Just bought this and I've played four or five games and wrote down a few questions that I'm hoping to get some help with…

First. Cards like Cruel Interrogations, do they trigger before the game even starts? If one of my first Objectives is Cruel Interrogations, it "comes into play" before anyone takes their turn. So do I get the capture before the first turn, or during my first turn, or at all (since the game hasn't started yet)?

Second. How do you resolve a Conflict without an Objective? The situation was like this. I attacked with Red Five, declaring Take the Prisoner with five damage on it. My opponent declared a few defenders. During the Edge, I played Target of Opportunity, giving the sixth and final damage. However, my opponent insisted that we continued to the Striking part of the phase - which would've given them enough damage to kill Red Five. How does this work?

Third. On a similar note, since Red Five didn't Strike, he doesn't get a focus token, does he? I'll create a hypothetical for this. Say that I attack with a character with no icons (R2, for example). And my opponent has no defenders. R2 goes unopposed, dealing a damage to the Objective. But does R2 get a focus token for what he did?

And my final question, and this is more of a card-specific question. But Redemption saves every players characters?

Dread318 said:

1. The order at the beginning of the game works as follows: draw 4 objectives and choose 3, setting those facedown; draw your starting hand; DS player reveals objectives (any reactions and/or interrupts trigger as normal); LS player reveals objectives (any reactions and/or interrupts trigger as normal). So yes, Cruel Interrogations can trigger at the start of the game.

2 & 3. The conflict continues until all participating units are either destroyed or exhausted. Your opponent is correct: striking continues. Red 5 would still strike and receive a focus token. As would R2 in your other example.

4. You could indeed use Redemption to save your opponents characters if you so desired, but I wouldn't recommend it in general. Note that the ability is an Interrupt and not a Forced Interrupt, so using it is optional. We know that there will be rules for a multiplayer (ie 3+ players) variant coming in the future, so the wording is probably to allow you to save your partner's units as well as your own when that comes.