Hi! I’m new to L5r and trying to learn the game on my own and have a quick question.

Does using a character’s ability automatically bow that card?

Thanks, I can’t seem to find the answer to this, but I am guessing no unless otherwise stated.

Whoops! Sorry for the double post.

Only if the ability specifies that you must bow the character as part of it, otherwise if does not box the characters.

Coming from other games that have an "exhaust"/"tap" mechanic, I understand the mental muscle memory. I have to keep remembering that just because someone used an action DOES NOT exclude them from being counted from conflicts. That, and that no action is relegated to only being used during a spelled out "action window", ie any action that can be satisfied at any time, can be played during your turn (obviously some actions can only be used during conflict, or province phase, but others don't have such stringent requirements). I love how much freedom that creates, but as of yet I've found no elegant way to easily mark what actions have been used any given turn :-/

7 minutes ago, MxPxP86 said:

Coming from other games that have an "exhaust"/"tap" mechanic, I understand the mental muscle memory. I have to keep remembering that just because someone used an action DOES NOT exclude them fro  m being counted from conflicts. That, and that no action is relegated to only being used during a spelled out "action window", ie any action that can be satisfied at any time, can be played during your turn (obviously some actions can only be used during conflict, or province phase, but others don't have such stringent requirements). I love how much freedom that creates, but as of yet I've found no elegant  way to easily mark what actions have  been u  sed  an  y give  n turn ?

That's only partially correct, unless I am misunderstanding your text, so I wanted to clarify: There are explicit action windows in which Action: abilities can be activated. Those occur in in the Dynasty phase, in the Draw phase after dials have been revealed and cards have been drawn, before any given conflict in the Conflict Phase, after attackers and defenders have been declared in a conflict, after the final conflict in the Conflict phase, and in the Fate phase after fate has been removed and characters discarded as appropriate. (I don't think there's one in the regroup phase? I could be wrong though.) Granted, it is most of the time, but you can't for example, use an Action ability in response to an opponent's action ability (before it resolves) or in response to an Interrupt/Reaction ability, after you've passed in the Dynasty Phase, or after Imperial Favor has been gained at the end of Conflict but before fate has been removed.

It's pretty flexible, but not completely flexible like in Magic: the Gathering, for comparison.

As for denoting the usage of abilities, I commonly see people use an unusual token on the character after the ability's been used. It needs to be distinct from fate and/or honored tokens, but is a decent solution. Not sure about tournament legality for it, however.

@AradonTemplar good clarification - I didn't want to go so far into the rulebook ? . Having mostly come from the old school Star Wars CCG, and only dabbled in m:tg, imo L5R has the most openings for actions/interrupts/"modification windows" than either of them. It also has a more elegant feel to "the stack" I think, whereas for magic, while it might be more straightforward and - usually - easier to resolve, L5Rs is just so much more dynamic. All of this is definitely my opinion! (and keeping track of used actions / bowed characters as already stated is an ugly side effect of the additional utility for any given card.)

I can't think of single card game where using a card's ability automatically bows it (or whatever word is used in that game). Cards bow because of game rules (when a creature attacks in Magic, for instance) or because of explicit card text (including a symbol), either as a cost or an effect.

Yeah, L5R is very open. As I wen to clarify when you *couldn't* use an ability, I was like, "hmm, this is a pretty short list"

I think the confusion about bowing a character when using the ability is that it's a traditional mechanic to tap something for once-per-turn activations. Obviously it's mechanically different, as it also takes away the ability to participate in conflicts, but people can naturally assume it is implied, especially after seeing it in the rules that characters bow after a conflict.