Is the Forager's coin bonus counted during Action Phase or Buy Phase? Is the Forager's coin bonus counted during Action Phase or Buy Phase?

I am curious as to whether the Forager's "+ 1 Coin per differently named Treasure in the trash" is counted at the time Forager is played during the Action Phase, or whether it is counted during the Buy Phase.

I usually don't have trouble intuitively figuring out what a Dominion card should do when a weird quirk comes up, but this one has me tricked because cards do exist that depend on what you do during your Action phase (i.e. +1 Coin per card discarded, or + Coin based on cards trashed).

On the other hand, it is cool to be able to increase the value of a Forager if you use a trasher after playing it, but I like to think of Dominion cards as being able to be played from top to bottom while keeping a running total of actions and coin. But coin is often counted at start of Buy Phase anyway, so I am again unsure.

What does everyone think of this? Is it actually obvious?

It gives you the coin when you play it. You just don't use it until the buy phase.

This is really a case of "do what it says on the card, in the order it says it", what you called "top to bottom" in your question. It's true that a lot of people tally up their coin at the start of the buy phase, but that's just because it's when they care about it, not because the coin didn't exist until then. As the original rules say:

  +$X -- the player has X number of additional coins to spend in the Buy phase

They're granted immediately, and available to spend later in the Buy phase.

Similarly, if you play a Salvager and trash something costing $4 to get +$4, then play a Bridge, it doesn't retroactively make the Salvager only worth +$3. And if you play a Bank, it only counts the treasures that came before it - you don't get to wait until the end and count everything for them.

You can see hints of this elsewhere, like in the wording of duration cards. For example, Merchant Ship says "Now and at the start of your next turn: +$2." It grants the coin at the start of your next turn, not on your next turn's Buy phase.


In Village (2011) are the winning strategies really balanced? I've been playing Village often with my girl (2 player game only) - it is more a matter of making more points than actually competing (as in blocking the other player). I have not, so far, played the game with more than 2 players.

However, what I noticed is that the "easy" way to get points is selling on the market. Can it actually be beaten? I've tried, at the beginning of several games to do something different, like "in this game, I will settle for politics" - or religion, or whatever. At mid-game, no matter what, I have to resort to create and sell some goods to keep up with the points.

Firstly, I would say that you can block the other players, particularly with the single cube on the market.

Is the other player building up a stock of things to sell on the market? Trigger the market day early. They will, at the very least, have to spend green cubes and time to sell their goods (and won't have stocked up on so much to sell); if they don't have green cubes (or can't afford the time) then all the better.

Secondly, I would suggest that a winning strategy does not necessarily need to be monomaniacally focused on a single area; politics can be used to grease the wheels of travel by providing you with the cubes etc.


For Goblin Grenade can you sacrifice a creature that attacked? My boyfriend plays a Goblin deck that absolutely destroys. But he has a combo that he does where he will attack with all of his creatures, and then sac one off after it has dealt damage to the player, and use Goblin Grenade. Can he do that? That just seems too op to me, because if he has multiple goblin grenades in one had he could sac all creatures that just dealt damage and that just doesn't make sense to me.

If there is a specific rule that says he can't do that, would you mind linking it for me?

Assuming the Goblins in question survive combat and Goblin Grenade is cast during the Second Main Phase this is perfectly legal.

This is a common strategy for Goblin decks to deal as much damage as they can as fast as they can regardless of the cost to them. While this allows them to make some very powerful plays like sacrificing Goblins to Goblin Grenade, it also makes them very fragile. For example if you are able to counter the Grenade they still have sacrificed the Goblin as part of the cost for paying the spell, so they are down a lot of resources that are going to make it harder for them to win the game. So while in the right deck Goblin Grenade is very strong I would not call it OP or broken.


Is it ever better pass and not hit in backgammon? I'm learning how to play Backgammon with GNU Backgammon and I noticed that the hints sometimes give better odds for a move WITHOUT a hit. Can anybody explain this for me?

1. Cubeful 2-ply    13/7                         MWC:  88.89%
   0.889 0.294 0.022 - 0.111 0.006 0.000
    2-ply cubeful prune [world class]
2. Cubeful 2-ply    13/12*/7                     MWC:  87.11% ( -1.78%)
   0.871 0.457 0.048 - 0.129 0.005 0.000
    2-ply cubeful prune [world class]

In your own home board it is often unwise to hit blots unless you can point on them. Leaving two blots in your home board with enemy stones on the bar approaches suicidal in all circumstances I can conceive of just now.


Double Gleam of Authority interaction If 2 copies of Gleam of Authority are on the board would that mean that +1/+1 counters would bounce back and fourth to infinity?

No, it would not.

You misunderstood how Gleam of Authority works. Gleam does not place +1/+1 counters on the creature it enchants, it simply gives it +1/+1 for each counter on other creatures. The difference is that counters remain on the permanent they are placed on while the +1/+1 granted by an enchantment disappears when the enchantment is destroyed.


Do Regenerate and/or Totem Armor counteract the Legend rule? Can a regeneration shield or a totem armor aura protect a Legendary creature from getting killed by a clone of itself?

Nope. Regeneration and Totem Armor replace the "destroy" action, and the Legend Rule does not destroy.

704.5k If two or more legendary permanents with the same name are on the battlefield, all are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.” If only one of those permanents is legendary, this rule doesn’t apply.
701.12a If the effect of a resolving spell or ability regenerates a permanent, it creates a replacement effect that protects the permanent the next time it would be destroyed this turn. In this case, “Regenerate [permanent]” means “The next time [permanent] would be destroyed this turn, instead remove all damage marked on it and tap it. If it’s an attacking or blocking creature, remove it from combat.”
702.87a Totem armor is a static ability that appears on some Auras. “Totem armor” means “If enchanted permanent would be destroyed, instead remove all damage marked on it and destroy this Aura.”
701.6b The only ways a permanent can be destroyed are as a result of an effect that uses the word “destroy” or as a result of the state-based actions that check for lethal damage (see rule 704.5g) or damage from a source with deathtouch (see rule 704.5h). If a permanent is put into its owner’s graveyard for any other reason, it hasn’t been “destroyed.”


Can proliferate be applied to loyalty counters? I am curious, can proliferate be applied to planes-walkers with loyalty counters on them?

proliferate text states:

  You choose any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them, then give each another counter of a kind already there.

And planeswalkers are both players AND permanents, So I see no reason that it shouldn't work. Are there rules against it?

Yes you can proliferate loyalty counters on planeswalkers because they are permanents.

Planeswalkers are not players however, the only time they sort-of act like players is "If noncombat damage would be dealt to a player by a source controlled by an opponent, that opponent may have that source deal that damage to a planeswalker the first player controls instead." And really that is just a rule so that cards like Lightning Bolt will be effective against them without needing errata.

  110.4. There are five permanent types: artifact, creature, enchantment, land, and planeswalker.


Dungeons and Dragons Lords of Waterdeep: Which piece is the Ambassador and which the Lieutenant? There are two special Agent-like pieces in Lords of Waterdeep: the Ambassador, obtained temporarily by assigning an agent to the Palace of Waterdeep, and the Lieutenant, obtained permanently by completing the quest Recruit Lieutenant.

In the box, there are two pieces clearly meant to be used to represent the Ambassador and the Lieutenant. One of them is a yellowish-white and the other appears to be unpainted light brown wood.

Is there any canon on which one of these is supposed to be the Lieutenant and which is supposed to be the Ambassador? As far as I have seen, there is nothing in the rulebook specifiying this.

At the bottom of page 4 of the rulebook, it's indicated that the Ambassador is represented by the yellowish-white piece and the Lieutenant by the unpainted, brown, wooden piece, as shown in the image below:


Can I strike the opponent's pieces directly without penalty? Let's say I have my black coin near the pot but there is a white coin which is blocking it from my strike. Can I pot my black coin by striking only the white coin?

This is fine.

Based on these rules; it doesn't matter which pieces the Striker does or doesn't touch. Rewards/penalties only care about what's pocketed (or overboard).


250gsm stock good enough for cards? I'm creating my own version of risk and I'm now on to printing the cards.

My printer can use up to 250gsm paper, but before I purchase some I want to know if it will be suitable.

What is the standard for cards and card games?

According to Wikipedia, a standard playing card has a size of B8 and a weight of 1.8g. So if I got the math right, it's 180gsm.

Here is the link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_52-card_deck


Catan: when to buy development cards? I never buy development cards in the beginning: the Knights are fairly useless, the Largest Army bonus is not a priority, and it's too risky to gamble on drawing a Road Building card.

When is the best time to start buying development cards?

Whenever you buy a development card, it increase your options because:

Development Cards solve your problems.

Get a resource you couldn't otherwise, with Monopoly, Year of Plenty, or stealing using a Knight.
Get more resources by getting the Robber off your land. (Remember you can do this before you roll!)
Slow down an opponent by putting the Robber on their land.
Build roads quickly to cut someone off or reach a settlement first, with Road Building.

And they don't, on average, actually cost 3 resources. Monopoly, Year of Plenty, and Knight all gain you at least one back, which you can choose (even somewhat when stealing with the knight). Road Building is worth 4 resources. Even if you get a victory point, how many resources do other victory points cost? Settlement is 4, City is 5. Longest Road is a lot.

Because of the low effective cost of development cards, and the gains you get from them, buying development cards actually banks your resources in a fairly fluid way, yet out of your hand so you don't have too many cards.

In short, when should you buy development cards? Anytime you can and you don't have something else you'd rather build THAT TURN. Buying the card means all the better chance of building whatever you want next turn. I buy Development Cards whenever I can.

One last note, if you are richest in sheep, development cards are probably your shortest path to victory (combined with some expansion/cities).


Order of actions in Ascension I recently had a problem in Ascension with the order of the actions. I had enough force, so I killed a Mephit that allows me, when killed, to banish a card from the centre row. I intended to banish another monster.

However, as explicitly said in an answer to this question - and thus in the FAQ -, the first thing to do when a card leaves the centre row is to replace that even before we chose to banish another card. Accordingly, we replace the card and reveal a "Change Events" card. The next event is Souls Unbound which makes the monsters in the centre row unbanishable.

My question is: the Mephit has been replaced by a "change events" card. Do we change events first (making the monsters unbanishable), or do we resolve the reward of the Mephit first? Depending on the order of the actions, it may permit to banish a monster before it is unbanishable.

The Storm of Souls rulebook says:

  When an Event card flips into the Center Row, immediately move it to the Event Zone on the board, and then replace it in the Center Row.
  [...]
  If a new Event flips, the old Event immediately goes to the Void and the new Event becomes the current event.

The keyword is immediately. Therefore, if Souls Unbound enters the Center Row right after you kill Mephit (or any banishing Monster), you can only banish Heroes and Constructs from the Center Row.

The iOS version of the game follows the same logic.


How does Jester interact with the Knights? Each of the Knights has a different name. If someone reveals a Knight when I play a Jester, can I gain a Knight, or do I gain nothing since there isn't a second Dame Anne (or whomever) available in the supply?

The Golden Rule of Dominion is "do as much as you can".

If no copies of a card exist (e.g. because they've all been trashed) then no card is given out by a Jester.

Since Knights are unique cards, no-one gains anything when a Jester reveals one.


In Catan, can players negotiate a trade when it's not their turn? For example, it's my turn, I'm trading and I agree to make a trade with player B where I give them my only wood and they give me one brick. But then, before we exchange cards, player C interrupts and says to player B - "wait, I'll give you 2 wood for that brick in the next turn when I can trade".

In simpler words, do all trading offers have to include the player whose turn it is, or can other players make such offers between themselves?

Catan is a social game where a degree of social banter of the sort above can enhance the feel of the game.

However, considering that the game permits trades with the active player - and not between non-active players, it is plausible to rule that such is interference with the active player's turn and therefore not allowed.

Even in larger games with 5+ players the game rules do not cater for trades by inactive players where the active player is not involved - and it is considered etiquette to process conflicting build requests in turn-order for precedence (hence no non-active player building a town on a contested space that is being built on by the active player).

What level of trade banter you permit is down to that agreed. We have played fine enough with some banter but it can get annoying when excessive.


What is this die for? I came across a strange green die. I'm wondering if anybody knew what it was from.

As you can see, the one on the die is replaced with an odd symbol.

It looks like this die is from the Pokemon Card Game; part of the 'Roaring Skies Elite Trainer Dice Set' which is used to keep track of damage done to Pokemon in the card game.

The symbol on the dice in place of the number 1 is the Pokemon set symbol for the Roaring Skies set:


Does my Scrabble play have to be all adjacent tiles? Do all tiles played in one move need to be adjacent to each other? Example - there is a Y on the board, can a player place the letter E on both sides to make the word EYE ?

No, they need only be in a single line.
For example, your EYE is allowed.
The official Scrabble rules has this legitimate example for playing FARM across a previous play of HORN:


Takenoko growing bamboo when gardner lands on non-irrigated plot In the board game Takenoko, when the gardener moves onto a non-irrigated plot of a color (say green), do all adjacent, irrigated plots of that color (green) grow bamboo?
In the game manual, the text is as follows:
The player moves the gardener in a straight line, any number of plots in the direction of his choice. The gardener is only allowed to move over plots, not empty spaces between plots. He grows a section of bamboo on the plot where he finishes his move as well as on all directly adjacent plots of the same color. If a plot has bamboo at a height of four sections, then no section is added, because 4 sections is the maximum size of a bamboo shoot.
Note: Sections never grow in non-irrigated plots, even if the gardener finishes move on the plot or an adjacent plot.
The pictorial examples in the game manual only show the gardener landing on irrigated plots.
Because the instructions in the manual do not make mention of this scenario, if one takes the words literally, it seems that bamboo would grow on the irrigated plots. However, from a thematic perspective of the game, it seems that the gardener should only be able to work their magic on an irrigated plot, where the gardening effect radiates outward from that irrigated tile.
Of note: In the online version at boardgamearena.com, the mechanic functions where all adjacent irrigated plots grow bamboo, despite if the landing plot is irrigated or not.

If you look at the faq on board game geek is specifies that the gardener will grow bamboo on adjacent plots if they are irrigated regardless of the plot he landed being irrigated. What is important here is that the plot that is getting the bamboo growth is irrigated.
https://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Takenoko_FAQ

If the plot the gardener is on is not irrigated, the bamboo will still grow on the adjacent plots of the same color if they are irrigated.


Rishkar's Expertise and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries I have 30 cards in my library. I control a Toothy, Imaginary Friend with 100 +1/+1 counters on it.

I cast Rishkar's Expertise (RE) to draw my entire library, and I cast Jace, Wielder of Mysteries from my hand using the second ability of RE. What happens at this point?

My guess:

I would lose the game as I draw a card from my empty library at the moment a player receives priority.

While RE is resolving no one receives priority until RE is resolved completely.
BUT Jace will be cast from RE and will go on the stack
Then RE finishes resolving and I lose because players will receive priority and I tried to draw from an empty library
Therefore my spells get exiled from the stack after leaving play and Jace will never be seen

Questions:

Is my guess correct?
What would be an alternative to win with this scenario (Mana would not be enough for casting both...I think there is no way I would be screwed anyway)

As soon as Rishkar's Expertise has finished resolving, you would lose for trying to draw from an empty library.
Resolving a spell or ability requires every player, in turn-order, to pass priority. Whenever a spell or ability finishes resolving, the active player gets priority. Whenever a player would get priority, state-based actions are checked first. The conditions for losing the game are some of these state-based actions to be checked, so you would lose before Jace has a chance to resolve. With the cards in your scenario, if you can't get Jace out before RE resolves, there is no way of preventing that loss, except not casting RE of course.
Note: Even if Jace was put directly on the battlefield with RE instead of being allowed to cast it, you would still lose. Jace's passive doesn't replace the losing event itself. It replaces the draw from an empty library that would cause the losing event and which would have already happened earlier during RE's resolution.

608.1. Each time all players pass in succession, the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves. (See rule 609, “Effects.”)
117.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.
704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 117, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event.
704.5b If a player attempted to draw a card from a library with no cards in it since the last time state-based actions were checked, that player loses the game.


Citadels Tax Collector timing When does the Tax Collector's ability trigger for characters that have abilities that involve the end of their turn? My specific examples are as follows:
The Alchemist builds a district with all of their gold. Does the gold he spent return and THEN he is taxed, or is the tax ineffective because there is no gold and only then he gets his gold back?
The Diplomat's ability says that at the end of his turn, he may use the swap ability. Can he do this (and thus use up an remaining gold he has) or must he pay the Tax Collector first?

The alchemist description found in the rules, page 18, strongly suggest that first the tax collector taxes the alchemist, then the alchemist gets money back from his construction. Then, if the alchemist has no money after building something, the tax collector gets nothing. See also a similar question on BGG.

Applying the same rationale, the diplomat swapping ability will be effective in the end of the turn, after he pays the tax collector. Note that the diplomat's collection of coins from red districts may happen before or after building something (if the player wants it, of course), as stated in the rulebook, page 12. The end of turn happens after that.


What happens if the runner choses to play [Magnum Opus] twice? Is there any benefit to installing the same card twice? Particularly a card like Magnum Opus? (I understand the point for most hardware and the like, but what about ice breakers and magnum opus)

The answer provided by @user30903 in the comments is correct, and I believe your question effectively clarifies what you mean by "playing" as you also reference icebreakers. There is no benefit in installing Magnum Opus twice at the same time: the effects do not stack, and in fact it is detrimental due to the memory usage. The same is true of each individual icebreaker - they do not stack so there is no additional benefit to having two identical ones in play at once.

There is a benefit to having multiple copies in your deck, to raise the chances of drawing it at a useful time.

Similarly there may be benefits to installing it twice during the course of a game, for example if the first copy if destroyed somehow, but not at the same time.

The only (niche) case where I can think it might be useful to install M.Opus or an icebreaker when you already have it in play would be if you were over the hand limit, desperate not to discard any hand cards, and worried that your original copy was going to be destroyed. Then there might be a reason to install a copy, but it is likely to be an expensive solution.

Edit: Thanks to the comments for pointing out several counter-examples of icebreakers where you would want several copies of the same card installed. In general you wouldn't, but there are exceptions. My answer holds true for M.Opus.


What happens if one of the targets of Role Reversal is enchanted by a spell that changes its controller? Suppose this board state exists:

Opponent controls Atraxa, Praetor's Voice
I control the aura Control Magic, whose enchanted creature is Feather, the Redeemed.

I cast Role Reversal, targeting my Feather and my opponent's Atraxa.

Role Reversal reads

  Exchange control of two target permanents that share a permanent type.

However, Control Magic, which remains under my control, reads

  You control enchanted creature.

Rulings on Role Reversal tell us that

  Role Reversal’s effect lasts indefinitely. It doesn’t wear off during the cleanup step, and it doesn’t expire if the permanents stop sharing a permanent type after Role Reversal has resolved.

However, this doesn't indicate whether or not this effect can still be overridden by that of an enchantment.

Does my opponent end up with control of Feather?  Or can I abuse Feather's passive ability to keep casting Role Reversal on each of my succeeding turns to take control of more creatures?

Role Reversal will actually exchange the creatures.

All control changing effects, including Role Reversal, are the same sort of effects: continuous effects. Control Magic has a static ability that creates a continuous effect as long as it is on the battlefield. Role Reversal creates a continuous effect at resolution that, as the quoted ruling says, lasts indefinitely.

So, determining what happens with both of them is determined by the Interaction of continuous effects rules. Both of these are control changing effects, so rule 613.6 applies:

  613.6 Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is usually done using a timestamp system. An effect with an earlier timestamp is applied before an effect with a later timestamp.

  613.6a A continuous effect generated by a static ability has the same timestamp as the object the static ability is on, or the timestamp of the effect that created the ability, whichever is later.
  613.6b A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability receives a timestamp at the time it's created.
  613.6c An object receives a timestamp at the time it enters a zone.

The end result is fairly intuitive: the Role Reversal was cast later, so its effect gets applied later and it determines the final outcome.


What is an efficient way to organize my magic collection? Currently, I have a rare binder with all of my rares, and the rest of my cards are broken into several boxes by color, gold/multi color, and land.  The problem with this methodology is that if I have a specific card in mind that's a common, I have to search through the entire box until I find it.  Is there a better way to manage by cards?

There are a lot of ways to organize your cards that are efficient. What it is going to come down to, is what sort of efficiency are you looking for.

Deck building efficiency - This is pretty much a non-issue if you use digital deck builders, but if you don't know exactly what cards you own, it is helpful in finding possible alternatives for cards you want to run but don't own. Because all cards are near other cards of the same color/type, it is easier to find cards to fill out your deck.

Color, Card Type, Mana Cost, Alphabetical

Card finding efficiency - This reduces the size of all your box divisions, making it easier to find a particular card.

Set, Alphabetical (or collector number)

Trade/Deck Idea efficiency - Separating the Rarest cards from the most common cards allows you to easily find more valuable cards, or cards that an entire deck can be built around.

Rarest/Non-rare, any other sorting criteria.

Size efficiency- With many of the other sorting types, you may try to separate the individual Colors/Sets by placing them in their own box and filling up empty space with deckboxes or basic lands. When you organize for space, you need to only separate sections with index cards cut to fit card sleeves.


Can I use Sir William Brinton's ability immediately after discovering I have to lose Stamina? The Ally Sir William Brinton say

  Discard to immediately restore your Stamina to its maximum.

Can I choose to do this after I've learned I need to lose Stamina, but before I actually deduct that stamina? While the card lets me immediately restore Stamina, it sounds like it shouldn't be used to interrupt something that seems to happen immediately. For instance if a location card I read says "Lose 2 stamina" I would think you cannot use Brinton to heal first, then apply the loss. If it says to do a Fight check and lose 2 stamina if I fail, I would think the same restriction holds.

You can use powers like that before drawing the encounter, or after resolving it (if you are not yet unconscious/insane), but you cannot use it during the resolution of an encounter.

From the Arkham Horror FAQ (page 14):

  Q: When can a character perform actions during a phase?
  For example, if a player with the ally Duke (“discard to
  immediately restore your Sanity to its maximum”) draws
  an encounter and has to roll a die and lose that much
  Sanity, when can he discard Duke to restore Sanity: not at
  all once the encounter card is drawn, before the roll, or
  after the roll?

  A: He may discard Duke after the roll, provided he
  has not been driven insane. Actions can be performed
  at any time during their listed phase as long as any given
  conditions are met. However, once an encounter is drawn,
  it must be resolved before any more actions can be performed.
  So, in the case of Duke, you can use him before
  or after drawing an encounter card, but if you draw the
  encounter card and it inflicts Sanity loss that reduces you
  to 0 Sanity, you go insane before you can use Duke. Flesh
  Ward is one exception to this rule because it prevents a
  Stamina loss and is intended to be used in response to such
  events. The Premonition Spell [CotDP] is another exception.


What is the fastest possible game in Splendor? In the game of splendor, what is the fewest number of turns you could take to get 15 points?

EDIT: fixed violation of limit on taking 2 of same gems (Forbidden when <4 gems remaining).

First of all, @Arcanist Lupus has provided good answer with simple yet efficient approach and also provided link to cards table in the comments, so I want to thank them. But looking at the table I noticed that 4 pts. cards have better conversion rates than 5 pts. ones, and a lot of gems are lost when going straight for 5 pts. cards.

So, assuming all required cards are available, no nobles and no interference from other players, here is my solution:

Cards I'm going for: White 4 for 7 blacks; Blue 4 for 7 whites; Green 4 for 7 blues; Green 3 for 6 greens.

Steps:

+2 black
+2 black
+1 black, 1 green, 1 {any}
+1 black, 2 {any}
+1 black, 1 white, 1 green. Return 3 {any}
Claim White 4 card for 7 blacks. (1 white and 2 green remain in the stash)
+2 white
+2 white
+1 white, 1 blue, 1 green
Claim Blue 4 card for 6 whites + card. (1 blue and 3 green remain in the stash)
+2 blue
+2 blue
+1 blue, 1 green, 1 {any}. Return 1 {any}
Claim Green 4 card for 6 blues + card. (4 green remain in the stash)
+1 green, 2 {any}
Claim Green 3 card for 5 greens + card

Done. 15 points in 16 turns.

steps 3 and 4 are just about getting 2 blacks, since it's forbidden to get 2 at once at that point. Alternatively you can take golden tokens and secure couple of cards for yourself, in that case in step 15 just take 2 greens (you will have 1 less, so it would be legal move).


Can you use ports or markets after playing all action disks? In Archipelago, say you have already played all your action discs, but for an arbitrary reason you did not use your ports or markets. Does this means you cannot use them anymore in this action phase?

You cannot use the ports or markets if you have no action disks left to play.

The easy way to think about this is:

On your turn:

Place one of your action disks on the board and take that action
(Before or After you place your action disk)

Use one Evolution card (optional)

(Before or After you place your action disk)

Pay one coin to use a port or a market (optional)
You can use each market or port you own once per round, and only one per turn.

So if you don't have any action markers, you won't be able to use a port/market.


Acrobatic manuever and blocking If I block a 5/5 attacked with a 2/3 during my blocking step, could I then bounce my blocker with Acrobatic Maneuver and prevent it from being killed, while also having the 5/5 blocked? If so, why?

When a creature becomes blocked, it stays blocked and blocked creatures do not (normally) do damage to the player.

  509.1h An attacking creature with one or more creatures declared as blockers for it becomes a blocked creature; one with no creatures declared as blockers for it becomes an unblocked creature. This remains unchanged until the creature is removed from combat, an effect says that it becomes blocked or unblocked, or the combat phase ends, whichever comes first. A creature remains blocked even if all the creatures blocking it are removed from combat.

Lore-wise, think of the blocker as having delayed/distracted the attacking creature long enough for it to not reach you.


If I sacrifice a Sultai Emissary to a Gurmag Drowner's Exploit ability, which triggered ability resolves first? I need to know what happens first if I exploit a Sultai Emissary with a Gurmag Drowner. Do I look at the top 4 cards in my library and choose a card to add to my hand first or do I manifest the top card of my library first?

You choose what order they happen in, because you control both abilities, and they both trigger from the same event. Rule 603.3b says

  If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order he or she chooses. (See rule 101.4.) Then the game once again checks for and resolves state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process repeats until no new state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority.

Specifically, here's how it plays out:

Gurmag Drowner enters the battlefield, and its Exploit ability triggers.
The Exploit ability resolves, and you choose to sacrifice Sultai Emissary.
Now, since the last time you checked you chose to sacrifice Sultai Emissary, so Gurmag Drowner's second ability triggers because you exploited a creature, and Sultai Emissary's ability triggers because it died. You choose in what order they go on the stack.
First, you resolve whichever ability you chose to put on top of the stack. Then you resolve the other one.


Can a toilet be covered if the votes are tied in Drunter und Drüber? In the game Drunter und Drüber a tile that covers a toilet must be voted on by all players. The rules say that the tile is placed if the yes votes exceed the no votes, and the tile is not places if the no votes exceed the yes votes.  But what if the votes are equal?

We ruled that in that case the tile is not placed, but the rules are not clear on this.

On a tie vote, the Yes votes carry.
Mayfair Games released this game as Wacky Wacky West, on their website is a play demonstration/rules explanation video.
At about 3:15 the voting is explained and contains this:

If there are more yes votes than no votes or if it's a tie the tile is played and the outhouse is destroyed.

On BoardGameGeek, there is a file uploaded entitled Rule clarification - tied voting which has:

The German rules state the following:
"Ueberwiegen die Ja-Stimmen oder waren Nein- und Ja-Stimmen gleich stark, bleibt das Plaettchen ueber dem Toilettenhaeuschen liegen."
This can be translated as follows: If there are more "Ja" votes than "Ne" votes, or if the "Ja" and "Ne" votes are equally strong, the tile remains in place.


What happens when all players land on licorice in Candy Land? I am in dire need of assistance. My wife and son were engaged in a heated two player game of Candy Land, when suddenly tragedy struck. My son landed on a licorice space and per the rules of the game he loses his next turn. Then the unthinkable had occurred. My wife had also landed on a licorice space causing her to lose her next turn.
My sons next turn is now skipped but my wife is equally unable to take a turn, unable to draw a card initiating the next turn.
My wife and son now unable to continue the game are beginning to dematerialize from the mortal realm as they are beginning the gradual phase shift into eternal purgatory. After endless searching into the deepest arcana of the occult (the rules on the back of the box), I have yet to find an official transcription that can restore my wife and son back to our plane of existence so that they can end this Jumanji style nightmare and we can pick up the pieces of our lives and what is left.
Please help us resolve this ambiguity in the rules.

In games in general, if all players skip a turn, that is the equivalent as doing nothing.  You fast forward through all skipped turns, and the game picks up as if none of those players had skipped a turn.  The reason for this is that the turn still happens in a metaphysical sense, but ends as soon as it begins.
In this case, it goes like this:

Your wife ends her turn.  Turns remaining to be skipped: son 1, wife 1.
It is your son's turn: that turn is skipped.  Turns remaining to be skipped: son 0, wife 1.
It is your wife's turn: that turn is skipped.  Turns remaining to be skipped: son 0, wife 0.
It is your son's turn.

Note that in games where players can miss multiple turns consecutively (this is likely not relevant to Candyland), you can only shortcut through the least number of pending skipped turns by any player.  So if you have two players in a game, and player A would skip 3 turns and player B would skip 2 turns, this is the same as Player A skipping 1 turn.


Identify Tree-Themed Trick Taking Game I'm trying to find the name of a Tree-themed Trick taking game I played a few years ago (say around 2014). Unfortunately I don't remember much more about it. I thought it was Arboretum as the artwork style was similar, but when I was trying to get more information I realised that Arboretum was published after I'd played this game, and the mechanics were totally different.

If I recall correctly the cards were in suits of species of tree, each card then had a value (say 1 to 10). I think players would have a changing hand of 5 cards, and you'd play to win a "trick" like in bridge, the player with the highest on suit card would win the round. But I can't remember why you would want to, or how scoring was done.

I've a vague recollection of the box art being green. And yes, I'm aware how lame that is.

Eternity is a tree-themed trick-taking game with green box art, though unless you're misremembering the year, it was published too late.


What happens when you remove a token creature from the game, and then return it under it's owner's control? Player A plays Roar of the Wurm
Player B plays Astral Slide
Player B recycles a card and returns the Wurm token

What happens then?

Tokens disappear whenever they leave the battlefield. The relevant rules are:

110.5f A token that's phased out, or that's in a zone other than the battlefield, ceases to exist. This is a state-based action; see rule 704. (Note that if a token changes zones, applicable triggered abilities will trigger before the token ceases to exist.)
110.5g A token that has left the battlefield can't move to another zone or come back onto the battlefield. If such a token would change zones, it remains in its current zone instead. It ceases to exist the next time state-based actions are checked; see rule 704.

So the Wurm token would be gone for good in this example.


What does "starting life total" mean, and why do cards say that instead of saying a number? At the end of Happily Ever After, it refers to your “starting life total” (emphasis added):

  At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are five colors among permanents you control, there are six or more card types among permanents you control and/or cards in your graveyard, and your life total is greater than or equal to your starting life total, you win the game.

When referring to the “starting life total”, why doesn't it say “20 life” instead? Are there ways to change the starting life total?

Or, more likely, does the card say this in order to adapt it to different game formats? Would the “starting life total” be 30 in Two-Headed Giant, and 40 in Commander, and so on?

The starting life total depends on the format. In the Vanguard format, each player can even have different starting life totals. Happily Ever After refers to the actual starting life total used in each game.
As you correctly noted, different formats can have different starting life totals. To keep Happily Ever After balanced for all possible formats, its template uses the generic "starting life total" instead of the 20 that the most common formats use.
Most formats have a defined starting life total. The Vanguard format has "20 plus the used Vanguard card starting life total modifier".
Except for the already mentioned, oversized Vanguard cards that are clearly recognizable as such and that are only legal in the Vanguard format, there are no cards in the game that can change a player's starting life total.

103.3. Each player begins the game with a starting life total of 20. Some variant games have different starting life totals.
103.3a In a Two-Headed Giant game, each team’s starting life total is 30.
103.3b In a Vanguard game, each player’s starting life total is 20 plus or minus the life modifier of their vanguard card.
103.3c In a Commander game, each player’s starting life total is 40.
103.3d In a two-player Brawl game, each player’s starting life total is 25. In a multiplayer Brawl game, each player’s starting life total is 30.
103.3e In an Archenemy game, the archenemy’s starting life total is 40.


Going Out with Stock Exhausted When the Stock is Exhausted, I know each player is supposed to take the Discard Pile if he can add the top card to an existing meld. Is it possible to Go Out when the Stock is Exhausted before your turn and if so what are the rules for that? Thanks!

You cannot play anything unless it is your turn. The rules for the stock being exhausted don't allow any player to act outside of their regular turn. The only difference between an exhausted stock or a normal turn is that because there is nothing to draw from the stock, you must draw from the discard pile instead.

So the game can end before you have had a turn at all after the stock was exhausted... be sure to notice if the stock is running low and play what you can while you still can!

From these rules:

  If the last card of the stock is not a red three, play continues as long as each player in turn takes the discard, and he must do so if it matches a meld on his side and the pack is not frozen. (The only exception is that a one-card hand may not take a one-card discard pile). A player does not have to take the discard to form a new meld. The play ends when a player cannot take the discard or legally refuses to take it.


Progentius vs Cowardice So my friend thinks that Cowardice will get rid of Progenitus but since a spell can't target Progenitus it can't target it. Now he also said I can target it but it fizzles but he would be doing an illegal move if I'm correct.

What can get Progenitus off the field? I know counterspells can and anything that doesn't directly target Progenitus such as sacrifice a creature you control or In Garruk's Wake if I'm correct.

Basically as long as it doesn't specifically say target creature?

I'm doing a hydra deck but my friends run counterspells so I'm thinking of using Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Cavern of Souls, Grand Abolisher, and Banefire. (White Green Hydras) (Can run red for Bane)

Basically I wanna be able to get my big creatures on the field without being countered (also this would be on side board since only 2 of my friends run counters)

You are correct that Cowardice is of no benefit vs. Progenitus.  Declaring Progenitus to be the target of something is an illegal action so you back up to just before it was done, it doesn't "Happen but fizzle."

The easy way to keep track of protection is the acronym DEBT.

D - Damage, the thing you have protection from cannot damage you

E - Enchant and Equip, the thing you have protection from cannot enchant you or be equipped to you

B - Block, the thing you have protection from cannot block you

T - Target, the thing you have protection from cannot target you

So, for example, Day of Judgment can remove Progenitus because it does none of those things.  Fleshbag Marauder could also get rid of Progenitus if you have nothing else to sacrifice, etc.


If my opponent casts a spell that exiles a card with flashback from my graveyard, can I play it in response to their spell? Say my opponent casts Purify the Grave on my Rally The Peasants in my graveyard. If I have enough mana available, can I cast the Rally the Peasants in response to their trying to exile it?

Yes. You can cast an instant whenever you have priority. All spells give all players the chance to respond to them, before they resolve. Mtg Rules:

116.1a A player may cast an instant spell any time he or she has priority. A player may cast a noninstant spell during his or her main phase any time he or she has priority and the stack is empty.
116.3d If a player has priority and chooses not to take any actions, that player passes. If any mana is in that player’s mana pool, he or she announces what mana is there. Then the next player in turn order receives priority.
116.4. If all players pass in succession (that is, if all players pass without taking any actions in between passing), the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves or, if the stack is empty, the phase or step ends.
702.32a Flashback appears on some instants and sorceries. It represents two static abilities: one that functions while the card is in a player’s graveyard and the other that functions while the card is on the stack. “Flashback [cost]” means “You may cast this card from your graveyard by paying [cost] rather than paying its mana cost” and “If the flashback cost was paid, exile this card instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack.” Casting a spell using its flashback ability follows the rules for paying alternative costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2e–g.


What to do when all basestars are in the Cylon Fleet board? The last time my group played BSG Board Game, we faced the following situation:

A player took a Crisis Card that activated Basestar Attack. But, at that turn, all the basestars were at the Cylon Fleet board. We haven't reached a consensus, but my thoughts are that all the cylon ships on the space area where the basestars were located (both were at the same space area) should being placed on the same corresponding space area in the main game board. The others players agreed to just move the pursuit marker and do nothing. The same applied when we took an Launch Raiders Crisis Card.

Is that right or am I not understanding the rules?

The rules for placing ships on the Cylon fleet board are awkwardly placed over two pages and it appears you missed the second section.  The situation is considerably more dire for the humans that how you played it.  The basestar shows up on the main game board and usually brings a party with it.

  If all ships of the appropriate type are already on either the
  main game board or the Cylon Fleet game board, the current
  player finds the highest-numbered Cylon space area on the
  Cylon Fleet game board that contains at least one of that type
  of ship. He then moves all the ships in that Cylon space area
  to the corresponding space area on the main game board.


Multiple stack abilities and casting spells in that time My question is as follows:
If I have multiple "At the beginning of your upkeep..." abilities,
and I want to cast an instant spell or activate an ability during that time, can I cast the spell between those spells, or only as respond to all of them?

FOR EXAMPLE:
If i have Splinterfright and a Endless Ranks of the Dead under my control.
Now I decided for no good reason, I want to cast Dark Ritual after Splinterfright ability resolved, but before Endless Ranks of the Dead did, can i do that?

Yes, it is possible to respond to one trigger after others have finished resolving.

After Splinterfright's ability resolves, the active player (you) gets priority to play spells/abilities. See rule 116.3b:

  The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

At this point, you have an opportunity to cast Dark Ritual. If no player has any further responses, then your Ritual will resolve, followed by Endless Ranks of the Dead's ability.


What's the difference between a tactic and a strategy? Some people consider tactics and strategy to be distinct (as they apply to boardgames), while I regard them both as "structured methods and plans to win".

Are they distinct? And what are the differences? (I'm aware of the difference between tactics and strategy in the military).

Tactics in a board game usually refer to short-term optimizations to get a better local position in the game. Strategy refers to your long-term plans, for combining the results of many shorter term interactions into a winning game.

Some games have only tactical considerations, or an emphasis on them, while some games are more amenable to long-range planning.

In the game of Go, for instance, you may study tactical issues such as life and death (whether you can save or kill a particular enclosed group) and tesuji (clever tactics for killing and splitting your opponents stones, or saving or connecting your own), while also important are strategic issue like positional judgement (figuring out in the middle game who is ahead, and where they are ahead), direction of play, and balancing between territory and influence. Effective strategic play must of course be built on solid tactical play, but it can determine who winds up having the advantage in most tactical battles, and who winds up with the most territory even if they lose small battles here and there.

The concept can apply to other games as well. Tactics will usually influence how you play best for one or a few turns in a row, while strategy guides what you are doing for the whole game; how you will win. Strategy is about what you are trying to do, and tactics how you are trying to do it.

In Settlers of Catan, some strategic options may be going for roads and settlements, to try and get the longest road and a lot of settlements (with just enough cities to allow you to build more), or your strategy may be going with cities and development cards, with just enough settlements to allow you to build the cities you need; or you might have a ports based strategy, in which you try and obtain favorable ports and can thus buy any resources you need. The tactics used to support these strategies may be somewhat different, but they will involve tricks for getting the best trade, blocking your opponent quickly so you can get to the space you need, proper placement of the robber to slow down someone else competing with you.


"Selecting" a monster that is "unaffected by card effects"; is it possible? So, if my opponent activates a card that makes me select one monster to destroy, I have 2 monster, 1 unaffected by card effects while the other can, can I select the unaffected?

I mean, as far as I know effects resolve against cards unaffected by card effects but as it says, it is unaffected, so, can I do that?

And would the same apply if I activate a card that makes me destroy one monster I own and I select the monster unaffected by effects?

Update: Seems that the card in question is The Ultimate Creature of Destruction, targeting any Blue-eyes monster. In that case, my previous answer holds.

  So, if my opponent activates a card that makes me select one monster to destroy, I have 2 monster, 1 unaffected by card effects while the other can, can I select the unaffected?

Yes you can.

You can select it and when the effect resolves it will not be destroyed, as The Ultimate Creature of Destruction made it unaffected bu such effect.

  And would the same apply if I activate a card that makes me destroy one monster I own and I select the monster unaffected by effects?

Again, yes.

If you monster is unaffected then the effect will resolve and such monster remain unaffected same as explained before...

However, let's imagine the card targets and the monster can't be targeted, then that would be something you can't do. However, this is not the case for The Ultimate Creature of Destruction, which "only" makes your monster unaffected by card effects (contrary to, say, making him un-targeteable).


Using "Rivals for Catan" extensions with "Catan Card Game" I have the Catan Card Game and I was wondering if anybody has had any success playing extensions designed for The Rivals for Catan game with it (perhaps with modifications to the rules/cards used).

I accidentally bought the Age of Darkness extension without realizing it was for the updated version of the card game, then idly wondered if it could be made to work anyway as I've played the iPad version of Rivals for Catan and it seems broadly similar to the original card game.

It would be incredibly difficult to mix the old base game with the new expansions. While similar, the rules and mechanics were completely redone for Rivals. It may be possible, but you'd probably need to reword most of the descriptions for all of the cards in either the base game or the expansions.

By the time you've done all of that, you'd have been much better off just spending the $15-20 to get a copy of Rivals instead.


Questions about the game-play of Cluedo While playing the game, "Cluedo: Discover the Secrets," we always seem to have an argument about what we can do and what we can't. So, I've came here to put the questions to rest and hopefully have them answered.

Case 1:

Assume I am in the Living Room, and I roll a 10. I walk toward the observatory and enter the room. Can I use the secret passage to go to the Kitchen on that same turn? Same idea should apply to other secret passage rooms.

Case 2:

Does the pool count as a room? I ask this question because the new Cluedo requires you to go to the Pool to make the accusation. So, if one was White, she has the power to go to any room that doesn't have a secret passage. Does that power extend to going to the pool and making the accusation? Same question for the intrigue card of similar ability.

Case 3:

The Patio's doors are unclear in the board. Does it have one door or multiple ones? There is a bench that seems to be a door and their a stairway that seems to a decorative element of the room. Which is what?

I would appreciate any answers. Further, if someone has a reputable site that explains such cases and rules in detail, then can someone please add its in his/her answer.

Case 1: No, you must stop movement upon entering a room.

  Rules for Moving - If you enter a Room, STOP MOVING.

Case 2: Yes, the pool is a room. Someone contacted the designer, Rob Daviau, and he confirmed this. He also notes that using this power only happens during the move phase instead of rolling. (I.e. You cannot start a rumor in another room, then warp to the Pool to make an accusation.)

  Q. The Pool (1) Is the pool a room?

  A: Yes.

  Q: (2) Can this be used as a kind of "fast effect" anytime during her turn, or is it only applicable during her "move phase"?

  A: Only on her move phase, instead of rolling.

Case 3: The patio has 4 entrances. They start at the white steps which connect to the house and descend to ground level. No doors are printed on the board for this room, unlike older editions of Clue that actually write "DOOR" directly on the board. The Patio is based on the older edition's Ballroom and has a similar floor-plan. (The whole house does actually, albeit rotated 90 degrees in the linked image)


Can I get an enters-the-battlefield effect out of a second legendary before I must sacrifice it? If I have a legendary creature out, and I make a copy of it (such as by enchanting it with Splinter Twin or making a Clone), do I get enters-the-battlefield effects from the creature before I have to sacrifice it to the legend rule?

Yes.

As discussed in an article discussing the recent Legendary rules change:

  This will allow you to somewhat mitigate the downside of drawing a second copy of a Planeswalker by playing that copy to, in effect, refresh the loyalty of a Planeswalker or to get a second enters-the-battlefield trigger on a legendary permanent.

Here's the rule covering Legendary permanents:

  704.5k If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player
  chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the
  “legend rule.”

Note that in order for the Legendary state-based action to be triggered, the Legendary permanents are both already on the battlefield and therefore any triggered enters the battlefield abilities (ETB) are also triggered. As the Legend rule is a state-based action, the choice of which Legendary permanent will be kept will be made before the ETB triggered abilities are put on the stack and resolve.


On chess what exactly is the "En passant" trick? I've heard of a trick called "En passant" but what does it mean?

Not a trick. En passant is a rule of pawns in chess just as the rule for 2 square starting advance is. In fact its introduction to the rules came directly from the 2 square advance's introduction.

From Wikipedia:

  En passant (from French: in passing) is a move in the board game of
  chess. It is a special pawn capture which can occur immediately after
  a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position,
  and an enemy pawn could have captured it had the same pawn moved only
  one square forward. The opponent captures the just-moved pawn as if
  taking it "as it passes" through the first square. The resulting
  position is the same as if the pawn had moved only one square forward
  and the enemy pawn had captured normally.

  The en passant capture must be done on the very next turn, or the
  right to do so is lost. Such a move is the only occasion in chess in
  which a piece captures but does not move to the square of the captured
  piece. If an en passant capture is the only legal move available, it
  must be made. En passant capture is a common theme in chess
  compositions.

  This rule was added in the 15th century when the rule giving pawns the
  option of initially moving two squares was introduced. It prevents a
  pawn from using the two-square advance to pass an adjacent enemy pawn
  without the risk of being captured.

Essentially the rule prevents an opponent's pawn from blowing past your pawn using it's initial 2 square advance. If your opponent moves their pawn 2 squares past the point where your pawn could capture it, then you may move your pawn to capture it anyway. Your movement is the same diagonal attack into the square that the opponent's pawn would have occupied had it advanced only one square.


Identify a card game where one player points to cards and the others try to figure out the one they are signalling I play this game with my friends but I forgot the name of the game.

First, Player 1 lays out 9 cards on a table face up in the shape of a perfect square. Then player 2 looks away. The other people watching point at a card. Player 1 notes the card picked. Player 2 now looks back at the cards. Player 1 now starts pointing at cards randomly saying “Is it this one?” Until player 2 chooses correctly or incorrectly the card. Once you figure out the rule, you have “the gift”.

Does anyone know the official name of this game?

There are lots of variations of this game, and various names
One version I found didn't use cards, but rather used magazines (so it could be more easily seen by a large group of people), and called itself "Nine Magazines". I imagine that there is a card game version of this called "Nine Cards".
What you refer to as "the gift" is that Player 1 has a magazine in mind, and he follows a rule where he somehow signals that magazine. Say that the "correct" one is the one in the lower right.

The trick is in the location where you tap each magazine cover. For our example above, you would tap each magazine in the lower-right corner.
It can be very difficult to figure out this trick. Make the location on the cover more obvious each time. Or, try it with 4 magazines. It's better to stop after a bit more than half the group has figured it out.

In other words, when you point to one and says "Is this the one?", you are touching the card in the bottom right corner. Someone who has figured it out would know that the correct answer is "No" for all cards except for the bottom right card. A player who has figured out the rule has "the gift" and might take over as the player signaling until more players figure it out themselves.
A more tricky rule is that only the first card (or second card, etc.) that you point to signals the card you have in mind, while the rest of the point locations are arbitrary.


Baral, Chief of Compliance doubt Suppose I play Baral, Chief of Compliance with red mana available. The opponent responds with Lightning Bolt killing my Baral.

Can I continue to combo getting a cost reduction from Baral on the stack or does the cost reduction end with the 3 damage from the Bolt?

I believe it does because Baral hasn't resolved yet. In that case, is it a different situation if the opponent targets Baral after it has resolved, for example the following turn?

If you play it right, you can cast one sorcery and a number of instants at a discount.

Two key points before we start:

Baral must be on the battlefield to be targeted by Lightning Bolt.
Baral must be on the battlefield to provide its discount.

Lightning Bolt targets a creature or a player. "Creature" means "creature permanent", which means "creature card or token on the battlefield". As such, Baral can only be targeted by Lightning Bolt when it's on the battlefield. In other words, Baral couldn't have been targeted by the Lightning Bolt while it was still on the stack.

If your opponent specifically said they cast Lightning Bolt in response to Baral and proceeded to target Baral, they made a mistake.

If they simply said they were casting Lightning Bolt, they were actually proposing the following shortcut:

You pass priority to let Baral resolve.
You pass priority after Baral resolves.
They cast Lightning Bolt.

You don't have to accept the entire shortcut. For example, let's say one of the spells you wanted to cast is a sorcery. You could let Baral resolve, and step in to cast the sorcery instead of doing step 2. (See [CR 719] for more on shortcuts.) The following would happen instead:

You pass priority to let Baral resolve.
You cast a sorcery (at a discount).

Now, they have priority. Let's say they cast Lightning Bolt at this point. (They don't have to because you shortened their shortcut.) The stack:

(top) Lightning Bolt
(bottom) Your sorcery

At this point, Lightning Bolt hasn't resolved, and thus hasn't dealt its damage yet. That means that instants cast in response to Lightning Bolt will benefit from the discount.

(top) ...
Your Instant #2
Your Instant #1
Lightning Bolt
(bottom) Your Sorcery

(You could also cast the instants one after the other instead of in response to each other. That would actually be a bit more natural.)

Eventually, after Lightning Bolt resolves and before anything else happens, Baral will be moved to the graveyard and will no longer provide its discount. The continuous effects from static abilities apply at all times that the permanent generating it is on the battlefield or the object generating it is in the appropriate zone. And not a moment longer.[CR 611.3b]

  If I play Baral with red mana available, the opponent responds with Lightning Bolt killing my Baral

Impossible. Your opponent must wait for Baral to resolve if they wish to target it with Lightning Bolt, so they can't cast the Lightning Bolt in response to you casting Baral.

  can I continue to combo getting a cost reduction from Baral on the stack or  I've got a feeling it does because Baral hasn't resolved yet.

Baral static ability only works when Baral is on the battlefield. If Baral hasn't resolved yet, it doesn't provide a discount.

  does the cost reduction end with the 3 damage from the Bolt.

Yes. It happens when Baral moves to the graveyard, which happens immediately after the damage is dealt.


Line of sight dots on "chasm" map tile In Mansions of Madness:

On the map room "chasm" there are two spaces (The Chasm room is the lowest left tile). But only one of them has "line of sight dots". Does this mean that the other half (the one with the bridge) is not in line of sight from the "crypt" and "cave" rooms? So when I align them all in one straight line with the chasm at the end, I can shoot from the other end into the chasm piece, but nothing that is on the bridge?

The Chasm room space with the bridge does not have line of sight to the room Crypt or Cave, because it does not have line of sight dots.

From the rule book page 21 (emphasis mine).

  Note that monsters, investigators and feature markers do not block line of sight. Also note that some spaces do not have line of sight dots. A figure in one of these spaces has line of sight to every space in the room (and does not have line of sight to other rooms).


How to expand Love Letter to accomodate more players? Love letter was a surprise hit in my group. Everybody enjoys the fast pace and player interaction. It's just a shame that it only allows up to 4 players, because it seems like it would be better for say six players. I would have no problem buying a second copy of the game to shuffle the two decks of cards together, but I'm wondering if it would work in theory.

Has anybody got any suggestions as to how to try and increase the player limit?

If you're really up to it, you might want to buy the Love Letter Premium Edition which lets you play with up to eight players. It might be a bit different from the Love Letter you're used to though as it comes with new characters like the Assassin (which eliminates an opponent if that opponent forces you to reveal it).

It's an official game though so I you can rest assured that it's been playtested and was intended to be played with more players. I hope that helps :)


Kolaghan, The Storm's Fury dragon attacking ability Does Kolaghan, The Storm's Fury's ability trigger for every dragon attacking or any dragons attacking? For reference it says "Whenever a dragon you control attacks, creatures you control gain +1/+0 until end of turn". If I attack with two dragons, do my creatures get +2/+0?

Kolaghan's ability triggers for each Dragon attacking, so if you attack with two Dragons, your creatures get +2/+0 until end of turn.

Rule 603.2c says

  An ability triggers only once each time its trigger event occurs. However, it can trigger repeatedly if one event contains multiple occurrences.

Attacking with two Dragons is two instances of "attack with a Dragon," so after they are both declared as attackers, the ability triggers once for each.

There is no ruling on Kolaghan specifying this, but Beastmaster Ascension has the same wording, and a ruling that says

  If you attack with multiple creatures, Beastmaster Ascension's first ability triggers multiple times.

This contrasts with abilities like the one on Lightmine Field, which triggers when "one or more creatures attack." Lightmine Field's ability would only trigger once when two Dragons attack, because that is a single instance of "one or more creatures" attacking.


Can you heal at the moment you get KO'd? During my last game of Fortune and Glory, I played the event card Blizzard on another player (do d6 Wounds if the player/villain is in an Ice space). I rolled 6 damage, and he was playing Shelly Hargrove, who can take a maximum of 4 Wounds. He prevented 2 Wounds between his Defense and another item, but then he used the Spunky ability to "heal" two Wounds, thus avoiding being KO'd. Here's what the Spunky ability says:

  May pay 2 Glory at any time to Heal a Wound (except during a Fight Round).

Can you use abilities that heal you to prevent Wounds that would KO you, or does being KO'd prevent healing?

For reference: the rulebook.

There are 2 key phrases:

  May pay 2 Glory at any time to Heal a Wound (except during a Fight Round).

So lets assess 2 possibilities - Fighting and Everything Else.

Fighting:

If you are KO'd in a fight then it is clearly a no as this ability doesn't work during a fight round.

NOTE:

  Sometimes a card will say that it
  cannot be used ‘during a Fight Round’. Cards like this may
  however, still be used between Fight Rounds.

If you survive with at least one wound you can use this in between Fight Rounds as the round ends before another begins.

Everything Else:

Since the ability may be used at any time then you can use it while taking damage to prevent KO*. In your example an event occurred, not a fight so this ability can be used.

*Nothing it the rulebook explicitly says a KO prevents this ability so I would interpret it this way.


How does Tarmogoyf interact with changelings? What would happen if you had a Mirror Entity (or any card with changeling) in your graveyard and a Tarmogoyf in play? Would Tarmogoyf's ability only count Mirror Entity as a shapeshifter type creature or a changeling type (every type)?

Nothing special would happen, because Tarmogoyf doesn't care about the Changeling ability at all, or anything Mirror Entity does. Unless it's in a graveyard, in which case Tarmogoyf sees there's a Creature card in the graveyard, and becomes at least a 1/2 from that.

Tarmogoyf's ability reads:

  Tarmogoyf's power is equal to the number of card types among cards in all graveyards and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1.

The card types are clarified in a ruling on Tarmogoyf you can see in Gatherer:

  The card types that can appear on cards in a graveyard are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, sorcery, and tribal.

... which means Tarmogoyf's ability can make it an 8/9 at most. For {1}{G}, that's still a pretty big deal. (That clarification also shows up in the reminder text of Tarmogoyf's original Future Sight printing.)

Simply put, it doesn't care about creature types, or the changeling ability. Creature cards don't count as "card types", they are subtypes — the part after the dash in the type line — and Tarmogoyf doesn't pay any attention to those at all. Every creature card just counts for one type: Creature. (Unless, y'know, they're an Enchantment Creature or Artifact Creature or they're Dryad Arbor, in which case they count for two types.) Also, Tarmogoyf only cares about cards in graveyards, while Mirror Entity's ability only affects creature permanents on the battlefield.


How do you score a word that has multiple bonuses? How do you score a word that begins on a triple word space, ends on a double word space and uses all seven of your tiles?

Note that this is something that is impossible to pull off in a standard game as the only row/column that has both a triple word and a double word is the one with the starting space and you need 8 tiles to get from the double word space to the triple word space.

According to the Scrabble rules you would take the value of the word and multiply by by 6, and then add 50 points. (The rules don't explicitly state this due to it being impossible, but they do account for 2 doubles or 2 triples so there is no reason to think that a triple and a double would work differently)


Can you build a ship in the Caspian Sea? The Caspian Sea is a lone body of water south of Caucasus and north of the Middle East. It is also not connected to any other sea location and does not have a zone number. Here is how it appears in Axis & Allies 1941:

Is it permitted to build a ship in this location in any version of Axis & Allies? I realize that it is rather impractical to do so, but in the rare chance that you want to invade a bordering country with some naval support on your side and have the ability to pull it off, is it permitted to build a ship in it?

Yes, there are versions of Axis and Allies that allow building ships in the Caspian Sea. This is the exception tough. In Axis and Allies 1941/1942, the Caspian Sea is not considered a sea zone and you cannot build any ships there.

In Axis and Allies 1940 Europe/Global, the Caspian Sea is a sea zone. Therefore, you can build ships there.


Is it ever advantageous to pretend to be the "hidden" team if you are on the majority team? According to this BoardGameGeek post, it is never advantageous for a “good” character to pretend to be part of the “bad” team in a social deduction game.

  every. single. time. you explain these kinds of games, you need to hammer the point home that it makes absolutely no sense to pretend you're a spy/fasist/werewolf/whatever when you're in fact a villager/good guy/liberal.

Talking specifically about The Resistance and The Resistance: Avalon (since they are more or less the same game), the "hidden" Loyalists are expected to pretend to be Resistance members and the "hidden" Evil characters are expected to pretend to be Good characters, respectively.

Is it ever advantageous to pretend to be on the a Resistance member and pretending to be a Loyalist, or being a Good person and pretending to be Evil? Or is this person correct: it is never worthwhile?

Specific games can differ, but generally in games like these the "bad team" all know the members of the bad team. Therefore pretending to be a bad guy only decieves your allies, and convinces everyone that you are their enemy.

Neither of those will help you. You're harming your allies' ability to make accurate judgments while not affecting your enemies, and you're making our so that no one will listen to you.


How do you keep track of which units have already moved? Let's say you have fifty different units on the board.  When it's your turn, you get to move each of them.  How do you keep track of which units you've moved already and which ones you haven't?

Avoid unnecesary moves in the combat move phase

Belive it or not, I found out that the typical source of confusion is that most players move units that are not going to fight (nor Aircraft carriers that won't provide a landing base to attacking airplanes) in the combat move phase.

It's not against the rules but.. there is no benefit in doing so. In fact it's much better to wait for the result of the combats to know where to move.

Never doing that helps a lot: every unit that is not in a combat area, has not move prior to non-combat phase move.

  The airplane combat nightmare

This happens with japan and germany, specially in 1940 editions.  Even though you know that airplanes have moved to the combat zone you need to keep track of the ammount of movement left

There is an idea introduced I think in the revised edition: fuel markers.  Simply, have a die or any other thing that can mark from 1 to 5.  When you gather many airplanes in one zone start adding one marker for each airplane, each showing the ammount of movement (fuel) left. Separating of course each kind of airplane.

When selecting airplanes casualties simply remove the lowest fuel marker (that's called being a good captain) so you are sacrificing airplanes with the least movement.

On the non combat move phase move the remaining airplanes and each fuel marker shows the movement of any given airplane.

  Have your enemies pay attention

This is a gentlemen's game.  They can tell you what has moved and what not. They know because they are looking at your positions for possible attacks all the time

Hope any of this helps!


Does "whenever a creature attacks" count for each attacker separately? Hissing Miasma is an enchantment that says:

  Whenever a creature attacks you, its controller loses 1 life.

Does the attacker lose one life per attacking creature?

Yes (though they will be lost one at a time).

There's a rule specifically covering this:

  603.2c An ability triggers only once each time its trigger event occurs. However, it can trigger repeatedly if one event contains multiple occurrences. See also rule 509.4.

If your opponent attacks you with an Elf and a Bear, two instances of the event "a creature attacks you" occurred (the Elf attacked you, and the Bear attacked you), so the ability will trigger twice.

You will place these on the stack where they will resolve one at a time, each causing him to lose one life (for a total of two).


Can Nisei MK II Be Used During an Ice Encounter? This is related to: How to use 'Nisei MK II' free 'End the run'?

Say the Corp has a counter on a harvested Nisei MK II.

Example 1:
The Runner encounters Chum and begins breaking Subroutines on the next piece of Ice. Can the Corp spend the Nisei MK II counter before all the Subroutines are broken?

Example 2:
The Runner encounters Tollbooth and pays his $3. Can the Corp spend his Nisei MK II counter before the Runner has broken the Tollbooth's "End Run" Subroutine?

Yes, but after the runner has a chance to break subroutines, and before any of the unbroken subroutines are resolved.
As pointed out in this answer, Nisei's is a Paid Ability. From the rule book:

Cards can also host counters and tokens. Hosted counters or tokens can be spent, or leave play, without affecting their host. If a
trigger cost requires one or more hosted counters, those counters must
be spent (returned to the token bank) from the card that the ability
appears on. (page 22)
Paid Abilities - Some card abilities have trigger costs that a player must pay before the effect of the ability can be resolved.
These abilities are called paid abilities. A card’s trigger cost is
always listed in its text box before the effect, following the format
“cost: effect.” (page 11, sidebar)

As explained in the FAQ's Timing Structure of a Run diagram (last page - phase 3.1) linked from this answer, a Paid Ability can be triggered during the encounter with the ice - after the runner has a chance to break subroutines, and before unbroken subroutines are resolved. Thus, in the chum example it does not give you any special combo to trigger the net damage, even though you can trigger Nisei before the encounter technically ends. There's a good discussion of this here.


The Rivals for Catan - Theme Game Draw Stacks We are ready to move onto the Era of Gold, but are unsure about some of the rule changes in the theme game regarding the draw stacks.

From the manual:

  4:  Choosing the Starting Cards.  You don't draw your starting cards randomly from a stack like you've done in the Introductory Game.  Instead, beginning with the starting player, each player chooses a Basic Set draw stack and selects 3 cards for a starting hand.  You may not change the order of the draw stack."

Does this mean, each user selects a stack, looks at all the cards in the stack and selects the 3 they want start with?  And then returns the stack without reshuffling?

How do the Theme Set draw stacks work?  There is nothing in the manual about how players draw from them.  Do players have the option of drawing from them after their first turn?

Does this mean, each user selects a
  stack, looks at all the cards in the
  stack and selects the 3 they want
  start with? And then returns the stack
  without reshuffling?

Yes, that's how I always play it.  I don't see any other way to interpret that rule.

  How do the Theme Set draw stacks work?
  There is nothing in the manual about
  how players draw from them. Do players
  have the option of drawing from them
  after their first turn?

The rules for drawing cards on p10 state, when drawing cards:

  ... randomly draw cards from the tops of the draw stacks.

Although it's not entirely clear from this rule, I think you can always choose which stack to draw from.
Also when exchanging cards:

  Draw the top card from a draw stack of your choice,

or

  Choose a draw stack and look at all of its cards.  Then take 1 card of your choice from that stack.

None of these is restricted to only the basic set stacks, so you can draw from or search theme set stacks too.  The only restriction is at the start of the game, when you choose your three starting cards from a basic set draw stack.


Is there a limit on how good you can get at Hearts? If you had the best players in the world, and they knew everything about Hearts and had decades of experience playing it, then if they were to each play the same identical game, would they all play the game exactly the same? That in my eyes would prove that in Hearts, given a situation and taking into account everything, there is always an optimal way of proceeding, and that would prove that there is a finite limit on how good you can get at Hearts.  Is this in fact the case?

I just want to say, as a mathematician who has studied Game Theory for several years, that you DO NOT need perfect information to have an optimal strategy.  In fact, Game Theory has a very rich body of results about games of imperfect information.

It is a common misconception.  Here's another one: an optimal strategy means you win every time.  This is also not true.  An optimal strategy is one that maximizes your expected payoff.

Now that that's out of the way, I want to commend the questioner on a great question.  I was actually just googling this question myself, trying to see if any journal articles have been written about it (I was thinking about doing a game-theoretic analysis of Hearts for a thesis paper).  I haven't found anything yet.

Like most nontrivial games, Hearts has a HUMONGOUS game tree.  There are 52!/(13!^4) hands that could be dealt (each of the 4 players gets 13 cards).  That's just how many nodes there are at the second level of the game tree.  Each of those nodes has a huge number of branches (the number of branches at each of those nodes is the number of ways four players can choose three cards from 13).  Then each of those have yet more branhces, and so on.  Even a rough calculation shows that there are far more nodes in the game tree than there are atoms in the known universe.

So using Zermelo's algorithm to "solve" hearts (though theoretically possible) is - in practice - not possible.  So much more sophisticated techniques must be used.

If you want to write a computer program to play near-optimal Hearts, I would suggest using random samples and Markov-type simulations to estimate optimal moves.

In short, yes, optimal play does exist.  But it could be very hard to find without some pretty slick game-theoretical analysis and/or a lot of computational power.

I hope this helps.  :)


Do older versions of cards use the card types printed on the newest version? On the older versions of the Magic: The Gathering card Lord of Atlantis the card type was listed as "Summon Lord" but on the newer versions it is listed as "Merfolk Lord".

If I play the old version of the card does it use the new card type or the old card type?

He is a Merfolk regardless of what version you use. (Lord is an obsolete creature type.) To find the official text and characteristics of a card, you should use Gatherer.

205.3f Many cards were printed with subtypes that are now obsolete. Many cards have retroactively received subtypes. Use the Oracle card reference to determine what a card’s subtypes are.
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.


Interactions between Oblivion Sower and counter spells that make you pay mana to prevent them? Lets say I am casting Oblivion Sower. The on-cast effect would activate, exiling the top 4 cards of my opponents deck. The person decides to cast Mana Leak to counter my creature. Assuming I don't have enough mana to prevent the Mana Leak on my own, could I tap the lands, assuming I get three, that are exiled with Oblivion Sower to prevent Mana Leak from countering my creature?

It depends on exactly when your opponent casts Mana Leak; he can prevent you from doing so.

Your opponent has 2 options here... cast Mana Leak in response to the "when you cast" triggered ability, or to wait until that ability resolves, and then cast Mana Leak in response to the Oblivion Sower instead.

When you cast Oblivion Sower, the "when you cast" ability will go on the stack on top of the Oblivion Sower. At this point your opponent could cast Mana Leak on top of both of them, and the triggered ability will not have resolved yet, so you will not have those lands.

Note that even if Oblivion Sower is countered, the triggered ability will still resolve normally and you will still get the lands.


Does Laboratory Maniac's ability cause me to win before state-based actions are triggered? The situation: I have 9 poison counters and no card in my library, and I control a Laboratory Maniac.

I cast Steady Progress, and I choose to proliferate the poison counters on me. Do I win the game due to Laboratory Maniac's ability before state-based actions would cause me to lose from having 10 poison counters?

You would win because the Maniac's ability replaces the drawing a card with winning the game, so you win before SBA are checked and you lose the game due to having 10 poison counters.

614.1. Some continuous effects are replacement effects. Like prevention effects (see rule 615), replacement effects apply continuously as events happen—they aren’t locked in ahead of time. Such effects watch for a particular event that would happen and completely or partially replace that event with a different event. They act like “shields” around whatever they’re affecting.
614.1a Effects that use the word “instead” are replacement effects. Most replacement effects use the word “instead” to indicate what events will be replaced with other events.

Since the card draw is getting replaced with winning the game during the resolution of the spell you will win as the spell is resolving. Since you won the game during the resolution of the spell you never get to the point where the game checks SBAs (including losing the game due to having 10 poison counters)


4 Person Peg Board Game? Anyone have any idea what the game is called?

It looks like a flower loom for knitting/crocheting, not a game at all.

See for example  from https://www.prym.com/en/flower-loom-624156?c=5726


How do we determine which monster joins the game? I just played my first game and I love it! I have one question though. How is the monster that joins determined? I tried to look in the pamphlets and online and couldn't find anything. We just had the traitor choose a monster he liked. I don't know how that part works.

The monster and everything that happens once the haunt happens is determined in the traitors and survivors handbooks. The traitors handbook instructs you on which haunt to use based on how it is triggered and there will be instructions for both sides based on each individual haunt.

Here are some simplified rules to help you get started better.


When is the Richest Settler evaluated? I've run into what I believe might be an edge case for the rules of the Traders and Barbarians expansion to The Settlers of Catan. I'm hoping someone might be able to clarify (preferably with reference to rules I might have missed), or at least give me some solid opinions!

Let's say we have two players, and player 1 has 15 gold while player 2 has 14 gold. So, at the start of this scenario, player 1 has the 'richest settler' card. Let's also assume that both players are one victory point from winning.

At the end of his turn, player 1 needs to move his caravan in such a way that he will traverse player 2's roads and thereby give player 2 some gold. This means that player 2 will - temporarily - become the richest settler. At the end of the turn, though, player 1 will collect 5 gold from delivering goods, which would give him back the richest settler card. He will also get a victory point for delivering goods.

My question is - at what point is the richest settler evaluated?

The latest core Settlers of Catan (link to PDF) rules state:

  If you have 10 or more victory points during your turn the game ends and you are the  winner! If you reach 10 points when it is not your turn, the game continues until any player (including you) has 10 points on his turn.

And the Traders and Barbarians (link to PDF) scenarios state:

  The normal rules for The Settlers of Catan apply. The changes are described below.

Therefore, we can infer that the rules for determining the winner apply here too, and while the amount of victory points required may change, when the winner is calculated is unaffected.

Even though Player 2 will have more victory points, it is NOT their turn, so Player 1 will win as soon as he/she has the necessary points.


In backgammon, can you resign, and how can you tell when you should? In backgammon, there comes a time when all pieces have passed each other; there is no more interaction, you are simply rolling it out until you can bear off all of your pieces. If one player is well ahead of the other at getting their pieces into their home board and bearing them off, then it might seem pointless to keep rolling it out; it may well be impossible, or at least extremely improbably, for the other player to make up the difference.

May the player who is behind resign in such a situation, or do they need to play it out in case of a gammon?

And if they are allowed to resign, are there any good rules of thumb to decide when it's worthwhile to do so, and when it's worthwhile to keep playing? For instance, has anyone calculated out the possibilities such that you can say "if player 1 has started bearing off, and player 2 has x pieces outside of their home board, there is no possible way for player 2 to win." Or, has anyone calculated out the probabilities, such that you can determine based on the position that there's only a one in a million chance of winning, and it's probably not worth hoping for that, while in another situation, you might have 10 to 1 odds and it's worth seeing if you make it.

edit to add: According to a thread on Backgammon Galore, along with their glossary, you can offer to resign with any outcome (backgammon, gammon, or a simple win). If you offer one of the lower outcomes (gammon or simple win), your opponent can refuse in order to take the chance at getting the higher outcome. Of course, this only applies if you're playing in a tournament, a rating system, or for money where the value of the win matters.

So, I've answered the first half of my question, but I'm still interested in the second half; when should you resign? Are there any good rules of thumb, or has anyone done a statistical analysis, of what points in the game one player can be guaranteed to lose, or have such a low probability of winning that it's worth it to just resign? Are there any good ways to tell when you should offer to resign with a gammon?

Since the edit, there are two parts to the remaining question: "When have you definitely lost?" and "How can you tell when you've probably lost?".  The first is easier to answer than the second, so I'll start with that.

The minimum you can roll on a go is a two and a one (note that a double one would give you four moves).  The maximum is double six.  So (assuming all pieces have passed each other) you can determine if you have definitely lost by assuming you will roll double sixes for the rest of the game, and assuming your opponent will roll two/ones.

It would be really nice to include a formula here that takes pip count, piece count and whose turn it is, and computes if you've definitely lost, but such a formula escapes me.  There are some situations that depend on more than these three variables - for example:

|24  23  22    |24  23  22
+---+---+---   +---+---+---
| O   O        | O       O
| O   O        | O
|              | O

In both these finishing positions the pip count and piece count are the same.  However the maximum number of rolls to finish is two in the left hand picture, but three in the right hand picture.

There are two main metrics of backgammon positions (other than pip count).  These are the Thorp count and the Kleinman ratio.

The Thorp count is calculated for each player as:

Start with the pip count.
Add 2 for each checker still on the board.
Add 1 for each checker on the 1 point.
Subtract 1 for each occupied home board point.
If the player on roll's count is greater than 30, multiply by 1.1.

There is an article here explaining how the Thorp count can be used to estimate the game winning probability.

The Kleinman ratio is calculated as:

(D * D) / S

where D is the pip count difference of the two players, plus 4 to compensate for the player on roll's additional pips; and S is the pip count sum, minus 4 to compensate for the player on roll.

There is an article here explaining how the Kleinman ratio can be used to estimate the game winning probability.

Finally there is an article here which overlaps the previous two, but which recommends using the Kleinman ratio over the Thorp count assuming you are able to learn a large table of logarithms!


What is the power of 'Mimic' while it is in the deck? Mimic's text:

  Ongoing: This minion's power is equal to the highest power printed on a minion card in play.

What is the power of 'Mimic' while it is in the deck?

I.E. can a G.E.L.F. or Sprout pull it from the deck if Zombie Lord is in play??

Ongoing abilities are active only when the minion is in play.

When it is in the deck, the Mimic uses it's listed power of 0.  Any ability that can affect a minion of power 0 in the deck can affect the Mimic


Where do Delayed Triggered Abilities live? From the rules I gather that Delayed Triggered Abilities are objects on the stack,

112.1b. An ability can be an activated or triggered ability on the stack. This kind of ability is an object. (See section 6, “Spells, Abilities, and Effects.”)

but because these delayed triggered abilities need not trigger until their trigger condition is met, it stands to reason that they remain on the stack until they can resolve. However, this seems to be in conflict with the continuation of the game after a player receives priority, which happens as soon as all players pass on priority and the stack is empty:

116.4. If all players pass in succession (that is, if all players pass without taking any actions in between passing), the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves or, if the stack is empty, the phase or step ends.
...
500.2. A phase or step in which players receive priority ends when the stack is empty and all players pass in succession.

So then, my question is: where do Delayed Triggered Abilities live, and if the answer is indeed 'on the stack', what is the resolution to the apparent conflict with continuing the game?

Delayed triggered abilities (DTAs) simply exist on their own, they do not depend on the existence of another object.

A spell or ability creates one-shot effects and/or continuous effects. Creation of a DTA is a certain kind of one-shot effect:

  610.2. Some one-shot effects create a delayed triggered ability, which instructs a player to do something later in the game (usually at a specific time) rather than as the spell or ability that’s creating the one-shot effect resolves. See rule 603.7.

Their source in the rules sense is always the spell or ability that created them, which in any case already ceased to exist before the DTA can trigger; a DTA's controller is the player who controlled the source of the DTA when it resolved (603.7d-f). If a situation cares about properties of the source of a triggered DTA, the last known information about the source is used. (112.7a)

The confusion stems from the fact that "triggered ability" refers both to abilities as they are printed on cards, and to the objects on the stack that they create. You already quoted the rule for the latter case, but you left out the former:

  112.1. An ability can be one of two things:

  112.1a An ability is a characteristic an object has that lets it affect the game. An object’s abilities are defined by its rules text or by the effect that created it. Abilities can also be granted to objects by rules or effects. (Effects that do so use the words “has,” “have,” “gains,” or “gain.”) Abilities generate effects. (See rule 609, “Effects.”)

  112.1b An ability can be an activated or triggered ability on the stack. This kind of ability is an object. (See section 6, “Spells, Abilities, and Effects.”)

For example, take any permanent with a triggered ability, such as Abattoir Ghoul or Abyssal Horror. The text that is written on them respresents triggered abilities. When their trigger condition is met, they create an object on the stack. These objects are also called "triggered ability", and, as you correctly noted, they have to leave the stack (usually by resolving) before the game can continue.

A delayed triggered ability (DTA) follows the same rules. A DTA is a triggered ability that creates instances of itself on the stack that are also called "triggered abilities". However, matters are complicated a little further because a DTA is never printed on a card, they are always created by a spell or other ability:

  603.7a Delayed triggered abilities come from spells or other abilities that create them on resolution, or are created as the result of a replacement effect being applied.

However, at that point a DTA is not an object on the stack, just like the ability printed on Abyssal Horror is not on the stack, and therefore does not block the progression of the game. An instance of a DTA goes on the stack when its trigger condition is met, just like a regular triggered ability.

  603.7b A delayed triggered ability will trigger only once—the next time its trigger event occurs—unless it has a stated duration, such as “this turn.”

Example: Death Frenzy, Balduvian Rage

DTAs are also always temporary, they either last until the end of turn, or they do something at the beginning of the next turn. That temporary nature is not a fundamental limitation based on the rules. It's a design decision, because it's simply too difficult for human players to keep track of more and more dynamically created abilities across multiple turns, or even the whole game.