*Dark Future FAQ*

Last Modified: May 11, 2002

This FAQ addresses questions that we think people might possibly ask
about the cards of Dark Future. Some of them might be unlikely, and
others obvious, but better safe than sorry.

If you find an error in this document, have a suggestion for an
addition, or just want to say hi, you can contact us by mail at:

Z-Man Games, Inc.
PO Box 98
Eastchester, NY 10709

Please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you'd like a reply.
You can also reach us by email at brentonwebber@aol.com
<mailto:brentonwebber@aol.com>.

Compiled by Julian Lighton. Copyright 2002, Z-Man Games, Inc. All rights
reserved. This document may be reproduced and distributed provided that
no fee is charged for such reproduction and distribution, and that it is
transmitted in its entirety, including this disclaimer. For all other
uses, please contact Z-Man Games, Inc. for terms.

*Changes From Previous Editions*

We have updated the entries for King Kung, Identity Chop Shop, and Memory Reprocessing in this version of the FAQ.

*The Set Symbol:*

You may have noticed that the set symbols don't all look the same. We've
started indicating a card's rarity by the color of the symbol. Black is
common, grey uncommon, and white rare.

*
The Purists:*

The Purist resource is a faction resource.

*
Questions on Individual Cards:*

*
Battlechimp Potemkin*

While the old Battlechimp doesn't have the designator */Chimp/*, this
one does.

The Event goes through the normal life-cycle of an Event, and can be
cancelled or Brain Fired if appropriate.

The Event is toasted immediately, there's no way for it to be removed
from the smoked pile in time to save it. (Or in time to stop you from
playing it.)

The fact that you can't play other people's Events during your Main Shot
means that you can't easily get rid the resources from Dirk Wisely's
Gambit by playing, and thus toasting, it. (The Year of the Dragon
version, which is considered to be errata despite the lack of an errata
symbol, doesn't allow using it when joining an attack. You'd have to
declare an attack of your own during somebody else's turn to recycle a
Gambit.)

*
Beta Beast*

The ability looks at the total number of resources provided, not the
number of different types. General Olivet, who provides [Arc] [Arc],
would do full damage to a Beta Beast.

Characters who provide no resources do full damage.

If a character is providing an additional resource due to another
effect, such as */Fire/* Characters with The Inner Fire in play, these
resources are counted for determining whether Beta Beast has Toughness
against them.

*
Big Macaque Attack*

They do increase their own Fighting.

*
BK97 Attack Chopper*

The subject's damage can still be redirected.

*
Blue Mandarin*

If you use this ability on a Character that's been declared as an
interceptor, it ceases intercepting.

Turning to heal and turning to change location are both effects. Turning
to attack is not.

Nothing stops a Character from turning to generate an effect in response
to you turning a Blue Mandarin.

The ability doesn't cancel. If you respond to a Character being turned
to do something, the effect will still resolve.

*
Borrowed Nuke*

Yes, this is a [Jam] card as well as a [Dra] card.

*
BuroMil Grunt*

If he is "returned to play", he does not smoke at the end of the turn.
(This requires the specific phrase, "return to play", as on Golden
Comeback. Inauspicious Return, on the other hand, tells you to "play"
the card from your smoked pile. This will not save the Grunt.)

*
Chaos Spirit*

If a player controls no cards that you could damage, nothing happens.

You always decide which card gets blasted. When you have to blast one of
your own cards, you can have multiple Chaos Spirits pick the same card,
even if it won't survive the first one.

This happens after the scene in which a player declared the end of the
turn. This means that normal effects cannot be generated in response,
once people know what you're going to hit. (The exception is effects,
mainly damage redirection, which specifically respond to damage being
inflicted.)

*
Chi Reconfiguration*

Things other than attacks, such as Orbital Laser Strike and damage
redirection, that were aimed at the old Site will not hit the new Site.

*
Combat Veteran*

If you lose control of the Character, you still control the State; the
player who stole your Character can't turn Battlegrounds to increase its
Fighting.

You can turn as many Battlegorunds as you have, and, if you can manage
to unturn one, you can turn it again to give the subject an additional +1.

*
Concourse Godard*

For the purposes of other cards, a Nerve Gas aimed at Concourse Godard
is still a card that smokes other cards, not a card that inflicts
damage. So, if he has a Charmed Life, then he takes no damage.

*
Coral Reef*

You have to discard if you use the ability.

You can turn more than one Reef in response to attacking, but you will
not get more than one draw and discard. (This will help if the first is
Whirlpooled, for instance.)

*
Corruption*

The Characters take the damage even if they are already turned.

*
Dark Sacrifice*

The dermination of whether a Character will be sacrificed, and the
choice of which one, happens when Dark Sacrifice resolves, not when it's
played.

The only way to avoid losing anything is to have no power and no
Characters when Dark Sacrifice resolves.

Characters who are not affected by Events or who "cannot be sacrificed"
won't be sacrificed, but can't be chosen in the place of another
Character, either.

It is considered to be the victim who is sacrificing the Character, so
your Darkness Priestess will give you a point of Power.

You can't choose to kill a Character if the target has Power. You don't
get to choose which character dies, either.

*
Defiant Bloom*

You can heal fewer than three cards, but you can't heal more than one
point from each.

*
Deja Vu*

The toasting is also immediate; there's no way to save the Event, nor to
play it again with another Deja Vu.

*
Demon Tank*

The subject is smoked if it ever becomes a */Demon/*.

*
Destroyer*

If you have more than one Destroyer in your smoked pile, each "return to
play" effect is placed on the scene. After the first one resolves, each
subsequent one will cause a separate auction, which has to be dealt with
before the next Destroyer returns.

*
Dunwa Saleem*

You only get one Power, no matter how many [Tech] cards you have.

*
Entropy Sphere*

You can play two Spheres that will damage the same Site, even if the
first to resolve will smoke it.

*
Esteban Vicente*

If he enters play during an attack, it's possible that the target of the
attack will end up in the back row. If this happens, the attackers move
to the new location, and keep attacking the Site. (This is in the YotD
rulebook, on page 59. It doesn't happen normally because most effects
that can move Sites around during an attack say that they can change the
target of an attack.)

*
Fake Out*

If the Character intercepts somebody else, it can be placed anywhere in
the chain of interceptors.

If the former interceptor cannot intercept anybody else, it goes home.

The former interceptor stays at the location of the attacker for the
time being. It doesn't go home and need to change location again, nor
can it move to a different location to intercept an attacker there.

*
Fallen Heroes*

The Character is toasted on generation; you cannot use a Golden Comeback
to save it. (Nor can anybody else use an Inauspicious Reburial to stop
you from getting the bonus.)

*
Fearsome Foe*

Nobody has to intercept. Fearsome Foe only requires that, if they do
intercept, your opponents have to put at least one interceptor in the
way of the subject. The rest of their interceptors can intercept
somebody else.

If Fearsome Foe is played after you declare interceptors, it's too late
for it to stop your interceptions.

If some of your Characters can intercept the subject and some cannot,
you must select one that can intercept the subject.

You can declare fewer interceptors than there are attackers with
Fearsome Foe. You have to assign one interceptor to each attacker with a
Fearsome Foe until you run out of interceptors or attackers with the State.

*
Free Fire Zone*

You don't have to smoke the Sites by combat damage; any means will do.

You can get Power from smoking your own Sites.

*
General Olivet*

If you burn for Power during another player's turn, their turn does not
end.

If you want to attack in somebody else's turn, remember that they have
the priority to do things. (Either playing a card or declaring an attack
or the end of the turn.) If you want to attack at the same time that
they want to do something, they get to do it first. Since you can't
declare an attack during another player's attack, or declare an attack
in response to anything, you have to wait for the attack or the scene to
finish. As long as you announced your desire to declare an attack at the
time, you will get a chance to attack when they're done, before they can
do anything else.

You don't have to declare what you wanted to attack, or with who, and
you can decide not to attack when you actually you get your chance.

If whatever they did ended their turn, either because they declared the
end of their turn when you wanted to attack, or because they attacked
and burned for Power, you're out of luck.

*
Got My Mojo Working*

You can't play this card just to get it out of your hand in response to
an Event that doesn't damage or smoke Characters.

You also can't play it if all Characters are "not affected by" the
played Event. (The Prof and Charmed Life can cause this.)

*
Hell Charger*

Changing location only allows you to move one column to the left or
right in your Site structure. (Or to move to the location of an attack
on an opponent's card.)

*
Hexagram Spirit*

If the opponent plays named cards in response to the Spirit turning to
attack, you won't get any Power for them; they have to be in the hand
when the effect resolves.

Don't forget that you can look at another player's toasted pile at any
time.

*
Hot Springs*

Sites with continuous effects, such as Puzzle Garden, Dragon Mountain,
and the like, still interact normally with the Character. (Sites that
turn to do something, or that say "when something happens, do this" are
the main examples of Sites that generate their effect.)

If Hot Springs' effect is used in response to another Site's effect, the
protected Character won't be affected by the other Site.

A face-down Temple of the Angry Spirits gets to inflict combat damage
when it's revealed by damage. If you didn't know the face-down Site was
a Temple, it's too late to turn Hot Springs to save your Character once
you find out it is. The same is true of Hartwell Iron Works' ability;
once the Character's entered combat, it's too late to generate voluntary
effects.

*
Ice Sorceress*

Even if the Site's Body changed in response to her ability, it won't be
reduced below one. She will never smoke a Site when her ability first
resolves. Once it has resolved, damage inflicted later can reduce a
Site's Body to 0.

You decide whether you're increasing or decreasing the Site's body at
the time you turn her.

If she didn't apply her full Body reduction when the effect resolved,
the amount she reduced it by remains the same even if the Site gets bigger.

*
Identity Chop Shop*

You can remove a designator in a card's title for all intents and
purposes, (So you could cause a Student of the Dragon to no longer be
counted as a */Student/*.) but you can't get around Unique and Limited
in this manner.

If a card, such as Ting Ting, has a designator more than once,
(*/Ting/*, in this case.) one use of the Chop Shop can remove them all.

You can't add or remove the designators in a card's rules text. (So, you
couldn't change CHAR so that he take no damage from */Fire/* and */Ice/*
cards, nor could you remove the */Fire/* to make him "take no damage
from cards".

Removing a designator in response to an effect such as Discerning Fire
will not protect the Character. (The Character was a legal target at the
time it was played.) Removing a designator in response to global effects
like Shattering Jade will save the Character. (These effects don't
select any Characters; they hit everything applicable at the time they
resolve.)

*
IFF Missiles*

This card looks at matching designators at the time it resolves.

You can't choose to miss some Characters; everybody who has no match
gets hit.

All the matches don't have to be the same. If somebody controlled two
*/Students/* and two */Heroes/*, none of them would be damaged.

*
Johnny Badhair*

Resource conditions only matter for Characters, not the States.

*
Jury-Rigged Dynamo*

This won't trigger off cards that "generate" Power during another
player's Establishing Shot. Most cards, however, will trigger it. (Hall
of Brilliance is currently the only one that won't.)

Stealing Power doesn't trigger the Dynamo, either.

If Power is gained more than once in the same scene, such as with
multiple Mobius Gardens, it's not possible for the Dynamo to get you
more than one Power, since it can't unturn until the scene resolves, and
by that point, it's already done triggering. If it was turned, you can't
even get one Power. If it was unturned, you can get a Power and have it
unturn.

*
Just a Rat*

Just a Rat has to successfully bypass the interceptor with Stealth to do
the damage. If it tries and is somehow stopped, no damage is done.

*
Kar Fai's Legacy*

The character is toasted on generation; there is no way to retreve it.

*
Killing Ground*

If you play a 0-cost Site before any others, you will no longer be able
to play non-0-cost Sites that turn.

*
King Kung*

You have to decide how to divide up his damage before you find out what
any unrevealed Sites are.

Damage bonuses must be divided up between the two sites; they don't
apply separately to each. (This is different from the Gnarled Marauder,
because its ability is to infict the same amount of damage on each Site.)

He will take damage from a back-row Temple of the Angry Spirits.

You can't choose not to enter combat with either Site, though you do not
have to put damage on both. (So an unrevealed Temple would not get to
strike back if you assigned it no damage.)

If you reduce both Sites' Bodies to zero, you handle each one just as if
you'd reduced it to zero normally. You can seize one and smoke the
other, burn both for power, or whatever your heart desires. Any
triggered effects (such as Nine Dragon Temple) or responses (such as
Bite of the Jellyfish) due to your decisions take place after you've
dealt with both Sites. (So that Bite will get ten power.)

*
Legion of the Damned*

You can damage any Site, not just the one being attacked.

*
Major Hottie*

Her abilities apply to all [Jam] Characters, not just yours.

*
Marauder Gang*

They will be smoked even if there was nothing that could be attacked.

*
Master Hao*

This ability applies to non-combat damage, too.

*
Memory Reprocessing*

The Event is played and the Power gained on generation. Memory
Reprocessing cannot be usefully cancelled.

The Event played with Memory Reprocessing generates and resolves like an
Event played from your hand; it can be cancelled and otherwise
interfered with in the usual fashion.

An error was made in writing this card's rules text. You still ignore
resource conditions, just like you did with the Flashpoint version.

*
Misery Totelben*

A Site that is face-down will still be revealed when it uses an ability,
even if the ability is not its own.

A face-down Proving Ground can turn to use another Site's ability
without having to first be revealed and automatically turned. (Proving
Ground's own ability is unusual in that it requires the card to be
face-up in order to be used.)

A face-down Site that's copying a Proving Ground has to be revealed (and
therefore turned) before the Proving Ground's ability can be used. If a
Site is face-up when it gains a Proving Ground's ability, it will not
turn itself.

A Site with two abilities that require turning can use one or the other;
you can't turn it once to generate the two separate effects.

Misery Totelben can't be turned at all. Even other cards such as Shaking
the Mountain will be unable to.

*
Motor Pool*

Remember that you generate Power before you unturn cards.

*
Mutator*

Changing a card's cost doesn't let you play it cheaper, as it has to be
in play already before the Mutator can affect it. All it will do is mess
with the few abilites that key off of a card's cost.

You can't use most abilities, including this one, during the
Establishing Shot, so you can't increase your Power generation.

*
Newest Model*

You play this card on the State, not on the Character the State is on.

If the Character is smoked, the subject State is also smoked. Newest
Model won't protect against this indirect smoking.

*
Nexus Tower*

You can bring back any type of card, but it will never lose the Toast-It
restriction.

Aside from coming from the smoked pile, the card you play generates and
resolves normally.

*
No Man's Land*

If a Character is given an ability by an opponent that would cause it to
inflict less damage, (Rigorous Discipline to give you the Scrappy Kid's
ability, for instance) the Character will inflict less damage, as the
ability reducing the damage is on your card, even though you didn't put
it there.

If the Character's Fighting is reduced, (such as by The Prof's Gambit)
that will affect how much damage it inflicts.

*
Nuked*

If the flips stop on a player who has no Sites, nothing happens. (You do
not skip players with no Sites.)

You determine which Site will be affected when you play Nuked. People
can then respond accordingly.

*
Orbital Laser Strike*

The number of [Tech] resouces you have is determined when you play the
card. The damage is unaffected if that number changes.

*
Paradox Divination*

If you have more resources than cards left, look at what you can.

*
Parting Gift*

If the attack ended because all attackers were removed, whether by
Kinoshita House or by failing to overcome an interceptor, they do not
take the damage.

Attackers continue attacking even if they won't be doing any damage.
(Perhaps because of damage redirection or Operation Killdeer.) They only
stop when they're intercepted by something they couldn't kill. This
means that they will be present to take damage.

*
Portal Nexus*

You can swap any number of FSS around, but you can only put them in
positions that had been occupied by a FSS. Non-FS remain where they were.

If you have only one Feng Shui Site, it can't move at all.

*
Primus*

If you bring back Primus during another player's turn, they can respond
to Primus' effect with cards other than Events; they're only shut down
completely once the effect resolves.

The promotional Primuses are considered to have this rules text now.

*
Purist Initiate*

You have no choice in the matter. Even if you want to, you cannot treat
those resources as being [Arc] or [Lot].

This ability applies while you control the cards. If somebody else
steals your Paradox Beast, it gives them [Arc], and if you steal one
from them, it provides [Pur].

*
Purist Aspirant*

This can be used on your own cards, (such as Final Brawl) too.

*
Quantum Sorcery*

You choose whether to draw or get the Power at the time the effect
resolves. You could therefore turn several copies of this card and an
equal number of Characters and draw until you found the card you wanted,
then get Power from the rest.

*
Raptor Squad*

If Raptor Squad is stolen, attacks, and returns before your next
Establishing Shot, it will unturn. When it attacked, "your" was
referring to somebody else.

*
Replacement Parts*

The damage will not return if the State leaves play.

*
Sergeant Blightman v2*

This errata overrides the erroneous errata in the YotD rulebook.

He can be healed by other cards.

*
Serket*

If you have only one interceptor available, you can't intercept her.

*
Shaolin Agent*

He will gain Fighting even if he joins somebody else's attack.

*
Simian Sneaker*

He'll come back even if you didn't control the Site that was seized, as
long as it was yours originally.

*
Spit and Baling Wire*

If the State ends up no longer in either play or in your smoked pile,
it's safe from being toasted, even if you then play it again.

If the State is smoked, then returns to play, Spit and Baling Wire will
lose track of it, and it won't be toasted no matter where it ends up.
(Unless it was brought back by another Spit and Baling Wire, of course.)

*
Temporal Realignment*

You can't pick the same card to be toasted and shuffled back in. (Well
you can, but it will end up in the toasted pile, not your deck.)

The cards being returned to your deck are chosen when you play this
card, but don't get shuffled back in until it resolves. This lets your
opponents remove them from your smoked pile in response.

*
Thunder Swordsman*

He is a */Thunder Knight/*.

*
Yung Chang*

The Site generates bonus Power even if Yung Chang is no longer in play.