In the new Exodus expansion, there is a card called "State of Emergency" and it reads "Action: Lose 1 food. Each player may then move or take 1 Action (starting with the player who played this card and proceeding clockwise)."

Now, in the rules it states that if the word player is used that it applies to all players. There is errata on the EX-O card though that says a revealed cylons cannot be the target (even though the card uses the word player). Should revealed cylons be able to receive the benefit of this card?

It seems that this card would not be very useful to humans if all revealed cylons got actions too (especially because it does cost them a resource).

Our gaming group came to a consensus that the card should only apply to humans (including unrevealed cylons or infiltrating cylons, of course!), but couldn't be combined with an Ex-O. I'm not sure if this is correct . I'm very anxious to see an official response from FF.

What are your thoughts?

I think the card is clear as writtenrevealed cylons get an action, and one person could even use an XO as their action during the round (but only one, cuz of XO's own limitation).

I would, however, very much endorse a "no xo" errata. As for banning revealed cylons from getting a turn, I can see this go both ways, reallythe card would lose usefullness over the course of the game, but could still be a last-ditch effort if cylons get actions. Of course, "theme-wise", cylons getting a benefit doesn't make much sense.

Ultimately, probably the simplest thing to do is to call it a "super" XO, and apply all the same rules (and therefore it would count as that turns only XO). We'll see what the FAQ says, though.

Revealed Cylon players may not use actions or abilities listed
on Skill Cards.

page 20 core rulebook

so no, they do not get an action from it.

Turric4n said:

But they aren't "using" the action, the player who played the card is. They're just benefiting from its effect. My instinct was the same as Turric4n, that cylons are prevented from gaining the action, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding the rule that supports it, and I'm slowly beginning to reverse course. At this point, I don't see any reason why cylons don't benefit from the extra action. I'd definitely like to hear something official on it, though.

revealed cylons may not use the ability on the skillcard. the ability is getting an action. revealed cylon cannot use it. problem solved. its not the action whats relevant right now.

Turric4n said:

I believe your interpretation has unintended consequences that show it to be incorrect. The same phrasing applies to treachery cards: humans can't use abilities on them. If you are defining "ability" to mean "game effect" rather than "using the card (i.e., playing it yourself for the action, or in cards like DE, for the game effect)" then humans are immune to reckless skill check abilities like the one from special delivery that would have them draw treachery, a rather absurd result.

The ability is clearly sacrificing a food to give every other player (including yourself) an action. A cylon cannot PLAY the card under the rules, but I cannot find a rule that could be interpreted to stopping cylons from gaining the advantage of them without interpreting it in a way that results in consequences like your interpretation would for treachery.

Now, to be clear, I think ultimately SoE should probably be treated like a XO in every respect, but until the FAQ comes out, unless I'm missing something in the rules, it isn't.

actually there is exactly one treachery card which would be dampened by this ruling: special destiny (each player draws 1 treachery card). and that card.. i couldnt care less. treacherycards are so useless to have as a human.. just dump them in the next best skillcheck that you want to fail anyway. or go and airlock a toaster.

but yes, the logical consequence of this ruling would say just that. the card wont affect humans.

another quote from the pegasus rulebook page 10:

(Note, however, that Reckless Skill Check powers on
Treachery Cards will take effect regardless of who played
them, see above.)

this one is for your interpretation.

finally.. who says that it was intended that humans draw treachery from the above named card too?

ps: i am fairly sure its just bad wording in the pegasus book. it should state that humans cant use the action on a treachery card. not the ability.. but that is common sloppiness in rulebook writing.

pps: what are you doing anyway? giving the cylon a steak, so he moves further?

Revealed Cylons cannot benefit from the effect of Executive Order. I would imagine the same ruling applies here.

Bleached Lizard said:

My first instinct was to agree with this... except that the Exodus rulebook is so careful to differentiate between "players," "Human players," and "Cylon players." The base game rulebook does not make that distinction, hence the need for the errata to clarify how the XO should work. Given that the term "players" is clearly defined in the rules to mean "everyone playing the game," I would assume the effect of the card would be applicable to both humans and cylons, unless a future errata indicates otherwise. Other crisis cards, etc, do make the distinction "Human players" vs. "Cylon players" so I would assume the SOE effect applies to all players unless it's an oversight or typo.

Of course a revealed cylon can't play the card as his action...

ninjamatic3000 said:

Or they wanted to keep the wording consistent with that of Executive Order and presumed that players would realise it was the same deal.

I'm going to go ahead with presuming that it doesn't affect revealed Cylons, as that is what is consistent with past card effects and the alternative just seems a bit silly.

Bleached Lizard said:

Doesn't seem that bad to me... allowing the Cylons to act is the price you pay for allowing every human to act (in addition to the food loss). It's cost/benefit, just like everything else in this game.

Since the card says "move OR take an action," revealed Cylons can't do anything other than activate the location they are currently standing on (I guess Cylon Leaders can use actions on their character sheet too), which admittedly could be bad depending on the situation and what locations the Cylons currently occupy. Humans, on the other hand, can activate their location, play a card, use a character ability, play quorum, fire a nuke, etc. So, as with many other abilities, you have to weigh the potential positive vs. negative effects before using it.

Like I said, I'd agree with you on the consistency with past cards if not for the specific definition of "players" given in the Exodus rules. I don't know, that's just my take on it... it's open to interpretation until we have a FAQ or a ruling from FFG... has anyone e-mailed about this yet?

Add my vote for "Revealed Cylons can't benefit from Executive Order; therefore, they can't benefit from State of Emergency."

According to InfoCynic over at BBG , State of Emergency affects all players, Humans and Cylons.

"Cylons DO get a move or action off SoE, so that may not see much use after they are revealed. Since it does not target them, it works, says Tim. "

The Tim mention is Tim Uren, Associate Producer, and the guy who answers questions about Exodus at FFG.

Does he also explain how Executive Order doesn't apply to Cylons? Is it because XO is targetted, whereas SoE is ... area of effect?

My guess is because when the Base Game was released, the Human Player/Cylon Player terminology had not yet been established. Otherwise the XO card might have read "Choose another human player..." Perhaps they didn't anticipate during development that there would be confusion over this, thus the FAQ was required to clarify. As they developed the first expansion, the terminology was refined to help make these things more clear in the future (worked real well in this case, didn't it?? )

I reasked this to FFG, and Tim Uren replied that yes, revealed Cylons do get the extra move/action from State of Emergency, because it does not target the Cylon.

The response also impled, as we all suspected, that you could use SoE off a Critical Situation, or someone could play an XO, with the only 1 per turn limit still applying.

What I think, yes, it is possible to play one Executive Order during State of Emergency. But as I recall State of Emergency card allows to move or take 1 action, thus not granting Movement step which would prevent using any Movement ability such as Critical Situation.

Nope.

And this is an important rule we screwed up for a while...

Pegasus Rules Page 9, you can only use movement powers during the current players movement step. And that is Step (step 2), as in the core rules page 9, not moving during actions phase (Action Step, Step 3) or when XOd (XO=not your turn).

We had been using protective policies all over the place until we found this one out. Doh!

Mephisto666 said:

Well I was wrong on both accounts. Thanks for the clarification!

Also, we were playing preventative polices incoreectly for about a year before we figured out that it could only be done duriing YOUR movement step.

Mephisto666 said:

Now that could get confusing during a game...