I played my second ever game of Android last night with five players, and we ran into a question that even a veteran player wasn't sure of.

Raymond had a Twilight Card (I apologize; I didn't note which one) that would allow him to follow up for 0 time any lead that he could reach. There were no leads within reach of his vehicle; however, he did have a dropship pass. I argued (I was not playing Raymond) that Raymond should be able, if he wanted to, to spend the dropship pass to follow up any lead on the board, because the pass would enable him to reach any lead on the board with a cost of only 1 time. The veteran didn't think that was the case, and thought that the card was therefore worthless at that particular point, because Raymond couldn't reach any leads with his vehicle.

Is there a definite answer here? Or is it just house rules? We decided to go with the veteran's interpretation, but I was curious to know.

Thanks!

I think it's the "I'm going to check the security records." card.

Well, I think he should have been able to follow up any 1 lead. The only condition is "a location that you could move to by spending 1 Time". Unless the target is a restricted location which the player does not have the warrant. So long as he spend the ship token.

Note the sentence on example, pg. 18 of the rule book.

"... this allows him to move anywhere on the board"

So by spending a dropship token he can move to anywhere on the board. Also, moving using ship pass is also considered to be a normal move. And it uses 1 time.

But this is really just my interpretation, I could be wrong. For example, it's odd that he expends ship tokens without actually moving. Also, the usage on the ship token is only explained on the movement part of the rulebook, and the card itself says nothing about sacrificing ship token. It's probably just a design hole.

Sevej said:

Agreed.

TK

I try to oppose this.

from the rules:

A player who possesses a dropship pass token may spend
it when moving his detective to a new location in order to
ignore the normal limitations of his vehicle. The detective
signals a dropship, which picks up both him and his vehicle,
and moves them to any location in either city, anywhere on
the map, including any location on the Beanstalk. Doing this
still requires the player to spend 1 Time to move, and is otherwise
considered to be a normal move . The spent dropship
pass is returned to the pile at the NAPD (I3).

and other rule for playing daytime phase page 12:

The first player spends his Time, performing one action at a time ,
until it is all gone or he does not wish to spend any more.

Using dropship is one action (move action) playing twillight card is also an action. You can break this rule only if a card says you can "play if you follow up a lead to do something ... " but the card mentioned is not this case.

So, you can either move... or play twillight card ... if you decide to move (using dropship) you cant use twillight card until you finished moving. And if you play card first, you cant use dropship until it is resolved.

What can you do is to play dropship to move near the lead location and then play twillight card to follow the lead.

And if rules is not enough for you if the card is called "I'm going to check the security records." I doubt that security record are stored much further from the location where it is taken . Android is thematical game and we always play by this rule when on doubts... so both answers are : No, you cant follow up that lead using dropship.

Ah, you are right Raziel. I was looking for written rules about using the dropship pass only during movement. I don't know how I could have missed that.

I'm not so sure of your argumentations.

"Using dropship is one action (move action) "

yes, just like using your vehicle to move.

Reading the card it says:

"choose a lead in a location that you could move to by spending 1 Time. <...> You do not actually move to that location."

So litterally, just because you have a pass you can cover all the map and you don't use it.

BUT. using common sense I guess the distance and the time you can cover is just 1, according with your vehicle ruler, because you are going to check the security records nearby.

Using a dropship, you can check nothing becuase you are inside a sort of cargo ship with your own vehicle.

So with the 1 time for playing the card, you spend time looking around. Why using your vehicle ruler? just because it is faster and you can do more checks in the same time.