Hey -

Are these bonuses intended to be used only once per Challenges Phase, or are they constant effects when the condition is met (having at least one participating character in the given challenge type)?

We have been playing that they are one-offs, interpreting the "any X challenge" to mean "during any X challenge of your choice." But, the wording would seem to work either way -"You add $50 to your paycheque during any week in which you work a Tuesday", or "You add $50 to your paycheque during any given week in which you work a Tuesday", hinging on whether the printed "Power Struggle" icon is meant to specifiy an individual challenge or a class thereof.

Help out, please -- and if you can explain to me how to interpret from the rulebook/FAQ that would be very much helpful. As may be apparent, we are a bit of a literal-minded meta that quibbles often about the rules.

The Core Rules language is pretty explicit in my mind:

"If you choose this title, you add
3 to your side’s total STR in
any X challenge in which you
have at least one participating
character."

There are two things here - the word "any X challenge" and "in which you have at least one participating character."

The STR buff would apply in every case where both statements were true.

doulos2k said:

Where my group gets hung up is if I am a grocer and I say, "Pick any orange to take home for free", nobody is interpreting that as an orange-less grocer. Any is not a great word to use without qualifiers - it can mean a, an, one, or some (of), or many.

While I see your point, your grocer is giving you an explicit choice in a specific point in time. Any orange at that moment. Each challenge also happens in a specific moment in time… each time a challenge happens, you check the language and, again, it says "any X challenge."

If you walk out the door and come back into your grocer's store and he, again, says, "pick any orange and take it home," you get to pick another one. You don't get to pick a pear or an apple, but you do get to pick an orange a second time because a second event has occurred.

Another example is Meera Reed. Her text says

"Any Phase: Bring Meera Reed out of Shadows and into play by paying th rest of her gold cost. Then choose 1 non-plot card (2 instead if it is Winter) and treat its printed text box as if it were blank until the end of the phase."

How many times can she do that? You'd think she could only do it once; however, she only has two conditions. 1) she needs to be in shadows and 2) you need to pay 1 gold.

The interesting thing about her is her Response - "After a Stark character leaves play, put Meera Reed into Shadows."

So, if a Stark character has left play, she goes back into shadows. If her controller still has gold, the controller can once again trigger her Any Phase response even though you're still in the same Challenges phase. So, again, a point in time - the "any" works in both cases as long as the conditions are met.

I hope that's helpful.

doulos2k said:

This is very good, thanks.

Though this whole thing would not even be a question if the grammatically unambiguous "any challenges" instead of "any challenge"

If anyone else wants to weigh in to indicate they interpret it similarly (applies to all challenges) or differently (applies to only one), please feel free. I will point my group to this thread.

"Come by any time."

So, if you visit on Monday, are you not allowed to visit again on Tuesday? Or Wednesday? Or ever again? Isn't it clear that you can visit as many times as you want, whenever you want (within social conventions, of course) despite not saying "come by any times"?

As you point out, the word "any" takes a good chunk of its meaning from context. The extended qualification for the challenge (ie, "in which you have at least one participating character") effectively serves the same purpose as the making the word "challenge" plural. If a challenge of the specified type meets the qualification, it is part of the "any challenge" set - and the modifier applies. So within the context of the challenge phase, where there can be many different, and separate challenges of the particular type, "any challenge" would potentially refer to all challenges that can take place in that phase.

For it to be a one-off, given the context of the challenge phase, it would probably need to say something more like "any one challenge…" in order to only apply once. And, of course, it would then be even more ambiguous since it doesn't tell you how to choose from all of the potential challenges that fit the bill.

Ultimately, the correct way to play it is "all challenges" in which the participating and type limitations are met.