Are the reckoning effect Lore checks on Glamour cards considered spell effects? The Unique Asset "Sealing the Old Ones" allows one to discard spells when a Lore check is passed as a Spell Effect.  Glamour Spells from the Strange Remnants expansion don't have a Lore check in the standard main body of the spell, but rather have Lore checks as part of their reckoning effects, as if they are ongoing spell effects that get checked every reckoning for any side effects.

Does this reckoning effect Lore check count as a spell effect for the purposes of deciding to discard it to add an eldritch token to the Sealing the Old Ones Unique Asset?

Yes.

From the rules reference, page 11:

  An investigator can resolve a Spell card's effect as described on the
  card. A Spell card’s effect may be triggered by a specific event or
  require an action.

The rules don't explicitly define a "Spell Effect", so we use the above to determine that it means the effect of a Spell card, whether cast or activated otherwise.


Turn Aside and Noxious Gearhulk When Noxious Gearhulk is played can it be countered by Turn Aside?

I've noticed that some cards say "counter target spell or creature" but turn aside only says "counter target spell ..."

No, Turn aside cannot counter Noxious Gearhulk.

There seems to be some confusion here. When a player plays a creature spell such as the Gearhulk, it is indeed a spell while it is on the stack and does fulfill one of the conditions of Turn Aside's possible targets. However, a creature spell (generally, all permanent spells except Auras) never targets anything, and is therefore never a valid target for Turn Aside. A creature spell is simply on the stack, and when it resolves, it puts the creature it represents onto the battlefield.

Only the Gearhulk's enters-the-battlefield ability can target something. It goes on the stack when the Gearhulk has resolved and entered the battlefield. However, an ability is not the same as a spell, Turn Aside can counter only spells, so Turn Aside cannot counter that ability either.


Winning avalanche with all pebbles on avalanche mode? Is it possible to win avalanche mode with all 48 pebbles able to only use your side? IE the game pidgeon version?

If so, how?

According to this article, you can capture all 48 turn 1 in avalanche mode if an avalanche triggers on both sides.  If you can only place on your side of the board, you can still capture 42 stones on turn 1, which guarantees a victory but not a sweep.


Interpretation of the word "immediately" in Phase 3 or Phase 4 My opponent pulled the Trade Master card during phase 3.  Because the card has the word "immediately" on it, she believed that she could play it.  Yet the rules say that in phase 3 you cannot play it.  Can she play this card during phase 3 or phase 4?

I can't see any reason why Trade Master would circumvent the normal rules for playing an Action.  I think all that the "immediately" implies is that, when you play the card during phase 2, you get the resources straightaway at that point.

Why this particular card would use the word "immediately" when all action cards are specified by the rules as taking "immediate effect" isn't very clear - but in situations like this I usually assume a slightly loose translation from the original German, rather than reading a special meaning in.  Perhaps a native speaker could tell us what the wording on the German cards are?


How much would you revalue your hand after finding a "double fit?" Suppose you hear your partner open one spade. You, the responder (North) have:
(s)Kxx (h)xx (d)xxx (c)AKxxx, and respond two clubs. Opener now bids three clubs, showing you a "double fit" in spades and clubs.

You have ten high card points, and presume that opener has at least 13, for a total of at least 23. Normally, that's not quite enough for game, but the double fit has increased the value of your hands. Can you go directly to four spades on the theory that the double fit is worth 2-3 points, thereby bringing you to 25-26 (adjusted)? Or should you stop at three spades and let partner decide based on whether he has a minimum or more?

Suppose you were opener, and heard partner (responder) stop at 3 spades. You have (s) AQJxx (h)Kxx (d)xx (c) QJx. You assume that he has a bare 10, and you have only 13. Can you go to 4S on the basis of the double fit?

Let's give partner a fitting minimum for the first auction; one that fits nicely but is otherwise as weak as possible:

S: AJxxx
H: x
D: KJX
C: QTxx

This hand by partner has only 11 HCP, evaluates to exactly 13 total points as opener, and there are excellent chances to make 4S, especially with an attacking diamond lead being up to partner's holding.

Let's also consider a non-fitting maximum hand for partner, with the maximum possible non-working values:

S: Qxxxx
H: AQ
D: AQ
C: xxxx

Again 4S has a good play, with one sure loser in trumps and good chances that the rest of the hand can be managed for only two losers.

These two hands illustrate the principle that if one's own values are strongly fitting, as in the hand given, and especially when one is the weaker hand of the partnership, one can be aggressive. Practice visualizing typical fitting minimum and non-fitting maximum hands for partner in the bidding, and evaluate your own holding against those when deciding whether to bid or invite game/slam. Caveat: Be very careful to not place cards in partner's hand when doing so. It is easy to engage in wishful thinking when doing this exercise, so you must consciously restrain your self until that becomes second nature.

Let's try the flip side; partner's fitting minimum could be something like:

S: xxx
H: x
D: KJTx
C: Axxxx

This is about as bad a hand as partner could come down with, 8HCP and 10 total points, yet 4S is not hopeless despite the mismatch in the red suits. Even small additions like ST or C9 start looking like big cards. Vulnerable at IMPS bidding this game is mandatory, and perhaps also non-vulnerable at IMPS, but at MatchPoints I'd rather play 3S and trust partner to bid game herself when holding a hand like

S: Kxx
H: xx
D: xxx
C: AKxxx

Update:

The three distinctive marks of a weak player are:

not counting;
still not counting; and
thinking that hand evaluation ends with counting points, when in fact it only begins with counting points.

Note that the examples of hand visualization given above all start with counting - of points, distribution, potential losers and winners - of things that cannot yet be seen in partner's hand but must be visualized. One begins to approach expert status only when this process starts to become second nature.  In many senses an expert performs this visualization first; decides on the appropriate call based on this visualization; determines what the value of the hand is based on the call and bidding system; and only then decides how that value is apportioned as HCP and distribution and fitting points.


Is there a strategy to choosing the card used to construct a wonder phase? When a player is constructing a wonder phase, what strategy is used to pick the card, and is the value of the card used for anything?

I'm assuming that:

The value of the card serves no purpose once being used to construct a wonder phase
The action of constructing a wonder is similar to discarding, except:
a. the player receives the benefits of the wonder phase instead of 3 coins, and
b. the card does not have the possibility of being reused later vs. those in the discard pile
Due to 2b, the player should pick a card that they don't want to and/or can't use themselves, and also don't want other players to be able to benefit from (I believe the instructions state something to this effect).

Are these assumptions correct, and/or are there other considerations I'm leaving out?

Picking the right card often is an important strategic choice, and I think you've got a decent feel for the main part of that - use a card that you don't want yourself, and that you don't want your opponents getting. In particular, I would tend to look at the next couple of players that the hand will be passed to, and see if I can spot a card that is key to their strategy that I can deny them. Alternatively, if nothing stands out, I'll see if any of the cards I have is a duplicate of one they already have, and bury a different card, thus reducing their options.


Does the zombie lord from haunt 21 take damage from a sanity roll? We were playing Haunt 21 and I was the zombie lord. My friend had the Ring and the Medallion and decided to use the Ring to attack me with Sanity. Would the zombie lord take damage or be stunned from the attack?

We decided to just make it take damage but I wasn't aware that they could just kill the zombie lord in order to win. It was a close game regardless but it would be nice for some clarification. (The difference in Sanity was their 7 to my 2)

Yes, it would take damage.

Normally, you cannot damage a monster unless the specific rules for the haunt say otherwise). Under the normal rules:

  If a monster suffers
  any damage, it is stunned and misses its next turn.

However, the Haunt 21 rules makes an exception to this, it says that while holding the Medallion, you can damage the Zombie Lord. It does not specify anything about physical vs mental damage; so it will just be damage either way.

From the traitor's rulebook:

  The Zombie Lord can be damaged only by
  an explorer holding the Medallion. Instead
  of being stunned, you can take 7 points of
  damage before you are killed. Use the
  Turn/Damage Track to record damage.
  Damage does not reduce your traits.


Sorcery supercedes instant? If I cast a sorcery spell to force the opponent to discard two cards, and he/she then casts one of those cards as an instant, would the instant apply first or would the sorcery take precedence?

In simplest terms possible:  Your opponent can cast any instants in response to your sorcery, but he'll still have to discard 2 cards if he has any.

so, if you cast  mind rot, your opponent can't choose 2 instants to discard and cast them instead.  He can cast instants before he chooses.

If you cast  duress, your opponent can't cast the instant that you pick for him to discard.  He can cast instants before he shows you his hand.

Here's how It works

You have priority
You cast the sorcery.
You pass priority to your opponent
Your opponent may cast instant speed spells
You get priority
You pass priority to your opponent
Your Opponent passes priority
The instant spell resolves
You get priority
You pass priority to your opponent
The sorcery spell resolves from start to finish
You get priority
...

Everything that the sorcery spell does happens while it's resolving.  If you look at your opponents hand and choose the cards, than that would happen while it resolves.  If your opponent chooses, he chooses while it resolves.

Once the spell has begun to resolve, You cannot cast any spells until the spell has finished resolving.


Rubber bridge and whether or not to duck I understand the benefits of ducking especially when playing in NT. If I have Axx in hand and Jxx in dummy how do I decide whether or not to duck the first two tricks?

Sometimes it is correct to duck and other times not. Is there a way of telling when?

Much like many things in bridge, there is a rule of thumb for ducking.  Assuming a 3NT contract, you can follow the Rule of Seven:

  Subtract from seven the total number of cards that declarer and dummy hold in the defenders' suit and duck their lead of the suit that many times.

In your example (again, assuming a contract of 3NT), you should duck the lead once and win the second round.  If the outstanding cards are distributed 5-2, one duck will be enough to break the opponent's communication in that suit.  If they are distributed 4-3, you can't disrupt the communication, but they could only ever cash three tricks in the suit if they get in.

There is one big exception to this, and that's not to duck if there is another suit that is worse than the led suit.  Say the hands are like the following in a 3NT contract:

  ♠ xx
  ♥ Qxx
  ♦ KQJxx
  ♣ Qxx

  ♠ Axx
  ♥ AKxx
  ♦ Axx
  ♣ xxx

If the opponents lead a spade, you should not hold up.  If you let the opponents win the trick and they switch to clubs, you could potentially go down before you can get in.  Better to just win the trick and cash your nine/ten tricks immediately rather than duck the spade.


Killer Bunnies Quest / Retrieval Card (Special) Some debate has taken place in my home concerning the Special card titled Retrieval (Card # 0425)

It says "may be used once by a player to retrieve and immediately use any of the last five run cards played." So...does this mean that the player needs to choose one card out of the five to play? Or does that player get to play any and/or all of the five cards picked up?

Thank you for your help.

"It’s just one." -- confirmed by Jeffrey Bellinger, designer of Killer Bunnies, in an email reply.

This is an interesting case where a revision of a card's instructions made it much less clear. The original description read:

  May be used once by a player to retrieve and immediately use any Run card from the top seven cards of the discard pile.

In a later series the OP draws their description from (the wiki speculates ZZ series), the description is revised to:

  May be used once by a player to retrieve and immediately use any of the last five Run cards played.

I find myself personally convinced by @GendoIkari's arguments, specifically based on the phrasing "any Run card" in the original description. This interpretation is also helped by the phrase "used once". Unfortunately, both descriptions are truly ambiguous. If my interpretation of the card's description is correct, this ambiguity could have been resolved by using the phrasing "any one" instead of "any". On the other hand, if it was actually intended that you to take all five (or up to seven) cards, the card description could have said something along the lines of "May be used once by a player to retrieve and immediately use or rediscard all of the last five Run cards played."

@Benjamin Cosman's argument is also compelling. It does seem overpowered to be able to play 5 (or potentially up to 7) cards: imagine retrieving multiple Choose a Carrot cards. However, using multiple run cards in a turn is not without precedent: W Is For Whammy allows you to launch all 5 weapons, but Retrieval's expanded form could be significantly more powerful than the sporadic 5-card hand nature of Whammy. Though one never can tell what "balanced" really means for a game like Killer Bunnies... EDIT: Turns out you were pretty spot-on in your analysis; Bellinger said it would be "[T]oo powerful that way!"

@BJ Myers point about how the phrase "any number of cards" would have been used if multiple draws were intended may be true, but I'm not sure how often I've seen that specific phrase in Killer Bunnies. I think most cards' effects are scoped, so they would be more likely to phrase it using "all" like "all Weapon cards in his five-card hand" (from "W is for Whammy"). The underlying point is the same, though.


Citadels: Wishing Well card 'every other purple district' clarfication In the Citadels: Dark City expansion the Wishing Well purple district card reads as follows:

  At the end of the game, you score one point for every other purple district in your city

The italicization is actually printed on the card.

Does the means "every purple district that is not this card" or "every second purple district"? If you had this and 3 other purple districts at the end of the game, would you have 3 extra points or 2?

I'm leaning toward the first one, because it seems more balanced and the second would suggest a bit more clarification.

Feel really stupid but asked anyway. Does anyone think this questions is valuable enough to leave up?

I was 99% sure that that must mean "every purple district that is not this card", as you suspect.  But how to prove that for sure?  My first thought in such matters is to look at foreign versions of the cards.  Rules text that is ambiguous in English is sometimes much clearer when read in other languages.

I haven't (yet) found a scan of a foreign version of Wishing Well... but this French page, (which contains a comment by Bruno Faidutti the game designer himself, so it must be fairly respectable!) seems to suggest that the text of Fontaine aux Souhaits is along the lines of "autres batiments violets" counting for +1; and I think you'd be hard pressed to translate that as "every second purple building".

(link: http://www.auteursdejeux.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=707)

I'm going to keep looking for card scans I guess, but I'm pretty sure we're en route to the right answer here.  (What language was Citadels first published in, does anyone know?)


Which D&D die looks like this asteroid imaged by NASA? I realize that this may not be 100% on-topic, but I'm hoping that it's close enough.
The Cnet article This asteroid looks like rolling Dungeons & Dragons dice links to the NASA News article Asteroid Resembles Dungeons and Dragons Dice which says:

Radar images of asteroid 2017 BQ6 were obtained on Feb. 6 and 7 with NASA’s 70-meter (230-foot) antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California. They reveal an irregular, angular-appearing asteroid about 660 feet (200 meters) in size that rotates about once every three hours. The images have resolutions as fine as 12 feet (3.75 meters) per pixel.
“The radar images show relatively sharp corners, flat regions, concavities, and small bright spots that may be boulders,” said Lance Benner of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who leads the agency’s asteroid radar research program. “Asteroid 2017 BQ6 reminds me of the dice used when playing Dungeons and Dragons. It is certainly more angular than most near-Earth asteroids imaged by radar.”

Question: Which Dungeons and Dragons die looks like this asteroid as imaged by NASA?

above: "This composite of 25 images of asteroid 2017 BQ6 was generated with radar data collected using NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar in California's Mojave Desert. The images were gathered on Feb. 7, 2017, between 8:39 and 9:50 p.m. PST (11:39 p.m. EST and 12:50 a.m., Feb. 7), revealing an irregular, angular-appearing asteroid about 660 feet (200 meters) in size that rotates about once every three hours. The images have resolutions as fine as 12 feet (3.75 meters) per pixel." Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR
below: "This composite of 11 images of asteroid 2017 BQ6 was generated with radar data collected using NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar in California's Mojave Desert on Feb. 5, 2017, between 5:24 and 5:52 p.m. PST (8:24 to 8:52 p.m. EST / 1:24 to 1:52 UTC). The images have resolutions as fine as 12 feet (3.75 meters) per pixel." Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR

The asteroid itself is too irregular to map well to any particular D&D die.  I don't believe the author had any particular die in mind, which is why they use the term "the dice" instead of calling out a particular type die.

That said... it looks a lot like some D7's:

The D7 is not one of the standard D&D dice, but I think is a much better match.  This variation of a D7 is not even a fair die, though neither is that asteroid by the looks of it.  All of the D&D dice are fair dice; in fact, all but the D10 are Platonic Solids, hence none of them being a good match for the irregularities of the asteroid.


Can City of Brass be used to cast Kozilek, the Great Distortion in Commander? Can City of Brass be used to pay for the colorless component of Kozilek, the Great Distortion's cost if I am playing Commander?

No. City of Brass adds one mana of any color, and colorless is not a color.

  105.4. If a player is asked to choose a color, he or she must choose one of the five colors. “Multicolored” is not a color. Neither is “colorless.”

In the past, if you attempted to add mana to your pool that did not share a color with your commander's color identity, that mana became colorless instead.

  Rule 4. If a player would produce mana of colors that are not in their General card's color identity, they instead get that much colorless mana.

This rule was removed with the release of Oath of the Gatewatch, which introduced new colorless symbols and colorless costs.


Building settlements over the sea I know that in basic version of SoC each settlement must be at least two roads away from any other settlement. In Seafarers expansions you can build ships, so my question is - does this 'roads rule' also applies to ships? I haven't found anything about this in instruction for expansion.

In other words, can you build two settlements like this:

O is the settlement, - is the ship

It's pretty obviously NO.

Page 2 of the rules  -

  Except where noted below, Catan: Seafarers uses the same
  rules as The Settlers of Catan

On page 4

  Shipping routes act as roads across water (or along the
  coast). You build and place ships in much the same way as
  roads

AND it specifically states

  If your shipping route reaches a coastline, you can then
  build a new settlement on that coast, even if it is a new island.
  Of course, you must still obey the “distance rule” from basic
  Settlers, even if you are building on a new island.

So ships are 'water' roads and you still need two hex sides between settlements/cities


How does one evaluate a "locomotive" (rainbow card) in "Ticket to Ride?" A locomotive or "rainbow" card can be a train of any color you want. That's good, and that's the reason why you can draw only one rainbow card from the board, in lieu of two regular cards from the board, or from the deck. (You're allowed to draw two cards, one or both of them "rainbow," from the deck because it's random.)

As a newbie, my feeling is that rainbow cards are more valuable if your routes need five or six trains of one color, and less valuable if there routes are shorter, and/or or can be spanned with multiple color combinations.

So how do you decide when to take a single rainbow card for sure, take two (other) "known" cards from the board,or draw two "random" cards from the deck?

Here are three sources of pain you try to avoid:

Drawing only one resource card instead of two
Drawing resource cards that you will never be able to spend
Losing a race to build a link you want (an opponent gets there first, or the game ends first)

The single rainbow option is the only way to get stuck drawing one card instead of two, but rainbows are always spendable and awesome for winning races. I like to keep one or two on hand in case I find myself in a surprise race with an opponent, so after the first few turns I'll take one whenever I don't have one. I usually try not to spend them on very long links unless I think I'm in a race for those links - instead I'll just take known cards of that color when possible, and unless an opponent tips their hand by also taking known cards of that color, it's unlikely they can collect the requisite number before I do. (In contrast, for a short link it is likely they've randomly picked up one or two cards of that color.) I'll also start taking single rainbows more often at the end of the game since they're guaranteed to be usable.

Early game, I usually draw random cards - the main thing I'm risking is losing a race with an opponent, but on a wide open board it's often both unlikely that an opponent takes exactly the link I want and not too terrible even if they do since I can reroute around them. Draw randoms enough and you'll even end up with a rainbow or two to fall back on in hard times, and there are enough links of every color (and gray links) that you'll probably eventually find a use for whatever you draw. However, random cards get less and less attractive as the game progresses - with fewer links left there's more of a chance that an opponent wants the same one as you, or that you'll draw cards that you never find a use for.

When the known cards include colors you need, taking them is always an attractive option. An obvious downside is that you lose the ~1/9 chance of landing a random rainbow; a less obvious but potentially larger downside is that you give your opponents a hint about what you're planning to build. If you don't think your opponents will effectively use that against you - they can't figure out what you're doing, they don't have the resources to stop you or it's not sufficiently in their advantage to use them, they're not that kind of competitive, etc. - then taking known useful cards is usually the best choice. But occasionally you take that red card and then an opponent jumps on the opportunity to build the red link you wanted; not only is your link now gone but the red card is now probably less useful than a random one.


Enchantments vs Instants in Combat Phase Say I had a Raid Bombardment. And I swung with a 1/1 creature, say Goblin Bushwhacker.
Say I wait for the defender to declare blockers, and then use a pump spell, say Brute Force? Would Raid Bombardment still trigger? Or would Goblin Bushwhacker no longer fulfil the requirement for a less than 2 creature?

As long as your creature had a power 2 or less when it attacked it doesn't matter what happens to it after that.

From the Gatherer Rulings for Raid Bombardment:

  The power of the attacking creature is checked only when the ability triggers. Once it triggers, Raid Bombardment will deal 1 damage to the defending player even if the creature’s power changes before the ability resolves.

Also, Raid Bombardment triggers during the Declare Attackers step, and will resolve before your opponent gets a chance to declare blockers.


Can I use Moonlace to allow a Lightning Bolt to target a creature with protection from red? The action of casting a spell is only apparently simple.  There are many steps, and it is for this reason that I propose this question.

Taking into account rule 601.2a only (without taking into account the several successive steps, by now, and in particular without referring to the choice of targets which is however essential), which reads

  To propose the casting of a spell, a player first moves that card (or that copy of a card) from where it is to the stack. It becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has all the characteristics of the card (or the copy of a card) associated with it, and that player becomes its controller. The spell remains on the stack until it’s countered, it resolves, or an effect moves it elsewhere.

and using at the same time the blue rare card Moonlace, I wondered if it was possible, by keeping priority, to use the latter card to make another spell colorless before making my choice of its possible targets.

For example, if I have a Lightning Bolt and I want to cast it on a creature with protection from red – e.g. Repentant Blacksmith – may I use Moonlace to make the Bolt colorless, thus allowing to legally target the Repentant Blacksmith – or, possibly, other cards that have the ability "protection from colored spells", too?

The question is set in an open way, because at the moment I don't know if the action described is or is not possible, based on my current knowledge of the rules. In other words, thinking about the question by myself, I don't think it is possible to cast the Lightning Bolt first and then the Moonlace, since for a correct casting of the Lightning Bolt I think it is included the choice of the target, which cannot be legal since the creature is protected from red. On the other hand, casting Moonlace first is all the same wrong, because the spell that should target doesn't exist yet, and therefore this action would be illegal too, for the same reason. That's the reason why I said to refer to rule 601.2a only.

The key to the question then is simply: is there someone knowing  any “sleight of hand” to grant devoid ability on Lightning Bolt, before his target is chosen - via Moonlace, or via any other ways, otherwise? And, if that kind of sleight does exist, what spell should I cast first? It is possible to cast two spells simultaneously?

Moonlace only works on Lightning Bolt when it's a spell, i.e. an object on the stack. To get it there, you have to cast it, which includes specifying a legal target. As you indicated, Repentant Blacksmith isn't one.

What would work is casting the Lightning Bolt on another target (e.g. your opponent), Moonlacing it so it becomes colorless, and then change the target with another card, e.g. Misdirection.


How would an instant or sorcery with an effect that targets work with Feather? If I have Feather, the Redeemed on the battlefield, and target her with the support part of Shoulder to Shoulder, what happens? Would Shoulder to Shoulder exile as it resolves and return to my hand, or would it resolve normally?

Shoulder to Shoulder is an instant or sorcery spell that targets; it doesn't matter that the word target only appears in the reminder text.

  114.1e Some keyword abilities, such as equip and provoke, represent targeted activated or triggered abilities. In those cases, the phrase “target [something]” appears in the rule for that keyword ability rather than in the ability itself. (The keyword’s reminder text will often contain the word “target.”) See rule 702, “Keyword Abilities.”

So Feather's ability applies to Shoulder to Shoulder, and it's exiled as it resolves.


Unearth and Return-to-Hand costs I have Sedris, the Traitor King on the battlefield and a Grinning Ignus in my graveyard. I use the unearth ability Sedris grants to unearth my Grinning Ignus. Can I activate the Grinning Ignus's ability, even though if I try to pay the cost the Ignus will get exiled instead of going to my hand?

Can I do the same with an Ovinomancer, provided I activate its ability in response to its enters-the-battlefield trigger?

More generally, is there a rule that governs what happens when a replacement effect modifies the payment of a cost?

It appears that you can activate Grinning Ignus's ability:

117.11. The actions performed when paying a cost may be modified by effects. Even if they are, meaning the actions that are performed don’t match the actions that are called for, the cost has still been paid.
Example: A player controls Psychic Vortex, an enchantment with a cumulative upkeep cost of "Draw a card," and Obstinate Familiar, a creature that says "If you would draw a card, you may skip that draw instead." The player may decide to pay Psychic Vortex’s cumulative upkeep cost and then draw no cards instead of drawing the appropriate amount. The cumulative upkeep cost has still been paid.

I'm not clear on what situation you're describing with Ovinomancer; assuming Sedris isn't involved, you can always activate its ability and return it to your hand before its ETB ability resolves (assuming you give it haste), and when the ETB ability resolves, you have the choice of either doing nothing or unsummoning three basic lands.  This is not a replacement effect.


Is a runner card turned facedown still itself? Test Run reads:

  Search your stack or heap for a program. Install that program,
  ignoring all costs. Shuffle your stack if you searched it. When this
  turn ends, add the program to the top of your stack if it is still
  installed.

Harbinger reads:

  When Harbinger is trashed, install it facedown instead of adding it to your heap.

Suppose I use Test Run to bring a Harbinger out of my Heap, then trash Harbinger so that it becomes installed face down. Does Test Run put it on my deck at the end of my turn, or does it stay installed face down?

Facedown cards are no longer the same card they were before being turned facedown. In this example, Test Run's "if it is still installed" fails to trigger, and the cards stays where it is.

Based on Project ANCUR's answer to the question on twitter, which was favorited by Lukas (and therefore fairly authoritative, I suppose):

  No. By being turned face down, it is no longer the previous instance
  of Harbinger that Test Run has a reference to (it's not an instance of
  Harbinger at all, just an installed facedown runner card)


Divination and Psychosis Crawler Imagine the following scenario:  My last opponent is at one life. I have a Psychosis Crawler in play with the ability:

  Whenever you draw a card, each opponent loses 1 life.

I have 1 card left in my library and cast Divination, which says:

  Draw two cards.

Cards are drawn one at a time. So after the first draw, Psychosis Crawler triggers and my opponent loses his/her last point of life.

Now, I am not sure what happens next. Both rules for losing the game apply:

  104.3b If a player’s life total is 0 or less, he or she loses the game the next time a player would receive priority. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)

  104.3c If a player is required to draw more cards than are left in his or her library, he or she draws the remaining cards, and then loses the game the next time a player would receive priority. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)

Is this a draw?

You'll lose here. You're trying to draw too many cards before your opponent loses any life. (Your statement "after the first draw ... the opponent loses their last point of life" is where you went astray.)

Psychosis Crawler does trigger off your card draw, but you lose the game when state-based actions are checked, before the trigger resolves:

  704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 116, “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. If any state-based actions are performed as a result of a check, the check is repeated; otherwise all triggered abilities that are waiting to be put on the stack are put on the stack, then the check is repeated. Once no more state-based actions have been performed as the result of a check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, the appropriate player gets priority. This process also occurs during the cleanup step (see rule 514), except that if no statebased actions are performed as the result of the step’s first check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, then no player gets priority and the step ends.

Your opponent doesn't lose life until the triggers resolve, so you draw your two cards before your opponent loses any life.

To be specific, what happens is:

You draw your first card. (Psychosis Crawler triggers, but the ability isn't on the stack yet.)
You try to draw your second card, but can't, and now you're going to lose the game the next time state-based actions are checked.
State-based actions are checked, and you lose the game. (Your opponent hasn't lost any life yet.)

For you both to lose the game, resulting in a draw, the card draw and loss of life would have to be part of the resolution of the spell. For example, Urza's Guilt:

  Each player draws two cards, then discards three cards, then loses 4 life.

could cause you to draw too many cards, and your opponent to fall to zero life, then you'd both lose at the same time after the spell resolves (when state-based actions are checked), and the game would be a draw.


In Bridge, what is the punishment for misclaiming tricks? Down to the last two rounds in rubber bridge.  Declarer claims remaining tricks only to discover that he has miscounted.  He claims the two tricks with Q-10; however, opponent holds the J and depending on how he plays the cards could lose one trick.  How is this handled?  Is scoring affected?

Consider the same scenario only opponent holds the Q.  Do opponents just get the one trick and game is scored as usual?

The laws of Contract bridge try to achieve a result equitable to both sides (and not to punish), but in case of doubt, resolution might favour the non-offending side.

Laws 68-71 deal with claims (and there are alternative versions for the Club setting), and you can read about them here: http://web2.acbl.org/laws/rlaws/lawofcontractbridgecombined_2004.pdf (2008 version).

Quoting a paragraph from Law 69 (non Club, 2004 version):

  The objective of subsequent play is to achieve a result as equitable
  as possible to both sides, but any doubtful point must be resolved in
  favor of the defenders. Declarer may not make any play inconsistent
  with the statement he may have made at the time of his claim or
  concession. If he failed to make any appropriate statement at that
  time, his choice of plays is restricted thereby:

  [snipped]

I believe there is also a provision which allows declarer to follow a routine/rational line of play which does not contradict the plays specifically disallowed, in case the claim is rejected. Of course, there are quite a few subjective words in the laws which might lead to different resolutions by different directors.

Perhaps in your case, it would probably be irrational for declarer to play the 10 instead of Q and dropping the J.

Disclaimer (pun intended): I am not qualified to be a director, so what is written here is just my interpretation. (Though I did get a chance to talk to some directors about this in the past few years of playing and what I write here is influenced by those discussions)


Can the campaign mode for Star Wars: Imperial Assault be played if one player is not always able to attend? We are starting an Star Wars: Imperial Assault campaign and one member of our group is not "always available". Will this be a problem? Do the rules support this and will it unbalance the game if the number of players varies between sessions?

Short answer:

It shouldn't be a problem as long as you guys are willing to share control of that player's character when he isn't available or are OK with taking some risk with game balance by having the number of players vary between missions.

Detailed answer:

The number of players in the game does matter and is meant to be fixed. The campaign setup (Rules Reference Guide, Page 7) requires that each player choose a Hero and handles assignment of the Legendary/Heroic cards for games with less than 4 players at campaign start time. If the number of players changes, you'll need to add/remove Legendary/Heroic cards as appropriate.

Campaign setup also affects the building of the side mission deck (Rules Reference Guide, Page 17) as each hero's red Side Mission card will be inserted into the deck.

Critically, the number of credits granted at the end of each session scales based on the number of players. The game wasn't designed for this to vary.

You likely could change the number of players between missions, temporarily removing their side quest and granting less credits at the end, but this means that the pool of players will have less credits than they ordinarily would have had. This can be fairly impactful, as it's a common practice to pool resources to load up one or two heroes with great end-game weapons and attachments. Additionally, the missing hero would either need to be granted XP upon rejoining the game or fall behind.

There are also some logistics to consider: if you have the missing player's hero controlled by the group, you may want to coordinate which abilities they would want to pick if you're doing more than one mission at a time.

I personally feel it's best to just control that player's character in their absence to keep the number of players constant. Some groups will opt to always play with four heroes, even if there are less players, as some missions feel more balanced with a full group and support characters get a greater chance to shine.


Hideaway - do I get to put cards put on the bottom of my library in any order? With Spinerock Knoll, when it enters, hideaway activates, however, it doesn't specify whether I put the cards on the bottom of my library in any order, or in a random order. Which one is it? This is relevant for Grenzo, Dungeon Warden EDH.

Yes, you choose the order:

  702.74. Hideaway

    702.74a Hideaway represents a static ability and a triggered ability. “Hideaway” means “This permanent enters the battlefield tapped” and “When this permanent enters the battlefield, look at the top four cards of your library. Exile one of them face down and put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. The exiled card gains ‘Any player who has controlled the permanent that exiled this card may look at this card in the exile zone.’”

Note that the italics text written on  Spinerock Knoll is just reminder text, it is not the actual rules for Hideaway.

  207.2. The text box may also contain italicized text that has no game function.

    207.2a Reminder text is italicized text within parentheses that summarizes a rule that applies to that card. It usually appears on the same line as the ability it’s relevant to, but it may appear on its own line if it applies to an aspect of the card other than an ability.

So that text is simply a summary of what Hideaway means, but it is not intended to be an actual rule you follow. The full rule for Hideaway is what is defined in 702.74.


Food Truck Champion: Does the Owner card count to the 6 card hand limit? Does the Owner card count to the 6 card hand limit in Food Truck Champion? Since I am not a mother tongue in English I don't quite understand the sentence in the rules: 'If the Owner card is in your hand, it counts towards your hand limit of 6 cards'.

Thank you for your answers in advance.

The  English meaning of the quoted text is that, yes, the Owner card counts as one of the six cards you are limited to when it is in your hand. (So you can only hold five other cards)


Should I get $200 for passing "Go" if I then get a card that says "don't collect $200"? Take this scenario: Someone rolled the dice and landed on Community Chest, passing "Go" in the process. They picked up the card and it read 'Go to jail. Don't collect $200'.

They argued that they should still receive $200 because they already passed "Go".

Yes, they would still gain $200 from passing GO then landing on a square that makes them draw a card like this.

You collect $200 immediately when you land on or pass GO, then the player would continue their move and land on Chance/Community Chest, then draw that card.

The text on the card specifies that you cannot collect $200 if you pass GO (again) in the process of moving around the board from a Chance/Community Chest square to the Jail square.


Hellcarver Demon and Second Sunrise When Hellcarver Demon's ability triggers and I sac all my permanents and discard my hand then cast Second Sunrise do I have to keep track of the discarded cards? because second sunrise say s return to play all artifact, creature, enchantment and land cards that were put into the graveyard from play this turn. Since my hand was discarded I don't think it satisfies the second sunrise condition. I think I just answered my own question but I'll ask anyway to make sure I'm right.

That's correct, the cards in your hand were not "in play", which is the old name for the battlefield. The current official text of Second Sunrise follows the modern wording:

  Each player returns to the battlefield all artifact, creature, enchantment, and land cards in his or her graveyard that were put there from the battlefield this turn.

The cards from your hand were not put into the graveyard from the battlefield.


Can the Ronin use its ability when defending? The Ronin, included in the Vagabond Pack, has an ability that reads:

  After rolling in battle, you may exhaust a sword to deal an extra hit.

Can this ability be used when the Ronin is defending? Or only when it is attacking?

The "rolling" phrasing opposed to "a roll" seems to imply agency and thus that it is the latter, but I couldn't find any rules to back it up.

Yes.

Root rules are very literal. They even say in the FAQ section:

  Q3. It seems like something should happen, but the
  rule doesn’t tell me to do that thing. What do I do?

  A3. Follow the literal word of the Law, not your instinct.

Here is the latest version of the rules as of the time of writing.

So in the rules "defending" only ever mentioned in the battle context, which indicates to me, that there could be no "defending" while not in battle. And since we just established that we are, in fact, in battle when the Ronin is defending, the rule should apply.

After rolling here is intended to convey that you are allowed to see the roll result before you decide whether to use the ability, not to imply any kind of agency. That would be too far fetched for the very literal style of the rules.

Here is what section E.8.2 has to say about the Ronin rule:

  Special Action: Swift Strike. You may exhaust a  to deal an extra hit in battle (after rolling).

Note, how "after rolling" moved to the end of the sentence, compared to the card, and how it is in italic now.

The overal battle rules are given in section 4.3.

Some "while defending" rules to compare with your case are given in 8.2.2, 10.1, 10.2.3, 13.2.5, but I admit they are not very relevant here.


In a two-player Texas Hold'Em poker hand with blinds, which player posts the small blind? In a small-blind/big-blind poker game (I'm thinking of Texas Hold 'em, but I guess this question applies to any similarly structured poker game), how does the structure change when the games gets to the final two players?

So, for four+ players, it's:

[D] [SB] [BB] [UTG]* (pre-flop)

For three players, it's:

[D/UTG] [SB] [BB]

So, for two players, is it:

[D/BB] [SB/UTG]

*
[D] = Dealer
[SB]=Small Blind
[BB]=Big Blind
[UTG] = Under The Gun, i.e. first to act.

No. Under practically all rules, the dealer posts the small blind and is first to act preflop. After the flop, the other player acts first.

Other rules have occasionally been implemented -- I believe Party Poker used to have this backwards preflop -- but this is almost universal. It is generally thought to lead to a better game with more action, as the small blind has a higher incentive to complete or raise when he has the benefit of acting last postflop.


The Simplifier vs The Snitch We played with Agricola: The Goodies for the first time last night, and while it was very silly, it didn't have the negative impact on gameplay that I'd feared.  However, the Occupation cards from the L-deck created all sorts of rules questions for us that we weren't quite equipped to answer.  But that's where this site comes in!

The Simplifier occupation reads:

  Occupations with more than 4 lines of
  text have no effect for the remainder
  of the game.

The Snitch has about 9 lines of text in total, but begins:

  Immediately flip 1 Occupation that you
  have played face down.

In last night's rather crazy all-Goodies game of Agricola, one of the players played the Simplifier, to switch off the damn Bean Farmer for a while, but then played the Snitch to flip her own Simplifer, and reinstate the Bean Farmer.  (I never played an Occupation or Minor Improvement in the whole game because of all these shenanigans!)

The $1 million dollar question is of course, can you really flip the Simplifier with the Snitch, or is he unSnitchable?  (It seemed more fun to allow it at the time, but this type of thing is what keeps me awake at night!)

Snitch would have to be valid to undo Simplifier...and the Simplifier card text states that it has no effect for the rest of the game...

So...no Snitching for the Simpleton!


How to make The Tower less of a pain in Carcassonne I'm a big fan of Carcassonne and have a most of the expansions available in my language. One of the only expansions I don't play, at all, is The Tower. In my opinion, the ability to remove followers is too powerful and only incites retaliation. The cost of blocking this tower is too high, since you're losing one of your followers for the remainder of the game.

When I look at reviews on the game, most people feel the same. I'm wondering if there are ways to work around these restrictions. Right now I'm just using the tiles without using the tower pieces.

How does everyone deal with this? Is there a way to counterweight the towers' impact?

We rarely play with either the Tower or the Dragon, mostly because neither my wife or I like having to worry about 'randomly' losing our Meeple like that. and of course the fact that to stop the tower, you have to sacrifice another piece.

But your question got me thinking, so my idea is to add extra Meeple to each player.  I have two whole sets of Meeple, but you could add them in depending on the number of people playing.

There are 18 tiles with tower places so if playing a 2 person game, add 6-7 extra Meeple, 6 person game 2-3.  The closer you want it to be toward game design the fewer extra Meeple you add in.

2 players = 6-7 extra Meeple
3 players = 5-6
4 players = 4-5
5 players = 3-4
6 players = 2-3


In Spades, who wins if both partnerships reach more than 500? If the final score is 504 to 505? Who wins? You both reached 500 exactly and the 5 and the 4 are just indicators of bags. So who wins? The person with less bags or do you just play one more round?

The partnership that have more points.  That is the partnership that scored 505.  The 1 points per overtrick is a real point, not just an indicator of bags.

From Pagat:

  The side which reaches 500 points first wins the game. If both sides reach 500 points in the same deal, the side with the higher score wins.


Improved wording for dealing out cards I'm writing up the manual for a new game, and this one bit is giving me trouble.  Here's what you do in this part:

Shuffle the cards.
As long there are enough cards left for each player to take one, each player takes one.
Once there are fewer cards left than players, the remaining cards get set aside.

This seems like a very awkward way to describe this concept, yet it seems like a common concept to me.  Is there a common way of describing this mechanic?

Replace 2 & 3 with:

"Deal out the entire deck, giving an equal number of cards to each player and setting aside any remaining cards"


How does the following interaction with Swords to Plowshares and Death's Shadow work? Death's Shadow is a 13/13 that gets -X/-X where X is your life total.

If one I control is exiled by Swords to Plowshares, then last known information is used to tell us how much life should be gained, but this happens before the life gain from the Swords, right?  I would not necessarily gain 13 life, but rather the current size of Death's Shadow?

Yes, this is exactly what happens, so barring any other side effects*, you'll always end up with 13 life.

*: e.g. a card which doubles any life gained, like Boon Reflection (thanks @MichaelSnook)


How do I deal with Enchantments while playing mono-red? I have played different mono-red decks in the past and my main problem with all of them is playing against decks with strong enchantments (e.g. Circle of Protection: Red). As soon as this enchantment is out on the battlefield, I have lost. This can be played on turn 2, and my opponent can even mulligan to increase his chance of having this card in his starting hand.

While playing mono-red, I don't have Counterspells and enchantment destroyers. How do I handle these threats? I am looking for ideas legal in Standard, and legal in Legacy. "Red must be fast and win before enchantments are out" is not a good solution, because in the example above the enchantment can hit in round 2.

There are a few artifact answers to Enchantments in standard. Red will have access to those dealing with permanents, which are going to be slower. However, there are "ramp" cards in Standard for red that help you get them out more quickly.

Ratchet Bomb, can come out quickly, but takes time to "charge up" to the point where it can deal with more expensive enchantments. Although slow, it also deals with other permanents (eg. planeswalkers). If you get it out before the enchantment or planeswalker and charge it up, it can be a threat on the board causing your opponent to think twice before casting.

If you can ramp into a Spine of Ish Sah, say with a Geosurge on turn 4, you will be well on your way to victory, and getting rid of that pesky enchantment.

However, I think the most efficient way to deal with enchantments in standard, if you insist on mono-red, is to use the Sylvok Replica, and access green mana through dual lands  and/or a colourless ramp like Alloy Myr, Manalith or even Sphere of the Suns that also helps you power your X burn spells and getting bigger threats out more quickly.

But at that point you may as well just splash green dual lands or ramps and put Naturalize on the sideboard.

In Legacy, if it's Blue enchantments you're concerned about, Jaya Ballard, Task Mage is a great choice. Aura Barbs punishes those who dare use enchantments against you. Of course, Larry Niven's Disk has been the go-to solution for red burn decks since forever.

PS. I don't agree with this:

  Red must be fast and win before enchantments are out" is not a good solution, because in the example above the enchantment can hit in round 2.

Meh, CoP:Red isn't in Standard anymore, and even in Legacy the opponent is unlikely to have enough mana to deal with all your threats if you have a red weenie swarm, or save some of that red magic for when he's tapped out. You also have colourless options.

Red decks still win because they're fast. They generally aren't afraid of many enchantments.


How does Armed // Dangerous interact with trample? I have a Ghor-Clan Rampager on the battlefield and I fuse Armed/Dangerous on it. It is going to be a 5/5 with trample and double strike, and all of my opponents creatures are going to be forced to block it.

If my opponent has Burning-Tree Emissary (2/2) and Skarrg Guildmage (2/2), which are going to block my Rampager, will the resulting damage from each combat reduce my opponent's life total? In other words: my Rampager deals 5 damage on the Emissary, which dies, and yet my opponent loses 3 life due to the trample and then another 5 due to the second strike? And then, the same thing against the Guildmage?

If that's correct, my opponent would lose 3 + 5 + 3 + 5 = 16 life, Is that correct?

Unfortunately your understanding is incorrect.

Your 5/5 Ghor-Clan Rampager with trample and double strike will be declared as an attacker, then all creatures able to block it must do so. Your opponent will declare their 2 creatures as blockers, and you will subsequently choose the order in which your ghor-clan rampager will deal its damage to those blocking creatures.

Then the first strike damage phase will occur. Your Ghor-Clan Rampager will assign it's 5 damage to the blockers in the order you chose earlier. First it must assign lethal damage to the first creature. In this case they are both 2 toughness, so 2 damage is "lethal" damage. Once lethal damage has been assigned to the first creature in the damage assignment order, you move onto the next creature with your remaining damage (3). Again assigning 2 lethal damage. At this point your creature has 1 damage left to assign, having assigned lethal damage to all its blockers. This is where trample occurs, and in the first strike step the creature deals 1 damage to your opponent.

Subsequently, these creatures die and things move on to the regular combat damage step, at this point you have 5 damage to assign, a creature without trample at this point (having killed one or more blockers in the first strike damage phase) would have nothing to assign damage to, as creatures without trample can only assign damage to the creatures that are blocking them. As your Ghor-Clan Rampager has trample, the full 5 damage from this damage phase tramples over the now dead blockers onto your opponent. This gives you a total of 6 damage trampled onto your opponent.


Trouble: Despicable Me Edition-Why is the 1 red? My family got a brand new copy of Trouble: Despicable Me Edition. We were wondering why the 1 on the regular die was red, when the only special roll is 6.

Dice produced in Asia usually have the one, and sometimes also the four coloured in red. I've heard a variety of reasons including superstition (no sillier than numbering the 13th room 12A), Emperor's decree or that in some traditional Asian dice games these are special numbers.
The real reason these days is probably just that they have always done it that way.
Regardless, you can probably assume that this dice was sourced from Asia or intended for the Asian market.


Small worlds under ground and mummies Reading the rules for mummies:

Mummies
Mummies are everywhere but they tend to trip over themselves, what with all those bandages! All your conquests require 1
more Mummy token than usual

I know you get 10 to start with, but is there a good side?  Or is the idea to wait until it has a rather large pile of coins?
How are you supposed to play mummies to maximum effect?

The fact that there are 10 is the good side.

This is similar to other races from the base Small World and its expansions. For example, ratmen get a larger number of tokens with no downside. Kobolds (never leave a kobold token alone), barbarians (no redeployment) and pixies (only 1 stays on the board in each region) all have even larger token numbers but have some kind of downside that let them play differently. Kobolds are good at spreading fast but only hold a normal amount of territory. Barbarians spread fast over lots of territory but can't defend it strategically. Pixies are like barbarians on steroids; even more tokens but even less ability to defend.

Mummies are similar; they get more tokens, allowing them to hold lots of territory, but they have a downside that makes them spread out more slowly. This can go well with powers that reward them for holding particular regions (the territory powers), or that want them to stick together (frightened). It also does well with certain powers, such as Tomb, by making the race much more resilient in decline. If you get a power or other ability that makes attacking easier (such as the rabbit sword), they can spread more quickly and hold more total territory.

Mummies are good when your goal is to build up a strong board presence, where consistency is more important than speed. As such, you generally don't want them as your first race unless they have a strong power combo. They'll do well when your previous declined race is still going strong, taking time to spread wide into their own large decline. Reborn is a great combo for your previous race, helping mummies spread quickly and then minimising the loss of previous pieces when they're ready to decline.

Additionally, as you mention, if the mummies aren't a great pick for the current game situation, they'll accumulate money as people skip them, making them more valuable later on.


Is there an official Spanish Scrabble Dictionary? Last time I checked, there were some issues of contention with how the Spanish alphabet should be represented such as c+h vs ch, l vs ll, r vs rr and borrow letters such as k and w not used for Spanish words.  If I were to play with a Spanish tileset, which dictionary should I use?

Here's a nice picture of a Spanish tileset that I found: http://gtoal.com/wordgames/details/spanish/

That page links through to the FISE webpages (Federacion Internacional de Scrabble en Espanol), where it is claimed that as of 2009:

  El diccionario oficial de Scrabble es la versión 1.0-2003 (edición
  electrónica) del Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia
  Española (DRAE).

Hope that helps your investigations!


Will Heroic trigger if a spell would cause the creature to lose all abilities? So me and a buddy of mine got into a argument: he had Setessan Battle Priest out which has heroic

  Whenever you cast a spell that targets Setessan Battle Priest, you gain 2 life

Then he played Turn to Frog, which takes all abilities away and makes it a 1/1 Blue Frog until end of turn. He said he gained two life because Heroic triggers from the spell. I said that it took away the ability so it doesn't activate. Who was right?

Yes, Heroic does trigger in that situation, and he does gain the 2 life. This is because Heroic triggers when you cast the spell, before it resolves and has any effects. Basically, it plays out like this:

Your opponent casts Turn to Frog targeting his Setessan Battle Priest. The Priest's Heroic ability triggers. Now there are two objects on the stack: the Heroic ability is on top of the Turn to Frog spell.
The Heroic ability resolves, and your opponent gains 2 life.
Turn to Frog resolves and the Priest loses all of its abilities.

The rulings on Setessan Battle Priest's Gatherer page also mention this:

  Heroic abilities will resolve before the spell that caused them to trigger.


Can I use Project Atlas just before the Runner accesses cards from HQ? Project Atlas is a Corporation agenda that can be over-advanced to provide agenda counters for the following ability:

  Hosted agenda counter: Search R&D for 1 card, reveal it, and add it to HQ. Shuffle R&D.

Because it has no [Click] requirement, I understand that I can use this ability during the Runner's turn.

Imagine that I have a scored Project Atlas with a counter on it and the Runner runs on HQ. They pass the last ICE. Before the Runner accesses HQ, can I use this ability to fetch (say) a Snare into my HQ?

If so, must I do it before they choose to access (so that they could see me add the card and then jack out without accessing)? Or can I do it after they confirm that they want to access a card, giving them no opportunity to jack out?

After reading the FAQ (here), specifically the section on the timing of a run, I believe I can now answer my own question. The relevant steps read:

  4 The Runner APPROACHES the attacked server.

    4.1 [Paid abilities]

    4.2 The Runner decides whether to continue the run.
        ...Either the Runner JACKS OUT: [end the run unsuccessfully]
        ...Or the Runner continues the run: go to 4.3.

    4.3 [Paid abilities and non-ice can be rezzed]

    4.4 The run is considered to be successful. (‘When successful’ conditionals meet their trigger conditions)

    4.5 Access cards, then [end the run].

Based on these clarifications, you may use the ability before or after the Runner decides if they'd like to access.


How can I deal with indestructible shrouded slivers? So, here's the thing. My dad plays Slivers for his Commander deck with Sliver Overlord as his commander. When he plays this deck, he always seems to get out Sliver Hivelord and Crystalline Sliver, thus making it impossible for my Green/Elves Commander deck (base deck is the Guided by Nature 2014 Commander but it has been pretty intensively editted) to be able to beat him from that point on.

Is there a green or colorless card that I could incorporate into my deck in order to beat this combo, or is my deck just not going to be able to counter this?

Depending on how far you want to go to tune your deck for this specific scenario you have a few options.  If dealing with this combo is more important then staying mono-green looking at a black splash will open up a lot of the cards ideal for this match up.

General advice, Exile and negative toughness effects will still remove indestructible creatures, and Edicts (sacrifice effects that target the other player) will get around shroud as well.

Assuming that we are staying mono-green, Some specific Cards:

Perilous Vault will get around both by exiling everything, I recommend saving it to both play and activate in the same turn to avoid getting it destroyed
All is Dust will act as a board wipe
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon another board wipe
Aligned Hedron Network can deal with the Hive Lord
Arcane Lighthouse remove shroud
Bonds of Mortality will remove the indestructible
Sword of Kaldra will exile something it deals damage to, this could be used with a lure to force blocks
Pithing Needle or Phyrexian Revoker naming Sliver Overlord will stop the activated abilities on the Commander.
Song of the Dryads,Lignify on the Overlord can slow down searching up the combo.
Jester's Cap can remove the problem cards from his Library
Damping Matrix can shut down the activated abilities of the commander
Bind can counter one activation of search to buy time
Triumph of the Hordes would also be a good answer to just go over in a green deck

Additionally you can look at some infect / wither for some creatures which will place -1/-1 counters which get around indestructible, or annihilator which will require sacrifice.


Can invocation of nehek heal a lone character? Can the invocation of nehek spell, vampire counts, heal a lone character?

The spell says unit.

Yes.

According to Forming Units (8th Edition Rulebook, pg 5), "A unit usually consists of several models that have banded together, but a single, powerful model such as a lone character, a chariot or a Dragon, a war machine and its crew, and so on, are also considered to be a unit."

Everything is a unit, even a lone character.

Though bear in mind the rules for Invocation of Nehek. "Models with the Vampiric, Ethereal or Large Target special rules can never regain more than 1 Wound per successful casting." (Vampire Counts 8th Ed, pg 60). So a lone Vampire for example will only gain a single wound.


Are Summon - [insert-creature-type-here] cards creatures? Back in the day we didn't have Creature - Name card types, instead we had Summon - Name card types. Long ago in magic, cards were printed entirely differently, and this actually creates some interesting situations with the present day rulings. For example, in the past the Defender ability was non-existent. There were instead creatures printed Summon - Wall and such creatures with the Wall subtype were ruled to not be able to attack.

It's supposedly possible now with the introduction of Defender that such old walls without Defender can actually attack, drastically changing how some cards have been used.

My question is, if my opponent has such a card, Summon - Wall, or perhaps Summon - Goblin, etc., does that count in the present rulings as a Creature Card? Can I target it with "destroy non-black creature", or perhaps "return target creature to opponent's hand"? The confusion between my group of players is the word Creature is actually not on these cards, and it is on every other creature card that's out in this time and age.

Yes, these cards are MtG cards with the type Creature. A cards official wording is what currently appears in the Oracle Online reference.

From the Comprehensive Rules

  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 http://gatherer.wizards.com.

  Summon (Obsolete)
  Older creature cards were printed with “Summon [creature type]” on their type lines. All such cards have received errata in the Oracle card reference to say “Creature — [creature type].” (Many of these cards’ creature types have also been updated.) See Creature.


How to score for claiming routes in Ticket to Ride: Europe Apologies if this is answered somewhere. I haven’t found it.

I have a couple of questions as a new player to Ticket to Ride Europe.

How many points do you score if the route you claim does not match the scoring table e.g. 5, 7, 9+ trains to create a route across multiple stations? I read somewhere that a 5 train route = 10pts but elsewhere that this has been removed on the Europe edition. If removed then I don’t understand if it means you can’t claim a 5 train route e.g. 4 + 1 or you just have to take the points for 4 trains even though putting down 5. And earlier I put down 12 trains in one go but had no idea how to score it. The rules don’t mention anything about scoring routes that don’t match the table. And you must be able to go across multiple stations in one go as there are no 8 train routes that don’t go across a station in between.
I assume this isn’t possible and needs to be done in 2 turns, but wanted to check... if I have a route already claimed, am I able to add another route at the beginning of it and a route at the end of it in one turn since it creates one continuous route? If so, how is it scored?

Thanks

It seems you have some misunderstandings regarding how to play Ticket To Ride: Europe. You cannot ever claim more than one route in your turn.

You can do one, and only one, of these actions in your turn From the Rulebook, page 3:

  On his turn, a player must perform one
  (and only one) of the following four actions:

  Draw Train Car Cards: The player may draw two Train cards (or just
  one, if the card he selects is a face-up Locomotive. See Locomotives
  for special rules);
  Claim a Route: The player claims a route on the
  board by playing a set of Train cards from his hand that match the
  color and quantity of the spaces that make up the route. He places
  one of his colored trains on each space, and scores the number of
  points indicated on the Route Scoring Table for that route’s length;
  Draw Destination Tickets: The player draws three Destination Tickets
  from the top of the Tickets deck, and must keep at least one of them;
  Build a Train Station: – The player may build a Station in any city
  that does not yet have one. To build his first Train Station, the
  player plays one Train card of any color and places one of his Train
  Stations on that city. To build his second station, a player must
  play a set of two cards of the same color, and to build his third
  station a set of three cards of the same color

There is actually a route of 8 spaces, it's the tunnel between Stockholm and Petrograd.

On defining a route, page 4:

  A route is a set of continuous colored spaces (in some instances, gray
  spaces) between two adjacent cities on the map. To claim a route, a player
  must play a set of Train cards whose color and quantity match the color
  and number of spaces of the chosen route.

There are no 5 train routes in TTR: Europe, so that's why there's no scoring for that number. So both 1) and 2) on your question aren't possible.

On scoring, page 7:

  When a player claims a route, he immediately scores the number of points indicated
  on the Route Scoring Table for the length of the route he just claimed.

You score immediately for the size of the route you claimed, and since you can only claim one route, you can score only within the table.


In Puerto Rico, during the Settlers phase, are players required to pick a plantation In Puerto Rico, during the Settlers phase, are players required to pick a plantation? Do they have the option to skip picking a plantation?

No, the players are not required to pick a plantation.

From the rules, emphasis mine:

  The player who chooses this role may take either a quarry tile as his privilege or one of the face-up plantation tiles and place it on any empty island space on his player board. Afterwards, each other player, in clockwise order, may take one of the face-up plantation tiles (not a quarry tile! - exception: construction hut) and place it on any empty island space on his player board.


How do you identify what series a Pokemon card is from? Just from looking at the Pokemon card, is it possible to determine what series the card is from e.g. Hidden Fates, Steam Siege etc.? The copyright states the year but not which release quarter the card is from.

Each card contains a logo indicating which set it is from.  This image was taken from here.  A list of all the set logos is available here.   I know link only answers are discouraged but there are many of these and can easily be googled.


Brokering three-party deals in Bohnanza I was playing Bohnanza with some family, my brother-in-law kept trying to negotiate three-party trades. I felt like this was against the rules but as long as everyone's trades were planted at the end I let him get away with it.

E.g.

  Mom, I'll give you a red bean if you give sis a soy bean. And sis you give me a garden bean.

Is this against the rules? Should I have stopped him?

All trades must be between the active player and a single player.

Further, any traded beans must be immediately planted, so you cannot receive a bean in trade and then trade away that same bean.

The best you can do is

give your red bean to Mom (you are allowed to trade something for
nothing)
sister gives you a garden bean
when it is your mother or your sister's turn, hope that they complete the trade; note that there is no obligation to do so.


Munchkin "Insurance Rep" bad things I have the German version of the game so the card may be named differently in the original or might not exist at all. The card "Versicherungsvertreter" says under "bad things" that you lose items worth at least 1000 gold. If you don't have that much then you lose everything.

What does it mean by "lose everything"?

Lose all your items carried and still in your hand
Lose all your items and your entire hand
Lose every card in your possession
Lose every card and all your levels

Items in your hand are safe from game effects unless explicitly targeted by the card description. I can't reach the rules from here, but that's made pretty clear - in the English rules, at least.

So my answer would be: Lose all items currently in your character's possession, whether equipped or merely carried.

Only items should be lost in this case - the character's class and race should be safe from the insurance industry.


Does Fumigate deal damage? During my opponent's turn, he plays Fumigate to wipe the board. I respond with Repel the Abominable.  Do all of our creatures die, or do none die?

Fumigate:

  Destroy all creatures. You gain 1 life for each creature destroyed this way.

Repel the Abominable:

  Prevent all damage that would be dealt this turn by non-Human sources.

Fumigate does no damage; it destroys. All the creatures die; Repel the Abominable does nothing to stop it. If you wanted to keep your creatures, you'd have to seek another means of preventing their destruction, such as by regenerating your creatures (e.g. Dark Dabbling) or making them indestructible (e.g. Boros Charm). For thoroughness, protection wouldn't work.

Damage can lead to a creature being destroyed, but being destroyed doesn't necessarily have to involve any damage at all.

If it did do damage, it'd say so: Wave of Reckoning and Blasphemous Act are board wipes that deal damage.


Sacrificing an attacking creature that should die In a recent game, my opponent declared his attacker with a (5/5) creature and I declared my blocker with a (2/3). I then played an Instant to make my (2/3) into a (5/3). Then my opponent used an Instant to sacrifice a creature and draw a card. He then claimed that my creature should die because his (5/5) went against my (5/3).
My question now is, shouldn't his creature have died and therefore not be able to sacrifice it anymore?
Or is it still possible for him to do AND take the combat damage AND sacrifice his creature?

He can either trade creatures, or he can sacrifice his creature, but not both.

During the declare blockers step, after declaring blockers but before the combat damage, you have a chance to cast spells and activate abilities. If at this point he sacrifices his creature, then it will no longer be around in the combat damage step and won't deal any combat damage to the creature blocking it.

If on the other hand he does nothing and lets combat damage happen, his 5/5 will have 5 damage marked on it and before he gets a chance to do anything, it will die. (Precisely, it will die when state-based actions are checked during the combat damage step just before players would get priority and be able to cast spells and activate abilities. By the time they get that chance, it's already dead.)

As doppelgreener pointed out, a long time ago combat damage actually did use the stack and could be responded to. Back then, this meant those two creatures could put 5 damage on the stack to be dealt to each other like any other ability, and then before it was dealt one of them could be sacrificed, and the damage would still get dealt. That hasn't been true since 2009, but it's possible your opponent hasn't kept up with rules since then!


What happens when you can't move a piece on your turn Most of the times, I can't leave a terrirtory because it's being defended. Therefor I'm not able to move.

So, what happens when you can't move an army on your turn? Do you allow your opponent the next move?

It sounds like you have some misunderstanding of the rules, since the situation you describe can never occur (at least at the beginning of your turn). Whenever an enemy attacks one of your territories, the battle is always fully resolved immediately until either the attacker or defender has lost all their troops. Thus by the time your turn starts, every territory that still has any of your troops in it will NEVER have any enemy troops in it as well. Next, at the beginning of your turn, you always receive some reinforcements. Thus after placing reinforcements you will always have at least one territory which has more than a single troop in it. You are only required to leave one troop behind to 'defend' each territory, so at this point there are always some spare troops you can use to make at least one attack on your turn.

After one or more attacks, you may find that all your territories have only one troop left at which point yes you must end your turn.


How can I determine the value of very rare cards? I recently bought a large collection of very old Magic cards. While sorting through them, I found two cards that I don't have an immediate answer for their value.

(Promo from the first Pro Tour, in 1996)

(Autographed Blue Ward (might be Dan Frazier, revised))

Google / magiccards.info didn't have any information.

tcgplayer.com came up with this result, a 'Collectors Edition' Winter Orb,
but that page says that the card type is 'Continuous Artifact' and has different text for the ability.

Is there a concrete way to determine the values of these cards?

The only way to attempt to determine a concrete value for a card is to find it's price in a large market place where market forces (supply & demand) have determined the value of the listed cards.

Europe's biggest trading site, magiccardmarket.eu, is very comprehensive in the cards that it lists. They have one of the best listings of uncommon sets.
There the winter orb from the World Championship Deck's in near mint condition is ~2€

As my predecessor already mentioned, it is not tournament legal (only white and black bordered cards are).

Nevertheless, gold border cards are a cheap alternative for players building a draft-cube or for any other non-tournament use.


Does Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker's first ability trigger "enters the battlefield" effects? Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker has the ability

  [+1]: Until end of turn, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker becomes a legendary 4/4 red Dragon creature with flying, indestructible, and haste. (He doesn't lose loyalty while he's not a planeswalker.)

If I were to have Temur Ascendancy in play when I trigger this ability, do I get to draw a card?

  Whenever a creature with power 4 or greater enters the battlefield under your control, you may draw a card.

No, Sarkhan's ability does not trigger enters-the-battlefield abilities because he is already on the battlefield. He changes type and gains abilities but he is still the same object.

An enters-the-battlefield trigger is what is called a zone-change trigger. Rule 603.6a describes these triggers:

  Enters-the-battlefield abilities trigger when a permanent enters the battlefield. These are written, "When [this object] enters the battlefield, ..." or "Whenever a [type] enters the battlefield, ..." Each time an event puts one or more permanents onto the battlefield, all permanents on the battlefield (including the newcomers) are checked for any enters-the-battlefield triggers that match the event.

Sarkhan's ability changes his characteristics. Those are defined in rule 109.3:

  An object's characteristics are name, mana cost, color, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, abilities, power, toughness, loyalty, hand modifier, and life modifier. Objects can have some or all of these characteristics. Any other information about an object isn't a characteristic. For example, characteristics don't include whether a permanent is tapped, a spell's target, an object's owner or controller, what an Aura enchants, and so on.

The highlighted characteristics cover everything that Sarkhan's ability sets. More specifically, the ability creates a continuous effect that modifies those characteristics. Rule 110.3 says

  A nontoken permanent's characteristics are the same as those printed on its card, as modified by any continuous effects. See rule 613, "Interaction of Continuous Effects."

So Sarkhan is still the same permanent, but once the ability resolves there is a new continuous effect that is modifying its characteristics.


If my creature is temporarily under my opponents control, and it dies, do they get the ‘when this creature dies’ effect or do I? If my opponent takes control of my creature with Act of Treason, or a similar spell, and the creature they take control dies, do I control the when this creature dies effects, or does my opponent?
For example, my opponent takes control of my Roalesk, Apex Hybrid, with an act of treason, then kills it, does he get to proliferate twice or do I?

Whoever controls a creature when it dies controls the triggered abilities that creature has that happen when it dies, just like any other triggered ability. Like most abilities that involve a creature dying, the game looks at the last known information for that creature while it was on the battlefield, in this case it cares about who controlled that creature when the ability triggered, not who's graveyard it goes into.
To answer the specific question, since your opponent controlled it when Roalesk died, your opponent will get to proliferate twice.


Do I lose a card if I roll 3 bad luck symbols and spend some of them? If I buy Pension, which costs two bad luck symbols, do I still suffer misfortune because I initially rolled 3 bad luck symbols? The rules state that you select cards as step 2 and then resolve bad luck as step 3. It says

  for every 3 bad luck symbols which a player has from dice and tokens, the player suffers misfortune

So, does he still "have" them when he's spent them to select the cards in step two?

Yes, you still suffer it. Clarified on the back of the rulebook:

  Pension
  – This card costs 2 bad luck. If the player rolled
  3
  bad luck (causing misfortune and the loss of some card),
  the
  player can still use 2 of those bad lucks to buy this card

Although it's true that misfortune happens after buying cards but before adding them to your CV, which is a very weird phrasing indeed, you have to suffer it even if you had previously "spent" two bad luck faces for the pension. Spending dice doesn't mean that you never rolled them.


How can I make a creature a Horror? I was wondering whether there is a card that can make a creature a horror in addition to its other types. The card type does not matter. Is there a card like this?

Yes: Xenograft is an enchantment that adds a creature type of your choice to all your creatures. There are also many cards that add all creature types to one or more creatures, including the creature cards Amoeboid Changeling and Mirror Entity, and the instants Blades of Velis Vel and Shields of Velis Vel.


You may destroy target base - can this destroy outposts before combat damage is done? Some cards have an ability - 'you may destroy target base'. The rules say that a ships primary ability is triggered immediately when it is played. If I use a ship with that ability and combat points, can I destroy an opponent's outpost using this ability, before using my combat points to damage my opponent's authority or another base, or are the combat points immediately used on the outpost?

My understanding is that both the combat points and the text ability are used effectively simultaneously, so I can choose to do either first.

If that is correct, what about the case of the Blob Destroyer, where the base-destroying ability is only activated when the second Blob ship/base is out? Do I have to play the Blob Destroyer after another blob to take advantage of this ability on the outpost, leaving myself in the situation of deciding which Blob's combat points to waste on the outpost before it is destroyed?

You can destroy the base first.  There is no requirement that combat points be used immediately.

From the Two Player rules link at http://www.starrealms.com/learn-to-play/

If an ability grants Combat or trade, that resource goes into a resource pool, which can be used at any point during the Main Phase.

Note that the electronic version of the game acts the same way.


Flash Point without the Deck Gun? I've played a dozen or so games of Flash Point so far and always find it necessary to have someone be the Driver/Operator, stay in the firetruck, and just use the Deck Gun all game. The right roll can put out five fires at once, the Driver/Operator can use the gun twice per turn, and there's the option to re-roll both attempts at no cost. In other words, it seems like the Driver/Operator is overpowering but essential to the game.

What changes can I make to the rules or to my general strategy if I want to remove the Driver/Operator and still keep the building from collapsing?

This is just off the top of my head, but if the issue you're having is that someone needs to be 'stuck' there, then how about giving everyone a special action to skip their whole turn to "radio the driver" to take the action.  This way, effectively, any player can be it without having to be in the truck, and people can take turns.   Try it out, and if it makes the game easier use the game's built in difficulty modification to re-adjust it harder.


I have the Alhambra base set only, in which order should I buy the expansions? I have the Alhambra base game, and now I'm curious about the expansions:

In what order would you suggest I buy the expansions?
What does each one add to the game?
How do the added components affect the gameplay?

Feel free to comment about any of them that you have as I know not many people may not have all of them.

Here are summaries of five of the Alhambra expansions with links to detailed video reviews by Tom Vasel. He gives opinions on which ones are the best and which ones are not worth it. I've included some highlights from each video. I recommend watching and deciding for yourself. All quotes are from Tom Vasel.

Expansion 1 "The Vizier's Favor"

Alhambra Expansion 1 Review

On BoardGameGeek rating as of 2012-11-09: 6.09/10

Overall

  Expansion one is my least favorite of the five expansions  … if I was buying the expansions separately I think I would skip … as part of the Big Box, fine

"The Vizier's Favor" allows players to buy a token out of turn once with exact change. May refresh the ability at the cost of all their actions on a future turn.

  Ok … would use occasionally, but not one that I would get too attached to

"Currency Exchange" cards are shuffled into deck, can be taken instead of a currency card. Can be used to allow use of currency of one color for a different color as shown on card.

  I like this module … best module from the first expansion … a lot of fun … would play with these much of the time

"Bonus Cards" cards that show specific buildings are dealt secretly to each player at beginning of game. During scoring if you have built the building shown on your card you may reveal it to count as an extra building of that type.

  By far my least favorite of all the modules for all the expansions … for the most part [it never matters]

"The Workers Huts" new building tiles that are placed in stacks beside board. You may take a hut for free, but are limited to three per player. During scoring is worth as many buildings as the number of adjacent buildings of the same color.

  An expansion I use all the time

Expansion 2 "The City Gates"

Alhambra Expansion 2 Review

On BoardGameGeek rating as 2012-11-09: 7.11/10

Overall

  If you only get one expansion … then expansion two by far is the best one

"The City Gates" cards are shuffled into the deck, may be taken when revealed. Allows you to place a gate token over walls to ignore them when building.

  If you find yourself hemmed in and you need to add more tiles, this is an excellent expansion in that regard … really cool pieces … a module that I really like

"The Diamonds" new currency shuffled into the deck, essentially wild cards, can be used as any currency, but cannot be combined with regular currency.

  I really enjoy the extra currency. This is another module that I really enjoy and it's one that I will almost always stick in the deck.

"The Characters" several characters are shuffled into the deck, when one is revealed there is an auction for character. The bids must be single color currency. Each character grants owner special abilities.

  Something I like using, I won't use it all the time … it adds special powers to the game

"The Camps" camp tiles are added to the bag. Must be placed with wall adjacent to a wall of your alhambra. During scoring you get points for each tile in the row or column indicated by the camp.

  My favorite module, I almost always play with this module because it adds a lot of enjoyment even though it's a simple change …

Expansion 3 "The Thief's Turn"

Alhambra Expansion 3 Review

On BoardGameGeek rating as of 2012-11-09: 7.03/10

Overall

  My second favorite expansion … the main reason is the coin module

"The City Walls" cards are shuffled into the deck, may be taken when revealed. If taken you will place walls onto a tile already on the board as indicated by the card.

  There's an module in expansion four … this is a good combination with that … I use City Walls sometimes … it just feels a little fiddly

"The Thieves" cards that show a a specific currency are dealt randomly to each player at the beginning of the game. You may play the card out of turn to take a currency of the indicated color.

  It's okay … but it has a limited amount of uses.

"The Change" coins in each currency are placed into a bag. When you buy a tile, if you overpay for every two currency you overpay you may draw one coin from the bag. Coins may be used as one currency of the indicated type.

  This is super fun and makes it into almost every game I play … neat idea

"The Street Trader" a market tile allows you to place meeples on tiles you build under certain conditions. During scoring sets of different colored meeples are worth points.

  An interesting idea but changes Alhambra to a huge degree … it feels very convoluted … it takes away from everything else

Expansion 4 "The Treasure Chamber"

Alhambra Expansion 4 Review

On BoardGameGeek rating as of 2012-11-08: 7.10/10

Overall

  I like the fourth expansion almost as much as I like the third … some decent ideas in this expansion

"The Treasure Chamber" different colored treasure chests are placed randomly in lots of four on a treasure chamber board. You may use your turn to pay 8 currency of any color to buy a lot of treasure chests and place them on buildings in your alhambra of matching colors, extras are discarded. During scoring the player with the most treasure chests earns points.

  I like the treasure chests, it adds a lot to the game without making it too complicated

"The Master Builders" cards are given to the players and added to the deck. They can be used as three currency of the indicated color, or can be used to take an extra realignment action.

  I like having all the extra threes in the deck … it's not the greatest of the modules but it's a good one

"The Invaders" In each scoring round a card is revealed to show which direction invaders will attack. Tiles that do not have walls in the direction of the attack lose points. Scout cards help to learn the direction of the impending attack.

  It's a neat idea, and yet one of my least favorite of the modules … everyone gets so worried about the attacks and the points they take off aren't really that big of a deal

"The Bazaars" bazaar tiles indicating three colors and a currency are added to the bag. When they are revealed they may be bought with exact change of the currency indicated. At the end of the game the bazaar is worth points based on adjacent buildings matching the indicated colors.

  I really enjoy it because it allows you to build your alhambra bigger … they encourage diversity … I really do enjoy playing with [this one]

Expansion 5 "Power of the Sultan"

Alhambra Expansion 5 Review

On BoardGameGeek rating as of 2012-11-09: 7.04/10

Overall

  Should have stopped while they were ahead, I almost want to call this the convoluted expansion … I'm not a huge fan of expansion five … there's some neat things in it that I can use … it seems like they're running out of ideas

"The New Score Cards" new score card tiles allow for building colors to be valued randomly for each scoring round.

  This adds some variety … I like this, it makes you look ahead … a good expansion, one I use quite often

"The Power of the Sultan" a sultan card and die allow for a tile of a specific color to be taken for free.

  A bit of forward planning … it feels kind of odd … it's not one that I want to use very often … the amount of work put into it doesn't seem to be worth the payoff

"The Caravanserai" a card can be purchased that can be used for different, increasingly valuable currencies each turn.

  Like a constantly recharging currency … not as great as you might think because while it's reusable it does take a while to [gain value] … despite all that I like it … not one that I would use all the time

"The Art of the Moors" playing matching tiles can lead to points at the end of the game through some complicated mechanics. Also has some tile reference cards that are useful regardless of expansions in use.

  In essence, a very convoluted … way to score the tiles by numbers in addition to scoring them by colors … I don't really know what to think about that … too complicated


Does the Event Card have to be drawn first when encountering a Town space in A Touch of Evil? Last night we had one player move to the Doctor's Office Town space with one wound left. He wanted to use the special ability of the Doctor's Office prior to drawing an event card so that he could heal himself before encountering something from the event deck that could potentially cause damage to his character and possibly kill him off. At the time, we ruled that he would have to take the event card first since it is the first thing listed on the text for the space. As it turns out, he ended up drawing a "Duel of Honor" card. While he did survive the encounter (barely), he very well could have been killed. Should we have allowed him to heal his character first instead?

Generally, I would say that since the drawing of the event card is mandatory and the heal action is optional, the drawing of the event card happens first. However, the rules do say:

  The town of Shadowbrook is divided
  into a number of spaces.  Each of these
  spaces allows the Hero to draw an Event
  card when Encountering the space as well
  as a special ability that can be used when
  Encountering the space.

and

  Every other named space
  has game text printed on the board.  To
  Encounter any of these spaces, follow the
  game text listed there.  You will notice that
  most of the Town spaces also have one or
  more special abilities which may be used
  while Encountering the Space (for instance,
  at the Doctor’s Office you may Heal and
  /or Cure a Curse in addition to the Draw
  an Event game text).  These Town space
  special abilities are always optional.

That kind of sounds like the intent of the special abilities may be to help deal with the event cards drawn during the encounter. If that's the interpretation, I'd rule that you can heal first, but that might be a bit of a stretch. "Encountering the space" seems to mean the entire interaction with the space, not just the event card.

Since there isn't a definitive answer in anything I can find, I'd go with the rule-of-thumb that mandatory happens before optional.


Does the priority antenna direct a line straight toward the main board before sweeping clockwise? In Roborally 2016, page 4 of the rules states to

  ...imagine an invisible line pointing straight out from the antenna's dish. Once this line reaches the tied robots, it moves clockwise, and the tied robots have priority according to the order in which the line reaches them.

Their example claims Zoom Bot goes first as a result of this algorithm, yet Zoom Bot is first in the counter clockwise direction, unless I am misunderstanding.  Basically Zoom Bot is around the hour hand's "11:30" on the clock and Smash Bot is at "12:30".  Is the example wrong or does the antenna actually face a different direction than toward the board?

The antenna can face in any direction. Here's a crappy image I tossed together in paint:

Assuming the antenna is facing the direction of the arrow priority would be resolved in the order indicated.

That said, I strongly suggest you ignore the priority rules (except in case of resolving ties) and resolve priority in the order: Power ups -> Move 3 -> Move 2 -> Move 1 -> Backup -> Turns. Agains resolve at the priority of the move they are copying. This will make your game go much faster, and won't appreciably change the game play... If you program spam cards, resolve them first, then take your turn as normal (this includes virus!)


How can I add a taste of adventure games to my game? I'm designing a card game based on an ancient fairy tale book. So far my game consists of some hero or character cards with 3 attribute: coins, strength and intelligence. And there are quest cards with the same 3 attributes and what you do is to pick character cards and when you reach to a quest card level, make it complete and then you do that card's actions.

My game at this time is basically a hand management game and somewhat similar to games like splendor and "Quests of Valeria".

But what if I want to add a taste of adventure games to the game with heroes, quests, items, treasures and so on? I still insist on it being a card game without a board.

How can I make my game a little bit more adventur"ish"?

This is an interesting scenario. The first idea that sprung to mind would be to have a set of cards that relate to each other specifically. Each card in the set needs a certain criteria to be met to allow you to then search the deck for another card in the set. The harder the "quest" is the more cards there are in the set that you need to complete the adventure.

On reflection, this seems more like a lore issue than a mechanical issue. The wording on the "adventure cards" may be the best place to include your adventuring aspects. Maybe have "Scenario" cards that explain a certain journey and need choices to be made at certain points (Maybe drawing from two separate decks that accompany the scenario cards?). These choices determine the outcome of the adventure.

This is only a brainstorm. I'd like to think I could come up with more ideas. If so I will update the answer.