"Skipping" Power Effect

Games Spirit Island
1

On p.8 in the version of the rules I have, under "Fast Power Phase," it states:

If a player discovers they do not want to use a Power's text effect (or cannot use it), they may choose to skip it entirely.

Two questions:

(1) Reading this, it sounds like all Powers are strictly optional; you may play the card, then use the power or not as you please.  How does that jibe with the mandatory/permissive nature of the wording on the cards?  For example, some cards say things like "Gather 1 [something]," indicating that they are mandatory.  Others say, "You may gather 1 [something]," or "Gather up to 3 [somethings]," meaning that they are optional/you have a choice.  Per the quoted passage, are even the "mandatory" cards optional, i.e., even though a card tells me unequivocally "Gather 1 [something]," I can choose to "skip [that effect] entirely"?

(2) What is a "Power's text effect"?  Is it just one aspect of the power, or the whole thing?  For example, Threatening Flames says, "2 Fear.  Push 1 Explorer/Town per Terror Level..."  Could I just cause the 2 Fear, but "skip entirely" the "Push 1 Explorer/Town..." part, or if I choose to "skip entirely" does that mean skip everything except the elements the power card provides, i.e., I get either the 2 Fear and the Push, or nothing at all?

(3) If "text effect" refers to just individual effects of the power, I presume it wasn't meant to address "bad" effects.  For example, Volcanic Eruption says "6 Fear.  20 Damage.  Destroy all Dahan and Beasts.  Add 1 Blight."  Presumably, I can't play the card and say "I'm going to 'skip entirely' the text effects requiring me to destroy Dahan/Beasts and add Blight."  However, the language quoted doesn't differentiate between "bad" power effects and "good" power effects.

Was this covered somewhere in errata/a reprint?

Thanks!

 

2

The text effect is all of the text on the card. If you skip any part of the text, you must skip the entire text.

 

A different way to phrase this is that you can play a power card, gain the elements, and then decide to skip the rest of the effects. This is commonly done with, for example, the minor powers that add blight to the board.

3

(1) You can choose to skip an entire card entirely. You can't choose to skip particular parts of the card. But if you played (eg) Drought, and then discovered that you don't have the target you were expecting, you can choose to skip all of it, both the Town destruction and adding the Blight.

(2) The whole thing. (But you can also skip threshold effects by pretending you have fewer elements, as allowed a few lines down in that same paragraph.)

(3) Irrelevant, see above.

The confusion all seems to stem from interpreting "text effect" as refering to particular parts of the power. This is explained more fully on p. 17. There ought to be a cross-reference on p. 8, I'll make sure one is added in eventual future printings.

4

Ah....the "page 17" explanation clears it all up.  Thanks!