I was just looking through the cards that come in The Lost Realm, and noticed an oddity in the wording of Gather Information , a side-quest:

Quote

Response: After this stage is defeated, each player may search his deck for 1 card and add it to his hand. Each player shuffles his deck.

Am I correct in thinking that in a multi-player game if any player decides to search his deck for 1 card, all players must shuffle their decks? That's how I read the wording, and I can think of a scenario where a player may not want to perform the search, but shuffling their deck would be annoying...

Player A uses the action of Gildor Inglorian or Gandalf's Search to arrange next 3 or X cards that they'll get from their deck... "Hooray!" they think. "On the next three or X card draws I will get exactly what I want when I want it. Look at me, aren't I clever."

Player B, on successfully completing the Gather Information side-quest, decides they want the ever-important Brok Ironfist from his deck, so he decides to search for Brok, add him to his hand, and shuffle his deck.

Player A glares at Player B, shuffles his deck in anger, bending some of his cards ("Why did I not sleeve?!?" he will later cry).

Or am I mis-reading the card?

Since "each player shuffles his deck", player A will have to shuffle his deck regardless of whether anyone searched their deck for a card or not. If he doesn't want to do that, he should convince the first player not to choose Gather Information as the current quest.

I'm pretty sure in my french version of this card, only players who search a card in their deck have to shuffle it. But maybe I am confusing with another card

I would say differently. The effect is a response, so when no one searches their deck, no one has to shuffle.

I just checked, and effectively each player have to shuffle his deck, no matter he search a card or not.

As Amicus states, it's a response so it's optional... but if one player takes advantage of the response, then all players have to shuffle, is how it reads to me.

I mean, you skipped the step where player A can also search his deck for any card they want and add it to their hand before shuffling, an ability I would consider more valuable than simply arranging the next 3 draws.

A fair point about the response. If the response is not taken, then no one does anything. But there's no requirement that if the response is taken that *someone* gets a card, that part is optional. If you're really trying to annoy your friend who doesn't want to shuffle, you'd take the response and *not* grab a card, just to make it clear that you're a griefer.

In practice, I can't imagine that Gather Information would be chosen as the current quest unless all players want to grab a card. I typically pack one copy of the card in each of my two-deck fellowships, because gather information is how you help your friend, not how you annoy them.

For me it's a rhetorical question, as I play solo and don't have The Lost Realm (tho' it's tempting to try sneaking it past the wife)... I was just curious on the wording being all players, rather than just those that searched their decks.