I just got CoCLCG and this is my first card game of this sort... I wonder if the rules are written with an underlying assumption that the reader is familiar with MTG or some other card game, or maybe I'm just dense, but it would be very helpful if I could get some clarifications on the sequence:

1) Actions
Each phase has a one or more action steps. As I understand them the active player can either take an action or pass, then tne non active player can act or pass. For as long as both players don't pass the action step continues. So, if I'm the active player and several actions to do but the non active player doesn't, then the sequence will be active player action, non active player pass, active player action, non active player pass, etc. until both players pass. Is this correct?

2) Playing actions on Event card
When it is your turn to play during an action step you pay the cost for the card, drain the domain, place the card, execute the action, discard the card. Is this correct?

3) Playing the actions on a Character card
This is not so clear to me, I think it goes: In the Operation Phase the active player may play Characters, which means s/he pays the card cost then places the character card ready on the playing area. What happens when you execute the action on the character card? Do you have to pay the cost again? Do you discard the character as you would discard an event action card? Or just exhaust?

4) X's
It is completely unclear to me how to resolve the value of X on most of the event cards. Can you explain?

Thanks in advance for the help

Mike

BrooklynMike said:

Yes, each player must pass in succession for the phase to end. So, that's correct.

BrooklynMike said:

Correct.

BrooklynMike said:

You get the action on a character for whatever cost is printed after the word Action: .

So, the wording on a character action may read:

Action: Pay 2 to...

-or-

Action: Exhaust [Cardname] to...

-or-

Action: Pay 3, Exhaust [Cardname], sacrifice a non-ancient one character and discard 3 cards to...

Alternatively, there could be Response: or Forced Response: which indicates a certain condition must have been met. Note you can only trigger a Response: once per trigger per card. If multiple cards have the same trigger, you can use all of them on the same trigger, though.

BrooklynMike said:

X is variable. When you play a card with X, you first announce X, then pay X to play the card.

Lets say you want to play Deep One Assault on a 3 cost character, to destroy it.

-- Cthulhu --
Deep One Assault
----------------
Type : Event
Cost : X
Subtype :
Game Text: Loyal. Action: Choose and destroy a character or support card with cost X or lower.
Flavor text:
Illustrator: Toren Atkinson
Collector's Info: CS F56

First, you'll see that DOA destroys a card with cost X or lower. My character costs 3, so you'll determine that X has to be at least 3.

You announce X is 3, so, to play it, you'll need a domain with at least 3 resources. Since DOA has the Loyal keyword DOA only 'sees' Cthulhu resources. So, as an additional restriction, you need at least 3 Cthulhu resources.

So, if you have a domain, and that domain has at least 3 Cthulhu faction resources, you can announce X to be 3, drain a domain to pay 3, and play DOA.

DOA now 'reads':

-- Cthulhu --
Deep One Assault
----------------
Type : Event
Cost : 3
Subtype :
Game Text: Loyal. Action: Choose and destroy a character or support card with cost 3 or lower.
Flavor text:
Illustrator: Toren Atkinson
Collector's Info: CS F56

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the clarifications. Once more question for Actions on Character cards: assuming the Action doesn't say "Exhaust" on the card then the character is not exhausted. Assuming sufficient resources in the Domains, does that mean the same character can do the same action in several successive Action steps?

BrooklynMike said:

Yes. For example:

-- Shub-Niggurath --
Ancient Guardian
----------------
Type : Character
Cost : 4
Skill : 3
Icons : TTCC
Subtype : Servitor. Dark Young.
Game Text: Action: Pay 1 to choose and ready an exhausted character or support card you control.
Flavor text: How long had it waited there, that watchman eternal? Longer, certainly, than its children's lifetimes.
Illustrator: John Gravato
Collector's Info: CS F126

This character can pay 1 to ready an exhausted character or support card.

If you have 3 open domains, you could do this 3 times if you want to, to ready any combination of up to 3 characters and or support cards, or -

Use it on a character with an "Action: Exhaust [CARDNAME] to..." so they can exhaust, and you can then ready them and exhaust them an additional 3 times.

Or you can equip someone with a Shotgun:

-- Agency --
Shotgun
-------
Type : Support
Cost : 1
Subtype : Attachment. Weapon.
Game Text: Attach to a character. While attached character is committed to a story, it gains "Action: Pay 1 to choose and wound a character committed to this story."
Flavor text:
Illustrator: John Goodenough
Collector's Info: CS F14

And deal a total of 3 wounds, if you want to!

Good times...

Ah ha! Thank you, the nuance that there are action steps after each player commits to a story escaped me. I had it in my head that the entire Commit-Counter Commit-Resolve cycle was in one 'grey box'. Very cool.

Another question that came up in a game with my daughter (she beat me twice in a row and I'm thirsting for revenge!): the rules seem to read that there is NO resource match required for neutral cards, just sufficient resources in a domain. Is this the case.

Thanks again.

BrooklynMike said:

Yes. Neutral cards do not belong to a faction. You don't need to resource a neutral card to be able to play them. The downside is that they don't offer a resourc match either.