At the risk of nit-picking I post this.
But jobs are perhaps the juiciest intersection of all the rules that constitute the Doomtown experience. As such, I find that if the syntax were cleaned up just a little bit, the focus can be on how to use them strategically, not just the nuts and bolts of how they work.
Action cards and Dudes are easy. It either says “Noon Job, Boot” or “Noon Job” and the leader either pays the booting cost up front (former case) or goes into the job unbooted (latter case). This is an important difference. Also, the Action card itself never physically enters play, so the concept of it’s state (booted or unbooted) does not matter.
But many jobs are printed on Outfits, Deeds, and Spells - and perhaps someday, Goods and Legends. These cards physically enter play, so the concept of their state (booted or unbooted) does matter.
And the “hole” in the Job language, tiny as it is, is unclear how many cards pay the Boot cost for a Job printed on an in-play card. The recent rules update clarifies half of this problem - explicitly stating that this cost (if any) is payed by the leader - but this leaves a situation where an originating Outfit, Deed, Spell, Goods, or Legend card never has to physically boot itself to use a Noon Job effect, according to the latest interpretation in the rules. The language just breaks down here.
Furthermore, I cannot think of a way to address this tiny hole just relying on language printed in the rulebook. My proposed solution below would require both some new language in the rulebook as well as some revised language for several Job cards themselves. For the sake of being comprehensive, I will share both with you.
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Rulebook Change
From:
First, choose one of your unbooted dudes to be the leader of the job. If the ability that started the job came from text on a dude, goods, or spell card, that dude (or the dude the card is attached to) must be selected as the job’s leader. If the job was started by an ability on a deed, your outfit, your legend, or an action card, the controller can choose any eligible dude to lead the job. If a job requires booting as a part of the cost (e.g. Kidnappin’ says, “Noon Job, Boot:”), the leader is the dude who boots to pay that cost.
To:
First, choose one of your unbooted dudes to be the leader of the job. If the ability that started the job came from text on a dude, goods, or spell card, that dude (or the dude the card is attached to) must be selected as the job’s leader. If the job was started by an ability on a deed, your outfit, your legend, or an action card, the controller can choose any eligible dude to lead the job.
Next, determine what costs, if any, your leader needs to pay to start the job. Many jobs require the leader to boot. If the job originates from an action or dude card that says “Noon Job, Boot:” (e.g. Kidnappin’ or Maggie Harris), the leader must boot to start that job. If the job originates from any other type of card, the first sentence of the job’s text will describe any cost (such as booting) the leader has to pay. Otherwise, your leader may start the job without booting.
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Card Text Changes
The following cards would have to have their texts altered to align with my language proposal above. Fortunately the majority of jobs - those printed on action or dude cards - would not need alteration. What remains are those Outfits, Deeds, and Spells that would need a minor rework.
Desolation Row
Epidemic Laboratory
Fiery Rhetoric
For a Time Such as This
Summoning
Desolation Row
Noon Job, Boot: Mark the town square. If successful and your leader is still in the posse, give them 2 bounty then gain ghost rock equal to their bullet rating, to a maximum of 4.
Epidemic Laboratory
Controller Noon Job: Boot your skilled dude to mark this deed. If successful, this deed gains +1 control point and +1 production permanently.
Fiery Rhetoric
Noon Job Miracle 6: If successful, boot this dude to mark the town square. If the job succeeds, this dude gets control points (until the end of the turn) equal to the number of wanted dudes controlled by other players.
For a Time Such as This
Noon Job Miracle 9: If successful, boot this dude to mark the town square. If the job succeeds, search your deck and discard pile for a dude whose grit is less than this Miracle’s skill check. Play that dude, reducing their cost by 4. That dude permanently gets +1 influence. Ace this card.
Summoning
Noon Job Hex 5: If successful, mark the town square. If the job succeeds, immediately play an Abomination from your hand reducing its cost by 6 ghost rock (paying all other costs). The Abomination permanently gets 1 control point.
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Appendix
In re-writing the italics part of the job cards above, I went with their current interpretations (as of Rulebook 1.4.0 and Compendium 0.8.0), but it is worth saying that whether or not the originating cards themselves had to boot independent of the leader was unclear (with the exception of Desolation Row) because there was no explicit language to convey that.
In that vein, it is likely that all three spells were meant to boot to use their effect, as well as the Epidemic Laboratory requiring booting the deed as well as the skilled leader. But these considerations are in the realm of design, and would have to be decided prior to adopting new language in both the rulebook and on cards.
Cheers!