Okay I encountered this card the other day while playing and I have questions about how it works. First I will quote the card (hope this dosen't get me in trouble) so everyone can see exactly what it says.

Ma's Boarding House

It is dinnertime, and Ma has spread all the fixings. You resist the urge to sit down and have a meal, but the same can't be said of the rest of your party. If you have an ally, discard it. Fortunately, another willing soul finds the prospect of helping you out exciting. Draw a random ally. If the Ally deck is empty, nothing happens.

Question: If I do not have an ally, do I still get to draw a random ally.

Evidence For: Discard an ally is in a seperate sentence from draw a random ally. If it were the other way I would expect it to say Discard an ally and draw a new random ally.

Evidence Against: The second sentence says another willing soul suggesting this is related to the first sentence though not intrinsicly.

I would read that as you get an Ally, regardless. After flavour text, card reads (assuming the text is correct) "if you have...". It's no different than "discard 1 Spell" if you have none. Then we get "draw a random ally".

Mind you, I've taken so few encounters at Ma's, can't be 100% certain (though looking at the encounters, maybe I should start popping in every now and then...).

Gotta agree with Dam on this one, it's written so that you get an Ally no matter what.

It seems pretty unlikely that that was intended, though... but I'm not sure, because I too have very rarely taken MBH encounters, and maybe they're all supposed to be nice, like Harney Jones' Shack. The only other thing I can say is that the group I play with would never let me get away with the "free ally" interpretation - they're sticklers for the "when in doubt, screw the investigators" rule.

" If the Ally deck is empty, nothing happens."

Does this cancel the entire thing (i.e. prevent you from discarding an Ally if you have one) - or does it just prevent you from drawing a new one?

Steve

scotherns said:

I think you discard an Ally if you have one. But then it gets just plain weird, I just discarded an Ally, how the hell is the Ally deck empty ? Maybe I need to flipflop on the original take?

Same than the dudes here. It is just a change of what you had- a bit like this encounter in an other world with the conic beings that change your unique item...

My woman always goes to Ma's. Must be a woman's thing... (me gonna lose stamina on that one)

There are simular phrases in other locations and my group has always played it as the people above say. Somewhere is the encounter "loose all your money but gain 2 clues".. even if you have no money we reward the clues.

I know this is an old post but I'm new to the game and have been trawling through this forum looking for answers to questions that have popped up in our games. For me the key sentence here is 'If you have an Ally." It seems obvious to me (and I know that this simply comes down to interpretation) if you don't have an ally then you need not read any further. Thus there is no way you ever reach the sentence "Draw a random ally." Thus if you entered the diner without an ally you are going to leave without one as well.

Also if you did discard an ally that ally doesn't go back into the pile but is removed from the game. Therefore if the ally deck is empty it will stay that way and you wouldn't get the ally you just discarded back.

Zacchaeus said:

Well, not exactly. When you discard an item / ally / whatsever, you return it to the pile from which you usually draw. Returning to the box implies the removal of a card from the game

I think the phrase "if the ally deck is empty" is just meant to imply that if you have no ally, you can't gain one. It's redundant, I know.

To me, since it say to discard and draw, but not discard THEN draw, that both actions are happening simultaneously, preventing you from drawing the same ally. So I see three outcomes:

1. You walk in with no ally, leave with no ally.

2. You walk in with an ally, discard them and draw a different ally.

3. You walk in with an ally, but the ally deck is empty, so you leave with no ally. (Theres no other person interested in going with you while the one you came in with is eating).

Julia said:

Well, not exactly. When you discard an item / ally / whatsever, you return it to the pile from which you usually draw. Returning to the box implies the removal of a card from the game

Correct, I am misdirecting myself here. I was thinking of allies leaving town due to the terror track increasing. Since the card specifies a discard then the ally card would indeed go to the bottom of the pile. That does leave the problem of whether that means that the ally deck could never then be empty as was pointed out in an earlier post. Logic dictates however that you can't simply recycle the ally who just left you. There must be at least one other ally in the deck for you to successfully exchange with the one discarded.