Are there disadvantages to the house rule that you always end before the starting player?

The game with all the expansions has 3 ending conditions, all of which require you to keep an eye on the number of cards remaining.

Those endings are:

All Provinces have been bought.
Any 3 (2-4 players) or 4 (5-6 players) piles have been bought.
(New in Prosperity) All Colonies have been bought.

Short version:
It would discourage players from buying the last card to end the game if it's not a Colony or Province.

Long version:
The idea is that you watch the piles as they go down and adjust your strategy to compensate.  For example, if I think my score is good enough to win, it's to my advantage to buy out the last pile needed to end the game, even if it's something I don't want.

Requiring the game to keep going around the table after that would likely discourage me from buying said card; I would rather buy more higher-point cards, hoping that someone else will end the game.


An eliminated player no longer contributes to distance.  If this were not the case, in a large game you could quite easily have situations where nobody could reach anybody else for many turns in a row.

From the rules:

  When a character is eliminated, he is no longer counted when evaluating the distance: some players will get "closer" when someone is eliminated.


Do 3 Boros Elite attacking trigger Battalion?

Yes.

Whenever a card refers to itself by name, it is referring to that specific instance of the card. Other cards with the same name are not affected or considered.

For a card to work in the way you describe, it would be worded significantly differently. Something along the lines of "Whenever Boros Elite and at least two other creatures not named Boros Elite...", or "Whenever Boros Elite and at least two other creatures with different names...". Examples where these restrictions are put in place are Escaped Shapeshifter and Gifts Ungiven


No, you can only cast Memory Plunder while you have priority.

116.1. Unless a spell or ability is instructing a player to take an action, which player can take actions at any given time is determined by a system of priority. The player with priority may cast spells, activate abilities, and take special actions.

If your opponent is paying the cost to cast Think Twice from their graveyard, then they must have priority.
You will only get priority to cast a spell after Think Twice has been fully cast and is on the stack, and your opponent passes priority after casting it.*

116.3c If a player has priority when they cast a spell, activate an ability, or take a special action, that player receives priority afterward.
116.3d If a player has priority and chooses not to take any actions, that player passes. If any mana is in that player’s mana pool, they announce what mana is there. Then the next player in turn order receives priority.

And note that after the spell is cast, it is no longer in the graveyard to be targeted by Memory Plunder, it is now on the stack:

601.2. To cast a spell is to take it from where it is (usually the hand), put it on the stack, and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect.

*Passing priority after casting a spell is considered to be implicit unless you state that you wish to retain priority as you cast the spell.


In MTG what happens when you have multiple Aberrant Researcher in play?

All Aberrant Researchers trigger independently of each other. An instant or sorcery revealed by one does not flip the other.

If an object (for example, a creature) refers to itself by name in its card text, it only means itself, not other permanents with the same name.

  201.4. Text that refers to the object it’s on by name means just that particular object and not any other objects with that name, regardless of any name changes caused by game effects.

And yes, both Researchers' ability triggers at the beginning of your upkeep. The Researchers have no relation to each other, they just happen to have identical properties and abilities. They are also checking different cards - each one checks the card it put into the graveyard, not all cards put into the graveyard this way.


Why might a leader propose a team they don't plan to approve?

Scenario 1:

It is round 2 of a 6-player game, so 3 players are needed for the mission. Alice (loyal) is the leader and strongly (but silently) suspects Bob of being a traitor, perhaps due to a "tell". Carol also suspects Bob and is strongly saying so, and Bob is playing offended.

Alice nominates all three of herself, Bob, and Carol for the mission. She knows that Carol will vote no and will vote no herself, so if even one other member is skeptical the vote will fail. Meanwhile, Alice carefully watches the votes from Donald, Elaine, and Frank. A yes vote, especially a single yes vote, is a suggestion that one of those players is a co-spy; not an ironclad proof, but a possibly-important hint.

Scenario 2:

Same situation, but in this game Alice is a spy. Carol's suspicions about Bob are baseless. Alice still goes through the motions of this charade even though Bob and Carol are both loyal, to throw off suspicion that would arise because she is not going through her typical plan.


I will answer your questions in order,

1) At what point does my opponent's card get destroyed? When I banish the Gemini monster or when it returns at the end phase of my opponent's turn?

It will be destroyed after you banish your card as the banish until your opponents end phase is a condition applied to the effect, and then the destruction happens in the effect resolution.

2) If my monster is banished by this effect and my opponent destroys Catalyst Field while the monster is banished, will it come back at the end phase or will it stay banished?

If Catalyst Field is destroyed while your monster is banished yes it will still come back providing there is an available zone for it to return to as I stated above it is a condition of the effect. This is similar to PSY-FrameLord Omega who banishes himself and an opponents card, providing there is an available zone for him to return to he will return.

  Once per turn, during the Main Phase (Quick Effect): You can banish
  both this face-up card from the field and 1 random card from your
  opponent's hand, face-up, until your next Standby Phase. Once per
  turn, during your opponent's Standby Phase: You can target 1 banished
  card; return it to the GY. If this card is in your GY: You can target
  1 other card in the GY; shuffle both that card and this card from the
  GY into the Deck.

3) The banishing of the gemini monster is a cost? For instance, if my opponent activates something that would negate the activation of a spell effect (not card) in response to the banishing effect of catalyst field, would my monster get banished anyway (as a cost)? Or would negating the activation of the effect stop the banishing of my monster altogether?

Banishing a gemini is not cost for this effect, in yu-gi-oh cost is indicated by a semi colon (;) so in this instance the cost is to target an opponents monster, then if the effect is allowed you will be able to banish your monster and destroy your opponent's. Cost in yu-gi-oh cannot be negated as it happens before the effect attempts to activate it is what needs to happen first. Indicated by a popular scenario in the current game with Pot of Desires and Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring
 .

Pot of Desires.

  Banish 10 cards from the top of your Deck, face-down; draw 2 cards.
  You can only activate 1 "Pot of Desires" per turn.

Ash Blossom

  When a card or effect is activated that includes any of these effects
  (Quick Effect): You can discard this card; negate that effect.

  Add a card from the Deck to the hand.
  Special Summon from the Deck.
  Send a card from the Deck to the GY. You can only use this effect of "Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring" once per turn.

Pot of desires can be activated and then the player performs to action up to the semicolon which in this case is Banish 10 cards from the top of your Deck, face-down; then your opponent has the opportunity to respond where they will discard Ash Blossom which negates the rest of the effect to draw two cards, so in this scenario the turn player has lost 10 cards from their deck to gain no cards back as the effect was negated.


Can Breath of Life Put a Discarded Creature into Play?

It was not a functional change, you can return a creature card from your graveyard into play even if it was never in play to begin with. Though I couldn't find an exact rule describing the word "return," there is this:

  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.

So a card in your graveyard has no possible way of knowing if it used to be on the battlefield or not, so it must be treated the same whether it was or not.

Note also that cards may say "return target permanent to its owner's hand", and these can be used on permanents that were never in the owner's hand, such as a land that was fetched with a fetchland.


You can add at most one newborn regardless of the number of empty rooms you might have.
The rules are clear on this:

After Family Growth, also 1 Minor Improvement (Stage 2): A player may only use this Family growth space if he has more empty rooms than Family members.
A player who chooses a Family growth action adds their newborn offspring to the Action space
In the Return home phase, the new Family member is taken home ...  A Player who takes the Family growth action will therefore have one additional (adult) Family
member to use from the following round onwards.


Can I place a row of letters that makes multiple new words in combination with tiles already on the board?

From the official rules on the Hasbro website:

3: [...] All letters played on a turn must be placed in one row across or down the board, to form at least one complete word. If, at the same time, they touch others letters in adjacent rows, those must also form complete words, crossword fashion, with all such letters. The player gets full credit for all words formed or modified on his or her turn.
4: New words may be formed by:

Adding one or more letters to a word or letters already on the board.

Placing a word at right angles to a word already on the board. The new word must use one of the letters already on the board or must add a letter to it. (See Turns 2, 3 and 4 below.)

Placing a complete word parallel to a word already played so that adjacent letters also form complete words. (See Turn 5 in the Scoring Examples section below.)

So player B was following the rules by playing the word YEA in a single row, and at the same time it adds the Y to the LACE already on the board, as per the second dot point above.
Player B will score points for both LACEY and YEA in this case.


How long does one get to keep the third bean field in bohnanza?

You keep the third bean field for the duration of the game.  It would be harsh if it was limited as it does cost you 3 gold coins (victory points).

Here is a discussion about when to buy or not buy that third field.  Due to the cost, it is not always the right thing to do to purchase the field.


Does mixing decks in Agricola reduce the chance of synergies?

I'm going to go with my gut response here (again) and say that mixing the decks does dilute the game, but not so much by "reducing the chance of getting strong combos"... more by increasing the chance of being dealt a powerful hand!

The key deck to examine here is the I-deck.  The other two (core set) decks are ostensibly just two piles of assorted cards, one of which contains some allegedly more difficult concepts than the other.  The Interactive Deck though is specifically designed for, well, interactivity.  If you play with just the I-deck the cards in your hand are more likely to interact with the cards in your opponents' hands than if you just mix everything together.

Let's consider the Wood, Clay and Stone Paths in the I-deck.  The Wood Path is a superb card in isolation, giving you 2 Victory Points for the low, low cost of 1 Wood.  And if you've mixed all the decks together into one mega-deck, chances are you can consider it in isolation.  The chance that someone has the Clay Path, or the difficult-to-play Stone Path, is probably small enough to discount.

Whereas if you're playing just the I-deck, chances are high that someone else does have the Clay Path, which makes the Wood Path a much less attractive proposition.  If you use it early as part of a starting player grab, you run the serious risk that someone will take it upon themselves to out-Path you later in the game.  Which forces you to think very hard about the best time to use your Wood Path - as late in the game as possible is probably good.  Which makes the Wood Path a much more interesting card, but obviously a less powerful one...


Small world, spider's web, when lava conquers, does it give victory points at the end?

The rules for Lava state

  At the end of your turn, for each Mountain Region you occupy, you may
  place 1 Lava Token in any Region adjacent to that Mountain Region
  (excluding Regions protected by Special and Racial Powers). All tokens
  in this Region are taken in hand by the defeated player and treated as
  if the Region were conquered (except there is no loss of tokens). The
  Region may not be entered by any other player until after the
  beginning of your next turn. At the beginning of your next turn,
  remove all Lava Tokens from the board and proceed as usual.

So the Lava tokens are not conquering the regions, they are simply treating the defending tokens as if they were conquered.  Therefore you would not score points for those regions.


Does the team get points if the word is singular but they guess plural?

I agree with @MazelTov that many people probably allow derivative forms as successful guesses, but I do not believe that was the intention of Taboo's designer. Some games may explicitly allow forms of the guess word, but Taboo is all about the WORD. It should be an exact match.

For reference, the rule for a successful guess is very concise when it refers to guessing the correct guess word:

  SCORING A POINT Each time a teammate shouts out the correct Guess word, the Clue-giver’s team scores a point. The guessed card remains
  on the easel. The Clue-giver quickly draws another card and puts it on
  the easel in front of the already-guessed card(s). The number of
  guessed cards in the easel is the number of points the Clue-giver
  earns for his or her team.

That said, some people find this pure interpretation to be frustrating in actual gameplay. With that in mind, I think allowing for singular/plural is probably more acceptable than other derivatives (mountain/mountainous), but anything other than the actual guess word is a house rule. Naturally, house rules are intended to improve the gaming experience, so it's important to announce such rules at the start of play.


Golos, Tireless Pilgrim and cards with cycling

No, you can't cycle cards exiled with Golos.

As Golos says, you exile the top three cards of your library and then you may play them without paying their mana costs. Cycling requires the card to be in your hand rather than anywhere else, and "exile" is its own zone.

  702.28a Cycling is an activated ability that functions only while the card with cycling is in a player’s hand. “Cycling [cost]” means “[Cost], Discard this card: Draw a card.”

Also, "playing" a card, as Golos allows you to, means casting it as a spell or playing it as a land, whichever fits:

  701.13b To play a card means to play that card as a land or to cast that card as a spell, whichever is appropriate.

As you correctly noted, cycling a card means activating its cycling ability, not playing it as a spell, so you would have to pay the cycling costs even if you could play the card from your hand without paying its mana cost.


Combat Damage Steps (Double Strike) and Sacrificing a Creature

Yes, you are correct. Double Strike, like First Strike, causes 2 separate combat damage steps. In each of these, players get priority, which means that state based actions happen and triggered abilities go on the stack.

  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.

And:

  510 Combat Damage Step

    510.3a Any abilities that triggered on damage being dealt or while state-based actions are performed afterward are put onto the stack before the active player gets priority; the order in which they triggered doesn’t matter. (See rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities.”)


What exactly does "will not pursue" mean in Munchkin?

The monster that will not follow level 4 or below will not pursue you, only your helper will suffer bad stuff if they fail to escape. The FAQ at Steve Jackson Games covers this.

Q. I'm at Level 2 and I encounter a Level 9 monster. Another player (Level 5) joins the combat. A third player wanders in a new monster that will not pursue Level 3 or below. We are now losing and have to run away. Does the wandered-in monster go after both of us?
A. In combat, monsters fight side by side. But when it comes to pursue the fleeing munchkins, they act individually and munchkins must attempt to escape from each as normal. So the wandered-in monster will not pursue you, but will pursue your helper.


"Once per turn.." including opponent's turn?

L. Scott Johnson is right, but I'd like to add a bit more of an explanation.

Basically, it depends on Spell Speed

In yugioh, all spells, traps, and otherwise activated card effects have a Spell Speed. This property determines things like when the cards/effects can be activated, and when/if they can be activated in response to another activation.

Spell Speed 1 cards and effects may only be activated by the turn player during their Main Phase 1/2, and may only be activated as the first effect in the chain. They cannot be used to respond to other effects.

Spell Speed 2 cards and effects may being activated during either player's turn, during any phase (except during the damage step; this is more nuanced and touched upon in a bit), and at any point in the chain - provided that the conditions for their activation are met, and that the most recently activated card/effect is of Spell Speed 2 or less.

The only Spell Speed 3 cards are Counter Traps - these can be activated anytime their conditions for activation (typically quite restrictive) are met, unless explicitly forbidden by some other card effect.

You may hear some people refer to "Spell Speed 4"; this is just a player-invented term for cards like Super Polymerization which read "Neither player can activate cards or effects in response to this card's activation."

Normal, Continuous, Equip and Field spell cards are all inherently considered to have Spell Speed 1, as are all of their effects. Some of these, like Supply Squad, have effects that can activate during the opponent's turn and/or after the start of the chain, but these are generally triggered by something mandatory and are still considered to have Spell Speed 1.

Quick-Play Spell cards, along with Normal and Continuous Trap Cards, are all inherently considered to have Spell Speed 2, as are all of their effects. This is why, in the case of Eternal Soul, the "Once per turn" effect can still be activated during the opponent's turn - the effect is one of a continuous trap card, and so is inherently Spell Speed 2 (a Quick Effect). As another example, the effect of Unending Nightmare can be activated during either player's turn as well.

In the context of monster effects

The luxury of inferred Spell Speed unfortunately does not exist for monsters. We are, however, given very consistent text conventions to indicate the Spell Speed of monster effects. Monster effects will quite explicitly state whether an effect is Spell Speed 2 or not. The old convention, "During either player's turn," has been updated to "(Quick Effect)". If you see either of those phrases in the activation text of any card, the effect is Spell Speed 2. Otherwise, the effect is Spell Speed 1.

Damage Step sometimes makes things muddy

The Damage Step restricts what sorts of cards and effects are allowed to activate. Most obviously, cards that say "During the damage step", "During damage calculation", "When ___ is destroyed by battle", etc. are allowed to activate at that time. Outside of this, however, the rule of thumb is that a card/effect may not activate during the damage step unless:

It is a counter-trap card
Its activation is mandatory
It negates the activation of a card/effect (Note Activation, not Effect of)
It directly modifies the Attack/Defense of any monster(s)


Those are from Cosmic Wimpout, at http://www.cosmicwimpout.com/, and yes, that's a great game.


No, thats incorrect, you can not chose to avoid taking a card from the structure and discarding a card from your board for money.

The rules state under Game Turn :-

  "On your turn, you must choose an “accessible” card in
  the card structure and play it. An accessible card is a card which
  isn’t partially covered by other cards."

Note it says the structure, not anything in your play area.  'Structure' being the term for how cards are laid out each age. You then have a choice with the card you selected to build it, discard it for money, or construct a wonder.

So to answer your question, the only card you may discard for money is the one you took from the structure that turn and no other.  You do not pay any costs associated with building a card if you are just taking it to discard for money.


Yu-Gi-Oh!: If monarch Caius or Raiza is flipped face up its effect activate?

For their effects to activate they must be tribute summoned. In this case you (tribute)set them. Therefore, you won't be able to use their effects.


Game of Thrones: What if we run out of all the order tokens and are compelled to use special order tokens?

No. You may not use them.

From page 22. on the 2nd Edition rules:

  In addition to 10 normal Order tokens, each House also have five Special Order tokens. A player may use any of his 10 normal Order tokens during the Planning Phase, but may use only as many Special Order tokens as he has stars on the King's Court Influence track position.

  ...

  While special orders are purely better than their regular counterparts, they have an additional subtle advantage: Having access to three instances of any order type (rather than two), can be of tremendous benefit to many strategies (such as launching a major offensive, quickly accumulating power, etc).

It's a key dynamic in Game of Thrones that you have less order tokens than you'd like. You need to choose wisely how to use them, and this rule also incentivises you to bid on the King's Court Influence track.

If you have run out of Order tokens that you'd like to play (such as march and support orders), then you need to fill your remaining spaces with the less useful tokens such as defence and raid orders.

The scenario where a player has used all of his possible order tokens is described on page 12, in the section 'Not enough order tokens?'.

  In very rare circumstances, a player will have fewer eligible Order
  tokens than he needs (ie. he is unable to assign an order to each area
  containing one or more of his units). In this case all players must
  take the Assign Orders step in turn order (rather than
  simultaneiously). The first player places all of his orders (facedown
  as normal) on the game board, followed by the next player in turn
  order, etc. The player(s) with insufficient number of eligible Order
  tokens must place all his eligible Order tokens during his turn,
  but as an exception to the normal rules, is allowed to leave areas (of
  his choice) without an order. A player may never, under any
  circumstance place more order tokens than allowed by his position on
  the King's court influence track.

The rules are very clear about this. It is by design that you don't have enough order tokens.


Yes and No
According to page 8 of the Rise of the Runelords rule book, you start your turn with 1 free 'explore' action (which must be your first explore), and you can discard certain cards from your hand to gain additional explore actions with no limit (other than what's in your hand).
But I think you misunderstand how Cure works:
The cards are moved from the Discard pile back into the Deck (not to your Hand), so without a mechanism to draw additional cards, its nearly impossible to reuse the same blessings in the same turn.


What happens when two Ochran Assassins are attacking?

Your opponent may choose for each creature which of the two Ochran Assassin it blocks (or both, if it's a Palace Guard).

  509.1c The defending player checks each creature they control to see whether it’s affected by any requirements (effects that say a creature must block, or that it must block if some condition is met). If the number of requirements that are being obeyed is fewer than the maximum possible number of requirements that could be obeyed without disobeying any restrictions, the declaration of blockers is illegal.

If your opponent has two creatures, they'll need to fulfill four requirements, but "the maximum possible number of requirements that could be obeyed without disobeying any restrictions" is two, and as long as both creatures are blocking, two requirements are fulfilled.

And there's no opportunity to cast spells between damage assignment and damage dealing:

  510.2. Second, all combat damage that’s been assigned is dealt simultaneously. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. No player has the chance to cast spells or activate abilities between the time combat damage is assigned and the time it’s dealt.

(quotes are from the Comprehensive Rules)


How many times can you pillage the same province in Blood Rage?

As much as they have rage to do so.
From the official FAQ on CMON's site:

Q. Does Tyr’s Challenge (pay 2 rage to repillage) allow a player to gain the pillage token reward more than once in the same age?
A. Yes, with Tyr’s Challenge you can pillage an already pillaged province, as long as you pay 2 Rage every time.


Do Zombicide: Black Plague quests last a lot longer than suggested?

We too played the first couple of quests in Zombicide: Black Plague and it took us about 2 hours for quests 2 and 3 and we have played previous Zombicide games.
The first quest we played with 2 people (each controlling 2 survivors) and it took us about an hour and a half, but that included a lot of rules checking (there are huge differences in the rules between earlier Zombicide games and Zombicide: Black Plague).

Game designers give these estimates based on play tester feedback. Play testers may have played through a number of different versions of the same map, be more focussed on continuous gameplay than a group of players and have more experience with the rules and various skills.

I would treat the given times as "minimum" and probably add an hour to an hour and a half to these estimates.

The upside to these estimates is that if you want to convince your friends to play one more game before they have to go, you tell them "it'll only take an hour, see here it says so in the quest description."


Can Willbender be used when Dark Salvation is cast?

Depends on how it was cast.

The spell asks you to select 1 target player and 0-1 target creatures:

  Target player creates X 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens, then up to one target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each Zombie that player controls.

If you cast it without targeting a creature, then it has only one target and may be retargeted by Willbender. If you decide to use the creature-removal part of the spell, then it has two targets and is not a valid target for Willbender's ability.

Willbender's abilities does not add or subtract targets, so you cannot target a token-generating Dark Salvation to use it as removal (you can, however, steal the tokens).

Here's a bit of relevant comp rules that Michael Politowski pointed out in the comments (emphasis added):

  114.8c An object that looks for a “[spell or ability] that targets only [something]” checks the number of different objects or players that became the target of that spell or ability when it was put on the stack (as modified by effects that changed those targets), not the number of those objects or players that are currently legal targets…

Thus, if you're playing EDH and your opponent has a morph in play, I very much suggest using Dark Salvation to its full effect so you don't get Willbender'd. Because the first rule of EDH is "It's Always a Willbender."


Which is authoritative: Ban List or Gatherer?

MTGCommander.net is the authoritative reference for all things commander.

Says who?

First, a little history.

According to this article, Adam Staley created the format. He shared it with Sheldon Menery, a retired Level 5 Judge, who popularized the format by inviting judges at tournaments to play. Over the next few years, the format spread from judges to the common player.

Gavin Duggan, who is a member of the Commander Rules committee along with Sheldon Menery, is also the creator of MTGCommander.net. When the rules committee bans a card, it shows up there first.

Wizards of the Coast catches on

But they wanted to avoid using the trademarked "Highlander" in the name (which could lead to a lawsuit), and so Wizards changed the name to "Commander". Wizards maintains the Gatherer and their own banned list for MTGO. Their list links to MTGCommander in the opening paragraph!

We like rules

If that wasn't convincing enough, there is actually a rule that acknowledges MTGCommander as the source of "additional resources" (emphasis mine):

  903.1. In the Commander variant, each deck is led by a legendary creature designated as that deck’s commander. The Commander variant was created and popularized by fans; an independent rules committee maintains additional resources at MTGCommander.net. The Commander variant uses all the normal rules for a Magic game, with the following additions.


Gustcloak's ability vs. creatures with Vigilance

Yes, you are allowed to use Gustcloak Savior's ability to remove an attacking creature from combat, even if it is not tapped.

Gustcloak Savior's ability is a triggered ability, that triggers in your Declare Blockers step for each of your attacking creatures that have become blocked. Then, when the ability resolves, it lets you choose whether to have the ability's effect happen. Rule 608.2d says in part

  If an effect of a spell or ability offers any choices other than choices already made as part of casting the spell, activating the ability, or otherwise putting the spell or ability on the stack, the player announces these while applying the effect. The player can’t choose an option that’s illegal or impossible

Rule 609.3 says

  If an effect attempts to do something impossible, it does only as much as possible.

Since part of the effect can happen (removing the creature from combat) and it will just not do the impossible part (untapping the creature), it's not considered impossible, so you are allowed to choose it.

Then, once you choose to apply the effect, it tries to do both things: untap the creature and remove the creature from combat. Since the creature is already untapped, it is impossible to untap it, so it only does the part that is possible, which is removing that creature from combat.

This ruling has been confirmed by the official Ask A Magic Judge blog, which says

  "Untap that creature and remove it from combat" is the action you’re taking, so as long as you perform some part of that action, you can choose to perform the action and remove the creature from combat.


Do cavern edge tiles count as their own tile in the Legend of Drizzt board game?

Yes, they are their own tile.

The rule book defines Tiles and Squares in page 6:

A tile is the basic building block of the dungeon, drawn from the Cavern Tile stack.
A square is one of the spaces on a Cavern tile.

Unfortunately, this definition technically rules out the Cavern Edge Tiles, because the are not drawn from the stack. Still, on page 6, it still refers to them as tiles, just 1/4th the size.

Cavern Edge Tiles - Each of these tiles is about one-quarter the size of a regular Cavern tile. The most common use for Cavern Edge tiles is to create a cavern complex at the start of an adventure. See “Creating a Pre-Built Cavern Complex” on page 14.

Since the rules treat the Start Tile as two separate tiles that are already connected, I see no reason not to treat the Cavern Edge Tiles as separate tiles connected to normal Cavern tiles.


Why is the first tile inactive in Burgle Bros?

The rule in question is actually spelled out precisely in the second printing's rulebook. Emphasis mine:

  Break in, step 3: Choose any tile on the first floor for your team to enter the building [...] Starting on this tile does not trigger any effects, such as setting off an Alarm, but after your first action, you trigger the tile's effects normally.

The first tile's effects are ignored when you first arrive on floor 1 for a few reasons:

Pregame setup does NOT specifically involve any player performing normal turn actions. This means some room effects that would otherwise occur if a player ends their actions in them don't trigger. For all game rules, they are NOT considered as having moved into the tile, just being on the tile.
In the case of an Alarm (E.G. Thermo), having the alarm trigger on the first turn would put an alarm token on the starting point, possibly causing multiple players to lose stealth tokens before they even had a chance to react when they otherwise wouldn't be in danger (in a four-player game, if the alarm occurred during setup, in order for nobody to lose stealth tokens, either an event would need to occur to disable the alarm OR the guard would have to be 10 spaces away (in total path length) for all four players to avoid losing any stealth tokens, as opposed to the 7 spaces away if the tile they picked were just a normal patrol destination)
Deadbolt in itself doesn't block all movement, it just requires 3 actions to enter if there's nobody there (guards count as a person there). Certain special movement also ignores the action cost (e.g. Walkway directly above a Deadbolt), and the initial setup also ignores this restriction because it's a tile effect.

If anything, that rule exists to very slightly tip the balance in the favor of the players by way of ensuring they're not screwed over by the first tile being an alarm tile. It also mitigates the potential issue of the first player automatically getting a Tool item due to the first tile being a Laboratory without any other player getting a say.


What would happen if you target a animated land with Mirrorweave?

Yes, the other creatures will be Mutavault lands until end of turn, but they will not be 2/2 creatures. You can, however, animate each of those lands through their copied animation ability.
A copy effect only copies what's printed on the original card and other copy effects, but no other effects. The animation effect from Mutavault is such an "other effect" that will not be copied. The example given in the rule covers pretty much exactly your situation.

706.2. 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.
Example: Chimeric Staff is an artifact that reads “{X}: Chimeric Staff becomes an X/X artifact creature until end of turn.” Clone is a creature that reads, “You may have Clone enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield.” After a Staff has become a 5/5 artifact creature, a Clone enters the battlefield as a copy of it. The Clone is an artifact, not a 5/5 artifact creature. (The copy has the Staff’s ability, however, and will become a creature if that ability is activated.)


Contract Bridge Games Verses Party Bridge Scoring?

Neither - as each hand is scored individually for the Game Bonus of 300 Non Vulnerable and 500 Vulnerable.

One option that I have seen played is to carry part-scores forward after any of the first three deals of a set instead of awarding a Part Score Bonus of 50. When this is done the Part Score Bonus is 100 rather than 50 on the Fourth hand, when the set is closed off. Be sure to discuss in advance with your partner and opponents if this option is in effect.


Karn, the Great Creator - Does "from outside the game" have to be Standard if we're playing casual?

This really depends on what you mean by casual.  Karn has a card specific ruling:

  In a casual game, a card you choose from outside the game comes from your personal collection. In a tournament event, a card you choose from outside the game must come from your sideboard. You may look at your sideboard at any time.

But if you are playing a specific format, the banned card list for that format prevents the use of those cards in general.  In tournament play, it is sufficient to ban them from main decks and sideboards.  In casual, this should be extended to include cards pulled in from outside the game.

See Spike, Tournament Grinder as the exception that proves the rule.  Spike is a joke card (not legal in any tournament formats) that lets you use cards that are banned in the current format.  Normally you cannot do that when pulling in cards from outside the game.


Do you get bonus points at the end or during play for these quest rewards?

"Whenever" infers present tense, you score 2 VP at the exact time you complete a Warfare quest happens.
If it were to refer to end of game or count anything retrospectively then that would have been clearly stated.
I don't think the card would qualify for its own bonus.  The rules say.

To complete a Quest, remove the required Adventurers and Gold from
your Tavern. Return those tokens to the supply. Then collect the
specified reward.

"Then collect" happens after the mission was completed.  not during.

When you complete a Plot Quest, place its card face up near your
player mat to remind you of the ongoing effect.

So "Whenever you complete a Warfare quest, you score 2 VP" is an ongoing affect.  It's usually in games for this to mean from now on.  if it applied to itself and all retrospective missions it should state that clearly.


What game uses dice with sides powers of 2?

Backgammon uses a die like that; it's known as a doubling cube.  It's used, when playing a multi-game match or for money, to track the current stakes of the game.  Note that in this capacity it's not really rolled as a die; it's just a cube with the necessary numbers on the faces.


Do you have to have exactly 60 cards in a Magic the Gathering deck?

No, not at all. You probably should keep it near the minimum since a deck of minimum size will provide more consistent results than a larger deck, but you are not obligated to do so.

For constructed events, your deck must have at least 60 cards[CR 100.2a] (plus an optional sideboard of no more than 15 cards[CR 100.4a]).
For limited (draft and sealed) events, your deck must have at least 40 cards[CR 100.2b].

Additionally all decks no matter the format must be "able to be shuffled within a reasonable time"

There are many formats that impose additional limitations. Notably,

For Commander games, your deck must have exactly 100 cards (including your Commander)[CR 903.5a].

I could quote you the rules, but Battle of Wits is much more convincing :)

Note: When this answer was originally written the side board was limited to exactly 15 cards. This has changed. I have updated this information to match current rules since it doesn't affect the answer.


Golden Guardian removed before death related trigger

Golden Guardian will stay dead.

Since the ability doesn't resolve until after Golden Guardian dies, it won't "see" the Guardian die, and therefore won't trigger.

There is a Gatherer ruling that states this specifically:

  If Golden Guardian leaves the battlefield before its activated ability has resolved, it won’t be returned to the battlefield when the ability resolves.


In Tiny Epic Galaxies - when do you get your new ships?

Ships come in play as soon as you take/follow the "upgrade your empire" action.

In the rules

on page 8:

  If you gain a ship, immediately place it on the center of your Galaxy Mat. This ship can be used on the same turn.


In a boardgamegeek thread, the designer clarified that if the Beast moves LESS than 5 spaces, he can still attack from a distance.


If you are playing casually you can mix any cards you want to as long as you have exactly 60 cards in your deck and no more than 4 of a given card (other than basic energy).

For tournaments there are a couple different formats that determine what is legal. The primary constructed formats that are played at tournaments are Standard (formerly Modified), Expanded, and Unlimited. For any of these formats if a card is legal in the format you can use copies from previous sets. The cards that are legal in each of these formats as of 4/19/16 are as follows:

Standard

XY—Kalos Starter Set
XY
XY—Flashfire
XY—Furious Fists
XY: Trainer Kit
XY01 and higher
Other sets 3 weeks after their release in the United States

Expanded

Black & White
Black & White—Emerging Powers
Black & White—Noble Victories
Black & White—Next Destinies
Black & White—Dark Explorers
Black & White—Dragon Vault
Black & White—Dragons Exalted
Black & White—Boundaries Crossed
Black & White—Plasma Storm
Black & White—Plasma Freeze
Black & White—Plasma Blast
Black & White—Legendary Treasures
BW: Trainer Kit
XY—Kalos Starter Set
XY
XY—Flashfire
XY—Furious Fists
McDonald’s Collection 2011
McDonald’s Collection 2012
McDonald’s Collection 2014
XY: Trainer Kit
Black Star Promo Cards: BW01 and higher, XY01 and higher.
Additional expansions become legal three weeks after they are released in the United States.

The card Shiftry (Next Destinies 72/99) is banned in Expanded

Unlimited

All cards from all expansions (including promo cards) are legal in Unlimited
Additional expansions become legal three weeks after they are released in the United States.


How would Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker's triggered ability work with the Strionic Resonator?

The copies will always affect the same player as the original ability.

Strionic Resonator would indeed copy Voks's ability because it's a triggered ability. It allows you to change the targets of the copied ability, but Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker's ability does not contain the word "target", so you can't change anything about the copy.

  706.10. To copy a spell, activated ability, or triggered ability means to put a copy of it onto the stack; a copy of a spell isn’t cast and a copy of an activated ability isn’t activated. A copy of a spell or ability copies both the characteristics of the spell or ability and all decisions made for it, including modes, targets, the value of X, and additional or alternative costs. [..]


Can you place a meeple on a tile you didn't place?

You can only place it on the tile you just placed. From the Rio Grande edition rules:

After the player places a land tile, he may deploy one of his followers, using the following rules:

The player may only play 1 follower on a turn.

The player must take it from his supply.

The player may only deploy it to the tile he just placed.

While the Z-Man edition rules don't have a specifically spelled out restriction; you can go based off of what they do allow you to do:

Placing a meeple:
The player may place a meeple from her supply onto the tile she has just placed.

The sections on Highwaymen and Knights say something similar. While the rules don't say "you cannot place a meeple on a different tile", they don't need to, because the rules are there to tell you what things are are allowed to do. You are automatically not allowed to do anything that the rulebook does not give you permission to do.
As an extreme example, the rules don't say that you aren't allowed to take one of your opponent's meeples off the board, but it is assumed that it is not allowed because they don't say you are allowed.
That being said, the Z-Man rulebook just doesn't seem as clear over all. It awkwardly states the rule for placing a tile multiple times; for each of the types of terrain, and then gives the rule about placing a meeple for each one. Under the rule for placing a meeple a a monk, it actually says "You can place
a meeple on a monastery as a monk." which fails to mention that it must be on a monastery that you just placed. You need to use the context of how placing meeples in general works to realize that you can't just place a meeple on any monastery.


Do tokens ever go to the graveyard and can they be sacrificed or exiled?

If I had a card that said something like, "Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for every creature in your graveyard".

There cannot be such a card.

Since "creature" means "creature permanent" which means "creature card or token on the battlefield", and since a card or token cannot be in the graveyard and on the battlefield at the same time, the enchantment would never affect the attached object's power and toughness.

The ability would likely read "Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each creature card in your graveyard" like Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord's, which means it wouldn't count any tokens since tokens aren't cards.

Let's assume there's a card that has the ability "Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each creature card and each creature token in your graveyard".

  Would that also apply to tokens which died in previous turns?

Tokens go to the graveyard just like a card would. However, they only stay there for a very short period of time. The next time State-Based Actions (SBAs) are performed, they will cease to exist.

Tokens placed in the graveyard on a previous turn will have ceased to exist long ago.

In fact, the effect checking for tokens in the graveyard wouldn't even see the tokens that died this turn except for an extremely short (and practically useless) period of time. The longest scenario might be when the tokens are put into the graveyard during the resolution of a spell or ability, because the SBAs will be only be performed after the spell or ability finishes resolving. It could matter if your opponent has Hidden Predators, but that's about it.

  if I play a card which says, return target creature from the graveyard then can I choose a token?

There cannot be such a card.

Again, creatures (aka creature permanents) cannot be found in the graveyard. It would be impossible to pick a legal target.

The effect would read something like "Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield". This excludes tokens since they aren't cards.

You will never find "Return target creature card or token from your graveyard to the battlefield." for two reasons:

Even if there was a token was in the graveyard when targets were chosen, it would have ceased to exists by the time the spell or ability resolved.
A rule prohibits the tokens from changing zones once they've left the battlefield.

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

  Right now I use Dice to represent tokens,

It's a poor (and illegal) choice to use a die to represent a type of token since a die can't be tapped.

  but not sure what to do once any of my tokens die.

Your tokens would move the graveyard, and soon after they will cease to exist. Most people don't bother physically moving them to the graveyard. Simply adjust the count.

  cards which say sacrifice a creature or exile a creature, would these apply to tokens?

Yes. "Creature" means "creature permanent" which means "creature card or token on the battlefield".


How did makers of "Gwent" set scores for each card?

Playtesting. Playtesting. More playtesting. And then once you're done with that, some more playtesting.
Any TCG which is complicated enough to be interesting for human players is far too complicated to be able to be modelled mathematically, so extensive playtesting is the only way for the designers of Gwent or any other TCG to be able to design their cards. Of course, just as you as a player can look at a card and have (in most cases) a pretty good clue how good the card is, the designers can do the same and have a good starting point for the cost and abilities of any cards - and the designers are probably better evaluating cards than you, because that's their job.
On the other hand, TCG designers don't always get it right, and sometimes get it really badly wrong. For Gwent (or most other online TCGs), that's not too bad as they can easily tweak the power level of individual cards to ensure none of them are too busted, but that's not an option which is so readily available to paper TCGs because it's harder to change the text on printed cards - the biggest of them all, Magic: the Gathering, has a policy of banning overpowered cards rather than functionally changing them.


Do the rules 720.3 and 720.5 contradict each other?

There's no contradiction.

720.5 is an explanation of how to follow 720.3 in some cases. For example, if Lethal Vapors said "destroy it or sacrifice another permanent", then the creature's owner would have to sacrifice something else to end the loop. That's the kind of choice that is called for by 720.5.

In your example, neither player can be forced to activate Lethal Vapors. This is according to 720.5. The activated ability on Lethal Vapors is not called for by any object involved in the loop.

Either player however, would be able to choose to activate Lethal Vapors to end the sequence. Thus you have a situation which is legally allowed to end in a draw if both players agree, but either player could skip their next turn to keep the game going.

The key here is that 720.5 doesn't try to include "abilities of anything involved in the loop" in the scope. It just means when the mechanism of the loop inherently includes a way out - a player can't endlessly choose the other option to force a draw.


Is there a MTG card similar (either in image or name) to R2D2 for a Star Wars theme deck?

I think Mindless Automaton looks a bit like R2D2


In Bridge, When and Why Do People Sacrifice Overtricks to Be Sure of Making Game?

There are three popular methods of scoring, each of which treat overtricks with different value:

Rubber - Here the priority is making game (or multiple partscores) to finish the rubber.  Points earned for your contract go "below the line", and count towards winning the game and the rubber.  All other points (setting contracts, slam bonuses, hundred honors, etc) go "above the line", and do not count towards ending the rubber.  Since ending the rubber is worth 500 or 700 points depending on whether or not your opponents scored a game or not, you can see how sacrificing a 20-30 point bonus trick could be worthwhile.

Matchpoint Duplicate - This is the form of the game most often played at bridge clubs in partnerships.  Here, you score one point for each other partnership's score you beat when they played the same hands.  Since the scoring here is more absolute, there is value in winning an overtrick if you think the rest of the partnerships playing this hand would not.  For example, if you are in 4S, but feel that most people might be in 3NT making 4, you're going to want to try to make 5.  If you do, your 450 will beat everyone else's 430, and you'll get the maximum amount of points on that board.  Conversely, if you only make 4, you'll only score 420 on the hand, and your score will be worth nothing.  Since your 4S making 4 is worth nothing, you can see that 4S going down would also be worth nothing, so in this case it is worthwhile to risk the contract to get the overtrick.

International Matchpoints (or IMPs) - This is the form usually played in teams, where you and another partnership play against another foursome, and your results are compared directly.  Much like in rubber, in IMPs overtricks are not worth a whole lot. (see the scoring chart for the ugly details)  If you score an overtrick that your opponents do not, you get 1 IMP.  On the other hand, if you fail to make game while your opponents do, you lose 10-12 IMPS.  Here, securing the contract is priority #1.


Do Go players play to minimize score difference after realizing they cannot win?

In general, if you realize that you can't win, you should resign. It's considered rude to make plays that will only allow you to catch up if your opponent makes a stupid mistake.

I don't think Go is different from chess in this way. I would say around half of my games end in resignation.


What happens if Matter Reshaper reveals a land?

Lands have a converted mana cost of 0, since that is equal to or less than 3 you are able to put it onto the battlefield.

  202.3a The converted mana cost of an object with no mana cost is 0, unless that object is the back face of a double-faced permanent or is a melded permanent.


What actions can be taken as a free action?

Free actions are actions that are specified on the ship's action bar, other cards or special mission rules. You can normally only perform actions during the Perform Action step of the Activation phase.
Advanced Sensors allows you to perform any one of these free actions outside of the regular step at the cost of skipping that step.
From the X-Wing Rules reference (pg 12)

A free action is an action granted to a ship through a card ability or other effect. It does not count as the one standard action that a ship performs during the “Perform Action” step.
• A stressed ship cannot perform free actions.
• A ship can perform free actions even if it skipped its “Perform Action” step due to overlapping an asteroid obstacle or another game effect.
• If a ship is specifically granted a free barrel roll action or a free boost action and cannot complete the action in the desired direction, it may choose a different direction. It cannot choose to perform a different action.


Is Codenames meant to played in American English, British English, Australian English, or any of them?

Codenames was designed by Vlaada Chvatil, a Czech game designer, and in its original form was published by Czech games edition. So in that sense, the answer is none of the above.

More generally, the best clues in Codenames are the ones that will lead your team to guess the right words, which means you should assume that you are playing in whatever version makes sense for the players. This can include consideration of things like pop culture references (will your team understand that "Mine" is a clue for "Seagull" because if Finding Nemo?), but also deeper cultural associations.

If your team is all from the US, you should feel safe using American English as the baseline for your clues. If you don't know whether your fellow players speak American, Australian, British, Singaporean, Canadian, whatever English, then you have to use clues that are (to your knowledge) as common across them all and hope for the best.


Devotion came out in the Theros block so any card with "Devotion to" will be in standard until about fall 2015 when the Theros block cards will no longer be playable in standard.

Some of the cards you will be getting for these decks will have been printed in the Return to Ravnica block (Pack rat, Nightveil Specter) and you will only be able to play these in standard till fall 2014 (whenever the set after M15 comes out).

Without knowing what cards will come out in the fall 2014 set, these decks may either still be around, dominate all the tournaments or just drop off the radar once the cards from Return to Ravnica block drop out of standard. Standard is always about investing into new cards every year.

The cards you do buy can be used for either Modern or for trading off for newer cards so investment is never fully lost, you just may never get what you paid (but my guess is the Gods will still have value after standard since they can also be used for commander)


Is The Next Act Begins a valid first mythos card during setup?

If a mythos card with no gate is drawn during step 14 of
  Game Setup, discard it and draw again until you draw a
  mythos card that depicts a gate.

Source: Arkham Horror Core FAQ or Complete Arkham Horror FAQ, "Rule Changes and Clarifications" (page 2 in both sources)


When do you gain life from lifelink when attacking?

You will gain the life at the same time that the damage is dealt. Lifelink simply changes what the effects of dealing are, to include gaining life.

From the basic rule book:

  lifelink—If a creature with lifelink deals damage, its controller also gains that much life.

Note that some creatures, such as Horned Cheetah have a similar ability to Lifelink, but it works slightly different. As a triggered ability, Horned Cheetah's ability will go on the stack when damage is dealt, and ou will gain life after that ability resolves.

So with Lifelink... you are at 1 life, and your opponent is attacking you with 2 1/1 creatures. You can block one of them with a Vampire Nighthawk, but can’t block the other. When combat damage is dealt, you lose 1 life and gain 2 life simultaneously, so you do not lose the game.

If instead you had a Horned Cheetah to block with, then you would lose the game before you gain the life fro Horned Cheetah.


How should I plan for a VP win as Nurgle?

Nurgle's general best winning strategy seems to be to go for VPs, not ticks. Khorne goes for ticks, and the other 3 go for either or depending. (This is actually suggested in the rules, near the end in a 2-page spread about strategy.)

In short: dominate all you can partake in every ruination. Those provide the big points.


The crane can be very useful when you don't want to finish the game.

Remember: the one who builds his/her 12th building isn't the winner. This action only ends the game. If you have 11 houses and are not in a position of wining, it could be useful to build one more without finishing the game.

EDIT

Also, using a crane can help you building a big house in two steps, no need to have seven cards in the hand at one time.

An interresting effect linked to the use of the crane is that you can use the builder's privilege twice on the same card. Let's say you want to build something that is worth 6. You are the builder. Build some building that's worth 3, pay it 2. Next turn, choose the builder, expand your 3-building to your 6-building, pay 2 instead of 3. The total cost of the building was 4 instead of 6. Add to that some additionnal cards that reduce the price, you can even have a free 6-cards!!!


They get the full 150 for their run.

A run is by definition an A, 10, K, Q, J of trump suit; which is what they had. It is not required to be the person who won the bid in order to have a run.

From the rules:

  The values of the melds are:

    A,10, K, Q, J of trump suit (flush, or sequence) 150


Trashing Market Square and another card at the same time

The cards are trashed at the same time, so if you are trashing Market Square, you would not be allowed to discard Market Square for its effect also.

  You choose all the cards you want to trash, and then trash them at the same time; you don't trash them one-by-one. This matters for interactions with Dark Ages cards with on-trash abilities.

Dominion Strategy Wiki

Also, from the Dark Ages rulebook:

  When two or more cards are trashed at the same time, as with Count, first trash them all, then pick an order to resolve things that happen due to trashing them.


If you play it right, you can cast one sorcery and a number of instants at a discount.

Two key points before we start:

Baral must be on the battlefield to be targeted by Lightning Bolt.
Baral must be on the battlefield to provide its discount.

Lightning Bolt targets a creature or a player. "Creature" means "creature permanent", which means "creature card or token on the battlefield". As such, Baral can only be targeted by Lightning Bolt when it's on the battlefield. In other words, Baral couldn't have been targeted by the Lightning Bolt while it was still on the stack.

If your opponent specifically said they cast Lightning Bolt in response to Baral and proceeded to target Baral, they made a mistake.

If they simply said they were casting Lightning Bolt, they were actually proposing the following shortcut:

You pass priority to let Baral resolve.
You pass priority after Baral resolves.
They cast Lightning Bolt.

You don't have to accept the entire shortcut. For example, let's say one of the spells you wanted to cast is a sorcery. You could let Baral resolve, and step in to cast the sorcery instead of doing step 2. (See [CR 719] for more on shortcuts.) The following would happen instead:

You pass priority to let Baral resolve.
You cast a sorcery (at a discount).

Now, they have priority. Let's say they cast Lightning Bolt at this point. (They don't have to because you shortened their shortcut.) The stack:

(top) Lightning Bolt
(bottom) Your sorcery

At this point, Lightning Bolt hasn't resolved, and thus hasn't dealt its damage yet. That means that instants cast in response to Lightning Bolt will benefit from the discount.

(top) ...
Your Instant #2
Your Instant #1
Lightning Bolt
(bottom) Your Sorcery

(You could also cast the instants one after the other instead of in response to each other. That would actually be a bit more natural.)

Eventually, after Lightning Bolt resolves and before anything else happens, Baral will be moved to the graveyard and will no longer provide its discount. The continuous effects from static abilities apply at all times that the permanent generating it is on the battlefield or the object generating it is in the appropriate zone. And not a moment longer.[CR 611.3b]

  If I play Baral with red mana available, the opponent responds with Lightning Bolt killing my Baral

Impossible. Your opponent must wait for Baral to resolve if they wish to target it with Lightning Bolt, so they can't cast the Lightning Bolt in response to you casting Baral.

  can I continue to combo getting a cost reduction from Baral on the stack or  I've got a feeling it does because Baral hasn't resolved yet.

Baral static ability only works when Baral is on the battlefield. If Baral hasn't resolved yet, it doesn't provide a discount.

  does the cost reduction end with the 3 damage from the Bolt.

Yes. It happens when Baral moves to the graveyard, which happens immediately after the damage is dealt.


Trajan has you playing a round of Mancala each turn to decide what action you take, with bonuses for accumulating the correct colored pieces in certain locations.


Where can combat dice and extra units be bought?

There are various places you can shop online for spare pieces.  One such location is at http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Axis-Allies-1941-2012_c_196.html

Alternatively, simply getting an additional copy of the game from a yard sale might be more cost effective at times.

As for dice, to my knowledge they are standard d6 with a special symbol in place of the 1, but functionally they are the same otherwise.  I have been very pleased with the quality of dice from http://www.chessex.com/ and I regularly visit their booth at conventions.


Does Saheeli Rai's (-2) targeting Riddleform make a creature?

You'll end up with an Artifact Enchantment.

When an object copies another, even if it never was anything else, only the copiable values are copied.

  706.2. 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.

[Emphasis added]

The token will also have the abilities of Riddleform, so yes, it can become a creature.


How big is a Consuming Aberration after it is stolen with Act of Treason?

You would count the cards of the graveyards of the opponents of whoever controls the Consuming Aberration. "You" in Static Abilities, such as the one setting Consuming Aberration's power and toughness, refer to the controller of that card. Act of Treason gives you control of the creature, so the Static Abilities are yours. Per the Magic Comp rules (emphasis mine):

  109.5. The words “you” and “your” on an object refer to the object’s controller, its would-be controller
  (if a player is attempting to play, cast, or activate it), or its owner (if it has no controller). For a
  static ability, this is the current controller of the object it’s on. For an activated ability, this is the
  player who activated the ability. For a triggered ability, this is the controller of the object when the
  ability triggered, unless it’s a delayed triggered ability.


Do you collect $200 in Monopoly if you don't ask for it?

Yes, you still collect $200.

From the rulebook:

  Each time a player’s token lands on or passes over GO,
  whether by throwing the dice or drawing a card, the Banker pays
  him/her a $200 salary.

No mention of the player "asking" for the money or anything. It says the Banker pays him, so the Banker pays him.


If you have the rage and you have the card, you can do it as often as you like.

The cards are not limited in their use except when specifically stated.

Note that if all provinces are pillaged, the round ends, and you can't use Tyr's Challenge even if you could afford it.


Can colonists be relocated during the Mayor phase?

All your colonists can be moved each mayor phase, including ones acquired during earlier turns.

From the rules:

  A player may place his new colonist(s), together with all the colonists he acquired from earlier rounds, on any empty circles on the tiles on his player board. Thus, a player may move a colonist placed on a circle or San Juan in an earlier round.

Since it is the last thing a player does during their turn, the first opportunity to remind them is after a new role card is selected or the Governor placard is moved (since otherwise it would still be during their turn.). It seems silly to place only the minimum number of colonists in the ship if "forgotten" at this point, and I can see how this could be exploited by players to not end the game as soon as it normally would. (Note: This rules seems is probably for later turns after a Builder phase has been selected and people cannot remember which new buildings have been built, and therefore how many colonists are supposed to be on the ship.)

  As his last duty, the mayor puts new colonists on the colonist ship to be used in the next mayor phase. [...] - If a mayor forgets (players may remind him) to place new colonists on the colonist ship, players later place the minimum (number of players) on the colonist ship.


What is Majestic Myriarch's power and toughness if I "eternalize" it with God-Pharaoh's Gift?

It will be a 4/4.

As the rulings indicate, God Pharaoh's Gift's effect is a copy effect with modifications; in particular, it modifies the type, color, power, and toughness of the copy. this means that rule 706.9d applies:

  When applying a copy effect that doesn’t copy a certain characteristic, retains an original value for a certain characteristic, or modifies the final value of a certain characteristic, any characteristic-defining ability (see rule 604.3) of the object being copied that defines that characteristic is not copied. If that characteristic is color, any color indicator (see rule 204) of that object is also not copied.

This means that Majestic Myriarch's first ability is not copied, so it is just a 4/4.


Does sister Mary pass with rolls of 3-6 when Blessed and 5-6 when Cursed?

adds 1 to the result rolled as part of an effect printed on a Condition card that has the BANE or BOON trait

Not all tests in the game are printed on the Boon or Bane cards.


Blinking a creature equipped w Stitcher's Graft

As rule 400.7 explains, the exiled creature is a new object:

  An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence.

Stitcher's Graft's third ability mentions "that permanent", which does not exist anymore, so it cannot be sacrificed.


"If you end your turn on this tile gain X stat." Power farming?

The FAQ/Errata, found here, clarifies that these rooms can each only be used once per player per game.

  Chapel, Gymnasium, Larder, Library -- Can you stay in one of these rooms turn after turn to increase an attribute?

    No. Each character can receive the benefit from each room just once per game (one boost for each trait for each player, if all four rooms are in play). Most players find this easy to remember, but if someone gets argumentative, keep a simple, written record.


What happens to 'Crackdown' when it targets 'Traptrix Sera'?

Crackdown has two effects, the first of which reads:

Activate this card by targeting 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; take control of it, but while you control that monster, it cannot attack or activate its effects.

Sera is unaffected, but only when she's Link Summoned. She can still be targeted. but if she was Link Summoned, Crackdown remains in its activator's field, but it simply does nothing and is destroyed when Sera leaves the field. If she was SPECIAL summoned, however, (like, by card effects), then it's resolved normally.


We've tried to replace the robber with a more benevolent figure (we used a LEGO Dumbledore microfig but you can just reuse the robber figure and call it, say, a magician)

When you roll a 7, move the magician to the tile you want
If the number on which the magician sits is rolled, all tiles overlooked by the magician get double the ressources for that turn

We came up with that because we don't like the robber that much, and it sped up the game quite a bit. Now, I suppose any house rule which gives more ressources would shorten the game length, but with that one is slightly strategic in nature.

Of course there's also the bog-standard way to change the duration of the game: instead of 10 victory points, aim for less (8 for example). As long as you agree before starting the game :-)


Loans in Brass can be key to a successful game. Loans at the very beginning are very cheap to repay, where as loans later in the game can be very expensive. If you are likely to need a loan at any point during the game (which you almost certainly will), I would advise you to take the loan early.

Some other pieces of advice I would offer.

Try to get some level 2 buildings in place before the end of the canal phase. It will make your position stronger. Choose the buildings that offer the most strategic positioning as the ones to upgrade, if you can.
If you opponents are fighting it out for the Shipyard pieces, try to concentrate on the cotton route. The level 4 cotton buildings give victory points of 12 each when flipped. Two of these give you a better return (for far less manoeuvring) than a single ship.
If the iron or coal demand track has a few spaces empty, consider building immediately, to repopulate the demand track. You will potentially get the tile flipped immediately, and make some money for your troubles.
Don't discount the idea of using two cards to place any industry on any city. Some will see this as a waste of a turn, but it can give you a tactical edge when there are few other options available.


How should I start a second Gloomhaven campaign when the first is deeply underway?

There are many questions over on Board Game Geek asking this. here links to many others asking the same.

What I would ask is how important is the consistent world logic to you.  I'll try and give this answer with general concepts rather than specific spoilers.

As you play through the game you will notice that certain quests have prerequisites that certain party/global achievements have or have not happened.  If these revolve around an NPC being alive or dead then it wouldn't make sense for one party to be carrying out a task for someone who the other party killed.

Also you may have logical inconsistencies with road/city events.  Say Party A has an event which involved meeting an NPC who promises something later.  Then Party B has an event which references what the other party did.

Would you be OK with either of the above?

Having two parties might also cause problem with item supply. Some items have 4 copies so, in theory, are available to everyone.  Are you happy with this or would you try and keep a record of who has what item so each is available to either party>

So my answer is the possibly controversial one of 'feel free to break the rules in whatever way makes your group happy and enjoy the game'.  If you you want to start another party from the beginning and you're happy with potentially illogical storylines, then that's up to you - if that's what your group enjoys.

My other suggestion: if you're wanting to try new characters and can't wait till retirement, perhaps break the rules and allow your party to have more than four characters.  Then before each quest/road/city event decide which character you are taking along.

If this is what you want to do, then you just need to decide beforehand how you will handle these issues.  Trying to run two separate campaigns might work for missions being locked/unlocked but trying to keep track of two separate road and city decks less so.


Can I cast a "counter" on a spell that cannot be countered?

Yes, you can, the same way you can "try" to destroy indestructible permanents. It is still a legal target, the countering effect just doesn't happen.

See the gatherer rulings for Emrakul:

  Emrakul can be targeted by spells that try to counter it (such as Lay Bare). Those spells will resolve, but the part of their effect that would counter Emrakul won’t do anything. Any other effects those spells have will work as normal.

As a spell or ability resolves, as long as all targets are valid (so it isn't itself countered), it will try to do as much of its effects as it can. Drawing a card isn't conditioned on the countering being successful, so as long as Remand resolves, you get to draw a card.


If Gray Merchant dies and is revived by something like Undying Evil, does it repeat it's loss of life when it is revived?

Question 1. Yes, he enters the battle field and thus his ability triggers.

Question 2: Yes, you use the devotion at the time the spell resolves.

A ruling on Gray merchant of asphodel has this:

  If an activated ability or triggered ability has an effect that
  depends on your devotion to a color, you count the number of mana
  symbols of that color among the mana costs of permanents you control
  as the ability resolves. The permanent with that ability will be
  counted if it’s still on the battlefield at that time.


Can Dragon Broodmother+Elemental Mastery be triggered to provide elemental tokens before upkeep resolves?

Yes.

When dealing with keyword abilities, it's best to start by looking up their exact definition.

  702.81a Devour is a static ability. “Devour N” means “As this object enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This permanent enters the battlefield with N +1/+1 counters on it for each creature sacrificed this way.”

Dragon Broodmother's ability is a triggered ability, which means you'll get priority before it resolves.

The choice of creatures to sacrifice is made on resolution, so they don't need to exist when the ability is added to the stack.

So, you can activate the ability granted by Elemental Mastery in response to Dragon Broodmother's ability being added to the stack (i.e. after it's been added to the stack, but before it resolves). Having been placed on the stack last, the ability granted by Elemental Mastery will resolve first.


Proper Sleeve size for Android Netrunner

Android Netrunner cards are the same size as Magic: the Gathering cards, so you can use any sleeves that are Magic sized for them. This includes Fantasy Flight, Ultra-Pro, KMC, and Dragon Shield. The color or design on the sleeves doesn't matter as long as the deck has all of the same color/design (the Corporation and Runner decks can have different colors/designs if you choose, but that isn't required).


For Sister Grimm's Super Power, where does the plot twist go if you can't play it?

It does tell you, it says play it if able. You are not able so you can't use it, it stays in your K.O pile not your deck.


Lose Calm, if you make a creature attack does it become tapped?

A creature being tapped or untapped is completely independent of who controls it. When Lose Calm resolves, you become the creature's controller and the creature untaps if it was tapped. Then you can do whatever you want with it, including attack with it. After that, once your turn ends, the creature returns to your opponent's control, in whatever state it is in.


For Star Realms, what's the appropriate ratio of Wealth-per-Card-per-Faction?

Alright, so I found google docs with cards, added some more data concerning base sets and made a diagram with it. I used a sophisticated formula of counting only half of the trade from ally and scrap abilities and counting optional abilities as full trade.

Google docs data

Here are some diagrams I came up with:

This one shows generated trade by card costs, I didn't do other factions because they only have trade-generating cards up to a cost of 4 (with a single exception).

Initial source of data I used: BGG files


Not to be trite, but the score is the score!

Announcing point contributions from the various categories (runs, pairs, same suit, correct Jack, etc.) should suffice. Note: this is what you have called "shorthand".

Of course, this all depends on the level of play. If I'm teaching the game to a new player, I would go as far as to count (the first example) as "one, two, three" (pause), "four, five, six... and a pair of Aces is eight".

In a tournament, players should know that pairs/trips/quads are worth 2/6/12, runs are calculated as (length of run) times (multiplicities of each rank involved), etc.


Does Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi trigger the ability of Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner?

It doesn't trigger.

It's not simply a question of checking if the state of the game went from not having a creature of power 4 or greater on the battlefield to having one.

An object only enters the battlefield when it moves from a zone other than the battlefield (e.g. hand, graveyard, exile) to the battlefield or when it's otherwise created on the battlefield.

  Enters the Battlefield
  A nontoken permanent “enters the battlefield” when it’s moved onto the battlefield from another zone. A token “enters the battlefield” when it’s created. See rules 403.3, 603.6a, 603.6d, and 614.12.

Since the land in question already existed, and since the land in question was already on the battlefield, no object entered the battlefield (much less one that was a creature with power 4 or greater). As such, the ability isn't triggered.

A ruling on Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner reminds you of this:

  However, you can’t have a creature with power 3 or less enter the battlefield, raise its power with a spell, an activated ability, or a triggered ability, and have Kiora’s ability trigger.


Name and official (?) rules for this cards game I half remembered

You are playing asshole, a classic drinking game. Rules vary, but here's a pretty standard set: http://www.webtender.com/handbook/games/asshole.game


Smallworld: Can the sorcerer's ability be used on a lost tribe token?

Lost tribe tokens are neither an active race nor under the control of an opponent, so they clearly can't be the target of the sorcerors' ability.


In multiplayer, in which order are replacement effects from different players applied?

The order in which replacement effects are applied to an event is chosen by the player or controller affected. In this case, the event in question is your creature dying, so you choose which replacement effect applies first, and which opponent gets the token.

The specific rule that covers this is rule 616.1:

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


When to make a small bet in two-player Haggis?

This question was discussed in this BGG thread.

The only answer I found at all convincing was: in a 3-player game, if your hand is marginal, the big bet may convince your opponents to put their own interests aside and work together to set you. If you make a small bet on a similar hand, your opponents might play less aggressively to defeat you--each trying to snag more point cards himself, say--leaving you with a slightly better chance of making the bet. Clearly, this does not apply to 2-player.

It was also pointed out that the 15-point bet allows a risk-averse novice to experiment with the bet mechanic without being buried for failure. This isn't strong general strategy but it's a reason you might see the small bet.


What do the colors mean on Better Settlers?

The colors surely match the colors of the resource cards and the actual hexes:

maroon - brick
dark green - wood
light green - sheep
yellow - wheat
gray - ore

And the blank orange hex would be the desert.

(clockwise from bottom left, that's sheep, wheat, ore, brick, and wood;  the center is desert, and there's an extra wood cut off on the bottom)


There is certainty a first-player advantage in Dominion. However, that particular house rule gives a possibly even more significant second-player advantage. The reason for this is that the first player can never safely end the game. He has very little control over how the game ends. The best he can do is to build up a significant lead, then end the game and hope. Meanwhile, the second player (assuming a 2 player game) can end the game exactly when he needs to in order to win.

There is a lot of discussion about this exact rule here: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=9791.0.

And here is a well-written article explaining the reasons behind the first-player advantage:
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=1467.0

There are definitely statistics to support this advantage. http://councilroom.com/ contains statistics from thousands of online Dominion games with top players. You can pick almost any good player at random and see that their win percentage as first player is much higher than their win percentage as second player. It appears that the search functionality on councilroom is down at the moment, but here is a link to statistics gathered from there: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=54.msg723#msg723. Finally, there is a lot of discussion on the statistics of first-player advantage here: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=946.0.

This advantage was designed to be countered by playing multiple games, and having the winner go last in the next game, which is actually written in the original instruction book.


Bridge convention after opponent opens 1NT -- specific question about D.O.N.T

That is something that you must agree with your partner. By default D.O.N.T is off in this situation, but you can agree that it is on. If you use this, it must be alerted. You must also consider how to show hands where the normal bid is impossible. Suppose, for example, your hand is clubs and spades, but the opponent bids diamonds. Obviously 2C is insufficient.


First of all, Doomsday doesn't deal damage (so it won't be stopped by effects that prevent damage). It causes life loss.

Secondly, the amount of life you have when you cast Doomsday is of no relevance; it's the amount of life you have when you are instructed to lose life when it resolves that matters.

Half of one rounded up is one, so you drop to zero life if you have one life when the spell resolves. If you still have non-positive life the next time a player would get priority (probably right after the spell resolves), you will lose then.


Are there specific deck combinations to avoid in Smash Up?

Plants/Steampunk and Ghost: Plants and Steampunk have ways to draw additional cards every single turn, but the Ghost deck is trying to discard all of its cards, and is often most powerful with an empty hand. (The Wizards get a pass here; they draw cards on demand rather than every single turn.)

Wizards and Robots: the Robot deck is light on action cards, and the Wizard deck has too many ways to allow you to play extra actions (which you won't be able to take advantage of).

Bears/Pirates/Aliens: Bear and Pirate have a lot of move-minion cards, and Alien has a lot of return-minion-to-hand cards; you're only going to find it useful to move/evict minions so many times during a game. They can still work well together, but you're more likely to have several extra move-minion cards that you can't think of a use for.

Of course, if your deck is too powerful, then your opponents are more likely to team up against you; a weak deck will keep more heat off of you. The game is powered by Rule of Cool (warning: TV Tropes) anyway, so don't sweat it too much. (Robot Bears vs. Ninja Plants!) It's much more fun to pick your deck-halves randomly than to dither over which decks to pick together.


Can you use one card on multiple obstacles?

Black Market cards work in much the same way as the basic cards, unless they have an ability which lets them damage multiple obstacles, they will deal all of their damage to a single obstacle.


Is it required to reconnect a path that has been disrupted by a rock-fall before adding onto the end of the path in Saboteur?

All new tunnels must connect to the ladder.  This was answered by the Designer on Boardgamegeek.

  when you play a path card it must be able to trace a path back to the start card.


Do "if you would gain life, gain that much life +1" abilities trigger once per turn, or once for every instance of you gaining life

A creature like that is Angel of Vitality; its ability applies for every instance of gaining life, not just once per turn.

  The middle ability of Angel of Vitality applies just once to each life-gaining event, whether it’s 1 life from Impassioned Orator or 4 life from Dawning Angel. If you gain an amount of life “for each” of something or “equal to the number” of something, that life is gained as one event and the ability of Angel of Vitality applies only once.

(emphasis mine)

So in your scenario you would gain 4 life, since the 2 creatures' abilities trigger separately and are considered two separate life-gaining events, even if they're triggered by the same event.


Phase 10 Twist, If I lay down a phase how will I get enough cards to continue?

After you complete a phase you must get rid of all the cards in your hand by hitting on existing Phases and discarding cards you can't play. Once someone who has completed a phase runs out of cards the hand is over and all the cards are dealt out again and players who completed the Phase can move on to the next Phase.


In the sixth adventure, how do you destroy the Gravestorms Phylactery Token?

The phylactery doesn't have an AC iirc, so you can essentially destroy it just by attacking it with an at-will.


If there are two Lighthouse Chronologist with three players, will one player be pereptually skipped?

This is correct. Here's a ruling on it from Gatherer (Emphasis mine):

  In a multiplayer game, if multiple players each control a level 7 Lighthouse Chronologist, extra turns may sometimes be created faster than they can be taken. Keep track of them carefully. If multiple Chronologist's abilities trigger during the same turn, the player whose turn would show up sooner in the natural turn order will get the first extra turn. For example, say Players B and C each control a level 7 Lighthouse Chronologist. Player A takes a turn. The game will proceed like this (with extra turns in brackets): Player A's current turn, [Player B's turn], [Player C's turn], [Player B's turn], [Player C's turn], and so on. Because Players B and C will each add another extra turn after the other player's extra turn, Player A will not take another turn as long as both level 7 Lighthouse Chronologists remain on the battlefield.

Wow, sucks to be player A.


Interaction between Nivmagus Elemental and Rune Snag

You are correct, Player T should not have had to pay 2 mana.

The decision of whether or not to pay 2 mana happens as part of Rune Snag resolving. Player G has 2 options:

1) Let Rune Snag resolve, in which case Player T needs to pay 2 mana (or have their spell countered), but Nivmagus Elemental won't do anything, as Rune Snag will no longer be a valid target for the ability.

2) Activate Nivmagus Elemental's ability while Rune Snag is on the stack, exiling Rune Snag. Player T will not have to pay 2 mana, because Rune Snag will never resolve.

Note that option 1 will happen by default if player G does not specify otherwise. Player G has the right to respond to their own spell:

  116.3c If a player has priority when they cast a spell, activate an ability, or take a special action, that player receives priority afterward.

However, they must specifically state that they wish to retain priority:

(From the tournament rules):

  Whenever a player adds an object to the stack, they are assumed to be passing priority unless they explicitly announce that they intend to retain it.

So if player G casts Rune Snag without saying anything, player T can simply say "ok" or "resolves" or "I'll pay the mana", and it will be too late for player G to use Ninmagus.

This rule matters especially for Ninmagus in general; the player will always need to declare that they wish to retain priority if they want to ensure that they can use it.


What cards or types of cards are substantially more/less useful in Two-Headed-Giant than in 'normal' Magic?

Any cards that care about any aspect of the game that is likely to increase due to there being more Lands, Cards in Hand, Creatures in Play, Higher Life Totals, turns, attack phases, etc.

The above is just a generalization of course. THG is similar to multiplayer in this respect. Aggro decks don't work as well, and Combo and Control decks get better. Some interesting examples are listed below, but in general you should be looking at cards that count things that there are likely to be more of. Truthfully though, most THG decks are built as two puzzle pieces (unless playing draft/sealed). Cards are specifically chosen to complement the other deck. While generalities are useful, they aren't the whole picture.

Life Totals start at 30, and are shared by both players. Any card that counts Life Totals will behave differently. Some interesting examples are:

Heartless Hidetsugu - Instantly kill all even life teams.

Serra Ascendant - Starts off with +5/+5 bonus.

There will be more lands in play, interesting examples are:

Impending Disaster - Almost sure to trigger, and cheaper than Armageddon.

Limited Resources - Broken for Multiplayer, and bad in THG with decks built to exploit it.

There will be more Hands. Interesting examples are:

Unnerve - 1:4 your opponents isn't bad.


Do you get change from cards in Ascension?

You can buy 2 cards costing three runes each, but not because you get "change".

When you play a card worth 2 runes, what that does is adds 2 runes to the pool of runes you have available to spend. So when you play 3 cards like that, you now have 6 runes in the pool of runes to spend. It no longer matters at all how the runes got there. You have 6 runes to spend, and you can spend them however you like.


If I simultaneously kill my opponent and deck myself at the same time, is the game drawn?

It's a draw.
While the 'lethal' effects do not occur simultaneously, the state-based actions that check whether a player loses only happen after the spell resolves, not during its resolution:

608.2. If the object that's resolving is an instant spell, a sorcery spell, or an ability, its resolution may involve several steps.
116.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.
704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 116, "Timing and Priority"), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event.

After Electrolyze resolve, state-based actions are checked:

104.3b If a player's life total is 0 or less, that player loses the game the next time a player would receive priority. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)
104.3c If a player is required to draw more cards than are left in their library, they draw the remaining cards and then lose the game the next time a player would receive priority. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)
104.4a If all the players remaining in a game lose simultaneously, the game is a draw.


Why is the strong 1NT so prevalent in Bridge?

I am no bridge historian, but wouldn't the underlying answer have to do with the underlying  "path dependence?" This is a standard: Most people in Britain use weak 1 NT, so people in Britain first learn weak 1 NT. Conversely, most people in the US use strong 1 NT, so most people in USA first learn strong 1 NT.

The main idea of path dependence is that there doesn't have to be some grand "reason" that a standard develops. A standard would only get undermined if it was radically inferior (e.g., people that play one system win way more often, ceteris paribus) . I'd guess that Truscott's book has some story... which gave a kernel of advantage to each system in different countries... which led to a "lock in" of each standard in each country.

It's not like the average player in the US plays often with people from Britain. And there's not this bias at the highest levels of bridge, right?


Antoine Bauza answered a question very similar to this one on BoardGame Geek:

[Question]1) After you have exceeded your Kiai value, but before you are obliged to pass on your next turn, can other players still pass on cards to you?
[Response]1) Sure ! (it's important )
When you exceeded your Kiaia Value, you have to brun immediately a barricade / farm. But you are force to tak ethe pass action on your next turn. So, a lot can happen before you're next turn (passing card, removing a card from your combat line). {Sic}

The direct implication to this is that:

Just because you've exceeded your Kiai value, your turn does not immediately pass.
Adding additional raider cards to a character who has exceeded his kiai value will not cause additional barricades to burn.
The character is still "in play" until the beginning of his next turn.

So, Kikuchiyo specifically, can take another raider, and either add it to his defense pile or his confrontation pile.


Yes, from the turn overview of the game rules:

  You may build as long as your resource supply allows for it.

Also, the Combined Trade/Build Phase section of the Almanac states that

  After rolling for resource production, you can trade and build in any order. Naturally, you can trade, build, trade again and build again.

You are restricted to playing only one Development Card, however, and you cannot play a Development Card that you bought on your current turn.


This looks like the jumping frogs puzzle.

There are several variants.

The number of spaces and pieces can vary.
The number of pieces you can jump over can vary.

As far as I know, this qualifies as a puzzle. But I think you can play this as a game too.


You might be interested in these projects:

Generic Collectible Card Game

OCTGN

MWS

For the first one, last updated end 2009 apparently and it seems there's no yugioh support (to be verified) Lots of addons though and scripting language so that might be doable.

You could also try to dig in that list here:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=56796

PS: I hate you for reminding me that this game is terribly addicting :)
I'll keep the link above in my favorites but will refrain from installing anything! ;)


The image on the left IS the area icon. The image on the bottom tells you two things, what arcs are affected by the area attack, and which arc(s) are currently weak to attacks (granting an extra black die). Anyone in an affected arc within range will be hit by the attack... Not so bad if it's range 0, but if it's range 2  it'll hit practically the whole board. Also remember that anyone on the line between two arcs counts as being in both... so someone to the North East of the boss would be in both the front arc (and get hit) and in the right arc (and do extra damage).


Each of your creatures (including the token goblins) get +101/+101. I hope your opponent has a sweeper.

I think your confusion comes from misreading the things that are being counted. You don't count the number of different types: each creature counts the number of other creatures that share at least one subtype. (In the card's example, the two Goblin Warriors and Goblin Shaman share the subtype Goblin.)

And yes, the tokens count. They may not be cards (technically they don't count as cards even if you use token-cards), but they are permanents, creatures, and goblins.