wonder what is taking the orange so long to post even an an acknowledge on this thread.

They're all at GenCon. Can't fault a volunteer crew for wanted to actually enjoy their gaming weekend

Hmmm... I just read the whole thread hoping for an answer. Oh, well, I'll subscribe to see what the eventual answer is.

I played him last night but played him with the "conservative" interpretation, so he wasn't super helpful. I failed one free-action pick-up but succeeded at another one... and then didn't dare risk any more free action pickups. But the enhancement was good enough for 20 points.

QFT.......

Suscribing to see the ornage ruling, especiallly since I can see this going either way...

Personally, I hope that the BoS portion is a specific payment rather then a regular relic roll with a modified result. I would hate for something like Splitlip to become an automatic include for a BoS team because it gets around the resources somewhat balancing clause. We don't need the game to go any faster.

This is what I'm going with. Could see it go either way though.

Looking forward to Orange...

Really??? The way I see it is the "game" is already too fast. The way things are now the BotS just can't keep up with the slew of Alpha Strike pieces and strategies that have been introduced lately and that's causing people to simply disregard the Book as too slow and underpowered. I think Splitlip working with the Book to let you pick up Hammers as a free action gives the Book player, if anything, a fighting chance. This is coming from a more competitive mindset and I have had great fun playing the Book as is(Giving New52 Fury Mokks Hammer is tons of fun), but I couldn't help but feel...outgunned.

Is there even rules arbs on here?

Making the game go faster and faster to keep up with a design problem instead of correcting it, is a great way to kill the game. Do you honestly see yourself playing the game if everything was a free action and games ended on turn 3 even more consistently then they do now?

They're all at GenCon. Don't expect to see any reply until Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest.

I think people are placing the wrong emphasis on the rule for Hammers.

"If the friendly character is given a power action to place that Hammer on its character card this turn, the roll automatically succeeds...."

the standard rule for attempting to equip a relic to a character is to use a power action. The part of the Book's rules that ties to "the roll automatically succeeds" is not "the underlined, it's the bold: for auto success you need to make the "roll" the same turn you drop it.

Splitlip changes the power action requirement to a free action, effectively making this say
"If the friendly character is given a free action to place that Hammer on its character card this turn, the roll automatically succeeds...."
because, again, the trigger for the roll automatically succeeding is that it happen this turn, not that it be a power action.

I agree with KGB that this makes equipping a speed run, and I agree that is not an enhancement: it makes the Book better against Teams, the Belt, etc, but it makes it that much worse to play against the Book without a resource or Team (or Spiral). But I agree with chrisdosmil: this may not be the intent, but as written and without some contradictory clarification from the rules team that's how I'd rule it.

Oh, I agree with you that the game is too oriented on speed and who has the bigger stick right now more than strategy and planning and it's only getting worse before it's getting better. I just think this guys ability helps even out an already warped playing field where the Book is concerned. Of course only time will tell if this leads to more problems like the Book being too fast but it's best to cross that bridge when we come to it.

I honestly have to agree with Chris. The wording on the Book indicates that you are making a relic roll, and therefor Splitlip's effect would trigger. Either way, it wouldn't bother me that much.