Hello,

Recently I was playing a game (Phoenix vs Scorpion). My opponent was unable to send defenders to the conflict. He continued to play cards as normal (pit trap). Is he allowed to do this? Can you still play cards such as events, attachments, etc without having any characters defending and potentially still win the conflict?

yes

You cannot play any cards that require you to have a participating character but other than that, the defending player is still in the conflict and can play cards as normal.

Yes, otherwise how would playing conflict characters work?

Well, that is some serious amounts of non-sense. Thank You for the replies.

Why nonsense? There is just no rule of participation (contrary to old5r), but it makes senses. There are limitations on some actions being played needing a participating. But TBH, without a body in the conflict, you ain't getting even 1 point of skill, so eventually, you prevent the opponent to win, but you don't win either.

You might be aiming to do something like clear out the attackers, or cripple them and then parachute a weak defender in who'd be vulnerable to being returned home or bowed by a special ability, so you wouldn't want to commit them early in the exchange.

Coming from Old L5R, this is something that took me a lot of time to get used to, as I was accustomed to the rules of Presence and Relevance.

It’s a new game with new rules. At first it was a bit jarring, but now I’ll happily send no defenders to a province under attack and then Assassinate one of their personalities at home.