Just one brief question tonight. Let's say I have drawn the Hag follower from the base set that says you must discard all your current followers and can't carry any until you visit the village Mystic. Before actually encountering the Hag, is it legal to simply ditch your followers in your space in hopes of picking them up later or are they immediately discarded after drawing the Hag? Thanks in advance for any insight.

The rule about ditching cards "at any time" has never received an official clarification, so take what I say like a common practice.

The most obvious answer is a clear NO, since this option would just be a cheap way to get around Cursed by a Hag Follower discarding effect. On the contrary, it is one of the most dreadful encounters because as soon as you draw the card, you are encountering it and must resolve it.

There are several game situations when ditching "at any time" would not be allowed, for example ditching your possessions after losing an attack but before a player claims his reward.

However, if by chance you know that you're about to draw Cursed by a Hag (Divination, Sage ability, Fortune Teller Follower), then you're entitled to avoid drawing the Hag by ditching one of your cards on the space before drawing.

Yeah i agree with Warlock the phase "at any time" should not be taken to say "any time" but "any time" a player can normally do the action. Doing the action as a reaction in my mind is unfair so before you draw the hag yeah you can ditch but as soon as you draw and see its the hag no. I think this way if playing works well with the "any time" alcemist ability to turn items into gold.

This also helps with the thief also because if players could ditch items just before the thief declares they ate encountering them this makes the thief a rather pointless character. Better to say you can ditch but not as a reaction.

Like Warlock says, this hasn't received official clarificaiton. I believe that a simple fix would be to say that you can only ditch objects or followers on your own turn , unless an effect forces you to do otherwise. Although it might not be the most popular, we currently play as follows:

• We allow players to ditch at any time on their own turn, even after revealing cards but before encountering them. We also allow players to ditch after moving but prior to encountering their space to reduce the number of cards they have to draw.
• We don't allow players to ditch on opponents' turns.

The first point is within the rules, whereas the second I believe would be considered a house rule, but I think is essential to avoid problems like the Thief being unable to steal anything. The Digital Edition plays using the above two points and I think it works well.

With respect to those who play to capture the "spirit" of the game, from a rules consistency standpoint I think it's a bit unwieldy to further restrict when you can ditch on your own turn. For example, there is also the Trading Day event in The City expansion and Faerie Market in Woodland that lets (or forces) players to trade or give objects to each other. Some players might consider it strategic to ditch your objects and risk someone else taking them if you really don't want to give them away. Then, hopefully you land back on that space and pick them back up.