Does the player get these effects on a failed roll. Some of them are impossible of course like +1 critical, but others could work. But what's the rule?
Boons, banes, comets and stars on failed rolls.
yes, they do, with discretion. you are right, the ones that are +dmg or +crits dont make any sense to add at all, and the ones that give free maneuvers are easy to allow. there are a few like executioner shot that are hard to judge. i believe its two boons for executioner shot to lower the targets soak by two for the rest of the round, can that activate even if the shot misses? the bullet could still graze or otherwise mess up the targets armor without actually hitting the person. at the end of the day, its your call if you want to allow certain boon spendages.
Yep. I think I like allowing the effects to trigger even when the action is unsuccessful. I'll try that the next session. I know my players will love it and I think it will add a bit of spice.
I'm not sure this is legal. If you do allow the PCs to trigger boons, shouldn't the card have to be refreshed to be used again? But, if you fail, the card is not exhausted? So which is it?
No, the card is only refreshed if it was successful. Success is clearly defined as having hammers instead of challenges, so there's no confusion there. The RAW are also quite clear on this:
"Note that action cards do not acquire any recharge tokens if the check to perform the action failed - recharge tokens are only placed on the card after it is successfully used." p. 50, second column, top of page.
And you can purchase boons even if your action failed. The RAW are quite clear about boons being available even after failure. It's perfectly legal.
"Regardless of whether a particular task succeeds or fails, certain side effects may trigger during resolution, courtesy of bane and boon symbols." p. 45, top of Banes & Boons heading.
"Conversely, a character might fail to accomplish his action, but still trigger some beneficial side effect from boons." p. 46, last sentence of the Who gets to decide which effects are triggered? section.
Lexicanum said:
No, the card is only refreshed if it was successful. Success is clearly defined as having hammers instead of challenges, so there's no confusion there. The RAW are also quite clear on this:
"Note that action cards do not acquire any recharge tokens if the check to perform the action failed - recharge tokens are only placed on the card after it is successfully used." p. 50, second column, top of page.
And you can purchase boons even if your action failed. The RAW are quite clear about boons being available even after failure. It's perfectly legal.
"Regardless of whether a particular task succeeds or fails, certain side effects may trigger during resolution, courtesy of bane and boon symbols." p. 45, top of Banes & Boons heading.
"Conversely, a character might fail to accomplish his action, but still trigger some beneficial side effect from boons." p. 46, last sentence of the Who gets to decide which effects are triggered? section.
Yes that's how I understand it as well and it certainly adds spice to combat. Besides it can't be exploited by inflicking criticals on a miss, because there will be no wounds to convert. It's also a good rule because it means that a miss doesn't have to be all bad.
This issue is also clarified in the FAQ on page 2.