Despicable Theft

Frequently Asked Questions

Adversaries

• Can the Salt Deposits Invader Card be removed or discarded from the Invader Deck?
  No, the only way it can leave the Invader Deck is by being advanced out of the Explore Space into the Build Space at the end of the Invader Phase in which it was revealed.

  In particular:

  • If you would Accelerate it out of the deck, instead discard the next Stage II card underneath it (or the top-most Stage III card if there are no Stage II cards left).
  • Visions of a Shifting Future can't bury it to the bottom of the deck (since it's specially placed during Setup), but can shuffle it to take a chance at delaying it.
  • The Past Returns Again can't swap it with a card in the Invader discard.
    Tags: Accelerate, Invader deck, Visions of a Shifting Future (Fractured Days Split the Sky), The Past Returns Again (Fractured Days Split the Sky), 3 more...

Scenarios

• When are Scenario Markers / Element Markers considered pieces?
  Nearly anytime they're placed on the board. The only exception is if they're purely a visual reminder, like in The Great River, or if used to mark Inner Lands for Guard The Isle's Heart. (JE p. 35, "Piece")

  This might be revisited if future content results in weird situations, as some of the cases are kind of borderline (eg: Rituals of the Destroying Flame), but for now the simplicity of "always" wins out.

  Element Markers placed on the board for Elemental Invocation are not considered "pieces" - the first printings of Jagged Earth considered them as pieces that were basically non-interactable (since they're not in any land); it's cleaner to just not count them as pieces at all.
  Tags: Element markers, Pieces, Changed rulings, Despicable Theft, 9 more...
• If playing Despicable Theft vs. Russia level 2+, do the Thieves get the benefits that Russian Explorers do?
  No. "They are not Explorers for any other rule or purpose", including Adversary rules.

  They're basically a new type of piece, and Spirit Actions which can interact with Explorers are retconned to be able to affect Thieves too.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Despicable Theft, Tsardom of Russia
• When playing with an extra board, do any Scenarios need adjusting?
  Yes, a number of previously-printed Scenarios need to change "per player" to "per board":

  • Powers Long Forgotten: Make the "per player" setup instructions "per board" instead. (So you have enough tokens for all the boards, if playing on balanced. )
  • Blitz - Setup - "an additional Blight per player" should be "per board". Rule Changes - "1 less Blight per player" should be "per board".
  • Second Wave - After the First Game - the "per player" measurements should be "per board" (though the tokens saved do not need to be exactly 1 per board - eg, in a 2p, 3-board game, you could save 3 Beasts across the whole island, not limited to precisely 1 per board). Second Game Setup - "2 Blight per player" should be "2 Blight per board".
  • The Great River - Additional Loss Conditions - the per-player measurement should be per-board (but you can't just substitute "per board" because that implies it matters which board they escape from, so something like "If more than (3 x # of boards) Towns escape...")
  • Ward the Shores - Setup Changes - "4 Markers per player" should be "4 Markers per board"

  Note: an extra board may synergize very painfully with some Scenarios - most notably those which involve controlling / affecting territory, like The Great River, Despicable Theft, Ward the Shores and perhaps Powers Long Forgotten. If you want to avoid the extra Difficulty boost caused by this, you can opt to have some or all of the Scenario effects skip one board. (eg: The Great River could skip just Population Spills Across the River on one board, or all Rule Changes.) This will, of course, dilute the feel of the Scenario a bit.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Extra Island Board, Powers Long Forgotten, Blitz, Second Wave, 3 more...
• With the Despicable Theft Scenario, can you use Isolate to stop or detour Thieves?
  Yes.

  If you use Isolate to make the shortest path to a board’s Ocean longer than usual without completely blocking a Thief in, it will attempt that longer journey, even if that puts it onto another board. (In that case, on future turns it’ll head towards that board’s Ocean.)
  Tags: Isolate, Despicable Theft
• What happens if the pool of Thieves in Despicable Theft runs out?
  There are no Thieves in the pool, so you don't add any more.
  

  (If your playgroup wants a larger challenge, you can create a secondary pool of (1x1, 1x2, 1x3, 7xblank) using the core game Scenario Markers.)
  Tags: Despicable Theft
• If playing Ocean's Hungry Grasp in the Despicable Theft Scenario, can you Drown Thieves if 2 Dahan are pushed into the Ocean in the same action? What if a Town is also Pushed in?
  Yes. The Thief would return to its supply as usual, though, and Ocean's Hungry Grasp wouldn't get Energy for it.

  It doesn't matter if Towns/Cities are pushed into the Ocean as well, because you can check the "no Towns/Cities" condition before or after the action.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Destroy, Despicable Theft, Drowning (Ocean's Hungry Grasp)

Setup

• What counts as the end of Setup for “During Play” Adversary/Scenario effects? And how are they different from “After Setup” effects?
  During Play effects do not affect Setup, but do affect normal gameplay. Setup normally ends with the initial Explore, with normal gameplay starting with the first Spirit Phase, but some Adversaries and Scenarios have Setup instructions that happen after the initial Explore and before the game starts.

  There is no difference between During Play and After Setup effects that happen more than once. With Jagged Earth turning "after" into a key word for Triggered Actions, if "after Setup" were interpreted as strictly as possible, it would make the associated effect happen exactly once, between Setup and Spirits choosing Growth Options on the first turn. With the exception of Guard the Isle's Heart, which explicitly adds an extra step to Setup, "after Setup" effects from Jagged Earth and earlier should be interpreted as "During Play."
  Tags: Guard the Isle's Heart, Kingdom of France, Varied Terrains, Despicable Theft, 3 more...