Duck of Many Things
 

I love the poultry in this game.

The Duck of Many Things has a number of actions. The card mentions:

"Do the following, in this order:
* Randomly take a card from the hand of the player to your left.
* Give a card of your choice to the player to your right.
* Take the top discard from either deck.
* Sing a little song.
* Go up a level.
* Discard two cards.
* Discard this card."

Do all the actions need to be performed in order for this card to be legitimately played?
Tonight's game had the player of the card without 2 cards to discard, and so we were wondering.

Re: Duck of Many Things
 

You should do everything on the card to the best of your ability. Note you can discard from your hand or the table, so I'd be willing to bet that he could have discarded something. But if you have nothing on the table and nothing in your hand (except for the 1 card you picked off the discards) then just discard that and call it good.

Note you cannot play Duck of Many Things if you are level 9.

Re: Duck of Many Things
 

Did someone mention ducks?

Re: Duck of Many Things
 

Yes, you can. You just can't go up the level.

If we've said otherwise in the past, I'm overruling it, because this card is too weird to follow any mundane rules. And I don't want any argument outta you mooks, either.

Re: Duck of Many Things
 

Not making an argument, but thought I could be of some help. I think this is the most prominent place where it was officially stated the Duck cannot be used at Level 9. It could use a follow-up post to ensure it doesn't trip up others. It was also brought up here, although not as strongly. Those threads are the reason why I didn't think the card could be used at Level 9 up until today, in any case.

And I'm glad for the new ruling as it no longer means figuring out whether you have enough cards to be able to handle all the various discards before figuring out whether you can play the Duck either.

Re: Duck of Many Things
 

Crap. I'm agreeing with myself in the earlier thread. Rescinding my statement above: you cannot play this card at Level 9.

I hate this card. And I love it. #conflicted

(If I someday get to work on Munchkin, Second Edition, this card is one of the first up against the wall.)

Re: Duck of Many Things
 

Geesh - no wonder we can't figure out how this game works. :D :D :D :D :D

Re: Duck of Many Things
 

Well, that was certainly unexpected.

And we're back to ensuring we have at least one other card in play or in our hand before playing the Duck too, I guess (assuming we can discard the card we just drew from the discards). And that the player to our left must have a card in their hand?

Re: Duck of Many Things
 

You can't use the card if you can't go up a level, because that is SPECIFICALLY against the rules. Playing the card if you don't have enough discards just means "discard everything you have."

Re: Duck of Many Things
 

Well! There's me opening a can of worms in the vicinity of poultry. Not such a good idea.

Oodles of thanks for the replies and rulings (and non-anti-counter-rulings).

@Enzzo (first post):
You have no idea what we never seem to have in our games. For example winning with no items in play, or kicking in door curses on EVERY turn, and so forth. Trust me, nothing could have been discarded. Neither of us were at level 9, by the way.

@all:
What is your favourite little song to sing?
Don't disappoint me by mentioning that you ignore this part, as I shall be most upset. And if I find any of you singing 'Soft Kitty, ...' things will go very poorly indeed for you.

Re: Duck of Many Things
 

Whoops!
@Enzzo:
Should have had a big smile after that. When I re-read it the tone seems churlish. Eek! : )

Re: Duck of Many Things
 

heh, no worries. I read it as being amused. :)