Playing in a venue whose judge informed me that mind control has a max of 10 range. "Is this a new rule I asked." He claims it has been in play since forever. My response was that only PC, outwit and perplex have 10 range and they of course are free moves. He was supposed to give me more on this ruling but only reiterated his statement the next week.

So... Is there some rule I don't know about that would limit Prof X's mind control range to 10? Or Mandarin's or any of the other long range MCers?

Please someone enlighten me!

Thanks for listening.

From the PAC:

X MIND CONTROL (OPTIONAL): Give this character a power action; it makes a close
combat or ranged combat attack as a free action. A successful attack deals no damage; instead, the
target becomes friendly to your force and opposing to your opponent’s force, and any of the target’s
canceled powers return until it returns to its owner’s force. Each target hit can be assigned one action
as a free action. Immediately upon resolving this action, the target becomes an opposing character to
you and friendly to its owner’s force. This character takes 1 damage for each 100 points of the
successfully hit targets’ combined point value. If this character has a range value of 0, its range value is
4 for purposes of this power and can’t be further modified.



If you can see anywhere in there that limits the upper limit to 10, they you are seeing something I don't.

Nothing in the PAC description of Mind Control or in the E&C documents has ever limited MC's range to 10. Not in Infinity Challenge and not now with LoSH. The only limiting factor you ever need to consider is the character's actual range value... and even then, MC grants characters with 0 range a default range of 4.



I am going to climb up on a soap box for a moment, please forgive me.

Are judges human? Yup. And as such they make mistakes. Are judges the final authority at their tournaments? Also yes, so what they say goes, for good or bad.

However, stuff like this just makes me want to track down the guy and staple a PAC to his forehead. Making a mistake on complicated interactions of Giant adjacency or what happens if x, y, and z all occur at the same time is totally understandable. Screwing up something as simple as range on an attack when it is spelled out crystal clear in the PAC and rules, though? Wow... that's weak. That is so very, very weak. :disappoin

Anyway, I'll stop talking now before I lose even more faith in people's reading comprehension abilities

Do you own a PAC? Hand it to him and ask him to show you where it says that.

If you don't own a PAC... you need to get one pronto so that you can hand it to him and ask him to show you where it says that.

Seriously, I can understand not having all the FAQ documents and such, but I think all players should have a copy of the rulebook and PAC handy. It would solve a lot of the basic rules arguments, and stop a lot of the sillier calls that judges make. You can print them out from the WizKids site, so it's not even like you're forced to buy a starter set. Get it, use it, be a more knowledgeable player.

Hope that doesn't sound harsh... I'm not trying to direct it at anyone in particular (especially the OP, who obviously had enough grasp of the rules to question the ruling in the first place). However, I've lost count of all the rules disputes I've heard of/been in that could have been easily solved or avoided altogether if everyone had read the rulebook/PAC and had them handy for quick reference, and this is certainly one of them.

quoted for truth. I've got a good judge, but I'll challenge him on every bad call if I think it's wrong...and I've been right more than I've been wrong. (He's a good judge, though, so he appreciates the correction.)

Ive been a judge and even filled in when a judge can't make it at the last minute (e.g. sick). I know Ive made mistakes (not one that simple) but normal is correct there is no excuse. When I feel I may be in error I make sure to go out and research the answer after the tourny. I always try to get back with the player and let him and the other guys know the correct answer.

I almost always have mine with me (latest PAC and rulebook) when I go to a venue. They don't take up much space and can prevent some hard feelings.