No.  Coat of Arms says "Each creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature on the battlefield that shares at least one creature type with it" — it counts the number of matching creatures, not matching creature types.  If Creature A and Creature B share more than one creature type, each one is still a single creature, and they (indirectly) grant each other only +1/+1 through Coat of Arms.  (Also note that Legend hasn't been a creature type since 2004, so Shapesharers don't automatically kill each other.)
Yes, assuming that the Shapesharer itself doesn't have summoning sickness at the time of the copy.  Summoning sickness is determined only by how long a creature has been under a player's control, and turning one creature into a copy of another does not change who controls what.
No (unless of course it's copying another changeling).


Do any precolumbian board games survive?

After reading this article I could find several references to games played during the precolumbian era.

For some of them the rules are unknown but here is the list (to be completed) :

Patolli played by Teotihuacanos, Toltecs, etc. Before Christ !
Bul
Awithlaknakwe
Totolospi


Standstill, Phyrexian Tyranny and both players wanting to cast instants immediately after standstill is played. Who gets damage?

You would have to draw the 3 cards from Standstill and lose the game.

Standstill has a triggered ability. It triggers whenever its trigger condition is met, i.e. whenever a player plays a spell. It can keep triggering as long as it's on the battlefield.

  603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn’t do anything at this point.

After you played Standstill, you automatically received priority, i.e. the right to cast spells and activate abilities. You used that priority to cast your own instant, on which Standstill triggered.

  603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority.

Putting something on the stack is not the same as that thing resolving. It's only in queue to resolve at a later point.

Since you are the active player, you receive priority after you cast your instant. So you first put your instant on the stack, followed by Standstill's ability.

The stack, from top to bottom, is:

Standstill triggered by your instant
Your instant

You receive priority again, but pass to your opponent. Your opponent casts his own instant. Standstill can trigger again because it's still on the battlefield. The opponent puts his instant on the stack, then another Standstill trigger:

Standstill triggered by opponent's instant
Opponent's instant
Standstill triggered by your instant
Your instant

Then you both pass priority in sequence because neither of you take any more actions. The stack starts resolving:

  608.1. Each time all players pass in succession, the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves. (See rule 609, “Effects.”)

The topmost item is the Standstill trigger triggered by your opponent's instant. It resolves, Standstill is sacrificed. You have to draw 3 cards, Phyrexian Tyranny triggers 3 times (the triggers become the topmost items on the stack), and you lose the game.


Spurs are not included.[1] Being connected is not sufficient; the routes must form a continuous path.

The rules say

The player who has the Longest Continuous Path of routes receives this special bonus card and adds 10 points to his score. When evaluating and comparing path lengths, only take into account continuous lines of plastic trains of the same color. A continuous path may include loops, and pass through the same city several times, but a given plastic train may never be used twice in the same continuous path. In the case of a tie for the longest path, all tied players score the 10 point bonus

Let's use the following network as an example:
   A-----B
          \
           \
            C-----D------E
            |
            |
            F

How many routes are in this longest continuous path? Obviously, it's at least 4 (A-B, B-C, C-D, D-E). Is there a way of including C-F without jumping (not continuous) or revisiting a route (explicitly disallowed)?

If you travel along the path A-B-C-D-E, you'd need to jump or backtrack to visit C-F.
If you travel along the path A-B-C-F, you'd need to jump or backtrack to visit C-D.
If you travel along the path F-C-D-E, you'd need to jump or backtrack to visit B-C.

So no. The longest continuous path consists of four routes.
This is confirmed through play with multiple groups and through use of the official electronic version. Note that at least one map (Asia) awards points for largest network, which includes forks (though this counts cities rather than routes).

Unless you can loop back. For example, the following has a continuous path of 5 routes:
A--------B--------C
        / \
       /   \
      D-----E


It is the Ice Wyrm, from Descent second edition.


Do I need On The Brink to play In The Lab?

Yes, it's correct, in that to use everything in the box, you absolutely need the base set and On the Brink. There are things in there that directly add on to things from On the Brink, and would be useless without it.

But you can still use most of it without On the Brink. You can add in the roles and events, and you can play the lab, solo, and team variants. This is all summarized in the "overview" section at the beginning of the rules, and the other sections make it explicit:

Lab Challenge: "This challenge can be played with just the base game or combined with other challenges, except the Team game."

Solo Game: "The solo game pits you, with a little help from the CDC, against all the diseases. It can be combined with other challenges, except the Bio-Terrorist challenge."

Team Game: "The Team game can be combined with other challenges, except the
Bio-Terrorist or Lab challenges."


How to help kids to hold their cards in their hands ?

Patience is the only thing I can think of, with my kids (aged 6) I started by fanning them out and place them in their hands finished, lately they collect them and take a grip and I only fan them out for them.

As an alternative just buy a couple of Playing Card Holders and worry about it later on :)

These should be available a little everywhere but the image is taken from: Peta (first image of them I found on google image search)


Does a God's own mana cost count towards its own devotion?

To quote one of the rulings on Gatherer:

  If a God enters the battlefield, your devotion to its color (including
  the mana symbols in the mana cost of the God itself) will determine if
  a creature entered the battlefield or not, for abilities that trigger
  whenever a creature enters the battlefield.

Also from the rules:

  700.5. A player’s devotion to [color] is equal to the number of mana symbols of that color among the mana costs of permanents that player
  controls. A player’s devotion to [color 1] and [color 2] is equal to
  the number of mana symbols among the mana costs of permanents that
  player controls that are [color 1], [color 2], or both colors.

Since the god is a permenant, it's mana symbols in it's casting cost count towards your devotion.


It is Cathedral, specifically the Mattel edition.

You can see the same colour figurines, the circular towers and the picture is the same as the box but mirrored.


instants and sorceries with activated abilities while on the stack

Lightning Storm appears to be the only spell with an activated ability that functions on the stack.

There are a couple of other spells that have an unusual static ability that functions on the stack: Torrent of Lava and Kaervek's Torch. (There's also the more common "(this spell) can't be countered" static ability or the "when you cast (this spell)" triggered ability found especially on Eldrazi cards.)

We can check this by by searching for all instants and sorceries with an : in their text (and we'll filter out mention of Eldrazi scion/spawn tokens for convenience) — the only one in there with an activated ability that functions on the stack is Lightning Storm.

We can also make a regex search for cards that mention the word "stack" at all. For abilities to function on the stack, they'll have to mention being able to function that zone. From that search we also see Torrent of Lava and Kaervek's Touch.


When you use 'Rebound' does the card go to the graveyard?

does it remain in exile or go to the graveyard?

Neither. It's moved to the stack when you cast it. From there, it will go to the graveyard on resolution (or upon being countered) as normal.

If you exercise the option to Rebound a previously-exiled Staggershock, you cast Staggershock. The first step of casting a spell is to move the card from the zone in which it's located (usually your hand, but exile in this case) to the stack.

601.2a The player announces that he or she is casting the spell. That card (or that copy of a card) moves from where it is to the stack. [...]

At that point, it leaves exile. This is that to which "unless whatever put it there is able to bring it back" refers.
When the spell resolves, it will then go from the stack to the graveyard as normal since it was cast from exile rather than your hand.

702.87a Rebound appears on some instants and sorceries. It represents a static ability that functions while the spell is on the stack and may create a delayed triggered ability. “Rebound” means “If this spell was cast from your hand, instead of putting it into your graveyard as it resolves, exile it and, at the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.”
608.2k As the final part of an instant or sorcery spell’s resolution, the spell is put into its owner’s graveyard. [...]


You have it correct; Dictate of Erebos will be on top and resolve first.
In fact, Attrition's ability is actually added to the stack before any creature has even been sacrificed.

602.2a The player announces that they are activating the ability. If an activated ability is being activated from a hidden zone, the card that has that ability is revealed. That ability is created on the stack as an object that’s not a card. It becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. Its controller is the player who activated the ability. The ability remains on the stack until it’s countered, it resolves, or an effect moves it elsewhere.
602.2b The remainder of the process for activating an ability is identical to the process for casting a spell listed in rules 601.2b–i. Those rules apply to activating an ability just as they apply to casting a spell. An activated ability’s analog to a spell’s mana cost (as referenced in rule 601.2f) is its activation cost.

602.2b is where the costs are paid; where your opponent will sacrifice a creature.

603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn’t do anything at this point.

It will only be added to the stack after Attrition's ability is on the stack and paid for; before a player gets priority:

704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 116, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event. If any state-based actions are performed as a result of a check, the check is repeated; otherwise all triggered abilities that are waiting to be put on the stack are put on the stack, then the check is repeated.

So yes, you can sacrifice the targeted creature to Dictate; which will cause Attrition to do nothing when it tries to resolve.
Note that the Attrition ability won't actually be "countered". It will simply fail to resolve and leave the stack. This is a change to the rules introduced in  2018.

If all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal, the spell or ability doesn’t resolve. It’s removed from the stack and, if it’s a spell, put into its owner’s graveyard.


How Do You Catch A Player Who Takes A Quick Lead In Alhambra?

From my experience, early leads in Alhambra tend to not indicate victories.  In most games in my circles I am last after the first scoring round, and then win the game.

My strategies:

First scoring round is all about walls.  These walls if played right
will make you points two more times in the game.  The color points
are meager, and the game will change quite a bit before the next
scoring round.
Before first scoring, stacking up on money can be more useful than buying.
Small exact change is nice, but don't undervalue big money.  Having to later drop 4 cards to pay for something loses all the advantage of taking two consecutive actions.  In a perfect world you have some 8s and 9s, and some 1s and 2s to adjust them.
Buy almost always for exact change, but don't feel bad taking something for too much if you need it (if it's an emergency).
The endgame grab of tiles can decide the winner.  Be ready for it when taking money late game.
If you can, memorise EVERYTHING.  There is actually no unknown information.  You have seen every card in every player's hand.


Is there an industry standard definition between "Board", "Card", and "Table Top" game genres?

Your game is a CCG.

What you do with the cards - the actual mechanics of the game - is irrelevant here. A game's "type" is metadata. It's defined, roughly speaking, by the central piece of "equipment" needed to play it: a board, a table, minis, role playing, dice, an AV system, or, in your case, cards. Subtype, if any, usually describes the central mechanic. For example, Dominion and Magic the Gathering are both card games, but Dominion has a single showpiece mechanic which can be easily described (deck building), while Magic doesn't.

  Is there an industry standard definition between “Board”, “Card”, and “Table Top” game genres?

Not that I've ever heard of. As you can see just from looking at this page (the comments, boardgames.stackexchange.com, etc.) these terms are somewhat nebulous and different people take them to mean different things.

  Are there specific ways to determine how we should identify our game that are identified by the industry as a whole

Perhaps surprisingly, yes, there is an industry standard practice for supplying this sort of information about your game. Call it whatever you think succinctly, accurately and interestingly describes your game. For example, Netrunner self identifies as a "living card game"; Dominion, as a "deck building game"; Ra, as an "auction game"; Power Grid, as an "economic game".

  do we simply need to pick our 'closest match' and try to clarify how we cross genres in the actual description of the game?

How you identify this aspect of your game is solely a question of marketing, and it's entirely up to you. Don't waste words trying to explain how your game straddles common genres in the industry. From a marketing perspective, it's boring, invites arguments, and most importantly, doesn't advance the idea that the game is worth buying and playing. Talk about the actual game itself and why it's cool and fun instead. The gaming community will naturally figure out which of the "traditional" labels fits best.


Ticket to ride, 1910: What are the big cities

From the rules pdf (also quoted in this blog post) :

  The Big Cities are Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Seattle.


Can I use Summoning Glass immediately upon receiving it?

Nope.  Since there's nothing on the card that tells you that you have to wait for it, the ability is used the first time it's requirements are met.


How to build decks with cards not present in my MTG Online collection

When viewing your collection, click the quantity button and then move the left slider to 0 to show cards you don't own. Once you see them you can just doubleclick them to add them to your deck.


If I play an action card and it is sabotaged, can I take another action?

From the FAQ here:
http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/Twilight%20Imperium%203/ti3faq2-2-4.pdf

Q: Is an Action Card that has been sabotaged considered played?
A:
No. For example, a “play as an action” Action Card that is  sabotaged
does not use up its owner’s action.

So yes, you should be able to play another action.


Your question, literally, can be answered very simply: You cannot exile a token from a graveyard, because tokens that have left the battlefield cannot change zones:

  110.5g A token that has left the battlefield can’t move to another zone or come back onto the battlefield. If such a token would change zones, it remains in its current zone instead. It ceases to exist the next time state-based actions are checked; see rule 704.

This alone doesn't prevent you from using Necrogenesis's ability to get a saproling, though, because it doesn't prevent you from targeting it with the ability; the ability just wouldn't exile the token when it resolved. You still can't get the saproling for several reasons.

You do not get priority before state-based actions are checked:

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

The token ceases to exist as a state-based action:

  704.5d If a token is phased out, or is in a zone other than the battlefield, it ceases to exist.

You do not have a chance to activate Necrogenesis's ability between the time the token enters the graveyard and the time it ceases to exist. Even if you somehow did have a chance to activate it, a token is not a "creature card", so it isn't a legal target for the ability:

  108.2. When a rule or text on a card refers to a “card,” it means only a Magic card. Most Magic games use only traditional Magic cards, which measure approximately 2.5 inches (6.3 cm) by 3.5 inches (8.8 cm). Certain formats also use nontraditional Magic cards, oversized cards that may have different backs. Tokens aren’t considered cards—even a card that represents a token isn’t considered a card for rules purposes.

Also, state-based actions are checked again after you activate the ability, because you receive priority again after:

  116.3c If a player has priority when he or she casts a spell, activates an ability, or takes a special action, that player receives priority afterward.

A similar ability that could target a token in a graveyard (which does not currently exist) would still not work, because the token would cease to exist before you get priority again just after you activate it. It would no longer be an illegal target, and the ability would be countered if it had no legal targets remaining. In the case of Necrogenesis, the ability has only one target, so it would be countered. During resolution, this happens:

  608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target that’s no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process. The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal. If the spell or ability is not countered, it will resolve normally. Illegal targets, if any, won’t be affected by parts of a resolving spell’s effect for which they’re illegal. Other parts of the effect for which those targets are not illegal may still affect them. If the spell or ability creates any continuous effects that affect game rules (see rule 613.10), those effects don’t apply to illegal targets. If part of the effect requires information about an illegal target, it fails to determine any such information. Any part of the effect that requires that information won’t happen.


What advantage do I get from attaching something to my house card?

One way makes it an attachment, the other makes it a location.  Which way you would want to play it depends on what your opponent is likely to be able to do.  If they can discard attachments (such as with the card Bought and Paid For), you would want to play it as a location.  If they can get rid of locations, play it as an attachment.

The choice just makes the card flexible.


Can Circle of Protection:White prevent the damage from Leeches (Circle of Protection / Leeches Combo)?

The current Gatherer text for Leeches is the following:

  Target player loses all poison counters. Leeches deals that much damage to that player.

Circle of Protection White:

  {1}: The next time a white source of your choice would deal damage to you this turn, prevent that damage.

When you cast the spell, there is only one copy on the stack. All the damage is dealt at once. You only need to activate the CoP:White once.

Leeches is a white source of damage by 609.7a and thus may be prevented by CoP:W

  609.7a If an effect requires a player to choose a source of damage, he or she may choose a permanent; a spell on the stack (including a permanent spell); any object referred to by an object on the stack, by a replacement or prevention effect that's waiting to apply, or by a delayed triggered ability that's waiting to trigger (even if that object is no longer in the zone it used to be in); or, for certain casual variant games, a face-up card in the command zone. A source doesn't need to be capable of dealing damage to be a legal choice. The source is chosen when the effect is created. If the player chooses a permanent, the effect will apply to the next damage dealt by that permanent, regardless of whether it's combat damage or damage dealt as the result of a spell or ability. If the player chooses a permanent spell, the effect will apply to any damage dealt by that spell and any damage dealt by the permanent that spell becomes when it resolves.


As you quote in rule 608.2c, you resolve a spell or ability, effects in different sentences are resolved consecutively. When Skullcrack resolves, first it creates a continuous effect that stops players from gaining life for the rest of the turn. Then it creates a continuous effect that makes damage unpreventable for the rest of the turn. Finally, it deals the damage, which cannot be prevented because the effect stopping prevention already exists.


Annotating "brilliant moves" and "blunders" in chess games

No - there isn't a way to auto-annotate for all moves. Strong players often disagree on how to annotate moves using these symbols, particularly when the move is a non-forcing, non-tactical move.

I'm not a programmer by any means, but your approach of looking at changes in the effective score is how engines point out blunders, e.g. a significant drop is caused by a loss of time, material or the failure to parry a threat, e.g. mate. Additionally, you might want to look at the evaluation of the position in a few moves time, assuming the best moves are played.

For example, in Ubisoft's Chessmaster, the blunder alert function pops up and says that you've made a blunder because there is a 3 move checkmate coming. Maybe you could contact a chess software developer for ideas.


In Diplomacy, How Would England Identify Its First Target?

As England, I would determine my first target the same way as I do for any other country I'm playing. I would talk to the other six (yes all six are important) players, to try to get a feel of what is happening on the board, who is and who isn't likely to want to work with me and use this information to develop a strategy. It is possible to do well as England with any of France, Germany or Scandanavia as a first target. There is no royal road to success in Diplomacy (and the game would be boring if there was).

Now for something more useful: I'll give two internet resources that can guide you in your play.

At Diplomacy Archive there is a collection of strategy articles on each country (eg England's is here). This is a collection of articles by various authors that you may find useful reading. They are of varying quality so it can pay to read some of them over with a critical eye to see what ideas hold up to scrutiny. At the very least they'll give you an idea of the various points of view other players are likely to have.

Another resource is Diplomacycast. This is a podcast about the boardgame diplomacy. In their first episode, they specifically discuss the play of England. Note two things. First this is long (at least 90 min), and secondly don't be put off by the audio quality, its their first attempt and the quality improves after the first two episodes.

Don't forget as England Norway is your natural neutral, and you have about an equal share together with France and Germany in Belgium. You will not be 'ignored' (cf last sentence of question).


Is It Possible To Trade Before Rolling In Catan

No, you must roll before doing any trades or builds.
From the rules:

Turn Overview

On your turn, you can do the following in the order listed:

You must roll for resource production (the result applies to all players).
You may trade resource cards with other players and/or use maritime trade.
You may build roads, settlements or cities and/or buy development cards. You may also play one development card at any time during your turn.
After you’re done, pass the dice to the player to your left, who then continues the game with step 1.
Tip: For advanced players, we recommend combining the second and third steps. You can find more details in the Almanac under “Combined Trade/Build Phase.”


The land enters as a land, and only later turns into a creature. This is because Embodiment of Fury's effect is a triggered ability, so the ability has to go on the stack after the land enters, and only later when the ability resolves (perhaps much later, if the players feel like responding to it) does the land become a creature. If instead you controlled e.g. a static ability which said something like "All lands are also 3/3 creatures", the land would enter as a creature and trigger effects like Elemental Bond.


Tl;dr: One set probably suffices for Limited play, but you probably need more than one to play Constructed unless you want to limit what people can build.

Most LCGs (and ECGs, which are the same thing), offer two broad categories of play: Constructed and Limited.

In Constructed play, you build decks from the cards available, usually with some restrictions like a maximum number of copies for each card. ECGs I'm familiar with come with at most enough cards for a single player to build an arbitrary Constructed deck (sometimes many fewer, e.g. in Epic Card Game you are allowed up to 3 copies of each card but the set comes with only 1 of each). So to play Constructed, you'll probably need multiple sets, or you'll need to (potentially severely) restrict what each player can build. For example with one copy of Warhammer: Invasion and two players, you could decide that one player will build an Order deck, one will build a Destruction deck, and no one will use more than half the copies of any neutral card; with four players you could just assign each player a race.

In Limited play, you build a deck immediately before playing, often using a random and/or competitive building process. For example, there's often:

Sealed - deal each person a random pile from the communal pool, then let them remove cards they don't want until they're down to minimum deck size.
Draft - deal each person cards from the communal pool, then each selects a card and passes the rest to another person. Keep selecting and passing until everyone has a deck (or more than a deck, and then cuts some out).

There are many variants of these, and the ECGs I'm familiar with all support some kind of Limited play using only one set. For example, in Epic Card Game you can draft with up to 4 people out of one set.


Your opponent will be unable to cast spells for the remainder of the turn.

The ruling on gather for Render Silent confirms this:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=369022

  A spell that “can’t be countered” is a legal target for Render Silent.
  The spell won’t be countered when Render Silent resolves, but that
  spell’s controller won’t be able to cast spells for the rest of the
  turn.


No. (Mostly)
Silent Gravestone's abilities read

Cards in graveyards can't be the targets of spells or abilities.
{4}, {T}: Exile Silent Gravestone and all cards from all graveyards. Draw a card.

The first ability prevents targeting in much the same way Hexproof and Shroud do.  So do embalm and eternalize target?
Embalm is defined as follows:

702.127a [...] “Embalm [cost]” means “[Cost], Exile this card from your graveyard: Create a token that’s a copy of this card, except it’s white, it has no mana cost, and it’s a Zombie in addition to its other types. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.”

Eternalize is defined as follows:

702.128a [...] “Eternalize [cost]” means “[Cost], Exile this card from your graveyard: Create a token that’s a copy of this card, except it’s black, it’s 4/4, it has no mana cost, and it’s a Zombie in addition to its other types. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.”

There is no mention of targeting in embalm and eternalize, therefore Silent Gravestone's ability won't affect them.
Generally speaking, an ability that only affects the card it is on doesn't target, while abilities that affect other cards do (unless it's affecting all cards of a specific type, like Silent Gravestone)
That said, Silent Gravestone's second ability will prevent players from embalming or eternalizing any of the creatures it exiles.


Equip from same Equipment, two times on stack (Leonin Shikari)

You can activate the Equip ability any time during your Main Phase, when you have priority and the stack is empty.

  702.6a. Equip is an activated ability of Equipment cards. "Equip [cost]" means "[Cost]: Attach this permanent to target creature you control. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery."

With Leonin Shikari on the board, aren't limited to activate it during your turn when the stack is empty (so not just "when you could cast a sorcery"). This means you're allowed to activate the ability in response to a player's attempt to remove one of your creature with a targetted spell.

Because the stack resolves last-in-first-out, your Equipment will be attached to the creature of your choice in time to give it Hexproof before the removal spell resolves. That spell will be countered by the game rules ("fizzle") for not having a legal target anymore.

  608.2b. If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. (...) The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word "target," are now illegal. (...) Illegal targets, if any, won't be affected by parts of a resolving spell's effect for which they’re illegal. Other parts of the effect for which those targets are not illegal may still affect them. (...)


For a given development strategy, how do you ensure enough secondary resources?

There is no sure fire path to victory in Settlers, since there will be some games where a six is never rolled and a twelve is rolled four times in ten turns.  Nevertheless there are some principles to follow when playing Catan.

Watch the resources you don't have. Know who is holding them and who is not holding them.  Often times the entire board will be short on a resource and at other times there will be an abundance of something you don't have.  Look for trades when there's lots out there.  Look to soldier when there isn't.  Managing your acquisition of your most limited resources is the most important skill in Settlers.
Don't waste soldiers.  Hold your soldiers and only use them when they can provide you with a big advantage.  If you have no need for the resource that the thief is sitting on then don't worry about it unless it's worth multiples for you.  Unplayed soldiers are valuable bargaining material. You may be able to get a good trade by threatening others.  Use your judgment though, some players won't take kindly to threats. Ignore this rule if another player may snipe largest army.
Try and create jackpots.  Having a jackpot number makes you less of a target when you don't have your number come up and allows you do almost always do something when your number does come up.
4-1 trades can be worth it, but only do so after exhausting diplomatic/military options.
Never hold the resources which are scarce to you.  It's better to burn the sheep on dev cards, the brick and wood on roads than to try and save them for another round to get a settlement.  Inevitably, if you risk holding them, you will be thieved or lose some other form of opportunity.

You will be short of resources in every game of Settlers.  You can't have good incomes of all the five resource types, so it's important to understand your current game situation and how to maximise your advantages, while minimising your weaknesses.  Development cards are excellent for papering over the gaps in your civilisation.  Brick/wood players are trying to out-expand their opponents.  Wheat/ore players are trying to advance their civilisations so quickly that they can out-produce their opponents.


Backgammon move notation - Is there an official, rigorous specification?

Paul Magriel's notation system originally appeared in his 1976 book Backgammon, and is mostly just a codification of notations systems that existed at the time.
This could be considered the "official" specification for the notation, but really it's usage is just customary.

His followup An Introduction to Backgammon also includes the notation, but has an easier to follow explanation as it is targeted at beginners.


Identify board game on 4x4 board with 8 black and 8 white pieces

That looks like a set of Quarto to me. There are eight dark/eight light pieces, eight tall/eight short pieces, eight round/eight square pieces and eight pointed/eight flat pieces. Usually the fourth attribute is hollow/solid, but the game works in exactly the same way with pointed/flat.

To play the game start with all the pieces off the board, and the first player chooses a piece for the second to place. After it's placed, the second player chooses a piece for the first player to place. Play alternates in this way until a player places a piece that creates a set of four in a straight line that all share a characteristic (e.g. four round pieces in a row). The first player to make four in a row wins.


How is Settlers of Catan different when playing with the 5-6 player expansion?

The time increase depends a LOT on who is playing. But probably double a normal game. I think the fun payoff of the extra people is worth it, though. There are still only one each of longest road and largest army, with two more people, so those tend to get stolen a bit more.
I suppose the increase in shoreline is not quite in direct proportion to the increase in acreage, but I don't think ports are dramatically different. You add real estate to make up for the added players, so the overall ease of getting good position is about the same, I think.
Building in-between turns is probably the biggest contributor to the game going longer, since you have an extra phase to do it in. That said, if everybody knows what they want it can go pretty fast. And yeah, it can save you from the robber, although IMO the robber would be way overpowered if you couldn't do it.
I think that 5-6 is the most fun when you do it with Seafarers, perhaps the scenario with the fog-of-war, since now you can have everybody exploring in different directions. Pretty cool.


Can you move your keeper with creepers using the teleport card?

The Evil, Malfunction and Brain Parasites creepers say "Both cards stay together until discarded". This clearly means you can only move the keeper with the attached creeper.


Can a creature with hexproof be targeted by spells that target all creatures?

Cards that affect "all creatures" (such Blazing Volley, Fumigate, and Last One Standing) are not stopped by hexproof because they don't actually target anything (to target, something must literally say the word "target"; the "choose a creature" in Last One Standing still doesn't count as targeting).

Even spells with overload (like  Electrickery) won't target if cast with overload because overload changes them to not target.

However, spells that do target a bunch of creatures, such as spell with replicate (ex. Gigadrowse) or strive are stopped by hexproof.  The difference is that these spells do literally say the word "target".

The relevant rules are:

  114.1a An instant or sorcery spell is targeted if its spell ability identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target
  [something],” where the “something” is a phrase that describes an
  object and/or player.

  114.1c An activated ability is targeted if it identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target [something],” where the
  “something” is a phrase that describes an object and/or player.

  114.1d A triggered ability is targeted if it identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target [something],” where the
  “something” is a phrase that describes an object and/or player.


Which boardgames need expansion sets before they work properly?

Civilization

It's really a great game, but the so-called "expansion" Advanced Civilization is actually more of a "revised version", which fixes things which were a bit broken, and adds some variety.


What's the strategic advantage of building around alternate win conditions?

I think there's a very simple answer to this question, which perhaps hasn't been concisely stated yet:

Most people's decks are tuned to beat decks trying to win in the "normal" way.  If your deck is trying to win in an unusual way, many decks will not have any good answer to that.

Suppose you're playing a Battle of Wits deck.  A lot of decks won't be packing sufficient enchantment removal to reliably take out Battle of Wits when you cast it - because, in general, enchantment spot removal is not a high priority for winning games of magic.  Which means that, assuming you can survive long enough to find and cast your key card, you win easily.

Or suppose you're playing a deck which has an effective way to gain infinite life.  A lot of decks will be trying to win via the standard route, of dealing 20 damage very fast.  If you can simply gain life faster than they can deal with it, their finely-tuned damage dealing deck is almost certain to have no plan B for dealing with your unusual game plan.

Contrary to other answers to this question, I don't think "the element of surprise" is a key feature to the effectiveness of "alternate win condition" decks... at least not in the sense of your opponent going "huh? What's this deck trying to do, I don't understand...?!".  I think it's a metagame question, pure and simple.  No deck, even after sideboarding, can have effective answers to every other possible deck in the game of Magic.  As such, sensible deckbuilders will build their deck planning to win against the decks they are most expecting to face.  Your opponent may have worked out exactly what your alternate win condition is inside of the first 5 minutes of your match; but that doesn't mean they will have a good way of dealing with it in either their maindeck or their sideboard.  And you may be able to steal quite a few wins against supposedly "better" decks that way.

Never underestimate the power of the metagame.  See for instance the recent World Championships, where Team Channel Fireball brought a Tempered Steel deck that was generally considered to be unplayable because "it rolls over and dies as soon as anyone plays Slagstorm" [or something like that, I'm relying on my memory here].  But as it happened none of the "good" decks at that tournament were packing Slagstorm, and so TCF put 4 players into the top 8 with an identical "B-list" deck.  I don't think you can say the principle of playing to win not just the game but the metagame isn't sound!


The rules say (emphasis mine):

115.4. Some spells and abilities that refer to damage require “any target,” “another target,” “two
targets,” or similar rather than “target [something].” These targets may be creatures, players, or
planeswalkers. Other game objects, such as noncreature artifacts or spells, can’t be chosen.

So yes, if a spell says "any target", a player will always be a legal choice (assuming no other cards currently in effect restrict whether players can be targets).


In Arkham Horror, if I lose a turn and then am drawn into a gate, am I then only delayed?

Losing your turn is different to being delayed. Being delayed means you cannot do anything during your movement phase
If you have lost your turn, you skip all phases (including upkeep) except for the Mythos phase.
From the FAQ:

Q: If a card tells you to “lose your next turn,” does this mean skip
all phases, including Upkeep?
A: Yes, all phases except the Mythos
Phase. Note that this is different from being told to “stay here next
turn,” which means you are delayed.

For your original question, based on the above, I would say you can only get sucked in to the gate that appears as part of the Mythos phase and then you have both lost a turn AND are delayed.
On your next turn, you cannot stand as that normally happens in the movement phase. You also do not have any encounters. The turn after that, you get to stand and have encounters. The following turn will be when you can actually move. This way, you still have at least 2 encounters in the other world (unless you get lucky - but to be in this situation, you need to be really unlucky)


In what order are several properties auctioned by the bank?

The following ruling was received from Hasbro, publisher of Monopoly and organiser of International Monopoly Tournaments. I have therefore completely rewritten this answer.

My questions to Hasbro :

  The rules of Monopoly state that when a players goes bankrupt to the
  bank, the player turns all assets over to the Bank. The Bank then
  auctions off these properties.

  Are all of the properties auctioned off at once as a single lot?

  If they are auctioned one at a time, in what order are they auctioned? By value or randomly selected?

Hasbro agent's answers:

  1. Are all of the properties auctioned off at once as a single lot?

  No. All properties should be auctioned off one at a time.

  2. If they are auctioned one at a time, in what order are they auctioned?
      By value or randomly selected?

  No specific order needed . The banker can randomly select. I have
  also included the proper way to hold a Monopoly Auction just in case
  it's needed.   There is nothing terribly special with the process of
  holding the auction, just a few simple rules.

  When a property comes up for auction, whether a player declines to
  purchase or a player goes bankrupt, the banker holds the auction.

  There is no minimal bid so the starting price will always be $1 and
  the property will goes to the highest bidder and the price is binding.
  So if a player bids more than they have they can unintentionally
  bankrupt themselves during the auction.

  The auctioned property cannot be mortgaged by the highest bidder in
  order to complete the purchase.

  Important Note:  All players can participate in property auctions –
  this includes the banker, any players who may be in jail, and the
  person who originally declined to purchase the property in the first
  place.


Can I find a recorded game of nine mens morris?

Board Game Arena has an implementation of the game with
15,156 of games played.
https://en.boardgamearena.com/#!gamepanel?game=ninemensmorris

I think they might share with you this data, if they do, please let us know
https://en.boardgamearena.com/#!contact


Does a vehicle require a crew if it is enchanted to become a creature?

No it does not. Siege Modification says that it's a creature in addition to its other types, so it counts as a creature for anything that cares about it being a creature, including the ability to attack with it.

This is the main point of Siege Modification's ability.


Floating eye win / loss condition [spoilers]

No, a hero breaking free of mind control does not itself make the game unwinnable for the traitor.
The Traitor's win condition for this haunt is exactly as follows:

You Win When ...
... all of the heroes are either dead or on the spaceship.

Note that if either of these happens to a hero, they are out of the game. Effectively, this means that the traitor wins when all heroes are unable to act. The "can only mind control a hero once" limitation simply means that any hero that breaks free of mind control must be killed for the traitor to win.


Is there an online platform for collaborative development of a board game?

I don't think that there's any single thing designed for this; it's quite a small niche. However, you might be able to piece something together.

To me, a wiki sounds like a very natural fit for hosting and editing the rules for your game. But the general idea seems solid: you can have a page or many, organized how you need, for the rules, include pictures when necessary. You can easily create offshoot discussion pages, linked to as appropriate, group them into categories/listings, put boilerplate at the top to indicate status of the discussions, and so on. An alternative with a steeper learning curve and and startup effort for contributors would be to simply keep your rules in text format in a hosted version control repository and then use other features of the hosting (particularly issue tracker) to do the other things.

You'll probably want to do a lot of iteration and playtesting. I've been pretty impressed with what I've seen people pull off with Vassal modules. Vassal is a generic game engine, which lets you create boards, pieces, cards, tiles, and so on. You can play the games with others online. There's a designers guide as well as a FAQ page on creating modules. This would give you the platform you need to test things out. You'd probably want to store the module in some sort of version control; unfortunately it's an all-in-one file, edited within vassal, so you won't be able to much in the way of branching and merging, if there are many collaborators. Depending on the scale of your project, it might be sufficient to simply have file hosting, and store numbered versions, or you might want more.

Note that SourceForge might actually be a great candidate for all of this! It supports project wikis, file hosting (for your vassal modules), and revision control repositories (perhaps for your rules, if you don't want them on a wiki). You just have to decide how you're going to use it. Just think: a board game isn't that different from a computer game. It's just written in a "programming" language that humans, not computers, understand!

(I know this isn't a terribly complete or specific answer; perhaps others can contribute more.)


Recommendation for good Asynchronous Board Games a la Diplomacy?

Diplomacy is unusual in that it was designed to be played by mail.  Importantly, the thing that makes diplomacy able to do this is not that the turns are simultaneous, but rather that it has a very low degree of what I will term "mechanical interactivity".  Mechanical interactivity is a part of a game that requires input from multiple players for the game to be able to progress.  This is distinct from strategic interactivity, which is that what players are doing is impacted by what other players are doing.

Diplomacy has one of the highest levels of strategic interactivity of board games I have played.  However, the overwhelming majority of that occurs in abstract strategic and tactical reasoning and inter-player negotiation, none of which touch the actual mechanics of the game.  To play a full year of diplomacy, players need submit at most 5 sets of orders (2 moves, 2 retreats, and 1 build/disband), and the game (either run by a moderator or digital platform) can handle all the rest since orders are resolved algorithmically and require no further player choices to determine the result.

Meanwhile, Game of Thrones is actually a very bad match for what you're looking for.  While players do place orders in secret, orders are resolved one at a time with players making many choices throughout.  It has a very high degree of mechanical interactivity.

Risk is potentially a very good game for this.  As long as you have a fair platform for managing dice rolls (this likely requires a digital platform to run the entire game), Risk can be played quite well asynchronously, as there is nothing anyone can do during other players turns.

Carcassone could work, although there are a lot of turns to finish a game, so it may go fairly long.

I've also heard Through the Ages plays well asynchronously via an app, but I have not tried it myself.

Ultimately, the thing to look for is "good asynchronous games" rather than "games with simultaneous turns".

Note: I feel obliged to warn you about playing Diplomacy with co-workers.  Diplomacy is an incredible game from a strategic and negotiating perspective.  Done well, it can be really fun and potentially even forge life-long friendships.  Done poorly, it can lead to long standing resentment and ruin friendships.  It all depends on the personalities at play.  The risk with co-workers is probably too high.


Can every game of Klondike-Solitaire be solved?

No.
Example: If all of your cards face up on the board are red, and the cards that come up every third card are also red, and none of them are aces. You lose. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.


If I fail to defeat all defenders of a fortified site, does this count as a forced withdrawal?

No, you only take one or more wounds if you are forced to withdraw from the space you were attacking from. You are misreading the rule, probably because it is badly worded (too many pronouns).

  If you failed to defeat all the defenders of a fortified site, you have to withdraw back to the space you were attacking from.

You must withdraw to the space you attacked from.

  If it [the space you attacked from] is not a safe place, Forced withdrawal rules apply.

If the space you were attacking from is not safe, (i.e. contains another character, is on water, etc.) then you must withdraw from that space.

The designer, Vlaada Chvatil has answered this question in this thread, quoted here with out the notes.

  Yes, you do not use forced withdrawal when your assault fails. You use it:

  1) When your tun ends, for whatever reason, on inaccessible space (most usually because you assaulted or attacked another player form a lake using some water walking skill, but you might also try to reveal new tile when standing on a lake hex, and then finding out you cannot enter it because some high cost terrain, enemy or fortified site blocks your way).

  2) When you turn ends on space with another player, and PvP is not allowed for whatever reason (either turned off by scenario settings, or because it is your teammate, or because end of day or end of game was already triggered). Again, this can happen if you assault or explore from a space occupied by another player, and fail to move on.


If the player is at their lowest amount of sanity after the haunt starts and the item is dropped or stolen they immediately lose the +1 sanity benefit the item gave them and would go insane (die).

I couldn't find any references to this in either Legacy or Betrayal rulebooks but it seems that all heirloom effects belong to that heirloomed item and to benefit from those effects you must have it in your families possession.

I actually reached out to Avalon Hill asking this question and fantastic support rep Frank sent this response:

  If an item grants a benefit and it doesn't specify permanent benefits,
  "discard" or "destroy" this card upon use, then the benefit is lost if
  the item is lost. Benefits granted by items only last as long as you
  have the item, unless otherwise stated. Because of the above concept
  it does seem the character would die if that item was keeping them
  alive i.e. only 1 sanity remained and they lost the item. However,
  keep in mind if the rules are not specified in the rulebook you and
  your group can decide what makes the game most fun.


This happens at the end of the progression phase. This means you get coins from them in the same turn you get them. See this thread in BGG.


Will I lose the game if I dip below 0hp whilst there's a spell that'll heal me on the stack?

If I understand the situation you are describing correctly it is as follows:

A player at 2 life casts Sphinx's Revelation with X = 2. this is put on the stack.
His opponent responds by casting Warleader's Helix
The initial player in turn responds by casting Sphinx's Revelation with X=1
Both players pass priority until the stack is resolved or some other event occurs

This being the case, the following would happen:

Sphinx's revelation with X = 1 resolves, you gain 1 life to be on 3.
State based actions are checked (technically, twice immediately in succession as both players pass priority) and everyone is still alive
Warleader's helix resolves (because the players have initiated a shortcut of passing priority until the stack resolves), you take 4 damage to be on -1
State based actions are checked. You are dead. the game ends.
Nothing to see here, the game finished. Sphinx's revelation with x = 2 never happens.

State based actions occur whenever a player would get priority, not just when the stack resolves.


Forced Response to a Convenient Minor Opening?

Playing in North America, I have noticed two main approaches to responding to a convenient minor opening:

Only respond with normal responding strength (usually given as 6 HCP).
Respond with any hand that has an ace, a king, or shortness in the minor opened.

The first is covered by many bidding books, so let us discuss the second.

First of all, you must not respond 1NT without at least 5 HCP; this will lead to disaster, as you have learned. When you are broke, your first priority is to bid a four-card major; if you do not have one and partner has bid 1C, you may bid 1D and pass partner's 1-level rebid (or 2C -- other 2-level bids are reverses and thus forcing).

The real issue comes when partner has opened 1D, and you hold a hand like Jxx xxx x xxxxxx. This is the worst case, and probably the least bad action is to pass and hope that your left-hand opponent comes into the auction. The only alternative is 1NT, but this is a terrible alternative (you must not bid 2C, as this must promise strength).


In Risk Legacy, when are the "come-back" powers active? (Spoilers)

All powers listed on the faction cards are active and available at all times, so once a come-back power or other sticker has been added to a faction card they are affected by it from then on.


Alien frontiers: how many fields in a single territory?

Yes, you can have multiple fields in the same territory.

The rules don't explicitly address this (Fields can be found on page 12). However, there is a thread on Board Game Geek where this question is asked, and multiple users answer that it is "perfectly legal," with no dissenting opinions.

Between the lack of explicit ruling in the rulebook, and the validation from other users, it appears that you are fine to place or move fields into the same territory.


Do the Magic tournament rules allow Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who goes first?

My understanding is that it's really up to the judge.

The tournament rules just say this:

  For the first game of a match, the winner of a random method (such as
  a die roll or coin toss) chooses either to play first or to play
  second.

They don't really specify a more detailed criterion for "random." (For example,  cutting to a random card of each other's decks and then comparing their mana costs is a method players use some times. It's random, but it's not actually fair: the CMC of various cards in your deck skews the results.)

My first assumption was no rock-paper-scissors, since RPS is a game that permits some level of psychological skill. However, here's a quote from an old tournament report:

  The both of them shuffled up and scanned about for a way to figure out
  who went first; turns out neither of them had dice. "That's the
  problem with being up here," deadpanned Jensen. "You play against a
  random? They always have a die."

  It was suggested that perhaps the two of them play rock, paper,
  scissors to decide who would go first, but Jensen said that it wasn't
  random enough. "Rock, paper, scissors is strategy," he said earnestly.
  "I think I could psych someone out at rock, paper, scissors."
  Eventually, someone donated not only a twenty, but a twelve-sider and
  a ten-sider, and they rolled all three and added them up to see who
  went first. Jensen snagged it with a 22.

Note that it was the opponent who decided RPS was insufficient, not a judge. This implies that RPS might've been acceptable if both players were fine with it.

In practice, I would expect low-level events not to care about the exact quality of the method you use as long as it's mutually agreeable to both parties (which is all the comp rules really call for), unless they've had to set up a specific system due to previous issues with cheating.


When does removing Goblin Warchief affect its cost reduction ability?

Your understanding is correct.

You can cast one Goblin with the reduced cost, but only if you do so before you know your opponent is going to remove your Goblin Warchief, and only if there is nothing that triggers upon Warchief entering the battlefield.

After a spell resolves, the active player (you since it is your turn) gets priority. This means that you can cast another Goblin at the reduced cost before your opponent has any chance to respond.

  117.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

If you do cast a Goblin at the reduced cost, your opponent could respond to that while the new Goblin is on the stack by targeting your Warchief for removal. This would prevent you from being able to cast any further creatures at reduced cost.

If you pass priority, this is when your opponent can cast an instant-speed removal spell. Once this happens, you will not be able to cast more creatures at the reduced cost (unless you have some ability that allows you to cast creatures at instant speed). By the time you would be able to cast a creature again (when the stack is empty), your Warchief will be gone.

Also, if there is an enter-the-battlefield trigger that happens when Warchief enters, your opponent could respond while that trigger is on the stack; thus destroying Warchief at instant speed before you get a chance to cast another creature.

If you have a way to cast creatures at instant speed (such as Leyline of Anticipation, you can do so while the removal spell is still on the stack. You would get the reduced cost because the removal spell has not resolved yet, so Warchief would still be around.


Do wounds carry over between chapters (Mice and Mystics)?

No, they do not.  The campaign rules specifically state which items carry over between chapters, and wounds are not listed.  While they also specifically list a few things that are not carried over, if they had intended for wounds to be carried over they clearly would've called this out.  However, they do say that the guidelines are "suggestions", so you can feel free to carry over wounds if you think it would improve your experience.

The following guidelines are suggested for playing mice and mystics as
a campaign:

Mice keep their story achievements and abilities earned from previous chapters.
Mice can keep only 1 search card that they had at the end of the previous chapters. This 1 card is in addition to their starting
equipment cards. Mice will always begin a new chapter with their
starting equipment cards.
Mice do not keep any party items, individual achievements, or cheese from previous chapters.


"Selecting" a monster that is "unaffected by card effects"; is it possible?

Update: Seems that the card in question is The Ultimate Creature of Destruction, targeting any Blue-eyes monster. In that case, my previous answer holds.

  So, if my opponent activates a card that makes me select one monster to destroy, I have 2 monster, 1 unaffected by card effects while the other can, can I select the unaffected?

Yes you can.

You can select it and when the effect resolves it will not be destroyed, as The Ultimate Creature of Destruction made it unaffected bu such effect.

  And would the same apply if I activate a card that makes me destroy one monster I own and I select the monster unaffected by effects?

Again, yes.

If you monster is unaffected then the effect will resolve and such monster remain unaffected same as explained before...

However, let's imagine the card targets and the monster can't be targeted, then that would be something you can't do. However, this is not the case for The Ultimate Creature of Destruction, which "only" makes your monster unaffected by card effects (contrary to, say, making him un-targeteable).


Which spells or abilities are affected by things that care about targeting?

The answer to all of these questions is no.

Hexproof and Shroud only prevent "targeting"; there are many ways for a spell or ability to affect something without that something being a "target".

  702.11b “Hexproof” on a permanent means “This permanent can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.”

  702.18a Shroud is a static ability. “Shroud” means “This permanent or player can’t be the target of spells or abilities.”

The important thing here is to keep in mind that when Magic uses the word "target", it is using a specific rules-defined term; it is not just the English word that can mean "a thing you go after or attack".

  114.10a Just because an object or player is being affected by a spell or ability doesn’t make that object or player a target of that spell or ability. Unless that object or player is identified by the word “target” in the text of that spell or ability, or the rule for that keyword ability, it’s not a target.

A spell or ability only targets the things it is affecting in the following 3 situations:

It uses the word "target" in the text of the spell or ability.

  114.1a An instant or sorcery spell is targeted if its spell ability identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target [something],” where the “something” is a phrase that describes an object and/or player.

  114.1c An activated ability is targeted if it identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target [something],” where the “something” is a phrase that describes an object and/or player.

  114.1d A triggered ability is targeted if it identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target [something],” where the “something” is a phrase that describes an object and/or player.

It uses a keyword that has the word "target" in the rules text, such as "Equip".

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

It is an Aura spell, which by the rules are always targeted spells (targeting the object that you want to enchant).

  114.1b Aura spells are always targeted.

(Note that Aura spells are only targeted when they are cast; if an Aura is entering the battlefield through some other means, it could be attached to a creature without targeting that creature).

If a spell or ability is none of the above, it does not target, and thus is not affected by Hexproof or Shroud. Even if the spell or ability tells you to “choose” something.

For the specific questions/examples given:

Wrath of God can destroy creatures with Hexproof or Shroud because it does not contain the word "target".
Cyclonic Rift is normally targeted, but if it was cast for the Overload cost, then the word "target" is replaced with the word "each", so the spell as it exists on the stack doesn't contain the word "target".
Monstrosity does not target the permanent it affects, because "target" does not appear in the rules text for it.
Proliferate also does not use the word target in the rules text.
You cannot cast an Aura Enchantment on a creature with Shroud, because Aura spells always target.
You cannot use the Equip ability on a creature with Shroud, because the rules definition of Equip uses the word "target" (as you see in the reminder text for Equip).
Diffusion Sliver's ability only triggers when a Sliver is targeted; which Wrath of God does not do.
Phantasmal Image also only triggers when it is targeted, so it will not be affected by Nausea.
You can still choose an opponent with Shroud with abilities such as Stuffy Doll which tell you to “choose”, because choosing isn’t the same as targeting.
Sleep targets a player, not individual creatures. That means that creatures that player controls with Hexproof are still affected.  However, if the player themself has Hexproof, you cannot target that player.
Attached permanents are not protected by the Hexproof of the creature they are attached to, and can still be destroyed if a spell targets the attached permanent specifically (like Naturalize).  A card like Blastfire Bolt that targets the creature could not be used, though.


What's the highest score that can be achieved by pegging?

If you scroll down to "Pegging Maximal Score", they outline how the dealer can peg 30 points.
I found that page from an answer to the question that you linked above... not sure how you missed that!

Added:

Joe O'Brien showed, that dealer can score 30 points (not 26 points as we stated before with a dealer's hand 4,4,4,7, pone's hand 4,8,10,K, and the jack as a starter).
In Joe's example Dealer hand 7,7,4,4 ; Pone hand 7,7,4,4. Sequence of play is as follows:
Pone 7 7 4 4
Dealer 7 7 4 4
Dealer Points 2 13 2 13
Dealer Totals 2 15 17 30
This example of dealer maximal cribbage hands is in the article based on the letter of Joe O'Brien.
Update - Joe O'Brien showed that there is a hand that will give the
pone a total of 24 in pegging. The Pone holding 5 5 4 4, and the
Dealer holding 5 4 4 (na/). The Pone hits both the fifteen and the
thirty-one, picking up a triple at the 15 mark and a pair and four of
a kind on the way to the thirty-one mark. Kyle Graham showed, that
pone can score 22 points (in opposite to other articles, that states
max pone score is 18 points). Pone's hand: A, A, 3, 3; Dealer's hand
A, 3, 3, NA. The sequence of play is A, A, A, 3, 3, 3, 3, NA; Pone
gets 6+2+14 = 22 points. Later our player Kenneth Anderson showed,
that the maximum cribbage scoring for Pone pegging is 23. Pone's hand:
5 (or 6) 4 4 4; Dealer's hand: 5 (or 6) 4 9 9 (9 9 could be any cards
worth 9 or above). Total Pone points: 5+6+12 = 23 . More examples of
pone maximal cribbage hands are in the article based on the letters of
Joe O'Brien, Kyle Graham and Kenneth Anderson.


There comes a time in every Dominion group's life where they figure out that Big Money (the strategy you describe) is beating everyone else who is going heavy on action cards. Do not fret - it's most often not actually the best strategy.  For example, if everyone else is going Big Money, buying a single Smithy will win a 4-player match about 60% of the time and a 2-player match about 80% of the time (via a trial run of 5000 matches on my simulator program).

There is pretty much always a superior strategy to Big Money on the table; you just have to find it.  A common mistake is to spend turns buying too many Kingdom cards to have giant crazy combos that don't pan out. Another thing to watch out for is going for a longer game with a fantastically combo-heavy deck, but then by the time your deck is all situated someone else has bought all the Provinces.  Even still, combo decks do sometimes work - I have been in some thrilling Village+Bridge decks that beat the pants off Big Money.

I haven't been playing around enough with it to know for sure, but it seems that the new expansion Prosperity also lends itself toward Kingdom card strategies winning more often. The reason I feel this way is because Prosperity seems to stretch out the game a big longer such that bigger decks with lots of cool combos can succeed quite well.

Generally I like to measure my strategies against Big Money - if it can't reliably beat Big Money, it's not a good strategy.

But even still: when in serious doubt, buy a Silver.


Is this a case where a figure doesn't have LOS to an enemy because another figure it doesn't have LOS to is in the way?

I believe that your interpretation of the rules is correct, since they do seem to be pretty clear on that point; here's the "Line of Sight" section from the Rules Reference Guide, page 16:

  To determine line of sight, the player draws two imaginary, nonintersecting lines from one corner of the attacking figure’s space
  to two adjacent corners of the target’s space. If either of these lines
  passes through a wall, figure, or blocking terrain, then the figure
  does not have line of sight to the target.

(I've added the emphasis on "figure", the other is in the original.)

The way I'd justify this slight oddness to myself is that when you're targetting a figure, it's one particular figure that you're trying to target - there's no way to say, "this would probably hit one of these two rebels", and if there were that'd have to take into account their different distances, etc. It'd be a much more confusing combat system if that possibility were taken into account. So I guess it's a nice simplification to say that you're just targetting one figure, and anything that might get in the way blocks that intention, even if it's another hostile figure rather than blocking terrain.


I was thinking about dealing some tiles on the board in the beginning at random and limiting the total numbers of tiles available

You need to try it and see. It's the most natural solution, and that's what playtesting is for. If it turns out not to be fun, you can always bail midgame.

Other suggestions:

Are all the symbols the same rarity? If some are associated with more "basic" or introductory actions, you could choose a few specific starter tiles that contain only those symbols and start the round with those in play.
You could include cards that can be played for a reduced effect without the appropriate matching symbols. This would encourage players to match the symbols, but give them something to do early on while the board develops.
As midgame passes, perhaps players move to replacing existing tiles rather than placing entirely new ones. This would keep the board from becoming too full of options while not cutting the round short.


Honinbo 1970, match 1: Why does white need to play toward the edge here?


Implement unique occurrence against each other

I think there are a few options for this, depending on the permanency of the effect:

Marker cards
Track the opposing cards that your card has faced on an object (e.g. Another card with the same title but instead of game text or an image it just has a list of the other cards and checkboxes, or just a section of each card that you mark).

Tracking sheet
If you use a separate object for tracking, like a score sheet or even just a piece of paper, it would be easy to track the cards you have played and the cards they have played against.

There are still two major problems here:

If the effect is permanent, you're eventually going to be unable to play a given card against any other card, placing a fixed lifespan on a copy of the game.
You're attempting to track a many-to-many relationship between cards, so depending on the size of your set this could be an extremely difficult task without some sort of spreadsheet or app or database to help.


Using a joker when you can't make any other moves

Yes, you could pass but I wouldn't recommend it since if everyone passes the game is over.

In this rare case the rules state that if all players pass then the game ends and the player with the lowest score is consider the winner.  Since the Joker is worth the most point I would probably play it to get the point out of my hand at this point.


Advancing Tzolk'in past the end of the game

The rule for using this power right before any food day would still apply normally to the final food day of the game.

It is not possible to use this privilege to avoid Food
Days. If the next day on the Tzolk'in gear is a Food Day,
you may still advance 2 days, but the new round will be
the Food Day that was skipped over.

Turn 27 is a food day; it just so happens that it also is the final food day that ends the game. So you can turn the wheel 2 spaces, to 1 space past the final food day space, and then play the final turn like you normally would.
This matches what you say happens on Board Game Arena. I think it does make sense, because it’s not so much that the game is supposed to last 27 days, but rather that the game ends after the 4th food day. All food days normally happen on the indicated space on the wheel, but with the skip a day power and the quoted rule above, it is possible for a food day to take place 1 space later instead.
This can still be useful to do in turn 26, because it means that for the final turn, all workers are one space further along their wheels than they would have been otherwise. This could allow you to take an action that you couldn’t have otherwise, or also mess up your opponents' plans by forcing them to pay extra corn to take the action they were planning on taking.
The only way in which the power is different on turn 26 than at any other time in the game is that normally, the total game length is shortened by 1 turn for each time someone uses it, but that doesn’t happen if used at the end.
This interpretation was discussed and confirmed here: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/910514/double-wheel-move-penultimate-space


Can I buy a card without any treasure cards on my hand?

Short answer: yes, its possible and it has been officially acknowledged that the German rules are wrong.
Long answer: as you have already quoted from the base game rules (emphasis mine)

The cost of a card is in its lower left corner. The player may play some or all of the Treasure cards from his hand to his play area and add to their value the coins provided by Action cards played this turn.

Your total available money comes from played treasures and action cards.
An additional example for a leftover buy:

If he wants to use all 6 coins to buy one card, he can buy a Copper (for free) with his second Buy or not buy a second card. Players do not have to use any or all of their Buys.

This example makes clear that you can buy cards for free, thus you are not required to play any treasure cards.
The English rules are the original ones and take precedence over any translation. Furthermore, Hans im Glück, the German Publisher, have officially - and indirectly - acknowledged that this phrase in the rules is wrong. From their "Regelfragen" Rules Questions page

Kauf
Zitat aus der Regel: "Um eine Karte zu kaufen, legt der Spieler eine der mehrere Geldkarten aus seiner Hand offen auf dem Tisch aus. Zu diesen Geldkarten kann er das virtuelle Geld auf seinen zuvor usgelegten Aktionskarten hinzu zählen."
Dies bedeutet nicht, dass es nötig ist Geldkarten auszulegen um die Boni durch virtuelles Geld nutzen zu können. Es können auch Käufe ohne eine einzige ausgelegte Geldkarte durchgeführt werden.
Karten die 0 Kosten, können immer gekauft werden, solange der dafür nötige "Kauf" vorhanden ist.

Which roughly translates to:

This does not mean that Treasure Cards must be played in order to be able to use the virtual money. Purchases without playing any Treasure Cards may be carried out in this way.


Does the Thorncaster Sliver's ability damage have to be assigned before or after blockers are declared?

As with most abilities, you choose the targets as part of placing the ability on the stack. The damage is assigned and resolves before any blockers are declared.

I will cite ikegami's answer from another question related to Thorncaster Sliver.

https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/a/12644/3128

  Here's what happens:

  You attack with five slivers. Five instances of Thorncaster Sliver's ability triggers
  You place the abilities on the stack in the order of your choice: (Best order used)

  You place PS#1's ability on the stack targeting the 2/2
  You place PS#2's ability on the stack targeting the 2/2
  You place TS's ability on the stack targeting the Blood Artist
  You place MS#1's ability on the stack targeting your opponent
  You place MS#2's ability on the stack targeting your opponent

  MS#2's ability resolves:

  Deal one damage to your opponent.

  MS#1's ability resolves:

  Deal one damage to your opponent.

  TS's ability resolves:

  Deal one damage to the Blood Artist

  The Blood Artist dies. Blood Artist's ability triggers.
  Your opponent places Blood Artist's ability on the stack targeting you.
  Blood Artist's ability resolves:

  You lose one life.
  Your opponent gains one life.

  PS#2's ability resolves:

  Deal one damage to the 2/2.

  PS#2's ability resolves:

  Deal one damage to the 2/2.

  The 2/2 dies.
  [Move on the Declare Blockers]

The emphasis is mine.


You can only have two.

Super Munchkin says:

  You may have two Class cards...

Half Breed says:

  You may have two Race cards...

So that's exactly what you can do: have two. It doesn't matter how many of them you have. All they say you can do is have two. They don't say "one additional" or "twice as many".


I'm looking at the rulebook right now, and here's the text for the point tokens on page 4 (emphasis mine):

  44 Point Tokens

  Points are tracked using Star Tokens, which remain hidden from other players until the game is over. Tokens come in 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 point designations

Based on this, the conclusion I draw is that each player's individual score is technically hidden information - that is, each player knows their score but not any other player's score. The point tokens should be used to track scores on a per-player basis, but players are not required to reveal their collected Point Tokens to other players until the end of the game. In practice, this basically means making a stack of point tokens with 1s on top and 25s and 50s on bottom

It's worth noting that in this setup, because the events that give points is public knowledge, it is possible for a player to keep track of another player's point total.


In the game of Stratego, is it possible to destroy all 40 enemy units?

As Dennis_E mentioned, it is possible, but I would say it is improbable.

To destroy all enemy units, you would have to avoid the flag until the 40th capture. Additionally, one of the enemy's non-stationary pieces must be the 39th piece to be captured, and it must suicide itself on one of your pieces.  Otherwise, the game would have ended beforehand as the opponent would have been unable to move any piece during their turn, thus losing before you could destroy all 40 pieces.

What makes this improbable is that without assistance from your opponent, you would have to identify all the non-flag stationary pieces and destroy them before destroying the flag while ensuring the opponent maintains an additional non-stationary piece, which they must voluntarily throw at a piece that would destroy it on a turn preceding one where you are able to capture the flag.

I really cannot see a human opponent not forfeiting at this point unless they were colluding with you.


In Diplomacy, is it possible for an army to be convoyed by two countries if both write the appropriate orders?

It is possible for an army to be convoyed my multiple countries (although you should write the orders differently than you did in your example).
First, the relevant rules:

Convoying an Army Across Several Water Provinces
If Fleets occupy adjacent water provinces, an Army can be convoyed
through all these water provinces on one turn, landing in a coastal
province adjacent to the final Fleet in the chain.
In Diagram 20, the English Army from London goes to Tunis on a
single move with help from the French player.

Italy would need to write the orders:

A Ven to Tun
F Ion convoys A Ven to Tun

And Austria would write the order:

F Adr convoys A Ven to Tun

From the rules:

Writing Convoy Orders
Just as “S” indicates support, the letter “C” is used to indicate convoy.
Following is an example of a convoy order:
A Ank–Sev; F Bla C A Ank–Sev

The reason for this is that you can potentially issue multiple convoy orders:

An Army convoyed using alternate convoy orders reaches its
destination as long as at least one convoy route remains open.
Orders can be written to permit more than one route for convoying
an Army from its origin to its destination. The Army isn’t prevented
from moving unless all routes in the order are disrupted.


Does the mana ability restriction of Pithing Needle refer to the cost or the effect of an activated ability?

You are correct.  Pithing Needle cannot stop Black Lotus, but it would stop your second example.

605.1a An activated ability is a mana ability if it meets all of the following criteria: it doesn't require a target (see rule 114.6), it could add mana to a player's mana pool when it resolves, and it's not a loyalty ability. (See rule 606, "Loyalty Abilities.")
605.1b A triggered ability is a mana ability if it meets all of the following criteria: it doesn't require a target (see rule 114.6), it triggers from the resolution of an activated mana ability (see rule 106.11a) or from mana being added to a player's mana pool, and it could add mana to a player's mana pool when it resolves.

Mana abilities are specially designated because they need to not use the stack.  If generating mana used the stack, then it could be responded to.  Opponents would be able to take advantage of their chance to respond to mana abilities to use spells and abilities before the player with priority had a chance to use theirs, thus making "priority" as a concept insignificant.
In extreme cases, you could end up with extremely complicated stacks as players tapped their lands in response to each other in a fight to get their effects out first.
This is an undesirable play state, so Magic avoids it by keeping mana abilities off the stack.  Since mana abilities almost always do nothing but produce mana, removing opponents' ability to respond to them doesn't hugely detriment someone trying to react to changes in the game state.
As a side bonus, allowing mana abilities to be activated during the casting of a spell or ability means that the common idiom of declaring what you want to cast before deciding how you are going to pay for it is in fact a legal move, which is nice.
As a general rule, WotC considers disruptions to a player's mana base to be unfun.  That's why targeted discard almost always has a "nonland" rider to the effects, and modern land destruction rarely dips below 4-5 mana in cost.  If Pithing Needle could name lands, it had the potential to severely injure an opponent's mana production. (If they were playing a monocolor deck with only basic lands, it could potentially render the deck unplayable on the first turn.)  They could have chosen to have Pithing Needle name a "non-land" card, but instead chose to guard all mana abilities from it.  This has benefits of not shutting down mana production from non-land sources like Llanowar Elves, and allowing Pithing Needle to shut down non-mana abilities of lands like Faerie Conclave.  I don't know which, if any, was the driving force of the choice.

As a side note, the existence of mana abilities is almost certainly the reason that Priest of Forgotten Gods targets any number of players, rather than just affecting all opponents, like many cards do.  If it didn't target players it would qualify as a mana ability, and as a primarily offensive ability WotC wanted people to be able to respond to it.
On the other hand, Selvala, Explorer Returned does have a mana ability even with the side effects.  This has some interesting consequences as described in the Gatherer Rulings, namely that normally if you discover that a spell is uncastable in the middle of casting it (because you don't have enough mana, for example) everything you've done in the process of casting the spell is reversed, but Selvala's ability can't be reversed because its side effects have already changed the game.
Also, you can force players to draw cards without using the stack.  This is rarely relevant, but I'm sure it could be at some point.


Can I use cards like Gilded Lotus and Spectral Searchlight in a colorless EDH deck?

Yes, you can do that.

When you activate the abilities of cards like Spectral Searchlight or Gilded Lotus, someone chooses a color on resolution. That color is not determined in the text itself by mana symbols, which, in addition to a card's mana cost, is the most common way of establishing a card's color identity. The other ways also don't apply:

  903.4. The Commander variant uses color identity to determine what cards can be in a deck with a certain commander. The color identity of a card is the color or colors of any mana symbols in that card’s mana cost or rules text, plus any colors defined by its characteristic-defining abilities (see rule 604.3) or color indicator (see rule 204).

Therefore, you can use such colorless artifacts that produce a chosen color in any commander deck, including colorless ones.


Yes, you will win.

  702.61b A card is "suspended" if it's in the exile zone, has suspend, and has a time counter on it.

And a ruling on exile:

  Exile is a gamezone outside the field of play. It was known as
  "Removed from the game" before it was renamed in the wake of the Magic
  2010 rules update.


Does Courser of the Kruphix's ability play multiple land cards?

You play the land normally, as if it were in your hand, with all the same restrictions. You are still limited by the 1 land per turn rule. In order for a card to let you play more than 1 land, it would need to say "you may play additional lands", or it could say "you may put it onto the battlefield" instead of saying "play."

See the rulings on Gatherer:

  1/1/2014   Playing a land with the second ability counts as your land play for the turn. If you play a land from your hand during your turn, you won’t be able to play an additional land from the top of your library unless another effect allows you to.

And of course, the timing restrictions still apply too: you still have to play the land at a normal time, during your main phase when you have priority with an empty stack.


Does Forbidden Island usually need any rule variants for playing with 5+ people?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Meld points in a double deck pinochle game

You would have 6 points for the Queens, 4 points for the Jacks, and 30 points for the double pinochle, for a total of 40 points.

This is really no different than the single pinochle case that you list; you just have 30 points instead of 4 for the pinochle points, so 26 more points than your first example.


How many cards per booster pack in the Core M12 Sealed Booster Box?

It's probably an error, as M12 only had 15 card booster packs (as can be seen in any online store catalog like this one). As far as I could find, the last core set to have smaller boosters was M11 with 6-card packs.


Can the diver swim around the outside of the island?

In addition to being able to move normally, the Diver may move through one or more adjacent missing and/or flooded tiles for 1 action. A missing tile is one that has sunk. This has been confirmed by the game's creator.