My friends and I played a few games, but one of the rules confused me. In the rules it says you get to draw an extra card if you skip your turn, but it also says that you don't get to draw any cards if you skip your turn. My interpretation was that if a card requires a hero to skip a turn as payment for an effect, then they would'nt be allowed to draw cards, but if they skipped their turn for lack of any viable actions then they can draw two cards. Would recharge mode allow Bunker to draw essentially three cards? Two cards for skipping their turn, and one card for recharge mode, or does recharge mode only allow the player to draw two cards?
Skipping a turn is different from not playing a card and not using a power, which does give you an extra card, as start and end of turn effects are also skipped if you skip a turn.
However, you are correct in how recharge mode interacts with the bonus card for not acting. And as you can't play or use powers in Recharge Mode, you'l be drawing three cards every turn you're in in beyond the first.
The confusion here is over generalization of set terms. When I explain it to people, I tend to stay away from general terms in order to prevent confusion, although that typically causes my explanation to be a bit more wordy, at which then other veterens typically will try to use more general terms in order to make my explanation less confusing. And I don't really like that when they do that.
Basically, if you do not play a card, and you do not use a power, you have the option of drawing an extra card during your draw phase. Also note, I did not say "if you choose not to play a card and you choose not to use a power" because it doesn't have to be your choice. Just so long as you don't (even if it is due to some othe card says you can't). Other's tend to generalize this as "you can choose to skip your turn and draw two cards," which, when generalized, would be nearly equivilant. However, there is a specific game term called "skipping your turn" which means that you immediately end your turn at whatever phase you are currently in, and play passes to the next player without processing any further phases of your turn. Considering most (all?) cards which mention skipping your turn occur before your draw phase, it doesn't matter if you did or did not play a card or use a power, as the extra card draw would occur during your draw phase, which did not occur due to your turn being skipped.
Basically, if you don't play a card or use a power for any reason, then +1 card during your draw phase. If you are intructed to skip your turn (or skip the rest of your turn, or immediately end your turn, all of which are technically the same thing), then your draw phase will not occur (assuming it hasn't already occured) and the +1 card doesn't matter.
Hello. Been lurking for a while trying to learn more about the general rules before the game arrives. I don't have the base game or any expansions currently, but am looking forward to the Kickstarter items shipping as I will then get everything at once. I have read the rules for everything along with many of the gathered clarifications. Since I haven't seen any of the actual cards I might be a little wrong on this so let me know. I agree with TheJayMann about taking a little more time to explain the difference in part since I will be explaining this game to my group. My understanding follows:
Structure of a Hero Turn
Start - start of the hero turn (start of turn effects)
Play - play a hero card
Power - use a power
Draw - draw a hero card
End - end of the hero turn (end of turn effects)
On an average hero turn the Start Phase will occur. Once any effects resolve we move the Play Phase and Power Phase. If as TheJayMann mentioned you do not play a card during the Play Phase and then do not use a power during the Power Phase then you are able to draw and extra hero card during the Draw Phase. Then the End Phase will occur and that hero turn will be over.
On a turn where the rest of the turn is skipped I will defer to TheJayMann above since I don't have the cards for reference. My question based on the above is do you skip the End Phase as well? Sounds like yes since everything stops immediately and the next hero turn begins. Just want to clarify (maybe the card text itself contains that answer). Thanks
Are there any instances where a player has to skip a turn after their turn has already started, i.e. they get to do a couple of phases then skip the rest? I can't think of any. Far as I can recall, you can choose/are forced to skip your turn from the beginning (meaning, you get no Start phase) but once you've taken your Start phase, you no longer have the option to skip your turn.
Glad to have you join us, ArcticWolf74!
The cards involved in skipping a turn do not actually say it, but yes, if you skip your turn you also skip your end-of-turn phase, including anything that might trigger in that phase (such as Gloomweaver's pins). So yeah, there might be a benefit to skipping your turn. This was confirmed in a conversation with Christopher.
Technically, it's during the start-of-turn phase. For example, The Pillars of Hercules says "At the start of their turn, a player may skip the rest of their turn to destroy this card." So, it's an available option at the start-of-turn phase as an action to take. Because of the order of the cards, it'll actually be available after any other cards that trigger at the start of that hero's turn that came into play before it. In other words, cards that trigger at the start of the turn will trigger in the order they came into play, so some things might happen before the player skips the rest of her turn.
At least that's the way we've played/understood it.
Prayer of Desperation immidiately comes to mind as an example of what you're talking about.
But I think the confusion stems from this: It's easy to say "If you skip your turn, draw 2 cards" but that is a convention used for people who want to teach the game easily and be correct most of the time. It is not what is actually happening. The rules say you draw an extra card if you neither play a card nor use a power. This is quite a big difference.
As mentioned it allows things at the start of the turn to take effect (electrical storm, Imaple, etc). More recently, it might be prudent to say that "automatic" effects still happen. When not playing a card or using a power, not only do start-of-turn effects take place, but also end-of-turn ones, such as Raptor Bot or Platform Bot. And it could go even further, suppose there is a new hero out called Mr. X. Mr. X has a card named um... "The X Factor."
The text on the card reads "during your play phase, draw a card. During your Power Phase, Mr X deals himself 1 melee damage." Mr. X elects to neither play a card or use a power, but the phases still happen. Mr X would end up drawing 3 cards (1 normal, 1 for the X factor, and 1 for neither playing a card nor using a power) and he would still deal himself 1 melee damage.
It's also important to note that a player may not just choose to skip their turn for no reason. You can choose to not play a card, not use a power, and then draw zero cards, all per your choice, but all those phases still happen. You may only skip your turn when an effect tell you to/lets you.
Specifically, you cannot say, "Wow, there are some bad things that will happen at the end of my turn for whatever reason - I'm just going to skip my turn."
But Prayer of Desperation skips your end phase? That's interesting... I never thought to use that.
The correct interpretation, then, is this: If a card has a requirement of skipping a turn, then that player isn't allowed to play any cards, use any powers, and draw any cards. Also, their start turn and end turn abilities do not trigger.
Recharge mode, if I am remembering the text correctly, doesn't say anything about skipping a turn, so the player is allowed 3 draws. However, if a villain card or environment card has a skip turn cost, then a player cannot have a start phase, play a card, use a power, draw a card, and trigger end phase effects.
In the old edition's rules, the extra card draw and the denial of card draws were jumbled all under "skip a turn", which is where the confusion came from.
Unfortunately, the emphasized section above is not correct. As stated earlier, the effect that allows them to skip their turn will be available after any other cards that also trigger on the start-of-turn phase, but that were played earlier, such as Impale or Turret Bot. So some start-of-turn abilities will trigger, if they were in play before the skipping card came into play.
Oh ok, that makes some sense.
And this is my main issue with the order of play rule. It becomes far too complex to track the order of play of cards across the table. The order of play for each hero, villain, environment is easy enough, but across the table with Infections, VATS/Imbue Fire, etc is just plain messy.
Emphasis mine.
Oh, Unity looks more and more interesting. She models Freedom Five bots, and she models villain bots too! (Mobile defence) Platform Bot? And environment too! Raptor Bot!
Yeah, me, too. At least, though, it doesn’t seem to come up all that often.
And I think that's the key: This is a corner case that is not going to come up often enough to worry much about. The rules were created to be clean, making sure everything happens in a phase, etc. Because of that, the choice has to be made during the start-of-turn phase. Because other things have to happen in the start-of-turn phase, there has to be a way to determine the order.
Generally, it's easy to remember in this situation because the cards that allow the skipping of a card are recent plays - they are rarely in play for long. (Plus they're often removed through other means, anyway.)
Heheheh… Yeah. She really is entertaining to play.
Last night's game was hilarious. We had a blast imagining the looks of panic Unity was throwing at NightMist in our all-female game when NM threw out Oblivion… 
(The players agreed it was the best option, though.)
Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate the skip turn clarification. :-)