Can Annihilation be played on Restraining Order?

[munchkinite]

Hi,

I have a quick question. While playing Munchkin, another player entered combat and played a Restraining Order on me. I then played Annihilation to remove the Restraining Order from the game, effectively negating its effects. However, the player argued that the Annihilation was being played against him, and thus violated the conditions of Restraining Order.

Is this true, or should Annihilation be interpreted literally? (i.e. can be played at any time on any one card...if the card to be removed has just been played, it is canceled and has no effect.)

Thanks in advance!

[StaticHamster]

If Restraining Order has just been played Annihilation can work on it as it is one of the few "interrupt" cards that can eliminate a cards affects as they are being played to make it so that it was never played.

If Restraining Order is in effect, as in it was put down and another card has been put down, then Annihilation cannot be played.

[munchkinite]

Thanks for the reply.

If Restraining Order is in effect, as in it was put down and another card has been put down, then Annihilation cannot be played.

That's an interesting take on things. In this scenario, Annihilation was played immediately after Restraining Order was just played - player A put down Restraining order, and player B put down Annihilation. But I'm wondering why, even if Restraining Order is in effect, Annihilation cannot be played to remove it (or anything else for that matter)? I don't have Annihilation in front of me, but I recall that it says it can be played at any time on any card (in play). Doesn't that make Annihilation distinct from say an Out to Lunch or Monsters are Busy, which I agree would not be playable if Restraining Order is in effect?

[MunchkinMan]

The very text of Annihilation says that it cancels a card that has just been played, so Restraining Order doesn't actually go into effect because of Annihilation. It's one of the very, very few cards in Munchkin that has such an effect.

[StaticHamster]

This is the fun part....

As its being played, Restraining Order is a card and Annihilation can be played on any card just as it says...

Once it is played the card becomes an effect, and the effect of Restraining Order is that no cards can be played on you by that player.

The special case here is that we aren't robots...so as Restraining Order is first being played there is a window of opportunity before it takes effect (even on immediate effects) that Annihilation can be played....

Once other cards have been layed down Restraining Order definitely takes effect....and therefore Annihilation can't be played on it as Annihilation is still a card.

[munchkinite]

Thanks for the clarifications.

@MunchkinMan:

The very text of Annihilation says that it cancels a card that has just been played, so Restraining Order doesn't actually go into effect because of Annihilation. It's one of the very, very few cards in Munchkin that has such an effect.

I'm still uncertain about the timing. Does the immediacy of playing Annihilation on Restraining Order matter? Given the scenario provided by StaticHamster for instance:

If Restraining Order is in effect, as in it was put down and another card has been put down...

So in this case where the other card played after Restraining Order is not Annihilation, would the player, who Restraining Order is targeting, still be able to use Annihilation? In other words, does Restraining Order make Annihilation time-sensitive?

[MunchkinMan]

Originally Posted by munchkinite

Thanks for the clarifications.

@MunchkinMan:



I'm still uncertain about the timing. Does the immediacy of playing Annihilation on Restraining Order matter? Given the scenario provided by StaticHamster for instance:



So in this case where the other card played after Restraining Order is not Annihilation, would the player, who Restraining Order is targeting, still be able to use Annihilation? In other words, does Restraining Order make Annihilation time-sensitive?

Annihilation makes Annihilation time sensitive. It can cancel a just-played card. It can also remove a previously played card, but since Restraining Order prevents you from playing cards against the player who played Restraining Order, once it actually takes effect (something which can be prevented by playing Annihilation), you couldn't play Annihilation if the person who played Restraining Order then played another card, because the window when Annihilation could be played was closed because the last played card was not Restraining Order.