Dr. Jest?

1) Does Dr. Jest's ability (to cause opponent to discard a card at random) cause him to tap as an action? Or is it just an automatic thing if he is untapped during the master phase? 2) In the Basic game as outlined in the V:TES mini-rule book, how many cards can a vamp play in the single round of combat? ie, how many of each type: combat, reaction, action modifier... 3) An opponent delcares a bleed as an action, if it is not blocked can he then play an action card to increase the bleed or does he have to play the action card as the bleed is being declared? 4) An opponent attempts to bleed me with a vamp that has +1 bleed, if I block this action what type of damage does my blocking minion take, the bleed damage or the hand/equipment damage? (ie, what's the difference between hand and bleed damage?) Anothe example would be if the opponent played an action card to increase the bleed to +3, if I successfully block this action are we talking hand damage now and the bleed action card is nullified? Thanx

ls...@hq.tcfarm.com (Laura Gabrielle) writes: >1) Does Dr. Jest's ability (to cause opponent to discard a card at >random) cause him to tap as an action? Or is it just an automatic >thing if he is untapped during the master phase? Automatic. It even applies if Jest is in Torpor (untapped). >2) In the Basic game as outlined in the V:TES mini-rule book, how many >cards can a vamp play in the single round of combat? ie, how many of >each type: combat, reaction, action modifier... You cannot play reactions nor action modifiers in combat. But there is no restriction on the number of combat cards (duplicates or no) that you can play - but you can't maneuver twice in a row, nor prevent damage that you haven't taken, nor press twice in a row. >3) An opponent delcares a bleed as an action, if it is not blocked can >he then play an action card to increase the bleed or does he have to >play the action card as the bleed is being declared? After the block is declined is fine. The would-be blocker does not get the chance to change his mind. >4) An opponent attempts to bleed me with a vamp that has +1 bleed, if >I block this action what type of damage does my blocking minion take, >the bleed damage or the hand/equipment damage? (ie, what's the >difference between hand and bleed damage?) Anothe example would be if >the opponent played an action card to increase the bleed to +3, if I >successfully block this action are we talking hand damage now and the >bleed action card is nullified? Bleed and hand damage are completely independent. Increasing one will not affect the other. -- L. Scott Johnson (sjoh...@math.sc.edu) | If thine enemy wrong thee, http://www.math.sc.edu/~sjohnson | buy each of his children Graphics Specialist and V:tES Rulemonger. | a drum.

In article <4leirt$2...@news.tcfarm.com>, ls...@hq.tcfarm.com wrote: : 1) Does Dr. Jest's ability (to cause opponent to discard a card at : random) cause him to tap as an action? Or is it just an automatic : thing if he is untapped during the master phase? His ability is automatic during the master phase and requires no tapping or action on his part. : 2) In the Basic game as outlined in the V:TES mini-rule book, how many : cards can a vamp play in the single round of combat? ie, how many of : each type: combat, reaction, action modifier... Each minion/vamp can take one action, which taps them. During that action the acting minion can play one copy of a given action modifier, a given reacting minion can play one given reaction card. A different reacting minion could play the another copy of that reaction card. In combat the only restrictions are: for each strike a minion has, he or she can only play one strike card; a minion can only use one card a round that give additional strikes; and that if a strike based card is used to manuever (a gun, Thrown Gate, Aid with Bats..) that card must be used as the minion's strike for the round (any additional strikes in that round can be anything the vamp wants and has the cards for) and therefore only one strike based card can be used to generate a manuever in a given round (ie no manuever with the gun and then manuever with a Thrown gate in the same round.); also each minion must delcare a strike (you cannot choose not to strike) Example will follow below. : 3) An opponent delcares a bleed as an action, if it is not blocked can : he then play an action card to increase the bleed or does he have to : play the action card as the bleed is being declared? A minion cannot play an action card at this point in time, but could play action modifiers after the block has been not blocked or the targetted Meth has given up the opportunity to block. A bleeding action card (Like Govern the Unaligned) has to be declared and played as teh action is announced. A bleeding action modifier (like Threats) can be played as teh action is announced, but it is generally better to play when you know the bleed will be successful. : 4) An opponent attempts to bleed me with a vamp that has +1 bleed, if : I block this action what type of damage does my blocking minion take, : the bleed damage or the hand/equipment damage? (ie, what's the : difference between hand and bleed damage?) Anothe example would be if : the opponent played an action card to increase the bleed to +3, if I : successfully block this action are we talking hand damage now and the : bleed action card is nullified? Bleed damage and combat damage are fundamentally different and separate things. Bleed damage is the number of blood counters removed from the Meth's pool to the blood bank if the bleeding action is successful (ie, not blocked or countered.) The amount of potential bleed has nothing to do with the damage that vampire would deal out in combat. The damage dealt in the combat depends on the strikes the minions deal out (either via a gun or whatever.) Your second example is correct. Right, now here are two examples that will break down the basic play and what restrictions there are. You control Dr. Jest. Your preadator controls Deiter Kleist and Dorian Strack (with a .44 Magnum and a potence skill card). (I think these vamps will work. In either case the vamp with the gun should have superior celerity and normal auspex and potence, the other vamp should have normal auspex, with the other skill not mattering.) It is your turn. Example 1 In your minion phase you decide to bleed with Dr. Jest (no action card.) Both Deiter and Dorain are untapped. Your prey does not declare a blocker (thus the action is unblocked) and instead has Deiter play a Telepathic Counter (reducing the bleed by 1). You decide to play a Conditioning from your hand to increase the bleed by 3. Your prey has given up the opportunity to block and cannot choose to block now. But Dorain can play another Telepathic Counter (as Deiter played the first one) and does so, reducing the bleed by another point. You are restricted (by card text, from playing additional bleed modifiers, and therefore the action is concluded) End result: you bleed your prey for 2 pool (which your prey burns to the blood bank) and you get the Edge. Example 2 (This assumes an advanced game with stealth and intercept. If you are not at that point yet the rest of the example is still valid and the stealth/intercept just points out the action modifier restrictions.) Same situation. You choose to have Dr Jest perform a Govern the Unaligned action at the inferior (bleed at +2...this action card must be played now). Dorian declares a block. You play Lost in Crowds to increase your stealth by 1. Dorian plays an Enhanced Senses to increase intercept by 1. (To block an action you must have as much intercept as the action has stealth.) You have another Lost in Crowds in your hand, but you cannot play it because you have already played that action modifier card. You have no more stealth in your hand so the action is blocked. Dorian taps and you enter combat. The Govern the Unaligned card is put in the ash heap and you do not pay for it as the action was unsuccessful. Combat: (just a reminder the fact that you were bleeding for 3 gived you no advantage in the combat) Choose Range You choose not to Manuever (Dorian has a gun and you want to hit him.) Dorian manuevers to long range with the gun. You have a Fake Out manuever card in your hand so you manuever back to close. Dorian has a Thrown Gate in his hand (Potence card giving a manuever and ranged damage) but he cannot play it as he used the manuever from the gun to get to long range, and this commits him to shooting you with the gun as his initial stike of the round. But he has a Flash in his hand (Celerity at superior a Manuever with an optional press) and uses it to get to long range. You have no more manuevers so the combat is at long range. Strikes Dr Jest has to choose a strike (so he strikes with hands even though it will do no damage at long range.) Dorian has to use the gun as his strike (even though he has the Thrown Gate and a Thrown Sewer Lid in his hand) He shoots Dr Jest. Damage Resolution Dr Jest takes 2 points of damage and removes that pool to the blood bank. Additional Strikes Dr Jest has none. Dorian plays a Blur to get 2 additional stikes. (he cannot play any other cards to get an additional strike) He shoots you for the first additional strike. Dr Jest takes 2 more points of damage. Then he Throws a Sewer Lid at Dr Jest. Dr. Jest takes 3 more points of damage (although he still doesn't go to torpor. I think he is out of blood.. anyway, for arguments sake lets say he is out of blood.) Presses Dr Jest doesn't want to continue combat as one more point of damage will send him to torpor. He does not press. Dorian has an optional press from the Flash played earlier and uses t. Dr Jest doesn't have any presses so combat continues. The same steps are gone through as last round, so I'll shorten them to just a couple of sentences. Dorian manuevers to long range with teh Thrown Gate and hits Dr Jest with it for a single point of damage. Dr Jest had no manuevers or dodges, so goes to torpor in the Damage resolution stage. End result: Dr Jest gets whooped up on by a small Toreador with potence and a gun. Moral, make sure you have enough stealth when you can't fight, or Toreador guns decks can dish it out.. ;^) I hope these examples have helped to explain how a given action and corresponding combat might proceed. There are many more examples I might ahve given. My advice, start playing with the full advanced rules. The game is so much better than the basic Vtes rules, and not taht much more difficult to learn. You will enjoy it much more. i hope this helps stephen beaulieu hi...@mail.utexas.edu

On Mon, 22 Apr 1996, Laura Gabrielle wrote: > 1) Does Dr. Jest's ability (to cause opponent to discard a card at > random) cause him to tap as an action? Or is it just an automatic > thing if he is untapped during the master phase? He doesn't tap to do this. Special abilities on the Vamps themselves would specify to tap. > 2) In the Basic game as outlined in the V:TES mini-rule book, how many > cards can a vamp play in the single round of combat? ie, how many of > each type: combat, reaction, action modifier... > You can play as many combat cards as you like and they can be identical. For example two aura readings can be played, one being used at superior and one at regular. There are a few restrictions as far as the rules go though, only one additional strike card can be played in a round (ie no acrobatics and then blur) As far as reaction and action modifiers go, you can play as many as you want as long as they're not the same card (cant use lost in crowds twice on same action). > 3) An opponent delcares a bleed as an action, if it is not blocked can > he then play an action card to increase the bleed or does he have to > play the action card as the bleed is being declared? No. You can't attempt a straight bleed and then throw a Govern the Unaligned or Social charm, Legal Manip, etc on it after they let it through. These are all action cards and have to be played as you tap the vamp. Bonding, Threats, Conditioning, Aire of Elation, etc can be played after it is let through, however, because they are action modifiers and not actions themselves. > 4) An opponent attempts to bleed me with a vamp that has +1 bleed, if > I block this action what type of damage does my blocking minion take, > the bleed damage or the hand/equipment damage? (ie, what's the > difference between hand and bleed damage?) Anothe example would be if > the opponent played an action card to increase the bleed to +3, if I > successfully block this action are we talking hand damage now and the > bleed action card is nullified? ACtually, a vampire's current bleed has nothing to do with how much damage they do in combat. The default hand damage for a vampire is one unless you increase it with combat cards, equipment, etc. (We are going by full game rules and not those weird basic ones, right?) Hope this helps, Zach Haffey

sjoh...@math.scarolina.edu (L. Scott Johnson) writes: >>3) An opponent delcares a bleed as an action, if it is not blocked can >>he then play an action card to increase the bleed or does he have to >>play the action card as the bleed is being declared? >After the block is declined is fine. The would-be blocker does not get >the chance to change his mind. Huh? You may play an ACTION card (i.e. Govern the Unaligned) AFTER declaring a bleed action (originally with no card)? am I reading this wrong or would you need to declare the Gov. unaligned as the action? a newly confused Stu >-- >L. Scott Johnson (sjoh...@math.sc.edu) | If thine enemy wrong thee, >http://www.math.sc.edu/~sjohnson | buy each of his children >Graphics Specialist and V:tES Rulemonger. | a drum. -- "I don't trust telepaths. Never have, never will." -- Garibaldi, "The Gathering"

In article <dsadmga....@sundial.gatech.edu>, dsa...@prism.gatech.edu (Stuart J. Pieloch) wrote: : sjoh...@math.scarolina.edu (L. Scott Johnson) writes: : >>3) An opponent delcares a bleed as an action, if it is not blocked can : >>he then play an action card to increase the bleed or does he have to : >>play the action card as the bleed is being declared? : : >After the block is declined is fine. The would-be blocker does not get : >the chance to change his mind. : : Huh? : You may play an ACTION card (i.e. Govern the Unaligned) : AFTER declaring a bleed action (originally with no card)? : : am I reading this wrong or would you need to declare the Gov. unaligned : as the action? : : a newly confused : Stu I am sure that Scott just misunderstood the question. He probably thought that they were asking about action modifiers. An action card must be played as that given action is announced, as you correctly noted. stephen beaulieu hi...@mail.utexas.edu

In article <dsadmga....@sundial.gatech.edu>, Stuart J. Pieloch <dsa...@prism.gatech.edu> wrote: >sjoh...@math.scarolina.edu (L. Scott Johnson) writes: >>>3) An opponent delcares a bleed as an action, if it is not blocked can >>>he then play an action card to increase the bleed or does he have to >>>play the action card as the bleed is being declared? > >>After the block is declined is fine. The would-be blocker does not get >>the chance to change his mind. > >Huh? > You may play an ACTION card (i.e. Govern the Unaligned) > AFTER declaring a bleed action (originally with no card)? > >am I reading this wrong or would you need to declare the Gov. unaligned >as the action? > Oops (again - getting sloppy) - of course you can't declare a second action (bleed and a bleed action card - GtU) during the same action. Sorry, starting to read the questions too quickly. You can't do more than one action per action (Force of Will excepted, by some jigging from a slow to 'fess up DT).

L. Scott Johnson wrote: > > ls...@hq.tcfarm.com (Laura Gabrielle) writes: > > >1) Does Dr. Jest's ability (to cause opponent to discard a card at > >random) cause him to tap as an action? Or is it just an automatic > >thing if he is untapped during the master phase? > > Automatic. It even applies if Jest is in Torpor (untapped). > > >2) In the Basic game as outlined in the V:TES mini-rule book, how many > >cards can a vamp play in the single round of combat? ie, how many of > >each type: combat, reaction, action modifier... > > You cannot play reactions nor action modifiers in combat. But there > is no restriction on the number of combat cards (duplicates or no) > that you can play - but you can't maneuver twice in a row, nor prevent > damage that you haven't taken, nor press twice in a row. > > >3) An opponent delcares a bleed as an action, if it is not blocked can > >he then play an action card to increase the bleed or does he have to > >play the action card as the bleed is being declared? > > After the block is declined is fine. The would-be blocker does not get > the chance to change his mind. > Does he mean an action modifier or an action. An action card (such as legal manipulations) must be played as the action is declared, before blocking. Action modifiers (like bonding, conditioning etc.) can be played after the prey declines to block and there's nothing he can do about it.

L. Scott Johnson (sjoh...@math.scarolina.edu) wrote: : ls...@hq.tcfarm.com (Laura Gabrielle) writes: : >1) Does Dr. Jest's ability (to cause opponent to discard a card at : >random) cause him to tap as an action? Or is it just an automatic : >thing if he is untapped during the master phase? : Automatic. It even applies if Jest is in Torpor (untapped). : >2) In the Basic game as outlined in the V:TES mini-rule book, how many : >cards can a vamp play in the single round of combat? ie, how many of : >each type: combat, reaction, action modifier... : You cannot play reactions nor action modifiers in combat. But there : is no restriction on the number of combat cards (duplicates or no) : that you can play - but you can't maneuver twice in a row, nor prevent : damage that you haven't taken, nor press twice in a row. Can't play more than one card that gives you extra strikes in a round, either. (And a good thing too--otherwise a .44 and handful of Blurs would be *really* scary...) Chris Mattern

On 22 Apr 1996, Stuart J. Pieloch wrote: > sjoh...@math.scarolina.edu (L. Scott Johnson) writes: > >>3) An opponent delcares a bleed as an action, if it is not blocked can > >>he then play an action card to increase the bleed or does he have to > >>play the action card as the bleed is being declared? > > >After the block is declined is fine. The would-be blocker does not get > >the chance to change his mind. Uh...no. > You may play an ACTION card (i.e. Govern the Unaligned) > AFTER declaring a bleed action (originally with no card)? > > am I reading this wrong or would you need to declare the Gov. unaligned > as the action? > You MUST play the action card (gov. unaligned) as you tap the vampire that's bleeding. These cards have the two solid black triangles. Action modifiers (Threats, Bonding, Conditioning, Aire of Elation) are the ones that go on after the bleed gets through. -Zach

In article <317C23...@udel.edu>, lubr...@udel.edu says... > >L. Scott Johnson wrote: >> >> ls...@hq.tcfarm.com (Laura Gabrielle) writes: >> >3) An opponent delcares a bleed as an action, if it is not blocked can >> >he then play an action card to increase the bleed or does he have to >> >play the action card as the bleed is being declared? >> >> After the block is declined is fine. The would-be blocker does not get >> the chance to change his mind. >> > >Does he mean an action modifier or an action. An action card (such as >legal manipulations) must be played as the action is declared, before >blocking. Action modifiers (like bonding, conditioning etc.) can be >played after the prey declines to block and there's nothing he can do >about it. Not entirely true. Someone deciding not to block a bleed which then has a + bleed modifier slapped on it can still play Deflection or Telepathic Misdirection to bounce the bleed. -- Richard --- "A Smith & Wesson beats four aces" ric...@onechip.co.uk

I disagree with the 4th item. If a bleed is declared and no action card is played then only action modifiers can increase the bleed. example: Govern the Unaligned can not be played after a bleed is allowed, but Bonding, Threats, Conditioning etc. can be as long as it has the action modifier symbol on it.