This is now replaced by the RRG v16 reprint changes and no longer valid. Discarding cards, choosing an event and playing it are all part of the effects so it can be triggered as long as there is at least 1 card in your deck and/or a character in your discard pile.

The instructions of a card ability that say to “initiate a duel” count as part of that ability (which is why Mantra of Earth and Above Question stop it). When resolving the effect that says to “resolve the duel,” you go through the series of framework steps to resolve the duel, applying any modifiers granted by the card effect to the dueling characters (for example, Challenge on the Fields). The duel results (D8) are part of the card’s effect as the effect specifies what happens at this point. To that end, “initiating a duel” (D.1) is considered part of a card ability, as it determines which characters can be chosen for the card’s effect, while the process of calculating a duel’s result (D.2-D.7 and D.9) are framework steps that can be modified by card effects (again, see Challenge on the Fields). The duel’s results (D.8) are determined by the card effect and are not a framework step. The core logic is that “initiate a duel” is never a framework step as the parameters are sometimes determined by the text on the card, while every step in “resolving a duel” that is not written on the card is a framework step. As the duel’s results (D.8) are written on the card, those effects are not a framework step. [Tyler Parrott, Feb 19 2020]

When playing a card without paying its fate cost, you skip the step where X would be defined. Therefore, X is zero when playing Favorable Alliance with Kunshu. [Tyler Parrott, Oct 29 2020]

No you cannot. He must be able to move to the conflict to switch sides. [Tyler Parrott, Jan 27 2020]

1. All of the initial elements of the card effect (move home & bow, move the conflict, you move in your characters) are simultaneous. Therefore, if you had Clarity of Purpose’d your own character they could not be moved in. However, your opponent moves in their characters after all of the above have been resolved (note the “then”) so they could move in a formerly-participating character kept ready by Clarity. 2. You are at the new province once the initial elements have occurred (so after everything has been done by you and before your opponent moves in). [Tyler Parrott, Feb 14 2020]

If you blank an eminent province and then flip it facedown, it will remain facedown until it is attacked (or turned faceup by a card effect). [Tyler Parrott, Mar 4 2020]

The next Rules Reference will explicitly call out covert, but covert happens before the province is revealed/engaged. Everything else happens at the same time. So: Framework: Declare attackers (and covert), province, ring, type. Reaction: Covert initiates & resolves (Tengu Sensei) Framework: Above declarations simultaneously engage. Reveal engaged province. Reactions: Attackers declared, province revealed/engaged (Midnight Revels), ring becomes contested (Yuikimi & Trusted Advisor), conflict declared (Shiro Kitsuki) All of the above reactions trigger one-at-a-time back and forth between the players, starting with the first player (as with any reaction window). [Tyler Parrott, Sep 13 2019]

The attack was declared against Secret Cache, so Cache gets to trigger. Midnight Revels does not, as the conflict was moved to it (not declared). [Tyler Parrott, Mar 2 2020]

Know the Terrain interrupts “when a conflict is declared against a facedown province,” and the “before the province is revealed” is primarily there to ensure that players don’t accidentally reveal the province before resolving Know the Terrain. The “when a conflict is declared” interrupt window happens after the selections are made (ring, type, attackers, province) but before actually resolving any of those selections (that’s how interrupts work). Therefore, the conflict has not actually begun while Know the Terrain is resolving. In contrast, Crashing Wave reacts after the conflict is declared, but before the facedown province (if applicable) is revealed. This places it in the same timing window as covert (though covert technically occurs first as it’s a keyword). The attacking player has already gained fate from the declared ring when Crashing Wave is played. Characters are participating at this point. Here’s a little chart that hopefully helps: Interrupt window: A conflict is declared against a facedown province—Know the Terrain is played. If Tadakatsu is in play, choose the element first. Attacking player declares characters, conflict type, element, and province. Fate from the contested ring goes to the attacking player, covert is chosen and resolves. Special “The Crashing Wave” reaction window occurs. If the province is facedown, it is revealed. Reaction window for steps b-d, above. (Note that Tengu Sensei will trigger even if covert failed to resolve.) Declare defenders. If your only attacker dies while resolving The Crashing Wave, then the conflict continues to resolve and you can move or play characters into the conflict. It has already been declared. If your only attacker dies while resolving Know the Terrain, then it was never attacking to begin with and your conflict declaration opportunity fails to resolve (you may still declare the same conflict type again, and the conflict was not considered passed, you’re just down a conflict opportunity for the round). [Tyler Parrott, Mar 2 2020]

There is a slight difference, which is that Know the Terrain is played before the conflict is declared whereas The Crashing Wave is played after the conflict is declared (but before revealing the province). Mostly this just means that in-conflict effects are active, though I’ll admit I can’t think of any off the top of my head. I guess it would matter if Master of Gisei Toshi were preventing The Crashing Wave from being played, whereas Master couldn’t prevent the Know the Terrain? [Tyler Parrott, Jan 27 2020]

This is a collection of rulings on various cards that interact with the conflict declaration process, but I'll put this chart at the top that should combine all the rulings. (a) Attacking Player announces they will declare a conflict ===Interrupt Window (1) : "When Player declares a conflict / When a conflict is declared" (7 Stings Keep)=== ===Resolution begins: "A Conflict is Declared”=== i. If Tadakatsu is in play, defender chooses ring first. ii. Attacking player chooses conflict elements - ring, province, attackers, etc. iii. Attacking player pays costs to declare attackers (Caravan Guard) and the attack initiates. ===Interrupt Window (2) : "When a conflict is declared, before province reveal" (Know the Terrain)=== ===Resolution begins: "A conflict is declared, before reveal” === (b) Conflict Begins. choices from i and ii take effect - attackers are participating, attacked province was declared, ring is contested. (c) Attacker takes ring fate, covert is chosen and resolves. ===Resolution complete: "A conflict is declared, before province reveal"=== ===Reaction window (1): After a conflict is declared, before reveal" (The Crashing Wave)=== (d) Province is revealed, if facedown. ===Reaction window (2): “After a conflict is declared…”, simultaneous reactions to (b), (c) and (d) === (e) Defending Player declares defenders, if needed.

The removed ring will not receive fate during the fate phase while it is removed from the unclaimed ring pool, but it can be chosen by effects that refer to any ring (regardless of zone) such as Master of Gisei Toshi or Secluded Shrine. [Tyler Parrott, Sep 13 2020] (1) The attachment is not discarded—the ring is not out of play, it is just removed from the unclaimed ring pool (which removes it from most cards’ abilities to interact with it) (2) You can spend fate to the Fire ring with Master Alchemist if the ring has been removed from the unclaimed ring pool. [Tyler Parrott, Sep 21 2020]

Your points are valid, and it sounds like Stoke Insurrection will need templating errata to match Ikoma Ujiaki’s templating. Note that it would retain the sequencing “then,” which would mean that revealing a rally card in your opponent’s provinces would give you an additional potential character to put into play, as the rally keyword would occur immediately after revealing the cards but before the characters are chosen. [Tyler Parrott, Sep 2 2020]

Bayushi Kachiko’s 3-card limit is based on initiating the process of playing cards, so if a card’s costs were interrupted it would still count as having been played to her limit. (However, it would not be removed from the game as it did not reach step 8 of (Initiating Abilities/)Playing Cards and thus “after you play a card in this way” has not been satisfied.)

Your opponent may elect to do nothing when Negotiation Table is triggered, at which point the ability resolves with no effect. [Tyler Parrott, Apr 15 2020]

Keywords resolve immediately after the triggering condition occurs, before triggering any reaction abilities. In this sense, they are “faster” than reactions. You could break down the triggering condition timing such that effects resolve as such: 1. Forced Interrupt a. Would b. Not-would 2. Interrupt a. Would b. Not-would 3. Triggering Condition 4. Keyword 5. Forced Reaction 6. Reaction Reactions (and forced reactions) cannot interrupt the resolution of abilities, but interrupts and keywords can. (I don’t think it’s explicitly spelled out in this way in the rulebook, but it sounds like something that would do to be added to the next available rules update! To your Omoidasu/Toturi question, the Omoidasu would be able to trigger its ability twice to two separate instances of “dishonor a character,” but they would occur within the same reaction window. (Per “Triggering Condition” on page 20 of the RRG, multiple triggering conditions are handled in a shared interrupt/reaction window.) [Tyler Parrott, Sep 16 2020]

Looks like the relevant RRG section will need to be updated. Rally does trigger a reshuffle if there are no cards left in your dynasty deck. [Tyler Parrott, May 5 2020]

You can use Dragon Tattoo after playing an event you legally cannot play (such as Banzai!) as it will still remove that card from the game.

All minimums must be observed regardless of the order of the cost reduction effects; therefore, the higher minimum is the limiting factor. Meishōdō Wielder + Those Who Serve still causes the shugenja to cost 1 (not 0). If you use two Yasuki Procurers, you can reduce a 2-cost character’s cost to 0, but once you apply Those Who Serve it “bottoms out” at 1 cost. [Tyler Parrott, Mar 30 2020] Uh, yes. That should be correct: if Eager Scout had its cost increased and then re-reduced by TSW, it would still cost 1 as TSW cannot reduce it below 1. [Tyler Parrott, Mar 31 2020]

By the time Favorable Dealbroker and/or Kaiu Shihobu can trigger their reaction, the other cards seen by Kyūden Hida have been discarded. You fully discard the looked-at cards before the reaction window for playing Dealbroker/Shihobu opens. Note that this is different from Wayfarer’s Camp/Invoke the Divine because those cards instruct you to play multiple cards, whereas Kyūden Hida only has you play one (so you can resolve its full effect before opening the reaction window). [Tyler Parrott, 26 Mar 2020]

The “controlled by the same player” clause applies to the province, not the card being chosen. Therefore, a Total Warfare on an opponent’s province (or a card in an opponent’s province) can only be moved to another province controlled by the same opponent. [Tyler Parrott, Mar 23 2020]

All Out Assault creates a lasting effect that forces each player to declare as many characters as possible as attackers. Seven Stings Keep forces its controller to declare exactly the number of attackers named. If I name 2, I must attack with exactly two characters (SSK) which is also as many characters as I am legally allowed to attack with (AOA). Basically, the more restrictive SSK takes precedence. Similarly, if you controlled two Young Warriors and triggered SSK naming 1, you would be forced to attack with a single Young Warrior. The other would like to participate, but since you cannot legally declare two attackers one of them has to sit out. [Tyler Parrott, Mar 17 2020]

This does contradict (and overrule) the ruling on Grasp of Earth, which Nate French made back in 2017. I would rule that Grasp of Earth applies its “cannot move” effect to the conflict, not to characters that have yet to enter play (much in the same way that it prevents characters from being played from hand as a rule, rather than affecting each character card in the opponent’s hand). [Tyler Parrott, Oct 21 2020]

Superior Authority applies a lasting effect to the conflict, not to the characters within the conflict. (For reference, it would apply the lasting effect to the characters if it said “each character with no fate does not count its skill…”) Therefore, which characters count their skill is checked when the conflict resolves, so characters who enter play (or lose fate) after the event is played will not count their skill, and characters who gain fate after the event is played will count their skill. [Tyler Parrott, Oct 20 2020] Good question! (Man L5R is complicated isn’t it.) The character in your provinces does not have fate on it, therefore Superior Authority would prevent it from contributing its skill even though it is not in play. [Tyler Parrott, Oct 21 2020]

It’s not quite as complicated as all that. The fate will still be returned to the token pool as cards in the discard pile cannot have tokens on them. You are correct that Embrace the Void cannot trigger during a conflict at By Onnotangu’s Light. [Tyler Parrott, Oct 20 2020]