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, 2 July 2009
I realize that this will seem like a pointless question to many, but does purchasing personalities in the Dynasty Phase follow the same order as any other action? If so, does the honor gain for buying an in-clan personality occur during the Resolution step? The issue I have in mind is the timing of honor gain and paying costs for personalities as written in the new rules:
"you may choose to gain Honor equal to your aligned Personality’s Personal Honor just before you bring him into play"
vs.
If your Family Honor doesn’t meet your aligned Personality’s Honor Requirement, you may still bring him into play paying 2 more Gold than normal.
Example: On Turn 2, a Lion player has 10 gold unbowed and Akodo Seiichi in a province (HR 10, GC 6, PH 3). Does she announce her intention to buy Seiichi, add the 3 honor to her Family Honor, then check HR for the final cost, or check HR, pay 8 g, and then add the honor? With the way the rulebook is written, it seems like you add the honor before resolving the action (entering play), which doesn't line up with the order for any other action, and creates a weird Heisenberg state concerning the HR vs. Family Honor status.
A player, 2 July 2009
To bring a Personality into play, follow this sequence (cf. Using Personalities): A. The personality enters a specially created entering-play area. B. The personality’s Honor Requirement and other restrictions on its entering play are checked. At this point, if the Personality is aligned to the player's clan and it is the player's Dynasty Phase, the player may waive the Personality's Honor Requirement and increase his Gold cost to enter play by 2. If these conditions are not met, the Personality card returns to where it came from and it does not enter play. C. If requirements and restrictions were met in step B, the player pays the Personality’s Gold cost; if the Personality is aligned to the player's clan and it is the player's Dynasty Phase, the player may choose to pay 2 less Gold for the Personality. The player then pays any other costs of bringing the Personality into play. D. If requirements, restrictions and costs were met in steps B and C, the Personality enters play. E. The entering-play area ceases to exist.
In your example, if the Lion Clan player wants to bring his Akodo Seiichi into play, since the Personality is aligned to the Lion Clan and it is his Dynasty Phase (cf. Dynasty Phase): 1. he waives the Personality's Honor Requirement and increase his Gold cost to enter play by 2; 2. he may choose to pay 2 less Gold for the Personality, then he pays Seiichi's modified Gold cost; 3. if he did not choose to pay 2 less Gold for Seiichi, he may choose to gain Honor equal to Seiichi's Personal Honor before Seiichi enters play; 4. Seiichi enters play in the Lion Clan player's home.
Note that bringing Personalities into play from your provinces during your Dynasty Phase is not an action, because "abilities [...] include one or more of the boldface designators “Limited:” “Open:” “Battle:” or “Reaction:” that indicate at what point the action can be taken" (cf. Card features, Abilities) and there is no such ability.