In Canasta, may I discard a card of a rank I have melded? If you are playing Canasta with two players, and you have 9's down in your meld, can you discard another 9 from your hand?

There is not, in my copy of Hoyle's Rules of Card Games, a requirement to meld any particular card. Nor is there a requirement to meld at all in a given turn, either. It is usually better to meld what you can, but it's not a requirement.
Looking at the Hoyle Gaming website's Canasta Rules, it says the following:

How the Game Is Played
At the beginning of the game, one card is flipped to the discard pile. If that card is a 2, joker, or red 3, another card is flipped on top of it and the pile is frozen. Before play begins, any red 3s in players’ hands are automatically played to the 3 pile on the board and replaced with new cards.
On your turn, you either draw a card from the draw pile or pick up the discard pile. See “Picking Up the Discard Pile” earlier in this chapter. If you pick up the discard pile, the top card of the pile is automatically played to the appropriate card pile. If the pile was frozen, you must then also play two natural cards to that pile; if you don’t, you won’t be able to take the pile.
Next, meld cards to the table, if you want to. (The first play your team can make is the initial meld.) You may be able to undo melds, if you need to; see the in-game help for details. At the end of your turn, discard a card by dragging it to the discard pile. You must always keep at least one card in your hand at the end of a turn, unless you are going out.

Melding is explicitly "if you want to"... The only compulsory behaviors are the draw, the discard, and that after discard, one must retain one card in hand.
Later, it notes:

Going Out
Your team is qualified to go out (ending the current hand) if you have at least one canasta on the table. To go out, either you or your partner must play all of the cards in your hand to the table. The last card in your hand can either be melded or discarded; this is the only time in the game you are not required to discard at the end of your turn.

This provides that one need not discard when going out.
Bycicle's Rules Page for Canasta says of melding:

A player may meld as many cards as he pleases, of one rank or different ranks, forming new melds or adding cards to previous melds. (But see restrictions on "Going Out".) All the melds of a partnership are placed in front of either partner. A partnership may meld in a rank already melded by the opponents, but may not make two different melds of the same rank.
A player may add additional cards to a meld by his side, provided that the melds remain valid (having no more than three wild cards). He may not add cards to the opponents' melds.

No compulsion to meld is listed.


What are the primary enhancements Cities and Knights and Seafarer's add on to the original Settler's of Catan? What unique features do Cities and Knights and Seafarer's expansions add to the original game?
How do they make the game more playable/interesting?

Opinions will always vary, but what I think one can objectively say is that Cities & Knights adds more complexity and variation to the game as it adds several new dimensions: new resource types, new types of knights, new expansion cards and new 'privileges' gained as you expand your principality. So if this type of 'extra dimensions of complexity' is your notion of 'replay value', then C&K would be the extension to go for of the two.

On the other hand, it does mean slightly more complex rules to introduce to new players. So if 'replay value' means being able to play with different groups of friends a few times rather than the same friends multiple times, this is something to take into account.


Identify this half matte sleeve for ThunderStone Advance? I just more or less completed my Thunderstone Advance collection at a recent garage sale. My collection, previous to that, is not yet sleeved but the new addition to the family (ToR w/ CoB) is already sleeved with what appears to be UltraPro 2 5/8" x 3 5/8 sleeves. I know the make is UltraPro as it has the hologram logo on the other side i.e side not pictured below.

The UltraPro site does not seem to have anything like this.

Some have a matte finish on one side like the one picture below. I would gather the intention is that you could have a glossy side or matte side facing you depending on preference? These do not feel like penny sleeves (which I did find in this dimension on Amazon) and I do not want those for this. I am having a hard time finding more of this dimension. These are larger than standard Magic the Gathering cards.

Click on images to embiggen

If you are looking for sleeve sizes for a game, the following links are

https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/164572/card-sleeve-sizes-games
https://www.maydaygames.com/pages/sleeves-by-game

Here is the entry for Thunderstone Advanced: Numenera, other Thunderstone versions are listed below.

I realize you aren't asking about the game, as much as what product are your sleeves. This is meant for people who may stumble upon your question.


Do Age II or earlier events happen at the end of the game? The front page of the "Through the Ages - A New Story of Civilization" Code of Laws says, at the end of the game:

  All Age III events in the current and next events deck are evaluated in any order.

Having not yet played a full game, I haven't had it happen, but it certainly seems possible that there might be Age II (or earlier?) events in the current (or next) event decks at the end of the game. Are those evaluated too? It seems strange that you would skip over those, but is that the intent?

Official Through The Ages: A New Story of Civilization handbook says that at the end of the game:

  Final Scoring
  At the end of the game, take all Age III events
  remaining in the current and future events decks and
  evaluate them one by one. Order is not important.

  Note: Events from older ages have no effect on final
  scoring.

So everything is said clearly, events from older ages have no effect, no matter if they could be useful or not in the final summary.

These rules hasn't changed from the previous Through The Ages: A Story of Civilization where the official rulebook was saying:

  At the end of the game, reveal all remaining Age III Event cards from the Current and Future Events decks and score bonus Culture Points according to these cards.

To sum up, if you want any of your previous ages events present in current deck to be evaluated and the game is closing to an end, you have to hurry up with playing new events and hoping that the one you are waiting for will be revealed before the game ends.


Specific standard measurements and info necessary for making a standard Shogi set (board and koma) Anything I figure out I will X out in the list of things I need. Solution will be at the bottom section named "RESULTS".

I've been searching the Googles for a bit now, but I'm not able to find any (english) information on it. I'm planning on making my own board since I am in Mexico, and I can't find anyone selling a Shogi board around here.

Any answer that contains the details of your Shogi set is enough. Just remember, it has to be a genuine Japanese Shogi set, not plastic or anything like that. Basically if you could get these measurements from your personal Shogi set, I would really appreciate it.

So what are the standard measurements for a Shogi board?:

X Width (from black's perspective, left to right of board)
X Length (from black's perspective, top to bottom of board)
X Height (of entire board)
- Size of each square/space (where the piece will be put)
  - Width (from black's perspective, left to right of space)
  - Length (from black's perspective, top to bottom of space)

That's for the board, now I need for the individual pieces as follows, of course we're talking about if the piece was "standing up" in front of us:

X Height
X Width (widest point, bottom)
X Thickness (the whole piece)
X Degree angles
  X The angle from the bottom to the top (81 is the angle I believe)
  X The angle for the little "roof" of the top of the piece

Now, of course, these measurements are different from piece to piece, so the sizes are different, unless I put them on the same group, so you only need to find out the sizes of the pieces listed first:

x King
X Rook, Bishop
X Gold, Silver
X Knight
X Lance
X Pawn

Of course, I would also like the standard size for the komadais, in case there is a standard size. If there isn't, what's the normal average size for it?

These are all the measurements that I need in order to be able to make a full set. They should all be provided in mm/cm, because it's the most exact, and the measurement style used in Mexico.

Now, the calligraphy, of course. A full example of all the pieces in the "Kinki-Sho" calligraphy. Basically, an example of the calligraphy, how it should look, so that I can carve it to the wood. No pieces needed, only the calligraphy for each piece on a white background.

That is all the info I need, if you can provide necessary links I would highly appreciate it.

One last note, the website can be in Japanese, just be sure to provide some kind of translation, or give the info and the link as a reference.

RESULTS:

All the good references that I've found since opening this question:

THE MAKING (１５４）将棋盤ができるまで | サイエンス チャンネル
How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#38- Shogi Board as Arts and Crafts - YouTube
How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#39- Shogi Pieces as Arts and Crafts - YouTube
駒博士のＱ＆Ａ and What is the normal size of shogi pieces

Some things I might have figured out since opening this question:

All the sizes, measurements, specifications, angles etc. I have figured out can be found in this private Gist: https://gist.github.com/3763b7d9d5c1d6a4916f

Finally! This answer is now complete! I know all the measurements now! And they all fit, I made sure. You can find the measurements in this private Gist (meaning you can only access it if you have the link).

Here's a full copy of the Gist, no changes made to it:

This is a related question in boardgames.stackexchange.com:
http://boardgames.stackexchange.com/q/10836/4779

===============================================================================
The measurements for the board:

Length . 33.66cm
Width .. 33.33cm
Height . 30.3mm

Measurements for the squares in the board:

Length . 36mm
Width .. 33mm

===============================================================================
The amount of pieces that I will manufacture:

King ........... 2
Rook ........... 2
Bishop ......... 2
Gold General ... 4
Silver General . 4
Knight ......... 4
Lance .......... 4
Pawn ........... 19

===============================================================================
The exact measurements for each piece.
Measurements provided in this order:

Height, width (bottom), thickness, angle (general, bottom > top),
angle (thickness, bottom > top).

King ......................... 32mm 28.7mm 9.7mm  81° 85°
Rook, Bishop ................. 31mm 27.7mm 9.3mm  81° 85°
Gold General, Silver General . 30mm 26.7mm 8.8mm  81° 85°
Knight ....................... 29mm 25.5mm 8.3mm  81° 85°
Lance ........................ 28mm 23.5mm 8.0mm  81° 85°
Pawn ......................... 27mm 22.5mm 7.75mm 81° 85°

Be sure to understand this is not perfect yet. It's not 100% ready yet. Probably... You can use these numbers and get a working set. But I'm still refining them to perfection.


Ancient Olympics Top Trumps Style Game I'm trying to recall the name of a game I played approx 6 years ago with friends.  So they game may be older than that.
It is a top trumps style trick taking game themed in ancient olympics.
The game has (I think) 40 card each representing an athlete and shows how good they are in 5 different events.  These rankings I think were numbered 1-40 and each was unique so draws were not possible.
The game with with score tokens for different events which we're in a pile and increased in value.
At the start of the game 2 events were chosen to the the 1st and 2nd events contested.  Players simultaneously chose an athlete from there hand to compete and the card with number closest to 1 won.  (1 being 1st and 40 being 40th)
The winner of the event being contested would take the scoring token, however the last place competitor of the event got to decide which event would be completed at in 2 turns time.
I think there was a mechanic that is you played really bad athletes there was a limited supply of scoring tokens for doing so.
I think they game ended when a certain number of scoring piles for events we're depleted and the player with the highest sum of points of scoring tokens was the winner.
In my head the game had a name similar to 'Olympics' and a year in the name but I'm not certain.

Sounds like Olympia 2000

players use simultaneously played cards to compete in ancient Olympic events, such as long-jump, discus, or archery. The cards have a picture of the athlete as well as a rating for his skills in each of the different events. Often times, an athlete will be very good at one event and be very poor in others, while some athletes are simply too inept for words, and still others are god-like. The key to the game is using your cards wisely, because although the best athlete gets the prize for the current event, the worst athlete gets to pick the up-coming event.


When are you allowed to play monster boosters in Munchkin Quest? Several cards beef up monsters (such as "...with Eyes In the Back of Its Head").  These cards do not say "Play at any time" on them, so according to my reading of the rules they should only be playable during your own turn, but people I've played with claim you can play them when a opponent is facing a monster.

What's correct?

I agree with Pat I think, but it was a different section of the rules that caught my eye:

  Certain cards, called monster
  enhancers, raise or lower the combat
  strength of individual monsters. (Yes,
  you can have a negative enhancement.)
  Monster enhancers may be played by any
  player during any combat.

I don't know if we're looking at the same version of the rules or different ones, but the general facts of the case seem clear!


Can a Pit Card Game be Won if two players refuse to trade with another particular player? My sister and I had an argument after I stated that I did not want to play Pit with them anymore because her husband and her son for some unknown reason refused to trade with me.  Since she is always right, she said I was not telling the truth because the game is set up so that everyone has to trade in order for someone to win.

While I did not remind her that the game in question was not completed because I threw my cards down and quit, I still believe there is a possibility, however remote, that the game could be won if one player was frozen out by 2 or 3 others.  Any mathematical statisticians out there that would like to come up with an answer for me? I really want to know the answer!!

This is actually deceptively simple.  A full set includes every card of that type in the game.  If you possess a card in a specific set, then nobody else can complete that set.  If you possess cards from every set, then no set can be completed without trading with you.

The flip side is that if there is any set that you lack cards from, then that set can necessarily be completed without any trades to you.


what is this card game about making an anime or anime character this card game is sort of like super fight but you use cards that have a single word or phrase on each of them. you combine them in the order that you want to go with a topic the "voter" (basically if it was Cards against humanity they would be the black card) draws. then you go around and argue about why your card combination should win.

Channel A

Home | BGG | Video (NSFW - Skantily clad women)
Phew that took a while to track down. I knew it had "A" in the name somewhere but

If you could make an anime series, what would it be about?
In this randomly creative party game you’re part of Channel A’s struggle to come up with an anime series that will be the next big hit. You know what general premise the network wants, and it’s up to you to stitch together a title from random words and pitch a series to win over the fans.


What board game for 2 to 4 players with 1 token each and the winner is the first to the top of a raised platform? The game in question I remember playing in the 90s but was an 70s or 80s game.

It is for 2 to 4 players where each player had one coloured token. The board was made up of a player in each corner with the aim to be the first to the top of a raised platform in the centre of the board.

I believe you had to do a lap of the board first and then start going up a platform of steps moving away from each player's corner and connecting at the top to a 1 inch square platform. The platform was raised about 15-20cm above the board with empty space underneath and the platform and steps were in white plastic.

I can't remember the name of it and is bugging me!

I will add a crude drawing when I get a chance. But it's neither Ludo nor Egyptian themed. I don't know the manufacturer although it could have been MB but I'm not sure.

Here is a very crude non turner winning drawing of it as requested:

The game's description corresponds a type of Chinesenspiel.

I identified it earlier this year.
In the reference link I provide, you have to scroll down because my answer has not received enough upvotes to appear at the top of the page.

probably antique French game - asking for identification

To play, a six-sided die is used, with the four colours on the board each represented by a coloured square on one of the die faces. The 2 unused die faces are white.

Since yours is more recent, it could simple be a variant of the Parcheesi family of games. For marketing purposes, it could have been named anything; for example, "Trouble", or "Voice of The Mummy", or "Dark Tower"
(Edit : I deleted the images of these games since they are clearly not the game you seek).

Does your game at all resemble this one,
Sacrificial Offering The Board Game,
which is definitely Chinesenspiel-inspired?


How does Underrealm Lich interact with Sylvan Library during your draw step? In the new Guilds of Ravnica set Underrealm Lich is a creature that changes how you draw cards.

  If you would draw a card, instead look at the top three cards of your library, then put one into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.

I am wondering how this card interacts with how Sylvan Library modifies your draw step.

  At the beginning of your draw step, you may draw two additional cards. If you do, choose two cards in your hand drawn this turn. For each of those cards, pay 4 life or put the card on top of your library.

For example, during my draw step:

I look at the top three cards of my library, put one in my hand and the rest in my graveyard.
I look at the top three cards of my library, put one in my hand and the rest in my graveyard.
I look at the top three cards of my library, put one in my hand and the rest in my graveyard.
I then do not put any of those cards on top of my library.

In this situation where I have not returned any cards to my library, How much Life will I have to pay? Also do I even have the option to return cards to the top of my library?

This answer assumes you have invoked the "may" clause of the Sylvan library.  If you haven't, then there's no question.

Since you have replaced your draws, with "look at top three cards ..." you are in fact not drawing cards.

After you replace all your draws, you move to the next step of Sylvan library.  "Choose two cards in your hand drawn this turn."  You don't have any cards in hand drawn this turn, so you can't choose any.  [i.e. you can't put any back on top of your library.]  So, the life loss portion doesn't apply.

Final state:  3 cards added to hand, 6 cards put in graveyard, and no life lost.

All the above, is essentially a walk through of

  120.6c Some effects perform additional actions on a card after it’s drawn. If the draw is replaced, the additional action is not performed on any cards that are drawn as a result of that replacement effect or any subsequent replacement effects.

Keep in mind the "do as much as you can rule." of which, 120.6c is essentially an instantiation of in this case.

  609.3. If an effect attempts to do something impossible, it does only as much as possible.


What can I do to ensure that my friends' first game of Arkham Horror with me is as awesome as possible? I bought Arkham Horror about 2 months ago and have played 2 practice rounds by myself. I'm confident I know all the rules and understand the game well enough to be able to explain them. However, I love the atmosphere in Arkham, and I really want to give my first time players the best possible experience and make the it more than just a game to them, but a role-playing experience.

I've figured out that I'm going to run the game as a sort of dungeon-master. I'm still going to play, but I will take charge of reading the mythos and encounter cards, and will frequently sprinkle in some actual description of what is happening. For example:

  As you walk into Ma's Boarding House, the terrible sinking feeling of evil you've been feeling fades away as you see the good friends of yours that have stuck it out thus far. However, you can't help feeling a terrible regret that you will eventually have to leave the shelter of this kind place and go back into the cruel world beyond it's doors.

  You tried to evade the fire vampire as it passed by sneaking into an alleyway and lying down next to a dumpster, but it was able to feel the fear beating in your heart and quickly turned to look at you with a gaze that penetrated far deeper than just your eyes and unleashes a blinding ball of fire at you.

I feel like its these bits of flavor text that really make the game 'come alive'. However, I've been considering taking things a bit further and giving the players some choices that they wouldn't have if we were just playing strait Arkham Horror:

  (I draw an encounter card to see what
  would happen if the player decides to
  have an encounter). As you as you walk
  up to the door of the Silver Twilight
  Lodge, you start to feel incredibly
  insignificant as you stare at the
  arched doorway and the tall spires
  atop the roof. Do you go in, or try to
  gather more information?

  (player) I'll try to get some more
  information.

  (Me) Okay, what does your investigator
  do?

  (player) uh...Put my ear to the door
  and listen?

  (Me, narrating) You can discern one
  voice in the distance, possible
  conducting a ceremony. However, it is
  far and distant, and you might be able
  to use the distraction to snoop around
  a bit.

  (player converses with friends) I think I'll open the door carefully.

  etc. etc. etc.

Has anyone here ran a game of AH like this, giving players more options than the game normally would (Perhaps they might get a combat bonus if they were able to use water against the fire vampire in the previous description...)? I've played D&D, but I've never really been the DM before. I'm considering playing a scenario like this one to enhance the experience and give me a bit of structure to build off of.

Any other advice about creating a good role-playing experience in AH, or general advice about introducing people to the game? I'll gladly read and up-vote any suggestions or shared experiences. :D

I've done something similar for some of the games of AH that I've been in. Not to the extent of adding theme/flavor into the cards and allowing playing input during encounters though; I only read encounters and mythos cards for them.

To start off, I'd be wary about pulling out all the stops to create an involved role-playing AH experience for a group's first game. Even if there is someone present that knows all the rules, there will still be rule misunderstandings, one-off nuances that need consideration, and re-explanations requested, which will break the thematic stride that you're striving to establish. But more importantly, (and this partially depends on how large the group is) games can take a long time. My group has played Arkham at least a hundred times (sounds a bit ridiculous to me, but we've been playing over 4 years), and we still have games that run into the 4+ hour mark. This can be a bit long for new players that don't know what they're getting into, and inundating the game with extra theme (along with this being people's first game) will only make the play time longer. My advice would be to get your friends to enjoy the game and understand gameplay better before going for a fully immersive experience.

That all said, here's what I did when I ran as the 'Keeper'. The first thing that ruins Arkham for new players (besides game length) is how vicious the game has the potential to become. I've found that a nice way to control the difficulty of the game is by drawing two or three mythos cards rather than one every turn, and the pick the one you'll put into play. This helps prevent the same gate from monster surging 4 times in a row and flooding the streets with things the players can't handle, as well as allowing you to give the game a quick boost by throwing the players a curveball if they're doing too well (drawing someone through a gate, destroying some clues on the board, moving some monsters directly in the path someone was planning on taking, etc.) In the future, it could also allow you a little leeway in picking headlines to enact if you're looking for a thematic progression. You can do the same for Arkham or OW encounters as well. For the encounters, one way of working towards the RP experience with going to the full extent that you described (allowing the players to invent their own responses) is to not tell the players what happens should they pass/fail until after they've rolled/spent clue tokens. In my group however, I've noticed that this can irritate some players. After they've played a number of games where they know the entirety of the encounter before making the check, they aren't keen to give up that slight advantage for some extra perceived theme. Anyways...
You could even do the same with monsters; pick specific monsters that you want to throw at people. McGlen have a particularly close match against a Shuggoth earlier? Now there's one back for round 2! It's also a good way to make sure the board isn't flooded with particularly weak/strong things and ensure that the Dhole gets his requisite board time.

The scenarios that were released for the Arkham League are good for a continuous campaign of sorts; the 'stories' from one game to the next are loosely tied together, but that's about it for theme. There are some extra gameplay conditions that the scenarios will throw in there, but that may just confuse new players if they expect those rules to be in subsequent games.

In short, make sure your friends enjoy the game for what it is before adding things to it (helping them to realize this if necessary of course...). All of the flavor and theme in the world won't make someone enjoy this game if they just don't like the mechanics in the first place.

Good luck!


How do you play Winter Tales (in a non-gamist manner)? I recently bought Winter Tales and had my first two games with five friends last night. It was kinda fun, but we really felt like we were missing something or misinterpreting the rules somehow.

The problem was, that we found it exceedingly difficult not to play the game in a gamist manner. Most of us have played pen and paper RPGs and are not averse to storytelling, and we were all well aware that the main focus of Winter Tales is to tell a coherent story. However, the way the game is designed, pitting two factions against each other, obviously means that players will do what they can to ensure their side is victorious.

The main issue in this regard, to us, arose during quest battles. Player 1 would start a quest and the five other players would then try to affect it with story cards. The thing was, story cards all went into one big pile, and everyone could see how many cards each side had gathered. This meant that the last few players could always tell their story and weave in just enough story cards to win the quest.

The rule about the active player being allowed to throw in one (and only one) last story card to wrap up the story likewise seemed useless, since one story card would never be able to impact the results anyway.

Additionally, since a player can pass on activating a character during other players' turns, we always ended up with one ready character and one open quest. This meant that the player with the last ready character could wrap up the game by activating that character, starting the specific quest and ending it immediately, since no one else around the table would have a ready character (or a character in that quest location). This guaranteed an automatic memory favoring whoever ended up with the last ready character.

On a final note, the game is supposed to consist of several chapters; whenever a player activates his last ready character and finished his turn, the chapter ends and a new one begins. We played the game twice, with 3 and 4 memories, and during both games we finished the final memory during the first chapter.

All this leads me to conclude that one of the three following is the case here:

A) Winter Tales wants its players to focus on the story and not actively try to win the game. However, elements such as the opposing factions and the battle/trap mechanics lead me to believe that the game does in fact expect its players to attempt to win.

B) Winter Tales is a poorly designed game. Since the game is still relatively new I guess this could be possible, but the reviews lead me to believe that this can't possible be the case.

C) Our group misinterpreted the rules or otherwise missed something important. This is supported by the, quite honestly, poorly worded/translated rule book, and is what I hope and expect to be the case.

Thus, my questions are these:
is C the case here, and if so, what did we misunderstand?

This meant that the last few players could always tell their story and
  weave in just enough story cards to win the quest.

  The rule about the active player being allowed to throw in one (and
  only one) last story card to wrap up the story likewise seemed
  useless, since one story card would never be able to impact the
  results anyway.

You seem to contradict yourself here. If one side has used "just enough" story cards to win, then a single final card should be able to tip the balance in favor of the active player's faction.

Of course, then the other faction has to account for this, and use "just enough plus a little more", to the point that the active player's likely plays would be balanced out, on average. Then, assuming everyone plays optimally, the deciding factor is the random selection of cards, and you are back to it being purely a randomly decided storytelling game, as intended.


Does Unknown's special ability still work after revealing? Unknown's special ability is

  Deceit: When given a Hermit Card, you may lie about your identity to trigger the card or to say "nothing happens". You do not have to reveal your identity to use this Special Ability.

After Unknown has revealed, can he still lie about the effect of a Hermit Card?

In our group I must admit we never thought of giving Hermit Cards to revealed characters. We took the description in the rules too seriously I suppose:

  Hermit Cards help you to identify the characters belonging to the other players.

This being said, a quick check confirms that the rules don't mention you must give it to an unrevealed character. So the revealed Unknown can be given a Hermit Card and he can lie to choose the effect he wants...

Note that only the player who gives the Unknown the Hermit Card will actually know that the Unknown lied as the rules also say:

  The player who drew a Hermit Card and the player who was given the Hermit Card are not allowed to tell the other players what was written on the card.


Hexproof counter on noncreature permanents I was wondering if a hexproof counter (from cards from Ikoria) on a noncreature permanent would give it hexproof. I would think it works like that, but when I read the mechanics article, I saw:

  Note that if these counters end up on a noncreature permanent, it won't necessarily apply right away, but it will if the permanent becomes a creature. (The exceptions here are deathtouch and lifelink, which work even if they end up on a noncreature permanent, provided that noncreature permanent can deal damage somehow.)

Here hexproof isn't mentioned as a keyword counter that would do something on a noncreature permanent.

For example, I have an Ozolith and a Crystalline Giant on the battlefield. The giant has a hexproof counter on it and dies, moving all counters to the Ozolith. Can my opponent target my Ozolith (after the counter has been moved on it)?

We will have to wait for the Ikoria rules update, but as of now, Hexproof is an ability that works on any type of permanent, and noncreature permanents with a hexproof counter should also have functional hexproof.

Under the current rules, Hexproof works on any permanent:

  702.11b “Hexproof” on a permanent means “This permanent can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.”

See also this Gatherer search.

I suspect hexproof will also be one of the exceptions mentioned in the Ikoria new mechanics article, and was simply missed. The fact that, according to that article, lifelink and deathtouch are going to be functional on noncreature permanents is a strong hint that the same will be true for hexproof or any other ability that works on noncreature permanents.

For clarity: Assuming the rules for ability counters are as straightforward as they could be, they will simply grant their abilities to any permanent they're on, whether or not that ability is currently relevant. Nothing in the rules stops a permanent from gaining or having abilities that don't apply in its current state. For a canonical example, Vehicles are not creatures as long as they are not crewed, but they still have abilities like flying and trample. I expect the same for ability counters that end up on Ozolith or any other noncreature permanents.


Can trap monsters and defense zone create a valid field lock? The setup is this:

Field spell: Defense Zone
Column 1: Any trap monster / Field Barrier
Column 2: Any trap monster / Imperial Custom
Column 3: EMPTY / Reserved zone for trap monster
Column 4: EMPTY / Reserved zone for trap monster
Column 5: (Anything, preferably something that can prevent battle damage)

The logic goes that Field Barrier protects Defense Zone, The trap monsters combined with Defense Zone protect themselves AND Field Barrier / Imperial Custom from destruction and Imperial Custom protects the monsters from battle.

Save for field-wide bounce or sending, it looks like a perfect lock, but is it rules-legal?

Yes, this is valid, and your logic is correct. However, it is not invincible. They can always be returned to the hand, or they can be banished, unless of course you have monsters or spells/traps to prevent this.

The most important part of a Trap Monster that concerns this is the part that says: "This card is also treated as a Trap Card" This means that even though it is a Monster, it is also treated as a trap, hence being indestructible.

Anything that the rulebook doesn't state makes it valid.

Now... a card that stops it affects from being negated


Settlers of Catan (Knights & Cities): Lose to barbarians attack - same amount/strengths of active knights, different amount of cities We have 2 players (A & B), barbarians wins.

Both of us have the same amount of active basic knights (1 each).

Player A has 2 cities, whilst player B has 1 city.

(a) Should the both players remove a city from the board (i.e. the amount of cities per player doesn't count)?

Or

(b) Just the one with 2 cities gives up his/her city?

In the FAQs there are only situations with the same amount of cities per player declared.

When determining who wins when fighting the Barbarians, and if you lose to the Barbarians who loses a city is based only on the strength of each player's activated knights. Note every instance of knight in this post actually means activated knights.

First to determine if the Barbarians win or you do count up the number of cities on the board (including metropolises) and count the strength of your knights (basic knights are worth 1 point, strong 2, and mighty 3). If the strength of the knights is greater than or equal to the number of cities you win, if it is less than the number of cities the Barbarians win.

If the Barbarians win count the strength of each individual player (ignoring ones with no cities or only metropolises). The player (or players) with the lowest strength of knights loses a city. The number of cities each player has doesn't matter when determining who loses one.


Does a hit destroy a unit in Axis and Allies 1942? We do not understand how to perform the battle sequence with an attacking force of one infantry, one tank, one airplane, one artillery against two tanks, one infantry.

The attacker rolled two (2)s for the attacking units at (3). Does this mean (2) units are moved to the casualty strip and does the defender choose which units to be destroyed? Defender rolls a 5 and a 3 resulting in one hit. Who chooses the unit to be destroyed?

The receiver of the hits chooses which units to lose. In this example, the defender suffered two losses and would probably choose to lose one infantry and one tank (although he could, in theory take two tanks as losses).

The attacker suffered one hit, and will probably elect to lose the infantry.

That's why there is a so-called "infantry push mechanic" in the game, that encourages both sides to build (and lose) mainly infantry. Heavier units are for attack (not defense), to give your infantry an advantage over their infantry.


How many scry ones equal infinite scry 1 shortcut? Can infinite scry 1 be shortcut by searching through your deck?

It appears that with a scry 1 ability and some infinite repeat mechanism, one can cut to the card one desires, keeping the deck in order as a shortcut. But let's say I can't repeat it infinitely for some reason (maybe it has a cost). If my library has 40 cards in it, do I need to be able to scry 1 40 times to shortcut this? How many minimum do I need to do this every time, and do my odds of getting the card I want on top of the deck increase faster as I am able to trigger more scry one repeats?

I don't know much about MTG, so please pardon my vernacular.

In order to shortcut some finite number of "scry 1"s as "look at your entire deck, then cut the deck at a specific point to put a chosen card on top", it is enough to be able to scry 1 a number of times equal to twice the number of cards in your library. So, if you have 40 cards in your library, you can use the shortcut if you can scry 1 at least 80 times.

The reason for this is that when you perform that shortcut, you see the order of the cards below the desired card as well as above. In order to get the same information by repeatedly scrying, you would have to put the card you are looking for on the bottom, then cycle through the entire library again to put it back on top. Following this algorithm, in the worst case, if the card you are looking for is at the bottom of your library, you would cycle through your entire library twice, for a total of 2 scrys for each card in your library.

Strictly speaking, you can do it with two fewer scrys. If the card you are looking for is the very last card, then you can just leave it on top of your library at the end of the first step and not cycle through your deck again. And if the card you are looking for is second from the bottom, then in the second step you don't have to look at either of the cards at the bottom to end up with the card that was second from the bottom on top.


Properly choosing a random discard Sometimes an effect causes you to discard a card at random. In casual games, it's usually acceptable to have the player hold their hand out (or face down) and the other player picks a card. However, this is not really random. For example I often play mind games to influence their decision like sticking one card out really far while staring at another one.

If my opponent wants to resolve a random discard that way, am I within my right to demand that it be settled with something more random, like a dice roll?

Yes. Many of us use dice even in casual games, because we can't actually make random decisions, and it's easy.

Random means, well, random, so a nonrandom method is not following the rules. I don't think this is explicitly in the rules anywhere, though both die rolls and coin flips are mentions as methods of randomization. It's left implicit that a nonrandom method does not suffice for a card which asks for a random choice; it's not what the card said to do.

  705.3. ... Other methods of randomization may be substituted for flipping a coin as long as there are two possible outcomes of equal likelihood and all players agree to the substitution. For example, the player may roll an even-sided die and call "odds" or "evens," or roll an even-sided die and designate that "odds" means "heads" and "evens" means "tails."

It's also sometimes mentioned in rules clarifications, e.g. for Goblin Test Pilot from the Dragon's Maze FAQ:

  To choose a target at random, all possible legal targets (including creatures and players) must have an equal chance of being chosen. There are many ways to do this, including assigning each possible legal target a number and rolling a die.

But again, I don't think it ever says explicitly "nonrandom methods are not random", because that's supposed to be obvious. Any method is okay, as long as all outcomes are equally likely. Determining what methods satisfy that criterion is left up to the players, or if necessary, a judge.


What is the name of this game with dice and tiles? The person offering it calls it "Bamboo Game".
There are no rules supplied with it.

The name of this game is called "Shut the Box". I believe there are one and two player versions of it.

The goal of the game is to obtain the numbers on the tiles through dice rolls, "shutting" the tiles by turning them around.


Does Strionic Resonator cause Medomai, the Ageless to let me take 3 turns upon hitting someone? We are playing commander and Medomai the Ageless is my commander. If I use Strionic Resonator on the triggered ability to take an extra turn, it adds two instances of take an extra turn so it should give me 3 turns right?

Yes, extra turns can stack in this way.

500.7. Some effects can give a player extra turns. They do this by adding the turns directly after the specified turn. If a player is given multiple extra turns, the extra turns are added one at a time. If multiple players are given extra turns, the extra turns are added one at a time, in APNAP order (see rule 101.4). The most recently created turn will be taken first.


How Specific Does Card Naming Have to Be My son likes to play Conundrum Sphinx because of the "mini game" its ability triggers.  When naming the card on top of your library, how specific do you have to be?

You have to be able to uniquely identify the card, you don't necessarily have to get the name correct.

The reason for this is while the Comprehensive Rules say you have to actually name the card (CR 201.3), the Tournament Rules state that you can get the Oracle text of the card (which includes the name) as long as you can uniquely identify it (MTR 3.6). In order to not waste time calling a judge to get the Oracle text of a card every time you need to name a card you just need to uniquely identify a card in order to 'name' it.

For example in a standard tournament if I wanted to name Jace, the Living Guildpact I couldn't just say "Jace" since Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is also in Standard, and that doesn't uniquely identify which one you are talking about. However you could say "The Jace that doesn't transform" or "The Jace that costs 4" since both of those statements uniquily identifies what card you are talking about in Standard. Note that in Modern you would need to find a different way to describe the card since both of those statements also describe Jace, Architect of Thought

Note that for transforming or flip cards for the Conundrum Sphinx, or something like Memoricide it doesn't matter what name you pick (or uniquely identify), but it does matter for cards like Pithing Needle. For those you have to identify the appropriate side, so if you wanted to name Jace, Telepath Unbound for Pithing Needle you could say "The transformed version of Jace" or something similar.


What are the drawbacks of an automatic card shuffler? I've seen people specifically mention they use automatic shufflers with easily replaceable cards, but what about if it matters if the cards get damaged?

What are the drawbacks to using automatic shufflers? Does machine shuffling cause any more damage than would occur through a normal riffle shuffle? I've also seen some mention that automatic shufflers don't truly randomize the deck. Is this true?

Mechanical shufflers come in several types. The simplest are the hand cranked gravity fed multi-wheel versions... and are the only ones I've much experience with, having owned two. (Both inherited.)

These particular ones both use a wheel to throw cards into the central bay from two elevated bays.

some cards end up face up - I've averaged 1 face-up per 3 shuffles or so.
cards can get scratched on the metal surfaces
can't handle anything that's not "standard height" - it'll do bridge and poker decks of the 3.5" tall variety, but it won't do larger cards, as they get stuck, nor smaller, as they don't stack up in the center bay.
crunches over-thick cards badly. In other words, 110# cardstock won't work well, as home cutting results in being too thick to work.
Kem and other solid plastic cards don't grip right - increased flipping, and more manual downpressure required
older machines' rubber wheels lose tackiness, and don't drag cards as effectively
not quiet.

All the automated ones I've seen have the same issues plus

not stopping if a jam occurs
needing a source of electricity
being even noisier.

I've not used it enough to determine edge wear effects, but Kem used to note that shuffling machines voided their warrantees.


Why don’t you capture more territory in Go? If you have large areas like here in the white upper left corner,

why can't black just put a stone in upper left corner? Then white would lose one point. Or white would have to capture it and get a point instead, but then there would be three white stones within the area and that would mean again for white to lose three points.
So is it just convention to end the game here, when black won't be able to create a living group within the area?

Suppose there is a black stone in the corner but it is impossible for black to survive, no matter how well played.
By convention, both sides recognize this and the black stone is counted as a prisoner.
If either side doesn't accept the convention, both sides will alternately play until the situation is resolved (in favour of white).
At that point, black and white will have played the same number of stones each.
White loses a point for each one it played (loss of territory), and white gains a point for each one that black played (taken as prisoner).
There is no net change in the score as compared with accepting the initial situation and neither side playing any more.

Note that the above is based on territory scoring rules, where points are given only for unoccupied territory (and prisoners).
Under area rules the non-prisoner stones on the board are also counted as part of the territory, so any stones played by white into its own territory would not cost white anything.


What are the differences between Pandemic and Pandemic 2013? I have seen that there is a new edition of Pandemic for 2013.

What are the differences between Pandemic and the "New Challenge" version?

Can I convert my original edition to use any of the new rules?

Is the original Pandemic compatible with the 2013 expansion packs?

The differences between the original version of Pandemic and the 2013 version are essentially cosmetic. The only significant change is to the Role cards. The 2013 games features 2 new roles, Contingency Planner and Quarantine Specialist, that aren't in the original version. It also has the revised Operations Expert from the original On The Brink expansion. There are pictures of these cards here. There have been some changes to the rulebook to clarify some things in the original rulebook that caused confusion.

The original Pandemic is not compatible with the 2013 expansion packs (the card backs have different designs), however you can buy replacement cards to make the original Pandemic compatible with the new expansions.


Card game with animated and holographic cards I recently remembered a card game that I saw couple years ago, here are the things I (vaguely) remember:

most of the cards being holographic and animated.
It came in big plastic container that opened up into a little area to put your cards.
The little area the container opens to has a little card holder that makes the cards both animated and holographic, it had a see through film.

I found the game after searching for it myself its called Redakai
It's on sale on eBay and for clearance in some stores since it wasn't popular


Does Rageblood Shaman give itself +1/+1? So I was playing a game and this card came out and we couldn't decide if by "Other Minotaur creatures" it means not this creature, or if it included it.

Also, we assumed that it would give Trample to Minotaurs as soon as it was cast, rather than when its summoning sickness had passed.

Please can someone clarify for me, thanks!

The Shaman has what is called a Static Ability. These kinds of abilities are active as long as their source is on the battlefield. So it will be active from the moment the Shaman enters the battlefield until the moment it leaves.

As for what it effects, "Other Minotaurs" means exactly that, any Minotaur other than the one with the ability gets the +1/+1 and trample. If you happen to control 2 of the Shamans they will each effect the other one, but they will not effect themselves.

In order for an ability like that to grant itself that ability it needs to drop the "Other" and just say "Minotaur creatures you control get +1/+1 and have trample." An example of this template is almost any Sliver.

Also note that the Shaman already has trample, so the part of the ability that you should be caring about is the +1/+1.

  604.1. Static abilities do something all the time rather than being activated or triggered. They are written as statements, and they're simply true.


How does one defeat an enemy's True-Name Nemesis? In Magic the Gathering, there is a card called True-Name Nemesis. This card, when entering the battlefield, allows the caster to select an opponent. Once selected, True-Name Nemesis gets protection from said opponent. Just how does someone deal with one that was played by an opponent in a 1v1 match?

Protection doesn't provide perfect invulnerability against your stuff. The reminder text on the card lists specifically all of the things that you can't do. Here are some ways to deal with an opponent's True-Name Nemesis:

Decrease your opponent's creatures' toughnesses. For example, if you play Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, your oppenent's creatures will get -2/-2, so the True-Name Nemesis will have less than zero toughness and die due to a state based effect.
Destroy or exile all creatures. If you play Wrath of God, all creatures will be destroyed, including the True-Name Nemesis. There's nothing that say's that it can't be destroyed by effects you control.
Force your opponent to sacrifice a creature. If you play Consuming Vapors, they'll have to sacrifice a creature. You can force them to sacrifice the True-Name Nemesis if you get rid of their other creatures.
Prevent it from attacking. You can either make it very expensive to attack you, with Norn's Annex, for example, or just prevent it entirely with Blazing Archon.
Remove its protection. If you play Polymorphist's Jest, Sudden Spoiling, or Humility, all of your opponent's creatures will be 2/2 Frogs with no abilities, including the True-Name Nemesis. Then you can get rid of it like any other creature.
Make damage unpreventable, then deal mass damage. For example, you could play Everlasting Torment, then Anger of the Gods.
Outpace your opponent. If you have enough power on the field, you can either kill kill them faster than they can kill you, or force them to keep the True-Name Nemesis untapped as a blocker.
Prevent it from entering the battlefield in the first place. You can counter it with any of a number of counterspells, name "True-Name Nemesis" with Nevermore, Meddling Mage, or Voidstone Gargoyle, cast Iona, Shield of Emeria and choose "blue", or just cast Llawan, Cephalid Empress.
Force it to block with an effect that destroys blocking creatures. For example, if you enchant an Engulfing Slagwurm with Lure and attack, the True-Name Nemesis will be forced to block if able, and it will be destroyed.
Make it deal damage to itself using Wave of Reckoning.


Do I lose resources when buying 4th plant in Power Grid? I won the auction for a new Power Plant. I already have 3, so I need to get rid of one of them. Can I put resources from the plant I'm discarding on the plant I just bought? Do I need to store them for the duration of "transfer" on one of the plants I'm not getting rid of? Or do I lose resources when discarding the plant?

You may keep the resources, as long as the new plant can store them. According to the rulebook:

  When a player buys a fourth plant, he must discard one of his other power plants. The player may move resources from the discarded power plant to his remaining three power plants, if they match the resources used by one or more of the retained power plants.


How to implement numerous resources in a clean efficient way I am working on a king of the hill type board game.  With it, I have 3 main resources for players, food, stone, and lumber.

In theory, I want these to convert into more complex items that can be in turn, used to create more complex items.

Example:
Wheel <= 2 stone + 1 lumber
Wooden Bed <= 5 lumber
Wagon <= 4xWheel 1xWooden Bed

Now, Part of the thought process is that based on random chance, players will be able to construct these different items, and would benefit from trading with others.

At this point, im comfortable with that idea, despite it needing some tweaking.  The part I am uncomfortable with is the amount of cards(or something) that would be required to be handed out.

Has anyone seen anything that worked in a similar way and was able to do this in an organized fashion?

One of my goals with this game is to keep setup simple (set up board, deal a few cards, GO!).  But if people have a full bank of random items, I feel like it would get a bit too frustrating.  (I look at dominion and it calms me a bit..but still something i want to avoid).

In the game "This War of Mine" they used plastic pieces (middle right compartment) for basic resources such as Wood, Water, Components and used cardboard printed tokens for advanced resources (other compartments).

The "recipes" are described on cards.


If I pocket the queen and one opponent's C/m in the same shot, what happens? If I'm playing black and I pocket the queen and a white C/m in a single shot, do I get a chance to cover the queen? Or does the queen come back on the board? Or does the queen go to the opponent?

Pardon the bump but the correct answer is:

Player loses their turn and the queen comes out. Any of the opponents pieces remain pocketed.

Actually this is hard to pin down. The official rules state that if a player pockets an opponents piece their turn is over. Since they would then not be able to cover the queen must therefore also come out. There seems to be no mention of any due or penalty, nor a specific rule covering this, so the pocketing of an opponents coin ending the turn appears to take precedent.

However according to Master Of Games website, this would count as a foul, the turn would end and the queen along with a penalty coin would be replaced. The pocketed coins would remain pocketed. The rules laid out on this site differ in many ways from the official ICF rule so take that into consideration.

Both rule sets state the turn ends and the queen is replaced, the only difference being whether or not the penalty is charged.


Is there a site to play Go online against a computer? There are many go servers but all of them seem to be for player-player games. I want to play online against a computer. I found some but it is not an actual go. I was not able to find a real go brain online. Are there any at all?

PS: In the end, I registered to KGS and later at WBaduk (but liked KGS much more) and I ended up playing against human players only. I found it much more fun than playing against a computer and since I tried it for the first time (online) I never went back to playing against the computer.

Some Go servers allow computers to "log in" and play just like regular users. On KGS, for example, they are marked with a computer icon, and there is a setting in the "automatch" for finding games with bots. More details are available here: http://www.gokgs.com/help/faq/bots.html


Can the priestess counter cheating? In Red Dragon Inn, the priestess has a counter card called "they might not know you're cheating but my goddess does" where they negate a cheating card only if they are still In the round of gambling.

The cheating card played was "what's that up your sleeve" by Zot the wizard and Pooky. This card takes control of then round of gambling and picks a player to force them to leave the round of gambling.

In this scenario Zot forced the priestess to leave and following that the priestess tried to counter it with the card mentioned above. An argument ensued about whether the priestess was allowed to do this or not. Does anyone know the official ruling of this? In my opinion since Zot played first and forced the priestess to leave she was no longer in the round of gambling and therefore not allowed to counter.

When someone is being forced out of a round of gambling everyone has a chance to counter, including the person being forced out. The actual card does not finish resolving until counters have been played.
From the official rules (page 3):

Forcing a Player to Leave a Round of Gambling
Some cards force a player to leave a Round of Gambling. When a player is forced out of the Round, each player, including the one being forced out, has a chance to respond (for example, with "Oh, I guess the Wench thought that was her tip...", "They might not know you're cheating, but my Goddess does!", or another anti-cheat card).


How does losing a turn work in Arkham Horror? Lost in time and space says I lose my turn but then also says I am delayed and stand up during the movement phase. Does this mean I stay out of an entire turn of the game ignoring upkeep, movement, encounters and then in the movement phase after that I stand up in the movement phase?

Short Answer: Being lost in time and space means that during your next turn, you skip all phases, including Upkeep. The only exception is during that same turn's Movement Phase, you simply stand up your token.

Long Answer: Here is the text on what happens when lost in time and space (core rulebook, pg. 17):

  Any investigator who is lost in time and space is immediately moved to the Lost in Time and Space area of the board. The investigator is now delayed, and the player should place the investigator marker on its side. The investigator loses his next turn, remaining in the Lost in Time and Space area. The player may only stand his investigator marker back up during the Movement Phase. On the following turn, at the start of the Upkeep Phase, the player may move his investigator to any location or street area of his choice in Arkham.

So the order is as follows:

Immediately go to the Lost and Time and Space area and become delayed (place your character sideways to mark that, as usual).
During your next turn, stand your character up during the Movement phase as normal for being delayed. As an extra rule for Lost in Time and Space, you skip all other phases (this is what is meant by "lose your next turn"). There are no encounters you can take anyway so skipping the Encounter Phase is moot, and there is no Upkeep phase (good if you want to stay Blessed, bad if you were hoping for income from a Retainer). This is confirmed by a topic on the Fantasy Flight Arkham Horror forum.
During the Upkeep phase of the following turn, you move your investigator to any location or street area in Arkham and continue with your turn as normal.


In Magic: the Gathering, what is being gathered? Why does Magic: The Gathering have "The Gathering" in its title?

What is being "gathered"?

The question is partially answered in the article 25 Random Things About Magic:

Magic was almost not called Magic. In fact, when the first solicitation for the game was sent out the game was called Mana Clash. The reason for this is as follows. Richard (Garfield, of course) called the game Magic when he originally designed it. All through the original playtests the game was called Magic. Then when they went to officially name it, they got a lawyer involved who informed them that Magic was too broad of a word to ever be able to copyright. So they started looking for alternatives. Mana Clash was the name they liked best from that search and thus they used it on the solicitation. But everyone playing the game (Richard, the playtesters and the people at Wizards) still called the game Magic. The name just seemed too perfect. They went back to the lawyer and asked what they could do to call it Magic. The lawyer told them they needed to add something else unique and "ownable" onto it that allowing them to copyright the name as a whole. That is how "The Gathering" was added.

The reason for the specific choice the Gathering is described in this interview with Richard Garfield:

Why is it called Magic : The Gathering?
“Well… there’s a few answers to that. When it first came out, we said ‘the gathering’ was a gathering of friends, a gathering of people, and a gathering of cards. It seemed like a good descriptor for our first set. We were expecting our second set to be ‘Magic : Ice Age’, and to have chapters in this book going along, but that was before we sort of ran them all together. So all the cards are now part of Magic : The Gathering – which originally going to be like the first chapter.
“My name for it was ‘Magic’, and the reason we didn’t use that is simply because ‘magic’ is a hard thing to own, and there were all sorts of really terrible names that were floating around that we could own – but Magic : The Gathering was a good final resting spot because we could own ‘Magic : The Gathering’ and people could still call it ‘Magic’.

An alternative interpretation is that it refers to the gathering of magic/mana, to gather power/force from the world around to cast spells, although I don't have a reference for that.


Will Awakening let me tap all my lands and get them immediately untapped? With the card Awakening, could I tap all lands immediately after my untap step and then have them untap upon entering my upkeep? I ask this because I'm trying to maximize Omnath, Locus of Mana as my commander.

You could use Awakening to tap your lands twice in one turn, but not exactly in the way you expect.

Starting with your untap step, play proceeds as follows:

Your untap step starts, and all of your permanents untap.
Your upkeep step starts, and Awakening's triggered ability goes on the stack. You gain priority. This is your first opportunity to do anything.
You can now tap your permanents to add mana to your mana pool.
Awakening's ability resolves, and all of your lands and creatures untap.


Clarification about Azurite Channeler in Ascension: Deliverance The card text of Azurite Channeler in Ascension: Deliverance states:

"Banish a card in your hand and replace it with a Mystic or Heavy Infantry".

Does the replacement card go straight into hand, or does it go into the discard pile?

It seems quite a powerful effect to upgrade one of the base deck cards straight away.

The way cards like that work in general is you place the card where the banished card came from. An example of this is Guide of Lost Souls from Dawn of Champions

  You may banish a card in your hand or discard pile. If you do, replace it with a Mystic or Heavy Infantry

When using this card in the iOS app the replacement card goes into your hand if the banished card came from your hand or into your discard if the card came from there. While most other cards specify placing them in your hand I think the replacement text means to put the new card in the same place as the other one came from.

I am unable to find anything in the rules or faq in regard to this but I can confirm this is how the iOS app treats the action.


Evaluating tactical situations in Puerto Rico I've been playing a bit of Puerto Rico against computers (AIs) lately. I'm doing quite well against the easier AIs so I think my overall gameplay isn't so bad but I've realized that I still have problems evaluating some situations from a tactical point of view.

Captain and Trader do not offer much choice so their direct effects are quite easy to predict. Still I find that I rarely consider what's beyond the Trader or Captain. Is that a mistake? What should I look for?
Mayor and Craftsman are relatively straightforward too. Mayor often leads to Craftsman and Craftsman generally results in Trader and/or Captain. So my thinking is: "Do I benefit from Craftsman enough if I pick Mayor now?" and "Do I get to ship/trade enough if I pick Craftsman now?" I don't think it is feasible to think much further but I welcome suggestions...
Settler and Builder are more difficult for me however. They are the most unpredictable element of the game IMO. I usually just think if I need/want a building or plantation and if there's nothing more pressing among the other options then I just go for it. What should I look for when evaluating the benefits of these roles?

Of course with enough time you could thoroughly evaluate every option for your own move and the next one but that would quickly lead to analysis-paralysis. So what can be done in reasonable amounts of time? Are there any kinds of tools to help in training this, aside from playing full games?

Captain: I would argue that this is actually the most complicated role in the game. If calculating its effects seems easy to you, then Captain might be getting chosen too often in your games. In the group that I play with, it is usually not cut and dry...ie...not all goods will be shipped.

When that happens, so many things come into play:

Which of my opponents is likely to
captain if I don't?
Will I still be able to ship all my
goods if they captain instead?
Can I force someone else into loading
a coffee or tobacco boat when they
would rather not?
Will the other players in the game
understand and silently collude to
make that happen?
Can I start a coffee or tobacco boat mid/late game to block my indigo and corn shipping opponents?
Who has harbors, and how many times
will they get to ship?
How full is each boat and will the
other players get to ship what they
want?
What about warehouses?
How will the leftovers affect the
next trader phase?
If I delay captaining now, will the
next craftsman cause a shortage of
goods (ie. the supply will run out)?
Will the players with factories be
affected by the shortage (and get
shortchanged on doubloons)?

Trader:

If trader is a great move for me now,
then it's likely that other players
won't want to take it. I can wait a
turn and it will have accumulated an
extra doubloon.
If I don't trade, will I still get to
if someone else trades (often the
answer is yes).
What goods are players left with
after a trade and who will be set up
well for the next trade?

Mayor: the other responses in this thread make good suggestions about mayor.

Look for a big gap in benefit
(getting 3 colonists vs. 1
colonists).
Do other players want me to mayor? If
I've got early production (corn and
indigo), and they are sitting on
coffee and tobacco with unmanned
production facilities - there is
almost no way I would ever choose
mayor. Force them to choose mayor, so
it will delay their craftsman by a
whole rotation.

Craftsman - Many of the considerations are actually covered in the Captain section. But also:

The benefit of taking craftsman is
only one extra good, which is not
that significant most of the time.
When you take it, you are setting up
all the other players to have huge
moves on the subsequent turns, while
you are in the worst position.
If you don't craft, will you get shut
out because of good shortages?
Do you have a factory? Do not craft
just so you can get your extra
doubloons. Someone else will craft,
and you will still get them.

Settler: I try to always take it in the first two or three rounds if I can get a quarry. After that, it feels like the turn you give up to take it is almost always a waste. You'll usually be able to get what you want anyway when someone else chooses settler. If your strategy depends on getting a specific mix of plantations, then you might want to reconsider how you play the game. Which plantations come out is the only element of chance in Puerto Rico, why put yourself at the mercy of it?

Builder: Most of the time I feel like this is one of the easier roles. I usually only take it if:

I can build and my opponents cannot.
Passing will give an opponent the
chance to buy the last of a
particular building that is crucial
to my own strategy.
The 1 doubloon discount will enable
me to buy a key building one or two
rounds earlier than if I let someone
else take it. (although as mentioned by Lance, you might be able to get this doubloon some other way on this turn - often by taking another role with a doubloon bonus already on it)
It is mid/late game and I am trying
to end the game by filling up all of
my building spaces

.


Is this a correct way to count territory in Go (by Chinese rules)? I am not sure if I misunderstood the territory counting rules of Go or simply I ran into a software bug. One of the Go programs I use counts territories like this. Would you explain me please why B6, C8, F7 were not counted for black?

Those points should count.  There must be a bug in the program.


Invocation of nehek and swarms? How does invocation of nehek affect swarms?

For example the bat swarm.

If I cast nehek on a bat swarm that has 4 bases/models with full wounds and nehek replenishes 3 wounds, what happens? Does it create a new base/model with 3 wounds?

If the unit was not a swarm but had multiple wounds for each base, how would that work?

Invocation of Nehek (Vampire Counts 8th Ed, pg 60) says that "Wounds gained are distributed as described in Ressurecting Fallen Warriors".

The rules for Ressurecting Fallen Warriors (Vampire Counts 8th Ed, pg 26) state that "A unit cannot be taken beyond it's starting size, though certain powers, spells and special rules may provide exceptions".

So the unit will not go above it's starting size unless the unit or the caster has a special rule saying they may do so (Swarms do not).

The rules for Ressurecting Fallen Warriors go on to say:

"In the case of multiple Wound models, all models in the unit must be fully healed before another can be resurrected."

However, Invocation of Nehek does add that "models with the Vampiric, Ethereal or Large Target special rules can never regain more than 1 Wound per successful casting."


Bizzaro Playing Cards Here’s a problem a friend of mine posed to me a long time ago, that I was recently reminded of. I figured, with modern computing, there might be some way to figure it out:

Assume that there are two set of 52 cards, 13 of each of four sets. Now, for the purpose of a game, each card of the first deck becomes associated with one card in the other card such that, say, A♠ = 5♣.

The second set follows these conditions:
1.) No card may be it’s own twin
2.) No card may appear twice
3.) Four of a kind in the normal deck may not repeat suits in the second deck.
4.) Any poker run in a normal deck (straight, flush) must be disrupted in the second.

Is there a set of cards that matches these conditions? And if so, what is it?

Note that (1) and (2) are satisfied by any derangement of the cards. There are probably many "mappings" that satisfy your conditions, but since all you seek is one possible answer, I propose the following solution.

For the values, map them in this way:

A -> 2, 2 -> 4, 3-> 6, 4 -> 8, 5 -> 10, 6 -> Q, 7 -> A, 8 -> 3, 9 -> 5, 10 -> 7, J -> 9, Q -> J, K -> K

Then: A234567890JQK -> 24680QA3579JK

So clearly any straight will not map to any straight. And because any 4 of a kind maps to a 4 of a kind, there won't be any suit duplication (your condition 3).

For the suits, consider some order of the suits [clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades]:

For values A-4: map to the same suit
For values 5-8: map to the next suit (e.g. clubs -> diamonds, spades -> clubs)
For values 9-Q: map to the previous suit
For K: map to the "opposite suit"

Then any flush (which consists of 5 cards of the same suit) cannot map to a flush, because you cannot obtain more than 4 cards of the same suit if you start with a flush.

Note that changing the suit of the K resolves the issue where K -> K, since it is required that no card be its own "twin".


Can someone Bioshift counters off a creature after combat damage has been assigned? A friend has a Primordial Hydra with 10 +1/+1 counters on it, giving it trample.  I block it with a Vampire Nighthawk, causing it to die. My friend then uses Bioshift to take the counters off "in response to it taking lethal damage".

A: Can he do this?
B: Would my creature die and I take the remaining damage if he does it?

No he can not do this.

Damage does not use the stack.

  510.1. First, the active player announces how each attacking creature assigns its combat damage, then the defending player announces how
  each blocking creature assigns its combat damage. This turn-based
  action doesn't use the stack. A player assigns a creature's combat
  damage according to the following rules:

  510.2. Second, all combat damage that's been assigned is dealt simultaneously. This turn-based action doesn't use the stack. No
  player has the chance to cast spells or activate abilities between the
  time combat damage is assigned and the time it's dealt. This is a
  change from previous rules.

Then once the damage is assigned and SBA are checked, IE it goes to the grave yard, then players have priority.

  510.3. Third, any abilities that triggered on damage being assigned or dealt go on the stack. (See rule 603, "Handling Triggered Abilities.")

  510.4. Fourth, the active player gets priority. Players may cast spells and activate abilities.

So at the time he wants to move the counters the creature would be dead and gone.

EDIT: In response to B:

Since the nighthawk only has a toughness of 3, in step 510.1 your friend would assign 3 damage to the nighthawk and 7 damage to you if the hydra was 10/10 with trample.

When it comes to trample you only ever have to assign lethal damage to the blocker before you assign damage to the player the blocker is blocking.


Can I mill my opponent into defeat with Mindcrank and Duskmantle Guildmage? Okay the scenario I'm thinking of is as follows:

I control a Mindcrank, Duskmantle Guildmage and 3 untapped lands (2
swamps, 1 Island to be perdantic).
In my opponents turn he casts a burn spell to kill my duskmantle.
I activate his first ability in response.

The way I am hoping the following interactions will go is:

Duskmantles ability will hit the stack at the top and resolve
The burn spell resolves dealing its damage to Duskmantle
The burn spell card hits the graveyard and triggers the infinite
loop for duskmantle and mindcrank killing my opponent
Duskmantle perishes

Is this the way that the stack would pan out?
Do I win in this situation regardless of the stack being correct or not above? (I am not fully familiar with how the stack really works in magic)
You can see the cards from my deck here.

Your opponent will die

The first ability from duskmantle is a delayed triggered ability:

  603.7. An effect may create a delayed triggered ability that can do something at a later time. A delayed triggered ability will contain “when,” “whenever,” or “at,” although that word won’t usually begin the ability.

  603.7a Delayed triggered abilities come from spells or other abilities that create them on resolution, ...

After it is created, it does not matter what happens to the object that created it. Meaning that as soon as this ability resolves, the next time this turn that something goes to your opponents graveyard, they die.

Even though the last steps of the stack do not matter in this situation as your opponent has already lost after step 1, your stack is correct, because a spell going to the graveyard is the last part of resolving a spell and state-based actions that move your creature to the graveyard are only checked right before anyone gets priority.

  608.2k As the final part of an instant or sorcery spell’s resolution, the spell is put into its owner’s graveyard.


ACT5 and ACT6 + pay extra spades Is it possible to pay extra spades (with for example workers) when you choose power action 5 or 6?

Thanks in advance.

I'll be quoting from the rule book here.
Page 10 has general rules for using Spades. In general, if you're gaining Spades during an Action phase, you can exchange Workers to finish the job. If you gain the Spades outside of the Action phase (such as for the Cult Bonus), you can't.

Game Board Power Action Spaces
For spaces 5 and 6 you can exchange Workers for Spades.

Page 17: If these Spades do not suffice to transform a given Terrain space into your Home terrain, you may exchange Workers* for the missing Spade – at the current Exchange rate on your Exchange track. If you only need one Spade to transform a Terrain space into your Home terrain, you may spend the second Spade on another Terrain space. However, you may not place a Dwelling on this other space.
*Darklings need to exchange 1 Priest for each missing Spade.

Bonus Cards
When using the Special Action on the Bonus card (scroll) to gain a Spade, the same rules apply (page 19).

Cult Bonus Spades

Page 15: You may not acquire additional Spades when getting them as a Cult bonus. You may not save Spades for future turns.


Does cloning a card include color? If Clone (for instance) comes in as a copy of a black creature and attacks and is blocked by a creature that has protection from black, how does it resolve?

What if the blocking creature has protection from blue?

It's as if the physical Clone card was replaced with a copy of the card being copied.
The Clone is black, so a blocker with protection from black will receive no damage. The blocker will still deal damage as normal.
The Clone is not blue, so a blocker with protection from blue will both receive and deal damage as normal.
(Its name isn't "Clone" anymore.)

An object's color is determined by its mana cost and its color indicator.

202.2. An object is the color or colors of the mana symbols in its mana cost, regardless of the color of its frame.
202.2e An object may have a color indicator printed to the left of the type line. That object is each color denoted by that color indicator. (See rule 204.)

Becoming a copy of an object adopts the copied object's mana cost and its color indicator, replacing what the copier had.

When copying an object, the copy acquires the copiable values of the original object’s characteristics and, for an object on the stack, choices made when casting or activating it (mode, targets, the value of X, whether it was kicked, how it will affect multiple targets, and so on). The “copiable values” are the values derived from the text printed on the object (that text being name, mana cost, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, power, toughness, and/or loyalty), as modified by other copy effects, by “as . . . enters the battlefield” and “as . . . is turned face up” abilities that set characteristics, and by abilities that caused the object to be face down. Other effects (including type-changing and text-changing effects), status, and counters are not copied.

Note: Only "printed" values are copied. The effects of Effects changing the copied object color are not copied. For example, if the object being copied is a normally-green creature enchanted by an enchantment with "Enchanted creature is black", the copy will be green.

Protection gives protection from being Damaged, Enchanted/Equipped/Fortified, Blocked and Targeted[CR 702.16].
A blocker with protection from black can't be damaged by a black attacker.

702.16e Any damage that would be dealt by sources that have the stated quality to a permanent or player with protection is prevented.


Are general 3-to-1 or specific 2-to-1 ports better in Settlers of Catan? Which type of ports do you find more useful in Settlers of Catan, General 3-to-1 ports or 2-to-1 ports for a specific resource?

Unfortunately, it depends.

After the initial layout you want to try to identify which resources will be scarce and dominate them.  At the same time you want to try to identify which resources will be plentiful and dominate them and position yourself for the related 2-1 port.

It's unusual that you will be able to accomplish all of that :)

Once the layout is down, and folks have placed their initial cities you can then work to determine if you will have significant extra of a commodity.  If so, see if you can angle towards the 2-1 port.  If not, the 3-1 can work out just fine.


What are ways to "read" the shape of your opponents' hands early on? Toward the end, the shape of opponents' hands can be read by "counting" (playing out two or three suits and inferring the shape of the remaining one(s)).

In the beginning, one looks for more subtle clues. If a lead is fourth best, one might look in hand or dummy for lower cards to see if the leader might have a fifth or sixth. If opener has bid three suits they are likely to have a singleton or void in the fourth. If one defender has bid they probably have the bulk of the defenders' points; if neither has bid, the points are (probably) evenly split.

What are other ways to draw inferences about opponents' hands after hearing the bidding, and seeing one or two rounds of play?

The opening lead often gives you some hints.  Ask yourself why LHO chose to lead that suit and that card.  You can also get information from later leads if the opponents win tricks early.

If the opening lead is a high spot against a suit contract, there is a good chance it is a singleton or a doubleton.  If LHO is leading RHO's bid suit, is it a high, middle, or low card?  The answer can frequently help you determine the distribution of the suit.  If LHO leads low in a random suit, perhaps he is trying to avoid leading from honors in the other suits.  Against NT, there is a good chance that the suit lead by LHO is his strongest (unless it is RHO's suit).

Ironically, you usually get more information from leads by strong opponents than leads by weak opponents, whose leads are a lot more random.


Do punches and vulnerabilities have a type when using Animal Man? Do Punches/Vulnerabilities have a type when using Animal Man (when using 3 or more card types, +2 power)?

Yes, their type is "Starter"

First off, the full text for Animal Man is as follows:

  +2 Power and choose a card type. Reveal the top card of your deck. If it has that card type, draw it.

The key phrase here is "card type". Page 2 of the rulebook talks about types of cards and shows that the text in the colored bar below the picture is the card type.

As we can see, both Punch and Vulnerability have a card type of "Starter". This is corroborated by the explicit listing of the card types at the bottom of the page:

  The different card types that you can play are: Starter, Villain, Location, Hero, Super Power, and Equipment. Weakness cards have no card type.


The End of Anubis vs Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon I play with a Structure Deck: Zombie Horde and my friend is always using The End of Anubis against me. My Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon has the following effect:

  Gains 100 ATK/DEF for each Zombie monster on the field and in the GYs. When another Zombie monster is destroyed by battle: You can Special Summon 1 Zombie monster from either GY to your field. You can only use this effect of "Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon" once per turn.

We were wondering if The End of Anubis' effect

  While this card is face-up on the field, all effects of Spell, Trap, and Monster Cards that target a card(s) in the Graveyard or that activate in the Graveyard are negated.

negates the effect of my Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon.

Thank for your help!

No, the effect will not be negated.

The critical phrase in The End of Anubis' effect here is (emphasis mine):

  that target a card(s) in the Graveyard

The only cards in the game which are defined by the game rules to inherently target are Equip Spell cards. All other cards/effects are not considered to target another card unless explicitly stated as such.

Red-Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon does not require a target for its effect; the monster is chosen at resolution without being targeted. Therefore, the effect of Necro Dragon will not be negated.


Can I use a bus ticket straight away after rolling a double? I would like to know: if a player rolls doubles twice then lands on the birthday gift and collects a bus ticket, can that player use their bus ticket immediately or do they have to roll again because they rolled doubles?

From the rules here

If doubles entitle you to roll again, you may use a Bus Ticket in
place of rolling the dice.

The rules for birthday gift say

BIRTHDAY GIFT If you land here collect $100 from the Bank, or draw a
Bus Ticket for use on a later turn. Your choice.

So the question is is rolling again due to a double is the same turn or a new turn. The rules state the following.

After you have completed your play, the turn passes to the left.

So reading that it sounds like rolling again it part of the same 'turn' or 'play' and not a new and separate turn.  So if a bus ticket is taken for 'use on a later turn' then they would not get to use it immediately.
However this terminology is contradicted in rules for getting out of jail by rolling a double.

Even though you rolled doubles, you do not take another turn.

So it seems the rules are confused on what is 'a turn' and if that differs from 'rolling again'
Personally I would let them as that seems to make more sense thematically that you can use a ticket straight away, maybe one to discuss as a house rule before you start as there is an argument in the rules for both.


Do you have to go around the board once to purchase properties? When it comes to Monopoly I know there are ways the gameplay can be altered and I was wondering if this is one of them. Basically everytime I play I'm told you have to go around the board once before you can purchase properties but then I read somewhere else that you can purchase them immediately. Is this true or is this rule just made up?

Sounds like a house rule to me.

http://richard_wilding.tripod.com/monorules.htm claims to be a copy of the rules from the official rulebook.  The section on Buying Property reads only:

  Whenever you land on an unowned property you may buy that property
  from the Bank at its printed price. You receive the Title Deed card
  showing ownership. Place the title deed card face up in front of you.
  If you do not wish to buy the property, the Bank sells it at through
  an auction to the highest bidder. The high bidder pays the Bank the
  amount of the bid in cash and receives the Title Deed card for that
  property.

Nothing about having to go round once, and certainly I've never played a game of Monopoly in that way.  What would it even achieve, apart from slow what is already a potentially long-winded game down to an even more glacial pace?


In Shadow Hunters, can only Hunters benefit from the Spear of Longinus? Spear of Longinus text:

  If you're a Hunter and your attack is successful, you may reveal your identity. If you do, or if you are already revealed, you give 2 points of extra damage.

If a revealed, non-Hunter has the spear do they inflict the extra damage?

I think the intent of the card was probably to only benefit Hunters, but it could be read as any revealed character using the spear gives the extra damage. But, only Hunters would get the ability to reveal their identity on a successful attack.

The way I read it, "If you're a Hunter" applies to the entire rules paragraph.  Therefore, you could re-read it as:

  If you're a Hunter and your attack is successful, you may reveal your identity.  If you're a Hunter and you do, or if you are already revealed, you give 2 points of extra damage."

I could certainly see the argument, though, that two sentences are two completely separate, and so that any revealed non-Hunter could do 2 points of extra damage as well.  I believe the intent is for Hunters only, but it isn't very clear.


Multi-monster fights in Munchkin Quest I've read the manual but don't fully get multi-monster fights. It says you can't chose to fight one, and flee from others. But do you sum up all the monster points and try to beat that in one single combat, or do you fight one monster at a time?

The monsters combine their strengths: you don't fight them one at a time.

This was confirmed by the "Munchkin Czar" at the Steve Jackson Games Forums, and who would dare to argue with a Munchkin Czar?  (You may find extra clarification of how multi-monster fighting works by reading through the thread, if you're still at all confused.)


AQ Hobsbawm ability clarification Did his ability get updated? The hero card that I have in my core set states that the player can only activate another hero within line of sight but the hero card online at the arcadia quest website doesn't have the line of sight restriction. I'm assuming the hero card online is the correct version but I just want to make sure.

Crossposted on BGG.

Line of sight is required according to the game's designer.

  The card in your core set is the most up-to-date.


How to fix very high impact of losing players last turn Don't get me wrong - I love the fact that being almost nullified early on doesn't necessarily spell out slow and frustrating snowballing doom for you.

But in every single game I've played with people that are not playing for the first time, the last few turns everyone gangs up on the player that is closest to victory at that time. That is perfectly reasonable, until you get to the situation where one of the losing players realizes that someone else is going to win this turn no matter what. And then he basically has the power to choose who that person would be.

My mindset when playing board games is that I should play optimally no matter what happens. If you can't win - you should postpone your demise as long as possible. My friends don't subscribe to that idea.

In short - the outcome of a game isn't decided by who played the best out of the better players, but who one of the losing players chose to win at the very last moment.

And the rational behind that choice can be anything from he is/was my ally to I just want to start a new game faster or I simply like him/her better.

The only solution I can think of is add different points for second, third etc. places. However, this goes against the very essence that when you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.

How often do you encounter this problem (for me literally every game) and what possible fixes have you found (if any)?

While I haven't played Game of Thrones, kingmaking is something that happens in a ton of games.  And I've only ever found a couple ways of effectively dealing with it.

Embrace it.  Sometimes, it is just part of the game.  Sometimes picking an otherwise sub-optimal move in hopes of currying favor for a possible (or probable) kingmaker scenario is a valid tactic.  Not snowballing someone to oblivion can gain enough favor that you win the table politics.  If you choose to embrace it, realize that table politics can become far more important in your games.  It can also make those games more interesting (or more frustrating) depending on your feelings towards table politics.
Treat it like luck.  This may not work if kingmaking scenarios happen often, but you can treat it like any other luck-based or random event.  Just like when you need to draw that certain card or get that high roll to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, sometimes you just have to hope a kingmaker chooses you over the others.  Winning or losing because of a kingmaker can feel like a cheap win or loss.  It can also be a learning opportunity into how you should play to avoid such scenarios if it bothers you.  Also, like other random events, sometimes you just get screwed.  Don't let it bother you and move on.
Encourage not being a jerk.  If this really bugs you or people in your playgroup, encourage people who become kingmakers to just stay out of it, especially if their motives are less than sportsmanlike.  Just like with any other not-technically-illegal-by-the-rules-but-still-a-jerk move, tell people you don't like it when that happens.  If one person keeps doing it, stop playing with them (and possibly politely explain why).  You play the game to have fun.  Don't play with people who suck the fun out of it.  Either they will learn and stop or they won't be around to suck out the fun.1

1 I realize this is an easy thing to say and a much harder thing to do without bruising egos and hurting friendships, but setting healthy boundaries is essential to good relationships.  And if someone can't respect those boundaries (or at least agree that maybe playing a certain game isn't good if they value you as a friend) then they might not have been a very good friend to begin with.