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Frequently Asked Questions

Definitions

• 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 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...

Elements and Elemental Thresholds

• 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...

General Play

• 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, 6 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...
• 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 (and Strife tokens, if applicable) 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 (eg: "Pour Time Sideways");
  • Then do any canceling or replacement (eg: "Flowing and Silent Forms Dart By" / "A Year of Perfect Stillness");
  • Finally do any other sort of additional or altered effects (eg: 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 Step got skipped, or if the Ravage Card 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...

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 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, Reaching Grasp, Flow Like Water, Reach Like Air, Gift of Proliferation (A Spread of Rampant Green), 10 more...