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In Kill Team, can a Genestealer Cult team have a genestealer?
I'm new to Kill Team and got the starter box. Looking through my old bitz box, I found a few genestealers which I thought "Perfect! I will add them to my genestealer cult."
But looking through the Kill Team book, I can be sure if I can use those genestealer in my force or if I have to use them as proxy for something else.

Yes you can
In the Kill Team book, just above the entries for the Genestealer cults, there is a one-liner that explicitly states it.
Odd location, I would've preferred to have the Genestealer entry to have the Genestealer Cult Faction Keyword.


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Triominos Bridge Rules
I recently had an argument with my wife about a "correct" bridge in triominos.
I got a "bridge" figure, but with a flaw: the numbers at the tops of the two tiles didn't match. (see image).
So my questions:
1. is this allowed?
2. does this qualify for "bridge" extra points?
My suggestions:
1. Yes, it's allowed, since my printed rules do not forbid it.
2. No, allowed but no extra points, since it's not a "real" bridge.

You must match all three numbers so this is not allowed. So you can not place the tile there.
In this version of the rules:

Bridges are made by matching one side of the tile and the point opposite. Score the tile's points plus a 40 point bonus

That answers question 2 ("does this qualify for bridge extra points"), whereas the answer will be "no extra points, if top points don't match".
Question 1 ("is this allowed") is still open or undefined, even in the rules you mentioned it's not explicitly prohibited to lay down a tile like mentioned.
I also contacted GoliathToys, but I don't think they gonna answer...

It is not allowed. I have an older version of the game in which the rules where clearer but I can not scan them now.

Bridges are made by matching one side of the tile and the point opposite. The point opposite has to match, no other tiles accepted. The rules are clear.

Welcome to Board & Card games. Please expand your answer, and preferably add a link to rules. Because as it is now, this answer does not add anything new.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How do Nexus of Fate decks win?
How do Nexus of Fate decks like Simic Nexus win? I see plenty of them but I see absolutely no creatures or win conditions in the main board. The entire deck is based off getting lands to Nexus of Fate. It seems like the way these decks work are based off getting your opponent to concede, is this correct?

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


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Copying Etrata, the Silencer, but not its name
If I copy Etrata, the Silencer, but not its name as in the case of Lazav, the Multifarious; will its copied abilities work since Etrata's ability states "When Etrata deals damage" and Lazav doesn't copy Etrata's name? Or would it require the card to possess both the ability and name?

Self referential text always refers to the card, regardless of the name. Copied self referential text works the same, it refers to the copy.

Related (not duplicate): https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/35535/how-does-having-multiple-permanents-with-the-same-name-affect-those-permanents

Its copied abilities would definitely work, even though Lazav is still named Lazav. See rule 201.4:

201.4. Text that refers to the object it’s on by name means just that particular object and not any other objects with that name, regardless of any name changes caused by game effects.
201.4b If an ability of an object refers to that object by name, and an object with a different name gains that ability, each instance of the first name in the gained ability that refers to the first object by name should be treated as the second name.

In other words "Whenever Etrata deals combat damage to a player" and "Etrata's owner shuffles Etrata into their library." are simply "friendly" ways to write "Whenever this object deals combat damage to a player" and "This object's owner shuffles this object into their library."


text:
Can you tap the same land twice in a turn?
So i am wondering if you could use cards to allow you to play a land, tap it, send it back to your hand, then tap it again.
For example:

Play forest, tap it
Play Selesnya Sanctuary, send forest to hand
Play Urban Evolution
Play forest, tap it

And maybe

Untap it with Kiora's Follower to tap it a total of 3 times

Does this work?

There are no limits on how many times an object can be tapped in a given turn, and only the Loyalty abilities of Planeswalkers are limited in the number of times they can be activated in a turn. (You can only activate a Planeswalker's loyalty abilities if none have been activated that turn.) Of course, some cards might have abilities that impose additional limits.

I think the other answer by doppelgreener puts too much emphasis on 400.7. I don't think that that rule is relevant at all. Rather, we have

107.5. The tap symbol is {T}. The tap symbol in an activation cost means “Tap this permanent.” A permanent that’s already tapped can’t be tapped again to pay the cost. A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since their most recent turn began.

along with

110.6. A permanent’s status is its physical state. There are four status categories, each of which has two
  possible values: tapped/untapped, flipped/unflipped, face up/face down, and phased in/phased out.
  Each permanent always has one of these values for each of these categories.
110.6b Permanents enter the battlefield untapped, unflipped, face up, and phased in unless a spell or
  ability says otherwise

So nothing in rule 110.6 says that a permanent remembers that it has previously been tapped; it is either tapped or untapped, and that's it. Nothing in rule 107.5 cares what has happened to a permanent earlier when you decide whether the tap symbol is a cost you're allowed to pay (except summoning sickness on creatures). Only its status in that exact moment.
If a permanent is untapped (regardless of why), then you are allowed to activate abilities it has with the tap symbol in the cost (unless it's a creature with summoning sickness). When you play the forest in step 4, it comes into play untapped as per 110.6b. You can then tap it to get a green mana. When it has been untapped by Kiora's follower, it is untapped, which means 107.5 once again allows you to activate its ability.

Yes, that's fine.
(Strictly speaking one thing isn't fine: you seem to describe playing a forest and then a Selesnya's Sanctuary in the same turn, which requires one more land play than you've got this turn! But let's just assume you played another Urban Evolution between steps 1 and 2 to let you do this.)
First, when you're dealing with zone changes, this rule becomes really important:

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

This means when that forest card moves between your hand and your battlefield, it's effectively a completely new thing as far as the game cares. When it returns to your hand and is played again later, the new forest has nothing to do with the old forest which just happened to be represented by the same card. They enter a new zone in a brand new state each time.
This means when you play the forest initially, you can tap it like a normal forest. When you put it back onto the battlefield again later after Urban Evolution, you have a different brand new forest, and it's untapped, and you can tap it again.
(There are some exceptions listed in the full text of rule 400.7. These exceptions mostly have to do with effects that make cards change zones and which must be able to do things with the same cards in the new zone.)

Untap it with Kiora's Follower to tap it a total of 3 times

Yep, that's one of the primary uses of a card like that: tap a land for mana, then untap it so you can tap it for more mana. If you had four Kiora's Followers, you could do this another three times. Back in Theros, contemporary with Kiora's Follower, we'd preferably do this with our Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for a considerable amount of mana.

Thanks! I now have to find a way to fit temple of the false gods into one of my decks to abuse that. This is bound to be fun!

I suggest that the answer be generalized to cover all lands, which is the what the title of the question and the first sentence of the question body ask about, as opposed to only covering the specific example of "Forest". I also suggest that the answer not mention rule 400.7, as even though the question involves a zone change, it is not the zone change that allows the Forest to be tapped again. Rather, it is the untapped state of the Forest that allows it to be tapped again. I deleted all of my previous comments, as they weren't phrased in a way that could be understood as a suggestion.

@Rainbolt Thank you for this suggestion. I think that's not a bad idea, so I'll revise. I'd still like to clarify the land card itself doesn't get "spent" somehow, but I can put less emphasis on that.


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Butcher of Malakir timing
I control Butcher of Malakir and Sakura-Tribe Elder and my opponent controls no creatures. They cast Duplicant targeting my Butcher of Malakir. If I react by sacrificing Sakura-Tribe Elder, does he has to sacrifice Duplicant?

Here is how it goes down:
Your opponent casts Duplicant, putting it on the stack. You both let it resolve(*), so it enters the battlefield. The Duplicant's ability triggers, and is put on stack, targeting the Butcher.
Before the ability resolves, you sacrifice the Tribe Elder and put its ability on the stack. The Butcher triggers, and its ability is put on stack. The stack now looks like this, from top to bottom:

Butcher's ability
Tribe Elder's ability
Duplicant's ability

Assuming no more interference, the Butcher's ability will pop off the stack first, requiring your opponent to sacrifice a creature (which has to be the Duplicant). Then you get to search your library for a basic land card and put it into play tapped. Then the Butcher is exiled from the Duplicant's ability (which is unaffected by the Duplicant's fate).

(*) Say you sacrifice the Tribe Elder while the Duplicant is on the stack instead of letting it enter the battlefield first. Then after the Butcher's ability has triggered and been put on the stack, the stack looks like this:

Butcher's ability
Tribe Elder's ability
Duplicant

As before, first the Butcher's ability triggers. Since your opponent controls no  creatures, nothing happens. Then you get to search your library for a basic land card and put it into play tapped.
Then the Duplicant enters the battlefield, and its ability triggers. Your opponent targets the Butcher, and assuming no other interference, the Duplicant's ability triggers, exiling the Butcher and making the Duplicant a 5/4 Artifact Creature - Vampire Warrior Shapeshifter.


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Meld points in a double deck pinochle game
In a double deck game of pinochle jacks around is worth 4 points. Queens around is worth 6 points. A pinochle ( jack of diamond, queen of spade) is worth 4 point. Therefore when you have queens and jacks around your total point score is 14. However, when another jack of diamond and a queen of spade is added to the mix, creating a double pinochle worth 30 points, what would be the total points awarded for a double pinochle with queens and jacks around?

You would have 6 points for the Queens, 4 points for the Jacks, and 30 points for the double pinochle, for a total of 40 points.
This is really no different than the single pinochle case that you list; you just have 30 points instead of 4 for the pinochle points, so 26 more points than your first example.


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Are eliminated "Vulture Sam" and "Herb Hunter" triggered by "Ghost Town"?
In High Noon expansion, there is a card named Ghost Town:

During their turn, eliminated players return to the game as ghosts. They draw 3 cards instead of 2, and they cannot die. At the end of their turn, they are eliminated again.

Supposing that, when Gost Town is in play, there is an eliminated player with either Herb Hunter or Vulture Sam. When a ghost is eliminated, is the ability of these players triggered? i.e. Should Herb Hunter draws 2 extra cards whenever a ghost ends his/her turn?
For the sake of the question, this is the description of Herb Hunter:

Each time another player is eliminated, he draws 2 extra cards.

And this is the description of Vulture Sam:

Whenever a player is eliminated from play, he takes in hand all the cards of that player.

IMHO they are not triggered when a ghost dies because the eliminated players return to the game during their turn and not when Gost Town is played, but I'm not sure and I posted this question because me and my friends didn't agree on this point.

Also, since it exist the tag bang-high-noon, it should also exist bang-dodge-city which Herb Hunter belongs to. I cannot create it since I don't have enough reputation. If some of you want to add it, he/she will be welcome.

created the tag for you.

Yes, according to a dodge city faq from the developer. It should be noted that when ghost town is in play players who have been eliminated are still considered eliminated and not part of the game when it is not their turn. If a player had been previously eliminated any abilities their character had will not activate unless it is their turn.
FAQ

Q15. How the ability of Greg Digger and Herb Hunter must be applied when a ghost leaves play due to the Ghost Town?
  A. Each time a ghost leaves play, Greg Digger regains 2 life points while Herb Hunter draws 2 cards from the deck.

It should be noted that when ghost town is in play players who have been eliminated are still considered eliminated and not part of the game when it is not their turn. If a player had been previously eliminated any abilities their character had will not activate unless it is their turn.

Note that my question is about an eliminated player with Greg Digger or Herb Hunter.

@gvgramazio I am not sure what it doesn't answer. The FAQ is stating that the rules for Greg Digger and Herb hunter work exactly the same when a player is brought back with ghost town as when they get eliminated normally. This also means that Vulture Sam works as normal with ghost town and would get all the cards from the player as normal.

Sorry, I think that I wasn't clear enough in my question. Suppose that we have two eliminated players A and B. A comes before B and B is Greg Digger. When Ghost Town comes into play, A resurrects, plays and at the end of his/her turn got eliminated. Does the ability of Greg Digger trigger or not? In your answer, you suppose that Greg Digger isn't eliminated when Ghost Town comes into play.

If you feel that I wasn't clear enough in my question, please, feel free to edit it.

@gvgramazio I added some clarification to state that players are still eliminated and have no abilities while ghost town is in play if it is not their turn.


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How does Slivdrazi Monstrosity affect Eldrazi that already have Annihilator?
Slivdrazi Monstrosity is a card that makes all Eldrazi also Slivers, and gives all Slivers Devoid and Annihilator 1.
How would the effect Eldrazi creatures that already have Annihilator? Would this be redundant, having no effect? Would it create two separate Annihilator triggers for them? Would it just increase their Annihilator count by one?

Instances of Annihilator are independent of each other. Each instance triggers separately.

702.86a Annihilator is a triggered ability. “Annihilator N” means “Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices N permanents.”

702.86b If a creature has multiple instances of annihilator, each triggers separately.

Note that multiple instances don't simply add up. They trigger and resolve separately. That usually doesn't matter, but it does give players an opportunity to cast spells and activate abilities between those instances, if desired. Also there are ways to counter triggered abilities, so one of these counters would not be enough to counter multiple instances of Annihilator on the stack.

"That usually doesn't matter" It does mean that if someone is a stickler, they can demand you specify what order you're putting them on the stack.


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Bridge Scoring Question
Rubber Bridge:  Declarer is vulnerable.  The bid is 3 clubs.  Declarer only makes 5 tricks for down 4.  What is the penalty?

I already knew the answer, however a bridge buddy is insistent that unmade tricks towards book do not count towards a penalty, only those odd tricks above book are considered for penalties.

Four tricks down vulnerable not doubled is 100 points per trick, 400 points total for the opposing team. Nobody scores below the line, opponents do get 400 points above the line.
More information here.


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Using English cards in France
I'm an American living in France, and I want to play Magic the Gathering. Would it be a problem if I buy English printed cards to play in FNM and official tournaments here? Should I just stick to French printed cards since English printed cards may not be allowed?

Keep in mind that OP is asking about france, where they are pretty nationalistic about their language, so it's not out of the question they dont give a shit about the CR in that regard.

@Hackworth We would not be able to answer that question though as it would depend on the local rules where they are playing and only the country was provided. So all we can do is state what the official rules are.

Je ne sais pas.

Agreed. We can say what official tournaments allow and what Friday Night Magic official guidelines allow, which is what the OP is asking. We cannot say what local store XYZ (or casual players at those stores) do because we most likely have never been there.

Legally you are able to use cards in any language anywhere, by strict rules of MTG. That doesn't mean everyone will like you having cards they cannot read and need to look up the oracle text for in their language if they don't recognize the card.

Thank you all for participating in this post! I now understand that official rules state that I can use cards of any language anywhere, from FNM to official tournaments. It would make it easier to play with French cards, not only to make things easier but to simply have fun and not having to pause the game for my opponent to understand a card in English (even though I prefer to play Magic in my native language haha). Thank you all!

@Magic101 As a casual observation from a french player, most french players will have a basic understanding of english and even if they are not good at it they will be able to read english cards. English is virtually mandatory to learn at school and most people will have the bases. Of course younger people remember better what they learnt at school :) English cards are very commonplace in France (some products are not sold in french like bundles).


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Is Vivien of the Wilds + Wilderness Reclamation a competitive combo?
Vivien, Champion of the Wilds is a new planeswalker which allows casting creatures with instant speed. I want to combine it with Wilderness Reclamation to be able to double my mana during my end step and cast a giant Hydroid Krasis.  The best case scenario for the deck is:

turn 1 - Llanowar Elves
turn 2 - Incubation Druid
turn 3 - Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
turn 4 - Wilderness Reclamation + adapt the Incubation Druid
turn 5 - Cast a 12/12 Hydroid Krasis during the endstep

Will it be competitive in Standard?
Also adding a biogenic ooze and simic ascendancy may win you a game. Maybe also add hadanas climb?

Any combo deck looks good "on paper" (pun intentional) if it hits all its draws and doesn't have to fight any disruption. What's your plan if you don't but all your draws and/or any of your pieces get countered?

I'd advise you to build the deck, test and modify. I'm pretty sure you'll end up cutting the Viviens though.

Wilderness Reclamation does not double your mana, it just untaps your lands during other players upkeep.

Wilderness Reclamation can effectively double your mana during your end step, because it untaps all of your lands, so you can tap each land twice during that end step.

Can you tap the lands at the beginning of the end step? It is at the beginning NOT during.

@aslum yes you can

Let me start by saying this is a really cool idea, and it may be a very fun deck to play in casual format.  Alternatively, you could add this combo to an existing competitive deck that is already leveraging pieces of this combo in other ways (there is at least one suggestion in the comments).
However, this combo on its own is very unlikely to be competitive in standard given how many pieces you need for it to go off.  It's a three card combo at it's heart (Vivien + Wilderness Reclimation + Krasis) that also requires mana acceleration to go off on a reasonable timeframe.  The best-case you present is a turn 7 win, and your whole first 5 turns were spent setting it up, leaving you little buffer to react to your opponent or handle disruption.  On top of that, your plan is very brittle; most combos are vulnerable to control, but yours is also vulnerable to burn and aggro due to many of your key mana sources being creatures and one of your key cards being a planeswalker.
Compare your combo to Carnage Tyrant + Blanchwood Armor, which requires a similar mana base.  This creates a similar sized beater on a similar timeframe.  However, it has several advantages:

Carnage Tyrant is resistant to both control and burn
You can still win with Carnage Tyrant even if you don't draw Blanchwood Armor
It's mono-green, meaning you don't need a complex mana base and can't get color-screwed
You can do other things in your early turns, like Commune With Dinosaurs to help set you up or Vine Mare to defend you from an aggro deck or start an early offense against a control deck.

That is not to say Hydroid Krasis is worse than Carnage Tyrant.  In fact, Krasis is a competitive card in the current standard, but it tends to find its home in control decks rather than combo, especially since card advantage is a big focus of control and Krasis doubles as card advantage and a finisher.
Another thing to notice about decks that use Krasis in the current meta is that (aside from Llanowar Elves) they tend to focus on creatures with the "Explore" ability rather than creatures that tap directly for mana.  While Explore is slower in terms of mana ramp, it is more resilient as it is still relying on land-based mana, and it lets you do a bit of deck filtering/thinning as well.  In your case in particular, you want land mana rather than creature mana because Wilderness Reclamation only untaps lands.

thank you guys i appreciate all of your answers.i just wanted to create a cool deck but i guess it wont work :(

@SharaShara It may very well work as a fun deck to play with your friends.  Casual and tournament environments are very different.

One other thing to consider is that this combo isn't in isolation; you have the rest of the deck to work with.  So, depending on the rest of this deck, this combo might just be a small part that fits in.

I think this "combo" would work fairly well within the existing Sultai deck, that run Krasis and Reclamation already.

@TheForestAndTheTrees With how many creatures? I think Vivien needs more creatures that benefit from flash. Or did you mean the Tyrant / Armor thing?

Hydroid Krasis is already played in some variants of the relatively popular Wilderness Reclamation deck. Being able to create a large creature, gain some life, draw cards and then immediately have access to the cards thanks to your refreshed mana pool is a genuinely powerful effect.
Your main issue with this combo is just the inclusion of Vivien, who doesn't have a lot to do in a deck without very many non-flash creatures. You find yourself in sort of a catch-22 here; Vivien's main purposes are to dig for creatures and give them flash, so she works well in a deck with a high density of creatures without flash.
Unfortunately on draws wherein you don't draw or can't protect Vivien, your reclamation won't synergize very well with non-flash creatures. Similarly, Vivien loses value if most of your creatures already have flash. If there are cheaper or more flexible ways to give creatures flash in the format, that may be worth looking into!


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Uno: With a last card power card, are you allowed to play it after you draw a card?
Assuming you play with the following rules:

You can't end on a power card (+4, color change)
If you can't play and draw a card you are allowed to play it immediatly if that card does match

If you're holding a power card and you draw a card since you can't end on a power card, can you then play the power card instantly (in the same turn like rule 2) since you have 2 cards now?

Since this question is centered around a house rule I added the house rule tag.

According to these rules

If the player has no matches or they choose not to play any of their
  cards even though they might have a match, they must draw a card from
  the Draw pile. If that card can be played, play it. Otherwise, the
  game moves on to the next person in turn.

You need to play the card you just drew. So you can not use the power card.

I'll assume that the house rule posed doesn't contradict the other rules, one of which is that it is explicitly illegal to draw a card and then play a card that one could have played. Drawing a card by choice disallows one the right to play from one's hand later that turn (and if you weren't drawing by choice, you don't have that right anyway).

That said, may I propose a house rule that allows this? If you don't want players to just hoard wild cards to win, one could impose If one's final card is a wild card, they may play it, but must draw one card so that they still have one card left at the end of their turn (and as such, must declare "UNO" or be at risk of being caught)".

Regarding the first part of your post, that is what made it so confusing. There was no card that could have been palyed since it was a power card, but it became playable the second a new card was drawn.

Except by choosing to draw, playing a card that you didn't just draw is illegal. If you draw a power card, you can play that.

"If you don't want players to just hoard wild cards to win" ...then use the scoring rules! Hoarding wild cards then becomes a risk, because if your opponent goes out first, that wild card is a huge point penalty for you. Hoard zeroes instead! ;)

@DanHenderson True. Very rarely does anyone use the actual scoring.


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Texas Hold ‘em Rules
I have recently played some cash games in Las Vegas and I have found that there are a number of unwritten rules that seem to have poor coherence between different players and dealers. Tournament rules seem a bit less nebulous.
Is there a standardized set of rules for Texas Hold ‘em?
Is it a law or does each casino have their own set of rules?
Are they required to have written rules?
If so, could you link me to the rule book?
Any (Las Vegas) casino’s rules will do.

Could you give an example of some of these "unwritten rules"?

Almost guarantee that these rules are either written somewhere and you didn't find them, or they're not rules, they're etiquette.

I think the question is fine, even if not as clearly worded as it could be. Seems like basically the question is "does Texas Hold'em have official rules, or are the rules just a general convention agreed on that people and casinos can decide for themselves?" It's a reasonable question because while games like Monopoly or Catan are officially owned by a specific company with official rules created by that company, most traditional card games tend to work differently.

Whilst this can not be exhaustive, every casino I've played in (this is UK, not USA) has had the rules on display somewhere, particularly those concern live play that can't happen on line such as 'string betting/raising'.
In my experience they have all been based on Robert's Rules Of Poker
You might also get a better answer/more specific on

Poker StackExchange

The casinos MUST publish AND POST their rules.  There are no such thing as "unwritten" rules.  There may be rules of ettiquitte. If someone does something that is not allowed by the publically posted rules, call attention to the dealer AND if the dealer does nothing to enforce the rules, call the floor manager.
If they do not rule in your favor, cash out your chips & leave the casino immediately.
IF THE DEALER shows he can do majic tricks with the deck, LEAVE THE CASINO IMMEDIATELY after cashing out your chips.
Dealers that have special card tricks & skills can easily give you half ass cards & give their friends the winning cards.
There are MANY, very skilled, card shuffling dealers, so watch out for yourself & your money.


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Sorry 7 split rule
In Sorry, when using the 7 split card, am I allowed to split the 7 to bump an opponents pawn to home and finish the count with another pawn of mine. It doesn't really specify in rules of the 7 split but I am allowed to bump opponent if I land on their spot in bump rules. Please clarify.

Possible duplicate of In Sorry can I split a 7 move card to a single pawn and move it only 2?

Not a duplicate... the linked question is answered by pointing out that there is no legal move that adds up to 7 in that situation, which is not the case here. The answer here may be the opposite of the other question, but even if it’s the same, it’s for a different reason.

Yes, you can split the seven between two pawns. If one of the pawns ends on a space occupied by another player's pawn, that other pawn is sent back to Start (not Home).
The only restrictions noted for the split are that you must use all of the 7, and you cannot start your own pawn.

7 - Moves one pawn forward 7 spaces or can split the forward move
  between any two pawns. Using this card to start a pawn is against the
  Sorry rules. The instructions do state that you can part of the 7 to
  get a pawn Home but that you must be able to use the balance of the
  move for another pawn.

http://www.boardgamecapital.com/sorry-rules.htm
If you mean "split" the seven into two moves with a single pawn, then no. That's not splitting the seven. (again by the quoted rules)


text:
UNO do I need to call it again?
Ok - help me solve a family argument! I called UNO on my last card, but the player immediately before me on the next round played a miss a turn card. Do I need to call uno again or because I missed a turn am I covered?

Can you be more specific about what you mean. Are you saying you went from 1 card in your hand to 2 cards and back down to 1 card or something else?

Related (or maybe dupe actually): https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/39590/do-i-need-to-call-uno-after-swapping-hands?rq=1

The official rules state:

When you play your next-to-last card, you must yell “UNO” (meaning “one”) to indicate that you have only one card left. If you don’t yell “UNO” and you are caught before the next player begins their turn, you must draw two cards.

It says nothing about calling UNO when your turn comes up or if you somehow end up with 1 card in your hand via other means (swapping hands, etc.).

I don't think this applies in this case because I think the op is just asking if they have to call uno again when they have a single card in their hand and their turn was also skipped. So it is not about ending with 1 card in hand but starting and ending with 1 card in hand while taking no action.

@joe-w It doesn't seem like there's a situation where a skipped player could also play a card to trigger the requirement for calling out 'Uno'.

@KMR That is why I asked the op for clarification as I don't see how a player can go change cards in hand when they are skipped turn wise.


text:
Just say no vs dealbreaker
If player 1 plays a dealbreaker for player 2, can player 3 place a just say no card or can it only be the person the card is played to? In this example, can only player 2 place a just say no?

Player 3 is not able to counter the "DEAL BREAKER" card.
As per the rules text on the card, you can only play a "JUST SAY NO!" card when an action has been played against you, you can't play it to cancel action cards played against other players.


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Pocketing queen when not allowed
What happens if you hit the queen in when you're not supposed to?

From The Laws of Carrom:

95) a) If the Queen is pocketed before any C/m of the player is
  pocketed, the Queen shall be taken out for placing and the player
  shall lose his turn.
b) If a player pockets the Queen, while there is a Due against him,
  the Queen shall be taken out for placing and the player shall lose his
  turn.
c) However, if after recovery of Due and/or penalty, all the nine C/m
  are on the C/B, a player shall have the right to pocket the Queen and
  to cover it.
d) If, at the break or in a subsequent stroke when all his nine C/m
  are on the C/B, the Queen is pocketed along with the Striker, the
  Queen shall be taken out for placing and a Due shall be declared. The
  player shall lose his turn.


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Dictate of Erebos and Attrition
If an opponent has Dictate of Erebos and Attrition and then activates attrition targeting one of my creatures in what order are the effects added to the stack?
I assume Attrition is added first targeting my creature and then Dictate of Erebos is added on top. Can I sacrifice the targeted creature and then the Attrition effect is countered?

You have it correct; Dictate of Erebos will be on top and resolve first.
In fact, Attrition's ability is actually added to the stack before any creature has even been sacrificed.

602.2a The player announces that they are activating the ability. If an activated ability is being activated from a hidden zone, the card that has that ability is revealed. That ability is created on the stack as an object that’s not a card. It becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. Its controller is the player who activated the ability. The ability remains on the stack until it’s countered, it resolves, or an effect moves it elsewhere.
602.2b The remainder of the process for activating an ability is identical to the process for casting a spell listed in rules 601.2b–i. Those rules apply to activating an ability just as they apply to casting a spell. An activated ability’s analog to a spell’s mana cost (as referenced in rule 601.2f) is its activation cost.

602.2b is where the costs are paid; where your opponent will sacrifice a creature.

603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn’t do anything at this point.

It will only be added to the stack after Attrition's ability is on the stack and paid for; before a player gets priority:

704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 116, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event. If any state-based actions are performed as a result of a check, the check is repeated; otherwise all triggered abilities that are waiting to be put on the stack are put on the stack, then the check is repeated.

So yes, you can sacrifice the targeted creature to Dictate; which will cause Attrition to do nothing when it tries to resolve.
Note that the Attrition ability won't actually be "countered". It will simply fail to resolve and leave the stack. This is a change to the rules introduced in  2018.

If all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal, the spell or ability doesn’t resolve. It’s removed from the stack and, if it’s a spell, put into its owner’s graveyard.

"Note that the Attrition ability won't actually be "countered". It will simply fail to resolve and leave the stack." And the targeted creature will be dead, so Attrition would still have done what is was intended to do.


text:
Controlling an opponent's Cosima, God of the Voyage
If I gain control of an opponent's Cosima, God of the Voyage and exile it on upkeep who chooses to return Cosima when a land enters the battlefield? What if I Clone an opponent's cosima? Will the clone gain Cosima's abilities in exile and enter with +1/+1 counters if it returns?

The answer to both of these scenarios hinges on the somewhat unusual way Cosima's ability works. Cosima has one triggered ability that exiles itself and then grants the object it became in exile (which is a different game object than it was on the battlefield) a second triggered ability. This second ability is what gives Cosima voyage counters and returns it to the battlefield, and it does so independently of the first ability that granted it.

In your first scenario, when Cosima's first ability triggers and exiles it, the change of control effect ends and it becomes a new game object. Cards in exile don't have controllers, only owners, so Cosima's owner becomes the controller of its second ability when it triggers, and is the player referred to by "you may...".
Because Cosima's owner is the controller of the ability placing it on the battlefield, they're also the controller of the permanent that it becomes.

In your second scenario, the Clone has a copy of Cosima's first ability. When it triggers and the Clone is exiled, it stops being a copy of Cosima, but it still grants the same second triggered ability that Cosima would, which gives it counters and brings it back in the usual way.
If the Clone's controller returns it to the battlefield, they may choose a creature for it to copy as usual. This may be Cosima (if it's still around) or something else. Either way, it gains X +1/+1 counters and its controller draws X cards.

Your answer looks essentially correct to me, but Cosima's ability is a triggered ability, not an activated ability.

@murgatroid99 I can't believe I didn't notice that. Now I need to figure out how to explain this without saying "the triggered ability" until I'm blue in the face.


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Are there any good white and/or blue token generators?
I’m looking for something that’ll summon 1 or more tokens per turn so I can use Soul Warden and Ajani's Pridemate at full power. Can be in modern, legacy, or standard but I prefer modern. Thank you :)

Standard? Modern? Legacy? Vintage? Commander? Something else?

Modern, legacy, and/or standard, but I prefer modern

If you accept planeswalkers as your tool to generate tokens multiple turns you may use one of these:

Dovin, Grand Arbiter as a Blue and White option
Karn, Scion of Urza as a Colorless option
Nahiri, the Lithomancer as a Mono White option
Ugin, the Ineffable as a Colorless option
Tezzeret, Artifice Master as a Mono Blue option

Now if you want creatures, these are the two best options I've got:

Mycologist as a Mono white option
Pallid Mycoderm also as a Mono White option


text:
Diplomacy: double attack on a region
Diplomacy question about resolving a difficult order set:

French Fleet in Tyrrhenian Sea move to Ionian Sea
French Fleet in Tunis support Tyrrhenian Sea moving to Ionian Sea
Ottoman Fleet in Aegan Sea move to Ionian Sea
Ottoman Fleet in Eastern Mediterranean Sea support Aegan Sea moving to Ionian Sea
Ottoman Fleet in Ionian Sea move to Adriatic Sea

Ottoman Fleet in Ionian Sea fails to move to Adriatic Sea due to a non important reason.
What happens?
Ionian Sea is attacked by French and Ottoman, both with a force of 2. If there was no unit, it would be a standoff.
But Ionian Sea is already occupied by an Ottoman Fleet which failed its movement, making the region defended only by one.
The Ottoman player can't dislodge its own fleet with its force 2 attack.
Does the French player, with its own force 2 attack, can?

Asuming the other fields are not relevant, we have the following setup:

The fleet in ion can not moves to adr because it is blocked.
Both the french fleet in tys as the ottoman fleet in aeg try to move to ion, both with support. Equal forces block. So both fail. Leaving the previously blocked fleet in ion unharmed.

So no unit moves. Leaving the setup unchanged.
Note: if the move to adr did not fail both supported moves still block eachother and the single fleet in ion stays unharmed.
In that case, the result will be:

This is a perfect answer. It's great the answer notes that whether or not the Ionian vacated at all is entirely irrelevant!  If it stays, as it did in your example, the rule to look up is "Beleaguered Garrison".

This situation is almost verbatim one of the examples in the diplomacy rulebook (the bolding is mine):

Support in Standoffs
Diagrams 10 and 11 show two common standoff situations.  In both cases, a strength of two meets a strength of two and all units stand in place.  In diagram 10, if there had been a Fleet in the Tyrrhenian, it would not be dislodged by the standoff.  (A standoff does not dislodge a unit already in the province where the standoff took place.)


text:
Is it possible to bluff in board games like chess generally?
Let's think of games like chess or go, where everyone can see everything, but also games like uno where it's hard to predict what color or value the person has with one card. Can you bluff here? According to the definition

.. an attempt to deceive someone into believing that one can or is going to do something.

it would be generally yes, but how can you bluff in e.g. chess? Would a move showing you are skilled, while you're not, be a bluff?
The definition just fits to every 'intention', so according to it.

.. try to deceive someone as to one's abilities or intentions.

If the definition tells, that every move is a bluff, answer the opposite, is it possible not to bluff in a game?

Bluffing in these games seems possible whenever move A is usually followed by move B, but suddenly it's not. If such sequences exist, I assume deviating from them leads to a loss/worse standing than no bluff at all.

I'll rephrase, can you bluff in open information game? What do you mean by moves A and B?

I'm not good at Go, but assume you see your opponent making some move (A) to apparently grab a corner soon. The actual grabbing of a corner would be the move B. Preparing to grab a corner and not doing so might be considered a bluff.

Then again, the difference between a bluff and bad play could be intent.

In chess, this is usually called a swindle

Bluff (verb):
  1. Try to deceive someone as to one's abilities or intentions.

I like this definition because it speaks to the two different kinds of bluffing - abilities and intentions.
In poker, bluffing is focused on deceiving your opponents about your abilities - that is, how many different hands your hand of cards is capable of beating.
In chess, this sort of bluff is not possible, because all information about your possible decision space is public knowledge.  Instead, bluffing in chess is about deceiving your opponent about your intentions.  Tricking them into defending against a pawn advance in a way that leaves them vulnerable to an attack by the your knights, that sort of thing.
That said, there is some overlap in both games.  Concealing your abilities in poker goes hand in hand with concealing your intentions, since your intentions are shaped by what your abilities are.  And in chess you can try to conceal your skill level, creating traps that your opponents are more likely to fall for because they assume that your move was an error or mistake on your part and thus don't look as carefully for the hook hidden in the bait.  But the primary forms of bluffing for the two games are distinct.

Yes, though depending on the nature of the game and the stakes. they will have varying levels of usefulness.
Sandbagging is a term for pretending to be weak, or purposefully imposing limitations on yourself for some gain.

2d : to conceal or misrepresent one's true position, potential, or
  intent especially in order to take advantage of
By the 1940s, [sandbagging] was being used of a strategy in which a
  poker player with a good hand bets weakly, in order to draw other
  players into holding on to their hands and raising the bet. The use of
  sandbag has since evolved to refer to a general strategy of playing
  down one's position in order to gain some sort of advantage.

Source: Merriam-Webster
It could be useful to take advantage of 'Rubber-Banding': a mechanic where last place players are given an advantage in later rounds to bring all players close to even. If you intentionally score last place for the additional advantage, but secretly have a strong 'hand', you can take advantage of both your strong hand and the advantage, and ideally make up the intentional hit you took. The phrase typically applies to a type of mechanic in video games, but there are board games that have this style of bringing back losing players as well.
Sandbagging can also be useful in multiplayer games where players can expend resources to stop an opponent from winning. (The card game Munchkin comes to mind). By being continuously in second, you allow the first placer to draw out your opponents' resources that stop them from winning. Then, with many of their resources depleted, you make your winning move much harder to stop.
Hustling is another term that might be relevant.

d : to lure less skillful players into competing against oneself at (a gambling game)

Source: Also M-W
This refers more to the social engineering aspect of attempting to appear bad, so that players will play against you (or bet more) and then taking advantage of their perception of your skill.
In your description, it would be impossible to intentionally pull off

a move showing you are skilled, while you're not

That would require you to be good enough to be aware that the move is optimal and know generally how the opponent would react, and yet not be skilled enough to intentionally have made that move. That being said if you make this move from luck or a stroke of genius and realize how good it is and that it might lead your opponent into overestimating your skill, you might pretend it was intentional.
Finally, there is a term in multiplayer games with hidden information (such as cards in hand) called pillow forting. The political strategy is to convince your opponents that the cards in your hand are so strong, that any attempt to unseat you will fail and only expend their own resources, with the hopes that they will attack another opponent. (I've only heard this term in reference to Magic: The Gathering, where it is a decently common strategy.)
Generally speaking in strategy games, it is better to pretend to be bad than it is to pretend to be good. If your opponent believes you are good or have a strong advantage, they are more likely to play hard and make fewer mistakes. If they believe you are bad, they may get greedy, become complacent in their lead, and so on.

Many, many years ago, I was a member of chess club. One evening I was playing one of the more senior members, supposedly a higher level playes than I was. Due to a blunder I lost my queen against one of his rooks. Normally this would imply resigning, but I didn't. This irritated him perceptably, so I decided to "hang in there" and continue. Then, a couple of moves further on, he made a big mistake and I managed to play the game to a draw.
You could say I bluffed after losing my queen. It certainly made my opponent a little angry, causing him to lose his focus and make a mistake.
So yes, given that bluffing assumes triggering a weakness in the opponent, yes, it can be done in chess.

This clearly isn't a bluff. You just messed up and got lucky that the opponent made one as well.

It's (allegedly) possible to ambiguously make an offer of a draw, but then recant if the other player accepts.  Perhaps by muttering something like "I can't believe I almost offered a draw earlier".
This sort of thing is fundamentally deceptive, which encourages me to categorize it as 'bluffing'.


text:
Where can I find strategy discussion about Dots?
!!! Before reading the post, I'm not talking about Dots and Boxes, but Dots (a paper-based game).
I've been playing the game for some time and to become better at it, I started to search for different strategies for the game, but as this game is not so fame/popular there is only one (wikipedia) article to it. Can you share some different experience you've had with the game? Eventually how would you place more and more dots?
This game is pretty similar to go, the only difference is, that you don't have living points (I guess they're called breathing points?), but the only thing that counts is to circle the enemy. You start in a position where in 2x2 dots the opposite corners are of one player, and the other two dots are from the other.
Can I just assign Go-strategies here? Because it looks like I can't use them.
PS. Add 'dots', 'paper-based' tags for the forum, if possible. (Or if this forum is strictly for board games, are paper-based games board-games?)

No; because the "liberties" rule is very different. In Go there are can be instances of living groups wholly inside of another living group, and one must explicitly form eyes for all groups. In Dots wholly contained groups are captured, and groups are automatically live if they touch the boundary anywhere.

Since the main rule of breathing is different, the players need to achieve completely different goals: In go a group can breath within another group, and the chips may get removed by being killed, while in dots a dot stays forever in game. Both games have the main goal to have the highest possible area, in where some strategies may be similar, but mostly your main goal in dots is to surround enemies dots/area and avoid having your own surrounded. Some of strategies that can be used, are:
Strategy #1: Keeping one dot free space
If the opponent is being surrounded and prefers to build walls, you will be able to catch him by building the perimeter with one dot empty space between every new dot, this helps surrounding faster and is more effective then just trying to catch at the same speed. However you still need to fill every dot you avoid at first to continue surrounding. (x and o are different colors)
x x x x x ...   -> x x x x x
ooooooooooo ... -> ooooooooox (Redirection of o’s)

Strategy #2: Know when you need o give up area
When your enemy has succeeded by occupying one of your zones, you need to know if you can fight for it, or can’t. There are not real parameters you can search for, as it’s very position-depended, but you can look at:

Size of your area
Shape
How much is occupied. (and how is it occupied? Keeping free dots? Any way to break through?)

Strategy #3: Building areas on top of areas
If you have a large area, you can build more small areas onto your large area as in example of green below

Green simply have an area and build all other areas using some of the dots of the main area.

For # 1; what is preventing the o's to push through the gaps that you leave behind?

@Taemyr: If you place an o in the gap, x will place one above, in the end, x will do that anyway, but still. You may think that the o's may take one or two x's under their control, but it won't be the case: There are some combinations for x to have good.

Is it?  You get .x.//xox//ooo - Next .xo//xox//ooo Threathening the x on the right.  If this is saved, you get oxo//xoxx//ooo threathening both the x on the left and the one on top.  (Of course it gets more interesting if x does not try to prevent this single intersection loss in the first place)


text:
Axis and Allies 1940, why are the axis always losing
I‘ve been playing A&A 1940 Europe (without Japan) and everytime the Axis Powers losses. I‘ve tried Sealion and stuff but its still everytime the same. At the beginning Germany is beating up france and some small parts of Russia but them the americans lands in europe and Germany cant hold it. What can i try to win with the Axis power?

One strategy to deal with one side always losing is to have an auction to decide who gets which side: each person bids a certain amount of IPC. Whoever gives the highest bid takes the Allies, and the other person gets to place units equal to that bid at the start.

This also has the beauty of being self-adjusting amongst any (relatively) small group of regular players, as new strategies for each side are developed.


text:
Kerfuffle rules?
I recently bought Kerfuffle from a thrift store with no rules. I have managed to piece together most of them from online videos but could someone point me to a pdf. It does not seem to be on bgg

Maybe you can contact the manufacturer so they can provide you with a set of rules.

Rules PDF are linked from the manufacturer's page: https://www.universitygames.com/kerfuffle

@L.ScottJohnson Want to turn that into an answer?

I tend to get marked off for link-only answers. Anyway, I've submitted the link to Boardgamegeek as well, so I doubt if this question will garner future hits.

Thank you. That was exactly what I was looking for. I agree that I expect this will get very few hits now that BGG will show the link.


text:
Does a Wolf enters the battlefield and fight target creature with or without buff?
I have a Wolf on the battlefield which gives other Wolfes +1/+1 . And I cast a Wicked Wolf. Does it enter and fight target creature already with this buff or without it? And do I get a priority after this triggered ability is put on the stack, and for instance am I able to use Wicked's Wolf activated ability?

Wicked Wolf enters the battlefield as a 4/4
You get priority after Wicked Wolf's ability is put on the stack, and you can use this to activate Wicked Wolf's second ability
The Wolf 'Lord's ability is a static ability. (Lord is an informal term that refers to creatures that give other creatures of a certain type a stat bonus and/or additional keywords.)
From the comprehensive rules:

604.1. Static abilities do something all the time rather than being activated or triggered. They are written as statements, and they’re simply true.
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 is simply true that Wicked Wolf has +1/+1 as long as your wolf 'lord' is on the battlefield. This isn't an ability that needs to go on the stack to resolve. It will have this buff when it eventually fights up to one creature from it's first ability. (Assuming the Wolf Lord is still on the field at that time.)
The second question is asking about an entirely different case. If you are the active player (you usually will be if you are playing a creature), you receive priority first when responding to an ability. Wicked Wolf's enter-the-battlefield triggered ability is placed on the stack, and the active player (probably you) gets priority. At this point, Wicked Wolf is on the field, so it's second ability can be activated if you so choose. If you do so, Wicked Wolf's second ability will be placed above the first ability on the stack, and you will again receive priority. If you pass priority at this point, your opponents will have a chance to respond to Wicked Wolf's second ability before it resolves, giving him a +1/+1 counter, indestructible, and tapping him.
Then, there will be another round of players (starting with you) receiving priority, before Wicked Wolf's first ability resolves, causing it to fight up to one creature.


text:
Finales in Camp Grizzly - how do they work?
When you reveal a finale, what happens to counselors who are not present in the finale cabin? Are the turns stopped? Does Otis continue to stalk us?
Do you just follow the rules on the card, ignoring everything else?

Any councelors not in the finale cabin wait for the finale to resolve. During the finale no normal turns happen (i.e. "follow the rules on the card, ignoring everything else"). If the finale is failed then they still have a chance to win.  From section 1.4 of the rules:

The players holding the objectives
must agree to start the finale during one of their
move phases (or wait for stragglers)

...and...

WIN - If the counselors complete the finale card
successfully, they win!
FAIL - If all counselors involved in a finale fail, that
finale card is discarded. Any survivors who remain in
the camp still have a chance to attempt a different
finale.

So if the finale is won then the game ends (and only the councelors who complete the finale win), but if no councelors survive the finale then any "stragglers" (players not involved) may carry on.

Does that mean that even if a councelor is not in the finale, but the players pass it, they are considered "winners", or it simply means that the players involved in the finale win, but the other players have yet another chance to escape?
This doesn't answer the question whether Otis and player's turns are carried on as normally during a finale. Do you simply follow the card's instructions, ignoring the normal 3-turn phase? (Moving, Cabin Draw phase, End Turn)

I've updated the answer to try to be clearer about these two points. I don't think the rules are 100% clear about whether another finale may be attempted after the first has been won, but given the formatting (camp survivors only mentioned in the FAIL section) and thematically (there's only one finale to this genre of story) then this makes sense.  FWIW This reviewer also agrees with the assumption that stragglers lose the game (~26 mins in): https://boardgamegeek.com/video/48309/camp-grizzly/undeadviking-videos-camp-grizzly-review-most-fun-g


text:
What game did these pawns go to?
Vintage unidentifiable Hard plastic game pieces 8 short 4 medium 1 large in both blue and red.

They look like they belong to Smess: The Ninny's Chess.

You did beat me by a couple of minutes - these version of figures were from a Parker Bros. edition from the 1970's (in Germany 1972 under the name Schach dem Schlaukopf


text:
How do multiple land creature affects work?
If I already have a card effect turning my lands into creatures, for example: Life and Limb, then I deal combat damage with Liege of the Tangle, and I make all of my lands 8/8's with its ability, which effect takes priority? Do I choose?

The power and toughness are set by the most recently created effect.
Permanent modification is covered by the layer system.  Inside a single layer effects are applied in timestamp order, and newer effects will overwrite old ones if they are mutually contradictory.
Thus, if Life and Limb is played after you trigger Liege's ability they will be 1/1s, but if Liege deals combat damage after Life and Limb is added then any land that you add a counter to will become an 8/8.
Oddly enough,  this means that you can put awakening counters on saprolings that have been landed by L&L, and they will become 8/8s, and stay that way even if L&L and Liege leave the battlefield.


text:
Can you place any three cards in Monopoly Deal, eg 3 properties at a time or 3 action cards?
I read the instructions as stating that you can place an action and/ or a money and/ or a property. But others say you can do any combination of the three in any of the three piles.

The three cards can be any combination of properties, actions, and/or money.  From the rules (abbreviated for clarity):

PLAY UP TO 3 CARDS from your hand, onto the table in front of you. You don't have to play any cards if you don't want to. Play your 3 cards in any combination of the following: A, B, and/or C.
A: Put Money/Bank cards into your own Bank
B: Put down Properties into your own collection
C: Play Action cards into the center

You can play any three cards from your hand during your turn. These three cards are not otherwise restricted in type; you can for example,

Play three Deal Breaker cards and potentially win the game
Play three Pass Go cards to draw a total of six new cards
Lay down three properties to either form a set (and possibly win the game immediately) or to complete existing partial sets
Play three Rent cards, either using different properties/sets or the same property/set as the base
Lay down three Money cards in your bank

You can also choose to end your turn before playing any cards at all, let alone all three cards allowed.


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How does Zap work in "Chameleon the game"?
When reading through the rules to "Chameleon the game" there is an action called zap which sends the opposing players piece to the start. I read the rules but cannot quite work out the mechanics of the steps.
The rules indicate the dice are used for Zapping but do not clearly indicate how.
Front of the box

Back of the box

Board and pieces

Rulebook

This is a little tricky. I originally assumed this question was about the word-based bluffing game by Rikki Tahta, call "The Chameleon". But that game doesn't have opposing pieces, or a zap action. OP, can you pinpoint which game you mean, potentially listed in this BGG search?

On looking through possibilities, I'm guessing it's most likely this game. I'll see if there's any information on how the zap rule works.

@ConMan it has the same description but a different looking board.  Would it help if I added some photos of the game.

Yes it would help. As it stands there is confusion over which game you are referring to so it will be impossible to get you an answer.

@JoeW I've added the images of the game.

It seems that this version of Chameleon the Game is an English reprint of a French game called Le Chameleon.
Unfortunately the Australian company that printed this game, and the original French company both seem to have gone defunct.
Luckily we have part of the French rules, and a semi-established terminology for "Zapped";
Zapping is the act of moving by exact roll onto a space occupied by an opposing piece, and thereby removing them from the game-board, and placing them into their original starting position.
What's still unclear though, is if you are able to "Zap" a piece using the optional move distance allowed when rolling a 6 (or Chameleon).


text:
Which game do these dice belong to?

I found these dice, but I dont know which game they belong to... any help is appreciated.
The red dice has only D's (in yellow) and 0's on it; The green dice has -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 on it and only one 3 with a circle around it (as shown); The black dice has two symbols on either end and the following numbers: 10, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60

Could you describe the faces we Cabot see in the picture, please?

The red dice has only D's (in yellow) and 0's on it;  The green dice has -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 on it and only one 3 with a circle around it (as shown); The black dice has two symbols on either end and the following numbers: 10, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60

This is Go Long, a game about (American) football.
The black die is for yards gained, if I remember correctly.
Here's an image of the dice from Go Long (from BoardGameGeek):

And the symbol on the black die is a field goal, I take it?

Or a touchdown...? Can't be bothered to check the rules. The game was pretty forgettable.


text:
''and draw a new card?'' Who should draw the new card? The person playing this card or the opponent he chooses?
https://ibb.co/4FYFfqZ Picture is here. Question is simple. Who should draw the card?

The player you chose to discard a card draws the new card. The idea is that every player always has exactly 1 card in their hand except during their turn when they draw a second before choosing one to play/discard.
While the language on the card could be ambiguous, the rulebook is clearer:

When you discard Prince Arnaud, choose one player still in the round (including yourself). That player discards his or her hand (do not apply its effect) and draws a new card.

Note that in general, the wording on the cards acts as more of a summary; the rulebook contains the full details for each card.


text:
In Euchre, Can a person of the opposing team go alone if trump was ordered up by the other team?
I ordered up trump from the dealer of the opposing team and the same person said they were going alone and asked for their partners best card. Is that legal in the euchre rules?

According to both the Bicycle Card Company Rules and the EuchreLinks.Com website Rules only the person actually naming the trump denomination, termed the maker, has the option of going alone.

Playing Alone
If the player who fixes the trump suit believes it will be to his side's advantage to play without the help of his partner's cards, the player exercises this option by declaring "alone" distinctly at the time of making the trump. This player's partner then turns his cards face down and does not participate in the play.

Or

The player, who chooses the trump suit, either by accepting the up-card's suit as trump, or by naming a different suit, is called the maker. Before the play of the hand begins, the maker may announce; "Alone", in which case the maker's partner places his hand facedown and does not participate in the play.

Note that both these Rule compilations do not include your House Rule of a card being passed from maker's partner to the maker.

So, it's not in the rules about ordering up the dealer and the same dealer/person says they're going alone afterwards correct?

And also asking for their partner's best card

This was very upsetting to me as I've never seen a play like that and I've been playing for many years and I need clarification regarding that. Thanks!

@ConnieArnoldPotter: The presence of the word "same" in your first comment makes it completely uninterpretable. Yes, my post completely refutes your claim in comment #2 - though of course a group of players is allowed to adopt any House Rules that they mutually agree on. The phrase "a play like that" in your 3rd comment has no obvious antecedent - either in your post, my post, or your comments #1 and #2  - and thus again is completely uninterpretable.

The dealer was to the right of me and I ordered up trump and she( same person) in turn right after that said she was going alone and wanted her partners best. I didn't think that could happen after I ordered her up. Please let me know about the rules in that situation. Also, my partner and I got 3 tricks so how would the scoring go there? Do we get 1 point or 2 points for euchering the dealer that went alone?

@ConnieArnoldPotter: Comments are ephemeral - subject at any time and without notice to deletion by moderators. Please put: (1) question clarifications in the body of the question post itself; and (2) New questions in their own, new, question post.

Can someone please answer my question above? I appreciate it very much!

@ConnieArnoldPotter: What part of this statement in my post above, "only the person actually naming the trump denomination, termed the maker, has the option of going alone", is not an answer to your question? Also, the answer to your second question (here) seems to address the scoring aspect.

Okay and Yes,that's a good answer and I didn't think that a person could go alone if trump was already ordered up by the opposing team. Thank you for your help! Connie Potter

@ConnieArnoldPotter: The usual way to express gratitude is to click the little up-arrow beside all answers of assistance, and the checkmark beside the best answer. Doing the latter also gives you 2 additional rep on the site.

I believe that this person probably learned the game on board game arena which has a lone defender option which states A defender may decide to defend alone before starting the first trick. If the makers take less than 3 tricks, defenders score 4 points instead of 2.  This is the only place I have seen this rule in place.
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=euchre

First it depends what euchre you are playing such as railroad, bid euchre or sometimes by house rules. In regular euchre you don't ask for your partners best but you can go alone against if those are the house rules. A similar situation is if the opponent reneges on a lone hand the maker gets his lone hand( not the usual 2 ) otherwise people would just renege, but also if the maker reneges on his lone hand the other team gets 4 points. It states quite clearly who ever reneges the opposing team gets the 4 points this makes sense to me because the rules do not say if the dealers reneges so I would assume it means who ever renges on loan hand the other team gets the point.)  Now on a go alone against its the team that gets at least 3 tricks that gets the 4 points, Remember these are house rules or different games of euchre not regular euchre but some may adopt these rules as house rules.


text:
What is the value by percentage of Lindel's reroll special ability?
Here is an image of Lindel's card.

After rolling dice ofr an attribute test, you may reroll one die; you must accept the second resul

As you can see his stats are 6, 6, 6, 5. He needs to roll equal or under with 2d6 to succeed on a test. His ability allows him to reroll one of the d6's once after the initial roll.
How much does this ability increase his chances of success?
% of success on a 2d6 test
2 3%
3 8%
4 17%
5 28%
6 42%
7 58%
8 72%
9 83%
10 92%
11 97%
12 100%

Assuming he plays optimally (only rerolling when necessary, and rerolling the higher die), the odds of rolling equal to or less than a given number on 2d6 with one reroll allowed are:
2: 7.4%
3: 19.9%
4: 35.6%
5: 52.3%
6: 68.1%
7: 80.6%
8: 89.4%
9: 94.9%
10: 98.1%
11: 99.5%
12: 100%
Note that this is equivalent to rolling 3d6 and seeing if any two of them sum to the target value (or less). So you can just take the 216 combinations there and check them, just like taking the 36 combinations in the basic 2d6 case and checking those.


text:
What type of Pokémon coins are these?

I have no idea where they came from or what they are, if any one knows I would greatly appreciate an answer.

Some kind of bottle cap?

Pogs slammers, maybe?  Do they feel somewhat weighty and sturdy for their size?

No, they are actually quite light. Probably made out of aluminum. I have not found anything about them online yet, so they might have just been some sort of promotional item, I dont know but maybe something like the toy you would get with a mc donald’s meal

I found some being sold as "POKEMON BATTLE COIN CAPS LOT X45 NEO JAPAN POCKET MONSTERS POGS USED RARE". This keyword soup is not that useful --they don't appear to be Pokemon Battle Coins or Pogs-- but maybe the seller can help you identify them

These are Metal Pokémon Tazos from Taiwan.
They were distributed as promotional items in Frito-Lays or Smiths products, more specifically, I believe these came in Cheetos packets.
They came in 3 sizes, but these seem to be the small variant.


text:
Cribbage run scoring
During the show if you have a 5,6,7,8 in hand and the start card is a 9, do you score 4 for the initial run plus an additional 5 for the the five card run? Would the total score for that hand be 13?

No, you only score runs once with the longest length so you would only score 5 plus you would score 4 more for your 15's.  So the score of the hand would be 9.


text:
What is this weird d12 for?
So I won these d12s at an arcade only to realise they're not normal. Instead of having 1-12 on them, they have some array of numbers from 3-8 or 4-9.
There were red, blue and white ones, and I don't know if all the same coloured ones had the same array of numbers or not.
The two I got is as follows:

Blue: a four in a circle, three fives in squares, two sixes, two sevens, three eights, and a nine.
White: as above, but one number lower (from three to eight)

All they (incorrectly) 'knew' was that they're for Dungeons and Dragons which afaik they are not.

These definitely don't look like anything I've ever seen for D&D.

These dice are for a game called GOLO Golf Dice.

I asked dice guru Kevin Cook at dicecollector.com and he recognized them almost immediately. This game is sold by a company called Zobmondo. It looks like the PDF rules are free to download, but you're missing some dice. In order to play, you're going to need the other seven dice since you roll all nine at the start of your turn.

The arcade probably got these dice cheap, and are making a huge profit on them, while making them worthless as prizes.

Someone sent me this game as a Christmas gift five years ago. Recognized them immediately and still have them to this day.

As SocioMatt answered, these are from the game GOLO.  Crystal Caste used to include these in their bulk dice bags, which is probably where the arcade got them.


text:
Marauding Raptor and Polyraptor - what happens when a loop has no exit?
Marauding Raptor has:

Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, Marauding Raptor deals 2 damage to it.  If a Dinosaur is dealt damage this way, Marauding Raptor gets +2/+0 until end of turn.

Polyraptor has:

Enrage - Whenever Polyraptor is dealt damage, create a token that's a copy of Polyraptor.

When my opponent had Marauding Raptor in play, and played a Polyraptor, the Marauding Raptor deals two damage to the original, then when a token copy was made the Marauding Raptor dealt to that, which makes another copy, which is also dealt damage, etc...
My question is, does this mean the game breaks and is over, or does the arbitrary loop stop of its own accord at some point?
(Neither of us were able to destroy or exile a Polyraptor token in response to the damage, to stop the loop.)

I would think the Polyraptor would die if dmg>toughness...

The game will end in a draw
If the loop cannot be ended by either player, instead the game ends in a draw.

721.4. If a loop contains only mandatory actions, the game is a draw. (See rules 104.4b and 104.4f.)

You don't need to change your answer, but if either player can end the loop, they can still choose not to do so, and the game would still end in a draw.

@murgatroid99 For clarity, you only mean if they could end a loop by some other action that's not involved in the loop; but if they can end the loop because the loop contained a "may", then that doesn't apply, right?

@NuclearWang 104.4b says "Loops that contain an optional action don’t result in a draw." And 721.4 refers to "mandatory actions"... which wouldn't apply to an action with a "may", would it?

@GendoIkari Hm, I think you're right, I'm deleting my comment.

I was talking about this loop, which we already know is mandatory.

It seems like the player that did this would have the clear advantage here, given they have both an infinite-powered creature and an infinite army of Polyraptor clones to back it up.  Surprising this wouldn't be an instant win for them.  (Unlike a loop that goes between 2 players where neither has the upper hand.)  I feel like this does kind of break the game...

@DarrelHoffman Not really. The player would have a clear advantage if they had a way to interrupt the combo. Without it they just have a way to force a draw. I don't see this fundamentally different than saying "I would have won this game if I had a Murderous Rider to kill your lethal attacker." - sure, but you don't, so you don't have an advantage.

It's worth mentioning that there are entirely viable ways of using this. Personally I have a Zacama, Primal Calamity EDH that runs Marauding Raptor and Polyraptor. My 'stop button' of choice is Trading Post. Get as many polyraptors as you like, then activate Trading Post's 3rd ability (sacrificing the newest polyraptor) in response to Marauding Raptor's triggered ability dealing damage to it. Marauding Raptor will deal no damage since the Polyraptor is dead, causing the loop to end.

This can also be semi-useful even if you don't have an ability to stop the loop: Sometimes you know you can't win, and a draw is better than a loss.

@DarrelHoffman It wouldn't really be possible for the rules to have been worded in such a way that the player with the advantage gets the win, instead of it being a draw. "Clear advantage" might be clear to humans analyzing the game state; but it's basically impossible for a rulebook to determine that.

@GendoIkari Well sure it could be worded differently.  All you'd have to do is make one or both of the cards' effects be optional, and then the player could choose to end the loop at any point.  Or if that's considered too over-powered of a combo, enforce a limit of some sort, like maybe it can only activate X times per turn, or doesn't work on tokens but only on the original card.  There's any number of ways this situation could have been made unambiguous.  (Sorry, this may be just my programmer brain insisting that any endless loop is a bad thing and making sure they just never happen...)

@DarrelHoffman I thought you meant that 721.4 could have said that the player with the advantage wins, rather than it being a draw. As opposed to avoiding the issue completely by simply never having mandatory loops. The problem is that with over 20,000 different cards, it's not really realistic to avoid all possible infinite loops.


text:
How to track turn-taking in Catan
I play Catan rather competitively with a few friends, and since we're all seasoned players, the time taken for a turn is pretty quick, maybe around 20s per turn.
Sometimes because of the fast pace, some players may miss their die-roll turns, or a player taking consecutive turns, without the other players realising it. I want to know if there is a systematic way to log the die rolls taken by each player so that the occurrence of the above events are reduced. I am thinking of a mobile apps which preferably support die rolls of 1 to 12, and with a unique colour identifier for each player, but I can't seem to find such applications. Does anyone have a solution to my problem?

you can play catan online XD

We considered that option, but we don't really know what's a good platform that has good performance and does not require us to pay.

You can have a dealer token like in poker. One who has it rolls the dice passes it to next person before rolling. Then make the trades, so whosoever has token in his/her hand knows that they are the ones to roll next

Are players waiting for the previous turn to be complete before starting their turn?

I suspect that if you're playing so fast that entire turns are being missed/double played then you will be having many more issues, e.g. resource taking/spending, construction irregularities, invalid turn order etc. Technology alone is not going to solve this, you need to get players to agree to more structure, even if it slows them down.

You and I have very different friends

Use the dice themselves as a reminder of whose turn it is.  This avoids the need for any extra tokens or start player marker.
If players roll them in front of themselves and then they physically pass them to the next player once their turn is over. It should then be clear whose turn it is.
That way a player can't roll twice as dice are already in front of them.  A player can not be skipped as the dice are passed to them by the player ending their turn.

Fwiw, my family plays all board-games with dice like this; I didn’t know people did differently until today

I would edit to add that you put the dice in the other player's hand and they don't put them down until they've rolled (in case they are playing a knight before rolling)

In addition to what the others said I would suggest slowing down the pace of play. It doesn't matter if you have a tracker to keep track of who rolled and what they got, using a token to indicate the next player or pass the dice if you are moving too fast for those systems to catch a mistake.
I would ask what else are you missing because of your fast play if players are missing turns and others are taking multiple turns in a row.

The problem arise not solely because I was playing quickly, but that everyone was playing quickly. When someone rolls the dice and begins to plan their move, another may start rolling. There is also some muscle memory of planning the next move, to the point some players think it's actually their turn, and do so anyway. If many people do this at the same time, it gives rise to the problem I have mentioned.

@PrashinJeevaganth The next player rolling to start their turn is the very definition of playing the game too quickly. The simple fact is you are breaking the rules if another player rolls the dice to start their turn before the previous player finishes their turn. The biggest problem is that they know what resources all players can get when the next turn starts which will influence the actions they take on their turn. You need to stop building bad habits of players starting their turn before it is time and problems like these will go away.

@JoeW Technically 'cheating' but that doesn't mean OP shouldn't do it. If everyone wants the game to go at a fast pace and are acting in good faith, (just don't use the information about future rolls, which is easy because you're already planning your turn, so you don't even collect resources until you're done) it can really speed up the pace. It can become problematic if it's done too much/too sloppily but I've definitely seen it improve games where e.g. one player is particularly slow.

@JohnK The op is talking about turns happening fast and says around 20 seconds per turn and that people are messing up by either taking extra turns or not rolling as they should. This is a very clear case of trying to play a game at pace that is way too quick and making mistakes because of it. The simplest way to fix mistakes like these it to make sure you follow the correct turn sequence and don't have the next player start their turn until the current player is completely done. This is a simple matter of not following the rules and then complaining that it causes problems with the game.

@JohnK Simply put you can play a game at a fast pace and still follow the rules about how each turn is completed before the next one starts. Trying to handle multiple turns at once just slows things down as players have to pay attention to more things at once.

You can have a dealer token like in poker. One who has it rolls the dice passes it to next person before rolling. Then make the trades, so whosoever has token in his/her hand knows that they are the ones to roll next.

A dice-rolling cup is another option here: you hand it to the next player at the end of your turn, and people are not allowed to roll the dice without using the cup.  Or, perhaps something like a "Pop-o-Matic" which contains the dice, so that they can't be picked up and rolled.

As others have already pointed out, I strongly recommend you to adopt a fundamentally different approach of your and your pals unsound playing style, that would outrightly negate the necessity of such application, which is by the way beyond my comprehension of well structured and more importantly correct playing (maybe for children, but even that would teach bad habits).
Even given 20 seconds per turn on average (that makes 40-60 s until its your turn again), how could a "good" player possibly NOT notice to be at ones turn. Many others and I play at a fast pace, with friends or at tournaments, and never ever had that occured to me or to anyone that I know.
Not only are you breaking the rules, but you set standards for intransparent and chaotic games. Observing resource distribution is a key part of strong decision-making. You should therefore not intertwine resource distribution with trading or building, or worse full turns. Ones turn shall end upon handing over the dice to the next player.
The solution StartPlayer gave should be your first step to improve the aforementioned.

My family played Catan last night, I can see the issue. It arises even with slow players, because I might assume you have finished after a trade and build, take the dice and roll, even though you have still some cards. It is particularly difficult if you play the combined trade/build phase. We have two suggestions:

The player whose turn it is must pick up the dice and hand them to the next player at the end of their turn. If they do not do this, their turn is not over and the next player may not roll.
Various apps include virtual dice, which may be rolled by shaking or tapping a smartphone or tablet. Don't pass the phone or device until your turn is over. This also works well, because you can't knock the buildings off the board when rolling the dice as we tend to do!


text:
What do leaves mean in Blood on the Clocktower?
In the game Blood on the Clocktower, some of the role tokens have green leaves on the west/north/east side of the token. There are also some tokens who have a larger orange leaf.
1 west and 2 north:
1 east:
An icon with the orange leaf:

The different leaf icons (and number of leaves) are reminders for the storyteller.
Green leaves indicate tokens the storyteller needs to add to the game during setup for the character, while an orange leaf means the character alters the normal setup for the character or game.
From the Blood on the Clocktower wiki:

Leaf: The small green and orange symbols on many character tokens that help the Storyteller run the game. Green leaves on the top show the number of reminder tokens to add to the Grimoire. A green leaf on the left shows that the character needs a night token on the first night. A green leaf on the right shows that the character needs a night token on each night except the first. An orange leaf means that the character setup is different than normal for this game.


text:
Help identifying version of solitaire
I was taught a solitaire game similar to klondike that has seven columns, 1st row has 1st card up and next 6 columns down, second layer has column 1 and 2 up next 5 down, erc until the 7th row is all face up leaving 3 cards in your hand.   Alternate red/black and a column can be moved whether it is sorted below a given card or not.

It isn't clear to me what makes this any different from klondike? What is the objective?

@GendoIkari Klondike has only the first card in each column up, and decreasing number of cards in each column, leading 24 cards to play through.

@ZeissIkon Ah I just didn't read carefully enough; mixed up "row" and "column" in the original text (and missed the bit where all columns have the same number).

Sounds like the same game sought here: https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/48062/identify-this-standard-deck-solitaire-with-a-7x7-tableau

This seems like the same one, as well: https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/50541/can-anyone-identify-this-variant-of-yukon-solitaire


text:
On Planet Steam's FFG version there's a conflicting cost on Luxury Quarters cards, which one is correct?
I played Planet Steam yesterday for the first time and we noticed that the cost of Luxury Quarters on the Player Aid and rules doesn't match the cost that is on the card itself.
We used the 1 Quartz + 1 Ore because it seems to be harder to get than what's on the card (I don't remember exactly but I believe it's 1 Quartz + 1 Energy").
Can anyone confirm this?
Thank you!

There is a thread about this: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1013771/luxury-quarters-missprint-update-ffg

There is a Board Game Geek thread on this that has some information that might help.
BGG Thread

KAS @kneumann Jul 27, 2013 This is what used to be called a Deed of
Ownership and it cost 1 ore and 1 quartz.


text:
Can I capture threatening chess piece?
I’m a newbie at chess and I was wondering why I am unable to capture the black rook threatening my king?

You're on chess.com, so probably the best thing to do would be to go through their tutorials and lessons.

Great, now I'm trying to figure out if and how black can win this.

I'm rather confused as to the downvotes on this question. Just because it seems to some people that it should be obvious and easy to answer does not mean that it is a poor question from someone who may or may not have the knowledge to make that easy answer.

@CollinB maybe downvotes are from that the post used an image? i think this would get downvotes on chess se, maths se, stack overflow, maths overflow for image.....oh wait this se doesn't allow pgn animations, sooo...myb not

You're in check.
The black bishop on B7 is currently putting you in check, which means that you must stop that attack on your King.
Your only two legal moves at this time are

Qf3 - blocking the bishop
Kg1 - moving the king away from check

The black rook is not threatening your king with those positions. The black bishop at B7 is the piece that is threatening your king which places you in check. From what I can see the only legal moves you have is moving the king from H1 to G1 to move your king to safety or your queen to F3 to block the check but that will likely cause you to lose your queen.

The rook is not threatening your king, what happened is a "discovered check" was created when the rook moved out of the way. Rf2+ moved the black rook from G2, where it was blocking the bishop at B7, out of the way, allowing that bishop to threaten the white king. There are three ways to deal with being in check:

Capture the checking piece.

You have no pieces threatening the bishop at B7, so this isn't an option in this case, the rook is not the checking piece.

Block the checking piece.

The only piece you have that can move onto the diagonal and block the check is your queen, you would have to move it to F3 to block the check. This likely will mean losing your queen (opponent's best move here in response would be Bxf3+, taking your queen with the bishop and getting the check back in place)

Move the king out of check.

There's only one spot your king can move to, and based on the app, it looks like this is the move you made, Kg1. The opponent can either move the rook to threaten the king (and the king cannot take the rook because the rook's square is threatened by the bishop, that would move into check) so you are forced to move the king back to H1. If this move repeats 3 times the game ends in a draw, so black will likely keep your king pinned in G1 while working other pieces into a better position.


text:
A question on Horsemanship
This question is more around the fun of playing decks casually.  Horsemanship I believe is legal in Commander and Legacy.  However, if you wanted to enjoy some casual games with a Portal Three Kingdom deck against some Modern or Standard decks, would it be necessary to treat Horsemanship the same as Flying and allow cards that have Reach or cards that counter the Flying ability to be used against Horsemanship?

Changing the question after it has been answered is generally frowned upon. Also it means the answer can change after new sets are released and new preconstructed decks are released as they will all be built around different abilities.

Hi John, my intent was not to change it, but your closure response reads as follows which makes it very confusing:  Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations. This will help others answer the question. You can edit the question or post a new one. ps... you show edit and delete.  But by delete it warns you about getting penalized.  So its unclear for newcomer whose question is closed on what to do.  Either leave alone or edit or delete it?

The problem is you already have an answer to the question that would be invalidated because your question is now focused on pre-constructed decks which is a problem. Not only that the answers would be valid only for specific decks and would need new answers as new pre-constructed decks where released. Don't forget the close votes started before the question had an answer.

What you suggest was certainly thought about by WotC when they allowed the Portal cards into Vintage and Legacy:

Should we errata it so that horsemanship creatures can be blocked by fliers?
In the end we realized that we were kidding ourselves—the creatures with that ability just aren't aggressive enough to worry about, so we left the ability alone. If you want to play horsemanship in constructed, knock yourself out.

so it's not an entirely stupid suggestion - but in casual games, your best bet is probably just to try it and see if they feel overpowered; the answer will probably depend enormously on the power level of the Standard/Modern decks you're playing.

To add to my question, I became a little unsure about fair play, when I read the text on [mtg: Sun Quan, Lord of Wu]: > Creatures you control have horsemanship. (They can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.) I was visualizing a deck of approx. 20 creature cards all unlockable ranging from 1/1 to 4/4.

Sure, but you're talking about a 6 CMC card there which is easily removable. Even in Standard, a 6 CMC card should be a "must answer" threat. Probably not even playable in reasonably competitive Modern.

@Spaciousmind Sun Quan reads similarily to [mtg:Archetype of Imagination] - sure, slightly better stats and no interaction with reach. But given that the Archetype was printed at uncommon and never made waves in constructed suggests to me that this kind of effect on a 6CMC creature is not something you have to worry about.


text:
Chess puzzle: white to move
In this chess puzzle, white is to move. Find a checkmate for black.

I’m voting to close this question because this site doesn't handle this kind of question well.  We need questions that are answerable, not "here's my stuff, isn't it cool!" -- even though it is cool.

This is a much better fit for the Puzzles SE

@ZeissIkon I think this question is completely on-topic here, the fact that the asker is the creator of the puzzle doesn't matter, it's a puzzle with a specific answer. It would receive better answers over at Chess SE though.

@PhilipKendall  think the edit is incorrect. It's white to move and mate. The OP's "find a checkmate for black" is most likely a mistake in translating something that means "find a way to checkmate black".

@Philip, except that the title is changed to cement the error as "black to mate", as opposed to leaving it in its more readable-as-a-mistranslation form "find a checkmate for black". That seems to be an uncomfortable change to me.

The help center says "Questions about Go problems or Chess problems are fine, even if they are static puzzles, since they are related to a dynamic game." This question is on topic.

Please don't edit to remove the question asking for a checkmate for black.

@JoeW, the right question should be: white to checkmate.  Not checkmate for black.  (the Q is about a white move that will checkmate the black player)

@Cohensius That is something for the person who wrote the question to decide. Not for someone else to come along and determine if that is what they meant. Considering this is a puzzle they designed themselves they may not realize there is no solution for black in this case.

As a note please be careful when editing a question if that edit can invalidate existing answers. It isn't fair to the people who took time to answer the question only to have it invalidated by an edit.

@Anonymous again, please do not edit this so that you invalidate the answer. We understand you made a mistake in the original question, but it's best now just to leave it.

Why is the person who wrote the question not allowed to clarify the misunderstanding? The OP's edit should be restored.

Either I understand it wrong, or your puzzle is flawed...

 White to move: 1. Qxg6+ Kh8 (forced) 2. Rh5+, and now either
 2... Nxh5 3. Qg8# or
 2... Bh6 3. Rxh6#
 There is no checkmate for black in these variations.

Qh6 can be responded to with Bxh6.

You can also do 1. Rh6, but it's pretty much the same solution, just moving things in a different order. My guess is that the puzzle is supposed to be to find a mate for white, not for black. To find a mate for the color who isn't to move, especially when the other color can repeatedly check, doesn't work.

"There is no checkmate for black in these variations." The OP is probably confused between the prepositions "of" and "for".

BTW, I don't think it matters whether one moves the rook or queen first. The rook can't be captured by the pawn (pinned), and capturing with the knight ends up in the same place capturing it after the queen is moved: the g file is left open for the queen mate.


text:
Rivals For Catan - Riots
My daughter and I have been playing this game, and disagree on what happens if riots occur and you can’t pay. Yes, you have to put a card back under the stack. BUT, can the person who returned the card immediately pay to exchange a card and look through the stack and get that card back (assuming the riots occurred on their turn)?

If you discard a card at the start of your turn, you can pick it back up at the end of your turn.
There's nothing that would prevent this from happening. As the last part of your turn, you are allowed to exchange one card from your hand, and you may pay to look through a draw stack and pick any card you want. The game doesn't place any restrictions on what card you can take, nor does it have any "memory" about where the card has been in the past. You can even do this to pick up the card that the other player discarded. Note that this can't happen "immediately" as you suggest, since you don't exchange cards until the end of the turn, so Riots will take your unit out of commission for at least one round. But it's perfectly legal to discard a unit due to Riots at the start of the turn, pick it back up at the end of the turn, and then play it again on the following turn.
Also note that with expansions, there are non-unique units, so it'd be pretty impractical to disallow a player from picking up the same unit they just discarded - after the fact, it would be impossible to prove if you exchanged for the Chief Cannoneer on the bottom that you just discarded, or the one that's second from the bottom that you didn't discard.