Chaos Unleashed (story card F8): only affects winning player?

By jhaelen, in CoC Rules Discussion

This is an easy one (I hope):

Since the card doesn't say 'Every player', I guess, only the winner gets to choose a domain and add the cards to his hand?

Here's the text:

Choose 1 domain you control. Take all resources
attached to it and place them into your hand. Replace
those resources with an equal number of cards off the
top of your deck.

That's how I read it too.

I know they're trying to give some added incentive for people to activate the stories but gaining maybe 3-4 cards while your opponent gets nothing seems fairly hefty.

Yep, that is precisely what it says. Win the story or suffer the consequences.

Thanks for your replies!

The main reason why I felt unsure was the ruling on Conspiracy cards from the Yuggoth cycle which I stumpled upon over at BGG:

boardgamegeek.com/thread/687035/conspiracy-card-bonuses

It's a slightly different situation but I was absolutely certain those cards' effects were supposed to only apply to the player who played the Conspiracy. But apparently I was wrong about that. sad.gif

I think the difference is context, when a player has won the story they get to choose to activate the effect, so you or your would refer to that one individual. If it were a blanket effect while in play it would be both players. At least that is how I read it. *shrug*

Quote from BGG:

When a conspiracy, like a story event says your, in
relation to the person who has won the card and has chosen to trigger
it, refers to that specific player. Conspiracy cards never refer to
the owner of the card, since there is no controller.

This seems clear to me:

One player wins, thus: Winner=Your

No one controls, thus while contested: Your=Anyone

Tokhuah said:

This seems clear to me:

One player wins, thus: Winner=Your

No one controls, thus while contested: Your=Anyone

One thing I'd like to add on Conspiracy cards... The person who plays the card seems to me to be significantly more likely to win it. You control when it gets played and the other person doesn't know it's coming. You're probably not going to put it down if the situation isn't favorable to grab some success tokens on it immediately and be in the lead to win it.

So if a Conspiracy card says "Each of your characters committed to this story gain Investigation", is this the same as "Characters committed to this story gain Investigation."?

What does "your" mean in this case, where it clearly doesn't apply to the winner of the story?

Yes, your, means each in this context. And yes I agree it could have been more clearly worded. We can figure out how it is supposed to be layed using the rules (even without the fAQ) but the intuitive way doesn't sync up.

So the shorthand seems to be:

"Your" on a story/conspiracy card means both players in the context of something that happens while the story is still in play

"Your" on a story/conspiracy card means the winning player in the context of something that happens AFTER the story is won

Sound right?

Yep. The key to understanding why (I'm not saying this is the rule, just the easiest way I have found to wrap minds around it) is to think about the state of the card. A played conspiracy or revealed story does not belong to any one player, otherwise it could never be triggered since you can only trigger effects on cards you control. Your on cards in play refers to the controller. So since both players would need to control a story/conspiracy to trigger it we can think of as it being controlled by both of them. When the story/conspiracy is won, you become its sole controller, its benefits marked as you are now yours alone when triggered, and it goes to your won story pile.

Damon was pretty clear no one "controls" them while in play, so I am not saying this is the rule, just putting out a logic chain to help people who need something to latch on to to remember. Hopefully this doesn't do more harm than good.

Have FFG changed the ruling on Conspiracies then? The last thing I knew, only the player who played the Conspiracy could enact the effect if they won it.

The_Big_Show said:

Have FFG changed the ruling on Conspiracies then? The last thing I knew, only the player who played the Conspiracy could enact the effect if they won it.

Yes they have.