Viserion Core Set

[thorin_81 0]

I checked but I can't find any errata and/or FAQ on his triggered ability: Dominance: Pay 4 gold to choose and kill a kneeling character. (Limit once per phase.). It says KNEELING and not KNELT... I'm not English or American but the two words are different. It seems to me that Viserion can work only against character that kneel IN dominance (for example a Stark noble character kneeling to play a Guilty! event card...).

Is really correct this way? Because it seems to me a little useless ability (and 4 gold to play it seems quite unbelievable) 

 

[Arma virumque2 0]

Excellent question.  And as somebody who enjoys grammar, I'm tickled by your drawing attention to that fine distinction.

The verb "to kneel" has two related but slightly different meanings: "to fall to one's knees" (which is the one you're thinking of), but also "to support oneself on one's knees."  (Source:  New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.)  Therefore, in ordinary English "kneeling" can refer both to people who are in the process of falling to their knees, and also to people who are merely supporting themselves on their knees.

So unless ktom says otherwise, I feel comfortable interpreting Viserion's text as referring to any character that is knelt, since "kneeling" and "knelt" become synonymous in the second meaning of the word.

[Old Ben 0]

Kneeling refers to the current status of the charachter. A charachter can be either kneeling or standing, a kneeeling charachter was knelt before for whatever reason.

So Viserion can kill every charachter for 4 gold that´s in the kneeling status. This got nothing do with the interpretation room that comes along with the English language, it´s a game definition.

[ktom 598]

Arma virumque said:

 

Excellent question.  And as somebody who enjoys grammar, I'm tickled by your drawing attention to that fine distinction.

The verb "to kneel" has two related but slightly different meanings: "to fall to one's knees" (which is the one you're thinking of), but also "to support oneself on one's knees."  (Source:  New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.)  Therefore, in ordinary English "kneeling" can refer both to people who are in the process of falling to their knees, and also to people who are merely supporting themselves on their knees.

So unless ktom says otherwise, I feel comfortable interpreting Viserion's text as referring to any character that is knelt, since "kneeling" and "knelt" become synonymous in the second meaning of the word.

 

 

This is all correct. If you want the technical grammatical terminology, the word "kneeling" is not only an active verb tense, but a gerund. A gerund, in English, is a verb form ending in "-ing" that acts as a noun or other part of speech in a sentence. So the gerund phrase "kneeling character" refers to a character that is on its knees (with the word "kneeling" acting as an adjective) rather than to a character in the process of going down on its kneels (with the word "kneeling" acting as an active verb). So yes, "kneeling" and "knelt" are synonymous in this context and game definition - as Old Ben points out.

See? Grammar and game rule lessons all in one convenient location!

[thorin_81 0]

Ok, thanks... So the ability of Viserion is not as useless as I thought...