ERRATA: Kyuden Kyotei (plus technical errata)

ERRATA: Kyuden Kyotei (plus technical errata)



by RogerGS on Wed Sep 03, 2008 6:36 pm It has recently been discovered that the Political Reaction on the Crane Stronghold Kyuden Kyotei (Honor's Veil) can be used in a way not intended by Design. This Reaction could react to any card turning face up, even an Action card being played. Instead of being used to change Focus Value as intended, Kyuden Kyotei's Reaction could be used in combination with a Reaction to a Political action resolving -- primarily, Doji Chitose's Reaction (Words and Deeds) -- to create an unintended and confusing situation in which an action taken in good faith could find itself without a legal target before even being announced.

This combination was not seen as a threat to play balance in and of itself. However, it does threaten the clarity and logic of play by the rules, and restricts the ability to design future Reactions to Political actions. After discussion, the Design and Rules Teams have decided to issue an erratum to Kyuden Kyotei's Reaction that will preserve almost all of its legitimate uses, while eliminating the potential for abusive combinations.

Starting from 1 October 2008, Kyuden Kyotei will read (underlined text is new):

Your Market holdings in and out of play have the Legacy keyword.
Political Reaction: Even if this Stronghold is bowed, if you control the Imperial Favor, before a Fate card out of play turns face-up from an action, trait, duel, or from being discarded: Give the card +1 Focus Value when it turns face-up.

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Specifically, the erratum means that the Reaction can be used:
* with an action or trait whose costs or effects turn a card face-up;
* when revealing a focused card in a duel, or when focusing face-up;
* when discarding a card directly from the hand or another area where it was face-down.

All these uses are in line with the majority of effects that check Focus Value.

It will no longer be useable:
* when playing an Action card, because the turning face-up is from the rulebook, not the action itself;
* when playing an attachment, again because the turning face-up is from the rulebook (sorry, there is no more Kyotei/Yarijutsu combo);
* when taking an action on a face-down Ring or other card in the hand; new additions to the Comprehensive Rules (Using abilities on non-Action cards from the hand) clarify that the process of taking that action turns the card face-up before it is discarded or enters play.

There are also two more technical errata with no impact on how the cards are usually played. These are being issued to preserve common-sense usage of these cards and protect players from rules lawyer surprises in tournament play. These errata are effective immediately.

Brink of Exhaustion (Words and Deeds):
Unique
Battle: Give your target Personality -3C permanently: Straighten him. If he is in play, take an additional Battle action to use one of his Battle abilities, even if it was already used this turn. Then, bow him.

The added "Then" is enough to show that the bowing is delayed to after the additional action resolves. Due to rules on additional actions resolving after the action that granted them, the "Bow him" on the printed version would end up taking place before the additional action, effectively making this action useless with most abilities.

Insight (Samurai Edition):

Dark Virtue Battle: Target one of your Samurai: Look at the top 3 cards of any Fate deck. If any are Action cards or Rings, you may play one of them for an additional Battle action on it; if the action is on a Ring, you may pay the cost of discarding it from your hand by discarding it from the deck. You may rearrange the order of the remaining cards you looked at.

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This fixed a technical problem with the action that has gone unnoticed ever since it was introduced in Rise of the Shogun. Because the cost of actions on most Rings is to discard them "from your hand," you could never pay the cost of an action on a Ring because it was in the deck when played.

These errata should make very little difference to how most people play the game. They reflect the dedication of the L5R Rules Team to have the rules make sense, rather than bending common sense to fit the letter of the rules.

Please direct any further questions about these errata to the Rules Forum. Thank you!