Winds of winter plot?

By mojay21, in Rules Questions

The winds of winter plot card just says "winter."

Is this a keyword that does something because I don't have any stark cards from the 2nd edition core set that say to do anything when winds of winter is in play.

I checked the rule book and it doesn't mention anything

this is card I am talking about to be sure: https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/a8/65/a865b43e-8e0a-42c2-bc6a-9f5777e2cb16/the-winds-of-winter.png

It is a Trait, just like "War", "Edict", etc.

Like all traits, it's meaningless on its own and the only purpose is as a possible reference for other effects.

Currently there are no effects that regency Winter (or Summer for that matter, which is another trait that exists) but there may be some in the future.

There were a number of effects in first edition that referenced "If it is Winter" or "If it is Summer". Likewise, there were a few effects that had the text "It is Winter" or "It is Summer," most prominently the White Raven and Black Raven attachments. This placed an uncommonly disproportionate demand for the chapter packs which contained those two cards. (And incidentally one reason why simple rotation would never work for Thrones 1.0, as all that summer/winter tech would be broken when the floor dropped out of four chapter pack cycles at a stroke, just because the Ravens went away.)

So, for my money, we'll see those effects return with the wording "while there is a Winter plot revealed," or what-have-you.

So right now its unusable until a chapter pack releases with cards that say something like "if it is winter then.....". I'm a 2.0 person I never knew the first edition but I know there were effects that said things like this but not in the core set yet. And does this mean that it could only be winter for that turn the plot is played then next turn is normal again? or maybe we don't have enough info....

I hardly think a two-claim plot is "unusable".

The card isn't unusable - it's a great plot, because of it's 2 claim. The *trait* is currently meaningless - but that's true of a lot of other traits (e.g. Littlefinger is an "Ally", but that doesn't make him useless!). Just like we suspect the Ally trait will be meaningful, we suspect the Winter trait on Winds of Winter will mean something. That doesn't mean it will mean something good..

Edited by -Istaril

The Claim! I forgot about that, in that case whatever challenge you win like a military one the loser chooses 2 to be killed off right?

Yes - just like "Sneak attack", which is also claim 2.

Nice. :ph34r:

Winds of Winter makes for a great finishing move. If you are in a situation where you are likely to win several challanges (and probaly have cards that allow you to start additional challanges) you may be able to destroy your enemy in a way he or she won't recover from.