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.
In the learn to play set, it has the following statement:
Force And Bowed Cards Bowed cards do not contribute Force to their army at resolution, but they keep their Force for all other purposes. For example, even if the 4 Force Akodo Daiken is bowed, a Ranged 1 Attack still cannot destroy him.
This makes it sound like bowed items don't contribute force, but I'm sure that is not so. Just double-checking...
In the learn to play set, it has the following statement:
This makes it sound like bowed items don't contribute force, but I'm sure that is not so. Just double-checking...
Items do not contribute force to an army. They increase the force of their Personality, who then contributes (more) force. An important distinction.