Shadowfist Frequently Asked Questions

Version 5.0, October 31, 1996.
This file is also available as a plain text file.

The upcoming Throne War expansion's starter decks will contain a revised Shadowfist rulebook. It's possible that rules interpretations and phrasings will change slightly when Throne War is published. It's certain that the FAQ will shrink after we publish the revised rules, since most of the information which follows will be assimilated into the rewrite of the rules.

The structure of the following chapter is as follows:
1. Information for Collectors
2. Abilities & Restrictions
3. New Glossary
4. New Rulings
5. Q &A on Attacking and Intercepting
6. Steps of an Attack
7. Miscellaneous Questions

1. Information for Collectors

Q. How many cards are there in the two different editions of Shadowfist? What are the differences between the editions?
A. There are 323 cards in the Limited Edition of Shadowfist. Limited Edition cards have a gold foil Ting Ting stamp in the upper right corner, but collectors should be careful, because Netherworld cards use an identical stamp. The Standard Edition's 315 cards are identical to Limited Edition cards except that they lack the gold foil stamp. In between Limited Edition and Standard Edition, eight Unique characters who died in Operation Killdeer were removed from the card set. To see the Operation Killdeer story, check out our Web site, or pick up a copy of the Feng Shui supplement named Back for Seconds,. The eight characters are Mad Dog McCroun, Iala Mané, Jack Donovan, Thing with 1,000 Tongues, Jueding Shelun, Adrienne Hart, Nirmal Yadav, and Sun Chen. Strangely, a few copies of these characters mistakenly leaked into Standard Edition, where they appear without a gold foil stamp. If you own one of these mistakes, you've got a very rare card.

Q. How many cards in the two Shadowfist expansions published to date?
A. The Netherworld expansion has 143 cards marked by the gold foil Ting Ting. The Flashpoint expansion has 145 cards marked by a gold foil gun. The gun is a BuroMil Blue Spear, the same weapon being fired by the BuroMil Grunt on the Flashpoint packaging. Future expansions will have other unique stamps.

Q. Is it just me, or is Ting Ting from Netherworld harder to find than other Netherworld rares?
A. It's not just you. Ting Ting is about 1/3 more rare than other Netherworld rares. Strangely enough, this wasn't exactly intentional on our part, it just happened.

2. Abilities & Restrictions

Many abilities (also known as special abilities) and restrictions on cards are not fully explained on the cards. These abilities and restrictions appear so regularly that it makes more sense to reduce them to a single word or phrase. Note that the three restrictions, Limited, Unique, and Toast It, are not considered to be abilities, and are not copied or transferred by cards that give cards other cards' abilities.

+X Damage: A character with this ability inflicts damage in addition to its Fighting score on characters and sites it combats; the value of X varies from card to card. Add the damage bonus to any damage the character inflicts in combat. Damage the character inflicts outside of combat does not receive the bonus.

Ambush: Whenever an attacking character with Ambush is in combat with another character, the character with Ambush inflicts its damage before the opposing character inflicts its own. Ambush does nothing for the character when it is defending. Thanks to early rules interpretations we've opted to leave intact, characters that possess both Ambush and Tactics can inflict damage on an enemy combatant and then pull out of combat.

Assassinate: A character with the ability Assassinate cannot be intercepted if the target of its attack is a character.

Guts: The Fighting scores of characters with Guts are not reduced by damage they take. They inflict their full Fighting score in damage to characters and sites. However, they are smoked as usual when the number of damage counters on them equals or exceeds their Fighting scores. (Most characters are smoked when their Fighting is reduced to 0 by taking damage).

Independent: Characters with this ability may be used to launch an attack during your turn even when your last attack failed to damage its target and you are otherwise ineligible to launch another attack. If a failed attack is followed-up by a successful attack by Independent characters, this does not allow characters that lack Independent to declare other follow-up attacks.

Limited: A player cannot play a card with the restriction Limited if he or she already has a copy of that card in play on his or her side. Event cards that are Limited cannot be played more than once each turn. Note that there are a couple backdoors to this restriction: you can't "play" another Limited card, but you could "return" a second Limited card to play or "put" another Limited card into play. You could also seize or take control of a Limited card controlled by an opponent that duplicates a Limited card you already have in play.

Mobility: You may change the location of this character to a legal location at almost any time without turning the character and regardless of whether the character is turned. Changing location using Mobility is an effect that generates and resolves normally, meaning that it is only possible to change location once per sequence of effects. A character with Mobility can move any number of columns, but must move one column at a time.

General notes about changing location: changing location is a game term distinct from attacking. Attacking characters move to the location of the target of their attack immediately upon being declared as attackers, but this movement is not governed by the same rules that govern changing location. It is only legal to change location to a location controlled by an opponent in order to intercept an attack.

Attacking characters: Attacking characters may not change location after being declared as attackers unless the target of their attack changes location, in which case they automatically follow the target to its new location so that the attack can continue.

Intercepting characters: Characters may not change location after being declared as interceptors. If the target of the attack moves, intercepting characters are out of luck.

Regeneration: The character automatically Heals during its controller's establishing shot; this effect does not turn the character.

Stealth: A character with Stealth can bypass a single intercepting character whenever it participates in an attack. The player controlling the attacking character with Stealth simply states that it is bypassing that character, and then the two do not combat with each other. If the character is blocked by characters in a chain, it can only bypass one of the characters in the chain.

Superleap: Characters with Superleap cannot be intercepted by turned characters.

Tactics: This ability only applies to attacking characters. A character with Tactics can withdraw from a combat at any time, including after intercepting characters have been declared or an Event card has been played. When a character with Tactics withdraws from combat, it is no longer considered to be in combat, and inflicts and receives no more damage as a result of that combat. Attacking characters using Tactics and any characters that were turned to intercept them remain turned after the attacker with Tactics withdraws.

Toast It: A card with the restriction Toast It is toasted if it leaves play. It never goes into the smoked pile. For example, characters with the Toast It restriction are toasted if an effect would place them in the smoked pile or back in their owner's hand. If an Event has Toast It, the Event is played directly into the toasted pile.

Toughness: Toughness reduces the amount of damage a character receives from any source. Subtract the character's Toughness value from any damage it takes. Unlike non-cumulative abilities such as Stealth, Superleap, and Guts, Toughness bonuses are cumulative: for example, a character with Toughness: 1 that also received a Toughness: 1 bonus from another card would have Toughness: 2.

Unique: Only one copy of a Unique card can remain in play at any one time, but it's possible for more than one copy of a Unique feng shui site to be in play if one or more of the copies is face-down.
If a player plays or reveals a Unique card that is a duplicate of one already in play, an auction is declared. The player who brought the duplicate card into play makes the opening bid, which must be at least 1, or else he or she immediately loses the auction and the card he or she brought into play is toasted. All players get to bid in the auction, not just the players who control the Unique cards, see page 47 of the rules for the procedure. The winner of the auction determines who keeps control of the unique card. If the player who already had the card in play loses in the auction, his or her copy of the card is smoked. If the player bringing the copy into play loses, his or her copy is toasted.
In the game world, interpret a uniqueness auction as two sides in the battle vying for the loyalty or control of the subject of the card; in no way does a duplicate version of the person or thing depicted by the card actually exist for a while.
The uniqueness auction for feng shui sites takes place when the second feng shui site is revealed, instead of when it is played.
It is possible for a player to cause a Uniqueness auction by playing or revealing another copy of a Unique card he or she already controls. Follow the normal rules, applying the consequences of the auction to the two Unique cards depending on the order in which they entered play. Remember that the other players get to bid in the auction if there's some reason they want to have a say in which Unique card remains in play.

3. New Glossary

This draft of the new glossary that will appear in the Throne War rulebook will be useful as a reference.

Anytime during a turn: Cards that use this phrase allow effects to be generated anytime during a main shot, including during an attack. But effects that can be generated anytime during a turn are still usually not legal during players' establishing shots.

Anytime effect: An effect that can be used during any player's main shot. Most Events and most abilities characters generate by turning fit this category. We've never used this term on a card, but several of our playtesters find the term useful, and it may get used in the upcoming rewritten rulebook.

Auction: Certain cards require or permit auctions. Auctions are contested between players through the bidding of Power points. The winner of an auction gets a benefit of some sort, such as the right to decide upon who controls a Unique character or the ability to use an optional effect.

Body: The amount of damage a site can sustain before being smoked, seized, or burned-indicated in a circle in its upper right corner.

'By an opponent': If an opponent plays a card that creates an effect, or a card that an opponent controls inflicts damage, generates an effect, or redirects an effect or retargets an Event, that effect or damage is considered to have been created by the opponent.

Burned: When a feng shui site's Body is reduced to zero, the attacking player can elect to burn the site; the attacking player can burn a site for victory or burn a site for Power.

Cancel: An effect that has been canceled ceases taking effect and is not resolved in the sequence of effects. Normally, all effects that are generated resolve in proper sequence during resolution, even if the cards that generated the effects have already been removed from play by effects that resolve earlier in the chain. Effects that are canceled are the exception, since they do not resolve at all.

Cancel and smoke: Cards that cancel and smoke certain other cards not only cancel any effects those cards are generating or maintaining, they also smoke the card if the card is in play.

"Cannot be intercepted by": Even after interception has been declared, it is possible for an attacking character to gain an ability that prevents it from being intercepted by the characters assigned to intercept it,in which case those interceptors are removed from the chain and the attacker proceeds towards its target.

Chain: If a player wishes to intercept a single attacking character with multiple intercepting characters, that player has the intercepting characters intercept in a chain-a line of characters. Each character in the chain finishes combat with the attacker before the next character enters combat with it. If more than one attacking character is being intercepted by a chain of defending characters, all combat with first interceptors is simultaneous, followed by second interceptors, and so on. Characters who have fought past all interceptors wait until all interception combat is completed before all attacking characters simultaneously enter combat with the character or site that is the target of the attack.

Characters: Cards that depict persons or creatures fighting on your side.

Column: You play sites out in columns containing at most a front row site and a back row site. When you create a new column, you must create it to the immediate right of an existing column. Generally only the front site in each column may be targeted for attack. Each column of sites constitutes a location, and the terms 'column' and 'location' are often used interchangeably.

Combat: Combat occurs during attacks when an attacking character confronts an interceptor, a target character, or a target site. Generally there is time before combat occurs to generate sequence of effects, but when characters have entered combat, very few effects can be generated. In combat, a character inflicts damage equal to its Fighting score plus any damage bonuses. Damage can be redirected or reduced, and then damage counters are placed on the opposing character or site.

Controller: The player currently in control of a card; usually, but not always, the person who played the card. Only cards in play are considered to be under your control; cards in smoked piles, toasted piles and in players' hands are not in play, nor are they in any player's control. All cards unturn when they change controllers. When characters or sites switch controllers, they unturn and move to one of the new controlling player's locations. Note that most States do not change controllers when the subject card changes controllers (for example, when a site subject to one or more States is seized), though Weapon and Vehicle States are always controlled by the controller of the subject character.

Cost: Each card's cost is a number appearing in its lower left hand corner. A card's cost is a number of Power points you must pay to put the card into play. Note that the symbols, if any, which appear in the lower left hand corner preceding a card's cost are not part of the cost; these symbols are the card's resource conditions.

Cut: In tournament play, when you are required to cut your deck, the opponent to your left should cut it. In friendly play it's fine to cut the deck yourself.

Damage: The amount of harm inflicted on a target character or site. This damage is represented by counters placed on the target character or site.

Damage redirection: Hey, let's leave the dry world of rule mechanics explications and slip halfway into the world of metaphor. . . damage redirection is like the scenes in Burt Reynolds chase movies where characters erect new signposts and trusting motorists follow the signs and zip towards new destinations. When a damage redirection effect is generated, it erects new 'signposts,' pointing the redirected damage towards a new target. Damage redirection effects don't resolve like other effects. Instead, if damage redirection is not canceled, the signpost it erected stays put. Hence, in a series of damage direction effects, the final damage redirection effect generated is the one that puts up the signpost that determines where the damage falls.

Declarations: Declarations of attack, interception, and the end of your turn are not effects. They can be responded to, starting a sequence of effects, but these declarations can not be made in the middle of an already established series of effects.

Designators: Words that appear in the name or subtitle of a card are that card's designators. Designators often determine which cards can affect other cards.

Discard: Cards discarded from your hand are placed into the toasted pile, but for game mechanics purposes, "discarding" and "toasting" are two separate terms.

Draw cards: Unless otherwise specified, cards you draw are put into your hand.

Edges: Edge cards represent dramatic shifts in the overall conditions of the struggle for feng shui sites. Unlike characters and sites, Edges have no particular location. Put Edge cards into play on your side but separate from the other cards you control. You can only play Edges during the main shot of your own turn.

Effect: Most actions players take voluntarily during the game are effects. Most effects are generated first, and then resolve in the sequence of effects in the reverse order which they were generated in. Playing cards and turning cards to use their special abilities are the two most common ways of generating effects. Contrary to the original rulebook's definitions, there are several important actions which are not effects, including declaring an attack, declaring interception, and revealing a face-down feng shui site. Most effects (and all declarations) can only be generated during players' main shots.

Establishing shot: The first chunk of each player's turn is known as the establishing shot. Most effects can not be legally generated during the establishing shot. The establishing shot is basically a setup phase in which a player prepares for action in the main shot by generating Power, unturning turned cards, discarding, and filling his or her hand.

Events: Event cards represent onetime occurrences during the battle for feng shui sites. They have an effect on game play according to their rules texts and then are placed immediately in the smoked pile. Events can be played at any time.

Faction: One of the secret societies vying for control of the world's feng shui sites. The faction (or factions to which a card belongs are indicated by the resource symbols which appear on the card. Chi, Magic, and Tech are not factions.

Fighting: Each character has a Fighting score, which is a number in the upper right corner below the symbol for the expansion set to which the card belongs, if any. A character's Fighting score represents how much damage the character can sustain before being smoked and also represents how much damage the character can inflict on characters and/or sites it attacks. A character's Fighting score is reduced by 1 for each damage counter on it. A character is smoked immediately when its Fighting score drops to 0 or below.

Foundation character: A character that lacks a resource conditions is known as a foundation character. Although such characters get their name because they generally provide resources, certain Neutral foundation characters such as Mooks and the White Ninja are considered foundation characters although they do not provide any resources. For your information, we have not used the term yet on Shadowfist cards, preferring to stick with the phrase "characters that lack resource conditions" until such time as the foundation character definition is well known.

Heal: Removing all damage counters from a card. During the main phase of your turn, you can turn any character to heal it. Other effects allow characters and sites to heal or be healed without requiring them to turn.

"in combat": In combat is often used as shorthand for "damage inflicted by characters in combat with other cards."

"In play": A card played on the board that has not been removed to the smoked pile or toasted pile.

"In response to": Effects generated later in a sequence of effects can be said to be generated in response to earlier effects. Effects that are generated in response to earlier effects don't have to be generated immediately afterwards, there can be other effects in the sequence in between.

Intercepting characters: The phrase "intercepting characters" is used as shorthand for "intercepting characters that are in combat (or about to enter combat) with the attacking characters they are intercepting."

Location: Each column of sites is considered a location. Thus, a column with two sites in it is one location, as is a column with only one site in it. You place each new character you bring into play at a location.

Main shot: Where the action is. See Shot.

number of resource conditions: Cards that refer to the number of resource conditions refer to the total number of resource condition symbols, not to different types of symbols. A character with three Dragon resource conditions has the same number of resource conditions as a character that has resource conditions of two Lotus symbols and one Magic symbol.

Overcome: What a character has done when it is still in play after a combat is resolved and the characters that were in combat with it have been smoked or toasted.

"Participates in an attack": Characters that are declared as attacking characters are considered to have participated in an attack, even if they were subsequently somehow removed from the attack.

Permanent: In practice, old Shadowfist cards that use the word 'permanent' meant 'until the card leaves play.' We've moved away from the word 'permanent,' preferring to use the longer phrase on cards such as Vile Prodigy and Rain of Fury.

Playing a card: Bringing a card into play from your hand. The player who plays a card must pay its cost in Power, deducting that amount from his or her pool, and meet any resource conditions.

Power: The basic currency of the game. Points of Power are generated by sites and certain other cards, and you pay out Power to bring cards into play. You start the game with one point of Power. The Power a site generates appears in a diamond in its upper left corner.

Power-generating site: Any face-down feng shui site is considered to be a Power-generating site. A face-up site with a number other than 0 in the diamond in its upper left corner is a Power-generating site.

Power pool: The amount of Power a player currently has, represented by tokens of some kind in a pile close at hand.

Reduce: "Reduce" is not one of the 'key words that only means itself'! Any effect that reduces damage or a card's cost falls under the umbrella of effects that "reduce" damage or cost.

Remove from play: A card that is in play leaves play if it is smoked toasted, or returned to its owner's hand.

Resolving combat: Each combat is considered resolved after characters have met in combat, all damage has been dealt, and any smoked characters have been removed from the board.

Resource conditions: The symbols, if any, next to a card's cost in the bottom left corner are that card's resource conditions. Before you can play a card, you must have resources in your pool equal to the card's resource conditions.

Resource pool: The number of resources that the player has. These resources act as prerequisites and determine what cards the player can play. The resource symbols on cards that a player controls or has in his or her smoked pile comprise that player's resource pool. Symbols in a card's resource conditions do not count as resources.

Resources: The symbols in the lower right corner of a card are resources that the card puts in your resource pool when the card is in play on your side or in your smoked pile.

Rules text: The rules text on a card lists its special abilities and effects, if any, and gives special directions for the card's use.

Sacrifice: When you sacrifice a card, you smoke it to fulfill conditions set out on one or more cards in play or being played. You may only sacrifice cards you control.

Seize: To take a site and put it immediately in play on your side. A player whose characters have reduced a feng shui site's Body rating to zero by damage inflicted in an attack may opt to seize the site instead of burning or smoking it.

Shot: A term borrowed from the movies, "shot" refers to a step in a player's turn. Just as a film sets up the background for its action with the "establishing shot," you set up for the actionof your turn with an "establishing shot"; then you proceed to the "main shot" where the action takes off.

Side: Quite frequently we use the phrase "on your side" to refer to cards you control.

Site: These cards represent physical areas where characters carry out business, nefarious dealings, sinister experiments, etc. Feng shui sites are special sites that allow the factions to channel the power of the earth and rearrange reality more to their liking. Only sites identified as feng shui sites help you fulfill your victory conditions. Cards that refer to "sites" refer to both feng shui sites and non-feng shui sites.

Smoke: To cause to be taken out of play and put in the smoked pile. Cards in this pile may be brought back into play later.

Source of damage: In general, each card that inflicts damage is a separate source of damage. Hence a character with Toughness: 1 can plow through a chain of 1 Fighting characters or a stack of Deathtraps without taking a scratch. Cards that add to the damage a character inflicts in combat are not separate sources of damage.

Start of the turn: Effects that occur at the start of your turn occur before the start of your establishing shot. Note that you generally cannot voluntarily generate effects at the start of your turn, though cards such as Pocket Demon are exceptions.

States: Cards played on other cards to alter their attributes.

Subject: The card that a State card is played on.

Subtitle: The first line in a card's text box, the subtitle identifies what kind of card it is, and provides designators.

Successful attack: In order to successfully damage the target of its attack, a character has to enter combat with its target and inflict combat damage on the target.

Tag: A card's tag is a bit of prose that develops the card's relationship to the Shadowfist setting. It generally has no bearing on how the card is played. In fact, we've completely forgotten that we made up the word 'tag,' and always use the term 'flavor text'!

Target: The card being selected for an effect or being attacked. Only one card may be targeted for each attack.

Toast: To cause to be taken out of play and put in the toasted pile. Cards in this pile are removed from the current game entirely. Note that cards which are discarded are toasted, but that 'discarding' and 'toasting' are two separate game terms.

Toasted pile: Cards which a player has discarded or had toasted out of play. The original rulebook stated that the toasted pile should be kept face-up, but we find it more convenient to keep the toasted pile face-down and the smoked pile face-up. In tournaments, and even in friendly play, opponents can look through your toasted pile at any time.

Triggered effects: Triggered effects are effects that are automatically generated when a specific condition is met.

Turn: The act of turning a card on its side. To be activated, many effects require that a character be turned. A character that has already been turned can't be turned again until it becomes unturned; therefore, a turned character can't perform any action or activate any effect that requires that it be turned.

A game of Shadowfist is also divided into "turns" in the usual sense. A player's turn begins when the player to his or her right ends his or her turn and ends when the player declares that his or her turn is over.

Turn and maintain: This phrase means that you must turn a card to have the stated effect take place and you must keep the card turned to sustain the effect. Unlike other turned cards, cards that are "turned and maintained" do not have to be unturned during the establishing shot.

Turning to change location: Turning to change location is a game term distinct from turning to attack. Turning to change location does not refer to characters that turn to attack.

"when attacked": Effects that can be generated 'when attacked' can be generated anytime during an attack against a target you control. By contrast, effects that have to be generated "when an opponent declares an attack" have to be generated in response to the declaration of attack. "you": The term "you" on a card refers to the controller of that card.

4. New Rulings

Designators

Words that appear in the name and subtitle of a card are that card's designators. Subtitles are the first boldface line of a card's text box. Many effects target cards with specific designators. For instance, the Undercover Cop gets +1 Fighting for every Cop character in play. SWAT Team counts as a "Cop" thanks to its subtitle: "Cop Pawns." Maverick Cop counts as a Cop because of her name. But the Buro Official does not count as a Cop, since his subtitle is "Vile Bureaucrat."

For example, Assassins in Love takes control of all Assassins in play. It only takes control of characters whose designators include the word Assassin. There are characters in the game who have the special ability "Assassinate" that are not designated as Assassins in their title or subtitle. These characters do not qualify as Assassins. Some cards give new additional designators to other cards. If, for example, a card effect says that certain cards are now "considered to be Abominations," that means that the affected cards have gained the designator "Abomination."

Exceptions to the designator rules: The words Site, Feng Shui Site, Edge, State, and Event are not designators. Neither are connecting words like "of," "and," and "the."

Special cases in the designator rules: There are five special cases in which words that appear to be different are considered the same designator.

  1. Singular and plural forms of the same word are considered to be the same designator. The Undercover Cop gets to count both the SWAT Team ("Cop Pawns") and the PubOrd Squad ("Buro Cops").
  2. Masculine and feminine forms of the same noun count as the same designator. Priest = Priestess.
  3. Adjectival forms of a noun (whoo, there's a word you probably didn't expect to be seeing outside of English class!) are considered to be the same designator as the noun. Therefore "Hero" and "Heroic" count as the same designator, as do "Demon" and "Demonic" and Abomination and Abominable. My grammar may be a bit off on the following ruling, but the same goes for the designators "Dark" and "Darkness."
  4. Composite words can be split into designators consisting of all the words they contain. "Supersoldier" is the obvious example, containing the designators "Super" and "Soldier." "Mastermind" contains both "Master" and "Mind." Note that composite words are a lot different than words made up of multiple syllables - no fair trying to argue that the word "Artist" is made up of the compound words "Art" and "Ist"!
  5. On the other hand, we have made up some new words that are meant to count as composite words. Two such words are 'Buromil' and 'Arcanowave.' The designators in the previous words consist of Buro, Mil, Arcano and Wave. A Buro Official shares the designator 'Buro' with CHAR, a BuroMil Cyborg.

Playing Cards and Putting Cards Into Play

"Playing" a card requires you to pay its cost and meet its resource conditions.

Unless otherwise specified, playing a card requires you to pay its cost Power and to meet its resource conditions.

Examples: Contrary to some players' initial assumption, Cave Network and Surprise, Surprise require you to meet the resource conditions of the card you are playing with them.

"Returning" a card to play and "putting" a card into play are not the same as "playing" a card.

This ruling has several consequences.

No more than one card can be used to reduce the cost of another card.

Only one card may be used to reduce another card's cost. This is a reversal of some earlier rulings, including FAQ notes in which we mentioned that you could use both a Proving Ground and a Family Estate to reduce a character's cost.

One tricky situation that comes up occasionally involves cards such as Silver Jet and Gorilla Fighter. Since these cards reduce their own cost under certain conditions, one other card such as Proving Ground or Too Much Monkey Business could be used to further reduce their cost.

There is one exception to this ruling: cards that require mandatory reductions in cost are excluded from this rule. To date, the only card that creates a mandatory reduction in cost is the Orange Senshi Chamber from Netherworld, which requires all players to play Orange characters at -1 cost. Because of this exception, if the Orange Senshi Chamber is in play, you could use a Proving Ground and play an Orange Monk for only 2 Power.

The Sequence of Effects

The basic rule is simple: generate all effects in a sequence first, then resolve them in reverse order. The last effect generated is the first to be resolved. Once you have started resolving the effects in a sequence of effects, no one can generate any more effects until the current sequence has been entirely resolved.

Generating an effect can involve:

Resolving an effect involves:

making the changes to the board that result from an effect, such as placing damage counters, smoking cards, and removing cards from play

All effects that are not generated and not canceled resolve, even if the cards which generated them have already been removed from play when other effects have resolved. A card effect that has been canceled ceases taking effect and is not resolved in the sequence of effects.

Example: You want to play Shattering Fire on The Thing with 1000 Tongues Generation: You declare your intent to play Shattering Fire and state its target, The Thing with 1000 Tongues. You pay the Shattering Fire's cost, 1 Power, and you place Shattering Fire (an Event card) in your smoked pile. You also count the number of Magic resources in your pool at this moment, in case that number changes before your effect resolves. Resolution: If no opponent responds by generating effects that cancel Shattering Fire, change its target, or redirect the damage, you resolve the Shattering Fire's effect by inflicting damage equal to the number of Magic resources in your pool when you generated Shattering Fire on The Thing With 1000 Tongues. Place the damage counters and smoke the Thing if its Fighting has been reduced to 0.

Complications: If the Thing's controller had responded to your Shattering Fire by sacrificing one or more characters to give Thing with a 1000 Tongues Toughness, the sacrifice effect or effects would resolve first. Therefore, the damage your Shattering Fire inflicts in resolution would be reduced by 3 for each character sacrificed to the Thing. On the other hand, if your opponent had sacrificed a character to the Thing earlier in the sequence of effects and you had responded by playing Shattering Fire, the earlier sacrifice would have been in vain, because the Toughness bonus would not have resolved when the Shattering Fire resolves.

Characters and Sites are Different than Events, Edges, anytime effects and States in the Sequence of Effects.

Events are played into the smoked pile. Other cards enter play as soon as they are generated in a sequence of effects. Characters' natural abilities (such as Toughness) and sites' abilities (such as Dragon Mountain's Toughness) are effective as soon as they enter play but the effects of Edges, States, and Events do not take effect until they resolve in the sequence of effects.

Another way of saying this is that characters and sites are put into play during the generation of effects, but have no further effects to resolve during the resolution of the sequence of effects in which they entered play. By contrast, States and Edges are put into play during generation, but do not take effect until they resolve in the sequence of effects.

For example, you play an Average Joe with Toughness: 1. In response, and therefore as part of the same sequence of effects, your opponent turns a White Disciple to inflict two points of damage on the Average Joe. Even though the White Disciple's effect resolves first, Average Joe's Toughness: 1 is in effect, protecting him from 1 point of the White Disciple's damage.

Effects of States and Edges do NOT take effect until the effect that put the State or Edge into play is resolved. In other words, effects of States and Edges follow the same sequence of effects rules as anytime effects and Events. For example, say that you play Average Joe and respond to playing Average Joe by playing Armored In Life on him. Your opponent then responds to you playing Armored In Life by turning White Disciple to inflict two points of damage on Average Joe. Because the White Disciple's effect resolves first, the Armored in Life has not taken effect, and Average Joe suffers the point of damage that gets past his own Toughness:1.

Note that anytime effects which characters generate by turning are not available during the sequence of effects in which the character enters play because of the following ruling.

Cards may not turn in the same sequence of effects in which they entered play.

No card may turn as part of the same sequence of effects in which it enters play. As an example of the consequences of this ruling, consider the case in which you play a Vivisector. If your opponent responds in the same sequence of effects with an effect that smokes the Vivisector, your opponent's effect will resolve first and the Vivisector will leave play during the resolution of the same sequence of effects in which it entered play. You will never get a chance to turn the Vivisector to use its ability to sacrifice itself or another character for Power.

On the other hand, if your opponent allows the Vivisector to live until the end of the sequence of effects in which it was played, you will be perfectly free to turn the Vivisector to generate its sacrifice effect. That's why the Architects' enemies try to keep a Final Brawl or Mark of Fire waiting in the wings for the moment the Vivisector hits the table.

Triggered effects are effects that are automatically generated when a specific condition is met.

Some effects are triggered effects. They automatically generate when a certain condition is met. Cards that have triggered effects include Fire Martyr, Plasma Trooper, Rocket Scientist, and The Displaced, among many others. If there's a conflict about the timing of Triggered Effects, go by seating order from the player whose turn it is, using the rules for simultaneous play on page 42.

Note that some triggered effects are generated by things that occur during the resolution of a sequence of effects. This is an exception to the normal rule that new effects cannot be generated once a sequence of effects has begun resolving until the sequence of effects has finished resolving. In such cases, treat the triggered effect as if it had been generated immediately after the current sequence of effects finishes resolving; the triggered effect becomes the first effect in the next sequence.

Players have the option to respond to an opponent's effect before the player who generated the effect can generate another effect.

The rules concerning simultaneous play do not mean that the player whose turn it is can choose to generate a number of effects in the same sequence without giving opponents a chance to respond. Opponents can choose to respond to each effect before you have the option of playing another card. If more than one opponent wishes to respond to the same effect, use the rules for simultaneous play to determine which player gets to generate the first response (i.e., players sitting clockwise from the player whose turn it is get the nod to generate an effect first, if they so desire).

Note that the need for this ruling seldom crops up in games between players who are hip to the sequence of effects, because it is usually an advantage to generate the final effect in a sequence of effects.

Key Words

The following terms are very specific in Shadowfist. No other words should be assumed to have the same meaning: So, for example, Brain Fire cannot be used to retarget Iron and Silk, because Iron and Silk does not use the word "target."Similarly, the Mother of Corruption can have damage counters removed from her by effects that remove damage counters, but not by effects that "heal."

Damage Redirection

Cards that redirect damage become the new source of the redirected damage.
If you use a card such as Robust Feng Shui to reduce an opponent's feng shui site to 0 Body, Robust Feng Shui is the source of the damage. You would not be able to seize or burn the opponent's site because the damage was not combat damage inflicted by characters in an attack you declared; the opponent's site would simply be smoked.
You cannot redirect damage to the card which the damage is already inflicted upon.
For example, a City Square cannot turn to 'redirect' damage inflicted on it to itself in order to change the source of the damage. Redirected damage actually has to be redirected to a different legal card.

Vehicle States and weapon States are controlled by the controller of their subject character.

The normal rule is that a State is controlled by the player who played the State. Weapon States and vehicle States are always exceptions; if you play a Fusion Rifle on a character controlled by an opponent, your opponent controls the Fusion Rifle as well.

You are not allowed to intercept characters you control.

You can choose to intercept characters controlled by opponents that have turned to join an attack you declared, but you can no longer intercept characters you control. It was only possible before because of a loophole in rules wording. Now it's forbidden. We have some card effects coming up in future expansion sets that won't work without this ruling in place, and since few players have any need to take advantage of the old loophole, plugging it is painless.

Any card that changes controllers unturns.

If you seize a site, you place it into your site structure unturned. If you take control of a character, that character is unturned when you place it on your side. If you take control of a character that happens to control a Fusion Rifle, the Fusion Rifle unturns as well.

Characters that are taken control of are removed from any attack or interception they have been declared to be part of.

If you play Tortured Memories on an opponent's character after it has been declared as in interceptor against your attack, the character is removed from the interception and placed on your side. You could use the character in a subsequent attack. The same procedure applies to taking control of a character that has been declared as an attacker.

Multi-player example: A Silver Band belonging to player A is attacking a target controlled by player B. Player C turns Mr. X and takes control of A's Silver Band. The Silver Band is removed from the attack even if Player C had turned characters to join Player A's attack.

Note that this ruling has nothing to say about cases in which players take control of a character or site which is the target of an attack. In such cases, the attack continues unless the new controller is the player who declared the attack, but all attacking characters controlled by the new controller of the target are removed from the attack.

Anytime a card is returned to a player's hand or to its controller's hand, it goes to its owner's hand.

Cards that don't belong to you don't belong in your hand! In practice, this ruling touches only a few rare combos with cards such as Water Sword, Helix Chewer, and Shaolin Surprise. So if you haven't thought about the problem before, you probably don't have to start now.

Miscellaneous Rulings

Damage is inflicted during resolution in the sequence of effects.

We wavered about making this ruling for quite some time, creating a situation in which it wasn't clear if Operation Killdeer (to name one card affected) could affect a damage inflicting effect that had been generated earlier so that the earlier effect would inflict 0 damage when it resolved. We have ruled that the answer is "Yes."

If you have any questions about how damage gets redirected, inflicted, and reduced, try this formulA. Damage redirection effects occur during generation and tell you where damage will be inflicted when the damage effect resolves. When the damage effect resolves, it inflicts its damage on the character or site, but the amount of damage inflicted can be reduced by effects like Operation Killdeer, the Shadowfist State, or the Toughness ability. Place damage counters as the damage effect resolves.

No specific card may unturn another card more than once per turn.

If you're a veteran of the secret war, you'll have encountered Battlechimp Potemkin decks. Canny players took advantage of a loophole in the Venerable Chimp's wording to combine him with Rigorous Discipline and a couple of Jammer buddies to unturn the characters an infinite number of times. The combo didn't win many tournaments (not any, that we know of), but combos like it could crock the game. We have cards we want to design without having to worry about this type of infinite loop, so here's the ruling that kicks on the brakes.

A character that is "not affected by Events" is treated as if it were not in play for purposes of targeting and resolving Events.

The upshot of this ruling is that characters who cannot be affected by Events But characters that cannot be affected by Events can:

Have States on them smoked by Events that target the State itself (Realpolitik works) rather than the character (Return to the Center doesn't work).

Rulings concerning Fighting scores of X.

There are a few rulings to take into account.
  1. If a character with a Fighting score of X has its ability given to a character that does not have a Fighting score of X, the non-X character is not affected by the ability, since they do not have a Fighting score of X to be redefined.
  2. If a character with a Fighting score of X is given a different ability which defines a Fighting score of X, the last ability to resolve takes precedence. It's a very rare game which brings up a case in which you'll want to give an Undercover Cop the ability of Shih Ho Kuai, but it might happen. . .
  3. An ability which defines a Fighting score of X can't be used to define a value of X which is not a Fighting score.
  4. If the ability defining X disappears or is canceled, X defaults to 0. Usually this smokes the character in question, but occasionally some other factor (Shih Ho Kuai in a Hover Tank!?) intervenes to keep the X-fighting character alive until the crisis has passed. New ruling on Uniqueness auctions.

Uniqueness

If two copies of a single Unique card controlled by the same player simultaneously enter play (or are simultaneously revealed), the player must pay choose one copy of the Unique card and pay 1 Power for it to start an auction. If the player does not pay 1 Power to start the auction, both copies of the card are toasted.

No effects, except occasional triggered effects, can be generated after effects which occur at the end of a player's turn.

Cards such as City Park, Tortured Memories, and many others, have effects which occur at the end of a turn or which last until the end of a turn. Such effects occur after the end of the sequence of effects which begins when the player whose turn it is declares the end of his or turn. After end of the turn effects take place, there is no time for other effects to be generated, except for certain effects triggered at the end of a player's turn, and effects triggered by those effects. Darn rare, in fact I can't think of an example at the moment. But it's possible.

Burning for Power ends a player's turn, but players can play cards that specifically state that they respond to a feng shui site being burned. If someone plays such a 'Burn-buster' card, it is legal for the this final sequence of effects to continue so long as all the effects generated specifically state that they can be generated/played in response to previous effects in the sequence. See discussion of Bite of the Jellyfish on page 33 for an example.

5. Q & A on Attacking and Intercepting

Q. Can I attack and burn my own feng shui sites?
A. No. You cannot attack targets you control.

Q. Do attackers attack in chains?
A. No. All attacking characters attack in a single human (or inhuman) wave. The attacking player does not get to specify which characters attack first in a given attack. All attacking characters are equally available to be intercepted by defending characters. And all attacking characters inflict their combat damage simultaneously once they reach their target (unless one or more have the Ambush ability).

Q. If I can launch an attack on an opponent's turn, can I play States during that attack?
A. No. You can only play States during your own Main Shot. Page 28 of the rule book states that an attacking character can play States, but it assumes that you are attacking during your own turn rather than using something funky like Code Red or Iala Mané to get an attack off in an opponent's turn.

Q. Can a single defending character intercept more than one attacker per attack?
A. No. Each intercepting character may only intercept one attacker per attack. However, multiple defenders can arrange themselves in a chain and intercept the same attacker.

Q. Do characters have to turn to intercept?
A. No. In fact the words "turn to intercept" are something of a misnomer. Characters turn to change location. Characters can intercept attacks at locations they occupy, so a character who is going to intercept an attack aimed at a different location normally has to turn to change location first. Once they have changed location they are able to intercept. The exception is Mobility. Characters with Mobility can move to any location without turning, even if they are already turned and so can intercept attacks against any location.

Q. My Walker of the Purple Twilight is attacking, and Fong Sai Yuk turns to move to intercept-if I use Rigorous Discipline to give the Walker Superleap, is he still being intercepted, or does he leap right over Fong's head?
A. He leaps over Fong Sai Yuk's head, because he cannot be intercepted by turned characters. If an interceptor becomes ineligible to intercept at any time before the characters are actually in combat with each other, the interception ceases and the attacking character proceeds towards its target or to the next intercepting character in the chain.

Q. If your first attack succeeds in damaging its target and you want to launch a follow-up attack, do you have to declare your follow-up attack immediately, or can you play characters, Edges, and generate other card effects in between the two attacks?
A. You can play cards and generate effects in between the attacks.

Q. Can characters be healed in between successive combats in a single attack?
A. Yes.

Q. Is there any time in between the time a character with the Ambush ability inflicts its damage in combat and the time the defending character inflicts damage to generate and resolve other effects?
A. Yes, Ambush provides the one exception to the rule that there's no time during combat itself to generate effects. An attacking character with Ambush and Tactics could inflicts its damage and withdraw from combat without being damaged by the defending character.

Q. Is a group of characters making an attack a "single source" of damage?
A. No. A card that inflicts damage is a single source of damage. This could be an attacking character or a Shattering Fire. A character with a Really Big Gun inflicts +2 damage; the character is still the source of the damage.

6. The Steps of an Attack

The original draft of the material that follows was written by Stephen D'Angelo. It's a useful flow-chart for keeping track of the steps in an attack, particularly for noting when effects can be generated during an attack. Note that when there is time to generate and resolve one sequence of effect, there's time to resolve another. (The only exception to that rule occurs when a player has declared the end of his turn or when a player is fulfilling victory conditions.)

Declaring an attack is NOT an effect. As soon as an attack is declared, the Kicking Butt rules take effect, and effects declared in response to the declaration of attack take place during the attack. You can't cancel an attack.

The steps involved in an attack follow.

  1. Declare the attack, turn all the characters you control that you wish to participate in the attack, and select a single character or front row site controlled by an opponent as the target.
  2. Any player can use 'anytime' effects. The player whose turn it is can also play State cards or turn a character to heal it.

  3. MULTI-PLAYER ONLY STEPS
  4. Players other than the controller of the target can declare that characters they control will join the attack by turning them. Each player gets one chance to join as you go around the table clockwise from the attacking player.
  5. Any player can use 'anytime' effects in response to each of the player's decisions to join or not join the attack. The player whose turn it is also play State cards or turn a character to heal it.
  6. Players other than the controller of the target can declare interceptors. Each player gets one chance to declare interceptors as you go around the table clockwise from the player who is the target of the attack. Handle all combat with each player's interceptors before proceeding to the next player to see if they intercept. The steps are:
    1. Turn a character to temporarily move it to the location of the target being attacked. (If the character has Mobility it does not need to turn and can intercept even it if is turned.) They are considered to be at that location during combat.
    2. Handle combat as per steps 7 through 10 below.
    3. Surviving interceptors return to their original locations.
    4. Any player can use 'anytime' effects . The player whose turn it is can also play State cards or turn a character to heal it.
    FOR ALL COMBATS
  7. The defending player (the one controlling the target) then declares interceptors. Only characters at the location of the target can be used to intercept. Turned characters can intercept any attacker that does not have Superleap.
  8. Line up your intercepting characters in front of the attackers of your choice. Each interceptor can only intercept a single character.
  9. Any player can use 'anytime' effects . The player whose turn it is can also play State cards or turn a character to heal it.
  10. The attackers and first wave of interceptors deal damage to one another. Smoke any characters that have taken damage equal to their Fighting Score. If one attacker is intercepted and another is not, the unintercepted character waits for his companions to deal with their interceptors before they all proceed to the target together.
  11. Repeat steps 8 and 9 until all waves of interceptors are dealt with.
  12. Any player can use 'anytime' effects in between combats with waves of interceptors and after all interception combat is finished. The character whose turn it is can also play State cards or turn a character to heal it.
  13. All remaining attackers simultaneously damage the target. If the target can deal damage, the defending player chooses how to divide the damage among the attackers. Smoke any characters that have taken damage equal to their Fighting Score. Any site which has damage in excess of its body can be seized, burned for 5 Power or burned for victory at this time. Seized sites have all damage on them removed and can be placed at any legal position on your side. Burning a site for power ends your turn immediately after step 13.
  14. Surviving attacking characters return to their original locations.

Notes:

If more than one character intercepts an attacker, the interceptors are lined up in a chain and fight the attacker one at a time as per steps 7 through 9.

Note that once an attacker starts down this road it will keep fighting interceptors until it is smoked, otherwise removed from play, fails to smoke a character intercepting it, or reaches its target. A Character with Tactics can leave the attack at any time that 'anytime' effects are usable.

7. Miscellaneous Questions

Q. Can you use a card as soon as you've played it?
A. Yes and no. You can turn a card to use its special ability, or turn a character to attack in the same turn that it is played. But as explained in the rulings above, section of the FAQ above, you can't turn a card during the same sequence of effects in which it was played.

Q. How do you reconcile the two different definitions of effect that appear on page 40 and in the glossary?
A. The glossary states that an effect is "the rules text on a card as it impacts the game." Page 40 states that "anything that happens during a game is an effect." The latter statement is more accurate, but not necessarily complete. Every action taken in the game except a declaration (such as signaling the end of a turn, or the beginning of an attack) and the establishing shot activities is an effect that can be responded to and is resolved using the Sequence of Effects rules.

Q. Can I declare the end of my turn during an attack, or during a sequence of effects?
A. No, declarations can start sequences of effects (in other words, players can respond to declarations) but declarations can never respond to a previously generated effect. And, if opponents respond to your declaration of the end of your turn by generating an effect or a sequence of effects, your turn does not end until that sequence of effects is resolved.

Q. The rules state, "if you are one feng shui site away from winning, you can't play any more feng shui sites from your hand." Does that mean I can return one from my smoked pile or bring one into play by some other means than playing it from my hand?
A. No. The only way to win is to seize or burn your final site unless there are no sites to be seized. The Second Edition rules will contain the amended sentence "if you are one feng shui site away from winning the game, you cannot put another feng shui site into play."

Q. When a card refers to you, who does it refer to?
A. As explained in the glossary, "you" refers to the controller of the card. Note that the controller of a card is normally the person who played the card. As mentioned above, vehicles and weapons are the exceptions. Vehicle and weapon States are controlled by the controller of the subject character.

Q. Can I target my own characters and sites with card effects that inflict direct damage or smoke other cards?
A. Yup, of course. The rule states that your characters can't attack targets you control, but you can target cards you control for other card or character effects. For example, you'll almost certainly have to find some way of inflicting damage directly in order to get rid of an Illusory Bridge site played into your site structure.

Q. Was Shadowfist designed as a drinking game?
A. No. But you might think otherwise if you noticed how we got confused about which direction is clockwise in the paragraph about "Simultaneous play" on pages 42-43. Sorry about that. We said clockwise, we meant clockwise.

Q. Any other mistakes too embarrassing to mention?
A. Yes. When we introduced the Ascended on page 8 of the rule book, we meant to use the word "descendants," not "ancestors."