Axe Cop card "You got blood on you" question.

[HardAppleCider]

By using this card can you discard zero cards to get powers from the discards?

I'm thinking yes, as none of the card's text implies that either end of the exchange cannot be zero cards. In fact, you would receive zero cards if it was played when the discards had no powers, and the wordage addressing the quantity of cards for the give can be chosen (by the player) to read the same as the take.

I have a friend that disagrees with much vigor, says you cannot replace nothing with something. I tried this to convince him: "What do you have in your hand? Nothing? Wanna replace that nothing with a beer?" He wasn't convinced.

I think using it when you have no powers is the most munchkiny way to use it, but it's still legit.

Edit:

Just to be clear, I'm proposing that the quantity specified by the card "any or all" powers can mean "no powers", if you choose or if you have no powers. This quantity is replaced by the second quantity according to the card.

The second quantity specified by the card is "any" power from the discards (with power rank/level comparisons). This quantity will always be "no powers" if there are no powers in the discards (which implies that zero is a valid quantity to satisfy the "any" requirement). It will also always be zero if the rank/level stipulations don't work. I imagine if the player wants to just use the card to discard all his powers replace with "no powers" that should work too.

I don't know if I can describe this better. I know this is very munchkiny, but I'm not wrong am I? At least, not the way it's written now.

[MunchkinMan]

I would tend to think that the word "replace" is huge. Almost every definition of "replace" involves a substitution or return of something that was taken away, meaning that you can not replace nothing with something. "Any" also implies to me, and seems to also be defined as, a quantity exclusive of zero.

However, I'll see if Andrew has any other insights into this.

[HardAppleCider]

Originally Posted by MunchkinMan

I would tend to think that the word "replace" is huge. Almost every definition of "replace" involves a substitution or return of something that was taken away, meaning that you can not replace nothing with something. "Any" also implies to me, and seems to also be defined as, a quantity exclusive of zero.

However, I'll see if Andrew has any other insights into this.

A lot in our group feel this way, though others are agreeing with me, that it can mean "to override", and may involve any quantity both negative and positive. We're pretty split on this.

Consider: "In this series of numbers, replace all negative numbers with positive numbers, and replace zero with 64: -8 16 -32 0 -128"

From http://thesaurus.com/

Definition: take the place of; put in place of

Synonyms: alter, back up, change, compensate, displace, fill in, follow, front for, give back, mend, oust, outplace, patch, pinch hit for, put back, reconstitute, recoup, recover, redeem, redress, reestablish, refund, regain, reimburse, reinstate, repay, restitute, restore, retrieve, ring, ring in, shift, sit in, stand in, stand in lieu of, step into shoes of, sub, substitute, succeed, supersede, supplant, supply, swap places, take out, take over, take over from

It very well could be that an exchange of "one or more" powers for whatever you find in the discards was the actual intent when the card was written.

Thank you for your input and for bringing this to Andrew. =)

[MunchkinMan]

First of all, your example doesn't address the meaning of "any," and just because you are using a sentence which says to replace something with something else (number for number) does not argue for saying that you can replace nothing with something. As for now, my official response is that, given that the language says you may replace one or more power, that is what it means. I only want to see if Andrew has any insight on intent more easily gleaned by more immediate contact with the designer. If the intent is different than the language dictates, we'll have to do something about it.

[HardAppleCider]

:)

"Any or all" references the quantity that is discarded.
"Any" references the quantity received.

If there are no cards in the discards, "any" means zero, yes? However I do see that "any" can easily be meant to imply "greater than zero."

Example: "Do you have any cake?"
The response "I don't have any" implies that you have "zero" cake.

On the other hand "all" certianly includes zero.
Example: "The cake is all gone."

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/all
Most definitions of all use the phrase "whole number" which is all non-fractional non-negative numbers including zero.

And since the amount discarded is "any or all".

The very first thing I said when I played the card was "I choose to discard all of my powers."

I'm not trying to twist words here, honest. :)

[Bampop]

Semantics here, but in the example, "The cake is all gone," "all" refers to a positive amount of cake that once was, but now is zero.

[MunchkinMan]

I've given my ruling, and the language, to me says one or more. I'm not interested in playing semantics games at this point and am only interested in designer's intent, of which few people can give me. I'm closing this thread until Andrew and I have a chance to link up to the brain trust.

[Andrew Hackard]

You must discard at least one Power to use this card.