DeanG's page

Yeah, so extra locations is something often mentioned, though I've not personally tried it. I'd also say something to increase checks might be the next step you could try.

I once suggested making the villains and henchmen harder by having add the number of cards under them to all the checks against them. So if the villain is the top card in the deck, there would be 9 cards underneath it, so add 9 to all checks against the villain. And be sure you clearly define which checks. If you mean all checks keep in mind your spells are going to get harder to recharge too. If you mean checks against a card, it is all checks on that card, whether they are to defeat or acquire, before your encounter (aka before you act) or after.

Or maybe adding the number of permanently closed locations? This would ramp up the difficulty of the adventure as it progressed, but be more managable/predictable.

Ralkana casts "raise dead" on the thread . . .

If we bring back thee and thou, the world will be a better place.

Most of the time you'd be drawing blind from the deck if you are discarding, and the Sacred Spring stipulates drawing the cards at random from the Blessing discard pile. Unless you've got the right character skills or boon in hand to look ahead in the blessings deck, you don't know what is coming in that discard.

Worst case, the team decide they're going on a "shopping run". Using the special ability of The Man's Promise, they explore two extra times each turn, over ten turns putting 20 cards in their discard pile(s). This is broken as a result as they would end up with 20 unearned blessing cards to rebuild their decks from, but they still need to survive the 30 explores, and they'd not be guaranteed the cards they're looking for.

Some of the new scenarios that mix in oddball cards with the blessings deck would also be broken by allowing discarding banes to the players discard pile.

DeanG wrote:

Firedale2002 wrote:

...stuff...

Skull and Shackle rulebook clearly pictures blessings discard pile on page 5 and clearly states there's a blessings discard pile on page 8 under Advance the Blessings Deck.

Thanks Mike and team for review.

The picture also shows the Character Deck and Discard Pile, as well as a multitude of other play areas and piles; what's your point?

I totally agree that the blessing discard pile is supposed to be used for blessing discards, but that's not in the rules anywhere. It's simply named "Blessings Discard Pile", and the only direct reference of it in the entirety of the rules doesn't even use the word 'discard' for placing cards into it.

The only reference of "Discard" in the entirety of the rules says that the card goes into the character's discard pile.

If there was a direct set of rules for these terms outside of playing cards, like recharge, etc, then the Sacred Spring question that started this thread would most likely have never come up, because the rules would have covered where said recharged cards go.

My interpretation of the rules, as read, word for word, IE: Rules as Written, that all discards, regardless of where they come from, go into the character discard pile wouldn't even be valid, lol.

However, right now, that's actually the only 'correct' interpretation, because all others are outside the word of the rules, which leads to some interesting situations.

...

That is an interesting point as, having gone back and reviewed the rules again, I agree with everything you say about "discard", they go out of their way to NOT use the word discard in relation to the "Advance the Blessings Deck" section on page 8.

"Advance the Blessings deck: Flip the top card from the blessings deck faceup onto the top of the blessings discard pile"

So by following the rules, most Blessing Deck cards end up in the Blessing Discard Pile during the course of the game, but are not technically discarded there.

There are a lot of ship powers where the card directs you to discard a card from the blessings deck to gain a temporary power, which would mean that, for the cost of a turn, you not only get a temporary power but also get a blessing in your discard, which might be an upgrade on the ones in your deck (especially in the earlier adventures, which is where I'm living right now).

Intuitively, this should just go to the Blessing Discard pile, but you can certainly make a case for playing that as written as well, which would make the game easier and make the ship powers for some ships more attractive.

So, when a ship, location (Pinnacle Atoll), or other card directs us to discard x number of cards from the blessing deck, we should we be advancing the blessings deck x number of times instead? Or should we play "as written" and discard to our discard pile, possibly picking up an improved blessing in the process?

Sorry for restating, I'm just trying to get my head around it all. I personally like the idea of playing both the Springs and the Blessing Discards as per the current official rules, as I don't think either breaks the game.

Because there's no definition of Recharge outside of that in the rulebook, could people not also interpret Sacred Spring as the following?

When Permanently Closed: On closing, you may banish a card to recharge 1d6 random cards from the blessings discard pile to the blessing deck. At the start of your turn, you may recharge a card to recharge a card from your discard pile to your character deck.

It's different from the interpretation above, but still makes perfect sense to me because it mentions two different discard piles.

Outside of the literal interpretation as posed by Pyrocat, it can be interpreted almost however you -want- it to be. Pyrocat's wording follows the rules as written, and so is (technically and currently) correct. Joshua Birk 898, currently, by the rules, yep, when you discard a card from the blessing deck, it's supposed to go to your character discard pile. Do most people play that way? Most likely not, but by the rules currently, they're playing wrong.

I'm 99.99% sure that that's not as intended, but by the rules, it is what it is. That's why I feel the definitions need to be clarified for what they are and how they work for each section. People are playing the game under assumptions that aren't in the rules, and different people sometimes assume different things, sometimes leading to drastically different options and results.

It's been whipped into us that the cards and rules do what they say and don't do what they don't say.

The rules do not say that discarded cards from the blessing deck go into the discard pile. The rules do say that discarded cards go into your character's discard pile.
The rules do not say that cards recharged from the blessing discard pile go into the blessing deck. The rules do say that recharged cards go into your character deck.

I'm pretty sure that's not as intended, and so it needs to be remedied. If it's not remedied, then it means it's as intended, and we've all been playing wrong.

Skull and Shackle rulebook clearly pictures blessings discard pile on page 5 and clearly states there's a blessings discard pile on page 8 under Advance the Blessings Deck.

Thanks Mike and team for review.

Having gotten my cards yesterday, I pulled this one immediately to look at the wording.

Sacred Spring wrote:

When Permanently Closed On closing, you may banish a card to recharge 1d6 random cards from the blessings discard pile. At the start of your turn, you may recharge a card to recharge a card from your discard pile.

You're correct that it does not say you are recharging back to the Blessings deck but upon reading this text, I got the feeling that you're sacrificing a hit point (a card) in order to provide more time for the party (recharging back to the blessings deck). Then you have the option of restoring a hit point (recharging your own cards).

I doubt after reading the second sentence that the first one is meant to recharge discarded blessings to your own deck.

[EDIT: Definitely need to read the entire text to get a better feel for the meaning behind the recharge!]

Or, you're making an offering to the sacred spring to gain health in the form of 1-6 recharged blessings, and further, that you can do other recharges on subsequent turns. This is kind of a "cards do what they say, don't do what they don't say" situation?

Sacred Spring can let you "recharge a random 1d6 cards from the blessings deck". When you recharge these cards, do they go under your own deck or under the blessings deck?

(We couldn't figure it out at the table, so we just didn't use that power.)

Thematically a sacred spring would give you a bunch of blessings. Would this be an opportunity to remove some Blessings of the Gods from the game during the rebuild?