Twisting Ravine

Legend of the Five Rings card from The Dark Journey Home

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Terrain

Card Text

Cards may not bow to pay actions' costs, unless it is the cost of an action that will destroy this Terrain.
Before an action's effect bows a card: Negate the bowing.
Battle: If there are no Terrains at the current battlefield: Put this card into play there.

Focus Value

1

Legality

Hidden Emperor (Jade)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: I personally dont see the part of speech as a big hangup.
  My main objection is that the game has been set up with these things not really being atomic. Under such a system, negating one part of an effect would apparently negate the whole verb clause e.g. making Twisting Ravine and Winter Warfare work the same on all "send home bowed" effects and Akodo Dagger cancel the send home of "send home bowed and dishonored". It also makes one guy who cannot be targetted/effected by RA's counter Hosigeru completely. Try to get out of that mess and you are left with a "verbs denote effects except when akodo dagger and co are in play and then it might or might not be...".
  A: All Devil's Advocating aside, here's my firm, personal stance on this particular matter: Twisting Ravine and Akodo Dagger have zero impact on whether Generic Grammatical Construction X should be ruled as one effect or two. Specific card text can override rules and rulings, and that's exactly what these two cards do. Jeff Alexander, "Rulings for 24 March 2001", 29 Mar 2001
• Q: What you could do with Nick's idea though is to make a general, universally applicable ruling (and RULE in the book) that any effect that isnt a verbal form is a dependant effect upon the verb effect. That WOULD work fine IMO. E.g. Block Supply Lines and Winter Warfare. The bowing is dependant so it doesnt happen. Twisting Ravine and BSL:
  "Bowed" IS a verbal form. It is a participle, a verbal adjective, in that it is derived from a verb directly. I still like the idea, though.
  A: And you expect newbies to know this???
  I can just see it now: passing out grammar pre-quizzes at the L5R demo booth next GenCon. Jeff Alexander, "Rulings for 24 March 2001", 29 Mar 2001
• Q: Okay, question for you: what, in your opinion, should happen if BSL gets played on a Personality who cannot bow? In particular, what if she can't bow because Twisting Ravine is in play?
  Twisting Ravine (DJH) Battle: Terrain "[...] Cards cannot be bowed by actions while this Terrain is in play, although all other effects of those actions resolve normally."
  Hey, Jeff. Welcome back. I hope you're reading the WW/Block thread, since this has been asked a couple of times in that thread.
  It's perfectly clear that the Personality targeted by BSL in the Twisting Ravine should go home, because of the last phrase on Twisting Ravine. What's the problem?
  A: The "problem" is that, under the old ruling that "bowed" was a modifier to going home, you have to realize that Twisting Ravine is explicitly upgrading it to a separate effect to get your intuitive answer. Jeff Alexander, "Rulings for 12-14 March 2001", 22 Mar 2001