Rules question: Tasks with discarding valuable information

[Trollipop 1]

Some investigation cards have tasks like go to Rivia. I guess that if you have 2 tasks and maybe even a side quest that instruct you to go to Rivia you will fulfill all of them at the same time once you arrive there?

The same principle can be applied to tasks and quests instructing the player to defeat a monster. Example: Once you defeat a silver monster all the tasks that tell you to defeat any or a silver monster will be fulfilled at the same time? (that's how we handled it).

Our problem came up with the valuable information cards.

there are 7 of them in the purple investigation deck and 5 with a task : discard a valuable information card and 2 other cards that give the option to discard for a bonus effect.

When a player discards a valuable information card, will all his tasks with the text : discard a valuable information card be triggered or only one of his choosing?

The rules don't go into much detail.

Quote from the reference guide:

 

INVESTIGATION CARDS
Some purple investigation cards have the valuable

information trait, and these cards have an effect that

allows the hero to keep the card. There are other purple

investigation cards with effects that trigger if the hero

discards a valuable information card.

 

TASKS

•  Some investigation cards contain a task. Heroes keep these cards faceup in their play area as a reminder of what the task’s requirements and rewards are.
•  Unless tied to an action or otherwise specified, a player can complete a task only when he can perform operations.
•  Players must keep uncompleted tasks separate from completed tasks to track which tasks they have completed.
•  A task can be completed only once.
•  When a task requires a player to perform an action, he fully resolves the action and then receives the reward.
•  Some investigation cards contain traits as well as tasks. After completing a task on one of these cards, the hero keeps the card faceup in his play area to benefit from the effect of the card’s trait.

Related Topics: Discarding, Investigation Cards, Keeping Cards,

Traits

any comment is apreciated

Edited January 20, 2015 by goret

[Husker949 47]

In regards to your opening statements, for every Quest, Side Quest, or Task you can complete an Operation to complete the said objective what you arrive at a location (technically each one is done individually, but for time's sake can be done all at once) or when you defeat a monster at the end of the Encounter Obstacles Phase (for free without performing an Operation as it is already the end of your turn).

 

With that being said, any instance where you can trigger an effect by discarding a card, taking a wound, spending a gold, or anything else, can only be performed for one Task, Quest, Side Quest, Support Quest, or what have you. Following your example if you have 4 cards that say Discard an Investigation Card, but only have one Investigation Card, you can only complete one of them. This follows suit with Support Quests, if all players are on the same space and they all have a "Pay 3 Red Leads" Support Quest, you can only complete one per every three red leads you spend.

 

Hope this helps.

[Trollipop 1]

Well yes that is one good way to see and you might very well be right but i am not sure it's given in the rules.

First of all, the list of available operations are listed on page 6. Completing a task doesn't seem to be an operation but as stated on page 8 "can only be completed when you could perform operations" (so before or after an action).

Secondly, spending is not really the term used for tasks. Spending is used for resources like clues, proof and gold.

 

I used the example of the "defeat 1 monster" for the following reason. 

 

Lets say a player can only complete a single task when he discards a valuable information card,
why would an other player be able to complete all his tasks and/or side quest instructing him to "defeat 1 monster"?
 

[Husker949 47]

It is a problem with every Fantasy Flight game, the rules can be hard to interpret but after playing some variation of their games for the last decade I have seen similarities in the way they intend things to be versus how they worded it. Most FAQ's and questions sent to the developer tend to get answered in a similar fashion. You could always try submitting the question to FFG at the top of the page under More->Customer Service->Rules Questions.

 

The main reason I mentioned Operations is because on pg. 6 of the Reference Guide it states that only the active player can complete operations. With reference to the "Defeat 1 Monster" issue, the triggering event for the "Defeat 1 Monster" is defeating it. From there anything that would trigger does so. If you are required to discard a Valuable Information card to complete a Task, you must complete and resolve the "Operation", for lack of a better word, completely before resolving any further Tasks. This example shows that you would need to discard a Valuable Information card, complete the required text on the Task (i.e. gaining investigation or VP), and then finish the discard before you can chose another Task to complete. Now that the Valuable Information card is no longer in play, you cannot discard it to trigger another Task.

 

If anything is unclear please do not hesitate to ask more questions.

[Julia 2,797]

Guys, I couldn't follow the whole debate, it's been a very long time since the last time I played the game and my retail copy got lost somewhere. Anyway, if the whole question can be summed in the opening lines:

 

Some investigation cards have tasks like go to Rivia. I guess that if you have 2 tasks and maybe even a side quest that instruct you to go to Rivia you will fulfill all of them at the same time once you arrive there?

 

the answer is yes, you can pass all of them as soon as you arrive to Rivia. I asked the same question while doing the beta for the game, and got a positive answer at regard.

 

If it were the countrary, then the game would be lame, since you know that you cannot score more than X points in a single turn, making hail Mary victories impossible.

Edited January 21, 2015 by Julia

[Husker949 47]

Julia, his question is about being able to discard a single Valuable Information card to complete X tasks where X>1. If that makes any sense.

[Julia 2,797]

Ok, got it. Nope, you can't. As said, I don't have the game hence the wording I'll be using it's poor, so please try to see the sense in the content and not the form. Discarding the card is like "spending X resources". You cannot spend the same resources to trigger different effects.

[Husker949 47]

Yeah that's what I had said as well, the biggest problem is that it isn't stated in the rule/reference books and I think that is what is confusing goret.

[Trollipop 1]

Thanks for your comments.

I can very well understand that from a content or role play point of view, i have a valuable information so i use it for this specific task and not as an excuse for all my tasks.

 

But the same could be said for the defeat a monster task. I don't know how you play it but in our games so far if you defeat a silver monster you fulfill all you tasks and side quests with the condition : defeat a monster or defeat a silver monster.

Hence the confusion as neither is specified in the rules that one woule be treated differently than the other.

About operations. The rules  make a difference between operations, which it gives a list for, and completing tasks which state : can only be completed when you could perform operations and not is an operation or as an operation.

It might very well be poor wording.

We will compare the value of the rewards between the different investigation task out of the 3 decks and decide for us if we allow multiple tasks to be completed with one card or not. Maybe we'll have a faq at some point.

Cheers
 

[Julia 2,797]

I used the "Rules question" function on this site to ask about both the monster and the valuable information card, so that we'll have hopefully very soon an official ruling

[Husker949 47]

Julia, have you heard anything regarding this question?

[Julia 2,797]

Not yet, sadly. I'll try again later on, today

[Husker949 47]

Thanks Julia! It is very unlike them to take this long to respond.

[zealot12 14]

I think the distinction between "defeat a monster" task and "discard a valuable information card" task  is:

 

one specifies a generic action, the other requires spending a card to fulfill it.

 

 

Once you've spent the resource, you cannot use it to fulfill other tasks.

 

 

Similarly, if you had several  tasks that required you to perform  a certain action. resolving that action will complete all the tasks associated with it.

 

But if you had several tasks that required you to spend 3 gold, you cannot fulfill all of them without spending 3 gold for each one.  

Edited March 11, 2015 by zealot12

[Julia 2,797]

Official answer arrived (from Sam Bailey):

 

"You can only pay each cost once, so you can only complete 1 task by discarding 1 Valuable Information. You would need a second Valuable Information to discard to complete the second task."

 

___________________

 

 

additionally one of the testers for the game commented as follows:

 

It seems clear to me that the answer is "No, you cannot", as discarding the card is the payment for one specific task. Using one Valuable Information for both would be similar to paying Leads to complete another player's support quest, and using those same Leads to complete your own Side quest.

It would be different if the Valuable Information was not the cost for the task, but a trigger: When you discard a Valuable Information card, ...

 

___________________

 

(I'm copying this answer here as well since it has a good insight on what different wordings imply)

 

Hope this clarifies any remaining doubt

 

J

[Husker949 47]

Thanks Julia!