This article originally appeared in Pyramid #18
INWO Q & A
By INWO Net-Rep Lynette R. F. Cowper
Rules
Q: Can I play a Disaster or Assassination on a Group card from my hand?
A: No. Instant attacks are a specialized form of attack to destroy. Under Attack to Destroy in the rulebook (p. 9), it states that you may attack to destroy any group in play except an Illuminati. A card in hand is not in play (p. 18 of the rules: "Hand: . . . They are not considered 'in play'").Q: Are the Bruno cards from Pyramid #12 official?
A: No.Q: When can you use the Illuminati action token to automatically take over a Resource?
A: Only during phase 5, the action phase, of your turn, after tokens have already been placed. This has two major implications:
- You may only normally get two Resources per turn — one through the normal ATO if you choose to forego a Group, and one with the Illuminati token ATO.
- Resources that require Action Tokens do not get them if ATOed with an Illuminati action.
Q: Can you attack to control Groups you already control?
A: No. You will note that under Attack to Destroy that the last of the seven ways they were different from Attacks to Control is that you can attack to destroy one of your own Groups. Therefore, you may not attack to control one.Q: Can you remove an action token from one of your Groups without taking an action?
A: Yes. Under Actions, paragraph 7: "Or you may always just remove an action token, if for some reason you want to."Q: Are "passive" abilities (ones that don't require the Group to spend their Action token), such as "+X to any attempt" bonuses, special abilities?
A: Yes. Special abilities are special abilities — active or passive. This means that "+X to attack" bonuses from Straight or Government groups don't apply to attacks on Discordia and those from non-Secret groups don't apply to attacks on Secret groups. It also means the Are We Having Fun Yet? card can cancel these "passive" abilities.Q: Can a player use his action tokens to power another player's Plot card, such as a Hoax?
A: No. Plots that require actions specify that "you" (the player of the card) must spend those tokens or that they must come from "your" foo Group. The player with the Plot may, however, give it to someone else who could power it, on the agreement that it be played.Q: Stonehenge grants immunity from Magic Plots, but what exactly is a Magic Plot? Is "The Weak Link," which requires a Magic, Computer or Science action, a Magic Plot, because it mentions magic?
A: It's a Magic Plot if it requires a Magic Group's token or if there are several options and the option taken is to use the Magic Group's token. If you chose to use a token from a Science group, then it isn't. Likewise, a Plot that just requires an action, but not from a Magic group specifically, does not become Magic if you use a Magic group's token.Q: Someone tried to claim that a given card or combination let them win without anyone having a chance to stop him. Is this possible?
A: There is never, ever — I repeat, never, ever — a time when a person can declare victory in which his opponents do not have an opportunity to try and stop him. You cannot win until your opponents admit they can't stop you. And you cannot lose until you have had an opportunity to stop your opponent's victory and failed to do so. There is no magic combination of cards that will give you a victory without your opponents having a chance to stop you.Q: The rules say ("Turn Sequence," between 6 and 7): "At this point, if you have achieved one of your Goals, you must say so, . . ." Do you have to announce your victory if you don't want to?
A: You never have to declare a victory unless you actually want to win.Q: Can you declare victory on someone else's turn after they declare victory?
A: Yes. Anyone who has reached their victory conditions at the end of a turn, declared as much and who can't be stopped, wins, no matter whose turn it actually is.Cards
+10 cards
Q: If a Group is attacked, and a +10 booster card is played for its defense, and then it's attacked again during the same turn, can the defender add another copy of the same booster?
A: No. The +10 card is still in effect, and thus, adding another would be having a duplicate card in the same attack.Q: If a Group is attacked to destroy, and a +10 booster is used to increase its defensive Power, and the attack fails, and then it's attacked to control during the same turn, does it also get a +10 to its Resistance?
A: No. The +10 is only applied to Power or Resistance for the duration of the turn, not both, so it can't protect against both attacks.Token-giving cards
Q: What happens if a token-giving card (Hawaii, Perpetual Motion Machine) that has already given the extra token for the turn is removed from the Group it gave its token to? Do I get to keep the extra action token?
A: Yes.Are We Having Fun Yet?
Q: Can this card take away a "passive" ability, like China's "-20 to being destroyed" or a "+X on any attempt" ability?
A: Yes.The Bavarian Illuminati
Q: Bavaria declares a privileged attack. The attack is cancelled by the Nuclear Power Companies. Does Bavaria lose its privileged attack for that turn?
A: The attack never happened, so the privilege never happened.Bribery and Murphy's Law
Q: Can I play a Bribery when someone else has just played a Murphy's Law card or vice versa?
A: Yes.C.I.A.
Q: The C.I.A. can make an assassination attack on a personality. What ways of boosting this attack are applicable? Who can aid this attack? How do I calculate the attack power?
A: "Any attempt" bonuses don't apply unless the card specifies that they apply to assassinations. You may play a +10 card on the C.I.A when you announce the attack. Naturally, anything that permanently modifies the C.I.A.'s power still applies. Only groups whose special abilities specify they can aid an assassination may aid the attack. The attack strength is calculated in the usual way and all the usual modifiers for common and opposite alignments still apply.Eliza
Q: If a player uses an action granted by Eliza to play Murphy's Law, does Eliza crash?
A: No. Eliza only crashes if the 11 or 12 was the result of an action her side was attempting — i.e,. Eliza aids an attack, the roll is a 12, she crashes; Eliza aids a defense, the attacker rolls a 12, she doesn't crash.Q: May Eliza grant an action on the turn that she comes into play?
A: If she comes into play before the token-placement phase, yes. If not, no.Q: Can Eliza build up actions?
A: No. This is just like any other token-giving card. It raises the tokens you're eligible to have on the Group by one. If you still have a full compliment of tokens on the group come token-placing time, they don't get any more.Forgery
Q: Does Forgery allow an extra takeover (in addition to your Auto Takeover) or do you have to play it when you are normally allowed to get a new resource?
A: Forgery does not allow a "free" takeover; you must play it when you would normally play a Resource from your hand.Q: Can you play it with The Stars Are Right, the Evil Genuises for a Better Tomorrow, or the automatic takeover of a Resource by spending an Illuminati token?
A: Yes.Libertarians
Q: If you control a nation or state and the Libertarians, then spend an action to move the
nation or state to the Libertarian's control arrow, have the Libertarians just "taken control" of them? A: Yes.Q: If the Libertarians lose control of that nation or state later, does the power change on Libertarians still stick?
A: No. It only lasts for as long as they control that Group — if the Group was destroyed, stolen by a rival, moved to a new master, etc., the Libertarians lose the extra power.Necronomicon
Q: Can you link the Necronomicon to a group that cannot be destroyed?
A: Yes, and since their special ability not to be subject to something takes precedence over cards that do that thing — unless of course they are specifically named, which they're not in this case — they get the benefit of the Necronomicon without the risk.Shangri-La
Q: Can Shangri-La interfere on the attacking side of an attack to destroy a non-violent group?
A: Yes, but this still doesn't allow Shangri-La to use an Assassination or Disaster card on a non-violent group.Upheaval!
Q: Can you play a duplicate of a Group that's been removed with Upheaval!?
A: Not without a card that allows you to return a destroyed Group to play, like Media Blitz.Vampires
Q: Since the Vampires can make personalities into vampires, does it mean that these new personality vampires can also make other personalities into vampires too?
A: No. The new vampire only gets those abilities given to it by the Vampires card and, of course, their own abilities.Warehouse 23
Q: If a resource which normally has Action Tokens is played from Warehouse 23, does it have tokens when it appears?
A: Yes. It enters play with its full normal complement of Action Tokens.
Article publication date: March 1, 1996
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