I'm fairly new to the game, and rereading the rules pdf left me with a few questions, most probably dumb ones but bear with me.

1) can a player have multiple non-unique character cards in play? A unique character is obviously that, and having two or three of a unique character is useful for protecting him/her via duplicates. But I have no idea if I could play multiple copies of, say, Guard at Riverrun to build a small army.

2) the Intimidate keyword, does that effect both attackers and defenders? I'm curious why other participating attackers would be 'intimidated' into 0 strength by someone belonging to their own House/faction if this does apply to both attackers and defenders.

3) The only one Limited card per round apply to each card type or to all cards?

4) Certain cards allow you to draw above the two each player gets during the draw phase, yet the rules say that any cards above those two are capped at a max of three, but only if the card contains the word "draw". So I'm assuming that something like The Blackfish's Response would count as one of those three additionals, whereas the location card Harrenhal, the text of which does not contain the word draw, does not. Is this correct?

Thanks in advance for the answers!

JohnRReynolds said:

The whole point of a non-unique card is, indeed, that you can have more than one card by that name in play at a time. Since there is no limitation on playing a non-unique card based on its title, you can have multiple characters, locations, or attachments in play at the same time even if they have the same title (unless, of course, they are unique).

JohnRReynolds said:

The rules and cards should generally be read very literally in this game. Since the rule says "characters with lower STR," you should take that literally to mean all characters, not just "defending" characters or characters "controlled by opponents."

Think of STR as "effectiveness." Essentially, the "intimidating" character makes weak opponents ineffective and weak allies' effectiveness inconsequential by comparison.

JohnRReynolds said:

You can only play 1 card with the Limited keyword per round. Doesn't matter what type, trait, or title the cards may have - you only get 1 card with the Limited keyword in total per round.

JohnRReynolds said:

That is correct. There is a difference between "draw" and "put into your hand." Just like there is a difference between "kill a character" and "discard a character from play."

Thanks for the reply! I discovered the FAQ/errata/clarification pdf and started reading it last night. Huge help understanding the game, particularly the flow of player actions.