So in my first game this came up. I had a character that had a dash ( - ) for a military skill value. Another character says that it can do something to a character who has a military skill value less than 2. Is my character considered to have a skill value less than 2?

The way we ruled it is that because there is no skill value the character could not be targeted.

We also noticed some cards say a card can be affected by an effect if it's skill is less than say 2. When the word 'skill' is used does it mean current skill or the base skill that it is written on the card without current modifiers on it? (During the game one of his characters had a +2 to political skill and it had a printed political skill of 1.)

Thanks ahead of time.

For purposes that require a numeric answer (like comparing skill for Rout/Outwit, or the Crane stronghold) characters with a dash are treated as having 0 in that skill. So yes, they will always have a skill less than 2. Dashes are different than just having a 0 because 0s can be pumped higher, and dashes are unable to duel in that skill, or participate/move in a conflict of that type.

Anything that says "base skill" counts just the base skill, otherwise you count the total skill after any modifiers are applied.

Thanks! It's weird to me that there is no differentiation between the wording of 'current skill' and 'skill'. I wonder why that is, but it sounds like we played it entirely wrong! The good thing though is that it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the match. Thanks again.

I have a follow-up question of sorts:

Does a character with a "dash" in one of its skills receive the bonus given through being honored (add the glory value)?

7 minutes ago, da0882e327 said:

I have a follow-up question of sorts:

Does a character with a "dash" in one of its skills receive the bonus given through being honored (add the glory value)?

No. Dash is unmodifiable, always. An honored character will receive the glory modifier to his numerical skill, but no to his dash skill.

Additionally, since dash is unmodifiable it has been recently ruled that cards that switch a character's military and political stats cannot do so if either stat is a dash; switching would be modifying.

https://fiveringsdb.com/rules/reference#dash