A ton of assorted questions, +1 STR to any participants.

I'm confused by Melisandre from the core deck, which says, " While Melisandre is standing, Asshai characters get +1 STR. Power on opponents' characters does not count towards their total power." The first part is simple enough, but what the hell does that next part refer to?? It's so vague. While playing with some friends we had no idea how to interpret this and were forced to ignore it. Does it mean everyone else is at 0 STR while she's in the game? That couldn't possibly be…

Some location cards have the ability of being added to your house card. What does this do exactly and what are the drawbacks of doing such a thing?

Duplicate cards confuse me, and the three paragraphs of instructions in the directions were no help. I only have the core decks so it seems like this only affects Robert Baratheon and Rhaegar, but what exactly does a duplicate do? In the directions, it says that a duplicate can be removed instead of the character as part of a response, but does that also mean as part of a military resolution? And even though a duplicate can be attached for free directly from the hand, does this mean you cannot simply pay the gold price for the card and have two of the same cards, such as two Robert Baratheons fighting side by side? And if you attach a duplicate, does it stack its STR?

For cards that claim power, does the power that is placed on that character's card somehow add to their STR?

Tywin Lannister for the core set says, "At the beginning of the marshalling phase, take 2 gold from the treasury and place it on Tywin Lannister. You may spend gold tokens on Tywin Lannister as if they are in your gold pool.". Once again, I am confused by this placing of things ON characters. What exactly does that mean? What is the advantage of leaving gold directly on Tywin? Does it add to his STR?

For the plot card Snowed Under it explains, "At the beginning of the standing phase, choose one kneeling character or location controlled by each player. Return all chosen cards to their owner's hands." Does this only apply to both your opponents' characters and your own characters?

If a location creates gold, do you need to kneel that location in order to get the gold? I ask because some locations create gold as well as influence. So do you get both influence AND gold from that location?

The Lannisport Brothel says, "Response: After a knelt character stands during the standing phase, kneel Lannisport Brothel to kneel that character.". Can this card effectively remove a character from indefinitely?

The core deck version of Viserys says, "Response: Save Viserys Targaryen from being killed or discarded from play, then return him to his owner's hand.". So I ask, how the $#@! do you get rid of him?

Lastly, I went halfsies on the core game with some friends and being huge fans of the books, we're collectively bummed that Greyjoy and Martell are not included in this overly monstrous box (FFG really needs to work on its sustainability). So I realize this a rules of play forum, but if you've gotten this far, maybe you wouldn't mind suggesting where I should get the core decks for both Martell and Greyjoy without spending $3,000??

Kyburn the Pretender said:

Welcome to the game! I'll try my best to answer your questions, and then better people than I will be around to clarify my ramblings.

• Melisandre: You seem to be confusing Power with Strength. What it means is that if an opponents character has power on it (like from Renown, or from the Knight of Flowers' ability, for example), it won't help them win the game.
• The location/attachment cards are versatile in that you can play them in a way that makes them harder to mess with. If you're playing against house Greyjoy, for example, who has lots of ways to screw with your locations, you might choose to play the card as an attachment. If you're playing against Targaryen, who has ways to screw with attachments, the card may be safer as a location.
• Duplicates are essentially "extra lives". If a unique character has a duplicate on it, and it would leave play (like from being chosen to die to a Military challenge, or from Valar Morghulis), you can discard the dupe to save the character so it sticks around. That's ALL they do - abilities and STR on a duplicate don't count at all.
• Power has nothing to do with STR.
• Gold on Tywin does exactly what it says it does - it can be spent as though it were in your gold pool, without being IN your gold pool. Check the rules on exactly what happens during the Taxation phase to see why that might be useful. It doesn't add to his STR.
• Your question on Snowed Under is confusing to me. You pick a kneeling char/location controlled by each player - including you, and including all opponents.
• If a card has a gold bonus, you get all that gold at the beginning of Marshalling when you normally count your gold. You don't kneel the card. If something has gold and influence on it, you get the gold at the beginning of the phase, and you kneel it for influence whenever you wish.
• Yes, Lannisport Brothel can keep a character knelt indefinitely, unless the character's controller has alternate ways to stand it.
• A good way to get rid of Viserys is to do an Intrigue challenge after you do the Military challenge that returned him to hand. Another way would be to cancel the response that saves him.
• Both the Princes of the Sun and the Kings of the Sea expansions should be available for not terribly much. I'm not sure where you're getting the $3,000 figure.

Anyway, hope that's helpful! Again, welcome. (once you're slightly more comfortable with the rules, you should check out the FAQ found on this website - it may answer some of your more complicated questions.)

Kyburn the Pretender said:

Her ability isn't confusing at all once you remember that "power" and "STR" are completely different things. "Power on opponent's characters" refers to the power tokens characters collect for renown and other card effects. Normally, it counts toward the controller's 15 power needed to win the game - but Mel says that it doesn't. So whereas your total power (ie, the 15 you need to win the game) is normally the amount on your House added to the amount on your characters, Mel says you don't add in any power on the characters.

Kyburn the Pretender said:

If the Chambers are attached to the House card, they are considered attachments, not locations, while they are in play. So if you think your opponent is likely to have a bunch of location-killing effects, it's safer as an attachment. If you think your opponent is likely to have a bunch of attachment-killing effects, it's safer as a location. Your choice. Other than that, it functions exactly the same.

Kyburn the Pretender said:

Duplicates are for unique cards. Those rule paragraphs say that any player can only have one copy of a unique card with the same the same name in play at any time. So no, you cannot pay the gold and have two Roberts fighting together. Otherwise, what's the point of a card being unique in the first place?

Dupes do not add any STR, icons, effects, etc. to the card they are duplicating. The only thing you can do with a dupe is discard it to save the unique card form being removed from play. And yes, that includes losing a military challenge. That's a pretty solid advantage, though.

Effectively, since you can only have one copy of a unique card in play, the second copy in your hand is useless - unless you put it on the copy you have in play as a dupe. If you do, you have a free "save" on that character. That's all duplicates for unique cards do.

Kyburn the Pretender said:

No. Why would you think that? All it does is get you closer to winning the game.

Kyburn the Pretender said:

Maybe we better say right up front that the only things that will ever add to a character's STR will specifically say "gets +X STR."

Placing gold or power "on" a character means exactly what it says - put the token on top of the card. The stuff then stays there unless the character leaves play or unless a card effect lets you do something else with it. For example, Tywin's ability says that you can spend the gold that is on him as if it were in your gold pool. So you can use the gold on Tywin to pay the cost of cards and effects the same as the rest of the gold you count when it is your turn in Marshaling. The benefit, of course, is that since the gold is on the character, not in the gold pool, it will stay on the character when the gold pool is emptied at the beginning of the Taxation phase - so you can carry gold from one round into the next. Of course, since it isn't in your gold pool, it won't count toward Dominance, but that's not much of a drawback.

Kyburn the Pretender said:

Are you a player in the game? Yep. So it applies to you, too. If it only applied to your opponents, the card would say "…by each opponent." Since it specifies "player," though, it applies to everyone.

Kyburn the Pretender said:

You do not kneel the location in order to count the gold. In fact, you count the gold even if the location is already kneeling when it is your turn to count.

Kyburn the Pretender said:

Effectively, yes. Because the Brothel will stand at the same time, and thus will always be standing when it is time to trigger Responses to standing cards during the standing phase.

Kyburn the Pretender said:

Do the military challenge, then do an intrigue challenge to discard a card from your opponent's hand. Or use a "cannot be saved" effect. You'll have more options once you start supplementing the Core Set.

Kyburn the Pretender said:

If FFG needs to work on its sustainability, it is primarily in that the Core Set is undercosted for how many cards you get in the thing.

Martell and Greyjoy have "expansion" boxes. They retail at $30 each, but you can find them online for around $20.

Kyburn - it helps if you don't try to read anything into a card that isn't there -- take the text as literally as possible, and don't assume there is something extra happening.

Kings of the Sea for Greyjoy's "Core cards" - www.amazon.com/Game-Thrones-Card-game-Expansion/dp/1616610948/ref=sr_1_1

Princes of the Sun for Martell's "Core cards" - http://www.miniaturemarket.com/ffggot50e.html

However it looks like Princes of the Sun is currently out of stock in most online stores. If you know of a local friendly game store, they may still have some in stock for $29.99.

The above are the boxes you should get for the starting Greyjoy and Martell cards.