Honorable Seppuku

Legend of the Five Rings card from Gold Edition, Imperial Edition, Emerald Edition, Obsidian Edition, Shadowlands, Anvil of Despair, Crimson and Jade, Time of the Void, Scorpion Clan Coup Starter

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Political

Card Text

Reaction: After one of your Samurai creates, is targeted by, or is affected by an effect that dishonors him or causes you to lose Honor: Reduce the loss (if any) to 0, the Samurai commits seppuku, and you gain honor equal to the Samurai's Personal Honor.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Clan Wars (Imperial), Four Winds (Gold)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Honorable Seppuku 0G 3FV Political Reaction: Play this card after one of your samurai creates, or is targeted by, or is affected by an effect that dishonors him or her or causes you to lose Honor. Lower the loss (if any) to 0, the Samurai commits seppuku, and then you gain Honor equal to the Samurai's Personal Honor." [MRP, Gold Edition, 1 July 2001] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 20
• Can be used in response to bringing a samurai into play who causes an honor loss. [DW, 25 October 1996] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 20
• Cannot be triggered by an honor loss caused by the death of a dishonored samurai, because the samurai is already dead. Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 20
• Can actually be used as a reaction in any instance where your Personality is involved in a loss of Family Honor (to any player) (for example, being targetted by Martyr), or becomes dishonored. It is not limited only to occasions which arise from actions you initiated. [DW, email, 2/7/97, and OE card text] Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 31
• Cannot be played as a reaction to Poisoned Weapon. [DW, l5rinfo] Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 31
• Cannot be used in reaction to an honor loss caused by the death of a dishonored samurai. The samurai is already dead at that point. Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 31
• Clarified: is played "immediately after your Samurai performs, is targetted by, or is affected by an effect or decision which dishonors him or causes a loss of Honor to your Family". Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 3
• Clarified: Samurai is restored to honor before dying. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 3
• Clarified: honor gain is his current Personal Honor. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 3
• Accumulated Rulings Accumulated Rulings, April 22, 1998, p. 18

Rules Q&A

• Q: 1) Corruption's Price
  Player A pays for a follower using a corrupt holding. His opponent hits him with a Corruption's Price, killing the personality that should receive the follower. I found the rulings that the follower is discarded (not in the archive, however, which is unfortunate).
  Now the question is: If player A needs more than one holding to pay for the follower, does he have to pay the full cost even if he knows the attachement is invalid already?
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 27-28 May 2003", 29 May 2003
• Q: 4) Honorable Seppuku and Kakita Munemori
  Kakita Munemori: Political Reaction: Bow Munemori to cancel a Political action performed by a non-Courtier Personality.
  Honorable Seppuku: Political Reaction: Play this card after one of your samurai creates, or is targeted by, or is affected by an effect that dishonors him or her or causes you to lose Honor.
  Performing actions, H&E Rulessheet: Actions which involve one or more Personalities or Followers in their cost, such as requiring them to bow or become dishonored, or which require targeting your own Personalities or Followers who meet certain conditions, such as being a Shugenja or a Tactician or having a Chi above 2, are performed by those cards.
  Can Munemori cancel Honorable Seppuku?
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "post for 27-28 May 2003", 29 May 2003
• Q: If my personality loses a Tsutomu no Shiryo-affected duel where the penalty for losing is dishonor, can I play Honorable Seppuku and gain my personality's pre-challenge PH + focus values?
  A: Yes (assuming your Personality is a Samurai). Jeff Alexander, "post for 10 December 2002", 11 Dec 2002
• Q: Situation: I cast The Wolf's Proposal on Mirumuto Rosanjin. I then cast Secrets on the Wind on him. Then I play Honorable Seppuku. How much honor do I gain?
  A: His Personal Honor is 5. You'd gain 5. [GE p. 32] Jeff Alexander, "post for 9 December 2002", 10 Dec 2002
• Q: I'm wondering if this would work:
  Hoturi challenges some smuck to a duel, changes it to one of honor, and then focuses a pair of focuses (possibly using Kakita tech). When the cards are revealed, Hoturi's controller plays The Unclean Cut, and then responds with Honorable Seppuku. He then has Shijin write a poem about the whole mess. This would gain you 25 honor for the Honorable Seppuku, then 25 more for Shijin's epic.
  A: It would work only if Hoturi got Double Chi from somewhere. Otherwise, it's only 15 from the Honorable Seppuku and 15 per Shijin. Jeff Alexander, "post for 2 August 2002", 3 Aug 2002
• Q: If I play Honorable Seppuku in response to an honor loss/dishonoring effect that is part of action, what if any, part of the action is cancelled. HS says nothing about cancelling, however if say I use an Ikiryo (SP? The shadowlands ranged attack follower) and HS in response to that, does the ranged attack go off.
  A: Yes. Destroying the source of an effect does not cancel the effect [p. 45]. Also, the Ikiryo dishonors the samurai last, so the attack has already happened. Jeff Alexander, "post for 29 April 2002", 30 Apr 2002
• Q: Can a Veteran Samurai commit Honorable Seppuku if he can be dishonored, and how much Honor do I gain for that?
  A: Yes. You gain his printed Personal Honor (treat it as 0). Jeff Alexander, "post for 8 April 2002", 9 Apr 2002
• Q: Seppuku is "bigger" than L5R rules, like the word "sensei". It gets used for a lot of things. Honorable Seppuku, Remorseful Seppuku, and I Believed in You are not the same thing as rulebook Seppuku, as many of them have completely different triggers.
  A: None of them equate exactly to the samurai-response-to-Honor- loss seppuku, no, but they all fall squarely under the "death by any version of seppuku restores the Personality to Honor first" rule. Jeff Alexander, "post for 13 February 2002", 14 Feb 2002
• Q: Not sure if this is covered in the archive (typing this one up offline)
  I was just reading the Samurai bit in the Gold Rulebook and it specifically says a bowed samurai may commit seppuku. I was wondering if taking that into account you could hit one of your own bowed samurai with a Honorable Seppuku or does the fact that it is a reaction narf that idea or is the act of seppuku inherently different to a seppuku card??
  A: The fact that Remorseful Seppuku is an action makes a *world* of difference. A bowed Samurai can commit seppuku using the rulebook effect because it's not an action, but a trait. You cannot Remorseful one of your own bowed personalities, because that's an action (even though it's a seppuku action). Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for August 22nd, Part Two", 22 Aug 2001
• Q: _2_ Questions on Honorable Seppuku's MRP:
  From Zen's Page:
  Reads, "Honorable Seppuku 0G 3Fo Political Reaction: Play this card after one of your samurai creates, or is targeted by, or is affected by an effect that dishonors him or her or causes you to lose Honor. Lower the loss (if any) to 0, the Samurai commits seppuku, and then you gain Honor equal to the Samurai's Personal Honor." [MRP, Gold Edition, 1 July 2001]
  a) Does the controller gain the samurai's current honor or printed honor? Will the target of a Shame will not gain its controller any positive effect (outside of mitigating the 7-point loss)?
  A: Current honor. Anyone who commits seppuku is rehonored when they do, so a Dishonored personality who gets Shamed and then Honorabled would (in order) reduce the loss to zero, die honorably, and then generate a gain equal to PH for their controller. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for July 3rd", 3 Jul 2001
• Q: c) Ambush was one of my preferred ways to make a samurai do something naughty. Ambush's honor loss is now delayed -- according to the MRP on Zen's page, the 5 honor loss happens after the battle. When I Ambush with a samurai and Honorable Seppuku, does --
  c1) -- the Honorable Seppuku go off immediately, just like it used to, leaving a very confused but un-Ambushed victim and two samurai bits and some good feelings where I used to have a full samurai?
  A: Yes. You have to play Honorable Seppuku when the samurai is targeted by the action, and that means he feels very sad before he actually gets to do anything naughty. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for July 3rd", 3 Jul 2001
• Q: c2) -- the Honorable Seppuku go off (and can only be played) after the Ambush does its battle, enabling me to bust up some poor, unsuspecting Personality and then off my own peep for honor and negate the honor loss? (This is tantamount to saying "Honorable Seppuku does NOT cancel the action that did the Bad Thing.")
  A: No, it's not. Honorable Seppuku doesn't cancel the action. It's just that in this specific case, the Samurai needs to survive the targeting to create the rest of the resolution. If the resolution of the action were unrelated to the survival of the samurai, and if the action still targeted the samurai and created an honor loss, you could still play the action, Honorable Seppuku the samurai, *and* gain the benefits of the action. Ambush just doesn't happen to work like that. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for July 3rd", 3 Jul 2001
• Q: 3) Finally -- a stupid question, just to check -- attaching cards is a targeted action, yes? So, if Matsu Gohei were to attach a Bandit Gang from my hand (lose 2 honor), I could correct his behavior with an Honorable Seppuku, yes?
  A: Sure looks like it. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for July 3rd", 3 Jul 2001