A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from a copy of the forum saved in October 2015, so pages it didn't save are missing. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
A player, 3 February 2013
In this thread about overlaying Alex posted a link to the comprehensive rules that says
Any effects on the overlaying card end, its attachments and tokens are discarded, and its own game state is "forgotten" as if it had left play into a face-down area
This would appear to directly contradict the Emperor Edition rulebook, which states on page 106
On overlaying, the new card keeps all states, ongoing effecta, attachments, and tokens of the old card
I know techinically the comprehensive rules trump the rulebook, but, I would like clarification.
Paul Ashman
A player, 3 February 2013
In this thread about overlaying Alex posted a link to the comprehensive rules that says
Any effects on the overlaying card end, its attachments and tokens are discarded, and its own game state is "forgotten" as if it had left play into a face-down area
This would appear to directly contradict the Emperor Edition rulebook, which states on page 106 On overlaying, the new card keeps all states, ongoing effecta, attachments, and tokens of the old card
I know techinically the comprehensive rules trump the rulebook, but, I would like clarification.
Paul Ashman
Both rules quotes refer to different things. The first one from the CR is about the overlaying card losing its "memory" from its former game state. The second quote from the rulebook is about the overlaying card taking the game state of the overlaid card. Essentially, the game state of the "new card" is that of the overlaid card (second quote), and the game state of the overlaying card is lost (first quote). So, there's no contradiction, in fact both texts are complementary, explaining what happens to each of the involved cards.
Hope this clarifies the matter, though we understand that Overlaying rules can cause some confusion.