Darling of the Season

Legend of the Five Rings card from Honor's Veil

Card Type

Event

Keywords

Unique

Card Text

After you reveal cards in your Provinces at the start of your turn, if this Event is face-up in one of them, until the game ends, after a player has lost 5 total points of Honor from other players' cards' effects in one turn, counting incremental portions of losses, negate further points lost from such effects that turn, including partially negating portions of losses before they would make a player lose more than 5 points.

Legality

Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: In reference to this: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=96209
  Sorry to repost the question, but I am under the impression that several things changed with the Oracle of the Void's texts. Namely, negation seems to be unaffected by Seppun Sensei, since it is not the same as decreasing the gain or loss. So I think answers 1, 3 and 4 should be reversed. Am I wrong?
  Seppun Sensei (Oracle of the Void's text) [...] Your Honor losses and gains will not be increased, decreased, given to another player, or copied.
  Darling of the Season (Oracle of the Void's text) Until the game ends, after a player has lost 5 total points of Honor from other players' cards' effects in one turn, counting incremental portions of losses, negate further points lost from such effects that turn, including partially negating portions of losses before they would make a player lose more than 5 points.
  Deeds, not Words (Oracle of the Void's text) [...] Sources besides these which cause him to gain Honor have their gains negated and cause him an Honor loss equal to the amount negated.
  A: After discussion, the relevant trait of Seppun Sensei has been changed to: Your Honor losses and gains will not be negated, substituted, increased, decreased, given to another player, or copied. Alex Jones, "Re: Seppun Sensei vs. negation, maximum and substitution", 2 Mar 2012
• Q: I have Seppun Sensei in play. 1) Does it prevent me from using effects that would negate my Honor loss (such as Hantei Naseru's first reaction)? 2) If Hantei Naseru's second reaction is activated, will I be unaffected by the honor gain reduction? 3) If Darling of the Season has resolved and I suffer a single 7-point Honor loss (such as Shame), will I lose 5 or 7 honor? 4) If my opponent plays Deeds not Words, will my relevant honor gains become losses?
  Seppun Sensei [...] Your Honor losses and gains cannot be changed, redirected or copied.
  Darling of the Season Until the end of the game, each player cannot lose more than 5 points of Honor in total from other players' cards in a single turn.
  Hantei Naseru Political Reaction: When any player loses Honor, discard the Imperial Favor to negate the loss. Political Reaction: When your turn begins, discard the Imperial Favor as a cost for this action and name a phase. Until your next turn begins, lower all Honor gains to half, rounded down, during that phase of each player's turn. [...]
  Deeds, not Words Political Open: Target a player. Until the end of the turn, that player gains 1 Honor in addition to any other award when one of his Personalities wins a duel, and 1 additional Honor for each opposing card destroyed in the Resolution Segment of battle. Honor gains from any other source are counted as losses instead of gains for that player.
  A: Please note that any and all of these rulings may change once the Oracle of the Void is released - in particular #4, which is a ruling I remember from playing at the time but could easily be changed with the updated wordings on Seppun Sensei and Deeds, Not Words.
  1. You may use abilities such as Hantei Naseru's first reaction, but the Sensei will prevent them from applying.
  2. You will be unaffected by the honor gain reduction from Hantei Naseru's second reaction.
  3. Darling of the Season will attempt to partially negate the honor gain, and Seppun Sensei will cause this partial negation to fail.
  4. Edit: It's been pointed out to me that the Gold Edition MRP of Deeds, Not Words uses a wording that creates a substitution effect, which Seppun Sensei will stop. Jon Palmer, "Seppun Sensei vs. negation, maximum and substitution", 13 Feb 2012
• Q: (D)oes Deception's Veil Dojo count as a card for the purposes of Darling of the Season?
  A: http://rules.l5r.com/Card_types#Stronghold: "Effects, targeting and costs applied to 'cards' do not apply to a Stronghold unless they specifically mention the word 'Stronghold.'"
  Darling of the Season neither involves targeting or a cost. I would also say that it is not generating an effect on the stronghold, either; it's generating an effect on honor gains.
  I'm sure if other members of the Rules Junta think differently, they'll chirp up. Zen Faulkes, "Darling of the Season vs. Deception's Veil Dojo", 16 Mar 2009
• Q: Hi. I thought that it is easy question and could be quickly confirmed in Rules, but after seeing one paragraph in Comprehensive Rules i am rather confused...
  Darling of the Season (event) Until the end of the game, each player cannot lose more than 5 points of Honor in total from other players' cards in a single turn.
  Assigning Blame (action) Political Reaction: After one of your Personalities is destroyed, if you control a Courtier: Dishonor a target Personality. His controller loses 3 Honor; this loss can be negated but not reduced.
  Relevant text underlined (above).
  Rules, glossary Cannot - If a bonus or penalty to a stat, or a stat itself, “cannot” be raised or lowered beyond a certain value, this does not necessarily negate the whole change; only the part that would take the stat beyond that value. Raise/Rise - The phrase “cannot raise/can not rise” negates all bonus or gain beyond a certain number, but does not negate gain up to and including that number.
  And now - Darling of the Season resolved some time ago, it is my turn, no honor gains or loses, and I am receiving three Assigning Blames (AB for short). How much honor should I lose ?
  a) 9 (3+3+3), because Assigning Blame honor loss could not be reduced b) 8 (3+2+3), because 1/3 of honor loss from one AB is negated, and then hits the whole third one c) 5 (3+2+0), because 1/3 of honor loss from one AB is negated and then negated is whole last AB d) 3 (3+0+0), because after first AB hits there is not enough room for second.
  At first glance at the rules glossary, seems to me that c) is the correct answer, but this means that there's something like "negate part of change in numbers and no this is not reduction".
  Puzzled - S.
  A: The result of the discussion was that the Reduce was added to the Glossary: Effects that "reduce" some number only include effects that work by directly changing the number of something. Such effects are considered to be reduction, and not negation, even if they happen to reduce the number in question to zero. Alterations due to maximums or minimums, and due to partial negation (such as from "cannot rise/fall" limits), do not count as reduction.
  This means that once the player has lost five honour, any further honour losses are negated or partially negated, so the "can not be reduced" text on Assigning Blame is not relevant. Alex Jones, "Hidden Scandal (or Darling of the Season) vs Assigning Blame", 28 Jul 2008
• Q: What would happen if after I play Hidden Scandal the other player somehow makes me lose 5 honor, and then plays Assigning Blame on me? Do I lose any more honor? Why or why not?
  A: See "Cannot".
  "Cannot lose more than 5 points of honour" is read as "honour losses in excess of 5 points are negated". Negation is allowed by Assigning Blame, so you would lose 0 honour. However, reduction is not allowed, so if you had only lost 4 honour before Assigning Blame you would still lose the full 3 honour. Alex Jones, "Hidden Scandal (or Darling of the Season) vs Assigning Blame", 13 Mar 2008