Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Ability Activation Order
Whenever a character (or group of characters) are played in battle:
1. Verify the rescuing/taunting/attacking/blocking/defending status of the characters in battle and
the players involved in the battle.
2. Activate all abilities in the order written on the card EXCEPT those with effects that add a
character to a battle.
3. Activate all gained abilities in the order gained EXCEPT those with effects that add a
character to a battle.
4. Activate all abilities on any equipped weapons EXCEPT those with effects that add a
character to a battle.
5. Activate all abilities with effects that add a character to the same side of battle. This includes
steps 1-5 for all new characters added to battle, in the order added.
6. Verify the begins a battle/blocked status of the characters that are/were in battle and the
players involved in the battle.
7. Activate all abilities with effects that add a character to the opposite side of battle. This
includes steps 1-7 for all new characters added to battle, in the order added.
8. Activate all abilities with side battle effects. This includes steps 1-8 for all new characters
added to a battle, in the order added.
9. Activate all pending abilities with triggered effects, following the order provided in the
definition of triggered effect abilities.

Modifiers
A modifier is part of a special ability that modifies abilities or effects. Modifiers are not
themselves abilities, but alter the behavior of abilities or effects. Whether a modifier targets an
ability or effect depends on the type of modifier. If a modifier is granted to abilities or effects on
other cards, the modifier persists through the end of the current phase by default.
If a modifier targets an ability, it modifies all parts of the ability unless some types of abilities
are specified to gain or not gain the modifier. If a modifier targets (or specifically doesn't target)
a type of ability (“X abilities”), then it does not modify any other effects an ability might have. A
modifier that targets “discard abilities” would modify the discard effect of an ability with “negate
and discard” effects, but does not modify the negate effect. If the modifier targets the ability,
then all parts except the negate effect would be modified. If the modifier only targets the discard
effect, then only the discard effect is modified.
A modifier may have one or more conditions included as part of the modifier.