29 minutes ago, GoblinGuide said:

I didn't realize that's how old L5R worked, so I guess that could be the case. I would have expected Jade Tetsubo to be worded differently though; it explicitly requires that the attached character is participating in a conflict to be used.

I have seen this wording as well, which got me wondering. However the other side of this is you could use actions during Dynasty phase or conflict stage, and this forces the conflict stage only.

If the Golden Rule is that "can't" beats "can," then the Silver Rule is that all cards may be played normally, unless something states otherwise.