I have a question about the Water Shortage crisis card, and cards like it that are phrased similarly.

This card gives you two choices, and you have to pick one of them:

-1 food *OR* The President discards 2 skill cards, then the current players discards 3 skill cards.

So the question is: What happens if you don't have enough skill cards for the second option? We can't find in the rules where it says you have to have the cards available in order to choose the second option.

Thanks!

You can still choose that option. The players then discard as much as they can.

as per the rulebook, page 30

"Choice Crises: When a player makes a choice on a Crisis Card, he can always choose the top or bottom section of the card, regardless of whether he will be able to fulfill the game text listed (unless the card specifically restricts this)."

Grail

CrowOfPyke said:

Its all in the language and parsing of it. In the case of the Water Shortage, the things you have to do are consequences of the choice, not requirements for making the choice. THe processing is 'player makes choice, then consequences happen.' So you can happily make it and you simply have to do as much as possible toward the effect but if you fall short, so be it. This is the case with the vast majority of crisis card choices.

If there a cost to do something or make a choice then it will be phrased that way - Roslin's disadavantage is one - it clearly has things written so that you have to pay to activate a space - thats an upfront cost and so must be met, you cannot say 'I only have one card so its good'. Another area is 'Risk a Raptor' or 'Risk a viper' type, where you clearly have to put something up first. Offhand,I can think of only one Crisis card offering a choice where there is a cost like that and thats where the nuke is needed for a choice, and in fact the card makes it very clear that if you have no nuke you cannot make the choice becuase it is a required cost.

So think in terms of 'is this phrased as a cost to do something [e.g. Give up X to do Y], or a consequences of choosing [e.g. Select X and then lose Y]' and you have a good guide in the absence of any specifics. Im pretty certain that there is a section in the FAQ that covers this exact subject, so you should be able to find official clarification that covers most things.