text:
online bridge with 2 casual players vs computer?
I'd like to play bridge with a partner -- but against a computer so we can take as much time as we like. This option would be especially useful for beginners and people getting back into the game after years away.
Are there any options?
Funbridge apparently offered this in the past (and it's still mentioned on their website) ... but I just signed up and don't see it, nor did the person who posted https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/357741/how-to-play-two-player-practice-in-funbridge
BridgeBase.com (BBO) is mentioned on Is there a good casual online place to practice/learn bridge? but I don't see a 2-player mode.

Bridge Base Online allows you to play against AI, just create a table with all robots and then replace N with your partner. See for example this forum question.


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Monopoly chance card "move to" utility owned by person who recieved card
During a game a player picked up a chance card which told him to go to a utility. He however owned both utilities and it was therefore his property. He argued that the bank therefore owes him the 10× his roll. I said that he would simply owe himself the 10× dice roll. What is the rule here?

I don't think there is any instance in Monopoly where the bank pays a player rent.  I've not played in years so there may be new specificities cards not covered in rules. But it a card moves you to your own property you can't pay yourself rent, the bank does not pay you and nothing happens.

Nothing happens (or if you want to say he owes himself money you can).  Monopoly spells out what happens in the rules fairly well.  The Chance and Community Chest cards also do a good job of explaining what should happen.  Nothing in that Chance card says anything about the Bank paying in the event the property is owned by the player.  It simply says

If OWNED, throw dice and pay owner a total ten times the amount
  thrown.

"Pay" is clearly an instruction to the player who drew the card, not the bank.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Characteristcs on the stack
I've got a question regarding characteristics on the stack. I found the information that "each spell has all the characteristics associated with it". Does it mean that when card is on the stack as a spell, it has its  mana cost, name, abilities and so on? I know that for example static abilities don't work on the stack. If I get it right, cards have their abilities on the stack, but these abilities don't work. Or maybe that is wrong?

I'm not sure what you're asking here.  Yes spells have the color, mana cost, name, types/subtypes of the card associated with it, and the abilities exist on the card, but you can't activate abilities of a card on the stack, and static abilities only apply on the battlefield, unless they only make sense in another zone.

Not an answer to your question but some what relevant https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/q/38737/19387 Torrent of Lava and Lightning Storm are extreme examples of abilities that function on the stack.

Spells have all their characteristics on the stack, including abilities, which allows other cards to interact with them conditionally. That doesn't mean that their abilities are functional on the stack. They usually are not, though they can be.
Spells are objects:

109.1. An object is an ability on the stack, a card, a copy of a card, a token, a spell, a permanent, or an emblem.

Abilities are part of an object's characteristics:

109.3. An object’s characteristics are name, mana cost, color, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, abilities, power, toughness, loyalty, hand modifier, and life modifier. [..]

There are many cards interacting with spells that have certain characteristics, for example:

Negate (type),
Red Elemental Blast (color),
Disdainful Stroke (CMC),
Meddling Mage (name),
Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma (power),
Hand of the Praetors (abilities),
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (supertype),
Bog-Strider Ash (subtype).

There are four kinds of abilities: spell abilities, activated abilities, triggered abilities, and static abilities (113.3)
In the vast majority of cases, spell abilities are abilities that take effect when the spell they're on resolves, such as Lightning Bolt, and the others only work on the battlefield.

113.6. Abilities of an instant or sorcery spell usually function only while that object is on the stack. Abilities of all other objects usually function only while that object is on the battlefield. The exceptions are as follows:

Are spell abilities like lightning storm https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=lightning+storm or is their another classification for activated and static spell abilities? If this question is to much for a comment I will delete this and make a full question. Just thought it might be worth clarifying.

Ligthning storm has a regular activated ability that happens to function while on the stack while also sitting on an instant. It's not a spell ability. The rules don't preclude instants and sorceries having activated abilities or any kind of non-spell ability really, it's just very rare. For another example, Split Second is a whole keyword mechanic whose only purpose is to give spells a static ability that works on the stack, including instants and sorceries.

"Can't be countered" is definitely a static ability of a spell that works while the spell is on the stack.

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


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Prirority and triggered abilities
When my opponent has a creature with triggered ability "At the beggining of each end step, this creature...." and it's my turn, what happens after this ability goes on the stack? Normally, I get priority at the beggining of each step, and here is the same?
Does it simply go on the stack independently on my opponent and I get priority?

Triggers do go on stack the first time a player would get priority after their condition has been met, before that player gets priority. In this case that means the triggers will be on the stack before you get priority in the end step, but you will have a chance to act before they resolve.
This timing is explicitly covered in the comprehensive rules:

603.3 Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority. See rule 117, “Timing and Priority.” The ability becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It remains on the stack until it’s countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be removed from the stack, or an effect moves it elsewhere.

If you wanted to do something before the ability was on stack, you would need to do it in your second main phase - by moving from that phase to the end step (by all players passing priority with the stack empty) you let these triggers go on the stack. As for it going on the stack independent of your opponent, it's your opponent who puts it on the stack, as far as the game is concerned, and makes any modal choices or targeting choices related to that triggered ability.

Yes, during the end step, each player gains priority in turn order. Anyone with priority can cast instant-speed spells and activate abilities.
Players don't gain priority during all steps and phases, but during most of them. You do gain priority during the end step:

513.1. The end step has no turn-based actions. Once it begins, the active player gets priority.

Abilities that trigger "at the beginning of each end step" go on the stack like they would at any other time their triggering event happens.

117.5. Each time a player would get priority, the game first performs all applicable state-based actions as a single event (see rule 704, “State-Based Actions”), then repeats this process until no state-based actions are performed. Then triggered abilities are put on the stack (see rule 603, “Handling Triggered Abilities”). These steps repeat in order until no further state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the player who would have received priority does so.

If multiple abilities would go on the stack at the same time, their respective controllers decide their order. Then the stack starts resolving as it always would, with each player gaining priority whenever a spell or ability has resolved.


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Can you break up your own full set when playing a Forced Deal?
If all you have is one complete, unbreakable set, can you play a forced deal? The question is whether your own forced deal can be used on your own set, since the card just says: "Swap any property with another player. (Cannot be part of a full set.)"

The card text, as you quote, does indeed unambiguously prohibit trading away a card from your own full set, yes.
You might conjecture that this was not intended, but as it stands (with no errata or contrary ruling from an official source), card text prohibits the trade.
That said, Monopoly Deal is a lighter game, so I would certainly go with what feels right (obvious designer intent) over a strict adherence to card text. Just make sure that everyone at the table knows what the rule is and is happy with the change.

The question is based on the card text being ambiguous. It is clear that the other players property "Cannot be part of a full set" but the question is whether that applies to your property. After re-reading it, do you still think the card statement is well-formed and unambiguous?

Indeed, I re-read it several times before composing my answer. My instinct is to go with obvious intent, but card text simply doesn't support that, not even ambiguously. You have to actually add text (errata) to the card text to get it to apply only to the other player's card.

That said, Monopoloy Deal is light enough to accept your play group's enjoyment over the letter of the cards, so... (I've added a paragraph to my answer for this).


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Playing a creature with devotion
Short question about devotion. If my devotion to red is less than five, and I play Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded, does it enter the battlefield as a creature and stops being it immediately or enters the battlefield as an enchantment? And does this ability work in a greveyard?

It will never be a creature at any point, assuming that your devotion is not high enough.
From the rulings on Purphoros:

As a God enters the battlefield, your devotion to its color will determine whether any replacement effects that affect creatures entering the battlefield apply to that God. Because replacement effects are considered before the God is on the battlefield, the mana symbols in its mana cost won’t be counted when determining this.

and

When a God enters the battlefield, your devotion to its color (including the mana symbols in the mana cost of the God itself) will determine if a creature entered the battlefield or not for abilities that trigger whenever a creature enters the battlefield.

So if Purphoros itself brings your devotion to red to 5, then triggered abilities that trigger upon a creature entering the battlefield will trigger, but replacement effects that happen as a creature enters the battlefield will not.
It isn't clear which ability you mean by "does this ability work in a graveyard"... if you mean the "As long as your devotion to red is less than five, Purphoros isn’t a creature." ability, then no, this doesn't function outside the battlefield. But that doesn't matter, because something cannot be a creature until it is on the battlefield anyway.

604.2. Static abilities create continuous effects, some of which are prevention effects or replacement effects. These effects are active as long as the permanent with the ability remains on the battlefield and has the ability, or as long as the object with the ability remains in the appropriate zone, as described in rule 113.6.

It may sound like this is a characteristic-defining ability, which would function outside the battlefield, but it's not:

604.3. Some static abilities are characteristic-defining abilities. A characteristic-defining ability conveys information about an object’s characteristics that would normally be found elsewhere on that object (such as in its mana cost, type line, or power/toughness box) or overrides information found elsewhere on that object. Characteristic-defining abilities function in all zones. They also function outside the game.

604.3a A static ability is a characteristic-defining ability if it meets the following criteria: (1) It defines an object’s colors, subtypes, power, or toughness; (2) it is printed on the card it affects, it was granted to the token it affects by the effect that created the token, or it was acquired by the object it affects as the result of a copy effect or text-changing effect; (3) it does not directly affect the characteristics of any other objects; (4) it is not an ability that an object grants to itself; and (5) it does not set the values of such characteristics only if certain conditions are met.

It wouldn't have any meaning outside the battlefield anyway, because a card not on the battlefield is never a creature:

109.2. If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn’t include the word “card,” “spell,” “source,” or “scheme,” it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.

you are correct, where is the it will never be a creature bit coming from if the devotion to red is 4 it will become a creature, but yes it will not trigger any abilities when it comes into play

@NeilMeyer I'm not clear on your question, but in the context of my answer "never be a creature at any point" only means that it doesn't become a creature and then stop becoming a creature due to lack of devotion when you play it. Of course it will become a creature if you reach the required devotion.


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Priority during declare blockers and attackers step
If I decide not to attack my opponent, do players still gain priority in declare attackers step? And the same with blockers, if there are no blockers declared for some reason, can players do anything? Or maybe these steps are just skipped in these cases?

@bautista that seems entirely unrelated to the question.

@Hackworth the question itself already contains the rules for priority amongst other things

The Q&A you linked is about how priority works in general and makes no mention during what steps specifically a player gets priority. This question asks which combat steps are skipped and who gets priority during combat if no creatures attack. What possibly makes that one a duplicate of this?

what makes me think this is a duplicate is the last quote block in this answer (116.3d): https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/a/50395/27143
but yes you're right, it doesn't contain any information regarding skipped steps :)

All phases and their respective steps happen even if players take no action during them. The declaring blockers step and combat damage steps are skipped if there are no attacking creatures, but the beginning of combat and declare attackers steps still happen. All players gain priority during both the beginning of combat and declare attackers steps.

500.1. A turn consists of five phases, in this order: beginning, precombat main, combat, postcombat main, and ending. Each of these phases takes place every turn, even if nothing happens during the phase. The beginning, combat, and ending phases are further broken down into steps, which proceed in order.

506.1. The combat phase has five steps, which proceed in order: beginning of combat, declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage, and end of combat. The declare blockers and combat damage steps are skipped if no creatures are declared as attackers or put onto the battlefield attacking (see rule 508.8). There are two combat damage steps if any attacking or blocking creature has first strike (see rule 702.7) or double strike (see rule 702.4).

Beginning of Combat Step

507.2. Second, the active player gets priority. (See rule 117, “Timing and Priority.”)

Declare Attackers Step

508.2. Second, the active player gets priority. (See rule 117, “Timing and Priority.”)

The way this typically works in practice is that you say "second main", or "end step", or "pass the turn" etc. indicating that you are doing nothing until that point in the turn; your opponent then objects: "when I receive priority during declare attackers, ..." and then you proceed from there.


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Is False Lead's effect activated when it is forfeited by another card's effect?

Is the text interpreted as
"When this agenda is forfeited: if the runner has 2 or more clicks remaining, they lose 2 clicks." or
"Forfeit this agenda to activate this ability: if the runner has 2 or more clicks remaining, they lose 2 clicks."?
For example, would the runner lose 2 clicks if False Lead was forfeited as an additional cost to Archer?

False Lead is not activated when forfeited by another card.  That's because the ability on False Lead is a Paid Ability, not a Conditional Ability.

A card’s trigger cost is always listed in its text box before the
effect, following the format “cost: effect.” A paid ability can be
triggered an unlimited number of times as long as the cost is
paid and any restrictions specified by the effect are observed.

By being a Paid Ability, forfeiting False Lead is an explicit cost of the ability, and must be paid in service of activating the ability.
As a result, you can't both forfeit False Lead to pay for Archer (which requires forfeiting an agenda as part of it's rez cost) and to pay for False Lead's ability.  False Lead can only be forfeited once.  Since, both cards require False Lead to be forfeited as a cost, you have to chose one.
In order for False Lead to work as you imagine, it would need to say something like: "When you forfeit False Lead, the runner loses [click] [click]."


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What is Nemesis 2.0?
I'm interested in buying Nemesis but in my country's only place that sells it it is listed as a pre-order for Nemesis 2.0 (2020).
Link (in Bulgarian): https://boardgames-bg.com/nemesis-2.0-2020-board-game.html
Does anyone have any idea if there IS such a thing as "Nemesis 2.0" as I didn't find anything about it on The 'Net?

It's just the next printing of the game.
See https://www.rebelgames.eu/games/nemesis-1003.html

Next print of Nemesis is expected q3 2020.


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Unwinnable klondike game
On an android app, called Classic Solitaire Klondike from Potato Jam, I'm struggling with a deck which seems unsolvable. In this app, 100% of the decks had a solution before.
I wrote a solver running every possible solution, but nothing comes out.
Here's a capture done with my solver:

I represented with red color the cards I never managed to flip. So I get stuck quite fastly.
In the app, the deck is identified by the following seed number: 43688966
I guess I must probably miss something, but can't see where ...

While I can't speak for that specific deal not all deals are winnable and not all apps guarantee that  every game will be winnable.

You're probably right. I knew about the classic win-rate on this kind of solitaire, but as I did a lot of game in this app and always found a solution, I assumed that was a design choice to propose a winnable deck. I asked on their play store reviews, and see what it gives.


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How long does a normal game of Monopoly, with 4 players, last?
I recently had remembered that at the end of the rule book of Monopoly that it says the rules for a short game and then says (60-90 minutes) in the header. At the back, it says the rules for a game that has an hour of termination decided. And there are "house rules" and I have no clue what those are. Bt in the instruction booklet, it doesn't state how long a regular game of Monopoly last, with the normal rules.
I used to watch my family play and they normally had 4 players. And they didn't use house rules (granted I was 6 so I don't really remember but no one in my family knows what those are.)
My question is, how long does a normal game, with 4 players, last without a definite hour of termination and without house rules?

The problem with house rules is many people play with what they think are the standard rules but are in fact house rules. I would think that 60-90 minutes is an accurate time but I can't back that up which is why this is not an answer.

I don’t know if I’ve ever know box estimates for length of a game be accurate.  I’m designing a game a timing playtests. One 3 player group took 55 mins and other Took 1hour 55 mins for the same thing.   Game length very much depends on the people, how well they know the game and how prone to Analysis Paralysis they are.

@StartPlayer Don't forget how focused on the game the players are as if they are splitting focus among other things such as conversation it will also be slower.

If a game is taking longer than 90 minutes or so you're not playing Monopoly - you're playing House Rules - most likely also with Free Parking Cash and Illegal Financial Instruments.

@ForgetIwaseverhere Not gonna lie, I have never heard of the free parking cash or illegal financial instruments nor the no auction thing (in the answer before someone said pubic auction and I was thinking of something else when they wrote that so I said we didn't and we did). But to my knowledge our games varied like sometimes we talked while playing or I complained about the game being rigged (I don't win many board games lol). That made it last long so idk.

According to Official Rules, the only valid financial instruments are: Title Deeds (Mortgaged or not) and Cash. Anything else of value is an illegal "financial instrument": free passage agreements, inter-player loans, etc. All they do is slow the game down. it's important also to play with just the original set of 32 houses and 12 hotels, as "housing shortage" is a key strategy in forcing opponents into bankruptcy.

Illegal financial instruments is a really awkward way of saying making deals that include anything other than cash or properties in the game. The most common is a deal to ignore rent from that player landing on the property, another is to complete a hotel and free up houses. And some people will include outside the game things, kids making deals for chores for example.

@Fly-GooglyEyes, just to clarify, "house rules" are any rules your group chooses to play by that aren't the official rules.

According to the Cornell University School of Operations Research and Information Engineering :
«All four of our estimators yield confidence intervals that suggest that the probability that the game goes on forever is close to 12%.»
https://www.informs-sim.org/wsc09papers/036.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3kaMbPMHUb0MXR8hD9u8_w49IYBTQWYrQHd0auXGnQ3ssjdTwqRIlIDEs

@RobertMiller: That may be - but I've read the "simple strategy" used in that simulation and, without being overly harsh, it's very simply "How to play really badly and lose really quickly". At age 10 I played better than that. In order for a Monopoly game to end, there must actually be a player present who is attempting to win. Without one yes, it's possible for a game to go on forever.

@RobertMiller: Examples of absurd strategies: "3. Players never bid on properties that are up for auction.";  "1. Players maintain a reserve threshold of cash that is easily varied but we set to the maximum of $200 and the maximum rent on a property owned by another player"; and "8. Players do not trade properties."

In my playgroup (using the base rules, no house rules), our 4-player games take about 90 minutes depending on how intently we're focusing on the game instead of just hanging out.
In addition to the common house rules that extend the game, certain strategies favor long, drawn-out games. Anecdotally, if everyone plays "not to lose" and refuses to make deals or bid on contested properties, the game can drag on. But if people are playing to win, the game goes much more quickly because of how much Monopoly snowballs. Most moves made to win are high-risk, high-reward. These games end rather quickly, with a player eventually just dominating the board and snapping up property at bankruptcy auction.
Here are some play style adjustments that can lead to shorter games:

Put more property up for auction. This will often lead to players draining their resources more quickly, which will allow for faster bankruptcy.
Make aggressive deals to get monopolies, even if you think you're getting a "worse" monopoly. The key thing to remember is that a deal that gives two players monopolies helps both of them overtake the remaining two opponents. You go from ~25% to win a slow game to ~50% to win a two-player slugfest.
Build houses aggressively. The best way to bankrupt others is to get the cashflow snowball started by building houses. The first and third houses are particularly important. The first house greatly makes rent cost a relevant amount (and help you build future houses), and the third house will often be enough to bankrupt players.

I recently played a 3-player game with my folks, aiming as close to official rules as possible, and I'd estimate it took 6 ± 1 hours (stretched over 2 days), to give just some idea about how long playing "not to lose" can drag on.

Your family probably DID play with house rules. The problem is most people think they know the rules of monopoly, but the rules most people play by are actually house rules. There are two major house rules that people think are official which cause the game to take a LOT longer than it should:

Not auctioning properties.  When a player lands on a property that is not owned and decides not to buy it, the property goes up for public auction, where anyone can buy it. This leads to it only taking a small handful of turns for everything to be owned, and causing rent collections to start shifting a lot more money earlier on.

Granting money for landing on Free Parking.  This is often $500, sometimes with the fines and fees paid for tax spaces and from Community Chest and Chance cards added.  This injects a lot of money into the game when it happens and can completely turn around a losing player's game.

With the properties being sold earlier, and the lack of that money being put into the game, the rules of monopoly are designed to let one player get an early lead, the ones who get the early properties, start collecting rent from them, and use that rent to buy even more properties and collect even more rent, bankrupting everyone else. Not following the auction rule lets property sit with no owner as a "safe" space to land on. Free parking adding $500 into the game just adds at least one more, usually two or three more, turns to the game unless it's only the person who was going to win anyways. Both of these house rules do nothing but slow the eventual flow of money towards the eventual winner, usually the person with the early advantage, and is the entire reason monopoly takes as long as it does. Even a normal game could be finished in an hour and a half... if the rules as written are followed.
Monopoly was invented to show the unfairness of renting property, that the people who rent end up with nothing, and the people who own just keep buying more until they have all money and property.

@RayButterworth How's that?

@RayButterworth yes my edit adjusted the meaning in a way I didn't mean it to.

Another house rule that can delay the inevitable by helping those that are behind is by relaxing the rules related to the number of houses available.  If you have 4 houses on two properties in a group and 3 on the other, it's impossible to build any hotels if there aren't any houses available for sale.  House rules could allow that block to be bypassed if the player can afford to buy a virtual house and then replace it with a hotel as a single transaction.

@RayButterworth This is true, but it is a much less common house rule than the other two I covered. Strategic monopolization of the house tokens by not buying hotels is a definite strategy people use.

@Andrew We just read the rules and played by them, we don't remember the rules to Monopoly so we kinda have to read the book. I don't think we did use them, last time I played that public auction didn't happen we just bid accordingly to the rules and I got 200$ on GO. So I'm not sure

@Fly-GooglyEyes if public auction didnt happen, then someone skipped that part in reading the rules... snd not auctioning off unpurchased property is probably the biggest house rule that adds time to a monopoly game.

@Andrew yeah bro, I have no clue tbh. That was a while ago and I have no clue what the rules said exactly and I may be thinking of the wrong thing when you say public auction. I think I may be thinking of something else when you say public auction.

@Andrew I asked my mom and the auction did happen, sorry for the misinformation.

We played by the correct, official rules (auctioning properties, no free parking, etc.), and rarely finished under 90 minutes unless there were significant deals made.  As we got older, and learned not to make trades with our dad, it quickly became 3+ hours...

One final house rule (or failure to follow the base rules) is that debt-forgiveness deals are against the rules. Rent must always be paid out in cash. Afterwards, the players can work out deals to pay cash for (likely mortgaged) properties.


text:
Online Platforms where simulate board/card game
With my mates I would like to design a new card-game. However due to lockdown and pandemic limitations, we cannot meet each other for playing sessions.
Does exists an online website/platform where I can replicate our game and make some test-sessions with colleagues?
I want to replicate:

Only-text cards: right now I do not care about good graphycs and images.
Table with game play
Dice

I believe https://playingcards.io/ has the functionality that you want (they claim that you can add your own custom cards).

Try Tabletop Simulator on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/286160/Tabletop_Simulator/
It has the both the ability to upload custom components and to play multiplayer board games virtually.  I've used it for remote prototype testing myself.


text:
Scrabble - Parallel Words joined at one letter
Parallel words joined at a single letter forming a second word.
I cannot seem to find a clear answer to this scrabble question.
Say player one plays, "scrabble" as their first word.
Is it valid for player two to then play, "hello," parallel to "scrabble" but starting with the "h" in "hello" next to the "e" in "scrabble" to make the second word, "he." Here is an example:
       HELLO
SCRABBLE

Yes. That's perfectly fine. Note that while 'scrabble' could a player's first word, it could not be the first word

Are you kidding??? My wife has memorized a list of all the 2-letter words she can find (and she's spent years updating her list) just so she can make plays like this!

@FreeMan - The Official Scrabble Dictionary has a list of all two letter words, among other lists; be interesting to see if her list has some they missed!

Does this answer your question? Is adding a parallel word that only intersects the end letter of an existing word allowed in Scrabble?

The official rules state:
New words may be formed by:

Adding one or more letters to a word or letters already on the board.

Placing a word at right angles to a word already on the board. The new word must use
one of the letters already on the board or must add a letter to it.

Placing a complete word parallel to a word already played so that adjacent letters also form complete words.

And in the scoring examples, the last example shows a similar case to yours - the word BIT is played underneath PASTE as such:
  P A S T E
B I T

with the player scoring for the words BIT, PI and AT which are formed from the running parallel words. So yes, your example is valid - it is a single word, played parallel to an existing word, such that all adjacent tiles result in forming valid English words.

The only requirement is that all letters you place must be in the same row or column with no spaces between them, and all strings of adjacent letters must form valid words.  Doing words parallel to existing words often scores much better than perpendicular words (since each letter is counted twice), which is the reason why all serious Scrabble players should learn and memorize the complete list of valid 2-letter words.

Isn't that "PASTE / BIT" example from the box lid (a long time ago)? :)

It probably is, because I don't think they changed the rules much when they put them online.


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Kate Winthrop's ability stops monsters from appearing at midnight?
Mythos card revealing happens inside the player's turn? So Kate's ability stops monsters from appearing or the players turn starts after the mythos card reveal? Also do you progress the clock before or after you reveal a new adventure card, so is there a case where you get a new adventure with a midnight effect and you must immediately activate it ?


text:
When combining number in Parchesse
May I use a 6+4 in substitution of a double 5 to enter two pieces into play in Parchessi? Since I may use any combination which adds up to five to enter one piece and I am allowed to enter two pieces with a double 5, the rules been vague in this, It seems only logical that it may be allowed.

No. Each die is used in toto of itself. You cannot re-combine the pips in other combinations. As for the special case of entering, the rules are clear on this.

Pieces may only leave the nest with a roll of a five on a single die or the sum of the dice. A double five can be used to move two pieces from the nest simultaneously.

Thank you for the replay. As the rule stated: "...the sum of the dice." It is acceptable a 4-1 or a 3-2; to enter one piece. Therefore, it is the same math, a 6-4 to enter two pieces. Isn't it?

You can use one of the dice or both, but not part of a die (whether you add that part to the other die or not). A 6-4 allows one pawn to move 6 and the other 4, or one pawn to move 10. It won't allow one pawn to move 5, nor two pawns to move 5 each.

The sum may not me multiples of five to move peices from the nest. it may only be five.


text:
What happens when you have multiple copies of Nine Lives on the board?
I couldn't find any prior rulings to this question.
So what happens if you have multiple copies of Nine Lives on the board and receive damage from any source.
Do both copies trigger each time you get damage so that both copies would have nine counters at the same time making them redundant or do they alternate giving you functionally 17 lives (8+8+1 lethal)?

Nine Lives second ability is a prevention effect not a triggered ability:

CR 615.1a Effects that use the word “prevent” are prevention effects. [...]

When there are two Nine Lives on the battlefield, the interactions are resolved according to:

CR 616.1. If two or more replacement and/or prevention effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object or player, the affected object’s controller [...] or the affected player chooses one to apply [...]

In this case you would choose on which copy of Nine Lives to put the counter, effectively giving you 17 lives.

A very careful reading of the Rulings on the Gatherer page also leads to this conclusion: "Once the first triggered ability is on the stack, it won’t trigger again, even if more damage is prevented and more incarnation counters are put onto it." Here, "the first triggered ability" refers to "When there are nine or more incarnation counters on Nine Lives, exile it." The previous abilities (Hexproof and the prevention) aren't triggered.


text:
How does Proliferate interact with Exalted and other temporary +1/+1 buffs?
I understood Proliferate to be an ability that allows you to, given any number of permanents and players of your choosing, add another counter of each existing counter type that is already on there. Like adding another poison counter to a player that already has one, or buffing a creature with a +1/+1 counter even more, or giving an opponent's creature with at least one -1/-1 counter another one.
There are some edge cases I'm unsure of:

What if an attacker is exalted (+1/+1 until end of turn) and they proliferate during their attack? Do they get an additional +1/+1? Does it affect combat in the current turn? If they get an additional +1/+1, does it wear off at the end of the turn like the exalted buff?
Similar situation with Hand of the Praetors: could you proliferate the +1/+1 buff it gives other creatures?

The word 'counter' has a very specific meaning in Magic:

A marker placed on an object or player that modifies its characteristics or interacts with a rule or ability. See rule 122, “Counters.”

so only spells and abilities explicitly mentioning counters interact with proliferate. The 'exalted' ability doesn't mention it:

702.82a Exalted is a triggered ability. “Exalted” means “Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.”

and neither does Hand of the Praetors. So they don't profit from proliferate.


text:
Word association or category snap card game?
I played a game once at a games night that was something like snap, except the cards had categories on them and instead of saying "snap" you had to say a word in that category (if I remember rightly. It may have been word association). I think if the card was the same colour as the previous card, or had the same symbol, you could try to "snap". Does anyone know the name of this game?

Might it have been Anomia? In Anomia, cards have categories and symbols on them, and when two cards with the same symbol are visible the people with those cards have to name something that belongs to the category on the other player's card. Whoever does that first then takes the other player's card, which may then reveal another card which matches someone else's, and so on.


text:
Following the official rules of Jenga, what is the highest possible level that can be placed?
I can't seem to find the answer to this question anywhere.  Also, to preempt a couple possible answers:
I have read about the current record. However, I want to know if this is the highest level possible following the official rules. That is, the preceding level must be completed before beginning the next highest level.
I'm sure there is a mathematical method to solve this but my brain isn't working sufficiently right now to figure it out.
Also, I saw an answer posted somewhere of 54. Though it is possible to stack all 54 blocks atop one another individually, this would violate the rules of the game.

Does this answer your question? What is the tallest Jenga tower ever created?

nb: this is not a duplicate. The suggested dup asks about the largest one created in the wild and not about the theoretical max (and none of the answers there address the theory).

51 levels. Achieving this requires 97 moves.

Let's start with a fresh tower, and let's try to minimize the number of blocks in the top levels. The rest of the tower will consist of one-block levels.
I shall denote the state by the number of blocks on the top level, followed by the number of blocks on the next level down, etc. So a fresh tower is 3,3,3,...
One can't remove a block from the uppermost complete level, so our attempt goes as follows:

1,3,2,... ⇒ 6 in top 3.
2,3,1,... ⇒ 6 in top 3.
3,3,1,... ⇒ 7 in top 3.

And from there it loops.
Jenga has 54 blocks, so the tallest tower can have at most 51 level.

1,3,2,<48 levels with just 1> after 97 moves.
2,3,1,<48 levels with just 1> after 98 moves.

From the above, we can also determine that the tallest tower with a complete top level will have 50 levels. This takes 96 moves.

Technically, you should also prove that achieving this limit is (in principle) possible without the tower ever falling over, i.e. that it's possible to do the moves in such an order that the center of mass of the N highest levels is always above the blocks on level N + 1 from the top. But I do think this is in fact possible, and it should even be possible to prove a stronger property, namely that, with reasonable play, the center of mass of the N highest levels (for all N ≥ 2) will always stay within half a block's width from the original central axis of the tower.

@Ilmari Karonen, I did consider mentioning "physics aside", but it seemed too obvious. If you start considering physics, the question really becomes "What's the highest tower that's been achieved", but that wasn't what was asked.

The key rule is that you can't remove a block from the uppermost complete level. We can prove (see below) that this means the top 3 levels will always have at least 6 blocks between them. Underneath that, the remaining blocks (up to 48 of them) could theoretically be just a single block per level, so this gives you an upper bound of 3 + 48 = 51 levels.
(I'm counting the uppermost row of blocks as a level even if it only ever contained one or two blocks; if you don't want to count the top level until it's complete then the answer is 50.)

Proofs:
First, we prove that the 2nd level is always a complete level of 3 blocks, by induction on the number of turns taken. At the beginning of the game (0 turns), it is true. Then after any turn on which it is true, there is one of two cases:

The top level is incomplete. In this case, the 2nd level can't be modified and the top level will remain the top, so it will still be true after one more turn.
The top level is complete. In this case, after one more turn that top level will become the (complete) 2nd level.

Now, we prove that the top 3 levels will always have at least 6 blocks. Assume towards contradiction that at some point there are fewer. Then since the 2nd level must have 3 by the lemma above, the 1st and 3rd level must each have only 1 block. But then that 3rd level with one block must, one turn earlier, have been an incomplete 2nd level, contradiction.

Can you please explain why the top 3 levels will always have at least 6 blocks between them?

"You can prove …".  Your answer would be greatly improved if you proved it.

Ok, proof added.

(As stated in the answer, this only actually shows an upper bound of 51. Meanwhile ikegami's answer only actually shows that 51 is achievable but not that it is an upper bound, since that specific greedy algorithm which tries to constantly "minimize the number of blocks in the top levels" does not actually prove that no other algorithm can do a better job of that minimizing. Put the two answers together to get that 51 is indeed the theoretical maximum.)

@Benjamin Cosman. You are mistaken. The top two layers are necessarily full before you can start a new one. so the only way to get fewer than a full layer is to remove from them. My proof shows the only way to do that, thus giving the lower bound on the number of blocks in the upper layers (6) and thus the upper bound on the number of levels in the tower (51).

@Cohensius when the top level has 2 blocks on it, the one below it is the uppermost complete and can't be touched, top has 2, second 3, third at least 1 = 6. When you complete the new top it has 3, 2nd has 3 and 3rd has at least 1 = 7. top two now have 6 between them and if you then start to remove from what used to be the uppermost complete level, those go to become the new top level, making those three levels always 6 or more.


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Clarification about Caylus favours
According to the rules book, the 3rd column of favours is available after the scoring of the dungeon. My question is, when scoring the dungeon, is it still considered as before the scoring? In other words I can't move my marker up to the 3rd row to collect 3 points or build a stone building, with the favours I've earned right after scoring the dungeon, correct?

you can play Caylus on-line with enforce rules, i think that this is the easiest way to know all the small details.  See https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=caylus

Right: you can't move my marker up to the 3rd row to collect 3 points or build a stone building, with the favors I've earned right after scoring the dungeon. See the example on the last page of the rules:

Orange has just gained a favor during the Dungeon scoring. He chooses the first line (prestige points), on which he already advanced in a previous phase. However,
since the Dungeon is being scored, Orange can’t advance his marker. He leaves it on its space and gains 2 prestige points.


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Control & Abilities
I have a question about control & abilities: if you take control of a minion, you can use it's talent; if a card has a 'standard' ability, it happens only once when the minion is played (not when it moves, etc.). Since a minion has to be in play to be controlled, does this mean you cannot use the 'standard' abilities of minions you take control of? Or does taking control of get treated as 'playing' for that first time?

Changing the control of a minion doesn't involve playing it
If you consult the term Control in the rules (below), it says "it is as if you played it" just like all of your other minions, not "you get to play it".
If changing the control of a minion required playing it, you wouldn't be able to play another minion that turn. But I'm sure that's never stopped you.

Control: By default, each card you play is controlled by you. If you gain control of a card, it is as if you had played it: minions add to your power total, abilities on the card apply to you and you can use them, etc. Controlling a minion does not mean you control any actions played on it, but their abilities apply to the minion normally. When the card leaves play, it goes to the hand, deck, or discard pile of its owner.

Ok... Just so I understand fully and can explain to friends: why is the interpretation "it is as if you (just) played it" - so you can also use the ability at that moment - not as good of an interpretation?

You already played it if you just played it. You can't play it again (unless it's returned to your hand). Standard abilities only happen when you play something, not after

"does this mean you cannot use the 'standard' abilities of minions you take control of?" I'm confused, it sounds like you are leading to "yes this means you cannot use them" answer but you never finish it and say it explicitly. Can you clarify, and probably add that to your answer?


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MTG Returning lands at upkeep
I have a card that says:
"At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this card unless you return a land you control to its owner's hand."
If I have two of these on the battlefield, do I return one land for each or is returning one land enough to satisfy both conditions?

Living Tsunami or something else? There's no need to be obtuse about which card it is...

When a card refers to itself by name, it refers to that specific card. /// All instances of the same triggered ability (whether found one one object or not) trigger, and thus each eventually resolves.

Related, but I don’t think it’s a duplicate because it’s also a question of satisfying requirements. https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/35535/how-does-having-multiple-permanents-with-the-same-name-affect-those-permanents

At the beginning of your upkeep:

Both instances of the card will put their own triggers onto the stack.
You can choose which order the triggers go onto the stack, not that it matters very much.
The stack resolves in LIFO order as always.
The first trigger resolves. You can choose whether to return a land to your hand or sacrifice the specific instance of the card that created that trigger.
The second trigger resolves. You can choose whether to return a land to your hand or sacrifice the specific instance of the card that created that trigger. This is a separate event from the first trigger resolving, so you cannot return the same land or otherwise count that because that land is already back in your hand.

tl;dr: you need to return one for each.

If you have some method of playing a land at instant speed, you could theoretically bounce one land, replay it, then bounce it again.

@nick012000 that's still two different lands (CR 400.7 as always). The fact they were both created by the same card is pretty much irrelevant here.


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Full house on table full house in hand
Ok scenario:
8 9 8 9 9 on table.
Player 1 has 8/4 in hand.
Player 2 has K/2 in hand.
Who wins?
I personally say split since table has higher full house. Am I right?

While it was technically answered by my answer on the question this was closed for, you did have to kind of read between the lines to get it. I have updated my answer on that question to clarify this edge condition.

It is a split pot, since each player only get to use 5 cards


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Can player floop Ancient Scholar when no Rainbow cards in their discard pile?
In "Adventure time Card Wars Finn vs Jake" Ancient Scholar card has FLOOP ability

FLOOP >>> Return a random Rainbow card from your discard pile to your hand. If you control a Building in this Lane, gain 1 Action.

Is it valid to FLOOP him when there is no Rainbow cards in discard pile? If yes, what does happen in this case?

Yes, player can FLOOP Ancient Scholar even if there is no Rainbow cards in their discard pile
In this case they fail to return a random Rainbow card to their hand, but still can gain 1 Action (if control a building in the lane). This is explained in detail by Matt Hyra at boardgamegeek.com forum: Flooping without fulfilling ability?
According to the explanation, the general rule is

you may always Floop if the ability doesn't target anything. If it requires a target, you must have a legal target before you can Floop


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MTG reactive play denied in MTG Arena
I played MTG Arena today and I attacked with Zulaport Duelist on which my opponent reacted with Stomp adventure of Bonecrusher Giant and instead of letting me change my Duelist for Zareth it simply passed to damage and destroyed Duelist. I encountered a lot of bugs in Arena so far but I'm thinking this might be right but don't know why, since Zareth ability is instant speed.

When exactly did you opponent cast Stomp? Was it before or after the declare blockers step?

@Erik it was before, but he had no blockers. I though about this but I played game where another player had no blockers and when I attacked it skipped to "Next to damage" instantly. Now that I think of it the previous player probably had no instant speed in hand. But still if having no blockers, declaring blockers seems to me very counter intuitive, but you are probably right that it is the reason.

Though not exactly the same, Zareth San's ability is very similar to Ninjutsu, and even referred to here.
702.48c states:

A ninjutsu ability may be activated only while a creature on the
battlefield is unblocked (see rule 509.1h). [...]

And when we follow up on 509.1h, we see that

An attacking creature with one or more creatures declared as blockers
for it becomes a blocked creature; one with no creatures declared as
blockers for it becomes an unblocked creature. This remains unchanged
until the creature is removed from combat, an effect says that it
becomes blocked or unblocked, or the combat phase ends, whichever
comes first. A creature remains blocked even if all the creatures
blocking it are removed from combat.

Since you added that your opponent cast Stomp during the declare attackers step, it wasn't determined yet whether your duelist is blocked or not. Therefore you weren't able use Zareth San's ability.

Thanks, I understand, it is a bit tricky to recognize that even if no blocker is available it still technically has to be confirmed. I guess in in-person game this could spark up some argument.

Actually @eXPRESS, I think it's way easier to resolve this in person, since you can walk the other player step by step through what you're doing and why it works - while Arena just chains things, without giving much explanation. E.g, you can always react during the draw phase, but by default Arena ignores this for both players.


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Ignition Effect Priority in Old Yu-Gi-Oh!
I am trying to remember the details of the old mechanic in Yu-Gi-Oh! which was referred to borderline-erroneously as priority, but was actually an ability to use ignition effects in response to Summons.  According to my recollection:

Only the turn player could use it
It could only be used if the monster Summoned was the turn player's
It could only be used during Main Phase 1 or Main Phase 2, the game phases when ignition effect can normally be used
It could be used to activate the ignition effect of one monster anywhere in the turn player's possession (hand, field, Graveyard, etc.)
It could be used in response to any type of Summon (Normal, Flip, or Special)
It could only be used if the Summon was the last event to occur, in exactly the same sense as "When...you can" trigger effects.

Are there any mistakes so far?  Also, to further expand on the meaning of #2:

Could the turn player activate an ignition effect in response to Special Summoning Lava Golem to the non-turn player's field?
Could the turn player activate an ignition effect in response to the non-turn player resolving Ojama Trio as Chain link 1 during the Main Phase (Ojama Trio uses a "you Special Summon to your opponent's field" wording)?
Could the turn player activate an ignition effect in response to the non-turn player resolving Inferno Reckless Summon as Chain link 1 during the Main Phase (Inferno Reckless Summon uses a "your opponent Special Summons to their own field" wording)?
If Remove Brainwashing was active, could the turn player activate an ignition effect in response to their Summoning a monster to their own field that was owned by the non-turn player (after control of the Summoned monster immediately shifted to the non-turn player)?
If Remove Brainwashing was active, could the turn player activate an ignition effect in response to the non-turn player Summoning a monster to the non-turn player's field that was owned by the turn player (after control of the Summoned monster immediately shifted to the turn player)?

Correct.

Going further, only the monster that was summoned would be allowed to activate its ignition effect (which answers 7 and 8).

Also correct due to ignition effects being treated as having spell speed 1.

Incorrect, only the summoned monster would be allowed to activate its ignition effect with ignition effect priority.

Correct.

Correct, however I also believe that it cannot be a summon during the resolution of a chain (by card effect such as polymerization), for a special summon it would have to be by summoning condition.

Answered in 2.

Answered in 2.

No, answered in 6.

No, answered in 2 as the summoned monster would be in the opponents control.

No, as you cannot summon monsters via summoning condition on your opponents turn.


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Does anyone know the card game "King Up"?
I used to play a card game called "King Up" with my nana and siblings, but my nana has passed and my siblings and I have forgotten how it's played. I'd be grateful if someone recognises it and can remind me of the rules!
Things I remember:

in the centre of the table there was a face-up Jack of Diamonds, a blank space, and a face-down mystery card, each of which we would bet on - there were therefore three possible "pots" to win each round
there was a dummy hand
it was a run-based game, NOT a trick-based game
whoever held the 2 of Diamonds would start
the Jack of Diamonds "pot" could be won by playing the King of Diamonds
the blank space "pot" could be won by getting rid of all your cards
the "pots" carried over into the next round if no one won them

A previous query on here (Does anyone know the name of this card game?) is very similar, but doesn't actually explain how the game is played.
I hope someone can help!

Sounds like a variant of Boodle/Michigan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newmarket_(card_game)


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can i have multiple copies of a single pokemon?
i was looking to build an Eevee deck for my niece, who is really into pokemon tcg at the moment- and i know you can only have 4 copies of any card, but saw somewhere that the exception is if it is a GX card. So in theory could i have 4 basic eevee, 4 eevee GX, and 4 eevee V? does the same apply to sylveon and sylveon GX? thanks in advance everyone!

Yes.  Eevee GX, Eevee V, and Eevee are different Pokémon, and you can have four of each in your deck. (Also, if they existed, Eevee EX, Eevee Vmax, Eevee prism star (1 copy), etc.). Most but not all of the ‘suffixes’ count as separate Pokémon.
That’s true for any Pokémon, so yes, Sylveon and Sylveon GX count separately. However, if the names are the same then they count as the same even if they’re different types or otherwise very different - Quagsire for example you can only have four total, even if they are fighting and water types individually.
Note that evolution also works that way - so something that evolves from Eevee cannot evolve from Eevee GX, unless it has an ability that says it can (as I think the GX does?).

Rules notes:  From the Compendium:

Q. Can you have 4 Electabuzz and 4 Electabuzz-EX in the same deck?

A. Yes, you can play 4 Electabuzz and 4 Electabuzz EX in the same deck, as they are considered different cards (similar to the ruling for Trainer Pokémon). (Sep 11, 2003 PUI Rules Team)

but

Q. Can you have 4 Electivire and 4 Electivire Lv.X in the same deck?

A. No, Lv.X Pokemon are considered the same as other pokemon with the same name. You may only have a maximum of 4 combined in your deck (i.e. 3 Electivire, 1 Electivire Lv.X). (Sep 25, 2008 PUI Rules Team)

GX and V and VMAX and Mega are all considered different, by the same rule as EX is.  Lv.X is not, for whatever reason that I can't entirely explain (I guess it's just the 'level' of the Pokémon?).

thanks so much Joe! many of the GX do have abilities that let them evolve themselves, in addition i just realized i could also run 4 eevee snorlax tag teams, so thank you for clearing this up!

Yep!  Don’t run too many Pokémon though - and feel free to ask if you want help deckbuilding, either here (I think that’s okay?) or on Reddit r/pkmntcg (def okay).  I’ve worked a lot with younger kids so happy to help :)


text:
Are you allowed to move backward on a monopoly board?
Are you allowed to move backward on a monopoly board?

VTC people: what is unclear about this question?

No.  moves after rolling dice are clockwise/forward.
from the rules here

Place your token on the corner marked "GO," throw the dice and move
your token in the direction of the arrow the number of spaces
indicated by the dice. After you have completed your play, the turn
passes to the left. The tokens remain on the spaces occupied and
proceed from that point on the player's next turn.

The direction of the arrow is pointing clockwise; on future turns you "proceed" from that point.  There is no choice as to direction moved under normal Monopoly rules.
The exceptions are is a card tells you to move backwards. Or if you're playing with the speed dice then

If you roll a three-of-a-kind (all of the dice show the same number),
you can move anywhere you want on the board!

But under standard rules you move clockwise only.

There is one "Chance" card that says "Go back three spaces." That's the only instance of "backward" movement.
Also, there are Chance and Community Chest cards that say, "Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200." These could be interpreted as backward or "diagonal" movements across the center of the board (not around the perimeter).
Otherwise, all movement is forward.


text:
Monopoly Chance Card
In my monopoly game there is one chance card that reads "Advance to Illinois Avenue". It does not mention whether you collect money if you pass go. The rest of the cards that tell you to advance, specify whether or not you collect money. Do I get to collect on Illinois Avenue?

Yes. “Advance to Illinois Ave” just means to move forward normally until you are at Illinois Ave. If you pass go you collect $200 like normal.

Yes, if you pass Go, you collect $200. See the monopoly wiki:

Advance to Illinois Ave. {Avenue}. [Advance to Trafalgar Square] If you pass Go, collect $200. {Second sentence omitted.} (Mr. Monopoly has tied a cloth bundle onto his cane to make a bindle, carried over his right shoulder, and is smoking a cigar)

Illinois Avenue is on the 24th square of the board. Two of the Chance squares are number 7 and number 22. From those, you advance 17 and 2 spaces respectively without passing Go, and to not collect $200.
One chance square is the 36th on the board. You cannot "advance" from 36 to 24, so you need to advance four squares to Go, (thereby "passing" it), and then another 24 squares to Illinois. In this one instance, you DO pass Go and collect $200.


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Are my Spirit Island pages mistakenly uncut?
I just got Spirit Island, and some of the rule books pages appear to have not been cut:

Am I missing something here or is the sheet just uncut?

That's definitely a printing error.  Whether they were originally one page that wasn't cut, or if they got stuck together during the process for some reason, I couldn't say.  But they're not supposed to be stuck together like that.


text:
When Does a Player's Turn End
We had an issue come up tonight playing TtR.  Nearing the end of the game one player claimed a route, including placing the trains and turning in the train cards, leaving that player with only 5 trains left.  That player still needed to claim a 6 train route.  Realizing the mistake, the player immediately called for a change in which route he was claiming.  This happened BEFORE the next player did anything with their turn.  Player in question feels the next player did not start their turn, so it was still his turn and could change his mind.  Two other players in the game felt the player's turn ended when he placed his trains and turned in the cards.  The player in question lost.  There is nothing in the rules.  In Monopoly, it is still your turn until the next player rolls the dice.  Since there is no clear movement like this, when does a player's turn end in Ticket to Ride?

As far as the game is concerned, you have ended your turn and the next player has been instructed to take theirs.[1] And since the rules say take-backsies are only allowed if... Wait a sec, there are no rules concerning take-backsies in Ticket to Ride. In fact, I've never see a game that allows take-backsies.
It doesn't mean you can't take back the move, but how that works is something your group will have to decide. Personally, I have absolutely no problem with allowing the change since nothing was done based on the move that was performed. But this is my opinion. What your group allows/tolerates is up your group's business.

One of the expansions has an optional second action you can take. So, in that game, you may not have ended your turn.

absolutely.   I don't think any rules would ever specify exactly.   my personal opinion for all games would just be 'be nice'. if someone makes a mistake and no undoable event (like dice rolling or revealing a card) has happened then let a player take something back and keep the game fun rather than a punishing "must win at all costs" experience.

Thank you all for the feedback.  It was a bit shocking to see the family turn on each other, but perhaps it was just because the player in question was in the lead and had the best chance to win.  Ticket-to-Ride is still a fun game to play.

If you force people to be 100% sure of their moves before doing them, the game will drag. It's generally a nicer experience for all if you allow take-backs if no further actions have been taken.


text:
Is a creature that has an adventure considered a creature with no abilities?
Let's use Tuinvale Treefolk as the creature for this example as it has no abilities on its creature side.
This is relevant for Ruxa, Patient Professor and Muraganda Petroglyphs.
Does the answer change when the creature is in the graveyard? (this is relevant for Ruxa's first ability)
What about in the hand, in case a card existed that let you put a creature with no abilities into the batlefield?

Yes, in all cases the creature is considered to have no abilities.
Comprehensive Rules 716.4 states:

In every zone except the stack, and while on the stack not as an
Adventure, an adventurer card has only its normal characteristics.

Meaning in the battlefield, graveyard, hand and otherwise the adventure side would be ignored and the creature part has indeed no abilities.

As always, I feel it would be better to reference the actual CR (716.4 in this case) rather than the ruling; Wizards are notorious for the haphazard nature of whether a ruling appears in Gatherer or not.

It's 715.4

some list it as 716.4, like https://mtg.wtf/help/rules and the mtg fandom page but the downloadable document form wizards has it as 715.4

I couldn't edit my previous comment but I'm thinking the document could be outdated. The judge blog agreeing with it led me to believe it's the true one. My doubt is that the other links have rule 707 and these two don't, that's why their number is one higher, so they could be newer (also, the rules document form wizards does say 2021), fandom page says there was an update with Baldur's Gate in June 10, 2022

@Chebi You're linking to last year's rules (19th April 2021, as per the 20210419 in the URL). In the most recent rules, CR 715 is Sagas.

@PhilipKendall thanks mate, the judge's blog being off as well threw me off

[ Not that it really matters but the rule that was added was "706 Rolling a die", probably as part of the AFR update; everything above that was renumbered ]


text:
Question for three days at gettysburg
I don't have the rule book for the game Three days at Gettybusrg GMT. Could someone explain briefly how the mechanics works?
Such as, how many hexes can infantry/cavalry/artillery move per turn. How long is a turn and how long does it take for Renyolds (for example) to march north towards Gettysburg to support Bufford? Lastly, how far range do artillery or muskets fire?
Thanks.

The rulebook and errata are available on GMTs website.


text:
Can I play 2 sets of 2 cards each one of the same color to avoid a Deal Breaker?
For example: 2 groups of green color in order to avoid deal breaker, of this way the set is not completed

No. With four of the same color, you'd have a set of 3 and one extra.
From the compiled FAQ on BGG:

If you have more properties of one color than is needed to make a complete property set, you must form as many complete sets as possible, and group the remaining properties of that color together.


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In Scrabble, what happens if a player has to leave the game early?
Earlier today, a group of us were playing Scrabble. One of us had to leave early due to something external. What happens to that player's tiles?

I think this question and most answers will apply to most board games in general; the solution will not be unique to scrabble.

While there are no explicit rules in Scrabble to handle this, it's pretty straight forward to do this in Scrabble with minimal disruption.  I've done this on several occasions.

Leave any tiles on the board where they are.  Even if you could remember which tiles they played, you wouldn't want to.  Tiles that are played are essentially communal property, as any player can play off of them.  Also, removing played tiles from the board would be potentially disruptive to the next few plays, where leaving them has no ill side-effects.

As long as there are still tiles left in the bag, return their rack of tiles to the bag without looking at them.  The game is predicated around their being a particular set of tiles in circulation.  Taking these tiles permanently out of circulation is bad for anyone tracking tiles, and keeping them in circulation doesn't hurt.  (Note that due to a lost challenge, some of these tiles may have been revealed, but in that case, they've been revealed to all players, so there isn't really an advantage to any player.)

If there are no tiles left in the bag (it's endgame), keep their rack out of play and face down.  At this point, players are no longer drawing replacement tiles, and so suddenly introducing replacements would have a profound disruptive effect on whoever went next.  You may want to even do this if there are very few tiles left in the bag; that's up to the table.

Leaving in the middle of the game is not covered by the rules.
Your question is ultimately: what happens when we don't/can't follow the rules of the game? The answer is always: your house rules are up to you.

The obvious house rule would be to leave the player's placed tiles on the board and to return the player's unplaced tiles back into the pool without exposing them. Other than disbanding or postponing the game, I'm having trouble thinking of any alternative to this.

The tiles on the board are almost certainly left there, sure. The rack tiles could be out of the game or returned to the bag with equal "correctness" in this or that subjective world. But the point is that it's all house rules, and so it's up to the house.

But it's not "equal". Leaving some tiles out of play would affect the end-game, when normally you could know for sure what tiles are still in other player's hands.  E.g. knowing that there is still a "J" or "Z" to be played, you wouldn't create an opening for it, but if it could be in the buried tiles you might take a chance.

Having someone not play their next turn would affect the end game. Leaving them in-tray is the same as treating the absent player as present and always taking a "pass" turn and exchanging no tiles. It doesn't affect end-game any more than if that player remained (and passed), therefore.

I was talking about the time when there are no remaining tiles to exchange, with all tiles on the board or in the players' trays.  If I don't see a "Z" anywhere, I'm not going to create an opening for it, and if I did create one, the player with the tile would play it, not pass. My play might be different if  I knew the "Z" could be out of play. ¶ Or, consider deliberately playing a full game where 7 tiles are removed and hidden before play starts.  Would it still feel like a "normal" game?

Yes, that is the point I addressed in my previous reply.


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Treasure Hunter and Arrive effects
In its body text, the Treasure Hunter card says (emphasis in original):

Replace a card in the dungeon row. (If the new card has a dragon attack symbol, ignore it.)

If the replacement card has Arrive text (for example, the Overlord which says “ARRIVE All players get +1 Clank!”), does that effect still occur?

In this BoardGameGeek thread they ask the same question.

Do Arrive effects trigger when replaced with the companion that replaces a card in the dungeon row? That card mentions that Dragon attacks are ignored, but doesn't say anything about Arrive effects, so could go both ways.

Where Sylvain Gauthier answered:

Arrive effects always take place no matter when the card is drawn from the deck.
Dragon attack, on the other hand, are reshuffled in the deck during initial set up and doesn't take effect when certain companions are played.(Will be specified on that companion's text box)

So an on arrive effect always takes place even when the card is replaced by the Treasure Hunter card.


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What are the odds of drawing five specific cards from a sixty card deck?
In Yugioh, you start out with a five card hand. You have a 40-60 card deck. I run a 60 card Exodia deck, and twice I have drawn all five pieces of Exodia in my starting hand. For those who don’t play, having all five pieces in your hand at one time causes you to immediately win the game. I would like to know what the actual odds of that happening once, let alone twice.

Voting to close as duplicate - while the other question includes each draw phase, the first answer deals with the start of game hand draw - though it like most YGO questions uses the optimal deck size of 40 cards.

1 in 5,461,512
This is a nCr question, you have n elements (60) and you are picking r of them (5). Since each piece of Exodia is Limited to 1 copy per deck, and you are looking for 5 specific cards out of a 60 card deck, the math is a straightforward nCr calculation:

60 C 5 = 60! / ((60 - 5)! * 5!) = 5,461,512.

There are 5,461,512 possible combinations of 5 different cards you can make out of 60, since you are looking for 5 unique cards to all be drawn, that means you want 1 combination out of those, thus 1 in 5,461,512.
If this was a deck before all the parts were limited to single copies (or kitchen table, ignoring the deck limit rules) then that would give a different answer.*
Generally in games like this people stick to the minimum deck size, a lot of new players to TCGs like to add more into their decks, but this shows why that's a bad idea. If this was a 40 card Exodia deck instead:

40 C 5 = 40! / ((40 - 5)! * 5!) = 658,008

At the minimum deck size, getting all 5 pieces in the opening hand is over 8 times more likely.

*To figure the difference out with multiple copies of the same cards in the deck, you change the left side, multiplying the number of copies each wanted  card, for these 5 restricted cards that gives 1 * 1 * 1 * 1 * 1 = 1. If you could have the normal 3 copies of each piece in your deck that would be 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 = 243 possible combinations.
In 60 cards that means 243 in 5,461,512 or 1 in a little under 22,500. for 40 cards that is 243 in 658,008 or 1 in a little over 2,200.


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Hand and Foot Rules on playing all cards without going out
In hand and Foot can a player lay down all cards in their foot, discard the final card and NOT have the required books to go out but continue to draw two cards each turn and discard one until they finally complete their books or someone else goes out?

I've never played this game but have read the at rules here. they say

To 'Go Out', the player must get a Clean and Dirty, and get completely
rid of the cards. Players must discard the final card, and not 'simply
run out of cards'.

So to me this reads if you have 'simply run out of cards' then you have not 'gone out'.   It also suggests that having a Clean and Dirty book is a requirement for going out so even if you have no cards but not the required books you have not 'gone out'
You would continue to play as normal until you had the required Clean and Dirty books or another player 'goes out'

By definition, going out means that you have played all your cards. If someone plays all their cards, That round is over. Everyone will tally their cards if your team has met the requirements for going out. If someone on your team goes out and has not met their requirements, your team loses.
There are minor variations in the rules. In our rules, drawing starts your turn and ends with a discard. If you play all your cards and have no discard, your turn can never end, and your team forfeits the game. If you play all your cards except one and discard that one card, you have legally gone out.
I have written the rules we use here: https://gameofhandandfoot.blogspot.com/.


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Do movement cards need to be played continuously?
In Quest for El Dorado can movement from cards be interspersed?
For example with a 3 machete and 1 sailor could I move forest-forest-sailor-forest?

I've not played this game but reading the rules here it seems clear you can not.  The rules say (emphasis mine).

If you have “leftover” power, you may use it to continue moving to the
next space. The same 2 requirements apply, but you first subtract the
power you already spent from the played card’s power value. You can
stop moving at any time. In that case, you lose any unspent power
immediately.

If you have left over power on a card it can only be used for the next space.  if it is not then then the power is lost.   As soon as the sailor card is played to move then any power left on the card with machete symbol are lost.
I did not see any indication in the rules that would allow you to use unspent power on a card after a new card for movement has been played.


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Can I combine Exploding Kitten decks to allow for more players?
As the game clearly states the game is designed for 2-5 players. This is based on the game mechanic and resource level of the namesake kitten. Once you draw an exploding kitten and cannot defuse it, you are out and then the last remaining player winds. Since there are only 4 exploding kittens you can only have 5 players or there would be multiple winners.
Would it be possible to combine two whole game sets to allow for up to a maximum of 9 players (since there are now 8 exploding kittens)? Would this change cause any other game mechanics to break or be unfair?

I would honestly play 2 games at that point so people are more involved in the game.  When you add more players you increase the downtime for each player between moves, this would just make the game take longer and less actions for each player.

What @Styxsksu said is true. But, no, nothing breaks if you combine two decks. As you note: the deck construction (of including N exploding kittens) is what limits you to N+1. That nothing breaks when you go from 4 to 5 is evidence that nothing will break when you go to 6.

Absolutely. From the website, Exploding Kittens is a:

Party game for 2-5 players (up to 9 players with 2 decks)

I often combine the Original and NSFW versions, to play with more than 4 players. You just have to make sure that there is always exactly 1 Exploding Kitten card less than the number of players.

Technically, you wouldn't need to if you made it so that the Exploding Kitten cards were replaced back into the deck even when they're not diffused.
This is how my friends and I play it by default, and it's still a lot of fun.  It even feels like it's more fun, as it causes the game to ramp up in difficulty over time, putting more value on conserving resources from the early-game.
The only real caveat is the number of diffuse cards you'd have available, as there are only 6 to a deck, and each player is required to start with one in hand.


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Dice worker placement game about terraforming a planet
I'm looking for a game I played about 3-5 years ago. It was set in space and centred around terraforming a planet (possibly Mars?).
It is a dice worker placement game where you roll dice and each dice is an action that you can use at one of the stations surrounding the planet, depending on the restrictions on numbers at that location.
Any ideas?

I found the game: Alien Frontiers


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Riichi Mahjong on PS4 Game "Judgement"
I came across Mahjong whilst playing a Playstation game called "Judgement".  I enjoyed it so much I bought a set and got my family playing it.  Now we have regularly Mahjong evenings.
However, frustratingly, when I return to the Playstation game I find that hands which I believe should win, do not / or are not allowed.  I don't know if the game is getting something wrong or me?
For example, why is the following hand (at bottom of screen) not Tanyao i.e. all simples / no terminals?

Bonus configurations like tanyao are rarely used in Mah Jong.  Presumably they simply aren't part of the game you're using.

But as far as you are concerned it is a valid hand in Riichi Mahjong?

It depends on the house rules.  In the rules I've played in the family - yes. In the rules of the club I currently belong to - no.  In the gambling rules that some relatives of mine play - you would be penalised for attempting to lay that hand.

The yaku in the shown hand is Kuitan, not Tanyao.
Tanyao (All Simples) is a standard Yaku, but it applies to closed hands, which that pictured hand is not due to the two claimed discards. There are house rules that allow for Open All Simples, known as Kuitan (which gets its name from being Tanyao formed by "eating" discards).
From a brief bit of googling, there appears to be an option in that game that you can set to enable or disable Kuitan - if that option is disabled, then Kuitan is not considered a valid Yaku, and you won't be allowed to go out with All Simples if your hand is open. I suspect in your case, that option was disabled.

I literally found the Kuitan setting in the game last night and Googled it to learn exactly what you just explained.  Thanks for taking the time out to explain - it was driving me mad.

For anyone else coming here after playing Judgement they may also notice that occasional their dragon pon hand isn't allowed, but at other times it is.  I discovered there is also an option in the settings which defaults to requiring a minimum of 2 han in order for a hand to be valid.  Turn that off and a dragon pon always allows you to go out.

Kuitan is normally considered a type of tan'yao, not a different yaku. E.g., in MahjongSoul, characters will announce "tan'yao" when scoring their hand whether it was open or not.


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Why is this NOT a winning hand
So I play Riichi-Mahjong as a mini game within a Playstation game called "Judgement".  I've enjoyed it a lot and have read various guides online to try to improve my understanding and strategy of the game.
However, I recently achieved the following hand which I believed should have been a winner but I was not allowed to steal the last tile to complete the hand.

My hand is the one at the bottom of the screen.  My understanding is that this hand is in Tenpai waiting on either a 2 or 5 of Characters to complete the left most meld. The rest of my hand is complete, consisting of (a) Pair of Sticks 2, (b) Stick Sequence 3,4,5 (c) Stick Sequence 6,7,8 and (d) East Wind Set (which is both my Seat Wind and the Prevailing Wind).
Now my understanding is having the East Wind set as either a Seat or Prevailing Wind (in my hand it is both) allows me to have an open hand, meaning I can go out with any legal hand.  Hence the only incomplete part of the hand is the Characters 3,4, which is waiting on either a Characters 2 or Characters 5 to complete.
The very last tile discarded in this game was the Characters 2, which can be seen in the discard pile of the player to the left.
However the game did not allow me to steal that tile, and hence the game was declared a draw.  This was somewhat annoying as I make this a 4-Han winning hand by my calculation i.e. East Seat Wind, East Prevailing Wind, a Dora on the Sticks 8, and then stealing the very last discard in the game is also a Han.
I am sure that the game is correct and that there is a knowledge gap in my game here.  I would be most grateful if someone could explain to me why I was not allowed to steal the last tile to complete my hand (the Characters 2) so that I can avoid whatever mistake I have made in future.

The problem is that you were in furiten. As this guide explains, a player may not win from furiten by calling ron (i.e. taking another player's discard), and a player ends up in furiten when:

They have previously discarded any potential winning tiles in the current hand, indicated either by the tile being in their discard rows, or as called tiles in other players’ open melds
One of the potential winning tiles has been discarded since the player declared riichi.
One of the potential winning tiles has been discarded since their last turn, and they did not call it. This is a temporary furiten until the player next discards a tile.

In your case, you discarded a 5-man (just after the Green Dragon), which as you note would have completed your run and hence your hand.

Thanks for taking the time to explain that.  Got to say I can't see the purpose of such a rule.  There is enough going on in this game without discards made many turns ago prohibiting later finishing hands; especially when its not even the same tile.

I think it was designed to prevent griefing moves where you deliberately choose to discard a winning tile so that you can trick someone else into discarding the same and then taking their points. I agree that it's a nasty one though, and I've fallen foul of it many times.

Basically the motivation of the furiten rules is to make it so that players can rest assured that it is safe to discard particular tiles. This facilitates defensive play. E.g., if an opponent has discarded a 7 of bamboo, you know they can't have a wait of 56, so it's likely safe for you to discard a 4 of bamboo (but they still might have a wait of 23 or 35 or 44, so it's not as safe as discarding a 7).


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How to bid a very strong hand with values in only 2 suits?
This hand happened to me in online play. I had:
♠AKQ109 ♥AKQ75 ♦3 ♣QJ
That is 21 high card points, mostly in hearts and spades, both as 5 card suits. So game in either hearts or spades looks good, No Trump is only an option if partner has a stopper in diamonds and clubs. With that many points in my hand we could go to game if partner holds as little as 5 points including shape.
Partner held:
♠7 ♥2 ♦Q987652 ♣K753
I opened 2 clubs, partner responded 2 diamonds as expected. After mentioning first my hearts response 3 diamonds and then my spades partner bid 4 clubs. At that point I though NT could work, partner promised diamonds and clubs but a 4 NT bid would be considered a slam invitation. So instead I bid 4 hearts, hoping partner would chose between either game in hearts or spades. Partner big 5 diamonds instead. I bit 6NT and we went down 3.
Some other players opened the bidding with 1 heart or 1 spades, which was followed by passes all around. Better than my outcome but not good either. Some people opened the bidding with 4 hearts or 4 spades, both made but that seems a massive gamble to me, although both bids made it. Some people opened 2 NT which got a response of 3 NT which then made. That seems like the most desirable outcome but then my hand doesn't look like it should open 2NT with shortness and no stopper in 2 suits.
So what would have been a good course of bidding with this hand?

The hardest strong hands to bid are probably two-suiters with spades as an anchor suit. First, some commentary on the bidding that actually happened:
Always bid your higher suit before your lower suit with two 5-card suits. In this case, it means bidding spades before hearts. Having opened two clubs, your rebid is 2S, not 2H. That gives your partner more room on the next round of bidding. Your auction should have gone 2C-2D; 2S-3D; 3H-3NT. Partner has shown their diamonds and, diagnosing this misfit, should bid 3NT with the fourth suit stopped. If their hand was a bit better, they would have made a positive response to 2C with 3D directly.
I would open 1S with this hand. I don't have game in hand, and two-suiters are difficult to describer over a 2C opening. Partner should respond; their hand has a lot of offensive power, and is stronger than a balanced 7-count that wouldn't consider passing an opening bid. If partner hears a 2C or 2D rebid, good things can happen. As it is, the auction should go 1S-1NT; 3H-3NT. Again, with the unbid suits covered and an extreme misfit, responder should try to get out of the auction in the cheapest game.

@KarlKnechtel Yes, note that the answer says "your rebid is 2S", i.e. after you open 2C and partner responds 2D. I'm not suggesting that this hand should be opened 2S.

In support of opening 1S, I wouldn't have counted the 3 HCP in clubs towards the  hand strength, as they don't appear any more useful than xx in any anticipated game.

2♣ is a horrible bid that should be used when necessary, not a bid you should want to make.  It exists because 12-21 (11-21, 10-21) is already a huge range to resolve, and there has to be a top limit somewhere; not because it's a great bid.
Its biggest problem is that it preempts your auction(1) - as you saw.  ruds' comment is right(2) - if you bid 2♠ first as you should, then at least you've shown your hand at 3♥. It doesn't really help much on this hand (partner's "only hope" is 3NT anyway), but will help tremendously when they can bid 3♠ with say Jx.
But that's just dressing; the key is that two-suiters don't play well with 2♣ openings.
I look for reasons to not bid 2♣; "Big two-suiter" is a huge one(3).  I will only bid it if literally the right K or QQ (and nothing else) will make game(4).  Here, you have three chances if you open 1♠ to be able to show your hand; the chance that one opponent doesn't have a minor preempt (or even a minor 10+) and that partner can't scramble a 1NT or a 2♠ response - and that you can make game - is low.  Lower than many think.
And I note that here, with a not minimum GF responding hand to 2♣ (K, Q, decent suit), even 3NT isn't a lock (3 diamonds, ♣A and whichever major suit long trick you break - assuming one does break 4-3).  Yes, it's a massive misfit, but still.
The way to think about this hand is not "partner might pass 1♠", it's "what do I need to make game?"  And what you need is a) a major fit (Jx counts, likely), and b) minor Aces (kings aren't really helpful, as you see here).  Are you going to lose a spade fit in the auction?  Almost certainly not (yes, you might lose a heart fit).  Is partner going to pass with an Ace?  Almost certainly not (4, again).  So, if you do end up playing at the 1 level, you're likely to be happy about it.  Also, if slam is in the picture, is it going to be easier to find after 1♠ (or 1♠-1NT; 3♥) than after 2♣?  Likely, or at least no harder.
It is truly unfortunate that you hit a massive misfit with a beautiful hand.  Misfits are hard to bid and hard to play no matter what, and sometimes you're going to get to a bad contract or the wrong contract.  You'll have company.

In fact, this is why strong 1♣ systems like Precision exist.  Sure, you're sacrificing more than one opening bid to the strong god (in "standard" Precision, I would say 4: 1♣, 1♦, 2♣ and 2♦) but you get it back with the limited 1 Major openings (and to an extent, the other 3 minor openings), and at least your strong investigations don't start with a preempt (the opponents tend to do that for you, though).
Although I disagree about his "worst hand"; it's two-suiters with primary diamonds, especially diamonds and a major.
And if your system over 2♣ is "2♦ GF, 2♥ ultra-negative", that's another reason; what are you going to do if partner bids 2♥?  Remember, ♠Jx ♥Jx and out likely makes game; ♠432 ♥432 is about 50%; are you likelier to find that out after 2♣-2♥ than after 1♠-pass (remember, opponents might save you!)?  How do you bid the hand?
My convention cards, in the space marked "minimum for response", has "Ace or 6 HCP".  I would strongly suggest at least discussing adopting this treatment.

With 21 points in my hand, the 3 others have 19 between them, giving an expected value of 6.33 HCP for partner. So not having 6 HCP for a 1NT response is actually not that unlikely. But I guess if this happens, just being in 1 spade is probably not that bad.

or and Ace, or SJxx and (a K or a singleton) which raises, or...But also, if partner can't come up with a response, then the opponents, with (if we have one) a fit, might.  And if neither - as I said, 1S might be a great contract.

Fair note that 2C auctions with long diamonds are terrible, but I'm much less worried about 1D passing out than 1S.

heh, true.  But (and OP, this is going way beyond the scope of your question) that's why modern bidding is moving to "I don't respond to partner's opener without at least 13 cards", and eating the fail case when partner has 18 flat.  And my concern about 1D passed out is not when I have a big hand with lots of diamonds - it's when I have a big hand and they have lots of diamonds :-).  Of course, my primary partnership is weak NT, so 1D tends to be sound, so partner stretches even more to bid than standard - that may colour my thoughts as well.

A good summary! I did upvote the other answers as well. Two comments: I agree about 2-suiters with diamonds being the most inconvenient hands to describe. My related horror story comes from BBO, playing with a bot. I was dealt AKQxxx,-, AKQJxxx,- I stretch to open 2-suiters at one level (for the listed reasons), but surely this is a 2C-opener. Well. My GIB partner had a good hand and responded 2H. Still unperturbed I continued with 2S. And the bot jumped to 6NT. Needless to say, we didn't get to the correct grand.

The other comment I wanted to add is that in these parts many pairs who don't play a strong club use Gazzilli to make it easier to describe the strong hands. An attempt to gain some of the advantages the strong clubbers have while keepind the system mostly natural.

Given what you said about the results, I wonder about the standard of defensive play among your opponents.  But, ignoring that...
Yes, opening 2 suited hands 2C tends to cause lots of problems because you can't show both of your suits below the 3 level.  I would open this one 2C because you have a good chance at game opposite xxx xxx xxxx xxx, but I wouldn't object to partner opening 1S.
Assuming a 2C opening, it goes
2C - 2D - 2S - 3D - 3H (yes you must bid spades first with equal suits, because the extra step you get by having shown both your suits with 3H rather than needing to get to 3S to show both your suits is huge).
Now I really disagree with 4C at this point.  On general principles, the 4th suit shouldn't be natural, and on general principles, new suits at the 4 level shouldn't be natural.  What can you gain by bidding 4C naturally?  Partner can't have a club fit for you; they have 9 or likely 10 major suit cards, which doesn't leave much room for 4 clubs.  If partner bid 4C, I would take that as an artificial bid supporting hearts and suggesting slam.
That leaves 4D or 3N.  I don't like 3N - partner's high cards are useful in either 3N or 5D, but I might have zero entries to my hand in 3N.  Picture partner with AKxxx AKxxx AK x and 5D is odds on while 3N is hopeless against competent defense since you never get to hand to run your diamonds.
So it goes 2C - 2D - 2S - 3D - 3H - 4D.  Now 4H, and then 5D.  At this point, you should be aware that partner's hand looks like xx xx xxxxxxx xx and pass, knowing that you're likely already too high.  (And you are, likely down 2.)
Assuming a 1S opening, I think you have to respond 1N with that 5 count.  If partner has a fit for either minor, you can make game even if they don't have that many points.  So it goes 1S - 1N - 3H, and you wish you had passed.  Now the question is whether 4D is natural or not; people play it either way.  If 4D is natural, that's the bid with this hand, and you'll probably end up at 5D.  If it's not natural, then the question is whether 5D is natural or not.  You're either forced to bid 3N with a misfit or end up in 5D.
Finally, just for amusement (KK relay with relays at +2 after power 1H, if I remember the system correctly):
1C (artificial 16+ any) - 1D (artificial 0-8 any)
1H (hearts or artificial 20+ any) - 2D (gf opposite 20+, clubs)
2H (confirming 20+, asking for more description) - 2N (diamonds longer than clubs)
3C (forced, asking for more info) - 3H (2254 or 1174)
3N (to play) - 4D (1174, one king, no aces)
and opener can pass.


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In Pokemon, is the 'Attack' action the last action that is performed on your turn?
Is the 'Attack' action the last action you take during your turn or can you take other actions after this is done?

Typically yes, attacking is the last action you take prior to ending your turn. See the TCG Rulebook, page 9.

Attack. Then, end your turn.

Some turns you may take other actions to end your turn and not attack. But there is no second main phase like in Magic. Once you declare an attack there is no more playing cards unless the attack requires it.

Thanks for the answer :) I'm use to playing Magic and having that second main phase.

Indeed - the reverse here, I rarely remember to save mana for second main. But the reason is that there are no instants - and so no reason to save resources. It is a simpler turn, in some ways.

Yeah it is, but a bit confusing in some other ways haha. Only started playing it as my step-son was really keen on the game. He kept stating that you could take other actions after attacking, hence the question.

Yep, it’s very common for kids that learn on the playground to learn a lot of rules differently than the official rules!  Consider trying out the online game (PTCGO) to get an idea of the complete official rules - it’s free to play.

YGO also has phases after the attack phase, that allow players to respond to any trap cards or flip effects that their opponent activates as a direct result of an attack. This mechanic isn't in Pokemon, so extra phases aren't often necessary or even desirable.


text:
Double the rent doubles the house value also in monopoly deal
If there is one full set of blue card the rent value is 8m, with a house on it it is 11m.
If a player plays double the rent cards, what amount should be payed? 8+8+3m or 11+11m?

22m - the rent is the total you need to pay, house and property, not just the base value of the property with the houses added in afterwards.


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Does anyone know where this weird blue and green laughing chess set is from?
I found this really weird chess set at a thrift store. Does anyone know where it’s from? (I bought it because, obviously).

If you really want to play chess, I suggest that you orient the board correctly : the lower-right hand corner square should be a light square, not a dark one. Not doing so would invert the positions of the queens and the kings...

But note that Umbra either considers Blue to be white and Green to be black or don't know the rules of chess, either. The packaging shows blue on the right (and it's sown more clearly on the back).

@L.ScottJohnson : That is terribly confusing. However, in that case, the pieces on their packaging are correctly set up.

It's a "playmate" chess set by Umbra. UPC: 028295167055


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Time Stories Asylum - missing card 1
Just got this game from a friend and card 1 that starts the Base card section is missing - does anyone have it? A screenshot or the the text would be great. Possibly it just says to read Base cards A to G from left to right but maybe it has other important info?

There isn't much to it, you assumed correctly. Here's the card:


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Using train stations in other editions
Can you use the train stations from the European edition with any other editions?.  Like with London or Pennsylvania.

I own or have played all versions of Ticket To Ride.
Ticket To Ride - Europe is the only version that I know of that uses stations.
As a house rule, there is nothing that will prevent you from using the stations with the other versions but you will then not be playing according to the official rules.

Do you have any insight as to how the presence of stations will affect the other versions?

I think the stations were introduced into TTR Europe because the map is so tight and too many games would see players abandoning routes that they couldn't complete, a depressing finish for a game. Adding stations to other more open versions would probably shorten the game dramatically because it would prevent blocking.

Stations might work out when you have 1 fewer or 1 more player than needed for double routes.