My wife and I just played a game with all the Sentinels batters, Expatriette, and Setback. It was a ludicrous game: we had THREE crushes, one of which was a homer that Setback caught on the fielding check. The other two were singles, eventually loading the bases and giving Setback full fatigue for the last batter: Haka. You can guess who won! Anyway, we encountered three question-worthy scenarios with all the Sentinels playing each other. First, we realized that Setback is confusing. In particular, the order of his abilities. If he gets R+W, and he threw the Unpredictaball, which ability applies first? Or does the pitcher choose? Second, we noticed that Haka's R+W says "* and ..." rather than "* or ..." like many other batters. Does he get a choice to invoke the MVP power or not, if he gets R+W (to take a ball)? The rule book says that when players get both bonuses, they "may" activate the MVP, but the lack of the word "or" made us think maybe the batter doesn't have a choice. (Similar question applies to Kerry Rumble.) Last, when Expatriette was still on the mound, she faced Omnitron, who automatically got a white bonus off her pitching style. During the Stare-Down, Omnitron got the red bonus. We ruled that this would count as a red bonus and a separate white bonus, not a R+W bonus, because Omnitron didn't earn them both by guessing correctly. Is that correct?
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From the games I've played and demoed, here are my answers:
1. Setback gets R+W and uses Unpredictaball. What order?
If the pitcher used Unpredictaball (they don't have to), then the Unpredictaball effect has to occur. They can optionally use the R+W effect and optionally use the Unpredictaball. Order shouldn't matter at that point, since all of Unpreditaball will apply if used and all of R+W will apply if used.
2. Expatriette faces Omnitron
There is no difference between a white gained by an ability and a white gained by guessing correctly. Therefore Omnitron could trigger only his R+W ability (since he got both). Likewise, if Omnitron didn't guess white but Expatriette did, she could use her W ability even as Omnitron uses his.
"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Really?
Setback throws Unpredictaball successfully. The pitcher's dice come up B4 immediately after the throw.......
Unpredictaball changes it to B5.
Setback chooses to use a re-roll and picks the pitch die. It comes up S. (Currently S5.)
Final result: S5
- OR -
Setback chooses a re-roll and picks the pitch die. It comes up S. (Currently S4.)
Unpredictaball changes this to S3.
Final result: S3
Good point. I don't have a good answer for that. It could be that the pitcher gets to choose.
"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Yeah. I thought for a bit about which way would be more logical, or even whether Unpredictaball should trigger both times, and I couldn't decide.