1) Can I put a weapon or armour in the Bag of Holding and consider it "equipped"? I know it's not very thematic, but otherwise the utility of this item would be far lower.

2) The Bag and its contents are "immune" only to stealing effects/spells, right? Other effects (above all, destructive ones) are still allowed, aren't they?

3) Game balance: (connected to point 2) how do you feel about the perspective of losing a treasure and your eight most valuable items with a single spell?

4) Game ethics: would you allow things like "Alan attacks Bob, Bob loses, Alan claims Bob's Runesword, Bob puts the Runesword in the Bag"?

Cynewulf said:

#1: Yes

#2: Yes

#3: Depends, which guy am I, the one who had BoH + 8 Objects and lost them or the guy who caused the loss ? Personally, I'd prefer beating the Trickster, so I could take the BoH + 8 Objects, not see them discarded .

#4: No. I prefer a "closed combat sequence", meaning once combat starts (after defender declines to evade), there is no switching around Objects into/out of Bag, no using Alchemist, etc. until the winner of the combat has gotten his reward for the combat.

Agree 100% with Dam; about question 1, 2 and 3 there's nothing more to say. point 4): before any ability-combat-battle etc. roll, we usually say what equipment we'll use and where objects are: in the bag, on the mule, in the conc. pouch, carried by a follower etc. It works like this:

it's A turn: A has an armour and runesword plus a bag of holding, and he decides to put the armor into the bag. A attacks B, declaring to use the runesword. B wins, A uses armour but rolls 2. Bad luck, B can choose to take a life or steal only the runesword (cause the armour is still in the bag) BUT A cannot put the runesword in the bag! instead, if A put also runesword into the bag, he can use its effects but it cannot be stolen.

I know that sounds strange (how can i use a sword or an armour which is into a bag!!!!!) but this it! there are a lot of groups (JC can confirm) that use houserule about this, but it makes the game harder and longer...sincerily, for me the original rule is ok.

so there's no problem about equipped or unequipped items but it is no good that one ch. uses an object and if he lose he hides it. IMO the best way is to say at the beginning of your turn where you put your stuff, so if something happens (a player attacks, an adventure card is drawn etc.) the situation is clear. Then, at your turn's end, your final action could be to switch an object in the bag or not etc.. we play this way, and seems it works well.

Dam said:

I think you are right.

Trickster can pick the BoH plus all the objects in it..( i am not sure

it should be different with the concealed pouch and bag of carrying. then the objects inside the bag must be stored somewhere else or be ditched.

air show said:

That is "equipping" or "readying"... and is almost exactly the way my group and many others play to avoid the nonsense described in the original guestion(s).

Addendum: we do allow "equipment" stored in the BoH to be swapped out for what the character has on it at the moment. This makes the BoH what is was intended... something more potent and useful than a Follower. When losing in combat, the holder of the BoH doesn't get to hide something away again if you study the rules. The winner claims its victory reward before any further actions are taken on either side. Until victory conditions are fulfilled, the subsequence of actions for combat are not complete. Stowing something away after losing a fight violates that sequence.

Have a similar question, can the merchant trade for any objects in the BoH? Or even trade any object for the BoH with all the obejcts in it?

My point is that the BoH card can't be stolen or taken by any special abilitys. But the merchant ability is trading. He does not take the object, he trades for it. Even if the other player wants what he's offering. What's your guys thoughts on this?

Personally, I'd say the Merchant's ability falls under Taken/Stolen, so he wouldn't be able to. If you wanted to lawyer it, sure he 'trades' but in the spirit of the card, it would prevent such shenanigans.

This is how we visually indicate how cards are being used when we play:

Actively equipped cards are face up as normal.

Inactive, unequipped cards are sideways, this is especially the case with weapons

Bag of holding, concealed pouch, followers such as mule or porter, have their various cards arranged in proximity by their holder. This way if someone wanted to pull a prank, they don't have to ask... 'so what does your pouch have in it right now..?' and then tipping the player off to any potential problems on the horizon.

On an irrelevant but related note, we also put cones on the cards. If the card gives you an actual Strength or Craft bonus, like the Belt of Strength or the Unicorn, we put those cones on top. If it's a bonus just for battle we put the cones on the bottom ( b = battle/bottom ) This convention helps *a lot*

Agreed, basically the Merchant "steals".