Okay, I've played a couple games of Runebound so far, and it's been pretty fun. I've also been searching some forums and looking at the errata for a few sticking points with the rules, and have been fairly successful, but there's a couple of things I haven't quite been able to pin down. I'd appreciate some input on the following issues:

Firstly, when a challenge card makes you pass a test to avoid taking fatigue or wounds (i.e. the Death Witch card, which forces you to make a diplomacy check or suffer a point of exhaustion), the penalty for failure only applies to heroes, correct? The same question goes for the "Call Down the Inferno" card, where "heroes must take 1 exhaustion each time they move into a forest space". I'm guessing the fact that the word "heroes" is used indicates that allies are exempt. Right?

Second -- can allies with skills such as the Burning Priest's (can take 1 exhaustion before your hero rolls the combat dice to give a +2 bonus to that roll) use their special ability AND make their own combat roll during the same round? It doesn't say anything about activating the card, so I'm saying yes.

Finally, I could swear that I read somewhere that you may only use one weapon in combat, even though you can carry two; however, I can't find this ruling written in the game's manual. Is this true?

Thanks in advance!

Thornrose said:

Hello there,

1) When you have your Hero doing the test it is also intended that just the Hero suffers the consequences of failure. If Allies are affected it would be clearly written on the card. There are some Challenge Cards that require Allies to test their Mind/Body/Spirit values and take a penalty if they fail.

2) Allies are just like Heroes and can use their ability AND make a combat roll. The only difference is that an Ally can only attack and never defends, even though you may need him to attack in order to avoid a dangerous defence roll by your Hero. Many times it's better to lose an Ally than to get knocked-out.

3) According to the rules you may "activate" only one Item per round of combat (and one Item in the Before Combat phase). Items that need to be activated have the green sandglass icon on the card. It it is a weapon like the Soul Biter you may activate it in Melee Phase and then you cannot activate another Item (or weapon) in the next Magic Phase. If you have Weapons that are discarded after use (blue compass icon) or Always-on (red sword icon) you may use it when needed with no limitation. You may carry only 2 Weapons and 1 Armour Item though.