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 February 2010
I've looked around and (including my own post where I asked as an afterthought) it seems to be "overlooked" when someone asks about a Fosuta token and a personality under a death-prevention effect, so I'll just ask straight out:
If Isawa Fosuta xp targets someone who has 1 Chi and is also under the effects of an ongoing destruction prevention effect (such as being the successful target of The Last One) what happens? Does the target personality survive with 0 chi? Does the token get negated in full? Can I continue to target the same personality in subsequent rounds to continue lowering their force even though their chi is at/below 0?
*edit* - I understand the personality will not die because of the protection of the effects of The Last One, so please don't answer as such; that is not the question I'm asking.
A player, 2 February 2010
If Isawa Fosuta xp targets someone who has 1 Chi and is also under the effects of an ongoing destruction prevention effect what happens?
The targeted Personality is given a -1F/-1C Curse token. Then the Straighten Phase begins.
Does the target personality survive with 0 chi?
Yes, as long as the prevention effect lasts or he receives another Chi penalty that the prevention effect fails to prevent. For example the prevention effect applies to destruction from other players' actions only and the effect from the trait on A Walking Death gives him a -1C Plague token.
Does the token get negated in full?
Aside: tokens are not effects and cannot be negated. Effects can give tokens to cards and tokens may produce continuous effects but they are not effects themselves. Assuming you refer to the token's effects, it depends on the prevention effect. For instance if it prevents only destruction or Chi death or Chi penalties, then the Force penalty from the Curse token still applies.
Can I continue to target the same personality in subsequent rounds even though their chi is at/below 0?
Yes. Moreover Chi is a stat so its value cannot fall below zero. For more information, see Stats and especially Calculating stats.
A player, 5 February 2010
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=81558
Am I missing something on the above post? 0 chi death is a rules effect death. How can a personality that was targeted with the last one be immune to 0 chi death? Isawa Fosuta gives a -1 chi token. The giving of the token does not kill the personality. The rules effect of him having a 0 chi does. Furthermore, the action that places a token does not infer a force or chi bonus or penalty. The token itself infers the +/-F/C to whom it is placed on. With that stated how then would shameful injury negate poison tokens -1F each? Please enlighten me as to what I am missing.
Edit: From http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Non-card_physical_game_elements
A token conveys its stat modifications to any card or Province it is on. A token’s base stat modification is the one it was created with.
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 6 February 2010
0 chi death is a rules effect death.
Not always.
http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Effects#Source_of_effects: "A Personality’s destruction for having 0 Chi (Chi death rule) comes from the cost or effect that last gave the Personality a Chi penalty, or from the rulebook if there was no such effect." (Emphasis added.)
A player, 6 February 2010
regarding this topic: http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=81558
Once a personality has reached 0 Chi (and survived somehow) isn't it then impossible for the personality to receive another chi penalty? If a stat cannot go below zero, than a -1C token would have no effect and therefore not be a penalty. With the rules stating that destruction comes from the last card effect to give a personality a Chi penalty, doesn't it mean if you can negate the instance of being reduced to zero chi, no further chi reductions can kill (unless of course, the personality's chi has increased back above 0)?
I hope my logic is flawed, but I'm not seeing what in the rules deals with this situation.
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 6 February 2010
Once a personality has reached 0 Chi (and survived somehow) isn't it then impossible for the personality to receive another chi penalty?
No, it is not impossible, because things are rounded to zero. See the rules on calculating stats: http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Card_features#Calculating_stats:
"To get a stat's current value at any given time, do steps A through C, below:
"A: Apply all current bonuses and penalties.
"B: If the total is below 0, treat it as 0, unless the stat is Family Honor, Honor Requirement, or a modifier with a + or – sign such as an Item’s Force and Chi stats."