How do we assign Game of Thrones houses?

Where a player sits around the table has little influence on the turn order of the game. Straight out of the rule book, on page 7 (emphasis mine):

  Your house position on the Iron Throne influence track abstractly represents the strength of your claim to be king as seen among the minor nobles, knights, and people of Westeros. In the game, the Iron Throne Influence track determines the Order of Play, and the highest bidder also gains control of the Iron Throne token after all the bidding is resolved.

The turn order is determined by the Iron Throne track, so it changes over the course of the game, and the player that starts at position one of the Iron Throne track is determined by your starting House. If the concern is House picking, that is also covered by the rules on page 3 (emphasis mine):

  6) Each player now randomly draws a House Start Card to determine which house he will control for the rest of the game.

House draw is supposed to be random, so following the rules here should prevent any shadiness among players. Randomization shouldn't favor any one player, so this should solve any problems with assignment.

As such, feel free to sit anywhere around the table you want, as it won't impact the flow of the game too much. Although sitting closer to your starting location on the board is always a good idea so you don't have to reach across the table for everything you do.


Discarding after picking up discard pile in Canasta

There is no rule specifying what type of cards you discard so it is up to the player to decide if they want to discard a dead card or a wild card.

Canasta Rules

  When a player has melded his cards, he ends his turn by discarding a card. At that point, his melded cards are checked to see if they conform to the canasta rules. Discarding a card is not necessary if the player can go out by melding all of his cards.


Do my creatures get a boon from previously played spells?

No, the token creatures aren't on the battlefield when Zealous Persecution resolves

  611.2c If a continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability modifies the characteristics or changes the controller of any objects, the set of objects it affects is determined when that continuous effect begins. After that point, the set won’t change. (Note that this works differently than a continuous effect from a static ability.) A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability that doesn’t modify the characteristics or change the controller of any objects modifies the rules of the game, so it can affect objects that weren’t affected when that continuous effect began. If a single continuous effect has parts that modify the characteristics or changes the controller of any objects and other parts that don’t, the set of objects each part applies to is determined independently.

  Example: An effect that reads “All white creatures get +1/+1 until end of turn” gives the bonus to all permanents that are white creatures when the spell or ability resolves— even if they change color later—and doesn’t affect those that enter the battlefield or turn white afterward.

Additionally, any of your opponents creatures that enter the battlefield after Zealous Persecution resolves don't get -1/-1 either.


Risk Legacy "Riots" event card is ambigious

The rules as written aren't completely unambiguous, but their meaning can be determined.

  Riots - Every player who controls a major city must roll a die, adding 1 to their roll for each troop and HQ in that territory. If your modified roll is lower than 6, remove troops equal to your natural die roll and DEMOLISH any HQs in that territory. DISCARD this card.

1) Yes, the Riots event only kills troops in Major Cities. Yes, it is possible to lose the last troop in a territory this way. (I.e. You have 2 troops + an HQ and roll a natural '2'.)

2) This is ambiguous. I would roll for each Major City independently, counting troops and HQs in each territory independently, but the rules as written state that players only roll once, and calculate their modified roll independently for each territory.

3) This is a good reason to only roll one die regardless of how many Major City territories you control and calculate individual modified rolls based upon the number of troops and HQs in independent territories. (I.e. You roll a natural '1' and have one Major City with 4 troops and an HQ in it and one Major City with 2 troops. Riots would remove the HQ and one troop from one territory and one troop from the other territory.)


Can I rebound a spell that exiles itself?

No, spells that exile themselves will not rebound.

This is supported by the definition of Rebound in the comprehensive rules: (emphasis mine)

  702.87a Rebound appears on some instants and sorceries. It represents a static ability that functions while the spell is on the stack and may create a delayed triggered ability. “Rebound” means “If this spell was cast from your hand, instead of putting it into your graveyard as it resolves, exile it and, at the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.”

Rebound works by putting the card into exile instead of putting it into your graveyard after the spell is finished resolving. A card that exiles itself never goes into the graveyard, so Rebound dosen't have a chance to move it, and give you the chance to cast it for free at your next upkeep.


Is there a standard notation for poker games?

Yes there is a standard for notating poker games, though it's not so widely used. One of the reasons for this is doing it as a player in game is cheating, writing down the cards that have come out would be counting cards.

The card values are: 2-9,T,J,Q,K,A in standard notation.

Suits can be noted, with the symbol of the suit (♠♣♥♦) or the first letter of the suit name (SCHD), though usually this is not bothered with as suits only matter in poker for the three flush type hands. Often is it just noted if a players hole cards are suited (s) or offsuit(o) - ATo would be an ace and a ten with different suits.

For community cards they are grouped and ordered as they would be on the table - 3 in the flop, 1 in the river then one for the turn.

Beyond that, notation for the players are BB(Big Blind), SB(Small Blind), BTN(button, the dealer), UTG (Under the Gun, to the left of BB and the first to bet) and CO(cut off, to the right of the button). Players if any between UTG and CO are notated by their distance from the closest of these, like  UTG+1 or CO-2.

Bets are noted by the dollar value of the bet, or by how many times it is the big blind (2.5x)


How does searching a library with Planar Bridge work?

"Search" is a keyword action that is explicitly defined in the rules. Rule 701.17a says

  To search for a card in a zone, look at all cards in that zone (even if it’s a hidden zone) and find a card that matches the given description.

In the case of Planar Bridge, you look at all of the cards in your library, choose a permanent card from among them, and put it onto the battlefield.


How can make a balanced equipment deck with seasons 1 and 2, and TCM?

It seems like the likelihood of drawing a three damage weapon is quite low with all the cards together.

S1 alone is the worst. S1+S2 is about the same as just S2. Adding TCM greatly improves the odds.

S1: 2/52 = 3.8% (2 sets of Molotov ingredients)
S2: 3/71 = 4.2% (2 sets of Molotov ingredients, Concrete Saw)
S1+S2: 5/123 = 4.1%
S1+TCM* = 5:/69 = 7.2% (2 sets of .44 Magnum + Hollow-Point Rounds, Flamethrower)
S2+TCM* = 6/88 = 6.9%
S1+S2+TCM* = 8/140 = 5.7%

TCM* = TCM excluding Ultrareds.

  A better way to look at the question would be if the decks are already combined how should they be broken down?

S1 - 62 equipment cards

52-card deck:

4x Aaahh!
3x Bag of Rice
2x Baseball Bat
3x Canned Food
2x Chainsaw
1x Crowbar
1x Fire Axe
2x Flashlight
2x Gasoline
2x Glass Bottles
1x Goalie Mask
2x Katana
4x Machete
2x Pistol
3x Plenty of Ammo (bullets)
3x Plenty of Ammo (shells)
2x Rifle
2x Scope
4x Sawed Off
2x Shotgun
2x Sub MG
3x Water

Set aside:

1x Crowbar
1x Evil Twins
1x Fire Axe
1x Ma's Shotgun
2x Molotov
3x Pan
1x Pistol

TCM - 23 equipment cards (itemized in the rulebook)

17 cards to add to deck:

2x .44 Magnum
2x Assault Rifle
2x Cookies
2x Gas Mask
1x Flamethrower
2x Hollow-Point Rounds
4x Laser Pointer
2x Spare Change

6 Ultrared cards to add to deck:

1x 911 Special
1x Betty
1x Doug's Dream
1x Jack & Jill
1x Ned's Atomic Flashlight
1x Sweet Sisters

Set aside:

1x Pa's Gun
4x Pan

S2:PO - 83 equipment cards (itemized in the rulebook)

71-card deck:

2x Automatic Shotgun
4x Aaahh!
3x Bag of Rice
2x Baseball Bat
3x Canned Food
2x Chainsaw
3x Claw Hammer
1x Concrete Saw
1x Fire Axe
2x Flashlight
2x Gasoline
2x Glass Bottles
4x Hatchet
2x Katana
4x Kukri
2x Meat Cleaver
2x Nails
5x Pistol
3x Plenty of Ammo (bullets)
3x Plenty of Ammo (shells)
2x Rifle
2x Riot Shield
4x Sawed Off
2x Scope
2x Shotgun
2x Sub MG
2x Wakizachi
3x Water

Set aside:

2x Gunblade
2x Nailbat
3x Nightstick
2x Molotov
1x Claw Hammer
1x Fire Axe
1x Pistol


In Catan, can players negotiate a trade when it's not their turn?

Catan is a social game where a degree of social banter of the sort above can enhance the feel of the game.

However, considering that the game permits trades with the active player - and not between non-active players, it is plausible to rule that such is interference with the active player's turn and therefore not allowed.

Even in larger games with 5+ players the game rules do not cater for trades by inactive players where the active player is not involved - and it is considered etiquette to process conflicting build requests in turn-order for precedence (hence no non-active player building a town on a contested space that is being built on by the active player).

What level of trade banter you permit is down to that agreed. We have played fine enough with some banter but it can get annoying when excessive.


Without breaking the game, how can I fix Memoir 44's problem with having no cards to order units in a certain section?

It sure is frustrating when this happens to one or more sections of an army, I agree. I wonder though, if it would actually decrease historical realism if it was somehow removed or mitigated.  The lack of order cards in a certain section could be analogous to:

The commander losing radio contact with his troops.  He is then unable to tell them when or where to fight back.
A unit experiencing mechanical difficulties and is unable to move or return fire.
A unit having run out of ammunition.


You can NOT hide the number of resource cards that are in your hand, so the premise in your question is incorrect.

From the rules, page 8, under Knight Cards:

  However, you can always ask players about the number of cards they hold.

And from the Official FAQ:

  Resource Cards - Am I obligated to tell my opponents the number of Resource Cards in my hand?

    Yes.

This combined with the rule

  Keep your development cards hidden (in your hand)

suggests that the number of development cards is also public.

While the rulebook and FAQ are not completely clear on this point, it seems to be the logical conclusion based on those other rules. Whenever I have played, players generally keep unplayed development cards face down in front of them, as keeping them in your hand would cause problems when cards are being stolen, or when counting how many resource cards you have, etc. Knowing which players have how many unplayed development cards is usually an important part of the strategy.


Do you have to move backwards with a 10 in Sorry?

Yes,

From the rules are on Wikipedia.

  10 - Move a pawn 10 spaces forward or 1 space backward. If a player cannot go forward ten spaces, he must go back one space.


How to resolve multiple "at the start of turn" effects when one changes another?

The rules do not specify what to do in this circumstance. As such it is up to each individual play group to decide how to handle this situation. Different games tend to handle this in different ways and there are a number of options. Below is a non-exhaustive list of what might work for your group.

Traitor's advantage - As you suggested the house is in league with the traitor (or, the traitor has prepared the house to his advantage). As such, the Traitor chooses the order in which such simultaneous actions occur. This would then apply for all such instances, including events on another player's turn.
Active Player's choice - The way such situations are sometimes resolved is that the currently active player is given the option of which actions are performed first. This gives the currently active player freedom to minimize the impact, or maximise the benefit, of actions they are taking.
Owner's choice - In the circumstance that items, abilities or powers are all acting at the same time, it can make most sense for the "owner" of those items to decide the order in which they resolve.
Timestamp order - Another possible way to resolve the situation is based on the time at which the effect came into being. Did the music box start playing before the Haunt? If so, the music box could take effect first.
Proximity order - The last option I can think of is proximity order. I should note, I haven't read or played this particular haunt. What is it that causes the Traitor's traits to decrease? Is it the waning power of what unleashed them in the first place? Is it some magic the heroes possess that is slowly draining the strength of the traitor? The key question is, can it be pinpointed to a specific location? If so, whichever action originates closest to the affected player (either the music box or the source of the trait loss) acts first.

Of the options, I have to say my preference would be "Active Player's choice", as it keeps control of the events happening on a person's turn with that person. Maintaining high player agency and involvement is an important factor in keeping people engaged. I can totally see why Traitor's advantage might be preferable though.

There is no way to give an answer for which of these options provides the best balance between traitor and players (at least, without extensive playtesting), so it will have to be whichever "feels right" to you and your group.


Can I kill an indestructible creature with damage and -1/-1?

Don't confuse reduced toughness with damage. Damage gets marked on a creature, but it doesn't reduce its toughness.
The 3/3 takes two damage, remaining a 3/3. then you reduce it's power and toughness with the -1/-1. It is now a 2/2 with two damage marked on it. However it is indestructible so this is not sufficient to kill it. You would have to give it -3/-3  for example (reduce its toughness by 3)

702.12. Indestructible
702.12a. Indestructible is a static ability.
702.12b. A permanent with indestructible can't be destroyed. Such permanents aren't destroyed by lethal damage, and they ignore the state-based action that checks for lethal damage.
702.12c. Multiple instances of indestructible on the same permanent are redundant.


STD. AMERICAN - 2 over 1, Bidding with a 5 card major and 16 points

This is a matter of partnership agreement. In particular, it is reasonable either to almost always or almost never open 1NT with a 5-card major.

If you are in the almost always camp, assuming a 15-17 NT opener, you should open any 5332 hand with a 5-card major and 15-16 HCP 1NT unless all of your points are in your major and one of the side suits. These bidders will also likely open 1NT with the appropriate point count and semibalanced shapes that are difficult to rebid (e.g. 2=4=5=2, 2=4=2=5, but not 4=2=5=2 since you can raise or introduce spades without reversing). Puppet Stayman is not a necessity, but it is useful. Justin Lall has a useful post about Puppet Stayman.

If you are in the almost never camp, you should open those hands one of the major. The types of hands that would open 1NT with a 5-card major would be those that have positional stoppers or half-stoppers in 2 or 3 of the side suits (like QTx, Kx, Qx) along with a poor 5-card major.

The most important thing is to be on the same page as your partner.

As to how to rebid after opening 1 of a major with a semibalanced or balanced 15-17, here's a guide:

If you have a 4-card suit lower than the suit you opened, rebid that.
If your shape is 4=5=2=2, rebid 2C.
Otherwise, rebid your longer minor at the two-level, preferring to bid a 3-card club suit before a 3-card diamond suit. However, be sure to discuss this with your partner -- you may find that you both prefer to rebid 2D with something like xx AKJxx AKx xxx.

Obviously, if partner invites, you'll accept. If partner takes a simple preference to your first major, you will probably want to make a game try:

If you have 3-card support for partner's suit, bid it as cheaply as possible.
If you have a truly excellent 5-card major (AKJTx or better) and values that look better for a suit contract than NT (fitting honors for partner's suit, side suits with either no honors or with quick tricks), you might make a try by rebidding 3 of your major.
Otherwise, 2NT.


If I can cast "target instant card" from my graveyard can I cast a card that has Flash?

A creature with Flash is not a legal target for an effect that targets an Instant

Phrases like "any time you could cast a Sorcery" or "any time you could cast an Instant" are just shortcuts for timing rules, meaning when you're allowed to cast a card or activate an ability.

  304.5. If text states that a player may do something “any time he or she could cast an instant,” it means only that the player must have priority. (...)

Both the cards you mentioned have you target an Instant card in your graveyard, meaning the targetted card needs to be an Instant itself.

It's possible that cards get types that aren't originally printed on the them (most commonly for animated Lands or Artifacts), but that's not what Flash does.
In general, no Magic card or effect grants the Instant or Sorcery types.


How would this seki be scored at the end of the game?

Both the black and white stones are alive, so no points are scored for either side here.


How do you resolve "nearest" when it is tied in Betrayal at House on the Hill?

I don't know of an official ruling on how to break that tie, but I would go with the official way to break ties for traitor, when the traitor is the one with the highest/lowest stat, and that is to use the closest player involved in the tie to the left of the player that triggered the haunt. So you would in this case break the tie by hitting the closest player who's explorer is involved in the tie going around the table to your left.

I don't have the rules on hand right now so I can't quote the book for that. Note this is the method for the original betrayal and I believe Betrayal at Baulders Gate. Betrayal Legacy uses a different mechanic to break ties, randomly drawing from the family crests of those players involved in the tie.


In A&A-Europe - When does an economic attack makes sense?

Before the latest adjustments to 1940 editions, bombing has not been a favorite by players in  tripleA and in A&A forums. Personally I disregard it as well as most friends I play with.

  I'd rather destroy a tank that cost 5 IPCs plus 3 turns to get to the
  front than to gamble on the off-chance that I could remove 6 IPCs in
  an Economic Attack.

This applies to all editions of A&A. I agree, and I would add two more significant reasons not to bomb:

You are risking loosing a bomber (expensive unit)
and most importantly:
If that bomber is bombing there.. what is it not doing?

Bombers can do many thing, ranging from a sacrifice (I.E. clearing out an infantry unit to open the path for an allied blitz) to desperate defense (I.E. Need to defend moscow one turn and with range 6, only bombers can reach).

In this version bombing is even more crippled because of the escort rules. The defender gains even more advantage. I never saw a game were bombing was decisive.  The only thing I can point out is:

Russia has usually only one fighter
If Leningrad and or Archangel have fallen, as germany you may be just waiting to more units to have better odds in Moscow's last stand; a SBR can help in that turn that you don't assault and want to deal some damage.
Germany is going to take Archangel/Leningrad?  Move the AA's out of there and when they conquer, you may have a free money drain as allies. That bomber is going to hang around for a final stand in moscow or Dday.

But even in these scenarios, there is usually an alternative to the SBR. We have sometimes adopted a house rule for AA fire on bombings:  roll once to abort (on 2 or less); if suceed , roll once more to destroy (2 or less). Even then bombings are rare


How many turns does an average game of Checkers/Draughts go for?

The American Checker Federation

The ACF has the transcripts for a lot of games. By my count, they have 9,374 games recorded from 1952 to 2009. These are available for download. In these 10k games, there has been 460,381 moves made. Thus an average* game of checkers takes 49.11 moves or 24.56 moves per color.

Here is a summary:

White Wins:  1596
Draw:        5406
Black Wins:  2372
-----------------
Total Games: 9374

Total Moves:      460381
Moves/Game:       49.11
Moves/Game/Color: 24.56

* average game between two ACF players


In Unstable Unicorns, does the Pandamonium card cancel unicorn card effects?

From the Unstable Games Wiki:
http://unstablegameswiki.com/index.php?title=Masquerade

"Do my Unicorn card effects work if Masquerade card is in my Stable? Yes, their effects remain the same. (~2018)"


Can activated abilities be used multiple times on a single target?

Activated abilities can be activated as many times as a player can pay for it, assuming it can legally be activated.
In this case, the ability requires to pay 2 life, two mana, and target a creature card in their graveyard.

117.3. A player can’t pay a cost unless he or she has the necessary resources to pay it fully. For example, a player with only 1 life can’t pay a cost of 2 life, (...)
602.2b. The remainder of the process for activating an ability is identical to the process for casting a spell listed in rules 601.2b–i. Those rules apply to activating an ability just as they apply to casting a spell. An activated ability’s analog to a spell’s mana cost (as referenced in rule 601.2f) is its activation cost.
601.2c. The player announces his or her choice of an appropriate player, object, or zone for each target the spell requires. (...) The chosen players, objects, and/or zones each become a target of that spell. (Any abilities that trigger when those players, objects, and/or zones become the target of a spell trigger at this point; they’ll wait to be put on the stack until the spell has finished being cast.)

Your opponent still has priority after activating and putting one ability on the stack, to activate another in response before the first one resolves. That way, even if there's only one creature in the graveyard, since it's still a legal target until one of the abilities resolves and removes it from the graveyard.

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

note that in tournament scenarios, you have to explicitly mention that you intend to retain priority
In other words, they couldn't return the same card five times to your hand, but nothing keeps them from trying. Once they activate the ability the fifth time and pay the costs, state-based actions see you at 0 life, and you lose the game.


Voice of Ra: does "all skill checks" apply to all players or just the caster?

It's just the caster, i.e. the "you" at the beginning of the sentence. Same way casting Wither or wielding a weapon only helps your combat checks.


40K Orks: what is the tactical value of having Mekboys in a mob of Lootas?

Most people don't field the Mekboys.  In fact, in 5 years I've never seen anyone put a Mekboy in a squad of Lootas.

So, you're not alone in not seeing their usefulness.  Technically you could use the Mekboy to build a little duality into the unit.  This makes them slightly more well rounded so as to be able to deal with other types of threats, but that's not what people generally take Lootas for.

Lootas are Orks most consistent and effective long range shooting, adding a Mekboy degrades their points efficiency.

In response to the edit about 6th

In that case I think you are better off with an attached Big Mek.  That way you can add in a Kustom Force Field to protect the battle wagon.  I'm also not a big fan of just snap shooting them from a moving vehicle.  They'll be susceptible to stun and shaken results on the wagon even if they disembark afterwards.  Going from a 5+ to a 6+ to hit may not seem like much, but is still a 50% reduction in shooting effectiveness.  Why do that if you don't have too?  And finally, why would you need to move a long ranged unit like Lootas in the first place?  A good deployment position should give them range to most of the board.  Put something else in that wagon; something you want to get closer to the enemy.


Nissa - Vital Force, does the land that becomes a creature can get destroyed?

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

The text:

  'It is still a land'

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

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


Triggers do go on stack the first time a player would get priority after their condition has been met, before that player gets priority. In this case that means the triggers will be on the stack before you get priority in the end step, but you will have a chance to act before they resolve.

This timing is explicitly covered in the comprehensive rules:

  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.

If you wanted to do something before the ability was on stack, you would need to do it in your second main phase - by moving from that phase to the end step (by all players passing priority with the stack empty) you let these triggers go on the stack. As for it going on the stack independent of your opponent, it's your opponent who puts it on the stack, as far as the game is concerned, and makes any modal choices or targeting choices related to that triggered ability.


How much does the difficulty change based on game 1

There is some difference in difficulty based on which color becomes faded; but shouldn't change things very much compared to other random chance elements in the game.

As a whole, Blue being faded makes for the most difficult games.

The biggest difference between the colors is that they each have a different number of connections to other colors. This increases the number of faded counters that will end up on other colors on average.

Based on this statistic, blue is a difficult color to get, because it has 13 total connections to other colors, compared to 9 for Black, 8 for Yellow, and 6 for Red.

There are some other factors such as the number of internal connections; but ultimately which random cards you draw and when both from the player card deck and the infection deck will have a bigger luck-based impact on how difficult it is compared to which of the 4 colors ends up faded.

For more details and analysis, see here (where I got my numbers from).


Do you get to choose your hand, or is the highest hand chosen automatically?

In other words, do you choose how to play your hand in the end, or is the most valuable combination of cards automatically and involuntarily chosen?

What a player claims to have, is irrelevant. The one and only thing that matters in deciding a player's hand is what cards that player may use. The one and only claim of a hand that matters is putting the cards face-up on the table.

This is often known as cards speak (i.e. "the cards speak for themselves").

Allowing players to declare a hand which is suboptimal would open the game to all manner of collusion and nonsensicality.

  Assuming an opponent has a hand that is better than a pair of kings but worse than a royal flush, do you win because your hand can form a royal flush, or do you lose because you didn't notice the royal flush and tried to go with pair of kings?

The player with the royal flush has a royal flush. No other player can have an equal hand, and no other player can have a better hand. Therefore, the player with the royal flush (holding KK) wins the hand and any pots they are part of.


A spell created by a cipher is a regular spell, except that there is no physical card on the stack. You can counter it like you would counter the original. As the ability says:

  Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its controller may cast a copy of this card without paying its mana cost.

All rules applying to spells also apply to copies of spells, for copies of spells are spells.

  111.1a A copy of a spell is also a spell, even if it has no card associated with it.


From the Cities rule book (4):

  Important: monetary losses are always resolved at the end of a turn, after players have played their cards, possibly having paid for trade and/or obtained money...

The player is able to participate in the project, but he/she would have to take debt afterwards.

As for whether that player has to participate in Great Project if he/she was going to, I haven't found ruling on it. Player consensus is this being optional and that player may make decision on it after they discovered debt threat.


Can you play 'After You' when Callous Guards is in play?

The consensus on this "Official Guillotine FAQ" thread is that yes, you can play After You... with Callous Guards in play.

  After you does not change the order of the line, nor does it "add" or
  "discard".  Ergo, you're fine to play it.

It's a consensus that no one has stepped forward to challenge for a couple of years, at the very least!


Dealing 10 damage to a single player will not kill a team that has 20 life. This is where you are going wrong:

  the single player life is the (total life)/2

This might have been true years ago (more on that later), but by current rules, individual players in two-headed giant do not have life totals. You cannot divide the total life in half and assign that to each player. The shared life total is the only life total that a team has.

Correct: The team has 30 life.
Incorrect: Each individual player has 30 ÷ 2 life.

On the other hand, if the opposing team had 20 life, and you somehow dealt 10 damage to each opponent (e.g., with Fall of the Titans), then you would kill the opposing team.

Another user discovered that, prior to April 23, 2010, a rule for life totals in two-headed giant stated:

  If an effect needs to know the value of an individual player's life total, that effect uses the team's life total divided by two, rounded up, instead.

With the release of Rise of the Eldrazi, the rule changed:

  If a cost or effect needs to know the value of an individual player's life total, that cost or effect uses the team's life total instead.

This could explain part of your confusion. I omitted rule numbers intentionally, because they don't line up exactly with the current rules.


How do you find not-quite-club level human opponents to regularly play bridge with?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Hunt re-rolls in the presence of Sauron's servants or Strongholds

According to the 2nd Edition rules (although the 1st Edition rules do not differ in this respect, although it clarifies it in a different way), when determining the location of the Fellowship, the Frodo & Sam figurine's location is used. This may be the current location of the Fellowship, if the Fellowship is declared or revealed. Otherwise, it will be the last known position (LKP) of the Fellowship and the Fellowship Progress Counter will indicate how far the Fellowship has traveled from that last know position. Since the LKP of the Fellowship is always used for all rules, including Hunt re-rolls (Hunt Re-rolls use the position of the Ring-bearers figure, not the current position of the Fellowship), no extra information is revealed to the shadow player.

The Ring-bearers figure (Frodo & Sam) indicates the last known position of the Fellowship. It is placed in the Region where the Fellowship was last declared or revealed (see page 38). At the start of the game, it is placed in Rivendell. Whenever rules or Event Cards refer to the current location of the Fellowship, it is determined by the position of this figure, regardless of the position of the Fellowship Progress Counter (see below).
The Fellowship Progress Counter shows how far the Fellowship has traveled from its last known position and indicates whether the Fellowship is Hidden or Revealed. This counter is placed on the the Fellowship Track on the game board and is moved a step forward each time the Fellowship advances.

The 1st Edition just flat out tells you to use the Fellowships last known position.

Hunt Re-rolls - The presence of Sauron’s servants or Strongholds makes movement of
the Fellowship more dangerous. If, during the Hunt, the last known position of the Fellowship is in a Region that contains one or more of the following... (Clip: up to 3 possible re-roll conditions)


Colorless commander using lands that chose based upon identity?

The rulings under the card in Gatherer say

  If your commander is a card like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth that has no colors in its color identity, Opal Palace’s last ability produces no mana.

That means you can use it in your deck but it won't produce the desired effect.

Exotic Orchard has no colors in its color identity and can be used as well, and it works just as it would in a normal 2 player game, i.e. it can be used to produce blue mana if your opponent controls an Island.


I have a couple of friends who used to play a lot of settlers online.  Apparently there was once a site that had a lot of settlers data, but it went down.  You can see some of the archived data at the settlers 3d web.archive.org page.

There is now a forum in its place.  Maybe some of the posters there have a backup of the data?


If a single effect would destroy a permanent multiple times, can regeneration replace it?

I copied the answer from here, where a similar question was answered by Daniel Kitachewsky. Daniel is a high-level Judge from France, and the goto-guy when judges don't know the answer.

  Planar Cleansing resolves and destroys all creatures, artifacts and enchantments.
  I have a Runeclaw Bears enchanted with Boar Umbra.

  The replacement effect of the totem armor saves the Bears, but if I have a way to regenerate the totem armor, will I have to regenerate it once or twice?

If there are two regeneration shields, the Bear Umbra is regenerated no matter what.

If there's only one regeneration shield on it, it gets more complicated:
- If the same player controls Runeclaw Bear and Bear Umbra, that player may choose whether the Bear Umbra is destroyed or not.
- If the active player controls Runeclaw Bear and the nonactive player controls Bear Umbra, the Bear Umbra is regenerated.
- If the active player controls Bear Umbra and the nonactive player controls Runeclaw Bear, the Bear Umbra is destroyed.

Now for more detail:

What happens is that we have an event that's trying to move objects from one zone to another, and some replacement effects trying to change that event. Moreover, when two effects try to do mutually exclusive things to an object, such as destroying it twice, only one of these effects continues to exists, before being modified by further replacement effects.

A. In the scenario where one player controls both Runeclaw Bear and Bear Umbra, the event looks like this:

A1. Destroy Runeclaw Bear, destroy Bear Umbra

Two things try to replace this, regenerating the Bear Umbra and replacing destroying Runeclaw Bear by destroying Bear Umbra. The controller chooses which replacement effect to apply first; we'll see later if the other effect is still applicable.

If the controller chooses to apply regeneration first, we get

A2a. Destroy Runeclaw Bear, tap Bear Umbra

replaced thanks to totem armor by

A3a. Destroy Bear Umbra, tap Bear Umbra

ultimately destroying Bear Umbra.
If the controller chooses to apply totem armor first, we get

A2b. Destroy Bear Umbra, destroy Bear Umbra

modified into

A3b. Destroy Bear Umbra

because destroying an object twice is impossible, then replaced by

A4b. Tap Bear Umbra

And it's not destroyed!

B. If Runeclaw Bear and Bear Umbra are controlled by different players, we fall into one of the scenarios above, but we don't choose which one.

The active player applies the replacement effect trying to replace the event that affects the object he contols first, then the nonactive player gets to have his replacement effects.

So:
If the active player controls Runeclaw Bear and the nonactive player controls Bear Umbra, we first apply totem armor, then remove one of the "destroy Bear Umbra" effects, then regenerate it.
If the active player controls Bear Umbra and the nonactive player controls Runeclaw Bear, we first regenerate Bear Umbra, then apply totem armor, thus destroying Bear Umbra.


How should the "and/or" text of a card be interpreted?

You must choose X different[1] targets, and the targets can be creatures and/or planeswalkers. With X=2,

You can target two different creatures,
You can target two different planeswalkers, or
You can target a creature and a different permanent that's a planeswalker.

This is confirmed by a ruling for Pinnacle of Rage: "You must choose two legal targets to cast Pinnacle of Rage." (The ruling dates back to when Pinnacle of Rage still used the same wording about which you are asking.)

Notes:

  114.3. The same target can’t be chosen multiple times for any one instance of the word “target” on a spell or ability. [...]


In Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle, can we use the Transfiguration proficiency when the Basilisk is out

Yes. In many cases like this the right answer can be found by looking for "keywords". In this case the keyword is "draw": the Basilisk does not allow you to "draw" additional cards. If an ability does not use the word "draw" then it is allowed even if it involves adding a card to your hand. In this case, "searching" your deck or discard pile and "adding" a card to your hand is not "drawing" an additional card as the term "draw" is not used. So the answer to the question should be Yes, you can use Transfiguration when the Basilisk is out.


Does "[card name] or another [type]" require [card name] to be in the proper category?

The rules do not explicitly cover this, but in Magic card templating, the phrase "another [characteristic]" is consistently used to mean "an object that is [characteristic] and is not this object". So, in all of these cases the ability will trigger whether or not the object itself has the mentioned characteristic.

In general, this doesn't come up in rulings, but Ephara, God of the Polis, for example, has an ability that refers to "another creature", and there is no indication that it only functions while Ephara is a creature.


Why are the extension cards in separate stacks?

I've deleted my previous answer as it was based on too many wrong assumptions on my part!

When playing with the Catan Card Game Expansion set, you could choose to just mix all the expansion cards together into five stacks as normal.  I don't think this would break anything, as such.

However, it strikes me that the new Themes introduced in the Expansion set would be quite significantly diluted by just being mixed in with everything else.  Depending on the outcome of the shuffle, your game might not end up being very highly "themed" at all.

By giving the new cards their own dedicated stacks, you give players the option to have a game that is quite heavily based on the theme. (They can, at their discretion, just keep drawing cards from that stack, after all.)  This could be particularly relevant if cards within a theme work better with each other, instead of in isolation: and I'd be amazed if this was not the case - most boardgame expansion kits I can think of are designed to have new internal synergies, rather than just complementing the mechanics of the basic set.


This rules guide explicitly says that:

  You'll see that each pokemon has HP, this stands for hit points. When they have damage on them equal to or greater than that number, they are knocked out. Each attack does damage, which is written on the card. This damage stays on the pokemon, even if it is no longer the active, unless you can heal it with a card.

This suggests that if you don't remove the damage counters from your Pokemons, they don't in fact heal by themselves. It doesn't matter whether the Pokemon is active or benched.

And yes, returning a Pokemon to your hand removes all damage from it, but you cannot return a Pokemon to your hand whenever you want to. You need to use trainers or an ability of a Pokemon to do so.


Who has the winning hand in Texas-holdem (different full house hands)

QQQ99 wins over QQ999, so Player 1 gets it.

When comparing two full-houses, the higher triple wins; if both players have the same triple then the higher pair wins. If both players have the same triple and the same pair, then they split the pot.

Note that all suits are equal in Poker - the ranking of suits from games such as Bridge and Five Hundred have no bearing on evaluating Poker hands.


Do any card games use the tarot trumps (Judgement, The Chariot) in any interesting ways?

In Gnostica players have a hand of cards from a Tarrot deck, which also doubles as the game's board, and a stash of icehouse pieces per player.  It is a territorial game where players try to outmaneuver each other in order to occupy high scoring cards.

The trumps (or "Major Arcana") have powers which are related to the card. Here are some of the clearer relations:

Chariot - Make two moves;
Strength - Take two grow actions;
Hermit - Move something to an unoccupied space;
World - Use the power of any trump that forms part of the playing field.

You can see the rest of the trump powers in the full rules under "Major arcana powers".

Gnostica is based on Zarcana, replacing the standard deck of playing cards with tarrot cards, and adding in the interesting powers along the way.  It is also similar to Dectana which uses the Decktet (a deck of cards inspired by tarrot cards).


In Dungeon Run, is there ever a reason to assist another player if you have full health?

Sure.  There are several reasons you might want to do this.  Obviously if there's a monster that will threaten you, and you're worried about it, and your opponent can't kill him on his own, you may want to assist.

On a more strategic level, you may want to cooperate, especially if there are more than 2 players.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tit_for_tat for a game theory perspective on building trust.  If you and another player are cooperating, you both get a benefit relative to the other players (as the next time he'll assist you, even if he doesn't have damage).


Bridge - 2 club opening (playing standard american) with shape and not HCP?

This is a bit of a tough hand. I think that opening 2C is fine. You're not grossly distorting the strength of the hand (as you would be with e.g. AKQJxxxxx xx xx -void-). You'll rebid 2S; if partner supports then you can start cue-bidding and if not you can bid diamonds.

If you swapped your clubs and spades, you might open 1C, planning to reverse into diamonds, as 1C is unlikely to get passed out when you hold only 19 HCP.


Can I play basic attacks of an evolved Pokemon?

There are a few ways to do that, but not normally.  The easiest in standard is Memory Energy:

  This card provides Colorless Energy.
  The Pokémon this card is attached to can use any attack from its previous Evolutions. (You still need the necessary Energy to use each attack.)

Also, BREAK Pokémon do still have the attacks of their last evolution (so Raichu BREAK can use all of the attacks of whichever Raichu it evolved from, in addition to Grand Bolt).

However, the norm is that no, you may only use the attacks printed on the current Pokémon's card.


Remove bestow target, does it become a creature?

It becomes a creature, because the rules make a special exception for bestow. Even though you've cast your creature with bestow as an aura spell, when it resolves, it can end up as an aura or a creature. From the bestow section of The Mechanics of Theros:

  If the target creature leaves the battlefield after you cast a card with bestow as an Aura but before the spell resolves, the Aura spell will resolve as an enchantment creature rather than being countered like a normal Aura spell. If the target creature is still on the battlefield when the Aura spell resolves, it resolves as an Aura enchanting that creature.

And the specific rules for this case:

  702.102a ... These effects [turning it into an Aura spell] last until one of two things happens: this spell has an illegal target as it
  resolves or the permanent this spell becomes, becomes unattached. ...

  702.102d As an Aura spell with bestow begins resolving, if its target is illegal, the effect making it an Aura spell ends. It continues resolving as a creature spell and will be put onto the battlefield under the control of the spell’s controller. This is an exception to rule 608.3a.

(Rule 608.3a is the rule about how aura spells normally resolve, which would cause a normal aura spell to go to your graveyard at this point.


When casting a spell with Cascade, when do the exiled cards go on the bottom of the library?

The cards are put on the bottom of the library as part of the Cascade ability. Any spells cast as part of the Cascade ability are on the stack at that point, so they will resolve after putting the cards on the bottom of the library. So in this situation, yes, you can search for Angrath with the Vampiric Tutor.

The Cascade ability is defined in rule 702.84a:

  Cascade is a triggered ability that functions only while the spell with cascade is on the stack. “Cascade” means “When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card whose converted mana cost is less than this spell’s converted mana cost. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Then put all cards exiled this way that weren’t cast on the bottom of your library in a random order.”

The instruction to cast the spell here works just like casting a spell at any other time: you put it on the stack, make all of the relevant choices, and pay the cost. And just like any other time you cast a spell, everyone gets an opportunity to respond before it resolves. This opportunity comes after the Cascade ability finishes resolving, which includes putting the exiled cards on the bottom of the library.


Why Deck Building Templates are the same

Your premise isn't entirely correct. The template of playsets of about 5 creatures and about 4 spells is a pretty good description of an aggro or midrange deck, because that matches the aggro and midrange gameplan. But that's not the only kind of deck. If you look at MTG Top 8's current Standard metagame breakdown, you can see that aggro decks are in fact relatively dominant in the current metagame. But there's also a significant number of control decks, which have a different game plan, and different decklists to match.

This blue/white control deck, for example, plays 11 different non-creature spells in varying quantities, and only two copies of one creature, which are likely there more for the utility of its ability than for the creature itself. This blue/black/red deck follows a similar plan in different colors. On the other hand, this God-Pharaoh's Gift deck plays a lot of creatures and no non-creature removal spells, because it has a different game plan.

Even if you look at the Aggro category, there are more than 10 different broad archetypes of aggro decks in the current standard meta, and each of those archetypes has a variety of matching decklists.


First, in order to understand how Multikicker works you have to understand how Kicker works. What Kicker {cost} means is that when you cast the spell (before you do anything like choose targets or determine cost) you decide if you are going to 'kick' the spell, if you do you pay {cost} in addition to any other costs of the spell, and it will have a different effect if it was kicked. For example Ardent Soldier has Kicker {2} and If Ardent Soldier was kicked, it enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. So when you cast the Soldier if you pay an additional {2} it will enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter. Normally you can only kick a spell once, but what Multikicker allows you to do is kick the spell as many times as you can pay for.

Strength of the Tajuru can be a little confusing since it has an {X} in its cost in addition to the Multikicker. How it will work is you decide how many counters you want to place on each creature, this value will be the {X} in the cost, then you decide how many creatures you want to target, the first one is free every additional one cost {1} from the Multikicker. So your final cost would come out to {X}{# of targets - 1}{G}{G}.

From the Gatherer Rulings:

  For example, if you want to put four +1/+1 counters on each of three different targets, that means X is 4 and you're kicking the spell twice. You'll pay a mana cost of {4}{G}{G}, plus a kicker cost of {1}, plus another kicker cost of {1}, for a total of {6}{G}{G}.

Strength of the Tajuru is probably the most complicated of the multikicker cards, most of them are much simpler, take for example Apex Hawks. The Hawks have Multikicker {1}{W} and Apex Hawks enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each time it was kicked., what this means is as you cast the Hawks you can pay {1}{W} as many times as you want in addition to the regular cost of the spell, and for every time you do that it gets a +1/+1 counter. So if you payed {3}{W}{W}{W} for the Multikicker it would enter the battlefield with 3 +1/+1 counters.


Permanents put onto the battlefield via Thran Temporal Gateway are not cast and do not cascade.

Casting a spell has a specific meaning - in short, it means putting the spell on the stack, selecting targets, and paying its mana and other costs. That is what's necessary to trigger cascade. After you cast a spell, it can eventually resolve and have its effect; permanent spells that resolve also result in that permanent being put on the battlefield.

Thran Temporal Gateway bypasses the casting process. The permanent card in your hand never becomes a spell and is instead directly put on the battlefield as a permanent, as Gateway's ability resolves. That means that the spell casting event for that card doesn't happen, the card doesn't get cascade from Yidris, and even if the card had cascade originally, it would not trigger.


Can you use Trader to gain a Silver instead of a Farmland, but still get the buy side-effects of Farmland?

On buy effects are resolved before on gain effects. So, you would buy the Farmland and follow it's on-buy effect of trashing a card, etc. Then, you are going to gain the Farmland. At this point, you can reveal the Trader to gain the Silver instead of the Farmland.

Your algorithm is correct, and your assumptions about Smugglers and Treasury are correct.


Cards that untap lands on opponents' turns

You can do a quick search for keywords like 'untap' + 'other player' to find some cards.

This'll put you on Seedborn Muse. She's the original Prophet of Kruphix, but hasn't been hit by a ban because she doesn't have that super-juicy "flash" clause. (And because being mono-green means she props up more diverse archetypes than a UG card does.)

Is that your only option? Not quite: try other keywords (maybe filter down to your colors and search 'untap' + 'land' or 'untap' + 'permanent').

Some highlights that you're likely to miss unless you try a lot of search permutations:

Awakening is a green enchantment that untaps everyone's stuff. (And allows heavily-instant-speed decks to double-dip mana on their own turn.)
Patron of the Orochi is a big green creature that you can use to untap all your green creatures and forests each turn. (And can also be used to double up your mana on your own turn.)


Yes, you can have a life total below zero. This is mainly a consequence of rule 107.1b:

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

A player's life total is a game value, so it is possible for it to be less than zero. In addition, the last sentence specifically calls out that it is possible to set a player's life total to a negative value or double a negative life total.


Can you cast creatures exiled by Ashiok/Nightveil Specter with bestow?

When a card is exiled with Nightveil Specter, you may play it in any way it could normally be played under all the normal restrictions (such as timing, paying costs, etc).
In the case of exiling Eidolon of Countless Battles (or any other bestow creature), this means you can pay the bestow cost to cast the spell as an enchantment aura.

When a creature card is exiled with Ashiok, you can later use his -X ability to place it on the battlefield. Notice the difference here: You do not cast it. Since it is not cast, you do not have the option of paying the alternate bestow casting cost and casting it as a enchantment aura. Thus, you cannot bestow a creature card exiled with Ashiok.


Where can I find protective sleeves for my Dixit cards?

Mayday Games has 80 x 120 mm in stock which is what you need.

I'm told that 3 x 5 recipe card covers will work as well.  You can find them on Amazon if you can't find them locally.


Would my effects cover my partner's GY as well as mine in a Tag Duel?

Basically, if you and your tag partner both use Dragon Decks, would their effects cover your partner's GY as well?

From the wiki page on Tag Team Duels we have, emphasis mine:

  When taking part in a Tag-Team Duel, both teams consist of 2 players. Players share a combined Life Point total and their fields and Graveyards.

So yes, you and your partner share graveyards.

Here's also a link to the Official Tag Duel Rulings, for reference.


Three-space jump on third line: how to connect?

The 3 space extension is vaguely connected, but compared to the more solid 2 space extension, it can be split a lot easier.

$$cm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . B . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . a O b . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . B . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

If the opponent invades and there are no other relevant circumstances (nearby stones of either player), the moves to think about are a and b.

Attach on top

$$Bcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . 1 O . . |
$$ . . . . . 3 2 . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

If black attaches on top and white plays bad shape at 2 (bumping her head), black will nobi at 3 and a short fight will ensue, however, black should be able to stay connected.

$$Wcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . B . . |
$$ . . . . . 3 5 . . |
$$ . . . . 4 X O . . |
$$ . . . . . 1 2 . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

So instead, white will hane at 1. If black cuts at 2, white 3 is the only move (anything else dies). Next, black could think about extending at 4, allowing white to connect at 5. The marked black stone is damaged and black is split. Also, white 1 is not captured yet. This should be very good for white.

$$Wcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . 1 4 a . |
$$ . . . . 3 X O 2 . |
$$ . . . . . O X . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

It is a better idea to counter-atari at 2, forcing white to capture. Next, black usually connects solidly at 4, sometimes at a, or plays tenuki. If white plays 3 at 4, black happily connects solidly at a and white still has to capture at 3.

$$Wcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . O X . . |
$$ . . . . O . O X . |
$$ . . . . . O X . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

In this result, black is connected and pretty strong, but white got a good shape in the center. Usually, this is considered slightly bad for black. On the other hand, it may be the best way to try to get this result, if white is strong nearby and black would really hate to be split.

$$Wcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . O 2 1 . |
$$ . . . . O a O X . |
$$ . . . . . O X 3 . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

If black tenukis, white can start a ko, so black should be careful.

$$Bcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . 1 O 3 . |
$$ . . . . . 2 . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

It is also possible to play at 3 directly, but this leaves more options to white than the way previously shown.

Attach below

$$Bcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . 2 . |
$$ . . . . . . O 1 . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

The attachment below is far more common. The goal is not to connect, but to get a good result, usually outside influence. White naturally hanes. Which side to hane on depends on the environment, especially nearby corners. This is a very large topic so I won't go into it, just keep in mind that hoshi stones in the corner allow for easy invasions, thus it is more difficult to attack very strongly.

$$Bcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . B . . |
$$ . . . . . . 4 2 . |
$$ . . . . . . O 1 . |
$$ . . . . . . . 3 . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

Drawing back at 3 leads to large damage to the marked stone and is rarely a good idea.

$$Bcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . 1 O . |
$$ . . . . . a O X . |
$$ . . . . . . . 2 . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

Practically always, black will cut at 1 and white will capture the single stone at 2 (very rarely white will nobi to a instead, this is a special plan).

$$Bcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . X O . |
$$ . . . . . 1 O X 2 |
$$ . . . . . a 3 O . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

Next, black 1 is the only move. If white captures at 2, black will probably play at 3 or at 3 and white is in trouble.

$$Bcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X b . |
$$ . . . . . . X O . |
$$ . . . . . 1 O X . |
$$ . . . . . 3 2 O . |
$$ . . . . . 4 X a . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

Thus, white will extend to 2 and black must cover at 3. Depending on the board white might crawl at a or b, allowing black to fix his outside. But far more often, white will cut at 4, splitting the single stone.

$$Bcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . X O . |
$$ . . . . . X O X . |
$$ . . . . . X O O . |
$$ . . . . . O X a . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |

This resulting shape massively depends on nearby corners, and it's difficult to tell the best variation without a complete board.

As mentioned earlier, black will use the aji in the position (mainly the atari at a) to either fix his outside and get thick, or to jump down the side, usually into a corner.

$$Wcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . 4 . . |
$$ . . . . . . 8 7 . |
$$ . . . . . 0 5 6 . |
$$ . . . . . . . 9 . |
$$ . . . . . . 2 . . |
$$ . . . . 3 , . . . |
$$ . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -------------------

This is a common situation featuring a kosumi in the corner.

$$Wcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . X . . |
$$ . . . . . . X O . |
$$ . . . . . X O X 5 |
$$ . . . . . 2 1 O 7 |
$$ . . . . . 3 X 4 6 |
$$ . . . . O . . . . |
$$ . . . . . O . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -------------------

Black sacrifices more stones by playing 4 and 6...

$$Bcm1
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . b |
$$ . . . . . . X 3 a |
$$ . . . . . . X O . |
$$ . . . . . X O . O |
$$ . . . . . X O O O |
$$ . . . 5 1 O X X X |
$$ . . . . O 2 4 . . |
$$ . . . . . O . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ . . . . . . . . . |
$$ -------------------

... only to get to play 1 and 3 in sente (the order of 1 and 3 depends on the board, it is almost no difference). Later, a or b are sente, too. 5 finally fixes the shape, and black got a somewhat thick shape while white got a mediocre corner. This is a joseki.

$$Bcm1
$$| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$| . . . X . . . . . , . 6 8 9 . X . . . |
$$| . . . . . . . . . O 4 1 7 O . a . . . |
$$| . . . . . . . . . b 3 2 5 0 . . . . . |
$$| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------

Another common shape that involves a hoshi corner. This time, white plays 10 and aims at attaching at a to live in the corner. The idea is to force black to crawl at b. I am not familiar with the joseki involved here so I can't tell sequences.

Conclusion

The 3 space extension is not very solid, but if you treat it right, it is pretty flexible. Connections can usually be enforced, but it is often a better idea to sacrifice for a better result. Nearby corners play an important role.


Oxygen level card restriction on Terraforming Mars

It is "X% level or above".
The rulebook gives a few examples of cards, along with the restrictions of when they can be played. Card "D" in the example list is Livestock, which shows "9% oxygen as a requirement", and the rules state:

To play card D, the oxygen level must be 9% or higher. You also need to have plant production, since the card requires you to decrease your plant production.

(Emphasis mine).
Card E is Shuttles, and it shows the same requirement icon, needing 5% oxygen. The rules state:

Card E requires 5% oxygen and energy production.

So the rules consider "requires x% oxygen" to be interchangeable with "requires x% oxygen or more".


Putting cards into your hand while the top of library is revealed

Actually, I would argue that Anthony's opponent should not know where the revealed card ends up. When you manipulate cards in a hidden zone, what happens is not free or derived information. See rule 400.2 (emphasis mine)

  400.2. Public zones are zones in which all players can see the cards' faces, except for those cards that some rule or effect specifically allow to be face down. Graveyard, battlefield, stack, exile, ante, and command are public zones. Hidden zones are zones in which not all players can be expected to see the cards' faces. Library and hand are hidden zones, even if all the cards in one such zone happen to be revealed.

So I would think while resolving  Dig Through Time, and supposing X is on top of the library, the steps are:

(1) Look at the top seven cards of your library. [X is revealed at this point]

(2) Put two of them into hand and the rest on the bottom of the library in any order. [flip X over, perform this action, then reveal the new top card of the library]

Since the choices made for (2) above do not fall under the categories of free or derived info (library is still a hidden zone, see 400.2 above), I don't see why Anthony's opponent should know what happened to X.


What happens to other Auras on a Creature enchanted with bestowing, when the Creature dies?

Aqueous Form goes to the graveyard.

It doesn't attach to the newly-a-creature Thassa's Emissary, because it wasn't enchanting Thassa's Emissary - it was enchanting the Cyclops, which has left the battlefield.

Bestow comes with exceptions that let Thassa's Emissary simply become an Enchantment Creature once it's no longer attached, but there's nothing saying that it brings with it its formerly bestowed creature's auras.


Can Munchkin Quest be used for classic Munchkin?

Short answer: No

Longer explanation:

They are totally different games. Munchkin is a card game. Munchkin Quest is a board game. They share:

A theme: Kill the monsters, take their stuff, stab your buddy - parodying power-gaming RPGers of a certain stripe
An artist: John Kovalic
A goal: Reach level 10 first
A Publisher: Steve Jackson Games
An official website: http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/

But the materials in MQ will not allow you to play Munchkin. And no amount of Munchkin sets will allow you to play MQ.


What does it mean when the Animator "counts as" the Finger of God?

It can count as the Finger of God for the purposes of Goals AND for having the ability.

That means:

I actually thought the answer was no, but in hunting for a source, I was corrected! So, yes, the card does have the Finger of God's ability as well. (The official FAQ seems to be down, but it was mentioned in this post on BGG.) This seems contrary to the game's aim of always having all the rules in effect visible on the cards on the table, but never mind.
Yes, the Animator counts as one of the required cards for any Goal which requires the Finger of God, so long as it isn't on the table somewhere else.
The Animator is always acceptable for any Goal that requires the Animator. It doesn't stop being the Animator even if it can also "count as" the Finger of God.

It's worth mentioning, however, that the Animator cannot be both the Animator and the Finger of God for the purposes of the Goal, "The Meaning of Life" (mentioned further down in that same forum).


Are there any published games of Bobby Fischer as world champion?

Chessgames.com has three games Fischer played against the Greenblatt computer program.  Those seem to be the only gamers recorded for Fischer during this time period online.  There don't appear to be any copies of Fischer's five minute 1981 games with Peter Biyiasas online.


If I block a creature with afflict and my blocker kills that creature, will I still take afflict damage?

Yes, you still lose life from Afflict

You even do so long before your opponent's creature dies - Afflict is a triggered ability that triggers when a player declares a blocker for that creature. What happens to that creature afterwards is irrelevant to this ability. Also note that it's not damage, but loss of life.

  702.129a Afflict is a triggered ability. “Afflict N” means “Whenever this creature becomes blocked, defending player loses N life.”

So, in your Declare Blockers step, Afflict triggers, eventually resolves, and causes you to lose 3 life. Following that step is the Combat Damage Step, in which your creature will deal lethal damage to your opponent's creature.


As you said yourself, one of the key mechanics of the game is forming alliances and breaking them eventually, all for your own benefit. With two players, you already know who will be your enemy at all times, and so do they, so there's no need to ever ally with the other player.

In addition, the map is too large to be played by only two factions. You can see that the game already takes out major regions in the south for less than a certain amount of players, but there's no such variant prepared for less than three players.

Not all games can be house-ruled to fit a certain group of players, and this is one I'd stay away from trying to do so. The closest you can probably get to making it work is by giving each player multiple factions, however due to the mechanic of forming alliances, this will likely not give you the game experience you hope for.


If an Outpost is played during a Possessed hand, is the Outpost hand played next?

The turn Outpost is referring to is "this one", the Possession turn.  Outpost doesn't really care what turn it was played on.

So during the clean-up phase of the Possession turn, the possessed player will draw 3 cards instead of 5, and immediately take their Outpost turn.

At the end of the Outpost turn, the originally possessed player will draw 5 cards as normal.  Turn order then returns to where we were before the Possession was played, so it's now the possessed player's turn (finally!) and they take a normal turn.

So your opinion is correct.


Can an Adaptive Automaton trigger Champion of the Parish's ability?

Adaptive Automaton will enter the battlefield already possessing the chosen creature type, which will trigger Champion of the Parish.

Automaton's first ability is a "replacement effect". Relevant rules are under the heading "Replacement Effects". Relevant excerpts:

  614.1. Some continuous effects are replacement effects. Like prevention effects (see rule 615),
     replacement effects apply continuously as events happen—they aren’t locked in ahead of time. Such
     effects watch for a particular event that would happen and completely or partially replace that event
     with a different event. They act like “shields” around whatever they’re affecting.

  [...]

  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.

  [...]

  614.6. If an event is replaced, it never happens. A modified event occurs instead, which may in turn
     trigger abilities. Note that the modified event may contain instructions that can’t be carried out, in
     which case the impossible instruction is simply ignored.

For more information about how this interacts with Champion of the Parish, let's look at "Handling Triggered Abilities" -- specifically:

  603.6. Trigger events that involve objects changing zones are called “zone-change triggers.” Many
     abilities with zone-change triggers attempt to do something to that object after it changes zones. During resolution, these abilities look for the object in the zone that it moved to. [...]

  [...]

  603.6b Continuous effects that modify characteristics of a permanent do so the moment the
     permanent is on the battlefield (and not before then). The permanent is never on the battlefield
     with its unmodified characteristics. Continuous effects don’t apply before the permanent is on
     the battlefield, however (see rule 603.6e).

  Example: If an effect reads “All lands are creatures” and a land card is played, the
  effect makes the land card into a creature the moment it enters the battlefield, so it
  would trigger abilities that trigger when a creature enters the battlefield. Conversely, if
  an effect reads “All creatures lose all abilities” and a creature card with an enters-the-
  battlefield triggered ability enters the battlefield, that effect will cause it to lose its
  abilities the moment it enters the battlefield, so the enters-the-battlefield ability won’t
  trigger.

So, in essence, "As Adaptive Automaton enters the battlefield, choose a creature type"  replaces the normal "~ enters the battlefield" action that you perform when summoning a creature with a subtly different action: "~ enters the battlefield and its controller chooses a creature type".

"Adaptive Automaton is the chosen type in addition to its other types" is a static ability just like shroud or flying, so your Automaton is an "Artifact Creature - Human Construct" (or "Construct Human", I suppose, the rules aren't picky) when it enters the battlefield, and this is the type that all triggered abilities (like Champion's) will see.

If you'd like to see an official example of Adaptive Automaton interacting with a Human-enters-the-battlefield ability, look at the Rulings section for Dearly Departed.


Winning the round before all players have had a turn in Phase 10

There is nothing in the rules about this. Yes, a round could end before a player gets a chance to play.

This isn't really any less fair than anytime a player other than the last in turn order ends up going out; in that case the last player has less turns than anyone else. Having 0 turns instead of 1 isn't all that different from having 4 turns instead of 5. So if you wanted a house rule to make it more fair, you should always end with the player who played last; not only if it happens in the first round.

The extra advantage of being the start player is balanced out by having the start player rotate.


Do we still track damage on indestructible creatures?

Creatures with indestructible can take damage like normal, and will still be counted as having that damage for anything that cares about that.

The full definition of Indestructible is:

  702.12. Indestructible

    702.12a Indestructible is a static ability.

    702.12b A permanent with indestructible can't be destroyed. Such permanents aren't destroyed by lethal damage, and they ignore the state-based action that checks for lethal damage (see rule 704.5g).

It does not prevent damage, so it takes damage like normal.


Torpor Orb should work. You could make the deck have a minor focus on creatures that normally are a pain to get out, like Leveler...


Does pKreoss' Purification spell clear out Cloud Effects like Murder of Crows?

Murder of Crows is an upkeep spell, so it would be removed.

It would be removed if any part of the Murder of Crows AoE was within range of Purification.  Like with a model, something is within if any part of it is within.  If you used purification to take Arcane Shield off an Iron clad, you would only need to make sure the edge of the Ironclad's base was within the spell's effect.  It would be the same with any other "thing" that was getting dispelled.


No, Scion puts a dragon card directly from the library into the graveyard. Grave Pact triggers on things moving from the battlefield to a graveyard.

Note the Oracle text on the card has been updated to say 'Whenever a creature you control dies' instead of 'Whenever a creature you control in put into a graveyard from the battlefield', though they mean the same thing:

  700.4. The term dies means “is put into a graveyard from the battlefield.”


Seems you're thinking of Rack-O.

In Rack-O, you have a deck of 40-60 uniquely numbered cards, and start by filling your 10-card rack with them in a random order. You then take turns replacing cards in your rack with either the top card of the discard pile or deck, and the first player to get their cards in ascending order wins. If I remember correctly from playing it, you can't rearrange the cards in your rack either.


Can one 40k army fight another of the same?

There is nothing in the rules to prevent two armies from the same codex from fighting one another.  I would just be sure that you can tell who each model belongs to; this is not too difficult once they are painted, but it could be easy to lose track of who is on which side if there are all just bare plastic.

With the current fluff, Necrons Overlords have their own Dynasties and it is easy to justify a power struggle between two of them.  Most other codexes can have fluff reasons to fight amongst themselves.


How to differentiate real Yu-Gi-Oh! cards from fakes

The Yu-Gi-Oh! wikia lists the most common tells

There is an article on the Yu-Gi-Oh! wikia that lists the most common tells with counterfeit cards. Without duplicating the whole list, a couple of the major ones appear to be:

The Eye of Anubis Hologram is missing
Incorrect card format (e.g. Levels on a Spell/Trap card)
Misspellings
Passcode text in the bottom left corner missing (although some legitimate cards are missing it too)
An unusual glossiness or feel

You can also detect counterfeit sets of cards by:

An incorrect cover card
An entire deck within a deck tin (since real deck tins only included booster packs or promo cards)
An unusual ratio of monsters to spell/trap cards (e.g. 1 trap card and 15 monsters)

There was a lawsuit where a legitimate company sold counterfeit cards

In 2008, Konami filed a lawsuit against Vintage Sports Cards. They were legally allowed to resell Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in boxes where booster packs were sold alongside three Ultra-Rare cards. Unfortunately, some of those Ultra-Rare cards were counterfeit. From an article about it:

  The counterfeit “rare” cards, which are clearly visible in the Vintage Sports packaging, use a different paper type and protective varnish than those used in real Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and the holographic security foil also differs from that used on the real Konami cards.


Pandemic Legacy Researcher relationship (Feb spoliers)

This is one way only.

Reason:

Researcher ability works one way only (He can only GIVE card with his ability, NOT TAKE.)
Co-worker relationship make good combo with researcher, but don't extend his ability to the "taking" part. (Although, it is possible for other players, to take cards form researcher, in their turns. So also his co-worker can take advantage of this.)


If unit A attacks unit B (which was attacking unit C) does the attack on B by A stop the attack on C by B?

Both attacks/moves are successful. Supports can be cut by attack from elsewhere, but moves aren't.


Can I make decisions while searching my library based on what order it is in?

You can decide the order in which to activate mana abilities based on knowledge about the order of your library. You can also decide whether to cast the Wurm based on knowledge about the order of your library.
First, the keyword action "Search" is defined in rule 701.15a:

To search for a card in a zone, look at all cards in that zone (even if it’s a hidden zone) and find a card that matches the given description.

And the following are rulings on Panglacial Wurm in Gatherer:

Panglacial Wurm’s ability works only while you’re searching your own library. [...]

If you want to cast Panglacial Wurm while searching your library, you must do so before you find any cards with the search effect.

Together, these strongly imply that you can choose to cast Panglacial Wurm after you have looked at all of the cards in your library and before you have "found" any of them. So, you can absolutely use the information available at that time when making that choice.
In addition, Panglacial Wurm has another ruling that says

While searching your library, you must keep your library in the same order until you shuffle it. This order could matter if you tap Millikin for mana, for example, to pay for a Panglacial Wurm you cast from your library.

Then, in the process of casting a spell, one of the last steps is 601.2g:

If the total cost includes a mana payment, the player then has a chance to activate mana abilities (see rule 605, “Mana Abilities”). Mana abilities must be activated before costs are paid.

There's nothing in that rule about simultaneous activation, or what order things happen in, so the obvious interpretation is that at this time you can activate and resolve mana abilities sequentially in any order you choose, like any other action in the game.
Once you can do that, you can activate the Millikins and Selvalas in the order you choose to maximize the mana you get, taking into account the information about the library order that you have.


From the official game rules:

  The starting player places a settlement on an unoccupied intersection of his choice. He places a road adjacent to this settlement. The other players then follow clockwise. Everyone places 1 settlement and 1 adjoining road.

  Once all players have built their first settlement, the player who went last in the first round begins round two: he builds his second settlement and its adjacent road.

So no, a player may not place their second road adjacent to their previously-placed settlement, or the road leading from it, because the above rule explicitly instructs that the 2nd road is built adjacent to the 2nd settlement.


1-on-1 unorganized tournament scoring system

Try this, it's a system called Whole-History Rating. From the abstract:

  Whole-History Rating (WHR) is a new method to estimate the
  time-varying strengths of players involved in paired comparisons. Like
  many variations of the Elo rating system, the whole-history approach
  is based on the dynamic Bradley-Terry model. But, instead of using
  incremental approximations, WHR directly computes the exact maximum a
  posteriori over the whole rating history of all players. This
  additional accuracy comes at a higher computational cost than
  traditional methods, but computation is still fast enough to be easily
  applied in real time to large-scale game servers (a new game is added
  in less than 0.001 second). Experiments demonstrate that, in
  comparison to Elo, Glicko, TrueSkill, and decayed-history algorithms,
  WHR produces better predictions.

It's been used rather successfully by a game I play called Arimaa. For a tournament score, rather than a player skill rating, you will probably want to treat all games as being played simultaneously, as opposed to allowing the ratio to fluctuate over time.

If it's source code you're after, you may find this pure Ruby implementation helpful.  It can support any two player game, as long as the outcome is a simple win/loss.


Can Accelerated Rot deal 9 damage if you meet elemental requirements?

Yes, major powers are very strong when you hit their thresholds.  I don't have a rules citation beyond what you list there, and I don't see anything explicitly in the FAQ about it, but the lack of "instead" and the plus sign both indicate that the power does 9 damage and removes a blight when played and you hit the threshold.

Compare to Pillar of Living Flame (3 fear, 5 damage, add blight if target land is jungle/wetland), which by the other interpretation would get worse at the threshold (+2 fear, +5 damage).


Why are the port arrangements in Better Settlers not like the arrangements in my game?

I created Better Settlers and the other answers are correct in that the version that I usually play with, the harbors are completely individualized on their own hexes so it's possible to completely randomize them. Newer versions of the game have the continuous puzzle-interlocking pieces to make things quicker for setting up.

The reason I chose not to force harbors positions even after the new version is I found that it was possible to create better and more variable board setups if I didn't add the constraint of fixed harbors.

The best solution with new versions is to flip the frame pieces over (so harbors aren't visible) and then use the additional harbor pieces that come included with the game (you can even just use a piece of paper if you don't have the additional pieces).

Hope that helps!


Stepping through it in order.

Start - Nukebot with Hang in There are on a base

Play Sacrifice

Choose one of your Minions - Choose Nukebot
Draw Cards equal to its power - draw 5 cards
Destroy that minion - prepare to destroy Nukebot, check Ongoing triggers
Hang in There triggers on If this minion would be destroyed
Move the Nukebot to another base
Destroy Hang in There

The trigger on Nukebot never fires because it is never destroyed.  The Hang in There prevents it.


Sorry! question regarding moving within safety zone

Red's turn would be forfeited according the the rules on hasbro.com since they have no legal moves.

Rules

  Two pawns of the same color may never occupy the same space. If your only possible move would make you land on a space already occupied by another of your own pawns, you forfeit your turn.


In what order are continuous effects applied across multiple objects?

Each effect in the order described in that section is applied to all relevant permanents; the application of effects in this order can affect the existence and application of later effects in the same order on other objects.
The rules do not explicitly state that this is how this process works, but the rules section as a whole describes the order in which to evaluate effects, but it does not say anything about evaluating objects in any specific order. The simplest way to apply those rules is to apply each continuous effect to all objects at the same time, and put only the effects themselves in any kind of order

We can consider some proposed alternative interpretations and see that they either require assumptions that are not stated or implied by the rules, or are not self-consistent.
Alternative 1: Objects are evaluated one at a time, in timestamp order
This is the simplest way to put objects in some order that is related to something defined in the rules.
Timestamps are defined in rule 613.6, which says this:

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.

Rule 613.6c does specify the order of object timestamps, but 613.6 only describes how to use timestamps to order effects within a layer. There is no rule stating that objects as a whole should be ordered by timestamp.
Alternative 2: Objects are evaluated one at a time, in dependency and timestamp order
This is a more complex order than the previous alternative, but it more closely corresponds to how a player would intuitively expect some interactions to work. For example, this question is written with the expectation that Ichthyomorphosis would remove Dryad of the Ilysian Grove's ability before that ability would affect any lands.
Dependencies are defined in rule 613.7:

Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is sometimes done using a dependency system. If a dependency exists, it will override the timestamp system.

613.7a An effect is said to “depend on” another if (a) it’s applied in the same layer (and, if applicable, sublayer) as the other effect (see rules 613.1 and 613.3); (b) applying the other would change the text or the existence of the first effect, what it applies to, or what it does to any of the things it applies to; and (c) neither effect is from a characteristic-defining ability or both effects are from characteristic-defining abilities. Otherwise, the effect is considered to be independent of the other effect.

Dependencies are only defined as a relationship between two effects. Extending that to objects as a whole and evaluating objects in that order are both assumptions that are not directly stated in the rules.
Alternative 3: Each object is evaluated in a context in which all other objects have been fully evaluated
This is another way that players might intuitively expect this to work. Each ability either exists or doesn't based on the object's fully evaluated characteristics, and for each object those characteristics are evaluated in a context where every other object has already been evaluated.
This is a nice idea, and it doesn't clearly depend on any specific ordering that would need to be specified in the rules, but unfortunately it leads to unresolvable paradoxes. If two objects each have abilities that would remove the other's abilities, either neither one ends up with abilities, in which case neither should have removed the other's abilities, or both have abilities, in which case both should have removed the other's abilities, or one has abilities and the other doesn't, in which case there's no established way to determine which one should have abilities.


Munchkin: Charity: Giving cards to someone who has 5 already

You still give them. But those players must discard extra cards at their charity phase (if they are still the player with the lowest level).

This rule gives a slight advantage to players with the lowest level. Although they mostly get the less usefull cards (gee two halfling and a thief card, I'm really happy now!)

To add some reference to the rules:

The answer is in the rules (the relevant part in bold):

  Your Hand: Cards in your hand are not in play. They don’t help you, but
  they can’t be taken away except by cards that specifically affect “your hand.”
  At the end of your turn, you may have no more than five cards in your hand
  (see Charity, p. 2).

It clearly states, that the hand limit is checked at the end of your turn. So it is no problem if you have 25 cards because of the charity of several players. At the end of your turn you need to level it to 5 (or 6 if you are a dwarf).

And charity is defined as:

  (3) Charity: If you have more than five cards in your hand, you must play
  enough cards to get you to five or below. If you cannot, or do not want to, you must give the excess cards to the player with the lowest Level. If players are tied for lowest, divide the cards as evenly as possible, but it’s up to you who gets the bigger set(s) of leftovers. If YOU are the lowest or tied for lowest, just discard the excess.


Arkham Horror - Tips for making the game more dynamic and fun when you play with more than 5 players?

Arkham Horror is an interesting game in that it lies partway between a traditional board game and a full-on role-playing experience. The atmosphere of the game and the shared imagination of the players is much more important than in games like Agricola or Ticket to Ride, which are dominated by the rules mechanics. It also takes quite a long time to play.

With more players, it's critical to keep people enthused and involved. This requires active work, by you, if you're the host! Here are the main things I think about.

Set the atmosphere. I like to dim the lights and play horror movie soundtracks. It's obvious, cliched - and fun!
Identify with your characters. We always read out our investigator's back-stories and special rules. And if your players actually talk and act in character, then the game comes alive! If you can provide props or dress up, so much the better. If your players feel like they can relate to and care about their protagonist, they will be much more involved in the game. Staying in character also gives players something to think about when it's not their turn.
Identify with shared goals. If your players feel that they are working together for a common goal, then other player's turns immediately feel more interesting. If the players have the nervous sense that this move is important, then they will certainly pay attention! You want to make them feel that they and their teammates are playing for high stakes.
Know your rules. Nothing kills a game like being bogged down searching for rules clarifications, or having long protracted arguments about ambiguous phrasing. Make sure you have a good grasp of the rules, and if necessary enforce rules decisions to keep the game moving.
Keep the game moving. Some people like to carefully think through every permutation. Some people love calculating attack modifiers. Some people don't care, and want to just CHARGE at the nearest big looking monster. Some people just want to do random cool stuff, infuriating the other players. Striking the right balance between personalities, and gently nudging people along is very necessary. It's similar to chairing a meeting. Do it well, and no one will notice, but everyone will feel the experience "went well".
Read all the cards out yourself. I recommend doing all the reading yourself. It's much faster than passing cards around, and you can add tension and atmosphere by reading dramatically. Your idea of not reading the whole card out is a good one, but does depend on the situation. Remember that some cards in Arkham are optional tests, while others are mandatory. In the optional cases, your player is going to want to know what the risk/reward stakes are. In the mandatory case, it's more fun to drag out the suspense...!
Apply house rules to improve the game. Game designer Richard Launius has provided some excellent house rules which are well worth reading. These can adjust the speed and/or difficulty of the game as needed.
Take breaks. If your players are getting tired or bored, take a break, make some drinks, or agree to resume some other time. Don't turn finishing the game into a death march.
Actively manage the game. This is the critical one. If you're hosting a large number of players, you need to run the game. This is quite a lot of work, but rewarding. Remember that the aim of the game is for everyone to have fun. Even if you are playing an investigator, you still have the extra responsibility for the game experience itself. The ideal game will be tense, nerve-wracking, involve some hardship and sacrifice, but ultimately a positive experience. You want your players to go away feeling they had an adventure, and did well, whether or not they ultimately win. Consider bending the rules where necessary to achieve this.


Does a person playing an illegal Draw 4 in Uno still get to pick the color?

As per the (2008) Rules sheet from Mattel (emphasis in second paragraph mine):

  Wild Draw Four Card - When you play this card, you get to choose the
  color that continues play PLUS the next player must draw 4 cards from
  the DRAW pile and lose their turn. However, there is a hitch! You may
  only play this card when you do NOT have another card in your hand
  that matches the COLOR on the DISCARD pile (but it is acceptable to
  play this card if you have matching number or Action Cards). If turned
  up at the beginning of play, return this card to the deck and pick another
  card.

  NOTE: If you suspect that a Wild Draw 4 card has been played on you illegally (i.e. the player has a matching card), then you may challenge that player. The challenged player must show you (the challenger) their hand. If guilty, the challenged player must draw the 4 cards instead of you. However, if the challenged player is innocent, you must draw the 4 cards PLUS an additional 2 cards (6 total)!

The takeaway from this: Since the penalty on this states that the challenged player draws 4 cards instead of the challenging player AND since the rules never state that an illegally-played "Wild Draw 4" card is taken back, the card remains on the discard pile and the declared color remains in effect. This means you can't prevent an unfavorable color change from an illegally-played Wild Draw 4 card.

Official Uno Videogames handle this the same way: the Wild Draw 4's declared color remains in effect (at least one version recolors the Wild cards after a color's been declared to make it clear what color the top card is).

Some rule revisions, such as the 2003 Rules Sheet from Mattel, also specifically refer to playing a Wild Draw 4 while still having cards matching the current color as bluffing.