Another one for the FAQ:

If the OL pays 15 threat to reset the reinforcement marker and then plays a spawn card which is successfully cancelled via the Feat card "Preventing Evil", does he get back his 15 threat if he is not able to or willing to play another spawn card at that point?

He definitely doesn't get the threat back, as flipping the eyes up is a separate action from playing the spawn. The rules are silent, but presumably the eyes don't get flipped back down if the spawn card is canceled.

IMO you wouldn't get back the 15 threat for turning over the reinforcement marker.

The text for 'Preventing Evil' reads:

Play this card immediately after the overlord has played a card from his hand. You must roll a power die. If the result is a surge, there is no effect.

If the result is not a surge, the overlord's card is not put into play, and is instead discarded.

The overlord does not have to pay the threat cost of that discard card, and does not get threat tokens from discarding that card.

Paying the threat to turn over the reinforcement marker is a completely separate action. That action then allows you to play a spawn card. As the feat is triggered by the spawn card and specifically states what the result is, once resolved that would be the end of it.

If you got back the threat for changing the reinforcement marker you then wouldn't have been able to play the spawn card and the feat couldn't have been triggered.

James McMurray said:

The text of the feat says:

If the result is not a surge, the overlord's card is not put into play, and is instead discarded.

and the text for the Reinforcement marker says:

When the overlord plays a spawn card, he must flip the reinforcement marker facedown.

IMO that would mean that the discarded spawn card does not affect the current state of the reinforcement marker. The spawn card was never played, it was discarded.

Here's the rules on the Reinforcement Marker:

" The Reinforcement Marker
In the Advanced Campaign, the overlord
player is limited as to how often he may
play spawn cards. At the start of every
dungeon level, the overlord places the
reinforcement marker in front of him faceup (the side with the
eyes). When the overlord plays a spawn card, he must flip the
reinforcement marker facedown. While this marker is
facedown, the overlord player may not play spawn cards. The
overlord player may spend 15 threat on his turn to flip the
reinforcement marker faceup. Otherwise, the reinforcement
marker stays facedown until the end of the dungeon level or a
new area is revealed, whereupon it is turned faceup once again."

The rules basically state that in order to even *play* a spawn card the reinforcement marker is flipped over, so before it has a chance of being discarded/canceled/etc, you flip the eyes. Then a Feat destroys the card, and the OL is SOL 15 threat.

-shnar

Hm, if the card makes it so the OL doesn't have to pay the threat for the card, then it's as though he never played the card. I think I'm changing my mind here and that this Feat would not cause the eyes to flip.

-shnar

I agree that you're SOL on the eyes. To play a spawn card, the eyes have to be face up. The feat stops the spawn card from being played, but you still had to turn the eyes up to even had a chance to play it.

So:

1. Overlord plays 15 threat to turn eyes face up.

2. Overlord attempts to spend 5 threat to play a spawn.

3. Player uses a Feat to try and stop it.

4. Assuming successful, Overlord must instead discard the spawn card.

There is no reason that #1 has to be reversed. The eyes are still up, and the OL could still play a spawn on a future turn.

Again, I think this one is very clear in the rules and not really appropriate for FAQing.

Karui_Kage said:

+1
Except that the OL can still play another spawn card this turn as he explicitly hasn't played one yet. (See also FAQ pg 17/18)

shnar said:

Indeed. It is in fact very clear that the OL never 'plays' the spawn card - he 'discards' it instead. Therefore the 'Eyes' are not flipped to their reverse by 'playing' the spawn card.

The spawn marker is not flipped if the spawn card is cancelled.

FAQ pg. 16 RtL section (with Tomb of Ice)

Q: If a spawn card is canceled by the Feat card, "Preventing Evil," is the Spawn Marker still flipped to its blank side?
A: No.

For Corbon:

Right under that question/answer is a reference to stealth (bottom right, in red). That one should be put in the Tomb of Ice only section (which is after the RtL section) since it applies to all versions of Descent, not just RtL with Tomb of Ice.

Solairflaire said:

Indeed.

'Organisation' is not, at this time at least, being done (by me). I think it will probably be one of the last things done? Please do bring this up again when a call is made for finding small errors or organisational gaffes like this.

The rules part was pretty clear to me as well, what I actually had wanted to ask is "Is it intentional that the OL gets hosed in this way by said feat card or is it a side effect that hasn´t been thought about?"

Of course, the eyes stay up and the OL may have a chance to make use of his 15 threat in a later turn - IF there is a later turn on that level.

Parathion said:

Or even in the same turn...

AFAIC there are often unexpected consequences to things. If you save a spawn card to use next turn after you ruin LOS coverage by dumping the last hero in a pit on his last space, and he unexpectedly avoids the pit, removing your spawn opportunity, too bad.
You pays your money, you takes your chances.

I concur with the majority, and specifically with Corbon, that the OL could continue to play a different spawn card that turn. The Feat card says "the spawn card is not played" explicitly (assuming the quotes above are accurate), therefore the OL has not played a spawn card yet this turn and may play another. The 15 threat spent to unflip the eyes isn't wasted since the eyes are still face up.

Some people might look at that and think that this ruling makes the Feat card useless. After all, if he can just play a different spawn card what was the point of canceling the first? My response to that would be it's a question of resources. Don't waste your feat card on a skeleton patrol you know you can handle. Save it for a lone troll or well timed (/poorly timed) beastman warparty. Maybe he can spawn a batch of spiders next, but you still got rid of the card that would have been a problem.

Sometimes the OL will have two warparties in his hand. Sucks to be the heroes. Other times the OL will only have the one spawn card. Sucks to be him. It all comes out in the wash, IMHO.

Parathion said:

I would be shocked if any of the interaction between Feats and Road to Legend was intentional, as RtL came out before feats and I doubt that much (if any) playtesting was done for Feats outside of the Tomb of Ice expansion itself.