Planning Ahead

[Rozy 1]

It says: Skip the taxation phase this round.

I have just this weird feeling, cause yesterday we played and one of the new players asked me if it affects just him or eveyone and I just didnt know the answer...I could find the right answer in the translation, so what is correct pls?

[Old Ben 0]

We had comparable cards in the past:

www.tzumainn.com/agot/cards/card.php

The whole phase is skipped for every player, in general plots refer to all players (cards in play) unless they have a specific gametext which refer to a single player. E.g. Power of blood also doesn´t specifically say that all nobles in  play can´t be killed.

[ktom 598]

The thing to remember is that the way this game is put together, players do not have their own phases in a round. All players share a single phase each round. And that makes a certain amount of sense since in (most) every phase, there are specific interactions between players. So since players share each phase, either a phase is skipped for everyone or not at all. A good example of this is the dominance phase: if you skipped it and I didn't, how would comparing standing STR work?

So skipping a phase will always apply to all players. Old Ben is correct that a card could specify that a single player does have to DO something within a particular phase, but a card will probably never say that just one player "skips" a phase.

[Rozy 1]

Ok, thanks.

It is nice to know I ruled correctly. But I was not sure at all. Maybe just if they didnt ask I would take it for granted. It confused me for a while since it said SKIP, so I was thinking that time about YOU SKIP, not all players SKIP. It might be a little because of the translation since in our language everything is declinated so we always know what does the verb refer to, even without the context...

[ktom 598]

Yeah, that's happened before with this game. And actually, it happens to English speakers, too. Compare Planning Ahead (the plot) to Kings of Summer (the agenda). Why does the plot apply to everyone, but the Agenda only applies to the player who controls it?

(There actually is a reason; English has the convention that when a command phrase has no specified subject, the pronoun "you" is assumed to be the subject. But "you" can be singular or plural, depending on the context. For no particularly good or definitive reason within the game, plots are considered to create a plural context by default while agendas are considered to create a singular context.)

[Aertes 0]

Im afraid i disagree here too. Since I read "Skip the taxation phase this round" the cards always talk to the player, so it means de player that used that plot and no other. If all the players should skip taxation phase, i think i would read "Taxation phase is skipped this round".

[ktom 598]

Aertes said:

Im afraid i disagree here too. Since I read "Skip the taxation phase this round" the cards always talk to the player, so it means de player that used that plot and no other. If all the players should skip taxation phase, i think i would read "Taxation phase is skipped this round".

You're incorrect. Since there is only one of each phase that begins for all players simultaneously, it is impossible for only one player to skip a phase. This is just a reality of the game's structure and has been explained above. As you do not agree, I invite you to send the question directly to FFG via the "Rules Questions" link in the footer.