Bat Bat

[Teddy]

Last night the group I was playing with got into a dispute that they requested I bring here for resolution. We were playing Munchkin Bites and I was in combat against a monster that had been mated (The actual name of the monster is irrelevant, except, of course, that it was a high level bat) and the existence of the mate was enough that the combat strength of the monster's side was greater than my own.

Now, I also happened to have some power that let me discard three cards to force a lower level player of the opposite sex to help me. I looked over to the girl next to me (incidentally, the player who had played the Evil Twin card) and said smugly, "Thanks for the help, looks like we're winning now, especially with your Bat Bat."

She looked down in horror to find that she was, in fact, using the Bat Bat, which would instantly kill one of the bats and allow us to beat the other handily. However, one of the gentlemen across the table said, "Could she not simply choose to not use the item in this combat? There is no reason that she would be obligated to use it."

I said, "Items that do not have to be used in combat, even while equipped, generally say so. The Foof Gun from Star Munchkin, Chuck Wagon from The Good, The Bad and the Munchkin, etc all clearly dictate that their usage is optional."

He asked to read the card and nodded, saying, "This card says 'may'. You may kill one bat, not that you must kill a bat. She could choose to not to kill said bat instantly, could she not?"

I then played a series of cards irrelevant to the question I have posed that saved us from further debate, however, it was still requested that I ask

edit: could I get a moderator to move this to the Munchkin forum? I do not know how this got posted in the Quest forum.

[RevBob]

I would judge that "may" does in fact mean that she gets to choose whether or not to use that ability of the Bat Bat.

[morleydotes]

Ok, Lets see, if I remember correctly, you can force them to help, but not to actively help you to win. With that in mind, I would say Bat Bat would not have to be used.


Pat

[Andrew Hackard]

Let me ask SJ what his intent for the Bat Bat was. We're sometimes not 100% consistent on "may."

[MiniMunch]

Forgive me for reviving an old thread, but I just read this and was interested in whether you received a response from SJ related to this, as I've had problems like this arise on a number of occasions.

[Andrew Hackard]

This will teach me to look at cards before guessing about language. There's no "may" on the card -- if you use the Bat Bat in a fight against a Bat, the Bat Bat kills the Bat, period. The only choice you have is which Bat to kill if there are more than one.

[Teddy]

Excellent! Thank you very much sir, exactly one person out of our group will be happy to hear this (it's me), but I'll give them the word