This weekend, we had a debate concerning Field Researcher's (F 103, Miskatonic) special ability:

"Response: After an opponent wins a story but chooses not to trigger the effect, exhaust Field Researcher to trigger that story's effect as if you had won the story"

If the opponent wins his third card and if this card is Dreamwalkers, can Field Researcher still trigger the ability, forcing the opponent to shuffle a story card back into the pile?

I don't think so because the rules state that a game ends immediately when a player gets his/her third story card. I don't think he could choose whether to trigger its effect or not - since the game ends before he could take this decision (and deciding would be quite pointless because the game was over anyway). Players only win a story and then choose to trigger the effect on cards 1 and 2.

Field Researcher's ability requires 1. that a player wins a story, and 2. that he actually and actively chooses not to trigger the effect. But if I doesn't choose anything because the game is over before I could or would choose anything, is she allowed to use her ability nevertheless?

Thank you for any clarifications!

We had this discussion about a different combo previously. Although we never got an official ruling from FFG, I think that the game ends before there is a chance to even decide if a story should be triggered or not.

TheProfessor said:

Dreamwalkers and the stealthy zoog thread. Its the same situation as that. We're all waiting for the answer. Hopefully it will be posted.

Mmmh, not a very satisfying situation. How are these effects usually played (on tournaments or in your private matches) until we get an official ruling? Any inofficial agreements?

Well, at the NY Regional, before the tournament we agreed that if there were any confusing rules resolutions we would discuss them as a group to reach a conclusion. We couldn't think of a better solution than this because there are some problems (Dreamlands Scholar/The Night) that have no official ruling and no logical conclusion.

Fortunately we didn't run into anything that required a group discussion - everything went smoothly!

We've decided to create a triumvira of "game guru" for the french nationals that will happens this week-end. In any problems of rulings happens, we've created a FAQ for the tournament and shared this on the non-official forum.

But there's still problems we don't receiv any answer to .... Faq 1.2 is needed and I'm screaming for it to come almost everyday since a month !

Prodigee: Did you make an internal opinion on what to do if Dreamlands Wanderer and The Night are both in play and Dreamlands Wanderer is exhausted?

Not about the Night's problem. It's a really problem. An idea it' to say the loop block itself : it's the night but the effect of The Night (the card) is off when the Dreamlands Wanderer is exhausted.

For the combos with Dreamwalkers we had kept the rule from the rulebook. You win a story when you put the the fifth token so you have not the time to trigger anything. It's a good alternative with the limit time from tournament to avoid too long games with the zoog combo.

I agree with the fifth token immediately ends the game. Makes sense to me.

The Night thing is more complicated because any resolution has a built-in contradiction/violation of rules.

TheProfessor said:

Thats basically where we ended the other thread about this "How immediate is immediate? ", and would even a passive response trigger thats suppose to always be in effect.

I still can't help feeling that if something occurs in the game, and you have a response to it, you should be able to take it before the game ends.

I don't know if I'm trying to take the easy way out or the rest of you just like to complicate things , but, Field Researcher's ability is a "Response:". Looking at the chart on p. 13, all stories are resolved before any Responses can be taken, right (green, uninterruptable box vs white box)? So game would end before the responses window would even open.

Same deal if you restore Mad Genius to put the 5th token on Dreamwalkers to win the game? I mean, ready/restore is another green box, during which no Actions and Responses can't be taken.

Dam said:

Thats the big question, I think. How immediate is "immediately" ? Would you win the game in the green box or have a chance to respond at the end of the green box? What your saying makes sense, but so could getting a last response...

and honestly if this game echoes the Lovecraft storys there was always a last ditch effort to avert a catastrophe.

There's a few cards that follow this mechanic. Another one thats similar is that Syndicate card Patsy (F 70) Action : Sacrifice Patsy to discard two success tokens from a story with four or fewer total success tokens.

Just for the unofficial FAQ in France... we have choosen to win the game directly at 5 tokens BECAUSE we didn't want to extend the game length during tournament.

I'm still convince if i read the faq that you can only win a game when the third story card goes to the win story pile as i said in the thread of dreamwalkers+zoog...

Thread => there