Discarding Dolla/Carrots/Zodiac/Mysterious Place Cards?

[tastypastry]

Good afternoon,

In the last game we played, we came upon a new situation (as often happens). My friend had a "Share the Wealth" card coming up and knew it. However, they had $2 dolla and knew that Share the Wealth only works when you have 0 dolla. Given that they couldn't get rid of 2 dolla at the market (since nothing cost that), they suggested that they were simply going to discard their 2 dolla before they played their card. A discussion ensued. Here were the two viewpoints:

1) My friend argued that there is no inherent rule that you must keep your money. Especially given that since money is supposed to "help you", rather than "hinder you", there was no justification for forcing you to retain the currency.

2) My other friend countered with the idea that you should be forced to keep your money simply because you're forced to keep most of your other things. For example, they argued that you can not simply discard your carrots or zodiac cards. When pressed as to why, the best argument that could be made was that it may undermine certain cards. For example, "Mad Bunny Disease", which forces you to lose a carrot at the start of each turn, is partially valuable because it's a "time waster". If you were allowed to simply discard all your carrots right away when you received the card, part of the inherent value of the card would be lost. Similarly, if you were allowed to simply discard a Mysterious Place Card, you may discard one that has control of the ball. Where does the ball go then? To the previous card that was drawn? If so, that's another thing to keep track of and seems like a silly process.

So my question is: who is (more) right? And do you think that dolla vs say zodiac cards should be treated differently? Is each capable of being dispensed of (during your turn)? And if you don't like the justifications they offered, what one do you have?

I flipped through the companion guide and did some Googling, but didn't find anything that satisfied my question. If there's a thread that helps, please point me to it!

Thanks for all your help!
-Steve

[TheDavii]

Nov 29, 2016 13:12:59 GMT -5 tastypastry said:

Good afternoon,

In the last game we played, we came upon a new situation (as often happens). My friend had a "Share the Wealth" card coming up and knew it. However, they had $2 dolla and knew that Share the Wealth only works when you have 0 dolla. Given that they couldn't get rid of 2 dolla at the market (since nothing cost that), they suggested that they were simply going to discard their 2 dolla before they played their card. A discussion ensued. Here were the two viewpoints:

1) My friend argued that there is no inherent rule that you must keep your money. Especially given that since money is supposed to "help you", rather than "hinder you", there was no justification for forcing you to retain the currency.

2) My other friend countered with the idea that you should be forced to keep your money simply because you're forced to keep most of your other things. For example, they argued that you can not simply discard your carrots or zodiac cards. When pressed as to why, the best argument that could be made was that it may undermine certain cards. For example, "Mad Bunny Disease", which forces you to lose a carrot at the start of each turn, is partially valuable because it's a "time waster". If you were allowed to simply discard all your carrots right away when you received the card, part of the inherent value of the card would be lost. Similarly, if you were allowed to simply discard a Mysterious Place Card, you may discard one that has control of the ball. Where does the ball go then? To the previous card that was drawn? If so, that's another thing to keep track of and seems like a silly process.

So my question is: who is (more) right? And do you think that dolla vs say zodiac cards should be treated differently? Is each capable of being dispensed of (during your turn)? And if you don't like the justifications they offered, what one do you have?

I flipped through the companion guide and did some Googling, but didn't find anything that satisfied my question. If there's a thread that helps, please point me to it!

Thanks for all your help!
-Steve

This is a difficult one. I, too, reviewed the QCC and found nothing that addresses this specific situation. I played a game of Quest on Thanksgiving and we also encountered a new situation (I'll post about that later) with no clear guidelines.

So, I'll take a stab at this to get the ball rolling and maybe we can converge on an answer (i.e., this is what I'll argue, but JB always has the final say).

The things that a player is allowed to do with Kaballa Dolla are two-fold: buy (from Kaballa's Market and/or Kaballa's Market Two, Weil's Pawn Shop, Rooney's Weapons Emporium, or Morden's Metals Exchange) and trade (with opponents). Since your first friend could not buy and apparently did not attempt to trade, I'll focus on discarding the Kaballa Dolla.

While I acknowledge that the rules (and QCC) do not expressly state that a player cannot discard Kaballa Dolla, they do explicitly indicate that the act of discarding is to be done with the card from the Top Run (#2 below).

During a turn, each player may play a single card in one of four ways. The four options are:
1) Flip and play the TOP RUN card.
2) Flip and discard the TOP RUN card if you cannot, or do not wish to use it.
3) Flip and save the TOP RUN card, but only if it is a SPECIAL or VERY SPECIAL card.
4) Play a SPECIAL card directly from your five-card hand. This leaves the TOP and BOTTOM RUN cards in place.

The option of discarding is not given to any cards that are not allowed in the Top and Bottom Run sequence. Hence, I agree with your other friend's view, that your friend should not have been allowed to discard the Kaballa Dolla because cards that don't go into your Top and Bottom Run sequence cannot be discarded because that ability is expressly allowed only for Run, Special, and Very Special cards.

[tastypastry]

Again, delayed response, but thank you very much for your insights.