rule clarification
 

I'm new to the game and can't figure out a few rules :)

1) are you allowed to give charity even if you have five cards or less?
for instance you want to give a monster or wandering monster to one person so that they can prevent someone else from winning on their next turn,

2) If you have a big item in play and you want to play a different big item, do you have to sell the item or can you just replace it like a class or race you don't want anymore?

thanks

Re: rule clarification
 

No, you can only give Charity if you have more than five cards (six for a Dwarf)

You can't just discard it. You have to sell or try to trade with another player who can legally have it. If you can't do that, you can't play the new Big Item

Re: rule clarification
 

Quote:
2) If you have a big item in play and you want to play a different big item, do you have to sell the item or can you just replace it like a class or race you don't want anymore?

You also may get rid of the big item by cursing yourself with a curse that would remove it, or powering an ability that requires discarding a card.

Re: rule clarification
 

Actually, you can still play the new Big item, and then you have to choose a Big item to get rid of. Clipper posted about it here:

Re: rule clarification
 

correct me if I'm wrong but in the rules it says
saying that if you have 5 or more you MUST give charity, implying that if you have 5 you CAN give charity if you want to

Re: rule clarification
 

I don't think so. I thought Clipper was detailing what to do if you end up having too many Big items, not saying that you can deliberately create that situation by playing too many when it isn't legal.

I am virtually certain that if you have a Big item in play, and you aren't allowed more than one, you can't play another to "force" yourself to discard the first.

The steps he details in the quote you listed are for situations where you end up with too many Big items (like you were a Dwarf, with multiple Big items, but lost or discarded your Dwarf card).

Re: rule clarification
 

I'm pretty sure that the intent is to detail the circumstances under which the Charity rule comes into play. If you don't have excess cards in your hand at the end of the turn, then Charity doesn't come into play at all.

It has been ruled before that you can't just give other people non-item cards without something specifically allowing it, and without too many cards in your hand, the Charity rule doesn't provide that justification. Of this I am virtually certain.

Re: rule clarification
 

another question:
if you lose your dwarf race mid combat- you have to discard/give away all you excess big cards

the question is: do you have to get rid of them immediately or after the fight - difference is whether of not you can sell them/equip an hireling with said big item

Re: rule clarification
 

thanks for the clarification

Re: rule clarification
 

You have to deal with the excess immediately. Unfortunately, during combat there are not a lot of legal options other than giving them away/discarding them. You could play another Dwarf card if you had one (assuming it was your turn, or you had somehow just recieved it if it wasn't your turn) to allow you to keep the extra items. But you can't sell during combat, you can't play a hireling during combat (there's a lot of stuff you can't do during combat) and you can't wait until combat is over to deal with the situation.

Re: rule clarification
 

that kinda sucks :(

unless of course you do this to someone else...

thanks a ton

Re: rule clarification
 

I didn't said "MUST", I said you only CAN give Charity if you have more than 5 cards in your hand...

Re: rule clarification
 

Because this got a little lost in the confusion: this is not correct. Under normal circumstances (not a Dwarf, not using Cheat!, etc.), you cannot play a second Big item if you already have one in play.

Re: rule clarification
 

Oops! My mistake. I misunderstood. Thanks for clarifying :)

Re: rule clarification
 

I didn't think you could give away items during combat either. I think the only option for the player who loses dwarf in combat and has multiple big items is to discard them down to one or play another dwarf card.

Re: rule clarification
 

Andrew can correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that since the rule on Big items explicitly mentions giving them away if you have too many, that would override the usual inability to do that sort of thing during combat.

EDIT: Here's the relevant portion of the rules:

The way that is phrased makes it clear (to me anyway) that even if this happens to you while you are in combat, you not only MAY give extras away, but you MUST (unless nobody can carry them- then they get discarded) assuming you have no other legal way of fixing the problem.

Re: rule clarification
 

Exactly. It's an exception to the usual rule about not trading during combat.

Re: rule clarification
 

The rules say more than 5, not 5 or more. You must perform Charity if you have more than 5 cards in your hand. If you don't have more than 5 cards in your hands, or you can play enough cards to get you down to 5 or less, Charity doesn't come in to play, and you have no legal way to just give cards to someone.

Re: rule clarification
 

You actually can play a Hireling during combat. The rules say:
Even if you only have the Hireling from Munchkin and Munchkin 3 (which don't follow the Hireling rules unless you have a set with the Hireling rules), they are not Items, so they can be played during combat as there is no restriction.

Playing a Hireling from your hand is a perfectly valid way to save one of your extra Big Items if you legally had them somehow and lost that ability.

Re: rule clarification
 

Snazzy! Though I don't know how often I have a Hireling sitting in my hand when I've got none on the table, so this will probably never come into play for me. ;-)

Re: rule clarification
 

Hmm, I just had a thought that might make what I just said not work, though. While you can definitely play any Hireling during combat, you might not be able to give a Big Item to it. This is probably seen as switching Items during combat, which isn't allowed by the rules.

If I'm correct, that means the only Hireling that could save your Big Item is the Gnome Hireling, as it allows you to carry an extra Big Item. You might just have an extra one in your hand if you already had a different Hireling in play, which you can replace with the new one (or perhaps you had one that was just killed and was carrying the extra Big Item you are trying to save).

Re: rule clarification
 

MM is referring to playing cards before charity. If you play enough cards to get to 5-or-less, then you do not give charity.

Re: rule clarification
 

I considered that, but he specifically said to 'pay' cards to get to 5 or less. The only cards you can pay in this situation is those given as Charity. Perhaps this was a typo and he meant 'play' instead... Edit: indeed he did.

Re: rule clarification
 

Clipper: I fixed the post, but the context should have been clear enough that I was saying that if you could play enough cards to get to 5 or less hand cards, you don't have any cards you can legally give away. I also don't know if I refer to giving Charity as paying anywhere here, but just because I don't do it often doesn't mean it hasn't happened...

I thought I checked everything, but working through my phone can create issues when Swype chooses words for me...

Re: rule clarification
 

Given it turns out it was a typo, I removed that part from my post as well.

Re: rule clarification
 

Do these rules apply to ships from Booty as well? I know you can only have one ship and the Big designation is for curse application but must i trade/discard a ship if i want to play another ship from my hand?

Re: rule clarification
 

Yes and no, the rules are similar but not the same.

Just like Big Items, you are unable to play the other Ship from your hand without finding some way to remove the first Ship. Selling for levels, trading away or powering a discard ability of a Loyalty or Class are some of the ways you could get rid of a Ship you no longer want, but you can't just discard one.

If you do have a legal method to have more than one Ship (e.g., Navy) and you lose the ability, then you have a chance to immediately rectify the situation, but if you can't, then you must discard the excess Ships. You do not give them to the lowest-Level player that can take them like you would do with Big Items you can't hold due to their being Big.