Confounding Mists

Frequently Asked Questions

Effect Rules

• What counts as "adding" a piece (e.g., adding an Invader for "Confounding Mists")?
  A new piece getting placed on the island.

  In the "Confounding Mists" case, this most commonly occurs due to a Build or Explore action, but can also happen due to Events, Adversary effects, or Scenarios.

  Pieces that are pushed, gathered, brought, or otherwise moved then count as "moved," but not "added." Replacing one piece with another (or multiple others) counts as neither adding nor moving the new pieces; while the components representing that entity have changed, the entity itself is not a new arrival.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Replace, Push, Gather, Move, 36 more...

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...
• 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...