Reply: Sentinels of the Multiverse:: Rules:: Re: First game... Am I playing it right?

by MacMog

Donq73 wrote:

* Tempest plays Shield Winds (Ongoing, Limited) and then draws a card.
* Wraith plays Utility Belt (Equipment, Limited) and then draws a card.

They really should have used their built-in powers.

Donq73 wrote:

* From the environment deck comes Hostage Situation. The text says that "Hero cards cannot be played. At the start of the env turn, each player may discard 1 card each to destroy this card".

Question... Since the Environment turn is Start!->Play!->End! this card went on play immediately. To us this meant that after Baron Blade takes its turn, all 3 heroes skip turn and then during the Start! phase of the next env turn we can all discard a card to destroy that 1st env card. Is this correct? Or will it not go on play until Env's next turn?

No, no, no. "On play" doesn't mean anything, but more importantly, nothing told you to skip any turns.

It works like this:

Environment turn:

Start: nothing triggers during this phase, so nothing happens

Play: Hostage Situation enters play. It says "hero cards cannot be played", so keep that in mind whenever you see any effect that says a hero may play a card. (Note that a few cards say you may "put something into play". They worded that differently on purpose: such effects avoid the "cannot play" prohibition. Also note that this doesn't interfere with the rule that lets you draw 2 during your draw phase if you don't play a card or use a power.) Hostage Situation doesn't have any immediate effect when played, so you just put it on the table. It doesn't say anything about skipping turns, either, so don't.

End: nothing triggers during this phase, so nothing happens

Villain turn: (start, play, end phases as normal)

Hero 1 (Ra) turn:

Start: nothing triggers during this phase, so nothing happens

Play: Hostage Situation prevents you from playing a card.

Power: Say Ra had a power that deals damage and lets him play a card. He could use it, deal the damage, but Hostage Situation would still prevent him from playing a card.

Draw: 1 card.

End: nothing triggers during this phase, so nothing happens

Hero 2 (Tempest) turn: (start, play, power, draw, end phases as normal)
Hero 3 (Wraith) turn: (start, play, power, draw, end phases as normal)

Environment turn:

Start: now you may discard 1 card each to destroy Hostage Situation. If you choose not to destroy it this turn, you can choose to do so during any future environment start of turn phase while the card remains in play. Also note that the "timing conflict" section of the rules applies if you have multiple cards that happen during the same phase. Keep track of the order you play cards; if 5 cards say "At the start of the environment phase…", first you do the text on the first card to come into play, then the second, then the third, and so on. If an effect causes another card to come into play that triggers during that phase (at the end of the villain turn, Omnitron plays a card that says "at the end of the villain turn, deal damage"), the new card triggers too, but it came into play after everything else, so it triggers after all the cards that came before it.

Donq73 wrote:

* Another card is draw from Env's deck. Policy Backup comes up. It says "Whenever a villain card would make a player discard a card, destroy this card"

Question... I don't know if the environment text is saying to do both or the one of those actions. In other words, when a villain card makes a player discard a card, will it do that AND destroy this env card? Or will it destroy the Env card instead of discarding any cards?

Good question. The wording in this game lacks consistency sometimes, but when they say "would", they usually mean "just before, and instead of". I could see it meaning "in addition to", though. To make it worse, they revised the text of this card when they published the Enhanced Edition. They really could have clarified this by saying "instead" or "as well".

Donq73 wrote:

We continue the game and from the Villain's deck came up "Consider the Price of Victory!". This is a 1-shot card with the following text : "Each player discards 1 card. Discard X cards from the top of the villain deck, where x = the number of hero cards discarded this turn".

At this point we stopped to come here to ask since we don't know how the "Police Backup" env card reacts with the "Consider The Price of Victory!" villain card. It would make a big difference if we decide or not to discard cards.

In any case, nothing in Sentinels happens simultaneously. I know the rulebook doesn't say this; I'll refer you to the full rules/FAQ/clarification shortly. Effects that say "each" or "all" really mean "do this to one thing of the given type, then another, then another, until you've done it to them all; the players choose the order".

For purpose of illustration, let's assume that Police Backup says "instead of discarding". What happens? One player has to discard, but Police Backup triggers and you destroy it instead of that player discarding. Then another player discards, and nothing prevents it. Then the third player discards. All players have discarded, end of effect.

Now that you have those answers, go download Spiff’s collection of errata and clarifications (which actually includes a bunch of rules not in the rulebook). These come from the developers, who for whatever reason will occasionally post answers on their own forums but will not assemble them into a FAQ, leaving that to a fan. Once you get through that, you’ll see that for the most part, the cards works as printed: don’t read into them or assume they mean things not in the text. And once you play some more, you’ll inevitably find a few cards and more interactions that the rules+clarifications do not clearly address—I have probably a dozen. Post those if you like, maybe even on the official forums in case you get an answer, or just do what seems reasonable in light of the rest of the rules.