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, 20 June 2014
Yasuki Shairei's ability reads as, "Economic Open, w: Target a Personality with lower Personal Honor than printed. His controller may pay Gold equal to the difference plus 1. If he does not, he loses Honor equal to the difference."
The last sentence, does that refer to the amount of gold paid, or the difference between their current PH and their base PH? Are you able to pay a partial gold amount and just lose gold equal to the difference paid and their ph, or do they have to pay the full amount to reduce the honor loss?
Jon Palmer (rules official), 21 June 2014
Yasuki Shairei's ability reads as, "Economic Open, w: Target a Personality with lower Personal Honor than printed. His controller may pay Gold equal to the difference plus 1. If he does not, he loses Honor equal to the difference."
The last sentence, does that refer to the amount of gold paid, or the difference between their current PH and their base PH? Are you able to pay a partial gold amount and just lose gold equal to the difference paid and their ph, or do they have to pay the full amount to reduce the honor loss?
"The difference" in the last sentence refers to the difference between current Personal Honor and printed Personal Honor. A partial amount paid will not help; either they pay the difference plus 1, or they lose the difference.