The Investigative Committee Politics card says, "Play before cards are added to a skill check. All Skill Cards are played face up during this skill check."

Chief Tyrol's Blind Devotion ability says, "Once per game, after cards have been added to a Skill Check (but before revealing them), you may choose a skill type. All cards of the chosen type are considered strength 0."

If a Skill Check comes up and someone plays Investigative Committee, can the Chief use Blind Devotion? If so, when does he declare it, since the cards are face-up during the entire challenge?

When this came up in play, we ruled that the Chief could use his ability after all cards had been played. Since it's a once-per-game ability, I'm inclined to rule on the side of making it more powerful, but would love to get an official ruling.

Thanks!

Best,

Brian

i would say Chief has a chance to use his power right before everything is flipped over, this way the power isn't broken. So i would run it that way and just ask the player if he wants to do it or not

Seems to have come up a couple of times before,

The consensus seems to be that Investagative comittee happens first, and plays through as normal (with everything face-up),

Then, even though everything is face-up there's still a "reveal" phase - and so you can use the chiefs ability,

It's not like it makes the Chiefs power grotesque after all - everyone knows he's got it, and its a "Once per game" ability,

Really someone should be compiling all of the repeated questions like this into a FAQ or somesuch (stickied thread or whatever),

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is the process in the rulebook for skill checks:

1. Read Card: The current player reads the entire card (or
location) out loud to all players. Players may then discuss
what they would like to do (following the guidelines under
“Secrecy Rules” on page 20). If the card requires the current
player, the President, or the Admiral to make a choice,
he must make the decision at this time. Any choice that
does not have a pass/fail effect requires players to carry
out specific instructions instead of a making a skill check.

2. Play from Destiny Deck: Two cards from the Destiny deck
are dealt facedown together, starting a common pile. This
pile can be placed on the Battlestar Galactica logo of the
game board, or any common area that is in reach of all
players.

3. Play Skills: Starting with the player that is to the left of
the current player (and ending with the current player),
each player may play any number of Skill Cards from
his hand facedown to the common pile. Any text on the
Skill Cards played onto the pile in this manner is ignored.
Only the strength and types of skills on each Skill Card is
relevant when played into a skill check.

4. Shuffle and Divide Cards: After each player has had one
opportunity to play Skill Cards, the current player takes
all Skill Cards from the pile and shuffles them. (The cards
are shuffled so none of the players will know which players
contributed which cards to the pile.) He then deals them
faceup into two new piles. All cards that match a skill type
(color) listed on the Crisis Card are placed in one pile, and
all other cards (i.e., those that do not match) are placed in
the other pile.

5. Total Strength: The total strength (upper left number) of
each card pile is totaled. The total strength of the nonmatching
pile is subtracted from the total strength of the
matching pile, giving a final strength.

6. Determine Result: If the final strength is equal to or
greater than the skill check’s difficulty, then the “pass”
result of the skill check is carried out. Otherwise, the “fail”
result is followed. All Skill Cards contributed toward the
skill check are then discarded into the appropriate discard
piles.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK, to resolve this you must play the Investigative Committee during step 1.

Then you can use Chief Tyrol's Blind Devotion during step 2 or step 3.

As far as the (before revealing them) text on Tyrol's ability, I believe what that really refers to is Step 4) in the game.

I wish it said (before reveal phase) instead of before revealing them though.