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, 3 November 2009
What happens with this scenario:
1) I use blowdarts/takuma/whatever to create 4 poison tokens on Akodo Shigetoshi Exp2... (so now he's at 1 force) 2) My opponent attacks with Akodo Shigetoshi Exp2 then I defend with Sogetsu... 3) My first action as a defender: I use Sogetsu's ability and set Akodo Shigetoshi Exp2's force to 0... (would that mean he has -4 force (minimum 0) after reasserting the tokens' penalties?) 4) His first action as the attacker: He uses Akodo Shigetoshi Exp2's Tactician trait and discards a 4 focus value card to pump his force...
What happens then? (What would Akodo Shigetoshi Exp2's force be?)
We have our arguments here but we need to verify which one's the right one... Problems about reasserting the poison tokens' penalties... and sequence of actions...etc...
Alex Jones (rules official), 3 November 2009
What happens with this scenario:
1) I use blowdarts/takuma/whatever to create 4 poison tokens on Akodo Shigetoshi Exp2... (so now he's at 1 force) 2) My opponent attacks with Akodo Shigetoshi Exp2 then I defend with Sogetsu... 3) My first action as a defender: I use Sogetsu's ability and set Akodo Shigetoshi Exp2's force to 0... (would that mean he has -4 force (minimum 0) after reasserting the tokens' penalties?) 4) His first action as the attacker: He uses Akodo Shigetoshi Exp2's Tactician trait and discards a 4 focus value card to pump his force...
What happens then? (What would Akodo Shigetoshi Exp2's force be?)
We have our arguments here but we need to verify which one's the right one... Problems about reasserting the poison tokens' penalties... and sequence of actions...etc...
Setting stats to a value: To set a stat to a value, give it the smallest possible appropriate bonus or penalty such that it reaches that value.
If Akodo Shigetoshi has 1f because of penalties, the smallest appropriate penalty to reduce his force to 0 is 1: after Sogetsu's action resolves his force is 5 + (4 * -1) - 1 = 0f. After Shigetoshi "Tacticians a 4", his force is 5 + (4 * -1) - 1 + 4 = 4f.