I know I have read about this but I can't find the answer for the life of me right now. I'm sure it's stareing me in the face and I'm prob just overlooking it.

We all know that a stressed ship can not preform actions. But can a stressed ship be assigned tokens? I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, but the rule/wording is eluding me right now.

Yes it can. You can't find the rule because there isn't one; that's not how the game works. Nothing about the stressed condition says a ship cannot be assigned tokens (only that it cannot take actions or perform red manoeuvres), so that is all it does.

Do what the rules say, no more, no less*.

E: *unless the FAQ or tournament rules say something different in which case do that.

It was so obvious I thought it couldn't be that simple.

It was so obvious I thought it couldn't be that simple.

Hey, sometimes even the blatantly obvious ones just have to leap up and smack you in the face to get your attention.

I'm afraid this is one of those cases where I HATE to see someone say "show me where it says you can/can't do something." It's hard to point to a rule that allows tokens to be assigned yet if asked to point out a rule that forbids it some will point out that rule on Stress and actions.

I'm afraid this is one of those cases where I HATE to see someone say "show me where it says you can/can't do something." It's hard to point to a rule that allows tokens to be assigned yet if asked to point out a rule that forbids it some will point out that rule on Stress and actions.

Although in this case, there are a couple of rules to back it up.

Page 10 under Evade:

If an ability instructs a player to assign an evade token to a ship, this is different than performing an evade action. The ship is assigned the token without performing an action and may still perform the evade action this round.

and page 11 under Focus:

If a card ability instructs a player to assign a focus token to a ship, this is different than performing a focus action. The ship is assigned the token without performing an action and may still perform the focus action this round.

Both clearly state that it's different from performing the action, and you're assigning the token without performing an action, so therefore the action restrictions (stress, more than once, etc) don't apply. There are no restrictions when it comes to assigning tokens to a ship, unless a rule or card specifically states otherwise. (eg. more than one target lock, Attanni Mindlink, etc.)

Kyle Katarn's Hwk-290 has the ability to assign one of his focus tokens to another friendly ship in range one. Doesn't matter if the ship is stressed or not. So I do believe in some circumstances a stressed ship can receive a token while stressed.-- other than receiving the red end of a target lock, ion token, or a crit.