L5R IE AdvRulebook Web

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Advanced Rulebook


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Advanced RulesTHISISNOTACOMPLETERULEBOOK!

You should consult it after reading through theBasic Rules (also found in your Ivory Editionstarter). Between them, the two booklets pres-ent the complete rules of the Legend of the FiveRings (L5R) card game. If you need the com-plete rules presented all in one piece, downloadthe Tournament Rulebook from rules.l5r.com.

Maximum Hand Size

Players have a maximum hand size of eight.

After drawing all cards at the end of your turn,


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if you have more cards in hand than the maxi-mum, you must choose and discard cards from

your hand until you no longer have too many.Some effects may change a players maximumhand size.

ProvincesEach province has a separate ProvinceStrength stat, based on the Strongholds Prov-

ince Strength plus any modifiers from Senseiand other effects.

Personalities

Chi Death Rule

If a Personalitys Chi is ever zero, destroy him

immediately.


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Clan Honor RulePlayers can lose Honor from their own cards,from other players cards, or from the Rule-book (that is, when their Personality dies

dishonorably; see p. 16). After a player losesHonor from another players card, or from theRulebook, for the rest of the game he or sheignores Honor Requirements on Personalities

with his or her own Clan Alignment.

Dead Personalities

Personalities that are destroyed are treateddifferently from Personalities that are merelydiscarded (for example, from a Province). Turndead Personalities 90 degrees in the discardpile, or create a separate pile for dead Person-alities.


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AdvancedCard Types

In addition to the Dynasty typesPerson-alities and Holdingsand Fate typesFol-lowers, Items, and Strategiesintroduced inthe Basic Game, L5R has a number of othercard types.

Sensei

A Sensei is a card that you may start with inplay, representing a revered master whose

teachings have influenced you. You may onlyhave one Sensei in play, you start with it inplay, and the choice of Sensei is part of yourdeck construction. Like your Stronghold, theSensei does not go into the Dynasty or Fate

deck and is neither a Dynasty nor Fate card.


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FAMILYHONOR

MODIFIER

CLAN

ALIGNMENT

CARD

TITLE

TEXTBOX

PROVINCE

STRENGTHMODIFIER

GOLD

PRODUCTION

MODIFIER

- Sensei -


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A Sensei will usually have one or more ClanAlignment requirements, such as ScorpionClan. You may only start with a Sensei thatmatches your Strongholds Clan Alignment, or

with an All Clans Sensei.

A Sensei modifies your Stronghold: It has modi-fiers for Province Strength, Gold Productionand Starting Family Honor which always mod-ify the Strongholds stats. A Sensei may alsohave traits and abilities that apply to you andthat work similarly to those of a Stronghold.

Event

Events represent important happenings inRokugan. While they are face-up in yourProvinces, and only then, you can use theirabilities. They are discarded once their abili-ties are used, unless the ability puts them intoplay. Apart from its abilities, an Event mayhave traits in its text box, and these apply

while in play.


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GOLD

COST

FOCUS

VALUE

TEXTBOX

TEXTBOX

- Spell -

- Event -


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SpellSpells are attachments. They represent magicscrolls used by a Shugenja (a person trained inthe magic of Rokugan). Spells have no Force

or Chi modifiers. They will only attach to aShugenja, and their abilities can only be used(cast) if attached to a Shugenja. (see alsoCast, p. 25).

RingRing cards represent understanding of themystic elements. They can be discarded fromthe hand to use their ability, or put into play

when you meet the special conditions of thetext in their trait. When in play, their abilitycan be used without having to discard them.


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Actions

The Basic rules introduced Limited, Open,Battle and Dynasty actions. The full game has

two more types of action: Engage and Interrupt.

Engageactions are taken in a special actionround during a battle, before either player hasthe chance to take Battle actions. See p. 54.

Interrupts are announced during anotheractioneither yours or another playersatthe point after costs are paid and before theactions effects start to resolve. The otheraction is suspended while you carry out the

Interrupt action; then the original actionresumes. Interrupts refer to the original actionas the action (for example, The action can-not move Personalities.) If an Interrupt modi-fies an actions effects, this only applies to theaction being interrupted, not to subsequent

actions that turn.


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You may play as many Interrupts as you wishto a single action, but you may not play anInterrupt during another Interrupt action.

Color, Flavor, & Reminder Text

Because Legend of the Five Rings tells astory, abilities on some cards may have asentence of descriptive phrasing such as

The snow blocks travel. Such phrasing isfor color only. Phrasing that is relevant to therules will refer to a term that can be foundon other cards, or is defined in these rules.

Text in (parentheses and italics) is a short,

informal reminder of what the card doesaccording to the rules.

Descriptive text in italicswithout paren-theses is flavor text, and also has no bear-ing on the rules.


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How Long Do Things Last?Some effects are instantaneous, andmarked by physical changes to the gamecomponents, such as bowing cards,

changing their location, adding tokens,and changes to Family Honor. Thesechanges do not wear off by themselves.

Other effects involve changes that areongoing. That is, they last until a certain

point in the game, and are not physicallymarked by the game components.

Some examples of ongoing effects includestats such as Give a target attacking Per-sonality +2F, or giving a card the trait,This Personality will not bow.

All ongoing effects last until the endof the current turn, unless they give adifferent duration.


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As with Battle actions, Engage and Interruptactions taken during a battle are subject to theRules of Presence and Location, as described inthe Basic Rulebook (see Basic Rulebook p. 57).

Recruit & EquipSome actions tell you to Recruit or Equipa card. When this happens, pay the cost of thecard entering play (indicated by the actionsown Gold cost), and apply all the effects of

the Recruit or Equip player action.

Traits

Text in a cards text box can be keywords, anability (starting with boldface words such asOpen: or Ninja Battle:) or flavor text(italicized text that is only descriptive and notused in the game). Game-relevant text that is

not part of any of these is a trait.

*


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Some traits are triggered by other things hap-pening, for example, After this card entersplay, lose 3 Honor. A trait is not like anaction, though:

c A trait is not optional; you must applythe effects whenever the trigger is met.

c A trait can be triggered when its cardis bowed.

c A traits effects are not restricted to onceper turn.

c A trait without a trigger on a card, suchas Your Samurai each have +1F, hasa continuous effect that is always on

while the card is in play.

The Imperial FavorThe Imperial Favor is a resource that gives

great political advantage to those who

call upon it. It is represented by an object


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that starts the game uncontrolled. When itbecomes controlled, its controller places it inhis home, in front of him, visible to all players.Ivory Edition Starter Decks include a card that

you can use to represent the Imperial Favor. Ifyou control the Favor, you may discard it, and

then it becomes uncontrolled. Discarding theFavor is required for certain actions, including(but not limited to) the following two Favorplayer abilities:

Favor Political Limited:Discard the Impe-rial Favor and a card to draw a card.

Favor Political Battle: Discard the Impe-rial Favor to move home a target attackingenemy Personality.

Lobbying

This player ability lets you take the Imperial

Favor, vying to win the favor of the Empress


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by reminding her of your familys high deedsand standing.

Lobby

Political Limited:If you have higher Fam-

ily Honor than each other player, bow yourtarget unbowed Personality with 1 or morePersonal Honor to take the Imperial Favor.

DishonoredPersonalities

Some things can dishonor a Personality, dis-gracing him or her in the eyes of Rokugan.Turn the Personality card 180 degrees upsidedown to show this dishonorable state.

A dishonorable Personality has a maximum of

zero Personal Honor.


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After a Personality is destroyed while dishon-orable, the player who last controlled him losesHonor equal to the Personalitys printed Per-sonal Honor. (This loss does not come froma card, but from the Rulebook.) A destroyeddishonorable Personality remains dishonor-

ably dead even inthe discard pile.

D i s h o n o r a b l eP e r s o n a l i t i e sremain dishonor-

able until an effectrehonors them(restores them tohonorable status).Turn the card

right side up againto represent therehonoring.

Sometimes anhonor gain will

rehonor a Person-

- Dishonored -


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ality. Specifically, you substitute rehonoringfor Honor gain:

c Before a player gains Honor from anaction or trait that targeted or camefrom one or more of his or her dishon-orable Personalities.

c Before a player gains Honor for attach-ing a card to their dishonorable Person-ality.

c Before a player with any dishonorable

Personalities in his or her army gainsHonor from destroying enemy cards inbattle resolution. In a tied battle, alldishonorable Personalities in an armyare rehonored before being destroyed,

and their armys leader gains noHonor.

In these cases, the honor gain will not happen,and instead the Personality or Personalities

will be restored to honorable status.


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Battles

Engage Segment

Engage actions represent especially well-prepared or rapid maneuvers in battle. TheEngage Segment is an action round of Engageactions, starting with the Defender, that

comes before Battle actions are taken in theCombat Segment. Once both players havepassed consecutively on Engage actions, theEngage Segment ends and the Combat Seg-ment begins.

AttackingMultiple Provinces

In the Basic Game, the Attacker only chooses

one Province to attack, creating a battle-


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field there. In the Advanced Game, after theAttacker declares an attack, a battlefield iscreated at each of the Defenders Provinces.

When the Attacker and Defender assign,they may assign any of their legal units toany of these battlefields. A battle is thenfought at each of these battlefields, with the

Attacker choosing one by one which battleto fight, until all the battlefields have beenfought at. Often, these battles will be atempty battlefields, and fighting them is a

mere formality.

In each battle, go through the Engage, Com-bat and Resolution segments in order. Thesteps after a battle also happen before thenext battle begins, including units returninghome.

If any units find themselves at a battlefieldwhose battle has ended, they return homeafter the last battle ends, bowing if they wereattacking.


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No Second BattleThere is one additional rule restricting effectsduring a battle. A Personality who has alreadybeen in an attacking army during a battle reso-

lution in the current Attack Phase will not moveto a battlefield again during that Attack Phase.

Advanced

Victory Conditions

In addition to the military and honor victoriessupported in the Basic Game, there are two

other ways to win a game of L5R.

Dishonor Victory

If a players Family Honor is 20 or below at

the end of his or her turn, he or she loses.


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Enlightenment VictoryYou win immediately if you control five Ringswith five different element keywords (Air, Earth,Fire, Water and Void). You have seen the emp-tiness behind the so-called victory in war and

court, and become an enlightened master.

Deck Building

You can expand and change your starter deckby trading for or buying other cards. Followthese rules to build a legal play deck in IvoryEdition 40/40 format:

c The Dynasty and Fate decks must eachhave at least 40 cards. Your Strongholdand Sensei do not count toward thisminimum, and copies of those cardsmay not be included in the Fate or

Dynasty decks.


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c All cards in the play deck (includingthe Stronghold and Sensei) must beIvory Edition legal, having the IvoryEdition symbol in the lower lefthand corner of their most recent print-ing (MRP). Older printings of the cards

may be used (see also Soul of , p.41), but in all L5R formats, cards areconsidered to have the stats and textof their MRP. If you use older cards,

youre responsible for knowing these

differences and communicating themto your opponent.

c You can have no more than three cop-ies of any card, by title, in your decks.

c You can have no more than one copyof each Unique card, by title, in yourdecks.

Note that Experienced cards (p. 31) are anexception to the last two rules.


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Game Terms & Keywords

In alphabetical order, this section lists rulesassociated with specific game terms and key-

words that are not mentioned in the basicrules. After this, we present a number of finepoints in the rules.

Absent: An ability with the Absent keywordmay be used during battle even if you controlno units at the current battlefield.

Active Player:The player whose turn it is.

Additional actions: Additional actionsgranted by effects are taken after the current

action resolves. In effect, they allow you to takeanother action in the present action round with-out your opponent getting an action. If the typeof additional action is not specified, it is the typeappropriate to the current action roundLim-ited in your Action Phase, Open in any players


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Action Phase, Engage in the Engage Segmentand Battle in the Combat Segment.

Ally:A term used in the multiplayer rules (seeOnline Rules, p. 50).

Armor: A keyword found on some Items. A

Personality cannot have more than one Armorattached.

Cannot: These words mean that an effect isprevented (see p. 38).

Cast:When you take an action from a Spellattached to a Personality (usually a Shugenja)the Personality with the Spell attached inquestion casts the Spell and is the caster.

Cavalry:The Cavalry keyword is relevant tothe following ability which all players have:Absent Engage: Target your unbowed Per-sonality in a Cavalry unit at any location.Move him to the current battlefield. A Cav-alry unit is one in which the Personality andall Followers, if any, have the Cavalry keyword

(see Units, p. 46).


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Challenge:See Duel, Basic Rulebook, p.69.

Clan Alignment:A keyword ending in Clanthat refers to one of the nine major Clans: Crab,Crane, Dragon, Lion, Mantis, Phoenix, Scor-pion, Spider, and Unicorn. Other keywordsending in Clan (for example, Bat Clan) arenot Clan Alignments. Players, Personalities,Strongholds and Sensei can have Clan Align-ments. A card also has a Clan Alignment if thatclans symbol appears in the title bar.

Combining:A way to use similar actions fromcards in the same unit to create a larger strengtheffect. Fear effects, Ranged Attacks, and Melee

Attacks can each be combined, but only withother effects of the same kind (that is, Rangedand Melee Attacks cannot combine with each

other, etc.) To explain this rule well use the termattack effect and kind of effect to refer to theparticular effect you are combining, whetherFear, Ranged or Melee. After you have paid thecosts of an initial action that creates an attack

effect from a card in a unit, as an Interrupt to


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that action, you may pay the costs of an actionfrom another card in the same unit that is appro-priate to the phase and that creates anotherattack effect of the same kind, using that ability.Then resolve that actions effects, but instead ofcreating a separate attack effect, each of those

actions relevant attack effects adds its ownstrength (with any modifications in effect) to thestrength of the original attack effect. The originalattack effect may only target a card that it, as wellas each of the combining actions, could target.

All other characteristics of the attack effect comefrom the original. You may combine more thanone attack effect with the same initial action.

Conqueror: Cards in a Conqueror Personal-itys unit do not bow returning home after a

battle.Contribute: A Personality or Follower con-tributes Force when its Force is added intoits armys total Force. This is part of a battlesresolution, but can also happen when an

armys total Force is calculated for other rea-


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sons. Bowed Personalities and Followers donot contribute Force.

Control: You gain control of a card whenyou bring it into play; only cards in play arecontrolled. You will normally keep controlof the card while it remains in play. However,an attachment is always controlled by its Per-sonalitys controller. Some effects may changecontrol of a card between players. Immediatelyafter a player successfully takes control ofanother players card:

c If the card is at a battlefield, it goes tothe new controllers side of the battle-field, attaching to one of his Personali-ties if necessary;

c Otherwise, it enters the new playershome.

Neither of these changes in location is move-ment.

Copy:Some effects may copy a keyword, trait,

or stat from one card to another. If a stat is cop-


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ied, set the copying cards stat to the currentvalue of the copied cards stat (see Set, p. 40).A card cannot copy its own text or stats.

Created Cards: Some effects may createcards in addition to the cards included indecks. You may use pieces of paper, facedown spare cards, or other objects to keeptrack of these. If an effect that creates acard gives no value for a stat the card typenormally has, that stats base value is zero.Exception: Created Personalities have a

Honor Requirement. Created attachmentsattach to a Personality as part of their cre-ation effect. Other cards you create enter playin your home, and cards created during abattle join your current army, attaching to a

Personality if necessary. When a created cardleaves play, it ceases to exist.

Dead, Destroy:See Personalities, p. 4.

Destined: After your card with the Destinedkeyword enters play, draw a Fate card.


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Discard:To put a card in its Dynasty or Fatediscard pile. Discard a card by itself meansdiscard a Fate card from your hand. If aneffect requires you to discard the ImperialFavor, this means that you give up control ofthe Favor and it becomes uncontrolled.

Discarded:The state of a card that is in a dis-card pile and is not dead.

Discipline: A special trait on Strategies,appearing with a Gold cost icon. You may playa card with the Discipline trait from your dis-card pile for one of its actions, paying the Goldcost in the icon as an additional cost of theaction (or adding the Gold cost to the actionsif it already has a Gold cost). After the actionends, remove the card from the game. Keep

in mind that abilities can be used only onceper turn, meaning that Discipline abilities nor-mally cant be used from the discard pile onthe same turn you used them from your hand.

Do Not, Does Not:These phrases in a card effect

means that another effect is prevented (p. 38).


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Draw:To put the top card of your Fate deckinto your hand.

Duel:See Basic Rulebook, p. 69.

Element Keyword:One of the five keywordsrepresenting the mystic elements of Rokugan:

Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Void.Enemy:Referring to the player on the oppos-ing side to you during a battle (the enemyleader), and to cards in units he or she con-trols. Cards not in units, such as Holdings,

Terrains, or Regions, are not enemy cards.Exchange: When an effect exchanges twostats, note their current values. Then, simulta-neously set each stat to the noted value of theother one (see Set, p. 40).

Expendable: After a card with the Expend-able keyword is destroyed, the player whocontrolled it last draws a card.

Experienced: Some Personality cards havethe Experienced keyword, which is sometimes


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followed by a number representing the Per-sonalitys experience level. A Personality withExperienced and no number has experiencelevel of one. A Personality without Experi-enced has experience level zero. Any numberof single Personalities with the same title but

different experience levels may be includedin a deck. During the Dynasty Phase, youmay bring an Experienced Personality intoplay normally, or you may overlay him ontoone of your Personalities of the same type in

play with the same title, but lower experiencelevel, as a Dynasty action. When you overlay,you do not need to meet Honor Requirementsor pay costs, but you do need to meet otherrequirements and restrictions, including Loyal(p. 36). An overlaying card replaces its less

experienced version without entering play,and the less experienced card is removed fromthe game without leaving play. On overlaying,the new card keeps all states, ongoing effects,attachments, and tokens of the old card, and

is considered to be the same card.


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Fail:When a cost or effect is activated but thegame text but does not happen, it fails. Thiscan be because of prevention (p. 38), or lack ofsuitable object (for example, Bow an unbowedShugenja when no Shugenja are in the game).

Fear: An effect that follows similar rules toRanged and Melee Attacks (p. 36 and 39). AFear effect has a numerical strength (example:Fear 4). Fear X is shorthand for the effectBow a target enemy Follower or Personality

without Followers with X or lower Force. Fear

effects from cards in the same unit can be com-bined with each other. See Combining, p. 26.

Focus, Focus Effect:Terms used in dueling.See Basic Rulebook,p. 71.

Fortification:When brought into play, Hold-ings with the Fortification keyword are attachedto the Province they entered play from, or toany of your Provinces if they were not broughtin from a Province. Keep the Holding cardunder any card in the Province, in the same

way an attachment is kept under its Person-


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ality. Fortifications enter play paying costs asnormal, but enter play unbowed (straightened).They are discarded if the Province is destroyed.During a battle, abilities on Fortifications canonly be used if the Fortification is attached tothe current battlefields Province.

Home: The location in front of a playersprovinces where cards normally enter play, asopposed to battlefields.

Home (keyword):An ability with the Homekeyword may be used during battle even if thecard it is on is at home.

Honorable:A Personality who is not dishon-orable. Honorably dead refers to such a Per-sonality who is dead. See p. 16.

Invest:This is a trait that starts with Investand a Gold cost (for example, Invest :).

After a card with Invest is played, you may paythe additional cost in the Invest trait, once, to

get an additional effect (for example, Gain 1

Honor or Give this card a +1F token.)

2


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Infantry:This term refers to a Personality orFollower who does not have the Cavalry key-

word. It is not itself a keyword.

Kensai: A Kensai Personality can attach twoWeapons if neither of them is Two-Handed. SeeWeapon(p. 44).

Kharmic: A keyword that can appear onDynasty or Fate cards, and allows you to pay2 Gold to cycle them from your hand or Prov-ince. Specifically, all players have the follow-ing ability relevant to Kharmic cards:

Kharmic Repeatable Limited, :Discarda Kharmic card from your hand to draw acard, or discard a Kharmic card from yourProvince to refill the Province face-up.

Leader:The Attacker or Defender in a battle.You are the friendly leader; the other player isthe Enemy Leader. This term is more relevantto the multiplayer rules (see Online Rules,

p. 50).

2


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Location:An area holding cards in play. Eachbattlefield and each players home is a sepa-rate location.

Look: To inspect a facedown card withoutshowing it to anyone else or changing its posi-tion (for example, in a deck).

Loyal:A Personality with the Loyal keywordcannot join a player who does not share a Clanalignment with the Personality, either by enter-ing play or by taking control.

May Not:See Prevention, p. 38Melee Attack:These follow the same rules asRanged Attacks (p. 39), representing destructionfrom close-range combat. Melee Attacks may becombined with other Melee Attacks.

Move: An effect that moves a Personalitychanges his position from one location toanother. Effects that move a Personality toa battlefield always move it into his control-lers side there. Assigning to battlefields, and

returning home from them, is not moving.


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Multiplayer: A keyword telling you that acard is most useful (or only useful) in a multi-player game. See Online Rules, p. 50.

Naval:All players have the following abilityrelevant to Naval cards:

Engage: If you are the Attacker, you havethe first opportunity to take a Battle action,

which must come from a card in a NavalPersonalitys unit. Passing that action doesnot count toward ending the action round.

Negate: A term that indicates a preventioneffect (p. 38). Negate an action means toprevent all the actions effects and targeting,from the time the negation is applied.

Opposed:A card, side, or army is opposed ata battlefield if there are one or more units inthe enemy army.

Opposing: Opposing refers to cards at thesame battlefield, on different sides.


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Overlay:See Experienced, p. 31

Own: You own all cards that were originallyin your play deck and that you brought intoplay from outside the game, including cards

you created. Cards you own can never go intoanother players decks or discard piles; theyalways go to yours instead.

Permanent: A permanent effect refers to aneffect whose duration lasts until the end of the

game. Permanent effects can still be negated,ended, and changed by other effects.

Prevention: A prevention effect is one thatuses language such as negate, cannot,does not, or will not. While a preventioneffect lasts, it makes another effect or type of

effect fail to happen whenever it would occur.When an ongoing type of effect is prevented(for example, Negate all Force bonuses onhim), this only suppresses existing effectsfor as long as the prevention lasts; it does notprevent new ones from applying. When an

instant type of effect is prevented (for example,


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Negate his destruction) this prevents neweffects of that type for as long as the negationeffect lasts.

Ranged Attack:A Ranged Attack represents amilitary effect that destroys at a distance, such asarchers arrows or a magical fiery bolt. Ranged

X Attack, where X stands for a number, is short-hand for the text Destroy a target enemy Fol-lower or Personality without Followers with Xor lower Force. A Ranged Attack action is one

with a Ranged Attack effect. If a Ranged Attack

effect ends up being compared against a differ-ent stat than Force, compare that stat against theRanged Attacks strength instead to determine

whether the target is destroyed.

Rehonor:See p. 16.

Repeatable: An ability with the Repeatablekeyword may be used any number of timesper turn.

Reserve:The following player abilities are rel-

evant to the Reserve keyword:


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Absent Repeatable Battle, : If he wouldbe opposed, Recruit your target ReservePersonality (into the current battlefield).

Repeatable Battle, : If it would beopposed, Equip a Reserve attachment to yourtarget Personality (at the current battlefield).

Reveal:To turn a facedown card faceup.

Search:To look through a deck or other area

for a card of a specified kind. After you searcha deck, you must reshuffle it after you take anycard(s) you searched for.

Seppuku:An act of ritual suicide. If an effectdirects a Personality to commit seppuku,

apply the following effects: Rehonor the Per-sonality, then destroy him; these effects willnot be negated.

Set:When a stat is set to a particular value,give it a bonus or penalty such that it reaches

the new value.

*

*


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Show:To display the face of a facedown cardto all other players, then return it to its facedown state.

Shugenja: A person trained in the magic ofRokugan. Only Shugenja Personalities canEquip and cast Spells.

Soul of :This is a keyword that includesanother Personalitys title, showing that thecurrent character is a descendant or discipleof the older character in the present genera-tion. Soul of Personalities are equivalent tothe older card for deck construction purposes.In a game, you may use a copy of the oldercard from a previous edition as a proxy forthe Soul of version, but you must informthe other player of any differences in stats or

wording between the two when it appears inthe game.

Switch:When an effect switches the locationsof two units, each one simultaneously movesto the location of the other. If one movement is

negated, the other one is also negated.


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Tactician: All Tactician Personalities havethe following ability, known as Tactical

Advantage.

Tactical Advantage

Battle:Discard a card to give this Personal-ity a Force bonus equal to the Focus Valueof the discarded card.

This ability cannot be removed or copied from

the Tactician Personality.Terrain: A Strategy with the Terrain keywordrepresents the ground on which a battle isfought. Most Terrains have a Battle ability thatputs them into play at the current battlefield.

After a battle ends, discard any Terrain at itsbattlefield.

Tireless:An ability with the Tireless keywordmay be used even if the card it is on is bowed.

Token: A marker in the game. You may use

beads, pieces of paper, or other distinct objects


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as tokens. Tokens may have a keyword (suchas Corruption). They may also give a stat bonusor penalty (such as 1C) to whatever they areon. This bonus or penalty is considered to comefrom the last effect that placed the token on thecard or area. Tokens are not cards. They are

removed from the game if the card they are onleaves play.

Transfer: To re-attach a card or token fromone card or province to another. You do notneed to pay the costs of a transferred card

again, but you do need to meet any restrictionson attaching.

Unaligned:Refers to a Personality, player, orStronghold without a Clan alignment. It is notitself a keyword.

Unique:A player cannot bring into play or takecontrol of a Unique card if he or she already con-trols a Unique card with the same title (but seeExperienced, p. 31). If a player takes control ofa unit with a copy of a Unique attachment he

or she already controls, discard the new attach-


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ment. The Unique keyword also restricts deckconstruction. See Deck Building, p. 22.

Weapon: A Personality can have only oneWeapon attached. Exception: See Kensai, p. 35.

Will Not:This phrase in a card effect means

that another effect is prevented (p. 38).

Special Circumstances

The following rules are for situations that maysometimes arise in advanced play.

Keywords

Keywords on abilities also apply to theircardsso, for example, a Strategy with a Polit-ical ability is a Political Strategy. Keywords oncards do not apply to their abilitiesan abilityon a Ninja card is not a Ninja ability unless it

says so. For example, Ninja Battle:


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In Play & Out of PlayCards must be in playthat is, in your homeor at a battlefieldto be legal targets, unlessthe targeting says or implies otherwise. To useits abilities, a card must either be in play, be

an Event played from your Province, or be aStrategy or Ring played from your hand. Abili-ties that break this rule will say that they canbe used from a different area (for example, Ifthis Follower is in your hand)

If a card is both out of play and face-down(including returning to the hand), it forgetsongoing effects on it, and other changes suchas whether its abilities have been used.

Bonuses, Penalties & StatsBonuses are effects from cards or player abili-ties that say they increase a stat. The addedForce and Chi from the relevant modifier stats

on Items are modifiers, not bonuses, but if


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an Item says This Personality has +2F whileopposed, that counts as a bonus.

All stats, except for Family Honor and HonorRequirement, have a minimum value of zero.

If you need to know a stats value at any time,

apply all current bonuses and penalties first,then apply any minimum or maximum value.

Example: If a card with 2 Force gets a-3F penalty, apply the penalty, then thebasic minimum of zero. This means that

the cards Force is zero for all purposes, not-1. If it then gets a +2F bonus, apply thebonus, the penalty, and the minimum, sothat it now has 1 Force.

UnitsReferences to a units keywordfor example, ACavalry unitmean a unit where the Personal-ity and each Follower in it (if any) all have that

keyword. For example, a unit with a Cavalry Per-


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sonality and a non- Cavalry Follower would notbe a Cavalry unit, because of the Follower.

Effects that do something to a unitfor exam-ple, bow or destroyhave their effect on eachcard in that unit.

If a Personality leaves play, all his or herattached cards leave play in the same way.

Simultaneous Things

As a general rule, if two or more things appearto happen simultaneously, the player whoseturn it is decides in what order they happen.More detailed rules covering this issue arefound in the Online Rules(see p. 50).

An exception is Interrupt actions, becausethey are taken at their players choice. Ifmore than one Interrupt can be triggered atthe same time, use a special action round.The active player has the first opportunity to

play an Interrupt to that action or pass, fol-


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lowed by the other player, and then the activeplayer has another opportunity. The actionround continues until both players pass con-secutively.

Empty Decks

If either the Dynasty or Fate deck runs out ofcards, nothing special happens, except thatthere are no more cards left in the deck. Prov-inces that cannot be refilled still exist. Use

markers to represent them.

Separate Effects

Each of an actions or traits effects is separate,

and will happen even if the other effects fail tohappen. For example, if an action says Battle:Straighten your target Personality and movehim home, if he is already unbowed you canstill take the action; the straightening fails, buthe still goes home.


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ExceptionsSome cards describe an effect happening todo something else (for example, Discard acard to gain 1 Honor.) If the first effect fails(for example, discarding a card with no cards

in hand), the second thing (gaining Honor)does not happen.

Likewise, if a card says to do something afteror as something else happens (for example,As he moves, bow him; After he is dishon-

ored, gain 1 Honor) , the second thing doesnthappen if the first thing fails to happen.

In the second example here, if an already dis-honorable Personality is dishonored, the 1Honor gain does not happen, because he does

not go from the honorable to dishonorablestate.

Targeting can cause the remaining effects in anaction to fail if it is not met, but targeting is notitself an effect (seeActions, p. 10)


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Online RulesVisit http://rules.l5r.com for errata and com-prehensive rules, plus variant rules for 3 ormore players, draft, sealed deck and more.Rules questions can be asked and officially

answered at the L5R CCG Rules Questionsforum (http://www.alderac. com/forum/).

The Tournament Rulebook is a resource fortournament judges and players, a printabledocument available online. They cover raresituations and questions such as:

c When can I play a card even though itwill have no effect (Good Faith Rule)?

c Does a created card have a printed Force?

c Does destruction for having zero Chicome from a card or the Rulebook? Whatabout destruction from a Ranged Attack?

The most detailed rules resource is the Com-prehensive Rules, also available online.


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Complete TurnSequence

1. Action Phase. Straighten your bowedcards and reveal cards in Provinces. Then

take an action round: your Limited and Openactions, your opponents Open actions.

2. (Optional) Attack Phase.You may declarean attack. Assign your unbowed Personali-ties to attack your opponents Provinces. Youropponent assigns unbowed Personalities todefend.

At each Province (Attacker decides order):

c Defender, then Attacker, take a round

of Engage actions.

c Combat Segment: Defender, thenAttacker, take a round of Battle actions.

c Resolution: Side with most total Force

wins, not counting bowed Personali-


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ties and Followers. Destroy all cards onthe losing side, or all cards if tied; eachplayer gets 2 Honor for each enemycard destroyed this way. Destroy theProvince if the Attackers total Force

was greater than the Defenders total

Force plus Province Strength.

c Attacking units return home, then bow.

3. Dynasty Phase.Bring Personalities and Hold-ings into play. Discard face-up Dynasty cards.

Draw cards up to your hand size limit (eight).

Action Phase Abilities

Cycle

Limited: If it is your first turn, choose oneor more face-up cards in your Provinces. Putthem on the bottom of your deck in any order.(Refill the empty Provinces face-down.) Then,

turn all cards in your Provinces face-up.


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EquipRepeatable Open, : Attach an attachmentcard, with Gold Cost equal to the amount youpaid, from your hand to your target Personality.

Lobby

Political Limited: If you have higher Fam-ily Honor than each other player, bow yourtarget unbowed Personality with 1 or morePersonal Honor to take the Imperial Favor.

Imperial Favor

Favor Political Limited:Discard the Impe-

rial Favor and a card to draw a card.

Kharmic

Kharmic Repeatable Limited, : Discard

a Kharmic card from your hand to draw

2

*


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a card, or discard a Kharmic card from yourProvince to refill the Province face-up.

Attack Phase Abilities

Engage Segment

Cavalry

Absent Engage:Target your unbowed Per-

sonality in a Cavalry unit at any location.Move him to the current battlefield.

Naval

Engage: If you are the Attacker, youhave the first opportunity to take a Battleaction, which must come from a card ina Naval Personalitys unit. Passing thataction does not count toward ending theaction round.


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Combat Segment

Imperial Favor

Favor Political Battle:Discard the Impe-rial Favor To move home a target attacking

enemy Personality.

Reserve

Absent Repeatable Battle, : If he wouldbe opposed, Recruit your target Reserve

Personality(into the current battlefield).


Tactical Advantage

Battle:Discard a card to give this Personal-ity a Force bonus equal to the Focus Value ofthe discarded card. (This is an ability granted

by the rules to each Tactician Personality)

*

*


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Dynasty Phase AbilitiesRecruit

Repeatable Dynasty, : Bring into play a

face-up Personality or Holding from your Prov-ince with Gold Cost equal to the amount youpaid, paying 2 more Gold if the Personality hasa Clan Alignment but does not have your Clan

Alignment. (Holdings enter play bowed.)

Once during your own turn, after youannounce a Recruit action or an action withRecruit as an effect, you may choose to Pro-claim the Personality being Recruited. If hehas your Clan Alignment, gain Honor equal

to his Personal Honor after he enters play

Discard

Repeatable Dynasty:Discard a face-up cardfrom one of your Provinces. (Refill it face-down.)

*


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if you have more cards in hand than the maxi-mum, you must choose and discard cards from

your hand until you no longer have too many.Some effects may change a players maximumhand size.

ProvincesEach province has a separate ProvinceStrength stat, based on the Strongholds Prov-

ince Strength plus any modifiers from Senseiand other effects.

Personalities

Chi Death Rule

If a Personalitys Chi is ever zero, destroy him

immediately.


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Clan Honor RulePlayers can lose Honor from their own cards,from other players cards, or from the Rule-book (that is, when their Personality dies

dishonorably; see p. 16). After a player losesHonor from another players card, or from theRulebook, for the rest of the game he or sheignores Honor Requirements on Personalities

with his or her own Clan Alignment.

Dead Personalities

Personalities that are destroyed are treateddifferently from Personalities that are merelydiscarded (for example, from a Province). Turndead Personalities 90 degrees in the discardpile, or create a separate pile for dead Person-alities.


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AdvancedCard Types

In addition to the Dynasty typesPerson-alities and Holdingsand Fate typesFol-lowers, Items, and Strategiesintroduced inthe Basic Game, L5R has a number of othercard types.

Sensei

A Sensei is a card that you may start with inplay, representing a revered master whose

teachings have influenced you. You may onlyhave one Sensei in play, you start with it inplay, and the choice of Sensei is part of yourdeck construction. Like your Stronghold, theSensei does not go into the Dynasty or Fate

deck and is neither a Dynasty nor Fate card.


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FAMILYHONOR

MODIFIER

CLAN

ALIGNMENT

CARD

TITLE

TEXTBOX

PROVINCE

STRENGTHMODIFIER

GOLD

PRODUCTION

MODIFIER

- Sensei -


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A Sensei will usually have one or more ClanAlignment requirements, such as ScorpionClan. You may only start with a Sensei thatmatches your Strongholds Clan Alignment, or

with an All Clans Sensei.

A Sensei modifies your Stronghold: It has modi-fiers for Province Strength, Gold Productionand Starting Family Honor which always mod-ify the Strongholds stats. A Sensei may alsohave traits and abilities that apply to you andthat work similarly to those of a Stronghold.

Event

Events represent important happenings inRokugan. While they are face-up in yourProvinces, and only then, you can use theirabilities. They are discarded once their abili-ties are used, unless the ability puts them intoplay. Apart from its abilities, an Event mayhave traits in its text box, and these apply

while in play.


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GOLD

COST

FOCUS

VALUE

TEXTBOX

TEXTBOX

- Spell -

- Event -


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SpellSpells are attachments. They represent magicscrolls used by a Shugenja (a person trained inthe magic of Rokugan). Spells have no Force

or Chi modifiers. They will only attach to aShugenja, and their abilities can only be used(cast) if attached to a Shugenja. (see alsoCast, p. 25).

RingRing cards represent understanding of themystic elements. They can be discarded fromthe hand to use their ability, or put into play

when you meet the special conditions of thetext in their trait. When in play, their abilitycan be used without having to discard them.


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Actions

The Basic rules introduced Limited, Open,Battle and Dynasty actions. The full game has

two more types of action: Engage and Interrupt.

Engageactions are taken in a special actionround during a battle, before either player hasthe chance to take Battle actions. See p. 54.

Interrupts are announced during anotheractioneither yours or another playersatthe point after costs are paid and before theactions effects start to resolve. The otheraction is suspended while you carry out the

Interrupt action; then the original actionresumes. Interrupts refer to the original actionas the action (for example, The action can-not move Personalities.) If an Interrupt modi-fies an actions effects, this only applies to theaction being interrupted, not to subsequent

actions that turn.


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How Long Do Things Last?Some effects are instantaneous, andmarked by physical changes to the gamecomponents, such as bowing cards,

changing their location, adding tokens,and changes to Family Honor. Thesechanges do not wear off by themselves.

Other effects involve changes that areongoing. That is, they last until a certain

point in the game, and are not physicallymarked by the game components.

Some examples of ongoing effects includestats such as Give a target attacking Per-sonality +2F, or giving a card the trait,This Personality will not bow.

All ongoing effects last until the endof the current turn, unless they give adifferent duration.


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As with Battle actions, Engage and Interruptactions taken during a battle are subject to theRules of Presence and Location, as described inthe Basic Rulebook (see Basic Rulebook p. 57).

Recruit & EquipSome actions tell you to Recruit or Equipa card. When this happens, pay the cost of thecard entering play (indicated by the actionsown Gold cost), and apply all the effects of

the Recruit or Equip player action.

Traits

Text in a cards text box can be keywords, anability (starting with boldface words such asOpen: or Ninja Battle:) or flavor text(italicized text that is only descriptive and notused in the game). Game-relevant text that is

not part of any of these is a trait.

*


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Some traits are triggered by other things hap-pening, for example, After this card entersplay, lose 3 Honor. A trait is not like anaction, though:

c A trait is not optional; you must applythe effects whenever the trigger is met.

c A trait can be triggered when its cardis bowed.

c A traits effects are not restricted to onceper turn.

c A trait without a trigger on a card, suchas Your Samurai each have +1F, hasa continuous effect that is always on

while the card is in play.

The Imperial FavorThe Imperial Favor is a resource that gives

great political advantage to those who

call upon it. It is represented by an object


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that starts the game uncontrolled. When itbecomes controlled, its controller places it inhis home, in front of him, visible to all players.Ivory Edition Starter Decks include a card that

you can use to represent the Imperial Favor. Ifyou control the Favor, you may discard it, and

then it becomes uncontrolled. Discarding theFavor is required for certain actions, including(but not limited to) the following two Favorplayer abilities:

Favor Political Limited:Discard the Impe-rial Favor and a card to draw a card.

Favor Political Battle: Discard the Impe-rial Favor to move home a target attackingenemy Personality.

Lobbying

This player ability lets you take the Imperial

Favor, vying to win the favor of the Empress


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by reminding her of your familys high deedsand standing.

Lobby

Political Limited:If you have higher Fam-

ily Honor than each other player, bow yourtarget unbowed Personality with 1 or morePersonal Honor to take the Imperial Favor.

DishonoredPersonalities

Some things can dishonor a Personality, dis-gracing him or her in the eyes of Rokugan.Turn the Personality card 180 degrees upsidedown to show this dishonorable state.

A dishonorable Personality has a maximum of

zero Personal Honor.


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After a Personality is destroyed while dishon-orable, the player who last controlled him losesHonor equal to the Personalitys printed Per-sonal Honor. (This loss does not come froma card, but from the Rulebook.) A destroyeddishonorable Personality remains dishonor-

ably dead even inthe discard pile.

D i s h o n o r a b l eP e r s o n a l i t i e sremain dishonor-

able until an effectrehonors them(restores them tohonorable status).Turn the card

right side up againto represent therehonoring.

Sometimes anhonor gain will

rehonor a Person-

- Dishonored -


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ality. Specifically, you substitute rehonoringfor Honor gain:

c Before a player gains Honor from anaction or trait that targeted or camefrom one or more of his or her dishon-orable Personalities.

c Before a player gains Honor for attach-ing a card to their dishonorable Person-ality.

c Before a player with any dishonorable

Personalities in his or her army gainsHonor from destroying enemy cards inbattle resolution. In a tied battle, alldishonorable Personalities in an armyare rehonored before being destroyed,

and their armys leader gains noHonor.

In these cases, the honor gain will not happen,and instead the Personality or Personalities

will be restored to honorable status.


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Battles

Engage Segment

Engage actions represent especially well-prepared or rapid maneuvers in battle. TheEngage Segment is an action round of Engageactions, starting with the Defender, that

comes before Battle actions are taken in theCombat Segment. Once both players havepassed consecutively on Engage actions, theEngage Segment ends and the Combat Seg-ment begins.

AttackingMultiple Provinces

In the Basic Game, the Attacker only chooses

one Province to attack, creating a battle-


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field there. In the Advanced Game, after theAttacker declares an attack, a battlefield iscreated at each of the Defenders Provinces.

When the Attacker and Defender assign,they may assign any of their legal units toany of these battlefields. A battle is thenfought at each of these battlefields, with the

Attacker choosing one by one which battleto fight, until all the battlefields have beenfought at. Often, these battles will be atempty battlefields, and fighting them is a

mere formality.

In each battle, go through the Engage, Com-bat and Resolution segments in order. Thesteps after a battle also happen before thenext battle begins, including units returninghome.

If any units find themselves at a battlefieldwhose battle has ended, they return homeafter the last battle ends, bowing if they wereattacking.


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No Second BattleThere is one additional rule restricting effectsduring a battle. A Personality who has alreadybeen in an attacking army during a battle reso-

lution in the current Attack Phase will not moveto a battlefield again during that Attack Phase.

Advanced

Victory Conditions

In addition to the military and honor victoriessupported in the Basic Game, there are two

other ways to win a game of L5R.

Dishonor Victory

If a players Family Honor is 20 or below at

the end of his or her turn, he or she loses.


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Enlightenment VictoryYou win immediately if you control five Ringswith five different element keywords (Air, Earth,Fire, Water and Void). You have seen the emp-tiness behind the so-called victory in war and

court, and become an enlightened master.

Deck Building

You can expand and change your starter deckby trading for or buying other cards. Followthese rules to build a legal play deck in IvoryEdition 40/40 format:

c The Dynasty and Fate decks must eachhave at least 40 cards. Your Strongholdand Sensei do not count toward thisminimum, and copies of those cardsmay not be included in the Fate or

Dynasty decks.


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c All cards in the play deck (includingthe Stronghold and Sensei) must beIvory Edition legal, having the IvoryEdition symbol in the lower lefthand corner of their most recent print-ing (MRP). Older printings of the cards

may be used (see also Soul of , p.41), but in all L5R formats, cards areconsidered to have the stats and textof their MRP. If you use older cards,

youre responsible for knowing these

differences and communicating themto your opponent.

c You can have no more than three cop-ies of any card, by title, in your decks.

c You can have no more than one copyof each Unique card, by title, in yourdecks.

Note that Experienced cards (p. 31) are anexception to the last two rules.


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Game Terms & Keywords

In alphabetical order, this section lists rulesassociated with specific game terms and key-

words that are not mentioned in the basicrules. After this, we present a number of finepoints in the rules.

Absent: An ability with the Absent keywordmay be used during battle even if you controlno units at the current battlefield.

Active Player:The player whose turn it is.

Additional actions: Additional actionsgranted by effects are taken after the current

action resolves. In effect, they allow you to takeanother action in the present action round with-out your opponent getting an action. If the typeof additional action is not specified, it is the typeappropriate to the current action roundLim-ited in your Action Phase, Open in any players


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Action Phase, Engage in the Engage Segmentand Battle in the Combat Segment.

Ally:A term used in the multiplayer rules (seeOnline Rules, p. 50).

Armor: A keyword found on some Items. A

Personality cannot have more than one Armorattached.

Cannot: These words mean that an effect isprevented (see p. 38).

Cast:When you take an action from a Spellattached to a Personality (usually a Shugenja)the Personality with the Spell attached inquestion casts the Spell and is the caster.

Cavalry:The Cavalry keyword is relevant tothe following ability which all players have:Absent Engage: Target your unbowed Per-sonality in a Cavalry unit at any location.Move him to the current battlefield. A Cav-alry unit is one in which the Personality andall Followers, if any, have the Cavalry keyword

(see Units, p. 46).


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Challenge:See Duel, Basic Rulebook, p.69.

Clan Alignment:A keyword ending in Clanthat refers to one of the nine major Clans: Crab,Crane, Dragon, Lion, Mantis, Phoenix, Scor-pion, Spider, and Unicorn. Other keywordsending in Clan (for example, Bat Clan) arenot Clan Alignments. Players, Personalities,Strongholds and Sensei can have Clan Align-ments. A card also has a Clan Alignment if thatclans symbol appears in the title bar.

Combining:A way to use similar actions fromcards in the same unit to create a larger strengtheffect. Fear effects, Ranged Attacks, and Melee

Attacks can each be combined, but only withother effects of the same kind (that is, Rangedand Melee Attacks cannot combine with each

other, etc.) To explain this rule well use the termattack effect and kind of effect to refer to theparticular effect you are combining, whetherFear, Ranged or Melee. After you have paid thecosts of an initial action that creates an attack

effect from a card in a unit, as an Interrupt to


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that action, you may pay the costs of an actionfrom another card in the same unit that is appro-priate to the phase and that creates anotherattack effect of the same kind, using that ability.Then resolve that actions effects, but instead ofcreating a separate attack effect, each of those

actions relevant attack effects adds its ownstrength (with any modifications in effect) to thestrength of the original attack effect. The originalattack effect may only target a card that it, as wellas each of the combining actions, could target.

All other characteristics of the attack effect comefrom the original. You may combine more thanone attack effect with the same initial action.

Conqueror: Cards in a Conqueror Personal-itys unit do not bow returning home after a

battle.Contribute: A Personality or Follower con-tributes Force when its Force is added intoits armys total Force. This is part of a battlesresolution, but can also happen when an

armys total Force is calculated for other rea-


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ied, set the copying cards stat to the currentvalue of the copied cards stat (see Set, p. 40).A card cannot copy its own text or stats.

Created Cards: Some effects may createcards in addition to the cards included indecks. You may use pieces of paper, facedown spare cards, or other objects to keeptrack of these. If an effect that creates acard gives no value for a stat the card typenormally has, that stats base value is zero.Exception: Created Personalities have a

Honor Requirement. Created attachmentsattach to a Personality as part of their cre-ation effect. Other cards you create enter playin your home, and cards created during abattle join your current army, attaching to a

Personality if necessary. When a created cardleaves play, it ceases to exist.

Dead, Destroy:See Personalities, p. 4.

Destined: After your card with the Destinedkeyword enters play, draw a Fate card.


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Discard:To put a card in its Dynasty or Fatediscard pile. Discard a card by itself meansdiscard a Fate card from your hand. If aneffect requires you to discard the ImperialFavor, this means that you give up control ofthe Favor and it becomes uncontrolled.

Discarded:The state of a card that is in a dis-card pile and is not dead.

Discipline: A special trait on Strategies,appearing with a Gold cost icon. You may playa card with the Discipline trait from your dis-card pile for one of its actions, paying the Goldcost in the icon as an additional cost of theaction (or adding the Gold cost to the actionsif it already has a Gold cost). After the actionends, remove the card from the game. Keep

in mind that abilities can be used only onceper turn, meaning that Discipline abilities nor-mally cant be used from the discard pile onthe same turn you used them from your hand.

Do Not, Does Not:These phrases in a card effect

means that another effect is prevented (p. 38).


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Draw:To put the top card of your Fate deckinto your hand.

Duel:See Basic Rulebook, p. 69.

Element Keyword:One of the five keywordsrepresenting the mystic elements of Rokugan:

Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Void.Enemy:Referring to the player on the oppos-ing side to you during a battle (the enemyleader), and to cards in units he or she con-trols. Cards not in units, such as Holdings,

Terrains, or Regions, are not enemy cards.Exchange: When an effect exchanges twostats, note their current values. Then, simulta-neously set each stat to the noted value of theother one (see Set, p. 40).

Expendable: After a card with the Expend-able keyword is destroyed, the player whocontrolled it last draws a card.

Experienced: Some Personality cards havethe Experienced keyword, which is sometimes


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followed by a number representing the Per-sonalitys experience level. A Personality withExperienced and no number has experiencelevel of one. A Personality without Experi-enced has experience level zero. Any numberof single Personalities with the same title but

different experience levels may be includedin a deck. During the Dynasty Phase, youmay bring an Experienced Personality intoplay normally, or you may overlay him ontoone of your Personalities of the same type in

play with the same title, but lower experiencelevel, as a Dynasty action. When you overlay,you do not need to meet Honor Requirementsor pay costs, but you do need to meet otherrequirements and restrictions, including Loyal(p. 36). An overlaying card replaces its less

experienced version without entering play,and the less experienced card is removed fromthe game without leaving play. On overlaying,the new card keeps all states, ongoing effects,attachments, and tokens of the old card, and

is considered to be the same card.


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Fail:When a cost or effect is activated but thegame text but does not happen, it fails. Thiscan be because of prevention (p. 38), or lack ofsuitable object (for example, Bow an unbowedShugenja when no Shugenja are in the game).

Fear: An effect that follows similar rules toRanged and Melee Attacks (p. 36 and 39). AFear effect has a numerical strength (example:Fear 4). Fear X is shorthand for the effectBow a target enemy Follower or Personality

without Followers with X or lower Force. Fear

effects from cards in the same unit can be com-bined with each other. See Combining, p. 26.

Focus, Focus Effect:Terms used in dueling.See Basic Rulebook,p. 71.

Fortification:When brought into play, Hold-ings with the Fortification keyword are attachedto the Province they entered play from, or toany of your Provinces if they were not broughtin from a Province. Keep the Holding cardunder any card in the Province, in the same

way an attachment is kept under its Person-


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ality. Fortifications enter play paying costs asnormal, but enter play unbowed (straightened).They are discarded if the Province is destroyed.During a battle, abilities on Fortifications canonly be used if the Fortification is attached tothe current battlefields Province.

Home: The location in front of a playersprovinces where cards normally enter play, asopposed to battlefields.

Home (keyword):An ability with the Homekeyword may be used during battle even if thecard it is on is at home.

Honorable:A Personality who is not dishon-orable. Honorably dead refers to such a Per-sonality who is dead. See p. 16.

Invest:This is a trait that starts with Investand a Gold cost (for example, Invest :).

After a card with Invest is played, you may paythe additional cost in the Invest trait, once, to

get an additional effect (for example, Gain 1

Honor or Give this card a +1F token.)

2


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Infantry:This term refers to a Personality orFollower who does not have the Cavalry key-

word. It is not itself a keyword.

Kensai: A Kensai Personality can attach twoWeapons if neither of them is Two-Handed. SeeWeapon(p. 44).

Kharmic: A keyword that can appear onDynasty or Fate cards, and allows you to pay2 Gold to cycle them from your hand or Prov-ince. Specifically, all players have the follow-ing ability relevant to Kharmic cards:

Kharmic Repeatable Limited, :Discarda Kharmic card from your hand to draw acard, or discard a Kharmic card from yourProvince to refill the Province face-up.

Leader:The Attacker or Defender in a battle.You are the friendly leader; the other player isthe Enemy Leader. This term is more relevantto the multiplayer rules (see Online Rules,

p. 50).

2


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Location:An area holding cards in play. Eachbattlefield and each players home is a sepa-rate location.

Look: To inspect a facedown card withoutshowing it to anyone else or changing its posi-tion (for example, in a deck).

Loyal:A Personality with the Loyal keywordcannot join a player who does not share a Clanalignment with the Personality, either by enter-ing play or by taking control.

May Not:See Prevention, p. 38Melee Attack:These follow the same rules asRanged Attacks (p. 39), representing destructionfrom close-range combat. Melee Attacks may becombined with other Melee Attacks.

Move: An effect that moves a Personalitychanges his position from one location toanother. Effects that move a Personality toa battlefield always move it into his control-lers side there. Assigning to battlefields, and

returning home from them, is not moving.


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Multiplayer: A keyword telling you that acard is most useful (or only useful) in a multi-player game. See Online Rules, p. 50.

Naval:All players have the following abilityrelevant to Naval cards:

Engage: If you are the Attacker, you havethe first opportunity to take a Battle action,

which must come from a card in a NavalPersonalitys unit. Passing that action doesnot count toward ending the action round.

Negate: A term that indicates a preventioneffect (p. 38). Negate an action means toprevent all the actions effects and targeting,from the time the negation is applied.

Opposed:A card, side, or army is opposed ata battlefield if there are one or more units inthe enemy army.

Opposing: Opposing refers to cards at thesame battlefield, on different sides.


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Overlay:See Experienced, p. 31

Own: You own all cards that were originallyin your play deck and that you brought intoplay from outside the game, including cards

you created. Cards you own can never go intoanother players decks or discard piles; theyalways go to yours instead.

Permanent: A permanent effect refers to aneffect whose duration lasts until the end of the

game. Permanent effects can still be negated,ended, and changed by other effects.

Prevention: A prevention effect is one thatuses language such as negate, cannot,does not, or will not. While a preventioneffect lasts, it makes another effect or type of

effect fail to happen whenever it would occur.When an ongoing type of effect is prevented(for example, Negate all Force bonuses onhim), this only suppresses existing effectsfor as long as the prevention lasts; it does notprevent new ones from applying. When an

instant type of effect is prevented (for example,


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Negate his destruction) this prevents neweffects of that type for as long as the negationeffect lasts.

Ranged Attack:A Ranged Attack represents amilitary effect that destroys at a distance, such asarchers arrows or a magical fiery bolt. Ranged

X Attack, where X stands for a number, is short-hand for the text Destroy a target enemy Fol-lower or Personality without Followers with Xor lower Force. A Ranged Attack action is one

with a Ranged Attack effect. If a Ranged Attack

effect ends up being compared against a differ-ent stat than Force, compare that stat against theRanged Attacks strength instead to determine

whether the target is destroyed.

Rehonor:See p. 16.

Repeatable: An ability with the Repeatablekeyword may be used any number of timesper turn.

Reserve:The following player abilities are rel-

evant to the Reserve keyword:


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Absent Repeatable Battle, : If he wouldbe opposed, Recruit your target ReservePersonality (into the current battlefield).


Reveal:To turn a facedown card faceup.

Search:To look through a deck or other area

for a card of a specified kind. After you searcha deck, you must reshuffle it after you take anycard(s) you searched for.

Seppuku:An act of ritual suicide. If an effectdirects a Personality to commit seppuku,

apply the following effects: Rehonor the Per-sonality, then destroy him; these effects willnot be negated.

Set:When a stat is set to a particular value,give it a bonus or penalty such that it reaches

the new value.

*

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Show:To display the face of a facedown cardto all other players, then return it to its facedown state.

Shugenja: A person trained in the magic ofRokugan. Only Shugenja Personalities canEquip and cast Spells.

Soul of :This is a keyword that includesanother Personalitys title, showing that thecurrent character is a descendant or discipleof the older character in the present genera-tion. Soul of Personalities are equivalent tothe older card for deck construction purposes.In a game, you may use a copy of the oldercard from a previous edition as a proxy forthe Soul of version, but you must informthe other player of any differences in stats or

wording between the two when it appears inthe game.

Switch:When an effect switches the locationsof two units, each one simultaneously movesto the location of the other. If one movement is

negated, the other one is also negated.


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Tactician: All Tactician Personalities havethe following ability, known as Tactical

Advantage.

Tactical Advantage

Battle:Discard a card to give this Personal-ity a Force bonus equal to the Focus Valueof the discarded card.

This ability cannot be removed or copied from

the Tactician Personality.Terrain: A Strategy with the Terrain keywordrepresents the ground on which a battle isfought. Most Terrains have a Battle ability thatputs them into play at the current battlefield.

After a battle ends, discard any Terrain at itsbattlefield.

Tireless:An ability with the Tireless keywordmay be used even if the card it is on is bowed.

Token: A marker in the game. You may use

beads, pieces of paper, or other distinct objects


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as tokens. Tokens may have a keyword (suchas Corruption). They may also give a stat bonusor penalty (such as 1C) to whatever they areon. This bonus or penalty is considered to comefrom the last effect that placed the token on thecard or area. Tokens are not cards. They are

removed from the game if the card they are onleaves play.

Transfer: To re-attach a card or token fromone card or province to another. You do notneed to pay the costs of a transferred card

again, but you do need to meet any restrictionson attaching.

Unaligned:Refers to a Personality, player, orStronghold without a Clan alignment. It is notitself a keyword.

Unique:A player cannot bring into play or takecontrol of a Unique card if he or she already con-trols a Unique card with the same title (but seeExperienced, p. 31). If a player takes control ofa unit with a copy of a Unique attachment he

or she already controls, discard the new attach-


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ment. The Unique keyword also restricts deckconstruction. See Deck Building, p. 22.

Weapon: A Personality can have only oneWeapon attached. Exception: See Kensai, p. 35.

Will Not:This phrase in a card effect means

that another effect is prevented (p. 38).

Special Circumstances

The following rules are for situations that maysometimes arise in advanced play.

Keywords

Keywords on abilities also apply to theircardsso, for example, a Strategy with a Polit-ical ability is a Political Strategy. Keywords oncards do not apply to their abilitiesan abilityon a Ninja card is not a Ninja ability unless it

says so. For example, Ninja Battle:


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In Play & Out of PlayCards must be in playthat is, in your homeor at a battlefieldto be legal targets, unlessthe targeting says or implies otherwise. To useits abilities, a card must either be in play, be

an Event played from your Province, or be aStrategy or Ring played from your hand. Abili-ties that break this rule will say that they canbe used from a different area (for example, Ifthis Follower is in your hand)

If a card is both out of play and face-down(including returning to the hand), it forgetsongoing effects on it, and other changes suchas whether its abilities have been used.

Bonuses, Penalties & StatsBonuses are effects from cards or player abili-ties that say they increase a stat. The addedForce and Chi from the relevant modifier stats

on Items are modifiers, not bonuses, but if


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an Item says This Personality has +2F whileopposed, that counts as a bonus.

All stats, except for Family Honor and HonorRequirement, have a minimum value of zero.

If you need to know a stats value at any time,

apply all current bonuses and penalties first,then apply any minimum or maximum value.

Example: If a card with 2 Force gets a-3F penalty, apply the penalty, then thebasic minimum of zero. This means that

the cards Force is zero for all purposes, not-1. If it then gets a +2F bonus, apply thebonus, the penalty, and the minimum, sothat it now has 1 Force.

UnitsReferences to a units keywordfor example, ACavalry unitmean a unit where the Personal-ity and each Follower in it (if any) all have that

keyword. For example, a unit with a Cavalry Per-


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sonality and a non- Cavalry Follower would notbe a Cavalry unit, because of the Follower.

Effects that do something to a unitfor exam-ple, bow or destroyhave their effect on eachcard in that unit.

If a Personality leaves play, all his or herattached cards leave play in the same way.

Simultaneous Things

As a general rule, if two or more things appearto happen simultaneously, the player whoseturn it is decides in what order they happen.More detailed rules covering this issue arefound in the Online Rules(see p. 50).

An exception is Interrupt actions, becausethey are taken at their players choice. Ifmore than one Interrupt can be triggered atthe same time, use a special action round.The active player has the first opportunity to

play an Interrupt to that action or pass, fol-


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lowed by the other player, and then the activeplayer has another opportunity. The actionround continues until both players pass con-secutively.

Empty Decks

If either the Dynasty or Fate deck runs out ofcards, nothing special happens, except thatthere are no more cards left in the deck. Prov-inces that cannot be refilled still exist. Use

markers to represent them.

Separate Effects

Each of an actions or traits effects is separate,

and will happen even if the other effects fail tohappen. For example, if an action says Battle:Straighten your target Personality and movehim home, if he is already unbowed you canstill take the action; the straightening fails, buthe still goes home.


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Online RulesVisit http://rules.l5r.com for errata and com-prehensive rules, plus variant rules for 3 ormore players, draft, sealed deck and more.Rules questions can be asked and officially

answered at the L5R CCG Rules Questionsforum (http://www.alderac. com/forum/).

The Tournament Rulebook is a resource fortournament judges and players, a printabledocument available online. They cover raresituations and questions such as:

c When can I play a card even though itwill have no effect (Good Faith Rule)?

c Does a created card have a printed Force?

c Does destruction for having zero Chicome from a card or the Rulebook? Whatabout destruction from a Ranged Attack?

The most detailed rules resource is the Com-prehensive Rules, also available online.


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Complete TurnSequence

1. Action Phase. Straighten your bowedcards and reveal cards in Provinces. Then

take an action round: your Limited and Openactions, your opponents Open actions.

2. (Optional) Attack Phase.You may declarean attack. Assign your unbowed Personali-ties to attack your opponents Provinces. Youropponent assigns unbowed Personalities todefend.

At each Province (Attacker decides order):

c Defender, then Attacker, take a round

of Engage actions.

c Combat Segment: Defender, thenAttacker, take a round of Battle actions.

c Resolution: Side with most total Force

wins, not counting bowed Personali-


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ties and Followers. Destroy all cards onthe losing side, or all cards if tied; eachplayer gets 2 Honor for each enemycard destroyed this way. Destroy theProvince if the Attackers total Force

was greater than the Defenders total

Force plus Province Strength.

c Attacking units return home, then bow.

3. Dynasty Phase.Bring Personalities and Hold-ings into play. Discard face-up Dynasty cards.

Draw cards up to your hand size limit (eight).

Action Phase Abilities

Cycle

Limited: If it is your first turn, choose oneor more face-up cards in your Provinces. Putthem on the bottom of your deck in any order.(Refill the empty Provinces face-down.) Then,

turn all cards in your Provinces face-up.


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EquipRepeatable Open, : Attach an attachmentcard, with Gold Cost equal to the amount youpaid, from your hand to your target Personality.

Lobby

Political Limited: If you have higher Fam-ily Honor than each other player, bow yourtarget unbowed Personality with 1 or morePersonal Honor to take the Imperial Favor.

Imperial Favor

Favor Political Limited:Discard the Impe-

rial Favor and a card to draw a card.

Kharmic

Kharmic Repeatable Limited, : Discard

a Kharmic card from your hand to draw

2

*


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a card, or discard a Kharmic card from yourProvince to refill the Province face-up.

Attack Phase Abilities

Engage Segment

Cavalry

Absent Engage:Target your unbowed Per-

sonality in a Cavalry unit at any location.Move him to the current battlefield.

Naval

Engage: If you are the Attacker, youhave the first opportunity to take a Battleaction, which must come from a card ina Naval Personalitys unit. Passing thataction does not count toward ending theaction round.


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Combat Segment

Imperial Favor

Favor Political Battle:Discard the Impe-rial Favor To move home a target attacking

enemy Personality.

Reserve

Absent Repeatable Battle, : If he wouldbe opposed, Recruit your target Reserve

Personality(into the current battlefield).


Tactical Advantage

Battle:Discard a card to give this Personal-ity a Force bonus equal to the Focus Value ofthe discarded card. (This is an ability granted

by the rules to each Tactician Personality)

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Dynasty Phase AbilitiesRecruit

Repeatable Dynasty, : Bring into play a

face-up Personality or Holding from your Prov-ince with Gold Cost equal to the amount youpaid, paying 2 more Gold if the Personality hasa Clan Alignment but does not have your Clan

Alignment. (Holdings enter play bowed.)

Once during your own turn, after youannounce a Recruit action or an action withRecruit as an effect, you may choose to Pro-claim the Personality being Recruited. If heh l l l

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