The Book of Blob

[fret_gurglo]

Originally Posted by tcglkn

I don't think this is how special powers work? It's just a static power so it's always on I thought. There's no choice involved.

This would be a pretty big detour from how I always played. Unless a power specifies "must", I've always treated them as a "may". It could even have stemmed right from this FAQ.

[Ronin]

This has come up semi-recently in other places - I forget where. The understanding of whether 'must' or 'may' is the default has changed over time. Something the rules team may want to hash out the implications of.

[IAmBatman]

Yeah, I think this is one of those bigger picture ones. Much like the start of the round thing I believe we've had different designers operating under opposite assumptions. Part of it is the existence of both "must" and "may" language in various different special powers, which really obscures whether the default is must or may. I lean towards "must" being the default just because I'm pretty sure there are some negative powers that don't specify "may" and wouldn't make any sense otherwise.

[MrNobody]

Something like this is basically pointless if powers are “may” by default, for example.

OUT OF SHAPE
If Detective Bullock moves at least 5 spaces on his turn, subtract one from his Attack number for the rest of that turn.

[IAmBatman]

Agreed. I mean, it's certainly written in the imperative, but so is Blob's power.

[NecroBlade]

This comes from a ruling that you can choose to let a unit adjacent to a Gladiatron walk away by choosing not to use Cyberclaw, even though there is neither "may" nor "must" in the power. That ruling isn't in the Gladiatrons' OP, but I promise it happened at some point.

[IAmBatman]

Ah, it's a ruling from Hasbro. That explains the abject insanity at its root. Danka.

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Ah, it's a ruling from Hasbro. That explains the abject insanity at its root. Dankae.

See also Grimnak. No "may" or "must" in Chomp, but you don't have to eat your own dudes if they're the only ones next to him.

[tcglkn]

Originally Posted by NecroBlade

See also Grimnak. No "may" or "must" in Chomp, but you don't have to eat your own dudes if they're the only ones next to him.

Very different from a static effect to one where you have to choose to use it though.

[NecroBlade]

Not really. They both have specific circumstances and windows in which they operate. And they're both optional. Anyway, I'm just telling you the official beginnings of the ruling, but you guys have made C3G your own game at this point, so do what makes sense in that regard.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by NecroBlade

See also Grimnak. No "may" or "must" in Chomp, but you don't have to eat your own dudes if they're the only ones next to him.

Yeah, Grimnak is poorly written. That should 100% have a "you may" in it.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by NecroBlade

Not really. They both have specific circumstances and windows in which they operate. And they're both optional. Anyway, I'm just telling you the official beginnings of the ruling, but you guys have made C3G your own game at this point, so do what makes sense in that regard.

Oh, for sure. Zero angst against you. It's a bad ruling by Hasbro made as a patch to cover for sloppy wording, IMO, and it's not a ruling that fits well in C3G at all, so I'd favor abandoning it.

I agree that Grimnak's wording and that ruling on Grimnak is just as bad as the Cyberclaw one, though.