Clan Loyalty

Urgh.... ok, here goes. Please note this is a reminiscence of years of arguing with LSJ and learning to understand why he ruled the way he did.

Impulse is essnetially indicating who has the ability to play cards at any point in time. At the simplest level for a bleed action:

Bob controls Smudge, and Jane controls Igo. Bob is the acting methuselah, and has impulse. He declares a bleed action with Smudge, tapping him. Impulse remains with him for any "play as action is declared" cards, then shifts to his prey for any cancel cards. Once Jane passes the ability to play cards (passes the impulse) it now revolves around the table, clockwise, until all other methuselah's have declined any cards at this time.
Impulse is now with Bob, who may play action modifier, or ask Jane if she is blocking. Asking if she is blocking passes impulse to her, she may either use it to tap Igo for a block, or by playing wake effects, or both. Once she has declared all blocks and cards, the impulse goes around the table for DI, then returns to Bob, who may now once again play action modifiers. Once he passes impulse back to Jane, she may respond to any modifiers played.

Dinner is ready, but that is just up to deciding if the bleed is blocked or not
Every single interaction of VtES works this way

Blooded wrote:

. Once she has declared all blocks and cards, the impulse goes around the table for DI, then returns to Bob,

Doesnt it go immediatly back to Bob (acting) after a single attempt to block or card?

you make it sound like blocking minion can declare blocks then play as many reactions as wanted.

Blooded wrote:

Urgh.... ok, here goes. Please note this is a reminiscence of years of arguing with LSJ and learning to understand why he ruled the way he did.

A more "official" and detailed outline of the impulse can be found here (see the first few replies from the poster Pascal Bertrand, one of them is specifically about impulse and block attempts):

www.vekn.net/forum/rules-questions/10649-impulse-the-as-played-window-and-you?limitstart=0

TwoRazorReign wrote:

Blooded wrote:

Urgh.... ok, here goes. Please note this is a reminiscence of years of arguing with LSJ and learning to understand why he ruled the way he did.

A more "official" and detailed outline of the impulse can be found here (see the first few replies from the poster Pascal Bertrand, one of them is specifically about impulse and block attempts):

www.vekn.net/forum/rules-questions/10649-impulse-the-as-played-window-and-you?limitstart=0

Yeah mine was rather garbled and rushed. But Pascal's is pretty spot on.

Blooded wrote:

Urgh.... ok, here goes. Please note this is a reminiscence of years of arguing with LSJ and learning to understand why he ruled the way he did.

Thats kind of what plagues VTES and its rules.. its rules are often defined in threads where people argue with one another rather than be collected in a comprehensive and exhaustive document like the rulebook. I have said before, say it again: rulebook is missing a great deal of definitions. Impulse being one of the most important.

Also: in my eyes impulse and timing window are not the same thing. Timing window determines when a card is playable (you play taste of vitae after press step for example).
Impulse determines who is allowed to play cards.

A more "official" and detailed outline of the impulse can be found here (see the first few replies from the poster Pascal Bertrand, one of them is specifically about impulse and block attempts):

www.vekn.net/forum/rules-questions/10649-impulse-the-as-played-window-and-you?limitstart=0

That is not an outline. That is an explanation of a bunch of special cases and how impulse is handled in them. The actual comprehensive DEFINITION of impulse is still missing. Do note however that even Pascal Bertrand uses the term timing window.. Your original post claiming there were no timing windows in VTES is hilarious.

In my opinion we should write two rulebooks. One 'normal' one for players and beginners; and one comprehensive and detailed rulebook for rules reference and judges, with all the special situations. In magic, the latter (used by judges as reference) has over 200 pages and is definitely NOT memorized by any normal person. This way we would have all the important information in one place to refer, without having to go scouring through forum threads and google archives.

Bloodartist wrote:

A more "official" and detailed outline of the impulse can be found here (see the first few replies from the poster Pascal Bertrand, one of them is specifically about impulse and block attempts):

www.vekn.net/forum/rules-questions/10649-impulse-the-as-played-window-and-you?limitstart=0

That is not an outline. That is an explanation of a bunch of special cases and how impulse is handled in them. The actual comprehensive DEFINITION of impulse is still missing.

The impulse actually is defined in the rulebook, it's just called something else: sequencing. Sequencing is colloquially referred to as "passing the impulse".

In my opinion we should write two rulebooks. One 'normal' one for players and beginners; and one comprehensive and detailed rulebook for rules reference and judges, with all the special situations.

This already exists. The more comprehensive rulebook is called the Detailed Play Summary, which, in your words, is more of a "explanation of a bunch of special cases" rather than the narrative form the rulebook takes. These two rule assets seem to have been developed independently of one another in the past, and there's some inconsistency. My thought is the regular rulebook needs to be rewritten for clarity, with attention given to whether the Detailed Play Summary is consistent with what is being outlined in the rulebook. Sequencing needs to be outlined better in the Detailed Play Summary for sure.