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We keep having rules debates stemming from questions about when you can play certain cards, and if certain powers are triggered by certain actions. There are really only about 3 or 4 main questions, repeated over and over as different people ask them about different specific cards. So the purpose of this post is to summarize these redundant questions and give short, clear answers.
Hopefully, Mike and/or Vic will come by and confirm that my answers are all accurate, and maybe even sticky this thread. I'm sure most of the questions I'm attempting to answer here will eventually be in the FAQ. I'm just trying to provide a single, simple place for those answers in the mean time.
First, the explanation of where I got my answers. If you just want to see what those answers are, without the specific explanations, skip the spoiler.
Most of the relevant rules can be found on pages 10 and 11 of the rulebook. Let's start with the obvious:
Playing a card means activating a card’s power
There's a reason that these are the first words of the "Playing Cards" section of the rulebook. This is a key concept that some people actually miss when multiple cards interact with each other. Remember that if you discard, banish, or otherwise remove a card from your hand, because another card tells you to, you aren't actually playing the card that's getting removed from your hand. You're just paying the price for the other card that instructed you to do so.
So you can play a blessing any time that any character at any location is making a check to give them bonuses on their check. But closing a location that tells you to discard a blessing to close it isn't actually playing that blessing. So only the person who has earned the right to close the location (it's their turn, and they just beat the henchman and/or there are no more cards in the location deck) can discard a blessing to do that.
The same goes for discard a card to power Seoni's blast ability. You're discarding that card as a cost. You're not playing that card. The card you're actually playing is Seoni's character card. Thus, any text on the discarded card is irrelevant. This includes text for how to recharge a spell, so Seoni can't automatically succeed at recharging it, using her other power. There is no recharging it, even if the card being discarded happens to be a spell card.
Note that this only applies to cards played outside of an encounter. What about cards that can trigger an encounter? The FAQ and rulebook cover this.
You may never explore on another player’s turn.
Can I play Detect Evil or Detect Magic on somebody else's turn?
No.
Resolution: On the spells Detect Evil and Detect Magic, change the first power to begin "During your turn."
I could swear there's another card besides the two Detects that let you look at a deck and possibly trigger an encounter depending on what you find, but I can't think of what off the top of my head. I'd assume the clarification for the Detect Spells applies to any other cards with similar abilities.
So there's only one situation where a character can encounter something when it's not their turn: If the character on turn encounters a card that says other characters must summon and encounter something, usually an enemy.
Next topic - cards played during an encounter:
If a card in your hand does not specify when it can be played, you can generally play it at any time, with the exception that during each step of attempting a check, you may only perform specific actions, so your ability to play cards may be limited.
This is a key quote.
It's worth clarifying the game definition of the word "check" before continuing. The rulebook doesn't appear to give a single sentence definition anywhere, but the context is clear: A check is a die roll against a target number. Read all of page 11 continuing into page 12 if there's any question in your mind that I'm correct about that.
So given that a check is a die roll, what does the above quote mean? It means that spells like Cure and Mending can be used at any time, unless an encounter is happening. This limitation is enforced by this FAQ entry:
I'm exploring, and have just flipped over the top card of the location deck. Can I do anything before I begin the check to acquire or defeat it?
You can play a card or activate a power that lets you evade it, and that's all you can do.
So while an encounter is in play, rules regarding what to do during a check apply. Which brings up the big, contentious question: Which cards can other players use to help a character during an encounter?
See page 11. I'm not going to quote the entire rulebook page here, but there are specific steps when it comes to making a check. The key quote when you reach the step of playing cards is:
Players may now play cards from their hands to affect the check.
Key words: "affect the check". Key concept: A check is a die roll. What does this mean? Anyone can play cards that affect the die roll by giving bonuses, either in extra dice, static pluses, maybe changing the target number if such a card ever exists, etc.
But they can't play cards that prevent the die roll. This is where the oft debated "implied you" comes into play. Cards which evade or defeat the encounter, or otherwise prevent the die roll, should have been played before reaching the "Play Cards That Affect the Check" step of the check procedure. And per the FAQ above, they can only be played by the character who is encountering the card in question.
While this sometimes seems unclear based on the wording of specific cards, a nitpicky grammatical reading of those cards actually shows that they said this all along. As someone else pointed out in another thread, all imperative sentences have an implied subject of "you".
So when an encounter occurs, the person encountering the bane/boon has the first option to play a card to beat the check without rolling any dice. If they don't have a card that lets them do that, or choose not to play such a card, then anyone can play appropriate cards that affect the die roll. Note that cards that say "your check" can only be used on your own turn, while those that don't have that wording can be used to help anyone. Similarly, cards that don't specify "at your location" can be played to help characters at other locations.
So here's the short summary:
1. Cards that don't affect an encounter can be played at any time.
2. Cards that might intentionally trigger a new encounter can only be played on your turn. Yes, this is an exception to #1, above.
3. Cards that prevent a die roll, such as those that automatically evade or defeat a bane or automatically acquire a boon, can only be played by the character encountering that bane or boon, unless they specifically say otherwise.
4. Cards that affect a die roll can be played by anyone.
5. Cards can be played to affect any character at any location unless they say otherwise. So "your check" cards cannot be used to help an ally, and "at your location" limitations are always clearly stated on the card.
6. When one card tells you to discard, banish, or otherwise do something to a different card, the card being discarded/banished/whatever is not being played, because its own power isn't being used. Thus, the text and card type of that card is irrelevant, and anything that might let you recharge it had it been played doesn't apply.
I was just saying we should have started a new thread .. so thanks
Suggest
3. Cards that prevent a die roll, such as those that automatically evade or defeat a bane or automatically acquire a boon, can only be played by the character encountering that bane or boon, unless they specifically say otherwise.
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3. Cards that circumvent a check, such as those that automatically evade or defeat a bane or automatically acquire a boon, can only be played by the character encountering that bane or boon, unless they specifically say otherwise.
I am not sure about rule 2 though.
and 4. Cards that effect a check
The wording on 1) is a bit vague. For example, does "healing" affect an encounter? As I understand it, we've already seen that playing a heal spell during a combat check is off limits, as it's playing a card not related to that check. Or did I get that wrong? I fully admit to liberal amounts of skimming in some of the more heavily discussed threads.
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Ok, #1 should be changed to add ", except during an encounter." I should have caught that when I wrote it.
But what healing are you referring to? I know Cure can't be played during an encounter. But once the encounter's over, we're back in "no encounter currently being played" territory, and Cure is fine. Unless you're thinking of something else.
No, I think there's more to it than that. Cards like blessings Can be played to affect a check, but they also have other uses (such as discarding to explore again). It's my understanding (though I may have gotten it wrong) that you can't discard a blessing to explore on another character's turn, or to allow another character to explore... so number 1) certainly needs to be made tighter (or other need to be added to clarify some of the more confusing aspects of number 1).
Good job Fromper. I agree with all statements.
Great work!
Only loophole I spotted is the Cure timing (i.e. not playable during an encounter) but that's covered in the discussion since your OP.
@faded on the BGG forums suggested this as a clarification:
If the card allows you to add dice (or a flat modifier) to a skill check, check to see if it says 'your skill check' or 'a skill check' to determine if you can use it to assist someone else.
In any other case (typically cards that allow you to Defeat/Evade or automatically Succeed at a skill check), you can only use the card on yourself unless that card explicitly says otherwise.
Perhaps something like that is the way to go?