Cactus Game Design Message Boards

There has been some discussion about rulings being lost in threads and buried under discussion and more ruling questions. There was some talk about making important rules, and especially recent changes easier to access quickly, especially since the search feature is currently not working.

I am going to take the responsibility to put a few major rules in this topic, I know there are a few other pinned threads that could also work, but I wasn't happy with any of them, most of them were for REG updates, and mostly consisted of individual card problems, whereas this is mostly for general rules. If someone wants to pin this at some point, it might be a good idea.

I'd like help keeping this current, but I don't want this topic cluttered with discussion. Basically I would ask that if you have a ruling change post it and preferably post a link to a different thread where the ruling is made (unless you actually have rule making authority). Then I will, hopefully, fairly quickly post it myself, and then I would prefer if you removed your post (I'm not a moderator so I can't do that).

There are a few things I may need help with rulings for:
1) Special Initiative: I'm not entirely sure how that one works.
2) Does a weapon activating in battle count as playing it?
(I'll add and remove as more things come up)

I hope this helps people and a preemptive thank you to anyone who helps me with this.

Cannot Be abilities
Cannot be Interrupted means it cannot be undone once it has been played, but a prevent already in play will stop it.
Cannot be Prevented means an ability already in play will not stop it from activating, but can still be interrupted after it is played
Cannot be Negated means it cannot be stopped from activating before it is played and cannot be undone after it is played.

Any abilities that grant any of these 'Cannot Be's are themselves fully cannot be negated.

Cannot be Ignored is a special ability, it does not follow the same as the three 'cannot be's and can be negated (assuming it is in an ability and not an identifier) it means that the card is not ignored and can block normally.

Special Initiative
(If I'm wrong about this someone please correct me)
When a special ability is causing all your characters to be removed from battle you get a chance to play a card that interrupts or negates the card causing the removal (if the card causing the removal is Cannot be Negated or Cannot be Interrupted no special initiative occurs)

The current ruling on Special Initiative (as fragmented as it is...) is: You have Special Initiative if a Special Ability causes a Losing Condition (by removal or by the numbers).  You have the opportunity to interrupt/negate that Special Ability before it fully resolves.