Roald Ellsworth

The backbone of every explorer deck. Give willpower to every explorer and draws cards. Crazy good.

Would he trigger his own Disrupt effect when leaving play?

Yes. Because it's a disrupt it happens prior to him actually leaving play so his text is still active.

It's just that this text got me wondering:

Responses on Cards Leaving Play
Some cards respond to themselves
leaving play, self-referentially, or to
effects that may cause that card to leave
play. Such responses can be triggered
as if the card were still in play. Note
that only Response or Forced Response
effects can be triggered in this manner,
and they must respond to leaving play or
the effect that causes them to leave play.
Cards may not take “one last Action”
before they leave play.

Most recent FAQ p. 16

Unlike responses (forced or not) it disrupts before the action or response that kills it is initiated. So the whole "one last action" is not applicable as the disrupt actually triggers before removing said character.

I am late to the party and slow on the uptake with this guy. I was teaching the game to a friend last night. He used an Explorers deck with Roald in it, and hit on putting him into play with Ultima Thule every turn. It got a little bonkers.

Roald and Thule is just mean. Even more if he is hanging around and it is a different Explorer you bounce every turn through Thule.

So, if I have Roald in play, as well as a few more Explorers and a Plague Stone is triggered.  Does his effect go off for each Explorer (including himself) that is destroyed?  Can he grab things that were just put into the discard pile?  It doesn't say to exhaust him, nor to pay for the ability, so wouldn't this go off for each Explorer that left play that turn?

It does, as it is a Disrupt, and thus before they leave play (including himself), so can be triggered for every Explorer that is leaving play.

The Disrupt is before the effect resolves that causes the cards to leave play, so using Plague Stone as an example, and non-Explorers won't be in the discard pile yet to be put into hand.

What if anything stops Eslworth's triggering more than once from a single explorer dying?

 

Most disrupts change the effect in some way and/or have some cost, for Elseworth's disrupt neither apply, after you trigger it, the Explorer character is still leaving, and its still the point in time when you are allowed to used disrupts.

 

So, can't I just re-trigger it?

 

Now clearly the intent isn't that I be able to trigger it as many time as I like per explorer, fetching potentially my entire discard pile and drawing 2 cards as many times as I like, but can anyone direct me to anything in the rules that prevents this?

There is nothing in the rules that would prevent this afaik. E.g. if you have another card that says something like "Dirsupt: When an Explorer character you control would leave play, discard 1 card from your hand instead". You control which disrupt will be handled first.

 

Question is, is there a card like that, and how would you make an explorer character leave play all the time...

I think Richard's question is "Can I trigger Roald Elsworth multiple times to disrupt a single explorer character leaving play?"   Correct me if I'm wrong Richard.

 

I don't see anything specifically in the rules or FAQ that would prohibit this, unfortunately.  It does mention a limit of triggering once per met trigger requirement for cards that trigger out of the discard, but nothing about cards in play.

 

This should go to Damon for including into the next FAQ...

But having triggered the disrupt, don't you then continue with the timing structure, meaning you only have one opportunity? Are there any other examples of cards triggering multiple times with only one instance of the requirements being met?

We know that if I have two cards with Disrupts, I can trigger both, so I think it is a valid question (that doesn't seem to be answered in the FAQ or rules) whether the same card can be triggered multiple times.

 

I am convinced, according to the spirit of the rules, that it shouldn't be allowed, but I can't find anything in the letter of the rules that prohibits it.

I am convinced, according to the spirit of the rules, that it shouldn't be allowed, but I can't find anything in the letter of the rules that prohibits it.

Thanks tdnordine, that is pretty much the situation I arrived at.

 

Btw, I have routinely seen Ellsworth himself trigger multiple times when multiple explorers leave at once (eg from Plague Stone as discussed above) and see no issue with that.

Disrupts need a rule similar to the Response rule:

"A response cannot be played until the effect that triggers it has fully resolved. A response can only be played once per trigger." (current rules pg 12)

As an alternative this could be restricted to Disrupts that do not have costs (as most do).