The Shortening misprinted cards

[Hamiltonz]

I just received The Shortening and out of the 152 cards, I have 27 misprinted backs and three Loot cards with a 'smudge' in the same location (one in back, one in front, and one both back and front). Of the 27 misprinted backs 7 have a half width upper white border and 20 have no upper white border at all (with a double-width bottom white border).

It's clear that some of the cards had the printing on the backside misaligned. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem, and what we should do about it.

The front of all cards are correctly aligned.

[The Giant]

I don't know if anyone else has the problem, but I will bring this post to APE's attention. He'll almost certainly send you a new copy.

[apegamer]

Yes. Please send an email to [email protected] and tell her which cards are misprinted. She'll get you new cards out.

Kevin

[Wanderlust]

I didn't notice any misprinted cards in my box, however I noticed a handful of the Backstory cards that seem to be printed with the wrong blue or white background . For example, a card may say that it is scored at the end of a turn, but have the blue/white background combination that would normally be for the cards that score at the end of the game.

[The Giant]

Can you list the cards that you saw this with?

If it ends up being an across-the-board misprint, use the text (not the color) to determine how to score the cards.

[Wanderlust]

I will go through them tonight when I'm at home. We used the text rather than the colors, but I just wanted to point it out in case there are future reprints.

[Hamiltonz]

I will go through them tonight when I'm at home. We used the text rather than the colors, but I just wanted to point it out in case there are future reprints.

The rule is: white background score only once, blue score every time the condition is met.

These cards have blue background but can only score at the end of the game (EOG):

• Calculates Every Probability
• Doesn't Get as Much Screen Time
• Is Cooler Than You on Your Best Day
• Is Use-Impaired
• Keeps Everything
• Spits in Destiny's Eye
• Values Friendship
• Wasn't Always This Strong
• Wasn't Really Trying, Anyway

It does not appear that there are any cards with white background that are incorrectly colored.

There are 12 End Of Turn cards and 36 EOG cards. There are 21 blue and 27 white background cards.

[Wanderlust]

Thanks Hamiltonz for going through that, I hadn't had a chance to go through these yet (OotS night on Wednesday and Catan/Puerto Rico night Thursday...).

I think the issue is that I was misinterpretting the cards, which is nice because it turns out they are better than I had thought. We assumed that if it said score at the end of a turn, then you only get it once. What I understand from your post, however, is that if it's a score at the end of the turn card, you can:

a) on a white background score it once and set aside for the end of the game

b) on a blue background tally the points when the condition is met that turn, then save the Backstory card to score again at the end of another turn in which the condition is met.

Would this be the correct way to play these cards? What must have been confusing me were the blue background cards that scored at the end of the turn, since we assumed ALL 'end of turn' cards could only be counted once.

Thanks again for clarifying, makes many of the cards much more useful!

[The Giant]

The rule is: white background score only once, blue score every time the condition is met.

This is backwards, and it's more complicated than that anyway. There seems to be some confusion about this, so let me try to explain.

The cards and rulesheet use the phrase "reveal and score" to describe what to do for a reason: these are two separate steps.

• Revealing a Backstory is the act of flipping it over and announcing that you have completed it. You may only reveal each Backstory card once.
  
• Scoring a Backstory is the act of adding the printed point number indicated to your Bragging Points. Some cards allow you to score them more than once at the moment that you reveal them.

Now, there are also two times you can reveal-and-score Backstory cards: at the End of a Turn, or at the End of the Game.

• Cards revealed at the End of Turn only score points for the events of that turn. They cannot score points for prior or future turns.
  
• Cards revealed at the End of Game only score points for your status at that moment. They cannot score points for situations that occurred in the middle of the game but are not true at the end, such as if you once held certain Loot cards but no longer do.

Effectively, the cards have no "memory" and can only reflect the immediate past or the end results.

Finally, cards are also divided up based on whether the number of points that can be scored is fixed or variable:

• Blue background cards score a fixed number of points. Those points do not change, except for the specific "Doubled" circumstances listed on some of those. Those special circumstances must be true on the turn that the card is revealed in order to apply; they cannot "remember" things that happened more than one turn ago.
  
• White background cards score a variable number of points, where the total score is equal to the number printed multiplied by the number of times you have achieved the circumstance at the time that the card is revealed.

Note that ALL white background cards are also End of Game cards, so that part is largely redundant. There can be only one End of Game, after all. However, I included it just there to make things as explicit as possible.

The important part is this: You cannot earn additional points from an End of Turn Backstory that has already been revealed and scored on an earlier turn. All cards can only be revealed one time, and at that time, they are scored as many times as required. The moment that you reveal the Backstory card and claim its points is the only time you can get any points from it; all that is in question is how many points you get.

You may, if you wish, hold off on scoring a End of Turn Backstory in the hopes that you will have a more advantageous turn later that would net you more points. For example, if you were holding Kicks You While You're Down, and a player loses a Wound during a turn in which you played a Screw This! card, you might hold off scoring because you want to try to get the "Doubled" condition (losing their last Wound and fleeing the dungeon). But if you waited, you would then lose credit for the current opportunity for scoring. Likewise, if you scored now, and then later did fulfill the Doubled condition, you don't get more points. You revealed and scored the card, it's done.

With that explained, I am going to tentatively say that there are no misprints in the cards, just a misunderstanding of the meaning. Though understand that I don't have the deck in front of me (I'm looking at the final files on my computer).

EDIT: Changed around a bit for clarity.

[Hamiltonz]

Thanks Giant!

We really appreciate all that you've done to make this game fun and entertaining, and the time you've taken to explain things to us.

I have received the replacement cards. It was an overall pleasant experience. Emails were promptly replied to and there was never any hassle about how misprinted the card had to be to qualify for replacement, which I found refreshing. That would be one of the perks of dealing with a smaller company. I specifically waited until after all the back orders had been cleared before submitting my request in order to place the least amount of stress on what appears to be a single individual handling all of the shipping for Ookoodook.

Two minor issues (which are truly minor) the package arrive postage due (39 cents, no big deal), and one requested card wasn't included. The money doesn't matter and we can just not play with that one Backstories card.

Once again thank you Rich for creating such a fun and wonderful game for all of us to enjoy.