannot use them if they had to bow to issue the challenge. [DW, personal correspondence, 12/2/98] [REVERSAL] (Built-in reactions to the challenge, such as Matsu Seijuro's, are still legal.)

Effects which put restrictions on or otherwise influence stat bonuses, such as Monsoon and the Ancestral Sword of the Hantei, do not affect focussing unless they specifically say so. [DW, email, 7/17/97] [REVERSAL of a short-lived ruling on the Naga Guard]

If there are multiple conflicting effects that change the values of focus cards (for example, Ninja Mystic and Lord Moon's Blood), the active player decides which effect applies first. [l5rinfo, 3/10/99]

Events

Experienced Personalities

If you overlay, the original card's title is lost, just like traits and stats are. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/25/97]

A permanent change in Clan affiliation will apply to the overlayed Personality as well. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/28/97]

When you overlay, the Experienced Personality permanently gains the abilities of the card underneath. For example, an Egg of P'an Ku would copy both cards' abilities, and the Experienced Personality card would retain all abilities if it dies and is returned to play with the original version no longer underneath. [RD, l5rinfo, 2/26/97]

You may overlay a bowed Personality, since overlaying is not an action. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/15/97]

An inexperienced Personality need not be already in play when the Experienced version is first revealed in order to overlay. [old FAQ]

Restrictions against joining certain Clans are not checked when you overlay, just like minimum honor isn't checked. [RD/DW]

A card which is not a Personality but which counts as some Personality for purposes of Uniqueness will preclude all Unique versions of that Personality from the deck, regardless of their Experience level. [RD, l5rinfo, 6/24/98]

Gold

You must generate the entire amount of gold for an action at the time you perform the action. You may not generate some gold, perform some Limited/Open/Battle actions, then generate the rest. [rulebook]

Non-variable costs cannot be paid multiple times to generate multiple effects in a single action. [extension from Gaijin Mercenaries, DW, netnews, 3/11/96]

Holdings which provide extra gold based on the number of a particular other type of Holding in play count all such Holdings, regardless of who controls them. [card text]

A "gold-producing Holding" is one which lets you do something "to produce (or, on one or two old cards, 'provide') X gold", even if X is sometimes zero or depends on outside factors. Holdings which "pay the entire cost", "reduce the cost", or "put a card into play without gold cost" are not gold-producers. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/2/98]

You may deliberately pay 2g less for an aligned Personality to avoid gaining honor even if you have produced enough to pay the full price [DW, l5rinfo, 5/19/97] -- unless the Personality costs 0g, or you're using a Holding that "pays the entire gold cost". [DW, email, 3/99]

An action or card with no printed gold cost, such as an Event, cannot have its gold cost raised. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/13/99] You also cannot produce gold to pay for using/playing it.

Putting a card into play "without gold cost" is not the same as reducing its cost to zero. The card still has its original cost -- you are simply not paying it. This means you will not gain honor for playing an aligned Personality in this way. [DW, email, 2/4/99] This ruling does NOT apply to Holdings which "pay the entire cost".

Honor

Exception: the honor gain from winning or tying in a battle is a single amount. [rulebook]

Preventing or cancelling an honor loss or gain does NOT count as reducing it to zero. [REVERSAL] [l5rinfo/netnews, 1/99] The loss/gain no longer exists and cannot be further modified.

The reverse is also true: reducing a loss or gain completely to zero does not eliminate it completely. It still exists as a 0-point loss/gain, which can be increased by other reactions.

Take heed, though, of these two Common Sense rulings:

• A loss which "cannot be cancelled" may not be reduced completely to zero.
• A 0-point gain will not restore a dishonored Personality to honorable status.

Honor gains/losses for players which cannot gain or lose honor (or gain or lose further honor) do not happen in the first place and so cannot be redirected to another player.

Imperial Favor

Giving up the Favor to play a card is a non-gold cost and must still be done if you're playing the card "without gold cost". [extension of Hida Yakamo (Hero)(Exp), DW, l5rinfo, 5/7/97]

Giving up the Favor to play a special card can also be countered. If it is, the playing of the card is countered, and it returns to where it came from, with no refund of other costs. [extension of specific rulings, DW, l5rinfo, 9/30/96]

The rulebook implies you must always either give a gift or bow at least one additional Personality to gain the Favor if you lobby for it in a situation where you do not automatically gain it. This is not true. You will gain the Favor if your effective family honor is sufficiently high at the end of the lobby attempt, regardless of whether you took any measures to raise it.

Neither giving a gift nor bowing to add Personal Honor once a lobbying attempt has started are actions. [rulebook]

Provinces

Rings

Elemental Rings are no longer actions in any way. The cards themselves are not Action cards and neither playing nor using them are Reactions anymore (though they work with the same timing as before). [FAQ 3.10, errata]

An Elemental Victory is achieved by having all five Elemental Rings in play at once, not necessarily by "playing" all five or having all five in play at some point during the game. [FAQ 3.10]

Seppuku

It's not a Reaction, so it's not an ability. [RD, l5rinfo, 1/15/97] It is, therefore:

• not a Political ability.
• legal for a bowed samurai to do.

Targetting

When you redirect an effect, you are only bound by the effect's original controller's targetting requirements. [RD & DW, email, 6/27/97] [REVERSAL]

If a non-action effect requires you to destroy a Personality you control as part of its usage or play cost, you may select a bowed Personality. [extension from other rulings, 7/1/97] [REVERSAL of an out-of-date ruling]

Reactions that get played after one of your Personalities dies can be played even if that Personality was bowed when he died, since he is actually in your dead pile when the reaction is played and dead cards are not considered bowed. [DW, email, 3/18/97]

An action is targetted if there is ever a time when you need to choose what it will affect. Actions don't flip between "targetted" and "untargetted" based on the current situation. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/5/97]
Example: Block Supply Lines can only be played against one attacking unit, so it is a targetted action, even in a battle where there is only one attacking unit.

All targetting decisions are made before any cards are bowed or gold is generated. Thus a Personality with a targetted ability that requires bowing may use that ability on himself.

The rulebook says that when redirecting an action, consider the action to have been targetted there in the first place. This is true for non-actions as well. [DW, l5rinfo, 1/29/98]

All effects which target face-down cards are exceptions to the rule that you may only target cards in play. You may target any face-down cards in any player's Provinces, hand, and both decks. [Glossary] You are not limited to just the top card when targetting cards in decks.

Action cards, including Kiho, which require you to "bow a (foo) you control" target that card. [DW, l5rinfo, 1/99] This is a cost, though, not an effect, so it cannot be redirected with the Ring of Air.

Reactions that cancel other actions typically do not target. Since there are no simultaneous actions in L5R, there is never a choice of which action to cancel.

Timing (ugh)

If some effect is supposed to happen "during" one of your Phases, you can have it happen any time in the Phase that you want. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/9/96]

During battle resolution, you do not get honor for cards whose destructions are prevented, or for cards which pre-emptively destroy themselves to prevent the destruction of other cards. [RD, l5rinfo, 12/27/96]

"Permanent" just means "until end of game", not "irreversible". Permanent changes simply do not wear off at the end of the turn. They can be undone or further altered by later effects.

"Battle resolution" includes only the destruction of the losing army and, if necessary, the Province. The bowing of attacking and allied units happens immediately after resolution, in a separate step. [DW, netnews, 7/3/97, and l5rinfo, 7/11/97]

Each card draw during your End Phase is separate. You may take actions between them or give up individual cards that are part of multiple-card draws to pay for abilities such as Kyuden Hitomi. [DW, email, 8/18/98] [REVERSAL]

"After" and "immediately after" are equivalent. Reactions played merely "after" something occurs cannot be held and played at an arbitrary time later that turn. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/99] [REVERSAL of some specific rulings]

Timing-wise, a reaction will always go after a continuous effect. (Examples: Tetsubo vs. Kakita Technique, Kolat Geisha vs. The Wind's Truth.) [ZF, l5rinfo, 11/23/99]

Tokens

A Plague token is a Plague token. Anything that refers to them refers to all of them, regardless of their original source. [DW, l5rinfo, 1/3/97] [This extends to all token traits, not just "plague". -- jwa]

Follower and Item tokens are considered to be "on" the Personality they're attached to.

Traits and Bonuses

Traits are always active, even if a card is bowed. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/12/96] This also applies to the stat bonuses provided by all Items, and by those Followers that use the "+X" notation.

Unlike Followers, Items always add their stat bonuses directly to the attached Personality, regardless of whether they say "X" or "+X". [rulebook]

A Personality with an attached card that boosts his stats only "receives a bonus" from that card when he attached it and if its bonus increases. He is not continually "receiving a bonus".

The singular, plural, and possessive forms of traits are equivalent. "Deep Forest", "Deeper Forests", and "Forest's Deepness" are all "Forest" cards. [RD, l5rinfo, 12/27/96, and ZF, netnews, 10/99]

"Corrupt" and "corrupted" are equivalent. [DW, personal correspondence, 12/17/98]

"Emperor" and "Imperial" are not equivalent. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/13/99]

Individual abilities carry their cards' traits as well as their own. Casting "Elemental Ward" is an Elemental action, for instance. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/18/97]

Any card which can alter an honor gain or loss is Political, even if it doesn't always do so. [DW, email, 6/27/97] Example: Legendary Victory.

There is nothing special about effects that multiply, divide, or swap stats. These are still "increases", "bonuses", "penalties", etc. [summary of other rulings]

Hyphenated traits are single words. You don't count the halves separately. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/4/97]

Clan alignments are inseparable, too. A member of the "Dragon Clan" is not necessarily a Dragon, and a member of the "Shadowlands Horde" (there are ways of accomplishing this) is not necessarily a Shadowlands card. [DW, private email, 6/5/98]

Swearing fealty is a permanent change. [HE4 rulebook]

Losing former alignments is a special effect of cards such as Oath of Fealty, not a result of swearing fealty in general. [DW, email, 2/17/99]

Anything with the Creature trait is not human, and therefore Nonhuman as well. [DW, personal correspondence, 12/2/98] (This does not work both ways.)

Clan Champion status is separate from clan affiliation. It is based on the original printed traits of the card and cannot be changed by changing alignment. You also cannot acquire a Clan Champion by changing alignment. Example: if a Crab Clan Champion swears fealty to Phoenix, her traits will change to Phoenix Clan * Clan Champion. She will be a Phoenix Clan Personality and a Clan Champion, but not a Phoenix Clan Champion. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/99]

Besides words in their titles and traits areas, Action Cards also share all the traits of the individual actions printed on them. This rule does not apply to any other type of card. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/99]

There is no rule against having multiple cards in play or in your deck with the same honorific title, such as "Crab Clan Champion" or "Oracle of Earth". [5/26/99]

Undead cards are not automatically Nonhuman. [FAQ 3.10]

Only the card on which the action is printed determines the traits of the action. For instance, if a Ninja Personality plays an Iaijutsu Challenge, that is not a "ninja action". [l5rinfo, 7/20/99] Furthermore, if an action is not actually on a card, it does not acquire any traits from any cards involved in performing it. [REVERSAL] This includes actions such as attaching a card from your hand or lobbying for the Favor. Actions added to a card via copying or by an effect such as The Yogo Towers count as being "on the card". [FAQ 3.10]

Personal Honor is not, as a general rule, limited to a maximum of 5. [DW, personal correspondence, 1/9/99]

Any effect that uses a "+" or "-" sign or uses a word such as "bonus", "penalty", "extra", "reduced", "additional", or "further" is cumulative. [l5rinfo, 8/5/99]

Versions

Tournaments

Goblin Sneaks are Jade-legal. Apparently, they made it into Pearl Edition Shadowlands Horde clan decks without getting the Jade kanji added.

All Siege of Sleeping Mountain cards and Strongholds are Jade-legal, although the SSM version of a card is never considered the Most Recent Printing unless it's the only printing.

Miscellaneous

"In the unlikely event that a non-Shugenja Personality somehow manages to get a legally attached spell, the spell cannot be used but has no other unusual effect. It can be destroyed, stolen, Scribed, moved, etc." [RD, l5rinfo, 1/15/97]

If an effect requires the destruction of a card as part of its cost and that destruction is prevented, the same thing happens as in any other situation when a cost is interfered with: if the cost cannot be satisfied some other way, no effect is generated, the card being paid for (if any) is returned to where it came from, and all other costs get consumed with no return. [DW, personal correspondence]

Kiho are a subset of Action Cards, just like Weapons are a subset of Items, Black Scrolls are a subset of Spells, etc. [rulebook]

Any single card or action which brings a card into play and gives it the Shadowlands trait is considered to be "bringing a Shadowlands card into play" regardless of the exact relative timing of the two effects.

The term family name does not include races or professions, such as "Ninja", "Naga", "Ratling", "Mujina", or "Oni".

A name is not a family name if it is possessed by only a single Personality with a one-word name ("Sanzo", "Suana"). On the other hand, if a name is made a family name by other cards, a Personality with only that name as a one-word name is considered part of that family ("Hitomi", "Yoritomo").

Dishonor is still an immediate loss. The Ambition's Debt rulebook is incorrect. [FAQ 3.10]

Playing a card from your hand counts as "bringing a card into play", even if that card just has an immediate effect and goes straight into your discard pile. [l5rinfo, 1/2000]

Specific Cards

• If your Dynasty deck is not empty, its effect doesn't trigger. [DW, personal correspondence, 12/2/98]
• If your deck is empty, every unfilled Province counts against you regardless of why it's unfilled. [Ibid.]

• The Attacker and Defender are the only ones who can bring units in, and they may only select units they control. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/4/96]
• Players may repeatedly take the terrain's Battle action to move units in as long as the terrain remains in play. They are limited to moving one unit per action, not one unit total. [previous FAQs]

• You may play and/or activate the Ring of the Void between discarding and drawing because Gennai's effect isn't a single, self-contained "discard and redraw" effect. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/7/97]
• See also Timing.

• All existing alignments are kept. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/13/99]
• Should read "All your Personalities from that family in your deck and Provinces swear fealty to your Clan." [errata]
• Will not remove restrictions against joining your Clan. [l5rinfo, 8/19/99]

• May attach spells. [DW, email, 3/1/99]

• May bow to save herself. [DW, l5rinfo, 10/10/97]
• Only the topmost card is reshuffled. Any underneath are discarded from play. The topmost retains all abilities and permanent changes it had when it left play when it enters play again, but is now just a single card. [DW, personal email, 2/19/98, and FAQ]

• Truly is not a Weapon. [DW, l5rinfo, 10/29/98]

• Cancels only the dishonoring and/or gaining of the Shadowlands trait. [DW, personal correspondence, 12/2/98] [REVERSAL]
• If a single effect is worded such at multiple Personalities are dishonored/tainted at once (ex: Stale Wind, Doom of Toturi), all of the Personalities will be spared.

• Due to wording, will always be usable before Mercy Shrouds the Earth can be played but will not beat the Ancient Halls of the Akodo Stronghold. [l5rinfo, 12/99]

• May bring in another Alhundro Cornejo for free. ["Foo" Rule]

• Is considered to be declaring an attack. [DW, personal correspondence, 11/5/98]
• The two units are considered to be assigning. [Ibid.]
• The unit chosen as the attacker must be one currently able to be assigned as a solitary attacker (i.e. unbowed, no attack-prohibiting effects in play such as Emperor's Peace, etc.) [summary of other rulings]
• However, the unit chosen to be attacked does not have to be one which can legally defend. It can be bowed, inherently prohibited from defending (such as Kakita Yoshi), and so on. [FAQ 3.2]
• Target must belong to another player.
• Your unit is the attacker.

• You may wait until you see the card's focus value before deciding whether to use the Sage. [netnews, 7/12/99]

• Receives bonuses from effects which boost "Naga cards", since it is one. [DW, l5rinfo, 10/10/96, and the "Foo" Rule]

• Does not reverse upper or lower limits on Force or Chi, just bonuses and penalties. [l5rinfo, 12/99]
• See also Imperial Favor.

• All six Ancestral Clan Swords can be played by any player, and can be attached to any Personality. Furthermore, they still grant their player 4 honor and cause all opponents matching the sword's Clan to lose 6, even if the sword's Clan doesn't match its Personality's or its player's. The only restriction on the Ancestral Swords is that they don't give their extra bonuses if not held by someone of their Clan. [card text]

• Cloak of Night does not pay the gold costs for the extra features [DW, l5rinfo, 9/28/97], though you can pay for them yourself when it is revealed.

• Can attach a Follower to an opponent's Personality if the Follower normally allows it. [DW, email, 9/8/97]
• Followers are bound by their normal attachment restrictions. [card text]

• You must make the decision to purchase the extra Province as soon as this Event resolves.
• You only need to discard the Favor if you buy the Province. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/4/96]

• Since this card causes the duel to be cancelled as soon as it is revealed, it will nullify Kharmic Strike and prevent Poisoned Weapon from being used. [card text, and DW, l5rinfo, 11/8/96]
• Will not stop a poison token from Shosuro Hametsu from giving its -2C penalty, though. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/2/96] This penalty is applied when a strike is declared, and that still happens.

• "It resolves every time it reveals including for multiple players." [DW, email, 9/25/97]
• Its reduction of the Fortification's cost applies before all other cost-reducing effects. [FAQ 3.5]

• In determining whether a card can be legally focussed, use its focus value prior to focussing. Don't apply things like Double Chi or Strength of Flowing Water. [5/17/99]
• Does not count as a samurai.

• Will work against Encircled Terrain (negating all its effects) but not Entrapping Terrain. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/2/98]

• You may not use the Reaction unless you are the Attacker. The Attacker is the only player destroying the Province. [l5rinfo, 3/10/99]

• Terrain cards played under it come with it if it is stolen. [DW, l5rinfo, 4/23/96]
• See also Bowing and Straightening.

• May be used in a battle in which you have no units. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/11/96]
• Once created, the Champion acts like any other Personality. It can be shot with ranged attacks, sent home, etc. [ibid.]
• See also Imperial Favor.
• Can be duplicated by the Experienced Doji Yosai. [RD, l5rinfo, 12/1/97] [REVERSAL]

• Does not affect units already assigned. [DW, l5rinfo, 3/2/98] Because of this, it cannot be played during battle since it doesn't target or affect anything in it.
• Multiples are cumulative, since they provide a "bonus". [l5rinfo, 8/4/99]

• May be used if the Personality is contributing to a combined Ranged Attack. [DW, 9/25/96]

• You may not combine ranged attacks, as it must come from "one of your cards in play" [card text]. Cards like Coordinated Fire and Mukami Exp. won't change this.

• His loss of Chi is a cost. If it's prevented, so is his ability.

• His action is one action which produces multiple simultaneous ranged attacks. [card text]. An effect which cancels an action will cancel all of them. An effect which cancels a ranged attack will only cancel one.
• His action targets every relevant card even though there is no choice involved. [card text and rulebook] Furthermore, because each attack's target is mandated, none of them may be redirected, not even with an effect which allows redirection back to the firer's army. There is never "another" legal target.
• May be combined with his own Followers or using Coordinated Fire.
  • Normal ranged attacks will only combine with single attacks of his.
  • With Coordinated Fire, may combine with other Hosigerus for stronger attacks against everything.
• May be used even if there are no opposing cards. [l5rinfo, 7/21/99]

• Cannot retrieve spells with a restriction against being copied by Scribes, such as Wheel of Fate. [DW, email, 9/25/97]
• Retrieved spells go through all the usual come-into-play effects. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/25/97]

• Were supposed to have a Force of 0, but since the error is not earth-shattering, there is no errata at this time. Play them as written. [DW]

• The first sentence should read, "All units at this battle MAY return to their fiefs." [errata]
• Selecting which units stay and which go is a case of targetting with an action. A Test of Courage may be played to cancel the terrain's effects entirely during its resolution. [l5rinfo, 7/15/99]
• The active player is the first one who has to decide which of his units leave the battle. He makes all his decisions at this time. Then the choice goes around the table, once, in turn order. [l5rinfo, 7/15/99]

• Under the optional "each Event only happens once" rule, Avoid Fate cannot be played in reaction to the second or later appearance of an Event which has already resolved. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/3/96]

• May only issue its challenge once per battle. [errata]

• Includes bonuses from terrains, reaction cards, and kiho, as they are also Action Cards.
• Does not include bonuses received by attaching an Item or Follower. [DW, personal correspondence, 10/98]

• Artist is really Tom Cadice, not Matt Wilson.
• Is Political because it alters honor gains.

• Allows actions which target attacking cards to be played on defending Lions. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/16/96]

• Only affects unplayed cards in the Province, not cards attached to the Province. [l5rinfo, 3/16/99]
• Targets the card, not the Province. [card text] Will only affect one card in a multi-card Province.

• Cannot be used as the attacker with Ambush. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/20/96]
• Two or more Bakus can be assigned together, without any other Personalities. [ibid.]

• Can be used to fork any loss of honor you suffer, even if you caused the loss yourself. [card text, and DW, l5rinfo]
• Does not duplicate any special restrictions of the original honor loss, just the amount. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/13/96]
• Does not count as modifying the original loss.

• When an honor loss is redirected away from a player, that player is no longer losing honor and so cannot be affected by further loss-modifying effects. You cannot, for example, use Goshiu and a Ninja Shapeshifter to copy a loss from Player A to Player B twice.

• His effect is permanent. It will continue even if Goshiu leaves play. [DW, email]
• He can do it every time he enters play. [card text]
• The loss comes from Goshiu, since that's the card the text is written on. [ZF, netnews]

• Bringing Kachiko into play gives you the ability to win an Honor Victory. If you've given up this victory to Return of Fu Leng, bringing her into play, either normally or by copying or stealing her, restores it. Conversely, if a Clan which can't win by honor brings her into play, that Clan may renounce this ability if RoFL appears.
• Her "all Shadowlands cards have their gold costs increased by two" effect applies to the cost in the central diamond only.

• May be used on a face-down Province since he targets a Province, not a face-down card. [card text] The card will stay face-down next turn.

• His ability works with the same timing as all other "before the first normal action" effects. [Imperial Herald/FAQ]
• His ability may only be used against players who have opposing cards in the battle. [FAQ]
• Cards played by him go into their owner's discard pile. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/97]
• Cards played by him that stay in play, stay in play until they're destroyed normally. [FAQ]
• The honor loss applies to every card that leaves your hand to produce or pay for some effect. [FAQ]
• The honor losses are always separate, even when multiple cards are discarded at once. [general ruling on multiple simultaneous losses]
• You re-swap your entire hands again immediately after the battle, even if one or both hands contain cards of mixed ownership. [card text, and DW, personal correspondence, 9/14/98]

• Cannot be overlayed normally over the Inexperienced Shoju since he heads for the dead pile immediately upon appearing in a Province. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/16/97]

• You do not necessarily need to control the Scorpion you want Tangen to substitute for [card text], but remember you cannot ever duel yourself and cannot normally move a unit into an army you weren't invited to ally with.

• There are two versions of this card. The one found in the preconfigured section of Scorpion Clan Decks has a Personal Honor of 1, while the one found elsewhere has a 0. These are played as written.

• Reactions also cannot be played against the results of refusing a challenge. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/18/97]
• Reaction that specifically get played after the resolution of a duel are still legal. [ibid.]
• Reactions played before or with the challenge-causing action are still legal, in particular, those which cancel it. The challenge has not yet begun.
• Bowing to refuse his challenges is an additional cost, not an alternate way of refusing his challenges.
• No Personalities need to bow to refuse a challenge made against a player, such as Defend Your Honor or Test of the Emerald Champion. [5/16/99]

• The 1-pt honor loss is a rare example of a cost instead of an effect. If the loss is cancelled, the effect is also, and if you can't lose honor you can't use the ability. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/98]

• Only check for self-destruction if their ability has been used. [DW, l5rinfo, 4/9/98]

• Cannot be used if you have no units in the battle because it is not guaranteed, in all cases, to give you one there. [extension from Yogo Asami]

• The Chi penalty is continually recalculated for the rest of the turn. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/25/96] [REVERSAL]

• Revealing this card is an action taken by its original target, but the loss is caused by the Blackmail itself. [card text] This means the blackmailer can avoid the loss with Defend Your Honor, and the revealer can double it with Court Jester. [DW, l5rinfo, 10/31/96]
• If you steal a Fortification, it stays attached to its original owner's Province, although you now control its abilities, if any. [RD, email, 5/8/97] [REVERSAL]
• See also Battle.

• You may bow any Bloodspeaker in play, not just your own. [card text, and DW, email]

• The ability keeps the traits of the kiho, including "Kiho".
• If the next kiho is cast by a Follower, it is discarded and the Event's effect is wasted since the kiho cannot attach "to a Personality". [DW, email, 2/23/99]
• If the attached kiho is somehow destroyed, the ability is lost. [DW and ZF, email, 1/2000]
• If a kiho has multiple actions, only the action used is gained by the Personality. [DW, email, 8/19/99]
• The ability gained is considered an innate ability if the Personality is a shugenja. [netnews, 8/13/99]
• The kiho becomes castable only by the Personality it's attached to. [9/22/99]
• The kiho is attached instead of discarded. A kiho which is not discarded (for example, because of being removed from the game instead) cannot be attached and will waste the Event's effect.
• A kiho which is completely cancelled will not attach because it was not performed. [l5rinfo, 1/2000]

• The honor loss for refusing the challenge is caused by the original Blood Feud action card. Defend Your Honor can be played against it. [DW, email, 4/14/97]

• Counts as swearing fealty. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/9/96]
• Is played "after" the Personality comes into play [card text], so you don't get the options of paying less gold or gaining honor.

• In determining whether a card can be legally focussed, use its focus value prior to focussing. Don't apply things like Double Chi or Strength of Flowing Water. [5/17/99]

• May accumulate multiple copies of the same ability. [FAQ 3.2]

• In the case of a tie, the active player decides who loses honor first. [l5rinfo, 12/2/99]

• Generates a separate honor gain rather than increasing the gain from winning the battle. Thus, it is not Political. [DW, email, 6/27/97]
• See also Battle.

• Cannot be used if you have no one in the battle. The phrase "during any battle" does not override the normal restrictions on Battle Actions. [DW, email, 2/7/97]

• Chi loss also occurs if used for an ability, immediately after the resolution of the ability. [l5rinfo, 10/29/97]
• Treat the card's base focus value as a 6, when appropriate. This happens before any other changes. [5/17/99]
• May be focussed for a Tactician bonus. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/99]

• All your Personalities who can straighten must do so, including those who may remain bowed. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/5/96]
• Affected units become bowed during the resolution of the last battle. This means they'll always bow before you can play Counterattack, since that is played "after the last resolution segment". [DW, l5rinfo, 10/22/96]
• Must be played before any unit assignments are made. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/15/96, and rulebook] Units are assigned during the Maneuvers Segment, but Call to Arms is played in the Declaration Segment, which happens first.
• May be played in response to Ambush. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/15/97]

• Treat ranged attacks that do not have a strength as strength 0. [FAQ 3.8]

• The discarded event cannot be saved with Avoid Fate. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/25/96] Avoid Fate is played immediately before an Event resolves [card text], but the discarded Event doesn't resolve.

• Feign Death will not prevent the destruction of the original Personality. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/24/96] The original Personality will find another card with its title already in play when it attempts to return, and will be destroyed again by the Uniqueness rule.
• Cannot be used to destroy an existing Egg-Personality in order to play a new Egg of P'an Ku. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/5/96] Can only be used to bring a Unique Personality into play [card text], but until it's in play, the Egg is an Action card. [Note that it can be used to destroy an existing Egg if you're playing the False Hoturi, regardless of whom the Egg is copying. -- jwa]
• If there are multiple conflicting Personalities with the same name and experience level (say, due to One Life, One Destiny), they are all destroyed. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/13/99]

• The effect is automatic. It does not take an action to activate it.

• No costs need to be paid when the card is revealed. [RD, l5rinfo, 5/6/96]
• Effects produced by a card when it is attached occur instead when it is revealed. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/28/97]

• Is not Political. [DW, l5rinfo, 3/17/97]

• May be played in a battle in which you have no units. [DW, personal email, 6/23/98]

• In a result such as "If duelist A wins, XXX happens to the loser," effect XXX is an "effect of duelist A winning" and not an "effect of the other duelist losing". It will still happen.
• Has no effect on reactions to winning or losing a duel unless those reactions specifically modify the effects of losing, such as Fatal Mistake.

• The Shadowlands Horde may play this. Reactions that involve the Imperial Favor are not automatically Political. [FAQ]

• Can be used even if you have no Fate cards, since you can still discard "all" of them. [l5rinfo]

• If the challenged player controls no unbowed Personalities, he must refuse the challenge and lose the Holding.
• If the duel is fought and tied, the challenger is still the only Personality who dies. [card text, and DW, email, 5/4/99]

• May be used even if the battle which the target unit it leaving is not the current battle, since it's a Reaction. [DW, email, 4/23/97]

• Will nearly always be played after Rallying Cry. If it's not the very last battle to be resolved, RC clearly goes "first" because Counterattack can't be played at all. If it is, the general rule when two reactions to a game event have the same timing is to give the first reaction to the active player, which will typically be the Attacker (unless the Attack Phase that just happened was, itself, the result of an earlier Counterattack). [DW, netnews, 3/22/96]
  
• May be played after an Ambush. [RD, l5rinfo, 2/17/97]
• Multiples may be played as reactions to the same attack. [general rule on multiple reactions]

• When used to destroy an item, the "cost of the item" is the cost to its player. For instance, the cost of the Ancestral Weapon of the Mantis includes the extra costs for any upgrades. [DW, email, 7/30/97] Exception: an item brought into play "without gold cost" still has its full cost. See Gold. [partial REVERSAL]

• Cannot move Followers. [card text]
• May only move cards if both Personalities are unbowed. [REVERSAL] [card text, and DW, email, 7/30/97]

• Opponent may either focus or strike first, not just focus. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/16/96]
• The second Personality does nothing beyond contributing a Chi bonus and sharing the consequences of losing. He's not considered a participant in the duel, so effects that apply to duel participants cannot be used on him. That phrase about him "joining the duel" is "color text" and is not part of the actual game effects of this card. [DW, l5rinfo, 3/21/97]

• May be activated if the Personality was bowed when he died because it is used after the death, when the card is in the discard pile and no longer considered bowed.
• "In a battle or duel" means "during a battle or duel". May be used against deaths from ranged attacks, etc.
• The targetting restriction does not prevent the Personality from using built-in abilities which only affect himself (for instance, Togashi Mitsu's fire tokens), as those are not targetted. [netnews, 3/99]
• It does prevent the Personality from casting kiho.

• Affects the next two Personalities turned face-up in your Provinces who have the Unaligned trait, regardless of whether they already have your alignment as well. Those already aligned to you are unaffected, though they still use up one of the two uses of the Event. [netnews, 8/11/99]

• May not be played if there are no opposing units. See Battle. [REVERSAL]

• Read this card literally. It can be used by any Personality with any sort of Ranged Attack at all. The actual characteristics and targetting requirements of that Ranged Attack are irrelevant -- only those of the Arrow are used. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/25/96]

• Will make a Ritual they bow to participate in Maho. [l5rinfo, 8/3/99]

The Daimyo's Command

• Any Clan Champion may bow, including Toku (Exp2). [card text]

• His effect is continual. [card text] He constantly resets his Province's strength to the lowest of any in the game as long as he's in the battle. Effects which boost Province strength will be immediately overridden, though their effects will be seen, modifying the strength the Province would typically have, if Damesh is killed or removed from the battle. Effects which reduce the Province strength will have full effect since it will still be the lowest of any in play. [netnews, 9/21/99]

• The Shadowlands Horde cannot produce the honor-cancelling Reaction since that's Political. [DW, email, 8/28/97]
• Can be played if you're tied for lowest honor. [FAQ 3.8]

• Will also give the Shadowlands trait to cards which were brought into play from that Province earlier that turn. [card text]

• Does not target the Personalities you commit. It only provides you with an extra assignment step during the Maneuvers Segment. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/23/97]

• The reduction to 0 Personal Honor is permanent. [errata]

• Prevents the playing of all non-terrain-destroying actions within the Battle Action and Resolution Segments [card text], including Reactions played "when" or "after" a card is destroyed. Does not prevent Reactions played "after resolution" or "after the Attack Phase". [DW, email, 6/2/97] [partial REVERSAL]
• For an action to be legal, it must directly destroy Deadly Ground. Actions which destroy the terrain in a roundabout way, such as by cancelling the battle, aren't legal. [DW, l5rinfo, 10/10/96]

• Prevents players from destroying an opponent's last Province if the player himself does not meet one of the three criteria.
• "This event does not affect...clans normally unable to win an honor victory." "Normally" means you judge by what's originally written on your Stronghold, not whether you can currently win that way.

• The honor loss retains its source and any restrictions against being cancelled or redirected. [l5rinfo, 7/15/99]

• Works only against Action cards played and actions taken, not against other things, such as Events. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/19/96]

• The two targetted players may call on each other as allies. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/10/96]
• There is still only one Attacking side and one Defending side. Third-party players may not ally with more than one. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/13/96]
• Neither targetted player may ally with the Attacker against the other. [DW, email, 6/28/97]
• Will not allow you to attack on someone else's turn when combined with Plans Within Plans. [DW, email, 9/25/97]

• The Province this Event appears in is destroyed first, then the other one. If it appears in your last Province, you are immediately eliminated and no further effects are generated. [RD, l5rinfo, 5/19/97]

• May make any duel a Duel of Honor, even one which is not a Duel of Chi to begin with. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/19/96]
• When making a duel a Duel of Honor, the original duel results are replaced by the ones on his card. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/19/96]
• The option to commit seppuku upon losing to avoid being dishonored is available to all Personalities, not just samurai. [RD, l5rinfo, 3/14/97]

• If overlayed on the original Hoturi, he may not react to his own challenge and make it a Duel of Honor, as he is now bowed and therefore cannot perform actions. [DW, personal correspondence, 12/2/98] [REVERSAL]

• Doubles the amount the Holding "normally would" produce -- i.e., without any other card effects. So two Doji Plains on one Holding would still only make it produce double, not quadruple. The doubling is also applied before other production-modifying effects, such as Bountiful Harvest. [DW, email, 2/28/97]

• If two Reju face each other in a duel and tie, they both win. [card text, and DW, l5rinfo, 5/15/97]
  • If they tie in the duel started by Fight for My Favor, the Favor stays where it is.

• Is a Samurai. [errata]

• Will not prevent the playing of The Perfect Gift. [DW, email, 9/8/97, and the exemption of special game terms from the Foo Rule] Yosai prevents discarding cards as gifts, not "playing gift cards".

• With the new definition of "discarded from play", any Rings this Event affects are irrevocably gone. [DW, personal correspondence, 11/99]

• A single Defenders of the Realm will only stop this from destroying Provinces for the rest of the current turn. [DW, private email, 6/5/98] [REVERSAL]
• Won't trigger if a player can manage to avoid needing to draw from his Fate deck, such as by using Kyuden Hitomi's ability. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/19/98]

• The action is retargetted as though you had played it. [DW, l5rinfo, 7/28/98]

• Cards focussed in a duel are discarded from hand. [DW, email, 4/7/99]

• May freely duplicate challenges arising from actions which may only be used a limited number of times per turn/battle, such as Hitomi Exp3's. [DW, email, 8/21/98] [REVERSAL]
• Costs are also duplicated (for example, Hitomi Kokujin Exp.'s). [DW, l5rinfo, 8/26/98]

• Similar to the Egg of P'an Ku, the Dragon Pearl also copies permanent effects played upon the copied item.

• Does not prevent targetting by actions which may or may not send the bearer home, such as Stand or Run. [l5rinfo, 7/24/99]

• Once you've placed a poison token on a Personality, you lose honor if any effect kills that Personality by reducing his Chi to 0 -- even if he has no poison tokens on him at the time. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/12/96]

• You also choose which ally if you choose to have an ally do the bowing. [5/18/99]

• Though an Action card, it has an Item border in the Imperial Edition. This is a misprint.
• The Unique trait on the Egg always refers to just the Egg itself. It does not create a Unique copy of the Personality it copies. In fact, an Egg-copy of a Unique Personality will not prevent another of that Personality from being played if the original dies. [netnews]
• Is considered a Personality card once in play. [DW, netnews, 4/5/96]
• Is also considered a Personality after it dies. [RD, l5rinfo, 4/8/96] It can be brought back during Rise of the Phoenix, for example.
• Understandibly, it goes into your Honorable (or Dishonorable) Dead pile when killed, not your Fate card pile. [RD, l5rinfo, 8/27/96]
• If sent back to your Dynasty Deck, it actually goes in, despite being a green-backed card. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/14/97] When it shows up in a Province, it follows all the normal bring-into-play restrictions such as minimum honor and clan restrictions.
• Does not copy any temporary changes affecting the card it's copying, or the effects of any attached tokens or cards. However, it does copy any permanent, non-token changes. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/4/96]
• If it copies a bonus-producing trait, such as the Crab Clan Oni's, it copies only the trait itself, not the trait plus the existing bonus.
• Though a Personality once in play, it still counts as the Egg as well. You cannot play a second Egg and claim that the first "isn't an Egg anymore". [DW, l5rinfo, 11/4/96]
• Does not cause an honor loss or require the payment of non-gold costs, even when used to copy a Personality which does. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/6/97]
• If used to copy a Personality and later overlayed with an Experienced version, that version retains its identity and sole Uniqueness as the Egg. [DW, email, 9/29/97]

• Can only counter an action which explicitly targets you or your cards, not one which merely affects them. [card text, and EE rulebook] [REVERSAL]
• Can counter the use of the Ring of Air against one of your spell effects. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/9/97] [This is an apparent contradiction... -- jwa]

• Earlier effects are not cumulative multiple times. For example, bowing three shugenja does not let you give two followers +3F and three Personalities +1F. [l5rinfo, 3/9/99]

• The loss of 7 honor is in addition to any other duel results. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/19/96]
• See also Imperial Favor.

• It's an action, so players may not select one of their bowed units as the one to stay. [DW, personal email, 1/29/98]
• Only targets the units selected to stay and fight. [card text]

• Overrides the restrictions on Personalities who may not refuse duels, such as Kakita Toshimoko. [DW, email, 2/17/99]

• Allows you to purchase more than one card from a Province during your Dynasty Phase. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/3/98]
• Once you've started discarding unwanted Dynasty cards, you can no longer purchase any. [rulebook]
• Only cards replaced face-up due to Essence of Air's own effect count towards its limit. [card text]

• May copy of Unique Region, perhaps even more than once. [FAQ 3.10]

• Can only be used to increase a ranged attack Ritual if attached to the primary shugenja. [DW, email, 4/29/97]
• If the spell or ability produces multiple consecutive ranged attacks, the Eye can only add +4 to one of them, not increase an arbitrary number by a total of +4. [ibid.]

• Since it causes a Personality to be affected by Fear "as if he or she were a Follower" [card text], it will have no effect on a Personality belonging to a unit or Clan whose Followers are immune to Fear.
• Will modify all Fear effects when played on something that generates more than one simultaneously, such as Strength of the Dark one. [5/11/99]

• If cast by a monk or shugenja Follower, treat it as a Personality for the duration of a duel. If it has 0 Chi it dies immediately and the duel is aborted without conclusion. [DW, personal correspondence, 11/10/98]
• If the caster gets Chi bonuses for casting spells/kiho, they apply to the duel. [DW, personal correspondence, 11/11/98]

• A Lion player who has brought Shadowlands cards into play loses only 6 honor, not 12. [FAQ 3.10]

• The ability's cost can be paid for by gold sources which can only pay for Followers, such as Bushi Dojo. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/24/96]
• The ability's cost is reduced by effects which reduce the cost of attaching Followers, such as Hida Tsuru's trait. [DW, email, 4/8/97]

• Can kill Isawa Tsuke and Asako Yasu. [DW, email, 10/17/97]

• Does not prevent the death, but rather returns the dead Personality to play immediately. [card text] Anything which would normally happen as a result of the Personality dying will still happen, such as the destruction of all attached cards and tokens.
• May be played if the Personality was bowed when he died because it is played after the death, when the card is in the discard pile and no longer considered bowed.

• "Corrupt" and "corrupted" count as the same word. [DW, personal correspondence, 12/17/98]
• See also Gold.

• Does not bow the units directly, but rather changes which rules govern whether they bow. Rallying Cry and similar effects will prevent bowing as usual, even if multiple FttSS's are played. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/18/97]

• Unlike Rally Troops, this cannot save Followers from an effect which destroys the entire unit, since it gets played "when", not immediately before, the leader is destroyed. [DW, email, 2/7/97]
• This unit no longer has a Personality. Effects that target or affect Personalities may not be played on it. [DW, personal correspondence, 1/10/98] [REVERSAL]

• A stat which is already 0 can be chosen as the one to be reduced. Treat this as any other case where a stat has penalties that reduce it below 0: its effective value is 0 but any subsequent bonuses will be counterbalanced by the leftover penalties. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/3/98]

• Rings put into play via this kiho count towards an Enlightenment Victory. [FAQ 3.10]

• When reacting to an innate ability, the -2C does not occur until after the ability is fully resolved. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/20/98]
• Cannot be used to destroy a kiho, as it destroys a "spell card". [card text and FAQ 3.8]

• The second effect should refer to "spells", not "scrolls". [DW, l5rinfo, 12/16/97]

• Will still force the opponent to focus again when played as a striking focus with a Garrote. [DW, l5rinfo]
• Takes priority over Iaijutsu Art. [DW, l5rinfo, 1/29/98]
• The random focus is picked only from those cards which can be legally focussed. [FAQ 3.2]

• Players may only move units which they control. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/12/96]

• You must discard either enough total focus to end the battle or your entire hand. [DW, personal correspondence, 10/22/98]
• You may discard more than the minimum necessary number of cards. [DW]
• You may not play the Ring of the Void in the middle of discarding.
• To play this card without a unit in the battle, you must be either the Attacker, the Defender, or an invited ally. Allies may play it against either side if, and only if, they've been invited by both primary players and have not assigned any troops anywhere.
• You may not play this card if there are no opposing units. See Battle. [REVERSAL]

• A Shadowlands samurai may challenge either a samurai or a Shadowlands Personality, with the appropriate results. If the Personality challenged also has both traits, you decide who will get which bonus upon winning when you play the card.

• Switches the current total Chi and Personal Honor values. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/31/96] This will kill any dishonored Personality, as his effective Personal Honor will always be zero.

• The bowing of the unit happens as a direct result of Forced March, not as a normal result of battle. It cannot be prevented by cards like Rallying Cry. [card text]

• The forest may belong to any player. [card text]
• Destroying the forest must be done if possible. If it cannot be done, the remaining effects of the card do not happen. [errata]

• Its effect can be used immediately, while the Tomb is bowed, since it is a trait and not an ability.

• Tokens only prevent straightening the turn after the kiho is cast (multiples in one turn are not cumulative) and only for the Personality it was originally cast on. [card text and DW, email]

• The Stables you bow does not generate any gold. You must produce the 3g using other means. [DW, l5rinfo, 4/30/97]

• May be played on any Personality, not just your own. You still suffer the 2 pt honor loss, though. [card text]

• Counts as an army once assembled. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/9/96]
• Forces of individual units are not checked until the Horde is formed. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/11/96]
• Horde units removed from the battle return to their controller's Fief. [ibid.]
• Sending a unit to the Horde is not "assigning" it. [card text] Units which have restrictions on attacking can be sent freely.
• Artist is really Tom Biondollilo, not Matt Wilson.

• Because of the "to a minimum of zero" clause, any excess penalty is lost. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/9/98]

Garrison

• The imaginary unit that Garrison creates doesn't contribute to the defending forces in any way. It cannot be targetted or affected by other cards. It has no stats and does not count as an army when it's by itself. The only time it matters is when you're deciding whether a certain action can be played. [DW, personal email, 2/20/98]

• Can be affected like a true Personality by effects that involve duels, such as Togashi Yoshi, Poisoned Weapon, and various kiho. [DW, email, 9/8/97]
• If only 0 or 1g is spent, the resulting 0 Chi Personality immediately dies and the duel is aborted. [DW, l5rinfo, 4/18/98]

• This card was referred to as "Norio" in Imperial Herald #5, and also refers to itself as "Norio" once in its own text box. [RD, l5rinfo, 4/23/97] These are both errors.

• Both players lose 1 honor in a tie. [RD, l5rinfo, 1/15/97]

• May be put into play by an Armor of Sun-Tao or the Oracle of Earth, though you must still bow a corrupted shugenja. [DW, l5rinfo, 10/17/97]
• There must still be an army on both sides for the battle to be a tie. An unopposed army will not be destroyed. [DW, l5rinfo, 4/8/98]

• The new target must be legal, as though the attack had come from your army. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/6/96] You can't redirect a normal attack to a Personality with Followers attached, for instance.

• May be used to play the Ring of Earth immediately following False Alliance if (and only if) the conditions are met at that time. [DW, l5rinfo, 3/3/97]

• He gains the additional affiliation after he's brought into play. Clans besides Yoritomo's Alliance cannot gain his personal honor by paying his full price plus the extra 2g. [DW, l5rinfo, 1/19/98] [REVERSAL]

• The honor loss is not a cost, but the dishonoring is. A Personality who is already dishonored cannot cast this kiho.
• "Discarded from play" now means "removed from the game". [AD rulebook]

• Applies fully to extra actions granted by such cards as Sneak Attack and Kitsu Motso. [card text, and DW, email, 9/25/97]

• Because it targets "all Personalities and Followers [in the opposing army] that have a Force of 2 or less", it cannot be redirected. [RD, l5rinfo, 6/9/97]
• The word "fiery" in this card's text counts as "fire" for purposes of cards that look for elemental keywords outside the title and boldface traits areas, such as The Way of Water. [RD, email, 6/11/97]

• The +1C action can be used during either the Action Phase or the Attack Phase, but only lasts until the end of that phase. [card text, and DW, l5rinfo, 2/12/98]

• Distinct Fear effects give a cumulative bonus. Single Fear effects which can be used more than once do not. [DW, personal correspondence, 9/19/97]
• Its effect is continuous. The bonus is recalculated if the strength or number of Fear effects changes.

• Is destroyed only if he is present during resolution and his army's total Force is <= twice the opposing army's at that time. [DW & RD, email, 8/98] [RE-REVERSAL]

• Should be Shadowlands. [errata]

• Her ability is Fear. Fear is usable once per battle. [rulebook]
• When Heavy Shadow of Fear is in play, calculate her Fear strength once, then add it to her Force once, then stop so you don't go into an infinite loop. Normally she'd be 10F with Fear 5. After a Frenzy she'd be 16F with Fear 8. Etc.

• A Personality who both has less Force than her and is bowed will count twice. [card text]
• See also Bowing & Straightening.

• Applies to traits as well, such as Hida Tampako's and the Crab Armor's. [card text]
• Does not combo with The Citadel of the Hiruma. It only works with card effects, and Strongholds are not cards. [card text/rulebook]

• Is considered an allied unit after using his ability to enter a battle, even if he wasn't invited. [DW, email, 12/9/97]
• May enter a battle on the side of a The Shadowlands Horde player. [ibid.]

• Counts himself as both a Crab and a Naga unit in his army, so his Battle action will always give him at least +2F.
• Is Nonhuman. [rulebook & card text]

• May be moved into a battle with other units, and vice versa, during the Battle Actions Segment.
• Cannot be moved into a battle by any card which allows you to "assign" or "commit" units during the Maneuvers Segment, before battle actions start. [extension of ruling on Dark Oracle of Water, DW, l5rinfo, 9/10/96]
• Cannot be committed to battle with the Experienced Crab Clan Oni. Both cards' restrictions on committal must be obeyed. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/9/96]

• Prevents troops from assigning during a Counterattack. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/14/98]

• The Personality does not get returned if it loses the Shadowlands trait. Only straightening or destroying the Heart will work. [card text]

• May only issue her challenge once per battle. [errata]

• The original player of this card loses the honor when the underlying Personality is destroyed. This may not be the controller of the Personality at that time. [RD, l5rinfo, 9/22/96]

• Though Unaligned, he has a Scorpion Clan border. This is not a misprint.

• If she ties, no effects happen. The clause about the loser going to Hitomi's controller's fief bowed and getting tattooed is part of the "if Hitomi wins ..." effect. [DW, l5rinfo, 7/98]
• If she wins versus a Personality who will not join your clan, all her other duel results happen except the transfer of control.[DW, l5rinfo, 8/3/98]

• Clarifying his ability: he targets any one opposing unit and destroys all Followers in it whose individual Forces are not greater than his.

Hizuka

• There must be at least one attacking unit for him to come into play for free. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/19/97]
• You do not gain honor for bringing him into play by his action. Honor can only gained this way during the Dynasty Phase. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/3/97]

• Is a Weapon. [FAQ]

• Can actually be used as a reaction in any instance where your Personality is involved in a loss of Family Honor (to any player) (for example, being targetted by Martyr), or becomes dishonored. It is not limited only to occasions which arise from actions you initiated. [DW, email, 2/7/97, and OE card text]
• Cannot be played as a reaction to Poisoned Weapon. [DW, l5rinfo]
• Can be used in response to bringing a samurai into play who causes an honor loss. [DW, l5rinfo, 10/25/96]
• Cannot be used in reaction to an honor loss caused by the death of a dishonored samurai. The samurai is already dead at that point.

• May be used to bring Purity/Courage of the Seven Thunders into play for free. [Foo rule, and DW, email, 5/21/97]

• Disharmony will still cancel a Ritual cast by her, as it only refers to a "ritual" and not a "spell". [card text]
• Her spell card is always a spell card. It is only the act of using it that is considered performing a ninja action instead of casting a spell. [netnews, 7/28/99]
• May have one spell attached at any given time. If she loses it, she may attach another. [l5rinfo, 9/27/99]
• Benefits from effects involving attaching spells to shugenja, such as Minor Oni Servant. [card text, 9/29/99]

• Counts as copying her target's Force. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/98]

• Any increase in a stat is a bonus.
• May react to focussing (though note that Wayan's reaction is only usable during battle). [DW] Wayan's controller will not know how much of a bonus he got until the focus is revealed.
• The duration of Wayan's bonus is the same as the one he's copying.
• Does not receive a double bonus while The Courage of Osano-Wo is in effect. The token is not providing the bonus.

Hyobe

• Only he himself does not bow when returning home as an attacker. Cards attached to him still bow. [card text]

• Will work on Personalities whose honor requirements were ignored for purposes of coming into play (such as the original Toturi's Army stronghold) but not those ignored continually (such as Naga's). [partial REVERSAL] [DW, email, 4/7/99]

• If you play this in a situation where your opponent has no option but striking, the duel resolves immediately and you do not get to focus yourself. If you never got a chance to focus, you weren't "able". [card text]
• You may not use a Reaction that's played "instead of focussing" [DW, l5rinfo, 4/18/98], regardless of whether you have already focussed.
• You may not use a reaction that gives you an additional focus if you have already focussed. [card text] Reactions which only add as though they were focussed, such as Bend Like a Reed, are legal.

• Does not need to be in the battle to use his ability. [DW, l5rinfo, 3/11/97]

• His ability's strength depends on his own Force, not his unit's. [card text]

• The Armor of Earth [and Cornered -- jwa] cannot prevent Ryozo from being sent home if the Favor is used on another unit, as it is his own trait sending him home, not the action of the Favor. [DW, email, 5/29/97] [REVERSAL]
• Something which only negates the effects of the Favor, such as Confusion at Court, will not stop Ryozo from leaving because the Favor still targetted someone. On the other hand, something that completely cancels the Favor action, like A Test of Courage, will stop Ryozo's trait from triggering because a cancelled action isn't considered to have been used. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/13/98]

• If she is placed in Fu Leng's Horde, the Defender cannot play terrains even if he is her controller. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/9/96]
• Prevents terrains in the battle she's currently in, not the one she was originally assigned to. [FAQ 3.3]
• Will not destroy an existing terrain if she's moved into a battle with one. [ibid.]

• Cannot be assigned to attack a Clan Heartland since her trait does not apply until she's in the battle. [DW, l5rinfo, 10/17/97]

• The word "opposing" is relative to the Lion Personality who was destroyed, not Ujiaki. Ujiaki himself need not be in the current battle. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/26/98]

• Doubles all Force and Chi bonuses which the weapon provides, including those due to tokens or that affect Personalities other than the wielder. [DW, l5rinfo, 3/11/97]

• You are not forced to discard cards to make up the difference if you have fewer than three unbowed Personalities/Followers in the battle and allow them all to become bowed. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/29/96]
• If you want to keep any of them unbowed, however, the number of cards you do bow, plus the number of cards you discard, must equal three. [DW, l5rinfo, 7/26/96]
• All bowing/discarding decisions are made by each player before the other makes any. Go in normal player order, starting with the active player.

• The honor gains/losses occur in separate packets. [DW, l5rinfo]

• You gain the honor every Straighten Phase where the Personality would normally straighten but you choose not to. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/9/97]
• The Personality is dishonored if he straightens for any reason before three of your turns go by. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/13/97]

Imperial Taxation

• The payment is not mandatory. The Holding's controller may elect to destroy the Holding even if he can afford the cost. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/1/97]

• Will even reduce Force bonuses cards grant to themselves, such as Hida Yakamo (Oni) and Otaku Tetsuko. [card text]
  • An Item with variable Force will have any bonus to itself reduced before its total Force is added (normally) to the Personality. For example, an Ancestral Sword will only add +0/+X to itself, making it a 0/(X+1) weapon.
• Will not reduce bonuses the Personality grants to his attached cards. [ZF]
• The attachment must be direct. For example, a Follower will not receive a force bonus from an Item in its own unit.
• Affects all force bonuses, including things like Oath of Fealty and The Spawning Ground. [l5rinfo, 12/2/99]
• Only applies once, when played. Subsequent Force bonuses will be added normally. [ibid.]

• Applies to all card effects which alter Chi, focus values, or how the resolution of the duel is handled. This includes Togashi Yoshi and the Double Chi trait. Does not apply to Toshimoko Sensei because Sensei text is considered to be on your Stronghold and Strongholds are not cards.
• Applies for the entire duration of the duel. (In other words, cards played after it, such as Poisoned Weapon, will still be affected.)
• Does not apply to bonuses/penalties which were already in place before the challenge was issued, such as Touch of Amaterasu.
• Does not change a non-Chi duel to a duel of Chi. [ZF]

• The second effect happens the second time this event appears, period, not the second time it appears for the original revealer. Under the optional One-Time Events rule, it is then a resolved Event. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/10/98]
• Only causes an honor loss the first time it resolves. [l5rinfo, 3/98]

• "Requirements" covers all requirements and restrictions, such as "Will not/will only join XXX Clan". [l5rinfo, 7/15/99]

• The tokens do not count as cards. [DW, email, 7/19/99] [REVERSAL]

• The weapon or armor must be a card that is in your hand. [RD, netnews]

• May reposition Regions which count as Fortifications. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/13/96]
• May be used to bring a Region/Fort into play which appears in a Province which already has a Region if you move it to one which does not. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/6/96]

• Only lets you lobby again if you've lobbied exactly once. [FAQ 3.8]
• You may not take his extra lobby attempt first and your one normal attempt second. [FAQ 3.8]

• Can be used after any death, even to things like your own Sacrificial Altar. [RD, l5rinfo, 1/15/97]

• The last one played takes precedence.
• Always takes precedence over a Tetsubo, as it's always played "after" the Tetsubo's continuous effect.

• You cannot discard more cards than are necessary to reduce the loss to zero. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/3/96]

• His action lets you simply take the Favor, regardless of who currently has it or what your Family Honor is relative to the other players. [card text]
• His ability does not count as lobbying for the Favor. [card text]
• Cannot bow to take the Favor during an attack if he is not in the current battle. [rulebook]

• Does not reshuffle cards which were "discarded from play". Even though they are discards and not considered dead, they were once in play. [card text and netnews, 9/11/99]

• This card was mistakenly identified as Uncommon in Imperial Herald #4.

• The phrase "always has a 0F/1C when bowed" sets its actual stats to 0/1. It's not a +0/+1 bonus. [card text]
• This setting is absolute, overriding all other bonuses and penalties. [DW, l5rinfo, 1/13/98]
• Except, of course, focussing. [DW, l5rinfo, 3/12/98]

• Multiples have a cumulative effect. [card text, and RD, l5rinfo, 12/2/96]

• This card was mistakenly identified as Rare in some early lists.
• Cannot be used to put the Ring of Fire into play. The Ring requires that you "win a duel" [Emerald Edition card text], and a tied duel is a loss for both duelists [rulebook].
• Doesn't necessarily kill both duelists -- it only makes both suffer whatever would normally happen to the loser. [card text]
• Changing one duelist's Chi with Poisoned Weapon or poison tokens will not break the tie (although it could kill one of them prematurely). Kharmic Strike forces a tie result regardless of stats. [card text]

• Will prevent a Personality from having his Chi reduced further even if it's already below his Personal Honor. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/19/98]
• Exchanging Chi and Personal Honor will kill someone with a pre-swap Personal Honor of zero, as his Chi will drop briefly to this value. [netnews, 11/99]

• Adds additional conditions to scoring an Honor Victory, rather than rendering players unable to achieve this victory. In particular, it will not force someone to lose a Province to Return of Fu Leng. [DW, l5rinfo, 7/30/98]

• He must be assigned to the battle to use his double-action ability. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/4/96]
• Is not a Samurai. This is an oversight, but there is no official correction against it. [DW, personal correspondence, 1/10/98]

• May reshuffle a destroyed card, as there is only one discard pile. [DW, email, 2/17/99]

• The challenge happens before any consequences of refusing the duel. [l5rinfo, 2/99] For instance, if someone refuses an Iaijutsu Challenge, Kaagi's duel starts before that person can commit seppuku to avoid the pending 7-pt honor loss -- and if the refuser dies in Kaagi's duel, he cannot commit seppuku when the loss finally occurs.

• Attaching cards from your hand is an action. You may not attach cards to someone with the Journal unless they are cards which can only attach to ninja, such as the Night Medallion.
• Bowing to exchange cards among two or more Personalities is an action which targets every card being moved and every Personality receiving one or more cards. So, no cards can be moved from the Journal's unit, and no cards can moved to it except, again, ninja-only cards.
• Holder may be targetted to perform actions that say "bow one of your ninja Personalities to...", such as Night of a Thousand Fires.
• Holder may no longer cast kiho. Kiho target their caster.
• Cannot be selected for an action by any player [card text]. This includes things like Encircled Terrain, The 12th Black Scroll, and Yogo Asami, where the Personality is not chosen by the person taking the action. [DW, personal correspondence, 12/2/98]

• Alters the challenge by making it unrefusable. This means he will be overridden by cards that allow refusing unrefusable duels, such as Enlightened Tutor. [DW, personal correspondence, 10/9/98]

• Does not gain his trait until he actually starts entering play, so you cannot pay for him with a School of Wizardry or reduce his cost by 4g with a Hiruma Dojo. [card text, and DW, l5rinfo, 7/28/98]

• Only cares about the name on the card in question, not the names on less-experienced versions. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/31/98] [REVERSAL]
• Morito falls under both the Morito and Shinjo families. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/1/97]

• Allows you to discard either type of card, Fate or Dynasty. [l5rinfo, 5/19/98]

• When more than one are placed on the same Personality, the most recent one takes priority. [DW, personal correspondence, 10/6/98]
• Her Personality must be involved in the creation of the honor gain. Modifying it doesn't count. [6/10/99]

• Refers to the Minimum Honor of the Followers, not their Personal Honor. Followers do not have a Personal Honor stat.
• Does not change the Clan affiliation of the targetted Personality. [DW, email, 7/1/97]

• You are bound by all coming-into-play restrictions of the Personality, including minimum honor. [DW, email, 3/18/99]
  • The honor loss caused by Kolat Recruiter itself does not occur until after the Personality is in play. [card text]
• Effects triggered by coming into play are not waived. [card text] This includes Oni no Akuma, which will still destroy the Province it comes from.
• You do not gain honor if the Personality belongs to your clan. [6/9/99]
• Can be countered by something like Way of the Shadow, since Kolat Recruiter targets a card, but, if the countering card needs to be played as soon as Kolat Recruiter is announced, you can't wait for KR to flip over the Dynasty card and then play it now that you know it's legal. [9/10/99]

• Will receive corruption tokens from his own Black Scrolls because that effect is not targetted. [card text]

• The two cost reductions are not cumulative. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/19/96]
• Affects all Shadowlands cards played by you. That means Fate cards as well as Dynasty. [card text]

• Its ability can be copied by cards such as the Ninja Shapeshifter and Mask of the Oni. These cards need to be assigned to a losing battle as well, though, since copied abilities which refer to their own cards change to reflect the copying cards instead. [rulebook]
• Cannot produce a tie game since its ability is used after your Provinces are destroyed. Your opponent will still win a Military Victory even if you destroy his last Province as well, since he destroyed yours first. [FAQ 3.3]

• Is dishonored/destroyed if any Yogo Junzo in play is challenged/destroyed. [card text]

• If used in conjunction with a Jade or Crystal Arrow, the strength of the second attack is based on the ranged attack you selected to enable the use of the Arrow. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/6/98]
• Allows two Jade and/or Crystal Arrows to be fired. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/18/98]

• Can reduce honor requirements to negative numbers (negative requirements are not the same as a "-"). [DW, l5rinfo, 10/17/97]

• Treat the card's base focus value as PH+2, when appropriate. This happens before any other changes. [5/17/99]

• The ashigaru tokens do not gain +1F per Small Farm like the Ashigaru Follower card does. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/23/96]
• You only lose 1 honor the first time a token is removed. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/29/96]
• Is an Action Card which creates Followers. So,
  • You cannot spend gold which is spendable only on Followers.
  • It does not benefit from Follower-cost-reducing effects.
  • It will not trigger any effects which happen when you put a Follower into play from your hand. [7/27/99]

• The clause "Honor gain above your starting family honor is lost" applies to your new total, not the gain. If you're at or above your starting honor when you play this, you gain nothing. If you're below, you gain 8 or whatever it takes to get you back to your starting value, whichever is less.
• The gain that you lose is not an "honor loss". An effect that prevents honor loss will not stop the gain from being reduced if it would take you past your starting honor. [l5rinfo, 1/98]
• Should be read "if you have no cards in play that cause yourself an honor loss to put into play, ..."
• Events which cause an ongoing honor loss, such as Suspicions, are not necessarily in play for the rest of the game. They need to explicitly say "this card remains in play". [DW, l5rinfo]

• May bow instead of his current Personality to move himself onto another. (The second Personality must still bow, of course.) [5/29/99]
• May not bow instead of his Personality if he, himself is also bowing from an effect which bows the entire unit. [5/29/99]

• Unless they say otherwise, these do not count as the original Personalities for deck construction or Uniqueness.

• Has no effect if revealed during Emperor's Peace. [DW, personal email, 1/29/98]

• Prevents Mamoru's ability (even though it should prevent itself from preventing Mamoru's ability...) [DW, email, 9/29/97]

• Its Unique trait only interacts with other Unique cards that count as the Obsidian Mirror. You may have one Lord Moon's Blood and three original, non-Unique Obsidian Mirrors in your deck. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/13/99]

• Actions targetting him behave in all ways as though he were aligned with every Clan. [DW, personal correspondence, 12/2/98]
• May cast kiho as a Monk, as kiho target their caster.
• May attach Clan-specific cards such as Ancestral Armors and Ancestors.
• Continual effects are not targetted actions and will see his alignments for what they truly are. Most Ancestors will immediately self-destruct, most Ancestral Swords will not provide a bonus beyond +0/+1, etc.

• See Investigation.

• Does not affect the Cavalry trait of any individual cards in the unit. [l5rinfo, 11/27/99]

• See Minor Shugenja.

• Gains Cavalry if she has any change token, not necessarily one of her own. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/4/96]

• Multiples may be played as reactions to a single death (though not simultaneously). [DW, l5rinfo, 6/6/96, and card text]
• May not be played against an opposing Personality after a tied battle or duel, since it is played after your Personality dies, at which point the card which killed him is no longer in play either, and so may not be targetted. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/26/97 & 3/11/97]
• If your Personality died as a result of a battle or duel, Martyr's only legal target is an opposing Personality. You cannot target something like a terrain, focus card, Kharmic Strike, or the card that started the battle or duel. [DW, email, 7/14/97]
• If killed by an action (other than a duel-causing one), Martyr's target is the card that performed the action, and so Martyr cannot be used if that card is immediately discarded (example: Kolat Assassin). In the case of a Spell or Item, this is generally the Personality holding that card and not the card itself. [DW, personal correspondence, 1/10/98] [REVERSAL]
• May be used if the action created or moved a token that killed the Personality. [DW, email, 3/29/99]

• Which ability gets duplicated is not set until it's actually used. [DW, email, 4/7/99]

• An action that's cancelled does not count. [l5rinfo, 7/14/99]
• All "Oracle" cards count, including Dark Oracles and oracle Personalities. ["Foo" rule]
• See also Traits.
• Treat it as though it said "...any player who produces an Earth, Air (or Wind), Fire, Water, and Void action..." [netnews, 8/26/99]

• The phrase "this card" in the second-to-last sentence refers to the terrain card, not Master's Tactics itself.
• Will not override an effect which prohibits you from playing terrains, such as Secluded Ravine or Ikoma Tsanuri. [DW, l5rinfo, 7/28/98]
• Will make the terrain uncounterable by generic card-countering effects, such as Mujina Tricks. (However, Master's Tactics can usually, itself, be countered instead.)

• He does not bow when destroying Retainers. [card text]
• His extra focus happens "before the duel". [card text]
  • Since focus cards add to Chi as soon as they're played [rulebook], he does not die instantly if he uses his ability while wielding a Tetsubo, provided he takes his free first focus and plays a card with a focus value greater than 0.
  • Reactions to entering a duel, such as the Double Chi kiho, occur after this focus.

• May use his reaction against challenges he bows to issue. [l5rinfo, 12/9/98]

• Cannot effectively be used in conjunction with Mists of Illusion. Mercy only gives you 3 honor per card you spare, and if the Mists have been used, nothing can be spared since nothing is going to be destroyed. [DW, netnews, 3/11/96]
• "You can play multiples, but you still only gain 3 per card." [DW, l5rinfo, 12/2/97]
• Is not Political. [DW, l5rinfo] [REVERSAL]

• This card was mistakenly identified as Rare in Imperial Herald #4.
• Becomes dishonored/commits seppuku if any Toturi in play is challenged/destroyed. [card text, and DW, l5rinfo, 2/26/97]

• Can only direct actions to himself that could have targetted him in the first place. [rulebook]

• You must lose honor when attaching spells to this shugenja. You cannot choose to spend gold anyhow. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/31/96] This is a trait, not a Reaction, so it is always active.
• See also Scribe.

• Is a shugenja, but is not a Personality. It cannot attach spells, but it can be given the Shadowlands trait by the Phoenix Stronghold, sacrifice itself under Not This Day, gain Fear 4 from Fearful Populace, be purchased by a School of Wizardry, be bowed by Summon Faeries, etc. [RD, l5rinfo, 12/19/96]
• Can naturally bow as a shugenja, without using its special ability, to assist any of your Rituals, including ones not cast by the Personality it's attached to. This contributes its actual Chi to the Ritual instead of the 1C that its ability would give. [DW, email, 4/23/97]

• Cost reduction is cumulative with Alliance. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/19/96]

• His printed Human trait overrides the Nonhuman trait that being Naga would normally give him.

• His reduction of Hitomi's cost to 0 lasts until it's used, not until the end of the turn. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/9/98]

• Only prevents units from being destroyed by the resolution of the battle. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/9/97] [REVERSAL]

• Only copies bonuses gained after it's played. [RD, l5rinfo, 6/26/98]
• Force bonuses gained through Mizu-do last until the end of the battle, even if the card the gain was copied from is removed from the battle. [card text, and ibid.]

• This card is distinct from the Anvil of Despair card of the same name. You may have three of each in your deck. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/16/97]
• Can not be played along with another card which has an illegally low focus value to make it legal. [DW, email, 10/10/97] [REVERSAL]

• The "Force = 0 if it has no Followers" clause is absolute, overriding all other cards and tokens. [netnews]
• The "Force = 0" clause is active even when the card is not in play.

• Is not Undead. He has not been reprinted with the Undead trait, and the traits of more-experienced versions of Personalities do not apply retroactively to all less-experienced versions.

• The active player -- in this case, always Soro's controller -- decides whether Soro's check for 0 Chi is done before or after the expiration of effects which last until the end of the turn. [DW, personal correspondence, 10/22/98]

• His refusal to join you if your family honor is positive is technically not an "honor requirement". [DW, l5rinfo] It cannot be waived by Unexpected Allies or Mountain of the Seven Thunders.
• Is not Undead. He has not been reprinted with the Undead trait, and the traits of more-experienced versions of Personalities do not apply retroactively to all less-experienced versions.
• Will not cause himself to bow upon assigning if his Personal Honor is raised above 1. The implied phrase is "in the same army as himself", which requires two different Personalities. [netnews, 8/10/99]

• Is not Undead. He has not been reprinted with the Undead trait, and the traits of more-experienced versions of Personalities do not apply retroactively to all less-experienced versions.

• His assignment restrictions apply and refer only to his own army. [DW, email] He may assign opposing non-Shadowlands units and vice-versa.

• There are two versions of this card. The one found in the preconfigured section of Scorpion and Junzo's Army Clan Decks has a Personal Honor of 1, while the one found elsewhere has a 0.
• All versions are played with a Personal Honor of 1 regardless of printed value. [MRP] [REVERSAL]

• Since this card affects Followers specifically, it does not affect Ancestors. [rulebook] It will not allow Otaku Kamoko to attach non-Cavalry Ancestors.

• Is not targetted, even if there are multiple opposing Personalities tied for highest Force, since all that matters is the number. [DW, personal correspondence, 12/9/98]
• Bowed cards provide their full Force because Musubi refers to "Personality", not "unit", Force.

• Reactions are actions. Its reaction cannot be used during Deadly Ground or, possibly, Night Battle.
• You are not forced to bow someone and play this Region as soon as it appears. You can choose not to pay the cost and leave it in your Province. [7/30/99]

• Does not count as a Terrain itself ["Foo Rule" exception], though the token it creates does. In particular:
  • May not be combined with the Armor of Sun-Tao.
  • The spell may not be destroyed by cards such as Superior Tactics. [DW, l5rinfo, 4/9/98]

• The Abomination's base Chi is now "the number of other Naga cards in play" by MRP. Shapeshifting will switch that entire number. [netnews, 2/99] [REVERSAL]
• Token Naga Followers will also boost his Chi since they count as cards. [Anvil rulebook]

• Must be in the current battle to use their reaction. [ZF]

• His "cannot perform any kiho more than once per turn" restriction refers to each kiho by wording/effect. [DW, email, 8/19/99] [partial REVERSAL] He cannot produce the exact same kiho effect more than once per turn even if it comes from a different source, and he can cast the same kiho by title more than once provided it has more than one action on it and he uses a different one each time.

• This effect ends if the nemesis leaves play. [DW, email, 9/25/97]

• See Deadly Ground.

• Adds to abilities on both cards when placed on an overlayed Experienced Personality. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/11/96]
• Adds to the number physically printed. You do not treat all losses as negative numbers -- a number is only negative if there's an actual "-" sign on the card. [FAQ 3.4, 4/4/97]
• Does not apply to abilities copied from other cards. [ERRATA] [change accidentally left off the Jade Edition version]
• Will raise the base strength of ranged attacks which cannot be increased. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/26/96]

• Is eliminated if the kidnapped Personality is destroyed. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/19/96]
• See also Blackmail.

• The "stay bowed" result of fire tokens on Togashi Mitsu or someone with a Dragon Tattoo, and of sleep tokens from Freezing the Lifeblood, originates from the generating card and not the token itself. Ninja Questioner is legal against them. [l5rinfo, 3/10/99, and DW, email, 3/99]

• The Shapeshifter does not count as using an innate ability when he uses an ability copied from a shugenja. An "innate ability" is, by rulebook definition, something only a shugenja can possess, and the Shapeshifter is not a shugenja.
• When he copies an ability which refers to the copied card by its own name, consider the text to refer to the Shapeshifter instead. [RD, l5rinfo, 4/30/96, and rulebook]
• Can repeatedly copy an ability which is usable only once per game, because at the end of the turn he forgets that he's used it. [RD, l5rinfo, 7/8/96]
• See also Copying.

• See Gold.

• Can steal item tokens since it moves items, not cards. [DJ; RD, l5rinfo, 4/21/96]

• She follows all the normal rules for assigning. Specifically, she can assign somewhere by herself. There does not need to be an army already present for her to "join". [DW, email, 3/1/99]
• Her presence in an army will not change your overall role (Attacker/Defender/ally) in the attack. You also are not considered an ally if you assign her where you are not invited.
• Putting her in the other army will not allow you to take battle actions twice as often.
• Cannot assign if there is no attack.
• Effects that move units between Provinces cannot move her from one side of the battle to the other.
• Units that aren't allowed to break the normal presence-in-battle rules cannot be swapped with her or moved in to join her. This includes Way of Deception. [DW, email, 3/99]
• The clause "You never gain Honor when Ogoku joins an army." refers only to the 2-pt gain for allying.
• Cannot assign with another unit during an Ambush. [l5rinfo, 7/18/99]

• Must replace a Dynasty card. [card text] Cannot move herself into an empty Province. [l5rinfo, 11/27/99]

• The Chi penalty of the tokens is not affected by cards that change the strength of ranged attacks. Example: Kyudo allows the Bow to place two -2C tokens.
• When giving a -2C token, you may target a Personality with Followers. [card text]

• Spells with continuing effects will still persist for their normal durations. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/27/98]
• The spells are destroyed by the event, not by themselves. [card text]
• Other things the spell does to itself, such as self-destruction, discarding from play, or removal from the game, take place first. Norikazu's Ravings doesn't take effect until after the entire casting, and only if the spell is still there. [card text, 7/13/99]
• See also Isawa Suma.

Not this Day!

• The ability is also gained by shugenja who come into play later. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/12/96]

• See Death.

• The phrase "a duel where the loser is killed" refers to the actual outcome of the duel, not the normal outcome. Cards such as Fatal Mistake, Utter Defeat, and Katana of Fire will affect whether this card can be played. [DW, email, 10/17/97]

• Yes, it's worth one koku. [FAQ]

• "Any copy" includes the original card, should it be recycled somehow. [l5rinfo, 8/22/99]
• Will not prevent the attaching of a kiho to a Personality by Blessings of Isawa. Will not prevent its use once attached either, since that does not involve "playing" the kiho again. [l5rinfo, 1/2000]

• Does not destroy any Personalities already in play. It just makes them all Unique. [DW, personal correspondence, 11/3/98]
• The clause "(players may not bring a Personality with that name into play)" is just a reminder of the effects of Uniqueness and is not an effect on its own. If all copies of the now-Unique Personality leave play, a new one may be brought in. [Ibid.]
• Multiple Unique Personalities may all be overlayed independently with different Experienced versions since overlaying is not bringing a card into play.
• The person playing it may target any Personality in play, including his own. [card text] Thus it can be redirected by Shinjo Technique.
• The second choice of Personality is made by the controller of the first Personality affected, but must be someone controlled by the person who played the card. [card text]
• The second choice is optional. [card text]

• You can use "any number" of shugenja in the ritual [card text], including zero. This produces a 0F/0C oni which will immediately die unless some continual effect is in operation which boosts its Chi (for example, the +1/+1 from The Spawning Grounds). [DW, 11/99]
• You can use the Kitsu Tombs's reaction to waive the cost (i.e., bowing and destroying shugenja) of bringing Oni no Chi into play, but this also waives the "coming into play" effect determining the oni's stats (i.e., the number of shugenja destroyed). The result is, again, an initially 0F/0C oni. [ZF, 11/99]

• May also not target an unresolved battle in which any of the would-be opposing units are controlled by a player with a Ring of Water. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/12/96]

• Only forces the use of Holdings and the Stronghold to make the payment. [DW, l5rinfo, 7/31/96] Other means are optional.
• Only forces you to try to make the payment, not to produce as much gold as you can. You can deliberately use a variable-output Holding in a less-than-productive manner, for example. [ibid.]
• See also Gold-Producing Holdings and Gold Payments.

• Also prevents triggered effects such as the Dragon Stronghold's, but does not inhibit continuous effects. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/25/96]
• Since the side effects of bowing your Stronghold and preventing it from generating effects are both part of the same sentence, if Oni no Titsu is brought into play by Unexpected Allies, both side effects are negated. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/9/97]
• Its three-turn lifespan only counts your full turns. [FAQ 3.1, 8/28/96]
• Any time it enters or returns to play, such as with Feign Death, its three-turn timer resets. [ibid.]

• Cannot choose itself as the Personality to destroy when it's brought into play. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/13/96]

• Will not prevent an out-of-play Personality card from moving into the battle from the Province being attacked. [6/4/99]

• The Oracles of Fire and Water were accidentally given each other's abilities in the Imperial Edition. This has since been corrected.

• Double Chi affects the Oracle's Focus card normally. [ibid.]
• The Oracles of Fire and Water were accidentally given each other's abilities in the Imperial Edition. This has since been corrected.

• Does not change the duration of terrain effects. Bonuses that last all battle or all turn will persist if the terrain is destroyed.
• Effects which do not apply until after resolution, like those of Suspended Terrain, do not happen immediately. They are scheduled immediately and will occur at their normal times regardless of whether the terrain is destroyed.

• The way the Glossary is worded, you may choose not to benefit from the Double Chi trait in a duel. This will prevent Oseuth from losing it. [rulebook, 7/12/99]
• Loses the appropriate trait regardless of whether it's his native trait or he acquired it from some other card. [netnews, 8/16/99, and card text]

• Is Unique. [rulebook/errata].
• Cannot bow to destroy a Personality when Entrapping Terrain resolves. Entrapping Terrain terminates the battle before it sends units home, so no one is technically leaving the battle. [card text, and DW, email, 9/25/97]

• Since you are spending money "to put this card into play" [card text] and Out of the Shadows is an Action card, you cannot spend gold which is spendable only on Followers and do not benefit from Follower-cost-reducing effects.
• Is also not a Ninja card [card text], so there's no 2g discount either.

• Can be used when some attaches a Follower with a "+" Force bonus or an Item. [ZF, netnews, 10/99]

• Copies only the text of one particular action, not the whole card. [card text] Restrictions, costs, and traits outside the copied action's description do not apply. Examples:
  • With Superior Tactics, you would not need to target a Personality with 3+ Chi.
  • With Night of a Thousand Fires, you would still need to bow a ninja as well as the kiho's caster.
  • With Kolat Master, you would not need to spend 10g but you would lose 4 honor.
  • With the Egg of P'an Ku, you may have more than one Egg in play provided no more than one has the Unique trait, whether by being the actual Egg of P'an Ku card or by being a copy of a Unique Personality.
• When copying from a card with more than one action on it, one must be choosen when the original Path Not Taken is cast. [DW, personal correspondence, 3/1/99]
• May be used to copy the put-into-play reaction of an Elemental Ring, though this is largely pointless. The kiho itself would not count as the Ring, nor would it copy its Benefit Reaction.

• Targets the Personality, not the tokens, unlike most other token-related cards. It cannot be used on one of your own bowed Personalities. [card text]

• Any bowed Personality or Follower who has a Force of 3+ and tries to straighten in any way while Peasant Revolt is in effect is prevented from doing so, regardless of whether it was initially bowed by the Revolt or whether it was even in play or 3F+ at that time. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/4/96]
• The bowing effect only happens when Peasant Revolt is revealed. Cards brought into play or raised to 3F+ while the Revolt is active do not automatically become bowed as well. [card text]

• The reduction of honor to 39 is an ordinary honor loss. It can be prevented with things like the Imperial Favor.
• The reduction of honor occurs after the duel's resolution. It will occur after any honor-gaining Reactions played during the duel.
• Can be played by The Shadowlands Horde since it only causes an honor loss if the challenge is refused or lost.

• If an effect is used that cancels the movement of a unit into the battle, the chosen Personality is shuffled back into the Dynasty deck. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/22/98]
• Is not restricted to the current battle. [7/27/99]

• If used to step into a duel caused by Show Me Your Stance and the duel is lost, the Champion becomes bowed and the rest of his unit is sent home as-is. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/11/98]
• See also Geisha Assassin.

• Will not restore an Honor Victory to someone who renounced it to Return of Fu Leng. This is a one-time change and not an ongoing effect. [DW, email, 9/25/97] [REVERSAL]
• Will stop someone from gaining honor from A Soul of Thunder. [l5rinfo, 7/15/99]

• Destroys all Holdings which entered play with a gold cost of 0, regardless of their current cost, why their cost was 0, or whether gold was paid anyway. [FAQ 3.10]
• Will not destroy a Ninja Stronghold brought into play by another Ninja Stronghold. [DW, 11/99, personal correspondence]

• Artist is really Tom Biondollilo, not Matt Wilson.

• The "this" in "destroy this card" refers to each Shadowlands card itself, not the spell or the terrain it creates.

• If the Region is destroyed directly, no honor is lost and the Region's controller must discard one of the two Dynasty cards of his choice. [DW, l5rinfo, 3/6/97]

• Takes precedence over effects which grant multiple actions, such as Blackened Sky. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/10/98]

• Is not a Weapon.
• The ranged attack originates from the Dartgun, not the Personality. It may be combined with other Dartguns or a ranged attack from the Personality. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/19/99]

• Note that cards focussed in a duel add their focus values to Chi immediately upon being played. [Emerald Edition rulebook] This means Poisoned Weapon no longer instantly kills low-Chi Personalities regardless of their focussing. [REVERSAL]
• Is not considered an action taken by the Personality in the duel. You cannot react with Honorable Seppuku, for example. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/24/96]
• May be played even if no one focussed.

• If the strength of an effect depends on how much honor you lose, or calls upon you to "Lose X honor to blah blah blah...", then the honor loss is actually a cost instead of a side-effect. Political Distraction will render the effect unusable unless the card also says the loss can't be cancelled or changed. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/13/98]

• The phrase "Personality you control" applies to both the oni and the non-oni. [DW, l5rinfo, 3/11/97]
• The phrase "all abilities and attached cards remain" means what it says. Attachment restrictions are not checked since the cards are being retained, not re-attached. This will allow multiple weapons, spells on a non-shugenja, and so forth. [card text, and DW, email, 5/16/97]

• Negates costs of refusing, too, such as the discard to refuse Facing Your Devils. [DW, personal email, 8/30/99]

• If the item is providing any bonus beyond what's printed at the top of the card, A Pure Stroke has no effect.

Purity of the Seven Thunders

• The "Any surviving Shugenja may not straighten during your next turn." clause refers only to those involved in casting the Ritual.

• Is a Clan Champion.

• Is a Clan Champion.

• Rally Troops can be used as a reaction to any event which would kill the leader, even one which would kill the Followers as well, such as Heart of the Inferno. All Followers moved to a surviving Personality are saved. [netnews, 2/25/96]
• Ignore the "this turn" restriction on the card. You can move the Followers to any unbowed unit(s) not currently assigned to a battle. [DW, email, 4/25/97]

• Only prevents cards from bowing as a result of resolving combat. It will not straighten any cards which have already been bowed (say, to use an ability, or which have been sent home bowed by an earlier effect).
• Will prevent Togashi Mitsu from becoming bowed. [card text]
• Will nearly always be played before Counterattack. If it's not the very last battle to be resolved, RC clearly goes "first" because Counterattack can't be played at all. If it is, the general rule when two reactions to a game event have the same timing is to give the first reaction to the active player, which will typically be the Attacker (unless the Attack Phase that just happened was, itself, the result of an earlier Counterattack). [DW, netnews, 3/22/96]

• You may still destroy "all" your plague-bearing Personalities if you have none. [FAQ 3.0.1]

• May not attempt to steal an item which it may not attach. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/5/96]

• The duplicated action does not need to be specified until it is actually used. [similar wording to Mask of the Oni] [REVERSAL]

• The inclusion of Junzo's Army as one of the Clans which must lose a Province is not an error. [DW, l5rinfo, 4/10/97]
• "RoFL lists Naga, Scorpion, and Junzo as the three Clans which cannot normally achieve an Honor Victory, but they are only examples. Any player who finds itself permanently unable to score an Honor Victory must lose a Province to this event, even if he isn't one of these three Clans. Likewise, any player who can score an Honor Victory can renounce it to spare his Province, even if he is one of these three." [l5rinfo, 9/29/97]
• Does not automatically destroy everyone's Province if some other card, such as Duty to the Empire, is temporarily prohibiting Honor Victories. "Players have 'the ability to achieve an honor victory' still intact. They're just not allowed to win that way for 2 turns." [DW, personal email, 1/29/98]
• If anyone wants to react with Defenders of the Realm, they must do so immediately after the first part of this Event, which is "All players have their rightmost Province destroyed." If anyone does, no one loses a Province and so no one can give up their honor victory to avoid losing a Province. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/19/98]

• Read "is not assigned" as "is not currently assigned". [DW, l5rinfo, 2/18/97]

• You are bound only by the caster's original targetting requirements. [RD & DW, email, 6/27/97] [REVERSAL] For example, you can redirect a spell to one of your bowed Personalities, or a spell which targets out-of-play cards to a different out-of-play card.
• "A monk using a kiho is considered one of the 3 spell effects necessary for putting the Ring of Air into play." [DW, l5rinfo, 5/6/97]
• That last ruling only holds for Kiho. Monk abilities are not "innate". [DW, l5rinfo, 5/15/97]
• Once played, three new innate abilities/spell effects must be produced to play it again. [ZF, 11/99]

• Can be played even if a sufficiently-large army is initially assigned to a Province but some units are moved away by actions before that Province's battle is even started. [DW, email, 4/23/97]

• You always compare the pre-challenge Chis of the two Personalities who are in the duel at its resolution. Which Personalities originally issued and received the challenge are irrelevant. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/19/96]

• Since it's activated "during your end phase", it may be combined with effects that give you extra Fate cards "during" that phase (like Glimpse of the Unicorn) but not ones that give you cards "at the beginning of" that phase (like Enlistment) because you must take those draws first and likely will not have the empty hand required to activate the Ring. [card text]

• Units which assign after cavalry deployment (ex: Shinjo House Guard, Dark Oracle of Water) will still assign after your cavalry. [DW, l5rinfo]
• See also Battle.
• Only allows the Attacker to assign his infantry after all other infantry, not after defending cavalry as well.
• Its benefit reaction can just be used again if it's cancelled. [DW, email, 4/8/99]

• See Miscellaneous.

• The Followers produced are tokens. [l5rinfo, 1/13/98]

• Is not swearing fealty. [DW, personal correspondence, 10/9/98] The Shadowlands Horde may use it freely.
• May give either "Yoritomo's Alliance" or "Mantis Clan".

• Changes its Province's base Strength to twice its current Strength. Any bonuses, such as from Fortifications or permanent changes, are then applied yet again, resulting in a new total Strength which is more than twice the old total if there are any bonuses present. [DW, l5rinfo]

• All draws during your End Phase may be refused, not just one. [DW, personal correspondence, 9/21/98]
• See also Drawing.

• Is a Gold-Producing Holding. [DW, personal correspondence, 10/6/98]

• May not be used after Deadly Ground/Night Battle, even to take a terrain-destroying action. The extra action's effect is not part of A Samurai's Fury's effect, and Deadly Ground/Night Battle prohibit all actions during the battle, including Reactions. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/26/97]
• May only be played after a terrain which resolves at the end of the battle. [FAQ]
• If used to take a terrain-replacing action such as the Go Master, the new terrain will not resolve since the time for terrain resolution has passed. [RD, email, 5/31/97] It does still count as playing a terrain for that battle, though. [FAQ 3.5]
• If you take an action which gives you more extra actions, such as Mushin, you get those too. [5/26/99]

• His Reaction is not cumulative with any other effects which give you "one" general action at the beginning of a battle, including other Sanados, but it is cumulative with similar effects that provide only particular types of actions (ex: playing a terrain). [FAQ]
• If you are the Defender, you'd get two actions in a row: the extra one as soon as you react and then the first normal one in the Battle Action Segment. In the case of Sneak Attack, you'd still get the extra action first, then the Attacker would get the first normal action and you'd get the second normal action. [l5rinfo, 1/20/2000]

• Enables the Attacker to use any effect which puts a terrain into play. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/10/96] You are not limited to playing one from your hand.
• The Scout's effect may be used after a Sneak Attack, since the Defender still has not taken his first action. [card text, and DW, l5rinfo, 3/11/97]
• Refers only to itself, not all "scout" cards by the Foo Rule. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/13/99] [REVERSAL of a private email ruling]

• Can save spells which are being destroyed in any way, not just by being cast. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/27/96]
• Can save any spell, regardless of ownership. [ibid.]
• Cost to re-attach a spell with the Scribe is affected by everything that would affect the cost of attaching it from your hand. [summary of other rulings]
• Cannot save a spell if his own shugenja is bowed, since you can't attach cards to bowed Personalities. [rulebook, and DW, l5rinfo, 1/3/97] This means the Scribe usually can't save his own shugenja's spells.

• Any number may be played after just one First Shout. [FAQ 3.2]
• May not be played even as a face-down normal focus if the First Shout requirement is not met. [ibid.]
• Does not have to be played the same way the First Shout was. [ibid.]

• If some of the Personalities voted for have died, the chancellor is chosen from those still living. [DW, l5rinfo, 7/24/98]

• One Event may be delayed several turns by multiple Seers. [card text, and DW, l5rinfo, 12/2/97]
• If an Event is sent back into the deck after being delayed once, you still cannot use the same Seer on it when it shows up again. [DW, personal correspondence, 1/10/98]

• Ability is usable only once per battle. [DW, email, 9/25/97]

• His Personal Honor counts as 7 during a lobbying attempt even if he is dishonored. [DW, email]

• The extra draws are not taken until your next End Phase. [errata]
• The Followers must be attached from your hand to trigger the draw. [errata]

• Since he says "You may use one as your first Focus card in the duel", you may choose to keep it and focus one already in your hand instead. [netnews, 11/99]

• Can be used by a Clan which cannot achieve an Honor Victory. "The card doesn't require you to renounce an honor victory in order to establish the rest of the effects of the card - it just lists not being able to win through an honor victory as one of the effects." [DW, l5rinfo, 4/15/97]

• If given a Night Medallion, its text will change to "each other Shadowlands Personality has +1C, to a minimum of 3". This will raise 1C Shadowlands Personalities to 3C, not 2C. [netnews, 11/99]

• Can only help pay for the cost in the Fate card's center diamond. [l5rinfo, 1/2000]

• Target shugenja gains a force bonus equal to Odoshi's force and a chi bonus equal to Odoshi's chi, respectively. [11/99]

• His action targets the shugenja. [5/16/99]

• Keeps all attached cards and tokens when reincarnating, including those which he could not normally attach. You may move these cards off him using the normal exchanging rules.
• Also acquires all permanent, non-token changes which have been made to the pre-reincarnation Personality, such as the Phoenix Stronghold's Shadowlands trait. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/13/96]

• Will enable a qualifying unit to be assigned after cavalry assignment to a Province defended by Earthworks or Swamplands. [card texts]

• Artist is really Anson Maddocks, not Doug Shuler.

• Gains his Force bonus "during the Attack Phase", not "while attacking". He gets the bonus during any battle, regardless of whether he's attacking or defending. [card text, and DW, l5rinfo, 12/19/96]

• Can be used against any unit-moving effect, not just actions. [card text]
• Can be used even if the battle he's in is not the one currently being resolved. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/16/97]

• May not redirect the action to a third player's Personality -- just one belonging to the action's original player. [card text]
• May only redirect an action to someone it could have been played on in the first place. [card text and rulebook] Among other things, any action which targets only an "opposing" card cannot be redirected with Shinjo Technique.

• Can take control of a terrain which you could not legally have played yourself. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/11/96]

• Its effect wears off as soon as the ninja action begins. [DW, personal correspondence, 9/16/98]
• If a Shinobi-violating action is cancelled, Shinobi's effect reinstates itself since cancelled actions aren't considered to have happened.

• Takes precedence over Plains of Otosan Uchi if they both end up on the same Province. [DW, personal email, 2/19/98]
• If moved to another Province, its cards are immediately discarded. [l5rinfo]

• Cannot attach cards which cannot be moved, such as the Porcelain Mask or Ancestors. [DW, l5rinfo, 7/28/98]
• When he becomes a Personality he stops counting as a Follower.
• See also Attaching and Moving Cards.

• The honor requirement of the Personality is waived, not of the Ancestor. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/3/98] (Yes, this effect is somewhat retroactive, and goes against the general rule that you can't take an illegal action and then make it legal afterwards.)
• Artist is Heather Hudson.

• The text about allowing the attached shugenja to carry a number of spells unlimited by Chi will not override any non-Chi limits, such as Isawa Osugi's. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/9/96]

• If the attached Personality issues a challenge to a player rather than to a specific Personality, that player must accept the challenge with one of his legal Personalities if he has any. [DW, l5rinfo, 1/3/97]
• Makes the challenge a "normal" unrefusable challenge. [l5rinfo, 1/2000]

• Works even if the Personality was face-down. [l5rinfo, 3/16/99]

• Multiples have a cumulative effect. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/1/98]

• If the -2C kills the opponent, the duel is cancelled without a winner or loser. [FAQ 3.2]
• If a non-experienced version of Hametsu has ever been in play, any poison token on your Personality at all can be destroyed to perform his printed reaction, regardless of what created that token. [FAQ 3.5]
• See also Another Time.

• If this version has ever been in play, any poison token on your Personality created by any version of Hametsu can be used for his printed reaction. [FAQ 3.5]

• Only affects unplayed cards in the Province, not cards attached to the Province. [l5rinfo, 3/16/99]

• Shuffling her back into the deck is an effect of her action, not a cost. If her action is cancelled, not only does she stays in play, she is allowed to use her action again as it is not limited to once per turn or battle. [l5rinfo, 12/99]

• There are two versions of this card. The one found in the preconfigured section of Scorpion Clan Decks has a gold cost of <9> and lacks the Political trait on his ability (though it's still Political by rulebook definition), while the one found elsewhere costs <8> and has a clearly labelled ability.
• All versions now have a gold cost of <8> regardless of printed value. [MRP]

• Ability is usable only once per battle. [DW, email, 2/17/99]

Shuriken of Serpents

• The ranged attack is an ability of, and originates from, the Shuriken and not the Personality. [card text] For this reason:
  • The attack produced by the Shuriken can be combined with one which the Personality itself generates and/or with other Shuriken.
  • Carrying a Shuriken will not enable a Personality to use a Crystal or Jade Arrow, or The Arrow Knows the Way.
• See also Bowing and Straightening.

• The Province is destroyed after all cards are. Reactions on cards in the battle, such as Mystic Ground, cannot be used to save the Province. [l5rinfo, 9/25/99]

• Will only return the Personality to play once. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/3/98]
• The stipulations that "your" cards will still kill the target and that he'll return to "your" fief are set when the kiho is cast and do not change if the Personality changes control. [DW, personal email, 2/19/98]

• Any spell which produces an ongoing effect or permanent modification to the game or a card in play, such as Immortal Steel and Summon Nightstalker, will be "suppressed" while the Eclipse is in effect. The results of spells which create, destroy, or replace things, such as Summon Undead Champion, Touch of Death, and The Iron Citadel, are unaffected. [RD, l5rinfo, 4/8/96 and 5/19/97]
  NOTE: The Iron Citadel ruling has REVERSED several times. This is the latest one and it appears to be stable.
• Changes in state, such as becoming bowed or dishonored, are also not supressed, although permanent and "until end of game" changes to stats and traits are. [DW, email, 5/29/97]
  

• A player may mix bowed and unbowed cards. [ZF, netnews, 10/99]

• Determine whether he is a legal target for redirection before bowing him to use his ability. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/8/96]
• There are two versions of this card. The one found in the preconfigured section of Shadowlands Scorpion Clan Decks has a Personal Honor of 1, while the one found in Shadowlands Destiny Packs and in SCC Scorpion decks has a 0.
• All versions are played with a Personal Honor of 0 regardless of printed value. [MRP] [REVERSAL]

• The 1-pt honor loss, like nearly all honor losses, is not a cost of her ability. Cancelling it will not cancel her action. [netnews, 7/12/99]

• Cannot be used in conjunction with Mujina Miners on a corrupt mine because you're not bowing the mine to produce gold. [l5rinfo, 1/10/98]
• Cannot be used on a Holding affected by Bayushi Goshiu Exp2 because Goshiu, not the Holding, causes the loss. [l5rinfo, 12/99] [REVERSAL]

• The current player may gain the seven honor before checking for an Honor Victory since both happen at the start of the turn. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/19/97]

• An indefinite number of 0-strength ranged attacks may be produced. [DW, email, 7/99]
• If multiple ranged attacks are being produced simultaneously, Stars Scatter can only modify one of them, not the entire action. [netnews, 7/12/99]

• The second ability is not missing the word "opposing". [MRP] This means that the casting shugenja need not be committed to the battle to bow an eligible Personality, and that if he is, he can bow any Personality in play. [card text, and DW, email, 2/7/97]

• The amount "necessary to bring a card into play" depends on how you're playing it. For example, you only count the 2g discount for an aligned Personality if you're not gaining honor. [DW, l5rinfo, 1/29/98]

• The additional bowing is not considered a cost of the action to be performed. [DW, email, 3/18] In particular, Steep Terrain will not prevent it.
• The additional bowing is done prior to any aspect of the action it preceeds, including targetting. [card text]
• Multiples are not cumulative. [l5rinfo, 12/99]

• Only counters one use of Fear. Does not make the unit immune to Fear for that turn. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/20/96]

• While in effect, Followers are not considered to be in units. [DW, 3/5/98] This means:
  • They cannot be targetted or affected by cards that refer to units.
  • Any traits or abilities they have that refer to "this unit" do not function.
  • If all your Personalities are removed or killed, you no longer have a unit in the battle and your actions will be restricted accordingly, even if you still have unattached Followers.
  • They do not contribute to your army's total Force. [l5rinfo, 7/15/99]
• Remember that attaching cards requires an unbowed Personality, above and beyond the normal targetting rules. You cannot reattach any Followers if all your Personalities are bowed.
• If the Akodo Stronghold's Reaction is used, this terrain, like any terrain, has no effect since it's cancelled before it can do anything. [Stronghold text] [REVERSAL]

• May not be played during Test of the Jade Champion. [netnews, 7/16/99]

• Is cumulative with Double Chi. [DW, email, 5/7/97]
• Since you "Play this card as a focus" to use its first effect, it goes face-down and also adds its own focus value to the duel.

• You can only return cards to your hand which came from your hand. [DW, 10/97]
• You cannot retrieve cards which only add as though focussed. [netnews, 6/24/99]

• His reaction only applies to the normal use of Tactician. [netnews, 10/99]

• Artist is incorrect.

• May be used to fetch and play a terrain-destroying card against Deadly Ground/Night Battle, since the playing of the retrieved card is part of Superior Strategist's effect. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/24/97]
• For the same reason, you may not use a separate Battle or Open action to put that card into play (example: the Oracle of Earth with a terrain).

• Is not Toturi's Army, Yoritomo's Alliance, or Unaligned. [FAQ 3.8]

• See Tokens.
• Does not care about the targetting requirements of the token's source. Only cares about restrictions against possessing the token. [DW, email, 7/9/97] [REVERSAL]

• Allows complete rearranging of all your assigned Tacticians. [l5rinfo, 11/27/99]

• His bonus is continually recalculated, and only applies during an Attack Phase. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/19/97]

• His reaction can only be used once per spell. [DW, personal correspondence, 9/19/97]

• The phrase "A Ratling Follower can be attacked to Tchickchuk when he performs this action." only means he is allowed to use his action on a Follower being attached to himself without making that attachment illegal. It does not allow you to attach a Follower to him at the same time as he's reducing the cost of another Ratling card coming into play elsewhere. [l5rinfo, 1/2000]

• Does not count as a Temple. ["Foo Rule" exception]

• The "which have been returned to play by a spell" clause applies only to "Shadowlands cards". The region prohibits attacks from all "oni, skeletons, zombies," and "undead cards" regardless of origin. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/12/98]

• Is not targetted at all. More than one may be played to keep the same unit in the battle.
• The saved unit may still perform actions which do not require targetting or bowing the Personality, such as discarding for a Tactician Force bonus or having a Follower bow to make a Ranged Attack. [card text]
• Must be played as soon as the hostile action's target is picked. [card text] Thus, it cannot be played against actions where it is initially unknown whether a unit will be sent home, such as Show Me Your Stance.
• If played against an action which targets and sends home more than one unit, it cancels the whole action and all the units that would have been sent home become untargettable by you. [DW, personal correspondence, 9/30/98]

• Since the card doesn't specify otherwise, each challenge may be declined by the appropriate player. [rulebook] Each refusal is "a challenge survived" for purposes of satisfying the Test, but no one gains 3 honor since there is no winner of a duel.
• Your challenger needs to "survive" all the challenges, not win all the duels, to gain the extra Province. Any method of achieving this will successfully complete the Test, including effects which cancel a duel without resolution, prevent the death of a Personality (NB: Feign Death does not do this), or allow one Personality to duel in another's place. [card text, and summary of other rulings]
• The extra Province is added on the left.

• Effects referring to duels or opponents are not usable. This includes the Double Chi trait. [glossary] [REVERSAL]

• Any number may be played after just one Second Shout. [FAQ 3.2]
• May not be played even as a face-down normal focus if the Second Shout requirement is not met. [ibid.]
• Does not have to be played the same way the Second Shout was. [ibid.]

• If you're close to 10 honor and bring out a Personality who will put you over 10, you gain the full amount. [card text, and DW, email, 8/28/97]

• Doubles all honor gains and losses that occur during or in reaction to resolution, such as Martyr and Kakita Shijin. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/2/97]

• If the unit's Followers are moved away with Rally Troops, they won't count towards the strength of the effect since they're removed before the leader is destroyed. [DW, email, 2/7/97]

• Requires the winning player to destroy cards & tokens with a total Force no less than half that of the defeated army, not every individual card/token with that Force or higher. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/19/97]
• Allies' cards and tokens may be destroyed. [card text]
• Does not force any destruction if the losing army's total Force was 0, since half of 0 is still 0. 0 does not round up to 1. [elementary school math]

• The Personality must be presend during, and survive, resolution to gain +1/+1. [DW, email, 9/25/97]
• This effect resumes if the Personality dies and is returned to play later. [ibid.]

• Since you must forgo the honor gain to get the stat bonus, his ability cannot be used outside a Dragon Clan deck. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/25/96] [REVERSAL]
  [Actually, you can use it in a Toturi's Army deck when bringing out a Dragon Clan * Toturi's Army samurai -- jwa]
• This also means you cannot use copy-effects to gain multiple stat bonuses on the same samurai, since you can only forgo the honor gain once.
• If you're buying a 0PH Samurai at full price there is still a zero point honor gain. It can be foregone -- again, once -- to pay for Gaijutsu's ability. [l5rinfo, 9/98]

• Only focus cards are discarded if a duel is restarted. Other duel-related effects, such as penalties from poison, are retained. [DW, l5rinfo, 11/4/96]
• There is no winner or loser of the first duel if he uses his ability. No duel results are applied to either participant.

• Does not lose fire tokens if he isn't bowed. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/5/96]
• Will not lose a fire token if some additional effect also forces him to remain bowed during the Straighten Phase. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/27/96]
• Cannot be straightened by any means while bowed with fire tokens. [RD, l5rinfo, 9/9/96, and EE card text]
• Only loses a fire token if something tries to straighten him during the Straighten Phase. Trying to straighten him any other time has no effect at all. [card text]
• If given a Dragon Tattoo, will be limited to three tokens since both fire token restrictions must be observed. [DW, email, 2/17/99]

• Copies the old bowing restrictions as part of the old ability when overlayed. These restrictions apply if he has any type of fire token on him. [DW, l5rinfo, 4/29/97]

• The ability to send units home is part of the tokens. Once created, Yama does not need to be in play for this ability to be used. [DW, l5rinfo, 1/3/96]

• The restriction "May not attach armor or items." is a known redundancy. It should be followed as written.

• The extra card is not treated as a Focus. It simply provides a turn-long bonus to the duelist's Chi equal to the exposed card's focus value. This bonus is not affected by Double Chi, and cards which affect duels when played as Focus cards produce no effects when exposed in this manner. [card text]
• The bonus always applies to Chi, regardless of what the duel is based on. [FAQ]
• This ability is not targetted.

• Should say "Dragon Clan Personality", not "Dragon Personality". [l5rinfo, 9/27/99]

• Will keep the taint away in the case of overlaying with a more experienced Personality with the Shadowlands trait. [DW, personal correspondence, 9/16/98]

• There are two versions of this card. One cannot perform any action more than once per turn, the other cannot perform any action other than his own straightening action more than once per turn.
• Both versions get played as the second. [TotV rulebook]

• Can be used in any instance which results in a Personality card being created or returned to play under your control. This includes, among other things, Unexpected Allies, Forgotten Tomb, Feign Death, and Summon Undead Champion, and does not include Kolat Master or overlaying an Experienced Personality. [11/7/97] [partial REVERSAL based on FAQ 3.5]
• Also works with the original Phoenix Stronghold when spending 7g on a shugenja. [l5rinfo, 1/10/99] [REVERSAL]
• May be used multiple times on a Personality who manages to enter play more than once. [card text, and DW, email, 2/7/97]

• Though Unaligned, he has a Lion Clan border in the Imperial Edition. This is not a misprint.
• If revealed by Unexpected Allies, he does not cause an honor loss but still enters play dishonored. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/9/96]
• Since he enters play dishonored, the honor gain for a Toturi's Army player for paying full price for him is 0. [FAQ 3.3]

• If overlayed onto an original Toturi who has been restored to honor, he keeps the original's +2/+3 bonus since that's a permanent change. [rulebook, and RD, l5rinfo, 1/16/97]

Touching the Void

• Your hand must be empty to receive the four extra draws, too. [netnews, 10/99]

• This trait applies to any shugenja using a spell or innate ability during a battle at this Province. The shugenja need not be defending, or even in the battle at all. [card text, and DW, email]

• May not be used to retrieve an Ancestor. [rulebook, 7/25/99]
• The gold cost of tokens is 0.

• An effect which gives a bonus based on how many of a certain type of card is in play, such as an Ancestral Sword or the Crab Clan Oni, gives its full bonus under this Terrain. All that matters is that the card providing the bonus is in the unit. The cards that the bonus is based on may be anywhere. [DW, email, 4/9/97]

• Is not considered an honor loss or gain. [l5rinfo, 7/11/99]
• Will not stop a player from temporarily increasing his honor during a lobbying attempt. [l5rinfo, 7/11/99]

• Second effect should be a Reaction. [DW, l5rinfo, 1/29/98]

• Each Tutor bowed allows you to replace a single card draw -- including one from a multiple draw effect such as the Ring of the Void or even another Tutor -- with a "draw three/keep one/discard or return" sequence. [card text] Thus you can always bow multiples, even if you're only expecting one draw in that End Phase, and they will all have some effect. (No matter how many you use, you'll never end up keeping more cards than if you'd used no Tutors at all.)

• Is truly an Item, not a Spell. It may be attached to a non-shugenja. [RD, netnews, 9/12/97]
• Ends the battle without resolution. [netnews, 9/20/99]

• Limits all gold-producing Holdings to a maximum production of 3g, even variable ones such as Merchant Caravan. [ZF, netnews, 10/99]

• You may not overlay the revealed Personality atop a less-experienced version. That option is only available during the Dynasty phase. [DW, l5rinfo, 1/3/96]
• Effects that happen "when" a card is brought into play are prevented, but things you have to do "to put this card into play" are costs, and if they don't involve gold they're not waived. If you are unwilling or unable to pay, the Personality goes back to the top of your Dynasty deck.

• May target a bowed Personality. [DW, personal correspondence, 12/2/98] [REVERSAL]
• May be played by The Shadowlands Horde, even on a bowed Personality, as it is still technically a conditional loss. [ibid.]

• The restriction against non-Undead cards applies only to Personalities. Other types of cards may be played normally from its Province. [netnews, 6/30/99]

• You still do not gain honor from events the dishonored Personality participates in, despite the fact that he will not be restored to honor. [rulebook]

• The effect works even if the battle destroys this Province. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/11/96]

• If someone plays the Ring of Air after three appropriate actions, you cannot play Vision of Truth if he does three more that turn. You must wait for another turn. [DW, personal email, 2/20/98]
• Players are limited to one of each Ring in their deck but not to one of each in play, so you may play A Vision of Truth if a player satisfies a Ring condition an additional time after having satisfied it once and actually playing the Ring then.

• The revealed card is discarded. [DW, l5rinfo, 9/29/98]

• May be played even if the action doesn't send units home immediately (ex: Show Me Your Stance, Encircled Terrain). Only effects of that action from that point on are cancelled.

• Followers can be moved both ways during the one exchange. [DW, email, 2/17/99]

• Any change to their ranged attack is a alteration, including the +1 strength from being attached to Tsuruchi. [DW, email]

• Can repeatedly copy an ability which is usable only once per game, because at the end of the turn it forgets that it's used it. [extension of ruling on Ninja Shapeshifter]

• Looks for people with no Clan alignments at all, not just those with the "Unaligned" trait. "Monk", "Ninja", "Naga", "Toturi's Army", and "Mantis/Yoritomo's Alliance" are all Clans. Personalities who are both Unaligned and a member of one of these Clans are not eligible. [card text & rulebook, 7/15/99]

• Each of these cards can counter the playing of further instances of itself since each contains its own target keyword in its text. [RD, email, 6/11/97]
• When a Personality is performing an action via an Action card, the words on the Action card are the only ones that matter. [DW, personal email, 5/6/98]
• The Personality gains the Adept of ____ trait.

• Will increase the entire effect of Strength of the Dark One. [5/17/99]

• May be played during an Ambush. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/25/96, and OE card text]

• Is not a Force bonus. It makes the unit add its Force to your army twice, which is a very different effect.
• Multiples are not cumulative.
• The unit is destroyed immediately after the battle is over regardless of whether it is still in the army. [card text]
• Since it only prohibits you from targetting the unit with further actions "in this battle", you may target the unit with cards such as Feign Death if it survives resolution and is destroyed by Wedge's own effect "after this battle is over". [card text]

• Will prevent bonuses such as Matsu Gohei and Otaku Kamoko's inherent bonuses. [DW, l5rinfo, 4/9/98]

• If an ally re-honored some Personalities instead of gaining 2 honor, those Personalities are re-dishonored instead of 2 honor being lost when the last one is sent home. [DW, l5rinfo, 12/9/96]
• The loss of the 2 pt bonus is not a loss of honor, but a retroactive cancellation of the original gain. Thus it cannot be reduced, prevented, or redirected. This also makes this card a Political action. [DW, email, 7/1/97]

• "Another player" refers to a player other than the one suffering the gain/loss, not a player other than the kiho's caster. [l5rinfo, 7/15/99]
• The source and amount of the gain or loss remain unchanged. [l5rinfo, 7/12/99]
• See Honor.
• See Deadly Ground.
• Is Political. [Glossary]
• The Ring of Air can redirect it, but only to another "another player", so you can't send the gain/loss right back to the player it was just taken from. In a two-player game, the Ring cannot be used on it. [netnews, 9/2/99]

• You may pay gold to increase your honor as often as you wish during this one lobbying attempt. [DW, l5rinfo, 6/3/97]

• A 3C+ samurai still survives until the end of battle if Wounded in Battle is used first, then some other action reduces his Chi below 1. [DW, l5rinfo]

• "Fear 0" is not considered to be a higher Fear effect than no Fear at all. [DW, email]

• Cannot be used to enable a single Holding to generate gold twice during a single purchase. There is no "gold pool" -- generated gold must immediately be spent. [rulebook]
• Cannot be used between Dynasty card purchases because Open actions are not allowed during the Dynasty Phase. [DJ, netnews, and rulebook]
• See also Gold-Producing Holdings.

• Does not remove the restriction that all gold generated must be spent on one thing. That restriction is in the rulebook. Taka only removes restrictions on the holding itself.
• Allows Jade Works to produce 5g for anything. [DW, l5rinfo]

• Also does not affect Holdings which cannot pay for variable-cost cards. [ZF/DW]

• "She has to be in the battle to use her ability [during the Attack Phase, but] the opposing player can choose anyone to bow, whether they are in the battle or not." [Mouse, l5rinfo, 4/22/97]

• Does not give himself the +2F bonus. "With him" implies another person. [DW, l5rinfo, 10/17/97, and FAQ 3.8]

• The clause "You may not gain more than one Province per turn in this fashion." is absolute. You may not gain two in one turn by using the Egg of P'an Ku. [DW, personal correspondence, 10/29/98]
• Works for you even if you are an ally to the Attacker. [card text]
• His +1/+2 bonus for each weapon applies directly to himself, not to the weapon. [card text]

• His wording does not exclude non-Mantis Yoritomo's Alliance Personalities. He may assign with them as well. [card text]

• Returns to play in your fief. [ZF, netnews, 10/99]
• Returns to play if killed in battle at any time.

• "Mantis Clan" does not count as a Minor Clan since it's equivalent to "Yoritomo's Alliance". [DW, l5rinfo, 3/12/98]

• Effects which change the number on the card, such as Night Medallion and one effect of Shiryo no Tetsuya, will increase his Chi. [netnews, 9/8/99]
• Does not benefit from Chi bonuses at all. A single -1C from anywhere will kill him even if he's already experiencing other plusses. [9/29/99]

• There are two versions of this card. The one found in the preconfigured section of Naga Clan Decks has a gold cost of <5>, while the one found elsewhere costs <6>. These are played as written.
• See also Traits.

• Is a Creature. [errata]

Sensei

The Sepulcher of Bone and The Spawning Grounds may use Shadowlands Sensei.

You may not voluntarily discard a Sensei or play a Sensei without a card effect except at the beginning of the game. [FAQ 3.10]

Sensei cannot reduce Starting Honor below -19 or reduce Gold Production or Province Strength below 0. Strongholds with a -19 Starting Honor may begin the game with an Honor-reducing Sensei without immediately losing. Once the game begins, they may still freely play such Sensei because changes to Starting Honor do not affect current Honor. [FAQ 3.10] The reduction in Starting Honor is not considered an honor loss. [REVERSAL]

Specific Sensei

• Does not allow defending players to ignore their actions' own legality, costs, and listed playing conditions. It only overrides other card effects which prohibit or impose additional costs or requirements on otherwise legal actions. [ZF, netnews, 10/99] Some examples of things Hiruma Sensei does not allow:
  • Taking a Limited action.
  • Playing a Terrain when there is already one in play.
  • Taking an Open action which says "You may not perform this action during battle."
• Applies to all extra requirements placed on actions, not just true costs. In particular, it defeats Storms of War.[ZF]
• Applies even to additional restrictions/costs imposed by a defending player's own cards. [card text]
• Does not override targetting restrictions. [l5rinfo, 1/2000]
• Does not make defenders' actions uncancellable or unmodifiable.

• Does not affect what Clan your Personalities are considered to be -- just what you, as a player, are. [card text] For example, you will still need to bow a Monk to play Dharma Technique. [ZF, l5rinfo, 11/21/99]

• Once the ability is used, your Honor Victory is gone. Effects which destroy or discard a Sensei card will not restore it. [8/99] Effects which prevent a Sensei card from affecting play, however, will restore it briefly. [netnews, 9/99] [REVERSAL]

• The Shadowlands Horde has zero gold production. [ZF, Stronghold text]

• Applies fully to Events which only modify existing victory conditions. [ZF]

• If the Personality leaves play in any way, the effect ends, even if he comes back immediately (Feign Death). [l5rinfo,7/15/99]
• Does not prevent anyone from cancelling actions which target the selected Personality. [card text]
• If played by a Shadowlands Horde player, will not change his honor at all or drop a Sepulcher of Bone's honor below -19. [DW, l5rinfo, 7/27/99]
• Does not actually remove the path of Honor Victory from any individual player. For example, it will not force everyone to lose a Province to The Return of Fu Leng. [netnews, 9/99]
• Effects which destroy or discard a Sensei card will not end its effect. Effects which prevent a Sensei card from affecting play will temporarily suppress it. [netnews, 9/99]

• Events which get delayed may not be voluntarily discarded in the Dynasty Phase. [netnews, 7/29/99] They may, however, be discarded using other card effects. [netnews, 8/19/99]
• Only delays Events which actually resolve. [card text] Will not delay an Event which was prevented by Avoid Fate or which does not resolve because it's the second or later occurance of the same Event under the optional One-Time Events rule. [netnews, 7/30/99]
• Affects all Events which "discard" or "destroy" themselves the turn they resolve, including Inheritance. Does not affect Events with more unusual handling, such as those which refer to staying "in play" (not just in effect) for more than one turn (Monsoon, Sacrifices For Our Futures), or which get reshuffled back into the deck upon resolving. [netnews, 8/23/99]
• Delayed Events do not resolve again next turn. [l5rinfo, 12/99]

• Only cards whose gold cost was reduced now have a minimum cost of 1. It does not make 0G holdings cost 1G. [ZF]

• Affects the gain from just the Personality. In other words, if honor loss also occurs (say, from using corrupt holdings), do not add those losses and the Personality's gain and then apply the one-point maximum to the total. [l5rinfo, 1/2000]

Strongholds

Stronghold abilities are not usable when bowed unless they say otherwise.

Specific Strongholds

• The terrain-nullifying Reaction can be used on Deadly Ground and Night Battle because it's used as the terrain is played, not after it takes effect. [DW, l5rinfo, 2/13/98]

• Naga Followers as well as Personalities ignore honor requirements. [text]

• Stronghold ability is usable even if prohibited by a card effect (ex: Deadly Ground) or with no units in the battle.
  • Takes priority over The Secret Entrance. [5/5/99]
• Stronghold ability can be cancelled (ex: Armor of Earth, Storms of War). Cancelling is different from prohibiting.
• Stronghold ability is not usable if you do not have a chance to perform Open/Battle actions (ex: Crushing Attack).
• Stronghold ability does not target the army or anything in it. Effects that deal only with targetted go-home actions, such as A Test of Courage and Doji Kuwanan Exp2, will not work against it.
• The clause "You cannot lose Honor from opponents' card effects" refers to all cards, not just actions. [text] However, they can still modify losses you cause yourself.
• Will lose honor if one of their ninja Personalities dies dishonorably. [DW, personal correspondence, 2/10/99]
• Can only send home the army in the current battle. [errata]
• Being bowed does not stop a card from adding its Chi to the army.
• Makes you immune to even unpreventable honor losses. [DW, email, 4/8/99] Honor losses you cannot suffer never exist, not even briefly. They cannot be redirected to another player before the Stronghold squelches them. [l5rinfo, 12/99]
• If an honor loss which you cannot suffer is redirected from another player to you, it ceases to exist. It may not subsequently be modified. [l5rinfo, 12/99]
• The Stronghold ability is not a Ninja Action. [text]
• There is no limit to the number of times the ability may be used per battle. [text]

• Naga Followers as well as Personalities ignore honor requirements. [text]
• Does not count as a forest. The Foo Rule only applies to cards and Strongholds are not cards. [FAQ]

• Cards referring to the Brotherhood of Shinsei also apply to it. [DW, email, 3/99]

• The "sent home bowed and dishonored" result of refusing the challenge is all one effect. If a unit cannot leave the battle, none of these results happen. [extension of ruling on "sent home bowed"]
• Reduces Daidoji honor requirements in the 0-to-4 range to negative numbers, not a "-". Honor requirements may be negative. [FAQ]

• The Reaction cannot be used when it's bowed. [DW, netnews, 10/99]
• It can, however, be used immediately before bowing the Stronghold for gold for the Oni. [l5rinfo, 11/99]
• The Shadowlands trait applies continually to all Lion Clan shugenja under your control and in your deck, Provinces, and discard piles. A card which changes controllers or alignment may gain or lose this trait. [FAQ 3.10]
• Oni no Kamu's self-destruction after three turns is not an effect of coming into play. It's simply a duration. It will not be prevented by using the Stronghold. [ZF, 11/99]

• Cards under your Stronghold are not in your Fate deck. You may not, for example, use Walking the Way to retrieve one. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/19/98]
• You may activate your Stronghold's ability even if you have no cards remaining under it. [DW, l5rinfo, 8/21/98]
• You give up one draw and bow your Stronghold to get one card. [Stronghold text] Thus:
  • You cannot give up multiple draws to get multiple cards at once.
  • You cannot use the ability if you have no draws left.
  • You can give up one single draw from a series.
• See also Timing.

• See Yoritomo's Alliance (except ruling #1).
• May be bowed as part of the cost of an action, such as Daikua's. However, it may not be destroyed. Yoritomo Nodoteki will have to use some other port.

• Any new Provinces you gain start with your Stronghold's printed base strength of 5. The +2 bonus when a Province is destroyed applies only to your other Provinces that exist at the time. [FAQ 3.0.1]

• Paying 2g less for aligned Personalities is not a cost reduction. It will combine with the 2g discount for Crabs when buying a Personality who is both Crab and Naga.
• A dual-aligned Crab/Naga Personality will satisfy the requirement for the +1/+1 bonus. [netnews, 11/99]

• May be used during Deadly Ground/Night Battle to fetch and play a kiho which will destroy the terrain. [extension from Superior Strategist, 6/12/99]
• May be used in conjunction with the Oracle of Earth to play a Kiho Terrain from your deck. [l5rinfo, 1/2000]

• When producing 7g, the shugenja does not gain the Shadowlands trait until he enters play. [FAQ 3.0.1]
• Producing 7g for an originally untainted shugenja now counts as "bringing a Shadowlands card into play". See Miscellaneous. [REVERSAL]
• See also Permanency.
• See also Traits.
• Effects which alter the gold production of Strongholds alter only the basic "3" on the box and do not affect the amounts its abilities produce. [l5rinfo, 12/99]

• Cannot achieve an Honor Victory. This is implied by the fact that its honor can't rise above 0.
• Cannot legally play the Breach of Etiquette packed into the pre-sorted section of their own Clan Decks. Oops.

• The +1/+1 bonus applies continually to all appropriate cards under your control and in your deck, Provinces, hand, and discard piles. A card which changes controllers may gain or lose this bonus. [FAQ 3.10]

• See Miscellaneous.

• May not play a Clan Sword if there is a player of that Clan. [DW, l5rinfo, 1/7/96]
• Since you cannot gain honor, you cannot re-honor a dishonored Personality by having him perform an honor-gaining feat. [RD, l5rinfo, 1/20/97]
• Cannot achieve an Honor Victory. This is implied by the fact that its honor can't rise above -19. It's not stated outright because there's only so much room on the box and there were a lot of other things that needed to be included as well.
• May hire Yoritomo's Alliance Personalities, as they are not "allying" with Junzo. [DW, l5rinfo, 5/9/97]
• Cannot play Investigation or pay off an opponent's Blackmail, as these are actions that cause another player an unconditional honor loss. [card text]
• Can, however, pay ransom to a Ninja Kidnapper, as the honor loss is not a direct result of paying the gold. [card text] [REVERSAL of an incorrect ruling]
• Effects that cause an honor loss or gain do not generate the change in the first place for Junzo, so there's nothing to redirect. This overrides stipulations on losses that can't be changed, such as the Dark Oracles. [DW, personal email, 2/20/98]
• May fully participate in a contested lobbying attempt by giving a gift and/or bowing Personalities. These activities are not actions.

• The Stronghold effect cannot be used if your Family Honor is already 0 or below. "'You cannot use this ability if it would reduce your Family Honor below zero.' If you are trying to go from -3 to -9, then you *are* reducing your family honor below zero. Even further below zero. You are not reducing it *past* zero which is what you are thinking." [DW, l5rinfo, 5/6/97]
• The Minor Clans within Yoritomo's Alliance may not be selected as affiliations for cards like Alliance. They are not "Clans" in game terms. [RD, l5rinfo, 5/31/97, and DW, email, 6/9/97]
• Personalities swearing fealty gain only the "Yoritomo's Alliance" trait, not "Mantis Clan". [DW, email, 4/7/99]