Let's say I have Grappling Hook attached to Boromir, and i commit him to the quest regularly. Thus, he's contributing 1 WP.

Then, in the action window after staging, I ready Boromir, then try to use Grappling Hook. Which of the following occurs?

1. Boromir contributes 3 WP (total) because that's his attack value. (I assume this is the correct answer.)

2. Boromir contributes 4 WP because he contributes 3 WP from Grappling Hook and the 1 WP he was already committing through the normal framework.

3. I'm not allowed to use Grappling Hook because characters can't commit to the quest twice.

4. Something else I didn't think of.

Boromir is just an example, of course -- the same question applies in any number of situations.

Hmm, I think Core rules p. 14 partially answers my question: "Finally, the players compare the combined willpower strength of all committed characters against the combined threat strength of all the cards in the staging area."

So it's not going to be #2: no matter how many times he readies, Boromir is but one character, so he can contribute [whatever willpower value] only once.

Still not clear on #1 vs. #3, though.

I'd go for number 3. Boromir is already committed, so any attempt to commit him again would fail.

Is there anywhere that says a character can't be double-committed? Both Late Adventurer and Hobbit Pony explicitly require the character to be not already committed to the quest. That doesn't prove anything, but I can't remember ever seeing a rule that said a character can't commit twice, it was just never physically possible to do so until now. Of course there are also no rules about being double-committed, so I don't think there's a clear answer to the question. The most likely one is that Grappling Hook should have an errata.

Is there anywhere that says a character can't be double-committed? Both Late Adventurer and Hobbit Pony explicitly require the character to be not already committed to the quest. That doesn't prove anything, but I can't remember ever seeing a rule that said a character can't commit twice, it was just never physically possible to do so until now. Of course there are also no rules about being double-committed, so I don't think there's a clear answer to the question. The most likely one is that Grappling Hook should have an errata.

I don't know that Grappling Hook needs an errata; "double-committing" really just means potentially modifying the willpower value of an already-committed character, which by itself doesn't seem so crazy.

Or perhaps I should say, not so much more crazy than Grappling Hook itself, which can already be used for some theoretical plays that push the boundaries of decorum. Consider hero Treebeard with Ent Draught, Elf-friend, and Grappling Hook. After staging, you can damage him 5 times to boost his stats to 7WP/8ATK, play Fair and Perilous to bring that attack to 15, then use Grappling Hook for a mad amount of questing. Or, more simply, Grappling Hook on anyone resource-flush (Mablung? anyone with Steward of Gondor?) with a few copies of Gondorian Fire. It's a kind of crazy card, given the attack boosts we already have in the card pool.

People asked about double-committing characters to the quest way back in the core set days, since it seems like such a natural thing to do with core Aragorn's ability. Can't be done though. I don't recall if it's in the FAQ but I'm sure someone could dig up a ruling if you're curious.

It can't be done in the case of Core Set Aragorn specifically because there is no moment in the game where it would be possible---even if being committed twice was allowed, Core Aragorn has no right to do it. As far as I know, Grappling Hook is the first time that it would be theoretically possible to double-commit a character and therefore require a specific rule to forbid it.

People asked about double-committing characters to the quest way back in the core set days, since it seems like such a natural thing to do with core Aragorn's ability. Can't be done though. I don't recall if it's in the FAQ but I'm sure someone could dig up a ruling if you're curious.

Come to think of it, though, it seems like that'd let you Desperate Alliance him over to the next player and allow Aragorn to be committed again IF double-committing is allowed. Is there an action window between players committing characters to the quest? Step's in green in the core rules chart.

You could even make it free with Light of Valinor on any eligible hero.

EDIT: Never mind, I keep forgetting willpower isn't calculated until the end.

You're right about Core Aragorn, I didn't think that through (but it was a question people used to ask a lot).

If you can commit a character more than once, what is stopping you from infinitely committing a character with Light of Valinor? It wouldn't make a difference in terms of willpower, because you simply tally the willpower of committed characters at the end of staging (no reason to count a character more than once even if you committed it more than once). But it would give you infinite triggers for a response such as Steed of Imladris.

The LoV and CorAgorn arguments are for different reasons than this, because that relates to the simultaneous, one-time commitment of all your questing characters.

But the point is, if you look at how the rules describe being committed to the quest, it is a game state that is either on or off similar to ready or exhausted. If you're forced to exhaust a character that's already exhausted, they don't become double exhausted. If you get to ready a character that's currently ready, they don't go into a state of double-readiness that gives them two actions.

So I'm pretty sure the intent was that you could only use it if they aren't questing. But as it's printed, I could see an argument that at least the attack-instead-of-willpower aspect could still be used.

Official rules inquiry submitted.

If you can commit a character more than once, what is stopping you from infinitely committing a character with Light of Valinor? It wouldn't make a difference in terms of willpower, because you simply tally the willpower of committed characters at the end of staging (no reason to count a character more than once even if you committed it more than once). But it would give you infinite triggers for a response such as Steed of Imladris.

As Teamjimby put it, the "simultaneous, one-time commitment" of questing characters prevents you from doing arbitrarily large finite triggers in this way. But if the framework allows multiple commitments, I suppose you could still Desperate Alliance over a hero with Steed of Imladris attached and thus activate its trigger one more time. But that makes Desperate Alliance into something akin to a differently-timed Strength of Will that requires a discard instead of a character exhaustion. Not sure if that's really broken.

I'm going to go with #3 as well.

Elf Friend+ LoV + Theodred = infinite resources otherwise.

I'm going to go with #3 as well.

Elf Friend+ LoV + Theodred = infinite resources otherwise.

There seems to be a misconception here. This was already stated above, but I'll quote the core rules directly this time...

Each player may commit characters to the current quest card. Characters are exhausted when they commit to a quest. Players commit characters to the quest as a team, starting with the first player, and then proceeding clockwise around the table. Each player may commit as many of his characters to the quest as he would like.

Each player has but ONE opportunity to commit characters to the quest. Thus, even with Light of Valinor, Theodred cannot be infinitely committed to generate infinite resources, since that would require committing him an infinite number of discrete times. It is the same reason Core Aragorn cannot be double-committed through his ability , even after readying.

Note that the above reasoning makes no assumption about whether a character is fundamentally barred from being double-committed or not. The issue with Grappling Hook is that it provides a new, out-of-framework way of committing a character to the quest and thus creates an issue that forces us to answer once and for all whether a character is allowed to be double-committed. (AFAICT, Desperate Alliance played on a questing hero with Light of Valinor and Steed of Imladris attached can also raise this issue, but that's such a corner case that it hasn't been considered before.)

During my ONE opportunity to commit characters to the quest, I commit Glorfindel, who is eligible because he is ready, then I commit Glorfindel, who is eligible because he is ready, then I commit Glorfindel, who is eligible because he is ready........ I will never run out of eligible characters, but eventually will commit Aragorn, who is also eligible because he is ready, and now I've decided to stop committing characters and it is player 2's turn.

edit: yes I know characters are committed "simultaneously." But it doesn't really matter. A human being selects characters in a discrete order, in actuality, so what rule is there to stop me from selecting Glorfindel over and over, as long as he is a ready character? "Aragorn, Theodred, and Glorfindel commit simultaneously to the quest" works equally as well as "Glorfindel, Glorfindel, and Glorfindel commit simultaneously to the quest."

But since characters may only commit to the quest once, there is no problem really

edit: yes I know characters are committed "simultaneously." But it doesn't really matter. A human being selects characters in a discrete order, in actuality, so what rule is there to stop me from selecting Glorfindel over and over, as long as he is a ready character? "Aragorn, Theodred, and Glorfindel commit simultaneously to the quest" works equally as well as "Glorfindel, Glorfindel, and Glorfindel commit simultaneously to the quest."

But since characters may only commit to the quest once, there is no problem really

Game: Hey, Player, who you sending on the quest?

Player: Glorfindel, Aragorn, Eowyn, Glorfindel.

Game: ...uh, you just said Glorfindel twice.

Player: Yeah, well, he has Light of Valinor, so he never exhausted. You're lucky I didn't say him 100x.

Game: You're supposed to just give me a list of characters, then I--

Player: That WAS a list.

Game: ...okay, a SET of characters. Like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(mathematics)

Player: WTF, Game, why are you making me read about abstract math?

Game: Why are you questing with Glorfindel twice when I already clarified that your characters quest simultaneously?

Player: C'mon, you're so unreasonable. Real human beings can't do anything "simultaneously". I should be able to point at my characters one by one.

Game: I've been letting you slide by on that for a while, but you weren't trying to repeat characters before.

Player: What about Core Aragorn?

Game: Why are you reminding me about that?

Player: Because you're still a jerk, Game. So you're saying I can't double-commit anyone?

Game: Did I say that? Don't put words in my mouth; I didn't say that.

Player: You just did, dude.

Game: No, I didn't. All I'm saying is that you're supposed to give me a set of your characters to quest. Once.

Player: ...I don't see the word "set" anywhere in these rules or clarifications.

Game: It's just a convenient term to get the idea across, since you seem bent on eking out some sort of ridiculous advantage here. I don't even see why you're even trying, since I'm just going to add up the willpower at the end of staging anyway, and I'm sure as hell not going to count Glorfy's willpower twice.

Player: Did you just call ME ridiculous? Do you remember Dreadful Gap? Sleeping Sentry? Shadow cards with Burgle effects? Mumaks? Surge STACKING??

Game: Please stop getting worked up. I'm just some rules and a randomized bunch of cards.

[ACROSS THE ETTENMOORS is released. No one notices anything amiss about Steed of Imladris.]

[THE GREY HAVENS is released.]

Caleb/Matt: Hey, have fun with our new Noldor support! We're sure the # of copies of a card in the discard pile and the phrase "beginning of the phase" won't be ambiguous at all!

Player: ...hey, what's this "Grappling Hook"?

Game: GodDAMMIT.

Heh, well, I wrote that whole scene knowing that I might have to make this follow-up post invalidating it...

Characters who are committed to the quest cannot be committed to the quest again because they are already committed to the quest. You cannot use Grappling Hook to commit Boromir to the quest if he is already committed to the quest.

Thus, in this case GrandSpleen (among others) is confirmed to be in sync with designer intent! So don't plan on grappling, kids, if you're busy questing already. (This also shuts down any shenanigans with Desperate Alliance and Steed of Imladris, or other potential future "when attached character commits to the quest" effects.)

Player: Okay, but what if I play Don't Be Hasty as the last card of staging is revealed, then use Grap...?
Game: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.