19. Resolution Rules

19.1 Resolution Sequence#

Effects that cascade — a triggered ability that causes a state change that triggers another ability — resolve as a sequence. No players may play cards or activate abilities during the sequence; the chain runs to completion.

After the sequence completes, triggered abilities created during the sequence fire in active-player-first order. The active player resolves all of their newly-triggered abilities first (in any order they choose), then each non-active player in clockwise order does the same.

19.2 State Transitions#

A card "becomes Contested" whenever its visible face changes to a face whose type line is labeled "Contested," regardless of the cause:

• Combat destruction (per §11.7)
• Successful Liberation (per §12.2)
• Self-induced ability flip
• Any other effect that flips the card to its Contested face

A card "becomes Fallen" whenever its visible face changes to a face whose type line is labeled "Fallen," regardless of the cause.

For a Character, that cause is one of the four routes in §7.7: a Storyline's text, Morality Penalties taking a Prime Character to 0 CP, the Storyline they are Bound to leaving play, or their own Twist. Any other effect that would flip a Character to its Fallen face does nothing. Reaching 0 CP by damage, Liberation or any other route destroys a Character (§7.3). A Character becoming Fallen also flips the Storyline they are Bound to (§8.11).

For a non-Character permanent, any effect that flips it to a Fallen face does so.

A card "becomes Prime" whenever its visible face changes to a face whose type line is labeled "Prime," regardless of the cause:

• Redeem clause flip-back (per §7.8)
• Original owner re-buying a Contested Location (per §13.2)
• Original owner combat-destroying their own Contested Location (per §11.7)
• Any other effect that flips the card back to its Prime face

Triggered abilities that key on these state transitions fire on any such transition, mirroring the standard pattern.

19.3 Activated Ability Timing#

All activated abilities are Fast by default — they may be played during any phase on any player's turn, with the exception of the Ready Phase and the End Phase (matching the timing window for Fast Maneuvers, §10.3).

A card may explicitly restrict its activated ability's timing in printed text (e.g., "Use only during your turn") to make the ability Slow or otherwise constrained. Absent such restriction, the default Fast timing applies.

Bind is not an activated ability: a Storyline Binds when it enters the Map (§8.10).

Resource generation abilities tied to specific phases (e.g., Locations generating Income during Admin Phase, or standing Vote counted off the board, §6.3) are not activated abilities in this sense — they follow their phase-specific rules.

19.4 Flipping Does Not Destroy#

A card flip (whether triggered by combat, Liberation, ability, or any other means) is not a destruction event. Triggers keyed to destruction (e.g., War Crime) do not fire on flips. A card that flips to a different face remains in play.

V2 awarded a Story Point when an opponent's Prime Character flipped to its Fallen face, and noted that the award was keyed to the fall rather than to destruction so that it could fire on a flip without making the flip a destruction event. Both halves are retired: Story Points are now scored from the board at the end of each Act and never for an opponent's Fall (§15.1; the one Fall that scores is one you cause to your own Character, §8.12), and a Character no longer Falls from damage at all (§7.7). A Character reduced to 0 CP by damage is destroyed, which is a destruction event in the ordinary way. A Fall caused by Morality Penalties (§7.4) is a flip, not a destruction.

19.5 Visual Identification of Contested, Fallen, and Prime Faces#

For ease of identification during play, card faces labeled "Prime," "Contested," "Fallen" or "Reversal" on the type line are visually distinguished (typically by a color treatment on the card face) so that every card's state is readable across the table at a glance — which matters for scoring (a Contested Surface Location or Homeworld scores nothing, §15.1) and for which Reversal path is live (§8.11). The five-permanent Lose condition that this treatment once served is retired (§16).

19.6 Numerical Bonuses Do Not Create Abilities or Stats#

A card can only receive a numerical bonus to an ability or stat it already prints on its current face. If the card does not print that ability or stat, "+N" to it does nothing. The bonus is not an error and does not make the effect illegal — it simply has no target on that card and is ignored.

Example: a Ground Unit with no printed Vote cannot Vote even if an effect gives it +1 Vote. Nothing is added to nothing.

Bonuses versus grants. This rule governs bonus language only. Explicit granting language does confer an ability the card does not print, and is unaffected:

The distinction is whether the effect adds to a value or names an ability the card is to have. When designing a card, an effect intended to work on cards that lack the stat must use granting language.

Design consequence. An effect that grants "+N <stat>" to a class of cards should name a class that prints the stat. Naming a broader class does not extend the stat to its members — it only makes part of the effect dead text. Where a stat is near-universal within a type the broader wording is harmless; where it is not, the effect should name the narrower class.

Worked example: Vox is printed by Characters and by some Ground Units. An Occupy effect reading "Characters and Ground Units you control gain +1 Vox" is live on every Character and on those Ground Units printing a Vox value, and dead on the rest. That is acceptable where intended, but it is a design choice and not a rules accident — the alternative is to name Characters only, or to print a Vox value on the Ground Units in question.

19.7 A Value a Card Does Not Print#

A card that does not print a value is excluded from every mechanic that needs that value. It is not treated as having 0; it is treated as having nothing there to use.

The list is illustrative, not complete: the same reading applies to any printed value a mechanic depends on.

Losing a value. An effect that says a card loses a value — "Units on this card lose ATK" — removes it for as long as the effect lasts, and the card is treated as not printing it. A unit that loses ATK has no attack. So it can't attack (§11.1), and it can't return fire, because return fire uses one of its attacks (§11.6). It can still intercept, because intercepting needs no attack (§11.5). (Defined 2026-10-23 for Sevrin, NG.)

Printing 0 is printing a value. A Character with Vote 0 is not a Convocant but is counted as holding 0 Vote, and an attack printed at 0 may still be declared (§11.1). Only a blank excludes. DEF and Rank are the exception: a card at 0 or less in either is destroyed or broken (§19.8), so neither should be printed at 0.

This is the companion to §19.6. That rule says a bonus cannot create a value the card does not print; this one says what a card without the value is left out of. Together: nothing is added to nothing, and nothing is done with nothing.

Ruled 2026-10-17, replacing the §18.26 requirement that every Drone print ATK, DEF and RK. Example: Ground Unit XCS (XX-GRD-001) prints no Rank, so it cannot be Liberated.

19.8 DEF or Rank Reduced to 0 or Less#

A unit whose DEF or Rank is 0 or less is destroyed. This is a state-based check (§10.6): the moment a penalty, a counter or any other effect takes a unit's DEF or Rank to 0 or below, the unit is destroyed and placed in its owner's Depleted Pile, or Burned if it is a Drone (§18.26). Triggers keyed to destruction fire as usual.

Units are Characters and Ground Units (§18.53). The rule reaches the values a unit prints as numbers, which in practice means a Ground Unit's. A Character prints DEF X and Rank X, so it is never reduced to 0 this way: a penalty to either adds damage or CP loss instead (§7.5), and the Character is destroyed when its CP reaches 0 (§7.3).

Locations and Spacecraft break, exactly as they do to damage. A Location or Spacecraft whose DEF or Rank is reduced to 0 or less is treated as though it had taken damage equal to its DEF (§11.6). A Prime Location or Prime Capital Spacecraft flips to its Contested face. A Contested one is placed in its owner's Depleted Pile. A Non-Capital Spacecraft, which has no Contested face, is destroyed. Homeworlds follow the same rules as damage on them.

The check is made again on the new face. Liberation counters come off in the flip (§13), but other counters persist (§18.38). So Sabotage counters that broke a Prime face can take the Contested face to 0 as well, and it then goes to the Depleted Pile.

No card in the current pool prints DEF 0 or Rank 0, so the rule reaches only cards whose values have been reduced — by Sabotage counters (§18.87), for example. A card printed at 0 in either value would be destroyed or broken on entry, so none should be designed that way.

Ruled 2026-10-18: units are destroyed; Locations and Spacecraft flip to Contested, as damage does.