Do Warhammer models that have no models have specific dimensions stated any where? I have made some tyranid mycetic spores by just covering a dreadnought sized base in some green putty to show how the spore burst when it hit the ground. I have seen many mycetic spore conversions and everyone seems to lean towards making them as tall as space marine drop pods. I am worried about using these in any type of tournament setting because they would be hard to draw true line of site to. When I have played against players in the past I have allowed them to draw line of site to the pods based on them being roughly drop pod sized.

This got me wondering if their was a official source for the dimensions of models that do not have official models?

Also if forge world makes a model is it then considered official for base size and dimensions?

The answer to your question really ends up being no.  Units with no purchasable model have no defined dimensions, and so are up to you and your opponent as to what is reasonable.

However, as of the most recent codex and updates, the Mycetic Spore is no longer a valid unit.  It has since been replaced with the Tyrannocyte, which serves largely the same purposes.  This unit does have a model, and is, as expected, about as large as a drop pod.  If you want to continue using the Mycetic Spore in friendly games, make sure you and your opponent agree on size, line of sight and rules before beginning.

As an aside, the reason for the change between Mycetic Spores and Tyrannocytes are largely legal, and there's quite the backstory behind the removal of the Mycetic spore option.  It's worth looking into if you're curious.


D&D Adventure game system, additional adventures Where can I obtain additional story adventures for the various D&D adventure game systems?

In all the manuals it states to check the wizards of the coast site for them, but there are none on the site and even a wizard's support rep confirmed that there are none hosted on the site. Rather frustrating.

Does anyone know where I can get some? I'm looking to expand upon the fun for my gaming group but have not found the time to sit down and create my own.

This BGG geeklist seems to have links to a bunch of user generated content.  It also has links to the official WoTC adventures, but they seem to be permanently removed at this point, so the only way to get them would be from someone that already has the PDFs.


In Star Fluxx, have you needed to change how The Computer and The Unseen Force play? Star Fluxx has a number of cards that end up being quite powerful and can throw chaos into a game that seemed to be almost over. Most of these cards are either Actions or Surprises and can thus only be used once for each time they are drawn. However, the two Keepers, The Computer, and The Unseen Force seem to provide decisive long-term advantages.

The Computer - If you have this card on the table, Draw and Play one extra card per turn. Also, you may exceed Hand and Keeper Limits by one.

Unseen Force - *If you have this on the table, once per turn you can steal a card chosen randomly from another player's hand, and add that card to your own hand.

I come from a long history of playing control decks in Magic: The Gathering and so I try and dig deep into the strategy of how to accrue small advantages and deal with random elements in card games. Star Fluxx has significant random components to the point that sometimes a player can win in a single turn when no one suspected that they were even close to victory. To me, this suggests that the best strategies will be those that rely on drawing more cards than your opponents and playing more cards than your opponents, rather than striving for any specific combination of cards or rules.

I have a small sample size, but I have only lost 1 game where I controlled The Computer or The Unseen Force for more than 2 turns (I have won the other 5). Star Fluxx, though, is more about having fun through narrative and social interaction than min-maxing. The problem I am running into is that these cards seem to reduce the fun that the other players are having because they recognize that they're being slowly ground into a defeat.

Have you had the same experience with these 2 Keepers? Have you instituted any house rules to modify these cards?

I tend to think of Unseen Force as annoyance, whereas The Computer is probably the strongest card in the game.  There are various things you can do to try to dilute the power of an opponent's The Computer, raising the draw and play count rules and creating hand and keeper limits.  Plus you can always steal keepers or play Brain Transference.  That said, if someone pulls out The Computer at the start of the game then it is really hard to keep up with them.  There are other strong cards in the game like Holographic Projection and The Captain so it doesn't feel like the game is broken to me.

Is it possible that you are a much better player than your opponents are and it is this that grinds them down?


Ticket to Ride: May a train segment count for 2 different routes? We have a question regarding Ticket To Ride. Can part of one train be used to fulfill two different destination routes? For example, my clever son completed his San Francisco-Atlanta “Destination Ticket” (17 bonus pts.). He then drew the Portland-Nashville “Destination Ticket” (also 17 bonus points) and decided this would be a cinch since he had already completed San Francisco to Atlanta. He simply added another 5 train cars, from San Francisco to Portland, and claimed another 17 bonus points for the Portland-Nashville ticket! I think he should not be allowed to do this, but should complete a whole separate train between Portland and Nashville to earn those 17 additional points. I may be reading the rules too quickly, but I don’t see where the rules explicitly address this one way or the other. Do you know if there is an “official” rule on this? Or is it up to people to determine this in their own house rules? Thanks for any tips you have!

From the rule book:

  The object of the game is to score the highest number of total points. Points can be
  scored by:
  ◆ Claiming a Route between two adjacent cities on the map;
  ◆ Successfully completing a Continuous Path of routes between two cities listed on your Destination Ticket(s);
  ◆ Completing the Longest Continuous Path of routes

You shouldn't think of it as building trains, but as claiming routes. The plastic trains are only there to show that the route is yours.
Once you've claimed a set of routes between Atlanta and San Francisco, you can (and should) use and re-use this route as often as possible.


Nissa - Vital Force, does the land that becomes a creature can get destroyed? I want to ask about the +1 ability of Nissa, Vital Force.

If the creature (that was the untapped land) dies from combat damage or any other effects, is the land removed from battlefield afterwards? Usually I´d say yes, but the card explicitly says It´s still a land.

If it is removed, then can I bring the land back with the -3 ability?

Thank you.

Yes, it will be destroyed by having sufficient damage on it. Also, Terror ('Destroy target creature.') will work just fine.

The text:

  'It is still a land'

signifies that it can still tap for mana and that it is affected by spells and abilities that target lands (ie: 'Destroy target land').

Once it is removed from the battlefield, the card becomes just a land card. Since lands are permanents, you can target them with Nissa's -3 ability.


Can a non independent character deploy in a dedicated transport? Can a non independent character (not attached and not attachable to the unit) deploy in a dedicated transport of any unit?

I'm thinking of putting Death Cie. Tycho with 9 Death Cie. inside the unit's drop pod. I'm not sure if that's allowed.

And according to the errata, Tycho is a single unit in itself.

Tycho has two different profiles, Captain Tycho and Death Company Tycho.

Since Death Company Tycho is not an independent character (codex p. 41, FAQ p. 4), it is disallowed by the Dedicated Transport rules (p. 78):

The only limitation of a Dedicated Transport is that when it is
deployed, it can only carry the unit it was selected with (plus
any Independent Characters that have joined it).


To whom do I return stolen cards? With Molten Primordial I've taken a creature from opponent 2, which had been previously taken from and is owned by opponent 1. When I lose control of it at end of turn to which opponent does it go?

Control-changing effects work in a system of layers, with the latest one being active. When the currently active effect expires, the previous effect takes over. In your case, where player 2 gained control via Empress Galina, the creature would return to player 2.
The rules governing the interaction of continuous effects are, in part, as follows:

Interaction of Continuous Effects

613.1. The values of an object’s characteristics are determined by starting with the actual object. For a card, that means the values of the characteristics printed on that card. For a token or a copy of a spell or card, that means the values of the characteristics defined by the effect that created it. Then all applicable continuous effects are applied in a series of layers in the following order:
613.1b Layer 2: Control-changing effects are applied.
613.2. Within layers 1–6, apply effects from characteristic-defining abilities first (see rule 604.3), then all other effects in timestamp order (see rule 613.6). [..]
613.6. Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is usually done using a timestamp system. An effect with an earlier timestamp is applied before an effect with a later timestamp.

The timestamp reflects the order in which an object entered the battlefield or the ability that created the effect resolved. The effect of your Molten Primordial would have the latest timestamp, as far as control-changing effects on the creature are concerned. That's why it is applied last and overrides all other control-changing effects.
That means that previous control-changing effects are still on that creature if they didn't expire yet, they are just all overridden by the latest one. That means that if player 2's control-changing effect is still active by the time the turn and Molten Primordial's effect ends, player 2's effect takes over and the creature switches to player 2's control. If player 2's control-changing effect also has ended by that time, player 1 gets control back, because that's the default.


Pandemic Legacy 2 objectives: build 3 supply depots and build 3 new supply depots We have been playing the first campaigns of Pandemic Legacy 2. A question on two of the mandatory goals. We have the goals:

Build 3 supply depots.
Build 3 new supply depots.

By building 3 new, we meet both goals and win the game. I feel it is not right to still have both goals in the game, especially since in the first months you only have to complete 2 goals to win.
Did we miss having to destroy one of these goals?

Pandemic Legacy Season 2 Rule The "Build 3 Supply Centers" is a "Prologue" card and you should have destroyed it before commencing January. The rule book specifically states:

  Use the Prologue Objective card during the [prologue] game.

There's a full play log (Warning Spoilers) that never has two build supply centers objectives in play and that is my recollection of the game as well.


In Go, is there any aji left in this corner enclosure (3-5, 4-4, 6-3), and if so, how can it be invaded? I often see the following three stone corner enclosure made in high level games, when the player wants to further secure his corner.

This enclosure does not appear on the sensei's library page for 3-3 invasions:
http://senseis.xmp.net/?AllAbout33PointInvasion%2FDiagrams

Does any aji remain for white to invade this position in some way?  If so, what is the best way to invade it, and what is the expected result?

With the addition of the P17 stone, the enclosure is considered safe. The standard response to white R17 is black R16. R17 is a probe rather than an attempt to live, and in practice black's best answer will depend on the surrounding stones.

See these two links for more information:

http://senseis.xmp.net/?443563Enclosure

http://senseis.xmp.net/?4435Enclosure

Even without the presence of the P17 stone, the best white can get locally is a ko.

If you search this pattern on eidogo.com, you'll see that this enclosure usually ends up as black territory.


Tutors for Sorceries? I'm building a budget Natural Order deck, so I'm looking for tutors that can find sorcerys in green and black, preferably that have CMC 3 or less. I hope you can help.

The following cards in black and green will allow you to search your library for a sorcery, and possibly other cards:

Bringer of the Black Dawn
Cruel Tutor
Demonic Collusion
Demonic Tutor
Diabolic Intent
Diabolic Revelation
Diabolic Tutor
Entomb (tutors to the graveyard)
Grim Tutor
Imperial Seal (tutors to the top of the library)
Increasing Ambition
Infernal Tutor
Insidious Dreams
Liliana Vess (tutors to the top of the library)
Rhystic Tutor
Rune-Scarred Demon
Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Vampiric Tutor (tutors to the top of the library)

I've highlighted the cards with converted mana cost 3 or less.

There are also black cards with Transmute, which allows you to pay {1}{B}{B} and discard that card to search for a card with the same CMC:

Brainspoil
Dimir House Guard
Dimir Machinations
Netherborn Phalanx
Shred Memory

In addition, Demonic Consultation isn't exactly a tutor, but it does let you get a specific card out of your library into your hand, at the cost of exiling every card above it, and with a chance of exiling your whole library without finding it. Spoils of the Vault has a similar effect, except that you're guaranteed to find the card if it's in there, but you lose 1 life for each card exiled.


2 eternal souls 1 destroyed dm unaffected? Or destroyed If I control 2 eternal soul and 1 gets destroyed are the dark magicians destroyed or left unaffected due to the other eternal soul?

Read "Eternal Soul", it says unaffected by your opponent's card effects. They would be destroyed in your scenario.


Pirate Ship, Dominion Seaside Do the coins that are on your Pirate Ship Mat need to disappear (go back to the coin pile) when you opt to use them in your buy? Or do they stay there for the entire game, being used whenever you have the Pirate Ship card come up and opt to do so?

You don't lose the Coin tokens on your Pirate Ship Mat when you use them in your buy.

I think the clue is in the fact that the rules refers to them as "Coin tokens", not just "Coins".  Confusion between them and coins is understandable, but basically they're something completely different: the tokens only serve as a reminder of how many Coins you receive every time you play a Pirate Ship and choose its second option.  Coin tokens do give you Coins, but they are not Coins themselves and are not expended in the same way as Coins!


What is the appropriate response to a jump rebid by responder under Standard American? Last week, I played my first session of bridge in about five years, meaning that I was "rusty," and I was also at a new club with a partner I had just met, who mentioned "Standard American."

Sitting South, neither side vulnerable, and dealing, I had (s) QT94 (h) A7 (d) K764 (c) AJ6. I opened:

1D  Pass 1 Heart  Pass
1NT Pass 3 Hearts Pass

At this point, I passed, giving my partner credit for something like (s) 53 (h) KQJT32 (d) 93 (c) Q87. That is a six card heart suit, and 6-9 points. Since we would have had 20-23 HCP and only eight hearts between us, I felt that 3 hearts was plenty, perhaps too high, unless he had seven hearts

Partner actually had (s) 53 (h) KQJT3 (d) A93 (c) Q87. He said, "I had an opening hand opposite an opening hand, and you were supposed to bid four hearts with at least three hearts, and 3NT otherwise."

Who was correct under Standard American bidding? (I had taken that sequence to mean an opening hand and 6-7 card suit when made only by the opener (not responder). What do other systems (than Standard American) have to say about this matter?

I agree in part and disagree in part with Forget. The Standard American system booklet indicates that responder's rebid of a suit at the three level is invitational, not forcing. However, your hand is a maximum for your rebid, and therefore you should accept the invitation.

While visualizing the kinds of hands partner might have is a useful exercise, particularly for slam bidding, (a) you have to visualize a half dozen or so different hands to draw useful conclusions rather than finding just one, and (b) it's probably not valuable enough to justify the energy expenditure when you're making a 3- vs 4-level decision with a run-of-the-mill balanced hand.


Can I use more than one option card at a time? I don't see any explicit rules in when or how to use option cards. The rules on page 8 talk of option card priority and refer to using 'an option card'. Can I use two at the same time, such as Ramming Gear (which doesn damage to the pushee) and Reverse Gear (which alters how far you back up)?

Yes, as long as they don't conflict. (For example, you couldn't use the Mini Howitzer and the Tractor Beam at the same time.) There's nothing in the rules that says otherwise. There are a few places that do mention having more than one option card; surely they'd have mentioned if you couldn't actually use both.


How likely are you to lose because Fool's Landing sinks into the abyss? Since I like probability questions, and tttpp brought it up, I figured it might be interesting to calculate how likely you are to lose on the first turn in Forbidden Island, because Fool's Landing sinks into the abyss. This question is only interested in figuring the odds of losing the game during the first players turn. It would be slightly more difficult to figure the odds of losing during the first round, where each player has taken one turn at most. If this question gets enough attention, I might decide to ask that question and figure out the odds. To figure out the odds of losing, you will need to calculate the following:

What are the odds that the first player cannot shore up Fool's Landing? (depends upon the first player's character, their starting location, and Fool's Landing location)
What are the odds that no player has received a Sandbag/Helicopter (depends upon number of players)
What are the odds that a Waters Rise card is drawn?
What are the odds that Fool's Landing is redrawn after Waters Rise? (difficultly level effects this)

What are the odds range of losing on the first turn for a 2-4 Player game? Calculate each individual component separately, and then provide a range of maximum/minimum odds of losing on the first turn based upon the individual components above. Assume the following:

The all players will attempt to shore up Fool's Landing. (use Sandbags/Helicopter)
The default island map is used.
The first player and their character are randomly determined, per the rules.
Ignore the odds of losing because a player sinks into the abyss. (optional:)
Ignore the odds of losing because both tiles for a particular treasure sink into the abyss. (optional)

Note: Calculate this if you want, but I am not uninterested in the minimal effect on the result of losing first turn.

A friendly warning: This is a looong answer.

  I've calculated the chances of Fools' Landing being lost immediately after the first turn with all players playing to prevent it and a random tile setup.

A few variables:

n = number of players
w = water level after rising once (2 for Novice, 3 for everything else)

Special abilities/actions

First, of all, there are a couple of special abilities and cards that make it impossible to fail:

If the first character is the Pilot (1/6), they start at FL and can always shore it up, or
If anyone starts with a Helicopter Lift (there are 3) or a Sandbag (2) in their hand (1-(20 C (2n))/(25 C (2n))), they can shore up or move the first player to shore up (it's OK to ignore WR cards in the initial deal)

1/6 + 1-(20 C (2n))/(25 C (2n))

i.e. (1 - (1/6 + 1-(20 C (2n))/(25 C (2n)))) chance that the following permutations can end the game.

Floods, Waters Rise and More Floods

What the characters do on their turns is tricky, so we'll deal with all the card probabilities together first:

6 areas are flooded to start. To immediately fail, FL must be one of them (6/24)
At the end of the first player's turn, regardless of what they did, a fail requires a WR card be drawn from the remaining deck. They draw two cards. The first has a 3/(28-2n) chance of being WR. If it's not ((25-2n)/(28-2n)), the second card has a 3/(27-2n) chance of being WR. After some balancing, that becomes (156-12n)/((28-2n)(27-2n)) chance that a WR card is drawn on the first turn
If it is, the (6-card) discard pile is shuffled into the deck and there is a w/24 chance that FL comes out again.

So, the odds that the cards are against you and only a perfect first turn can prevent a fail is:

6/24 * w/24 * (156-12n)/((28-2n)(27-2n)) = (w(156-12n))/(96(28-2n)(27-2n))

The First Turn: Explorer Edition

This is where it starts to get very hairy, so bear with me. If the first player is the Explorer, they can move diagonally, so that makes everything a bit more reachable. There is a 1/5 chance that the first player is the Explorer (because we've already taken into account that they're not the Pilot). To fail as the Explorer, you have to be more than three spaces away from FL including diagonally.

From the outside 8 spaces (hereafter, "outside"), there are six you cannot reach. The odds of placing FL in one of the 6 unreachable spaces is 6/23. Therefore, there is a 8/24 * 6/23 = 48/552 chance you fail for this starting position
If you start in a corner of the inner square ("corner"), there are four spaces you cannot reach as an Explorer (the opposite outsides). That's a 4/24 * 4/23 = 16/552 chance of failing
If you start in a space that is not in the centre four, "outside" or in a "corner" (which I'll refer to as "inside" for clarity), there are two unreachable spaces. That provides 8/24 * 2/23 = 16/552
Finally, your first option could be one of the central spaces (the centre four). If it is, congratulations! You can reach any space!

So, the odds of being the Explorer and being unable to shore FL on your first turn, based on all tiles being placed randomly is:

(48+16+16)/552 * 1/5 = 16/552

The First Turn II: Everyone Else Edition

But what if you're not the Explorer?! Let's look at all the potential starting spaces again (groan...) given you're one of the other non-Pilot characters (4/5):

There's a 80/552 chance that FL is unreachable from outside
There's a 40/552 chance that FL is unreachable from a corner
There's a 72/552 chance that FL is unreachable from inside
There's a 12/552 chance that FL is unreachable from the centre.

So, the odds of being a non-Explorer, non-Pilot and being unable to shore FL on your first turn is:

(80+40+72+12)/552 * 4/5 = 816/2760

Therefore, the odds of being unable to shore up FL (given that you're not the Pilot) is:

16/552 + 816/2760 = 896/2760

Phew!

The Grand Conclusion, Or TL;DR

So, we now take all three sections' results and multiply them together:

The odds that you're not the Pilot and no one has cards that can help you = (1 - (1/6 + 1-(20 C (2n))/(25 C (2n))))
The odds that you all the flooding will go against you, and you'll draw at least one WR = (w(156-12n))/(96(28-2n)(27-2n))
The odds that you won't be able to reach and shore up FL under normal circumstances = 896/2760

Given that w=3 (which it is for most setups), the odds of failing on the first turn by number of players is:

2 players: approximately 0.0768%
3 players: approximately 0.0483%
4 players: approximately 0.0288%


Agricola Solo "Campaign" professions In my solo campaign I played the "Home teacher" (The card that shows Obi Wan) and chose that as my first fixed profession for the following rounds. The card says something like:

  At the end of the game you receive one bonus point for every profession you play after this one.

1 In the second game when I already have the teacher laying on the table and choose profession. Is that profession free or does it cost 1 food?

2 Also from the third game on I had the Teacher and other professions laying on the table from the start. Do all these professions give bonus points at the end or just the ones I actually play in that round?

Yes, you need to pay 1 food for your second occupation.  Note that the action space on the board reads:

  A player's first occupation is free, each additional one costs 1 food

It doesn't say anything like "first occupation played from your hand" or anything like that.

Yes, you get bonus points for any occupation played after the Home Teacher.  Per the solo rules, you choose the occupations as you play them.  There is an implied ordering, just make sure you chose the Home Teacher first!


Link Summon Vorticular Drumgon with another Link monster as material? Can I use a Link-2 Dark Dragon monster and another Dark Dragon monster to summon Vorticular Drumgon or do I need the 3 Dark Dragon monsters?

No, you can't.

Drumgon explicitly states you need to use 3 dark dragon type monsters.

If what you want to do were allowed, the text would read as follows:
2+ Dark Dragon monsters


What happens when you want to close a gate but there's another investigator in Other World? What happens if you enter a gate and, later before closing, another investigator enters the same gate?

You are returned to Arkham but the other investigator would be in the Another World trying to return to the same gate that you will try to close.

If the gate the second investigator came through (or another gate to the same world) is open when they try to return, then they would return as normal to whichever gate they choose.

However, if there are no open gates to that Other World, then the investigator would be lost in time and space. For reference, this is on page 8 of the Arkham Horror rulebook, under the Other World Movement section.


How is the "Longest Route" calculated in Ticket to Ride? This had never even crossed my mind as an issue before, but someone brought it up in a comment on another TTR-related question, and having checked the USA rulebook I'm no longer 100% sure:

When calculating who gets the "Longest Route" bonus card, do you go by number of train cars in the route, or number of links/cities in the route?

I suspect the official answer will be well-known to anyone who plays a lot of Ticket To Ride online, but for those of us who don't... what's the correct interpretation?

The owner of the longest continuous number of train cars is the winner.  (It works just like longest road in Settlers of Catan)

Here is an image provided my Matthew Frederick from his original edition of the game.  He also notes that the online versions provided by Days of Wonder work this way.


House rules for Spade bids of nil, blind-nil, and 10-for-2? My favorite bids in Spades are the riskiest ones: 10-for-2, nil, and blind nil. 10-for-2 is always worth 200 points, and most rule sets I've seen put nil at 100 and blind nil at 200.

In our group, we eventually had to put restrictions on these bids because they were making it too easy for people to catch up from being behind, which was diluting the value of solid play in less dramatic rounds:

no bids of 10-for-2 or blind nil unless the bidding team is down by at least 100 points
only one bid of blind nil per team per game
players do not get to trade two cards if someone calls blind nil

What other house-rules do people suggest for limiting the bomb effect of these three bids, or alternatively, do you not agree that it is a problem?

The main rule I strongly endorse is that you only trade ONE card, on blind-nil bids only.  No trading cards in any other situation - the only purpose is to avoid the "oops, guy going blind nil has the Ace of Spades" case which makes the whole round more or less pointless.

Other than that I have also frequently played with a "must be X points behind" rule on blind nil.  Is it really happening (successfully) so often that it overshadows all else?


How does combat damage work when one creature blocks multiple attackers? If I have Brave the Sands, am I allowed to block both a 6/6 flying and a 5/4 with my 1/2 Gurmag Swiftwing, and take 0 damage?

Yes, the combination of cards you described allows you to block both creatures.

Since Brave the Sands allows you to declare your creature as a blocker for 2 separate attackers, both will be considered blocked, your Swiftwing will die, and you will receive no damage. Declaring blockers does not require that your creature be able to survive combat with any of the attackers, and both declarations and damage happen simultaneously, so there's no point where your creature will be destroyed "before" it can block the other attacker.

A couple things worth noting:

When a creature blocks multiple attackers, the defending player chooses the order in which the blocking creature's damage is dealt. In your example it doesn't make much difference since your creature couldn't kill either attacker, but if you were blocking instead with a 4/4 creature, you could either deal 4 damage to the 5/4 and destroy it, or you could deal 4 damage to the 6/6 in hopes of damaging it later that turn.

If either attacker has trample, any damage beyond your creature's toughness can be assigned to you.


Horror Tests with Multiple Monsters and Multiple Investigators Can't find this clearly in the rules. Do I need to take a second horror test when a new monster enters the room, even if the investigators have already taken a horror test?

I can see this leading to a large number of horror tests in succession if Call of the Night is used on multiple monsters at once, all of which move into the same room, containing multiple investigators. (e.g. 3 zombies and a Mi-Go enter the room containing 2 investigators => 8 horror tests)

Yes, you will make a total of 8 horror tests. One for each monster that enters an investigator's room, and for each investigator.

Rule book (page 13), within the section covering Horror Tests.

  Whenever a monster enters (or is placed in) an investigator’s room (or vice versa), the investigator must immediately make an attribute test called a HORROR TEST. He does so by making a Willpower test modified by the monster’s horror rating (the blue number at the top of its monster token). If he fails this test, he takes one horror (see “Damage and Horror”
  on page 24).

  If multiple investigators are in the room, they must each make a horror test (the keeper chooses the order).

  If the investigator leaves the monster’s room and then re-enters the room, he must make a another horror test. He must make a horror test every time he enters the monster’s room (and every time the monster enters his). In this way, a monster that is chasing an investigator will trigger a horror test each time the monster enters the investigator’s room.

  If, at the start of an investigator’s turn, a monster is in the same room as him, the investigator does not need to make a horror test. If a monster leaves an investigators room and then re-enters it on the same turn, he does not need to make a horror test against it.

  An investigator only makes a maximum of one horror test per monster per turn.

  Horror tests always interrupt the current step of the player’s turn


How can I make a Crisis game go faster? I've played a couple games of Crisis Mode from the Crisis Expansion (Pack 1) of the DC Comics Deck-Building Game with one, two, and three players. While we like the cooperative mode of it (it always seemed weird in the base game that the heroes were competing against each other), the biggest issue we have is that the game takes so long. While the base game takes about 45 minutes, the Crisis Mode has never taken less than 2 hours (and once almost made it to 3 hours).

The main reason it takes so long of course is that we have to go through so many villains and their crisis events. If we reduce the number of those, then the game would be faster but would be easier because it means you're less likely to run out of the deck cards. So I'm not sure that this is feasible.

What houserules can we employ to make Crisis Mode take an hour or less without reducing difficulty?

I know that this is an old question, but how about this suggestion?

The main complaint that I am reading here is that the crisis and villain stacks are too large for a normal paced game. How about cutting all stacks in half, or maybe just the crisis, villain, and main deck in half?

In a normal game (non Crisis), we do not see every card in the main deck. By the time we are about half way through the deck, someone has culled their deck enough to kill the super villain every or every other turn.

For Crisis, if you simply remove half of the main deck after shuffling, and half of the rest of the cards, then the game should be just a difficult, but will be faster.

When we do Crisis, it is a lot of luck. If we get stuck with something that requires everyone to destroy a defense or attack card at the same time, then we could go through half of the deck before we see another defense card. Then we need to wait for the player without one to get enough power to purchase it. Then we need to wait for that player to go through their deck and draw it. Removing half of the deck would not reduce this luck factor, and could help speed up the clock for those games where you just had bad luck with the randomizing of Crisis cards.


What is the converted mana cost of fuse cards If I were to play Blast of Genius and chose to discard Catch // Release Would the converted mana cost be the total cost of both halves or one?

Its converted mana cost is 9. Blast of Genius will deal 9 damage. Rule 708.4 says

708.4. In every zone except the stack, the characteristics of a split card are those of its two halves combined. This is a change from previous rules.

708.4b The mana cost of a split card is the combined mana costs of its two halves. A split card’s colors and converted mana cost are determined from its combined mana cost.

Catch has a mana cost of {1}{U}{R} and Release has a mana cost of {4}{R}{W}, so the combined mana cost is {5}{W}{U}{R}{R} and the converted mana cost is 9.


What is the standard cost for the illustration on a Yu-Gi-Oh! card? The illustration on Yu-Gi-Oh! cards sometimes appeats so surrealist. I wonder how much it costs for only one image that was drawn by some artist like that, for example (these are some that crossed my mind, there is more detailed like in Zexal, ARC V, or Vrains)

They are so detailed and there are many more detailed than this.

I found places where artists do things like draw and sell their works online. When I ask artists who interest with their work, the prices shock me, it costs like $50-$70 (we have to pay more for adding environment, background, detailed skin, colored-draw) so the total, approximately $100.

What's the actual prices of the art on Yu-Gi-Oh! card?

It looks like the company that makes Yugioh is very tight lipped about their contracts with their artists.

More is known about Magic the Gathering artists, they reportedly get paid roughly $400-$600 / card, with "known" artists making more, possibly 2-3 X.

My guess would be that Yugioh artists make less than Magic the Gathering artists.


How do you find not-quite-club level human opponents to regularly play bridge with? What's a good way to to go about finding human bridge players (kids or adults) that is less intense than what you find at duplicate bridge clubs, but more competitive and learning oriented than playing rubber bridge with friends once every few months?

Though I've played (and enjoyed the challenge/competitiveness of) duplicate bridge at clubs in the past, my 6-year old bridge-loving son is nowhere near the level of bidding, play, or (especially) maturity where a club would be appropriate. The etiquette alone would prove too stifling.

I've also met several people throughout my life with a desire to play bridge at a level of play that was less intense than that found at a typical U.S. duplicate bridge club, but more intense and learning oriented than what you can get from casual play with friends a few times per year.

I'm interested in answers that involve 4 people (kids, adults, or some mix of both) physically getting together. I already know about bridge software and online bridge options and while we use bridge software some as a learning tool, that's not what I'm after with this question.

Your question intrigues me because I'm an oddity--a purely sociable bridge player who has written about bridge history and I've done a lot of THINKING about bridge as popular culture--where it is, where it's going, what it needs to do if it is ever to become the mass fad it once was.  My experience writing a book about the pop culture of sociable bridge, and a blogezine as well (http://bridgetable.net), tells me you're not alone. You have lots of kindred spirits out there. There's much dissatisfaction with the bridge Establishment and today's bridge world.

I think the only answer is YOU (with others) organizing something (via the internet and Meet Up) between the world of sociable players (like me) who have no organization whatever AND the ACBL world.

Launch a website, come up with a set of standards/rules for your ideal way of playing duplicate bridge that would be good for your young son as well, give it a catchy name, and start and promote to people who agree with you. Who knows, you could be the creator of something new in bridge that goes national at some point. Who knows? Maybe someone else with feelings like you has already launched a website to reach others like you? Read again about Ely Culbertson--he told the bridge Estabishment to go to hell and just promoted bridge the way he knew it would work rather than go along with the Establishment. He's my hero.

I'll bet if you Googled "How to start a national organization via the internet" you'd find all kinds of instructions. Come to think of it--I should do that myself for MY "cause" too!

Create a few Google Alerts of selected key words and phrases and see what you find. That's how I find content for my blog, I have Google Alerts for "play bridge" and "nonagenarian" (because part 4 of my blog is looking for bridge-playing 90-plussers, and do I ever find them!!) That's how I found you in fact.

I'll bet a Google Alert for "play duplicate bridge" and "play duplicate bridge without masters points" or even the words you used in your question "play less intense duplicate bridge" -- do that for a month and see what you come up with. Can create as many Google Alerts as you want.

My progress with my cause (that sociable bridge survive after the bridge-playing old ladies like me (91) are dead and gone) goes slowly. BUT I'm OLD and TECH ILLITERATE (have to have a Virtual Assistant or I could never do a blog) while YOU are YOUNG and like most of the young into twittering and facebook and all that stuff I loathe doing. Even so, got a couple of very good breaks these past two weeks that may make a huge difference eventually in my subscriber list. Anyway, what I do is one of my bucket list causes and makes life interesting for a nonagenarian.


Is there a card that lets me draw whenever a card is put in an opponent's graveyard? I have a mill deck that uses Sphinx's Tutelage among other things. I'd like to find a card that could combo with it by allowing me to draw when a card is put in an opponent's graveyard. I'm not sure such a card exists.

Compost would be perfect, except it only works with black cards. There should also be a way to get out of the loop so I don't mill myself.

Modern-legal would be best but this is more about curiosity so it's not super important.

Just add Painter's Servant to your combo of Sphinx's Tutelage and Compost.

With Painter's Servant in play, every card your opponent mills will be Black and cause a Compost trigger.  So as soon as the Sphinx's Tutelage trigger first resolves, your opponent will mill (at least) 2, netting you two more draw triggers, causing 2 more sphinx triggers, leading to 4 more draw triggers causing 4 more sphinx triggers leading to 8 more draw triggers, etc etc.

Compost is a 'may' so you don't need to worry about milling yourself if you want to stop.


Does "Ingenious Jury-Rig" block cards from returning to their owners pile When Ingenious Jury-Rig is revealed from the Dilemma Stack and placed into my core, does it then stop the effect of returning dilemmas (example Authenticate Artifacts )?

Or does it only prevent actions like The Manheim Effect?

Non-Persistent dilemmas may not be returned to your dilemma pile from
  beneath your opponent's incomplete missions.

Dilemmas that return themselves never go "beneath your opponent's incomplete missions", so they are unaffected.


Maecenas and Rome (B): are the extra Leaders also free? The Leader Maecenas allows to build Leaders for free (Leaders, page 6):

  As soon as Maecenas enters play, his controlling player can recruit all of his or her future Leaders for free (during the Recruitment Phase), without having to pay their coin cost.

The Wonder Rome (B) allows in its second and third stage to build additional Leaders (Leaders, page 12):

  The second stage is worth 3 victory points and the player can immediately put in play an extra Leader (by paying 2 coins less than its printed cost).
  The third stage is worth 3 victory points and the player can immediately put in play an extra Leader (by paying 2 coins less than its printed cost).

If the Rome (B) player has recruited Maecenas, can the additional Leaders (from the 2nd/3rd stage) be built for free?

I wonder because it says "during the Recruitment Phase", but when building the wonder stages, you are not in the Recruitment Phase, are you? So this would mean that Maecenas’ effect doesn’t work for the extra Leaders, unless this is an oversight, or am I missing something?

The recruitment phase is specifically at the beginning of an age before players have received cards.  I would agree that Maecenas would only get the bonus during this phase and not if leader is put in play by any other means.


What should be taken into consideration when mixing Fluxx sets? What should be taken into consideration when mixing fluxx sets?

I played a game of Stoner and Zombie fluxx mixed the other day, and I found it super fun. It add variance to the theming, and especially with the Stoner fluxx (if you're playing with the, ahem, special rules) and stretches it out.

What are the potential pitfalls of mixing sets, and what else should be taken into consideration?

Mixing Fluxx sets is fun, but it will:

probably make the games take longer since you have half as much chance of getting a relevant keeper.  The more sets you add the lower the chances of getting the card you want will be.   With 3 decks your chances are 1/3.  With 4 decks your chances are 1/4.  And so on.  [Thanks to @SocioMatt for encouraging this generalization.]
get weird.  Some sets, like Star Fluxx, have keepers with superpowers which might overpower the other set you mix with it.  Reports indicate that Monty Python Fluxx doesn't mix well.
Stoner Fluxx and some non-English Fluxx editions have different backs which might let your opponent figure out which cards you don't have more easily.


Can Slifer be summoned using Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon's effect? I'm running the first gen print of Slifer. Before I get asked about it, no I don't do tourneys or follow the modern card rulings. I stopped playing yu-gi-oh back in 2007 so I use the same limited rules that we had back then. I don't think we had any banned cards back in 2007. I could be wrong.

Anyway, that being said, I usually only play against a friend of mine. We both decided to start playing again about a month ago. I'm running a dragon deck (yes, using all of the cards specially including the newer ones as you can tell by my use of Red-Eyes Darkness) and I came across this dilemma. Am I allowed to summon Slifer using Red-Eyes' effect?

Furthermore, upon re-reading Slifer's effect it states that it is also treated as a dragon. My question is, does this only become true when it's on the field? Would the graveyard count as well?

Okay, I think I've worked out what's going on here.  The link to Original Slifer that you kindly provided for me shows the original, illegal version of the card.  There is a second link, from that page, to the legal Slifer version.  You will see that the second Slifer does not have any ruling declaring the card to be of Dragon Type.

Why does the illegal Slifer have a ruling indicating that it is a dragon?  Well, it took a little bit of detective work but I quote from that page:

  This card's written lore in the anime and manga was never shown fully
  or directly; the lore listed here is a reconstruction based on how it
  was used and may not be accurate or complete.

What is this talking about?  Well, at some point in the anime an interaction between Slifer and other "cards" occurred that would not have been able to happen if Slifer had not been of Dragon type (I believe I actually found what this was earlier today, but have lost it again: I'll edit it in if I track it down).  Seemingly, then, in the anime at least Slifer is of "Divine-Dragon" type.

In tournaments I would guess that Slifer is categorically only a Divine-Beast, and not a dragon, and does not combo with Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.  You say you're not especially interested in tournament restrictions and the latest rulings though - so if you wanted to make a house rule that yes, of course "Slifer the Sky Dragon" is a dragon, then there's nothing stopping you.  That interpretation was good enough for the anime so there's no reason it shouldn't be good enough for you.  If you go down that route I would treat Slifer as having "Divine-Dragon" on its type line for all purposes, so it would still be a Dragon in the graveyard too.  Hope that helps!


Where can I find examples of Game Mechanics? I'm prototyping a game, but I'm not very schooled on board games. I'm looking for a list of game mechanics so that I can

Describe my game in terms of mechanics
Find other uses of the mechanics to learn from
Pick and choose what mechanics I want to have in my game.

(If there are any books about this sort of thing it would be freaking awesome!)

This is similar to some other questions, but with some differences:

What set of attributes can be used to describe, compare and contrast various board games? - but I need only the mechanics, not whether it is easy to carry etc.
Board Game Mechanics - nice question, but the answers with examples of games people likes, are not very helpful (I don't have access to the games or the time to understand them all).

You probably should go looking at the various mechanic lists on boardgamegeek.com.

Examine the various reviews, and find where people talke about the mechanics, as well.

It's a concentrated resource for doing exactly the kind of research you probably should be doing.


Is a fifth card in a suit often a decisive factor in three no trump contracts? I've seen a number of successful 3 NT contracts made with 23-24 HCPs (not 26). In most of these cases, the declarer's side had a solid five card suit that provided a large number of tricks. On the other hand, I've seen 3NT contracts fail with a combined 27-28 HCP points. Usually, this was because of "flat" distribution in declarer's and dummy's hands, (4-3-3-3, or 4-4-3-2), especially if they "mirror."

Conversely, it seems that the the defense has a very good chance to prevail against a 26 HCP 3NT if they have a reasonably solid eight card suit, say, QJTxxxxx or better divided 5-3, but not if they are divided 4-4. (With 6-2, it depends if the hand with 6 has enough entries to cash them.)

Is a good five card suit often a decisive factor in making or breaking a 3NT contract? It seems to me like that fifth card in a suit may be worth about 3 points, so 24+"3" will probably make, and 27-"3" will often fail.

There are nearly as many ways to evaluate hand distribution as there are experts. In some cases, these methods are chosen to justify being passive or aggressive in certain circumstances. However everyone recognizes two distinct components to evaluating distribution: a) the core value of the distribution; and b) the fit with partner.

In the days of Goren, a relatively simple evaluation system, one evaluated short suits only, for both suit and Notrump contracts, as:

3 for void;
2 for singleton; and
1 for doubleton.

However remember that Goren's NT openings were all one point stronger than today, and all experts deduct a full point for 4333 distribution, When we shift to modern NT ranges and properly downgrade 4333, we end up with something like this:

+3 for void;
+2 for singleton;
+1 for doubleton; and
-1 for 4333.

Now 4432 distribution (the most common) with 15-17 HCP exactly matches Goren's 16-18 Total Points; but we have a more accurate and precise evaluation for other distributions.

Every expert I know also counts one point for the fifth card in a suit, even if it is expressed as a shift in the opening NT range: ie "Don't open 1NT with a five card suit and 17 HCP." or "I open 1NT with 15 HCP and a five card suit."

We now have:

+3 for void;
+2 for singleton;
+1 for doubleton;
+1 for a fifth card in a suit; and
-1 for 4333

For additional cards in a suit, these are (at least usually) worth more than the single point for a fifth card - but how much more is unsure. Sheinwold recommended in Five Weeks to Winning Bridge to count every card past the fifth at two points each, but that may be a bit aggressive. it may be better to regard it as having value both intrinsically and due to fit (or lack of it) with partner. With this in mind, we couldsay something like this:

+3 for void;
+2 for singleton;
+1 for doubleton;
-1 for 4333;
+1 for a fifth card in a suit; and
+2 for a sixth card in a suit when partner shows at least two; and
+1 for a sixth card in a suit otherwise; and
+2 for seventh and subsequent card in the suit.

Back to your specific example, this evaluates 5332 distribution as (+1+1) - (-1) = +3 points better than a 4333 hand; but only 1 point better than a 4432 distribution - from 4432 to 5332 one has lost a four card suit to gain the five bagger.

Here are overall evaluations for some frequent hand distributions (where the distributional evaluation is the same value, I have ordered them weaker followed by stronger according to my personal subjective assessment):

-1 4333
+1 4432
+2 5332
+2 4441
+3 5422
+3 5431
+4 6322 w/o 2+ fit from partner
+4 5440
+5 6322 w/ 2+ fit from partner

A reminder - this system is a means of assessing the potential for establishing length tricks due to the intrinsic shape of the hand. This is absolutely not an acceptable or accurate means of assessing ruffing potential in the hand with shorter trumps.

As a final note, Goren recommended not bidding 3NT until the partnership was known to have 26 total points. This is regarded as overly cautious by modern standards. Players are better overall than they were two generations ago, and as we see above modern evaluation is more refined. The modern standard is 25 points for Matchpoints, Rubber, and Not Vulnerable at IMPS; and 24 points Vulnerable at IMPS. As I have discussed in other answers, a partnership should agree that the one point variation for vulnerability at IMPS (and the complementary adjustment for slam bidding) is made only by the hand inviting game, or bidding it without an invitation. This is the only agreement for it I am aware of that is both unambiguous and simple to describe and remember.


Can lands that say “Add one mana of any color to your mana pool” be used in a colorless EDH deck? A couple of other questions have been asked regarding cards that "Add one mana of any color to your mana pool", but

One is for EDH decks in general (which, in most cases, have at least one color)
The other is for colorless mana in general (which would likely also be used in a colored deck, or a non-EDH deck where extra colors don't matter)

What I'm trying to answer now is if those sorts of cards can be used in a colorless EDH deck.

So, for example, if I have one of the big Eldrazi as my commander, I know I can have Coalition Relic in the deck because it has a colorless color identity. But, once it's on the field, can I use it to generate usable mana?

As of January 18th, 2016, the restriction on other colors of mana (mentioned in other answer) was removed.

Rule 4 removed. Decks may now generate mana of any colour.

They can still be in you deck, but now they can make any color of mana.


How much would it cost to get started with Magic: The Gathering? I've heard a lot (of good things) about this game and I'm interested in exploring it; however, I'm slightly worried about the initial cash investment involved.

  About how much would it cost to get started with Magic: The Gathering?

There have been many answers to this question, as there are many different ways to handle getting started in magic. Really, the best thing to do is to explore carefully and decide how you are going to play that's the only way to get a feel for how much your initial investment will be.
First and foremost, as others have suggested. Regardless of how you want to play, as a new player, Duels of the Planeswalkers is a fabulous way to get a feel for how the game is played. It's available on many different systems, most consoles and PC, as well as some tablets. It gives you an excellent way to get an idea of what different colours do, how they interact, the beginnings of how to use your resources correctly and the best strategies to employ in given situations. If you want to know whether you will like the game at all, this is the best way to find out.
If you like the game enough to continue from that point to the next step. There are 2 options, Paper magic, and Magic Online (often referred to as MODO). both of these are open to casual and competitive players alike, and the decision comes down to whether you are going to want to play with friends in your local area, with a hard collection to show for your money, or be able to jump in to a game of magic any time of the day or night. Whichever you choose, you will be making a similar level of initial investment, so your choice here really counts!
If you choose to take the online route, then jump onto the internet and make yourself an account, there are plenty of resources out there to help players get started on MODO, and there are bots who will give new players a handful of free digital cards to help grow their collections initially, besides that, you can buy boosters and enter tournaments just like with paper magic. you can even cash out your digital cards from recent expansions into paper copies if you complete a full set. If you go down the route of MODO, your initial minimum investment will be in the region of $10 for an account, from there you can jump straight in to playing some games.
if you choose the paper Magic route, then you need to make a decision about what kind of Magic you are looking to play. This is a very subjective choice, and depends massively on the player, realistically, without doing a bit of experimenting, you will struggle to figure out exactly what you want to do with magic. I will expand on this below:
Casual Play
There are many players (in fact, the vast majority) who will happily buy a few boosters here or there, and then build whatever decks they fancy out of what cards they have, and battle with their friends. These players get a lot out of every single card they own, and generally open a few boosters here and there a few times a week. Players like this will be playing at home with their friends, round a kitchen or dining table, with whatever decks they put together for that evening, maybe building a deck in a different colour for each of their friends that come to battle.
If that is the kind of magic you are looking to play, then your initial investment will not be sky high, there are many good answers already covering this, so I wont paraphrase them. I will say that sealed product (boosters/starter decks etc) would be your best choice. You would be able to spend as much as you feel you want to to get a collection big enough to build what decks you need to have fun with your friends, this could be as little as $20 as others have suggested, or I would say up to $100 would give you a very good basis to work from for a larger pool of cards to play with.
Like Competitive Play described below some casual players choose to follow certain deck construction rules (called a format) when building their decks. One of the most popular formats is called Commander, which involves creating a deck around a specific Legendary Creature, called your Commander. These decks are 100 cards (99 + the Commander), you can only have one a given card in a deck (other than basic lands), and all cards in the deck must have a color identity that is included in the commanders color identity. There is a Commander special release every November with 5 new decks that are around $35 a piece and are usually fairly competitive (for a casual audience, they aren't Competitive in the sense they would do well in a tournament).
Competitive Play
If casual play at home with friends doesn't sound like your thing, (either because your friends aren't interested, or you are looking to meet loads of new people to play against, or you want to play to win) and you are looking to play in tournaments, then things go a lot differently, both in how to get started, and how much your initial investment will be.
There are many different types of tournaments, Limited formats, which require no prior investment whatsoever, are a good way of entering tournament play without having to spend any money prior to the tournament. You get the same chance everyone else gets, and it all comes down to learning how to play that format (be it draft or sealed) better than everyone else. Entry to these tournaments is often more expensive than traditional "build a deck beforehand" constructed tournaments, but you get to keep the cards you use in the tournament, so its a good way of picking up cards to expand your collection, whilst playing competitively. The cost of draft or sealed tournaments varies, so your local store is the best place to find out more information about this style of play.

If you want to know more about the types of tournaments, and advice about them, continue below, however, there is a LOT of information to process, and if you already feel like casual play is more for you, then this information is of little use to you. have fun YOUR way, and at YOUR pace!

Limited
As previously mentioned Limited formats require no prior cards, you play with the cards you are given by the Tournament Organizer. For limited events you have a 40 card minimum deck size rather than the 60 cards needed for all the constructed formats.
Booster Draft this is the most popular form of limited play. The way it works is you are seated at a table with several other people (8 players per table is considered ideal, however numbers can differ based on tournament attendance). Each person is then given 3 booster packs, they each open one of their packs and keeps a card from it passing the rest to the player on their left. They then take the pack passed to them from their right pick a card from it and repeat this process until there are no more cards to pass. This process is then repeated for the second and third packs, alternating direction with each pack. Each player then makes a deck from the cards they chose.
Sealed Deck is the other main form of limited play. In this format each player is given 6 booster packs and has to make their deck from the cards in those packs. This format generally has a lot more luck than Booster Draft since you only get to see 6 booster packs vs 24 boosters you get to see in draft so if you are unlucky and get bad cards there isn't really anything you can do to mitigate it.
Constructed
Constructed competitive play is a whole different ballgame. This is where things get different, as in terms of "bang for your buck", you are best off buying individual cards from a reseller, rather than opening boosters and hoping to get the cards for your deck.
First and foremost, Event Decks have been made especially for you. they are more expensive than starter decks, but with very good reason. They contain more rare and powerful cards, and are generally built so that you can have a hope to compete in a tournament with them right out of the box. They even have instructional inserts to explain how the deck is meant to be played, and giving you some tips on how to use the cards that are included to best effect! These decks serve as an excellent starting point to build on. Note: Event Decks were discontinued with the release of Battle for Zendikar.
Playing at this competitive level, especially as someone starting out, it is very important that you start by paying attention to what kind of decks are winning tournaments week after week. There are plenty of websites that will give you a list of the decks (and every card they played) that came in the top 8-16 or so of the tournament. This gives you a very good idea of what kind of decks can do well reliably, and hence what you should be looking to invest your money into building. You can of course disregard this and build whatever you want, but if we are talking about investing $200+ in something, it's probably best to go with a tried and true formula, at least until you have some experience.
You may want to pick one of the cheaper decks that performs well, so you don't have to spend quite so much so soon, and that's fine, cheaper does not mean worse, and you can build something quite playable with under $100 if you pick carefully. You can also replace some of the most expensive cards with something more affordable if you wish, but bear in mind those cards are expensive for a reason, they're good!
There is some key information to remember however with constructed play, and that is the concept of rotation. Standard is the most popular constructed format, by a very large margin. If someone is playing non-casual magic with their own pre-built decks, chances are they are playing standard. One of the key things about standard is that every six months, usually around late September and early April, several sets of cards are "rotated out" of the format, meaning they are no longer legal for play. this means if you choose badly how you invest, you may well find that in a few months you are no longer allowed to play your expensive cards and have to spend that money all over again. Cards stay in Standard for approximately 15-18 months. On the positive side, this keeps the format feeling new and fresh, however, conversely, it does mean you have to continue to invest in new cards to play.
This puts a lot of people off these formats. Fortunately, there are other constructed formats that do not rotate, however these come with a trade off, as the initial investment is much higher. Eternal formats also tend to have a smaller player base, which means local tournaments are harder to come by, if they happen in your area at all.
Non-rotating formats
Modern - this is the newest and cheapest non-rotating format. This obviously provides a massive advantage, in that cards you buy for this format will not ever rotate out of the format. This means that once you buy a deck - with some caveats - you wont have to make a big investment again. The exceptions to this are bannings, and newly printed cards. If the key elements of your deck are banned (such as Splinter Twin) then you may find you have to invest in an entirely new deck. Similarly, new cards may be printed which become key elements of your deck (such as the new Beck // Call which may well become a core element of modern Elves), however, overall this investment tends to be much more manageable than the continued investment in rotating formats.
Some players dislike modern, and a lot of the complaints raised against it centre around the fact that your investment into the format is not necessarily stable, as if key elements of your deck are banned, you need to reinvest into a new deck. Modern's banlist is relatively young, and as such is still undergoing more change than in other formats. Modern has seen cards banned or unbanned in many of the announcements since the format was officially released. This turbulence puts a lot of players off the format.
Legacy - This is a much more expensive, but also much more stable eternal format, which means that cards from all sets can be played unless they are explicitly banned. The highest value cards in this format are for the most part pretty safe from bannings, as they have been in the format for a long time, and would have been banned a long time ago if they were causing a problem. The main issue with Legacy is that the investment into a deck can easily reach into the region of $1000s. The main advantage is that your investment is unlikely to be invalidated by future card releases or bannings, and for the most part, wont require much (if any) continued investment as additional cards are released.
Legacy has its own problems however, and the prohibitively large cost of the key cards in the format takes its toll, While there are areas with a thriving legacy scene, and even some with higher legacy tournament attendance than any other format, in other areas, the player base is much smaller, and in some areas practically non-existent. Considering the cost of the format, it definitely requires some consideration of your local area to ensure you will be able to play.
Vintage - the most expensive and intense eternal format. This format has a very small ban list (banning only cards such as Contract from Below which reference the "Ante" mechanic which was removed from the game early on, "Dexterity" cards which require you to physically flip cards from a foot above the table such as Chaos Orb, cards with the Conspiracy type like Hymn of the Wilds, and Shahrazad) and a "Restricted" list, of cards which you may only include a single copy in your deck. Some of these cards cost hundreds or thousands of dollars each, and their power level makes them essentially required in your deck. As a result, Vintage tournaments are very hard to come by. I would not recommend going into vintage to someone just starting out.
So, having looked at all your options, here is an overview of what you can expect
Casual play - Comparitively cheap, you can happily play with an investment from anywhere between $20 and $100, depending on how many players you want to support. You can continue to invest to add variety, or play with what you have.
Limited - No initial "hump" of investment to be able to play other than tournament entry, but quite high continued investment.
Constructed
Standard (Rotating) - Reasonable initial investment (approx $50-$500), with similar investment to be made at least every 1-2 years.
Modern (Non-rotating) - Medium to high initial investment (approx $300-$2000), good chance of investment being stable, but good chance you may have to continually invest to keep current.
Legacy (Eternal) - High to very high investment (approx $500-$4000), quite stable investment, continual investment requirements small or non existent.
Vintage (Eternal) - Extremely high investment (approx $4000-$25000) very stable investment, continual investment requirements highly unlikely.


Can I counter a creature casted last turn? For example, My opponent cast a 10/10 creature and finish his turn (I have no cards), I draw a card and it is "Counterspell" I use it on his creature. Does his creature goes to the graveyard? or it happens nothing?

You cannot use Counterspell on a creature in play.

Creatures, artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers (and lands, but lands are not spells) are permanents.  That means that unlike instants and sorceries they stay on the battlefield once they are cast, rather than going directly to the graveyard. But once they are on the battlefield they are no longer considered spells, and can no longer be countered.

Speaking simply, a spell can only be countered immediately after it is cast.

Going into more detail, spellcasting uses the stack.  The stack is a special zone where spells and abilities exist in while players react to them.  When you cast a spell or use or trigger an ability, instead of having an effect immediately it instead goes on the stack.  Then every player gets a chance to respond by playing instants, cards with flash, or using abilities. If they do, that spell or ability will go on the stack above the previous effect, and players get a chance to respond to the new effect.  Repeat as necessary until no players wish to add things to the stack, at which point the most recently added effect resolves.  For permanents, the effect simply moves the card onto the battlefield. Then the game checks for any triggered abilities that need to be added to the stack, and gives players another chance to respond.  Repeat until the stack is entirely clear of spells and abilities.

Counterspells target spells that are on the stack.  The Counterspell is put on the stack after the spell you are targeting, so the counterspell resolves first, at which point it removes the spell it's targeting from the stack and puts it in the graveyard.


Promised future trades as part of legal trades? (Solution described, alternatives/comments requested) When making a trade in Settlers of Catan, there is no official rule encouraging or prohibiting making a promise (to make a certain type of trade or perform some kind of action in the future) during a current trade. Assuming the group you play with decides to allow such promises, what mechanisms can be used to ensure "future trades" occurs smoothly?

I provide one such answer below that we've used in many games, but I'm totally open to suggestions for improvements on my answer, and/or alternative play-tested systems developed by other Catan enthusiasts.

Note: A similar question was asked that could be considered a duplicate:

What are common contracts in Catan?

See my comment below which advocates keeping this new question open and possibly closing the old question.

While I used to play with futures trading, I now explicitly prohibit it for the following reasons:

Problematic/ambiguous mechanics
Consider this case: I trade you a brick and a future wood for your wheat.

Later, you attempt to cash in the future trade, but I claim to have no wood.  Unless it's obvious that I'm lying, there's no great way to determine whether that's true or not.  Good sportsmanship will solve this problem, but it's easier if the rules avoid situations that breed mistrust.

Alternately, I have no wood, but do have four sheep that I could trade in.  Can you force me to trade those in for wood to settle the debt I owe you?  (Exacerbated by situations such as, I have ten sheep and a sheep port.)  If I trade the sheep for wood in the process of building something, do you have to be ready to jump in and call in the trade mid-building?

Can I trade away debts, a sort've negative commodity, as I would any other amount of resources?

Are you allowed to try and call in the debt after every card I steal from someone with the robber?  I might have the desired resource, but this can also give you an otherwise unavailable insight into what card I stole.
Onerous bookkeeping
Tracking outstanding debts can be an unpleasant process with no natural mechanism outside of keeping a ledger.  This problem is doubled because for every debt both parties will want to track it to have an accurate assessment of their resources.
Damage to gameplay
The most serious problem with future trades in my experience is that it makes trading too open-ended.  In regular Settlers, there are times when you simply don't have the resources to build everything you want, no matter how much you want to.  You accept it, and continue playing.  With future trades, suddenly there's no limit to what you can offer.  Players go on and on proposing ever more intricate trades so that they can get that great coup this turn.

Veteran players are less susceptible to this than novices, but even they will occasionally fall into gameplay-halting spirals of ever-higher futures offers.


Is there a solitaire version of Bang? I love playing Bang! but I'm finding it hard to play a game with my friends, because of our busy schedules.

I would love to play a solitaire version of Bang! if it existed, so that I could get my spaghetti-western card game fix between groups.

Does anyone know of, or has anyone created solitaire rules for this game?

The Unofficial Bang! Blog has, among other great variations, a set of instructions (pdf) for single player Bang!

The main changes in this solitaire version are that all roles and cards held are known to the player from the beginning, and that you play as both the sheriff and the deputy, with other "NPCs" making semi-predetermined moves.

You can increase the difficulty by giving more cards to NPCs at the start, but not too many! The author can barely survive with two cards given to each NPC at start. (I'm afraid even I'm not that good :p)

Not always having a large crowd to Bang with, I have thoroughly enjoyed this rule set and have now almost played it more than "normal" Bang!


With Necropotence, would I keep playing even with no library? In MTG, I know if I'm not able to draw on my draw step I lose, but what if I had Necropotence out; that lets me skip my draw step. Would I be able to continue playing the game?

I'm just curious because I'm not sure how that would work in play. I'm not too familiar with priorities, like who has it, who gets and when it changes. But I was thinking if I could skip my draw step I wouldn't have to draw therefore wouldn't lose because I can't draw.

You are correct that if you control a Necropotence, you will not lose the game during your draw step, because you will skip your draw step entirely, and you can keep playing until the game ends some other way.
You say "I know if I'm not able to draw on my draw step I lose", but it would be more accurate to say that you lose if you are instructed to draw from an empty library at any time, during your draw step or otherwise.
From the Comprehensive Rules:

120.4. A player who attempts to draw a card from a library with no cards in it loses the game the next time a player would receive priority. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)
120.5. If an effect moves cards from a player’s library to that player’s hand without using the word “draw,” the player has not drawn those cards. This makes a difference for abilities that trigger on drawing cards and effects that replace card draws, as well as if the player’s library is empty.


Hypersonic dragon => instant scavenge? The rule text of Hypersonic Dragon says

  You may cast sorcery spells as though they had flash. (You may cast them any time you could cast an instant.)

Can I cast scavenge as an instant now?

  Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to this card's power on target creature. Scavenge only as a sorcery.

No. Scavenge is an ability, not a spell

The official MTG rules for the ability do not appear to be up on wizards site, but from the cards reminder text, you can clearly see that the ability is an activated ability (the colon ':'), that functions only while the card is in your graveyard, with specific activation instructions that only allow activation whenever you could cast a Sorcery (on your turn, during a main phase, when the stack is empty).

  112.3b Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as “[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).]” A player may activate such an ability whenever he or she has priority. Doing so puts it on the stack, where it remains until it’s countered, it resolves, or it otherwise leaves the stack. See rule 602, “Activating Activated Abilities.”

  [Mana cost], Exile this card from your graveyard:Put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to this card's power on target creature. Scavenge only as a sorcery.

  602.5d Activated abilities that read “Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery” mean the player must follow the timing rules for casting a sorcery spell,

Activating abilities is not the same thing as casting spells, so Hypersonic Dragon will have no effect on your ability to Scavenge only on your own turn, while the stack is empty. What Hypersonic Dragon will let you do, is to cast cards with the Card Type - Sorcery whenever you have priority, even on other players turn, when you normally could not.

  205.1. The type line is printed directly below the illustration. It contains the card’s card type(s). It also contains the card’s subtype(s) and supertype(s), if applicable.

  307.1. A player who has priority may cast a sorcery card from his or her hand during a main phase of his or her turn when the stack is empty. Casting a sorcery as a spell uses the stack. (See rule 601, “Casting Spells.”)


What are the rules to this dice game? Does anyone know the rules to this dice game? It has 7 dices with:

0-5

1-6

2-7

1-3

7-12

plus and minus

divide and multiply

They appear to be an assortment of "math numbers" and "math operators" dice from Koplow Games. While they could be used for a game, they are sold as learning aids ("educational resources").


How does doubling of life work when you are at negative life? If I'm at -3 life and not dead from let's say a Platinum Angel. If I play a Beacon of Immortality, do I go to 6 life? Is it as simple as the primary school maths indicates or is there some other consideration?

You would go to negative 6 life.

When calculating or comparing numbers, the game uses the actual value of whatever is involved in the calculation. Usually the result of such a calculation can't be negative, but doubling a player's life is one of the few exceptions:

  107.1b Most of the time, the Magic game uses only positive numbers and zero. You can’t choose a negative number, deal negative damage, gain negative life, and so on. However, it’s possible for a game value, such as a creature’s power, to be less than zero. If a calculation or comparison needs to use a negative value, it does so. If a calculation that would determine the result of an effect yields a negative number, zero is used instead, unless that effect doubles or sets to a specific value a player’s life total or a creature’s power and/or toughness.


How can I counter Merchant Elves? In Small World, the only combination we've encountered that we consider "broken" in any way is Merchant Elves - the Merchant property doubles the value of every occupied area, while the immortality of the Elves means that eliminating that race becomes impossible.

Especially deadly is the situation where Merchant Elves are taken by a player who put his first race into decline early.

Has anyone found a counter for this (admittedly rare) problem in Small World?

In Small World, as soon as you discover that someone has a combo that seems powerful you need only to do a couple things

Kill off any declined empire of his
Regularly snipe a territory or two of his every turn.

If at least one other players agrees with you, the declined empire should be gone by the start of his second turn with the powerful combo (at the latest).  Without a declined empire regularly gaining a few VPs/turn, it is very hard to win.

Next you have to deal with the elves.  You definitely don't want him expanding to 8 territories and taking 16VPs/turn!  8 elves can be knocked back pretty easily.  He has no combat bonuses on either offense or defense, so you should be able to reduce him to a max of 2 territories at the start of his turn pretty fast.  Bottle him up with stacks 2-3 high, this will limit his expansion and should keep his VP generation below yours.

Don't be afraid to go into decline early and often.  Grab any combo with a combat advantage of some sort and exploit it.  Once it plays out, get another one.  The Merchant Elves will be stuck fighting for the same 2-4 territories every turn until he goes into decline.

Merchant only gives +2 troops, everything else except Fortified (+3) gives at least +4 troops.  This means that Merchant is meant to be a very powerful ability, on the other hand, you will almost certainly outnumber him.  Grab a combat oriented power on top of that and the battles should greatly favor you.

Some combos that might be particularly annoying to the merchant elves are:

Flying Ratmen or Amazons (attack his soft underbelly with a ton of troops)
Mounted Skeletons should have him restricted to the mountains in no time
Stout anything - just throw them at him and go get another empire while he cleans up the carnage
Commando Giants - grab mountains, anything around them will probably fall to 1 attacking giant!


Custom card print dimensions I'm creating my own card game and am currently designing the back of the cards I notice on a lot of packs there is a gap between the design and the edge of the card. Is this standardised anywhere?

It´s to avoid trimming essential text and images of the card when it's cut out after printing. Also, using black or solid colors can make the white card stock paper visible during the cutting process. Those infos you can find here.

However, some patterns, like this one, goes beyond the safe margin. So, the gap in the edge of the cards is just a best practice.


Can Fabled Passage generate two mana with Amulet of Vigor? Fabled Passage has this text:

  [T], Sacrifice Fabled Passage: Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library. Then if you control four or more lands, untap that land.

Amulet of Vigor says:

  Whenever a permanent enters the battlefield tapped and under your control, untap it.

With Amulet of Vigor + 3 lands on the battlefield, can I play Fabled Passage, sacrifice it, find a basic land which enters tapped, Amulet triggers and untaps the land, tap it for mana (floating one), and then untap the land again using Fabled Passage's effect?

Yes, you can get 2 activations out of the land you fetch with Fabled Passage if you also control Amulet of Vigor, though technically a little different than you describe.

When the land fetched with Fabled Passage enters the battlefield, it always enters tapped. That means Amulet of Vigor triggers, but the Amulet's ability does not go on the stack yet. It waits until Fabled Passage's ability has finished resolving:

  116.2a Triggered abilities can trigger at any time, including while a spell is being cast, an ability is being activated, or a spell or ability is resolving. (See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”) However, nothing actually happens at the time an ability triggers. Each time a player would receive priority, each ability that has triggered but hasn’t yet been put on the stack is put on the stack. See rule 116.5.

Fabled Passage finishes resolving, and the land you fetched is untapped when it has finished resolving. Since an ability resolved, you as the active player get priority:

  116.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

Before you get priority, Amulet of Vigor goes on the stack. You can now tap the land for mana and float it, then let Amulet of Vigor resolve, untapping the land again. You can now tap the land again for the second time. and use the mana as you see fit.


Is there a card that cancels the Legendary Rule? For example, I am wanting to make token copies of a legendary creature such as Progenitus using something like Progenitor Mimic. I know this is illegal by itself, but does there exist a card that would allow this?

The card you are looking for is Mirror Gallery, which is an artifact with the text

  The "legend rule" doesn't apply.

In addition, Lazav, Dimir Mastermind and Sakashima the Impostor become copies of other creatures, but they keep their own names, so they can copy other legendary creatures without dying due to the legend rule.


When is someone the controller of a permanent? My dad and I have an issue since we play with cards with Ascend. We both play with auras with Enchant Creature. When is an aura under who’s control? I think when he plays an aura on a creature I control, the aura is also under my control. I tried to find the rulings, but I can't find it.

In most cases, the player who controls a permanent is the player who played it. In the situation you describe, if an opponent plays an aura with "Enchant Creature" attached to a creature you control, then your opponent still controls the aura.


If British and American spellings of a word differ, which one should I prefer when playing Scrabble? I have looked for some words in Scrabblewordfinder and Collins Dictionary. I found that in every pair like metre–meter, colour–color, defence–defense and so on, both words in each pair are usually considered legal and acceptable. So, according to both dictionaries, one can play either METRE or METER etc.

However, if a player on each his/her turn just always chooses randomly between BrE and AmE spelling, it is pretty weird. At least for me. It shows that the player is very inconsistent.

So my question is: if I am playing a game of Scrabble in English (but I am not an Englishman or an American, and I am not playing in United Kingdom or United States), which spelling should I prefer, British or American? Are there any common preferences or traditions? Thanks.

In my experience, the choice depends entirely on which spelling produces the largest score.  I do occasionally play with people for whom the score is less important than the strife that can be stirred up, but even there, unexpected alternative spellings are rarely an important consideration.  Blocking a desirable word is far more satisfying to the player for whom the annoyance of his fellows is the reason to play the game.
So, which spelling should you prefer?  I will go on record as saying that, if you play against me, the spelling you should use is that which gives me the best chance of a high-scoring riposte.  Presumably that would also apply if you are playing against your relationship partner or someone you find desirable and who is very competitive.  Otherwise, you should play as your conscience and your sense of self-respect dictate, and to the devil with the preferences or traditions of those whom you would trample into the dust of the board.


Blinking a creature equipped w Stitcher's Graft Any creature equipped with Stitcher's Graft must be sacrificed when it's no longer attached. My question is do you sacrifice the creature exiled by a spell such as Cloudshift or will it just come back good as new?

As rule 400.7 explains, the exiled creature is a new object:

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

Stitcher's Graft's third ability mentions "that permanent", which does not exist anymore, so it cannot be sacrificed.


Dividing up Hexagonal Board Tiles So I'm designing a board game that uses a number of adjacent hexagonal boards. These boards need to be divided up into spaces (tiles) that players move through.

I've been playing with using Hexagons inside the board but this leaves you with 6 partial tiles. Are there any recommendations for what shapes would fit into this space.

consider looking at how other games solve this problem, For example Settlers of Catan adds a "sea" around the boad which fills in the uneven edges when using full hexagons and gives a uniform diamond at the edge. Something along those lines might be the best way to resolve your problem.

Alternatively you can design your overall boards such that the overflow hex tiles "jigsaw" together, either each board has half tiles which will always match up well (the style and substance of your tiles is important in making this decision, if you have an aliens vs robots theme for example you cant have tiles that are 50% alien 50% robot) or having some of the half tiles whole, some empty to slot together, which will also have a positive impact on the feel of your boards since they wont slide about as easily.


How are colored mana symbols ordered? Yesterday when I organized a part of my collection I noticed something odd. I especially looked at Flying Crane Technique and Ruhan of the Fomori.
Note how Flying Crane Technique's mana cost are {3}{U}{R}{W} and Ruhan of the Fomori has {1}{R}{W}{U}. In the oracle box of Ruhan the mana costs are already different to what the card shows and thus match the pattern of Flying Crane Technique.
Are colored mana costs of cards in any specific order? Was this not the case but they changed it after a specific set?

The general rules for mana costs are to order them in sequence around the WUBRG circle, with white also following after green, with adjacent pairs having equal gaps in the clockwise direction, and minimizing the size of those gaps.
For two-color cards, this means that you order the pair so that you move the shortest distance in the clockwise order. So, white and blue will be WU, and white and green will be GW.
Four-color cards are also pretty simple, you write them going clockwise around the circle with no gaps. So a non-black card will have the order RGWU.
Five color cards are the simplest of all: they always have the order WUBRG.
Three-color combinations are the most complicated. There are two kinds of three-color combinations: shards and wedges. Shards are combinations with three adjacent colors, and they are just written with the colors adjacent in clockwise order. So, a white/blue/black card will have the order WUB, and a white/blue/green card will have the order GWU. Wedges are combinations with two adjacent colors and one opposite both of them. They are written with the two adjacent colors on the outside, and the opposing color in the middle. This creates a gap of size 2 between each adjacent pair of colors in the cost.
The cards in the question are examples of wedges: blue and white are the adjacent colors, and red is the opposing color. The order you see is the one that obeys the listed rules. The previous rule, as you can see on Ruhan of the Fomori, was to put the opposing color first.
According to this reddit thread, the color order for wedges was changed in Khans of Tarkir, the set Flying Crane Technique was printed in, and it has not changed again since then.


Complexity of Eldritch Horror versus Arkham Horror I have heard Eldritch Horror described as a "streamlined Arkham Horror", as if the makers of AH considered how to make a faster, more accessible successor.  Having played and enjoyed Eldritch Horror, I would like to ask someone to give a comparison between the two that might give me an idea what to expect if I were to try AH. The comparison could include thoughts on why EH is better, why AH is better, what each do that the other does not, simple examples, etc.

I own both AH and EH. I have the Kingsport, Innsmouth and Black Goat of the Woods expansions for AH. Only have the base game for EH right now but those four expansions call me pretty loudly. I really couldn't say that either is better than the other because I really love both a lot but for different reasons.

One thing that I can say I really miss from Arkham when I play Eldritch is how the investigators interact with the monsters. I like that in Arkham the monsters move around, block your path and can straight halt your action when you run into one. Sometimes it seems like those cardboard tiles somehow know what we're trying to do. I'm really not much of a fan of how unimposing the monsters are in EH, I mean, in real life, if you're sitting there and all of a sudden a portal opens up where you're at and spits out a Shoggoth you probably won't be going for groceries, you'd run, hide, fight or die. In Arkham you pretty much have to make one of those choices...

However, in Arkham when a portal opens where you are you're sucked through instantly before it even spits out a monster, then you're delayed in whatever other world opened up (in AH every gate has the name of an other world that it connects to)then you gotta find your way back to Arkham(you'll have two encounters in the other world before you move back to Arkham), close that gate, which requires you to do a test of either your fight skill or your lore skill plus or minus whatever modifier is on the gate), then you get that gate as a trophy (if you succeed the roll, success is still a 5 or 6). THEN, if that Shoggoth never moved(each mythos phase makes certain monsters of a type specified move, but you never know what will move or where it'll move to) then you can't move past it unless you succeed at an evade check(which is a test of your sneak skill plus or minus the monster's evade mod). If you fail the test the monster deals you its damage and then you have to fight or just not move.

Arkham's game world is more alive, much more intense and forboding and much more rules heavy in terms of stuff you gotta keep an eye on each turn, but winning gives a real sense of triumph and there's much more player freedom.Arkham rocks, rocks. Great way to spend a weekend with friends.

On the other hand, Eldritch's game world is more streamlined, more static and funnels players along in a much more controlling way, BUT as a result of that it tells a more comprehensive story thsn Arkham does on a game by game basis.

If Eldritch Horror was a bestselling novel, Arkham Horror would be the five star epic survival horror (and AH very much is, EH can be tough but AH can and will beat you senseless)video game RPG adaptation. Eldritch Horror tells the story but Arkham lets you live it... but on that note you should really think about checkin out Mansions of Madness too. If I could play that game solo I'd own it in a heartbeat (but one of my best friends has it and all the expansions so we just play his). It could also be said that if Arkham Horror was the book then Eldritch Horror would be the (good) movie based on that book.

Also, like EH, you can play solo which I highly recommend doing for playing for your first couple games(unless you have an experienced buddy who can bring you up to speed) so that you and your friends don't have to spend the day reading rulebooks. Plus it's a blast to play even alone (I suggest playing at least two investigators for solo games though, Arkham's a pretty formidable place for a lone ranger). Sorry to go on and on, just love these games. Hope this helped. Have fun! :)


What's the order of scoring when completing a city with a Princess? Yesterday, I played with The Dragon, the Fairy and the Princess for the first time. We came upon a situation that wasn't completely clear in the rules.

What if there's an almost completed city, with one of Alice's followers in it, and Bob completes that city on his turn, with a Princess tile (which removes a knight from the city the tile is added to)?

Is Alice's knight removed, after which the city's score goes to nobody, or does Alice get the points, after which the Princess has no knight left to remove?

I found an answer which I'll add below, but I'd like to hear your input as well.

The answer I found on BoardGameGeek.com divides the turn into three phases:

Draw and place tile.
Place and move meeple (place or remove follower, move dragon and so on).
Score points.

So that would mean that Alice doesn't get any points, because her knight is removed before she can get any points, and this city's points are lost.


Catan Seafarers discovery question In Catan Seafarers, in a scenario like Fog Island where hexes are unknown, can you build a settlement  at an intersection of a known hex and an unknown hex and if you can, do you uncover the unknown hex or does it remain a mystery until a ship actually is adjacent to it?

From p12 of the rules (emphasis added),

  If you place a ship or road that connects to the intersection of an unexplored hex, you must immediately draw the top hex from the pile and place it face up in the empty space.

If you can ever build a settlement on an intersection, you must already have a road/ship connected to that intersection, so all those hexes should already be explored; exploring does not require a road/ship to be built on one of the hex's edges.


If you block an attack, can the blocker be killed with an instant before you can sacrifice it? Let's say I control a Brindle Boar. If I block an attacking Nessian Courser with it and then activate the ability of Brindle Boar, can my opponent interrupt it with say, a Shock to kill it before I can sacrifice it? And in this case, would the full damage go through to me?

TL;DR

No, your opponent does not have an opportunity to react to you paying the cost to activate the boar's ability, and the creature you blocked remains blocked.

It does not quite work the way you think. To use the Boar's ability you had to pay its cost. Its cost was to sacrifice it. So the boar is gone before any other spell put on the stack would resolve.

The creature the boar blocked remains blocked, and no damage would go to you. Also your opponent would not be able to target the boar because it would not exist at that time.

The relevant rules here start with 509.1h:

  509.1h An attacking creature with one or more creatures declared as blockers for it becomes a blocked creature;...A creature remains blocked even if all the creatures blocking it are removed from combat.

Looking at the rules for casting a spell, you will see in 601.2g that all costs must be paid before the spell is 'cast'. In the case of the boar's ability:

  Sacrifice Brindle Boar: You gain 4 life

which follows the universal {cost}:{effect} template of MTG; sacrificing the boar is the cost. Before the ability can go on the stack and priority can pass so your opponent could cast a bolt, the boar must be sacrificed.


In Carcassonne Rivers, does the Abbey Tile stop a road? Is the mini city on the right a stopper to the road on the left? All the other mini cities have gravel/dirt in the center rather than a road that appears to run through this one.

It plays as illustrated: the road is unbroken.
See the scoring example that shows the road is "not ended":