NariusV's page

Having now the complete RotRL sets from 1 to 6 from my subscription, I'm looking forward to the Drive Thru errata set. :)

supercali5 wrote:

Mike Selinker wrote:

3. It's your encounter, and no one else can resolve it for you.

Whenever you encounter a card, or make a check, you – and only you – must resolve it. No other character can evade it, defeat it, acquire it, close it, decide what to do with it, or fail at doing any of those things. If Sajan encounters a monster, Merisiel cannot evade it for him. If Harsk encounters a card, Seoni cannot defeat or acquire it for him, unless it requires two checks to do so, in which case Harsk must attempt at least one of them. If Ezren defeats a henchman at the Sandpoint Cathedral, Seelah cannot discard a blessing to close the location. In other words, if you need to wait your turn, wait your turn.

This is the part that has been causing the most confusion in our game thus far. Again, I know this has been rehashed elsewhere. Some cards are very specific about defining when, where and on whom the card's effects can be used. Some are wide open. This is where consistency in the cards is really important. "Your location" "your check"...those two phrases will clear up 90% of the issues. Aside from that, is the rule now "The only time your character can use a card to help another character is when the card explicitly says so."? It might be good to have a clarification on that if there is a broader rule. Again, this would all be unnecessary if all of the cards were consistent and delineated this for us.

Mostly answering the bolded question, but keeping the rest of the quote for context.

No, that's not what he's saying. Cards that help with checks can always be used to help others, at any location, unless they explicitly say that they can't. Thus blessings, Strength, Guidance, Aid, etc are all good for helping your allies make checks.

It's the "play this card to evade/defeat/acquire without a check" type of cards that can't be played to overcome someone else's encounter, unless they specifically say they can.

Forgive the long quote, but I want to point out one of the things that is causing confusion for many people.

There is no single default rule for how to play all cards.

Multiple card types have different implicit rules about when they can and cannot be played, and those rules are different.

Fromper points out two product wide assumptions:

All cards of X type can always be be played anytime (except when they say they cannot)"

and

All cards of Y type can only be played in Y situation (except when they say they can)"

This creates two exclusionary rules (implicit and not stated) on the cards, that contradict each other. Players, learning one, may assume it applies to the other, hence the confusion.

I'm not sure this is possible to change at this point in the product design after launch, but something to consider in the future.

Players cannot read the card and apply the rules on the card directly, based on the card alone (which I think is one of the stated goals), due to these conflicting implicit rules.