hey,

what happens whit this card if there is no archer in the game?

tks!

Looks like you just resolve it as normal. If there are 0 enemies with Archery, but you had 3 allies in play when this card was revealed, you'll still be resolving 3 Archery damage during the Combat phase.

If there are 0 enemies with Archery, but you had 3 allies in play when this card was revealed, you'll still be resolving 3 Archery damage during the Combat phase.

Does this mean that no matter what scenario you are playing that there is always a constant Archery 0 value? How the treachery is worded, it seems that you cannot add any archery to a non existent keyword? It could have been worded differently (not use the word "add") to be more clear.

My understanding was that Archery is a keyword on cards. If no card has Archery on it, there is no archery. But if there is an overarching "Archery 0" across all game states, then I could see how you can "add" archery to it.

Additionally, the Archery rules read " While a card with the archery keyword is in play players must deal damage to character cards in play equal to the specified archery value at the beginning of each combat phase." This seems to suggest that you cannot even begin resolving any Archery damage unless there is a card in play with Archery.

Black Feathered Arrows: When Revealed: Until the end of the round, add 1 to the archery total at this stage for each ally currently at this stage.

It's worth sending an official rules question.

Wasn't there cards that add Threat to the value of the staging area? seems to be the same wording and the same intents.

Looks like you just resolve it as normal. If there are 0 enemies with Archery, but you had 3 allies in play when this card was revealed, you'll still be resolving 3 Archery damage during the Combat phase.

I agree with GranSpleen.

It seems simple

Alogos, that's a good point.

Rulebook: Finally, the players compare the combined willpower strength of all committed characters against the combined threat strength of all cards in the staging area.

Yet, I have always resolved threat that is added to the staging area identically to threat that an enemy or a location would contribute. Perhaps this is actually incorrect, though now that I'm taking a closer look. The rules need to have an errata if this is true because it is a fundamental change in how the game is played. Regardless of intent of the designers, I can only read the rules literally here, and I am only able to come up with one acceptable resolution.

The following are cards I can find that add or raise the threat of the staging area and cards that raise the "threat strength" of the staging area (which I am not sure is any different, but it is different wording, so I figured I should mention it). Personally, I think the only card that comes close to similar language is the last one (Under the Shadow). Edit: I actually think Under the Shadow is supposed to be resolved similarly to how I have interpreted Black Feathered Arrows...

Rulebook: Threat Strength: The degree of danger this enemy or location represents when it threatens the players from the staging area.

This seems really clear and that Under the Shadow would have no effect if there was no enemy or location in the staging area through the end of the quest phase.

Despite the similarities between the wording on these cards to the wording on Black Feathered Arrows there is still a key difference between adding threat to the staging area and adding archery to the archery total. The staging area always exist which necessarily means that the threat can be added to something, while it seems that Archery does not always exist and it is not clear to me whether Black Feathered Arrows makes it exist or is still dependent upon a card with Archery X being in play. You can't add Archery to the "archery total" if the archery total is non existent. You can only add it to the archery total if the archery total is 0 and that would require archery to be ever present, regardless of whether or not their are any encounter cards in play. Unfortunately, the archery rules are opposed to the archery total being ever present.

Edit: Also, I'm not pursuing this to be difficult. At first it was just a question about Black Feathered Arrows, but now alogos mentioned a really really good point and his point raises another entirely different issue which could dramatically effect how people play the game unless the designers issue an errata.

Conflict at the Crossroads:

When Revealed: Until the end of the phase, Orc enemies engaged with players add their [Threat] to the staging area. If no Orc enemies are engaged with players, Conflict at the Crossroads gains surge.

Dark Pursuit

When Revealed: Raise the total Threat of the staging area by 1 for each Scout enemy in play. If there are no Scout enemies in play, Dark Pursuit gains surge.

Scourge of Mordor

When Revealed: Each player discards the top card of his deck. Until the end of the phase, raise the total [Threat] in the staging area by X, where X is the total cost of all cards discarded by this effect.

Under the Shadow

When Revealed: Until the end of the phase, raise the total Threat Strength in the staging area by X, where X is the number of players in the game.

If you are supposed to add the archery total and the threat total as you all say, then how do you resolve the second half of the following card (Ill Purpose)?

Ill Purpose

All enemies in the staging area engage the player with the highest threat. Then, each player raises his threat by the total [Threat] of all cards in the staging area.

1. Raise each players threat by the total threat of the cards in the staging area including any modifications to said cards.

2. Raise each players threat by the total threat in the staging area, regardless of whether or not there are 0 cards in it.

Edit: I think the staging area is supposed to have its own threat strength, but the rules don't state that and that would make threat being added to the staging area simple to resolve without any sort of confusion. Black Feathered Arrows and Archery X is still confusing to me though.