I would veer away from having to paying money to raise armies, which, depending on implementation, might be perceived badly (as either being able to pay money to buy huge armies, or requiring money to even make it to the end by having to pay ever-increasing amounts of money just to play.)

Instead, I would suggest allowing players to pay money to re-roll the dice used for determining battle outcomes. This way, you get a little bit of an advantage from paying money, but you may still roll badly and not win. (plus, it can incentive the other player in the battle to pay money to re-roll his dice, etc.) I might also try a staggered cost - so that for each player, the first 10 re-rolls cost $1, but the next 10 cost $2, etc.

As for players that have already been defeated, you could allow them to pay for re-rolls on one side in future battles. Depending on how competitive your office is, this may break friendships as people contribute money to their favorite faction, etc.

Also, note that the physical Risk game comes with a limited number of colors, so you might need to find some sort of work-around (have several independent "pods" where the winner of each goes on to play in a final game) or digital version.


Can I create a colour scheme for a custom chapter and the apply it to other chapters?

You can honestly play the game with unpainted miniatures, nothing prevents you from using your own color schemes, and many people do, though if you intend to be using these forces together in a mixed imperial army, it's best your color scheme between the different subgroups of your army is clear, so effects don't accidentally get applied to a unit from the wrong arm of the Imperium of Man.

Coloring a Mechanicus unit the Yellow and Black of your Imperial Fists could cause you to accidentally apply First Captain Lysander's Icon of Obstinacy to them, when it only applies to his own chapter's units.


How do I bid using "weak Stayman" (or garbage stayman)

One you have decided to bid a weak Stayman, it is imperative that you pass opener's rebid.

Any subsequent action of any sort by your hand categorically promises 8+ points.

Consequently, you must have a hand that can tolerate any of the three acceptable responses to Stayman. It is unwise to make this bid with club tolerance for two reasons:

Partner responds 2D too often, and you have jumped into an inferior contract that is easier for the opponents to double than was 1NT.
You lose the valuable inference from the auction following that you have either a few points or club tolerance or both:

  1NT    P     P    Dbl
    ?

  It is possible to play more complicated sequences in these situations, but they must be very well discussed with partner. It is extremely demoralizing for a partnership to be at risk of 500 or 800 point sets on every 1NT opening, due to bad experience with toys like poorly agreed weak Stayman.


Monster attacking directly considered as "battled"?

Yes, the effect of Michion will activate; direct attacks are included in what are considered "battles".

From Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Official Rulebook ver9.1 p48

  When a card requires a
  monster to have “battled” (past tense), the attack had to have reached the
  damage calculation portion of the Damage Step in order for the monster to
  have “battled”. If the attack stops before damage calculation, the monster
  did not “battle”.

So, provided Michion's attack reached damage calculation without being interrupted, the effect to halve the opponent's LP will activate at the end of the Battle Phase.


In King of Tokyo, which turns does Monster Batteries' effect happen on?

It's at the start of each turn, including opponent turns (assuming the designers are consistent in their wording).
We can use the text on some other cards to work this out. First, we can look at cards that specify an action on the player's turn, which are very specific. This includes cards such as Herbivore and Metamorph (emphasis mine):

Herbivore: Gain 1[Star] on your turn if you don't damage anyone.
Metamorph: At the end of your turn you can discard any keep cards you have to receive the [Energy] they were purchased for.

We can then look at other cards that use the terminology of "each", which are abilities you would only use on an opponent's turn. Two such cards are Super Jump and Psychic Probe (emphasis mine):

Super Jump: Once each turn you may spend 1[Energy] to negate 1 damage you are receiving.
Psychic Probe: You can reroll a die of each other monster once each turn. If the reroll is [Heart] discard this card.

In the first case, you'd negate damage during an opponent's turn, and in the second you would choose to reroll a die on an opponent's turn. So the phrasing "each turn" in Monster Batteries indicates that it occurs at the beginning of each turn around the table, whether it is yours or not.


Monopoly - Community chest paying for houses

You can sell property to raise the amount that needs to be paid. The amount was 4800.

Think of it as paying in arrears


Does "cards with the same name can't be played" affect tokens?

Can I "play" a token?

No. You can still produce zombie tokens even if you are not allowed to play Zombie. "Play" has a very specific meaning in Magic:

  701.11b To play a card means to play that card as a land or to cast that card as a spell, whichever is appropriate.

When instructed to name a card, can I name a token instead?

It depends. If a token has the same name as a card, then you can name it. Here are a few examples:

Pack Rat creates tokens that are also named Pack Rat.
Meloku the Clouded Mirror creates Illusion tokens, but Illusion is also the name of a card.

Zombie is not currently the name of a card, and so Zombie is not a legal choice when instructed to name a card. However, if Zombie were printed as a card in the future, then it would be a legal choice.

  201.3. If an effect instructs a player to name a card, the player must choose the name of a card that exists in the Oracle card reference (see rule 108.1) and is legal in the format of the game the player is playing. (See rule 100.6.) If the player wants to name a split card, the player must choose the name of one of its halves, but not both. (See rule 708.) If the player wants to name a flip card’s alternative name, the player may do so. (See rule 709.) If the player wants to name the back face of a double-faced card, the player may do so. (See rule 711.) A player may not choose the name of a token unless it’s also the name of a card.


What game with symbols and dice is this?


In Bridge, What Are Some Defenses Against Squeezes?

Clyde E Love made an analysis, and in most cases decided that for a squeeze to be present (from declarer's point of view), we must have a condition called "BLUE". Of course there are other types of squeezes (see: Adventures in Cardplay by Ottlik and Kelsey) which might not fall under this, but most of them do.

BLUE is:

B : All cards in victim's hand are Busy.
L : Loser count is correct (Rectifying the count, typical one loser for most squeezes)
U : At least one threat is in the Upper hand (lies in the hand that plays after the victim)
E : The hand threat in the hand opposite the squeeze card has an Entry with it.

Defense can foil declarer by trying to disrupt any combination of the above.

Usually the defense depends on the hand, but to quote a few examples.

1) Defending by attacking "B".

Here defenders can play a threat suit repeatedly in order to nullify the threat.

Example:

        AKxx
        AK9
        AKx
        Txx

x                xxx
QJT              xxxx
xxx              xxxx
KQJxxx           Ax

        QJTxx
        xxx
        QJx
        xx

(Suit order is spades, hearts, diamonds, club from top to bottom).

South is declarer in 5 spades.

West leads the Club K which east overtakes and plays back a club. Which west wins with the J.

Now the only defense is for west to play a third club, making declarer play the T, which East can ruff. This removed the threat card: CT.

Suppose West returned a heart instead of a club.

Then declarer could win the A, draw trumps, cash the diamonds and some trumps and come to this ending:

        -
        K9
        -
        T

-                -
QJ               xx
-                x
Q                -

        x
        xx
        -
        -

Now when declarer plays the last trump from hand, West is squeezed. If he throws a club, the CT becomes good, otherwise the heart 9 becomes good.

If West returns a club a trick three, he can hold onto his hearts and throw clubs, as there are no threats there.

2) Defending by attacking "L".

Here the defenders can hold up their trick to prevent declarer from rectifying the count.

A common example which is cited for this is the following:

South is playing 6NT.

        KQJ
        AKJ
        AKQx
        Qxx
xxx           Axxx
xx            xxxxx
JT98          xx
JT98          xx
        xxx
        Qxx
        xxx
        AKxx

Say West leads a spade and East should hold up. Declarer wins and play a spade. East should hold up again. Now if declarer plays another spade, East can cash two tricks. If declarer abandons spades, no matter what he does he cannot avoid losing two tricks.

If east takes either the first or second spade, declarer's count is rectified and West gets squeezed in the minors.

3) Defending against "U".

When both defenders can protect against a suit, they could potentially discard so that "U" is destroyed.

The below example is not exactly breaking "U", but shows how correct discarding can be important in making sure the right stopper lie over declarers threats, ensuring there is no victim!

       xxx
       Axx
       Kx
       9xxxx

xxx              x
87x              QJT9x
87xx             QJ9x
QJx              Txx

      AKQJxx
      Kx
      ATx
      AK

Playing Matchpoints, South the declarer chooses to bid 7NT (grand slam in NT), instead of the cold grand slam of 7S.

West leads the Diamond 8. Declarer wins the K in dummy and plays another D to hand, East playing the J, showing the Q, but denying the T.

Now South cashes the club AK and starts playing spades. On the second and third round of spades, East throws the HQ and the H9, showing that he has the JT.

West knows that if he throws a heart on the spade, then East will come under pressure, as he will then have to protect both diamonds and hearts.

So West holds onto the hearts (throwing 2 diamonds on the 4th and 5th spade, and the club Q on the last spade).

East throws away all those hearts, and holds onto the DQ and the CT.

So West protects hearts, and East protects Diamonds and clubs.

(Note: there might be a better play for declarer, but this hand is there only as an example of how the right discarding can prevent squeezes on the defense).

4) Defending againt "E".

This is considered the most difficult squeeze defense. Trying to attack declarer's timing, sometimes by knocking out the entries required.

Here is an example:

         AQxxxx
         x
         xxx
         xxx

KJT9x               x
xx                  xxxx
QJx                 xxxx
QJx                 ATxx
         x
         AKQJT9
         AKT
         Kxx

You are East. Declarer overbids to a small slam in hearts, after partner overcalled 1S.
Partner leads the CQ.

You play too quickly without thinking to trick one and win the A of clubs (if you duck, you might be effecting a defense against "L"). But all is not lost.

You can still beat the contract, if you return a spade! right into dummy's AQ.

If you return anything else, partner will be squeezed in spades and diamonds.

Declarer can reach this end position:

         AQx
         -

         x

KJT                x
-                  -
Q                  xx
-                  x
         x
         9
         T
         x

Now when declarers plays the H9 (and will throw a club from dummy), west is squeezed. If he throws a spade, dummy becomes good. If not, the DT becomes good.

Playing a spade knocks out the entry to dummy and breaks up the squeeze, letting partner throw spades, and hold onto the diamond.


Merciless Eviction, how far does all go?

No.
Unless the rules text specifically mentions cards in another zone, only permanents (cards on the battlefield and tokens) are affected by spells and effects.
Rule reference:

109.2. If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn't include the word "card," "spell," "source," or "scheme," it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.


Yes, Blood Operative's ability will trigger if you put it into your graveyard as the result of a surveil action. The L3 judge who runs the Ask a Magic Judge tumblr blog explains it better than I can:

  Triggered abilities that look for a specific action to happen trigger after that thing has happened. (They can’t trigger before since it hasn’t happened yet.) Normally, the thing that’s happening is relatively instantaneous, such as entering the battlefield or dying, but this also holds true for events that take more time, such as scrying or surveiling. This means that triggers like Blood Operative’s that trigger when you surveil won’t trigger until the surveil action is complete, but more importantly the game won’t check to see which cards that have relevant triggers will trigger until after the event as well.

The specific rule they are referring to is 603.10:

  Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions, and continuous effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like. However, some triggered abilities are exceptions to this rule... [none of those exceptions apply]


In Axis and Allies, When (and How) Would You Adjust Your Opening Strategy?

As Germany, my preference is to invade (UK's) soft African "underbelly" first, then take on Russia second. But if Russia gets aggressive and possibly overextends herself with a first turn attack, I'd go after Russia first. (I would not play allowing a Russian first turn attack unless I got some compensation under house rules.) Can We Find a Middle Ground on the Russia First Turn Attack Rule In Allies and Axis?   In Axis and Allies, could a house rule upgrading the German navy finally "balance" the 1942 game?

Basically, I'm "renting" Africa for an attack on Russia, but my real object is the latter. Russia has 24 of the 27 IPCs needed for an economic victory. Sacrifice my two African IPCs, and the bar rises to 29. Japan has probably captured China and Sinkiang for 4 IPCs, which, added to Russia, is 28. ANYTHING else gives us victory.

As the UK, it would largely depend on what my ALLIES wanted to do. In descending order of preference, the strategies are 1) a North Atlantic "shuck, shuck," (withe U.S.) 2) a rescue Africa strategy, if Germany concentrates on building naval power instead of occupying Africa and 3) a Far Eastern strategy beginning with a "Kwabang" attack, but only if Russia and the U.S will back me up.

As Japan, I really want to head west. In the Pacific, I may make a spoiling attack against Pearl Harbor, but that's all. My preference is to fight the UK (India, Australia, and later Africa). But if Russia gets aggressive, or Germany prefers this, I will go against Russia (reluctantly), instead.

As the US, again my preferences would depend my allies, and my choices (in order of preference) are similar to the U.K.'s

As Russia, I prefer a Germany-first defensive strategy. If allowed, my preference is for a live and let live policy vis-a-vis Japan.


How could I prototype a board game with a variety of units using abstract icons?

Rather than using story cubes (which as noted are probably going to run you a fair chunk in bulk and aren't necessarily customizable), you might be better off just picking up some blank wooden cubes such as the ones found here or here.

Probably a lot cheaper, and you can put whatever you'd like on them instead of having to settle for what's on the story cubes. You could also have some stickers printed, for example at Game Crafter you can upload designs and have them printed onto half-inch stickers: see here.

Note that I personally have not used Game Crafter's stickers so I can't vouch for the quality, but I've gotten the cubes from Amazon before and they are pretty nice.


Where can I find D4 dice that are truncated tetrahedrons?

Pick up a bag of Chessex Blank d4s. (It's product number CHX29301, ask your Favorite Local Game Store). Grab a Dremel or Power Sander and take off the points. Then sharpie (or carve) the numbers in by hand. That's going to be your cheap route, unless someone decides to kickstart a project like this. Certainly cheaper than buying 3d printed versions.


Can Dead Weight be sacrificed after it kills a creature?

No. Once a player would get priority, if Dead Weight reduces the toughness of the creature to a value less than 0, or if the damage marked on the creature is equal to or greater than its (new) toughness, State Based Actions will cause the creature to go to the graveyard.

When the creature goes to the graveyard, Dead Weight will follow since it is no longer attached to an object or player.


Are there any differences between the Ticket to Ride games I should take into account when choosing one?

The original and Europe versions differ HUGELY, it's not just a different board.

The US version is the simplest formulation of the game.  It accommodates up to 5 players, I believe, and it'd be a great one to play with non-boardgame-obsessed family members, including the old and the young.  It's still got a great deal of strategy and depth to it once you know where to look, but it won't turn off anyone who can handle Monopoly, Scrabble or Risk.  (The 1910 expansion adds less unwieldy cards and a few new variants, but keeps things maximally simple and elegant.)

The Europe version is also good for large groups but takes the complexity level up a notch.  Now you have to deal with concepts such as tunnels, ferries and stations, which severely alter the dynamics of collecting cards and claiming routes.  It's a more gamer-y Ticket to Ride which I would probably recommended over the US version to anyone who plays with mostly hardened gamers.  The 1912 expansion offers variants at a similar complexity level.

I haven't played the Marklin (German) edition but I believe it's got extra twists over the US version that probably put it on about a par with the European set.

I have played with the Nordic Countries edition and it's my personal favourite.  The caveat here is: it's only for 2 or 3 players, so don't get it if you need to regularly cater to a larger group!  It is even more complex than Europe, with a lot of exceptions to the normal rules that are pretty hard to grasp on the first play - but it's perfectly balanced and my wife and I come back to it again and again.  The Switzerland game is another 2-3 player outing, and again I haven't actually played this one, but most of what I've seen written about it suggests that most people prefer Nordic Countries.

Hope this helps!


Is it possible to pick a vehicle as your commander?

Nope, it can't be used as a commander. And for the record, most planeswalker can't be used either; only those who explicitly state that they can. It's stated that way in the Comprehensive Rules:

  903.3. Each deck has a legendary creature card designated as its commander. This designation is not a characteristic of the object represented by the card; rather, it is an attribute of the card itself. The card retains this designation even when it changes zones.
  Example: A commander that’s been turned face down (due to Ixidron’s effect, for example) is still a commander. A commander that’s copying another card (due to Cytoshape’s effect, for example) is still a commander. A permanent that’s copying a commander (such as a Body Double, for example, copying a commander in a player’s graveyard) is not a commander.

  903.3a Some planeswalker cards have an ability that states the card can be your commander. This ability modifies the rules for deck construction, and it functions before the game begins. See also rule 113.6m.

Of course, Commander is a casual format, so if your playgroup likes your idea of a Parhelion II Commander deck, they might allow it as a house rule.


How do two copies of Irencrag Feat interact?

You cannot cast another spell after casting the second Irencrag Feat
While I don't think the Golden Rule quoted by Arcanist Lupus in his answer necessarily applies here, simple logic will get you there:

You cast the first copy, which creates a condition "Condition A" that says you can only cast one more spell this turn
Trying to cast the second copy, you need to check existing conditions, namely "Condition A". Since you haven't cast another spell this turn, you cast the second copy, which creates a condition "Condition B" that says you can only cast one more spell this turn
Trying to cast another spell, you need to check existing conditions, namely "Condition A" and "Condition B". You haven't cast another spell since "Condition B" has been established, but you have cast another spell since "Condition A" has. This means that casting another spell would necessarily violate "Condition A", so you won't get to cast another spell this turn.

Keep in mind that cards like this will usually receive rulings upon or close to their release for clarification.


You may add this card to your spell face up. It counts as a Wild Magic card but is not discarded.

1. Everyone with whom I've played has intuitively understood it's added add the same time as the other parts. It should be part of the spell on reveal.

  3 damage, and 1 damage to each player adjacent to that foe.

1. There's no reason to believe the caster can't be damaged by this spell. This is hardly the only spell with a drawback.

  If you played a Wild Magic card as part of your spell, gain a treasure.

1. Standard board game language. It's not "For each Wild Magic played card as part of your spell, gain a treasure."


How to give checkmate in the game of xiangqi?

The best pieces for giving checkmate are the chariots and cannon that move in straight lines and at long range. Horses can be used, but only at close range, which is to say that they are vulnerable to counterattack by the guards and elephants. It's helpful to realize that the two leaders are limited to nine points of their "headquarters."

The "textbook" method of checkmate is the double cannon attack. If you manage to get both cannons on the vertical line in front of the enemy leader with the other soldiers removed, and the other pieces in their original position, the leader can't move sideways because he is surrounded by the guards. The "back" cannon fires over the forward cannon at the leader, and the leader can't block it with a guard or elephant, because then the forward cannon will fire over it.

Another thing you need to know is that the two leaders can't be on the same vertical line with no pieces between them. So you might use a chariot to drive the other leader to one side, while your own leader controls the central file (after the soldiers have been exchanged), and then movie the chariot to check and checkmate the leader on one of the side files of the two headquarters.


Sample Wares Intrigue Card Disambiguation

This has been answered by designer Rodney Thompson on BGG here

You gain the primary benefit of the action, not the owner's benefit. The part about "as if you controlled" the building is simply there to dispel any questions about where the owner benefit goes. Just like when you assign an agent to a building you control, you gain only the primary benefit, not the secondary benefit.
However! If you are playing with the Undermountain expansion and have completed the plot quest Impersonate Tax Collector, you would gain both the primary benefit and the owner benefit.


Combined Catan player+player+bank transactions

No, this is not legal as written. This is really a series of three separate trades (one of them being with the bank), and two of them are giving a resource for free, which is forbidden by the rules.

The problem is that a trade can only involve 2 people, so a "triangular trade" must be done as separate trades. From the FAQ:

  Trade - Is a “triangular trade” permitted? On player A’s turn, are player B and player C allowed to trade with each other if afterwards one of them uses the obtained resource for trading with player A?

    No. Not only is a triangular trade forbidden, it is also unnecessary, because player B and player C each trades individually with player A and, thus, may trade whatever resource he has – provided that it meets the requirements of player A.

And:

  Trade - May I give away resources or buy services with them, for example, to avoid being bothered by the robber?

    No. On Catan, a trade always involves giving and taking resources. Consequently, Catan’s trade law does not contain a “trade” of something for nothing or for immaterial goods such as services.

If they really want to do this, and they trust each other, they can do the following trades:

A gives 3 wheat and gets 1 ore
B gives 4 wheat and gets 1 ore
A trades 4 wheat to the bank for 1 brick
A gives 1 brick and gets 1 ore

Those are 4 separate, legal trades that have the same result. But there's nothing stopping either player from choosing to stop after any given step; though doing so will hurt their chances of being trusted in future trades and even future games.


In Pandemic, at the end of your turn can you discard even when you have fewer than 7 cards, so the Archivist can pick up that card on his next turn?

No, discarding is not one of your choices of actions, and the discarding to hand limit is very specifically only for when you have too many cards.

If you want to discard a specific card like this, your best available option is to use it for an action: fly to that city, fly from that city to anywhere, or build a research station.


In a single-avatar game, what do the other main characters do?

From your description, you used the Avatars correctly.

At the outset of your solo game, the Avatars really only determining what crew member you are playing and what crew members will be available on the bridge. Those four crew members will define what strategies you'll use throughout the game.

As far as the other four main character Avatars that aren't you, their purpose is really only to take crew member specific strikes (defined on page 14 of the rulebook). Other than that, once you've set up the game, their impact on gameplay is very minimal.


Can I counter a spell that can't be countered?

No, you cannot counter Dragonlord Dromoka with Voidmage Apprentice.

Dromoka cannot be countered at all, it doesn't matter what is trying to counter it.

Also "When ~ is turned face up, ..." is a triggered ability. So flipping a card face up is a special action that doesn't use the stack, and once the card is face up its ability triggers and is put on the stack.

If instead you were trying to counter something like Abrupt Decay that "can't be countered by spells or abilities." you still couldn't counter it because you would still be using an ability to try and counter it. The "by spells or abilities" rider is there on spells with targets so that if a spell has no legal targets it can still be countered by the game rules.


Case 1: No, you must stop movement upon entering a room.

  Rules for Moving - If you enter a Room, STOP MOVING.

Case 2: Yes, the pool is a room. Someone contacted the designer, Rob Daviau, and he confirmed this. He also notes that using this power only happens during the move phase instead of rolling. (I.e. You cannot start a rumor in another room, then warp to the Pool to make an accusation.)

  Q. The Pool (1) Is the pool a room?

  A: Yes.

  Q: (2) Can this be used as a kind of "fast effect" anytime during her turn, or is it only applicable during her "move phase"?

  A: Only on her move phase, instead of rolling.

Case 3: The patio has 4 entrances. They start at the white steps which connect to the house and descend to ground level. No doors are printed on the board for this room, unlike older editions of Clue that actually write "DOOR" directly on the board. The Patio is based on the older edition's Ballroom and has a similar floor-plan. (The whole house does actually, albeit rotated 90 degrees in the linked image)


Black card ability - all players exile a creature - does it work on the one with protection from black

Yes, it does. Your card does not target the creature, so its protection ability does not help here.
Remember that protection can be summarized with the mnemonic acronym DEBT:

The object with protection cannot be:

Damaged by sources with the specified quality. (All such damage is prevented.)
Enchanted or equipped by permanents with the specified quality.
Blocked by creatures with the specified quality.
Targeted by spells with the specified quality, or by abilities from sources of that quality.

Your card might target the player but it'll never target the creature directly.


Minimum score for 7 letters and what beats it

The minimum score for a seven letter word if you can place the word anywhere is 55.

e.g.

  RETiNAs C2 across. (lower case indicate blanks)

The score is 5 for RETNA, 0 for the blanks, and 50 bonus for using all 7 letters. The word would lie on a TL square, but since this is covered by a blank, it gives no bonus since 3x0 = 0.

This could be beaten by a three-letter word e.g.

  ZAX A1 across

The score is 19 x 3 = 57. I can't think of any common three letter word that would fit here, but ZAX is valid in both TWL and SOWPODS dictionaries. For common words, I suspect you'd have to go to four letters and something like QUIZ.

The largest possible score for a two-letter word, before bonus squares, is 11 (QI, ZA or ZO), so you couldn't get higher than 33.

While these match the criteria in your question, they could never occur in isolation in a real game since they would either have to be opening moves across the central DW square, or joined onto existing words.


When a Phantom Knight's Trap is Special Summoned back as a monster, and then is sent to the GY, is it still treated as a monster?

From: Trap Monster - Fandom.com

...and can in some cases be used offensively as well. Also, because they don't count as monsters while in a player's Deck or Graveyard, some effects might work on them as a Trap Card- ...

A trap monster is only treated as a monster whilst it occupys a monster zone. When it's sent to the graveyard it is reverted back to being treated as a trap.


Chance Encounter/As Luck Would Have It and reflips/rerolls

As Luck Would Have It works fully with rerolls.
Chance Encounter doesn't work with reflips.
The entire game only sees one result from any kind of Krarkish prestidigitation.

Mark Rosewater (the Un-Rules Manager) rules on Goblin Bookie/ALWHI in this blog post:

mikedoesstories asked: If I use Goblin Bookie to reroll a die, do both die rolls count for As Luck Would Have It or just the rerolled die?
Both rolls count.

MaRo later clarifies that it's based on whether the dice roll would trigger this ability regardless of the outcome (posted here):

tarectarec asked: In your FAQ you said that As Luck Would Have It would get counters from the original dice in case of a reroll. But would Chittering Doom give me a squirrel token if I rolled a 6 but then decided to reroll it (Rolling a 1 this time for example)?
No. Counting die rolls is different than triggering things based upon on a particular outcome.

This wouldn't work with Krark's Other Thumb since you're specifically instructed to ignore one of the rolls (as far as the rest of the game is concerned, it never happened). For the same reason, Krark's Thumb won't work with Chance Encounter.

By following this logic in the second case, we can see that a reroll can't trigger Chance Encounter twice because Chance Encounter only triggers on a particular outcome (rather than the flip itself), and there's only one outcome.
Note that we're safe following un-logic in this case, as reflips and rerolls can currently only exist in silver-border.


The following website gives the list of cards for the american versions.
List of Chance and Community Chest cards
If you are playing a version for another country, e.g. U.K. or Australia, the cards will differ. Also, tournaments must use officially licensed Hasbro Monopoly games.
For more details, there is a Wiki How to host an official Monopoly tourment:
Wiki How to host a Monopoly tournement


That's right, you cannot use your opponent's sequence space.

But what it also mean is that a player/team can use a chip (of their own) already in play as part of a SEQUENCE, to complete another SEQUENCE. So if you e.g. have a horizontal SEQUENCE you can use any of these chips to complete e.g. a vertical SEQUENCE.

So no one can place a chip on top of another chip that has already been placed on the board.

  Set-Up
  ... Once a marker chip has been played, it cannot be removed by an opponent except when using a one-eyed Jack as explained below...

And by the normal rules you cannot remove chips from a already completed SEQUENCE.

  The Jacks
  ... You cannot remove a marker chip that is already part of a completed SEQUENCE.
  Once a SEQUENCE is achieved by a player or a team, it cannot be broken...

SEQUENCE Rules


What if a player forgot to take the noble tile?

Taking a noble is not optional, so the player who actually earned it first should get the noble as soon as it's discovered that he should have gotten it. By continuing to the next player without giving the noble to the person who earned it, an illegal mistake has been made, and if an illegal mistake can be easily fixed, then it should be.

Rules quote:

  It is impossible to refuse the visit from a noble, which is not considered to be an action.


How do two Doubling Seasons affect each other?

Four tokens will enter the battlefield. This is actually spelled out in a Ruling on Doubling Season:

  10/1/2005: If there are two Doubling Seasons on the battlefield, then the number of tokens or counters is four times the original number. If there are three on the battlefield, then the number of tokens or counters is eight times the original number, and so on.

For reference, the token ability says:

  If an effect would put one or more tokens onto the battlefield under your control, it puts twice that many of those tokens onto the battlefield instead.

This is a replacement effect, so rather than merely responding to the effect that places a 1/1 creature token onto the battlefield (and adding one more), it completely replaces that effect with a new one that places twice as many tokens onto the battlefield. So it works out like this:

The first Doubling Season will replace the original effect, which places 1 token, with one that places 2 tokens instead.
The second Doubling Season will then replace that effect with one that places 4 tokens.
When your effect finally puts tokens on the battlefield, you get 4 1/1 tokens.


In a nice spades strategy guide (written by Buckey) the situations to lead spades are the following:

Your partner has their bid or you can cover their bid.
You know your partner bid high spades. Not leading spades might just give your
opponents a chance to set you by trumping with lower spades.
Either one or both of your opponents are void in any non-spade suit you could lead.
If you're trying to slough and have nothing better to slough in.
One way you can set your opponent is if you are two suited (spades being one of the
suits.) You can run spades and make your other suit good. (be very careful that you do
not set yourself by setting your partners bid in the process).
If your partner first led spades and is going for a set.
When trying to set a nil.


What is the best version of Settlers of Catan for a group of people who have never played before?

The original set will do just fine; it comes with a pre-arranged layout for new players who'd rather not deal with the randomness. If your family has more than four people, you'll also want the 5-6 Player Expansion to expand the board.


In Scrabble, how to determine the main word if the player has just played one single tile but formed two different words?

Main words are not a concept of the game of Scrabble itself, only of the written Scrabble notation commonly used to record tournament games (and likely also found in some computerised versions of the game), although it has since been incorporated into some rule sets that also outline the notation system.

Since the notation system is used simply to track moves, it doesn't matter which combination in your example would be chosen as the main word - both words still score the same within the game, and the notated move would still create the same two words on the board if the game were to be replayed.

As such it doesn't matter if the main word is selected randomly, always horizontal, always vertical, alphabetically, or otherwise.


How do I mitigate 'alpha playing' in Pandemic?

Of course this can happen, but the expectation is that all the players help contribute to finding solutions to the current problems.  While you might see one path, someone else might see another, that happens to be better.  Having multiple people working on the same problem from different perspectives generally provides better results.  Kind of like crowd sourcing.

I tend to like games where I win or lose entirely by my performance, but I play games with people that like cooperative games like pandemic and Legendary. When we win it usually takes all of us thinking through the possible scenarios and agreeing on a course of action.

In your situation, if you tend to be the direction of all the movements, then I would suggest people don't share their cards by default, giving them an angle to make suggestions from.


Is rent owed when landing on a property because of a card rather than a dice roll?

The property can be bought (or auctioned) if it's unowned, and rent is owed to its owner otherwise.

The card in your example doesn't exist as a Community Chest card. There is such a Chance card. It's exact text is

Advance token to the nearest Railroad and pay owner twice the rental to which he/she is otherwise entitled.
If Railroad is unowned, you may buy it from the Bank.

So, for that card, not only do you have to pay the fee, it's twice what it normally is!

Now, there are a number of other Chance cards that don't explicitly state that rent is entitled.
For example,

Advance to Illinois Ave
If you pass Go, collect $200

But as you may have noted, the first card quoted above said the rental fee was twice that "otherwise entitled". That means the owner of the space to which the Chance card moves you is normally entitled to rent.
Landing on a space because of a Chance card moved you there is no different than landing on a space as a result of rolling the dice. Rent is owed if the property is owned, or the property can be bought (or auctioned) if it's not.


The definitive answer was given on BoardGameGeek by Hanno Girke (editor of the rules).

The Pilgrim has priority.
The Pine Forest just states a standard rule, it doesn't create a new rule.
Therefore, as soon as you play Pilgrim, you override this rule.

There is some background at play-agricola.com, where the Gamer's Deck was designed.
As noted by Hanno, the standard rule is on the Pine Forest.  You may not give goods from your supply to the general supply.


The general rules for mana costs are to order them in sequence around the WUBRG circle, with white also following after green, with adjacent pairs having equal gaps in the clockwise direction, and minimizing the size of those gaps.
For two-color cards, this means that you order the pair so that you move the shortest distance in the clockwise order. So, white and blue will be WU, and white and green will be GW.
Four-color cards are also pretty simple, you write them going clockwise around the circle with no gaps. So a non-black card will have the order RGWU.
Five color cards are the simplest of all: they always have the order WUBRG.
Three-color combinations are the most complicated. There are two kinds of three-color combinations: shards and wedges. Shards are combinations with three adjacent colors, and they are just written with the colors adjacent in clockwise order. So, a white/blue/black card will have the order WUB, and a white/blue/green card will have the order GWU. Wedges are combinations with two adjacent colors and one opposite both of them. They are written with the two adjacent colors on the outside, and the opposing color in the middle. This creates a gap of size 2 between each adjacent pair of colors in the cost.
The cards in the question are examples of wedges: blue and white are the adjacent colors, and red is the opposing color. The order you see is the one that obeys the listed rules. The previous rule, as you can see on Ruhan of the Fomori, was to put the opposing color first.
According to this reddit thread, the color order for wedges was changed in Khans of Tarkir, the set Flying Crane Technique was printed in, and it has not changed again since then.


Are basic lands legal in every format by definition?

Basic lands are only legal in a format if they were printed in a set that is legal in that format.
The formats are defined in the Tournament Rules, not the Comprehensive rules, and that is where deck legality for each format is defined, specifically in section 6.
The rules do not explicitly say that basic lands are allowed, rather they say what sets are legal for each format, and what cards are banned. As you mention, every one of Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest have been printed in every set, so they are therefore legal in every format. Any other basic land is only legal if a set in which they were printed is legal.
The Standard deck construction rules in particular say

When Snow-Covered Lands are not legal in Standard, they are treated as the equivalent basic lands. Players must replace them when discovered, but no infraction is committed.


Can I use more than one option card at a time?

Yes, as long as they don't conflict. (For example, you couldn't use the Mini Howitzer and the Tractor Beam at the same time.) There's nothing in the rules that says otherwise. There are a few places that do mention having more than one option card; surely they'd have mentioned if you couldn't actually use both.


Can Slifer be summoned using Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon's effect?

Okay, I think I've worked out what's going on here.  The link to Original Slifer that you kindly provided for me shows the original, illegal version of the card.  There is a second link, from that page, to the legal Slifer version.  You will see that the second Slifer does not have any ruling declaring the card to be of Dragon Type.

Why does the illegal Slifer have a ruling indicating that it is a dragon?  Well, it took a little bit of detective work but I quote from that page:

  This card's written lore in the anime and manga was never shown fully
  or directly; the lore listed here is a reconstruction based on how it
  was used and may not be accurate or complete.

What is this talking about?  Well, at some point in the anime an interaction between Slifer and other "cards" occurred that would not have been able to happen if Slifer had not been of Dragon type (I believe I actually found what this was earlier today, but have lost it again: I'll edit it in if I track it down).  Seemingly, then, in the anime at least Slifer is of "Divine-Dragon" type.

In tournaments I would guess that Slifer is categorically only a Divine-Beast, and not a dragon, and does not combo with Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.  You say you're not especially interested in tournament restrictions and the latest rulings though - so if you wanted to make a house rule that yes, of course "Slifer the Sky Dragon" is a dragon, then there's nothing stopping you.  That interpretation was good enough for the anime so there's no reason it shouldn't be good enough for you.  If you go down that route I would treat Slifer as having "Divine-Dragon" on its type line for all purposes, so it would still be a Dragon in the graveyard too.  Hope that helps!


A question about Mana Abilities and Activated abilities, then a question about a combo

Yes, this is all essentially correct.

First, the format of activated abilities is defined in rule 602.1:

  Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as “[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).]”

Then rule 501 and its subrules describe what counts as mana abilites:

  605.1. Some activated abilities and some triggered abilities are mana abilities, which are subject to special rules. Only abilities that meet either of the following two sets of criteria are mana abilities, regardless of what other effects they may generate or what timing restrictions (such as “Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant”) they may have.

  605.1a An activated ability is a mana ability if it meets all of the following criteria: it doesn’t require a target (see rule 115.6), it could add mana to a player’s mana pool when it resolves, and it’s not a loyalty ability. (See rule 606, “Loyalty Abilities.”)
  605.1b A triggered ability is a mana ability if it meets all of the following criteria: it doesn’t require a target (see rule 115.6), it triggers from the resolution of an activated mana ability (see rule 605.1a) or from mana being added to a player’s mana pool, and it could add mana to a player’s mana pool when it resolves.

Mana abilities can be either activated abilities or triggered abilities that trigger from the activation of activated mana abilities. The activated mana abilities are like other activated abilities in most ways, and there is no reason that Karn's ability would not affect them. So you are correct,  Karn, the Great Creator and Mycosynth Lattice together prevent your opponents from activating any mana abilities.


Ochran Assassin vs simultaneous First Strike and Non-First Strike blockers

Yes, the assassin will die and both blockers will be fine.

Creatures with First Stike deal their combat damage before creatures without it do. These are 2 separate combat damage steps, with priority given and state-based actions checked between each. The assassin will have taken lethal damage and be sent to the graveyard before it ever would deal damage. Deathtouch doesn’t come into play.

  702.7b If at least one attacking or blocking creature has first strike or double strike (see rule 702.4) as the combat damage step begins, the only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are those with first strike or double strike. After that step, instead of proceeding to the end of combat step, the phase gets a second combat damage step. The only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are the remaining attackers and blockers that had neither first strike nor double strike as the first combat damage step began, as well as the remaining attackers and blockers that currently have double strike. After that step, the phase proceeds to the end of combat step.

Note that this would work differently if instead of Deathtouch, it were an ability like Engulfing Slagwurm has, which destroys the blocking creature when it blocks; as opposed to waiting until combat damage.


Yes, you are right: the rules say

  400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are nine exceptions to this rule:

But being transformed or not is not listed among the exceptions.

So in exile it's no longer transformed, and it will return to the battlefield as a creature, as that is the 'normal' way for this object to enter the battlefield:

  711.8. A double-faced card enters the battlefield with its front face up by default. If a spell or ability puts it onto the battlefield “transformed,” it enters the battlefield with its back face up.


If condition cards run out, do investigators not gain the condition?

If condition cards run out, investigators do not gain the condition.

  An investigator can gain a card or token only if it is available.

Source: Reference Guide, "Component Limitations" (page 3)

The Epidemic Prelude's "gains 1 Illness Condition and 1 Clue" is an identical situation as "recover 1 Health and 1 Sanity" or "discard 1 Item and 1 Trinket".
These loses/gains aren't dependent on each other, those are just lists.
If you can't do everything from the list you do as much as you can.
Not recovering health doesn't prevent you from recovering sanity.
Not losing a Trinket doesn't prevent you from losing the item.
Not gaining Illness doesn't prevent you from gaining a clue.


Do you have to play a (replaced) joker immediately with 2 tiles from your hand?

According to the official rules, your house rule (which I also used to play) IS currently official:

  Once a player replaces a joker, they must use it in the same turn as part of a set.

Although it specifically contradicts your other house rule about manipulating sets containing  a Joker:

  Sets containing jokers can be split and manipulated like regular sets.

FWIW, I used to play that Jokers didn't have to be replayed in NEW sets, but could alternatively be played in existing sets (e.g. I replace a Joker, and then add it to a 6-7-8 run as a 5 to allow me to play a 4). I infer from your question that your house rules require Jokers be replayed into new sets, but I may be misunderstanding your explanation.

Source: http://www.rummikub.com/info/Rules.aspx


What is the name of this red creature card

The card you are looking for is Norin the Wary. I found this by searching on magiccards.info for

  c!r t:creature o:"Exile ~" o:return

This searches for a mono-red (c!r) creature (t:creature) that has in its text "Exile [this creature]" and "return [to the battlefield]". That resulted in only two cards, and only one triggered on casting a spell.


Go: How to count territory in this example?

The white stones in the lower left are dead, the black ones in the lower right and the one stone in the upper right are dead.

Using Chinese scoring (stones on the board plus territory,) black wins 95 (59 stones + 36 territory) to 78.5 (49 stones + 23 territory) + 6.5 (komi).

To use Japanese scoring, we'd have to know how many stones were captured during the game, but we can guess based on what is on the board. Black has 64 stones on the board and white only has 57, so presumably black captured 7 or 8 stones during the game? That would mean that black has a score of 36 (territory) + 7 or 8 (captured) + 8 (dead on board) = 51 or 52. White has 23 (territory) + 5 (dead on board) + 6.5 (komi) = 34.5.

Either way, black won by at least 16.5 points.

Another note regarding the two blue spaces. They are neutral and don't count for either side in either scoring system. If you had been using Chinese scoring, then the players would want to fill them for extra point. It is likely that each player would get one of the spaces and therefore the relative score would be unchanged.


Why is 'equity' much more commonly used than 'winning probability'? What is the mathematical formula that links 'equity" and 'winning probability'?

The reason that equity is used instead of winning probability is because it is possible to win a single game, a double game (gammon) or triple game (backgammon).

Let's say that the value of the game, or bet, is $1. (That would occur if the cube is in the middle. If it has been turned, you multiply by 2, 4, or whatever the number is on the cube.)

Let's further say that White is Playing red, they are both "bearing off," but White is ahead. White has a 55% chance of winning, and Red has a 45% chance of winning. Then White's equity in that $1 bet is .55*$1 or 55 cents, while Red's equity is .45*$1 or 45 cents.

Assume a second situation. White has a good "back game" against Red, who has started bearing off. White's chances of winning are still 55%, and Red's is 45%, but Red will probably score a gammon if White doesn't hit him before Red starts bearing off (that is 45%). For now, let's ignore the possibilities that Red will score a backgammon (a triple game) and that Red will win a single game, and assume that he gets a double game, if he doesn't get hit.

White's equity is .55*$1, or 55 cents. But because Red can win a double game, his equity is .45*$2, or 90 cents because of the gammon possibility. In this example, Red has more equity, even thought White has the higher win probability.

For a mathematica formula, let's say your chances of winning a single, double, and triple game are a, b and c, respectively. Your win probability is just a+b+c. But your equity is a*$1+b*$2+c*$3. The gammon and backgammon possibilities double and triple the value of your probabilities, b and c.

To address a comment below, in the examples above, I quoted "gross" equity. It is normally calculated as "net" equity. So if White's equity from winning a simple game were 55 cents, and Red's chances of winning a simple game were 45 cents, White's "net" equity would be 55 cents-50 cents (his share of the $1 bet), or 5 cents, and Red's "net" equity would be 45 cents- 50 cents or negative 5 cents.


Travel Editions

There are travel editions of some very good boardgames that are specifically designed to have more durable board states than the standard games. For example...

Settlers of Catan plays 3 or 4
Ingenious plays 2

I've played the Ticket to Ride Card Game on a train - I think you could probably manage it outdoors, if you had a card table or something. A bungee cord strapped across each face of the tabletop could help everyone secure their cards and could be used to secure boards for games that have pieces substantial enough to survive some breezes.

I'm not sure if it's a "Eurogame", but Abalone is an abstract with substantial, heavy pieces. At least, my '80s vintage edition is.

Dice games might be a good choice. Zombie Dice would be a great choice for a quick game outside, especially after a few beers have dulled everyone's strategic minds a bit. But Roll Through the Ages is an excellent game by any standard! I've only played the iPhone implementation, but game state is maintained with pegs, not pieces, so it should naturally be wind-resistant:


Magic Sword: Peaceful Variation or is Punishment Possible?


Does Ashiok, Nightmare Muse's ult allow affected adventure cards to be cast as adventures?

That ability on Ashiok allows you to cast the Adventure part of the card from exile.

When a card that is cast as an Adventure resolves and is exiled, it creates a continuous effect that allows you to cast the creature part, and only the creature part, from exile. This is what it means when it says that "it can't be cast as an Adventure this way".

Ashiok ability creates a separate effect that allows you to cast that same card. That effect has no restrictions on what types of spells it can cast, so it can cast either the Adventure part or the creature part of that card from exile.


Can a creature with Hexproof be affected by a spell like Sleep?

Yes, Emrakul will be tapped.

Hexproof prevents a creature from being targeted by an opponent.  Targeting is a very specific action in Magic, and only happens in three cases:

A spell or ability has the word "target" in its text.
A keyword ability defined in terms of an ability that has the word "target" in its text. (e.g. Equip)
You are casting an Aura Enchantment.

In either of those cases, you cannot choose your opponent's hexproof creature as the target.  But any effect that does not target will affect the hexproof creature just like it would any other creature.

Sleep does not target a creature, only a player, so it will affect Emrakul.


Variations in scoring "his nobs" and "his heels"

This is not a common variation that I have heard of, and research on multiple cribbage sources seems to agree that Knobs (starter hand jacks) are always 1 point and heels (or flipped/dealer jacks) are 2 points.

This may very well be a case of a small player group misunderstanding or altering the rules. Rules for games like cribbage can often be changed in the same way that playing a game of "telephone" or telling a story by word-of mouth can change the original wording in subtle or not-so-subtle ways.


When should I make an accusation in Clue?

I don't think your general guideline of 50% certain is accurate. When you make an accusation is more dependent upon how much your opponents know, and how likely you are going to be able to make another useful suspicion before the end of the game. BTW, there aren't that may possibilities for certainty at which you would make an accusation:

100% - Deduced all cards
50% - Know all cards except 2 of one type.
33% - Know all cards except 3 of one type.
25% - Know all cards except 2 of one type, and 2 of another (or 4 of one type).
16.7% - Know all cards except 3 of one type, and 2 of another (or 5 of one type).
... doubtful you would make an accusation at this point.

I have played quite a few games, and I am pretty sure that in most of them, a player that won made an accusation before they where 100% sure. It is very difficult to be so far ahead that only you know will be 100% sure before everyone else knows enough information to be 100% themselves, or close enough that they shouldn't risk a guess before you get your next turn. I will give some concrete examples below for illustration (when I can think of them).
How can I tell if other players are close to making an accusation?
There are multiple ways to determine what your opponents know (or should know).

A suspicion does not get disproved. If a suspicion goes all the way around the table, there are only two possibilities. The player making the suspicion has none of those cards in their hand, in which case that player is 100% sure and should make an immediate accusation and win the game. The player player making the suspicion has one or more of those cards in hand.

A suspicion for a particular Suspect, Weapon, or Room is not disproved by a player that previously disproved a suspicion with that element.

Imagine that you suspect: Col. Mustard, with the Candlestick, in the Billiard Room, and Player A immediately to your left disproved them.
At a later point, you suspect: Col. Mustard, with the Candlestick, in the Conservatory, and Player A cannot disprove them.

Your opponents should know, even without seeing Player A's cards that Player A has Billiard Room in their hand (and doesn't have Col. Mustard or Candlestick).

A player continually uses the same Suspect, Weapon, or Room. While this cannot be directly deduced from the process of elimination as in the above examples, it is highly likely that the player that is continually reusing the same Suspect, Weapon, or Room is their suspicions because, they are trying to make a suspicion that will go all the way around that will tell them with certainty one or more of the elements that they don't know. You know that either: 1) They have that card (or multiple cards) that they keep reusing, or  2) They don't have any cards of that type (Suspect, Weapon, or Room), and are using the card in the envelope because they have no choice.

I wish I could provide some concrete examples to illustrate when you might venture a guess at 50%, 33%, ..., but it has been ages since I played a game of Clue. It is difficult to envision a situation that doesn't sound contrived without playing a real game, and using a real world example in which you almost sure of the answer, and you know exactly which cards your opponents still think might be in the envelope. I might try to convince the family to play a game of Clue, so that I can edit the post to be more helpful.


Android Versions of Designer Board Games

Boardgamegeek.com has several geeklists with android versions listed.

Android Games with Asynchronous Multiplayer

Android versions of actual boardgames

These are not the only ones, just the ones that stood out in the search results.


How to run strong Go (baduk) playing program locally?

I don't think you're going to get any better free versions. If you purchase a copy of Crazy Stone as mafu suggested it may be stronger. If you like the way those bots play and want an offline version it's probably worth trying it out, as that's the engine that several bots use. However, I say may be stronger because I am not sure that the commercial version is the same as the version run for KGS bots.

I have no experience with Crazy Stone as GnuGo can still regularly beat me.


In MTG, do Werewolves transform due to an out of range turn? Or an out of range player's spells?

It would seem that the trigger does not even go off unless both the player currently taking their turn and the previous turn were both inside your range of influence.

  801.7. A triggered ability doesn‘t trigger unless its trigger event happens entirely within the range of  influence of its source‘s
  controller.

On turns that the trigger does go off, one expects out of range spells would be completely ignored.


Clarification on the Royal Garden from Puerto Rico expansion 2

In my opinion, a player's island is their game board, unless explicitly referring to plantations.  Its semantically tricky, as the island on the board contains San Juan which is implicitly the player's city.

I admit, that's kind of shaky reasoning.

With regards to the Royal Garden explicitly, an unofficial translation of the original rules was:

  At game’s end the owner of the Garden
  gains 2 VP for each Noble he owns
  instead of the usual 1VP/Noble. This
  is true wherever his Nobles are:
  building, plantation, San Juan, etc...

(source)

And it makes more sense in terms of design as the rest of the expansion clearly wants you to place Nobles on buildings.


Which city is destroyed if there are 2+ to choose from?

You're right, the rules only state that the player loses one of thier cities but not how to determine which city.

However, the mobile app comes in handy. I created the same conditions as you explained, and this is how they designed the game to handle the situation.

So the player decides which of their cities get pillaged.


Is there a standard name for the card game "kabou"?

The Game you are looking for is called "Cabo". Have a look at the Wikipedia description:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabo_%28game%29


Can i cast a spell after collecting rewards for an adventure?

The rules as written do not clarify one way or the other - it is up to a house ruling.  However, many cards have specific timing for them listed (such as "At the start of your turn" or "At the end of your turn").  With this in mind, for any card that does not have a timing listed, you could make a case for justifying its usage at any time during your turn, including immediately before it ends.


What is the use of Lady of the Lake card in avalon?

It is to enable players to get more information about each other out in the open. If it starts out on a good player they can use it to help identify other good players. On the other hand if it starts in a bad players hand they can use it to cause confusion.
https://www.ultraboardgames.com/avalon/optional-rules.php

This token is an optional player ability. The player with the Lady of the Lake will be able to look at the loyalty of another player. Unlike the other character powers, the player that has this ability is open information.
At the beginning of the game, give the Lady of the Lake token to the player on the Leader's right.
Immediately after the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Quest is resolved, the player with the Lady of the Lake token will choose one player to examine. The player being examined will receive a pair of Loyalty cards and pass the card that corresponds to the loyalty of ther character card to the Lady of the Lake. Using the wrong loyalty card will result in losing the game.
The lady of the Lake may discuss, but cannot reveal the Loyalty card passed.
The player being examined receives the Lady of the Lake token. The Lady of the Lake will only be used three times in the game. A player that used the Lady of the Lake cannot have the Lady used on them.
Note: the Lady of the Lake is best saved for games of 7 or more people. Adding the Lady of the Lake into a game will make the Good side more powerful and win more often.


Yes. The rules only specify "The player who then has the highest number of prestige points is declared the winner (don’t forget to count your nobles). In case of a tie, the player who has purchased the fewest development cards wins." There is no mention that having a reserved card prevents winning in any way, but note that the cards in reserve don't count towards your score.

This means you can reserve cards you have no intention of buying to prevent someone else from buying them. Or maybe you just want a Gold Joker.


Speeding up complicated games by limiting player interaction

There are various ideas that I've used in the past to help. Be warned though - ultimately long games are long, and there's only a limited amount you can do about it.

1) Use a timer

Timed negotiation phases go back to Diplomacy. They're an official rule feature of Here I Stand. Not only does the time limit help the game along, and focus players, but it actually adds an interesting layer of strategy because you can't always talk to who you want to when you want to, meaning players have to work around it.

Only a few negotiation-heavy games feature a specified negotiation phase. But it's quite easy to add one - look at the turn structure and decide where it's best put and then enforce it, and the timer, with an iron first.

2) Ban paper and mobile devices

As you've discovered one of the worst culprits for slowing down games generally are players who insist on making notes, referring to them and optimizing their strategies. Unless it's absolutely essential as part of the play that they be allowed to do it, ban the recording of anything on anything except for the officially supplied game components and enforce it with an iron fist.

3) Overlap wherever possible

There are a surprising number of games where players can actually overlap their turn structure to try and get things done faster. This isn't specific to negotiation per-se. In Titan, for instance, the meat is the movement phase. So after playing X is has finished moving and is recruiting, the next player in line can be checking their stacks, splitting and rolling for movement. Identify areas suitable for concurrent play in your game, and enforce everyone doing just that with an iron fist.

4) Play online

I never play Diplomacy in real life any more, because it takes too long. I do, however play by email. And doing so has given me a particular delight in the fact that I have to negotiate via email. You can't see the face, or the body language of the person you're negotiating with, which leads for interesting decision making. Not to mention that it's pretty thematic since early 20th century diplomats spent a lot of time writing to each other. The same is probably true of AGoT, except they probably write with iron fists.


When you use "just say no" to a "rent" do others player still need to pay?

I actually don't know the game but what I can see from the Wikipedia page the card only collects rent from one player any way:

  Multi-colored rent cards: The function of this kind of cards is collect rent of any one of the colors of your properties from one rival.


Do I have to warn my opponent about abilities in Necromunda?

In theory, case #1. In reality, this depends on the game environment.

In a casual game, where the focus is enjoyment and learning how the game works, it usually pays to be as open as possible. People generally don't get fun out of "Oh, you forgot rule X, so I'm going to immediately exploit that information" and it's not supposed to be a viable strategy either (unless a "hidden ruleset" is supposed to be one of the mechanics.) Warning the opponent of these things helps with the fun and learning factor (You're not going to learn how to play the gang well by people accidentally triggering your reflections. You're going to learn how to play them well by utilizing the threat of said reflection to it's fullest, and how other players might counter it.)

In a competitive environment, all that goes out the window. Your opponent is expected to know the rules and abilities within the game. You would be right to assume that if they're shooting at you, they're cognizant of the consequences.


Do I have to pay for a development card if I have a joker and the card needs only one type of resource?

From the rules:

Buying a development card
...
A joker token can replace any color.

This means that a Gold Joker token can be used in place of any single other token as part of any purchase.
In particular,

The Joker can be used to purchase a card from the center, not just the one you reserved.
The Joker does not replace all tokens of a given color, just one.

This second point is perhaps not quite clear from that rules quote, but the other interpretation would make them far too powerful. You can confirm that this is how jokers work by experimenting with them in the official app version of the game.


Clarification on How Basri, Devoted Paladin Works

Yes to both, but that could use a little more clarification.

−1: Whenever a creature attacks this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it.

This means whenever a creature is declared as an attacker this turn, you put a +1/+1 counter on it. This means creatures put into play tapped and attacking won't get these counters, such as the tokens made by Leonin Warleader.
The effect also applies to every creature, not just yours. If you are playing a format like 2 headed giant, this applies to your partner's creatures as well. If you control Teferi, Master of Time or have Teferi, Temporal Archmage's emblem and use it on your opponent's turn, you will put counters on their creatures.

−6: Creatures you control get +2/+2 and gain flying until end of turn.

This one is exactly as you understood it, both the +2/+2 and the flying ability are connected to the "end of turn" part of the ability. If it had intended for the +2/+2 to be permanent it would likely have been written "−6: Put 2 +1/+1 counters on each creature you control. Those creatures gain flying until end of turn." This only applies to creatures that are in play when the ability is activated, anything played after will not get the effect, such as the tapped and attacking tokens from Leonin Warleader.


Are tasks and missions considered items?

Tasks and missions are considered "items" as per the Dunwich rulebook (Page 5):

  Tasks are a type of item found in the Common Item deck, while Missions are items found in the Unique Item deck.

If you receive an effect that requires you to discard items you can discard a task or mission as part of that, noting in the base rules (page 16):

  Important: When adding up items before discarding them, count all Common Items, Unique Items, and Spells. In addition, the Deputy’s Revolver and the Patrol Wagon both count as items. Allies, Skills, and other cards do not count towards this total

As tasks and missions are explicitly described as items in the Dunwich rules, they do not fall under the Allies, Skills, and other cards

Spells are also not a "thing" but for ease of playing the game it's easier to consider it an item, hence the same application for tasks and missions.

Someone can ask you to complete a task, that's a completely normal thing. It could be something like a person saying "Yea, I know I said I had a thing to give you, but it's at a secure place, so you'll have to..."


How much life can I gain attacking someone who can't fall under 1 hp with lifelink creatures?

The damage is still dealt fully, even though Worship makes it so your life total can't go under 1. This means you gain the full 4 life from the lifelink creature.

Source: Gatherer rulings

  10/4/2004 It reduces your life total to 1, not the damage to 1.
  10/4/2004 Worship does not prevent damage. It causes some damage to be
  unable to lower your life total. So any damage rendered useless by
  Worship was still dealt and is counted by effects that track the
  amount of damage done to a player. In addition, Worship does not
  prevent loss of life, so loss of life bypasses Worship.


Can "Healing Stone" be used to gain Stamina or Sanity beyond the investigator's initial values?

Your copy of Healing Stone may differ depending on what version of the game and/or which expansions you have. In particular, Dunwich Horror comes with a new version of this card.
However, according to the rulebook (second printing), sanity/stamina as listed on the character's initial values are also their Maximum values. (emphasis mine)

  SANITY AND STAMINA An investigator begins the game with a number of
  Sanity and Stamina tokens equal to the values listed on the
  investigator’s sheet. These two values are the investigator’s maximum
  Sanity and maximum Stamina.
  While an investigator may gain and lose Sanity or Stamina over the course of the game, the investigator’s current Sanity or Stamina may
  never exceed the investigator’s maximum Sanity or Stamina.


Get lots of dice. Not only are dice resources, but the more dice you have, the more powerful each one becomes. First, you can make better combinations; second, you can gain resources and spend them in the same round without the threat of having them stolen. Usually the sixth die paints a target on you for aggression, but if you're in last place you might be able to avoid that.
Get your colonies down. Until they're all down, you can play with the balance of power all you want, but you can't win.
Look for ways to disrupt your opponents' majorities and solidify your own. This means having alien tech cards with useful secondary abilities that will let you boost your score once you're within striking distance.
Force the second-place player to do the work of stopping the leader. Don't waste your own resources. If the second-place player isn't trying to pull down the leader, you're not going to win anyway, so you might as well play for the case you can win.


When must one communicate denial of a shortcut?

Regarding shortcuts, the relevant rules for this scenario are:

  716.1a The rules for taking shortcuts are largely unformalized. As long as each player in the game understands the intent of each other player, any shortcut system they use is acceptable.

as well as

  716.2a At any point in the game, the player with priority may suggest a shortcut by describing a sequence of game choices, for all players, that may be legally taken based on the current game state and the predictable results of the sequence of choices. This sequence may be a non- repetitive series of choices, a loop that repeats a specified number of times, multiple loops, or nested loops, and may even cross multiple turns. It can’t include conditional actions, where the outcome of a game event determines the next action a player takes. The ending point of this sequence must be a place where a player has priority, though it need not be the player proposing the shortcut.

  716.2b Each other player, in turn order starting after the player who suggested the shortcut, may either accept the proposed sequence, or shorten it by naming a place where he or she will make a game choice that’s different than what’s been proposed. (The player doesn’t need to specify at this time what the new choice will be.) This place becomes the new ending point of the proposed sequence.

  716.2c Once the last player has either accepted or shortened the shortcut proposal, the shortcut is taken. The game advances to the last proposed ending point, with all game choices contained in the shortcut proposal having been taken. If the shortcut was shortened from the original proposal, the player who now has priority must make a different game choice than what was originally proposed for that player.

Regarding this specific question, when a player is proposing to do an action that can only be taken in a certain step that would occur after the player's last known step, it is a well-known shortcut that the player is going to change phases until the first phase where they can take that action. In this case, after drawing for Draw Phase, Anthony is proposing a shortcut to get to Combat phase, ending Draw phase and ending First Main phase without doing anything in either. This is a perfectly valid shortcut.

Once Nathan proposes this shortcut, Nathan is then allowed to propose a shortened shortcut, where he will make a game choice that's different than what Anthony proposed. In this particular case, the most likely proposal from Nathan would be to go until the 'Beginning of Combat Step'. This is a normal decision in the course of a game, and thus Nathan can take his time to decide on this proposal, within reason of course. This is the same at both Regular REL and Competitive REL. If Nathan takes an action before proposing a shortened shortcut, such as casting a spell or activating an ability, it is assumed that he is accepting the shortcut that Anthony proposed.

Note: Once Nathan proposes a shortened shortcut, Anthony is not then allowed to instead do something in his First Main phase; he has to go with the shortened shortcut. In this case, that would be advancing to end of his First Main phase and passing priority.


Counter heavy proactive control with a distruption-based aggro deck in the Legacy format

So, we know you are looking more for a heuristic for how to play your deck as is (or with minimal changes) against an attrition based opponent playing a pox/gate like deck.

The aim of your opponent's deck is to slow the game down as much as possible, so it can abuse its central cards to gain an incremental advantage (usually though the difference in how the values of your respective resources at the time Pox is cast are rounded). To beat this kind of strategy, you either need to come in underneath it, by killing it before it can accrue enough advantage, or go over the top of it, by negating the advantage it is trying to accrue (investing in resources it cant/doesnt interact with, such as artifacts/enchantments) or preventing it from gaining that advantage at all, such as with countermagic.

The most obvious answer (for your deck) is to mulligan aggressively to aggressive hands with lots of efficient, aggressive creatures, and try to overwhelm them before they can lock you out. Creatures that you can discard to the battlefield (some of which you have mentioned) augment this strategy.

Pox decks tend to rely heavily on buying back from their graveyards,finding a way to limit that (such as Deathrite Shaman or Scavenging ooze removing Bloodghast) should help make that strategy harder. On the subject, scavenging ooze provides a good way to rebuild following a wrath effect.

Similarly, as they attack against the axis of lands and creatures, combating that by playing artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers that make their strategy problematic is useful. Elspeth, Knight Errant is a very good planeswalker to consider for your deck, and the various swords (particularly Sword of feast and famine) will work well with her tokens to let you stay in the game with resources your opponent can't easily control.

If land destruction is going to be an issue, fetchlands for basics for the first few turns may well be the best way to mitigate that. Pox/Smallpox wont be affected, but at least wasteland will have less impact.

Silence in your opponent's upkeep or drawstep could give you a valuable Time Walk against them, allowing you to further establish yourself. Lingering souls will give you enough to work with to protect your bigger creatures from a few edict effects, particularly if you have black mana to flash it back.

There isn't any way, as a deck built around a board presence of a small number of highly effective creatures, for you to overcome a deck like this in terms of attrition. As is, your only option is to be aggressive and cross your fingers. This IS a strategy, and one that you can try to maximize. You know which of your cards are the most aggressive, and you can mulligan to try and get a hand that will kill your opponent quickly. A Mother of Runes, Knight of the Reliquary reliant hand will probably struggle, but other hands with more aggressive creatures would do better.

With the possibility of making some changes, the above options should be plenty of food for thought, it is worth bearing in mind though that every advantage gained here is potentially (I would say almost certainly) a loss in another match-up. The minimal impact would probably be some Silences, or to consider Lingering souls and/or an Elspeth, Knight Errant or 2, with Swords to back up your tokens. I can't tell you the best combination, but these are all the options I can think of for ways to combat this strategy. It's not for a tournament, so you have plenty of room for experimentation and finding what works best for you.


The proper name for this sort of encoder/decoder ring is a Cipher disk, but they are also commonly called Caesar or Cipher Wheels.

Generally speaking they are relatively easy to create using either a ruler, compass and protractor, or a template.


How many squares is this rectangle on the Clue board?

Movement occurs between rooms, not across them. As soon as you reach a room, the movement phase ends. As soon as you start to move, you must leave the room to do so.

The rules don't address this directly, but there are clear implications that a room is considered a single location (not a square, but similar) when it comes to movement. For example:

  It is possible that your opponents might block any and all doors and trap you in a room. If this happens, you must wait for someone to move and unblock a door so you can leave!

Also,

  You may not forfeit a turn to remain in a particular Room.

If a room constitutes of multiple squares, it's possible to move your character without leaving the room. It seems to me that this is not in the spirit of the game.


Can you use one creature for both convoke and delve for Hogaak?

The ordering of when Delve, Convoke and mana abilities are activated mean that you cannot use both Convoke and Delve on a single creature/card.
Essentially you activate mana abilities as part of 601.2g, then pay costs as part of 601.2h, this is where Delve and Convoke come in.
So you can activate Ashnods and then Delve the sacrificed card, but cannot Convoke before the sacrifice.

601. Casting Spells
601.2f The player determines the total cost of the spell. Usually this is just the mana cost. Some spells have additional or alternative costs. Some effects may increase or reduce the cost to pay, or may provide other alternative costs. Costs may include paying mana, tapping permanents, sacrificing permanents, discarding cards, and so on. The total cost is the mana cost or alternative cost (as determined in rule 601.2b), plus all additional costs and cost increases, and minus all cost reductions. If multiple cost reductions apply, the player may apply them in any order. If the mana component of the total cost is reduced to nothing by cost reduction effects, it is considered to be {0}. It can’t be reduced to less than {0}. Once the total cost is determined, any effects that directly affect the total cost are applied. Then the resulting total cost becomes “locked in.” If effects would change the total cost after this time, they have no effect.
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.
601.2h The player pays the total cost in any order. Partial payments are not allowed. Unpayable costs can’t be paid.

702.50. Convoke
702.50a Convoke is a static ability that functions while the spell with convoke is on the stack. “Convoke” means “For each colored mana in this spell’s total cost, you may tap an untapped creature of that color you control rather than pay that mana. For each generic mana in this spell’s total cost, you may tap an untapped creature you control rather than pay that mana.”
702.50b The convoke ability isn’t an additional or alternative cost and applies only after the total cost of the spell with convoke is determined.

702.65. Delve
702.65a Delve is a static ability that functions while the spell with delve is on the stack. “Delve” means “For each generic mana in this spell’s total cost, you may exile a card from your graveyard rather than pay that mana.”
702.65b The delve ability isn’t an additional or alternative cost and applies only after the total cost of the spell with delve is determined.


What happens with trample when a boost is cast during damage assignment?

They cannot boost after you have assigned your damage. The last chance that players have to activate abilities and cast instants is in the declare blockers step, after all blockers have been assigned. They could cast a boost at that point, but you would already know the actual toughness when assigning damage, and you would have to assign lethal damage to the first creature before moving on to the second.

Note that prior to the 10th edition, released in 2006, damage DID use the stack, so after damage went on the stack, there would be a chance to respond before it resolved.


In bridge, if a 1 NT bidder is doubled, is it right to "redouble for rescue?"

There are nigh as many ways to play this as there are bridge partnerships in the world. What is correct at any given time is the system you agreed to play when you completed your convention card with this partner.

Along with redoubling for takeout, another common defense to the double is to pass forcing opener to redouble, which may then either be passed for penalty by responder or converted as part of a run-out strategy. Key advantages of this scheme include:
- Distinguishing between one-suited and two-suited escapes by bidding one shape immediately, and the other delayed.
- Putting additional pressure on the doubler after the forced redouble.


Do enchantments played by my opponent on creatures I control count towards my devotion?

Let's have a look at what devotion is:

Devotion
A numerical value a player has, equal to the number of mana symbols of a certain color among the mana costs of permanents that player controls.

The fact that Encrust is attached to your Chimera does not make you its controller. Your opponent still controls the enchantment, so Encrust will count towards your opponent's devotion to blue. You can take control of enemy's Enchantments with something like Confiscate.


I'm a big fan of Carcassonne -- the game is better with more people, but you can certainly play it with two people, and since it's a tile-laying game, the board will always be different.

In my opinion, the game bogs down with expansions, but the core set (with or without the River Expansion), is a lot of fun.


Do I lose a card if I roll 3 bad luck symbols and spend some of them?

Yes, you still suffer it. Clarified on the back of the rulebook:

  Pension
  – This card costs 2 bad luck. If the player rolled
  3
  bad luck (causing misfortune and the loss of some card),
  the
  player can still use 2 of those bad lucks to buy this card

Although it's true that misfortune happens after buying cards but before adding them to your CV, which is a very weird phrasing indeed, you have to suffer it even if you had previously "spent" two bad luck faces for the pension. Spending dice doesn't mean that you never rolled them.


What does The Saharan Republic's power mean?


Electrostatic Pummeler with Animation Module

Electrostatic Pummeler has no ability that puts +1/+1 counters on it. Its second ability modifies its power and toughness until end of turn, and Animation Module's first ability does not trigger.


Does the Blunderbuss require you to use only the +2 strength bonus in order to use its roll effect?

If you choose to gain the bonus, then you must add 1 success for any 6 rolled (after the rerolls, if applicable) and substract 1 success for any 1 rolled (after the rerolls, if applicable).

But the bonus itself isn't special. As always, you apply the highest available bonus. If it's not the bonus provided by the Blunderbuss, that doesn't affect the other ability in any way.

The choice to gain the bonus activates the other ability, not the fact of applying the bonus.

The card could be as well written like this:

  When resolving a Combat Encounter, you may gain +2 Strength. If you do gain the bonus, each 6 you roll when resolving a etc etc

Edit:
I have asked Nikki Valens - Eldritch Horror's designer, for an answer.

Here it is, with emphasis added in the most relevant part:

  The blunderbuss has a potencial negative effect in that rolling 1’s will negate successes. It may be that an investigator does not wish to use this effect. For this reason, the bonus and the other effect are tied to an option on the investigator’s part. The investigator may choose to both gain the bonus and the other effects (6’s are two success and 1’s negates successes). Even if the investigator applies a higher bonus from another effect, the 6’s and 1’s will still be affected. Please note however, the choice to use the effects of the blunderbuss must be made before dice are rolled.


The Agricola Compendium is a superb resource for this kind of rules question. In this case, it has your answer:

  You receive the grain before you've taken the action. For example, if you use a sowing action, you can immediately sow the grain from the Outrider.

It sounds like you're interested in the principle behind the answer. I'd love to explain it, but I can't. The Agricola rules are generally very good about consistency of terminology - if something says "an oven" it means any of the cards with "Oven" in the name and no others. If something says "receive wood on an action space" (Pieceworker), that's different to "take wood that is on an action space" (Mushroom Collector). But sadly, one area where they're not so consistent is precise details of timing like this.

I'd love to be able to say things like in Magic: the Gathering, something like "Some cards have the pattern "Whenever [player] [takes action], [effect]." In this case, the [effect] happens at the start of the [action]." But that doesn't seem consistent with the rules on cards like Compulsory Education, Merchant. And it's unclear whether if the Wood Distributor has put some wood on a Major Improvement space, and you take it with a Clay Worker to get an additional clay, do you get the clay in time? I don't think Agricola has specific timing rules to allow you to state the answer with complete confidence in cases like this.


If I clone a Dryad Arbor is the clone a land?

Yes, the new Dryad Arbor copy will be a land, and it can be destroyed by Stone Rain. Rule 706.2 describes a copy effect copies:

  When copying an object, the copy acquires the copiable values of the original object’s characteristics and, for an object on the stack, choices made when casting or activating it (mode, targets, the value of X, whether it was kicked, how it will affect multiple targets, and so on). The “copiable values” are the values derived from the text printed on the object (that text being name, mana cost, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, power, toughness, and/or loyalty), as modified by other copy effects, by its face-down status, and by “as . . . enters the battlefield” and “as . . . is turned face up” abilities that set power and toughness (and may also set additional characteristics). Other effects (including type-changing and text-changing effects), status, and counters are not copied.

This means that the copy will have the name "Dryad Arbor", no mana cost, a green color indicator, the type line "Land Creature - Forest Dryad", no rules text, and the power and toughness 1/1, all exactly like the card it is copying.

This does not count as your land play. To do this you do not play a land, you cast a spell that happens to become a land as it resolves.


You can get yourself shot by playing a Duel and then not responding if the person you dueling with discards a BANG! Besides that and Dynamite, I don't know of other ways to hurt yourself with your own cards.

However, there are other ways to solve your problems:

(1) Problem of Player Elimination: Add the unofficial BANG! expansion, Death Mesa, to the game. In this expansion, dead players continue on as ghosts, draw from a specialized deck, and influence who wins (all ghosts, regardless of role, can still achieve victory). Visit http://bangcardgame.blogspot.com/p/death-mesa-expansion.html

(2) Problem of BANG! Dragging On: Give BANG! an internal clock through adding one of the following house rules:
-  Play only with 3 life point characters. If you have Dodge City, this gives you 7 characters; The Bullet, 8 characters; with Wild West Show, 9. Or make all 4 life point characters have 3 life points and only play with them.
- Players can shoot as many players as they want per turn (given distance constraints), but they can only fire 1 BANG! at each player per turn.
- If things are really getting slow, you can impose a new rule after a certain amount of rounds: Beer and/or Missed! are not reshuffled into the deck. They are placed in a separate discard pile and cannot be reused.

If you are interested in different house rules, visit http://bangcardgame.blogspot.com/p/fistful-of-bang-variants.html


When the creature that the Arrest is attached to leaves the battlefield, the Arrest goes to your graveyard because it is not attached to anything. There are several conditional actions that you check every time anyone gets priority called State-based actions. One of those, specified in rule 704.5n is

  If an Aura is attached to an illegal object or player, or is not attached to an object or player, that Aura is put into its owner's graveyard.


Efficient to Sequence - do you have to discard cards first?

You have to discard first. From the FAQ:

  If we have the 2nd beneficial mutation, exactly when can we discover the cure?
  You can do it out of turn, but you can’t so it halfway through an epidemic. It’s also worth noting when drawing player cards, you’ll have to discard down to hand size before curing.


Can I cast a spell multiple times in one round across different investigators if I trade it?

A component can only be used once per turn.

  Although an investigator cannot perform a component action from a
  single component more than once each round, he can perform component
  actions of different components

It's not a specific 'investigator' but 'any' investigator that cannot use the component more than once.

So the "use" of a card kind of "sticks" to the card and cannot be used by another investigator.


Are counters the same as a creature's power/toughness?

Counters are a specific object in the game, usually represented by a physical token (glass beads, tiny dice, pennies if you're desperate, &c.) so you can keep track of them.

+1/+1 counters are a specific kind of counter with a baked-in ability: modifying the power and toughness of a creature they are attached to.

Only things specified as "counters" in the game rules or card text are counters.

All of these things are not counters and do not involve counters:

Your creature's base power and toughness, and effects that set them to specific values.
A creature's power and toughness that gets set by the card text while the value in the corner just says "*/*."
A card that modifies a creature's power and toughness, such as "target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn" or "all white creatures get +1/+1."

The only times you're likely to be interacting with counters in Magic without a card being super explicit are planeswalker loyalty and a handful of specialized set mechanics:

Infect and Wither turn damage into -1/-1 counters.
Suspend and cumulative upkeep both use counters to keep track of their "ticks."


What are the rules to this "CheeseGame"?

Thanks to @npst for the tip on the Japanese manufacturer's name, which lead to contacting them directly and receiving a response on the rules of the game!

Here is what they wrote back:

  Thank you for your inquiry.
  The image you have attached is "Balance Game" of our product "Cheese Game".
  This is a wooden toy that also becomes an interior, and the contents are 7 pieces of cheese, 1 mouse and 1 base.

  The attached PDF data is a guidance sheet enclosed with the product.
  Stack the cheese and the rat on the base so as not to collapse.
  There is no particular rule.
  Please try various stacking methods and enjoy.

Here is the image that comes with the game to explain the rules (in Japanese). But the image at least suggests some pretty interesting stacking options.

Not sure what they meant by "also becomes an interior", maybe "interior decoration"? Because I have been playing with it as a desk toy and it works well for that.

So, not an actual 2 player game as I was hoping but fun none-the-less, and glad to have been able to solve the mystery. Thanks to all who attempted to track this down.


Bazaar Trader combo and Void Snare - Ownership vs. Control

As you note in your title, there is a difference between ownership and control.

  110.2. A permanent's owner is the same as the owner of the card that represents it (unless it's a token; see rule 110.5a). A permanent's controller is, by default, the player under whose control it entered the battlefield. Every permanent has a controller.
  110.5a A token is both owned and controlled by the player under whose control it entered the battlefield.

So clearly, we know the owner of the card, and where it goes as a result of void snare.

But let's say, for some reason, it said controller's hand instead of owner's hand. That's already covered: cards only ever go to their owner's hand.

  400.3. If an object would go to any library, graveyard, or hand other than its owner’s, it goes to its owner’s corresponding zone.

As for who the owner is, well that's also defined for us:

  108.3. The owner of a card in the game is the player who started the game with it in his or her deck. If a card is brought into the game from outside the game rather than starting in a player's deck, its owner is the player who brought it into the game. If a card starts the game in the command zone, its owner is the player who put it into the command zone to start the game. Legal ownership of a card in the game is irrelevant to the game rules except for the rules for ante.