successfully resolve vs resolve for Rings (L5R rules board)

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 April 2009

Hello

This question is about Ring of the Phoenix vs all the other rings but fire.

Ring of the phoenix reads: After the third or later time in one turn you resolve an action that destroyed any of your Phoenix Clan Personalities during a battle: You may put this card into play from your hand.

Were the other rings read: After you successfully resolve your fourth or later Battle action from cards with different titles in one battle: you may put this card into play from your hand.

The big differences here is that the other rings say “successfully resolve” were phoenix just say “resolve”.

Successful reads:

A successful action or other occurrence is one whose effects produced one or more actual changes in the game state. Changes resulting merely from the occurrence's mechanical requirements, targeting, or costs, are not counted in success. Example: An Action card being discarded, an Event leaving its Province, or the fact that an ability on a Personality has been used, all do not count toward success. Effects that are negated, that do not occur, or that had a one-time effect but had nothing to affect are not actual changes in the game state. Example: "Bow all Shugenja" when no Shugenja are in play is not a successful action. Ongoing changes to the general conditions of the game do change the game state even if there is currently nothing they affect. Example: "Until the end of the game, all Shugenja have -1F" when no Shugenja are in play is a successful action. [CHANGED 19 July 2007 to include non-actions]

So a card like Brink of exhaustion:

Battle: Give your target Personality -3C permanently: Straighten him. If he is in play, take an additional Battle action to use one of his Battle abilities, even if it was already used this turn. Bow him.

This would cause no actual change in game state, so it would not be a successful action, but it would be an action that destroyed one of your Phoenix Clan Personalities during a battle, ( if they were 3 chi or under) So would this count for phoenix even though it’s not a successful action and what about other such actions?

Brook Cunningham (rules official), 8 April 2009

So would this count for phoenix even though it’s not a successful action and what about other such actions?

Yes. And other such actions that only destroy your Phoenix Personalities as costs, but end up producing no effects, will also count. (Such as... oh, I'm going to have to work for this one... if you have a 1Chi Bayushi Tomo who is Phoenix due to an Arranged Marriage and you use her ability while she's under the effects of a Devious Explorer. Whew. Yeah. Like that.)

As you noticed, Ring of the Phoenix's triggered trait is not contingent upon if the action is successful or not; it only cares that the action destroyed any of your Phoenix Personalities. And, regardless of whether an action is successful or not, any action that is legally taken does "resolve".