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Parenthetical statements for old rules? (Earth X Venom Spider-Man)
This is a specific case of a general question. The Attack special on Earth X #066 Venom Spider-Man reads:
Quote
Rip And Tear: Blades/Claws/Fangs. When Venom Spider-Man uses it and the d6 roll was 5 or 6, after resolutions move (up to speed value) and then make a close attack targeting another opposing character. (You can't use Blades/Claws/Fangs during this second attack.)
When this character makes a close attack against a single target and hits, you may roll a d6. If you do, deal damage equal to the result instead of normal damage. Minimum result is this character’s printed damage value -1.
At the time the figure was released in 2019, BCF required a CLOSE action. Since his Attack special only contains the instruction "make a close attack," the second parenthetical in the power--"(You can't use Blades/Claws/Fangs during this second attack.)"--was merely a (true and accurate) reminder of how the general rules worked at the time.
But, now that the general rules for BCF have changed, does the parenthetical supersede them, or should it be ignored?
Without that parenthetical, if Venom Spider-Man were to be played in a Golden or Silver Age game under the current rules, I would tend to say that his "make a close attack targeting another opposing character" could combo with his BCF--and then potentially trigger it again, as long as his BCF rolls are 5 or 6 each time.
At the time the figure was released in 2019, BCF required a CLOSE action. Since his Attack special only contains the instruction "make a close attack," the second parenthetical in the power--"(You can't use Blades/Claws/Fangs during this second attack.)"--was merely a (true and accurate) reminder of how the general rules worked at the time.
But, now that the general rules for BCF have changed, does the parenthetical supersede them, or should it be ignored?
Without that parenthetical, if Venom Spider-Man were to be played in a Golden or Silver Age game under the current rules, I would tend to say that his "make a close attack targeting another opposing character" could combo with his BCF--and then potentially trigger it again, as long as his BCF rolls are 5 or 6 each time.
I don't actually see anything in the rules that says this, so one could argue that there's nothing to say "this is reminder text" instead of "this is a rule". Keep this in mind, I am giving this answer based off of history and this ruling from Wizkids. It is in Past Rules though.
Honestly, this seems to be fairly inconsistent. In the Danger Room Construct character traits, the parenthetical text says (maximum 3) for their Error tokens which is, while overall unnecessary in the context of that effect, a piece of text that does technically change the way the game works. So if parenthetical statements aren't actually rules, but instead are only reminder text, then that (maximum 3) wouldn't actually do anything...
Meanwhile, most of the parenthetical statements in effects are just reminder text, clarifying something that might otherwise be hard to understand. Like the basic MOVE action that says "Move (up to your speed value)." That's not needed, the rules are written in such a way that you can know to use your speed value without that text, but it clarifies anyway.
If you want to stick to the modern age rules purely as written, you can't use B/C/F past the first attack even with the change to the rules because the effect says you can't and there's no ruling that says otherwise.
This is going to be an "up to the judge/other players" kind of thing, I think.