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The Marriage

On a local check, discard to bless. The character attempting the check may add another local character's die for the skill they are using

Acid Rain

For your combat check, banish to use 3d6+9. If this check is against a monster, you may use the result for subsequent checks against it.

Rules: Bless

When a power blesses your check, it adds 1 additional die of the type determined by the skill you’re using. If it blesses your check twice, it adds 2 dice, and so on. So if you’re using your Strength of d10, and you’re blessed twice, you’ll roll 3d10.
If your check doesn’t use a skill because a power specifies the type of die to use, blessing the check adds another die of that type.

I understand that using The Marriage to bless Acid Rain would add a 4th D6, but what of the part of The Marriage that also adds another local character die for the skill being used? Since there is no skill, would the die just be a d4 because the other local character doesn't have null skill?

Or would it add nothing because there's no skill being used and thus no die?

When does this level 7 card come into play? It's considered a Loot item but there's no scenario or adventure reward in CotCT that awards it. The Vault also doesn't get rebuilt for Adventure 7 so it wouldn't show up in normal play.

Is it intended to be a Year of Rotting Ruin reward?

You may never explore outside of your explore step.

If a location is closed during your explore step, you may no longer explore.

Then I imagine both these rules doesn't apply to encounter powers, allowing you to use Dust of Revealing, Locate Object, and (part of) Djinn to encounter cards on other people's turns, or to encounter cards on your own turn while preserving both your free move and free explore, or after you close your location and get your immediate move to a different one. Ditto for examining trigger cards and getting encounters that way.

Djinn (Ally)

Discard to examine the top card of your location; if it is a boon, you may encounter it. Then explore.

Dust of Revealing (Item)

Recharge to examine the top card of your location; if it is a bane, a local character may encounter it.

Locate Object (Spell)

Banish to examine your location until you find a boon. Encounter it, then shuffle your location.

Affecting the Situation

In some situations, you are limited to playing cards or using powers that affect or otherwise relate to the current situation. In these cases, the things you do cannot require anyone to do something else for your action to be meaningful—the things you do must directly affect the situation.

This rule says that this is a limitation applied to the act of playing cards in some situations making this a conditional rule.

Your Turn

Take your turn by going through the following steps in order. You can play cards and use powers without limit in between these steps, as long as they don’t say they can only be played at certain times. You cannot play cards or use powers between turns.

But then interestingly, this rule says that outside of steps, check-independant and non-reaction cards can be played without limit.

I have doubts regarding these 2 spells, especially regarding Animated Weapon. Damiel's skill is active only "WHILE you play a spell", and "while" is not the same as "while and after". So, as soon as you resolve the spell by playing a weapon, you finish playing the spell and your Arcane and Divine skills are back to normal d4.

However, I cannot find in the rulebook what happens if you've already added your skill to the check (meaning the die and modifiers) and then your skill suddenly changes. It is unclear if you must replace the added die and modifiers to their new values.

The spell says "for your combat check" which is a duration (given that checks/steps are demarcated game periods), so the spell is in play until that combat check is resolved, so therefore Damien's "while you play a spell" is fulfilled until the end of the check.

I imagine the text glowing like the inscription on the One Ring while any of the text of its power is still relevant to play, which I find a useful visualization when ruling the "out of your sight" rule.

It might be more debatable under the original wording of "when" but Dark Nero's "only update the check skill at the check check skill step" interpretation would be applicable there too.

That all sounds very annoying and I would probably rule that people can play The Desert, Lady of Mysteries, Djinn, etc,
during an encounter anyway if that character would have reasonably thought to have used it before the encounter because of how bogged down the game can get with power upkeep (sometimes we start our turn before the previous player has finished EoT/Recovery/Reset because of how long some sessions can drag on for) which isn't necessarily a flaw with the game but because I am not playing with hyperefficient rules-minded players who don't always remember every situation their cards can and can't be used in. But it's good to know in general how the RAW is supposed to work, and that's cool how scourge healing interacts with the check like that.

I've found the clause structure for weapon powers a little confusing, due to the use of semicolons in contrast with periods. Here are some examples.

For your combat check, reveal to use Strength, Acrobatics, or Melee + 1d6+2; if this is not the first combat check to defeat the bane this encounter, add 1d8. If proficient, you may additionally discard to add another 1d8+#.

Can Sawtooth Sabre be discarded on the first combat check for the 1d8+#? Or does all three criteria (not first combat, proficient, did discard) have to be fulfilled to receive that final clause that gives 1d8+#?

For your combat check, reveal to use Strength or Melee + 1d6+3; against an Aberration bane, add another 1d8. If proficient, you may additionally discard to add another 1d8. If proficient, any die rolled on this check shows 1, count it as a 6.

The use of "additionally" leads me to believe that the sentences describing discarding to add 1d8, and turning 1s into 6s only can be played against an Aberration bane. Does each sentence contain its own trigger or does the sequence of the power terminate as soon as at any point a condition isn't met? (i.e. so if you didn't discard, you wouldn't turn 1s to 6s)

When you play your harrow, you may heal a blessing and/or a Divine card

When you discard your harrow for its power, does this harrow then become a valid target for the "heal a blessing" part of the suit power? So if the harrow is being played to a discard pile that has no other blessings in it, would it immediately heal itself back into the deck?

I have to revisit this because I suspect I may still be ruling "check-independant" powers too strictly.

"Whenever it directly affects the situation" is unclear.

I was reading it to refer to keywords, such as on your combat check against a monster, you could only play powers that refer explicitly & inclusively to your combat checks against monsters, and those traits could be chained by what cards are played ("on your combat check, reveal to use strength" then would allow you to play cards that affect strength) but no other cards that do not refer to these traits.

My question is this:

Would I be able to play an Ambrosia to heal a character Drained during that combat check? Provided no other items had been played during that check?

I am beginning to think that the rule specifically means that you can't play Ambrosia if there are no scourges to heal

Discard to move another character to your location

Would I be able to play The Desert in order to bring another character to me so they could assist me with ally cards for the check? (But no blessings because I have just played one)

I am beginning to think that the rule specifically means that you can't play The Desert if there are no other alive characters

Discard to draw 3 cards, then recharge 3 cards. Then you may explore

Would I be able to play The Lady of Mysteries in order to get a more appropriate hand for the combat check? (I am assuming he rules say you cannot explore during an encounter somewhere)

I am beginning to think that the rule specifically means that you can't play The Lady of Mysteries if you have no cards in your deck and there are no cards in your location

Many cards that allow you to move, examine, or explore explicitly say that you cannot do so during an encounter. The fact that these two do not made me start to wonder if they could be played during one, and that I have been ruling this incorrectly.

Oh alright then. Thanks for clearing that up.

And because it's "while acting" (a while loop), each and every time a card is played or character power used, the cost is incurred.

When activating a power on your character card, you're not performing an action with your character card (revealing, discarding, etc.), and your character card is not displayed (you "place" it on the table during setup), so you're not "playing" your character card. (Unless, of course, the power specifically says that using it counts as playing a card.)

Ah okay, so it is my understanding from this statement that Vampire does not require you to pay the recharge cost to use character powers, unless that character power specifically says it counts as playing a card. (Like a caster's Generic Attack Spell power)

Vampire

Immune to Mental and Poison.
While acting, before any character plays a card, that character recharges a card.

This feels like such a simple rule but I don't remember where the rulebook specifies where check-independant (not "on x checks") and non-reaction (not "when you x") cards can be played or not played, for example, powers that display, heal, or examine.

I know that during encounters, check-independant cards generally can't be played

I have been running the game with the idea that check-independant cards can't be played after the end of turn phase has been started until the hour has been drawn and resolved, because that feels like it's "in-between turns", where only boardgame admin should be occurring (otherwise you could do weird stuff like interrupt halfway through a reset with a heal that shuffles the deck and changes what cards are drawn). So, for example, if I draw an armor or a healing potion during reset, I can't play it until the next player has drawn the hour and all the Start of Turn effects have resolved (like ones that cause encounters)

But tonight we played CotC 4A with 6 x Collapses in the hourglass 😬, and it seemed pretty cruel to rule "no instantly playing drawn armour" if I didn't have a definitive explanation of why a player can't play their armour card they just drew for a pertinent event that was about to occur

Can I add a question?

Do cards that "Examine" then "Encounter" (Some Harrow hours start-of-turn effects, Fortune-Teller Ally, some Blessings) not count as an "Explore" for the sake of still being able to use your Explore step "free explore"?

Basically if it doesn't explicitly says "Explore", it doesn't count as an exploration yes?

Fortune-Teller (Ally)

At the end of your move step, reveal this card and choose a category: bane or boon. Then examine the top card of your location deck. If that card matches your choice, encounter it.

I hadn't considered using Random Scenario for larger groups to tide players over.

Currently I am playing in a group of 3 and we are always all present for every mission, and only just now in CoCT #3 decided to try the random to try to get a few more attempts to get Lv.1-3 equipment we like before taking on the Lv.4 challenges.

I'll have to consider that for when we play the DLC campaigns with a larger group.

I initially asked about the base because I'm greedy and want the "draw new x" powers to loot more items per mission but how last night went (each character got 1-2 new toys on average when we played Secure The Area without the Base) I think the game still feels rewarding R.A.W. (though that was partly due to our Kyra drawing a random Restorative Touch out of the box as her scenario reward)

It seems like a possible oversight but the Base is only added to random scenarios 7. Vanquish The Villains and 8. Solve The Mystery. The original 6 from Dragon's Demand haven't been updated to include the base (unless I have missed something)

Thanks ❤

A check invokes a trait if it has or is against a card that has that trait.

Does recovering a card invoke all traits on that card because you are doing a recovery check against that card?

E.g. Does Fumbus add a 1d6 to all checks to recover Fire, Acid, and Poison Alchemical boons when he has his 3rd character power? (And recovering spells of those types if he gains Arcane proficiency as Boomshaker)

3) Gem of Physical Prowess (or Topaz of Strength) replaces just the die you are rolling. The check remains the same, but instead of let's say 1d6 you can roll your Str/Dex/Con die. You do not add the modifier; if your Strength is 1d12+4, you just replace the die you would roll with 1d12 and that's it. It does not gain the traits, so it is not a Strength check now. Also, you can use it on a skill you do not have, such as e.g. non-combat Arcane - in this case, your Arcane is 1d4 (no skill trait added); playing the gem would make it a plain "1d12 die" Arcane check.

Okay but if you had the skill that the roll is using and you are just replacing the die (Amiri has a +1 to her Fortitude rolls) does it work like other D20 systems where you still keep that +1 modifier but it's just based on a different core skill?

e.g. if Seoni did a Diplomacy check with the Gem of Physical Prowess would it be a 1d4+2 roll because of Seoni's bonus to Diplomacy - only the die is being replaced?

I have come across a few skill terms when replacing skill rolls with another, or when activating an ability based on the type of roll, and I am a little confused. I have three questions:

1. Seoni buries her Sage's Journal to add her Knowledge to a local check against a bane. Does the roll gain Seoni's entire Knowledge stat of 1d8+1 or just the d8?

2. The current hour is Torag's Power. It states "When you would discard a boon to bless a Strength or Constitution check, you may recharge it instead." Do you recharge blessings that are played on Melee or Fortitude checks? Or is it exclusively on raw Strength/Constitution checks?

3. There is a card (I can't remember which one) which specifies to replace a roll with your "Strength Die". If Amiri does this for a Fortitude roll, does she roll a d12 (Strength) or a d12+1 (Fortitude:Strength)?
If she has Skill Feats in Strength, do they get added also?

Ah, thanks for that

In Core Set, for Power Feats that have a replace effect in parenthesis, e.g.

• "you may add 1d4 ([]1d6)([]1d8)"
• "discard a card ([]recharge a card)([]reload a card)"

Must you purchase these feats from left to right or can you purchase the most powerful upgrade first, if you gained your role card before upgrading the Power?

Example cases:
• Kess's Bouncer Role damage reduction power
• Hakon's Herald of the Horn Role Diplomacy power
• Valeros's Compatriot Role combat power
• Ezren's Wizened Explorer explore power