text:
How can I document that I Moated an enchantress?
Say someone plays Enchantress and I react with Moat. For the sake of the question, it is a 5-6 player game and it would be easy to forget that I reacted. How can I easily make it clear and easy to remember that I reacted with a moat?

Can you not just put the Moat on the table, or flip it around in your hand so that it is facing outward? Sure, it gets more complicated if you subsequently discard the Moat before your turn, but it's a start!

@TheChaz2.0 I think you should put that in an answer. People might also have other ideas as well; but pretty much any idea/suggestion for this should be an answer.

3D print some "moat" tokens in each of the player colors, then you can put a token on the enchantress.

The moat says :-

When another player plays an Attack card, you may first reveal this from your hand, to be unaffected by it.

So you are not 'playing' the moat.  To defend against an attack you merely show it from you hand.
Now if the moat is in your hand it's likely you have defended against an attack card so would just remember.   If however you need a reminder you revealed a moat to defend you could do many things such as

place it face up in front of you and pick it up at start of turn
if you want to hold your hand look at cards you could could turn it back to front so moat is 'revealed' to other players
you could just put your hand down and leave moat face up on top to show you defended.

The game its self doesn't have any markers to remind you you defended. But when it gets to your turn and the duration effect is in effect it shouldn't be to hard to recall you defended (unless you've got some player who tries to dispute it!).  Ultimately I would always assume you've defended unless you want the attack to affect you.
Don't forget that even if you defended against on attack you can choose to let another affect you.  ie you might find being attacked by Minion useful to cycle hand.

+1 Flipping it around in my hand is what I always do, regardless of the number of players or the complexity of the game layout. It's just a good habit. :)

I'd also like to add the simple solution that if you forget that you showed a defense card that is in your hand, it's still in your hand and you can just show it to other players again.
As the comments below point out, this is not a 100% certain thing, but it comes pretty close. I'm afraid that I don't know enough about anything beyond the base game to catch existing exceptions but if you find yourself stuck in one of those exceptional cases, a method to track this sort of thing might be beneficial to agree on as a gaming group.

Not necessarily. If someone plays Minion and you don't defend, then you can lose the Moat, even though its effect remains. And Minion could also result in you having a Moat at the beginning of your turn even though you didn't have it when Enchantress was played.

@Acccumulation Just about everything in Dominion comes with a "not necessarily". I agree that the answer could benefit from adding in exceptions for when it won't work, but this is still going to often be a fine suggestion.

The other problem with this solution is cards like Council Room can change the cards in your hand before your turn.


text:
If I play a Priest with sewers, do I get + $2 for trashing the card with sewers?
Priest reads:

+$2. Trash a card from your hand. For the rest of this turn, when you trash a card, +$2.

Sewers reads:

When you trash a card other than from this, you may trash a card from your hand.

When you play a Priest, and then you trash a card with Sewers, do you get + $2?

You do not.
The "For the rest of this turn" bit of Priest's instructions will have not happened yet by the time you trash your Sewers card. It would play out like this.

Play Priest

Get +$2
Trash a card from your hand

Sewers triggers, so you trash a card from your hand

For the rest of this turn, when you trash a card, +$2

This was confirmed by Donald X in a post here:

You play Priest. You get +$2. You trash a card. Sewers triggers and you trash a second card. Now Priest's "this turn when you trash +$2" becomes active. It wasn't active during either card trash.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

sort: votes


text:
What makes King’s Court-King’s Court-Goons-Goons-Masquerade so powerful?
A while ago while reading, I read about the King’s Court-King’s Court-Goons-Goons-Masquerade combo it was stated to be very powerful, and I was wondering why it was considered as such.

Can you please provide some more information about the cards such as the text and abilities of them? Providing that information will help others answer the question without having to go do research on what each of the cards does.

The combo is what is known as a "pin", although the biggest problem with it has been somewhat fixed in the 2nd version of Intrigue, which changed how Masquerade works.
For reference, the three cards are (using their 1st edition wordings):

King's Court: You may choose an Action card in your hand. Play it three times.
Goons: +1 Buy. +$2. Each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand.
  While this is in play, when you buy a card, +1VP.
Masquerade: +2 Cards. Each player passes a card from his hand to the left at once. Then you may trash a card from your hand.

This only works in two-player games. First, you get yourself to a point where your deck consists solely of 2xKing's Court, 1xGoons, 1xMasquerade. Then:
Play a King's Court
  Choose King's Court
  Play King's Court (1st time)
    Choose Goons
    Play Goons 3 times (opponent discards down to 3 cards)
  Play King's Court (2nd time)
    Choose Masquerade
    Play Masquerade (1st time)
      You have no cards to pass
      Opponent passes you a card
      Trash the card
    Play Masquerade (2nd time)
      You have no cards to pass
      Opponent passes you a card
      Trash the card
    Play Masquerade (3rd time)
      You have no cards to pass
      Opponent passes you a card
      Trash the card

Note that playing Goons means they only have 3 cards in hand when you play the Masquerade, so you wind up trashing all of the cards they are holding and they start their turn with an empty hand. At some point, you end up trashing your opponent's entire deck, leaving them unable to do anything but purchase Coppers and Curses. You can choose to push the game to end by buying a couple of Estates (which will net you Goons points, and you can then pass the Estate to the opponent, get it passed back, and trash it) or just leave your opponent powerless and incredibly annoyed.

Great answer (better than mine), but might be worth mentioning that you don’t have to have only those 4 cards. You can also have any number of cantrips.

I suppose you can, but it's easier to present just the core of the pin, I think. Otherwise we could go into the variations (like the ones that use Bureaucrat, or Cutpurse, or Prince). Technically you can have a second Goons in there too, or something else to play to use up the extra KC slot (as long as it's played before the Masq, of course).

"First, you get yourself to a point where your deck consists solely of 2xKing's Court, 1xGoons, 1xMasquerade" -- I wonder how realistic it is to do this before the opponent can stop you. You need to buy three cards at 7, 7, 6; and have enough time to trash the rest. Then there's at least the Goons that your opponent can use to prevent you from having all those four cards in hand at the same time, and Masquerade they can use to give you additional garbage and possibly trash one of your key cards if you're forced to give one of them away...

@ilkkachu donate

You say this has been fixed in the second edition. Would you mind adding how?

@ilkkachu If I remember correctly, it was considered quite realistic; to the point that if those 3 cards were on the board, the winning strategy was likely, but not definite, to be a race to set up that combo. However, it was definitely even more effective against an unsuspecting opponent who had not seen the combo before. Keep in mind that KC+Masq can trash 3 of your starting cards all at once. And you don't have to be in a hurry to set it up (unless your opponent is going for it also). You could take all game to do so; even if your opponent has bought 6 Provinces in the meantime.

One thing to note is that Masquerade was updated for second edition Intrigue. Originally, if you had no cards in hand when it was time to pass cards; you simply didn’t pass one, but you still received one. In the new edition wording, if you don’t have a card to pass, then you don’t receive one either.
On first edition, the idea was that you could use this combo to lock an opponent out of the game completely. It worked like this:
You use Masquerade’s trashing to rid your deck of all of your starting cards. You make it so that you are able to draw and play every card in your deck... this works whether your deck is nothing but the 4 mentioned cards, or if it also contains several cards such as Laboratory or Village.
When you only have those 4 mentioned cards left, you play them. KC #1 lets you play KC #2 three times. The first time you play Goons (or Militia). This leaves your opponent with 3 cards in hand. The second time, you play your Masquerade. This leaves you with 0 cards in hand, or in your deck, or in your discard. So you pass nothing and get a card from your opponent. Trash that card no matter what it is. Then Masquerade is played a second time; do it again. Then repeat for the third time.
The final result is that your opponent had 0 cards in hand, and 3 fewer cards in their deck.
On their turn, they can’t do anything except purchase a Curse or Copper if they wish. On your turn, you do it all again.
This completely locks them out of the game. They can’t do anything at all for the rest of the game; and unless there was already an empty pile, they can’t end the game by buying Coppers and Curses. Eventually, they will have 0 cards in their deck, while you have a good deck and lots of VP from all the Goons you used.

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text:
blood angels armies extra models for black rage
i think somewhere in the past I heardthat if a player choses to run a blood angels army there was some game mechanic or rule that meant they had to make some rolls for each of thier marines to see if they succumb to the black rage and those that failed would have to be replaced with another model painted in the death company heraldry and conform to the rules for those models (I think the death company were more about the up close melee weapons so there was a chance you might lose a space marine equipped with some form of anti-armour weapon to a melee focused berserker, it also forced the player to essentially buy, paint, pack and carry 2 armies to every game
i have 2 question about this.

is my memory about this game mechanic for blood angels correct?
if so is it still an active rule or have newer editions done away with this?

This was a rule that existed in the 3rd edition Blood Angels codex:

For each of the squads listed below, roll a D6 at the start of the battle. On a 1, 2 or 3 the squad fights normally. On a 4 or 5, one model from the squad becomes a Death Company Space Marine... On a 6 one of the models in the unit joins the Death Company and you must roll again.

Affected squads were Honour Guard, Terminator Squads, Terminator Assault Squads, Veteran Squads, Veteran Assault Squads, Tactical Squads, Scout Squads, Assault Squads, Bike Squadrons, Scout Bike Squadrons, and Devastator Squads.
The Death Company cost 0 points as it was made up from models from your other squads. (In addition, if your army contained a Chaplain, he would always be accompanied by D3+3 Death Company in addition to any which randomly joined the Death Company).
This is no longer a rule in the 10th Edition of Warhammer 40,000. Death Company Marines, Death Company Marines with Jump Packs, and Death Company Marines with Bolt Rifles are regular datasheets which may (but do not have to) be chosen for your army, and models from other units do not randomly join them.


text:
Can the doctor still save someone else if killed?
In games that have more than one type of killer (werewolf, vigilante, hunter), what is the outcome if:
werewolf attacks villager, doctor heals villager, vigilante attacks doctor
Is only the doctor dead? Are both villager and doctor dead? Can the doctor heal the villager but then die later?
Hunters (shoots another player when killed) and vigilantes (hunts for werewolves) are not uncommon in the game, but I've never seen the issue of killing a doctor brought up in any forums.
In my version of the game, a vigilante dies of guilt if he kills an innocent, so in this scenario the villager, doctor and vigilante could all potentially die in one night.

There are many variants of this game, and I can't find any place where rules state it (oficially) but there's no order when character's skills are played at night.
Doctor will save its target even if he's targetet by the werewolves/vigilante.
You don't need to look for a logical way of how does it happens, as it's not logical either a doctor healing someone from a werewolf attack (how is he supposed to heal someone ripped off?).
The only way of negating effects is with skills which state they negate the effect (some variations of the game include the escort, who stops someone from using his action that night).
Edit: in the scenario you proposed doctor would die but save the victim of the werewolf. Vigilante would die of guilt next day.

Depends on the variant you are playing.
Some the Doctor protects against all attacks. Some the Doctor protects against one attack. And others the Doctor only protects from werewolves. And still others have an order of operations so some attacks bypass the doctor while others don't.
The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow:
All healers, and defenders explicitly counter-act the werewolves (any werewolf); and no one else (Including the little girl if she is caught).
Salem:
Healers and defenders are order of operations. i.e. the jailer can stop all the mobsters from attacking before they can even choose and the mobsters know it; but a Serial Killer will kill both the doctor and the intended victim.
Ultimate Werewolf:
The Bodyguard defends from any killing. But the Leprechaun can only affect werewolf attacks.


text:
Smash Up - Treasure Card Question
Treasure Card pictured.
If used as a special as noted.  A base is scoring off.  Can someone use this card to move a minion TO that base?   They currently do NOT have a minion on the base about to be scored but want to use the special on this card to move TO the scoring base.

No, the card is used to move minions from a base, not to a base.
If you use it as a special, then you must chose the base that is scoring. And, per the action text, you move a minion from the base, so the target must move the minion away from the scoring base.


text:
How is the cost of landing on a property with x houses determined?
I’m trying to make a digital version of Monopoly, and it would be easiest for me if I could use the base rent of a property to determine the rent with any number of houses. Is there a formula/equation that can be used to do so?

If you have a game available, it is easy to figure this out yourself.

Unless one is quite a capable mathematician, finding the equations that would give the correct rent for 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 houses is not "easy to figure out" at all. Perhaps Trevor is asking precisely because of that. @ToonKrijthe

There is no formula that the game uses, different properties go up at different rates, and not always a consistent rate. You'll need to hard code the per property rent values into your system unfortunately.

Here are the Rents for all of the Monopoly properties that can be developed, with their names in both the traditional Atlantic City version as well as the London England version:


text:
Resource board game with villagers, huts, and breeding
About 5 years ago I played a 4-player board game.  It had villager pieces that you could assign to huts and they would breed.  There were resources like wood, and a trade/merchant/ports area where you would get cards that reminded me of development cards in Catan.
I think the win condition was victory points like Catan.
What was the board game?

It might be Agricola, but probably not.

Sounds like Stone Age by Z-Man games.
Copied from the website:

THE BEGINNING OF TIME
Life was hard in the early days of human history. Our ancestors were
hard workers, but through ingenuity learned to make much of this work
easier. Over time, they developed tools to collect resources and
develop human civilization. In Stone Age, you take on the role of a
human in this bygone era. Beginning with archaic tools, you collect
wood, stone, and gold to attain higher levels of knowledge and build
sturdier structures. With resources being scarce, you must compete for
the limited number of spaces on the board that produce them while also
gathering food to feed your growing tribe. Through diligence and
insight, you can forge your way through the early days of recorded
history and build the foundation of human civilization.  ￼
CARVE VICTORY IN STONE
Stone Age is an engaging and accessible game where players take turns
placing figures on board spaces to perform actions and gather
resources. There are a limited number of spaces, so you must determine
the best actions to take each round. It’s up to you to develop your
tribe by gathering resources, constructing new buildings, and
advancing their culture while also maintaining enough food to feed
your people. Strike the right balance to create the most advanced
civilization and lead your people to a better life!

Perhaps you could add some details about Stone Age that made you think this is the correct game?

I saw this on Tabletop if it helps the answerer or OP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh0q958qzRs

@ZeissIkon He provided a link which will surely jog the person's memory. They're describing Stone Age to a T, and repeating their description and saying "all of which this game has" is pointless extra text.

@JKreft Providing information from a link is helpful as it can let users find information using the sites search function or without having to follow the link. It is also useful in helping prevent link rot in case the link ever goes bad.

I copied the game description from the website to address the earlier comments here

@JKreft - Providing context to links is essential to a good answer.


text:
How do you calculate the likelihood of getting at least one combo after drawing so many cards in a deck with more than one combo?
With a game like Magic the Gathering, I can use a hypergeometric calculator to determine the probability of getting a specific card after so many draws. What I would like to know is how you determine the probability of drawing into a combo (for the discussion that follows, I'm only considering combos that consist of two cards) after so many turns.
Say I have a standard deck of 60 cards with 24 lands and 36 other cards. Each of these other cards have a powerful synergy with another card, making 18 combos possible in the deck. What is the probability of getting at least one of these combos, that is having the two combo cards in your hand, in 3 turns, 6 turns, etc.? I don't care which combo it is, just that I have one in hand.

Probability questions are more suited to the math stack exchange than here, even if it's inspired by Magic.  Not that we can't answer the question, but you'll probably get better and faster answers there

Alright, I finally have the time to give this an actual answer.  Unfortunately, the board game stack exchange doesn't support Mathjax, so this won't be as nice to read as it could be.
In a set of only matched pairs (which is not the deck described, but give me a minute), the probability of drawing at least one pair in a hand of N cards is equal to 1 - P(no pairs).
If you're drawing cards in sequence trying to get no pairs in a deck of D cards, the first card can be any of the N cards (P = D/D), the second card can be any of the remaining cards except the paired card (P = D-2/D-1), the third card can be any remaining except the two paired cards (P = D-4/D-2), etc.
In other words, P(no pairs in a hand of N cards from a deck of D cards) = (D!!/(D-N)!!) /  (D!/(D-N)!), or (D!!*(D-N)!)/(D!*(D-N)!!), where !! is the double factorial function (not a factorial of a factorial)
Which is great, except that if you draw a land there is no matching pair at all.  The easiest way to deal with this is to find the probability of drawing N non-land cards in a hand of 7 cards (or 8 cards, or whatever hand size you're looking for), multiply that by the probability of a pair in N cards, and then sum over all the values of N.
The probability of drawing N non-land cards in hand of 7 cards in a deck of 36 non-lands out of 60 cards is C(N,36)*C(7-N,24) / C(7,60)
So the total probability of drawing any pair in a hand of H cards in 60 card deck with 24 lands is
Sum(from n=1:H, C(n,36)*C(H-n,24) / C(H,60) * (1 - (36!!*(36-n)!)/(36!*(36-n)!!)))
Total probabilities for a hand of:
5 cards: 10.0 %
6 cards: 14.8 %
7 cards: 20.3 %
8 cards: 26.3 %
9 cards: 32.8 %
10 cards: 39.5 %
11 cards: 46.3 %
12 cards: 53.9 %
13 cards: 59.5 %
Of course, this doesn't factor in the odds of getting the lands you need to play your combo, or using mulligans to improve your odds.  And the odds become a lot trickier to calculate if any of the combo pieces overlap (if, for example, you have 4 copies of the same card in your deck, or one card that combos with two different cards.)

Re "Of course, this doesn't factor in...", It gets easier to write a computer simulation really fast :)

Goal: Probability of having either two-card combos (no overlap) in hand
Parameters:

4 of each card
60-card deck
No consideration for mana
No mulligans
You are the first player

Simulation:
#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use feature qw( say );

use List::Util qw( shuffle );

sub mulligan {
   return 0;
}

sub match {
   return 1 if ( grep { $_ eq 'C1a' } @_ ) && ( grep { $_ eq 'C1b' } @_ );
   return 1 if ( grep { $_ eq 'C2a' } @_ ) && ( grep { $_ eq 'C2b' } @_ );
   return 0;
}

{
   my $N = 100_000;
   my $max_turns = 5;
   my $is_first_player = 1;
   my @initial_deck = ( ('C1a') x 4, ('C1b') x 4, ('C2a') x 4, ('C2b') x 4 );
   push @initial_deck, ('X') x (60-@initial_deck);

   my @matches_by_turn;
   for my $n (1..$N) {
      my $starting_hand_size = 7;
      my @deck;
      my @hand;
      while (1) {
         @deck = shuffle(@initial_deck);
         @hand = splice(@deck, 0, $starting_hand_size);
         last if !@hand || !mulligan(@hand);
         --$starting_hand_size;
      }

      my $match = 0;
      for my $turn (0..$max_turns-1) {
         if (!$match) {
            push @hand, shift(@deck) if $turn || !$is_first_player;
            $match = match(@hand);
         }

         ++$matches_by_turn[$turn] if $match;
      }
   }

   for my $turn (0..$max_turns-1) {
      say sprintf('Turn %s: %5.1f%%',
         $turn+1,
         $matches_by_turn[$turn] / $N * 100,
      );
   }
}

Output:
Turn 1:  27.7%
Turn 2:  34.4%
Turn 3:  41.1%
Turn 4:  47.6%
Turn 5:  53.7%

Output:
Turn 1:  27.9%
Turn 2:  34.5%
Turn 3:  41.1%
Turn 4:  47.4%
Turn 5:  53.4%


text:
What happens when a reanimated creature returns from exile?
Let's say I bring a creature (the canonical Runeclaw bear) into play from an opponent's graveyard using one of the "enchant creature in a graveyard" cards (Necromancy, or Animate Dead, or Dance of the Dead).
Now the Runeclaw Bear is exiled (by a Bishop of Binding, say).  Since it leaves the game, Necromancy goes to my graveyard, right?
Later, the Bishop of Binding expires.  Thus, the Bear should return from exile.  Under my control, now independently of Necromancy?
And what about "when Necromancy leaves the battlefield, that creature’s controller sacrifices it"?  Does that simply fizzle?

In the examples you provide, yes, exiling and returning the creature will make it a "regular" creature again that no longer requires the enchantment to live. However, it will return to the battlefield under its owner's control, not yours.
You are correct in most of your assumptions. When a creature enchanted with Necromancy etc. leaves the battlefield, Necromancy no longer enchants a legal target and is put into its owner's graveyard as a state-based action.

704.5m If an Aura is attached to an illegal object or player, or is not attached to an object or player, that Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard.

As its death trigger, it tries to make you sacrifice the creature it enchanted, but since that creature object no longer exists (it becomes a new object on zone change), that sacrifice simply doesn't happen. When the previously-enchanted, now exiled creature returns to the battlefield, it becomes a new object again, with no relation to its former existence. At that point, Necromancy is long gone and has no more effect on the Bear.

400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. [..]

The bear returns under its owner's control, i.e. your opponent's:

610.3. Some one-shot effects cause an object to change zones “until” a specified event occurs. A second one-shot effect is created immediately after the specified event. This second one-shot effect returns the object to its previous zone.
610.3b An object returned to the battlefield this way returns under its owner’s control unless otherwise specified.

Note that there are a few reanimation effects that prevent the order of events as described. For example, the reanimation effect of Isareth the Awakener exiles the Runeclaw Bear when it would leave the battlefield. Even though Bishop of Binding would also exile the creature, Isareth's exile effect replaces the Bishop's, which means the Bishop's never happens, and thus the Bishop leaving the battlefield would not cause the Runeclaw Bear to return.

614.6. If an event is replaced, it never happens. A modified event occurs instead, which may in turn trigger abilities. [..]

It's worth explicitly stating, either way, who now controls the bear.

Intersting, you reversed the conclusion in the edit :-).  Nice answer, well referenced.

I agree with Hackworth's answer, but i would like to add to the exile/replacement effect.
When applying rule 614.6, we must differentiate events and abilities. The event being replaced may be part of an ability but that doesn't replace the ability as a whole, nor does it become a seperate effect1.
For convenience's sake, you may replace the original event with the replacement event in the wording of the ability. This question illustrates the interaction between card tracking and replacement effects far better than I could.
That is to say that applying the replacement effect of Isareth the Awakener on the ability of Bishop of Binding would result in a final ability along the lines of :

When Bishop of Binding enters the battlefield, exile2 target creature an opponent controls until Bishop of Binding leaves the battlefield.

That ability from Bishop of Binding will track the reanimated card to exile and return it at the end of the specified time.

1 The interaction between Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Anointed Procession is a good illustration: when both are on the battlefield, Kalitas does not create two tokens as the replacement is not an effect.
2 The original exile has been replaced by Isareth's exile.

Kalitas and Anointed Procession absolutely do create 2 tokens for every replaced creature death, because multiple replacement effects can chain (616.2). Also, the Bishop's exile effect is a one-shot zone-change effect with a event-triggered expiration (610.3). The return part is set up by that exile effect, but the exile effect is replaced by Isareth. Therefore, the return effect is not set up either.

Indeed, the rules have changed for Kalitas since Ixalan (link for the original ruling), my bad.
However, I will have to point to the ruling on Roon of the Hidden Realm which has a very similar ability, but can track to exile or command zone depending on the replacement effect.

It's not about being able to track the card or not, it's about the fact that the Bishop's exile effect never happens if it gets replaced. (614.6). Just because the replacement effect does superficially the same thing (exiling the creature) doesn't mean the Bishop's ability is still in effect and can create its return effect.


text:
Dungeons and Dragons Lords of Waterdeep: Which piece is the Ambassador and which the Lieutenant?
There are two special Agent-like pieces in Lords of Waterdeep: the Ambassador, obtained temporarily by assigning an agent to the Palace of Waterdeep, and the Lieutenant, obtained permanently by completing the quest Recruit Lieutenant.
In the box, there are two pieces clearly meant to be used to represent the Ambassador and the Lieutenant. One of them is a yellowish-white and the other appears to be unpainted light brown wood.
Is there any canon on which one of these is supposed to be the Lieutenant and which is supposed to be the Ambassador? As far as I have seen, there is nothing in the rulebook specifiying this.

At the bottom of page 4 of the rulebook, it's indicated that the Ambassador is represented by the yellowish-white piece and the Lieutenant by the unpainted, brown, wooden piece, as shown in the image below:

Ack, I can't believe I missed this in the rulebook. Thanks for your answer.

No problem - obviously it's good if you can check thoroughly before asking a question, but I'm glad I could help.


text:
Does she have to wait for a response card?
Do people have to wait and see if their friend has a response card to a draw 2 in the game uno?

In the basic game of uno there is no response card to a draw 2/4, skip or reverse. Anything that allows you to respond is a house rule so the only response to a draw 2/4 is to draw that cards and a skip is to miss the turn.
If you are playing by house rules then it depends on the house rules and I would think the person would either have to draw the cards or play a response card.


text:
Only card in hand is a skip card
What happens in Exploding Kittens when the only card in your hand is a skip card? Do you lay it down and still pick up a card anyway?

On your turn you can play any number of cards from your hand, including zero cards. So you only need to play the Skip card if you think it is worth it.
If you did decide to play the Skip card, your turn ends immediately without drawing a card.
If you choose to not play the Skip card, you would just draw a card.
From the rules (page 1 under Taking Your Turn):

1 Look at the cards in your hand. Play a card by placing it FACE UP on top of the Discard Pile, and following the instructions on the card.
2 After you follow the instructions on the card, you can play more cards. You can play as many cards as you’d like.
Or, play no cards at all; that’s cool too.

And on page 2:

Skip
Immediately end your turn without drawing a card.

Note that the linked rules are for the Party Pack Edition, but the base game rules say essentially the same thing in a slightly different way.


text:
Do you add the destination ticket points even if it was another player who claimed the route?
What if one player claims a route between two cities before the player who’s got the destination ticket?

Welcome to B&CG!  This question was asked previously so I've linked it up.  If you have any further questions please ask away.

No, you must complete a route yourself, with your train pieces.
From the rules:

Points are lost if you do not successfully complete the route given on the Destination Ticket(s) you kept. [emphasis added]

Blocking off a city that a player needs to get to is part of the strategy, if you can figure out where they want to go.


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MTG: Indestructible creature with both damage and -1/-1 counters
If let's say a 3/3 indestructible creature takes 2 combat damage and then 2nd main gets a -1/-1, does the creature die?
Am assuming no since its still technically a 2/2 indestructible with 2 damage on it and NOT a 3/1 indestructible with a -1/-1

nevermind, found the same question previously asked https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/11367/can-an-indestructible-creature-die-by-a-combination-of-damage-and-x-x-effects?rq=1

Damage does not reduce toughness.

It does not.
An indestructible creature will die from having 0 toughness.  It will not die from lethal damage (damage greater than or equal to its current toughness).
In your example, you have indestructible 2/2 (because of a -1/-1 counter), and it has 2 damage marked. It has taken lethal damage (as it has 2 toughness and 2 damage), but has toughness greater than 0, so it does not die.


text:
What happens if you hit a rolling modifier when you have advantage?
What happens if you hit a rolling modifier when you have advantage?

When you have advantage, you draw two modifier cards.
Then:

If none are rolling modifiers, you pick the better card.
If one is a rolling modifier, you add its effect to the other card.
If both are rolling modifiers, you continue to draw cards until a rolling
modifier is not drawn, then you add together all drawn effects.

Source: Page 20 of the 2nd Edition Rulebook, Advantage and Disadvantage section

To determine the better card in the situation where neither is a rolling modifier, consult the "Advantage/Disadvantage" section of the FAQ.

Its also worth noting that literally everyone thinks that Advantage and Rolling Modifiers resolve as written in a way that is having Advantage is not better than not having Advantage (for example: if you draw Rolling +1 and a Miss, the rules as written say you miss). As such my table (and many others') draws stacks (so in this case, one stack with be Rolling +1, Miss and then draw a third card -1: The -1 is better than the Miss so Advantage kicks in and that's the result; Disadvantage works the other way).


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Gloomhaven - are monster abilities in effect prior to their turn
If a player with the lowest initiative attacks a monster, is that monster’s shield or retaliate in effect yet?

It depends on how the monster obtained the Shield or Retaliate.

Shield and Retaliate on a monster's stat sheet are intrinsic abilities. As such, they are always active.

Shield and Retaliate on a monster's ability card are actions that grant a benefit once the action is taken. As such, they only become active at the card's initiative, and only if the monster isn't stunned at that time.

Ability cards with a Shield or Retaliate action usually have a low initiative in order to make them effective.

From the FAQ:

If a monster has bonuses like "Shield" or "Retaliate" on their ability card, is that active for the whole round?
No, bonuses only become active once the monster takes their turn based on the initiative on the ability card. It then lasts until the end of the round, where it will either get shuffled back into the deck or replaced with the next round's ability card.
If a monster has bonuses like "Shield" or "Retaliate" on their stat card card, are they always active?
Yes, and they are unaffected by Stun.
How are ability bonuses (shield and retaliate) affected by stunning a monster?
Note that the bonuses are not simply given by the monster ability card. Monsters would have to perform a "Shield 1" action to gain the Shield 1, so these bonuses only activate if a monster is not stunned on its turn. However, abilities listed in the monster stat card are unaffected by stun as they are continuously available.


text:
Eclipse class question
When I'm using the consume-dark version of Concealed Dominance's bottom half, can I only teleport to hexes within line of site?  Or can I teleport to any revealed and unoccupied hex on the board?

You can move to any unoccupied hex. The only restriction is that you cannot move through a closed door. Line-of-sight is not required.
From the FAQ:

What are the line-of-sight rules?
Line-of-sight is necessary for all attacks (including every hex of an area attack) and all other abilities that specify a range (including looting, which technically has a range). Any non-attack ability that does not specify a range does not require line-of-sight.

Concealed Dominance bottom-half wording (spoiler, hover to read):

 Move to any unoccupied hex. You cannot move through a closed door.

Just got the game for Christmas a few days ago and I was unaware of that FAQ, thank you.


text:
How to complete a district in Ticket to Ride London?
The rule says:

To complete a District, a player must link each Location with each other Location in that District, in no particular order.

Therefore my understanding is that the white player has successfully completed District 5. Am I right?

They have also completed district 1 as well as 5.

Your understanding is correct. Completing a district means that you would be able to get from any location in the district to any other location in the district by traveling along your trains. Essentially the same as completing Destination cards; but with more than 2 locations on them.


text:
Unique pairs of animals adjacent to the fox
Playing with this fox scoring card:

Rules say:

Score for each fox, an increasing number of points based on the number of unique
animal pairs (not including other fox pairs) directly adjacent to it. As pictured, pairs of other animals do not need to be adjacent to each other

How many points does that fox score?
I'm tempted to say 3 as each elk can be paired with two other elks so we can't have a unique pair of elks but I'm not sure.

To me unique pair reads as if you have 4 elks and 2 fishes, you would still have only 2 pairs there that are unique and not 3 pairs for the counting. Without even knowing the game, just by wording and the card it should be 5 points.


text:
Blocking One Attacker with Multiple Creatures
In what situation would I want to have multiple creatures block one attacker? If one creature can absorb all of the damage, why subject more creatures to the excess damage? Other than trample, is there any advantage?

The simplest case is using multiple weaker creatures (say, two 1/1s) to block and kill a single 2/2. Using only one creature would (under normal conditions) be rather bad.
Even better, use two 1/3s to block and kill a single 2/2, while your creatures survive combat unharmed (barring any instants being cast).

Wouldn't the two 1/1s take damage AND die before they attack back?

@Christopher Combat damage is assigned simultaneously. Simplifying it, we (1) declare attackers, (2) declare blockers, and (3) have the attackers and blockers simultaneously exchange damage. (There is no "attack back" since they're blockers, they're just assigning damage.)

Unless of course the attacker has first strike and the defenders don't.  (Magic is one of those games where almost every statement about it has an exception).  And of course, the defenders could have first strike and kill the attackers before they are damaged.

The OP already mentioned the trample case.

And if you have 10 1/1 lifelinkers, throwing them all against a 2/2 can be desirable, especially if the opponent is tapped out

@Christopher only if the 2/2 had first strike. Without first or double strike (or in unstable last strike and triple strike) involved, all damage is done at the same time, attacking creatures do not do their damage before blocking creatures.

In addition to Glorfindel's answer of gang-blocking with weaker creature to kill a stronger attacker, there are some edge-cases where it is beneficial to you to have your creatures deal damage.
An example for a case for this happens semi-regularly in the current standard Tokens deck where one player has a lot of 1/1 Lifelink tokens. Say player A has 10 1/1 Lifelink soldiers and they are attacked by a 1/1 goblin token (say from Goblin Warboss).

If Player A blocks the 1/1 goblin with a single lifelinker he will lose 1 solider and gain 1 life.
If Player A blocks the 1/1 goblin with all his lifelinkers he will lose 1 solider and gain 10 life.

Another reason to block with more creatures than you expect to need is for insurance against combat tricks (instants played after declaring blockers but before combat damage is dealt). If I'm at very low life, I will often over-block to prevent trample-granting buff instants from killing me. Over-blocking can also help to ensure that you kill an attacker - if someone attacks with a 1/1 when I have two 3/3s on the battlefield, I might block with both, as it's likely they have some instant like a +3/+3 which would hurt if I block with just one of my creatures, but might be a fair tradeoff if I block with both. Sure, it looks like the one blocker will be enough when declaring blockers, but it's very useful to consider what might happen before damage is dealt.

A good question, and the answer is, yes. Not always but there are several cases where blocking with multiple creatures benefits you over blocking with just one. Malco and Glorfindel have given reasons which I will mention here too for completeness.
As you said trample is a big reason to block with multiple creatures, you need to put enough toughness in front of the creature to prevent the rest getting through.
As Glorfindel said, killing the attacker is another reason, weenie decks have alot of small creatures, often tokens, that are expendable, throwing a few in the way of a big threat may lose you more creatures, but the creature they lost may matter much more.
As Malco said, lifelink effects work when you overkill, unlike some other combat card games, you deal the full power of your creatures to whatever you block, not just enough to kill that creature. The overkill when you have lifelink gains you more life.
Playing instants in MTG during combat is known as combat tricks, if a person casts Giant Growth or something similar on their attacker during combat, your blocker that was bigger than the attacker may now be the smaller creature. If you block with a second creature or third, you might still lose some creatures in the exchange, but the extra damage may be enough to still kill their creature, or they may not spend the spell on a losing combat.
You may have effects that care about when you deal damage to creatures. One example of this I can think of is Greatbow Doyen, which makes your archers deal damage to the creature's controller equal to the damage they do to creatures, you can block with a lot of archers to really punish the player for attacking, if you don't win outright from all that non-combat damage.
There are creatures that have effects that happen specifically when you block with that creature, such as Megalonoth, Engulfing Slagwurm, and Goldenglow Moth. Including these creatures in a block, even when it isn't needed to kill the creature will give you the benefit of their effect.
Menace is an ability on creatures that force you to block with 2 or more creatures. Even with a creature as weak as Goblin Glory Chaser though you only need one damage to kill their creature, this forces you to block with at least two or not at all.
You may simply have to block with everything you have. A creature like Prized Unicorn or something enchanted with Lure forces you to block a single of your opponent's creatures with everything. This is usually done to let the rest of their army through to hit directly.


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Identify Chinese board game
I came across this Chinese board game. It has a cloth board and 25 black pieces and 25 red pieces with Chinese characters on them.
Can anyone identify it and link to its rules?
Thanks.

This is an abstract strategy game known as Luzhanqi ("Land Battle Chess").


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Go - How does one count territory in these scenarios?
I'm learning to play Go (Japanese rule) however I'm still confuse how to count territory in some cases. Which side each territory belongs to?
Scenario 1
$$W Scenario1
$$ --------------------
$$ | . . . . X . O . . |
$$ | . . . . X . O O O |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X X X X X |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X X X X X |
$$ | . . . . . . X X X |
$$ | O O . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . |
$$ --------------------

Scenario 2
$$W Scenario1
$$ --------------------
$$ | . . . . X . O . . |
$$ | . . . . X . O O O |
$$ | . . . . X . O . . |
$$ | . . . . X . O O O |
$$ | . . . . X X X X X |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X X X X X |
$$ | O O . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . |
$$ --------------------

For each intersection, ask yourself if it belongs to white or black.
The issue with your examples is that the games are not finished yet. You should keep playing until you can answer the question above. For now let me just try and address the top right corner.
In scenario 1, white is currently enclosing two intersections. But black will eventually capture the white stones, and all the points will go to black.
In scenario 2, white is enclosing 4 intersections (marked x below), and black cannot capture the white stones because they have two eyes. Eventually that will count as 4 points for white.
The intersections marked o will probably end as "dame" (neutral points), as neither white nor black can enclose them.
$$W Scenario 2
$$ --------------------
$$ | . . . . X o O x x |
$$ | . . . . X o O O O |
$$ | . . . . X o O x x |
$$ | . . . . X o O O O |
$$ | . . . . X X X X X |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X X X X X |
$$ | O O . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O . . . . . . . |
$$ --------------------

Since I found many beginners struggling with understanding why the 2 eyes are needed, I'd like to point out why a group with 2 eyes is alive.
The "a group needs 2 eyes in order to live" is actually not a rule, it is only a consequence to another rule you've learned. Remember the rule that are not allowed to do suicide moves. Why is that?
A stone with no other stone around has 4 liberties.

If the last liberty is gone, a stone or a group of stones are captured and will be removed from the board (directly).

Now black can't play at the marked position because it would be considered suicide. The black stone wouldn't have any liberties and no group / stone with no liberties can exist on the board. So it would have to be removed right the moment it was played.
But now consider this shape of connected stones:

In this situation, the group can be captured.

This is because the stones have only 1 last liberty left (this is called 'atari', by the way). The moment black plays the stone, the other group is captured and the played stone directly gains liberties; that's why it is not a suicide move.
Note: The group that was just captured had only 1 eye.

In this situation the group has 2 liberties. If black would be able to steal those 2 liberties away with 2 allowed moves, the group would die. In this situation however, black can't play at 1 or 2, because it wouldn't have any liberties left. This would be a suicide move. The white group on the other hand still has 2 liberties.
Note: This group has 2 eyes.
Given that rules, I think you should be able to tell now, which group is alive and which isn't. The game ends when both players pass or one side gives up. Dead stones become points for the group that captured it.
The more you advance in Go the more you'll be able to judge whether a group is alive or not and if it makes sense to play a stone in an already defined territory or not.
In your scenario 1, both white groups only have 1 eye. If white passes and black passes, the game will end. All white stones will be removed, (without Komi) white has 0 points, black has 71 (all blank points + all dead stones).
In your scenario 2, one white group has 2 eyes and cannot be killed by black, the other one has one eye. If both player pass, the game will end. The dead white stones in the lower left corner will be removed. (Without Komi) white has 4 points, black has 50 points.
But as already mentioned, normally the game wouldn't be considered finished yet.


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Going Out with Stock Exhausted
When the Stock is Exhausted, I know each player is supposed to take the Discard Pile if he can add the top card to an existing meld. Is it possible to Go Out when the Stock is Exhausted before your turn and if so what are the rules for that? Thanks!

You cannot play anything unless it is your turn. The rules for the stock being exhausted don't allow any player to act outside of their regular turn. The only difference between an exhausted stock or a normal turn is that because there is nothing to draw from the stock, you must draw from the discard pile instead.
So the game can end before you have had a turn at all after the stock was exhausted... be sure to notice if the stock is running low and play what you can while you still can!
From these rules:

If the last card of the stock is not a red three, play continues as long as each player in turn takes the discard, and he must do so if it matches a meld on his side and the pack is not frozen. (The only exception is that a one-card hand may not take a one-card discard pile). A player does not have to take the discard to form a new meld. The play ends when a player cannot take the discard or legally refuses to take it.

Thanks so much for your helpful answer.  Where the rule notes the exception, if the Stock is Empty, it's my turn, I have one card and there is one card in the discard pile, can I take it if I can make a meld and go out?


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Canasta Going Out with Stock Exhausted and Only One Card in Hand and Discard Pile
If the Stock is Empty, it's my turn, I have one card in my hand and there is one card in the discard pile, can I take it if I can add the discard pile card to an existing meld and discard my remaining card or add it to a meld also, then "Go Out", or is taking the last card in the discard pile never allowed when I have only one card in my hand?  Thanks!

Why wouldn't you be able to draw the only card on the discard pile in that case when you can do it if the deck still has cards?

@JoeW Because of a somewhat confusing statement in one of the rules that can sound like it's implying that it's different in this case.

No, you cannot.
Whether the stock is exhausted or not, a player with only one card in hand cannot take a discard pile that only has one card in it.
Quoting from multiple rules since with Canasta, like many card games, certain rules can vary depending on the source.
Rule source 1:

A player with only one card left in his hand may not take the discard pile if there is only one card in it.

And they also clarify that this doesn't change when the stock is exhausted:

If the last card of the stock is not a red three, play continues as long as each player in turn takes the discard, and he must do so if it matches a meld on his side and the pack is not frozen. (The only exception is that a one-card hand may not take a one-card discard pile).

Rule source 2:

You may not take the up card if there are no other cards in the discard pile, and you have only one card in your hand.

Rule source 3:

Taking a discard pile that only contains one card is never allowed if you only have one card in your hand.

If playing Viennese Canasta, you can do this but only if you could legally go out otherwise.

A player with only one card in his hand may take a one card discard pile under the same conditions which would entitle him to take a discard pile of two or more cards. (Since the player will necessarily have no cards in hand at the end of the turn, this can only be done if the team has a canasta and is therefore entitled to go out.)

As a side note, I've played Canasta for years, and never noticed or knew about this rule!

Interesting rule, never knew that was there.

Thanks so much for the detailed and helpful answer.  I'm a beginner and don't want to develop any bad habits while I'm learning.  Thanks again!

So if the stock is exhausted, I have one card in my hand and there is one card in the discard pile, can I go out if I can meld my card?  If I can't meld my card, does play end at that point with no one going out?  Thanks!

If the stock is exhausted, and you cannot pick up the discard pile (possibly because it only has 1 card, and you only have 1 card in hand; possibly just because you can't use the top card), then the round ends immediately with no one going out.


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Taking Discard Pile with One Natural Card in Hand
When the Discard Pile is not frozen and the top card matches a single natural card I have in my hand, but I know there is another marching card lower in the Discard Pile, may I take the Discard Pile?  Or must I have 2 natural cards in my hand?

The Rules of Canasta clearly state:

TAKING THE DISCARD PILE
When the discard pile is not frozen against his side, a player may take it:

a) with a natural pair matching the top card as above; or
b) by melding the top card with one matching natural card and one wild card from his hand; or
c) by adding the top card to a meld he already has on the table.

Having taken and melded the top discard as described, the player takes the rest of the pile into his hand and may then meld some or all of the additional cards as he pleases.
....

Thus it is not allowed to use a card deeper in the discard pile as part of the meld enabling a take of the discard pile.

Thanks! I have a computer Canasta game that seems to allow taking the discard pile if I have one natural card, the top card in the discard pile matches and there is a third matching card deeper in the discard pile. Obviously a bug in the software! Thanks again!


text:
Any games like Werewolf for two persons?
I am totaly new on board cards games. I tried WereWolf for one night last weekend, and I wonder what other games in same logic ?
If to take into account that I want a board game playable for 2 persons, it's not possible with werewolf, but any other games in same logic please ?

Werewords (Deluxe?) includes rules for two players. It's not the deepest experience, but it's nice for when you just have a few minutes.

Game recommendation questions are off topic as they tend to end up with list type answers

Werewolf is not playable by two, as you say.
But if you want modern boardgames for two with a small footprint and a guessing mechanism there are many.
For example:

The Mind
Mr. Jack Pocket
Saboteur: The Duel.
Codenames Duet
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (larger footprint)

Mr. Jack the not pocket version, hits the mark too

I immediately thought of Codenames Duet

You might like Love Letter - it has some similar mechanics, and is for 2-4 players.

my personal best light weight 2-player game is Battle Line
check BGG's list of best 2-player games
or a list of games this guy play with his wife


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Are omens dropped as items
We played the haunt where the betrayal controls a zombie lord and many zombies. There was one omen (I do not remember its name) that can kill the zombie lord. Only this item can kill it. The hero caring it died. As per the rules they dropped only their items. What happens to that omen? Is it lost forever? Is it returned to the stack or is it dropped?

Most Omens are also regular items, yes.
From the first edition rulebook (sorry, second edition rulebook isn't available online anywhere).

Most omen cards (except the Bite card) are also items you keep,
  and they’re used like other items.

And

Some omens, like the Dog, aren’t items at all, so they can’t
  be dropped or traded. They’re companions that follow
  the explorer who has custody of them. (The Dog, Girl, and
  Madman all work this way.)

The second edition added the keyword "Companion" to The Dog, Girl, and Madman.
A Companion can't be dropped, traded, or stolen. But if it is lost, usually due to the owner being killed, then it stays where it is until another player enters the room with it; at which point it starts following the new player instead.

If you die and you have a companion (the Dog, the Girl, or the Madman), its token stays in the room where you died. Set aside that omen card. If another explorer enters the room, he or she gains custody of that companion (and takes that omen card).

The Widow's Walk expansion also adds another Companion - the Cat.


text:
Can monsters steal items and omens
If a monster beats a hero in a battle with more than 2 physical damage, can they steal some of their items/omens? And what will the monster do with them, if they can do that, can they use them normally?

No, unless the specific haunt says otherwise, monsters can never carry items.
From the rulebook (first edition quote; though this did not change between editions):

Monsters can’t carry items (unless the haunt says
  otherwise).

Thanks! What about the traitor, because actually I wanted to ask about him. Can he steal items in battles? Is the traitor a monster, or he only controls monsters?

The traitor is not a monster in any way; he continues to act like a regular explorer including having items and stealing. The only difference with a traitor is that damaging rooms no longer hurt him.


text:
Shall monsters reveal their traits
When the haunt begins, shall the betrayal reveal to everyone their stats - might, speed, etc. or they should keep them secret?

All information in the traitor's tome is for the traitor's eyes only. Generally, this includes monster stats as well. If the heroes are allowed to know it; then it would be written in their scenario rules as well.
However, because die rolls need to be made publicly; the first time a monster actually uses one of its stats; the heroes will find out what value that stat is. Though many scenarios have the monsters change stats based on number of turns or some other value; in which case the heroes will only know the monster's current stat; not what it might become later.
From the official FAQ:

When do the heroes find out the traits of a monster?

When the monster has to roll dice for a trait. All dice rolls are open.

Also:

How much do you have to reveal about what you are doing to the other side?

You should announce the purpose of any action you are taking to the other side -- for instance, "I
    am making an exorcism roll now," or "This roll is to see whether the house blows up." You don't
    need to reveal what number you need to roll.

Also see this question dealing with when you are allowed to know whether or not a monster actually has a particular stat.


text:
Please identify this game - 4x4 diagonal squares, 4 red and 4 blue pieces - nice wooden board
Can anyone please tell me what this game is called AND /OR how to play it?
Many thanks

I believe the game your looking for is Oska.

I found it by typing various descriptions into Google image search and found a similar looking games called 'queah'  then came across Oska whilst trying to find similar games to that.

Hi there Mr StartPlayer: Thank you so much for your help - I’ll enjoy playing it now I have an idea of what to do.

I found another website really useful https://tametheboardgame.com/2014/01/20/oska/comment-page-1/#comment-3089


text:
Help identify "blockart" game
I remember a very good boardgame named "BLOCKART" that I played decades ago.

It has a white board that has deep rectangle/hexagon slots.
There are a lot of colorful rectangular cuboid tokens. Each can fill a slot.
There are also some cute triangle prism tokens that can fill half of a slot.
The tokens come in  4 colors - blue,green,yellow and red.
I could purchase "addon" to add tokens of other colors.

Today, after searching for several years, I finally find its image in the internet.
However, that is it, there is no further information.
Please provide some description :-

What is the manufacturer / distributor name?   What is its official website/page?
If it does not violate this site, may you provide some locations I can buy it (online perhaps)?
Are there any other similar game (board with deep slot + colorful rectangular cuboid tokens)?

All material are made of plastic.

Are you sure that it is a game?  Looking at it is seems more like a toy akin to Lego?

Are you sure this is actually a board game, with playable rules and conditions to win? This appears to be more like a design toy. If it is a board game, it is on-topic here, but if it is a toy then unfortunately it is off-topic sorry.

@Ken Herbert Ops, sorry, I may misremember it.  I always used it to play something like Othello or a custom landscape for some house-rule marble games. Which stackexchange should I ask about it?

Sorry but I really don't know where else you could ask about it here. I'm a bit surprised there isn't an SE site dedicated to toys.

It looks like the product is actually called "BLOCK ART", and I believe it's made by Japanese company "Nichigan" (based on this).
I can't find a web page for Nichigan. Maybe someone that can read Japanese might have better luck? Its logo.
It appears to be vintage, and it's probably no longer produced. Your best bet of finding one is probably through the vintage toy crowds.
Alternatives:

MARBLETICK, by the same company

LAKESHORE, by the same company

MARBLE ART, by the same company

Hunt down this Chinese knockoff(?)

A more advanced wooden version

Build your own from Lego pieces

Hire someone with a 3d printer to make one

Thank a lot. What googling (internet searching) technique you used to find the answer (especially "Nichigan")?

IIRC, I searched for BLOCKART toy and "BLOCK ART" toy (including quotes) and "BLOCK ART" vintage toy. I mostly used the image search feature. Remember that clicking on an image shows "related" images that are potentially more relevant. That led to the the main image of this page, which mentions Nichigan. I wasn't confident in that name until I came across the listing for MABLE ART, which is clearly by Nichigan, and clearly by the same company.


text:
Claim different routes with a single station in Ticket to Ride Europe
I know that a station can only be used to serve as a connection over another player's route between the station-city and another city.
But can a single station be used to claim different routes for different destination tickets or must the same (one) route be used for all of your destination tickets?
The rules are a bit unclear, but my understanding is that the same route must be used for all of your destination ticket.

Possible duplicate of Proper use of Stations - and how to convince others   The short answer is that a station can claim one route and that applies for all your tickets.  You can not use a different station route for different tickets.

@StartPlayer, The linked question is about whether the order of the name of the cities matter, and its answers doesn't answer this question. The linked question presupposes an answer to this question, but that doesn't make it a duplicate.

Each station allows you to claim a single route.
That route may be used to fulfill more than one destination ticket, but every ticket must use the same route.
From the rules,

A Train Station allows its owner to use one, and only one, of the routes belonging to another player, into (or out of) that city to help him connect the cities on his Destination Tickets.
If a player uses the same Station to help connect cities on several different Tickets, he must use the same route into the city with the Station for all of those Tickets. The Train Station owner does not need to decide which route he will use until the end of the game.

(Empahsis mine.)
For example, say you had the following three destination tickets:

Frankfurt – Smolensk (Complete save for Frankfurt – Berlin)
Amsterdam – Wilno (Complete save for Frankfurt – Berlin)
Essen – Kyiv (Complete save for Essen – Berlin)

With a station at Berlin, you could complete either the first two destination tickets or the third, but not all three (unless you also had a station at Essen or Frankfurt).

The design of the station minis helps calculate the final points. At the end of the game, move each of your stations from its city onto the route it is claiming (on top of the cars). Then that one route counts as yours for the purposes of completing tickets. You don't get to move the station again, so you can't claim multiple routes. (Credit to @Max for this tip.)

That was exactly what I meant. You were way more clear!

The design of the station minis is supposed to help with this. At the end of the game, move each of your stations from its city onto the route it is claiming (on top of the cars). Then that one route counts as yours for the purposes of completing tickets. You don't get to move the station again, so you can't claim multiple routes.

@Max, Great tip! I've only played Europe digitally, so that never occurred to me. I've incorporated the tip into my answer.

There is absolutely no problem in having two stations (or even two parts of route) in common.
The only thing that is needed to claim a ticket is that the two stations are connected via a path of trains of your color.
The train station permits to use one opponent route to be counted as a route of yours. Once it is yours, you can use it for all of your tickets.

The train station permits to use one opponent route to be counted as a route of yours. Once it is yours, you can use it for all of your tickets.

Edited. You are right.


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Use of the joker from your hand
You have a joker in your hand, can you play it by adding to an existing run or set? Or do you have to play it with at least 2 additional tiles from your hand?

You can add it to an existing run or set, the only time you have to play 2 tiles with it is if you are replacing it from the board.


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What is this game with 9 sticks with black and white beads?

I found this game at my house, and I don’t know what it’s called, or how to play it. Can someone please help me.

BoardGameGeek has a similar game called Rex which only has 3 beads per peg. But it is basically a 3 in a row game (horizontally, vertically and diagonally) with the twist that the center 3 pegs allow one to form a triangle too. No doubt one could also play a scoring version to see who gets the most points when the pegs are full.
Exactly what you version of the game might be called, or who made it is a mystery. But for such simple games many "folkart" versions have been made.

It probably is Rex, with the extra beads as spares.

The game of Rex, distributed by MAG-NIF, Inc. in 1972, is similar but it only has room for 3 beads on each peg. I’ve had the game since the 1970s. The rules on the back of the box are shown here. Rules for game of Rex


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How does the stack work for the item "Device"?
Relevant card text:

You may discard this card to add 3 dice to your attack roll, but you may only use that attack to steal something.

How would this work in terms of the stack - for declaring attack and attack intention?
Is it legitimate to roll dice with the intention of making a regular attack, to see that the pip total is lower than desired, and to then discard Device to add those 3 dice and attempt to steal an item instead?
Thanks for reading!

With regular attacks, there is no "declaring intention" or "stack"... you simply do the normal attack and defense, and then if you would deal 2 or more damage, you can steal instead.

Since when does BAHOTH have anything remotely resembling a stack? You play cards, roll dice, play cards, move things, play cards, and roll dice in whatever order is necessary.

@Nij I think he was just using "stack" loosely to mean "the order that events happen in". As well as the MTG concept of "responding" to things... in this case, you can think of it like an MTG stack because you roll the dice, but before you resolve that die roll, you respond by activating Device. So there must be some period of time where the dice are rolled, but not resolved yet. In a way, that die roll is on the stack at that time.

Yes, you can discard Device after rolling.
You don't have to declare any sort of intention about your attack; stealing isn't something you "attempt" to do. When you attack, if you inflict 2 or more points of physical damage, then you can choose to steal an item instead of doing the damage. You don't have to declare before you roll whether you are trying to steal or not. Stealing is an option you have if you roll high enough.
Simply read literally, Device seems to imply that you can use it after rolling. It simply says "discard this card to add 3 to your attack roll". It doesn't give a restriction on when you can do that. So I make the attack roll, and then I can use Device if I want.
Although the wording on Device by itself does not make it completely clear if you need to discard it before or after rolling, we can look at other items to get an answer. Adrenaline Shot says "Before you attempt a trait roll you can use this item to add 4 to the result of that roll." So it specifies that it must be used before attempting the roll. It is a safe assumption that if Device intended you to have to use it before the tole, then it would have similar wording.


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In Risk, what if territory cards earned by invading finish?
We are playing Risk and after getting 60 extra troops, there are no territory cards left, so no one able to create new sets to exchange. Should we re-flush the cards and continue building sets?

What do you mean there are no territory cards left? Are you including the cards that have already been traded in?

Rule book has no indication that the traded-in cards can be earned again so we don't use them after they are treaded.

This is not explicit in the rules. But common sense kicks in.
When:

The rules mention a trade in, no discard or remove from game.
The rules mention that each set has a higher unit value and there is no end mentioned of the set.

So reusing is more logical than the set ending. So you can safely assume that you can reuse the traded in cards.

It does say to keep cards that have been traded in under the board so I don't think it is that straight forward.

I would agree with this answer.  The continuing increasing value of turned in sets seems central the the risk in Risk.  Without sets being cashed in, too easy for the game to go on forever.  Seems like your group is playing too conservatively, I don't remember a game lasting long enough to encounter this issue.


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Magic the Gathering - What to do with permanents that only work "until end of turn"?
I specifically have a Trial of Solidarity that is only active "until end of turn." I am wondering for this and other relative cards, whether they are to be discarded at end of turn since they are used up, or if they remain as permanents with no use? It is especially important for this card, since it has an additional effect that depends on another card's entering the battlefield AFTER its been played.

An enchantment is a permanent, and permanents remain on the battlefield indefinitely. Only another effect can move them to another zone.

110.4. There are five permanent types: artifact, creature, enchantment, land, and planeswalker.
110.1. A permanent is a card or token on the battlefield. A permanent remains on the battlefield indefinitely. A card or token becomes a permanent as it enters the battlefield and it stops being a permanent as it’s moved to another zone by an effect or rule.

You are correct that once a Trial has entered the battlefield and done its thing, it's practically useless. When you play a Cartouche and return the Trial to your hand, you can cast the Trial and get its effect again. You can play the Cartouche the same turn or any number of turns later. The Trial will remain on the battlefield until something happens to it.
The idea behind the "Trials" card cycle is that you get a one-shot effect that you can reuse with Cartouches, with the downside being that the combo can be broken by e.g. destroying the Trials while it's sitting uselessly on the battlefield.

Trial of Solidarity has two abilities that are both triggered abilities. The first one triggers when the Trial enters the battlefield, and creates an effect that lasts until the end of turn, and then other triggers when a different card enters the battlefield, and returns the Trial to its owners hand. In the first ability, what lasts until end of turn is not the permanent itself, but the effect created by that ability.

Understood. With that being said, does that then mean that Trial of Solidarity would simply remain on the field as a permanent after the turn is over, with its effect having expired?

It's just a permanent. It has a triggered ability that creates an effect and that effect exists independently of the Trial itself. The Trial doesn't say to take it off the battlefield or move it somewhere else when that effect ends or at the end of the turn, so you don't, you just leave it there.

@slaiger Note that even though Trial of Solidarity will not normally be helpful in future turns, it still matters that it is there. Things such as Devotion or Ascend care, for example.


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Way of the turtle and tactician
I always thought it was not possible to get double the effect of a tactician, because "if you have at least one card in hand, discard you hand, ..."
But I recently played a game with "way of the turtle". Is my interpretation correct:
If I turtle(1) two tacticians and a village, at the next turn I can decide to:

play the first tactician, discarding my hand
play the village, and get +1 card
play the second tactician, discarding one card

Then, at the following turn, am I correct in getting +10 cards, +2 buys, +2 actions ? (I'm still not sure it's a viable strategy as it requires quite a setup, but I'm wondering if I'm missing a rule)
(1) By turtling I mean: play those card in the way of the turtle.

It is in fact possible to receive a double-Tactician benefit either from one or two copies of the card with a few different tricks, such as:

Playing Golem from Alchemy. If it reveals a Tactician and another card that draws you more cards (and you also have spare actions), then you can draw into a second copy of Tactician to play and hopefully still have something to discard.

Putting your +1 Card token from Adventures on Tactician, so that when you play it via a Throne Room you draw a card between the first and second play, letting you get its benefit.

Your idea of using Way of the Turtle almost works, but it's got a few issues:

The extra card doesn't need to be a Village, just anything that draws you a card to discard to the second Tactician (you don't spend actions to play the cards after they're set aside, so you don't need a Village to generate them but it is a valid option);

You'll need 3 spare actions to play the cards on the previous turn in order to set them all aside;

You'll lose a fair bit of momentum because those cards get set aside on one turn, then on the second turn you play them for their effects - which includes discarding your hand at the very start of the turn - and you don't get the double-Tactician benefit until the third turn, which also keeps those cards out of your deck an additional turn so it's harder to pull off repeatedly (unless you have 4 Tacticians, in which case you can potentially do it every second turn with some regularity).

You can get a similar effect with Tactician, Way of the Turtle, and Guide from Adventures. The main benefit is that Guide can set itself aside (on your tavern mat) without costing an Action, making it easier to set up the combo. Guide also gives you a chance to refresh your hand fully on the turn you activate the Tactician(s), compared to other cards of similar cost which would only draw you 1 or 2.


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Donate at end of game
I was just playing Dominion online, and I planned to Donate my curses at end of game.
The card says:

After this turn, put all cards from your deck and discard pile into your hand, trash any number, shuffle your hand into your deck, then draw 5 cards.*

Since I had two buys, I used one to buy the last province, then the second one to buy donate. Yet, the game ended, without giving me the option to trash the two curses from my deck.
Is this a bug in the Dominion server implementation, or am I missing a fine print somewhere?
To me, the wording is pretty clear.

The game designer intends that "after this turn" effects do not happen when the game ends. The game ends at the end of your turn, so any other effects set up after that can't happen: nothing happens after the game ends. Likewise if you have five Possession effects stacked up for "after this turn" but the game ends, you of course do not play those turns.
References:

shuffle.it forums
Wiki

If sufficient piles to end the game are emptied during Donate's effect (such as by trashing Hunting Grounds or Catacombs), the next player takes their turn and then you check if the game still ends.

Woah.... Mindblown. But, OK, settled.

This rule changed. "Donate will be receiving errata to happen at the end of your turn, instead of in-between turns. Here is a list of rulings that will change as a result." http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Donate


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A state with no more possible moves
We ran into a state in a game of Checkers, where there were no more possible moves. Is this situation even possible according to the correct rules (I'm not an experienced player)? And if so, is it a draw? And if not, who wins (I'd assume white, because he jumped a piece)?
If the situation is possible, is it common? What about professional setting?

According to this set of the rules:

A player wins the game when the opponent cannot make a move. In most cases, this is because all of the opponent's pieces have been captured, but it could also be because all of his pieces are blocked in.

So you win if your opponent can't move.
I have had this situation several times with draughts which is similar to checkers.

There's a section in the rules that states if a capture can be made, it MUST be made.  Alternate moves that do not result in a capture cannot be performed.  In order to make it into the state described above, one, or both, of the players would have to violate this rule, so I don't think it's actually possible to get into this particular state.  I can see a case where one player only has 2 pieces left and gets blocked in to a corner, but not with all pieces still available on the board.

@CodeMonkey and still I have been there. But I can't remember the moves because it must be 35+ years ago.


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which software to use to make the rules's game?
I begin to write rules of my game on Word, but there is something better ? to manage images, backgrounds... etc ?
how are the rules of professional games created ?

I believe Adobe's InDesign is the most popular page layout editor. Images are created and touched up in image editing and composition software, of which Adobe's Photoshop is the surely most popular. There are other commercial and open-source competitors.

Yes, InDesign is standard. No offense, but I would only go to this effort if (1) you are determined to pay for a print run out of pocket, and (2) you are an experienced graphic designer. Pitch to a publisher or hire a rulebook creator if not.

You may want to check out graphic design as they might be able to provide some better help though I am not sure if it would be on topic or not (note this is not saying anything about not asking it here just that you might get better help there). https://graphicdesign.meta.stackexchange.com/

As a fellow aspiring Game Designer, I stick with word or excel for initial content.  Use anything you are familiar with, as content is the only thing you should be worried about.  Unless you plan to self publish, publishers are going to scrap your design for something that they'll get professionally made.  If you do self publish, then I recommend sending it to a professional designer with experience in tabletop games.  Also, you can post to sites like Board Game Designer Forum for peer review by published game designers.  (https://www.bgdf.com/)  There are a ton of articles and advice out there on layout, content and form.  Here are a few:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/405444/rule-book-writing
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/3277179
http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/?s=write+rules
Best of luck on your game design!


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Can you play your numbers in Backgammon in a way to block one of them?
First of all I apologize if my question is hard to understand, I'm not familiar with Backgammon glossary.
Let's say you rolled 3 and 6. In a certain situation the only way to play both 3 and 6 is to play them from one of your checkers from which you have to play 3 then 6 (6 is initially blocked). Now my question is are you allowed to play 3 from another checker into a position where you can't play 6 from any position anymore? And if there's a rule regarding this, can you please tell me what is it called?

A basic rule of backgammon is that you must play in a way that maximises the use of your pips.
If you have a board that can use both 3 and 6, you must choose such move over any move that only uses 3 or only uses 6.
If you have a board that allows the use of 3 or 6 but not both, you must choose a move that uses only 6 over any move that uses only 3.


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Can you place a draw 2 (+2) on top of a draw 4 (+4) in regular Uno?
So, the way I've always played you can't add a draw 2 on a draw 4 but I've seen plenty of other people do it. So I'm wondering if you can or can't?

Be extremely cautious about what you mean here.
If you're referring to the "Progressive UNO" House Rules variant, then it depends on exactly how you've defined the house rules.
If you refer to standard rules, nothing prevents a +2 from being played on a +4, provided that it is your turn and you match the color chosen (matching the number is not possible, since +4 and +2 are not the same number).

I don't think this is referring to house rules but normal rules and the next card being a draw 2.

Based on OP's phrase "add a draw 2 on a draw 4" I think it is likely they are talking about progressive UNO.

You can as long as it's your turn and the color of your Draw 2 matches the color specified by the player who played the Draw 4. In standard Uno rules, the player after the one who played the Draw 4 will draw the 4 cards, and the player after that one gets the next turn. So, you would need to be the player next to the player next to the one who played the Draw 4 to play your Draw 2 (again, assuming it's the correct color). The player after you would draw 2 cards, and it would be the next player's turn.
An example from @JoeW: player 1 plays a Draw 4 and calls red, player 2 draws 4 cards, player 3 plays a red Draw 2, player 4 draws 2 card and play continues as normal.


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Burial mask drop at critical level
What happens to character if sanity is at critical and hands off burial mask?
We assumed the character would die, but we thought there might have been an exception.

More information about what the item is and does would help.

Burial mask is an item card. It's also heirloomed providing the sanity +1

Can you edit the item text into the question and possibly provide spoiler text since it is a legacy game.

If the player is at their lowest amount of sanity after the haunt starts and the item is dropped or stolen they immediately lose the +1 sanity benefit the item gave them and would go insane (die).
I couldn't find any references to this in either Legacy or Betrayal rulebooks but it seems that all heirloom effects belong to that heirloomed item and to benefit from those effects you must have it in your families possession.

I actually reached out to Avalon Hill asking this question and fantastic support rep Frank sent this response:

If an item grants a benefit and it doesn't specify permanent benefits,
  "discard" or "destroy" this card upon use, then the benefit is lost if
  the item is lost. Benefits granted by items only last as long as you
  have the item, unless otherwise stated. Because of the above concept
  it does seem the character would die if that item was keeping them
  alive i.e. only 1 sanity remained and they lost the item. However,
  keep in mind if the rules are not specified in the rulebook you and
  your group can decide what makes the game most fun.


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Can Laquatus's Creativity cause an opponent to discard their hand if you have Narset, Parter of Veils on the battlefield?
Can Laquatus's Creativity cause an opponent to discard their hand if you have Narset, Parter of Veils on the battlefield?


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When casting a spell with Cascade, when do the exiled cards go on the bottom of the library?
Say I cast Bituminous Blast and with cascade I exile Angrath, the Flame-Chained then Vampiric Tutor. Can I use Vampiric Tutor to search for Angrath, or is Angrath still exiled until Vampiric Tutor resolves?

The cards are put on the bottom of the library as part of the Cascade ability. Any spells cast as part of the Cascade ability are on the stack at that point, so they will resolve after putting the cards on the bottom of the library. So in this situation, yes, you can search for Angrath with the Vampiric Tutor.
The Cascade ability is defined in rule 702.84a:

Cascade is a triggered ability that functions only while the spell with cascade is on the stack. “Cascade” means “When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card whose converted mana cost is less than this spell’s converted mana cost. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Then put all cards exiled this way that weren’t cast on the bottom of your library in a random order.”

The instruction to cast the spell here works just like casting a spell at any other time: you put it on the stack, make all of the relevant choices, and pay the cost. And just like any other time you cast a spell, everyone gets an opportunity to respond before it resolves. This opportunity comes after the Cascade ability finishes resolving, which includes putting the exiled cards on the bottom of the library.


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Parcheesi question
What if you have only one piece that is able to move, you throw a 2 & a 6.  Your opponent has a piece 4 spaces in front of you on a blue safety space and a blockade 8 spaces in front of you. Can you choose to use the 2 in order to be safe (thereby in able to use the 6) or must you use the higher die, move 6 spaces thereby putting yourself in jeopardy of being captured?  Remembering that you cannot move the full 8 spaces because your opponent has his blockade on that space.

The Parker Brothers rules, which are available on Hasbro's website, are silent on the subject. https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/Parchessi.PDF
The Milton Bradley rules explicitly state that you may use either the 2 or the 6, your choice. https://www.fgbradleys.com/rules/Parcheesi.pdf
All other sources of rules copy these or, as in the Wikipedia entry, combine the two and add what one must assume are the article's author's favorite house rules because they are completely unsourced.


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Commander tax on mutate?
Otrimi, the Ever-Playful dies and returns to my command zone. I want to cast him again, using his mutate ability. Do I have to pay the commander tax?

Yes, mutate costs increase by the commander tax.
Mutate is an alternative cost. You otherwise cast the commander the same way as you would cast it normally.

702.140a Mutate appears on some creature cards. It represents a static ability that functions while the spell with mutate is on the stack. “Mutate [cost]” means “You may pay [cost] rather than pay this spell’s mana cost. If you do, it becomes a mutating creature spell and targets a non-Human creature with the same owner as this spell.” Casting a spell using its mutate ability follows the rules for paying alternative costs (see 601.2b and 601.2f–h).

The commander tax is an additional cost that is applied whenever you cast your commander from the command zone, whether you cast it through its normal mana cost, or its alternative mutate cost:

903.8. A player may cast a commander they own from the command zone. A commander cast from the command zone costs an additional {2} for each previous time the player casting it has cast it from the command zone that game. This additional cost is informally known as the “commander tax.”

Additional costs are applied to alternative costs the same way they are applied to mana costs:

118.9d If an alternative cost is being paid to cast a spell, any additional costs, cost increases, and cost reductions that affect that spell are applied to that alternative cost. (See rule 601.2f.)

Yes, you [most likely] do have to pay the commander tax.
The amount you have to pay doesn't take into account any game state changes other than how many times you previously cast your commander from the command zone.

903.8. (...) A commander cast from the command zone costs an additional {2} for each previous time the player casting it has cast it from the command zone that game. This additional cost is informally known as the "commander tax."

Technically, there are ways in which you could have put the commander on the battlefield without casting it before, such as via Command Beacon, but in that case, the reason why you don't have to pay the commander tax isn't in any way related to Mutate, or anything else that happened - it's only ever the amount of times you cast it before.


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Designing a 8x8 grid game, looking for example rules
I am designing a very simple board game, the intention is that it will be played by providing an AI script, rather than played directly (though you could play it.)
Basic idea:

8x8 board
each player has a single board piece
pieces face in a direction (N / S / E / W)

At each turn players:

optionally rotate their piece 90 degrees either direction
take an action, one of

move one tile in the direction faced
shoot in the direction faced

When a player is 'shot', the other player wins.
The rules of this game are so simple I feel there must be a lot of other examples. Can someone point me to other similar example rulesets like this?

You seem to have described a decent rule set here.  What is it you are looking for?

It would be fun to run this in a simulator. I think you can be trapped very easy and the start player has a certain advantage.

Well maybe! I wonder if there is a body of work I am missing that I can look at. I am not at all attached to the rules I've described, maybe they would not even work.

@ToonKrijthe, running this as a simulator and allowing users to add their scripts is exactly my intention.

@ToonKrijthe, problems like being trapped and first mover advantage spoiling it is exactly the problems I'm worried about

Definitely not exactly the same, but this has some similarities to Onitama.

Roborally does this on a far more complex scale.
Here you program the pieces 5 steps ahead and the board has obstacles, moving elements and traps. The board is also bigger and you have to complete a route in order to win.
Next you have some hitpoints so you won't die with one shot.


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Most important elements of easy-to-learn hard-to-master?
I'm researching the logic necessary for an internally-consistent rule system that is easy to learn, but has enough complexity/subtleties that it keeps someone coming back and striving towards mastery.
In my case, I'm creating a video game magic system, but the core elements of game logic/rulemaking are much more applicable to a card game creator.
Question: Other than a crapload of playtesting, what logical/rulemaking elements should always/almost always exist in an internally-balanced game such that there are few barriers to entry, but many barriers to full mastery?

That is going to vary a lot from game to game

Make sure that single actions can have multiple different outcomes depending on how and when they are used
Strategic complexity is created when a player has multiple mutually exclusive actions* they can take which could all theoretically lead to victory, and the player has to figure out which one is the best.  The more plausible options they have, the more complex the game.
The flip side is that learning complexity the number of different types of actions a player has to remember, and how many effects each action has.
The solution is to give the player fewer different actions, but to make those actions contextual.  In chess, the only thing you can do with a pawn is move it forward (okay, or forward at a diagonal).  But that action can be used to threaten your opponent's pieces, or defend your own, or block off movement avenues, depending on where the other pieces are on the board.
In Go, there is precisely one action a player can take.  Every turn you will place one of your pieces.  But there's over a hundred different places you can play your piece, and each location will affect the game differently.
Not every action has to be contextual (in particular, drawing cards is a vital part of most card games, and most of the time it's pretty much the same no matter how or when you do it.)  But the majority of your actions should be capable of affecting the game in multiple ways.
Reward strategic planning, but don't penalize its lack
Nothing is worse for a new player than to get halfway through the game and realizing that none of the actions they've taken so far actually bring them closer to victory, because they failed to take some specific action earlier in the game which they didn't realize at the time was necessary to make their strategy successful.
In Settlers of Catan (possibly the most iconic gateway game), there are only four different things you can spend your resources on.  Each one brings you closer to victory.  Now, some are better at it then others, but even if you've spent your entire game building roads, you can get a few victory points out of it.
Obviously, you can't idiot-proof your game, and you shouldn't try.  But the skill level of "I am not trying to plan at all, and instead just picking actions that look good" should lead to forward movement towards the goal.

*Sometimes the mutual exclusivity is only in the timing - you can do one and then the other, but not both that the same time.  That still counts, if the timing matters.


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Pocketing queen and striker
Whilst playing, an opponent pocketed the queen but the striker followed the queen into the pocket.
Does the player put the queen back in the middle plus one of his pieces or just the queen?

The Queen and one or two additional C/M are returned to the board.
The Laws of Carrom 99 states

If the Queen and the Striker are pocketed together by a proper stroke, the Queen shall be taken out for placing by the Umpire. An additional C/M shall be taken out for placing and the player shall continue his turn. If the Queen and the Strkier are pocketed together by an improper stroke, the Queen shall be taken out by the Umpire for placing. Two additional C/M shall be taken out for placing by the opponent and the player shall lose his turn.