1) In my last game I was able, thanks to some deck manipulation by Imladris Stargazer, to put two zero cost encounter cards on a Nameless Thing. Does the Nameless Thing die immediatly, as it has only 0 HP? It should, shouldn't it?

2) Quest card 2B "Near the Water" says (translation from German): " After a player commited characters to a quest, he has to discard the top two cards of his player deck. "

3) The Nameless Things have the following text printed: " After Nameless Thing engages a player, the top three card of that player's deck will be attached to Nameless Thing ."

So, what happens if there are no cards left in the player deck? IMO the player won't be able to commit characters to the quest in stage 2B. But what about the NamelessThings? IMO they should still be able to engage a player and just won't get any cards attached.

leptokurt said:

1) I would agree, and say yes, it dies immediately but I'm not 100% sure

2)Yes characters are still able to commit to the quest IMO. Otherwise, it surely would have been worded 'A player must discard the top two cards of his player deck to commit characters to a quest'. The words 'if able' at the end would have been handy. And yes the Nameless Things still engage with an attack of 4, I believe.

bollywongaloid said:

"has to" = "must"; like I said, I translated it from German to English. In German it's "muss" (=has to, must), that's why I think questing is impossible in that case (bad for Beravor decks!).

I already have another question:

4) What if one of the cards attached to Nameless Thing is "Stand and Fight"?

hmmm… I see what you mean. I think it's important that the effect 'has to/must discard…' comes later in the sentence. The use of the word 'After' is very significant because it implie there's no pre-requisites to commit to a quest, rather you commit to the quest then discard two cards if able (the words that would have been handy on the card itself). That's my interpretation of it anyway and the way I believe it was intended.

As for 'Stand and Fight', under normal circumstances the X refers to the cost of the ally you'd bring into play. However in this circumstance, the card text never takes effect, so surely the X cannot equate to anything, so I'd treat it as a zero.

bollywongaloid is correct on both accounts.

The texts of both the quest card 2B and the Nameless Thing are effects rather costs, so they are satisfied as much as possible when the condition is met, but would not prevent the condition (commit to quest or engage the player) to fulfill.

The cost (X) in stand & fight is considered zero when it is not played from hand.

Thanks for the answers so far. That's what I was thinking, too. Just wanted to make sure I got it right.

And here is another question:

5) If I am engaged with an enemy at the end of stage 2B, will this enemy removed? I'm almost 100 percent sure that it will be removed, but again I want to play this safe.

You mean by the "when revealed" effect on Stage 3B? Yes, ALL encounter deck cards--including enemies engaged with players and attachments like Watchful Eyes--are discarded by that effect.

Also someone get official answer from Nate about: If the hero was shuffle to player deck and after he can be attach to the Nameless Thing.

the Answer is yes and cose hero card doesn have a Printing cost he will add zero to NT.

Another question that is not completely clear is how to score a hero who is:

1. in the deck at game end (answer, I think, he is not in play therefore dead)

2. attached to a Nameless Thing at game end (answer, I think, he is in play, therefore not dead)

Yes, good questions… I'd say in case of an hero attached to a Nameless Thing, you would add the threat of that hero when you finish the game. (I think he is not in play at that time - if he would, I could sent him questing, or draw an additional card by Bilbo's ability and so on. Finally, he would go to the discard pile if the game would have been prolonged further, because the hero would have been put in the discard pile after Nameless Thing's death).

For an hero in the deck, I'd also add his threat, because he is not in play at the time the game finished.

But those are only guesses…

The only rules precedent that might be informative here comes from A Journey to Rhosgobel. We know that a hero removed from the game (e.g., Glorfindel, after using his ability to heal Wilyador) is considered "dead" for scoring purposes. It's hard to say definitively, but I'd wager that any hero NOT in play (i.e., not under the control of a player) at the end of the game should be scored as "dead."

Two more rules questions that have come up noew I have actually played FOS two player:

1. I think that a strict reading of the rules might mean that, when the players are separated, each player would be able to have duplicates of the same unique in play. This, however, would be silly. There would also be no rule to cover what would happen when the players were reunited.

2. A more significant question: when the players are separated, is the player with the first player marker the only first player still, or would each player be considered to be first player, as if they were each playing solo? This affects a number of key cards eg Deep Deep Dark and Sudden Pitfall. I am playing the latter interpretation at the moment.

How does Bilbo's card draw work once the players are seperated? Is each player considered to be the first and last player in their own Staging area. If not does Bilbo's ability still get triggered by other players during this part of the quest.

Also what happens (in a 4 player game) when the player with Bilbo joins another player and neither have the first player token. Who is considered the last player when the Orcs that engages the last player shows up?

*Edit

I guess I should read threads instead of just skimming for key words. (Somehow I missed the reference to Bilbo 3+ posts up). The create your own staging area is such an awesome tweak to this quest but there are so many issues caused by it.

Wow, other good questions ;-) I think the best would be to send a rules question to FFG. (And post the answer in the forums, please ). Here is how we resolved those things, although some (reasonable) guessing is included:

• The rules page only forbids cards of player A to do something with player B or cards of player B. It doesn't mention anything about the First Player Token. So we assumed the First Player is switching from player to player just as usual.
• This means in a 2 player game, that only the player controlling Bilbo will get the additional card draw, but only every second turn. (Reason: In the turn in which he is the First Player, he gains the card draw. In the turn the other player is the First Player, Bilbo tries to affect another player - which fails, because the players are separated, and such an effect is forbidden by the rules sheet.)
• Elladan and Elrohir under control of 2 different players in 2 different staging areas still get their +2. This is because the card text of Elladan/Elrohir only check if there is a specific card in play (the brother), but doesn't do anything to the other card. In fact, Elladan only does do something to himself, and Elrohir only does something to himself. So it is not forbidden.
• Similarly, when trying to play a unique card which is already under control of a player in another staging area, the playing of that card fails, because the check as stated in core set rules p. 8 (if another card with the same name already exists in play) is still valid and not forbidden by the rules sheet. So it's not possible to have 2 Arwens under control of 2 players in different staging ares, for example.
• Encounter cards only affect players who are in the staging area in which they are, by the rules sheet. This means that an enemy usually engaging the Last Player will engage no one if the Last Player currently isn't in the staging area where that enemy is. The effect just fails. This is balanced, since Bilbo's effect also fails when targeting the "wrong" player.

HilariousPete said:

Yup, lots of tricky issues here. We played several of these points rather differently:

- we continued to switch the First Player token for the reasons you state, but we played it that each player was both first and last player while separated.

- effects like Elladan and Elrohir I definitely think should be switched off due to the clause "the resolution of each phase occurs as if only the player or players that share any given staging area are currently present in the game".

- we played that uniqueness still applies, even though I think a strict reading of the rules would say otherwise (because the alternative is silly)

FFG tried to give precise rules to define this new situation of separated players, but unfortunately (weak playtesters again?) they haven't addressed a number of questions that arise as soon as you sit down and play the game.

I have put these and other FOS questions to FFG and will post if I get an answer.