Shadowfist FAQ, v 4.0 December 4, 1995 Shadowfist is a collectible trading card game based on the archetypes and themes of action movies. Several factions of secret warriors from different times in Earth's history vie for control of places with the most Chi energy, known as feng shui sites. Those who control the most feng shui sites determine the shape of history. If you control enough feng shui sites you can even rewrite reality and erase your opponents from existence. . . This FAQ contains a number of official rulings and rules clarifications. Only decisions we're certain of are addressed in the FAQ -- a couple of rules issues raised in playtest and on the internet are not addressed. We'll be updating the FAQ regularly. Because we are currently revising the Shadowfist rules for the upcoming Second Edition, it's possible that phrasings and interpretations may change slightly in the months to come. Information for Collectors The Card Sets Q. How many editions of Shadowfist are there? How many cards in the different editions? Any other differences between these editions? A. There are presently two editions of Shadowfist, the Limited Edition and the Standard Edition. Both editions contain cards from four levels of rarity: very common, common, limited and rare. Limited Edition contains 323 different cards stamped with gold foil 'Ting Tings' in the upper right hand corner. Standard Edition was printed at the same time as Limited. Standard's cards are identical to Limited with two exceptions. First, the gold foil Ting Tings are removed. Second, eight Unique characters who died in the Shadowfist world's storyline were supposed to have been removed. But Standard's printing didn't go exactly as planned, and limited quantities of the eight characters killed in Operation Killdeer leaked into Standard. For a card list with rarity, check out the Web site at: HTTP://WWW.HALCYON.COM/REV/CARDLIST.HTML Q. Which eight characters died in Operation Killdeer? A. Mad Dog McCroun, Iala Mane, Jack Donovan, Thing with 1,000 Tongues, Jueding Shelun, Adrienne Hart, Nirmal Yadav, and Sun Chen. Art Attributions Q. Why do the cards Cellular Reinvigoration and Reinvigoration Process have the same art? A. Because we goofed. Cellular Reinvigoration's art is truly by Mark Tedin. When the same painting appears on Reinvigoration Process and is attributed to Anson Maddocks, that's a mistake. The correct art will appear in the upcoming Second Editon. Q. Any other mistakes in the art attributions? A. Hands without Shadow is by Edward Beard, Jr., not L. A. Williams. And we spelled Margaret Organ-Kean's name wrong on several of her cards. And we spelled Nicola Leonard's name wrong on Progress of the Mouse. Q. Why are some versions of The General printed with black titles and symbols and others with white? A. It's a typo. As far as we can tell, the two versions of the card are equally uncommon. Sorting Q. How is the sorting in the Limited and Standard Editions? A. Not as good as we'd like. It seems harder to collect a full set than we had intended. Briefly, if you get a particular rare card in a booster, it seems more likely that you'll get another copy (or more) of that card in the same box. The earliest we will be able to solve these sorting problems will be Second Edition. Until then, people interested in collecting a full set will certainly want to take advantage of opportunities to trade. David Bolack and friends have set up a Shadowfist card trading mailing list called fisttrade. Fisttrade operates using the Black Marble Wombat mailing list software. To subscribe, send a message to fisttrade-request@mars.galstar.com. The subject field will be ignored. If you wish to subscribe to the mailing list, place "SUBSCRIBE" (no quotes) in the body of the message. If you wish to subscribe to the mailing list digest, place "DIGEST" in the body (again, no quotes). Rules Clarifications The Designator Rules Q. How do I tell which cards affect which characters? I've got a Police Station that can turn and maintain to add +2 to the Fighting of any Cop, but who is a Cop and who isn't? A. We left a paragraph out of the rules. Here's the paragraph that's going back into the rules in Second Edition: Designators: Words that appear in the name and subtitle of a card are that card's designators. Subtitles are the first line in the rules text. Many effects target cards with specific designators. For instance, the Undercover Cop gets +1 Fighting for every Cop character in play. SWAT Team counts as a "Cop" thanks to its subtitle: "Cop Pawns." Maverick Cop counts as a Cop because of her name. But the Buro Official does not count as a Cop, since his subtitle is "Vile Bureaucrat." Another example: the Assassins in Love Event takes control of all Assassins in play. It only takes control of characters whose designators include the word Assassin. There are characters in the game who have the special ability "Assassinate" but are not designated as Assassins in their title or subtitle. These characters do not qualify as Assassins. Some cards give new additional designators to other cards. If, for example, a card effect says that certain cards are now "considered to be Abominations," that means that the affected cards have gained the designator "Abomination." There are three special cases in which words that appear to be different are considered the same designator. 1. Singular and plural forms of the same word are considered to be the same designator. The Undercover Cop gets to count both the SWAT Team ("Cop Pawns") and the PubOrd Squad ("Buro Cops"). 2. Adjectival forms of a noun (whoo, there's a word you probably didn't expect to be seeing outside of English class!) are considered to be the same designator as the noun. Therefore "Hero" and "Heroic" count as the same designator, as do "Demon" and "Demonic." 3. Composite words can be split into designators consisting of all the words they contain. "Supersoldier" is the obvious example, containing the designators "Super" and "Soldier." Note that composite words are a lot different than words made up of multiple syllables -- no fair trying to argue that the word "Artist" is made up of the compound words "Art" and "Ist"! On the other hand, the Netherworld cards that have the designator "BuroMil" do count as "Buro" cards. They also count as "Mil" cards, but that's not likely to put them in the position of sharing a designator with any other cards. There are several exceptions to the designator rules. The words Site, Feng Shui Site, Edge, State, and Event are not designators. Neither are connecting words like "of," "and," and "the." Errata Dance of the Centipede "Cancel effect generated by turning target card OR turn target card -- target card cannot be turned in response." As the card originally read, it sounded as if it could be used to cancel any card, including Events. Not so. Evil Twin As written, the card led many players to believe that you couldn't Twin a Unique character without causing a Uniqueness Auction. This was not the card's intention. The errata is as follows: "When Evil Twin is played, choose any character in play. Evil Twin takes on the Fighting score, designators, and abilities of that character, but not its resources and resource conditions." Uniqueness Auctions occur when two Unique cards with the same name appear in play -- Evil Twin doesn't cause Uniqueness Auctions because "Unique" is a restriction, not an ability that gets copied (see below). Reinvigoration Process The rules text of this card should read: "Turn during your turn to play an Abomination from your smoked pile at normal cost." Note that in this and all other cases in which cards allow you to play other cards, you must pay Power costs and meet resource conditions unless otherwise specified. Thunder on the Mountain The 'm' that appears in the rules text is meant to be an Architects of the Flesh symbol. Progress of the Mouse Progress of the Mouse can only be played on an opponent, not on yourself. Probability Manipulator: "Turn to increase or decrease the value of any number on target card by 1 until the end of the turn. Probability Manipulator may not change a number to zero. Does not affect play costs or numbers expressed as words." Netherworld Errata The Netherworld expansion set began shipping November 29th. We've found two mistakes on the Netherworld cards that belong in the errata. Chi Sucker This card's rules text should read "When Chi Sucker attacks, it gains +X Fighting until the end of the attack. X = the number of Power-generating sites controlled by the controller of its target." Marisol The first sentence of her rules text should read: "Damage may not be redirected to Marisol." New Game Terms The Second Edition of the rulebook will contain two game terms that have come into common usage since publication. Foundation characters: Characters that provide resources but do not have any resource conditions are known as foundation characters. Any-time effects: Unless otherwise specified by the rules or on the cards, most Events and abilities that characters and sites access by turning can be generated at any time during any player's main shot. Following Stephen D'Angelo, we've taken to calling these effects any-time effects. There are certain effects that are not any-time effects -- these include playing cards other than Events and turning characters to heal. The rules specify when non-Event cards can be legally played and when characters can turn to heal. Card Clarifications A number of cards will be rewritten for clarity in Second Edition Shadowfist. Alchemist's Lair The site is supposed to provide [Magic] resources, not [Chi]. However, in tournament play, Alchemist's Lair that provide [Chi] provide [Chi], and those that provide [Magic] (Second Edition printing and later) will provide [magic]. In the privacy of your own home you can, of course, rule that Alchemist's Lair always provides [Magic]. Arcanowave Reinforcer Rules text rewritten for clarity: "All your characters in play inflict +1 damage and are considered Abominations." Booby Trap Rules text revised for clarity: "Play on a site you control when the site is attacked. Target site and all characters at its location suffer 3 points of damage." Explosives Rules text revised for clarity: "Play on an unturned character. After subject character damages a site in combat, you may sacrifice Explosives to allow subject character to inflict an additional 5 points of damage to the site." Fox Pass Rules text rewritten for clarity: "Turn to change one attacking character's target to a character or front-row site you control." Helix Chewer This State was placed in an Event card border in the Limited and Standard Edition. In Second Edition, Helix Chewer will be in the proper State border. Illusory Bridge The card will have text explaining that it is controlled by the player whose site structure it has been played into, not by the player who owns the card. Nerve Gas Nerve Gas does not affect characters with [Magic] or [Tech] in their resource conditions. Police Station Police Station can turn to inflict 2 points of damage to a Hood character or Hood site. Proving Ground Rules text rewritten for clarity: "When Proving Grounds is first revealed, turn Proving Grounds for no effect. Turn Proving Grounds to play a character at -2 cost. Multiple Proving Grounds cannot reduce the cost of the same character." Righteous One Rules text added to for clarity: "Any character intercepted by Righteous One while Righteous One is unturned is smoked after inflicting damage on Righteous One." Havoc Suit Havoc Suit will be reprinted as HAVOC Suit to correct an error. Fixing a typo is not a name change. Five is the upper limit of HAVOC/Havoc Suits you can have in a deck, regardless of how it is spelled. Throwing Star Rules text rewritten for clarity: "After surviving combat with another character, subject character may inflict 1 point of damage on any character at its location." Changes to the Card Abilities and Restrictions The Card Abilities and Restrictions list that begins on page 45 needs a few corrections and clarifications. Cancels: A card effect that has been canceled ceases taking effect and is not resolved in the sequence of effects. +X Damage Characters with this ability inflict additional damage to characters and sites; the value of X varies from card to card. Add the damage bonus to combat damage inflicted by the character. This bonus does not add to non-combat damage inflicted by the character. Independent Characters with this ability may be used to launch an attack during your turn even when an earlier attack failed to damage its. Non-independent characters may not attack after a failed attack, even if an Independent character's attack has succeeded. Limited Limited is a restriction and not an ability. It is not affected by effects that copy abilities. Mobility You may change the location of this character to a legal location at almost any time, without turning the character. This does not allow the character to avoid receiving damage. Note that no character may change location after declaring participation in an attack until the attack is over. Nor may a character change location after being declared as an interceptor until its interception combat is finished. It is only possible to change location to an opponent's side in order to intercept an attack. Characters with Mobility can move any number of columns, but must move one column at a time. Unique Unique is a restriction and not an ability. It is not affected by effects that copy abilities. Other Important Game Rulings Damage Redirection Q. Quite a few cards "redirect" damage from one card to another card. What is the source of the redirected damage? Can I use Robust Feng Shui to redirect damage inflicted onto one of my feng shui sites in order to reduce an opponent's site's Body to 0 and seize the site? A. No. Cards that redirect damage become the source of the damage they redirect. Robust Feng Shui is the source of the damage you are inflicting on the opponent's site, so you would not be able to seize or burn that site. It would be smoked. Who Controls Weapon and Vehicle States? Vehicle and weapon States are controlled by the controller of their subject character. This is an exception to the rule that a State is controlled by the player who played the State. Cards May Not Turn as Part of the Sequence of Effects In Which They Entered Play One new wrinkle in the upcoming Second Edition's Sequence of Effects rules will be that no card may turn as part of the same sequence of effects in which it enters play. As an example of the consequences of this ruling, consider the case in which you play a White Disciple. If your opponent responds to you playing the White Disciple with an effect that smokes the White Disciple, you will never get a chance to turn him to inflict two points of damage on another target, since your opponent's effect will resolve first and the White Disciple will leave play at the end of the sequence of effects in which it entered play. Characters and Sites are Different than Edges and States in the Sequence of Effects All cards enter play as soon as they are generated in a sequence of effects. Characters' abilities and States' abilities are effective as soon as they enter play. Another way of saying this is that characters and sites are generated by being put into play, but have no further effects to resolve during the resolution of the sequence of effects in which they entered play. For example, you play an Average Joe with Toughness: 1. In response, and therefore as part of the same sequence of effects, your opponent turns a White Disciple to inflict two points of damage on the Average Joe. Even though the White Disciple's effect resolves first, Average Joe's Toughness: 1 is in effect, protecting him from 1 point of the White Disciple's damage. Effects of States and Edges do NOT take effect until the effect that put the State or Edge into play is resolved. In other words, effects of States and Edges follow the same sequence of effects rules as any-time effects and Events. For example, say that you play Average Joe and respond to playing Average Joe by playing Armored In Life on him. Your opponent then responds to you playing Armored In Life by turning White Disciple to inflict two points of damage on Average Joe. Because the White Disciple's effect resolves first, the Armored in Life has not taken effect, and Average Joe suffers the point of damage that gets past his own Toughness:1. Power and Resources Using Resources Q. Are resources spent like Power? A. Using a resource to play a card does not decrease your resource pool. Power is generated and spent turn by turn. Resources gather in your pool. As page 17 of the rules states, you can play any number of cards that require the number of resources you have in your pool, so long as you can pay the Power cost. The only way to permanently lose a resource provided by a character or a resource-providing site is for the character or site to be toasted. Characters or sites that are returned to your hand also stop generating resources. Q. Do characters have to turn to provide resources? A. No. Characters don't have to do anything to provide resources except get into play. Once a card that provides a resource is in play, that resource remains in your pool until the card returns to your hand, is controlled by an opponent, or gets toasted. Generating Power Q. Explain feng shui sites and Power generation. A. Only feng shui sites are played face-down. All other cards have to be played face-up. All face-down feng shui sites generate 1 point of Power in their controller's establishing shot. Face-up feng shui sites generate the amount of Power specified in the diamond in their upper left corner. The original printing of the rules contains a misleading sentence on page 16: "When the feng shui site is revealed (turned face-up due to taking damage...), you get the amount of Power stated on it." Don't take that sentence out of context -- feng shui sites only generate Power in your establishing shot, not when you turn them face up for the first time. Q. Page 16 of the rule book says that there are three ways to gain more Power. Doesn't that leave out burning feng shui sites for Power? A. Yes, it does. There are *four* ways to gain additional Power. Playing Characters Under Special Conditions Q. When I turn Cave Network to play a character with a play cost of 3 or less at no cost, can I also ignore resource conditions? A. No. 'Playing' a card in Shadowfist requires you to meet its play cost and its resource conditions unless otherwise directed. Cards that want to get arond this rule use wording other than "play a card" -- for instance, Golden Comeback says "You may take a character from your smoked pile and return it to play." In Golden Comeback's case you don't have to pay the play cost and meet the resource conditions; you're simply able to put the character into play from your smoked pile. Q. Can I use Proving Grounds or Family Estate to play a character with a play cost of greater than 3 for no cost using Cave Network? A. No. Proving Grounds and Family Estate specify that they turn to play a character at -X cost. Cave Network turns to play a character with a cost of three or less at no cost. The wording on the cards isn't compatible. On the other hand, Proving Ground and Family Estate are compatible... Cards That Affect Cards with Particular Symbols Q. How do I tell whether one of my cards is affected by another card that affects cards of a certain [symbol] type, such as [Magic], or [Architect]? A. One explanation appears on page 15 of the rulebook. Check it out. Here's another: look at the card's bottom left and bottom right corners. If the symbol in question appears in either spot, the card can be affected by cards that affect or target that symbol. In game mechanics terms, if a specific symbol appears in either a card's resource conditions or its resources, that card belongs to the class of cards that can be affected by cards affecting cards bearing that symbol. Card Effects and Characters in Smoked Piles Q. Two related questions. If I have the Arcanowave Reinforcer in play, do all the characters in my smoked piles count as Abominations? Can the Monkey King turn to return a Lotus card from my smoked pile to my hand? A. No. And no. We wrote the cards assuming that all effects apply only to characters that are in play unless they are explicitly stated to apply to cards in the smoked pile or in players' hands. The cards and card effects only affect cards that are in play. If a card specifically states that it affects cards in the smoked pile or cards in a player's hand then that card breaks the normal rules. We'll be highlighting this point in the next edition of the rulebook. Q. Do characters in my smoked pile count as characters I control? A. No! 'Control' is a game term that refers only to cards that are in play. An Undercover Cop, whose Fighting is equal to the number of Cop characters you control, does not get to count the Cops in your smoked pile, only the cops that are in play on your side. Combat and Attacks Attacking and Intercepting Q. Do attackers attack in chains? A. No. All attacking characters attack in a single human (or inhuman) wave. The attacking player does not get to specify which characters attack first in a given attack. All attacking characters are equally available to be intercepted by defending characters. And all attacking characters inflict their combat damage simultaneously once they reach their target (unless one or more have the Ambush ability). Q. Can the player whose turn it is play States during their attack? A. Yes! See page 28 of the rules for the full list of which cards can be played during an attack. Q. If I can launch an attack on an opponent's turn, can I play States during that attack? A. No. You can only play States during your own Main Shot. Page 28 of the rule book states that an attacking character can play States, but it assumes that you are attacking during your own turn. Q. Can a single defending character intercept more than one attacker per attack? A. No. Each intercepting character may only intercept one attacker per attack. However, multiple defenders can arrange themselves in a chain and intercept the same attacker. Q. If your first attack succeeds in damaging its target and you want to launch a follow-up attack, do you have to declare your follow-up attack immediately, or can you play characters, Edges, and generate other card effects in between the two attacks? A. You can play cards and generate effects in between the attacks. Q. Can characters be healed in between successive combats in a single attack? A. Yes. Q. Is a group of characters making an attack a "single source" of damage? A. No. A card that inflicts damage is a single source of damage. This could be an attacking character or a Shattering Fire. A character with a Really Big Gun inflicts +2 damage; the character is still the source of the damage. The Steps of an Attack (The original draft of the material that follows was written by Stephen D'Angelo. It's a useful flow-chart for keeping track of all the steps in an attack, particularly for noting when any-time effects can be generated during an attack. It also contains quick one sentence summaries of a number of sections from the rules, and should be useful as a quick reference.) Declaring an attack is NOT an effect. As soon as an attack is declared, the Kicking Butt rules take effect, and effects declared in response to the declaration of attack do not take place before the attack begins. You do not have to "cancel" an attack for it to fail. An "any-time effect" is an effect that can be used during any player's main shot. The steps involved in an attack follow. a. Declare the attack, turn all the characters you control that you wish to participate in the attack, and select a single character or front row site that you don't control as the target of the attack. b. Any player can use 'any-time' effects. The player whose turn it is can also play State cards or turn a character to heal it. c. MULTIPLAYER ONLY STEPS A. Players other than the controller of the target can declare characters as aiding the attack by turning them Each player gets one chance to join as you go around the table clockwise from the attacking player. B. Any player can use 'any-time' effects. The player whose turn it is also play State cards or turn a character to heal it. C. Players other than the controller of the target can declare interceptors. (Note that the attacker can choose to intercept his own characters.) Each player gets one chance to declare interceptors as you go around the table clockwise from the player who is the target of the attack. Handle the entire combat with each player's interceptors before proceeding to the next player to see if they intercept. The steps are: i. Turn a character to temporarily move it to the location of the target being attacked. (If the character has Mobility it does not need to turn and can intercept even it if is turned.) They are considered to be at that location during combat. ii. Handle combat as per steps 'e' through 'h'. iii. Surviving interceptors return to their original locations. iv. Any player can use 'any-time' effects . The character whose turn it is can also play State cards or turn a character to heal it. d. FOR ALL COMBATS The defending player (the one controlling the target) then declares interceptors. Only characters at the location of the target can be used to intercept. Turned characters can intercept any attacker that does not have Superleap. e. Line up your intercepting characters in front of the attackers of your choice. Each interceptor can only intercept a single character. f. Any player can use 'any-time' effects . The character whose turn it is can also play State cards or turn a character to heal it. g. The attackers and first wave of interceptors deal damage to one another. Smoke any dead characters. If one character is intercepted and another is not, the unintercepted one waits for his companions to deal with their interceptors. h. Repeat steps 'f' and 'g' until all waves of interceptors are dealt with. i. Any player can use 'any-time' effects in between combats with waves of interceptors and after all interception combat is finished. The character whose turn it is can also play State cards or turn a character to heal it. j. All remaining attackers simultaneously damage the target. If the target can deal damage, the defending player chooses how to divide the damage among the attackers. Smoke any dead characters. Any site which has damage in excess of its body can be seized, burned for 5 power or burned for victory at this time. Seized sites have all damage on them removed and can be placed at any legal position on your side. Burning a site for power ends your turn immediately after step k. k. Surviving attacking characters return to their original locations. Notes: If more than one character intercepts an attacker, the interceptors are lined up in a chain and fight the attacker one at a time as per step 'e' through 'g'. Note that once an attacker starts down this road it will keep fighting interceptors until it is smoked or otherwise removed from play, or reaches its target. A Character with Tactics can leave the attack at any time that 'any-time' effects are usable. Changing Location Q. Do characters have to turn to intercept? A. No. In fact the words "turn to intercept" are something of a misnomer. Characters turn to change location. Characters can intercept attacks at locations they occupy, so a character who is going to intercept an attack aimed at a different location normally has to turn to change location first. Once they have changed location they are able to intercept. The exception is Mobility. Characters with Mobility can intercept attacks at any location without turning, even if they are already turned. Q. Is turning to attack considered turning to change location? A. No. Turning to attack changes the location of the attacking character to the target's location until the attack is over, but in game terms, turning to attack is distinct from turning to change location. Q. What about Political Lock and the Walking Corpses? A. When Political Lock is in play, characters can no longer turn to change location within your own site structure or turn change location in order to intercept at another player's location. Characters can still turn to attack when Political Lock is in play. Similarly, Walking Corpses can never turn to change location, but they can turn to attack. Walking Corpses are able to intercept, but only at a location they already occupy or by using Mobility or Motorcycles to scoot around the board. Q. The rules on page 30 make it sound as if a character always needs to be unturned to change location. Is that right? A. No. The misphrased sentence reads "At any time, you may move an unturned character you control one column to the right or left; you must then turn the character." That isn't precisely correct. Actually, you normally must turn a character in order to move them to a different location. The character does not move to the different location and then get turned. The character turns in order to change location. Mobility allows you to change location without turning and irregardless of whether you are turned or not. The Sequence of Effects The basic rule is simple: generate all effects in a sequence first, then resolve them in reverse order. The last effect generated is the first to be resolved. Once you have started resolving the effects in a sequence of effects, no one can generate any more effects until the current sequence has been entirely resolved. Generating an effect can involve: - declaring your intent to use a given effect - paying a cost in Power - turning a card, if necessary, - selecting a valid target for the effect - checking for or meeting any preconditions necessary for the effect to happen - placing an Edge, State, Site or Character card into play in a legal position - placing an Event card you are playing directly into your smoked pile. Resolving an effect involves: - making the changes to the board that result from an effect, such as placing damage counters, smoking cards, and removing cards from play For example, to play Shattering Fire on The Thing with 1000 Tongues, you declare your intent to play Shattering Fire, you state its target, Thing with 1000 Tongues, you pay the Shattering Fire's cost, 1 Power, and you place Shattering Fire (an Event card) in your smoked pile. If your opponent(s) do(es) not respond by generating other effects, you then resolve the Shattering Fire's effect by inflicting the proper amount of damage on Thing with 1000 Tongues. If, for example, the Thing's controller had responded to your Shattering Fire by sacrificing one or more characters to give Thing with a 1000 Tongues Toughness, the sacrifice effect would resolve first and damage from your Shattering Fire would be reduced. Questions about the Sequence of Effects Q. I have a Queen of the Ice Pagoda in play. An opponent plays Shadowy Mentor on a character I control. Can I use the Queen's ability to get rid of it? A. Yes. When the Shadowy Mentor is played, it has been generated (see sequence of effects above). That means Power has been paid, a target has been selected, and the State has been placed on the target. It hasn't resolved yet, so nothing else happens yet. You respond by inflicting a point of damage to the Queen (a condition that is part of generating her effect) in order to smoke the Shadowy Mentor. You resolve the sequence in reverse order, so the Queen's effect happens first, smoking the SM. The Shadowy Mentor hasn't been canceled, so its effect happens, but at the end of the sequence, control of the subject character reverts to you. The player of the Shadowy Mentor has absolutely no time to use the subject character for any effect while she is under his or her control because a player cannot generate a new effect while an existing sequence is resolving. Q. Can you use a card as soon as you've played it? A. Yes and no. You can turn a card to use its special ability, or turn a character to attack in the same turn that it is played. But as explained in the Important Rulings section of the FAQ above, you can't turn a card during the same sequence of effects in which it was played. Q. How do you reconcile the two different definitions of effect that appear on page 40 and in the glossary? A. The glossary states that an effect is "the rules text on a card as it impacts the game." Page 40 states that "anything that happens during a game is an effect." The latter statement is more accurate, but not necessarily complete. Every action taken in the game except a declaration (such as signaling the end of a turn, or the beginning of an attack) and the establishing shot activities is an effect that can be responded to and is resolved using the Sequence of Effects rules. Q. What do the rules mean when they say that declaring an attack is an effect? A. This was an error. Declarations such as declaring attacks and declaring interceptions are not effects. Declarations can be responded to, but they don't occur as parts of sequences of effects. Players can respond to a declaration of an attack with other effects, but the attack is considered to have started as soon as it has been declared, so many effects that cannot be used during an attack cannot be used in response to a declaration of attack. The attack itself is not an effect, so it cannot be canceled. See The Steps of an Attack for the stages involved in an attack. Q. Can I declare the end of my turn during an attack, or during a sequence of effects? A. No. And, if opponents respond to your declaration of the end of your turn by generating an effect or a sequence of effects, your turn does not end until that sequence of effects is resolved. Questions About Specific Cards Q. What about the Gnarled Horror's ability to smoke any character it damages? A. The Gnarled Horror inflicts its damage simultaneously with any characters it is in combat with, and is therefore easy to smoke in combat. Note that if you could give the Gnarled Horror the Ambush ability, it would inflict its damage first on the attack, and smoke defenders before they had a chance to inflict their damage. Q. The Gnarled Marauder's rules text says: "Any damage Gnarled Marauder inflicts on a site in an attack is also inflicted on the back-row site behind that site." Does this mean that a Gnarled Marauder could conceivably reduce the Body of two sites to zero in the same attack, allowing me to seize or burn two sites at once? A. Yes. Q. When I play cards like Rigorous Discipline and copy abilities that refer to the ability's owning character by name, how do I interpret the results? A. Translate ability-copying cards by inserting the name of the character who has been gifted with the ability in place of the name of the character who normally possesses the ability. For example, the Thing with 1000 Tongues allows you to sacrifice a character to give Thing with 1000 Tongues Toughness: 3 until the end of the turn. If you want to use Rigorous Discipline to give Kar Fai Thing with 1000 Tongues' ability, you would sacrifice one of the characters you control to give Kar Fai Toughness: 3 until the end of the turn. Q. What happens if I use Rigorous Discipline to copy Shih Ho Quai's abilities? A. Not much. Shih Ho Quai's ability says X = the number of Chi resources you have in your pool. Very few characters have Fighting scores equal to X, so X would be meaningless. On the other hand, if you gave an Undercover Cop Shih Ho Quai's ability, the Undercover's Fighting score would be equal to the number of Chi resources in its controller's pool. Q. What happens if I use Larcenous Mist to remove Mother of Corruption's abilities for a turn? A. If Mother of Corruption's rules text goes blank because of Larcenous Mist, she will be able to turn to heal and turn to attack. Q. My opponent has played Adrienne Hart. Her rules text states that "No States may be played on Adrienne." Can I play Larcenous Mist on her and then play Shadowy Mentor? A. Yes. When you play Shadowy Mentor, her rules text will be blank. When Larcenous Mist's effect ends at the end of the turn, the State will already have been played on Adrienne, and will remain in play. Q. Another Larcenous Mist question. My opponent is playing a Cop deck with loads of Undercover Cops whose Fighting is X, where X is equal to the number of Cops he controls. I play Larcenous Mist on one of the Undercover Officers. What happens? A. Your opponent gnashes his teeth as his cherished Cop proceeds to the smoked pile. Because X is defined in the text box and the text box is blank, X is effectively zero. This also works on Shih Ho Quai and anybody else with a Fighting Score of X. Winning the Game Q. The rules state, "if you are one feng shui site away from winning, you can't play any more feng shui sites from your hand." Does that mean I can return one from my smoked pile or bring one into play by some other means than playing it from my hand? A. No. The only way to win is to seize or burn your final site unless there are no sites to be seized. The Second Edition rules will contain the amended sentence "if you are one feng shui site away from winning the game, you cannot put another feng shui site into play." Q. We're playing a two-player game and I've played five feng shui sites. Then my Ancestral Tomb feng shui site gets damaged. Since the Ancestral Tomb no longer counts for victory, can I play another feng shui site? A. Yes, you can. It will cost Power equal to the number of feng shui sites you have in play. And even if the Ancestral Tomb gets healed later, you still have to seize or burn one of your opponent's feng shui sites in order to win the game. Q. How should I interpret the following sentence from page 11 of the rulebook? "Note that a player is eliminated from the game as soon as he or she runs out of cards in his or her deck." A. As soon as you've drawn your last card from your deck, you lose. You'll never be able to play the last card in your deck. Other Questions Q. When a card refers to you, who does it refer to? A. As explained in the glossary, "you" refers to the controller of the card. Note that the controller of a card is normally the person who played the card. As mentioned above, vehicles and weapons are the exceptions. Vehicle and weapon States are controlled by the controller of the subject character. Q. Are there any errors in the Overview of the Game which appears at the start of the rulebook? A. There's one error and one possibly confusing statement. The error appears in the italicized text under the words "Turn Sequence." The sentence is misleading. It should say "Each player starts the game with 1 Power point in his or her Power pool and with a hand of six cards." The somewhat misleading statement occurs on page 3 of the rulebook: "Before the player under attack defends, each player in turn, clockwise from the player under attack, may intercept the attack by turning each character he or she wishes to intercept with and declaring which attacker that character is intercepting." In this case, the defenders are turning their characters to change location because they are intercepting an attack that is taking place at a location other than the location they presently occupy. Targeting Feng Shui Sites You Control Q. Can I attack and burn my own feng shui sites? A. No. You cannot attack targets you control. Q. Can I target my own characters and sites with card effects that inflict direct damage or smoke other cards? A. Yes. The rule states that your characters can't attack targets you control, but you can target cards you control for other card or character effects. For example, you'll almost certainly have to find some way of inflicting damage directly in order to get rid of an Illusory Bridge site played into your site structure. Seizing Sites Q. If I reduce a site's Body to zero by means other than an attack with my characters, can I seize or burn the site? A. No. The only way to seize a site (or seize or burn a feng shui site) is to reduce its body to 0 by damage inflicted by your characters in an attack (or characters controlled by other players who chose to join an attack that you declared). If you use other effects to smoke a site, the site is merely smoked. See page 39 in the rule book. Q. What happens if I seize a site that is the subject of the Inexorable Corruption State? A. States remain on sites when sites are seized. Inexorable Corruption prevents damage from being removed by any means. So seizing such a site is a BAD idea. Burn it instead, if possible. If not, you'll have to smoke it. Characters With Toughness Q. What happens if a character with Toughness: 1 is intercepted by a chain of 1 Fighting characters? A. Unless the defending player has a trick up their sleeve, they are making a big mistake. The character with Toughness: 1 will fight each interceptor in turn. Toughness reduces the amount of damage a character receives from any source, so one point of damage will be subtracted from the damage inflicted by each 1 Fighting score character. The character with Toughness: 1 won't take a scratch, all the 1 Fighting interceptors will be smoked. Q. What happens when a character with Toughness: 1 attacks a site that is the subject of two or more Deathtrap States? A. Each Deathtrap card is a separate source of damage, so a character with Toughness: 1 takes no damage from Deathtraps, no matter how many of them are piled onto a site. Q. What happens when I play Inexorable Corruption on a character with Toughness? A. Again, Toughness prevents one point of damage from any source. So playing Inexorable Corruption on a character with Toughness merely prevents the character from having damage removed by any means. Healing Characters Q. Page 33 of the rules says, "The instant that a character has a number of damage tokens on it equal to its Fighting score, it is smoked." Can you heal a character that is being smoked? A. This "instant" in which the character is smoked occurs as one effect in a sequence of effect that may include other effects. You can't heal damage that been dealt earlier in the same sequence of effects, because when it came time to remove damage counters, the damage counters you want to remove won't have been placed yet! But, as page 40 of the rules mentions, you CAN heal previous damage that contributed to a character being smoked. For example, say your Ring Fighter with a 3 Fighting score has taken 1 point of damage. Your opponent turns a White Disciple to inflict two points of damage on the Ring Fighting, enough to smoke it. You can respond to the White Disciple's effect by generating a healing effect to remove the point of damage the Ring Fighter had already suffered. The resolution of the effects would work out as follows, resolving effects in the reverse order in which they were generated: first you would remove the original point of damage from Ring Fighter, then you would place the two points of damage from the White Disciple. At no time would Ring Fighter have suffered the three points of damage that would be enough to smoke it. Q. Are there Shadowfist tournament rules? A. Yes. They'll be appearing in the next issue of Scrye, are available from us directly if you call or e-mail us, and will soon be available through the Daedalus home page on the Web we'll be establishing later this week. Q. What's the current Shadowfist Web site's address? A. For now, check out the Web sites at http://www.halcyon.com/rev/netherworld.html, http://www.halcyon.com/rev/cardlist.html, http://www.halcyon.com/rev/killdeer.html and http://www.halcyon.com/rev/faq. Was SHADOWFIST designed as a drinking game? A. No. But you might think otherwise if you noticed how we got confused about which direction is clockwise in the paragraph about "Simultaneous play" on pages 42-43. Sorry about that. We said clockwise, we meant clockwise. Q. Any other mistakes too embarrassing to mention? A. Yes. When we introduced the Ascended on page 8 of the rule book, we meant to use the word "descendants," not "ancestors." Upcoming Products The Shadowfist Players' Guide Ten stories that explain the factions and history of SHADOWFIST's secret war. Interviews with SHADOWFIST's designers, Robin Laws and Jose Garcia. Chapters on Dynamics of Play, Strategy, Tactics, and Nasty Combos. And lots of cool art. Look for the Players' Guide early in '96. Second Edition The next batch of new cards to appear after Netherworld will appear in Second Edition Shadowfist, to be released in March, 1996. Second Edition will include approximately 50 new Very Common and Common cards. An equal number of cards from the existing set will be dropped to make room for the newcomers. Not all of the cards that get dropped will be very commons and commons, a few will probably be rares and uncommons. All the cards appearing for the first time in Second Edition will have gold foil Ting Ting stamps. Flashpoint FLASHPOINT, the next full-fledged Shadowfist expansion, will be released in April, 1996. Flashpoint focuses on a battle between the Dragons and the Architects fought on two fronts, the Amazon of 1996 and an Architect city in 2056. Feng Shui: The Shadowfist Roleplaying Game FENG SHUI, THE SHADOWFIST ROLEPLAYING GAME is scheduled for release in Spring, 1996. It was developed and written by Robin Laws at the same time as SHADOWFIST. A full line of supplements is in the works, with titles like Blowing Up Hong Kong andMarked for Death. Future Expansions We have two other Shadowfist expansions planned for 1996 after Flashpoint. Contacting Daedalus Our mailing address is: Daedalus Entertainment, Inc., PO Box 880, Mercer Island, WA 98040-0880. We provide Internet support in the rec.games.trading-cards.misc newsgroup. We also have a Shadowfist folder in the CCG area of the GIX exchange on America on Line. The Shadowfist netreps can be reached at jgarcia@halcyon.com and RobMH@aol.com. For people without net access, the best bet is to call the Shadowfist Answer Line at (206) 232-3040 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. We don't have an answering machine on the Shadowfist Answer Line, so if you miss us you'll have to try back. At present we are not soliciting submissions for Shadowfist or other card games. The best bet for people interested in writing about Shadowfist is to submit articles to the various gaming and trading card magazines. Inquiries about freelance writing guidelines for our roleplaying lines should be sent to John Tynes at rev@halcyon.com. Artists interested in sending portfolios should send them to the address above, Attn: Jesper Myrfors. We are presently most interested in paintings rather than line art. We are currently not interested in computer-generated art. Have fun with the cards! --Daedalus Entertainment