Resources for learning about good shape?

Charles Matthews wrote an excellent book on this topic, coincidentally called Shape Up!

It is available for free on the net, if you have a Gobase.org account simply grab it here, if not, Google should bring up something. To list a few of the ideas explained:

Part 1 of the book, "Principles of development", covers basic terminology (table shape etc.), wedge weakness, empty triangles, eye shape, tactical aspects of connections, one point jumps and compound shapes.

The second part "Principles of engagement" explains hane at the head of 2/3 stones, nose tesuji, bulges, the center of 3 stones, answers to attachments, open skirts and submarines.

Part 3 "Practical fighting" deals with all kinds of cuts, light play, keima, peeps, various pincers, caps and  sector lines.

In Part 4, "Vital points and shape in the opening", 2 and 3 point extensions and their invasions, 3rd and 4th line and enclosures are discussed.

The final part talks about "Theory", pretty advanced concepts like 3 instead of 1-2-3, miai, kikashi, probes and large distance jumps, haengma and sabaki.

Interestingly, this book can be understood by beginners (high DDK) and is still useful up to lower dan levels. All shapes explained are extremely common in actual play so studying this book is most rewarding. There are also several sets of tsumego to reflect on the chapters.

Sadly the amount of higher level books on advanced shape study is limited in the Western world. If you're capable of speaking Chinese, Japanese or Korean you'll find a vast amount of very high level books in Asian Go stores.

Apart from joseki study and Asian books, you're pretty much out of luck regards of lecture material. Of course there are still some high level (Western) books and lectures but they are rarely focused on the idea of shape itself, so you'll have to scrape together what you find.

As you grow beyond the point where the typical Western shape books are of much use, the study of joseki is the main way to learn. Joseki are carefully crafted by professionals over time, and the shapes they incorporate are often very advanced.

However, once study material has become difficult to get, you'll probably have connections to several sensei that will be able to help you out. Until then, let the basics become natural, and review your games to understand and learn from your shape mistakes.


What ended up happening was as follows. I first pre-arranged the letters well ahead of time by myself. Luckily, the other person needed to go into another room for some reason. I used this opportunity to suggest that we play Boggle, which was agreed to. I then quickly got the game ready. When the other person returned, I claimed that I had already shaken it up. It worked out nicely.

Because they left the room, I didn't have to deal with the problems I mentioned, such as suggesting that I be the one to shake the letters up and then trying to fake doing so, but in a convincing manner.


What is a good modification of rules to make a game of Dominion slower?

Things that require no actual house rules:

1. Get and use the Prosperity expansion (or the Dominion Base Cards set), and play more games with Colonies/Platinum.

Games with Colonies usually last longer, because it is not often worth buying Provinces. Instead of trying to get to $8 for Provinces, you are trying to get to $11 for Colonies.

2. Use setups that create longer games.

Some setups make the game go longer than others. Games with attacks will last longer on average than games without attacks. Games with more powerful cards like Wharf or cards that gain more cards like Workshop will be shorter on average.

Cards like Philosopher's Stone (from Alchemy), and Counting House (from Prosperity) become better in longer games. Any cards that give out Curses usually make the game go longer, because people's decks will be clogged. Strong trashing cards like Chapel will usually make the game go much faster.

Finally, alternate VP cards like Vineyards (from Alchemy), Duke (from Intrigue), Gardens (from Dominion), and Silk Road (from Hinterlands) can make the game go much longer, because one player can ignore Provinces completely and go for points with those cards instead (if the rest of the setup makes that a viable strategy). It takes 1 person a very long time to drain the entire Province pile, so if (in a 2 player game) 1 player is avoiding Provinces completely, he can make the game go long enough that his Vineyards and Dukes will be worth more than the Provinces that the other play managed to get.

I have not personally tried either of the following (as I prefer to play multiple faster games than fewer slower games), but a couple ideas that come to mind:

3. Increase the number of Provinces available.

If playing 2 player, you can use all 12 instead of 8. For 3 or 4 player, you could use 15 or 16. Either take the extra cards from the Intrigue set if you have it; or just use blanks or unused cards as proxies. The biggest issue here is that players will need to learn to not start buying Provinces as early as normal. If they start buying Provinces as soon as they hit $8, then the first 8 Provinces may be bought up, but then it may become unlikely to ever be able to buy the last few because your decks are clogged. This will also not make any difference for some setups.

4. Increase the cost of Provinces, like you suggested.

You do have to be careful with this, because in certain setups it can be literally impossible to ever reach certain amounts on a given turn; like if there's no way to increase your handsize. This will also not make any difference for some setups.


How do I build a Pokémon TCG deck?
Deck building 101
What's the starting point from building a deck? Before deciding on this you must have clear what actually makes a deck win games.
Consistency
I cannot stress this point enough. A consistent deck is one where every single card work towards a well focused strategy. Let's make some examples on this to explain this better.
I'll list a theme deck, say, Ice Shock from Boundaries Crossed:
Pokémon: 30

2 Black Kyurem
1 Blastoise
2 Wartortle
3 Squirtle
2 Golduck
3 Psyduck
1 Jellicent
2 Frillish
3 Pikachu
2 Electrode
2 Voltorb
1 Electivire
2 Electabuzz
2 Lopunny
2 Buneary

Trainers: 12

2 Energy Retrieval
2 Energy Search
2 Great Ball
1 Pokémon Communication
2 Switch
2 Cheren
1 Skyla

Energy: 18

11 Water Energy
7 Lighting Energy

Now, can you tell me the strategy this deck uses? Sure, one could go like "let's load a lot of energy thanks to my only Blastoise and attack!". But ask yourself the following:

Where are we focusing our efforts?
What are Pikachu, Electrode, Electivire, Lopunny, Golduck and Jellicent doing here? Better yet, what is each card in this deck doing to make a win easier?
Are we ensuring we will get what we want whenever we want?

When building a deck always make yourself these questions. If a card looks cool enough with a decent effect, but you aren't sure if this will help your strategy, think again or remove it entirely. At the end of this post there's a Blastoise/Keldeo-EX deck. Let's say we think Jellicent from the deck I just listed looks cool enough for inclusion. "Sure!", you might say. "It's a decent card and we can still give it lots of energy thanks to Blastoise!". And maybe it might be a good idea, but what is it doing to help us win, or better yet, how does it help our main strategy, which consists of fast and powerful attacks with Keldeo-EX? Personally I see no reason for it to be here.
On that regard, the deck I listed at the bottom of the post might not be the most optimal build, but at least it keeps a level of consistency in that no card is there for no reason.
Speed
You might have a consistent deck. It can be a REALLY consistent deck. But if it's not fast enough, consistency won't win games. Speed is important. You want to take a prize before your opponent does.
Keep in mind: one Stage 2 line removes from your speed. Don't think this means you shouldn't use Stage 2 cards, but be aware that two Stage 2 lines might be too slow. Back in the DP-on and MD-on era we even had a Stadium Card (Broken Time-Space) that allowed us to evolve Pokémon as fast as we wanted, meaning we could just skip the evolution constraints. Nowadays we don't have such a card and we can just rely on Rare Candy and maybe the newer Clefable. What we can do though is to use strong Basic Pokémon, like Pokémon-EX, to speed up things. Or, we can use Stage 2 Pokémon with little energy requirements and that can hit hard, such as Garchomp and Empoleon.
Speed is important. If you don't have speed in your deck, you might have a good strategy and be pulling it decently but your opponent might have already taken two or three prizes, meaning you're already losing.
Strategy
Why would I want a strategy? I just play with my friends! And that's perfectly fine. If you're not going to play in tournaments and are completely fine with building a deck with your favorite cards and don't mind losing, it's perfectly fine. However, if what you want is to take a step forward, then a strategy is a must.
For choosing a strategy, choose a combination of two or more cards. Some good combinations are Eelektrik and Zekrom (Zekrom discards [L] energies you can retrieve with Eelektrik), Gabite, Garchomp and Altaria (Gabite searches for [D] Pokémon, Garchomp hits 60 for [F] and Altaria is a [D] Pokémon that adds 20 damage to [D] Pokémon when in play), Empoleon and Emolga (Emolga fills your bench and Empoleon deals damage with [W] and adds more damage the more Benched Pokémon you have, plus it lets you draw two cards by discarding one) and Blastoise and Keldeo-EX (which I'm going to talk about now).
Choosing a strategy
The first thing you should ask yourself is: "How do I want to win?" Let's double check the possible ways to win a game, since that's what you build your deck for.
You win a Pokémon TCG game by fulfilling one of the following conditions:

Defeat all of your opponent's Pokémon. This means, when you knock out your opponent's active Pokémon, your opponent should not be able to move a benched Pokémon to an active position.
Draw all your prizes. Usually this means defeating six of your opponent's Pokémon, but Pokémon-EX allow you to draw two cards and "Lugia-EX" allows you to draw an extra prize, so did "Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND". Also there are cards that can increase the amount of prizes your opponent has to take.
Your opponent cannot draw a card at the start of his or her turn. Keep in mind this does not apply to other effects that would allow you to draw cards. For instance, "Professor Juniper" states that you must draw 7 cards from your deck. If you have less than that, you draw all of them and it doesn't cause a game loss condition; you only lose if you cannot draw a card at the start of your turn.

Keeping all of this in mind, we must choose one or more ways to win. For the sake of simplicity (and because most decks use this as a basis), we will use the first two winning conditions.
Choose a combination
The best way to see what cards would allow us to win in the way we've chosen, we must find a combination of two or more cards that would let us win in the fastest way possible. Why fastest? In the current format (BW-on), speed is important. There are so many Pokémon-EX we cannot just ignore speed. We must hit hard and fast before our opponent get a chance to use their Pokémon! And this doesn't just apply to Pokémon-EX but to any metagame. Even in the old days of Base Set/Jungle/Fossil we had to deal with this, namely the Haymaker deck which won many games hitting fast and hard.
There's a combination we can use for a simple deck (keep in mind this combo is actually being used): Blastoise (Boundaries Crossed) and Keldeo-EX. Why?

Blastoise - 140 HP - W
Stage 2 - Evolves from Wartortle
Ability: Deluge

As often as you like during your turn (before your attack), you may attach a [W] Energy card from your hand to 1 of your Pokémon.

[C][C][C][C] Hydro Pump - 60+

Does 10 more damage for each [W] Energy attached to this Pokémon.

So, it's a Pokémon that allow us to attach as many [W] energy as we want to our Pokémon! Now let's see Keldeo-EX:

Keldeo-EX - 170 HP - W
Basic Pokémon
Ability: Rush In

Once during your turn (before your attack), if this Pokémon is on your Bench, you may switch this Pokémon with your Active Pokémon.

[C][C][C] Secret Sword - 50+

Does 20 more damage for each [W] Energy attached to this Pokémon.

Pokémon-EX rule: When a Pokémon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

So, the idea is: we take out Blastoise, draw as many [W] energies as we need, attach them to Keldeo-EX and use Rush In to make it active. Great synergy!
Building the core
Now that we've decided our core strategy, we must now build the basic core! Just keep in mind we cannot place more than 4 cards of each type, except for Basic energies. Let's do it!
Pokémon: 16

4 Squirtle (BC)
4 Wartortle (BC)
4 Blastoise (BC)
4 Keldeo-EX (BC)

Why 4 of each? Not only this is our core, but the cards we will be using the most. It's only natural we want the most of them!
But, do we really want 4 of each?
Firstly. How many Blastoise do we need in play? Only one. So maybe four Blastoise is a bit overhead. We can try reducing this to a smaller core (keeping four Squirtle in case of being catchered [Pokémon Catcher allows you to switch our opponent's Pokémon with any other of his or her bench]):
Pokémon: 16

4 Squirtle (BC)
3 Wartortle (BC)
3 Blastoise (BC)
4 Keldeo-EX (BC)

We can still reduce the Wartortles with help from Rare Candy, which lets us evolve one of our Basic Pokémon to its Stage 2 card. If we include all four Rare Candies we can reduce Wartortles to just one (and one to avoid Item locks such as Gothitelle, which wouldn't allow us to play that card):
Pokémon: 12

4 Squirtle (BC)
1 Wartortle (BC)
3 Blastoise (BC)
4 Keldeo-EX (BC)

Trainers: 4

4 Rare Candy

It's still 16 cards, but now we can have Blastoise at turn 2 and be ready to attack. It's way faster than what we had before!
Supporting cards (not Supporter cards though)
Now that we have our core, we must focus on cards that will support our main strategy. Do not confuse the title with Supporter cards. We will add them here but I'm not talking exactly about these.
What do we need to take these Pokémon as fast as possible? Here you can be creative and add whatever cards you would think will help the strategy. I'll describe some cards you should consider when building a deck (and that might be useful for this particular deck):

Computer Search: An ACE SPEC card (meaning we can only have one of them and no other ACE SPEC card) that allows us to discard two cards and search for any other card in our deck.
Gold Potion: Another decent ACE SPEC card that heals 90 damage from one Pokémon.
Great Ball: An Item card that lets us look at the first seven cards of our deck, choose a Pokémon from there and place it in our hand.
Heavy Ball: Another Item card that lets us search for a Pokémon with a Retreat Cost of 3 or more. Blastoise has 4 so we can consider it.
Professor Juniper: A Supporter card (we can play one of these during our turn) for discarding our hand and drawing seven new cards. Good for hand refreshing, also a staple.
Cheren: Draw three cards. Straightforward.
Bianca: Draw a card until you have six in your hand.
Eviolite: Keldeo-EX will love these. A Basic Pokémon with this tool attached will receive 20 less damage from any attack.
Rescue Scarf: Another card for Keldeo-EX. If you don't worry that much about damage, consider retrieving them when they get KO'd.
N: Supporter. Each player shuffles their hand on their deck and draw one card for each prize card remaining. Good disruptor.
Random Receiver: Item, reveal one card from your deck until you find a Supporter. Good in a pinch.
Skyla: Search your deck for any Trainer card.
Ultra Ball: Discard two cards from your hand and search for a Pokemon in your deck.
Super Rod: Search for three cards in any combination of Pokémon and Basic Energy cards and shuffle them in your deck. A good recovery card, include at least one of these in your deck.
Pokémon Catcher: Switch your opponent's Active Pokémon with a Pokémon on his or her bench. A must for every deck, 3 or 4 will do.
Pokémon Communication: Change one Pokémon from your hand with one from your deck.

If you notice, Trainer cards can be roughly classified as:

Hand refreshing: They allow us to refresh our hand. You must have some of these in every deck. Juniper and N are examples of this.
Drawing: They draw more cards for us to have mor play options. Bianca and Cheren do this.
Searching: They let us search for specific cards. Skyla and Heavy Ball are examples of this.
Disrupting: They alter the way your opponent plays, such as N and Pokémon Catcher.
Recovery: They help us retrieve things that were discarded, or to turn around the table when things look bad. Super Rod, and in a certain way, N, are excellent for this.
Combat: They help us during combat, when receiving and dealing damage. Gold Potion and Evolite do this.

All in all, we shouldn't just include one of each and be done. What we must be pursuing is consistency. Our deck must be able to pursuit the goal we've defined before in all times and each and every card must help with this. Keeping all of this in mind, I've decided to include the following cards:
Pokémon: 12

4 Squirtle (BC)
1 Wartortle (BC)
3 Blastoise (BC)
4 Keldeo-EX (BC)

Trainers: 29

4 Rare Candy
1 Computer Search
2 Ultra Ball
4 Great Ball
2 Super Rod
4 Cheren
3 Bianca
3 N
4 Pokémon Catcher
2 Skyla

29 trainers?! Isn't it a bit excessive? No. Actually no. Most of your deck should consist of Trainers, believe it or not.
Completing the deck and adding other cards
We have a solid deck but we're lacking two other things:

Energy Cards
Techs

What's a tech? It's a card we include in order to deal with threats to our deck! What can threat our deck SO much???

Mewtwo-EX: The more energy cards we have attached, the more damage we will receive thanks to X Ball. We must deal with this somehow!
Sigilyph: It basically nullifies our Keldeo's attacks.

Sigilyph can be easily dealt with: We load a Blastoise with energy, retreat a Keldeo, and send it to attack. A Blastoise with [W][W][W] attached will KO it in no time. The real problem is Mewtwo-EX. Sadly the best way to counter it is with another Mewtwo-EX. So, we will include two of these.
Now we have 43 cards in our deck. How about adding three more cards? I would bet for Energy Retrieval, which recovers two Basic Energy cards from our discard pile. So adding three of these will be great. The remainder of the deck will be water energies - limit yourself to no more than 18 Energy cards and that's for a deck that actually needs many of them.
The final deck
Pokémon: 14

4 Squirtle (BC)
1 Wartortle (BC)
3 Blastoise (BC)
4 Keldeo-EX (BC)
2 Mewtwo-EX

Trainers: 32

4 Rare Candy
1 Computer Search
2 Ultra Ball
4 Great Ball
2 Super Rod
4 Cheren
3 Bianca
3 N
4 Pokémon Catcher
2 Skyla
3 Energy Retrieval

Energy: 14

14 Water Energy

Conclusion
We've gone through building a deck from the very core of it to an actual full fledged deck. Keep in mind this might not be an optimal build, but I think it's enough to illustrate the point and to help starters getting going with their very own deck.


What are the important differences for games with 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 players?

This article on BGG is probably the definitive guide on differences with different player counts. To summarize some of its points here:

4p features the most basic (brown) resources per player of any player count. You can wait to draft what you need. By contrast, 3p and 7p have the least resources per player, and in those games you should draft the resource-granting cards you need immediately.
4p features the fewest advanced (gray) goods per player; 3p and 6p features the most; 5p has an average number, but they are concentrated in Age 2.
There are the most science (green) cards per player in 3p, followed by 4p. There are the fewest at 6p.
In 3p and 7p, the three science symbols are evenly distributed. In 5p, the symbols are evenly distributed, but there are fewer gears early and more later on. In 4p, there are 6 total tablet cards, 5 compasses, and only 4 gears!
In 3p and 4p, there is exactly one military (red) card per player per Age. In 5p, there is one extra in Age 3. In 6p and 7p, there is one red card "missing" in Age 1, but extras in Ages 2 and 3, and overall more shields total.
There is only one of the powerful Caravansery cards (the yellow wild basic resource card) in 3-4p. One is added in 5p and 6p.
There is only one Forum card (the yellow wild advanced goods card) in 3-5p. One is added in 6p and 7p.
Blue cards are always good and you can never have too many.


TL;DR - At the start of combat you add 3 Combat cards to your hand (1 Dodge, Punch, and Escape). The end of each combat round you pick up any cards played in previous rounds of combat, not including the current rounds cards. Finally, once combat ends you remove the 3 combat cards (1 Dodge, Punch, and Escape) from your hand.

Combat ( in short ) Works Like This:

  Pre-Combat The hunter takes 1 Dodge, Punch, and Escape card from the hunter
  combat card piles and adds them to his hand of item cards (these do
  not count toward his hand limit).

  1. Each player chooses 1 card from his hand and places it facedown. The
  hunter must choose one of his cards that has a banner (red or yellow).

Combat happens, players reveal and finally step 8:

  8. Refresh Hands: Dracula draws the top card of the Dracula combat deck. Combat cards played during this round remain in front of the
  hunter who played it. Hunter combat cards played during the previous
  round are returned to their owner's hand.

This limits the hunters options on what they can play if combat continues.

Anything played in this round of combat will not be available to play in the next round of combat.

Anything played in a previous round of combat is now available to be played in the upcoming round of combat ( if there is more combat to be had ).

Finally, if combat is finished you simply remove the 3 combat cards from your hand ( 1 Dodge, Punch, and Escape ):

  After combat ends, each hunter in the combat places his hunter combat
  cards (Dodge, Punch, and Escape) back in the combat card piles near
  the board. Dracula shuffles all Dracula combat cards into his deck.

Rules on BGG


With the Silver Key artifact, what effects can I spend 1 less clue?

After considering the links in this thread, I've concluded that the Silver Key artifact can be used anywhere you might spend a clue including re-rolls. The single situation I would say it cannot be used is where the wording says after resolving a research encounter, the investigator can spend a clue gained from that encounter to etc such as in the Azathoth Occult Research mystery card.

The whole purpose of this wording seems to be to imply that the investigator should have succeeded in gaining that specific clue in order to spend a clue, and not allow one to circumvent it (i.e. via the Astronomer ability) to supply a clue.

Apart from that case, it's an artifact, so should be viewed as all manner of awesome. A 1 clue per round boon in every non-specific clue interpretation sounds fair game to me.


What happens when two units attack each other with equal support?

In the rules as of 2015, this is covered under "Standoff Rules":

Units can’t trade places without the use of a convoy. If two units are each ordered to the province that the other occupies, neither can move.

and then in "Support in Standoffs":

Diagrams 10 and 11 show two common standoff situations. In both cases, a strength of 2 meets a strength of 2 and all units stand in place. In Diagram 10, if there had been a Fleet in the Tyrrhenian, it wouldn’t be dislodged by the standoff. (A standoff doesn’t dislodge a unit already in the province where the standoff took place.)

Since the two units both have the same support, they cause a standoff and neither one moves.
However, if any other unit was moving into Sweden or Norway with support, then the unit in that province would be dislodged since its support related only to its move order.


Help me identify a game with a large orange hooter/squeaker in the middle

The game is "Out of control"  though some versions go the name "Outta-control"
The excellent description by the OP gave me hope in finding it with a web search.  I can't provide anymore details as I haven't played the game myself.

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/3539785/outta-control


Can a captain take money from someone who died blocking or challenging it?

I checked russian rules and under "challenges" section it mentions that if an action is successful, it resolves. Also, there is an example of play with exactly this situation (player, who being stolen from, unsuccessfully tries to defend and is out of the game) and it explicitly says that captain still gets 2 coins.


As a general answer: Whenever you are asked by a spell or ability for a certain target, or when you have to pay certain costs, then as long as the chosen object has all the required properties, all other properties can be whatever they are.

So if an ability requires you to "sacrifice a creature", it doesn't say anything about the creature being tapped or untapped, so as long as it's a creature, you can sacc it.


Dark angels legion praetor in cataphractii size

They are about the same as normal terminators, a bit buffier because cataphractii is supposed to be. With the release of intercessors, imo termies are a bit to small in comparison. (Just my taste, I know its fluff) But you can easily fix this visually by putting them on an elevation on its base.


Can a player respond while a spell is resolving?

No, they can not cast the Shock.

Comprehensive rule 608, all parts.

The fact that the card text contains 'then' does not make the two parts separate abilities. The whole effect of drawing, then discarding, happens in that order while the spell resolves. There is time in between drawing and discarding for the new information to be reacted upon. However, there is no break in the resolution.

There is no passing of priority until the spell completely resolves, and thus no opportunity to cast the instant.

Edit June 2018:

In regards to the Madness key word and abilities:

A Madness trigger may cause someone to believe that in response to a card being discarded the 'Madness' ability interrupts the resolution of the thing on the stack that would trigger madness. This is not the case.

Rule 702.34 which defines Madness has this to say:

  702.34a Madness is a keyword that represents two abilities. The first is a static ability that functions while the card with madness is in a
  player’s hand. The second is a triggered ability that functions when
  the first ability is applied. “Madness [cost]” means “If a player
  would discard this card, that player discards it, but exiles it
  instead of putting it into their graveyard” and “When this card is
  exiled this way, its owner may cast it by paying [cost] rather than
  paying its mana cost. If that player doesn’t, they put this card into
  their graveyard."

Though it is not explicitly stated here, this does not cause the player who's card is exiled to receive priority at that time. The card is in exile and when the player who exiled the card has priority again, they are able to choose to cast the card(s) in exile or let it(them) go into the graveyard.


Let's say you talk about this Mewtwo : http://pokeplayer.com/cardex/next_destinies/98-mewtwo-ex

If Mewtwo has 2 energies and the Defending Pokémon has 0 energies, that would do 20 × 2 = 40 damage.

If for a weird reason you were able to use X Ball without having any energy attached, and 0 energies on the Defending Pokémon, that would do 20 × 0 = 0 damage.


How do I use the Dominion & Dominion Intrigue Update Packs?

The update pack serves two purposes:

Replace 6 old cards with 7 newer ones
Provide a new card strip; base cards are missing from the new strip.

Replacing older cards

The following 12 cards have been removed from their respective versions:

Base game (6): Adventurer, Chancellor, Feast, Thief, Spy, Woodcutter
Intrigue (6): Coppersmith, Great Hall, Saboteur, Scout, Secret Chamber, Tribute

You should not use these cards anymore. Naturally, it's your game so you are free to do whatever you feel best, add these together with the rest or not. If you do, however, there might not be enough space in the box to store them, if you keep the base cards in the same box as well. They are not "broken" or "overpowered", just very weak. Usually these cards were skipped, that's why they were removed. Dominion creator Donald X. has explained why each card was removed.

Should you take them out, remember to remove their respective randomizer (blue-back) cards as well.

New card strip

Naturally, since 6 kingdom cards have been replaced with 7 new kingdom cards, a new insert has been provided. Therefore, you will not see removed cards listed, such as Secret Chamber. You will see the new cards, though, such as Diplomat.

Other cards: you should be able to find all other non-replaced cards on the card strip, such as Wishing Well.
Base cards: base cards, such as Curse, Copper, Gold and Province, have been deliberately omitted from the new card strip. This is because the newer Dominion: Intrigue (second version) is no longer a stand-alone expansion of Dominion, thus you need the base cards to play it. This means that the whole expansion is not shipped with the base cards, thus they have been omitted from the card strip. Nevertheless, the actual insert should have enough space for you to store them (give or take one slot, as there are 26 kingdom cards now).
Empty strips: you can use them to hold extra cards, such as the base cards or the removed cards.


Would Heartless Summoning reduce a spells colorless mana cost?

Heartless Summoning and similar cost reduction effects like it only reduce the generic component of a mana cost. They do not reduce colorless or colored parts of the cost.
The symbol in Heartless Summoning's ability specifically refers to a generic mana cost, as described in rule 107.4b:

Numerical symbols (such as {1}) and variable symbols (such as {X}) represent generic mana in costs. Generic mana in costs can be paid with any type of mana. For more information about {X}, see rule 107.3.

Rule 117.7 governs cost reduction, and 117.7a in particular covers reducing a cost by an amount of generic mana:

117.7. What a player actually needs to do to pay a cost may be changed or reduced by effects. If the mana component of a cost is reduced to nothing by cost reduction effects, it’s considered to be {0}. Paying a cost changed or reduced by an effect counts as paying the original cost.

117.7a Effects that reduce a cost by an amount of generic mana affect only the generic mana component of that cost. They can’t affect the colored or colorless mana components of that cost.


Can I still capture a territory if I lose all my land units in combat?

The rulebook clearly covers this situation. On page 17 under Step 8: Capture Territory

If you win a combat as the attacker in a territory, and you have one or more surviving land units there, you take control of it.
Sea units cannot take control of a territory....
Air units can never capture a territory.


Can you have a permanent become all permanent types at the same time?

Yes

Play Gideon Blackblade. He will be both a creature and a planeswalker on your turn.

Play Mycosynth Lattice to turn it (and everything) into an artifact.

Play Enchanted Evening to turn it (and everything) into an enchantment.

Play Xenograft, naming saproling, to give all your creatures the saproling creature type.

Play Life and Limb to turn the Gideon Saproling into a land (forest) as well.

I'm sure there are other ways to do it, but this might involve some of the least complicated rules.

It's worth mentioning that there are other types that can apply to permanents:
Basic, Snow, Tribal, and a few other silver-bordered ones.

If you add a March of the Machines, everything is a Artifact Enchantment Creature, and your permanents are Artifact Enchantment Creature Lands - Forest Saproling. Be careful, as this will probably destroy your lands (well, your land cards in play, since they have CMC 0 and will be 0/0 creatures. I believe Forests will be OK, remaining at 1/1 creatures.)
Any planeswalker you play from that point on will be a Legendary Artifact Enchantment Creature Planeswalker Land.


Is it possible to have a Draw in Stratego?

I've not found any reference to rules concerning draws in any of the rules pdfs on line.  The rules do say

A piece cannot move back and forth between the same two squares in
three consecutive turns

If a player had no legal move other than "moving back and forth" they would lose as unable to play.
It is possible that a piece could never be caught in a game of Stratego if they were being chased around any of the 4 empty lake spaces.  This situation doesn't seem to be covered in official rules but it does seem to be covered in the International Stratego Federation rules.   I don't know if they have any official affiliation with any Stratego publisher.  They say

It is not allowed to continuously chase one or more pieces of the
opponent endlessly. The continuous chaser may not play a chasing move
which would lead to a position on the board which has already taken
place.

Those rules also say

A match ends in draw when:

at the end of the official playing the match has not ended yet.
both players agree to a draw.
the arbiter declares the game a draw.
both players have no movable pieces anymore.
both personal clock times have run out and this is mentioned by at least one of both players.

I should stress these are the. ISF rules and not in any published version. People playing at home would be unlikely to use a clock for example.
So whilst the rules do not officially call the situation you give a draw, it seem sensible to me that both players should agree to this if the game is impossible to end otherwise.


Why are bridge games seemingly documented only by the hands and bidding?

Usually play in double-dummy problems (that is problems with all hands visible) is left as an exercise to the reader. The play in this problem depends on the opening lead.

If the opening lead is not a diamond, it is ruffed in hand. A diamond is ruffed in dummy and a club played toward hand, where it is won as cheaply as possible. Another diamond is ruffed in dummy (note that the AK of diamonds have now both been played), and another club finessed. Declarer may now play his high club from hand, drawing the last trump, then the diamond queen, establishing that suit. Now declarer's hand is good the cards may be played in any order.


How long are magic cards actually "printed"/"In production"

I cannot speak towards any product printed and packaged for general consumption (ie. booster boxes, theme decks, special sets such as Planeshift or Commander, and Fat Packs, among others), but Wizards does list redemption guarantee dates for sets redeemable from Magic: the Gathering Online.

From their Magic Online Product Release & Redemption Schedule:

As a general rule, Magic Online sets will be available for redemption roughly one month after they are released. If a redeemable set runs out of stock before its Redemption Guarantee Date, the set will be reprinted. After a redeemable set's Redemption Guaranteed Date has passed, such set will be available while supplies last or until its Cutoff Date, whichever comes first. All cutoff times are 9:00 AM.

At the very least, it appears that Wizards will print new product at least until approximately one month after a set rotates out of the Standard Format (if the initial print run is not sufficient to meet the Magic: Online redemption demand.)


in Tic-tac-toe on an NxN board, what is the minimum goal (number in a row) that guarantees a tie?

This generalization of Tic-Tac-Toe is called m,n,k-game. (the goal is to get k in a row on a (m,n) board).

Some known bounds: (source wikipedia)

(5,5,4) is a draw.
(6,6,5) is a draw.
(7,7,5) and (8,8,5) are draws.
(15,15,5) is a win.
(9,6,6) and (7,7,6) are both draws via pairings.

When the goal is 9 or larger (k>=9) the second player can force a draw:

  When k = 9 and the board is infinite, the second
  player can draw via a "pairing strategy". A draw on an infinite board
  means that the game will go on forever with perfect play. A pairing
  strategy involves dividing all the squares of the board into pairs in
  such a way that by always playing on the pair of the first player's
  square, the second player is ensured that the first player cannot get
  k in a line. A pairing strategy on an infinite board can be applied to
  any finite board as well - if the strategy calls for making a move
  outside the board, then the second player makes an arbitrary move
  inside the board.


Which enemies count in Time Stories - A Prophecy of Dragons?

There are several threads on the BoardGameGeek forum about this problem. The answer here is merely a copy/paste of what is said there

  ! The score card says:
  You score the following points according to your performance on Linaïs.
  For each opponent defeated: 3MP.

  ! It turns out Linaïs is the name of the planet, not the last dimension.

  ! Technically speaking, the rules say: Every time you defeat an enemy you remove him from the location as you won't encounter him there if you come back. So to score you just count all those guys. But only from this run, as they come back to their place in each run.


Are there any bridge systems where cards played convey deeper information in a manner similar to bidding systems?

For a starter, it is obvious that such signalling only applies on defence - Declarer has no need to communicate with his partner (Dummy), and such communication is anyways illegal. Let's start with the basic defensive systems and progress from there.
 All of these are perfectly legal when fully explained to the opponents (except some of the more complex techniques are restricted in limited-master-point events).

Basic Signals:

Lead highest of touching honours (except King from Ace-King) either at the top of a suit or from an interior broken sequence; fourth-best from length; highest of a doubleton; low to show interest in having the suit lead back and high to deny interest in having the suit lead back; Lead high for partner to rough asking for a higher-ranked side-suit lead back an low to ask for a lower-ranked side-suit lead back.
Follow in trumps high-low on first two rounds to show a 3rd trump and interest in a rough; follow high-low to partner's lead suit to express interest in continuation, low-high to ask for a switch; follow high-low in other suits lead by Declarer to show an even number, low-high to show an odd number; Follow high-low as suit preference for a higher-ranked side-suit and low-high as suit preference for a lower-ranked side-suit.

You will of course notice that many of these are contradictory or ambiguous - that is the cost of asking a very restricted language to convey a rich amount of information. Established partnerships discuss the priority of these signals at great length, but the general gist is (usually): Attitude first; Count once attitude is known; Suit-preference once count is known, or when obligatory. Deciphering that consistently with your partner is one of the most highly rewarded skills in Bridge, as most of your opponents are so very bad at it.
;-)

More complex signals involve adding a mixture of these variations to the basic scheme:

Second-highest from touching honours. Sometimes only at the top; sometimes only from interior sequence (Coded 9's & 10's); sometimes both.
Upside-Down signals - reversing the meaning of high-low and low-high sequences;
Odd-Even signaling - replacing high-low and low-high combinations with the play of either an odd-spot or an even-spot, sometimes combining attitude with suit-preference so that an odd-spot encourages; a low-even spot asks for a lower side-suit switch; and a high-even spot asks for a higher side-suit switch.
Round-the-corner suit preference in place of absolute suit-preference.

That's all I can recall off the top of my head, but I have seen attempts to play even more unusual combinations. Myself, I don't think the benefit is worth the risk of a disaster from misunderstanding.

Update:
With some exceptions, any partnership agreement on the meaning of a legal call made or card played, or sequence of such, that is well explained in advance of the round/match to the opponents is legal. The exceptions generally cover methods deemed too complex, in the context of the competition being held, for the opponents to defend and understand. Generally there are few restrictions in 10-day World Team Championships, and very many in 3 hours novice match-point games.

The section on Carding on each chart of current ACBL Convention Charts explains the defensive carding systems allowed or disallowed for the corresponding class of competitions held under the aegis of the American Contract Bridge League.

Update #2 - Partnership Agreements:

re Duplicate Bridge: see Law 40 in Section 6, pages 48-52 of Laws of Duplicate Bridge
re Contract Bridge: see Laws 16 (page 10) and 40 (page 20); Proprieties Points 2 (page 45) and 4 (page 47) of Laws of Contract Bridge

Update #3: A sample Convention Card (pdf) as approved for ACBL sanctioned events.


When a monster is tributed due to the effect of Soul Exchange, whose graveyard does it go to?

To answer to the question in your title, all tributed cards go to their respective owner's graveyard. Now,

  When I tribute a monster, it normally goes to my graveyard. Is that because I control it?

Yes, it goes to your graveyard, but it is because you own it.

Two key terms here:

Owner: The player who owns the card, regardless where that card may be.
Controller: The player who has a specific card under their control. In other words in which side of the field that card is.

When a card is going to be destroyed, tributed, sent, returned, etc., it goes back to it's owner's possession and to the respective destination the card was redirected (owner's GY, deck, hand, etc.)


Can an opponent kill Undercity Informer before you can sacrifice it?

Normally, your opponent will not be able to stop you with a kill spell.
When a spell resolves; the active player gets priority:

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

Normally if you are casting a creature spell, that means you are the active player; as you can normally only cast creature spells on your turn. Because you have priority, you can activate Undercity Informer’s ability; before your opponent had any chance to act. You pay the costs when you activate the ability, which includes sacrificing a creature. Whether you sacrifice Undercity Informer or a different creature; the ability is activated and on the stack. Only then does your opponent get priority.
Also, even if you do not choose to activate the ability the first chance you get; if your opponent casts a kill spell, then you can respond to that by activating the ability at that point.


When do you place the +1/+1 counter for Anafenza?

Yes, you can put the +1/+1 counter on any creature that is tapped, including a creature that tapped to attack. The situation plays out like this:

You declare which of your creatures are attacking, including Anafenza and another creatures. You tap those creatures.
Anafenza's triggered ability goes on the stack, and you choose the target. At this point, you can choose any other tapped creature, including one that just tapped to attack.
The triggered ability resolves, and the creature gets a +1/+1 counter.


In what order are replacement effects chosen with respect to damage prevention?

One of the rulings for Furnace of Rath states:

  If multiple effects modify how damage will be dealt, the player who would be dealt damage or the controller of the creature that would be dealt damage chooses the order to apply the effects. For example, Mending Hands says, "Prevent the next 4 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn." Suppose a spell would deal 5 damage to a player who has cast Mending Hands targeting himself or herself. That player can either (a) prevent 4 damage first and then let Furnace of Rath double the remaining 1 damage, taking 2 damage, or (b) double the damage to 10 and then prevent 4 damage, taking 6 damage.

This ruling is the result of Comprehensive rule 616.1

  616.1. If two or more replacement and/or prevention effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object or player, the affected object's controller (or its owner if it has no controller) or the affected player chooses one to apply, following the steps listed below. If two or more players have to make these choices at the same time, choices are made in APNAP order (see rule 101.4).

There are some caveats under rules 616.1a-e which specify when some effects must be applied first, but I don't see that they apply in this particular case.

So therefore, since each player and their creatures are taking damage, they each get to decide the order to apply the replacement effects. They decide how the damage will be applied to them and their creatures in APNAP order.

  101.4. If multiple players would make choices and/or take actions at the same time, the active player (the player whose turn it is) makes any choices required, then the next player in turn order (usually the player seated to the active player's left) makes any choices required, followed by the remaining nonactive players in turn order. Then the actions happen simultaneously. This rule is often referred to as the "Active Player, Nonactive Player (APNAP) order" rule.

There are three replacement effects. I will summarize:

Furnace of Wrath: Double the damage.
Hostility: Prevent damage to opponent, get 3/1 token for each 1 damage.
Hallow: Prevent all damage, gain life

This means there are six possible orders the replacement effects are applied. If Hallow is applied first, the order of the next two effects is irrelevant. Each player gets to choose the order the effects are applied, and they are applied simultaneously! So it doesn't really matter who's turn it is, although that might affect each player's choices.

Volcanic Fallout does 2 damage to each creature and each player. I will use Y as the number of creatures the selecting player controls. Each player chooses the order they are applied to themselves and their creatures, so here's the possible results for replacement effects:

123: 4 tokens if player B or C, 4Y life (4 + 4Y life if player A)
132: 0 tokens, 4 + 4Y life
213: 2 tokens if player B or C, 4Y life (4 + 4Y life if player A)
231: 2 tokens if player B or C, 2Y life (2 + 2Y life if player A)
312 or 321: 0 tokens, 2 + 2Y life

Player A, presumably, wants to maximize the number of tokens generated so will choose order 123. Player B will presumably want to minimize the number of tokens and maximize their life gain so will choose 132. Player C, presumably, doesn't want tokens and wants to minimize player B's life gain so will choose 312 or 321.

But if damage is applied simultaneously, we have contradictory results! What happens? The key is CR 616.1. Player A has no control over the order of replacement effects for the damage taken by his opponents, so unless, for some reason, Players B or C want him to get tokens, he won't. Even if Player A chooses order 123, that order only applies to the damage applied to Player A and the creatures controlled by Player A.

Therefore Player A should choose order 231, 312 or 321.

Basically it's as if Volcanic Fallout was split into three spells, and each player chooses the order that the damage applied to them and their creatures is prevented and doubled. The amount of life gained by player B will be determined by the number of creatures on the board, as this will affect everyone's decision.

Whew! I hope I interpreted this right! A real head-scratcher.


Scenario 47: Replacing Dead Head With Body Token?

You do not replace the Ouroboros head with a body token

During a Haunt, special actions are explicitly given in the following books:

Secrets of Survival (read by the Heroes)
Traitor's Tome (read by the Traitor)

According to the Traitor's Tome, the Ouroboros head only leaves behind a body token on movement, and only if there isn't already a body token in the room it just left. Since neither the Traitor's Tome nor the Secrets of Survival state that anything happens when an Ouroboros head is killed (outside of the Survivors winning if both are killed), it is not replaced with a body token on death.


As per the "Activating the Shark" rules card:

  any diver in [the spot the shark moves to] and in either spot next to that spot flees off board back to its owner

Meaning the diver is returned to the players supply.


Betrayal at House on the Hill characters: Strength and Weaknesses?

Short answer: They are all balanced in their own way.

Long answer: Each character has strengths and weaknesses, some are harder to spot than others. For example the professor and priest as you pointed out, are mental, but if you look at their stat growth and starting abilities, the priest has more stats that go up to 8, but the professor as more stable stats. It's like this for all the characters. Flash and Ox are both relatively weak mentally, but they each can grow in different directions.

Sorry if this answer doesn't make much sense, honestly this is a difficult question to answer.


If I tap a land, end my turn, and then play an instant allowing me to untap it again, can I tap that land for more mana

Yes, the only restriction is that the land be untapped when you want to use its ability, it does not matter when you last tapped it for mana. You could even play the instant on your own turn (using the land twice in the turn).

  when does that mana get used up

It doesn't matter whose turn it is, each players mana pool empties at the end of each step and phase.

Note that brown "mana pools empty" throughout.

  Basically, if I tap mana on my opponents turn, when does it leave the mana pool

You don't tap mana, you tap land. Mana is the result of tapping the land. The way I like to think about it is mana is something I have to spend now while lands are something I can tap whenever you need them (giving you mana of course).


You just need to gain a clearer picture of the circumstances in which forcing a reshuffle of the deck is useful.  Imagine that:

You have drawn a lot of the useful cards from your deck, and few of your victory cards.  Obviously reshuffling will save you from the inevitable victory-card-heavy hands.
You have just bought a powerful card, that you want a chance to draw again immediately.  Or if you have just played one or more of your best cards, that you want a chance to draw again immediately.  Why wait to cycle through the whole rest of your deck, before you get that chance?
The Chancellor defends against the Bureaucrat, the Spy, or any other situation where you know the top card of your deck is not something you especially want to be part of your next hand.

So there are circumstances when it's better to reshuffle your deck.  (Though of course, there are equal and opposite cases where it's definitely better not to reshuffle your deck, so you have to be on the ball if you're going to play with the Chancellor, he's not a card you want to just automatically play any time!)

Obviously he has a big downside, in that he takes up an Action.  But, if you weren't going to spend that Action on anything else, he's all upside compared to a Silver.  Early in the game, before your deck is filled with good Action cards that you really want to play, and when you have a clear idea of the total composition of your deck, the Chancellor is probably just plain better than a Silver.  And never underestimate the power of getting off to a good start in the early game!


What strategies are effective against a spot destruction deck?

What's best against spot removal?

The absolute best decks against decks packed with spot removal is decks without any (good) targets for them. This will make those cards dead or bad draws. So how do you do that?

Play a deck without creatures. Maybe you can build a combo-, planeswalker- or mill-deck without creatures?
Creatures with hexproof, shroud or other protection. Their spells can't hit them, so they're useless.
Low values targets. Tokens and creatures with CITP effects comes to mind. It's not fun playing Dreadbore on a Lingering Souls token or on a Venser, Shaper Savant.

--

In your specific case: Is anyone playing control decks? The deck you describe tend to have a quite rough time against those.


Does a face-down creature with morph retain its damage when it is turned face up?

After turning the creature face up, the damage is still marked on the creature, it doesn't somehow disappear. It's still the same creature, only in a different 'state'.

120.6. Damage marked on a creature remains until the cleanup step
707.8. As a face-down permanent is turned face up, its copiable values revert to its normal copiable values. Any effects that have been applied to the face-down permanent still apply to the face-up permanent.

But if the creature has a high enough toughness (4 or more) or protection from red, it might still survive the Shock.
Note that turning a creature face up doesn't use the stack, so an opponent cannot cast a Shock in response to turning a creature face up to kill it while it's still morphed.


How are + Action cards used in Dominion?

When playing a +Action card do not resolve the extra action until the current card is finished.  From pg. 7 of the rules

  It does not mean play another Action immediately. The
  instructions on the current Action card must be completed before playing
  any additional Actions.

You should total up all the extra coins on the cards you've played for one purchase unless you have played cards with + Buys.  (You don't have to spend everything you've gained in each turn BTW). (also page 7, under Buy Phase)

  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.


I've read the Dutch rulebooks of the base game and the expansion. The expansion introduces the ninth character, and it states that in a 3-player game, you only have 8 characters. It's highly recommended to leave out both the Tax Collector and the Artist.

Note that, as mentioned in the comments, the original game had only 8 characters. The expansion came with 10 characters in total: replacements for characters 1-8 and two picks for spot 9. So now, you can pick from two characters for each spot in the turn order. However, as mentioned in the rules (here - and in Dutch -, for completeness sake) 3-player games (and by extension, 2-player games) should e played with only 8 characters.


Does Angel of Jubliation prevent repeating Lim-Dûl's Vault?

You are correct, it does not prevent the cost to repeat the effect of vault. Angel of Jubilation specifically stops you from paying life or sacrificing creatures as a cost of casting, this is not a cast. From the rulings on Angel of Jubilation:

[Emphasis mine]

  Other things may still cause players to pay life or sacrifice creatures, such as a resolving spell or ability.

What would prevent this is something like Platinum Emperion.


Where does the term "sacred discard" come from?

I do not know the answer, but I asked in a experienced Mahjong group I'm in, kindly received a most valuable pointer and was subsequently able to extend it to this answer:

  Was it just a culturally interpretive term invented by English-speaking players?

Probably. An online search brough up http://i.imgur.com/crKOGnw.png (A Mah Jong Handbook: How to Play, Score, and Win, https://books.google.de/books?isbn=1462905005), which is from 1964 and may be a root source others copied from.

Note that Mahjong was introduced to Japan only in 1924, so it took some time for it to divert from the Chinese rules (and create Riichi), and further more for it to be adapted into English and into books. That this took about 40 years is not unlikely.

From the group's reaction it also appears that, depending where and with whom you play Mahjong, there is a fair chance you won't encounter the term 'sacred discard' at all, even though Wikipedia uses it occasionally (especially in introductory articles). Personally, I've also always seen, heard and used the original furiten instead (but I am not a regular player, so that amounts to not much).


Catan Cities and Knights: Aqueduct and The Robber

Yes. The rules text for Aqueduct is

  If, when the dice are rolled for production, you do not receive any resources or commodities, you may take any one resource of your choice from the bank. You may not, however, use this ability when a "7" is rolled.

I think the first sentence is sufficient evidence: the rule does not care about why you do not receive resources (except as qualified by the second sentence), so your case counts too. However, I include the second sentence as additional evidence: it shows they thought about and explicitly listed exceptions. Your case is not listed, so your case is not an exception.


The time to play "Just Say No" is when the action they want to "Say No" to is happening. If they didn't stop you taking their property, and you're now claiming rent, then they can only "Say No" to the rent.

(This is assuming that you didn't rush through all three plays so quickly they didn't have time to react.)


You can use any resources, including those from yellow cards.

Paying for a Wonder stage is pretty much the same as paying for a structure on a card. The only difference between resources produced by yellow cards vs those produced by brown and gray cards are that yellow card resources cannot be bought by neighboring players.

From the rules:

  The resources of a city are produced by its Wonder board, its brown cards,
  its gray cards, and some yellow cards.
  To build a structure, a player’s city must produce the resources indicated
  on its card.


Hexproof counter on noncreature permanents

We will have to wait for the Ikoria rules update, but as of now, Hexproof is an ability that works on any type of permanent, and noncreature permanents with a hexproof counter should also have functional hexproof.

Under the current rules, Hexproof works on any permanent:

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

See also this Gatherer search.

I suspect hexproof will also be one of the exceptions mentioned in the Ikoria new mechanics article, and was simply missed. The fact that, according to that article, lifelink and deathtouch are going to be functional on noncreature permanents is a strong hint that the same will be true for hexproof or any other ability that works on noncreature permanents.

For clarity: Assuming the rules for ability counters are as straightforward as they could be, they will simply grant their abilities to any permanent they're on, whether or not that ability is currently relevant. Nothing in the rules stops a permanent from gaining or having abilities that don't apply in its current state. For a canonical example, Vehicles are not creatures as long as they are not crewed, but they still have abilities like flying and trample. I expect the same for ability counters that end up on Ozolith or any other noncreature permanents.


Is Saboteur better in a 4-player game than a 2-player game?

Saboteur is undoubtedly more dangerous in a 4-player game, but that does not necessarily mean better.

4-player games can end on piles more frequently than 2-player games because you only have 3 Victory cards per person (rather than 4 in 2/3-player) and 2.5 cards/Kingdom pile/person (vs. 5 in 2-player and 3.33 in 3-player). Saboteur can result in up to 3 extra cards leaving the Supply per play, which makes the piles endgame condition much more likely. If everyone plays a Saboteur one turn and everyone gains a $2 card as a replacement, you've almost exhausted 3 piles worth of cards right there—in a single turn.

In the extreme case of all the players going for Sab, you are likely to be hit at least once a turn, and more likely two or even three times. That's the equivalent of facing a King's Court-ed Saboteur in 2-player: you're losing 3 high-value cards a turn, versus only being able to get one your turn. The general 2-player advice against Saboteur is to ignore it because Sab gives no benefit to the person playing it, and so you can build your deck up faster than your opponent can trash it down, and your opponent loses the opportunity to build his or her own deck by playing Sab. The ability to outrace Sab is lost when you're getting hit multiple times a turn, which means that the game is likely to stall at the $3/$4 card level.


Nothing happens.

The rules do not directly give an answer to this outright; but they are clear that a family member that is not visible; or has not been born yet; cannot die. So you simply cannot kill any village member. The game asks you to do something impossible; so you don’t do it. It is a common rule in other board games in general that you “only do as much as possible”.

There are a couple threads on BGG that agree with this interpretation.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1323745/passing-away-nobody-visible

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/761561/about-family-member-pass-away


Do multiple instances of paying extra mana to target a permanent stack?

For convenience, I will quote Diffusion Sliver's ability:

  Whenever a Sliver creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter that spell or ability unless its controller pays {2}.

So, you've got two Diffusion Slivers. Let's call them Artemis and Boromir. Each of them has their own independent copy of this ability. When your opponent casts a spell that targets one of your slivers, you get two triggered abilities going on the stack: one from Artemis and one from Boromir.

When Artemis's triggered ability resolves, your opponent has to pay 2 mana to satisfy the cost of that ability (unless they let their spell be countered, but let's assume that doesn't happen). It's a general rule in Magic that you cannot pay for more than one cost using the same resources. So the two mana used to pay for Artemis's ability's cost cannot also pay for the cost of Boromir's ability. When they pay the mana, they no longer have that mana - just like money.

Later on when Boromir's triggered ability resolves, your opponent will have to find two additional mana to pay for that cost. That makes a total of four.


Can multiple Thorncaster Slivers grant multiple copies of the same ability?

Yes, they will have two copies of the ability:

  112.2c An object may have multiple abilities. If the object is represented by a card, then aside from certain defined abilities that
  may be strung together on a single line (see rule 702, “Keyword
  Abilities”), each paragraph break in a card’s text marks a separate
  ability. If the object is not represented by a card, the effect that
  created it may have given it multiple abilities. An object may also be
  granted additional abilities by a spell or ability. If an object has
  multiple instances of the same ability, each instance functions
  independently. This may or may not produce more effects than a single
  instance; refer to the specific ability for more information.

Two copies of the triggered ability will mean two damage whenever a sliver attacks.


To gain a card is to take it from the lineup and move it to your discard pile. From page 9 of the rulebook:

  Gaining Cards

    When a card tells a player to gain a particular card
    or a card of your choice, that card is taken and
    immediately placed in that player’s discard pile at no
    additional cost, unless otherwise directed by the card.


How does Psychic Surgery work with Scheming Symmetry?

The card found by Scheming Symmetry will be one of those looked at.
Spells and abilities in Magic the Gathering are atomic - once they start to resolve, they need to fully resolve before anything else happens. Psychic Surgery will see the shuffle, and the ability from it will trigger, but triggers do not get put on the stack as soon as they happen, they are put onto the stack the next time a player would get priority per rules 603.2 and 603.3 in the Comprehensive Rules (emphasis mine):

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.

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. See rule 117, “Timing and Priority.” The ability becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It remains on the stack until it’s countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be removed from the stack, or an effect moves it elsewhere.

This means this is how the events will happen:

Scheming Symmetry (SS) is cast, targeting two players.
All players pass priority, SS begins to resolve.
Both targeted players search their libraries for a card.
Both targeted players shuffle their libraries, except for the found card.
Psychic Surgery (PS) notes that it has been triggered at least once (twice if SS targeted two of your opponents in a multiplayer game). PS does nothing yet.
Both players place their found card on top of the newly shuffled library, SS finishes resolving.
Active player would receive priority again, because PS has triggered, the PS triggers are placed on the stack.
All players pass priority and the (first) PS trigger beings to resolve, allowing you to look at the found card and one other card from the top of the library.

With Psychic Surgery on the battlefield, a smart player will search for some middle ground card in their deck, anything too good will mean it gets exiled, anything too mediocre means that will be their next draw as the other card gets exiled.

Note, where I say "all players pass priority at steps 2 and 8, players can cast instants or use instant speed abilities. Unless one of those is a counter like Stifle, or an end the turn effect the Psychic Surgery will resolve eventually. A player could cast or use an ability that will make them draw the card they searched for before psychic surgery resolves, something like Brainstorm, but it will be more common that they can't do that in time.


Is there a portable / travel / pocket Dixit, without a large / bulky board but same riddling gameplay?

There are no official portable Dixit version I'm aware of, but to play the game you need only 3 things:

Set of cards with artwork
Way to secretly vote for cards for each player
Way to track score

Expansions are just a sets of cards, so choose one you like most. For secret voting you can make a set of tokens with different colored backs and numbered fronts, just like in base game. Or you can use dice and reveal them simultaneously. And for scoring you can use just pen and paper or any counters that go up to 30. You might need to make a box/container too, as I think expansion box is bigger than necessary.
My friend did exactly this, although not for portability reasons, just because she liked set of cards from expansion the most, and it worked fine.


I would assume a normal charades-style ruleset applies to the mimed round of Time's Up.  Looking at the "Rules of the acted charade" as given on Wikipedia I see the following:

  Most commonly, the actor is allowed to make any gestures other than
  blatantly spelling out the word. In more stringent sets of rules,
  indicating anything about the form of the phrase is prohibited, even
  the number of words, so that only the meaning may be acted out.

I don't see how there can realistically be a prohibition on holding up seven fingers to "mime" the word seven.  Any more than it should be illegal to mime "head" by pointing to one's head!  It just so happens that numbers are unusually easy concepts to mime...


Was the blind chess match between Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty in the movie Game of Shadows real/plausible?

Interesting question! Unfortunately it's not possible to easily reconstruct the complete game from the limited information available in the movie. Fortunately for us, this has been investigated in detail at chess.com, where they have done an awesome job of reconstructing the opening and ending from the movie.

The game played in the movie is based on the historical grandmaster game, Bent Larsen vs Tigran Petrosian, 1966 (Santa Monica). Both the opening move sequence and the ending have been changed somewhat to make it a little bit more exciting to watch. You can play through this original game in the linked article.

I won't include the board for the final position here since until we have better chess rendering support, it is better displayed on the linked website. You can click through the moves and see how it all unfolds.

The author of the blog post also emailed the movie's technical director, and got some additional information, including the historical background, which he used to refine his reconstruction of the game's opening and ending:

  I emailed the technical advisor Adam Raoof during the chess scene and Qh6 and Kh1 wasn't in the movie but are the correct moves.(I presumed it cause it was the only possible move with queen cause of later Qxb2 and of course the King could have moved to f1 also).

  I took a closer look at the chess scene and the opening and you can read the about it in the middle of the blog.They use a different opening in the movie then the Larsen-Petrosian game.

  Adam Raoff told me that he choose the game with Larsen as a tribute to him and because it was one of his favourite tournament books and was played in the year of his birth.

  Holmes was gonna play white in the original script but soon after they decided on this line the director changed the script so that Holmes was gonna have the black pieces so they reversed the position and lost a move.

  Adam added the line 'discovered check and, incidentally, mate', which made it to the film and which Robert Downey Junior thought was  "&&**ing awesome"!


How many points does a thief score when placed on a tile with a crossing completing multiple roads?

That is my understanding of the rules. You could still score 8 points if you previously placed thieves on three of the road segments leading into the tile of course.


When a monster is discarded, is it considered "defeated"?

Page 8 of the Reference Guide

  Monster

  When a Monster has lost Health equal to or greater than its toughness, it is defeated.

  When a Monster is defeated or discarded, it is returned to the Monster cup and the cup is randomized.

If you have to encounter something (such as an ambush) on a temporary basis and are able to do enough damage to it in one go to kill it, then it is considered 'defeated'.  However, it does make a distinction here about both 'defeated' and 'discarded'.  This means that, as far as I can tell, there is a precedence about the difference between the two.  So, no, discarding does not equal defeated.


Does Goblin Electromancer reduce both sides of a fused split card?

No. Only one spell is cast, so only {1} is deducted for a total cost of {2}{U}{R}.

Fuse is an alternative cost, as evidenced by "you have the additional option to cast both halves as a single spell by paying their combined cost". This refers to their mana cost (as will be stated explicitly in the rules). The combined mana cost of Turn and Burn is {3}{U}{R}.

The Goblin Electromancer provides a cost reduction of {1}.

total cost to cast a fused Turn and Burn
= mana cost or alternative cost + additional cost and cost increases - cost reductions
= {3}{U}{R} - {1}
= {2}{U}{R}.

UPDATE

The rules have been released. It's not an alternative cost. Here's the relevant rule:

  702.101a Fuse is a static ability found on some split cards (see rule 708, "Split Cards" that applies while the card with fuse is in a player’s hand. If a player casts a split card with fuse from his or her hand, the player may choose to cast both halves of that split card. This choice is made before putting the split card with fuse onto the stack. The resulting spell is a fused split spell.

  702.101b A fused split spell has two sets of characteristics and one converted mana cost. The converted mana cost of the spell is a number equal to the total amount of mana in its two mana costs, regardless of color.

  702.101c The total cost of a fused split spell includes the mana cost of each half. (See rule 601.2e.)

  702.101d As a fused split spell resolves, the controller of the spell follows instructions of the left half and then follows the instructions of the right half.

That's very poorly worded, but it's clear there's only one spell being cast. I'm going to get confirmation of my answer anyway.

UPDATE

Confirmed


Does "one non-Logos card" on Phase Shift limit me, or just enable me?

It doesn't limit, it only enables. For every Phase Shift you play, you're going to be able to play one non-Logos card that turn. Here are some additional quotes from emails sent by Brad Andres (developer at FFG):

  The Wild Wormhole is creating it own play permission for
  the card it is playing from the top of the deck separate from the play
  permission that the Phase shift is creating. Meaning that you can
  still play a non-Logos card from playing the phase shift.

FFG also addressed this in this video.


Sideboard for Modern U/G infect against Gideon

There are some common sideboard cards that are effective here.

Spell Pierce can keep Gideons off the field for just 1 mana. Gideons cost a lot of mana (for modern), so they should rarely be able to pay. It can also deal with removal and nasty sideboard cards like Solemnity

Echoing Truth can help manage a resolved Gideon. It can remove a Gideon from the field to turn off his emblem and can remove all the Knight Ally tokens at once (though note that both Inkmoth Nexus and Blighted Agent go around them anyways). It can also handle infect hosers like Solemnity or Melira.

Spellskite is probably the best way to deal with Gideon of the Trials's +1. It also deals with Path to Exile, a common sight in decks that play Gideon.


There's also an extremely thorough coverage of semeai in "The Second Book of Go".  It's out of print, but it looks like there are used copies available.


How many illusions will Lightning Bolt and Wild Ricochet get rid of?

603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as "[Trigger condition], [effect]," and begin with
  the word "when," "whenever," or "at." They can also be expressed as
  "[When/Whenever/At] [trigger event], [effect]."

The bear's ability is a triggered ability.

  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. See rule 116, "Timing and Priority." The ability
  becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the
  ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It remains on
  the stack until it's countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be
  removed from the stack, or an effect moves it elsewhere.

After you cast the lightning bolt, you are a player and you get priority, bear A's sacrifice ability is put on the stack. You still have priority. You cast the ricochet.

So the stack looks like this:

Wild Ricochet
BearA Sacrifice
Lightning Bolt

Then if everyone passes, wild ricochet resolves. As it resolves you choose to target bears B and C.

Now the stack looks like this:

BearB/C Sacrifice
BearB/C Sacrifice
(copy) Lightning Bolt
BearA Sacrifice
Lightning Bolt

If all players pass priority after each ability resolves then the bears would be sacrificed in the order you see on the stack.

Between each sacrifice ability resolving, priority passes and players can add to the top of the stack.

So yes all three are sacrificed, and none of them are actually dealt any damage.


What happens when two players both play Control Magic on the same creature?

The last effect created takes precedence.
Section 613 resolves interaction of Continuous Effects. The rules relevant to this specific question are the following:

613.6. Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is usually done using a timestamp system. An effect with an earlier timestamp is applied before an effect with a later timestamp.
613.6a A continuous effect generated by a static ability has the same timestamp as the object the static ability is on, or the timestamp of the effect that created the ability, whichever is later.

Continuous effects are continually reevaluated. This means that destroying the second Control Magic gives control of Pathraizer to the controller of the first Control Magic.


You get four lifes in total: one when each of the four triggered abilities resolves.

Since you have four copies of Suture Priest on the battlefield, you have four copies of the triggered ability. Each time the event a triggered ability is indicating happens, it triggers. Since you have four copies, it trigger four times.

  603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers.

Since there is no rule that stops several copies of the same triggered ability to trigger at the same time, they all work.


Can Ward Slivers protection be responded to?

Your friend is incorrect.  The "magic words" for a triggered ability, which an ETB is a subset of, are "When", "Whenever" and "At."  Triggered abilities use the stack and can be responded to.

  603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as "[Trigger condition], [effect]," and begin with the word "when," "whenever," or "at." They can also be expressed as "[When/Whenever/At] [trigger event], [effect]."

"As X enters play" indicates what is known as a replacement effect.  It changes the standard rules for what happens when the spell resolves.  (In addition to it becoming a creature permanent as per standard rules, you also choose a color.)  Such an effect does not use the stack.

  614.1c Effects that read “[This permanent] enters the battlefield with . . . ,” “As [this permanent] enters the battlefield . . . ,” or “[This permanent] enters the battlefield as . . . “ are replacement effects.


Am I allowed to take measurements before declaring an attack?

The rules don't specifically state this.

In the example on page 4 of the rule book it notes that you declare targets before rolling dice and specifically points to an example where multiple ships are in an arc and this rule is used to prevent players from determining new targets based on the effects of shots. Since it says nothing about range and arc calculations nor about choosing targets and then not be able to retarget if they are actually our of arc or range it would imply validity for arc and range are determined before declaring the attack.


Wooden circular tower with independently revolving multi-holed layers and wooden balls

Might it be Tårnspil aka Tower by Skjøde Skjern?

Marbles are placed into a tower with three wooden tumblers that can be turned in either direction. Players earn points when marbles fall out of the bottom of the tower.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22667/tower


Who gets the 2 bonus victory points for reaching a new island?

Generally speaking, no points are granted for expanding to an island.

That said, some of the scenarios have a special rule that grant points for expanding to an island. For example, scenarios 1, 4, 8 and 9 have the following special rule:

  If you build a settlement on a foreign island, you receive a
  Special Victory Point! Take a Catan chit and place it under the
  settlement when you build it. Each player may earn only ONE
  Special Victory Point in this scenario. It does not matter if
  other players have already built settlements on that island.

In those scenarios, every player that builds on an island other than the one on which they started gets 1 bonus point, but only the first time they do so.


"Any card with a Missed! symbol can be
  used to cancel the effect of a card
  with a BANG! symbol",

says the  "Remember" section of the latest version of the rules.

Gatling has a BANG! symbol, barrel has a Missed! symbol.  They're a match made in heaven, or at least Boot Hill.


When two card texts confict, which takes priority?

How is this situation changed if True Conviction were in play?

It doesn't.

Is the situation changed if True Conviction were played after Humility?

Yes. Each creature of the controller of True Conviction will be a 1/1 creature with Lifelink and Double Strike.

Is the solution to this question that the card with the newest time stamp is in effect?

Yes. Section 613. Interaction of Continuous Effects of the Magic Comprehensive rules describes the order continuous effects are applied.

613. Interaction of Continuous Effects
613.1. The values of an object's characteristics are determined by starting with the actual object. For a card, that means the values of the characteristics printed on that card. For a token or a copy of a spell or card, that means the values of the characteristics defined by the effect that created it. Then all applicable continuous effects are applied in a series of layers in the following order:
613.1a Layer 1: Copy effects are applied. See rule 706, "Copying Objects."
613.1b Layer 2: Control-changing effects are applied.
613.1c Layer 3: Text-changing effects are applied. See rule 612, "Text-Changing Effects."
613.1d Layer 4: Type-changing effects are applied. These include effects that change an object's card type, subtype, and/or supertype.
613.1e Layer 5: Color-changing effects are applied.
613.1f Layer 6: Ability-adding and ability-removing effects are applied.
613.1g Layer 7: Power- and/or toughness-changing effects are applied.

Humility is an ability-removing and power/toughness changing effect. True Conviction is an ability adding effect. Since both effects use the same layer 6 and aren't dependent upon one another, the order the effects are applied is done in timestamp order.
Also note

613.5. If an effect should be applied in different layers and/or sublayers, the parts of the effect each apply in their appropriate ones. If an effect starts to apply in one layer and/or sublayer, it will continue to be applied to the same set of objects in each other applicable layer and/or sublayer, even if the ability generating the effect is removed during this process.

So the power changing effect of Humility will always be applied last, no matter what.


If I use a colorless commander, can I use colored spells?

You can only use cards with a colorless color identity with a commander that has a colorless color identity.
Rule 903 has the rules for the commander format, and the following subrules are relevant here:

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).

903.5. Each Commander deck is subject to the following deck construction rules.

903.5c A card can be included in a Commander deck only if every color in its color identity is also found in the color identity of the deck’s commander.

"Colorless" color identity means that the card has no colors in its color identity. If you tried to put a card in your deck that had any colors in its cost or rules text or indicator, then it would have a color in its color identity that is not in the commander's color identity.


The ways of enjoyment:
1. Joy of playing
2. Joy of winning
3. The Social event of gathering to play
4. Joy by Tinkering
5. Joy of collecting
6. Joy of sharing
7. Joy of Learning

In detail...

Fun of Playing

For some people, the play of a game is its own reward. For many people, this is true of some, but not all, games.

Fun of Winning

For most of us, winning is, itself, fun. One experiences some joy at winning, especially in the face of adversity, be it a hard solitaire or a multi-player contest.

For a few, playing isn't fun, but winning is; playing is the cost for the chance at the fun of winning.

The Social Event

Some people's enjoyment is about or enhanced by the social event aspects of board and card games. The gathering is itself fun, even if the games themselves turn out not to be.

Conventions are an extreme example of this. My own local group of friends seldom gather without something hitting the table.

The Joy of Tinkering

For some people, house rules aren't for fixing things that didn't work, but a way of finding enjoyment all their own. By expanding, revising, "pimping," or strategizing, outside the playtimes, one can find enjoyment of a game.

Pimping a game means acquiring or making better looking components than the included ones... and it borders on...

While not properly "tinkering," strategizing falls into the same basic mode - deriving non-play enjoyment from spending time figuring out how the game works.

The Joy of Collecting

For some, enjoyment is in the having. Either by getting everything for one game, or having lots of games.

The Joy of Sharing

For some, the joy is in the sharing of the games. Either by teaching, by revieing, or by discussing with others.

In some ways, it's similar to the joy of the event; in others, it's different. As with collecting and tinkering, a lot of this is outside the actual realm of playing the game.

The Joy of Learning

For some, this is part of the joy of playing, or of sharing... for others, it's an enjoyment factor all its own.


What rules changes have there been in Uno?

A definitive answer would require someone who has a collection of all the printing of UNO since the beginning in 1971 to present day. The only one likely to have such an museum quality collection is the estate of the inventor of the game, Merle Robbins, an Ohio barber. He spent $8,000 to have 5,000 copies made. He sold the rights to the game to International Games Inc., which was bought by Mattel in 1992, who now owns the rights to the game.
Here is my best attempt at answering. I am going to assume that the 1983 International Games, Inc. edition is the same as original 1971 printing. The differences in the many spin off versions of UNO ([30th Anniversary Edition], Batman UNO, Hanna Montana UNO, Spongebob UNO, Dora UNO, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse UNO, Cars 2 UNO, Harry Potter UNO, etc.) are thankfully not included. I will mention that in general, the spin-offs have nearly identical rules, but instead of including blank cards like the most recent printings, these blank cards are replaced with special cards that have some unique effect. I would guess that the reason for the +4 blank cards from the original printing is related to card manufactures changing from 54 cards=9x6, to 56 cards=8x7 sheets.
The complete rules for the 1983 version are listed, with only differences for other versions listed. The 4 previous versions (1971-1981) are assumed to exist, because they are listed as additional copyright dates within the 1983 rule book. There are gigantic gaps in the editions, because I have been unable to find scans of the intervening years. To summarize the differences though, most versions have nearly identical rules. The earliest version only uses the (0-9) face cards for First Dealer selection, requires a challenged player to only reveal the color of the cards in their hand, if "caught" in a challenge they keep their Wild Draw4 card, and specifies a penalty for suggesting plays to your opponents. The 2001 editions (including 30th Anniversary) have a printing error in my mind, because no other versions I have seen make you Draw 4 cards when failing to call "UNO." I don't think the game rules have changed much in 40 years.

1971 First Edition
1973
1979
1981
1983 International Games, Inc.

Components - 108 cards, 4x Wild, 4x Wild Draw4, 4 colors each;19x (0-9);2x Draw2;2x Skip;2x Reverse
Object - Score 500 points by emptying your hand before your opponents
First Dealer - Non-number cards are not used. Players who draw a non-number replace it in the deck and draw another. (This differs from all subsequent versions I have found. In newer editions, non-number cards are not replaced in the deck allowing that player to redraw a card. There are other differences from later editions that will be noted, but this difference will only be noted here). Shuffle and deal 7 cards to each player, place the top card in the discard, and the remaining cards become the drawpile. The person to the left of the deal starts. With the exception of the Wild Draw4 (replace in deck redraw) and the Wild (starting player decides color), Special Word cards affect the stating player in the normal manner.
Summary of Play - Play a matching number, color, word, or wild to the top card of the discard. If a player cannot play, they must draw a card (which can be played immediately if it matches). Play passes to the next player. If the drawpile is depleted, resuffle all cards except the top card of the discard to form a new drawpile, and continue play.
Reneging - You may choose to draw a card, even if you have a playable card in hand. If you do so though, only the drawn card can be played. You can play a drawn Wild Draw4 card, but might be subject to getting "caught" if you have a playable color card in your hand.
Special Word Cards - Wild can always be played. Choose a new color. Wild Draw4 can only be played if you do not have a matching color (matching number/word is ok) without being subject to "caught" rules. Choose a color, the next player draws 4, play continues with the player after the next. Draw2 the next player draws 2 cards, play continues with the player after them. Skip the next player is skipped, play continues with the player after them. Reverse the direction of play is reversed until the end of the hand, or the next Reverse card.
Going Out - As a player plays his next to last card, they must say "UNO" before the card hits the discard. If they fail to do so before the next player has draws/plays a card and are "caught", they immediately draw 2 cards. After the next player plays/draws, they are safe. When a player plays their last card, the hand is over. Points are scored, all cards are collected, the deck is shuffled, and a new hand begins with the player to the left of the dealer. If the last card played is a Draw2 or Wild Draw4, those cards are added to the next players hand before points are scored for the hand.
Scoring - When a player goes out, all other players card values are added that players total. First player to 500 points wins. Wild, Wild Draw4: 50 pts, Draw2, Skip, Reverse: 20 pts, All number cards (0-9): Face Value. Variation: Running totals for each player can be kept instead. When one player's total reaches 500 (or some other value), the game is over and the player with the least points wins.
Penalties - Fail to call UNO on next to last card draw 2 cards, Make a suggestion to another player on what card to play draw 4 cards, Play a Wild Draw4 card with/without another legal color draw 4 cards. The next player is the only one who can challenge. If they do, you must reveal the color of the cards in your hand to verify if the play was legal. If it was, the challenger draws an additional 2 cards (6 total), if instead you are "caught", you draw 4 cards. (Challenge In this version, only the color of the cards in your hand need to be revealed. Subsequent versions do not clarify what "reveal your hand" means. Another peculiarity of note here, is that in this version the Wild Draw4 card is returned to the "caught" player's hand, and the a correct color card is played. All subsequent versions leave the Wild Draw4 in the discard pile. This does have an unusual effect on the gameplay. With this rule, it is not possible to sacrifice getting "caught", with the only goal of changing the current color.)

Note: Houserules you might have played with. Piling On/Progressive UNO - It allows the normal recipient of a Special Word card to pile on the result to the next player. (i.e. If someone plays a Draw2 card on you, you can play a Draw2 card, making the next player draw a total of 4 cards.). Draw until you have a playable card - Instead of drawing a single card when you cannot make a legal play, you continue to draw until you have a playable card.

1984-1992 International Games, Inc.
1992-2001 Mattel, Inc.
2001 First Dealer is highest point value card. Going Out failing to call "UNO" and getting "caught" draws 4 cards, no penalty for opponent play suggestions. 4x Blank Cards for adding special rules, or just replacement cards.
2002
2003 First Dealer highest number goes first (word cards are 0). Penalties New penalty for making incorrect plays, the offending player takes the card back and draws 2 cards.
2004-2006
2007 Deluxe First Dealer highest number goes first (word cards are 0). Penalties no penalty for opponent play suggestions.
2008 First Dealer highest number goes first (word cards are 0). Penalties no penalty for opponent play suggestions. First mention of Houserule Progressive UNO.
2009-present


Just to make it an easy and fast rule, a player MUST play the larger part of the roll, if he can play ONLY one part of his dice.

In the above example, if red rolls 21, he MUST play 3/1, and is not permitted to play 3/2, this is not a choice, its a mandatory move.


Is there much strategy and planning in 7-Wonders or is mostly luck?

7 Wonders is a very different kind of game than Race or Dominion.  Race & Dominion are both "group solitare" games.  By that I mean that there is little one can do to affect one's opponent.  The game is mostly your own strategy.

7 Wonders is strictly an "adaptive" game. You cannot go in with any kind of strategy; even choosing wonders is random according to the rules.  Every decision you make affects all other opponents, neighbors more than the others.  If you don't take that into account, by, say knowing "I'm going to pass these 6 cards, and I know my left neighbor will likely choose this card, so I should choose to do X", then yes, the game will feel random.

My biggest criticism of this type of game is that weak players give other players big advantages.  If you want to enjoy 7 wonders, play with people who know the game well, start thinking about everyone's tactics not just your own, and stop worrying about strategy.


Carcassonne: two builders on the same city?

At any time when the builder is on the table, it functions as documented in the rules.

The number of builders in a single city does not affect the way in which each builder functions. Nor does the number of knights. Only the active player gets an extra play if he/she extends the road or city. A builder can be deployed even if there are thieves, knights, or builders of other players on the road or city, as long as you have a thief or knight present.

Furthermore, the builder is not counted when calculating the majority. This is because the builder is not considered a follower.

Only if, due to expansions like The Tower or The Dragon, a player's last follower is removed from a road or city, the builder will no longer function. At this point, you're supposed to return it to your supply.

Source


What to do when a deal breaker is played against a complete set with more property in it...?

You would have put the new red card in another place -- it doesn't go in the set that's already full (you're starting a new set of red).
When they play Deal Breaker, they only get the full set (3 cards in this case)


Can I use Oko's ability targetting a creature with protection from green?

A creature with protection from green can't be targeted by Oko:

  702.16b A permanent or player with protection can’t be targeted by spells with the stated quality and can’t be targeted by abilities from a source with the stated quality.

It doesn't matter that his ability doesn't have a color, protection cares about the color of the source of that ability. So unless you find a Thran Lens or something similar, you won't be able to target the creature.


Are general 3-to-1 or specific 2-to-1 ports better in Settlers of Catan?

Unfortunately, it depends.

After the initial layout you want to try to identify which resources will be scarce and dominate them.  At the same time you want to try to identify which resources will be plentiful and dominate them and position yourself for the related 2-1 port.

It's unusual that you will be able to accomplish all of that :)

Once the layout is down, and folks have placed their initial cities you can then work to determine if you will have significant extra of a commodity.  If so, see if you can angle towards the 2-1 port.  If not, the 3-1 can work out just fine.


Does the psychic abomination rule apply to an unmoving unit already within the effect radius?

No, Psychic Abomination basically creates a "null magic" zone where any psychic powers fail to manifest.


Does Emrakul, the Promised End trigger if the player casting it is being controlled?

Emrakul's ability will work as normal when cast by a player controlled by another player.
When a player (A) is controlling another player (B), player A makes all of the game decisions for player B, but player B is still the one taking those actions. This is stated in a different way in rule 716.3:

Only control of the player changes. All objects are controlled by their normal controllers. A player who’s being controlled during their turn is still the active player.