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, 7 August 2007
Two Questions dealing with how items contribute force to personalities:
1) Will Unfamiliar Ground bow personalities that have a BASE force of less than four but have an item attached that brings their force above 4? As Unfamiliar Ground reads: "Bow each CARD with more than 4F now at this battlefield..." Does an item raise the CARD's value or just the overall force value of the personality...
2) Will Unfamiliar Ground bow items that give a force BONUS of more than 4 (i.e. a sword of victory with 2 victory tokens)? Sword of Victory reads: "...Give this CARD a +2F token." It is my understanding that Items never actually have a force value of their own.
Thank you.
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 7 August 2007
Will Unfamiliar Ground bow personalities that have a BASE force of less than four but have an item attached that brings their force above 4?
Yes. Always use current stat values unless card specifies base.
Will Unfamiliar Ground bow items that give a force BONUS of more than 4 (i.e. a sword of victory with 2 victory tokens)?
Yes. Rules, Card types, Item Stats: "If the Force or Chi of an Item needs to be checked, its value is the value of its corresponding modifier if it is positive, or zero if the modifier is zero or negative."