Land of Haunts and Embers - Ruling - Where does "If..." clause end?

Games Spirit Island
#1

Hello there,

I have a question regarding the limits of “If…” clauses in general and for Land of Haunts and Embers minor power in particular.
For this card’s second paragraph is written: “If target land has Blight, +2 Fear. [Period, new line] Push up to 2 more Explorers/Towns.”

Can the second part of effect for pushing be only done if the first part is fulfilled (i.e. having blight)?

Strictly speaking, the “If…” clause is always formulated as “If condition, [comma] effect. [period]”. This would mean that in this particular case, in order to get additional 2 fear the land needs to have blight. For additional pushing not. Basically, the one could push up to 4 explorers/towns in any situation.

In that case, the text would say going from beginning: “2 Fear. Push up to 4 Explorers/Towns. [new paragraph] If target land has Blight, +2 Fear. [new paragraph] Add 1 Blight.”

So the other possibility should be right, both +2 Fear and additional pushing are conditioned with existence of blight. This is also emphasized by placing both lines in the same paragraph as the condition. But why isn’t it written instead: “If target land has Blight, +2 Fear AND Push up to 2 more Explorers/Towns.” Such formulation wouldn’t raise any doubts to what extent the condition is applying.

I hope that someone could answer my question. Thanks for your effort.
I must note that I didn’t find any “If…” clause in the core game that doesn’t obey the normal formulation and is indecisive as shown here, except for this one.

#2

Yes. Everything in that paragraph goes together. I suspect it’s only a new line because of word wrapping.

#3

Please compare:

  • Savage Mawbeasts
  • Pull Beneath the Hungry Earth
  • Shadows of the Burning Forest
  • River’s Bounty (River Surges in Sunlight)
  • Call on Midnight’s Dream (Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares)
    with this card. You’ll see that there’s “AND” instead of the period in all of these cards. This is why it bothers me.

From aspects of pure logic, the second effect is independent, because there’s no clause directly bound to it.

If you would like to write it right, it should’ve looked like this:

“If target land has Blight: [colon, new line]
+2 Fear. [optionally new line] Push up to 2 more Explorers/Towns.”

With this formulation, everything what follows after colon is part of the “If…” clause. Additionally, the formulation with “AND” instead of period would be also fine.

I can see how game developers meant this card to be used, but it’s not completely right to make it so, because every “If…” clause begins with If A, then B. [Period] All after and before that is independent form the clause.

I think that this card’s text needs to be adjusted, so it can be explicitly interpreted.

#4

Looking at a picture of the card in question, I’d like to point out that the space between lines is typically what separates clauses in spirit island, especially in the first release. Where you point out a new line, it is relevant to observe that the new line is still grouped with the previous one. As such, despite it looking a bit odd, the entire middle chunk is a single paragraph. Word grouping is odd sometimes, but when text is centered or justified, this kind of thing happens.

So yes, the additional push is tied to the ‘if target land has Blight’ conditional.
Edit: For a similar case, look at Call To The Deeps, one of the starting powers for Ocean’s Hungry Grasp.

1 Like
#5

I’m not here for an argument. You asked a question, and I answered it based on how I know the card works. Cheers!