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, 19 October 2007
Assume I'm the active player.
One of my Scorpion Clan personalities challenges an opponent's chi 2 personality into a duel. My opponent focuses Flash of Steel. I focus Strength in Shadow Style. He calls strike, and we reveal the focused cards.
Strength in Shadow Style: Focus Effect: If your Personality in this duel is Scorpion Clan: Lose 2 Honor. Give a Personality in the duel two -1F/-1C poison tokens. (End the duel without resolution if this destroys him.)
Flash of Steel: Focus Effect: If your Personality was challenged to this duel, gain 4 Honor.
A) Which focus effect resolves first? Do I have that choice?
Assuming that my Strength in Shadow Style resolves first, and that then it kills the opponent's chi 2 personality:
B) Does the other player gain the 4 honor from Flash of Steel despite his personality having been destroyed (and the duel ending without resolution)? Or else focus effects that hadn't resolved when the personality was destroyed are discarded without effect?
Thank you
Martin Lund (rules official), 19 October 2007
If a Personality involved in a challenge or duel leaves play during it, the challenge or duel ends immediately without resolution.
So you stop the entire Duel process (including the resolve Focus Effects step) and skip directly to Step J.
J: Discard all focused cards. End any changes to their Focus Value. Each player puts any cards remaining in his or her focus pool at the bottom of his or her Fate deck in any order. Duel resolution, and the duel, now end.
If a duel ends without resolution, the procedures in this step are still carried out before the duel ends. [ADDED Sept 13 2007]
- Marty Lund Deputy Rules Monkey