Above Question Limitations

By suburbaknght, in L5R LCG: Rules Discussion

Does Above Question render a character ineligible as a a target for any opponent's events or only for events that specifically target that character?

Kris is playing Crane and puts Brash Samurai in play, then attaches Above Question ( Attached character cannot be chosen as a target of an opponent's event.) . Kris declares a Conflict against Carl who is playing Crab. Carl blocks with Kaiu Envoy.

1) Carl wants to play Assassination ( Action: During a conflict, lose 3 honor. Choose a character with printed cost 2 or lower – discard that character. (Max 1 per round.)) on the Brash Samurai but can't because Above Question prevents Carl from choosing the Brash Samurai as a target, correct?

2) If Carl plays Court Games ( Action: During a Political conflict, select one – choose and honor a participating character you control, or your opponent chooses and dishonors a participating character he or she controls. (Max 1 per conflict.) ) and chooses to have his opponent dishonor a character, is the Brash Samurai eligible to be chosen since it's Kris doing the choosing?

3) If Carl plays Way of the Crab ( Action: Sacrifice a (friendly) character. Choose an opponent – that player must sacrifice a character. (Max 1 per round.)) and sacrifices the Kaiu Envoy, is the Brash Samurai eligible to be chosen since it's Kris doing the choosing?

Thank you!

Based on the wording, Above Question doesn't look at who is targeting the attached character, only who played the event (your opponent). So let's apply that to each scenario:

1) Assassination has a targeting requirement before the effect. Brash Samurai cannot be targeted by Carl's events, therefore to use Assassination Carl must select a different target that is valid.

2) Carl must select one of the options listed. Per Rules Reference, "Select" pp.14-15, "For all selections, an option that has the potential to change the game state must be chosen, if able." In the given example, Carl cannot select the option of dishonoring an opponent's participating character, since that would require Kris to target Brash Samurai for the dishonor effect.

(Note: Someone else might want to speak up on this one, as the Targeting section of the RR states: "The resolution of some effects (such as post-then effects, or delayed effects) requires that targets are chosen after the initiation of the effect. Such targets need not be verified when checking play restrictions and determining whether or not the entire ability may initiate. If there are no valid targets at the time such targets would be chosen, that aspect of the effect fails to resolve." This could suggest that if Kris doesn't have another valid target for the dishonoring, then the effect would fail. However, I don't believe this would apply since Carl must first select an option that would result in a change to the game state.)

3) This is a tricky one. The text of Way of the Crab does not actually include any "targeting" wording, so at least with the ability as written, I would say that Above Question would not protect Brash Samurai from being discarded in this situation, since mechanically speaking there doesn't appear to be any targeting involved.

If an opponent's event instructs a player to choose a target, the character with Above Question cannot be chosen.
This also applies to events that instruct another player to choose targets (e.g. Court Games ).

Above Question does not prevent attached character from being sacrificed for Way of the Crab (that event doesn't instruct a player to "choose" a character, so it's non-targeting).

Thanks!