Cannot vs. Can (Post-A-Tron Follow Up)

[Blargg]

@scottw

Once again Andy many thanks for your question.

1. This is covered in the rulebook within section 4.0 Setup These dudes can only be dudes from your
   outfit or drifters—you cannot have a dude from another outfit in play at the start of the game… The pertinent phrase being CANNOT which always overrides CAN

Why does the cannot (from the rules) overrule the permissive can (from the card)? Is this coming from somewhere other than the Golden Rule?

@Golden Rule

Whenever a card seems to contradict the rules, the card text is always right. However, when one card says you “can” do something, and another card says you “cannot” do something, the one that says you “cannot” always takes priority.

I can’t find any other examples of a contradiction like this, but I did find this following line about dudes in two posses which required a special clause to make sure the rules “cannot” couldn’t be overridden:

Players can never have dudes they control in both posses. Players cannot ever make a choice that would result in that situation, no matter what the cards say.

Should the Golden Rule be considered to apply to “cannot” from the rules instead of “the card text is always right?”

[motosenn]

Thanks for the follow up questions!

Ok, there’s a good deal to unpack here, some of it is ruling related and other part of it is card intent. Starting with the card intent first:

1. This dude’s trait allows him to be included in starting posse’s. The intent behind the card, during PB4 testing, was to allow Morgan to have a starting gadget dude in their posse, as part of their general gadget themes. Including a gadget as a starter dude is tricky, because normally with gadget creation you’ve got to go through the process of invention, as a Noon play. This is the way that the Wretched and Quaterman are brought into play. And so to make Post-a-tron’s different, the trait was given.

Now for the rules part:

2. Admittedly this where things get kinda murky. On one hand we have Post-a-tron’s trait, but additionally we have the Setup 4.0 section that’s quoted above saying “You cannot have a dude from another outfit in play at the start of the game”, but as you also point we have the Golden Rule that says: 'When a card seems to contradict the rules, the card is always right." By all merits, it should certainly seem like the Golden Rule allows for Post-a-tron to override the Setup 4.0 quote. For guidance then, we have consider the intent for that trait.

And that is, it overrides/augments the normal Gadget Invention Process. And that is, instead of having to bring it into play as a Noon Play, you can include it in your starting posse instead. As always, you must still make sure your starting posse does not include dudes from other outfits.

The solution going forward:

3. We plan to include an entry on this card in the FAQ, detailing that Post-a-tron can be a starter for MCC, however it cannot be a starter for any other faction.

Hopefully this clarifies some. If there are any follow-up questions, please feel free to ask them.