Telepathic Mind Weapon:

When your opponent activates a system that you control, he immediately loses 1 command counter from the fleet supply area of his race sheet.

Diplomacy IIa:

Choose one system containing a planet you control. Each opponent must place one of his command counters into the system from his reinforcements.

---

Assuming either the Naalu played it themselves or another player in a split system did it… Does this effectively nuke everyone? Causing 1 lost fleet support and potentially destruction of ships all over the galaxy?

Thankfully this hasn't come up in play yet, I imagine it would result in pretty severe diplomatic consequences for whatver player did it hehe.

I see what you are saying but that is not done.

Otherwise pds's could also fire into a system Diplomacy was played in.

If you notice, it say "activate" and the other says "place" a counter. That is why not.

Some rules are very picky on the exact word they use.

I agree with Shadow. Since the CCs doesn't come from anyones race sheet it is not concidered an activation.

Thanks! I was figuring that was the case where "activation" is not the same as "place CC on the map". But I couldn't find a firm definition of "activate".

After all, if it did work the way I was asking, not only could the PDS fire like you bring up, but Jol Nar's racial could net them 21 trade goods in one shot. Some things are powerful, but that would have to have been nerfed by now if it had ever been legal. The eratta seem to be quite decent overall.

just to confirm things, this question is in the FAQ, page 10:

Q: If the Naalu have “Telepathic Mind Weapon” (their racespecific

technology) and then use the Diplomacy II primary

ability “a,” does that cause all the other players to lose one

Command Counter from ship supply?

A: The Naalu special ability only works when a player activates

a system. It does not work when a card (or ability) allows

another player to place one of their activation tokens in a system.