Basic Question

I started playing VTES when it was released as Jihad. I lost touch with the game in 1998 and only recently started playing again, with the 1995 card set. Most of the game has come back to me, but I have an odd question:

If I tap to bleed, am I allowed to stack an Action Card on top of that bleed or, is the playing of an Action card its own separate discrete action in the same way that tapping to bleed (as an action) is its own action?

For example, are we allowed to tap, declare a bleed, and then add Computer Hacking to the bleed action?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Eadan

Short answer: "No".

Longer answer:
Computer Hacking is an Action Card.

When you want to take an action, you can either choose to take a cardless action (such as the default cardless bleed) *or* you can take an action with a card (such as Computer Hacking, Govern the Unaligned, or recruiting Ossian).

After you declare a bleed of *any* kind, whether it's cardless or carded, then you can add an *action modifier* such as Conditioning to increase the bleed.

The (cardless) bleed action and bleed actions like Computer Hacking are two separate actions, and cannot be stacked. You need to declare either one or the other.

Actions, like computer hacking, replace the default actions. Action Modifiers, like Conditioning modify the action.

An important note on action modifiers (and reactions): only one of each card may be played on a given action by a given minion. So you can't play multiple Lost in Crowds for stealth, or multiple Command the Beast for bleed, or multiple enhanced senses for intercept.

Eadan wrote:

For example, are we allowed to tap, declare a bleed, and then add Computer Hacking to the bleed action?

After declaring a bleed action (say, with Computer hacking you mentioned) you still can immediately play an action modifier further modifying the bleed (for example, Bonding, Threats of Conditioning).

You might want to do so if you are cycling your hand to get a stealth card, for example.

Perfect! This is what I needed to know. What helped was the distinction between a cardless action (bleed, hunt, etc.) and a card Action.

Many thanks! I may have more questions down the road and hope the community won't be bothered by their rudimentary nature.