Do I know which card an opponent revealed? When an opponent reveals a card in their hand, are players supposed to know when that card changes zones?

My instinct says no because

  400.5. The order of objects in a library, in a graveyard, or on the stack can’t be changed except when effects or rules allow it. The same is true for objects arranged in face-down piles in other zones. Other objects in other zones can be arranged however their owners wish, although who controls those objects, whether they’re tapped or flipped, and what other objects are attached to them must remain clear to all players.

However, rearranging objects doesn't necessarily mean making your opponent lose track of them. In MTG Arena, a card revealed is shown face up in your opponent's hand at all times. Thus, you know if the card leaves their hand. A good practical example of this mattering might be:

Your opponent returns shock from their graveyard to their hand. Later, they draw one or more cards, then cast shock. They either A) cast the shock that was revealed, or B) drew another shock and cast it.

A savvy player will probably cast the one that was revealed, but some players may accidentally cast the recently drawn one instead. In MTG Arena, I would know if this is the case, because there would be a shock on the stack, and a shock card revealed in their hand.

In normal Magic, is there supposed to be a way of remembering which one the revealed card is? Or is this a place where the gameplay of MTG Arena differs from regular MTG?

You only know a revealed card for the duration that it remains revealed.

The example of Shock moving from the graveyard to the hand is a bit nuanced (since the card isn't technically revealed, mechanically), so I'm going to start with a more direct representation of the question and move from there. Let's say you cast a card like Thoughtseize which causes your opponent to reveal their hand. In MTG Arena, this is represented by the game revealing all of those cards to you from that point onward. However, that's not quite feasible in paper Magic - in the vast majority of cases, you'll pick a card for your opponent to discard, and then they'll go back to holding their hand towards themselves. That is, even though the information was revealed to you, by default you don't continue to be able to see those cards. It would be impractical for the opponent to hold newly drawn cards in their hand and simultaneously have those previously revealed cards lying on the table, for example. The information is known, but it's up to you to remember what that information was.

When I was playing Standard regularly (circa Theros) and my opponents cast Thoughtseize targeting me, I would show my opponent my hand, and they would use a notepad to write down the cards that they saw. Later, as I played those cards, they would scratch off the name of the card that I played if it was in that list. This, I believe, is what the functionality of MTG Arena seeks to emulate. Knowing that information was revealed to you, but misremembering it, feels bad. Arena can leverage its nature as a computer game to assist you with that, by making sure that you don't forget what cards were revealed. (There are other aspects it helps you with, too -- in real life, the cards you can cast don't glow.)

Rule-wise, of particular interest are the rules for revealing cards:

  701.15a To reveal a card, show that card to all players for a brief time. If an effect causes a card to be revealed, it remains revealed
  for as long as necessary to complete the parts of the effect that card
  is relevant to. If the cost to cast a spell or
  activate an ability includes revealing a card, the card remains
  revealed from the time the spell or ability is announced until the
  time it leaves the stack. If revealing a card causes a
  triggered ability to trigger, the card remains revealed until that
  triggered ability leaves the stack. If that ability isn’t put onto the
  stack the next time a player would receive priority, the card ceases
  to be revealed.

  701.15b Revealing a card doesn’t cause it to leave the zone it’s in.

  701.15c If cards in a player’s library are shuffled or otherwise reordered, any revealed cards that are reordered stop being revealed
  and become new objects.

The phrasing of 701.15a makes it pretty clear that a revealed card is only revealed for a short amount of time, and then ceases to be a revealed card. You know what the card is because it was revealed, and can do whatever you want with that information (such as write it down), but it doesn't stay revealed after that. By extension, cards moving from a public zone to a hidden zone (rule 400.2) work very much the same way. Everyone is allowed to know what that card is as it moves into the zone, but after that, it becomes hidden.

Some relevant excerpts from Rule 400 regarding public and hidden zones:

  400.2 Public zones are zones in which all players can see the cards’ faces, except for those cards that some rule or effect specifically
  allow to be face down. Graveyard, battlefield, stack, exile, ante, and
  command are public zones. Hidden zones are zones in which not all
  players can be expected to see the cards’ faces. Library and hand are
  hidden zones, even if all the cards in one such zone happen to be
  revealed.

  [...]

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

To use your example, let's say your opponent uses Call to Mind to return Shock from their graveyard to their hand. During the announcement of the spell (rule 601.2c), they would choose the target for it - Shock. Because the card is targeted, everyone inside and outside the game knows which spell is going back to their hand. As soon as Call to Mind resolves, the Shock is moved to their hand, where it becomes hidden along with all the other cards they hold. You know what card it is, but it is now part of a hidden zone, and there are no other effects requiring the card to remain revealed. You don't get to see it once it's back in their hand.


MTG - Does this do an infinite combo? Devil's play + Sevinne Chronoclasm + Geistblast from graveyard + Twinning Staff The situation:

I cast Devil's Play for x = 3.
I cast Geistblast for its copy effect from my graveyard.
Sevinne, the Chronoclasm triggers on the 1st cast from graveyard instant/sorcery - I get 1 extra geistblast, targeting the devil's play
Twinning Staff triggers - I get another Geistblast targeting the devil's play
I now have 3 geistblasts that copy devils play . So I get 4 instances of devils play
Twinning staff triggers again. I now have 3 possibilities:

A) - Devil's play gets copied only one additional time, for a total of 5. Because twinning staff reads: "If you would copy a spell one or more times, instead copy it that many times plus an additional time". Devils Play will get copied 3 times by the 3 geistblasts, thus it has already been copied 'one or more times'.
B) - Each of the 3 geistblasts is a new trigger for twinning staff so I get 3 extra copies of those 3 geistblasts for a total of 7 devils plays
C) - If B is true and A is false, then I could also make the "Sevinne geistblast" target the original geistblast for an infinite loop of "copy geistblasts". However, this infinite loop gets me no profit. But, because I have twinning staff out, each time a "copied geistblast", targets the original geistblast, twinning staff triggers, netting me 2 geistblasts each time. Half of them go towards the infinite loop, the other half go to Devil's play for infinite damage.
Which of these options is correct?

No, because Geistblast is not cast. Its ability

{2}{U}, Exile Geistblast from your graveyard: Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copy.

is an activated ability, not an alternative casting cost. Therefore Sevinne is not triggered and your chain falls apart at step 3.


How does Piracy work? I just stumbled across a card I've never seen, Piracy.

  UU, Sorcery
  Until end of turn, you may tap lands you don't control for mana. Spend this mana only to cast spells.

This would have been interesting back in the days of mana burn, but now it seems like this card boils down to "Tap all mana-producing lands your opponents control". I can't see a situation where the opposing player's correct response wouldn't be to simply tap all their lands. If they don't, Piracy's controller can just do it. Or can they?

  Spend this mana only to cast spells.

Does this mean they can't just float the mana and not use it? I would think that you could since it says spend which implies that the restriction is only on what you actually spend the mana on.

Is my take on this card correct? (and is there anything interesting you can do with this?)

The correct response as an opponent is to tap all lands they control.

No, fizzle means to counter a spell on resolution. This is the result of a spell having zero legal targets. This spell isn't targeted, so it cannot fizzle. Since the Magic 2010 rules changes, mana burn no longer exists, so your opponents can just tap all their lands for mana to prevent someone else using the mana to cast their own spells.

If your opponents allow the spell to resolve and take no actions, the player that cast Piracy is likely the active player, which means that they would receive priority to cast spells. This would allow them to use any opponent's land to pay for casting their own spells.

No, there isn't anything interesting you can do with this spell now, it is a {U}{U} spell that taps your opponents out.


How to win 2 player Pandemic as Quarantine Specialist and Contingency Planner When playing with just two players in vanilla pandemic, what strategies are best when the the player's roles are contingency planner and quarantine specialist? Who should be doing what?

The contingency planner should ALWAYS have an event card on his character. This frees up cards in his/her hand. It's hard to say whether one or the other should be dedicated to finding cures, it'll most likely depend on who can draw similar colors. The Contingency planner will have a slight advantage in holding cards for cures since both player's event cards can be played then saved on his character card for later use (one at a time obviously).

Quarantine Specialist obviously needs to go where the most cubes are being placed, and would probably be wise to be in charge of erecting research centers to allow quick access to the regions most susceptible to outbreaks.

The tricky dynamic with 2 players is, of course, not wasting cards by having to discard from being over the limit which can often happen when a player is saving for more than 1 cure. So open communication will be critical to prevent those kinds of situations from happening.

Hope this helps...


Why does cribbage have 2 pegs for scoring per player? In a game of cribbage, on a basic board, you have some holes for scoring and you move your peg up the board as you score.

This can be achieved with a single peg but I have only seen it where each player has 2 pegs.  I am aware that there can be more than 2 pegs but I'm referring to the in game scoring (if that makes sense).

Wikipedia states

  Two pegs are used in a leapfrog fashion, so that if a player loses track during the count one peg still marks the previous score

There sadly is no citation for this claim and any game with a similar scoring mechanism can lose its place, assuming that "track" as per the quote means concentration and not track around the board.

What is the purpose of the 2 pegs?

It is exactly as Wikipedia states, the second peg is used to keep track of the previous score in order to prevent mistakes in scoring. Don't forget that since the score is calculated frequently and there are no marks on the cribbage board indicating place it can be very easy to lose track of where you where starting from.

Wiki

  Visually, cribbage is known for its scoring board—a series of holes ("streets") on which the score is tallied with pegs (also known as "spilikins").[10] Scores can be kept on a piece of paper, but a cribbage board is almost always used, since scoring occurs throughout the game, not just at the conclusion of hands as in most other card games. Points are registered as having been scored by "pegging" along the crib board. Two pegs are used in a leapfrog fashion, so that if a player loses track during the count one peg still marks the previous score. Some boards have a "game counter" with many additional holes for use with a third peg to count the games won by each side.

Note in the full quote it does say in there that the scoring can be done on paper but is frequently not done that way because of how fast the score changes.

As a side note most how to play videos that I have seen use 1 peg to show the current score and the second peg to show the previous score. When they score again they just move the peg in the old score to the new position.

Example Video


House of Music + Witch's Hut House of Music guild card states:
"Whenever you use the Tavern, you may also capture a monster from the Forest or fight a captured monster."
Witch's Hut location states:
"Use the ability at the Location of the King's Guard"

So, do I get to capture/fight a monster when using the Witch's Hut, and the King's Guard is at the tavern? I don't know if "use the ability" and "use the location" are synonymous. (Normally' it's irrelevant, because you can't separate the two ideas.)
This Q/A is related, but not the same.

Yes, "use the location" is short for "use the ability at the location".
See this usage from the designer's posts here and here.
The designer refers to this variously as (emphasis added):

using the ability at the location is optional.

location ability may be used

You can use the forest but decide not to defeat anything

So when you activate it ...


Timing of the activated abilities of creatures I have a card with the following ability:

  {T}: Target creature you control gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn.

If a white card like Pacifism has been attached to the creature, am I able to tap the creature in order to give it protection from white and thus removing the white spell?

Yes, you can do that. In fact, you don't need to do it in response. If at any time the creature with Pacifism on it gets protection from white, the Pacifism will no longer be legally attached to the creature, so the Pacifism will "fall off" and go to the graveyard.
The rules for protection include these:

702.16b A permanent or player with protection can’t be targeted by spells with the stated quality and can’t be targeted by abilities from a source with the stated quality.
702.16c A permanent or player with protection can’t be enchanted by Auras that have the stated quality. Such Auras attached to the permanent or player with protection will be put into their owners’ graveyards as a state-based action. (See rule 704, “State-Based Actions.”)

So, if your opponent casts Pacifism targeting a creature, and you activate the creature's ability, then Pacifism can't target the creature anymore, so it will be countered. If you activate the ability after the Pacifism is attached to the creature, the Pacifism will no longer be legally attached to the creature, so it will be put into its owner's graveyard.
The situation is slightly different if the "pacify" effect in question is a card like Arrest that says that the creature's "activated abilities can't be activated". In that case, once it is attached to the creature, the creature won't be able to activate the ability that grants protection, so in that case you would need to activate the ability in response to the aura spell.


Marionette Master + Mana Tokens (Gold, Treasure, etc.) The card Marionette Master states:

  Whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, target opponent loses life equal to Marionette Master’s power.

Are Ixalan Treasure tokens, Tezzerat Ethereum Cells, etc. considered "put into graveyard" when tapped for mana and sacrificed.

Yes.
"Artifact" means "artifact permanent", which means "artifact card or token on the battlefield".

109.2. If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn’t include the word “card,” “spell,” “source,” or “scheme,” it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.
110.1. A permanent is a card or token on the battlefield. [...]

To sacrifice a permanent, it is moved to the graveyard.

701.15a To sacrifice a permanent, its controller moves it from the battlefield directly to its owner’s graveyard. [...]

In fact, you can't sacrifice an object unless it's a permanent you control.

701.15a [...] A player can’t sacrifice something that isn’t a permanent, or something that’s a permanent he or she doesn’t control. [..]

So if you have sacrificed an artifact token, you have put an artifact you control into a graveyard from the battlefield, so your Marionette Master's triggered ability will trigger.


Computer Scrabble UI & communication protocol? I've recently gotten into playing Scrabble and I was wondering, what's the deal with Scrabble programs? I come from the world of computer chess where chess engines are distributed independently from the user interface (UI). The engines communicate with the UI with one of two standards: the Chess Engine Communication Protocol, aka. the XBoard protocol, or the Universal Chess Interface, UCI. Now I'm wondering if Scrabble has anything like that?

Programming a simple Scrabble bot would seem like a funny exercise, but I'd rather not delve into the boring UI creation. So are there any free programs that would just display a game of Scrabble but would accept the commands from and relay them to an external program? The program should also enable the user to play against an engine. Maybe I'm using the wrong keywords or something, but Google doesn't seem to give me anything relevant.

The most widely used interchange format for Scrabble games is documented at

http://poslfit.com/scrabble/gcg/

It's used for example by cross-tables.com, Quackle, (Mike Wolfberg's program) WHAT, and proprietary software for webcasts of national and world championships.

The so-called .gcg (for "generic crossword game") format is a human-editable
text file with one line per move played so far in the game, with a list of
pragmata for identifying players, current rack if game in progress, etc.


Responding to a Triggered Ability, multiple times My opponent is at 3 life and has a Dread on board. I have a Fungal Plots, and a Slimefoot, the Stowaway, a 1/1 green Saproling token, and 8 mana open.

I attack with my token, and he blocks. My token dies, triggering Slimefoot's effect.
When Slimefoot's triggered effect resolves, this damage triggers Dread's effect.
In response to Dread's triggered effect, I use Slimefoot's token generation activated ability twice.
Then once those token generation effects resolve but before Dread's ability does, I use Fungal Plots to sac those tokens, triggering Slimefoot's effect two more times, for lethal.

Is my understanding of the rules correct that I can make this line of play?

Yes. Every time something on the stack resolves, there's another round of priority before the next thing resolves, so you can activate your creatures' abilities before the "destroy Slimefoot, the Stowaway" effect resolves.


Will a Havengul Vampire get its +1/+1 counter for killing a creature and prevent it from dying? Suppose my opponent has a Havengul Vampire, and I have a Young Wolf which has a +1/+1 counter on it so it is 2/2.

What happens if they deal damage to each other, for example during combat? Will the vampire die or not? I think that the vampire will die since at the time he would receive the +1/+1 counter for killing the wolf he is already in the graveyard. Is that right?

Yes, that's right.

As the Wolf dies the Vampire's ability will trigger and be placed on the stack.  Unfortunately, by the time you get round to resolving it, the Vampire will be in the graveyard  and unable to have a +1/+1 counter placed on it.


Agricola Family Growth importance threshold From comments and such on here and boardgamegeek.com, quickly building rooms and getting family growth seems to be just about the most important early part of Agricola. The hard part is balancing getting rooms and family growth with feeding the family.

In context of a 3 player game (no +2 of any resource you want, only +1), my other two friends and I will fight tooth and nail over reed to get those rooms out. It is to the point that there is almost never 2 reed on the reed space. If there is one reed on the action space we will not let the starting player get that two reed for that advantage, so one of us non starting players will take the single reed.

In general, we all seem to do OK as far as points go, but I am wondering if anyone can weigh in on their thoughts as to how efficient this is? Is it worth it to take a single reed twice for that first room (or even second)?

Sometimes this is easier if someone has a card that provides reed somehow, or a reduced need for reed, but there are times when none of those cards come out.

As a bonus/addon question, is it worth it to build all 5 rooms as fast as possible, or build 4 and use family growth even without room. This should be in context of both situations of having cards that give bonus points for 5 rooms, and not having those cards.

EDIT:
It seems my friends and I were playing wrong. When I learned a couple years ago, I was taught when grain was harvested, we take all 3 grain from the field at the harvest. AND, when animals bred, 2 sheep ( for example ) would make 1 more sheep, 4 sheep would make 2 more, 6 would make 3, etc...

With that being said, other actions have quite a bit more value than they did with our erroneous rules, so reed is no where NEAR of a prominent bottleneck as it was before. For instance, we now value taking that extra turn to get out the Seasonal Worker and use the Day Laborer action space more frequently.

I suppose the abstract question still exists, "Is early family growth worth taking a couple inefficient turns to get early."

The sole* value of getting family growth is having extra action. Each round that you can get family growth earlier and is one extra action you can take.

*Actually there are other reasons you might want to take family growth earlier - to block other people from taking it that round, or in order to not lose out on the three points for the family member at the end of the game, if other people take the space before you.

When weighing up whether it's worth:

a) taking resources in order to build a room (ie. wood, reed)

b) building the room/family growth

You need to consider what that one extra turn is worth.

For example:

If there is 6 wood there, is the one extra turn really worth the six wood?
If there are five sheep there, is the one extra turn worth the five sheep?
If you can see that another player is short on food, and there's four food in the fishing pond, you might consider taking taking the food as an aggressive strategy that will hurt them despite them having an extra family member.

Absolutely, generally speaking, growing your family early is a good a strategy, and extrapolating from that, that means taking the necessary resources (wood and reed) for yourself, or preventing others from getting resources is a good strategy.

This does suggest that the 'take the single reed' could possibly be a reasonable strategy - both to acquire the resource for yourself, and to prevent others from grabbing the two reed the next round.

Though - remember there is always the day labour in order to grab a single reed, and it would cripple your own game to try block both those spots each turn.

Generally I don't favour taking a single reed - there are probably better options - such as plowing fields, or taking the wood.

One better strategy, is if you are in last playing position, and there is still the one reed there, then you take starting player as your last move. This lets you grab the two reed first at the start of the next round.


Why is Wizards breaking the color pie (at least in Legacy)? Mark Rosewater, Magic head designer and weekly column writer, in many different occasions wrote about R&D will of creating the fewest number of cards that break the color pie. While I think this is a great decision, I don't understand what they are doing with blue creatures.

Blue has been since the beginning one of the strongest colors, providing card advantage, cantrips and counterspells; the drawback was having access to really bad creatures, most of which had a really high casting cost and some important drawbacks (I'm speaking of the days in which Serendib Efreet was banned for being too good).

In the last few years we have seen so many strong low casting cost blue creatures that have become format defining: Delver of Secrets is a staple in Legacy, is used in Vintage, Pauper and in few decks in Modern; despite some great graveyard hate card, Snapcaster Mage is widely used in Modern, Legacy and Vintage decks; with the print of Commander 2013 the CC3 slot has been filled with True-Name Nemesis, which has risen Esper and Patriot has some of the best decks in Legacy.

These awesome creatures in Legacy are used in decks that have access to the best cantrips ever printed (Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain), the best counterspells available (Force of Will, Daze, Counterspell), one of the best plainswalkers (Jace, the Mind Sculpture): I think that the R&D team has pushed too far this color, making it way better than the others.

Why creating great blue creatures is considered acceptable and making a green counter, a white bolt, a black cantrip and a red mana accelerator considered breaking the color pie?!

Simple: "really bad creatures" isn't part of Blue's slice of the color pie.  It's not part of any slice.  Thus, making good creatures doesn't violate the color pie, especially not when those creatures' abilities are already very color-appropriate.


Can you play Big Two with multiple decks for more than 4 players? We have 5-7 players, which is too much for one normal game and not enough for two. We could just deal less cards per player, but it would reduce the strategy involved. Are there any variants for using multiple decks?

Alternatively, are there any obvious problems with just dealing out 65-91 cards from two combined decks? We're  not concerned with the increased game length due to having more players. I'd imagine cards playing the same value would tie and therefore wouldn't be allowed after each other (i.e. you can't play a 5 of clubs on a 5 of clubs). This might also open up new poker hands (e.g. 5 of a kind)

Yes you can play big 2 with more than one deck.  I would recommend two decks for 6-8 players, three decks with 9+.  (5 player is tougher, two decks is too many, one is maybe not enough, but I would err on the side on playing one deck for five players, unless you want a particularly wild game).

Higher level hands such as 5 of a kind should be allowed.

Regarding tied cards, there are several different rules variants of how to play the game.  Some allow it, some disallow it, and some play that playing a duplicate card causes the next player in line to be 'skipped' and lose their opportunity to play.  Experiment and figure out which way your group prefers.


What is a good basic/non-basic lands ratio for Back to Basics in Commander? I recently obtained a Back to Basics and I wonder what is a good ratio of Basic/non-basic lands so it doesn't hurt me more than my opponents.

I suppose that near to 0 non-basics is a trivial answer for a mono-color deck, but I want to add it to my blue/white Commander deck. I tried to cut the less essential utility lands, but I am hesitant to take out the "dual lands" because it would increase the inconsistency of my deck.

Really it depends a lot on the meta you expect to be playing in more than the number of colors in your deck. There are cards that create a problem for you playing non-basic lands, like:

Ruination
From the Ashes
Back to Basics
Blood Moon
Detritivore
Dwarven Blastminer
Dwarven Miner
Helldozer
Trench Wurm
Shivan Harvest
Trailblazer's Boots

In that case your non-basic lands are going to be a problem, and this doesn't include non-repeatable effects that work on individual lands like Fulminator Mage and Wasteland. You could also have an issue when given the chance to look for basic lands if you have none, through effects like Path to Exile, Veteran Explorer or Collective Voyage.

However this doesn't mean you should go with only basic lands either, even if your deck is monocolored. There are also cards that can cause you issues with using basic lands, like:

Reality Twist - except for blue, Boros and Golgari
Infernal Darkness - except for black
Contamination - except for black
Naked Singularity
Sundering Titan

And for specific colors:

White - Stench of Evil, Flashfires
Blue - Boil, Boiling Seas, Tsunami, Omen of Fire, Choke, Curse of Marit Lage
Black - Karma
Red - Glaciers, Volcanic Eruption
Green - Acid Rain
One basic land name - Wake of Destruction

All of which create problems for basic typed lands, and these are just the biggest ones, there are others that just do damage for tapping land with a specific basic typed, like Scald or ones that gain the controller life when their opponents tap that land like Lifetap. Players using the upkeep spells here will also likely play Eon Hub to bypass that cost. There is no perfect answer here, there are cards that are a problem for both sides of the basic/nonbasic equation. Based on this going all one way or the other leaves you open to more problems


New Cylon Leader Objectives When playing with a cylon leader, a benign "humans win" objective generally unbalances the game. Also, the limited number of objectives makes it fairly easy to guess which the leader has.

As a result, my group has started inventing our own objectives. Each objective card has two options, one "humans win" and one "cylons win". Generally, the "humans win" objective is slightly harder. However, both force the leader to keep the game close. Finally, each objective appears on two different cards, to better hide the info.

Sample objectives include "humans win and at least 3 people have been sent to the brig / executed" or "cylons win and resources total 19+".

Any suggestions for other objectives?

The problem with Cylon Leaders is that in general they're going to unbalance the game or have no effect, since a cylon wins in a six player game is impossible at times(especially with the CFB) The notion of each card having both a human and cylon win condition is interesting, but it could just leave you where you started by unbalancing the game if they have a choice in who wins. However creating custom agendas is not a bad idea and it is something that should be pursued. Also something to keep in mind is that you could create agendas where the CL is trying to do something and it does not matter if humans or cylons win.


Which solitaire game is this? This game may not actually be an actual solitaire, as it might have been something my grandmother had me do when I was wee to keep me out of her hair.  But if anyone DOES know it, I would dearly like to know if I am forgetting some of the rules or playing it wrong.
Play: using standard 52 card deck, deal 4 cards, one into each of 4 piles.  If some of the cards have the same rank then move the matching cards to the rightmost, repeating for all matches.  Then deal another 4 cards, one onto each stack, and repeat.  If all 4 on top of a stack are the same card (four of a kind) you withdraw them from the deck entirely. You repeat until you have no more cards.
For example, if you dealt A 2 3 4, nothing would move.  If you dealt 2 3 3 4 on top of that, the left 3 would move onto the right three.  This would reveal the 2 that it had covered, and the 2 on top of the leftmost stack would shift to the right.
Once all cards are dealt, you pick them back up in sequence (This is the part I remember the least.  I THINK that the leftmost pile ends up on the 'bottom' of the new stack, and the rightmost pile on the top) and then deal through again until you win.
Thanks guys!

This is very similar to a game called "Perpetual Motion" -- the rules from Wikipedia specify gathering same-ranked cards to the left, and only allow for eliminating groups of cards if the four of a rank are dealt out to the four piles as part of a single deal.  They seem similarly unclear as to which pile should end up on top of the new stack.


What are the rules for Storm Giants? When I started looking up Warhammer 40k, I had selected the regular Space Marine book and a few models as a reference. After finding out how incredibly powerful scouts could become, I decided that a good chunk of my forces would be scouts; luckily, I found a specific chapter online that did just that: Storm Giants. Unfortunately, I found out later that Storm Giants are not a selectable chapter in the Codex, only the vastly different Storm Lords. So, considering that specific chapters in the codex get a bonus for every unit being from that chapter:

First, Are the Storm Giants listed in a specific Codex?

And second, What chapter would the Storm Giants be considered as far as bonuses go?

According to the first wiki article you linked to, Storm Giants are most likely a successor chapter of the Salamanders, which means they should probably be played using Salamanders chapter tactics.  However, also according to the same wiki article you linked to, (in universe) the true founding chapter of the Storm Giants is unknown... The fact that it is the Salamanders is just the Imperium's best guess.  So really, the Strom Giants could be a successor of any chapter, and therefore you could use any chapter tactics you desire without breaking canon.

As Aslum pointed out, the references section of the first wiki page you linked to will give you more information.

EDIT: Aslum deleted his post... However, his advice about checking out the books listed in the references section of the Storm Giants wiki page is spot on. (should you want a physical book reference)


Soul Sculptor and creatures with cast triggers Suppose Soul Sculptor has turned a Ramos, Dragon Engine into an enchantment, and the Ramos player casts a (colored) creature spell. Will they get the +1/+1 counters for it? More generally, if Soul Sculptor hits a creature that has cast triggers, will casting a creature trigger those abilities?

The dragon will get counters.

  603.10. Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions, and continuous effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like.

To determine if an event (casting a creature spell in this case) triggered any abilities, we look at the state of things immediately after that event occurred. At the time that the game checks to see if anything triggered (immediately after the event), Soul Sculptor's continuous effect has ended.

Note that reverting to a creature when the spell is cast is not a triggered ability, or any ability that uses the stack. For that to be the case, Soul Sculptor would need to be worded as a delayed trigger. Something awkward like "Target creature becomes an enchantment with no abilities. When a creature spell is cast, this effect ends."

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

Rather, it is simply a continuous effect that has a limited duration, and when the duration expires, so does the effect.

  611.2a A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability lasts as long as stated by the spell or ability creating it (such as “until end of turn”). If no duration is stated, it lasts until the end of the game.

Rule 613 explains how the current values of an object’s characteristics are determined. Immediately after a creature spell has been cast, when the game is determining what the dragon's characteristics are, it determines that the dragon is a creature with its normal abilities, because at that time, the enchantment-changing effect has ended, it is past the stated expiration point of the continuous ability.


Odds of 100% first turn accusation in Clue? Last night my family played clue for the first time in years. It was a 4-person game, though i don't think that matters for this question.  I went first and rolled high enough to get to a room for which i didn't have the card.  I picked a person and weapon i didn't have as well.

No one had any of the three,  so on my first move I'd guessed the right answer.

Obviously the odds of guessing if you are unconstrained relate to 1 in 6, 1 in 6, 1 in 9. Probably 1-(5/6 × 5/6 × 8/9). But then there are the odds of being placed near the correct room and rolling high enough to get there.

Anyone work that part out already?

Edit: the complexity comes entirely from the number of players,  the locations of the pieces they get,  and the rolls (which in some cases can get you to two rooms from the starting position), and whether they have that room already. Then you make a suggestion,  which has to miss everyone.

The best odds possible for a turn 1 win without a blind accusation in a four-player game are 7/648 as Mrs. Peacock holding 5 cards.

There are two probabilities at play here. First, the probability of reaching a room on turn one, which is not the same for all players, and then second, the probability of the resulting suggestion being correct on all counts (that is, no cards are shown to the player and [barring one exception] no cards in hand were used in the suggestion), which is dependent exclusively on the cards that player holds in their hands. We'll first look at the suggestion part of this, since that's where the bulk of the math lies.

The best possible opening hand to get this result is either all suspect cards or all weapon cards.

The odds for the first suggestion of the game being correct mostly depend on the cards the player making the suggestion has in their hand. There are 6 Suspects, 6 Weapons, and 9 Rooms. The effective odds for a player making a suggestion (presumably in a room they don't have the card for) can be determined by 1 / ((6 - held suspect cards) * (6 - held weapon cards) * (9 - held rooms)). The best case for this ends up being a situation where a player holds a hand consisting of either all suspect cards OR all weapon cards. In a 3-player game, in which each player is given 6 cards, the 6th card should not be a room (i.e. the best hands are 5 suspects and 1 weapon or 5 weapons and 1 suspect). Following this, the odds of a correct suggestion (or a blind accusation, for that matter) given the best starting hand and no other information are as follows:

3 Players: 1/45 (6 cards)
4 Players: 1/54 (assuming 5 cards)
5 Players: 1/108 (assuming 4 cards)
6 Players: 1/162 (3 cards)

In a 4- or 3-player game, it is possible that a player may know either the Suspect or the Weapon just from their hand. In that case, it won't matter what they choose for that part of the suggestion, as your accusation does NOT have to be the same as your immediately-prior suggestion. In the case of knowing the suspect in particular, it is beneficial to name themselves in the suggestion so as not to give any other player a free suggestion on their turn by moving them to the room.

While the remainder of this answer simply asserts we did get this best hand for simplicity of math, the probability of actually being dealt said best hand for a given hand size, for all cases other than a 3-player game, are as follows:

5-card hand (4 players): 240/1,028,160 (or 1/4284)
4-card hand (5 or 4 players): 240/73,440 (or 1/306)
3-card hand (6 or 5 players): 120/4896 (or 10/408)

Having the best hand improves your odds of making the suggestion, but the only hard requirement would be not having the room cards for the rooms your pawn can reach on a roll of 12.

Not all players have the same odds of making a turn 1 suggestion

I will preface this section by noting that there are a few variants of the board that still have the rooms in the same spots, but do NOT have doors in the same spots. I'm using the most common board here for reference, which has all the players capable of entering a room with a move roll of 8. The roll required to reach the room closest to each character's starting position (and the room itself) are as follows:

Ms. White: 8 (Ballroom)
Mr. Green: 8 (Ballroom)
Mrs. Peacock: 7 (Conservatory)
Prof. Plum: 8 (Study)
Ms. Scarlet: 8 (Lounge)
Col. Mustard: 8 (Lounge OR Dining Room)

Col. Mustard stands out as having two different rooms he can reach with a roll of at least 8, so even if Col. Mustard has one (and only one) of those two rooms in his hand, he can just go to the other one. This isn't particularly relevant to our calculations, as Mrs. Peacock actually has the best odds of reaching a room on her initial move roll, with odds of 21/36 (as opposed to the odds of 15/36 that everyone else has). Furthermore, the best possible hand for this doesn't include any room cards.

With that, asserting that the best hand possible was dealt for this situation, for Mrs. Peacock, the odds for reaching a room on turn 1, making a suggestion, and the suggestion being correct are as follows:

for three players, 7/540
for four players, 7/648
for five players,  7/1296
for six players, 7/1944


Where can combat dice and extra units be bought? As a beginner I got axis and allies 1941 and noticed the game has only 4 dice and very few pieces. I had to use a lot of substitution chips (they can get confusing) and make my own paper slips with the units name on them. Where can I buy additional units and dice?

There are various places you can shop online for spare pieces.  One such location is at http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Axis-Allies-1941-2012_c_196.html

Alternatively, simply getting an additional copy of the game from a yard sale might be more cost effective at times.

As for dice, to my knowledge they are standard d6 with a special symbol in place of the 1, but functionally they are the same otherwise.  I have been very pleased with the quality of dice from http://www.chessex.com/ and I regularly visit their booth at conventions.


Implementing a map exploration mechanic cheaply I'm building a game in which players explore and steal from a castle. There needs to be an element of surprise and risk, so I've been considering a tile-based system like that used in Carcassonne. However, I'm not a fan of the (monetary) costs associated with producing such a mechanic.

What would be a good, low-cost way to allow exploration of rooms/halls with the risk of guard/maid encounters?

There are several methods.

instead of tiles, cards. Less cost to produce.Benefit: cheapdrawback: usually not square.
a pile of larger geomorphs with just the rooms, not the contents thereof; cards by room typeBenefit: sturdy board chunks, highly flexible modedrawback: rooms fall into well known patterns
movable chunks of wall on a gridded boardBenefit: extreme flexibilitydrawbacks: component costs, setup time, easily disrupted.
laminated grid board with overhead pen, cards for what to draw.Benefits: the most flexibleDrawbacks: lots of work, lamination required.


Can I claim a route longer than the number of trains I have left? On the last move, after only 2 train pieces remains, is it possible to claim a 3-carriage route, if you have the 3 required color cards but only 2 plastic trains left to place on the board?

No, you cannot claim a route longer than the number of plastic trains you have left.

Ticket to Ride Rules

  Claim a Route
  The player may claim a route on the board by playing a set of Train Car cards
  that match the color and length of the route and
  then placing one of his colored trains on each space of this route...

  Claiming Routes
  ... When a route is claimed, the player places one of his plastic trains in each of the spaces of the route...


Are there any dice games you can play with a standard 7-die set? Are there any dice games that you can play with a standard role-playing 7-die set (d4, d6, d8, d10, d%, d12, d20)?

Maybe you have some time to kill before your tabletop session starts, or during a break. It'd be nice to have a game that doesn't require anything beyond this set of dice. I'm open to games that can be played alone or with friends.

This is an offshoot from another question: Is there a name for the standard 7-die set? I recently received a very nice set of dice as an anniversary gift. I'm not currently in a tabletop session, but I would like to play with the dice.

With 2-3 sets, you could play Button Men, a Cheapass Game about capturing dice. Lots of entirely free characters available.


Can Zombify target a creature card that isn't in the graveyard? Zombify (and many similar cards like it) says:

  Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

As far as I can tell from the wording, the actual targeting requirement is "creature card". Does this mean that you can cast Zombify, targeting a creature card that isn't in your graveyard? Of course if you can, then when it resolves it would do nothing, because it is impossible to return a card from the graveyard if it isn't in the graveyard [101.3]. But there are plenty of reasons you might want to cast a spell that has no effect.

Or is the targeting requirement is actually meant to be "target creature card from your graveyard"? This doesn't sound right to me; because if so, it should be "in your graveyard" instead of "from your graveyard" (as is used on other cards like Animate Dead.

Related; if the targeting requirement is in fact "target creature card", then what actually makes a creature card in your graveyard a legal target? Rule 115.2 says:

  Only permanents are legal targets for spells and abilities, unless a spell or ability (a) specifies that it can target an object in another zone or a player, or (b) targets an object that can’t exist on the battlefield, such as a spell or ability. See also rule 115.4.

Does Zombify actually "specify that it can target an object in another zone"? It doesn't in the targeting requirements itself.

I can't find anything within the rules for targeting (115) or the rules for casting a spell (601.2c) that say that the ability a spell would have when resolving can or will affect the choice of legal targets. From a logical gameplay point of view, we can know that the card only makes sense if it allows you to target cards in your graveyard; but do the rules ever make it so that you have to look at the effect of a spell to know the set of legal targets?

The rules for abilities have a related rule about when abilities apply; but they don't deal with targets:

  113.6. Abilities of an instant or sorcery spell usually function only while that object is on the stack. Abilities of all other objects usually function only while that object is on the battlefield. The exceptions are as follows:

The list of exceptions explain why Reassembling Skeleton's activated ability can be activated while it is in the graveyard. Is there a rule similar to this, but dealing with what objects are legal targets?

I think that the reading of 115.2 you mentioned above is just too narrow.  Reposting it again:

  115.2. Only permanents are legal targets for spells and abilities, unless a spell or ability (a) specifies that it can target an object
  in another zone or a player, or (b) targets an object that can’t exist
  on the battlefield, such as a spell or ability. See also rule 115.4.

115.2 specifies that only permanents are legal targets for spells or abilities unless another zone is specified (or implied by the object type).  This implies one of two things is true:

It can only target creature cards that are currently permanents on the battlefield, and the card doesn't actually function at all.
"target [object] from [zone]" as a wording template does include a zone as part of the targeting requirements.

Because of how 115.2 is worded, there is not another option where it can target a creature card anywhere.  Either it can only target permanents, or its zone is specified (or implied by the type of object as in (b)).  Since the card does currently function, we have to assume that this is considered adequate language for specifying a zone as a part of targeting requirements.


Rock Paper Scissor Lizard Spock applied to units features I need to put together a system for a game, with the following premises:

There are 5 types of units: A, B, C, D, E.
A beats B and D
B beats C and E
C beats D and A
D beats B and E
E beats A and C

In addition, each unit type has different properties’ values:

Attack force
Number of attacks it can perform in one turn
Defense

I need to know how I can make it possible with different values to achieve the premises mentioned above.

I was able to think of something similar for 3 types of units (A, B, C):

A has a high attack force (5) and a medium defense (2).
B has a high defense (5) and can make 2 weak attacks (2x1).
C units work as a duo. They have medium attack (2) and little defense (1), but 2 units of C can attack at the same time (summing their attack force).

So:

A beats B (A attack force >= B defense)
B beats C (B x2 attacks >=  each C defense)
C beats A  (2xC attacks >= A defense)

I need to do something similar, but for 5 types of units. How could I do this without having to include more complex issues? I want to handle it with properties’ values, and not with "unit E cannot attack unit D", etc. I could include another parameter, but the least things I add, the better.

Simple Answer: Enforce Type Interactions

Pokemon video games (and the card games) tackles this idea with type. Water beats Fire, Fire beats Grass, Grass beats Water. The simplest answer is to modify the damage based on the characteristic of the receiving type, rather than adjusting the attack itself. Applying types to your units is fairly trivial, and leaves room for creative development.

However, based on your examples, it appears your looking for types to have overall strategies that are good against each other. That is to say, rather than A being being good against B 'because I said so' (Water being good against Fire makes logical sense, but ultimately is because the developers said so), it sounds like you're looking for a strategy that arises from the qualities that game objects have.

Complicated Answer: You need more than 3 mechanics

The difficulty with answering this question is that having a compelling metagame where different types of gameplay match up well against each other is kind of what game designers continuously do. Any answer is going to require you try lots of combinations and record win rates for certain strategies, tweaking the power of each strategy until you get something desirable.

Actually, having a 'perfect' situation where A beats B beats C beats A is undesirable. Imagine I sit down with by deck of B units, and my opponent starts playing A. If A always beats B, I might as well forfeit. That's obviously not a design that's fun for the losing side, and probably not even fun for the winner. So the question is, what can we do so that A usually beats B, but B can earn an underdog win with good gameplay (and perhaps some luck)?

B player needs some mechanics that are good against A that it can include (perhaps by including these mechanics, it is worse against C players and other B players.) As it stands, there are only about 3 mechanics spread out among 3 types, and that's not enough for just those three types. I would imagine you may need 2-3 gameplay mechanics per type for just 3 types. For 5, that may expand out to 5-6.

Suggestion

The good news is that you can do this without increasing the complexity of each card. Trying to squeeze a dozen gameplay mechanics on one unit is probably impossible, but not all units have to have each mechanic. I would strongly recommend looking at Magic: The Gathering for an example of a game that does this well.

For instance: some Colors (Colors in Magic are roughly akin to your unit types.) have flying: they tend to be weaker, but can only be blocked by other flying creatures or creatures with a specific flying-blocking ability. This gives 'B' a strategy against 'A':  B may have enough to hold off A's creatures for a time because of its high defense. A mechanic like flying would allow B to put out a flying creature, and then hide behind its big walls until the flying creature eventually deals with A. It's not ideal (and shouldn't be: A is supposed to be strong against B) but it gives B a fighting chance.

Also consider First Strike: In Magic, creatures deal damage to each other at the same time. An ability call First Strike changes that and causes the creature to deal damage first. This can tweak even creatures with small defense to be really strong, as they may be able to kill a powerful thing with low defense before it has the chance to strike back.

These keywords (First Strike and Flying) can be tacked on to a creature: a creature without them doesn't have to be overwhelming.

Consider Knight of the Keep. (Ignore the text on the card in italics.) That creature has no abilities and is fairly simple, clean, and easy to read. A beginner who knows the basic rules knows how that works.

Consider Enforcer Griffin. It has flying, but it still is fairly simple in how it looks. Once players learn how flying works, the card doesn't seem too complicated.

Consider an extreme example, Zetalpa, Primal Dawn. It has a whopping 5 keywords, and would be pretty confusing for new players. However, it didn't make Knight of the Keep any more complicated, because Knight of the Keep didn't have to worry about things like 'trample' or 'double strike'.

In this way or through some similar mechanics, you can add complexity to certain units to give them a more flexible role, without increasing the complexity of all of your units.

Ultimately though, for 5 types I believe you will need more than 3 gameplay mechanics. Proper balance between them will require a lot of testing and tweaking. That's what separates good from bad games. Mechanics that are fun, not overwhelming to players, and create ways for players to express their skill are what make or break the game. We can give you examples we like/dislike, but original ones will have to come from the developer.


Are these the right search terms, to find all cards that have their costs reduced by Embalming Tools? I'm using Embalmer's Tools, and want to find all (monoblue) cards that have their cost reduced by it.
I have this search term (fo:/{[cwubrg1-9]}.*: .*(this|~) .* from your graveyard/ or fo:/{[cwubrg1-9]}.*(this|~).* from your graveyard:/) and id:u and t:creature, which brings back 17 cards currently.
Is this a complete search term?

I have an alternate search that finds a few more cards. It looks like the main error in yours, and this is very minor, is putting a space both before and after the .* clause after (this|~) in the first regular expression. The result is that it misses the simple phrase "Return ~ from your graveyard to the battlefield" because there is no word in between the card's name and "from".

(fo:/{\d+}.*:.*(this card|~).*(in|from) your graveyard/ or fo:/{\d+}.*(this card|~).*from your graveyard.*:/) and t:creature and id:u

There are a couple of refinements here. First, I searched for only generic mana costs, because those are the only ones affected by Embalmer's Tools. Second, I fixed the spacing issue I mentioned. Interestingly, if I add the option of the word "in" instead of from in the first regular expression, and remove the color restriction, this would also find cards such as Carrionette, which has an activated ability with the restriction

Activate this ability only if Carrionette is in your graveyard.

My search does find Startled Awake as a false positive because only one of its faces is a creature, and that face is not the one with the activated ability.


Is Lookout usually a good pick with a Big Money strategy? According to the Dominion Strategy wiki, Lookout doesn't go well with a Big Money strategy. Do you agree?

To clarify: I mean Big Money in a broad sense. So picking up at most a couple of cards, then focusing on money.

I certainly agree. For the hand playing it, Lookout is a dead card. Since you're considering a Big Money (BM) strategy, the natural comparison is against Silver. The first time you play it, if you're lucky, you remove a single dead card from your deck (an Estate), you're back to where you started, and you had to play with a 4-card hand that, had you had a Silver instead, could likely have bought you a good $5 or Gold! By the time you've played the Lookout twice, it's probably turn 6-8; the game is close to half over. The Silver could have catapulted you to Gold or a good $5 twice now, and you'd have a Silver in your deck too.

Lookout is fine if the BM is flavored by Cursing, and Sea Hag in particular. In this case it removes negative points, hits more dead cards, and has a longer time to work in the more drawn-out cursing environment.

I would be very surprised if Lookout/Smithy/BM beats Smithy/BM, for the same reasons as above (and because the Smithy can draw the Lookout dead!) For Lookout to be good in the absence of Curses, you need to have an engine in mind.


In Canasta, if the discard pile has already been frozen with a wild card, is a subsequent discard allowed to be another wild card? I think my title contains the complete question, but I'll try to rephrase it here.  When playing Canasta, if the discard pile has already been frozen with a sideways facing wild card, can an additional wild card ever be placed as the current discard?
I don't believe that is allowed, but if I am wrong and you are allowed to discard a second wild card, can the pile then be picked up by the next player displaying two wildcards for a meld?

You can always discard a wild card even if one is already on the pile.  It freezes the pile for both sides, much like the start of the hand.
When the pile is frozen, it can only be unfrozen when a natural (non wild or 3) is on top of the pile and it is taken with a natural pair of those same cards.
I've played several different variants of canasta, but the above rules are the same.
Here is one set of rules for Canasta, I'm not aware of an official set of rules from a universal governing body.  https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/canasta/


Assault carrier benefits? What are the benefits of having docked ships on the assault carrier? Why would I want them docked? Why not just deploy them at the start of the game?

Basically, what benefit or advantage does the assault carrier provide?

Interestingly enough they had an article on this just a short while ago: Begin Your Pursuit.

To summarize to just your question, I think there's three major benefits:

Ships that are docked are not "on the table" and can't be targeted in any way, making sure your more fragile ships make it into the heart of the battle without taking damage.
Ships that are 'undocking' move from the front (or rear) of the Assault Carrier itself, so your ship can deploy further into the battle or into a better position.
Ships 'undock' as part of the Huge Ship resolution, which is always after all smaller ships, so your lower Pilot Skill fighters can deploy and maneuver into place after the opponent's higher Pilot Skill ships have already moved and boosted/rolled.

The article provides a great example of these three in combination by using Captain Jonus and 3 other TIE Bombers, moving the Vector-titled Assault Carrier a full 4-straight forward and then deploying the bombers another 4-straight forward, putting them in range to Target Lock and volley Ion Torpedoes or Assault Missiles directly into the heart of your enemy's formation before they have a chance to spread out.


Exotic Orchard and Command Tower What colors of mana can Exotic Orchard produce in Commander if my opponent has a Command Tower?

A Command Tower can produce any color of mana in its controller's commander's color identity. So, if your opponent controls one, your Exotic Orchard can produce any color of mana in that player's commander's color identity (assuming there are no other lands).

The relevant rule here is 106.7:

  Some abilities produce mana based on the type of mana another permanent or permanents “could produce.” The type of mana a permanent could produce at any time includes any type of mana that an ability of that permanent would produce if the ability were to resolve at that time, taking into account any applicable replacement effects in any possible order. Ignore whether any costs of the ability could or could not be paid. If that permanent wouldn’t produce any mana under these conditions, or no type of mana can be defined this way, there’s no type of mana it could produce.


Does "Cheat!" effectively give you two more hands? Suppose you have a player who has a two-handed weapon A and another two-handed weapon B. He can use either of them without any problems, but not both as he only has two hands.

With the card "Cheat!" he can use both of them. But now he gets a third card C, also two-handed, which he likes to use against a monster. So for one round he puts A and B in his back-pack (it's still in front of the player, but he does not use A or B, but C). Can the player in one of the following rounds use A and B (together, without C) again?

I thought Cheat! would disable the "checking-mechanism" once, when the card comes into game. After that, when anything else changes something with the card it would have to be discarded again. However, I'm not sure if that makes sense. For example, if you used Cheat! because the weapon is only usable by a thief and you are a blogger, it would seem strange to me if you lose the weapon because you changed to a kid.

When you play the Cheat card it is attached to a specific item, either A or B in this case (let's assume A). With the additional item C you can use either A & B together or A & C together, but not B & C together.

The Cheat card only is discarded if you lose the item (for example from getting killed) It doesn't get discarded just because you un-equip the card temporarily.


Does Microbot Archive Apply to all Bases? The Microbot Archive minion states:

  Ongoing: After one of your Microbots (including this one) is destroyed, draw a card.

I assume, since it doesn't specify, that this applies to all Microbots on all bases, not just the current base it has been played on. Can someone please verify?

Yes. There's no rules reference for this one since it's just about the card, but as you correctly identified, it doesn't reference a particular base.


Multiplayer card game based on Rock Paper Scissors- what is it called? A few years ago I played a fun multiplayer card game unashamedly based on Rock Paper Scissors.  The players each had a hand of cards that were "Rock", "Paper", or "Scissors", but there was text on the the cards that added extra powers and an added element of strategy.  Can't remember what it was called though.

I already searched Boardgamegeek for "Rock Paper Scissors" and googled it, but haven't been able to find anything that matches what I vaguely remember.

I know it's not much to go on, but anyone have a guess what game I played?

I think it might be GG.
Was a Kickstarter back in 2016.


Can my deck have fewer cards after sideboard? Traditionally, you're supposed to have 60 cards in your main deck, and 15 cards in your sideboard.  But let's say that I had 64 cards in my main deck and 15 cards in my sideboard.  For game 2 & 3, could I reduce my main deck to 60 cards and effectively have 4 more cards in my sideboard, or do I have to keep my main deck at 64 cards?

You can in fact change your deck size after sideboarding, with restrictions. The Magic Tournament Rules, section 6.1 says

  Constructed decks must contain a minimum of sixty cards. There is no maximum deck size. If a player chooses to use a sideboard, it may not contain more than fifteen cards.

And section 6.2 says

  Players may exchange any number of cards between their deck and sideboard, provided that the resulting deck and sideboard are legal. There are no restrictions on the number of cards a player may exchange this way. Cards do not need to be exchanged on a one-for-one basis.

So, you can move a different number of cards into your sideboard and into your deck, but when you're done, you still have to have at least 60 cards in your deck and at most 15 cards in your sideboard.

In your specific case, you cannot decrease your deck size because your sideboard is already at the maximum size.


What GSM of paper should I use for reprinting cards to use in deck sleeves UPDATE: Not knowing how the forum worked, I asked a question and, in retrospect, I should have provided more detail on work I had already done / was doing when it occurred to me to ask the question!  With very kind intention, my post was edited to ask what people assumed would be easier.  However, I've already spent ages scanning the old card fronts and purchased the card sleeves for how I'm resizing the cards, it really wouldn't be easier (or definitely not cheaper) to do anything other than to press ahead at this stage.

An old favourite game (the Judge Dredd Board Game if anyone remembers or cares) has gotten to the stage when all of us can recognise half the cards from the back by the staining and marks on the cards.  This is the second time I've bought the game as it happened before as well.

I had considered re-buying again and getting deck sleeves but (perhaps erroneously considering answers given) I didn't believe that I could get the right size of cards.  So I have scanned all the different sets of cards (this afternoon since posting), redesigned the card backs (less solid black) and have resized the cards slightly to perfectly fit the card sleeves that I have already ordered.

I only really want to know if this world work with a lightweight card (say 150GSM) or whether something like 270GSM would work better.

Paper is a bit more complex than just the GSM as you can get different thickness, stiffness and other properties.

The general "best" GSM for cards will be around 300GSM, but you'll want to feel the sheet of paper first for thickness and stiffness as well. It'll be no good to have a lovely printed card that flops about in your hand or flexes too much to shuffle easily.

This thread on BGG suggests using paper stock that's designed for business card usage as it's widely available.

This custom card printer uses 300, 310 or 270GSM for their playing cards depending on paper type and required quality.

You will find a lot of home printers won't be able to print on high GSM paper - check your specifications for your printer if you want to print at home.

If you're getting it professionally printed at a print shop, ask for some paper samples, and have a test page to print on each paper so you can see the differences.

I had some success in printing at home some card dividers on 180GSM matte photo paper and laminating the entire page in high quality 125 micron before cutting out using a paper guillotine. This produced a very stiff card that was slightly glossy, despite the stock being not that stiff to begin with. As you're planning on sleeving, I'd go the higher GSM paper straight away and skip laminating.


Couple questions related to Weight of the Underworld I assume that you can decide to place Weight of the Underworld on either a Creature you control, or on a Creature the opponent controls.
Am I assuming it right?
If I cast this Enchantment on a Creature, which has only 1 or 2 Toughness, will the Creature die instantly after that Enchantment is in play?

1) You are correct, the restriction on what it can enchant is Enchant creature, so it can enchant any creature. If it was restricted to just yours for example it would say "Enchant creature you control"

2) Yes. The enchantment will resolve and the next time state based actions are checked the game will see the creature has 0 or less toughness and die. Note this is not the same thing as being destroyed so things like indestructible and regenerate won't save the creature.


It Has A Child card - do you stay in Tokyo? It Has A Child states

  If you are eliminated discard all your cards and lose all your [Star], Heal to  10 [Heart] and start again.

If somebody with this card is in Tokyo and they are eliminated, do they remain in Tokyo when they start again?

It Has a Child doesn't prevent you from being eliminated. If it did, it would be phrased

If you would be eliminated, instead ...

instead of

If you are eliminated, ...

This means that other effects that occur on elimination still occur. Specifically,

If you are eliminated by an attack on Tokyo, the Monster who attacked you automatically takes control of Tokyo.
Warning: A Discard card that deals damage to you is not an attack.
If you are eliminated by such a card (Discard card), nobody takes your place, and Tokyo becomes unoccupied.

What it does is allow is for you to join the game with a fresh character. As usual, players start the game outside of Tokyo.

By the way, BGG arrived at the same conclusion.


What is the purpose of bonus points in Gin Rummy? What purpose do the bonus points after a player wins a game of Gin Serve?

Let's say two players agree to play a game to 100 points. At the end of the game, the typical rules call for bonus points to be awarded: 25 points for each winning hand, 100 points to the winner, double points for a shutout...  Why?

If I was the player that reached 100 first, what good are even more points?
I'm assuming that this is a method for placing wagers on the game?
And how (if at all) do bonus points factor into games where the players agree to a "best of five games (e.g.) arrangement?

The most common way of betting money on Gin Rummy (according to this site) is to choose a rate per point (say $1) that the loser pays the winner - e.g. if you lose 70 to 220, you pay $150. When you're playing for money, there's probably an approximate stake you want to play for - smaller stakes will feel trivial (who wants to win one penny?) but larger stakes could be devastating if you lose. Without bonus points, a win could be anywhere from 1 point to ~150, and there may be no per-point rate which is non-trivial when multiplied by 1 yet non-devastating multiplied by 150. Bonus points - say 100 for winning - are a simple way to decrease this variance, since now spreads will be between 101 and ~250, so the worst possible loss is only ~2.5 times as bad (or good, for the other guy) as the closest possible spread.

As far as I can tell, best-of-5 matches tend to be played in settings where bonus points are not relevant, e.g. tournaments where all that matters is who wins the match.


What can a Runner do to trash ICE that is in play? I know that the card parasite can potentially trash ice, but is there any other way? (I've just recently started playing)

I believe the only three current cards that can trash ICE after it's installed are:

Parasite - program that reduces the strength of a rezzed ICE until it hits zero, at which point the ICE is trashed.
Forged Activation Orders - event that forces a Corp to rez an ice, or trash it if it can't (or doesn't want to) pay for it.
Kraken - event that forces the Corp to trash a piece of ice on a server that you choose (but can only be played if you've just stolen an agenda)

In addition, there are other cards (e.g. Imp, Demolition Run) that can trash cards that cannot normally be trashed - such as ICE - from HQ or R&D, preventing them from being installed in the first place.

Edited to add:

False Echo - program that can be trashed when you pass an unrezzed ICE to force the Corp to rez it or take it back into HQ (which is a trash-like effect)
Forked, Knifed, and Spooned - run events that let you trash a piece of ice of a particular type if you break all subroutines on it


Games played numbers notation [MTG - Online] Can someone explain or point me to an explanation of the notation under the 'Games' column?

What is the meaning between the order of the numbers or what do numbers 0, 1 and 2 mean? It's probably very simple and intuitive to old players but I just can't figure it out precisely.

The "Results" column in the Game history page shows the match win-loss record for each tournament, and you can expand each tournament to see a game win-loss-draw record for each tournament.


How does Exquisite Archangel work with different ways of losing? The card Exquisite Archangel from Aether Revolt has the following ability:

  If you would lose the game, instead exile Equisite Archangel and your life total becomes equal to your starting life total.

The way this works with losing due to life loss seems relatively simple, but what happens if you lose to something else, such as poison counters, mill, or an effect that says that your opponent wins the game? Does this ability have any other common edge cases?

There is actually a variety of possible outcomes of the Exquisite Archangel's ability, depending on how you would lose the game.

Life Loss: In this case, the ability works as you would expect: instead of losing the game due to having 0 or less life, you gain life so that your life total becomes equal to your starting life total (20 in a normal game) [CR 118.5].

Exception: If an effect says that you can't gain life, such as on Erebos, God of the Dead, then the Archangel's ability will not cause you to gain life, so you will remain a 0 or less life and lose immediately after exiling the Archangel.

Poison Counters: If you get 10 or more poison counters, the Archangel will not save you. You will exile it and change your life total the first time State-based actions are checked, but once that is done, State-based actions will be rechecked immediately, and this time the Archangel won't be there to help, so you will still lose.

Commander Damage: In a Commander game, you normally lose if you take 21 damage from a single commander. Similar to the case with poison counters, the Archangel's effect will apply once, but the damage will still be marked, so you will still lose immediately.

Mill: If you try to draw a card from an empty library, the Archangel will save you once, but you will still have an empty library and you will lose the next time you have to draw a card. You don't lose immediately because of how that specific state-based action is worded:

704.5b If a player attempted to draw a card from a library with no cards in it since the last time state-based actions were checked, he or she loses the game.

"You lose": If an effect directly says that you lose the game, from a card such as an opponent's Door to Nothingness or your own Demonic Pact, the Archangel will replace that effect, and you won't lose the game.

Exception: If you lose due to the effect of the card Transcendence, the Archangel won't be much help. The replacement effect will reset your life total to your starting life total, which will usually be at least 20, and then Transcendence's triggered ability will trigger again, and you will lose.

"You Win": If your opponent has an effect that says "you win the game", the outcome varies depending on whether the game is a multiplayer game using the limited range of influence option:

Games without limited range of influence: In a standard two-player game, or any multiplayer game without the limited range of influence option, winning the game immediately ends the game, without requiring the opposing player to lose the game. In this case, the Exquisite Archangel's ability will simply never apply.

Games with limited range of influence: In these games, rule 104.3h applies:

In a multiplayer game using the limited range of influence option (see rule 801), an effect that states that a player wins the game instead causes all of that player’s opponents within the player’s range of influence to lose the game. This may not cause the game to end.

So if a player has an effect that says "you win the game", instead each of their opponents in their range of influence loses the game, but the Archangel's replacement effect will apply and save you if you are one of those players.

Exception: If that player wins due to the effect of a state-based triggered ability such as Darksteel Reactor, then the replacement effect will save you once, and then the triggered ability will trigger again, and you will lose.


What is a good opening in Blokus? I have played Blokus enough times to get a feel for the game and one thing that always bugs me is how to play the first few moves.  There seem to be a couple of competing aims:

Get rid of big, awkwardly shaped pieces;
Create plenty of corners to leave lots of future moves open.

Assuming this is the case, which pieces are the 'most awkward', and does playing these achieve the goal of creating lots of corners?

Also, how many moves can you have before you have to start worrying about what other players are doing?

To help with answering this question here's a link to a picture showing a Blokus naming convention.

Ever since I learned about "the Barasona opening", I've had a hard time not starting all my Blokus games with it.

The basic idea is that your first four pieces leave no possibility for an opponent to move "through" your corner, without the use of his one-piece.

The pieces you use are F, X, W, and then N or Y.  You can see a picture of the Barasona in action here: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/112251/blokus.

Of course, the problem with the Barasona is that, while it provides a disincentive for other players to move towards your unprofitable corner, the moment the other players realize this they will probably all start using the Barasona themselves, and you're back to square one.  Blokus is an arms race!

Hope this helps!


Strategy for the game: I Doubt It, also known as cheat, B.S Is there any known effective strategies for the game I Doubt It (Wikipedia)?
How can you maximize your chances of winning?
We play the variant where players must continue placing cards of the same rank until someone calls "Cheat" or everyone decides to pass a turn. Like for example, the first player plays 3') 5's claiming they are 3 9's, then the next player has to claim their card is also a 9(they can play any card).
If someone thinking he is bluffing, he can then call him out, and if he is correct the loser will take all cards played so far.
The next player can choose any rank as the cards to claim he had put down, it doesnt have to be sequential.

Cheat! without bluffing is entirely deterministic
In the variant you've described (assuming I've understood it correctly), all the Aces will be played, then all the 2s, then the 3s, etc.  In theory, someone could withhold playing a card during the proper round, but there is zero benefit to doing so, and an enormous penalty (if you do so and nobody else does, you're guaranteed to lose), so in practice nobody would.  This means that the person who wins will be the one who has the lowest high card.  (ie, if my highest card is a Queen and your highest card is a Jack, then you will beat me.)
The strategy in Cheat is entirely in knowing when to bluff or call bluffs in order to minimize your chance of getting new cards while maximizing the chance of other players calling you out mistakenly, and using the bluffs to get rid of the cards that wouldn't be played for a long bit of time.


Making 6H (declarer: 54, AKQJTx, -, 98765) Apparently 6H (small slam with hearts as trump) can be made on this hand, irrespective of the distribution of opposing cards.

How?

You are south (holding 54, AKQJTx, -, 98765) . Dummy is north, the lead (by West) is a diamond.

AK32
652
JT
AKJT

54
AKQJT4
-
98765

For those who might be unfamiliar:

This is a bridge hand and the hands are written as spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs or

spades
hearts
diamonds
clubs

So north hand is actually:

  Spades:    AK32
  Hearts:    652
  Diamonds:  JT
  Clubs:     AKJT

Writing as spades,hearts, diamonds, club has become the standard practice.

I believe the following works:

Ruff (or trump) the diamond lead.

Now lead out the Trump Ace. If both opponents follow, then this is easy. You can take out opponents trumps and play the clubs. You can even try to finesse the CJ or T and try for an overtrick, when West has the Club Qxx. You have two trumps in hand, so you have an entry to hand after you unblock the clubs.

The problems happens when one of the opponents shows out on the Trump Ace.

Now draw three more rounds of trump. On the fourth trump, discard a diamond. Throwing the diamond is the key play: North hand is void in diamonds now. Now play AKJ of clubs. Opponents have to win this and if they return a diamond, you ruff in South hand, throwing the blocking club T from the dummy!


Can you place a draw 2 (+2) on top of a draw 4 (+4) in regular Uno? So, the way I've always played you can't add a draw 2 on a draw 4 but I've seen plenty of other people do it. So I'm wondering if you can or can't?

You can as long as it's your turn and the color of your Draw 2 matches the color specified by the player who played the Draw 4. In standard Uno rules, the player after the one who played the Draw 4 will draw the 4 cards, and the player after that one gets the next turn. So, you would need to be the player next to the player next to the one who played the Draw 4 to play your Draw 2 (again, assuming it's the correct color). The player after you would draw 2 cards, and it would be the next player's turn.

An example from @JoeW: player 1 plays a Draw 4 and calls red, player 2 draws 4 cards, player 3 plays a red Draw 2, player 4 draws 2 card and play continues as normal.


When should I avoid a small ship strategy? I thought I should break this question out from the other related question, which direction should I build a small ship?

When should I avoid a small ship strategy? Which events would make a small ship not preferable?

For reference (rulebook), during the first round you are allowed to examine 6/8 (out of 20 total) cards that will be in the adventure.

Adventure Cards

4x Open Space (move forward X engine power)
4x Abandon Ship -1 Day,(-2 Astro:$3, -3 Astro:$4, 5 Astro:YG, 6 Astro:RR)
3x Purple -1 Day,(4 Laz:-2 Good/YGB,6 Laz:-3 Astro/$5, 5 Laz:3 shots Front ssL/$4)
3x Meteor (ssss TBLR, Lss TLR, LsL TTT)
4x Planet (-2 Day:RR,RBB,Y#-2 Day:GG,Y,BBB#-3 Day:RGBBB,RYB,RBBB,RG#-3 Day:YGBB,YY)
Stardust (-1 day per open connection)
1x Combat Zone (least Astro -3 Day, least engine -2 Astro, least Laz shot sL BB)

In the base game, always.

Having a large ship full of useful tiles helps you deal with every situation better: guns for enemies, crew for abandoned ships and stations, engines for open space, cargo space to loot planets. And if something bad does happen, a large ship is more likely to be able to handle the mishap and keep going.

If the cards look dangerous, of course, you might want to take your time building and take appropriate precautions. If there are lots of small meteors, be careful about exposed connectors. If there are large meteors or enemies, deploy as many guns as you can. If it looks like you might take cannon fire--or meteors you can't handle--look for a shield and batteries.

Even if the worst happens, all that happens is you lose a few components, turning your large ship into the small ship you were planning anyway! If you're playing a ship with insurance, this is a paltry loss. If you're playing one without, it's a bigger deal, but if an opponent has a successful and safe run while you take a beating, you're going to have a difficult time catching up anyway, so you might as well plan for success.

In the expansions, there may be times when having a certain type of tile is a liability, but even then, more ship is usually better.


Do other creatures have to survive to deal damage back to Alpha Brawl's target? When Alpha Brawl is played, after the target creature deals damage to the opponents creatures, do only the ones that survive do damage back?

Creatures dealt lethal damage will still deal their damage back to Alpha Brawl's target.

From the Oracle rulings, which you can see on the card's Gatherer page:

  1/22/2011   The two parts of Alpha Brawl's effect happen sequentially: first the targeted creature deals damage, then the other creatures deal damage. State-based actions aren't checked in the middle, so creatures that are dealt lethal damage by the targeted creature will still deal damage.

Why does it work the way it does? Because, in Magic, you carry out the instructions on a card sequentially, but you also do all the actions as one event, and only check for state-based actions and triggers afterward. "This creature took so much damage that it's going to the graveyard now" is a state-based action.

Note also that all creatures killed by Alpha Brawl will go to the graveyard at the same time.


Can Gullveig of the Nordic Ascendant be used as material for the summon of another Gullveig? Gullveig of the Nordic Ascedant is a Link Monster who's materials say:

  1 lvl 5 or lower Nordic Monster.

Does this mean the Gulllveig can be used as material for itself?

Does this mean the Gulllveig can be used as material for itself?

No it can't.
Link Monsters have no Level nor Rank. From the Wiki on Link Monsters, emphasis mine:

Link Monsters have a Link Rating in place of a Level or Rank. [...]
Link Monsters do not possess Levels or Ranks, therefore they cannot be used as material for a Ritual, Synchro, or Xyz Summon. Also, Level or Rank-modifying cards such as "Harmonic Waves", "Feedback Warrior", or "Xiangsheng Magician" do not affect Link Monsters.

As Gullveig specifically asks for a Level 5 or lower monster that means you can't use her as a link material to summon another copy of Gullveig.


Additional questions for Cranium? My group of friends really enjoys playing Cranium, but we played it so often that we all more or less memorized the questions and have plans for all the activities.

Is there more content available for Cranium, and if so, where can it be found?

There are booster packs for Cranium that add more cards for each category. For example, this set and this set.

You could also check out the Cranium WOW edition. It has a whole new set of cards. I've played this version and a lot of the red cards seemed easier than the original version of the game.


Where can I find a printer for a budget game board? I'm trying to get a board printed for a game I'm making. Are there any companies/websites that can provide this service relatively cheaply?

Ideally, each board would cost $5 or less. The material only needs to last long enough for people to understand how the game works, and this is only for small scale production and sale of 100 units or so.

The board is a two-sided board for a card-based game, and it can either be one foldable piece or two pieces. The cards will be poker size, and the board should be at minimum six card slots across in dimension, meaning at least 381mm wide.

Try this site , they can produce a lot of material for board game and after you can even use their online store for the distribution.

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/


Can I activate mana abilities even if I don't need the mana? Rule 605.3a says:

  A player may activate an activated mana ability whenever he or she has priority, whenever he or she is casting a spell or activating an ability that requires a mana payment, or whenever a rule or effect asks for a mana payment, even if it's in the middle of casting or resolving a spell or activating or resolving an ability.

Do I understand correctly that I can tap Pheres-Band Tromper enchanted with Karametra's Favor for mana in my opponent's end step even if I do not need any of it? If it works I could trigger inspired every turn without the need for attacking. Some years ago, mana burn definitely would have prevented this kind of play.

Yes, you can activate a mana ability even if you do not plan to use the mana. This is often called floating mana. This means that yes, you can use Karametra's Favor to trigger an Inspired ability every turn. Since the Magic 2010 rules update, mana burn does not exist any more, so keeping this mana in your mana pool until the end of the phase has no downside.


Cosmic Encounter Can I attack an empty planet We had a disagreement about this the last time I played. The rules seem to allude that you can attack an empty planet in an encounter with another player but it doesn't seem to be made explicit.

Example: Green has 4 colonies in his home system, one planet is empty. If blue draws a green destiny card can he attack the empty planet?

You absolutely can attack a planet with no defenders.
On page 8 of the rulebook it states:

Defending with Nothing?
Even though a player may no longer have a colony
on one of his or her home planets, that player
must still defend it.

Which certainly confirms that you can attack an unoccupied world.


Monster movement and reduced rolls In one scenario the traitor was controlling a whole bunch of identical monsters. We stumbled onto a scenario where some of them were in an enviroment that removed 1 die from all rolls.

Since the movement of monsters is determined by a shared Speed roll, how many dice would be thrown? (The base Speed of the monsters was 2)
Would it make a difference, if all the monsters would be in the same (or similar) enviroment?

From the Legacy manual on monsters:

Monsters make a Speed roll at the start of their turn to determine their moves (minimum of 1). This applies to all monsters of the same type.

and:

Monsters don’t take damage from tile effects.

From the Legacy manual on trait rolls:

You will often be told to make a trait roll based on one of your family’s traits (for example, “Make a Might roll”). When that happens, roll dice equal to the number you currently have in that trait. For example, if you must make a Sanity roll, and you
currently have a Sanity of 4, roll 4 dice and total the dots together to get the result. The card’s or tile’s text will tell you the outcome.

As you mentioned in the comments, this text was deliberately changed from the non-legacy game that used to say "monsters can ignore any harmful text on a room tile." I am assuming that by environment you mean it was an Ongoing Event, which monsters never ignored, not even in the non-legacy game.
I do not think there is an answer for your question on the manual, not on the legacy manual nor on the non-legacy manual. I'd suggest your group house-rule this in one of the ways:

Make all monsters affected by the Ongoing Event even if only one is inside it.
Make two different speed rolls for movement, one for Monsters inside the Ongoing Event with speed minus 1, and one with base speed for Monsters outside.

I'd go with 2 because it just seems fairer and makes more sense. The manual itself acknowledges not everything is covered there because that'd be hard with all the cards.

Betrayal games mix effects on cards, haunts, rules, and tiles to create interesting combinations. We have tried to make it easy to understand how all these different effects might work together. However, the nature of the game means that you will inevitably find combinations that create uncertainty. In addition, legacy games create higher stakes since some effects are permanent. Here are a few guidelines when faced with uncertainty:

Rules in haunts trump other rules.
Rules on cards or tiles trump rules in the rulebook.
if you find a single card, rule, or effect that gives you a wildly powerful moment, that probably isn’t its intention.
If you find a combination of several cards, rules, and effects that give you an
advantage, that probably is the intention.
If an effect seems wildly unfair, that is not the correct interpretation.

Although it is a game of murder, insanity, horror, and other savagery, be mindful of other players’ experiences as well. Arguing about rules loopholes isn’t horror, it’s horrific.

This seems a fair application of Rules on cards or tiles trump rules in the rulebook.


Does Forbidden Island usually need any rule variants for playing with 5+ people? I don't see any reason why Forbidden Island wouldn't be able to handle 5 or maybe even 6 players with some simple variants. Does anyone have any experience with different player numbers with some wisdom to pass on?

It would be slightly harder to gather the required 4 treasure cards at one person, but there would be more people total to trade with. The island would sink faster and it would take longer for a certain critical player to have their turn, even though the navigator and helicopter can move anyone. How can these disadvantages be offset to keep the game strong and sufficiently difficult?

After the first reshuffle of the Treasure deck, go down to drawing only 1 Treasure card per turn. Since you'll have all the cards drawn fairly quickly, the challenge becomes maneuvering them to the right player. Usually by the time you get through the entire deck this way you've gotten at least one treasure and discarded the 4 cards, which means you won't have every single card be a "Waters Rise!". This should let you play with 5 people just fine, and possibly 6 if you start at novice level.

If you are willing to do a little bit more work, you can beef up the game itself. This will give results closer to the feel of the original game. Keep using the rule I mentioned above! Here's what you'll need:

1 new treasure and 5 treasure cards for it.
6 extra tiles and their flood cards. 4 of them are just normal tiles. 2 of them correspond to the 5th treasure.

You can use index cards to make the tiles and regular playing cards for the flood and treasure cards. The four aces are the flood cards for the 4 new normal tiles, the King of Spades and King of Hearts are the flood cards for the 2 5th treasure tiles. 2-6 of Hearts are the treasure cards for the 5th treasure. Yes, it does look a little shoddy to have regular playing cards mixed in with the deck, but it works just fine and I've found it rarely hurts the gaming experience. If this still bothers you, just sleeve all the cards.This will let you handle 5 people just fine.

To play with 6 people, add one more card of each of the 5 colors, so there will be 6 cards of each color. I  just used a marker to color some normal playing cards to match the others. Since you now have added cards for the new 5th treasure and the old treasures, the issue of knowing exactly what's coming up by what the card back looks like is reduced. I also recommend that you allow players to either give or take a treasure card from another player on the same tile for an action, instead of allowing giving only. This lessens the time spent waiting to get to the right player's turn. I have played this 6 player variant several times with great success, to the point where I actually prefer to play with 6 people to playing with less.

If you want to play with 7 people, add another card of each color to the deck, so there are 7 of each color. I have not play-tested very often with 7, so I assume that the game starts to fall apart a little more, but it should still be playable. The nice thing about cooperatives is that you can have some players control 1 pawn as a team. Our groups tend to make decisions as a group often enough that we rarely notice that there are less pawns than players. If you need to support 7, you can choose if you want to try the 7 pawn rules or the 6 pawn with one team.

These tend to give good results as they keep the game fairly balanced. Having a bigger island suits extra players better as you have a better ratio of Waters Rise! to treasures and more island no-sink time. You'll have to plan a little more as you'll end up farther away from each other. The degradation of the island is more interesting as you can have bigger holes in the center. You can even start changing the shape of the island for extra fun. I will be posting a list of new roles shortly.

Feel free to post any question, comments, or reviews of these rules if you've played with them. :D


Does military power accumulate in Race for the Galaxy I have one card placed down with a plus one to my military on phase three. I have already placed down a card in a previous settle phase that cost one military.

If another settle phase comes along can I play a hostile card that costs 1 military?

I would then have placed two cards down based on that +1 military.

Military power is not "used up" when you settle a world. All that matters is that each time you are settling a military world, you have enough military power to meet the requirement. So yes, even if you only have 1 military power, you can settle multiple worlds that each have a requirement of 1.


Does depressurising The Nest kill the eggs? If you use the Airlock Control room's room action to begin depressurisation in The Nest and the depressurisation completes successfully, do the eggs die or is The Nest destroyed?

You cannot target the Nest with the Airlock Control Room
(I don't have the rules on me so I can't give an exact reference, will add one shortly)
Depressuring with the Airlock Control can only target Yellow Rooms.
The Nest is not a yellow room (it doesn't have a color, as it can't be searched for any color of item)
Therefore, you cannot target the Nest with the Airlock Control Room

Edit:
Nemesis Rulebook, pg 25:

Rules Text (Emphasis mine):

Start Emergency Airlock procedure:
Choose any 1 other Yellow Room. The Corridors connected to
the Room you choose must not contain any Destroyed Doors ... Yellow Room means a Room with a yellow background on the Action part


Redirecting Enrage Damage If I have a Shaman en-Kor and creature with Enrage (For this instance lets says it's a 0/2 with Enrage). An opponent casts a spell which would deal 2 damage to all creatures.
I used the Shaman's (0) redirect ability twice to direct the damage to my Enrage-Creature. Would enrage...:

... Enrage trigger just once since all damage is dealt to it at once
... Enrage trigger twice because of damage from two different sources.
... Enrage trigger twice because of damage from the spell, then the triggered ability of the shaman hits it?- And can you respond with an instant in-between the damage?
... Enrage trigger three times total. Once from the spell damage, then twice more since the Shaman's ability redirected two instances?

I've found this question/answer but it skirts around the answer I am looking for:
What's the timing on Warrior en-Kor's damage redirection?

The Enrage triggered ability only triggers once.

An instruction like "[This card] deals 2 damage to each creature" deals all of its damage simultaneously in a single damage-dealing event. The Shaman's redirection effects modify that event to deal 4 damage to the creature with enrage and 0 to the Shaman, but the result is still just one event, which only triggers the Enrage ability once.