Cactus Game Design Message Boards

First question is inspired by today's LoR article.  Does Eternal Inheritance work during a battle challenge? 

Second question.  If you play a covenant as an enhancement, and then play Eternal Inheritance, does that meet the "If... a Covenant is active" prerequisite for Eternal Inheritance? 

Eternal Inheritance - "If rescuing, a Covenant is active and your Hero is opposed, remove this from the game to rescue a Lost Soul. Battle continues as a battle challenge. Opponent may play an Enhancement."

1. No because you aren't "rescuing" in a battle challenge. The battle must be a rescue attempt for the "if rescuing" clause to be met.

2. I don't see why not. Covenants/Curses retain their covenant/curse type whether played as artifacts or enhancements.

*instaposted*

Maybe this is not spelled out in the REG clearly (I haven't looked), but I'm fairly certain playing a Covenant (or Curse) in battle as an enhancements counts as activating it. For example if you used Broken Covenant as an enhancement in battle, you would be able to trigger it's ability to draw or discard something. ("On activation...")

Maybe this is not spelled out in the REG clearly (I haven't looked), but I'm fairly certain playing a Covenant (or Curse) in battle as an enhancements counts as activating it. For example if you used Broken Covenant as an enhancement in battle, you would be able to trigger it's ability to draw or discard something. ("On activation...")

I agree with this and think it makes sense.  This also explains Gabe's note about Storehouse and Musicians' Chambers, since a Covenant they hold would not be "active" by this definition.

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As an aside, I'd like to see "On activation..." language go away from artifacts/covenants/curses that have an instant ability with no ongoing ability of any sort.  We already have "At any time...", "Once per round...", "Once per turn...", etc. to describe various abilities that are either ongoing abilities, or instant abilities with ongoing triggers.  For artifacts/covenants/curses that work only when activated or played, I think "On activation" is just redundant wording.  Artifacts/covenants/curses should be assumed to work instantly (and only) at the point of activation, unless they have language indicating some type of ongoing ability.

This would also make the abilities clearer/easier to understand when playing covenants/curses in battle.  Just something to consider for future cards maybe   

I believe the reasoning with that is we don't want to force people to trigger their card if they don't want to, but we also want to give them the option to keep it active for other reasons. However, if we don't say "On activation" then a "may" artifact can be triggered at any time (Darius Decree).

Well, Darius' Decree is outside the subset of artifacts I am looking at, since it has an ongoing ability. 

Here are a few other arts/covs/curses that I think could lose any "On activation" language they have, since they have no "ongoing" ability of any sort.  There aren't many, since most have ongoing abilities.

I Am Grace
Gibeonite Curse (this one actually doesn't have "Upon activation" language)
Given Over to Egypt
Denarius