Panicked!

By nismojoe, in Rules questions & answers

Need a mini-ruling/clarification.

When Revealed : Each player must take a villager token from Rescued Villagers and place it on a location in the staging area, if able. If no villager tokens were placed on a location by this effect, Panicked! gains surge.

My question.

The card says "...must TAKE a villager token..." ///// the card does not say "....must DISCARD a villager token..."

Would I be correct in assuming that if there are no locations in the staging area, the card surges and the villager tokens stay where they are?

Yes

I agree. When there are no valid targets for an effect, the effect isn't resolved.