A "pay cost" question

[Tetragrammaton]

Hello, i would like to know if some minion's special abilities like:

Spiridonas "burn X+2 blood to get +X bleed"
Gaspare Giovanni "burn 2 blood to put a vampire from ....etc"

are to be put under the official clarification:

You cannot play a card whose cost cannot be paid. [TOM 19960514]

So, say, if Spiridonas has just 1 or 2 blood, can he burn the (insufficent)
blood to get the bleed bonus and fail ?

Similar question with Gaspare Giovanni with only 1 blood:
can he use his ability by burning just 1 blood and fail to put the vampire
back
on the ash heap's top?

I'm asking this to cover some corner cases,
but the clarification above is about " pay to play cards",
and doesn't include anything about "pay to use special abilities".

A similar question with no-card actions, like rescuing a vampire from
torpor:

i got just two vamp,
A in torpor with zero blood, and B ready untapped with just 1 blood (is not
Javier Montoya, no humanitas, no catacombs etc..).
Can vamp B attempt anyway the action, and pay just 1 blood and then fail to
rescue the vamp from torpor?

Another similar question is with no-card-actions attempted by a vampire with
a Seed of Corruption on him.
Can those actions be attempted, even if the vamp has not sufficent blood on
him to pay the action?
(Say, a vamp with 2 blood and a SoC attempting a mind rape)

LSJ ?

Thanks in advance,
Emiliano, vekn prince of Rome

[LSJ]

Tetragrammaton wrote:
>
> Hello, i would like to know if some minion's special abilities like:
>
> Spiridonas "burn X+2 blood to get +X bleed"
> Gaspare Giovanni "burn 2 blood to put a vampire from ....etc"
>
> are to be put under the official clarification:
>
> You cannot play a card whose cost cannot be paid. [TOM 19960514]
>
> So, say, if Spiridonas has just 1 or 2 blood, can he burn the (insufficent)
> blood to get the bleed bonus and fail ?

1: No. He must choose X to be 0 or more, and then must burn X+2 blood.
2: Sure. He can choose X to be 0 and then burn 2 blood to get +0 bleed.

> Similar question with Gaspare Giovanni with only 1 blood:
> can he use his ability by burning just 1 blood and fail to put the vampire
> back
> on the ash heap's top?

No.

> I'm asking this to cover some corner cases,
> but the clarification above is about " pay to play cards",
> and doesn't include anything about "pay to use special abilities".
>
> A similar question with no-card actions, like rescuing a vampire from
> torpor:
>
> i got just two vamp,
> A in torpor with zero blood, and B ready untapped with just 1 blood (is not
> Javier Montoya, no humanitas, no catacombs etc..).
> Can vamp B attempt anyway the action, and pay just 1 blood and then fail to
> rescue the vamp from torpor?

No. Actions whose costs cannot be paid cannot be attempted.

> Another similar question is with no-card-actions attempted by a vampire with
> a Seed of Corruption on him.
> Can those actions be attempted, even if the vamp has not sufficent blood on
> him to pay the action?
> (Say, a vamp with 2 blood and a SoC attempting a mind rape)

Seeds doesn't affect the cost of the action.
It adds a "burn blood" effect to the announcement phase of the action.

The vamp could attempt to a Mind Rape (since he can pay the cost), then he'll
burn 2 blood and (if unblocked) the action will fizzle since he can no longer
pay the cost.

--
LSJ (vte...@white-wolf.com) V:TES Net.Rep for White Wolf, Inc.
Links to revised rulebook, rulings, errata, and tournament rules:
http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/