Requesting a Ruling (Booty) - Curse vs. Cheated Enhancer

[rosesand]

In a recent game a player had used a Cheat card to play a ship enhancer on an item rather than onto a ship (he had none in play).

He then had the "Curse: Waterspout" played on him, which reads in the body text something along the lines of your ship loses all of its enhancers while the footer reads "Lose Ship Enhancers!".

After a persuasive argument (and pointing out that the body text specifically mentioned your ship) we let the dice decide whether the enhancer would be lost, or whether the Curse! could be withdrawn.

My questions here are:
* Does a Cheat card to place a Ship Enhancer on an item mean that it is still a Ship Enhancer or does it become an Item Enhancer?
* Does the body text (your ship loses etc). affect the effect of the card, or is it just flavour?
* What should have been the result of the Curse! Waterspout being played on a Cheated Ship Enhancer?

[Clipper]

The Ship Enhancer does remain a Ship Enhancer, even though it is not attached to a Ship.

I'm not sure how to treat Curse! Waterspout, though. The two statements are slightly at odds with each other. If we take the main (large text) curse description alone, then a Ship Enhancer attached to a different Item via Cheat! would be discarded and a normal Item Enhancer attached to a Ship would not be discarded. If we take the clarification sentence alone, which states that all ships lose any Enhancers, then the opposite occurs - a Ship Enhancer attached to a different Item via Cheat! would be kept and a normal Item Enhancer attached to a Ship would be discarded.

I really can't pick which method to follow. I'll leave it to the professionals to let us know the intent, I guess.

[Blazinjsin]

The Cheat card allows you to play the enhancer by itself, not on another item (as far as I know). Essentially you just have a free floating ship enhancer following you around. While in play, the card is still a ship enhancer, so something that made you lose a ship enhancer would still get rid of it.

Edit: I see I typed too slow

[rosesand]

Blazinjsin: While I agree with the method of putting it down, its the text on the Curse card that is causing the confusion, while the effect text at the bottom is lose ship enhancers, the text in the body does mention "your ship".

[Clipper]

Originally Posted by Blazinjsin

The Cheat card allows you to play the enhancer by itself, not on another item (as far as I know).

I was going to argue against this, but I see you are correct. The methods of use for Cheat! used to list attaching Item/Ship/Steed/Hireling Enhancers that are Items to things they aren't meant to be able to attach to, but that has been reworded to only allow you to play them alone. I thought both methods were OK, but I'm mistaken. I guess it makes sense as there is rarely any reason to attach an Enhancer to something when you are allowed to attach it to nothing.

[rosesand]

Yes, being able to play it on its own deals with #1.

Sadly the body of the card (and #2) would still be confusing had the enhancer been played on its own, as the Curse! card still contradicts itself in this case.

[Blazinjsin]

I guess we'll have to wait for Andrew or MunchkinMan to rule on the contradictory language

[Clipper]

Actually, I just realised that there is one way to handle the card that does not make it contradictory... do both! Lose all your Ship Enhancers and any type of Enhancer currently attached to any of your Ships!

There are other curses that provide additional affects in their explanatory text that doesn't reference the title text (e.g., many of the "Lose a Level" curses, like Curse! Lose Your Lucky Die from De-Ranged), so we could treat this one the same way. This would be my most preferred method in the absence of an official ruling.