Hi all,

I have just started playing this game with a couple of friends and we are having a good time but we have a couple of newbie questions I hope you all would be kind enough to answer for us.

1. Do plot cards only affect you or your opponent(s)? For example, I had a plot card that does not allow all characters with a strength of 2 or less to stand on the standing phase, does that mean my characters cannot stand as well?

2. I bought one of the card pack expansions, which as you know has several cards for each house plus some generic any house cards. How do I distribute the generic cards?

3. Last but I am sure not least. Are plot cards tied to a particular house or do you just put them all together and then deal seven random ones to each player to begin the game?

Thank you very much in advance for your kind help.

Thanks again,

Arcaine

1. Usually plot cards are universal (affects both your opponents and yourself) unless indicated otherwise. For example, Holding the Trident plot card only affects you.

2. Distribution of Chapter Packs is entirely up to you. It's quite fun trying to balance each house after a purchase.

3. Plot cards from Core Set each has a collector number denoting the house it belongs to, meaning they are each prebuilt by the design team with a house in mind when playing CS only. Plot cards should never be randomized as a lot of the strategic component to deckbuilding comes from deciding on your plot deck, although there is no gaming police stopping you from randomizing if you want to. Some CPs carry a plot card or two: it will be up to you to decide which one goes to which house.

Arcaine said:

Arcaine said:

1) Plot cards that say you, reference the person who played that plot. Plots that do not specify "you" affect everyone.

2) However you'd like. Neutral cards in the Chapter Packs are for customization. My first suggestion is look at which decks in your playgroup (meta) seem to have the most problems winning, see if any of said cards will help them. If nothing jumps outr at you, you can always just distribute them randomly between the decks, or not at all.

3) The only plot cards 'tied' to a single house say "House X only." on them. All other plot cards in the core set are useable by any other house... though it should be noted not every House can use every plot card with equal facility. They are not meant to be randonized and passed out, they are meant to be custmized just like the draw deck, adding another layer of strategy to the game. For the Core Set this has been done for you, but as you get more experienced, and get more plot cards, it is highly recommended to start customizing the plot decks for each house also.

Welcome to the game.

as you play more you'll also notice which houses are better suited for some of the plots over others (i.e. stark really isn't well suited for valar)

Thanks all for the quick answers they were very helpful.

I have another question if I may.

Jamie Lannister does not kneel when attacking or defending using the military challenge, so does that mean he could effectively attack using a military challenge and then attack again using an intrigue challenge?

If a character who has power on his card from infamy or another ability dies does the power go to your house card or does it go back to the bank?

I think thats all I can remember for now.

Thanks again,

Arcaine

Arcaine said:

Yes, if you use Jaime to do a military challenge first he will still be standing which makes him eligible to also do an intrigue challenge. That's the big power of characters that don't kneel to attack or defend.

Power on a character is lost when the character leaves play. This makes power a little more vulnerable when it is on characters instead of the house card.

Thank you very much for the quick response. I had a few more arise:

On attachments that specify "kneel influence to move to another chartacter" like Targaryan's poisoned wine, can the affected player spend influence or just the player that played the card originally?

Can a card that I play remove/affect attachments from other players? For example, can I use Targaryan's "Mad King's Landing" plot card to remove beneficial attachments that my opponent has placed on Jaime Lannister?

Thank you,

Arcaine

Arcaine said:

When you play the attachment Poisoned Wine, you are the player that controls it no matter which character it's attached to. Only the controller of a card can trigger its ability. Your opponent would have to take control of the attachment somehow to be able to use it.

All effects apply to both you and your opponents cards as long as the card doesn't restrict it in some way. So Mad King's Legacy affects any attachment in play, even your opponents attachments no matter what character they are attached to. If an effect said "remove an attachent you control" or "remove an attachment from an opponents character" etc then the effect would be limited to what the cards says but as long as it only says "attachment" it applies to any attachment without restriction.

Thank you again for the quick response you guys rock.

Another two questions for you guys if I may.

The Targaryan plot card Condemned by the Realm say's: When revealed choose an opponent. Then, that opponent must choose and kill a character he or she does not control, if able.

How does this plt card work its worded a bit strangely?

If a card issues a non-military challenge and wins that challenge and is deadly does a defending character die?

For example, the card Lurkers at Harrenal has Intrigue and Power with stealth and deadly if that card initiated a intrigue challenge to another player who could only defend with a lower strength rating then the Lurkers 6 does that defending card die due to the deadly key word?

Thanks again all.

Arcaine

Arcaine said:

Condemned by the Realm is a strange plot card. It's designed to work in multiplayer mostly. It does exactly what it says. When you reveal the plot you choose an opponent. Then he must kill any character in play that he does not control. In a 1 on 1 game it would be foolish to play the plot since his only opponent is you and thus he would kill one of your characters which isn't good for you. But in multiplayer he could instead choose one of the other players that isn't you and kill one of their characters instead. The point of the card is to try and created negotiations among the players and make deals to gang up on someone etc.

Yes, when you attack with a deadly character in intrigue or power a defending character can get killed. That makes deadly very strong in those challenges. Note that it doesn't matter if you win the challenge or not. If you attack with a deadly character with STR 2 for example and your opponent defends with a STR 3 character that doesn't have deadly, your opponent wins the challenge but he still has to kill his defender because of deadly.

Hello, thanks again for the help. We came across some more questions:

If a military challenge with a deadly character goes unopposed, do 2 characters die?

Melisandre has a character ability of +1 bonus to ashai characters. Does the +1 apply to her as well? The same question goes for Randyl Tarly whose ability says that characters with the war icon (crossed swords) gain +1. Does that apply to him too?

Does Rob Stark's character ability mean he kills 2 characters on an unopposed military attack (one chosen by the attacker, one chosen by the defender)?

If a military challenge with a deadly character goes unopposed, do 2 characters die? => No, because Deadly can only kill a character that defends during the challenge.

Melisandre has a character ability of +1 bonus to ashai characters. Does the +1 apply to her as well? The same question goes for Randyl Tarly whose ability says that characters with the war icon (crossed swords) gain +1. Does that apply to him too? => Yes, when a card says "this kind of cards gets a bonus" and that the card is of this kind, it gets the bonus.

Does Rob Stark's character ability mean he kills 2 characters on an unopposed military attack (one chosen by the attacker, one chosen by the defender)? => Robb Stark kills only 1 character, the other one is killed by the claim of the military challenge (if the claim is 1). So you attack with Robb, you win the challenge. The defender has to kill one of his characters (claim) then, when you are able to play abilities, you use Robb's one to kill the character you want (as long as it is a legal target).

The deadly keyword confused me too, when I first played the game.

Let me explain it in more detail:

Deadly (keyword): After settling claim, resolve deadly if able. Regardless of the outcome of challenge, the defender must choose and kill one of his or her participating defending character if the attacker has the advantage of deadly. For example, after defender face down a military challenge from a foe with deadly advantage, then win or lose killing his sole defender will prevent the deadly effect from killing 1 extra char, because claim is resolved before any passives such as a keyword (deadly in this case). If he had more than 1 defender vs claim of 1, then he would be forced to kill 2 chars (this can happen with jumpers, events, etc). An interesting situation would be one where the active player is attacking with a low strength deadly char vs an opponent with no deadly or chump block (ie: weenie block): the opponent can successfully defend the challenge and not suffer claim, but will lose the participating defending char due to deadly.

A note regarding keywords in general: Keywords are passive abilities (forced effects). Keywords are not character abilities, therefore immunity to card effects negate, but not immunity to character abilities.

Hello, newbie question again.

We've now learned about duplicates. Does this mean that when Valar Morghalis is played just the top copy of the duplicate is killed?

Thanks as always!

Arcaine said:

That depends what you mean . Usually the bottom card is attached as a duplicate, and you can discard it (as a triggered “Response:”) to save top card from killing. So, yes, only the top copy is about to kill, but eventually it stays on table and the bottom one is discarded. I hope it is clear

Arcaine said:

Hi!

It's correct, but, to be sure, use the correct wording, cause you're not killing the top/bottom card or something,,,

From the rules:

If one of your unique cards is about to be killed,
discarded from play, or returned to your hand
or deck, as a triggered “Response:” effect (see
later), you may discard an attached duplicate to
save the unique card from being killed, discarded,
or returned to your hand or deck.

So, you're "discarding", as a "reponse:", the duplicate to save the unique attached card from its horrible fate ;-)