Powered by the Furnace of the Earth (Volcano Looming High)

Frequently Asked Questions

Effect Rules
  • When you return Presence to your tracks, can you cover one of the leftmost solid-circle spaces that start the game without Presence?
    No, the leftmost spaces with solid circles cannot be covered by Presence.
    Similarly, "Bonus" spaces (which have a solid circles and start uncovered) can never be covered. However, if a normal space with a dashed circle starts the game uncovered (e.g., in the Guard the Isle's Heart Scenario), that space can be covered.
    In the rare case that this means it's impossible to return a Presence to your Presence Tracks, the returned Presence is instead destroyed. [JE p. 28]
    Tags: Presence track, Bonus Spaces, Volcano Looming High, Fractured Days Split the Sky, 8 more...
  • If a "Spirits may prevent this on any/all boards" effect wouldn't do anything on a particular board it's affecting, can Spirits sacrifice Presence there anyway?
    Yes. The sacrifice is to prevent the rest of the Event Action from resolving on that board, not to prevent the actual results of that Event there.
    Choosing to sacrifice Presence this way isn't generally advantageous, but can be used to set up for a Power that uses destroyed Presence, like "Blazing Renewal." Some Spirits also get benefits when their Presence is destroyed or would be destroyed, like Volcano Looming High dealing Damage via its "Collapse in a Blast of Lava and Steam" special rule, making that sacrifice situationally useful even with no future plans for that Presence. And in particularly rare cases, Spirits can even use this to disable a normally-beneficial effect granted by their Presence.
    If the Event only applies to specific boards, you can't sacrifice Presence on other boards. For example, "The Center Crumbles" ("On Each Board with Invaders: Add 1 Blight to an Inland Land") doesn't even attempt to do anything on boards without Invaders, so Presence can't be destroyed to prevent the nonexistent Event Action there. On the other hand, Spirits can sacrifice Presence to prevent that Event on a board with Invaders but with no Inland lands (e.g., because "Weave Together the Fabric of Place" has merged all lands on that board into Coastal lands), since the Event still happens on that board despite it being unable to add Blight.
    Tags: On Each Board, Presence, Destroyed Presence, The Center Crumbles, 32 more...
Elements and Elemental Thresholds
General Play
  • When using a Power, can you ignore parts of its effect that you don't want to use (e.g., not adding Blight), or use a weaker version of them (e.g., Pushing only 1 Town with a "Push 2 Towns" instruction)?
    No, if you're using a Power at all, you must use all of it, and you must resolve the effects at the amount printed.
    That being said, players still have a lot of discretion for using Powers in ways were some of the effects won't happen or won't happen at full strength:
    • Spirits can target a land where some effects or possibly all of them won't do anything. (e.g., a Power with a "Push 1 Town." instruction doesn't need to target a land with Towns.)
    • If an effect is explicitly optional, it can be ignored. (e.g., "You may instead Remove 1 Blight." doesn't need to remove Blight even if there is Blight in target land.)
    • If given a choice for how many pieces to affect (e.g., "up to 3"), 0 pieces is a valid number unless a minimum amount is specified. (e.g., "Push up to 2 Dahan." can Push 0 or 1 Dahan even if 2 Dahan are present.)
    • If an effect checks how many Elements you have – usually as part of an Elemental Threshold requirement – you may choose to apply fewer Elements so long as you're consistent for the entire Power. (e.g., if you choose to use 8 Fire for a "1 Damage per Fire" effect, you also meet and must use an "If you have 7 Fire" threshold. But you could alternatively use only 6 of those Fire for the Power in order to deal 6 Damage and ignore the 7 Fire threshold.)
    • If a threshold requirement includes an Energy cost, you may choose not to pay it in order to skip that threshold. (e.g., "If you have 3 Fire and pay 2 Energy" does not require you to pay 2 Energy even if you have 2 Energy to spend and are using 3 Fire for the rest of the Power.)
      Tags: Elements, Resolving Powers, Firestorm (Heart of the Wildfire), Heart of the Wildfire, 72 more...
Spirits and Innate Powers