How much control does the first player have when placing multiple monsters? When drawing multiple monsters and placing them is there a choice in which monsters go to the outskirts?

Do we get to pick what monster goes on what gate?

Just for reference...
For normal gate openings, on Pages 9/10:

The first player draws a monster marker from the cup at random and
places it on the location. If this would bring the number of monsters
over the monster limit, the first player places the monster in the
Outskirts instead (see “Monster Limits and the Outskirts,” page 18)
Exception: If there are five or more investigators playing, then draw
and place two monsters instead of one.

For monster surges, on Page 9:

The first player draws monster markers from the cup at random and
places them on each location with an open gate. When placing monsters,
they should be divided as evenly as possible among the open gates,
with no gate having more monsters placed on it than the gate where the
monster surge occurred this turn. If there are more monsters to be
placed than allowed by the monster limit (see “Monster Limits and the
Outskirts,” page 18), the players should decide where monsters will be
placed. The players must make this decision before monsters have been
drawn from the cup. If the players cannot agree where the monsters are
to be placed, the first player decides the placement

You are right, the rules don't explicitly say anything like draw and place monsters one at a time, though most everyone I've seen discussing this on the Fantasy Flight AH forum and the BoardGameGeek AH forum agree that hand picking which monsters get to go where is against the spirit of the game.
What would that mean thematically anyway? That the investigators can somehow allow two Cultists passage into Arkham but force the Gugs into the outskirts? The Mythos Phase is virtually completely free from investigator influence (save for things like the Psychic and Arcane Insight) and allowing the players to choose which specific monsters end up where on the board gives them a large degree of control that it doesn't make sense to have.
For monster placement, I just draw and place one-by-one, so it's pretty unambiguous which monsters are the ones the go over the limit. For surges I just draw monsters from the cup one-by-one and place them around the board going clockwise-ish starting at the surging gate. Any monsters that would get places but are over the limit go to the outskirts and I don't worry about fine tuning the placement in that instance.
That said, there's absolutely nothing stopping you if you feel like manually choosing the end locations for the drawn monsters.


Can I tap fewer than 7 creatures with Lullmage Mentor? With Lullmage Mentor's ability:

  Tap seven untapped Merfolk you control: Counter target spell.

Can I attempt to tap less than 7 creatures with his second ability? I know it would not activate his second ability, but can I at least make the attempt to tap 7?

Basically can I intentionally fail to tap 7 creatures and those creatures still get tapped?

No you can't.  due to rule 117.3

  117.3. A player can’t pay a cost unless he or she has the necessary
  resources to pay it fully. For example, a player with only 1 life can’t pay a cost of 2 life, and a permanent that’s already tapped can’t be tapped to pay a cost. See rule 202, “Mana Cost and Color,” and rule 602, “Activating Activated Abilities”

the text: "tap 7 merfolk" is before the :, and therefore it's a cost.  You can't pay or attempt to pay that cost unless you are able to pay it fully.


Switching Cards Around in Monopoly Deal 2 Firstly, I know that there is a question on switching cards after charging rent on them. However, the case I did is a bit more extreme.

I had 2 green, 2 red, 2 light blue, 1 yellow, and a multi-colour wild property card.

Firstly, I moved the wild card from its original position, with the yellow, to the green and make it a full set. (This counts as 0/3 of my moves.)

Then, I charged everyone 7M each. (1/3)

After receiving the money, I moved the wild card to the red set, and charged everyone 6M each. (2/3)

After receiving the money, I moved the wild card to the light blue set, and charged everyone 3M each. (3/3)

Then, I moved the wild card back with the yellow card.

Is any part of my moves out of the Monopoly Deal rules? Although I don't think so, people are saying that I might have cheated.

Looking at the rules here it says (emphasis mine)

  Each player can play up to 3 cards per turn. A play is considered any
  time a card is laid on the table (such as money into your bank,
  property cards on the table, action cards played into the middle,
  etc). You do not need to play all 3 cards per turn if you do not want
  to.

The same website in there strategy section here says

  It’s important to remember that you can re-arrange your monopoly cards
  on the table during your turn without sacrificing one of your three
  moves. This simple fact can help you maximize your income when
  charging other players.

You are allowed up to 3 'plays' a turn  this is defined as placing a card on the table.  moving a card from set to another is not one of you 3 'plays'


7 wonders Alexandria side A special ability I don't understand the special ability a player gains after building the second stage of Alexandria side A. Can someone explain it? Thanks!

I assume you inquire about stage #2 of side A. According to the Rules, p. 8:

  the player gains a resource of their choice from the 4 Raw material types
  [Stone, Clay, Wood, Ore] every turn.
  Clarification : this resource cannot be sold through commerce.

In other words, each turn you have a wild, exclusive raw material at your disposal, for free, just like if you had bought the Caravansary Age II yellow card. Other players may not buy this resource.


Help identify: multi-player but single character role playing game (This is a question which overlaps with role-playing games, you will see why when you read it; however this seemed to fit it slightly better.)

My friend mentioned he had a role-playing game which plays like the following: Every player controls one single, shared character. The players take turns to give the character commands on their turn, sometimes rolling dice to decide certain factors e.g. the existence of a certain facility in a town. Each player has a goal which they are attempting to make the character achieve while foiling the other players' goals - however no players are aware of the other players' goals. Each player is also provided with a number of "points" which are used similarly to gambling chips. The person who is prepared to pay the most points takes the next go, but loses the points they played.

My friend is cannot remember the name of the game, but has created a homemade rendition. He is not even sure if it ever existed outside of his mind. My question is, does this game exist, and if so, what is it called?

Perhaps you're thinking of Everyone is John?

  The main concept is that every player but one plays a voice in "John's" head. All of these voices are trying to get John to do something that they like.

Other similarities:

Shared character: Everyone is John, obviously.
Hidden goals: EiJ gives each "voice" three hidden goals of varying feasibility, worth points based on their difficulty.
Points: Voices bid to get control of John at various points in the game


Do I need to keep the Ascension expansion boxes as I have the original one? I have the original Ascension box with wooden separators (pictured below), what makes for a nice, long lasting storage for cards - I would say, a lot of them, as the separators seem quite empty holding only the original game cards.

I'm planning to buy a couple of expansions when travelling abroad, and given the original box and separators, I'm thinking about getting rid of the boxes and bringing home only the cards and manuals - this way I can bring more stuff with me.

Is this idea reasonable? Are there reasons to keep the other boxes (besides, maybe, space for several expansions)?

It looks like that version of Ascension has the Broken Token Box Organizer (or similar) included, which should allow for most, if not all, of the expansions to fit into the one box.

The game normally comes with an insert that looks a little different.

As such you would not need to keep the additional expansion boxes if you have no desire to resell the game, or display the boxes.


Will using Nephalia Smuggler save a creature targeted by a destruction spell? If an opponent targets one of my creatures with a destroy spell, and in response I tap Nephalia Smuggler to exile that creature and return it to the battlefield, does the destroy spell fizzle due to its target having vanished? Or is the target considered still valid, since it's still on the battlefield after the effect of Nephalia Smuggler has been resolved?

Short answer:

If the spell only has one target, it will be countered on resolution since the creature it was targeting no longer exists.

First, a correction. The creature isn't still on the battlefield after the effect of Nephalia Smuggler has been resolved. The creature that's there then is a brand new creature with no relation to any creature that was previously on the battlefield. That the old and the new creature were created by the same card is irrelevant. [CR 400.7]

The answer to your question depends on the exact wording of the "destroy spell". What happens depends on if the spell targets, and on if it still has legal targets as it would resolve. If it has targets and all of them have become illegal, the spell is countered. Otherwise, the spell continues to resolve, doing as much as it can with its remaining targets. [CR 608.2b]

For example,

If the spell is Assassin's Strike:

Since this spell's only target no longer exists when the spell would resolve, Assassin's Strike is countered on resolution. None of its effect occurs, so you don't discard a card.
If the spell is Hex:

One of its targets no longer exists when the spell would resolve, so one of its targets is illegal. It still has five valid targets, so it isn't countered. It continues to resolve as it normally would, doing as much as possible with the remaining targets. Five creatures are destroyed, but the smuggled creature is not affected.
If the spell is Day of Judgment:

This spell has no targets, so it resolve normally. It proceeds to destroy every creature on the board, including the smuggled creature.

Referenced rules:

  400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are seven exceptions to this rule: [None of the exceptions matter here.]

  608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target that’s no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process. The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal. If the spell or ability is not countered, it will resolve normally. However, if any of its targets are illegal, the part of the spell or ability’s effect for which it is an illegal target can’t perform any actions on that target, make another object or player perform any actions on that target, or make that target perform any actions. The effect may still determine information about illegal targets, though, and other parts of the effect for which those targets are not illegal may still affect them.


What is a land creature? Halimar Tidecaller in card text it says Land creatures you control have flying.  Does this mean any creature without flying or does it mean a land which is also a creature

A permanent which is both a land and a creature.

Let's together find out what they exactly mean with 'land creatures'.
In the Comprehensive Rules we find the following regarding multiple card type:

  205.2b Some objects have more than one card type (for example, an artifact creature). Such objects satisfy the criteria for any effect
  that applies to any of their card types.

Meaning that in this example the object benefit from being an artifact as well as a creature. But on the flip side..

  300.2. Some objects have more than one card type (for example, an artifact creature). Such objects combine the aspects of each of those
  card types, and are subject to spells and abilities that affect either
  or all of those card types

So they are also approachable by all the types the card currently has.

But we want to know what cards are being affected by Halimar Tidecaller static ability ("Land creatures you control have flying."). Does that mean all lands or all creatures or all lands that are also creatures?

It says on the card 'Land creatures you control' which indicate that any object that satisfy that criteria is affected. So not just lands or not just creatures, but only 'land creatures'.


Hero Quest - Adaptation to remove 'Evil Wizard' I'm just wondering if anyone has come across an adaptation to the rules of Hero Quest for a version where you don't need an evil wizard? I'm wanting to try and play 2 player co-operative games and almost have a more random monster appearance like Warhammer Quest etc, but not quite sure if it'll work.

Boy do I love Hero Quest -- that's the game that started it all for me.

I've tried playing Hero Quest without Zargon a couple of times, and it's tricky but doable.

You basically need one person playing both a hero and Zargon, and trying to move the monsters as impartially as possible.  For example, if you enter a room with two Fimir, and its their turn to act, don't have them run off afraid, or have them move up and then not attack.  Either the hero/Zargon, or the entire group, need to come up with what you think the monsters would do.

You can either come up with a strict attack order (monsters will go for the Wizard first, Elf second for example) or dice off to see which way the monster will go.

You might have to re-write or re-copy the scenarios with the treasure notes and secret doors and traps written down elsewhere, so you can't cheat and say "Well this treasure chest is trapped because I read it right here" or "Hey, there's a secret door here, I just read about it".  Alternately you can put the traps and secret doors on the board, but you need to roll some target value to even be aware that it's there.

There's a site called BowserBag.com that has some interesting links, including a PDF for play without Zargon, found here.


Ticket to Ride "Longest Path of Routes" I understand that the longest route means the most number of continuous trains, but does continuous mean "connected?"  In other words, are spur routes included as long as they are connected to the main route?

Spurs are not included.[1] Being connected is not sufficient; the routes must form a continuous path.

The rules say

The player who has the Longest Continuous Path of routes receives this special bonus card and adds 10 points to his score. When evaluating and comparing path lengths, only take into account continuous lines of plastic trains of the same color. A continuous path may include loops, and pass through the same city several times, but a given plastic train may never be used twice in the same continuous path. In the case of a tie for the longest path, all tied players score the 10 point bonus

Let's use the following network as an example:
   A-----B
          \
           \
            C-----D------E
            |
            |
            F

How many routes are in this longest continuous path? Obviously, it's at least 4 (A-B, B-C, C-D, D-E). Is there a way of including C-F without jumping (not continuous) or revisiting a route (explicitly disallowed)?

If you travel along the path A-B-C-D-E, you'd need to jump or backtrack to visit C-F.
If you travel along the path A-B-C-F, you'd need to jump or backtrack to visit C-D.
If you travel along the path F-C-D-E, you'd need to jump or backtrack to visit B-C.

So no. The longest continuous path consists of four routes.
This is confirmed through play with multiple groups and through use of the official electronic version. Note that at least one map (Asia) awards points for largest network, which includes forks (though this counts cities rather than routes).

Unless you can loop back. For example, the following has a continuous path of 5 routes:
A--------B--------C
        / \
       /   \
      D-----E


If I respond to a permanent resolving is it in play when my spell/ability resolves? Lets say that at my opponent's end step I cast Bile Blight on his Pack Rat
that he already has 3 of total on the field, then he activates the ability of pack rat in
response, can I respond to the new pack rat resolving with Golgari charm and kill all 4 rats?

Yes, though it happens in a complicated way.

Golgari Charm's first mode creates a continuous effect that modifies characteristics (power and toughness). It only affects the creatures on the 'field when it resolves.

  611.2c If a continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability modifies the characteristics or changes the controller of any objects, the set of objects it affects is determined when that continuous effect begins. After that point, the set won’t change. (Note that this works differently than a continuous effect from a static ability.) [...]

(Same goes with Bile Blight. Any Pack Rats entering the field after it resolves won't be affected by it.)

That means the following will happen:

You cast BB
In response, opponent activates his PR's ability
In response, you cast GC
GC resolves: 3x 2/2 PR
PR's ability resolves: 3x 3/3 PR + 1x 4/4 PR
BB resolves: 3x 0/0 PR + 1x 1/1 PR
SBA kills the PR with non-positive toughness: 1x -2/-2 PR
SBA kills the PR with non-positive toughness: No PR

It's a little cleaner if you wait before casting GC.

You cast BB
In response, opponent activates his PR's ability
PR's ability resolves: 4x 4/4 PR
You cast GC
GC resolves: 4x 3/3 PR
BB resolves: 4x 0/0 PR
SBA kills the PR with non-positive toughness: No PR

No matter the order, creating a 5th PR before BB resolves would save them all. But which of the approach you used will affect how strong they are.

Using the first approach, he'll end up with 3x 1/1, 2x 2/2.
Using the second approach, he'll end up with 4x 1/1 and 1x 2/2.


Does Saving Grace redirect damage from cards that destroy a target creature? Does Saving Grace also redirect damage coming from cards with the ability of "destroy" target creature? If it does, will it only destroy the creature that has been enchanted by Saving Grace?

No, that will never work.

An effect that outright "destroys" a creature does not deal damage, so there is no damage to redirect for Saving Grace.


Is Argothian Elder a Druid? Argothian Elder is listed on a lot of websites with the Druid creature type, but the card only lists "Elf".

Is Argothian Elder a Druid too?

Rule 108.1 states:

  108.1. Use the Oracle™ card reference when determining a card’s wording. A card’s Oracle text can be found using the Gatherer card database at Gatherer.Wizards.com

This means that the text on Gatherer is correct regardless of what is printed on the card.  This is because older cards have been changed, usually to maintain their functionality while the rules have continued to evolve.

Gatherer lists Argothian Elder's type as "Creature — Elf Druid", so it is a druid. Older cards only had a single creature type, in the Grand Creature Type Update most older cards got updated to the newer   structure used today.


Any games like Werewolf for two persons? I am totaly new on board cards games. I tried WereWolf for one night last weekend, and I wonder what other games in same logic ?

If to take into account that I want a board game playable for 2 persons, it's not possible with werewolf, but any other games in same logic please ?

Werewolf is not playable by two, as you say.

But if you want modern boardgames for two with a small footprint and a guessing mechanism there are many.

For example:

The Mind
Mr. Jack Pocket
Saboteur: The Duel.
Codenames Duet
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (larger footprint)


How does the Merlin's company expansion change Shadows over Camelot? What does it contain?
How does each component affect the base game?
What improvements/advantages will it offer me?

Merlin's company comes with a few different things:

8 new knights
more black, white, and loyalty cards
a new travel deck

The 8 new knights can add some variety as you learn to use their powers. MC lets you play with 8, and if you really want to you can probably play with 9 or 10 without any major issues. The loyalty cards allow for as many as 3 traitors, although this substantially affects the difficulty level.

The new black and white cards are the real core of the expansion. There are plenty of new special blacks and whites, as well as enough standards to balance things out. The new threats and powers added by these cards are what really makes the game more interesting and fun.

The travel deck is basically just a cool way to make the game harder. Every time you move to a new quest you have to draw a travel card, most of which do bad things, although sometimes they will bring Merlin to your side and let you draw more white cards while on a quest. This adds a fair bit of tension and difficulty and makes the knights think very carefully about when to move around the more treacherous roads around Camelot.

Overall the expansion adds more variety, letting you add more players, choose different knights, play with 2 traitors, and use the travel deck to tweak the difficulty level. I'd highly recommend it if you play SOC a lot as it makes the game a lot more interesting. :D


What are similar black and/or white permanents to Divine Visitation? For my Commander deck I'm looking for black and/or white permanents that have similar mechanics to Divine Visitation and Teysa Karlov, respectively:

  If one or more creature tokens would be created under your control, that many 4/4 white Angel creature tokens with flying and vigilance are created instead.

  Creature tokens you control have vigilance and lifelink.

I'm looking for cards to buff my tokens, preferably enchantments but creatures will also suffice. By "buff" I mean: increase the statistics and/or add keywords to the tokens. Similar to the cards above, but the buffs may vary.

As a sidenote: any tips on how I can conduct such research by myself––such as a website––is greatly appreciated.

The Advanced Search on Gatherer may help a little.

For buffs that work when a creature enters the battlefield, search for "creature enters the battlefield under your control".

E.g. Cathars' Crusade:

  Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.

For permanent buffs, search for "creatures you control get" or "creatures you control gain":

E.g. Benalish Marshal:

  Other creatures you control get +1/+1.


Can you hide your number of cards in Uno? Can you hide your cards so other players can't see how many cards you have left? So if you don't remember to say UNO, others can't know if you had only one card left.

The official rules of most games tell you what is allowed, and usually only tell you what isn't allowed when it seems that it would be possible otherwise.

For instance, there is no rule that says I can't add four cards to your hand whenever I feel like it. (feel free to add your own ridiculous rule here)

Should this be allowed because the rules don't specifically prohibit it? No! Of course not! The rules can't possibly list everything that's not allowed.

It's an important part of Uno that you can easily tell how many cards your opponents have so that they can be penalised for not calling "Uno" on their last card. The only way they can get out of this penalty is if the other players don't say anything about this before they can play their last card.

So, no, while it isn't specifically prohibited, it's not legal to hide your cards to gain an unfair advantage.

Of course, if you have a house rule that says you can do this (and all the players have agreed before the game began), it is allowed. However, you're not truly playing Uno anymore, just a game that's very similar to Uno.


Do markerlights put on a unit embarked in a dedicated transport remain on the passengers after the vehicle is destroyed? If I place markerlights on a unit that is inside their dedicated transport and subsequently destroy said transport, can I still use the remaining markerlights when I target the disembarked passengers with another unit in the same shooting phase?

No. The markerlights are on the transport, not the unit inside. Remember they are separate units, and generally you can not target units inside a transport (template vs. open topped being the exception). Any markerlights on a destroyed unit are removed with the unit.

The only way that would be possible, is if the targeted unit had a way to embark during your shooting phase. To my knowledge that's not possible.

Note: In 8th edition, this is still true, except that there are no templates anymore.


Game where you construct a line through the board blocking the other player? This is a two-players game, where each players construct a line.
The first player has to join the top and the bottom of the board whereas the second has to join the left and the right. The two lines cannot intersect.

Do this game has a name?
Where I could find other informations about it?

PS:
I’m currently writing an HTML5/Canvas implementation here (only in French for now, and the “AI“ plays at random, the smart AI is not finished yet), so you can see more precisely what I’m talking about.
I’ve called it “Percolation” because this looks a little like percolation, but this is probably not the “official” name.

The game is called Bridg-It and it is a specific implementation of the "Shannon switching game".  There's a very elegant win for the first player which is based on pairing the edges together.  I think it's in a book by Martin Gardner, but I can't seem to find it online.  There's another solution here, but it's not as easy to understand.

Edit: The solution is given in New Mathematical Diversions by Martin Gardner, and was found by Oliver Gross.  "Make the first play as indicated by the black line at lower left in the diagram. Thereafter whenever your opponent's play  crosses the end of a  dotted line, play by crossing the other end of the same line."


The Pilgrim in the Pine Forest I just bought the new Agricola "Gamer's Deck" from my local store - hooray!  119 sweet new Occupation / Minor Improvement cards that will keep me happy while I wrestle inwardly with the question of whether I can justify buying the silly-looking "Goodies" expansion for $60, just to scratch my completist's itch.

Looking through the new cards though I found two which seemed to contradict each other.  Can anyone tell me what happens if you get both of these in play?

Pilgrim (Occupation)

You receive 2 Food before you pay the costs of playing this Occupation.  At the start of a round, if you have no building resources, you may take 1 building resource from the supply; if you have no Food, you may take 1 Food from the supply.  (At any time, you many move resources from your personal supply to the general supply.)

Pine Forest (Minor Improvement)

At the start of each round, you may place 1 Wood on this card if you have zero Wood in your supply.  When this card has 5 Wood, move the Wood from this card to your supply.  (You may not give Wood to the general supply for nothing.)

If you have both the Pilgrim and the Pine Forest in play, can you "throw away" your spare Wood to keep the Pine Forest growing... or not?  I am particularly confused on this point because both of the relevant lines on the cards are italicized, which gives them the air of being clarifications of the basic rules, rather than special abilities bestowed by the cards.

Does the Pilgrim ruling override the Pine Forest's, or vice versa?  Are you allowed to throw away resources at will in the ordinary course of the rules?  (Not that a sane person would want to, but still...) You can sort of throw away animals you don't have room for... why not resources you don't want?  Anyone think they know the definitive answer?

The definitive answer was given on BoardGameGeek by Hanno Girke (editor of the rules).

The Pilgrim has priority.
The Pine Forest just states a standard rule, it doesn't create a new rule.
Therefore, as soon as you play Pilgrim, you override this rule.

There is some background at play-agricola.com, where the Gamer's Deck was designed.
As noted by Hanno, the standard rule is on the Pine Forest.  You may not give goods from your supply to the general supply.


Help me identify an old family board game (from memory) I realize chances are slim, but I figure it's worth a shot asking, nonetheless.
It's a game that I've played as a very young child and have moved countries since (but I'm pretty sure I've lost all pieces as well, long time ago).
I'll try to provide as much details as I can dredge up from memory.

The game was played by several players (max of 4, I believe). The end goal / winning conditions, I cannot remember, unfortunately, but I do believe it was each player for his own (and against the rest).
The game board wasn't small, think Monopoly sized and up.
Players moved around with dice rolls.
The setting was in an jungle overrun temple.
It consists of multiple pieces besides the players and a flat board, since there were turning bridges depending on certain conditions. These bridges were actual separate pieces (a cardboard rectangle on a wooden button, but still) which added a hint of 3D to the game.
It's at least 20 years old (played late 1990s - early 2000s).

I've made a quick image rendition from memory, for its general overlay, but take it with a hefty pinch of salt:

This is the general path the game takes, it's a road around a pool of water with platforms inside, reachable by;
The turning bridges. These I remember were 1 square wide and are turning depending on certain conditions in the game (and there may have been crossroad / + shaped 'bridges' as well), and could be turned back, to prevent a player from crossing it, by;
'Pressure' plates around the path that when stepped on control a particular bridge's rotation.
Statues, that I recall as being semblances of Aztec statues, as to their function (if any), unfortunately - nothing there.
A certain platform stood out among the others, and I believe it was the center one, if that's where the game goal was residing, I draw blanks.
Each platform had a certain reason to be visited, but again, what that might have been, has been lost with time.

I wish I could remember more (and if I do, I will most certainly update the question).
I apologize if I'm asking too much, but the memory recently got under my skin, and I'd love to figure out what it was at least, even if unable to buy it anywhere. I hope my hazy drawings and description do not confuse a kind soul that might actually know what the game is.
The game is not:
Fireball Island
Curse of the Idol - But it looks VERY close to it in terms of mechanics, settings, and I believe, gameplay - an excellent reference point. One main difference would be that most additional components were made of cardboard (like the game board walls in this one).

So this has been puzzling me for a few hours, but I think it might be Curse of the Idol? This seems to fit a lot of the criteria you outlined - Aztec themed, released in the 90's, right player count, rotating platforms etc.


What are the dragon die sides in Vast the Crystal Caverns? What are the dragon die sides in Vast the Crystal Caverns and how are they arranged?
I have bought the game but the die is missing(and the figure holders but they are not that important) so I want to make my own die but do not know the side and how they are arranged.

Proof that I am not just trying to make the game without buying it:

You can find the faces for the dragon die in the public print and play punchboard file the Vast developers have up.

It also has a useful d6 conversion chart so you can just use a standard d6 instead of trying to make your own die.


Can allies interact with mission tokens? I'm playing a mission with Luke Skywalker as an ally and the mission requires that I pick up 'X' mission tokens and carry them to a location on the map.

According to the rules:

  Rebel allies are not heroes. During their activation, they
  cannot interact with crates or rest. Rebel allies can perform
  only one attack each activation, and follow all other rules for
  non-hero figures.

I can't seem to find the "all other rules for non-hero figures" part.

Does this mean that Luke (or another Ally) can pick up mission tokens?

I've never played the game, but it seems as though the rules consistently refer to either "figures" or "non-hero figures". So a hero is a special kind of figure.

Some quotes from the rules:

  During a figure’s activation, it may perform two actions. The available actions are Attack, Move, Interact, Rest, and Special.
  [...]
  A figure can perform the same action multiple times during the same activation except as follows:
  - A non-hero figure can use only one of its actions to perform an attack per activation.
  - A figure can perform each special action only once per activation.
  [...]
  Rebel allies are not heroes. During their activation, they cannot interact with crates or rest. Rebel allies can perform only one attack each activation, and follow all other rules for non-hero figures.
  [...]
  Some missions allow figures to retrieve specific tokens. A figure adjacent to or in the same space as the token can perform an interact to retrieve the token. Place the token on the figure’s base to mark that the figure is now carrying that token. The token now moves with the figure.
  [...]
  During a campaign, each Rebel player controls a hero. The word “Hero” is used to refer to hero figures, the player controlling the figure, and all of the associated components.

Since it says 'figures' in the piece about mission tokens, and does not exclude 'non-hero figures', I'd say a non-hero figure can collect mission tokens.


Can I place a bridge that has no hope of completion? I want to place a tile with a road next to a tile that has:

a field on the side that matches up with my road
a field on the opposite side

This sounds like the perfect time for a bridge.

However, the already-placed tile is also entirely surrounded several layers deep. There is zero chance the bridge could ever connect to a road or other bridge on the far end.

Can I still play the tile & bridge?

From the Carcassonne FAQ:

  Q: I have memorised all the tiles.  Am I allowed to play a tile when I know that by doing so I am creating a space which can never be filled, either because the required tile doesn't exist or because all the possible tiles have already been played?

  A: Yes, that is permitted. But be aware that, if by doing so, you have prevented your opponents from finishing a road, cloister or city (especially a Cathedral city!), they may seek revenge!

I know I've had my fair share of putting pieces that make it impossible for other players to complete a large city they've invested several meeples into.  Bonus points if multiple players are fighting for the city and you make it impossible to complete, therefore cutting down their meeple supply and taking away precious points in the end!


Essence Scatter and summoning creatures I played Nessian Game Warden, and a friend of mine tried to counter the entire summoning using Essence Scatter.

Essence scatter says:

  Counter target creature spell.

Does Nessian Game Warden go to the graveyard since its summoning hasn't yet resolved or does essence scatter's effect only apply to the ability on the card and NGW is summoned?

The Nessian Game Warden is countered. It does not resolve, and its ability does not go on the stack or resolve. It goes immediately to the graveyard.

"Creature spell" in Essence Scatter's text refers to the creature card itself, and not the ability on it.

Basically, if you cast Nessian Game Warden and it isn't countered, gameplay proceeds like this:

You cast Nessian Game Warden. The Nessian Game Warden card goes on the stack, and players have a chance to resolve.
Nobody responds and Nessian Game Warden resolves. Nessian Game Warden enters the battlefield.
Nessian Game Warden's triggered ability triggers and goes on the stack.
Nessian Game Warden's triggered ability resolves, and you do what it says.

In the situation you describe, here's what happens instead:

You cast Nessian Game Warden. The Nessian Game Warden card goes on the stack, and players have a chance to resolve.
Your opponent responds by casting Essence Scatter, and that goes on the stack on top of Nessian Game Warden.
The Essence Scatter resolves, countering Nessian Game Warden. Nessian Game Warden goes to the graveyard.


Do triggered abilities still trigger if the creature is tapped? For example if Falkenrath Noble was tapped and another creature dies then would his triggered ability still trigger or only if it was not tapped?

Yes. Whether an permanent is tapped or not has no effect on its abilities. This is the case for abilities of all kinds (static, triggered and activated).

Three things change when a creature is tapped:

It is considered tapped by anything that cares.
It cannot be tapped. (Effects instructing to tap the permanent are skipped. Costs consisting of tapping the permanent can't be payed.)
It cannot attack.

Do note that the first two items can indirectly prevent abilities from triggering ("Whenever an untapped creature dies, ...") or from functioning ("..., tap it. If you do, ...").


What is the name of this columns-based card game? The game is played with 3 or 4 players. The cards are dealt equally between the players, and the person with the 9 of hearts begins the game by placing it on the table. (If playing with 3 players, either the 9 of hearts is removed from the deck and placed on the table before dealing cards and the dealer begins the game, or one person ends up with 18 cards).
The table is divided into four columns, one for each suit. Players take turns placing cards in those columns, and the player is allowed to:

add to the top of the column by playing the card one higher than the highest card in the column,
add to the bottom of the column by playing the card one lower than the lowest card in the column,
or open a new column by playing a nine of the column's color.

The cards added to the columns need to match the column's suit. So for example, once the starting player plays the 9 of hearts, the next one can play the 10 of hearts, the 8 of hearts, or a 9 of any other color. If they played the 10 of hearts, the next player can play the Jack of hearts, the 8 of hearts, or any other 9. Aces are considered high.
If the player cannot play any cards they have to pass the turn, but they can't pass the turn if they have a card to play. The first person to get rid of all cards in their hand wins the game.

You describe a variation of sevens/Fan Tan, with the only difference being the use of nines as the bases instead of sevens, which effectively makes the same game, just with the number of cards above/below the base swapped:
23456 7 89TJQKA
AKQJT 9 8765432

That linked page above also references a Russian version that uses nines as the bases, but that one uses a 36-card deck.


How can I use Board Games to help learn English? I have set two goals here:

Introduce my wife to board gaming
Improve her English.

Does anyone have personal experience with similar goals that could recommend a best course of action?

Tales of the Arabian Nights

This game has a ton of reading, but simple mechanics. You'll be getting a fun game, and an English exercise at the same time. Your wife will practice:

Reading English text aloud
Listening to English (when others read)
Reading English text silently (from cards / other private information sources)
Conversing in English (playing the game!)


If no cards in discard pile, when playing swashbuckler but have 4 coffers, are you allowed to take the treasure chest? When playing the swashbuckler, if my discard pile has no cards in it, but I have at least 4 coffer tokens, can I take the treasure chest? (not sure if that only applies to the taking an additional coffer or to everything following.)

No; the “if your discard pile has any cards in it” applies to the rest of the text.
From the official FAQ:

You cannot get the Treasure Chest unless your discard pile had at least one card.


Seafarers of Catan fog scenario question Scenario: I am placing my ships out into the unknown and at the end of my "road" I decide to build a settlement. When the new hex is flipped it is a water tile and now a settlement cannot be built. Must I replace it with a boat and play the appropriate cards instead?

You should reveal the hex tile when you first build a ship that reaches it; you don't wait until you are building a settlement.

From the rules:

  When a ship (or a road) is connected to an unexplored
  area, a new tile will be discovered! If you place a ship or road
  that connects to the intersection of an unexplored hex, you
  must immediately draw the top tile from the pile and place it
  face up in the empty space.


Character Specials Triggering on Non Bang Cards? Several of the characters in the game have special rules that allow them to do things when they are damaged.  For example, one character, when "damaged by another player" may then draw a card from their hand.  Do these abilities trigger only when directly damaged by another player (i.e., Bang!) or do they also trigger off of effects like Duel! (which deal damage, but lack the Bang! icon) or even effects like Indians (wherein every player who does not discard a card loses a bullet)?

In the copy of the rules I've consulted, El Gringo's rules text begins:

  Each time he loses a life point due to
  a card played by another player...

I think it's pretty clear from that that, as long as a card was played that can be held responsible for damaging him, El Gringo's special power will trigger.  Whether or not the damage was "direct".


In a four person game of Quoridor, can a player be forced to pass a turn? As a follow up to my question earlier, can a player be forced to skip a turn when playing a four player game of Quoridor? The rules state that a pawn cannot jump over more than one pawn when moving, but this brings up an potential board state in which a player has no valid moves:

Suppose the turn order is Green, Red, Blue, then Yellow. Green started on the west edge, Red started on the north edge, Blue started on the east edge, and Yellow started at the south edge.

It is Blue's turn, and Yellow has already used all of its walls. Blue then traps all four pawns in the tight corridor by placing its final wall horizontally immediately south of it (noted here by the faded wall below Yellow and Blue). It is now Yellow's turn, but Yellow has no walls, nor does it seem that it has any valid moves. Furthermore, if Green and Red place walls on their next turns, Blue and Yellow are potentially trapped again.

What is the proper way to handle this circumstance?

I would call this game a draw because there are no legal moves available to Yellow. Choosing how to resolve this on the spot would be unfair.

However, it is possible to come to an agreement to a solution before the game starts.

In a two-player game, this problem is addressed by allowing one to jump over an opponent.

Valid moves for "A"
╬═════╬═════╬═════╬═════╬
║     ║  ◎  ║  ◎  ║     ║
╬═════╬══╪══╬══╪══╬═════╬
║  ◎ ─╫─ A ─╫─ B ─╫─ ◎  ║
╬═════╬══╪══╬══╪══╬═════╬
║     ║  ◎  ║  ◎  ║     ║
╬═════╬═════╬═════╬═════╬

If I wanted to create a house rule to address this problem in four-player games, I'd simply extend the jumping rules.

Valid moves for "A"
╬═════╬═════╬═════╬═════╬═════╬
║     ║  ◎  ║  ◎  ║     ║     ║
╬═════╬══╪══╬══╪══╬═════╬═════╬
║  ◎ ─╫─ A ─╫─ B ─╫─ ◎  ║     ║
╬═════╬══╪══╬══╪══╬══╪══╬═════╬
║     ║  ◎ ─╫─ C ─╫─ D ─╫─ ◎  ║
╬═════╬═════╬══╪══╬══╪══╬═════╬
║     ║     ║  ◎  ║  ◎  ║     ║
╬═════╬═════╬═════╬═════╬═════╬

These movement options would be allowed at all times, not only when no other options are available.


Should I alert a conventional 'Pass' My partner and I have a pretty neat system for bidding against opponents opening a weak 2 (2 in a Major = <11 HCP, 6-card; 2 Diamonds as either the Multi or weak with diamonds). In this system, if North opens and East passes, that pass has a specific meaning.

Does this 'Pass' need to be alerted? Is it reglementary to alert a 'Pass'?

Same goes for Double, we have some specific agreements for Double in this defense as well. Does that need to be alerted?

From the English Bridge Union Blue Book (Rules and Ethics):

  Unless it is announceable (
  see 4
  D
  , 4
  E, 4
  F
  and 4
  G
  ), a pass
  or bid must be alerted if
  it
  :
  (a)
  is not natural; or
  (b)
  is natural but has a potentially unexpected meaning

('Natural' has a long paragraph of definition; a natural pass is
"A pass
which does not unexpectedly convey values or specify suit holdings.")

So yes, if your bid (including pass or double) is conventional it must be alerted.


What game is this with colored tokens, a dice, and what looks like a spoon? I bought it secondhand and it came with one red die with a devil, a woman, a man, a club, a fan, and a wooden paddle, and each side is numbered. It also came with 6 red chips, 5 yellow chips, and 4 blue chips. Finally it came with what looks like a little metal flat spoon. All of these things came in a small box labeled "Couple Dice".

Does anyone know what this game is called and/or the rules?

This might be a variant of a Japanese game known as Ohajiki. My understanding is that it was traditionally played with flatten marbles and is similar to tiddlywinks. The spoon and die suggest is might be some variation on the game.


Worldsoul colossos casting copies if I have Mirror March out and cast Worldsoul Colossus with X=5. Would the copies keep the +1/+1 counters where the X paid effect would still be on the bottom of the stack under the mirror march copies or does that not matter and they'd enter as 0/0s and die?

If you read the Gatherer rulings on Mirror March, they say

  If the copied creature has {X} in its mana cost, X is 0.

which comes from the comprehensive rules:

  107.3f If a card in any zone other than the stack has an {X} in its mana cost, the value of {X} is treated as 0, even if the value of X is defined somewhere within its text

The Colossus is on the battlefield when the Mirror March tries to copy it. The battlefield is not the stack, so X is treated as 0 for all the copies.

So yes, the copies will all come into play with zero counters and die, unless you have any other effect that boosts them immediately, like Glorious Anthem.


In Magic the Gathering, what block is the Homelands expansion set? I can't seem to figure out what block the Homelands expansion set belongs to. Is it Ice Age or something else?

Homelands was originally released as part of the Ice Age block, at least for tournament purposes. Because it did not fit with the themes or mechanics of Ice Age, it was later replaced with Coldsnap. So at this time, Homelands is not considered part of Ice Age or any other block.
From the MTG Wiki:

The Ice Age block is the first block of sets, consisting of the large expansion Ice Age in June 1995 and two small expansions, Alliances in June 1996 and Coldsnap in July 2006.
The Homelands expansion, released after Ice Age and before Alliances, was originally considered to be a member of the Ice Age block, although it included none of the mechanics or themes of the block.

And

Homelands, released in October 1995, is the seventh Magic expansion. It was the second expansion of Ice Age block until July 2006, when it was replaced by Coldsnap in this role.


Is there a method that gets beneficial diminishing returns when adding more dice, yet stays random? Short Story: I want to find a dice system where multiple dice are rolled and compared at once, but rolling more dice is only slightly more effective than rolling fewer dice, while still being fairly chaotic no matter how many dice are rolled.

Long Story:
I'm designing a game that involves assigning dice to various cards for bonus stats to those cards.  Cards fight, victor wins, etc.
The formula right now involves starting at 5d6, getting a die each time you are hit, up to 10d6.
Problem is, it's hard to balance a card around an expectation of having both one die (a 3.5 average) and 10 dice (35 average).    Set an average expectation of "10 points", and now the person with 5 dice is only effective with 1 card, while the person with 10 dice is effective with 3.
We ended up with an issue where it mostly became about dice-trading, where the victor was almost always the one with more dice, as well as the dice mattering more than the card itself.  The cards ended up feeling like "placeholders" for stacking dice on rather than strategic choices to invest in.
What we really want is to have the system reward assigning dice to multiple things on the board, so that the game becomes more chaotic and stressful the later into the game it gets, not more predictable or even necessarily much easier for the player with more dice.
We've looked at rolling all the dice you would for a card, keeping your highest roll. The good thing about it was that it was relatively balanced, but it was far too predictable.
We've looked at exploding dice + keeping high, where you keep the highest value + any dice that match it.  It was chaotic, but it basically ended up being an excessive "crit" system that we didn't like and wasn't easy to balance.
In case it helps, dice are colored differently for each player.

Does anyone know of a dice resolution system that can do this?
(EDIT) This is the RPG.SE question that turns the resolution method that solved this question (Roll high, add +1 for each match of that die) into an Anydice formula that can be reviewed.

You're actually asking two questions:

How can I design a function that computes a result on a dice roll that gives asymptotically decreasing benefit to adding more dice?

How can I have a system where adding more dice doesn't lead to a predictable result?

The first question is simple.  A trivial answer is to take the highest die, or highest X dice.  Alternatively, set some threshold that you need to roll above, such as roll at least one six, or roll a total of at least 15.  Under any of these schemes, as you roll more dice, you are more likely to have dice with better results, but there is a fundamental limit on how high you can go.  In the case of highest X dice, your limit is the highest value on those dice, and in the case of targets, the limit is a 100% chance of success.
By way of a simple example, let's say you use D6's, and you're taking the highest die.  Your chance of getting a 6 (the best possible result) looks like this:

But while this satisfies your goal of the first question, it is directly contradictory to the goal of your second question.  As you add more dice, the result gets more predictable.  This is a general principle in probability; the more independent random events you aggregate, the lower the collective variance.
Given this, I believe that the answer to your second question is that "it's impossible without a re-framing of the question".  Adding more dice will decrease the variance of the result, and therefore increase the predictability.
The way to re-frame the question is to not have all of the dice be the same.  Here's a simple example, to illustrate the concept, though you likely will want to do something more complex.
You have two kinds of dice, white and red.  White dice contribute to success, red represent risk.  Each item, skill, etc adds some amount of each dice.  Most will add small amounts of white dice (1 or 2), but some better items may add larger amounts of white dice (3 - 5) but some red dice as well (1 - 2).  When you roll the dice, you take the highest result of the white dice... unless any of the red dice came up as a "1", in which case you treat it as a 0.  Through a system like this, you have to make trade-offs between getting increasingly marginal benefit from more white dice vs the risk of catastrophic failure from an additional red die.  Maybe even have everyone roll 1 red die at baseline just for fun.
That's the type of idea you're probably looking for.  Obviously you have to make it your own and fit it to your game.  You can get more interesting if you take the top N dice instead of just the top 1.  You could add a third kind of die.  The list goes on.


Can The Haunted Tower be played without the base game? My girlfriend received Dungeons & Dragons: The Haunted Tower for Christmas. Can it be played without the The New Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons?

I figure that it would be possible to create tokens for characters and such. Though I'm not sure how much The Haunted Tower relies on materials from the base game.

It says right on the back of the box "To play the giant three-part adventure, you must own the Dungeons & Dragons game. The bonus board game is playable immediately." I would think that at the very least you'd need the rule book from the core game and a full set of polyhedral dice to make things work properly if you wanted to play the three-parter.


Dozer and Smigg & Gunnbjorne boosted blast damage rolls So Dozer and Smigg have a bond with Gunnbjorne which states that while in his control range, D&S gain boosted blast damage rolls. If a shot from their Bombard directly hits, is the damage roll auto boosted from the bond?  What I'm not clear on is if a direct hit with an AOE weapon is considered blast damage.

Blast damage are half-strength or half pow attacks. A Direct Hit of any AOE weapon is "normal" damage, everything else in the AOE suffer blast damage.

Thus the target directly hit suffer an unboosted hit. That might seems counter-intuitive but it's basically (even unboosted) always strictly superior in term of damage, except for very very low damage attacks/weapons.

Source : Blast Damage rules in the little handbook (in my printed version it's around page 57)


Voldaren Pariah is exiled while transforming What happens if Voldaren Pariah is exiled while transforming? Does it still force target player to sacrifice 3 creatures? Also if it is returned from exile, does it returned already transformed and if it does, does its triggered ability go on the stack then?

There are two possible outcomes, depending on when the Volarden Pariah is exiled. These are the only two possibilities; you can't do anything while the Pariah is transforming.
While the activated ability is on the stack
In this case, the Pariah will never transform, and the triggered ability that would make the opponent sacrifice creatures never goes on the stack.
The relevant rules are these:

112.7. The source of an ability is the object that generated it. The source of an activated ability on the stack is the object whose ability was activated. The source of a triggered ability (other than a delayed triggered ability) on the stack, or one that has triggered and is waiting to be put on the stack, is the object whose ability triggered. To determine the source of a delayed triggered ability, see rules 603.7d–f.

201.4. Text that refers to the object it’s on by name means just that particular object and not any other objects with that name, regardless of any name changes caused by game effects.

400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence.

If we put these all together, we see that the instruction "Transform Volarden Pariah" really means "Transform the object whose ability was activated". And when the Pariah is exiled, it becomes a new object, so the original object doesn't exist, and the "Transform" instruction just does nothing. Since it never transforms, the triggered ability on the back face never triggers, and the opponent doesn't have to sacrifice three creatures.
After the activated ability resolves
Once the activated ability resolves, the triggered ability on the back face immediately goes on the stack, because rule 116.2a says

Triggered abilities can trigger at any time, including while a spell is being cast, an ability is being activated, or a spell or ability is resolving. (See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”) However, nothing actually happens at the time an ability triggers. Each time a player would receive priority, each ability that has triggered but hasn’t yet been put on the stack is put on the stack. See rule 116.5.

And rule 112.7a says

Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source...

So, even if the Pariah is exiled while the triggered ability is on the stack, the ability still f the resolves, and forces the opponent to sacrifice three creatures.
If the Pariah re-enters the battlefield
In either case, the Pariah will enter the battlefield face-up. Rule 711.8 says

A double-faced card enters the battlefield with its front face up by default. If a spell or ability puts it onto the battlefield “transformed,” it enters the battlefield with its back face up.

And rule 400.7 (quoted above) says that it doesn't remember its previous existence, so there's nothing that would change what it does from the default.


Timing of ability when Control Minion used When the Geeks use "Control Minion" on a played minion (a Shoggoth in the case in question), who gets the benefit of making other players draw Madness or destroy a minion?

The controller steals the effect.

As long as you play Control Minion according to its special, the controller uses the minion's entry effect. Otherwise, the card would say "Special: Play after another player plays a minion."

The game uses "after" a minion is played to clarify that its entry effects occur first (such as with the Leprechaun). That wording isn't used here.


Which is faster: Enter the Battlefield Effects or Activated Abilities? What happens if I play a creature that destroys all other creatures when it enters the battlefield and in response, an opponent activates a creature ability that sacrifices his creatures to destroy target creature? Is his effect fast enough to destroy my creature, or does my creature destroy all his creatures first?

Your opponent can destroy your creature first; but his creatures will still be destroyed as well.

There is no notion of "faster" in MTG. Some people might say an instant is "faster" than a sorcery, but that is only because you have more opportunities to cast instants than you do sorceries. All abilities and spells have pretty much the same rules regarding how "fast" they are. (Mana abilities and certain game actions like playing a land are an exception).

When your creature enters the battlefield, its ability is triggered. The trigger goes on the stack the next time a player would get priority, which makes the stack look like this:

Destroy all other creatures

Then each player gets priority, and your opponent has a chance to activate his ability. If he does so, the stack now looks like this:

Destroy target creature
Destroy all other creatures

If no one does anything else, the top item on the stack resolves. Your creature is destroyed. Then if no one does anything else, the next item on the stack resolves. All other creatures are destroyed.

It doesn't matter that your creature dies first; its enter the battlefield ability still happens:

  112.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. Destruction or removal of the source after that time won’t affect the ability.

Recommend reading through this question and this question if you want more details.


Does a tapped or removed attacking creature still deal its damage? If an attacking creature gets tapped, removed from the game, returned to hand, put in the library or destroyed during combat, does its damage still get through to the blocking creature or player?

Well you're asking 5 different questions really, but they're closely related.

Tapped - There is no effect other than the creature is tapped. No change to combat.

This is assuming that the creature was already declared as an attacker before you tapped it. Before the "declare attackers" step, there is a "beginning of combat" step, in which you could use a spell or ability to tap your opponent's creature. If you do this, then that creature won't be able to be declared as an attacker. But once your opponent does declare him as an attacker, you won't be able to tap it to do anything (normally it would just be tapped as part of being declared as an attacker anyway).

Removed from the game, returned to hand, put in the library, or destroyed - The creature is removed from combat and will not deal any combat damage.

The rules you need to know here are related to the steps of the combat phase. This is detailed here. Basically, during the declare blockers step, after blockers have been declared, each player has a chance to cast instants and activate abilities. Once players have done all they want, it moves to the assign damage step.

If you use an instant to destroy or otherwise remove an attacking creature during the declare blockers step, then it will not be around to assign any combat damage during the assign combat damage step.


Can you give an example why the active player wants to have priority in Beginning of Combat first? I've read this article published on blogs.magicjudges.org explaining the combat shortcut which is about (contrary to the normal proceeding) the Not Active Player (NAP) receiving priority prior to the Active Player (AP) in the Beginning of Combat step (BoC).

This is also stated in the Magic Tournament Rules:

  If the active player passes priority with an empty stack during their
  first main phase, the non-activeplayer is assumed to be acting in
  beginning of combat unless they are affecting whether a beginning of
  combat ability triggers.Then, after those actions resolve or no
  actions took place, the active player receives priority at the
  beginning of combat. Beginning of combat triggered abilities (even ones  that target) may be announced at this time.

At the end of the article the author mentions that normally this is not a problem since most of the time the AP does not want to act first anyway. However, one scenario in which the AP wants to be the first one to receive priorioty in the BoC step is mentioned:

  AP Acting First in Combat

  The new structure makes it look like the active player can’t be the
  first person to act in the beginning of combat step. That’s not true,
  but it does reflect the fact that the active player needing to act
  first is unlikely. The only scenario I’m aware of is holding a split
  second spell while your opponent is floating mana, which is not
  something that’s going to come up every day! In that situation, the
  protocol is the same as ever – you ask your opponent if they want to
  do something with that mana in the main phase. If they do, you’re
  still in main phase, since they used mana they couldn’t use in
  beginning of combat, nullifying the default.

  Otherwise, there is a way to do it, but it does give the opponent some
  information. While in your main phase, simply say “I do this thing in
  Beginning of Combat”. Done! Of course, the non-active player has the
  ability to interrupt and do something in your main phase. That’s not
  really any different than it was under the previous shortcut.

However, I can't reconstruct an example for such a scenario from the information given in these two paragraphs. The following information is given as stated in the paragraphs:

NAP has mana floating in the first main phase
AP has a split second spell

Question: Can you give an example for this scenario in which in order to reach his or hear goal, AP needs to be the first one to to receive priority in BoC to then cast the split second spell?

To illustrate the difficulties I have with this, here is an example which doesn't work:

AP is in his main phase, controls a Grizzly Bears enchanted with a Rancor. He has a Sudden Spoiling in his hand and enough mana to cast it.
NAP has 2 life, controls an Endbringer and has one mana floating.
AP wants to have priority in BoC to then cast Sudden Spoiling. He does not want to cast Sudden Spoiling in the main phase because NAP has floating mana he or she can use to respond. If everything goes well, AP then can attack with his bear (4/2, trample) and win the game (NAP now has a 0/2 creature).

This example doesn't work because of several aspects:

Why does AP need to have priority in BoC to cast Sudden Spoiling before NAP receives priority? Why does AP not let  NAP have priority first in BoC, NAP then passes priority, then AP uses his priority to cast Sudden Spoiling?
Why doesn't AP cast Sudden Spoiling in his main phase? Sure, NAP has mana floating, but he can't use it to activate Endbringer's cant-attack-ability in response anyway because Sudden Spoiling has split second.

I think the two different pieces here are in some sense independent. The opponent's floating mana makes you want to act in the beginning of combat step instead of the main phase, and holding a split second spell makes you want to act first in the beginning of combat step instead of waiting for your opponent to act.

Holding up mana here isn't necessarily about responding to the split second spell; it's more generally about having more options for actions to take, perhaps after the spell resolves. If you force the mana to empty from their mana pool, you cut off those options.

So, here is a scenario in which it matters that you specifically act first during the beginning of combat step: The active player has some mana available and Extirpate in hand, and two attackers with at least two toughness each. The non-active player has one floating red mana, two islands, Electrolyze in hand, and Feeling of Dread in their graveyard. The non-active player is better off casting Feeling of Dread, but they don't want to cast it during their main phase because then the active player could follow up with another creature, possibly with haste.

If the active player plays Extirpate during their main phase, the non-active player can use their floating mana to cast Electrolyze. If the active player waits until the non-active player acts in the beginning of combat step, the Feeling of Dread is no longer in the graveyard for the Extirpate to target. They get the best result if they act first in the beginning of combat step.


What is the proper way to split uneven draft pods? The optimal number for a draft pod is 8 people, but it can be often hard to get a even multiple of 8.

If there are an odd number of drafters how should the pods be split? Also if there is any justification as to why it's done that way that would be nice to know.

I am aware of the Wizards Event Reporter, and that it can split players into pods automatically. I want to know how to split pods by hand, in case I ever need to run an event with pencil and paper.

In my LGS it's solved this way.

6 players => 1 x 6

7 players => 1 x 7

8 players => 1 x 8

9 players => 1 x 9

10 players => 1 x 10

11 players => 1 x 11

12 players => 2 x 6

13 players => 1 x 6 + 1 x 7

14 players => 1 x 6 + 1 x 8

15 players => 1 x 7 + 1 x 8

16 players => 2 x 8

17 players => 1 x 8 + 1 x 9

18 players => 3 x 6

19 players => 2 x 6 + 1 x 7

20 players => 2 x 6 + 1 x 8

21 players => 1 x 6 + 1 x 7 + 1 x 8

22 players => 1 x 6 + 2 x 8

23 players => 1 x 7 + 2 x 8

24 players => 3 x 8

The idea behind is to not have a draftpod with less than 6 people, which yields in just too less cards in the entire cardpool. 9 players is still quite doable, 10 and especially 11 player pods are really bad (you basically won't see any card coming back to you).

To summarize:

Don't go below 6
Avoid going above 9
Try to fill as many 8 pods as possible


Where can I share a Print and Play game? I've been working on a hobby card game project for a while and I'm currently sharing it as a free Print & Play with a later option to support the project with buying the printed version.

Currently I had some success posting it on r/boardgames and got a very positive response from the Reddit community. In this reddit thread someone suggested pnpparadise as another place to share Print & Play games.

Could you suggest me some other places, to share a free Print & Play version of a game?
It's a great way to collect a ton o of feedback as an indie game designer.

Not sure if website recommendations are off topic same way game recommendations are but will see!

https://playtest-coop.com is a site specifically for play testing print and play games. I've tried a few things from there

Since the global lockdown began however online play testing groups are more prevalent.  I've done more play testing of my own design in the last few months than I have in the last year.  You can find a list here https://cardboardedison.com/playtest-groups

The 'Remote Playtesting Group' on Saturday seems to the busiest with about 40 designers/testers meeting on the Discord server.

The Cardboard Edison website is a very good resource for games design/play testing advice and lists play testing groups around the world for when lockdown is over.   There is an absolute ton of other play testing resources online as well.

Just remember the golden rule, if 4 people spend 1 hour playing your game you owe the play testing world 4 hours back testing their games!


What is this "dice, cubes, hexes and ships" game? I've seen it in a "Game mechanics" presentation. What is the name of this game showcased in the photo below?


How do you counter pillaging skeletons? The Pillaging Skeletons could pick everything up, take over 4 territories, get 2 extra monsters, still get 8 gold because of pillaging, have 4 large stacks of monsters (large investment to only kill 1 skeleton), and the 8 gold/turn was still good because the player held EVERYONE else down to less than that by getting rid of 4 enemy tokens every turn.

Dragon Elves were the only combo we found to keep the Pillaging Skeletons from running away with the game, killing 2 skeletons a turn easy (sometimes 3 with a good roll), and never losing any. Are there any other counters?

Extra Kudos for staying away from "Everyone cooperatively attack the skeletons!", as my group doesn't like to just gang up on someone :)

Bunker up.  The scenario you describe relies on people leaving a path of territories with single defenders.  Barring the unlikely event where they are revealed and claimed in the same round, you likely know they're coming, so don't leave yourself that open.  Use mountains, leave extra defenders, etc.  Wall them in, so that they are surrounded by highly defended regions.  If they can only take 3 regions, they only get one extra guy and only 6 points, which is far more manageable.
Attack their declined race.  A solid score generally relies on both races, so if you take out their declined race, they will be forced to rely on just the skeletons or decline them.  If they are the player's first race, they can still fall behind someone with two solid races.
Attack them.  Yes it is a high cost to destroy one skeleton, but destroying one might be all it takes to slow down their growth pattern.

Highlighting specific race/power combos is kind of pointless, since the chance of them being available is exceedingly small.  There are plenty of defensive races that could withstand them or aggressive races that could knock them out early.  Pretty much the only thing you don't want to do is decide that it is too expensive to attack them and let them continue to grow turn after turn.


Mirrorweave on Double Faced Cards I understand a good number of rules, but there is still one that I can't find the answer to:
Let's say I have a Civilized Scholar and Ulrich, Uncontested Alpha in play.
I activate Mirrorweave or Cytoshape and target the Civilized Scholar. Ulrich, Uncontested Alpha become a copy of Civilized Scholar.
I understand the example in rule 711.5.

Rule 711.5
Only permanents represented by double-faced cards can transform. (See rule 701.26, “Transform.”) If a spell or ability instructs a player to transform any permanent that isn’t represented by a double-faced card, nothing happens.
Example: A player casts Cytoshape, causing a Kruin Outlaw (the front face of a double-faced card) to become a copy of Elite Vanguard (a 2/1 Human Soldier creature) until end of turn. The player then casts Moonmist, which reads, in part, “Transform all Humans.” Because the copy of Elite Vanguard is a double-faced card, it will transform. The resulting permanent will have its back face up, but it will still be a copy of Elite Vanguard that turn.

This means that Ulrich will be a copy of the Scholar even after he flips. And another rule does allow me to use Ulrich as Civilized Scholar to discard a creature and flip him. But does Ulrich get his transform triggers? Or are these triggers missed because Ulrich's name is still Civilized Scholar?
I'm trying to break the game here. =P
I want to tap Ulrich as Scholar, discard a creature, untap, flip, trigger fight, tap, discard a creature, untap, flip, trigger buff, and repeat. This should result in Ulrich eating every creature in play, growing bigger and bigger, to prepare for a lethal swing. All in one turn.

Ulrich will be a copy of Civilized Scholar, so you can use Civilized Scholar's ability to transform it, repeatedly if you have some way to untap it. But the triggered abilities will not trigger.

First, in the rules section about Copying objects, rule 706.2 says

  When copying an object, the copy acquires the copiable values of the original object’s characteristics [...]. 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 its face-down status, and by “as . . . enters the battlefield” and “as . . . is turned face up” abilities that set power and toughness (and may also set additional characteristics).

So, once the Mirrorweave targeting Civilized Scholar resolves, Ulrich becomes a copy of Civilize Scholar, which means that it has the name, mana cost, rules text, etc. of Civilized Scholar. Importantly, it no longer has Ulrich's values for those characteristics, and in particular it no longer has Ulrich's abilities.

Then, once you activate and resolve the ability, the card will physically transform and untap, but it will still be a copy of Civilized Scholar. This means that it still doesn't have Ulrich's abilities, so those abilities won't trigger.


Does the Pirate stop fish production when playing Seafarers with Fishermen of Catan? I know that the Robber can be placed upon the Lake hex in a normal "Fishermen of Catan" game. (see here)

But when you combine it with Seafarers, does anyone know the official answer for either of these two questions?

a) When you place the pirate on a sea tile that borders land, does it stop any fish production that the tile would produce?

b) Can you place the robber on a sea tile with fish production?

If you know the answer, please link to an official source.

In terms of Settlers expansion combinations, the catan official website really is a one-stop-shop. They have a combination listing for Seafarers and Fishermen, here. It says a few things about fishing and ships, but not about the pirate blocking fishing spots. Based on that alone, I'd say the pirate does not block fishing.

If that doesn't do it for you, this BGG thread about the same subject has a reply from a Kosmos representative (Sebastian Rapp), saying:

  Officially speaking: The pirate does not block fishing grounds. He just does what the rules say: He steals a resource and disables placing/moving ships at the borders of his hex.
  Everything else, like blocking harbors or blocking fishing grounds are variants, some officially mentioned, some not. So it is up to the players whether they want to play with such a variant or without.

As for your b) question, I'm pretty sure you can't place the robber on sea hexes. Since you can put boats on it, it's a sea hex.


What are common replacement components? As my board game collection grows and wears down, I find myself curious about efficiencies that can be made when hauling games around from place to place. The first time I realized that you could simply improve on the shipped components was replacing all paper money with poker chips.

What are some other good ways to improve upon some of the lesser quality game components included in board games?

Specific side-questions:

What components can be completely replaced/improved?
What are some ways to reduce the storage/carrying impact of games?
Is it wise to start condensing games?

As the question notes, Poker Chips in place of money is quite viable. I don't remove the money, just leave it bagged in the box.

Gaming stones or poker chips can be used to track victory points as well.

On some sports games, counters or standups are replaced with meeples or minis readily. I've found that meeples fit beautifully on the Crash Tackle board, for example.

Any game using a pawn or meeple can usually be replaced with nice minis.

Any game using cardboard stand-ups is readily able to use minis in place of the stand-ups.

Condensing Components

The issue of condensing depends a lot on how you play.

Putting all one's Ticket To Ride games in one box simply means not being able to sell them off separately; the component overlap is quite high.

Putting all one's 18xx games in one box, however, may result in a jumbled mess.

Putting all one's Dominion cards in one box is rapidly approaching impossible, but since the core boxes are equipped with decent organizer trays... it really isn't a superior approach, aside from issues of volume.

Many card-only games can be readily condensed down to just a zipper-bagged set of cards and the rules.

The typical condensation level apparently is a game and its own expansions.

My Carcassonne box can't hold anything more, but has in it: Carc., River I & II, Inns & Cathedrals, Traders and Builders, Tower, Count, Princess & Dragon, King, and one other small one. The Tower literally is filled with all the tiles.


In Phase 10, can you draw any card from the discard pile or just the top card? I am new to the Phase 10 game and still confused about the discard pile.
Can a player draw any card from the discard pile or just the top card?
Is the discard pile only one single stack?

You can only draw the top of the discard pile. From the rules:

  On your turn, draw one card, either the top card from the draw pile or the top card from the discard pile, and add it to your hand. End your turn by discarding any one of your cards onto the top of the discard pile.

So the discard pile is 1 single stack, like the draw pile, with only the top card visible.


Can I activate mana abilities before the Legend Rule kicks in? I have kind of an obscure edge case that has been bothering me, as I am not sure how the rules work.

I have Teysa Karlov in my hand. On the battlefield:

Teysa Karlov, which doubles death triggers
Vindictive Vampire, which has “Whenever another creature you control dies, Vindictive Vampire deals 1 damage to each opponent and you gain 1 life.”
Skirk Prospector, a goblin with a mana ability reading “Sacrifice a Goblin: Add {R}.”

I know that if I play Teysa Karlov one of them will die due to state-based actions, and that Vindictive Vampire will trigger three times. However, will I be able to use Skirk Prospector's mana ability to sacrifice it while both Teysas are still on the board? This would allow me to trigger Vindictive Vampire three more times.

Am I able to sacrifice Skirk Prospector after casting a second Teysa Karlov, but before one of the Teysas dies, to take advantage of multiple death triggers?

No, you have no opportunity to take any actions, including activating mana abilities, after the Teysa Karlov spell resolves and before one of the Teysas dies due to the legend rule state-based action.

State-based action happen immediately after the spell resolves, before any player gains priority.

Mana abilities can be activated when you have priority, like other activated abilites. There are also rules that allow you to activate mana abilities at specific times. In the steps for casting a spell or activating an ability, rule 601.2g says

  If the total cost includes a mana payment, the player then has a chance to activate mana abilities (see rule 605, "Mana Abilities"). Mana abilities must be activated before costs are paid.

And in the steps for resolving a spell or ability, rule 608.2f says

  If an effect gives a player the option to pay mana, they may activate mana abilities before taking that action. [...]

In the scenario you describe, events happen in the following order:

The Teysa Karlov spell resolves. This just involves Teysa Karlov entering the battlefield.
State-based actions are checked. At this time, you choose one of the Teysa Karlov creatures and put it into your graveyard.
You put the Vindictive Vampire triggered abilities on the stack.
You gain priority.

There is nothing at all in between the Teysa entering and one of them dying, and there are definitely none of the situations that allow you to activate mana abilites.


What's the name of this oil trading board game? When I was a child I used to play around with the figures of a game that a relative of mine had tucked away in his attic. It was some sort of oil trading board game and some of the components I remember playing with were:

Oil tanker minis
Spherical gas storage tank minis:
World map, very minimal graphic style
Paper money, like something out of an old Monopoly copy

Publishing Date: The game was possibly published in the 1970s / 80s
Visual Style: Quite minimal and somewhat bleak, a bit like Twilight Struggle

I was too young to figure out the rules or how to play the game, especially since it was in English and it isn't my mother tongue, however I had a lot of fun playing with the minis and from what I remember the game seemed quite complex and may be worth tracking down and playing it now.

Thanks in advance!

Perhaps "Wildcatters" as shown on the website of CapStone Games.

This link is the game on BGG.

Oil tanker minis:

Spherical gas storage tank minis:


Questions about memorizing go games 1) How do you get better at this? Is it just memorizing pro games or does it just come with time?
2) Does it actually improve your game or is it just sort of nice to have.
3) At what point should I actively try to improve on this?

In my experience, memorizing games is more of an effect than a cause: Memorizing games won't improve your own game so much as improving your own game will help you memorize them.

Fundamentally, Go is all about recognizing and applying patterns, and the more patterns you have in your arsenal, the easier it is to recognize and apply them in the future (be that during actual gameplay or memorizing). The trick when memorizing pro games is seeing those patterns and understanding exactly why a pro made a particular move; when the intended result is understood, the progression of stones toward that result tends to flow naturally. Well, as naturally as they can considering the opponent is usually going out of his way to stop it.

(Side note: Attempting to memorize low-level amateur games is often an exercise in frustration and futility because so many of their moves don't (seem to) make any sort of sense at all.)

As far as actively trying to improve your memorization, I'd say focus on your own games; if you can't yet replay your games more-or-less from scratch, learn how. Not only is the ability to recreate and review troublesome situations after a game you just played an invaluable learning tool, but this is typically far easier than memorizing pro games: Unlike pros who tend to be thinking a thousand moves or so ahead, you (presumably) know what you were actually thinking when you made each and every one of your moves.

Of course, if you weren't thinking when you made most of your moves, you might want to work on that first.

Memorizing pro games can be nice, but I'd use that more as an exercise in how well you actually understand them than an end in and of itself. You don't want to just be all "And then white played at j10 and then black played at j11 and then white played at o9 for some reason" so much as "White extended, black blocked and then white threatened black's weakness on the right side to give himself some more room to maneuver". The first is only useful if the board position in your actual game is more-or-less exactly the same (which, let's be honest, will never be the case), while the second can be abstracted out and applied to almost any scenario.


How does Song of Freyalise chapters 1-2 work? I have a question about Song of Freyalise. Chapters I and II say:

  Until your next turn, creatures you control gain '{T}: Add one mana of any color.'

According to the wording of this effect, my creatures will gain the {T} ability until end of turn or not? How does it work?

According to the wording of this effect, my creatures will gain the {T} ability until end of turn or no?

Not exactly. The card says 'Until your next turn', so that means you can use their mana ability during your opponent's next turn (or turns, if it's a multiplayer game or they cast Time Walk) as well. Only when it's your turn again will the effect stop.


Munchkin as a two player game Has anyone had any experience with playing Munchkin with 2 players?  If so, what variant/house rules do you play with, and how do you feel the experience compares to 3+ player Munchkin?

As Matt Sheppard notes, the main problem with two-player Munchkin is that it eliminates the automatic balancing effect present with three or more players, where the weaker players can band together to pull the stronger ones down.  In normal play, this is the main effect that counteracts the otherwise fundamental unfairness of Munchkin — without it, it's quite possible for the game to quickly get so unbalanced that one of the players is almost sure to win no matter what the other does.

This can be a problem especially if one of the players is new to the game: if the experienced player plays for keeps, they're likely to leave the newbie feeling like they didn't even have a chance, whereas if they pull their punches, the game is likely to get boring because there won't any of the scheming and backstabbing that makes normal Munchkin interesting.

That said, I do think that Munchkin with two players can potentially be fun, provided that both players are a) about equally skilled, b) reasonably familiar with the game and how it's typically played, and c) aware that they're playing the game in a way it was not designed for.  In particular, it's probably a good idea for both players to be experienced enough to tell when they're in a hopeless situation, so that they can either concede the game or just play it out quickly and get on with the next round.

As for house rules, I have no real experience to share.  However, one possibility I'd strongly suggest would be going over the deck and picking out some of the most egregiously unbalanced cards like the Kneepads of Allure.  Basically, if it feels unbalanced in a multiplayer game, it's likely to be even more so with only two players.  Also, if the players are not quite perfectly matched, some kind of handicap system, such as extra starting levels, might be useful to compensate for the lack of automatic balancing.

Ps. From a game theoretical perspective, two-player Munchkin ought to be pretty dull: it's a two-player zero sum game, where the success of one player (measured as expected probability of eventually winning) is exactly the complement of that of the other.  Thus, in optimal play, there really shouldn't be any (unforced) helping or trading, or anything else that requires the consent of both players.

The reason it can still work out in practice is that real humans are not the perfectly rational, risk-neutral and infinitely patient and foresightful agents assumed in classical game theory.  Thus, in a real game it can happen that, say, both players find that trading certain items puts them both in more comfortable positions, or that one player is willing to accept a reward for helping that the other is willing to offer.

Also, the strategic elements of Munchkin are not entirely based on cooperation and trading: besides the simple process of optimizing your character build, there's quite a bit of strategy involved in deciding when to spend your one-shot cards and when to save them.  That still applies even in a two-player game.


How does the Outrider work in Agricola? At the weekend I was playing Agricola and played the occupation Outrider.  The rule for the outrider is "Whenever you use the most recent Round card with one of your people, you receive 1 additional grain".

In round three "Sow and/or Bake" was turned over, and so I wanted to pick that card and sow the grain I would receive from it immediately.  I wasn't sure about the legality of this move and so I asked for general consensus on it.  Everyone agreed that I couldn't play the move, and so I didn't, but I'm still interested to know whether our ruling was correct.

I'm looking for an answer which either cites a rule that we didn't find or an official clarification about this situation.  Failing either of those, I would be interested if there is a similar situation that has a definitive answer that might suggest a ruling here.  Cheers!

The Agricola Compendium is a superb resource for this kind of rules question. In this case, it has your answer:

  You receive the grain before you've taken the action. For example, if you use a sowing action, you can immediately sow the grain from the Outrider.

It sounds like you're interested in the principle behind the answer. I'd love to explain it, but I can't. The Agricola rules are generally very good about consistency of terminology - if something says "an oven" it means any of the cards with "Oven" in the name and no others. If something says "receive wood on an action space" (Pieceworker), that's different to "take wood that is on an action space" (Mushroom Collector). But sadly, one area where they're not so consistent is precise details of timing like this.

I'd love to be able to say things like in Magic: the Gathering, something like "Some cards have the pattern "Whenever [player] [takes action], [effect]." In this case, the [effect] happens at the start of the [action]." But that doesn't seem consistent with the rules on cards like Compulsory Education, Merchant. And it's unclear whether if the Wood Distributor has put some wood on a Major Improvement space, and you take it with a Clay Worker to get an additional clay, do you get the clay in time? I don't think Agricola has specific timing rules to allow you to state the answer with complete confidence in cases like this.


In catan seafarers, does using a knight on a pirate ship give you double resources? In Catan (seafarers), there is a new piece introduced: the pirate ship. When you move the pirate ship, even without a knight card, you get to take a resource from the owner of an adjacent boat. If you use a knight, would you get two resources, one for moving the pirate, one for the knight, or would you just get one? It doesn't really say in the book as far as I'm aware, and the wording doesn't seem to hint at it in either way.

No, the pirate ship acts in the same way that the robber does, allowing you to steal 1 resource.
Playing a Knight card by itself does not allow you to steal a resource from a player. Playing a Knight card allows you to move the robber, and if you place the robber next to a player, then you get to steal a resource from that player. The pirate works exactly the same, placing the pirate next to a player allows you to steal a resource from the player.
From the Seafarer rules:

If you roll a "7" during your turn, you may elect to move the pirate INSTEAD of the robber. Like the robber, you place the pirate in the center of any hex you choose--except that you may only place it on a sea hex. You are then allowed to steal one random resource from any ONE player who has a ship adjacent to that hex! If a player has more than one ship adjacent to that sea hex, you are only allowed to steal one card from that player.

If you play a knight card, you now have the choice of moving either the robber or the pirate.

And from the base game rules:

If you play a knight card, you must immediately move the robber. See "Rolling a '7' and Activating the Robber" above and follow steps 1 and 2.

So the Knight card by itself does not allow you to steal a resource, it is only the robber, or the pirate in the case of Seafarers, that allows you to do so.


Chit assignment in Catan: Seafarers, Scenario 8: The Wonders of Catan? In Seafarers, Scenario 8: The Wonders of Catan, each player gets a single Catan chit to start with. Is that chit just meant to count as a victory point or it supposed to be used to indicate the level you've achieved on your Wonder?

Another related question is this: Out of the 10 initial chits, are the chits given to players to start with doled out of that pool of 10?

Lastly, can a player be essentially 'locked out' from winning due to their being unable to get a chit to start a Wonder? This will depend on what the answers to the above questions are.

It looks like you're mixing two things up.

The Chits in this scenario are not the same chits as the victory points ones.
I don't have the material at hand, but you could use something completely different for those chits (a coin for instance). It's just used to track your progress in the wonder you're building.

The first time you pay the resources to build a wonder, you take the corresponding card for that wonder, place it in front of you as it is now yours (nobody else can build it from now on) and place your chit in the first step on the card. When you pay the resources a second time, you just move your chit to the second step on the card and so on until you build the fourth step.

This chit is not worth a victory point. If a player builds the fourth step of his/her wonder, he/she wins and that's it...
The victory points are used for the alternative victory condition: You win if you have 10 points and you're ahead of all other players on the building of your wonder.

More over, in the rules for this scenario, the chits are listed as "Additional Components" which tend to prove that they're not a part of the included game material (hence not the victory tokens).

Hope this helps...


Catan Seafarers - The Forgotten Tribe scenario : Who claims the harbor? We have a player who has moved a ship near to a harbor and has claimed the harbor. But, we have another player who is gonna place a settlement for first time on the same island.

So, in this case who will have the final claim and use of the harbor on the new island?

From the rules :
Catan Seafarers Game Rules and Scenarios

  Harbors

  If you build (or move) a ship on an edge next to a harbor, you take
  the harbor. If you have a settlement on the coast, you must
  immediately place the harbor on an adjacent edge. However, harbors
  must never occupy adjacent or the same edges. In case you have no
  appropriate coastal settlement, you can put the harbor aside until
  such a settlement is built. When you have placed a harbor, you can use
  it immediately, even during the same turn.

Interpretation. This means that the first player who places or builds a ship next to a harbor, physically picks up the harbor, i.e. removes it from the board. The player will then place this harbor on an edge next to one of his/her coastal settlements on the main island, if the player has one. No one can build a settlement on any of the small islands.

«So, in this case who will have the final claim and use of the harbor on the new island?»

The player who moved next to the harbor claims it (picks it up) and gets to place the harbor next to one of his/her coastal settlements, immediately, or later.

«But, we have another player who is gonna place a settlement for first time on the same island.»

  During play, no settlement can be built on the surrounding small
  islands that do not produce resources.

For the harbor, it's first come, first served. And, no player can build a settlement on any of the small islands.