Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Lol. For once in this debate, someone is providing me with a clear to understand and logical answer.

So, If what you are saying is true, then I guess I can agree that WD doesnt "disease" characters. PwD however should, unlike what Maly is saying.

I know, and I totally understand the way you explained it. 

I think you guys are being a little harsh. Let me try to restate what Tim has stated. What Tim is trying to explain is true - (1) special abilities have targets (e.g., cards), (2) poison** is a special ability, and (3) the poison special ability is always linked to another special ability. Linking special abilities is nothing new - the special ability "set aside" is always tied to another special ability.

Poison is a special ability that does nothing more than classify a card into the catetory "poison". Think of poison as a special ability that writes an additional classification into the identifier area of the card (like we currently name categories like king, prophet, fought in earthly battle, etc...) Old cards don't have identifier areas, so explaining poison as "stamping a card" is valid. Notice that new card sets do (notice that the new orange Poison of Dragons card has the word "poison" in the identifier area already, noting explicitly what the poison special ability does). This is redundant for new cards, but that only helps new players understand more easily. When we created the category list called poison in the back of the REG, we listed cards that could be categorized as having a poison special ability. It could be debated that the list isn't perfect - perhaps Wasting Disease does not belong in this classification (even though it has the word "disease" in the title).

However, a poison special ability really doesn't "do" anything to the character - it simply places it into a category. It "marks" a card. The ability we (mistakenly) associated with a poison card is really not the poison special ability itself. The poison special ability that was originally always linked to it was increase/decrease ability (e.g., Boils, Poison, Bad Figs). This is no longer the case. We now link the poison SA with other special abilities (e.g., Lacking Sleep links the disease SA to play next enhancement, Judah's Sin links disease to ignore). What muddied the situation was adding cards to the REG category list that had "poison" or "disease" in the card name but didn't really follow the traditional poison special ability linked to a traditional linked special ability.

Wasting Disease is a difficult card to get a handle on. Perhaps we should not classify it as a poison, since it doesn't fit easily and it seems to cause more confusion than provide clarity. If we want to understand it and other cards yet to be printed, can we help each other understand how it can be classified and used as a poison or disease (or not)? Be more helpful.

Mike

** I will use the word "poison" but could just as easily make the same argument with the word "disease".

I would agree that Plagued with Diseases (Decrease all opponents’ Heroes by 0/2 (or 0/3 if you have the fewest Redeemed Souls).) can be viewed as "stamping" or categorizing all opponent's Heroes as a disease, and linking the disease to the increase/decrease ability SA.

I would also say that a card categorized as a "disease" allows another SA that targets cards with the "disease" classification separately from those that target cards with a "poison" classification. This would be like targeting "all kings" vs. "all prophets". They are representing two separate categories of cards, based on how they are classified.

Does that make sense?

Mike

Are you basicly saying that a disease is not a poison and visa versa...?

No, he is saying that all poisons come from Australia (as everbody knows).

Just like Kangaroos and Dingos...

Are you implying Kangaroos are master poisoners  .

You're trying to trick me into giving something away. It won't work. 

.... (5) disaster. I believe they are targeted separately (but I don't say that with 100% surety).

Spoiler Alert!!  

Hailstones is a disaster. I didn't spill any beans (yet).

Mike

The identifier remains on the character until the character is healed or resets to face value.  [this is what makes a diseased character healable and what is needed to make Face of Death affect the character]

So, when PwD is active, you can indeed use a healing card to reset a hero to face value. Also, the effect remains while PwD is up, so do you feel that they can't gain the disease label during the time PwD is active?

Both?

PwD stops if you kill it with a healing card, OR stops if you deactivate it.