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, 8 January 2014
The new text on Coward! is worded slightly different than the original printing. It says the defender MAY move them, but the penalty effect hinges on the Defender CHOOSING not to move them, whereas the original made it explicit (The Defender may choose to move it to the current battlefield; if he did not...). Is there any functional difference between the two wordings with regards to a personality who will not move into a defending army? In the original printing it was very clear that the defender could choose to move them, have it fail, and not trigger the penalty. I'm not as sure with the new wording.
Thank you
Ben Higgins (rules official), 8 January 2014
The new text on Coward! is worded slightly different than the original printing. It says the defender MAY move them, but the penalty effect hinges on the Defender CHOOSING not to move them, whereas the original made it explicit (The Defender may choose to move it to the current battlefield; if he did not...). Is there any functional difference between the two wordings with regards to a personality who will not move into a defending army? In the original printing it was very clear that the defender could choose to move them, have it fail, and not trigger the penalty. I'm not as sure with the new wording.
Thank you
Coward! works the same way now as it did then.
The new wording of "may" implies a choice needs to be made, and the penalties (or lack there of) are dependent upon that choice and not the successful/unsuccessful movement of the targeted Personality.