How do you handle situations in which the heros´ available MPs are changed by re-equipping, giving away or receiving items that grant extra MP (Elven boots, Ring of Quickness (?English card name?) or reduce speed (several heavy armors)?

In other words, do you recalculate the available MP in such circumstances or do you set the MP based on the action chosen + items available at the start of the turn and keep that for the rest of the turn?

Examples:

1 - Hero opens a treasure chest and receives and equips one of the items (Ring or Boots) above. Does he immediately receive the MP bonus in his turn? A simple yes, one might think. Note that you are recalculating the hero´s MPs in this moment.

2 - Hero with Elven Boots chooses to Run, receives 2 x Speed + 2 MP, uses them up until he has just one MP left and wants to give the Boots to another hero. Allowed or not? Especially with respect to the answer to No. 1?

3 - Hero with Speed 5 has Armor that reduces Speed to 3 in his pack. Chooses to run, receives 10 MP, equips the armor for 2 MP and runs around in the armor for 8 MP. Allowed or not, again in view of No.1?

(In most cases, it doesn´t make a big difference if the hero re-equipped with his last 2 MP, but now that the Avatar in RtL can use a Guard order, or in case of that immunity granting armor, it can make a difference)

4 - Similar: The same hero chooses to run with his armor, receives 6 MP, and uses 2 MP to re-equip, putting the armor in the pack. 4 MP left or recalculating?

The rules are somewhat open here:

A hero receives a number of movement points based
on his speed and the action he takes on his turn.

The rules are silent on what happens if the speed during the turn changes or if MP influencing equipment is changed.

Thoughts?

I was under the impression that equipment decisions had to be declared at the start of the turn. So, in item 1, the hero gets a speed boost item in a chest, but he cannot use it, as he has to declare his equipment at the start of his turn (and spend any necessary MP to alter said equipment).

As for a situation where a hero runs with boots and then spends his final MP to give those boots away, I'm not as sure. It seems it should be allowed. Thematically, the boots carried him to his location and then he gave them away, thus stopping him. Again, assuming the hero must declare armor at the start of a turn, the hero he gives the boots to may be able to equip them that same turn, but he would get -2 MP from the equip then +X MP from the item. So if he chose to run with the item after equipping it (assuming he has 4 base speed and +1 MP item) he could run 7 spaces, as opposed to 8.

I would allow the hero to immediately equip the boots from the chest and immediately gain the two movement points.

As for giving the boots away, I would make the hero re-equip first spending two movement points to place it in his/her pack, and then I would allow the said hero to spend a movement point to hand them to another hero. My thoughts are that it would take more time to kick off some boots instead of hand over a sword. Plus, the picture makes the boots look like rollerblades. Have you ever tried taking those off? Killer!

As for the switching of armor, I would definitely make them use their last two movement points to change the armor. I would not allow them to run in heavier armor.

Why wouldn't the hero use the free re-equip at the start of his turn to change armor first? That way the hero gets more movement points with which to start.

Parathion said:

The only way to play that covers all situations (and indeed the way we've always played) is that you receive your MP at the beginning of your turn, and that's it - it doesn't change. As far as I can tell, there is nothing in the rules to support a Hero's available Movement Points changing mid-turn (other than spending Fatigue of course). A Hero receives their movement points at the time they declare their action, so it is their speed AT THAT TIME that matters. So yes, this means chain-passing the Elven Boots IS a net-gain for the Heroes, and a speed 5 character should ALWAYS remove their platemail to Run and then spend 2 MP to put it back on at their destination.

The only ambiguous thing that occurs to me is the case where you get the Boots from a Chest and equip them immediately...I'd have to look closely at the cards and the rules for that.

I think The_Immortal has it. Declaring a Run action causes you to gain movement points equal to twice your speed, which can't reasonably mean anything other than "your speed at that time". I see nothing to suggest that you would gain or lose movement points mid-turn if your speed changes. Sure, that means that a hero with 5 speed and Plate Mail can get an effective 8 MP when running instead of 6 with no penalty (unless the monsters can make an interrupt attack), but that's a weird special case that only occurs when you've got a speed of 5, an armor max speed of 3, and are declaring a Run action. For any other base speed, any other armor, or any other action, it doesn't help you. And you probably don't want to give the super heavy armor to such a fast hero in the first place.

Items that grant movement points say that you gain extra movement points during your turn, which seems to imply that you should receive those movement points at the same time as your normal ones, i.e. when you declare your action. So I wouldn't add or remove MP if you equip or de-equip them in mid-turn.

If PastorJK wants to make house rules requiring items to be de-equipped before they can be traded, he's welcome to do so, but don't anyone confuse those for official rules. That's very clearly not how the game works by RAW.

Antistone said:

Whoops! I am sorry if I confused anyone. I was not trying to say that my thoughts were the rules. I looked at the original rulebook (JitD), and it indicated that a hero could hand a weapon or potion to another hero for 1 MP. I also looked at the FAQ about re-equipping. There was nothing specifically stated about Armor and Other items. In RTL, it states that players can freely exchange all items with all heroes while on the world map and at the start of each dungeon.

You are absolutely right Antistone about not having to re-equip to hand an item (I would support that all items can be handed, regardless whether or not they are equipped at the time in the rules). However, I like to play with a D&D style added in. Of course, any house rules have to be approved by all players before they are used. If I get out-voted, then I get out-voted. However, I am playing by myself, so right now I cannot get out-voted !

Also, this has confused me for quite some time. What is RAW mean unabbreviated?

PastorJK said:

Rules As Written.

Ha! I never realized it was an acroynm. I just thought it was referring to the rules in the "raw" or in the buff, naked, as in uncooked, untouched by house rules or board clarifications, etc.

-shnar

RAW = Rules As Written

Yay! I feel useful now!

Feanor said:

OK, I'm not so useful now. PastorJK obviously has more MP than I do...

ronin3338 said:

You may want to take a prolonged magic action and see who you were quoting...perhaps it is I who have more MP? Really though, I think it was just that I had a guard order placed and interrupted your post action. Anyway, sorry to steal your thunder.