Rules clarifications

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For when the rule exists in the book, but is split through various paragraphs, sidebars, pages, books, etc.

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Official errata

Available here, under Support > FAQ: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/l ... ying-game/

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Honor

A character's honor rank is equal to the tens digit of their total honor attribute. [Core, page 37]

As soon as a character's honor reaches 65 or greater, including at character creation, they gain the Paragon of [Bushidō Tenet] Distinction for the tenet of their choice, in addition to their normal advantages and disadvantages [Core pages 108 & 300]. If the honor of the character falls under that threshold, they immediately lose that Distinction (but can regain it if their honor is restored).

Should their honor becomes even greater (80 or more), they would gain a second such advantage, for a different Tenet.

Similarly, if a character's honor falls to 29 or lower, they acquire the Disdain for [Bushidō Tenet] Adversity for the tenet of their choice [Core pages 120 & 300].

Paragon Distinctions and Disdain Adversities can also be acquired as normal Distinctions/Adversities, in which case they aren't tied to the honor attribute.

For example: Shosuro Alice can have at the same time a Paragon of Duty and Loyalty Distinction (from question 9 of character creation), 4 other advantages and disadvantages from character creation (questions 10-13), and a Disdain of Courage Adversity (from her honor only being 25 after heritage roll).

Glory

A character's glory rank is equal to the tens digit of their total glory attribute. [Core, page 37]

Like for honor, and following the same rules, a high glory grants one extra Distinction, of the Famously [Something] variety [Core, pages 104, 105 & 304], and low glory one extra Adversity, of the Whispers of [Something] variety [Core, pages 129, 130 & 304].

Status

Monk characters start with Status 25 [Core, page 305]
Ronin characters start with status 24 [hinted at in Core, page 305, confirmed in Path of Waves, page 43]

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Advantages and disadvantages

An applied distinction advantage cancels (and is canceled by) an applied adversity disadvantage; passions and anxieties cancel each other out in the same manner. Canceled advantages and disadvantages have no effect on the resolution of the check. [Core, page 24]

Only one advantage or disadvantage of a given category (distinction, adversity, etc.) can be resolved on a given check. [Core, page 24]

Advantages and disadvantages are associated with the rings for which they most commonly apply. Not a hard restriction by any mean. [Core, page 99]

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Equipment

A traveling pack is defined as an assortment of items carried within a furoshiki, or decorative wrapping cloth, and consists of the following: Blanket, bowl, chopsticks, four days of travel rations, flint and tinder, and any three other items of the player’s choice that are rarity 4 or lower. [Core, page 245]

Bokken can be used for Iaijutsu Cut techniques despite lacking the Razor-Edged quality. [Core, page 232]

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Opportunities

Tables for opportunities are on pages 328 and 329 of the Core book. They can also be found there (external link).

A character can only resolve a given opportunity effect once per check, but some opportunities can scale with additional symbols spent. [Core, page 28]

Thus:
: [some effect] -> Shortcut for "once per check, you may spend one opportunity to get [some effect] once"
: [some effect] -> Shortcut for "once per check, you may spend two opportunities to get [some effect] once"
+: [some effect] -> Shortcut for "once per check, you may spend one or more opportunities to get [some effect] dependent on the number of opportunities spent that way"

Opportunity symbols on dice are resolved after strife symbols on dice [Core, pages 23-25]. Therefore, the (once per roll) Water opportunity healing 2 strife can be used to "cancel" strife on the same roll.

A number of school abilities refers to "adding X kept dice set to results". This is a roundabout way of saying you get a static bonus of +X opportunities to your final roll result.

The default option +: Remove 1 strife you gained from this check per spent this way can only remove strife taken as part of the same check (basically, strife and opportunity symbols cancel each other on a one-one basis), not heal previously taken strife.

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Conditions

As soon as a character's strife becomes strictly greater than their composure, they become Compromised. As soon as their strife becomes equal to or lower than their composure, they lose the Compromised condition.

A Compromised character's vigilance is treated as 1 (this can be relevant for some techniques).

[Core, pages 30 & 272]

As soon as a character's fatigue becomes strictly greater than their endurance, they become Incapacitated. As soon as their fatigue becomes equal to or lower than their endurance, they lose the Incapacitated condition. [Core, pages 272 & 273]

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Combat vocabulary

A weapon's Base Damage (DMG) represents the easiness with which said weapon can land a clean hit.

An armor's (Physical) Resistance is the opposite of that, making it harder to hit a vulnerable spot.

Meanwhile, a weapon's Deadliness (DLS) represents how destructive the hit is when it lands.

[Core, pages 230-231, 238 & 268]

The Incapacitated condition, on its own, represents the character being exposed, opened, vulnerable (Prone and Unconscious are different conditions).

When a character successfully strikes at another character during a Skirmish, as a default, the following algorithm applies:

If the character is not Incapacitated yet, i.e. their current fatigue is lower or equal than their endurance, they avoid the hit, and increase their fatigue by an amount equal, as a default, to the weapon's DMG, minus their armor's Physical Resistance, plus the attacker's bonus successes. This can leave them Incapacitated as the result of the assault, and thus opened to further attacks. But, at the moment, they're still fine.

If the character is already Incapacitated, they take the hit, suffering a critical strike with a severity equal, as a default, to the weapon's DLS, as well as the Unconscious condition.

[Core, pages 264, 268-270, 272-273]

Opportunities and techniques can often be used to land a clean hit ("inflict a critical strike") without first needing to tire down the opponent.

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Scenes

Stances [Core, page 251] are only used during Conflict Scenes.

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Duels

Since strife symbols are resolved before opportunities symbols [Core, pages 23-25], it's technically possible for a character to gain and lose the Compromised condition as part of the same roll, by bypassing their Composure at the strife step, and healing enough strife at the immediately after opportunity step.

A technicality relevant in the case of a duel, as it does explicitly trigger the Finishing Blow. [Core, page 259]

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Improvised weapons

An improvised weapon uses the most similar weapon profile, with DMG and DLS reduced by 1, and is wielded with Martial Arts [Unarmed].

[Core page 230]

For example, if used as a weapon, a broom would be treated as a makeshift bō, i.e. a Mundane polearm of DMG 5 and DLS 1.

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Derived Attributes

Vigilance is (Air Ring + Water Ring) / 2 rounded up.

[Core page 36, inferred from sidebar]

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Conflicts

The Initiative check at the very start of a Conflict does not benefit from stance bonus. [Core page 250]

A character may change stance at the start of their first turn (they couldn't in 4th ed, but there's no rule against it in 5th).

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Non-samurai born characters

In games where the Path of Waves supplement is not allowed (like this one), rules for making a ronin or monk not born in a great clan can be found on page 306 of Core.

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Checks

TN can never be reduced below 1. [Core, page 27]

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Grips

You may change a weapon's grip, from one handed to two handed and the other way around, "for free" at the start of your round, when you change your stance. Readying a new weapon requires an action, however.

[Core, page 251]