Cool. I'm glad I started this thread, but even more glad of Thundercles' work. He took the time to do what I was planning to do, but he did it better

Thanks to both Paul Grogan for starting a useful rules questions thread and to Thundercles for his tremendous work (and his good contacts at FFG)

Sorry for the late addition. Maybe it can be added to the list sometime.

Now to my questions:

RtL

1) If all four heroes leave dungeon level 1 via the portal and/or town portal and enter dungeon level 2, are any remaining monsters on level 1 killed?

1a) If the monsters are killed, are they considered killed by the heroes, thus worth money if there are master monsters still active?

2) If the monsters are not killed, are they just removed from play or do they still remain in play for considerations like

2a) how many monsters are available for spawn depending on number of monster figures present in the game?

2b) Trickster (which reduces trap cost per trickster rank)?

3) If the heroes have not yet left a dungeon for good, can they return to previous dungeon levels after they have left them for a deeper level? For example via an activated glyph in a previous dungeon level?

4) Can an overlord spawn monsters in dungeon levels which the heroes have already left?

Yes, I know these two questions sound a bit silly, but it might be useful a) to leave some harder master monsters behind to get more treasures on deeper levels, and then to return to a previous level to get the money from the master monsters (pro for the hero side); b) to spawn kobolds including master kobolds in a previous dungeon level to reduce the trap cost of all future trap cards for each trickster rank, even if the kobolds could not attack the heroes at all (pro for the OL side).

5) How is the distance for 'Spiritwalker' determined? Is it counted in map squares, as if the hero had somehow traversed the intervening spaces (thus considering such impassible obstacles as closed doors)? Or is it a 'raw' radius determined by laying on the hero figure with the spiritwalker skill a radius of 10 spaces (or the reduced number of spaces for the RtL campaign - which I currently don't know) totally ignoring any intervening obstacles and even non-existent map squares (such as in adjacent rooms which are not directly connected by map squares but which would be within the spiritwalkers 'action' radius)?

6) Can a figure with a blast attack choose to ignore its usage?

That's all currently, but more questions will probably crop up soon.

RustyDust said:

Sorry Rusty, we really need to keep this thread for unanswered questions that nobody unofficial on the forums can give the answer to.

All of your questions can be answered by lots of people on the forums, and should therefore not be included in this list. Can you start a new thread on the forum with your questions. If you do that, I'll post a reply with answers to all of them, but I'd prefer not to have standard questions that can be answered posted here. One of your questions is actually answered in the FAQ. Thanks

I think the crystal of tyval question is worth asking at some point.

Antistone said:

I'm sure we'll be able to condense it into a question later.

The text for the Crystal of Tival item is unclear. When can a hero discard it to gain healing: only a the start of their turn, anytime during their turn if the item is equipped at the start of their turn, or anytime during the round if the item is equipped at the start of their turn?

yeah, only with better wording. Apologies for suck question construction.

EDIT: Another one, maybe:

RtL: In outdoor encounters, the OL gets one threat per hero per turn. If a hero dies in outdoor encounters and is removed from the board, does the OL get one less threat per turn?

3 new ones

- Can abilities with a radius that don't require Line of Sight (Command, Word of Vaal, Spiritwalker, etc.) go through walls and/or doors? When checking the distance for these abilities, must the target hero be reachable by moving a number spaces less than or equal to the radius, or do these abilities work like the Breath example (fly to anywhere within a template)?

- Does Trapmaster add damage to attacks resulting from traps like Dark Charm and Mimic, which activate creatures instead of doing damage? Does Trapmaster add damage to traps like Scything Blades, which don't have a damage number printed on them but still deal damage?

- If the Overlord plays a trap that does some amount of Poison damage, is the extra damage from the Trapmaster power also Poison damage?

the last one is one for which I couldn't find an official answer.

- How does a Leap attack interact with Shadowcloak and Ghost?

Thundercles said:

I believe one can only discard at the start of one's turn. There's no need to say "at the start of your turn" if it's referring to when you equip since we all know when you can equip, and there doesn't seem a reasonable explanation for why you would pay two movement to equp an item you can instantly equip upon receiving. I think the intent is a)it must first be equipped and b)at the start of your turn (before declaring your action, moving, using fatigue, etc) you may decide to discard this equipped item). The wording is unclear but the idea that it should matter when you equip it (at the start of your turn) seem silly, because once equipped it is equipped. The only possible reason this would matter is if they are saying you must keep it in your pack until the turn you will use it, but this again seems silly to me. You need to have potions equipped to (discard and) use them. Therefore, you need to have this equipped to (discard) and use it. This one simply allows you to discard without spending movement to gain its effect, with the stipulation being that it must be at the beginning of your turn. This limits its power so you must decide to use it before possibly being hit by traps or spending fatigue you may have left over.

Anyway, that's my $.02 on the matter.

Feanor said:

See, I always thought that "after equipping at the trart of your turn" meant that you couldn't use it immediately after drawing it from a chest, but that if you started your turn with it equipped, you could use it whenever. The text is ambiguous enough to require the question, in my opinion.

Potential balance issue:

Currently, the Overlord can use Poltergeist to move heroes across 2 spaces of damaging terrain (taking damage for both) or possibly move them 1 space, play a Trap - Space card on them, then move them another space and play another Trap - Space card. Was this the intent?

Another question that is not entirely clear:

What happens with a shop-item that has to be discarded to gain its effect (i.e. curse doll): Is the card returned to the appropriate stack or is it lost for the remainder of the game?

Quibble, but up it goes:

Dark Charm says heroes may target Heroes: can the Overlord use Dark Charm to force a Hero to attack a Villager figure if no Hero is in the affected spaces?

One that I keep meaning to add and then forgetting. It's pretty important though.

In RtL Lieutenant battles, does the Overlord's normal hand-size limit (8 in most cases) apply when selecting cards with Treachery? If so, may he take more cards than his hand limit so long as he discards down to the limit immediately? Or is he strictly limited to selecting only his hand-limit worth of cards?

Sooo.... it's been a while now. Any word from FFG or Kevin Wilson?

To add to the 'Intentionally broken?' list: Lodestone in RtL

well, JR was paying attention when we put the first list together, but there's been radio silence after that.

As for the lodestone broken in RtL...Why is it broken?

The Lodestone is the CHEAPEST in cost of the Dark Relics, and in RtL, it is unquestionably the best. First, it replaces the Treasure that you WOULD have drawn (like any dark Relic). Then, when you put it on, you must unequip one of your Others (since in RtL, it won't be long before everyone is wearing their limit of 2 Others all the time), which goes in your pack. But because of the Lodestone, you don't HAVE a pack, anymore, so you drop it. Then you ALSO drop your back-up weapon/staff-or-blast-rune (if you're a mage who routinely switches between a single-shot attack and blast), shield and whatever else you might be carrying. That's 3, sometimes 4 Treasures gone for 2 points of Purple treachery. Dropping the potions too is adding insult to injury. A smart Overlord will then refuse to devote any resources towards killing the Lodestoned character (of course, if the kill is free or very easy, the Overlord will take it), so you either suicide, or pay an extra 500 gold to get rid of it.

In regular Descent it's fine, since it's rare that the Heroes have 2 Others anyway, and rarely carry anything but shop gear in their packs. But in RtL, the long-term damage it does is immense. I really can't understand how people complain about Crushing Blow with this thing around.

huh. It hadn't occurred to me that it was so much worse in RtL...I always figured that since RtL made it easier to recover from the Lodestone, it wouldn't be such a big deal. Noted...although aside from removal, I can't really see a solution. That much power is worth quite a lot of threat.

Not wanting to hijack the thread, but my solution has always been to draw the Dark Relic randomly for 10 threat.

Another two questions which I had sent to FFG but never received a response:

1) Can a monkey perform "movement actions" which cost no MP, like activate glyphs, pick up potions, rune keys, money piles?

2) Feat Card "Preventing Evil": If the OL has played a Spawn/Power/Event/Trap card and the card was successully cancelled via said Feat card, is the OL allowed to play another Spawn/Power/Event/Trap card in the same turn/on the same trigger?

Oh and another one, since we are playing AoD Quests currently:

With Leadership, is it possible to Ready (Place & Use Prolonged Action) - Concentrate - Concentrate, resulting in up to three dice rolls for the Prolonged Action?

I would like to suggest that questions be discussed in other threads before being added to this one, lest the thread be clogged up with things that have already been answered.

Monkeys: JitD rules, page 16: "A monkey can move up to 5 spaces on the hero’s turn, but cannot take any movement actions ." (emphasis added) However, activating a glyph is not actually a movement action, and I think when this was discussed before, the consensus was that monkeys could still activate glyphs.

Leadership: Official word from Kevin Wilson is that every half-action taken as part of a ready must be of a different type (move, attack, concentrate, or order). This is sort of present in the AoD rules, but it's subtle and kind of ambiguous.

Antistone said:

Agreed. In fact, when I started the thread, I was trying to ask people not to just include standard questions in here. They should be asked in the forum and only when we dont know the answer that we add it to this list.

Very disappointing that FFG are not replying to any emails about rules questions, there is no official presence on the forum, and letters to my contacts at FFG saying that this really isnt good enough are also being ignored.

Well, since they offer all of their support for free, I'm not too inclined to complain just yet.

Antistone said:

Nice suggestion to keep the thread tidy, but a bit late, since the thread is already clogged with quite some unnecessary stuff.

I withdraw the question regarding Leadership, I was not aware that concentrate was a dedicated half action per se - my apologies.

I maintain the question regarding the monkey´s movement actions - boiling down to "Is an action which costs zero MP still a movement action (could a webbed hero moved by Telekinesis onto a moneypile pick it up on his turn)?" - as I wrote I had sent that question in but never got a response. I never saw that discussion earlier (and I have been around here and in the old forums for quite some time) and am not aware of a consensus as you wrote.