I'm sorry if this is a lot, but I am desperately trying to make sure that my interpretation of the rules surrounding what is and what isn't an action works, and the above is the only way I've been able to reason it that complies with ALL of the FAQ entries listed above. The questions I've tried to answer here are:

1. What determines whether a game ability or effect is an action or not? (for things like Balcony's forced effect)
2. What is considered to have been a performed action (for things like Take the initiative and Pay Day)
3. Is there a functional difference between moving with Shortcut Lv. 0 (which has no bold action designator) and Shotcut Lv. 2 (which DOES have a bold action designator), and if so, what?

So, with that laid out, here we go:

It is my understanding that whether something is an action (as in having the quality of being an action) or not has nothing to do with how many actions (as in the resource that players by default get three of to spend each turn) are spent to perform that action. Actions-the-quality and actions-the-resource are two different things as far as the game is concerned, despite the same english word "action" being used to describe both of them. This is determined based on the following FAQ entries:

• If I play an event with a Fight ability, like Backstab, does it provoke attacks of opportunity? No. Abilities with a bold action designator (like Fight , Evade or Investigate ) count as an action of that type. In this case, since Backstab counts as a Fight action, no attacks of opportunity are made, because Fight actions do not provoke attacks of opportunity. The same goes for Fight abilities on assets, like .45 Automatic.

Because all "abilities with a bold action designator count as an action of that type", and because there exist abilities with bold action designators that do not require actions to be spent to trigger them (Shortcut Lv. 2 for example), there must be a distinction between whether an ability or card effect is considered an action-the-quality and how many action-the-resource was spent to trigger it. Therefore the definition of whether something counts as an action or not is if it has the bold action designator (or is one of the standard actions available to you on your turn; each of which has a bold designator describing it on the player reference card as well). (is this correct? EDIT: No. According to Matt's response, an action is simply defined by whether an action is spent to use it, so Shortcut Lv. 2 is not an action. )

Proceeding from here, we can look at Attacks of Opportunity, and when they trigger. They only trigger when actions-the-resource are being spent, and not in response to just any action-the-quality type ability being used. This is supported by the following FAQ entry:

• (1.1) Attacks of Opportunity Attacks of Opportunity are only triggered when 1 or more of an investigator’s actions are being spent or used to trigger an ability or action. [free triggered ability symbol] abilities with a bold action designator do not provoke attacks of opportunity.

This further supports the above idea of actions-the-resource and actions-the-quality being different, and further supports the idea that Shortcut Lv. 2 would be considered a "move action-the-quality", but not provoke AoO because no "actions-the-resource" were spent to trigger it. (Is this correct? EDIT: No. According to Matt's response, in addition to not provoking attacks of opportunity, free triggered abilities with a bold action designator are not actions at all. )

Following this line of logic, we can see how Ursula's triggered ability, which causes AoO, must be gaining and spending an action-the-resource on a new investigate action-the-quality effect as a result, whereas William Yorick or Leo Anderson's triggered ability, which do not cause AoO and have no bold action designator, are not the gaining and spending of an action-the-resource and do not have the action-the-quality as a result.

To rephrase: Ursula's triggered ability is an action-the-quality because it allows you to take an investigate action (which is why it can provoke AoO and why it can be used to take any investigate action available to you, and not just the standard one), and does so by giving you a new action-the-resource which you must immediately spend on an effect at your disposal that is an investigate action-the-quality. These statements are supported by the following FAQ entries (from the latest, v1.6):

• Does the ability on Ursula Down allow me to take an investigate action on an asset or event card? Yes. Ursula’s reaction allows you to take any investigate action, including those performed via the activate action or via the play action.
• Does the investigate action taken via the ability on Ursula Down provoke attacks of opportunity? Yes. If an ability allows you to “take an action,” it is as though you are gaining an action and immediately spending it to perform that action. This is different from reaction or free triggered abilities that simply perform the effects of an action directly, such as the reaction on Survival Knife.

We also know that investigator effects like Leo Anderson's or William Yorick's do NOT provoke AoO. Based on the Ursula rulings above, we can infer that this is because these abilities do not provide you with an action (note they don't use the word action in their text, unlike Ursula's). If this is true, if a card with a bold Play action designator were to ever exist, we can assume that this abilities would NOT be able to use them instead, because they are not allowing you to take an action but rather instructing you to play-the-game term an asset not gain an action and perform a play-the-action-type action. These statements are supported by the following FAQ entries (the first from v1.3, the rest from the latest, v1.6):

• Does Ursula Downs' ability trigger AoOs? It does. You're doing the full process / rules for taking an action. It's different from something like Yorick's or Leo's ability, if that's the comparison being made.
• If I play an event with a Fight ability, like Backstab, does it provoke attacks of opportunity? No. Abilities with a bold action designator (like Fight , Evade or Investigate ) count as an action of that type. In this case, since Backstab counts as a Fight action, no attacks of opportunity are made, because Fight actions do not provoke attacks of opportunity. The same goes for Fight abilities on assets, like .45 Automatic ( 16).

Because Ursula's ability is as though she is gaining "an action[-the-resource] and immediately spending it" and "it's different from something like Yorick's or Leo's ability", I conclude that Ursula's ability counts as performing an action, whereas Leo and Yorick's do not. This means if she were to play Pay Day, she would gain an extra resource for having used her triggered ability, but Yorick and Leo would not. Similarly, to circle back around to Shortcut Lv. 0 and Shortcut Lv. 2: Because Shortcut Lv 2's effect includes an action designator which therefore makes it an action performed, it would cause an investigator to gain an extra resource for the action performed if Pay Day is played after using its free triggered ability. Conversely, Shortcut Lv 0 does NOT contain an action designator, but like Leo/Yorick, is simply a game action being performed, and thus does not have action-the-quality, and then is NOT counted by a PayDay played after it. (Is this correct? Edit: No. According to Matt's response, Shortcut Lv 2's activation is not an action, and thus wouldn't count as an action you've performed this turn for the purposes of Pay Day. I think Pay Day would still count Ursula's investigation, however, since that one is specifically performing an action. )

In another comparison for Shortcut Lv. 0 and Lv. 2, consider the circumstance where an investigator is at the Balcony location from the first scenario from the Path to Carcosa campaign. This location has a Forced ability that explicitly looks to see if a "move action[-the-quality]" was performed when moving from it to the Theatre. Based on the discussion above, an investigator using Shortcut Lv. 0 would NOT trigger this forced ability because the movement from the Balcony to the Theater was not an action-the-quality effect. Conversely, using Shortcut Lv. 2 WOULD trigger this forced ability because it was still an action-the-quality type effect even if no action-the-resources were spent to trigger it.

PLEASE let me know if I have anything wrong in any of these assertions, and more importantly WHY I am wrong based on rules found in the RR, FAQ, etc.

Thank you so much in advance!

Seems to me like you understand things pretty well. I dont really see why you need our help, I think you've got it down. In summation:

Actions provoke Attacks of opportunity unless they are fight or evade. Actions can be a variety of things including triggering an action (arrow symbol) on a player card, location, treachery card, etc. Actions also include the "basic" actions of move, gain a resource, play a card, draw a card, fight, or evade. Some cards or abilities have a designator indicating what type of action they are. Using a .45 automatic is a Fight action, if it didn't have the Fight designator, using the .45 Automatic would provoke an attack of opportunity! The same is sometimes true for event cards, they can also have keywords that designate them as a particular type of action. "I've Got a Plan" is a Fight action, "Slip Away" is an Evade action.

There are also quick actions (sideways lightning bolt), which don't provoke attacks of opportunity, and dont count against your actions per turn. Really these aren't "actions" in the way that the above category is. You can use these freely provided you have a player window to do so.

Then there are reactions (circle-y arrow) which also don't provoke and dont count against actions on your turn. The only real difference between a reaction and a quick action is that a reaction is triggered on some sort of condition. Leo's ability, for example, is a reaction.

Some cards, however, allow you to mimic the effects of an action without actually taking that action or being that action, or mix and match a little. This might be where it gets confusing. Compare Shortcut (2) with Pathfinder. Shortcut (2) has the quick action symbol, but it also has the bold move designator. This indicates that this is a move action. Move actions provoke attacks of opportunity. Even though it's sort of convenient shorthand to say "arrow actions provoke, lightning bolt actions dont" this is only true most of the time. The time it takes to perform an "action" (in the english sense) is immaterial. What matters is what sort of action it is. In short, if it has a bold designator, the rules for the bold designator apply.

Compare this to Pathfinder, which performs a similar function to shortcut (2). However, pathfinder does not have the Move keyword. It does not provoke, it does not cost an action, you can even use it when under Frozen in Fear and suffer no penalties. Pathfinder doesnt have the Move keyword, it just moves you to a connecting location. The same is true in all instances with the 0 XP version of shortcut. Balcony refers to a move action, you would take the damage from Shortcut (2) as it has the bold action designator. You would not take the damage from the 0 XP version of shortcut, or from Pathfinder.

The best guidelines are as follows:

1. Follow the specific rules on the card. Mano a Mano is an event card, it is not fast, it is not a Fight action. However, it specifically says "this action does not provoke attacks of opportunity".
2. If no specific guidelines are present, refer to the bold action designator on the card. Move, Draw, Resource, Investigate, and (non-fast)Play actions provoke attacks of opportunity. Fight, Evade, Parley and Resign actions do not.
3. If there is no bold action designator, Actions with the Arrow symbol provoke attacks of opportunity. Quick actions (lightning bolt) and reactions do not provoke, or count as actions during your turn, or actions for the purposes of Take the Initiative, Pay Day etc. Event cards with the Fast keyword also do not provoke, or count as actions.

13 hours ago, awp832 said:

Some cards, however, allow you to mimic the effects of an action without actually taking that action or being that action, or mix and match a little. This might be where it gets confusing. Compare Shortcut (2) with Pathfinder. Shortcut (2) has the quick action symbol, but it also has the bold move designator. This indicates that this is a move action. Move actions provoke attacks of opportunity. Even though it's sort of convenient shorthand to say "arrow actions provoke, lightning bolt actions dont" this is only true most of the time. The time it takes to perform an "action" (in the english sense) is immaterial. What matters is what sort of action it is. In short, if it has a bold designator, the rules for the bold designator apply.

This is modified by the FAQ, section 1.1. Free triggered actions ability with bold action designators do not provoke attacks of opportunity, regardless of the action type.

By the way, the lightning symbol stands for "free triggered ability" and the circling back symbol for "reaction ability". Those abilities aren't any kind of action.

Thanks, I'm usually more careful about that.

2 hours ago, Khudzlin said:

By the way, the lightning symbol stands for "free triggered ability" and the circling back symbol for "reaction ability". Those abilities aren't any kind of action.

By this do you mean that Shotcut Lv. 2's free triggered ability does not count as an action-the-quality even though it has a bold Move action designator? I am aware it doesn't cost an action-the-resource but if it is also not an action-the-quality than wouldn't you NOT take 2 damage when triggering it while at Balcony and moving to the Theater? That would contradict several things I said above if so.

Thanks!

1 minute ago, tylorlilley said:

By this do you mean that Shotcut Lv. 2's free triggered ability does not count as an action-the-quality even though it has a bold Move action designator? I am aware it doesn't cost an action-the-resource but if it is also not an action-the-quality than wouldn't you NOT take 2 damage when triggering it while at Balcony and moving to the Theater? That would contradict several things I said above if so.

Thanks!

I believe Khudzlin was just correcting my use of "free triggered action ", which is not a thing.

14 hours ago, awp832 said:

Seems to me like you understand things pretty well. I dont really see why you need our help, I think you've got it down. In summation...

Thank you for this post. I agree with everything you've said, for sure. I think the places I get confused are in the edge cases, like what counts as a performed action for Pay Day type effects, and where the line is for free triggered abilities/reaction abilities that either are actions because they have a bold designator (like Shortcut Lv. 2) or because they immediately give you an action and have you take it (like Ursula's ability).

I'd be interested to hear how you'd answer the Pay Day question in regards to Leo, Ursula, and Shortcut's triggered abilities (to know if I got it right above). Thanks!

2 minutes ago, CSerpent said:

I believe Khudzlin was just correcting my use of "free triggered action ", which is not a thing.

Ah, sorry for misinterpreting. If that is indeed the case, then I think we are all on the same page?

Based on the BGG thread, I have submitted the question of whether Shortcut(2) counts as an "action you performed" for Pay Day.

3 minutes ago, CSerpent said:

Based on the BGG thread, I have submitted the question of whether Shortcut(2) counts as an "action you performed" for Pay Day.

Ah, I did so as well earlier. Hopefully that helps and doesn't hurt.

For those wondering, I asked a similar question on BGG first and it was received with a lot more debate/disagreement than the reception here has been. I posted here because I figured more voices would better help me understand where I was getting it wrong, but I'm not sure if that's the case based on the response here.

The bgg thread can be found here ( https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2299362/ ) if anyone is interested in doing further reading of arguments about this rules topic.

I *think* there's a simpler, less convenient explanation here around Shortcut: Shortcut 0 was designed before the game was released, whereas Shortcut II was developed once the core set was out, Carnevale was out, and questions had arisen around using bold Move or simply the word 'move', prompted by the wording on a location in Carnevale (Streets of Venice). That meant that some later cards were templated slightly differently to reflect the 'correct' (my word) usage...

I'll have more of a think around the more specific questions you posed, but it's worth noting the inconsistency in Shortcut and how it arose, because I don't think it's there necessarily to mean a difference in ability (even though 0 can push another investigator and II requires that investigator to trigger the ability themselves). So just sharing this to include it in the discussion.

Hello,

I got a reply from Matt Newman today. Unfortunately it muddies the waters quite a bit (in my eyes):

Quote

"Greetings,

No—free triggered abilities and reactions are not actions at all, they are triggered abilities that lack an action cost. Only basic actions and abilities with an action cost count. The bold Move designator does not change the fact that it is not an action—activating an ability with an action designator “performs the designated action as described in the rules, but modified in the manner described by the ability.” In this case, the modification is the fact that it is no longer an action , but is a free triggered ability.

Hope that clears things up! Cheers,

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Matthew Newman "

5 hours ago, tylorlilley said:

Hello,

I got a reply from Matt Newman today. Unfortunately it muddies the waters quite a bit (in my eyes):

I'm not sure what to make of the rules now as I clearly must not have a good understanding of them as this is not what I would have expected. I'd be interested to know how everyone else in the thread that seemed to agree with my understanding can explain this.

I have edited my original post to highlight where I went wrong with my reasoning based on Matt's response... let me know if you think it holds up.

Thank you.

My take on this is that Fight , Evade , and Investigate are " abilities " that every investigator has. You can spend " actions " to use those abilities.

This means that reactions and free triggered abilities allow you to use those abilities without spending an action (and that doing so will not count as an action).

We changed to this way of looking at actions after Ursula came out and it was explained that she got an extra action after moving that could only be used for investigating (NOT a free Investigate ).

At least, this is the simple explanation I try to use when explaining the game. Does this seem correct?

That does sound right as far as Ursula was explained when she was first released, but Matt’s response makes things more clear too, at least for me. It was how we first interpreted the rules and played when we just had the core set and then I think my husband and I started over-thinking some of the free triggered abilities and associated language on some later cards. So that is nice to know!

On 10/28/2019 at 3:32 PM, awp832 said:

Actions provoke Attacks of opportunity unless they are fight or evade

Parlay and resign do not provoke an AoO... Quoting the rules reference via Arkham DB - " Each time an investigator is engaged with one or more ready enemies and takes an action other than to fight , to evade , or to activate a parley or resign ability..." ( link )

thank you, but yes, i said that later in the post.

19 minutes ago, awp832 said:

thank you, but yes, i said that later in the post.

Sorry, re-reading again I see that, I guess I got caught on the first line or so since one issue I always forget is Parlay does not trigger and so it caused me to recheck the rules...