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, 31 October 2007
First, I noticed some textual disagreement. On rules.l5r.com, Shinjo's Courage is listed as saying: "Reads, "Shinjo’s Courage 2G 2FV This action costs 2 less Gold if you are a Unicorn Clan player. Battle: Target one of your unbowed Personalities and a target Follower, or Personality without Followers, opposing him: Reduce the opposing target’s Force by the difference in Personal Honor between the targets’ units’ Personalities. If this reduced its Force to 0, destroy it and gain Honor equal to your Personality’s Personal Honor." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007]
Now, I have the Samurai Edition version in front of me and it reads (difference in bold) Battle: Target one of your unbowed Personalities and a target Follower, or unbowed Personality without Followers, etc. etc.
Which is the correct printing? Second and finally (I know this has been answered before, but I apologize and want some clarification), am I given to understand that Shinjo's Courage cannot destroy a card that is already 0F b/c a card's force cannot go below zero, thus it receives no "reduction"?
Martin Lund (rules official), 9 November 2007
First, I noticed some textual disagreement. On rules.l5r.com, Shinjo's Courage is listed as saying: "Reads, "Shinjo’s Courage 2G 2FV This action costs 2 less Gold if you are a Unicorn Clan player. Battle: Target one of your unbowed Personalities and a target Follower, or Personality without Followers, opposing him: Reduce the opposing target’s Force by the difference in Personal Honor between the targets’ units’ Personalities. If this reduced its Force to 0, destroy it and gain Honor equal to your Personality’s Personal Honor." [MRP, Samurai Edition, 25 July 2007]
Now, I have the Samurai Edition version in front of me and it reads (difference in bold) Battle: Target one of your unbowed Personalities and a target Follower, or unbowed Personality without Followers, etc. etc.
Which is the correct printing? Second and finally (I know this has been answered before, but I apologize and want some clarification), am I given to understand that Shinjo's Courage cannot destroy a card that is already 0F b/c a card's force cannot go below zero, thus it receives no "reduction"?
Whatever the text is on the most recent English printing of the card (this case Samurai Edition) is the correct text of the card. There is no Errata on Shinjo's Courage at this time.
You are correct in that if you don't make the target's Force drop any lower you did not "reduce" it and you do not gain any Honor or Destroy the card.
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 9 November 2007
Congratulations! You've found a last second change between a PDF that I was assured contained Samurai Edition as printed, and what was actually printed.
The wiki text is now corrected.
In general, trust that the printed card is right. If there's a deliberate change in the card text, it'll be listed as an erratum, MRP, or what have you. It will be explicit.