Well, it's been a little while since I've started one of these, so here goes: it's time for another vocabulary debate. To up the stakes, I'll make it a double-header. These particular examples are quite unclear, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's already been a discussion on here. Anyone feel free to chime in with any official answers that have been dispensed. Anyway: the first item of interest is the Common Item (and by extension Unique Item and Spell) Blessing of Nodens, which reads: "You may discard this card when you gain a Common Item. If so, instead of drawing from the Common Item deck as normal, you may search the Common Item deck for any one item and take it." The discrepancy here is that the first sentence says "gain," but the second specifically mentions drawing. Ignoring for the moment the implications of this in terms of the general definition of "gain," let's focus on the lack of clarity in this particular example; namely, the fact that not all gaining involves drawing. For one thing, gaining an item by trade doesn't (although personally I think that shouldn't apply to this Blessing). Also, if you purchase an item, you've already drawn it. Does this apply when shopping? Would you instead replace one of the items drawn at a shop with another item, for which you would then have to pay the list price?

Second is a King in Yellow encounter for the Train Station. It reads: " Make a Fight (-2) [2] check as you help unload the set materials for "The King in Yellow." If you pass, you are rewarded. Draw 1 Unique Item. If you roll only one success, you are given 1 Common Item. If you fail, you overdo it, and lose 1 Stamina." Now, strictly speaking, in order to pass a check that requires multiple successes, you need to roll the multiple successes. If you do not, you fail. However, this means that the second and third instances of this encounter overlap, and the sentence structure would seem to indicate that they should not. Should this encounter read "If you roll two successes, draw 1 Unique; if you roll one success, draw 1 Common; if you roll no successes, lose 1 Stamina" or "If you roll two successes, draw 1 Unique; if you roll one success, draw 1 Common and lose 1 Stamina; if you roll no successes, lose 1 Stamina"?

As for your first question, I'd say you cannot intend gaining as acquiring via trading (otherwise too many personal stories would be very easy to pass, not to mention the way you could exploit some Relationships). For me, "gaining an item" means "drawing and keeping". As for the "shopping" issue... I'd say that the Blessing helps you in finiding out a particularly desirable item. So you may discard the Blessing, search the deck for the item you need, but then, since you went there for shopping, you have to pay for it.

As for the KiY encounter... that's a tricky one. I believe the intention is your first hypothesis. With 2 successes, your performance is so great they give you a Unique item. With 1 success, it's just the ordinary way of doing things: a Common item is a proper reward. Zero successes and your back starts aching. But yeah, sloppy wording.

Julia said:

but you don't actually gain the item until you've payed for it and acquired it, that's when you gain it. technically, i should be able to buy the cheapest item i can find (maybe a task even) and when i gain it (from buying it) i discard the blessing and get the item i want for the price of the item i didn't want.

.. as for the second question, i think it's intended as the tables of "consult the chart below" that are on some cards, they just tried to shorten it up but managed to cause some confusion instead. the intent of the card probably is for it to read as the charts;

"make a fight (-2) check and consult the table below:

Successes:
2+) gain one unique item
1) gain one common item
0) HAHA YOU FAIL DROP ONE STAMINA."

Taurmindo said:

Yep, good point. Seems both logical and cheap