I just recently picked up the CoC Core game, and have done all the reading, watched the online videos, and looked at all the other resources I can find, and I'm just about ready to play the game, but I am still confused about the events on the cards. Perhaps I am looking for too complex and answer.

For Example:
F 46 - Ravager from the Deep

Forced Response: After Ravager from the Deep is committed to a story, wound all other characters at that story.

What is "Forced Response"?
Am I to wound my characters and my opponent to wound his?
Why would I want to play this?

F 41 - Cthulhu
Forced Response: After a player draws cards during his draw phase, he must sacrifice a character, if able

I assume if I play this, and it is "ready", then this applies every time my opponent draws? So my opponent must sacrifice a character, as in discard it from the field of play?

If a card effect says "Pay 1", do I have to drain a Domain to activate it?

Lastly, I'm confused on "Sleep of Reason", would I really do 4 Terror struggles one after another? I see a lot of insanity resulting from that play

I can go on an on here, but in simple terms I am looking for an explanation of when and how the card effects are triggered. And if not specified

I was looking for a web resource which explained the individual cards in detail, but I have not found anything.

Can someone help clue me in?

Thanks,

Brian

WELCOME, BRIAN !!

Brian asked:

F 46 - Ravager from the Deep

Forced Response: After Ravager from the Deep is committed to a story, wound all other characters at that story.

What is "Forced Response"? Forced response means it MUST happen, the controlling player gets no choice whether or not it takes effect. Check out the Glossary in the rulebook.

Am I to wound my characters and my opponent to wound his? YES

Why would I want to play this? Best defensive card in the game. Your opponent, the active player, commits characters. You commit Ravager. Immediately every one of the opponent's characters committed to that story suffers a wound. Then you continue to commit all the other characters you want, and those will not be wounded as they were not committed before Ravager. Entiendo ?

F 41 - Cthulhu
Forced Response: After a player draws cards during his draw phase, he must sacrifice a character, if able

I assume if I play this, and it is "ready", then this applies every time my opponent draws? BUT you too must sacrifice characters every time you draw. If no other characters are available on your side, you must sacrifice Cthulhu. You see the card says "when a player" rather than "when your opponent" And Cthulhu's Forced Response works whenever Cthulhu is in play, whether or not he is ready or exhausted. If Cthulhu is somehow driven insane, however, his text box is treated as blank, and the forced response would not trigger.

So my opponent must sacrifice a character, as in discard it from the field of play? Yes, as in discard it from the field of play,

If a card effect says "Pay 1", do I have to drain a Domain to activate it? YES

Lastly, I'm confused on "Sleep of Reason", would I really do 4 Terror struggles one after another? YES

An overall summary of triggering, events and actions would be very long and involved, and the info IS actually all in the rule book. I would ask you, Brian, to Please re-read the rule book paying very close attention to any discussions of triggers, actions, responses, and events. I even took notes when I did exactly the above after playing a few games.

One of the keys to understanding the game is to realize that you must interpret the card texts very rigidly and strictly. Assume very little when interpreting card text.

I think you will really like this game, glad you bought the core set !!

Chick

Chick,

Thanks for the response, I appreciate the patience. I have read and reread and the rules are good, but when it comes to card events, I am left still with questions. Your responses are helping pull things together though.

Is the basic difference between an "Action" and "Forced Response" is that the Forced Response must be done?

In keeping with the Cthulhu faction, card F51 is Mature Deep One, Action: Pay 3 to choose and destroy an Attachment card.

Does that mean that during the "Actions" part of each phase that I can choose to execute that action? (And can do that every time as long as i have a domain to drain, and the character is not exhausted or insane)

So after i refresh, I can elect to drain a domain to pay 3 and destroy an opponents Attachment? Does my opponent get a chance to respond with his action before my card takes action?

Does the active player determine the Actions? Meaning, if the active player does something, the other gets a chance to reply, until the active player ends the phase.

Thanks for the help, I will continue to read and read again.

Brian

Welcome!

The Ravager commits alone, and only on defense. Forced response happens as soon as he commits. But I thought you can't after his forced response commit more characters. The response occurs after the active player's commit phase, of him alone or with his suicidal invulnerable or tough friend.

Actions are taken at any time "during normal game play." Play goes back and forth. Take an action (or play an event) if you can satisfy the condition. The condition may include exhaust a card, sacrifice a card, pay a cost = drain a domain with sufficient resources). There are certain windows during play when you can not take an action (unless it otherwise says so). For instance, during the story phase there are action windows, but not once the struggles begin, but once the struggles have ended. Also, during the draw phase and resource phase actions can't generally be taken. The non-active player can play the action or an event during his opponents turn.

Forced Response happens as soon as the condition is met. Usually it is immediately after you play the card. It could also wait to occur until you commit the card, or draw a card, or win a struggle, etc.

Only a disrupt can stop an action. The disrupt must apply. Otherwise resolve the action entirely. Then the opponent can take an action. Disrupts can be played during any action window.

While chicklewis is almost invariably correct, I have to disagree on one minor point - all of a player's characters commit at the same time, so Ravager played defensively will wound friendly characters - he has to be played solo unless you're prepared to take that. Still a great defensive character, and a remarkable deterrent.

As for timing, here's a revised, short summary I provided in another post (refers to the Detailed Turn Sequence on page 13 of the rules):

An Action may be played whenever an opportunity arises during an "Actions may be taken" white box. Opportunities to play Action s (and Response s, Disrupt s, etc) alternate between players in every "Actions may be taken" box, with the active player going first. Even if the active player doesn't play an Action when an opportunity arises (e.g. after drawing 2 cards), that's considered a 'pass' and their opponent may still play an Action (e.g. Panic ) before play continues to the next green box (e.g. attaching a resource).

An Action must resolve completely before anything else can happen, except for Disrupt s. A Disrupt must be resolved completely before the Action finishes resolving, unless Disrupt ed itself.

Then, any Forced Response s which were triggered by the prior Action must occur. Some Disrupt s can interrupt these, too. Some Forced Response effects are not triggered by player-initiated Action s, but they too must occur immediately after their trigger resolves (e.g. after Ravager is committed to a story).

Then, one or more Response s may be played if their trigger conditions were met by the immediately preceding Action or Forced Response . Again, these can be Disrupt ed by certain cards, and may be triggered by other effects (e.g. the act of drawing a card).

A Disrupt can only occur during another effect (e.g. Action , Response , Forced Response ) and cannot be triggered on their own.

Below the '6. End of Turn' phase on the turn sequence page, there are some useful notes. As I read it, only Disrupt effects occur inside a 'green box' and Forced Response effects must occur immediately as soon as the box is finished (i.e. before Action s or Response s may be played).

The definitions of triggered effects and triggered ability are also quite handy and worth remembering.

An example from another thread:

An Action is played to drive Paul LeMond insane (e.g. Brain Transplant's errata'd Action ). It must resolve completely, unless Disrupt ed (e.g. with Power Drain ).

Once it resolves, Forced Response s (e.g. that of the Tithe Collector or Reawakened Elder Thing ) must occur.

Then, Response s may be played, as appropriate.

Finally, a new Action can be taken. Since Pau l LeMond 's ability is an Action , and he's already insane by this point (unless a Disrupt prevented his insanity or a Response or Forced Response restored him), he can't use his triggered effect to give himself a terror icon. That would have been necessary to do prior to the insanity-inducing Action being used.

Hopefully, this will help you apply correct effect timings in future.

[Edit: johnny shoes put up a reply before I managed to. Again, correct regarding the Ravager , but be aware that there are white boxes for 'Actions may be taken' in every phase except for 6 (End of Turn), and that Disrupt effects may be triggered during green boxes.]

Thank again for all the help. Its becoming clearer, so I therefore want to re-iterate a few points to make sure that I have them.

Forced Response. - An action that must occur based on the trigger that is described. This would reoccur, every time you re-triggered the effect

Action: - Occurs at the discretion of the active player. As long as the card is "ready" (not exhausted or insane), the active player can choose to trigger this during his turn in a action sequence. For example F124 - Slavering Gug Action: Pay 4 to choose and wound a character. If I have the domain resources available, i can trigger this anytime it is my turn in an action phase, as long as this character is "ready"

Actions occur in their entirety unless the act on a card that can "Disrupt" the action.

Event Cards - Pay for the card, and perform the action. Once the action is complete, the card is discarded (is this true?) Can I play an Even card any time it is my turn in an action sequence?

Thanks in advance. This is all great help

Brian

Trigger the Slavering Gug on your opponent's turn if you want.

Shoes and Muzar, thanks for straightening me out. Since two clever and knowledgeable players say that forced responses happen only after all defending characters are committed, it must be true, and I learned something. But I don't seem to be able to go back and edit my original post.

(Action: - Occurs at the discretion of the active player. As long as the card is "ready" (not exhausted or insane), the active player can choose to trigger this during his turn in a action sequence.

The card merely needs to be in play and not insane. Actions on exhausted cards can be used as long as the card does NOT say "exhaust to".

For example F124 - Slavering Gug Action: Pay 4 to choose and wound a character. If I have the domain resources available, i can trigger this anytime it is my turn in an action phase, as long as this character is "ready")

As above for exhausted, and as Shoes says, you can trigger any action or event you want even if you are NOT the active player, just be aware the active player gets first chance at the opening of any action phase. If you want to use an action or event as the inactive player, just do it immediately after the active player plays a card or uses an action, OR ask him "do you want to do any actions" before announcing it. Otherwise the active player MIGHT claim he wanted to do an action first based on what he already knows you intend.

Chick

I bey you guys are waiting for me to play the **** game already. I'm sure that will generate another set of questions (e.g Conspiracy cards,...) Thanks again for the input. These nuance explanations have helped, is there a book or something that digs into this?

Time to play,....

Thanks

Hi again chicklewis, it looks as though I can edit my posts either within a certain time after posting them or within the same web browser session - I haven't experimented enough to confirm either hypothesis. Regardless, I've never noticed an 'edit' option appearing after a day or so has passed since posting...

bjgelly, the rules, the old FAQ (2.0) and the new FAQ (1.0) are where all of the official answers are buried. There are some very sensible additional 'rules' which don't appear in any official material (e.g. a player can only exhaust cards they control in order to pay for an effect), but the majority of what you need to play can be found there.

Oh, and as for your last few questions - an Event may be played whenever you could use their effect (e.g. an event with an Action when it's your turn to play actions during an 'Actions may be played' step, or an event with a Disrupt when an opponent plays an Action , etc). Note that some Events are more limited and will say something like 'May only be played during story phase' or 'Play during your operations phase' and that text takes precedence over normal rules.

The rules for Conspiracy cards have been incorporated into the LCG rules book, with one errata - a max. of three of the same name per deck (the four was a holdover from CCG days).

And, yeah, you can commit Slavering Gug to a story (exhausting it), then, for example, pay 4 repeatedly with as many domains as you have free to wound characters as long as the Gug 's text box is not blank and it's still in play (noting that going insane automatically blanks text boxes). Most cards have to exhaust as part of the cost of their Action (or Response ) so the ones that don't are pretty useful.

Hey all,

I'm new to this game as well, and I just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed to this forum. The info here has proven invaluable in my first play sessions.

It's a really great game once you permeate the ruleset!