This is for rules questions that they might actually be able to answer at the facebook live event on Friday 5/12. Here are mine.

Edit - After the Facebook Live event, we have some answers! in blue below.

Answered on 5/12:

1) Can you take actions if you have no one in your army? For example, can you play "Cloud the Mind" if you have no one in your army but have a Shugenja at home? Yes
2) Can Isawa Masahiro use his action even if he isn't in the army? Can he use his action if your army is empty? The same question applies to Solemn Scholar. Yes, design philosophy is "shugenjas do stuff from a distance, bushis need to be there"
3) When a conflict is taking place, is the ring currently being contested considered to be "unclaimed" for purposes of card effects? Or are "unclaimed", "contested", and "claimed" three distinct states? - They are three distinct states. A contested ring is not unclaimed.
4) Can bowed cards/characters use printed abilities? Yes
5) What happens if a personality with a "dash" skill finds themselves in a conflict of that type? For example: A player declares a military conflict and assigns Matsu Berserker against a Mori Kuroi Province, which immediately gets changed to political. Does the Berserker continue to participate in the conflict, or does he immediately leave? If he leaves, does he go home bowed or unbowed? They go home bowed immediately

Answered on 5/26

1) Does the attacker "win" if his/her army is empty at battle resolution if the opponent's total skill is also 0? You need at least 1 skill to win a conflict.
2) Who wins a tie in a duel? No one. No winner. No loser.
3) If a "Conflict Deck" card has no influence symbols, what does that mean? It can't be splashed
4) What happens when a deck is empty? You lose 5 honor and reshuffle.

Answered on 6/23

1) Can the effect (not cost) of an action target someone who it will not affect? Example, can you bow an already bowed target, or honor an already honored target? All choices made must impact the game state. You can never chose to bow someone who is already bowed or to dishonor someone who can't be dishonored.
2) It has been noted that each province card has an element on it, and speculation is that this effects deck building. Can you elaborate? Your 5 provinces must contain one of each element.

Unanswered:

1) One article says that actions on Characters are "once per turn". Is this true of actions on Attachments and Strongholds as well?
2) Can conflict characters be played outside of Conflict? If they need to be played during a conflict, can they be played into your home?
5) What happens if someone with a - stat enters a duel of that type?
6) What are "Personalities", mentioned in the product page?
7) How does restricted work? Can you not target a character with a restricted attachment if they already have 2, or can you choose to discard one of the attachments?

More as they are posted.

Please, only rules questions. Things like "Are the mantis coming back?" or "what about multiplayer?" are not likely to be answered.

Edit: I'm going to play this like Kiseki's "Common Misconceptions" thread and add to this original post as additional good questions are raised, with a "Good" question being one that hasn't been answered anywhere and that cannot have it's answer easily determined by the presented information.

To nick one from another thread:

Why do you have to bow the Stronghold for their action? As far as we can tell, it changes nothing about the rest of the game.

10 minutes ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

To nick one from another thread:

Why do you have to bow the Stronghold for their action? As far as we can tell, it changes nothing about the rest of the game.

I just answered that one in the other thread, but I don't mind repeating it here. We've seen in the rules revealed so far that "Character abilities may only be used once per round, unless otherwise specified, like the Wandering Ronin (Core Set, 127)." (Emphasis mine). My conclusion is that they do not have such inherent once-per-turn restrictions on Strongholds, or Attachments for that matter -- note how the Jade Tetsubo requires you to bow the attachment in order to use its ability. And therefore, bowing the Stronghold is a way to limit the ability to once per turn, unless you have an ability that can ready a Stronghold card. (No such ability has been revealed so far.)

What happens if you swap a conflict's ring with an unclaimed ring that has fate on it?

Similarly, if a player declares an Air conflict does the Air ring still count as unclaimed until the conflict is over (and is thus a legal target for Togashi Initiate's ability)?

Can you play conflict Characters during the action window before/after a conflict, or is it just during a conflict? Do you have to play them into a conflict if you play them while a conflict is happening?

Can you honor a character who is already honored and dishonor a character who is already dishonored (i.e. can a dishonored character be a Spy at Court and are dishonored characters 'immune' to For Shame!)?

Can bowed cards/characters use printed abilities?

What happens when a character with a dash skill finds themselves forced into a conflict of said skill?

1 minute ago, Kiseki said:

What happens when a character with a dash skill finds themselves forced into a conflict of said skill?

I think this is covered in the articles. A character with a dash cannot participate in that kind of conflict.

First round of updates.

I reworded some of your questions to get to what I feel is the heart of the question. I apologize if I misinterpreted anyone.

Just now, Yogo Gohei said:

I think this is covered in the articles. A character with a dash cannot participate in that kind of conflict.

Yes, I know that's the phrasing, but what happens to them? Do they return home bowed/unbowed? Is it as though they were never attempted to assign? Do they sit like a log? Do I get a chance to try to switch the conflict back to what I'd originally wanted (provided that exists) or to cancel your action? Do they explode?

By extension, can they find themselves in a duel revolving around their dash stat? Can they receive any kind of bonus to the skill that is being checked during the other stat (for example against a Lion Pride Brawler)?

1 minute ago, Kiseki said:

Yes, I know that's the phrasing, but what happens to them? Do they return home bowed/unbowed? Is it as though they were never attempted to assign? Do they sit like a log? Do I get a chance to try to switch the conflict back to what I'd originally wanted (provided that exists) or to cancel your action? Do they explode?

By extension, can they find themselves in a duel revolving around their dash stat? Can they receive any kind of bonus to the skill that is being checked during the other stat (for example against a Lion Pride Brawler)?

Since we don't have an example of a card that would create this kind of situation, it's hard to ask a constructive question on this point at this time.

The duel point is interesting, but since we haven't even seen a duel yet...

Just now, Yogo Gohei said:

Since we don't have an example of a card that would create this kind of situation, it's hard to ask a constructive question on this point at this time.

That's fair enough. Examples from cards that we've seen is the best way to get definitive answers to anything.

There was a card that let you change either the ring or the type of the battle. So, attacker declares military and assigns someone with '-' politics. Defender reveals the province and changes the type to political. What happens to the attacker?

Just now, agarrett said:

There was a card that let you change either the ring or the type of the battle. So, attacker declares military and assigns someone with '-' politics. Defender reveals the province and changes the type to political. What happens to the attacker?

EXCELLENT POINT!

Just now, Yogo Gohei said:

EXCELLENT POINT!

1 minute ago, Yogo Gohei said:

Since we don't have an example of a card that would create this kind of situation, it's hard to ask a constructive question on this point at this time.

The duel point is interesting, but since we haven't even seen a duel yet...

Let me construct an actual Situation then.

• Matsu Berserker attacks the Phoenix Stronghold with a Military Conflict.
• The Phoenix, to no-one but the Berserker's surprise, reveal that the province is Mori Kuroi.
• The first thing that happens is the Phoenix uses their action to turn the conflict into a Political one, using the action on their Province.

What happens to the Matsu Berserker?

26 minutes ago, agarrett said:

There was a card that let you change either the ring or the type of the battle. So, attacker declares military and assigns someone with '-' politics. Defender reveals the province and changes the type to political. What happens to the attacker?

If the rules are like previous FFG rules (particularly Game of Thrones, which this is very close to), then the character is in a fight they're completely useless in. The restriction for a – stat is just on assigning.

Maybe this was answered in an article: will there be an action opportunity before the decleration of every conflict? In other words once one conflict is resolved will a player get to play cards before they declare the next conflict type/pass?

duplicate post

Second duplicate post

35 minutes ago, Gaffa said:

If the rules are like previous FFG rules (particularly Game of Thrones, which this is very close to), then the character is in a fight they're completely useless in. The restriction for a – stat is just on assigning.

4 minutes ago, Yogo Gohei said:

For those with knowledge of the GoT card game, do any of the other questions have equivalences there??

In other FFG LCGs, cards can use their abilities even while in the sideways position (whatever the game calls it) unless the ability requires the card to be turned sideways. It is a very safe assumption that it will be the same in L5R.

FFG games are also pretty liberal with action windows. You generally can't do stuff while game events are occurring (such as declaring attackers or resolving the effects of winning a challenge), but basically you can do any phase-appropriate action between every step of that phase.

For example, in Game of Thrones, there is the Ambush mechanic that lets you play characters during the challenges phase. You can play them before you initiate a challenge, or even after your opponent initiates one and before you declare defenders. You can also play them during a challenge itself, though it won't add the character to the challenge like it will in L5R.

7 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

To nick one from another thread:

Why do you have to bow the Stronghold for their action? As far as we can tell, it changes nothing about the rest of the game.

In Agot your house card is bowed for certain actions. These can be Agenda (Sensei), Locations (holdings), Strategy cards and Personalities.

We might see none in the Core set that use it but's a possibility down the line.

Deck sizes confirmation (minimum/maximum)

21 minutes ago, Aingeru said:

Deck sizes confirmation (minimum/maximum)

40-45 each, Dynasty - Conflict. Answered in the AMA at Reddit.