Actions

Frequently Asked Questions

Adversaries

• Against Russia 2: a damaged Explorer with a health bonus ends the turn Shroud of Silent Mists' lands. It should be destroyed when the health bonus wears off - is it saved?
  No. It's not in the context of an action, so Russia 2 doesn't apply.

  (This is a provisional answer - if further cases like this suggest that "Effects expire" needs to be an action, it could conceivably change, but that seems the less likely case.)
  Tags: Actions, Action Modifiers, Shroud of Silent Mist, Well-Prepared Explorers, 1 more...
• How many Actions is the Habsburg Livestock Colony Escalation?
  One Action per board with 4 or fewer Blight followed by one additional Action per board with 2 or fewer Blight, for a maximum of 2 Actions per board.

  If you are able to move or destroy the first added Town with a triggered Action, it is possible to choose that land again for the second added Town.
  Tags: Actions, Stage II escalation, Habsburg Monarchy (Livestock Colony)
• When playing against France, if the Slave Rebellion event card causes a victory, can the next Event Card turn it into a sacrifice victory or otherwise undo it?
  No. You check for victory after the Main Event ("Small Uprising" or "Rebellion") and after the Dahan Event ("Aid the Uprising"), and never get to the follow-up Event Card if you win.

  Even if the 2nd Event Card is interpreted as a triggered action(†), it's not triggered by the Main Event or Dahan Event, so it doesn't need to be resolved before checking victory/defeat. (It's triggered by "finishing the Event Card", which is timing based on the game's structure similar to something like "after the Ravage Step" - not an action proper.)

  (†) = And it's not clear if it should be, its wording predates "After" meaning "triggered action".
  Tags: Actions, Victory and Defeat, Kingdom of France, Slave Rebellion, 0 more...

Blighted Island cards

• How does All Things Weaken interact with Heart of the Wildfire? When Wildfire places Presence, does it then destroy its own Presence?
  No. All Things Weaken modifies how Presence destruction from Blight works, but doesn't change the source of the Blight, so Wildfire is still protected from Blight added due Spirit actions. This also applies to the portion which reads "...and 1 Presence in an adjacent land": if you choose Wildfire's Presence as the 1 Presence to destroy, it will survive if the Blight was added due to a Spirit Action.

  While Volcano Looming High isn't protected from Blight added by Spirit Actions in general, it does have similar protection from Blight added by its Explosive Eruption Innate Power. In that one particular case, all of the above applies to Volcano Looming High as well.
  Tags: Actions, Blight, Blazing Presence (Heart of the Wildfire), All Things Weaken, 3 more...

Event Cards

• For an Event that does something "for each Beasts", is it one Action for the whole board?
  No, it is one Action per land with Beasts (JE rulebook, "Each" exception sidebar).
  Tags: Saved From Destruction, Actions, Prey on the Unwary (Beasts Event), Beasts Attack (Beasts Event), 1 more...

Fear and Fear Cards

• At Terror Level 2 and 3, how many actions is Scapegoats? It's very relevant against, eg, Russia Lvl 2.
  One action per land with Towns/Cities - treat it as if it said:

  • Terror 2: In each land with (Town)/(City): Destroy 1 (Explorer) per (Town) and 2 (Explorer) per (City).
  • Terror 3: In each land with (Town)/(City): Destroy all (Explorer). Destroy 1 (Town) per (City).

  A strict reading of the Terror 2 text would be "one action in each land with Towns followed by one action in each land with Cities", which, when it matters at all, is super-fiddly and counter to the card's intent. A strict reading of the Terror 3 text would probably be similar (though there's a case to be made that the Explorer destruction would be a single action total, which is even weirder).
  Tags: Actions, Scapegoats, Tsardom of Russia, Observe the Ever-Changing World (Shifting Memory of Ages), 0 more...

General Play

• Can a triggered action trigger itself if it does so via an (nested) basic action? Eg: Wildfire adds Presence, triggering Blight. The Blight card flips and its immediate effects (a basic action) let Wildfire add more Presence. Does Blazing Presence trigger again?
  No. "Can't trigger themselves even indirectly" includes cases like this; otherwise infinite loops would be possible.
  Tags: Actions, Triggered Actions, Nested Actions, Blazing Presence (Heart of the Wildfire), 1 more...
• Is the table of actions on p. 24 of Jagged Earth comprehensive, or examples?
  Examples. For instance, Scenario actions aren't listed (though they probably should have been; apologies). We're still figuring out all the types we need, though the default of "whatever component it's printed on" seems to be working really well thus far.

  Note: Spirit Rituals (Rituals of Terror, Rituals of the Destroying Flame) should be Spirit Actions.
  Tags: Actions, Rituals of the Destroying Flame, Rituals of Terror
• If an Event or Fear Card has multiple instructions, only *some* of which are "each", how many actions is that? Eg: Dahan Threaten has each player add a Strife, then applies a rule where Strife lowers Invader Health.
  Then the whole Fear Card / Event is one action, with one nested action per "each". (So for Dahan Threaten, each player adding Strife is a nested action within the initial Fear Action.)

  The entire "how many actions is it?" determination is:

  • If it just does 1 thing, it's 1 action.
  • If it has only "each" instructions, it's 1 action per "each".
  • Otherwise, it's 1 action, and "each" instructions cause 1 nested action per "each".

  Up-front conditionals (like on Foreign Dignitaries Visit, Harvest Bounty Harvest Dust, and the "choose one" in Choice Events) aren't part of the action - you check the conditional, figure out which one to do, then proceed as above.
  Tags: Actions, Choice Events, Harvest Bounty, Harvest Dust, Foreign Dignitaries Visit, 1 more...
• Is revealing a Fear or Event card part of the Fear / Event action(s), or does it happen first? Eg: with Finder of Paths Unseen, do I have to guess about adjacencies, or can I see the card first?
  Revealing the card happens before the Fear/Event actions, not as part of it. (It's part of basic game structure.) So you can indeed look at the card prior to making adjacency decisions for Finder of Paths Unseen.

  Actions are everything the card does - turning it over to read it isn't something the card does. (Also, Event Cards always result in multiple actions, and Fear cards often will as well; including "turn over the card" as part of the first action on the card would make "what's involved in an action?" a little inconsistent.)
  Tags: Actions, Events, Fear Cards, Open the Ways (Finder of Paths Unseen), 0 more...

Play Options

• Playing without Events - when Commanding Beasts, can you bounce back and forth between lands?
  Formally: no, you have to command all Beasts in a single land before moving on to the next. (Everything done by Beasts in a single land is a single Event Action.)

  Practically, this only matters in unusual cases (like vs. Russia), so if it aids ease of play it's usually OK to let each player handle their board simultaneously, or resolve 1 Beasts at a time.
  Tags: Playing Without Events, Actions
• When playing without Events, what type of Action is Commanding Beasts?
  It is a separate Event Action for each land with Beasts (JE p. 20).
  Tags: Actions, Playing Without Events, Beasts

Power Cards

• For Vengeance of the Dead, what counts as an "effect"? If a Power has multiple instructions that damage/destroy things, are those separate "effects"?
  No. Using a Power is a single action ("effect" means "action"; terminology introduced in Jagged Earth), so Vengeance of the Dead is triggered (or not) after the whole thing resolves.

  See the Summary of Action rules for more details.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Actions, Triggered Actions, Vengeance of the Dead

Scenarios

• When the players collectively perform the Ritual of Terror, whose Action is it?
  Rituals that are not explicitly associated with one Spirit are Spirit Actions for the purpose of anything that cares what type of Action they are (e.g., Vengeance as a Burning Plague destroying its Presence as part of a Ritual of Terror), but are not an individual Spirit's Action for the purpose of their Special Rules. (No, not even in solo play, for the sake of consistency.)

  In Rituals of the Destroying Flame, it is an individual Spirit doing the Action, and so is that Spirit's Action and can benefit from special rules that apply to their actions.
  Tags: Solo games, Actions, Rituals of Terror, Vengeance as a Burning Plague, 3 more...

Spirit Phase

• Can you use a Presence track action in the middle of Growth?
  Yes, so long it's in between actions (or before them). Generally, each icon is one Action(†).
  

  For instance, Downpour Drenches the World could choose its second growth option (which has 2 "Add a Presence" icons), add 1 Presence to uncover a "Move Presence 1" space, use the Move 1 to shift a Presence, then place a second Presence from the new position. Or Many Minds Move as One could gain Energy with its 3rd Growth option, then use it to gain a Power Card before deciding where to place Presence.

  (†) = With an exception for icons that explicitly indicate "do this thing multiple times", like Fractured Days' "xN"s or Ocean's "....to/from EACH Ocean".
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Growth, Presence track, Actions, Downpour Drenches the World, 2 more...

Spirits and Innate Powers

• When Volcano uses Explosive Eruption, it deals damage both via destroying its Presence and the Innate Power. Does Badlands apply twice?
  No, because the damage from destroying its Presence isn't a separate action.

  The Special Rule says, "When your Presence is destroyed...", which means the damage is done as part of whatever action destroyed your Presence.

  (If it were instead a triggered action, it would say "After your Presence is destroyed".)
  Tags: Actions, Action Modifiers, Badlands, Explosive Eruption (Volcano Looming High), 2 more...
• With Pour Time Sideways and Dream of the Untouched Land could you use "skip actions on one board" on the "extra time" board (the board that Fractured Days' moved presence to)?
  Yes. Dream of the Untouched land skips all Build Cards and "Each land"/"Each board" Adversary actions on one board, even if that board has had Time poured to it.

  If this proves horribly abusive it'll be revisited, but that doesn't seem likely, it's pretty niche.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Actions, Skipping Actions, Pour Time Sideways (Fractured Days Split the Sky), Dream of the Untouched Land, 0 more...
• If Ocean's Presence is moved/destroyed entirely off a board in the middle of an action, when does "treat the Ocean as Coastal Wetlands" expire?
  It stays in effect until the end of the action tree (you're not in the middle of an action, and have no triggered actions about to happen).
  Tags: Presence, Actions, Action tree, Ocean In Play (Ocean's Hungry Grasp), 1 more...
• Many Minds Move as One says "when *you* Gather or Push Beasts" - is that identical to "when *your actions* Gather or Push Beasts"?
  Nearly. In theory it could include some other sort of action that said "Target Spirit may Push a Beasts" or "Each Spirit Pushes a Beasts"... but in practice no such things exist, so functionally speaking it's identical.

  ("Each player may Push a Beasts" would not be sufficient - cases like that don't represent Spirits doing things, the game just needs a player to make a decision for a Fear or Event card. It would have to use the word "Spirit".)

  Usually, the wording "when you (do X)" is used for your pieces or other game components: e.g., "when you Forget a Power Card" or "when you uncover this spot on your Presence track" or "when your Presence is destroyed". Those can obviously happen as a result of many different sorts of actions, not only your own.
  Tags: Actions, Beasts, Fly Fast As Thought (Many Minds Move as One), Many Minds Move as One, 0 more...
• If Vengeance as a Burning Plague destroys Presence to prevent a penalty from a Blighted Land Event, does it get Disease from its 'Lingering Pestilence' special rule?
  A: Yes. Though Vengeance is making a choice both to destroy Presence and which Presence to destroy, the Event Action is what actually causes the destruction.
  Tags: Events, Actions, Vengeance as a Burning Plague
• For Shifting Memory of Ages' innate which lets them prepare element markers: if a single power changes a bunch of things in the target land, can I get multiple element markers?
  No. You can only earn 1 Element Marker per Action, no matter how many changes that Action makes to the land. (Because the rule is phrased as “After X do Y “, it triggers exactly once after each qualifying Action.)
  Tags: Triggered Actions, Actions, Element markers, Prepare, 2 more...
• If Finder of Paths Unseen makes 2 of its lands adjacent, then uses the Moon+Air threshold of its 1st innate to Push its Presence out of one of those lands, are those two lands still adjacent for the Sun+Air threshold?
  Yes. They're adjacent for the whole action (Power use), but then cease being adjacent once you're done resolving the Power because they're no longer both your lands.
  Tags: Actions, Open the Ways (Finder of Paths Unseen), Lay Paths They Cannot Help But Walk (Finder of Paths Unseen), Flowing and Silent Forms Dart By, 7 more...
• For Finder of Paths Unseen's special rule Open the Ways, what does "once between actions" mean? Can you only change the choice once per turn?
  Practically speaking, it nearly always means "During each action, one pair of your lands may be adjacent to each other." It can be a different pair of lands each time. For Fear/Event cards, you get to read them prior to the first Fear/Event action they cause, because revealing the card isn't part of the action.

  It's phrased oddly so that it can maintain the adjacency while no action is happening; this is relevant only in weird edge-cases like "Which lands match this Coastal Lands Invader Card?"
  Tags: Actions, Open the Ways (Finder of Paths Unseen), Finder of Paths Unseen