Just some interesting rules I wanted to point out and see if anyone has other interpretations.

Abilities on a deployment card such as Elite Jawa Scavenger's "Motivators" would apply to a junk droid but abilities on Imperial Nemesis class cards, such as Inspirational, would not apply. Am I reading into this correctly or is there something more to the word "use" in the companion rules?

Companions cannot use abilities on Item, Class or Supply Cards

I have had some discussions about the interpretation of "use", and it seems currently the best way is to interpret it to only include active use by the figure itself, i.e. companions cannot use actions, spend surges, or gain effects by paying other costs for class or item cards.

However, companions should get the benefit and discomfort of passive abilities from class and items cards, and affected by abilities under the imperial player or rebel control (like Vinto's Shot on the Run, or Snap Kick from Diala). This is analogous to mandatory imperial abilities affecting figures under Murne's control.

Motivators is an ability of the Jawa Scavenger and involves no cost or choice for the Junk Droid, so it would apply. (Just the +1 Speed is relevant though due to melee attack.)

See the thread Junk Droid and Find the Weakness . It also leads you to some other threads about passive mandatory abilities.

Inspirational is an ability under the imperial player's control with the exhaust cost paid by the imperial player, not the figure, so it can be used with the Junk Droid. There are similar abilities in the Murne's False Orders thread.

Does this add anything to the discussion?

This specifically mentions that 88-Z (a companion) qualifies as a droid for this ability. I think that this strongly suggests that companions would "use" an ability on a class card even if the card says something like "... while an Imperial figure is attacking to apply +1 damage to the attack results," and are therefore not allowed to be affected by (or, rather, "use") that ability.

Otherwise, why would they specifically mention that 88-Z counts as a Droid for this ability? He has the Droid keyword already.

Reactive Defenses is almost one year old, the recent discussion about the difference of use and be affected by is more recent. But at least the explicit mention of 88-Z in the class deck makes it clear that the class deck of 88-Z affects the 88-Z and 88-Z benefits and can use its abilities.

2 hours ago, a1bert said:

Reactive Defenses is almost one year old, the recent discussion about the difference of use and be affected by is more recent. But at least the explicit mention of 88-Z in the class deck makes it clear that the class deck of 88-Z affects the 88-Z and 88-Z benefits and can use its abilities.

I was also wondering about the explicit mention of 88-z. I assume the above card also applies to junk droids because it's an exhaust?

With the current interpretation of use Mechanical Protocol is controlled by the imperial player, not the figure, so it could be used on a Junk Droid's attack. But with Reactive Defenses I would expect to run e.g. Probe Droids or Sentry Droids instead of Ugnaughts. If you can make an Ugnaught Tinkerer swarm work, go for it.

5 hours ago, a1bert said:

Reactive Defenses is almost one year old, the recent discussion about the difference of use and be affected by is more recent. But at least the explicit mention of 88-Z in the class deck makes it clear that the class deck of 88-Z affects the 88-Z and 88-Z benefits and can use its abilities.

Well, whether it's a year old or not, it seems to indicate that the original intent for companions was that class cards like this not be used on them.

This is again the difference between use (currently interpreted as the figure paying any costs to activate abilities) and be affected by. As far as I have heard in private discussions, the original intent was for class card abilities like Snap Kick affecting the Junk Droid. If abilities like Admiral's Uniform or Emergency Medpak can choose a rebel companion, abilities like Hidden Detonators can choose a companion as the imperial figure.

What I wrote to the thread linked above seems still valid, even though the designers added the mention of 88-Z in the class deck to make it unambiguous. (There are quite a few places where redundancy has been added to make abilities easier to understand. It all depends on the text space available.)

Rebel class, item, and supply cards should be able to affect imperial companions in negative ways and rebel companions in beneficial ways, so imperial class cards should also be able to affect rebel companions in negative ways and imperial companions in beneficial ways.

But actively using abilities that require a cost paid by the figure (including, but not limited to action, exhaust, deplete, discard, suffering strain) cannot be used by companions.

E.g. The special action on Mortar would be excluded from the Junk Droid. The imperial player could exhaust Mortar to give the ability to the Junk Droid, but the Junk Droid would not be able to activate the special action.

Note that companions do not have restrictions in using abilities on agenda cards or deployment cards. Agenda cards are mostly single-use (or deplete), so they do not make companions especially powerful.

4 minutes ago, a1bert said:

As far as I have heard in private discussions, the original intent was for class card abilities like Snap Kick affecting the Junk Droid. If abilities like Admiral's Uniform or Emergency Medpak can choose a rebel companion, abilities like Hidden Detonators can choose a companion as the imperial figure.

I think it makes sense that Snap Kick can affect companions. Diala is using the ability, the Junk Droid is just a target for the ability. The Junk Droid "suffers damage," but suffering damage is something the Junk Droid can already do because it's a figure. A figure that can't attack can still be the target of an attack. A Stormtrooper can't "use" a shock grenade, but it can still be damaged by it.

I don't think it follows that Admiral's Uniform or Emergency Medpack could choose a rebel companion. You don't think the fact that it says "That figure may reroll any number of those dice" means that the figure would be using the Admiral's Uniform ability to reroll those dice? Or that the figure would recover 5 damage using the ability of Emergency Medpack? It has no ability to recover or reroll dice in that instance by itself; it must use the ability granted by the card to be able to do those things.

9 minutes ago, Stompburger said:

You don't think the fact that it says "That figure may reroll any number of those dice" means that the figure would be using the Admiral's Uniform ability to reroll those dice? Or that the figure would recover 5 damage using the ability of Emergency Medpack?

No, I don't think the chosen target of an ability is using the ability, only being affected by an ability. The figure having the ability is using the ability, allowing another figure to perform something.

Emergency Medpak is used by the hero who has the Medpak, and it doesn't even give a choice to the chosen figure. The chosen figure recovers 5 damage. In the same way Find the Weakness applies to attacks performed by imperial figures under Murne's control. The imperial figure is not using Find the Weakness, but is affected by it.

15 minutes ago, a1bert said:

No, I don't think the chosen target of an ability is using the ability, only being affected by an ability. The figure having the ability is using the ability, allowing another figure to perform something.

Emergency Medpak is used by the hero who has the Medpak, and it doesn't even give a choice to the chosen figure. The chosen figure recovers 5 damage. In the same way Find the Weakness applies to attacks performed by imperial figures under Murne's control. The imperial figure is not using Find the Weakness, but is affected by it.

Then I guess I just disagree with your interpretation of "use." I hope we get a clarification soon.

It's clear the ability on Admiral's Uniform is being used by the character wearing the Uniform. It is not being used by the companion.
The companion, if it were wearing the Uniform somehow, would not be able to use the Uniform.

A thing you could look at to compare is how the rules treat a Hero who has become incapacitated.
It specifically mentions that the Hero cannot use or be affected by abilities.
A companion can not use abilities, but still be affected by abilities.

15 hours ago, Majushi said:

It's clear the ability on Admiral's Uniform is being used by the character wearing the Uniform. It is not being used by the companion.
The companion, if it were wearing the Uniform somehow, would not be able to use the Uniform.

A thing you could look at to compare is how the rules treat a Hero who has become incapacitated.
It specifically mentions that the Hero cannot use or be affected by abilities.
A companion can not use abilities, but still be affected by abilities.

I agree that

Quote

It's clear the ability on Admiral's Uniform is being used by the character wearing the Uniform.

I don't think it's clear that

Quote

It is not being used by the companion.

Think the fact that it says the companion " may [do a thing]" could mean that the companion is using the ability of Admiral's Uniform.

I don't think comparing to an incapacitated figure is valid. When figures are incapacitated, they're supposed to be essentially out of the fight, so it makes sense that neither friendly nor hostile abilities could affect them.

Although use is a generic word, there are a few places in the RRG that seem to associate use of an ability to the figure having the ability and the figure resolving it. See Abilities, Class Cards, Command Cards, Exhaust, Strain.

For example Imperial Officer can Order to allow another figure to perform a move and spend the movement points as they wish, but the figure is not using or resolving Order.

19 hours ago, Stompburger said:

I agree that

I don't think it's clear that

Think the fact that it says the companion " may [do a thing]" could mean that the companion is using the ability of Admiral's Uniform.

I don't think comparing to an incapacitated figure is valid. When figures are incapacitated, they're supposed to be essentially out of the fight, so it makes sense that neither friendly nor hostile abilities could affect them.

The "may" reroll dice on the uniform is not an ability being "used". At the point of choosing to reroll or not, the ability (to grant the choice to reroll) has already been "used" by the wearer of the uniform.

The reason I suggested looking at the incapacitated rules was to show an example of the wording the game designers intended to use when a figure could not "use" or be "affected by" abilities. A wording which is not present in the companion rules.