It would seem that I'm the proud owner of the first rules questions post! YAY!

So, on to the questions:

1) My friend brought the game back from GenCon, and was having difficulty with the setup, as it seemed there were one more rooms than treasure markers. I noticed that there was one room with a red line that was not connected to the outer walls, and presumed that this meant that it was only one room and not two. Was I correct?

2) We assumed the circular markings on several spaces on the board were the pentacles? There was nothing we could find in the rules that identified these spaces.

3) There is a character who, when stealing from an enemy character, gets two additional ducats. Does he only get these ducats when he chooses to steal ducats, or does he get them when choosing to steal a treasure as well?

4) In scenario 1, does robbing the treasury count as your action for the turn? It costs two action points to make the attempt, but it doesn't explicitly state that it is that character's action for the turn

5) In scenario 2, can a character voluntarily attack Isabeau?

That's all for now; I'm sure we'll come up with a few more the next time we play it!

1) You should have one treasure for every room.

2) You are correct. The circular markings on the board in non-room spaces are the pentacles used for teleport.

3) The character gets two ducats anytime they defeat another player's character. Not just when he steals treasure/ducats.

4) Robbing the treasury in Scenario 1 does count as your action for the turn. The character can still move if it has not already.

5) Yes, any character can attack Isabeau, and with the bonus for the attacker this is usually a good tactic to defeat her.

I hope this helps.

Bagz

Actually the basic thing I had trouble with as far as Ducats goes is are they in a pool per player or do you assign them to the character that obtains them as inventory? After some consideration, I figured it's supposed to be pooled.

Uncle Bodybagz said:

Is this mentioned anywhere in the rules, or is this just assumed?

Thanks for the responses!

Osaka said:

I don't know if it is mentioned anywhere, but it's pretty obvious. I know the "Teleport" card mentions them. And I believe the character that has this special ability also mentions the pentacles.

Bagz

jimweaver said:

Treasures are assigned to thieves. Ducats are pooled by the player.

Bagz

Uncle Bodybagz said:

The only reason I ask is because you know there are rules lawers out there who will demand to see where in the rules it states these things...

Agreed saying "pretty obvious" is a very slippery slope when it come to board game rules.

Okay, checked the Arcana Cards, and Anays who has an ability related to Teleporting.

Anays

Special Ability : Anays may move directly from any pentacle psace to any other pentacle space during her movement.

Cost : 1 Action Point

Teleportation

Play when moving your character . The character may move directly from any pentacle space to any other pentacle space.

I looked through the rules and nothing specifically calls out, or labels, the spaces on the board with pentacles is being "Pentacle Spaces." But, If you have someone who is arguing whether, or not, they are the actual pentacle spaces the person is fun murdering the game. There are no other possible spaces on the board that someone could possibly think are "Pentacle Spaces." They have an aura around them, and a bunch of rune symbols circling what looks to me like a pentacle.

If you have someone in your group who has a problem with it, just make sure you call it out at the start of the game. "These are pentacle spaces." and point directly at the spaces with what is the only possible spaces on the board to be "Pentacle Spaces."

Bagz

I just noticed that on Game Board 4 ("King of Ashes") under the Special Rules for the scenario the pentacle spaces are identified by the symbol that appears on the board (which we all expected to be the pentacles).

Rules doesn't have it, Game Board 4 does.

Bagz

This may sound like a dumb question. But can a thief leave the district one turn and go back on the board the next turn if it is before the alarm sounds? I don't see that anyplace in the rules.

Ken on Cape said:

Never mind found it.

Osaka said:

There are 24 Chest tokens, and I counted 25 rooms =S, I guess you are right with that "not connected room".

That room is not divided by a wall (red line). That is a curtain hanging in that room. Although I have to admit, red was a crappy choice of color for that curtain when we would only be seeing it from the top (as a red line).

One of the designers has confirmed the pentacle space thingy on BGG. Though if you're playing with rules lawyers, you might want to dismiss your counsel and represent yourself. We houseruled Isabeau, too, saying it sucked when she disappeared from the game: we just have her reincarnate in the room she started out in. This game is loose and simple and fast enough that it really doesn't scream out (to me, anyway) to be rules-lawyered. On the contrary, we're houseruling the crap out of it just for fun.

i didn't found the answer... can you tell me if you can return to the district?

Ken on Cape said:

i didn't found the answer... can you tell me if you can return to the district?

kimanovitch said:

...before AND after the alarm sounds

Dear FFG,

A test read is when people not involved in the writing of a text, such as the writers of a new game's rules, read and attempt to understand and follow the text. Many organizations, such as game companies, use this technique in order to make sure the text is relevant and clear to people who aren't already familiar with the game, even so intimate as to have participated in its creation.

A test read would have eliminated most the questions in these forums, including those in this thread such as "Is the very poorly colored room one or two rooms?" (which should have resulted in the artists of that room recoloring the one confusing room on the board with anything but the exact tone used as the perimeter of every other room. Everyone I've played with has found this confusing and it took two of us a while to realize indeed we hadn't lost one of the treasure tokens, which in case you haven't noticed took multiple other dedicated players on this forum a while to figure out as well. Do you see how long this parenthetical is? Can you imagine how much strife on the part of your customers you could save with this "test print and test read" concept?)

We shouldn't have to go on BoardGamesGeek to find out one of your employees has confirmed where the pentacle spaces are. A single person being introduced to this game who was not already familiar with it would have asked, "Are these the pentacle spaces?" And everybody on your design team would go "Woah, we should put that in the manual, just like how we illustrated everything else in the gorgeous, otherwise pretty clear manual."

We shouldn't have to have people wondering whether the player pools the ducats and not the characters. It's clear in the manual that characters hold treasures. Maybe suggest we place the tokens on their cards to keep track, and make it clear the player is separate from the characters and is in control of all the ducats, action points, and arcana cards. It may be obvious (after some frustrated consideration at least) to people like us, but not everyone has a background in Wicca or has any idea what a pentacle should look like. I noticed in other threads on this forum that people think their character left the town with one treasure and a ducat. I hope they don't think that character is individually carrying the ducat, but without making total novices test read your rules, this is what you'll get, miles and miles of threads with redundant questions that could have been avoided.

In conclusion, dear game company I want so badly to like, these games are getting really good. They deserve that final professional polish and effort that it seems your talented designers are not capable of. Conduct just a couple novice focus groups. Hire rules lawyers if you must. Or do you want to continue limiting your market to people like us?