We just finished up a full eight-player game last night and a couple of questions came up which we weren't able to find answers to. We made some rulings for our game and moved on, but I thought I'd see if I could get some thoughts from the forums here:

1. The L1z1x player had previously purchased the Inheritance Systems racial technology. He selected the Technology II strategy card. He activated the Technology II card and chose to get the Gen Synthesis (Green) Technology, using the ability of the Inheritance Systems technology to ignore the prerequisites. He also had a planet with a green technology specialty. The question that came up is whether the 2 additional resource cost of ignoring the prerequisites can be defrayed by planets with an appropriate technology specialty for the technology being purchased. (Essentially does additional mean an increase in the cost of buying the tech or is it a separate cost that must be paid.)

2. We were playing with the representatives from the Shards of the Throne set. One of the player's representatives was killed and the player played the Send Proxy action card, which allows the player to vote even though their representative was killed. After all the representatives were revealed, another player played the Moving Speech action card, which only allows Councilors to vote on the agenda. Can the player who played the Send Proxy card still vote? (And does it matter if the killed representative was a Councilor or not?)

1) I would say that the 2 additional resources spent are not part of the tech buy itself, but a separate 2. You can pay for it together, just like with builds, but you can't get any discounts for it from tech credits. I'm not sure if there's an official ruling on that yet. In practice, it would be tough to pull off anyway, since you'd need a lot of green-tech planets to even make it a factor.

2) I would say that you cannot vote. While Send Proxy allows you to vote despite your guy being killed, the Moving Speech only allows Councilors to vote, and the Proxy, I would say, is not a Councilor.

In our case...

#1: The player had the tech card and was using the primary, so the only cost was the additional 2. So it definitely made a difference.

#2: The killed representative wasn't a councilor, so whether the proxy was for a councilor or not didn't make a difference. But if it had been, I think we'd have had a longer (and more heated) "discussion."

Any other thoughts or opinions?

#2: The killed representative wasn't a councilor, so whether the proxy was for a councilor or not didn't make a difference. But if it had been, I think we'd have had a longer (and more heated) "discussion."

I think the proxy is a proxy, regardless of what - if any - representative was sent in beforehand. Therefore the proxy is never a Councillor.

I don't own Shards of the Throne myself, but am I correct in thinking you could use this Action Card to vote without sending any representative at all? If so, then clearly the Send Proxy vote has nothing whatsoever to do with representatives. You aren't reincarnating your previously killed rep, you're voting by proxy, which is something else entirely.

I don't own Shards of the Throne myself, but am I correct in thinking you could use this Action Card to vote without sending any representative at all?

Strictly as-written, no, because the "trigger" for Send Proxy is having one of your representatives killed.

You also cannot voluntarily choose not to send a representative. The only way you could not send one is if all of them have been killed (and then you are pretty much out of luck for the voting stuff for the rest of the game, but I've never actually seen this happen).

However, I think it would be a reasonable house rule to play Send Proxy at a time when you cannot send a representative, also.