Epty Hill (?) (neutral place)

By Aertes, in 2. AGoT Rules Discussion

Posted at

I'm sorry but i don't know the exact name of this card. But it was played by a friend the other day and i got confused. The card's effect says something like this:

"If you play a character that is not affiliated to the same house than any other of your cards on play (including your house card) reduce that character's cost by 1 and then drag a card."

Now, the question is: Are neutral cards considered to be affiliated to a house? ("neutral house" that would be).

This friend was playing a neutral faction so all the characters he played had their cost reduced by 1 with this place, wich seemed really unfair to me.

Posted at

The card in question is Hollow Hill: "If you have no power on your House card, reduce the gold penalty on all characters you play from your hand by 1. Response: After you play a character with an affiliation that does not match any other card you control (including your House card), draw 1 card."

My understanding is that neutral characters do not have proper house affiliation, but they do not have a gold penalty for playing them out of any house (including, of course, a neutral house card). So they would not get their cost reduced. If you play the neutral house card, all cards with a different affiliation (so all the houses, Stark, Lannister, etc.) would cost 1 additional gold for out of house pentalty to play (actually 2, but the neutral house card itself reduces that). If you have the Hollow Hill location, the penalty is further reduced by one, so you can play them for their original cost (this is for characters only!).

I hope the response on Hollow Hill is now clear as well.

Personal note: What I find sad is that Shadow cards seem to be entirely unaffected by the neutral house card. :(

Posted at

Saturnine said:

If you play the neutral house card, all cards with a different affiliation (so all the houses, Stark, Lannister, etc.) would cost 1 additional gold for out of house pentalty to play (actually 2, but the neutral house card itself reduces that). If you have the Hollow Hill location, the penalty is further reduced by one, so you can play them for their original cost (this is for characters only!).

just wanted to make sure its clear that both the location and the house card only reduce characters.

Posted at

Lars said:

Saturnine said:

If you play the neutral house card, all cards with a different affiliation (so all the houses, Stark, Lannister, etc.) would cost 1 additional gold for out of house pentalty to play (actually 2, but the neutral house card itself reduces that). If you have the Hollow Hill location, the penalty is further reduced by one, so you can play them for their original cost (this is for characters only!).

just wanted to make sure its clear that both the location and the house card only reduce characters.

Ah, yes. I had misremembered that and thought it applied to all cards.

Posted at

Saturnine said:

My understanding is that neutral characters do not have proper house affiliation, but they do not have a gold penalty for playing them out of any house (including, of course, a neutral house card). So they would not get their cost reduced. If you play the neutral house card, all cards with a different affiliation (so all the houses, Stark, Lannister, etc.) would cost 1 additional gold for out of house pentalty to play (actually 2, but the neutral house card itself reduces that). If you have the Hollow Hill location, the penalty is further reduced by one, so you can play them for their original cost (this is for characters only!).
costgold penalty

The other thing to remember is that since neutral cards have no House affiliation, and Hollow Hill refers to playing a card that with a House affiliation, neutral cards will never be able to activate the draw effect, either.

Hollow Hill does not interact with neutral cards. At all.