All

Frequently Asked Questions

Definitions
Effect Rules
Elements and Elemental Thresholds
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...
  • 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:
    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...
  • 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...
  • 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
Power Cards