Hi! again. New to playing L5R and asking as a beginner who hasn't played a single game, but is trying to figure it all out by himself. The question is:

Can you add additional fate to a character during the dynasty phase?

Thanks!

Only when you originally buy the character. When you purchase a character from a province (Or play it from hand) you have the option to put fate on the character.

Additionally, during the dynasty phase, if you have a unique character in play, and have another unique character in either your province (or hand) of the same name, you can discard the one in the province (Or hand) to add one fate to the one in play.

You can't add fate without a specific card effect any other way.

20 minutes ago, Mirith said:

Additionally, during the dynasty phase, if you have a unique character in play, and have another unique character in either your province (or hand) of the same name, you can discard the one in the province (Or hand) to add one fate to the one in play.

As you cannot play Conflict characters during the dynasty phase, I'm fairly sure you cannot add fate in this way on a Conflict character at this time. All other action windows would be legal for this, though.

12 minutes ago, Ascarel said:

As you cannot play Conflict characters during the dynasty phase, I'm fairly sure you cannot add fate in this way on a Conflict character at this time. All other action windows would be legal for this, though.

Dynasty is the only action window where you can discard a dup from your hand.

From Duplicates:

Quote

A player may, as a player action during step 1.4 of the dynasty phase, discard a duplicate from his or her hand or provinces to place 1 fate on the copy of the character in play.

2 minutes ago, GoblinGuide said:

Dynasty is the only action window where you can discard a dup from your hand.

Holy ****, I got that wrong, didn't I. Apologies and thank you for this correction!

17 minutes ago, Ascarel said:

Holy ****, I got that wrong, didn't I. Apologies and thank you for this correction!

But, you are correct that you cannot play Conflict Characters from your hand during the Dynasty phase though, which is a good point. Attachments as well.

6 minutes ago, Mirith said:

But, you are correct that you cannot play Conflict Characters from your hand during the Dynasty phase though, which is a good point. Attachments as well.

I hate that I completely overlooked the duplicates rule all this time. What I am realizing now is that discarding a duplicate is a distinct rule, whereas I thought it was just a consequence of playing a unique character already on the board. But I went back to the rules reference and the section on Uniques is clear as day.

Apologies to the OP for this digression, but I guess it's still a relevant part of whole answer he is seeking.

29 minutes ago, Ascarel said:

whereas I thought it was just a consequence of playing a unique character already on the board. But I went back to the rules reference and the section on Uniques is clear as day.

Yeah, you can't play (or put into play, for that matter) a unique card (attachments as well as characters - unique holdings are 1 per deck to avoid running afoul of the uniqueness rule) if a copy of that card (as defined by its title) is already in play.

Sweet. Thank you guys so much for the full and detailed reply!