The FAQ says that the first player always has the option to take the first action. Does that mean that if i go second i have to wait until my opponent takes an action before I do anything? E.g. if I have an ice fisherman do I have to wait until he takes an action to be able to steal a resource on his turn? Or at the start of the player action window can I simply activate his effect?

Yes. You always have to wait for the first player to take an action (or pass) before you can do anything, no matter who the active player is.

That means the first player gets the chance to play something when he is the active player in marshaling before you get a chance to use your Ice Fisherman (but don't worry, he'll often space out completely and kneel a reducing location - a separate player action from playing a card). It also means that, when you are the active player in marshaling, you have to wait for the first player to do something (usually pass) before you can play your first card.

He first half makes sense. But im not understanding the second half. If I'm the active player in marshalling. Doesn't that mean my opponent has to wait for me to do anything before they can take a player action?

Nope. In a ll player action windows, players take turns - starting with the first player and going clockwise - taking actions until all players have passed consecutively.

"First player," not "active player."

There is nothing about becoming the active player in either the Marshaling or the Challenge phase that changes the order in which players are allowed to take actions in player action windows. Granted, the "active player" in those phases tends to have more options for what kinds of actions they can take, but they don't get any special privileges in terms of when then can take those actions.

So when the "active player" status passes in Marshaling, it is still the first player who gets the first action in the player action window after another player counts income - even though only that new active player can "marshal" characters, locations, and attachments from hand as an action in that window.

Ohhhhhh. Now I get it. Thank you so much. Im trying to really learn this game via the FAQ but sometimes it creates more confusion than solves. Thanks for taking the time to clarify and elaborate on things which the FAQ sometimes leaves vague (or perhaps info I just misread lol)

No worries. Ask away. That's what the community is here for.

The FAQ (and the rule book; you'd be surprised how many people forget to go back to the rule book after they pick up the FAQ) is good, but it can sometimes be confusing because you often have to put information from two different sections together to get the full answer.

Said another way, fitting the pieces together usually isn't too hard - but finding them can be. Those of us who have spent more time with the FAQ just know where the pieces are.

Is the act of counting the gold income and actual player action

i.e. First player is also active player, start of the marshalling phase

Step 1 - they count there gold and take the tokens from gold pool

Step 2 - Does first play now get to do an action or does the next action move to the player on his left

Counting gold is not a player action. It is a framework event that happens as part of the "active player" status passing to a player. So the a player becomes active player, counts income, and then the "Player Action" window starts - with the first player.