Controlled Characters

By JoerivR, in L5R LCG: Rules Discussion

Hi, new player here.

I have a question concerning the rules about control;

Some cards state "put a character you control into conflict". A lot of Unicorn cards grant this ability (my gf likes this clan, so we noticed this ability fairly quickly. In the Rules Reference on the FFG site it says that "in control" means all decks, provinces and out-of-play areas.

Does this mean these cards grant the ability to go through your decks and discard piles until the desired cards have been found?

Unless a card specifies otherwise it only interacts with other cards that are in play. For things like Shinjo Tatsuo and Golden Plains Outpost this means they can only move a character that is currently in play into the conflict. Cards like Charge! and Cavalry Reinforcements specify which zone you look in, your provinces and your dynasty discard respectively, so you only look there for their effect.

52 minutes ago, GoblinGuide said:

Unless a card specifies otherwise it only interacts with other cards that are in play. For things like Shinjo Tatsuo and Golden Plains Outpost this means they can only move a character that is currently in play into the conflict. Cards like Charge! and Cavalry Reinforcements specify which zone you look in, your provinces and your dynasty discard respectively, so you only look there for their effect.

Okay, thanks! That makes much more sense. This saves me having to deal with the same cavalery units every conflict. :P

9 minutes ago, JoerivR said:

Okay, thanks! That makes much more sense. This saves me having to deal with the same cavalery units every conflict. :P

Well, at least until she starts playing Cavalry Reserves to bring them back into play from the discard. :lol:

The rules reference is confusing in this aspect. The phrasing you are probably looking at is to say Province Cards (IE Pilgrimage) are considered in play. Characters IN provinces are not in play.