The reward part of the Secret Room card: Tainted Spring reads: " Any hero on the secret room may keep this card. You may discard this card at any time to roll 2 red power dice. Each hero recovers heart equal to the heart rolled. Discard this card at the end of the quest."

The triggering condition here is "any time", thus, that can be done outside of the turn of the hero who has the Secret Room card. Can the hero discard the card when he is attacked? In any step of the attack? For example in step 5 (Deal Damage) to prevent getting knocked out?
The question essentially is: Do you think Tainted Spring counts as an interrupt? My feeling is no, as no specific triggering condition that would allow it to be used as an interrupt is given. Do you agree?

Agree, not an interrupt. Although interrupt abilities have been infamously hard to define, I think so far all confirmed interrupt abilities specifically lay out the event which can be interrupted or a scenario which allows for one:

"When a monster moves..."

"When a hero suffers fatigue..."

"When you roll defense dice..."

EDIT: To be clear, I feel this card could be used outside your turn- just not during an event which usually resolves uninterrupted. Descent doesn't really have "time", but if it did, I'd be talkinv about downtime.

Yes, we are both referring to this uFAQ, I think:

Quote

You cannot interrupt an attack with a “during your turn” ability. You can only trigger effects during an attack that have triggers that specifically apply to the attack (rolling dice, suffering damage, roll an “X”, etc.) This should clarify the majority of the confusion.
To answer your other question. “During you turn” effects can be played before any actions have been performed and after all actions have been performed.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for playing,

Nathan Hajek
Creative Content Developer
Fantasy Flight Games
[email protected]

10 hours ago, Zaltyre said:

"When a monster moves..."

"When a hero suffers fatigue..."

"When you roll defense dice..."

However, "at any time" = all of the above and more.

If a card instructs to use it when you roll defense dice, you can certainly also use a card that [instructs to use it at any time] when you roll defense dice because "when you roll defense dice" is included in the greater group "at any time".

Since there are cards (like "Fortuna's Dice") that can be used after rolling defense dice, one should be able to use the Tainted Spring after having rolled defense dice.

Also, an "at any time" ability has nothing to do with a "during your turn" ability.

Reading the card from a conventional time perspective, I agree with you. "Any time" could be considered a set containing all possible times. However, Descent doesn't use a purely conventional time (or trigger) system. Some triggers are based on time "during your turn", "at the end of your turn", etc, while others are based on events "when a hero suffers wound", "when a monster is defeated".

Furthermore, the interpretation is clouded by the idea that certain abilities cannot be interrupted unless explicitly allowed (attacks, for example, or traps like "pit trap"- you cannot suffer fatigue before the resolution of oit trap to avoid its consequences EVEN THOUGH the time is "during your turn" when fatigue suffering would normally be allowed.)

Is it possible the card is intended to be useable at literally any time? Yes. However, it is my opinion that the card is somewhat more restricted.

I agree as I think that " You can only trigger effects during an attack that have triggers that specifically apply to the attack (rolling dice, suffering damage, roll an “X”, etc.)" is valid for all other triggers including "at any time", although it is not perfectly unambiguous.

I think this is a perfect example of where FFG's lack of attention to detail (i.e. how it uses certain phrases) results in conundrums that should never occur.

As far as I am concerned, when something says "at any time", that means from the start of the game (quest, campaign, etc.) to the end of the game (quest, campaign, etc.), and any time in between, I can use the card.

Now, I would agree with both Zaltyre and Sadgit that this is not the INTENT of the card. But then, you never know when it comes to FFG.

And now you've got me wondering whether this is going to need an official submission...

An official answer would be nice. It would be a nice addition to the Community Reference Guide with respects to "at any time" effects.

In the interim, I would personally rule that it can't interrupt an action in progress, but can be used at any time between actions.

I submitted the following to FFG:

There is an on-going debate within the D2e forum concerning the card "Tainted Spring". Here is a link to the discussion: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/250163-secret-room-card-tainted-spring/

The Reward part of the card reads as follows:

"Any hero on the secret room may keep this card. You may discard this card at any time to roll 2 red power dice. Each hero recovers heart equal to the heart rolled. Discard this card at the end of the quest."

The question involves the phrase "at any time". Reading with no depth, and with no concern for other existing rulings, this seems to imply that at any time during a quest (whether it is your turn or not, during an attack as an interrupt to prevent yourself from dying, etc.), you may choose to use this card.

While there have been other rulings from FFG personnel (e.g. Nathan) that state that you cannot interrupt an attack with a "During your turn" ability, there has been no such ruling concerning any card that uses the phrase/timing of "at any time".

For example, suppose we are at Step 5 of the Attack step of dealing damage ... if such damage to be dealt would knock me out, can I use the reward of Tainted Spring, and interrupt this step (as it most certainly is "at any time"), and roll 2 red power dice to prevent the knock out?

While the above example is specific, I would love a general ruling applicable to most if not all situations as to what "at any time" actually means, and can it be used as an interrupt to other actions, events, triggers, etc.

Thank you in advance for the information you provide.

On Friday, July 7th, 2017, I received an official response from Nathan concerning this issue. Here is his response:

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