The card text reads:

"Action: Perform a free barrel roll action. If you do not have the barrel roll action icon, receive 1 stress token. You may then remove 1 enemy target lock from your ship."

Since it states that it is a free action, does that mean that one would be able to take an additional action? (other than a barrel roll, of course)

Ex:

-Expert Handling to the right

-Removes 1 red target lock

-Performs a focus action

Would that work?

Would appreciate if responses are kept in a respectful manner. Thanks in advance for the help!

That will not work.

Your action is to perform the Expert handling action. Hence the Action: header on the card. EH then happens to grant you an other action, but that is irrelevant as you have allready spent your normal action on EH.

Since it states that it is a free action, does that mean that one would be able to take an additional action? (other than a barrel roll, of course)

Technically yes. You do indeed perform one other action.

Ex:

-Expert Handling to the right

-Removes 1 red target lock

-Performs a focus action

Would that work?

No. Not at all.

You perform the action from the expert handling card! The card starts with the header "Action:" Using it costs an action.

1) perform expert handling action (1st action)

1a) perform free barrel roll action (2nd action, granted by expert handling)

1b) remove red target lock token (also remove the corresponding blue target lock token)

1c) receive one stress token (perhaps)

2) end of expert handling action

Ok, gotcha. I figured that would be the case, I always felt a bit weird whenever it was used as a freebie. The "free action" portion threw me off, though. So I told my friend that I would ask about it first chance I got. Will make sure to use it as a single action from now on. Thank you!

I think the consensus I've seen elsewhere on this board is that the card is worded poorly. Just omit the word "free" when you read it.

It is only "free" in the sense that it may be performed by a ship without native barrel roll capability, but later cards with similar effect don't use the extraneous word "free". Growing pains of the game I suppose.

I think the consensus I've seen elsewhere on this board is that the card is worded poorly. Just omit the word "free" when you read it.

It is only "free" in the sense that it may be performed by a ship without native barrel roll capability ...

I beg to differ. The term "free action" has a specific meaning. Without the word "free", you would need to spend one action on expert handling and another action to barrel roll. Few ships have two actions available.

Rulebook page 8:

If an ability allows a ship to perform a “free action,” this action does not count as the one action allowed during the “Perform Action” step.

I actually sent a question to FFG when I first started, as I was confused over the use of the word "free" as well. I wanted to know if the whole card was a free action or not. Here's what I got back:

Hello Rick,

In response to your question:

Rule Question:
Expert Handling: Does use of the Expert Handling card give you an additional action (the free barrel roll) on top of your Perform Action step action, or is it considered your sole action for your Perform Action step?

Using a card with the "Action:” header requires an action, such as the action you have during the Perform Action step. For example, if you had Luke Skywalker equipped with Expert Handling, during his Perform Action step he can either use the Expert Handling action (which results with him performing a barrel roll), perform a focus action, or perform an acquire a target lock action.

The errata to include the word “free” was because rules as written, Expert Handling would require you to somehow have 2 actions; 1 to perform the Expert Handling action and 1 to perform a barrel roll. By including the words “free action” allowed a ship to use the card as intended.

Hope that helped and thanks for playing,

Frank Brooks
Associate Creative Content Developer
Fantasy Flight Games

Now I'm more confused. "Free" was *added*? I never would have thought the card as written (either way) suggested two actions.

Yeah, the "Expert Handling" action and the Barrel Roll action. Without "free" you couldn't do the Barrel Roll. It's a subtle change but some people read it differently to others. Some argued that if you did the Expert Handling action, without the word "free", you couldn't do the barrel roll that was part of it. It's a funny little nuance, but it is required.

When I first started I thought it was another action you could take as well as your Perform Action step one, which is why the question to Frank. Now it makes sense and after seeing how some cards interact I can see the necessity of the rather particular grammar and syntax that FFG uses.

There's a bunch of cards that when I read them I can figure out how it's most logically supposed to play, but others have come up with completely different interpretations.

Now I'm more confused. "Free" was *added*? I never would have thought the card as written (either way) suggested two actions.

The card received 2 errata very early in the games life.

Original text: "Perform a barrel roll..."

First errata: "Perform a barrel roll action..."

Second errata: "Perform a free barrel roll action..."

As Frank mentioned in his email, the 2nd errata (which happened within a day of the first) was to keep it from eating up 2 of the ships actions. If Vader had used Expert Handling as his first action, it would have ended up being the only action he could perform without the addition of the "free" because he would have then already done 2 non-free actions. Other ships arguably wouldn't have been able to use it at all. Just because the intent was clear without the "free" doesn't mean that the rules worked that way.

I'm actually pretty sure that all similar effects do use "free ____ action" or are not actions at all. Any particular effects you're thinking of?

I'm actually pretty sure that all similar effects do use "free ____ action" or are not actions at all.

Correct.

I perused all the upgrade cards released so far in an attempt to clarify my thinking. I guess what has me hung up is that EH only involves one thing that is intrinsically an action: the barrel roll. Receiving a stress token or removing a target lock are not themselves actions anywhere in the game. It still seems to me that the original wording was best. I believe the Leebo crew card is the only one in the game that uses "free" in the same way as the currently phrased EH.

The original wording had "perform a barrel roll." There was no mention of the word action attached to the barrel roll part, which meant it wasn't an action. So you could use Expert Handling to barrel roll and remove a target lock, then trigger Push the Limit to do a barrel roll action, effectively getting two barrel rolls in one round. Which went against the intention of the card.

Daredevil is another one that was reworded. Originally "Execute a red [turn] maneuver." No mention of stress tokens. It was just assumed that you'd pick one up in the Check Pilot Stress step. But when you use an R2, it becomes green and thus avoided the stress. Now it's "Execute a white [turn] maneuver. Then receive 1 stress token." So the stress is now unavoidable.

The rewording of certain cards is to ensure that the card in question doesn't inherently break the rules on it's own, as technically Expert Handling did without the word "free" attached.

Interesting explanation. Thanks.

How does the same thinking apply to R7-T1?

Action: acquire a target lock (not an action), then do a free boost action.

PTL: perform a target lock action on a different target.

Effectively, the same action was performed twice, but only the second acquisition was considered an action.

Edit: the wording is "you may acquire a target lock".

Correct, the target lock inherent to R7-T1 isn't described as an action, but is restricted to Range 1-2 and in your fire arc. PtL can trigger after the free Boost or after R7-T1. It doesn't make much difference either way. The only restriction I can see here is if you PtL to get another target lock, it must be on a different ship, as you can't lock the same ship twice. But the end result would be a stress token from PtL. Not sure if that's worth it. Most folks tend to use R7-T1 for the stress-free boost that he gives you. It tends to make him a cheaper version of Engine Upgrade that nets you a target lock as well. Admittedly, it's a little trickier than EU to be able to use.

Your example serves to highlight the same sort of difference as assigning focus or evade tokens as opposed to performing the actions that grant those tokens. So yes, you could effectively target lock twice in a round if you wanted to, but have a stress token for your efforts.

I believe the Leebo crew card is the only one in the game that uses "free" in the same way as the currently phrased EH.

No it is not.

Each and very card that grants an action says "free action". And all of them use it in the same meaning: That action does not count as the one action allowed during the “Perform Action” step.

I believe the Leebo crew card is the only one in the game that uses "free" in the same way as the currently phrased EH.

No it is not.

Each and very card that grants an action says "free action". And all of them use it in the same meaning: That action does not count as the one action allowed during the “Perform Action” step.

To clarify: Leebo and Expert Handling both are "Action"s that do the following: allow you to perform one particular action (as in, a thing that is natively an action for some ships in the game), then have a particular non-action consequence follow.

What other cards have such a formula?

I believe the Leebo crew card is the only one in the game that uses "free" in the same way as the currently phrased EH.

No it is not.

Each and very card that grants an action says "free action". And all of them use it in the same meaning: That action does not count as the one action allowed during the “Perform Action” step.

To clarify: Leebo and Expert Handling both are "Action"s that do the following: allow you to perform one particular action (as in, a thing that is natively an action for some ships in the game), then have a particular non-action consequence follow.

Yes they do. But that has nothing to do with the term "free action".

What other cards have such a formula?

R7-T1. The droid that lets you do TL shenanigans and then boost. But as has been pointed out, that really has nothing to do with the term "free action". Anything that is allowing you to take an extra action, whether a specific one or your choice, is phrased as a free action because that is what free action means, an action that isn't the one you are allowed in the perform action step.

BTW, what is still being discussed and why? The OPs question was answered to his satisfaction and I can't tell what point anyone is arguing at his stage.

BTW, what is still being discussed and why? The OPs question was answered to his satisfaction and I can't tell what point anyone is arguing at his stage.

It's about the meaning of the word "free".

It started with the following statement which assumes a meaning of "free" which does not match the meaning of "free action".

I believe the Leebo crew card is the only one in the game that uses "free" in the same way as the currently phrased EH.

BTW, what is still being discussed and why? The OPs question was answered to his satisfaction and I can't tell what point anyone is arguing at his stage.

I suppose this has gotten tedious.

For myself, I'm trying to understand the reasoning behind the wording, so in future instances I can properly interpret anything with a similar tendency toward confusion.

BTW, what is still being discussed and why? The OPs question was answered to his satisfaction and I can't tell what point anyone is arguing at his stage.

I suppose this has gotten tedious.

For myself, I'm trying to understand the reasoning behind the wording, so in future instances I can properly interpret anything with a similar tendency toward confusion.

Actions can be nested within other actions. However, any upgrade that grants an extra action does so using the "free action" language, for the sake of clarity. Otherwise, the idea that a ship can perform one action per round during the Perform Action step of the Activation phase breaks down.

In other words, the distinction is so that it's easy to describe the rule: you get one action per ship per round during the Perform Action step, and you can take any number of free actions as long as no action is duplicated.

and you can take any number of free actions as long as no action is duplicated.

Say rather, you can be given any number. I have seen new players thinking that you could take a "free" action just whenever, without any triggers.