at cooper the OL can only have 2 power cards in play in a dungeon, if I had 3 Lts stacked 1 trail away from the dungeon would all three reinforce the dungeon, and would that count against the 2 power card limit as the Lts would bring their own powercards into play.

The chances are pretty remote that I can arrange that occurance, but I just wondered.

Page 17: These cards do not count against the number of Power Cards in play.

Mordak said:

Power cards from Lts fortifying specifically don't count againt power card limits.

RtL pg 17
Furthermore, these cards do not count against the number of Power cards in play...

Edit: Beaten to the punch

I used to play a game called Star Fleet Battles, the rule book was massive, every single possible interaction was listed in the rules, great for any disputes mind, but a lot of reading. RTL is tiny by comparison, but I still miss things.

Mordak said:

I assume you are aware of Federation Commander?

Never got around to trying that, spent too much time (and money) with all the Star Fleet Battles, and Federation and Empire sets, Good Games. Federation and Empire is my fav all time game.

A related question:

If you already have 2 power cards on play, on copper level, can you choose to discard one of them and then play another power card to replace it ?

Or are you stuck with what ever 2 power cards you've played ?

trulez said:

The limit is on power cards being in play, not on how many you can play. Therefore there is nothing to stop you playing more. When you do, then you have too many and a forced to discard one to obey the rule.

Thus you discard after you play the extra, not before, though there is no significant difference really..

could be expensive use of threat though.

I assume that you would not get any threat from discarding a power card that has been in play?

Mordak said:

Nope

Is this actually stated in the rulebook or FAQ? It would seem to me that, unless specifically allowed, getting 3 into play so that you could discard down to 2 would require the OL to break a rule, and thus not be legal.

James McMurray said:

RtL pg 9
The overlord cannot have more than (X) Power cards in play during a given dungeon at once

The act of playing it does not contravene the rule, which only applies to cards actually 'in play'. Until putting the card in play is complete, no rules have been broken. Once the card is in play then the rule comes into effect and to obey the rule one card must be discarded. The discard is a immediate effect of the extra card 'getting into play' and prevents the rule being broken.

The rule is a continual check on the number of cards. As soon as the check finds a number higher than X, the rule comes into play (forcing a discard). The rule does nothing at all when the number of cards is not higher than X.

Your interpretation is possible, but would be far better served by different language. If the rules want to prevent you playing a card then they would discuss not being allowed to play cards if X cards are already in play.

So you're saying there's some sort of "in limbo" step for the playing of a card? It doesn't just get played, it leaves your hand with the intention of being played, gives you the option to take actions that are never mentioned in the rules (discard a power card), and then finally have it actually hit the table? I suppose that's one way to play it, but Occam would roll over in his grave.

Yeah, better language would be more clear, but when one has to create multiple rules that don't exist in order to reach the conclusion they want, it's more likely that it's just a case of FFG not writing their games for rules lawyers, and assuming that people know what they meant. IMO, YMMV, ATD, and all that.

I would say hat if you have your limit of power cards down and then pick up one form your deck that you want to play, provied you discard one of the ones in play first, you can then play the new one. you are then always within the limits for the campain level you are in.

This seems to be one of those unfortunately unclear situations. There is certainly a limit but there is no ruling on if the OL can discard played after reaching the limit. I think this is one of those times the players just need to agree on a house rule and go forward with it.

Personally, I don't see any problem allowing the OL to discard an in-play power card and receive no threat for it. Mainly because power cards are expensive to play. Given their cost, each power card played is a spawn card not played (spawn card plus flipping spawn marker). In RtL the dungeons can be very short and the OL needs to have the power card in play for a while to get the most benefit. To me, a discarded power card is most likely wasteful and poor planning on the OL's part.

I guess I just don't see how it's unclear. There is no rule that allows the discarding of power card. Thus creating one is a house rule, not an interpretation of an unclear situation. But as long as it works for the group doing it, thta's all that really matters. I can say that I'l never try it as overlord, as I don't think it's a necessary house rule to keep the game playable.

edroz said:

I would agree that its very wasteful to try this, and I never have, to be honest it never occurred to me that the rules would allow me to discard, but there are no rules against it so I don't see why you can't.

The question is really do you want to, given the cost involved I cant see that I would be doing this any time soon.