REPOST: Jyhad 5/9/95 Design Team Rulings

[Thomas R Wylie]

/*
** Reposted by request. Some more design team rulings have piled up, but
** they haven't reached that critical mass yet. The next set of rulings
** will probably be out next week or the one after.
*/

GENERAL RULINGS

1) Using equipment is always optional, while using retainers is
always mandatory. Card texts may break these rules, of course.
While several retainers are phrased as being optional (Ghoul
Escort, Resplendant Protector, etc.), retainers in general default
to being mandatory. Note that using Ghoul Retainer is not
optional; it is giving you the option of using hands vs. using a
weapon.

2) "If I steal a piece of equipment that my opponent is using as
a strike, is the strike neutralized, or does my minion still
suffer the effect?"
If the weapon is stolen at first strike, but its strike
happens normally, then the weapon's strike is neutralized so does
nothing. A Sawed-Off Shotgun stolen this way could be used again
later in the combat, a Bomb stolen this way would not be burned
and would not damage its user, etc. If the weapon and the steal
weapon are both used at first strike (or neither is), then the
weapon is used normally before changing controller.

3) There has been some confusion as to whether Out-of-Turn Master
cards are playable during your turn or not. While the original
conception of out-of-turn cards had them playable during your
turn, this changed before Jyhad went to press, and some of the
rules and cards were not properly adjusted. You may only play
out-of-turn cards during someone else's turn.

4) There has also been some confusion over how "strike: combat
ends" works. "Combat ends" does not resolve during strike
resolution; if a "combat ends" strike is played, the combat is
over immediately. If the acting minion played the strike, the
combat ends before the blocking minion can even declare a strike.

5) If an action card such as Computer Hacking provides a directed
bleed, you may bleed any player other than yourself. This
overrides the rules for the default bleed, which is a directed
action only usable against your prey. This is something else that
changed during playtesting, which is why Cat Burglary indicates
different rules for directed bleeds. Any future printings of Cat
Burglary will be changed to make the card useful.

6) If you use a weapon's maneuver, then the first strike you use
that round must be to use that weapon. This means you cannot use
two weapons to maneuver in the same round. However, if you get
additional strikes that round, you may choose to strike with
something other than the weapon you maneuvered with.

7) If you rescue someone else's vampire from torpor, your vampire
must pay both blood. The vampire being rescued may only pay the
blood cost of being rescued if you're rescuing your own vampire.

8) If a vampire uses a political action card such as Disputed
Location to call a vote, the vote provided by that card is
considered to be cast by the player rather than by the vampire.
So vote provided by the political action card cannot be canceled
by Pulled Strings, for example.

9) Titles are never considered to be cards in play, even though
Praxis Seizures are often "played" on a vampire to remind everyone
it has that title. This means that Democritus's ability does not
apply to contested titles, Praxis: Solomon cannot dictate the
outcome of a contested title, etc.

REVERSALS

1) The FAQ states that if a Malkavian is stolen by Malkavian
Dementia and its new controller is ousted before the Dementia's
effect ends, then the vampire is returned. This is incorrect; the
Malkavian would be burned normally.

ERRATA TO CARDS AND RULES

1) Section 12.3.1 of the rules describes equipment and ally cards
as being action cards. This is not correct. They are considered
a separate class of cards, as described in section 7.2.2.

2) Sections 7.2.2 and 14.4 have conflicting statement about how
many times an action modifier may be played during a single
action. Section 7.2.2 is correct; the same *minion* may only play
a given action modifier once, but potentially each minion
controlled by a player may use the same card to modify an action.
This means that all of your vampires may play Cloak the Gathering
on the same action (assuming they all have superior obfuscate),
that an action modifier can be repeated if Mask of 1000 Faces is
used, and so on.

3) Blood Rage should be a Thaumaturgy card, not a Fortitude card.

CARD RULINGS

1a) "Someone's vampire just got sent to torpor, and the other
player is planning on burning it with Amaranth. Do I have time to
save the vampire with Minor Boon? If I do, does it continue the
combat?"
1b) "If a vampire is saved with Minor Boon, can I play Pulled
Fangs on it, and send it to torpor again?"
Minor Boon is used after the combat is actually over. Thus
it is used after Pulled Fangs could be played, and using it does
not cause the combat to continue. If it matters whether it is
used before or after another card, use the normal play procedure
for combat: acting player plays first, then blocking player, then
in turn order starting with the acting player's prey.

2) "Can I use Elysium on a combat I'm not involved with? How
about Frenzy? Mob Connections? Police Department?"
Presses can only be provided by players involved in the
combat, so you cannot use Mob Connections or Police Department on
a combat you're not involved in. Elysium and Frenzy may be used
regardless of whether you're involved in the combat.

3) "Shouldn't Hidden Lurker be an action modifier?"
No. It is an action, as the card says.

4) "Can my Ghoul Retainer keep firing my Sawed-Off Shotgun over
and over during a combat?"
No. The ghoul is actually using the weapon in question, and
must follow all the normal rules for using it. Also, you cannot
have your vampire and its ghoul fire the shotgun at the same time.

5) If Bomb is used as a strike, the damage is dealt and the bomb
burned if and only if the strike resolves. If the acting minion
uses Bomb and the blocking minion ends combat, the Bomb doesn't do
anything. If a Bomb is dodged, the minion who used it still takes
the damage, and the bomb is still burned.

6) "What happens if I play superior Form of Mist to end combat,
but the blocking minion plays Psyche?"
Psyche forces a new combat, and the effects of Form of Mist
are lost.

7) "Obedience says that the acting minion may not repeat the
neutralized action later in the turn. What exactly counts as "the
same action"? If encountering a vampire in torpor is neutralized
this way, can I encounter some other vampire in torpor? If a
Bum's Rush is neutralized this way, can I play another Bum's
Rush?"
Action cards may not be repeated this way, so that minion
would not be able to Bum's Rush something else later that turn.
The default actions provided by the game, and actions provided by
cards in play, are considered distinct as long as you're choosing
what gets affected. So a hunt or default bleed that was stopped
by Obedience could not be attempted again later in the turn, but
you could try to equip with a different piece of equipment, could
try to burn a different Army of Rats, etc. All of this applies to
Change Target as well.

8) When you play superior Govern the Unaligned, you may choose
any vampire, even one belonging to another player. If that
vampire turns out to not be younger than the acting vampire, then
no blood is placed. For example, if Helena Casimir uses Govern
the Unaligned on someone else's vampire that turns out to be
Democritus, the action simply doesn't do anything. The acting
player does not find out that she tried to put blood on
Democritus, and only knows that it must be some 10-blood vampire.
This applies to all similar cards, such as Enchant Kindred.

9) If Fame is played on a vampire that is already in torpor, the
3 pool loss does not happen, but players start losing 1 blood on
their turn as described on the card.

10) A Malkavian in torpor may take advantage of Madness Network
to rescue itself on another player's turn.

11) Change of Target does not allow a tapped blocker to untap.
The blocking minion will retain whatever tapped status it had when
it attempted to block the action. A vampire that used Wake With
Evening's Freshness would not be untapped by Change of Target, for
example.

Tom Wylie rec.games.trading-cards.* Network Representative for
aa...@cats.ucsc.edu Wizards of the Coast, Inc.