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Frequently Asked Questions

Definitions

• When counting how many Invaders are in a land, are you counting pieces? Or do Towns count as 2 and Cities as 3?
  You're counting pieces.

  "Invader" in the Glossary is defined as "A City, Town, or Explorer", so a land with three Towns and a City has four Invaders in it.

  (A few effects instead key off of "N Health worth of Invaders", and in those cases Towns and Cities generally count for 2 and 3, respectively.)

  Similarly if checking if Dahan "outnumber" Invaders, you are counting physical pieces.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Invaders, Health, Town, City, 11 more...
• What does it mean for a ruling to "be under examination"?
  The ruling is preliminary and might be changed later.

  Sometimes there's only one good example of an uncommon interaction, so it's hard to extrapolate how that sort of interaction ought to work in general. What seems right in the moment for that particular case might turn out to be a poor fit when the design space is explored further. (For a simple example of this, consider the game Stage caused by the early-placed Stage III card against The Kingdom of Brandenburg-Prussia Level 2+.) Changing the ruling later comes with the cost of players having to re-learn the interaction when the ruling changes, with many not even realizing that it ever changed.

  Nevertheless, not having a ruling leaves the question unanswered for years while waiting for more examples to arise. A ruling tagged "Rulings Under Examination" gives players a workable answer in the short term, but signals to players that they should be prepared for the possibility they'll eventually get a different answer.

  Once such a ruling has been changed, it gets tagged as one of the few Changed rulings.
  Tags: Rulings Under Examination
• When you "Remove 3 Health worth of Invaders," can you Remove 3 damaged Towns?
  No, the Health of an Invader doesn't change when it takes Damage. Damaged Towns still count for 2 Health each.

  A few effects (e.g., Kingdom of England Level 5, or some Event/Fear cards) modify Health, which does affect how many Invaders you can Remove. But Damage does not reduce Health. (Health is simply the total amount of Damage it takes to destroy something.)
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Damage, Health, Seek Safety, Belief Takes Root, 16 more...
• When does destroying a Town or City cause Fear?
  Always, regardless of how it's destroyed: directly via a Power that says to destroy one, from damage done by a Power, from damage done by Dahan counterattacking, due to a Spirit's special rules, from a Fear or Event card, etc. [p. 18]

  Fear from destruction is independent of any explicit Fear the Power does – e.g., Lightning's "Shatter Homesteads" reads "1 Fear. Destroy 1 Town." usually generates 2 Fear: 1 explicitly, and 1 for destroying a Town.

  Note that when you remove or replace a Town or City, it does NOT cause any automatic Fear. Removing Invaders happens most frequently via Fear Cards, and usually represents the Invaders fleeing, which doesn't make them any more afraid. Replacing an Invader represents some sort of transformation or change; if it's a scary change, the effect will explicitly specify how much Fear to do.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Destroy, Fear, Dahan, Ravage, 51 more...
• What does it mean when a Power's effects or Target Land shows (Terrain A)(Terrain B)? A or B? A next to B?
  It means "Terrain A OR Terrain B." (Back page, Targeting section.)

  The division between them is supposed to be a sort of slash, but that's not especially clear.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Targeting, Terrain, Iconography, Uncanny Melting, 35 more...

Effect Rules

• Do effects that interact with “gaining” Power Cards apply to every time a Spirit gets a new Power Card, no matter the method?
  No, only if the Spirit explicitly “gains” that Power Card (usually by drawing four cards and picking one to keep). If they “take” a Power Card, are given a Power Card, or otherwise receive a Power Card without being told to “gain” it, then they have not “gained” a Power Card.
  Tags: Gaining Power Cards, Taking Power Cards, Transferring Power Cards, Gather Power from the Cool and Dark (Shroud of Silent Mist), 14 more...
• When an effect does multiple things "on each board," can each thing happen in a different land?
  Yes in principle, but most such effects specify otherwise.

  By default, as long as you're resolving everything on a particular board, you can split the effect. For example, "On Each Board: Remove 1 Beasts. Add 1 Disease" (part of the first choice of the "Life's Balance Tilts" Event) can remove a Beasts token from one land and add a Disease token to a different land on the same board. And similarly, "On Each Board: Push up to 2 Dahan" (part of the first choice of the "Hard-Working Settlers" Event) can Push 2 Dahan from different lands on the same board.

  Nevertheless, many of these effects specify that they happen in a single land on the board, which means that they can't be split. For example, if "On Each Board: Gather 1 or 2 Dahan into a land with Dahan Setup Symbols." (the "Return to Old Pillars" Dahan Event) moves two Dahan, it must move them into the same single land, since the Dahan are gathered into "a land" (singular).
  Tags: Fear Cards, Events, Seek Company, Distracted by Local Troubles, 35 more...

Elements and Elemental Thresholds

• Are elements personal, or can you use elements from other spirits?
  Elements can only be used by the spirit that played them; they can't be shared unless an effect explicitly says so.

  For example, if you are playing River Surges in Sunlight, you cannot use Water generated by cards played by Ocean's Hungry Grasp.

  There are a few power cards that grant Elements to other Spirits, like "Elemental Boon," the innate power "Spirits May Yet Dream" from Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares, or several of Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island's powers. Powers with this effect explicitly say so.
  Tags: Elements, Elemental Boon, Gift of Nature's Connection, Spirits May Yet Dream (Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares), 8 more...
• Can you use the threshold effects of Innate Powers, even if you can't use the effects above them?
  Yes, each line is evaluated independently, depending on the Elements you activate the power with.

  (You are allowed to pretend you have fewer Elements than you actually have, but need to be consistent for the whole power.)
  (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Elements, Sparking Aspect (Lightning's Swift Strike), Haven Aspect (River Surges in Sunlight), Foreboding Aspect (Shadows Flicker Like Flame), 54 more...
• When you hit the threshold of a Major Power, is the effect in addition to the base effect?
  Yes, unless the card says "instead", threshold effects are in addition to the base effect [p. 17].
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Elements, The Jungle Hungers, Tsunami, Vigor of the Breaking Dawn, 27 more...

Fear and Fear Cards

• Are the effects of Fear Cards mandatory?
  Yes, the effects of Fear Cards are not under the control of the Spirits, and players only get to break ties between equally-effective ways of resolving the card.

  That being said, some effects give the players a bit more control:

  • If a choice is explicitly granted to the a player (e.g., "Each player chooses a different land"), then they may choose any valid land, even one where the Fear Card won't do anything.
  • If an effect is explicitly optional (e.g., "Each player may ..."), then a player may choose to do nothing.
  • In an effect lets a player choose a number (e.g., "Push up to 2 Explorers," "remove up to 3 Health worth of Invaders"), then they may choose 0 (effectively doing nothing) unless there's an explicit minimum.
    Tags: Fear Cards

General Play

• Do powers have to be resolved in order, or can you choose to do the effects in the order that's most convenient for you?
  Powers must be resolved in order from top to bottom. If a Power has thresholds, resolve all thresholds you hit, in the order they are listed (skipping over the ones you don't hit).

  There are a small number of exceptions:

  If a Power changes its own Speed, Range, or Targeting, those changes (and corresponding thresholds / costs) are checked when relevant during targeting, not during normal Power resolution. Examples:

  • "You may pay 1 Energy to make this Power Fast." ("Dry Wood Explodes in Smoldering Splinters")
  • "Increase this Power's Range to Range 1." ("Sap the Strength of Multitudes")
  • "This Power can target lands with Blight." ("Inspire the Release of Stolen Lands") – but note that the rest of this threshold effect still resolves at the end, like normal.

  (By the time you're resolving the rest of the Power text, it'd be too late for these modifiers to do anything!)

  If a threshold modifies how an earlier part of the Power resolves, that modifier applies at the sensible time. Examples:

  • "Do not destroy any Dahan." ("The Jungle Hungers")
  • "Damage from this Power may be dealt into adjacent lands." ("Vengeance of the Dead")

  Technically, every use of "Instead..." in an innate power works this way; it's pretty simple for human minds to understand the intent, but the formal specification is messier. Note that a "+" in a threshold effect (like "+2 Damage" in "Walls of Rock and Thorn") is not a modifier, but rather a new Damage instruction – this is occasionally relevant for timing purposes.

  If a Power specifies that something happens later, do it at that time (remembering that these ongoing effects expire when Time Passes unless specified otherwise). Examples:

  • "Once this turn, target Spirit may ..." ("Powerstorm")
  • "After the next time Invaders are destroying in target land: ..." ("Blood Draws Predators")
  • "At end of turn, ..." ("Gift of Constancy")

  "Repeat this Power" as a threshold also falls into this category, since it's short for "After resolving this Power and all Actions triggered by it, Repeat it."

  If a Power explicitly specifies to resolve part of a threshold earlier in power resolution, follow that order. Examples:

  • "+3 Fear, before the Terror Level check." ("Twisted Flowers Murmur Ultimatums")
  • "Before Pushing, Explorers and Towns/Cities do Damage to each other." ("Dissolve the Bonds of Kinship")
  • "First, Gather up to 3 Dahan." ("Wrap in Winds of Sunlight")

  Also related: A Power that is 100% internal modifiers doesn't do anything, so can't be targeted/used for things like "Scream Disease Into the Wind."
  Tags: Resolving Powers, Range Boosts, Speed (Fast/Slow), Targeting, 59 more...
• If you "move" a piece to where it was (Range 0), does it still trigger effects like Wildfire's Blazing Presence?
  Yes, the piece has still formally moved. It never leaves the land, however, so would not trigger, e.g., Shifting Memory's "Observe the Ever-Changing World," because the pieces in the land have not changed.

  Thematically, the piece has moved within the land.

  Note that if you use "add Presence" to instead reposition Presence already on the island (usually because you have run out – sidebar p.14 core rules), that is still considered an "add" rather than a "move".

  The Glossary entry for "move" was written before considering these cases.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Repositioning Presence, Move, Blazing Presence (Heart of the Wildfire), Wrap in Wings of Sunlight, 7 more...
• When instructed to count multiple piece types separated by slashes (e.g., "the fewest Towns/Cities"), do players choose which piece type to count?
  No. Count all pieces that are at least one of the types on the list. So in the example, if there are 2 Towns and 1 City in the land, the total for that land is 3 Towns/Cities. In the unlikely case that a piece is on the list multiple ways, it only gets counted once.
  Tags: Counts As, Swallowed by the Wilderness (Lure of the Deep Wilderness), Lure of the Deep Wilderness, Beset by Many Troubles, 28 more...
• If you damage an Invader/Dahan and then replace it with another Invader/Dahan, does the new piece enter the game damaged?
  Yes. (Rulebook p. 18) When you replace a piece with another piece, the new piece comes in with whatever Damage the original piece had.
  

  For example, if you deal 2 Damage to a City and then replace it with a Town, that Town is immediately destroyed.

  If you replace a damaged piece with two or more pieces (as when "Dissolve the Bonds of Kinship" replaces a City with two Explorers), the damage gets divided between the new pieces as you choose (limited by the amount of Health each of the new pieces has). Similarly, if the piece had Strife tokens attached to it, the Strife tokens get divided between the new pieces as you choose.

  Note that if a piece is replaced as part of being saved from destruction (as is done by the Transforming Aspect), then Damage is cleared before the piece is replaced, so there's no Damage to divide. (Strife tokens are still divided normally, if relevant.)
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Damage, Replace, Strife, Crops Wither and Fade (Shadows Flicker Like Flame), 22 more...
• Is there an ordering or priority for action modifications? It seems weird that you can get a benefit from something being destroyed even if you save it from destruction.
  Yes:

  • First change quantity (e.g., "Pour Time Sideways");
  • Then do any canceling or replacement (e.g., "Flowing and Silent Forms Dart By" / "A Year of Perfect Stillness");
  • Finally do any other sort of additional or altered effects (e.g., threshold on "Instruments of Their Own Ruin").

  The practical upshot of this is mostly "you can't both prevent something from happening and do extra stuff because it's happening" – e.g., if Volcano Looming High's Presence would be destroyed, but it's saved somehow, you don't get to deal damage.

  If a modifier cancels just part of something, modifiers to that part don't apply. Eg: "Entrap the Forces of Corruption" doesn't stop Blight from being added, but it does stop it from cascading, so another modifier which changed how cascades worked wouldn't apply.

  As before, if you have multiple modifiers with no clear order, you get to pick which happens first. For instance: you play "Infestation of Venomous Spiders" with threshold on a land with Dahan about to Ravage. A Fear Card says "Invaders do not Ravage in lands with Dahan". When that Ravage would happen, there are two different "skip this Ravage" modifiers. You get to decide which one to do first, so can choose it to be the Venomous Spiders. This wouldn't be true if the entire Ravage Card got skipped, or if it were changed to match different lands – those happen before you ever reach the individual Ravage Action – but as of Jagged Earth, the only Fear cards that work this way are "Explorers Are Reluctant" and "Immigration Slows", levels 2 and 3.

  This is an addition to published rules – the intent is that it will be included in the rulebook of a future expansion.
  Tags: Action Modifiers, Skipping Actions, Pour Time Sideways (Fractured Days Split the Sky), Entrap the Forces of Corruption, 26 more...
• What's the timing of ongoing effects expiring?
  All "this turn" effects wear off at the same time. For now, assume all normal Time Passes activity (discard, lose elements, clear damage, ongoing effects expire) is simultaneous. Cards like "Gift of Constancy" (which modify discarding Powers) or "Unquenchable Flames" work because they explicitly specify a timing.

  Rules for non-standard things that happen during Time Passes (like Shroud of Silent Mist's "Slow and Silent Death") can be done before or after effects wearing off unless otherwise specified.

  If it ever becomes clear that there really ought to be some sort of internal ordering to Time Passes, we'll call out that ordering in whatever expansion / FAQ it becomes relevant.
  Tags: Time Passes, Timing, Defend, Action Modifiers, 38 more...

Invader Actions

• If an effect *(e.g., "A Year of Perfect Stillness")* makes "Invaders skip all actions", what is affected? How is this different from "Skip all Invader actions"?
  Both phrases mean the same thing: any time the Invaders would Ravage, Build or Explore in that land that turn, skip the Ravage/Build/Explore action in that land only.

  All such actions in that land are skipped, even if you'd rather let them happen. This includes any normal actions that come from the Invader cards, and also any extra actions that come from effects like the power "Manifest Incarnation" or the event "New Cash Crops Take Hold." (See the B&C rulebook, p. 15, for the distinction between "normal" and "extra" actions.)

  This doesn't skip anything the Invaders do due to an Adversary effect, Scenario effect, or Event card unless explicitly the words "Ravage," "Build," or "Explore." For example, when up against Habsburg Mining Expedition, while "A Year of Perfect Stillness" skips the Build half of "Mining Boom (II)," it does not skip the Upgrade.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Skipping Actions, A Year of Perfect Stillness (Vital Strength of the Earth), Paralyzing Fright, Indomitable Claim, 5 more...
• If a piece is added or moved to a land mid-Ravage (e.g., by a Blight Card that flips during the Ravage), does that piece participate in the Ravage?
  Yes, generally speaking. Dahan counterattack if added or moved to the land by a flipping Blight Card (or anything it triggers), and any Invaders added or moved to the land by that Blight Card (or anything it triggers) can be dealt Damage by the counterattack. (The Invaders arrive too late to deal any Damage – Blight has already been added, after all.)

  Even more detailed/unusual corner-cases:

  If a "do not participate in Ravage" effect is in the land, check if the new pieces are included in it the moment the Ravage resumes (i.e., the first point in the Ravage that they're in that land). In particular:

  • If the Incarna of Wandering Voice Keens Delrium is nearby, newly-added/moved Dahan do not participate in the Ravage if any Strife is remaining (unlikely, unless an Invader had more than 1 Strife or "Exhale Confusion and Delirium" was used to prevent the Invaders with Strife from losing that Strife by participating in the Ravage); if all of the Strife is gone, the new Dahan will participate and counterattack (even if the original Dahan do not).
  • If the Incarna of the Lair Aspect is in the land, newly-arrived Dahan and Explorers don't participate in the Ravage unless they put the Incarna over its limit of non-participating pieces. For example, if there were already 2 Dahan in the land (both not participating in the Ravage) and 2 more arrive mid-Ravage due to a Blight Card, 1 of the new Dahan doesn't participate in Ravage while the other new Dahan does, since the Incarna prevents 3 total Dahan from participating.

  In the even more unusual case where you had previously determined whether or not an adjacent piece was participating in this Ravage and then that piece was moved in part way through the Ravage Action, stick with your original determination; don't re-check if the moved piece participates.
  Tags: Ravage, Do not participate in Ravage, Promising Farmlands (Blight Card), Disintegrating Ecosystem, 5 more...

Power Cards

• If a Power has a conditional effect (e.g., Defend if a Sacred Site is present), does the effect persist when the condition changes?
  Yes, unless specified otherwise.

  You evaluate the condition when the Power is executed, not when the effect happens. For instance, "The Trees and Stones Speak of War" (without the threshold) gives Damage and Defense per Dahan present at the time you execute the power, not Dahan present during the Ravage Step.

  This only applies to Powers with a localized effect. “Everywhere” effects that modify an entire class of things operate differently.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Defend, Guardian Serpents, Prey on the Builders (Sharp Fangs behind the Leaves), The Trees and Stones Speak of War, 13 more...
• If you Forget a Power Card partway through resolution, do you continue resolving it? (E.g., if you gain a Major Power with "Entwined Power" and then Forget "Entwined Power.")
  Yes, finish resolving the current use of the Power, along with any immediately-triggered instructions to Repeat the Power (e.g., via Relentless Gaze of the Sun using its "Relentless Punishment" special rule). The Power Card is no longer in play though, so you no longer gain the benefits of its Elements towards its own elemental thresholds and cannot Repeat it later in the turn with a "once this turn" Repeat option (e.g., via "Powestorm").
  Tags: Forgetting, Repeat, Entwined Power, Draw Towards a Consuming Void, 11 more...
• If you repeat a Power, can you use another Power in between the two uses, or do the two uses have to go right after each other?
  That depends on what's letting you Repeat the Power.

  • If you can Repeat the Power "this turn" (e.g., from "Powestorm" or "Gift of Strength"), then you may use another Power between the two uses of the repeated Power.
  • If the Power repeats itself (e.g., "Creepers Tear into Mortar" or "The Land Thrashes in Furious Pain") or you are granted the option to Repeat a Power "After" using it the first time (e.g., from "Relentless Punishment" or "Strength of the Waking Island"), then resolve the Power and anything else it triggers (e.g., "Vengeance of the Dead") before immediately Repeating it – you don't have a chance to use another Power first.
    (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Repeat, Gift of Strength (Vital Strength of the Earth), Powerstorm, Gift of Twinned Days, 20 more...
• If I get a Range boost, what Ranges does it affect?
  Anything that's your action, has a printed Range arrow, is not itself a Range boost, and obeys other restrictions (e.g., if the bonus is restricted to Powers or merely targeting Powers).

  So not just the arrow under "Target Land" on most Power Cards, but also, e.g., Range arrows in the text of Powers (e.g., "Unrelenting Growth") and Range arrows in Spirit Phase actions (like "Move a Presence 1" as a Presence-track ability). Obviously, Power Cards that boost Range won't be able to help with Spirit Phase actions, because Power Cards are used too late in the turn for that.

  • They do not affect Gather or Push, because there is no Range arrow. (And the definition of those keywords involves "an adjacent land".)
  • They do not affect "Your land" or "lands with your Presence" because there is no Range arrow. (And that wording is about what is in the land, not how far away the land is.)
  • They do not affect Ranges on other players' Powers (even if targeting you), because they are not your actions.

  It also doesn't boost the Range at which Flame Markers make lands vulnerable to damage/destruction in Rituals of the Destroying Flame.

  The original wording of "Sky Stretches to Shore," if read strictly, would cause it to work a little differently (only affecting targeting, not Range arrows in the text of Powers), but for the sake of consistency with other Powers that boost Range, it boosts all Range arrows.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Range Boosts, Range, Reaching Grasp, Flow Like Water, Reach Like Air, 14 more...

Range and Targeting

• If a Spirit's Power adds an ongoing effect in a land (e.g., Defend), does that effect go away if the Spirit can no longer meet the Range & Target requirements, or any conditional requirements in the Power?
  No, Range and Target requirements are only checked at the start of using a Power, and conditional requirements are checked when you reach that line in the effect text. Once the Power has added the ongoing effect in a specific land, that effect remains until Time Passes.

  Powers that alter an entire class of things, such as all of a Spirit's Presence, instead update their affected lands throughout the turn.
  Tags: Range, Targeting, Defend, Timing, 0 more...
• Does a Power stop resolving if you can no longer meet the Range/Target requirements in the middle of using it? (e.g., because it moves Presence out of the origin land)
  No. Range and target requirements are only checked as part of targeting the Power, before resolving any of its text effects.
  Tags: Range, Targeting, Timing, Ordering, 24 more...