Gameplay questions

Hey guys,

We are a group of returning players from the original release in 1994. We played a few games but I wrote down a few questions that I can't find clear answers to in the rules. If anyone can help answer them we would be very appreciative.

1. My brother thinks he remembers you only being able to add 1 bleed modifier during a bleed action but I have found cards from the newer sets that don't have the language that bonding, conditioning and threats have which limit you to only one of them per bleed. So are you allowed to use multiple bleed modifiers per action if the cards don't explicitly prohibit the action?

^^ to expand on that slightly are you allowed to play govern the unaligned and declare an attempt to bleed then add action modifiers like stealth and additional bleed modifiers like threats? I just want to make absolutely sure because that seems ridiculously powerful.

2. How does the strength attribute apply in combat? Does it apply to hand strikes and melee weapons? Or does it only apply to physical strikes from potence? For example if you have +1 strength would you then do 2 hand damage or say 3 damage with a bastard sword? Or does the +1 only apply to strike cards?

Thanks for any help. Will reply as soon as I can. Working a lot this week

Welcome back. There have been a few card text migrations over the years, but pretty much every card ever made is still legal, even in tournament play. You can view the latest card text here:
www.vekn.net/images/stories/downloads/cardlist.txt

Proeliator wrote:

1. My brother thinks he remembers you only being able to add 1 bleed modifier during a bleed action but I have found cards from the newer sets that don't have the language that bonding, conditioning and threats have which limit you to only one of them per bleed. So are you allowed to use multiple bleed modifiers per action if the cards don't explicitly prohibit the action?

Non-existant user wrote:

No more than one action modifier card can be played to increase a bleed during a bleed action. Some bleed action modifiers explicitly state that they do not count against this limit; those can be played before or after modifiers that count against the limit. Players are reminded of this rule by the "(limited)" card text on some cards.

So, you are still able to play only one.

Proeliator wrote:

^^ to expand on that slightly are you allowed to play govern the unaligned and declare an attempt to bleed then add action modifiers like stealth and additional bleed modifiers like threats? I just want to make absolutely sure because that seems ridiculously powerful.

It's been ridiculously powerful since day one. We still refer to the classic version of the stealth-bleed deck as Malk '94. Just a reminder that you can only play one stealth card by name (no duplicate action modifiers can be played by the same minion). This means Lost in Crowds + Faceless Night is good, but not two Lost in Crowds.

See also: vtesone.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/deck-archetypes-malkavian-94-update/

Proeliator wrote:

2. How does the strength attribute apply in combat? Does it apply to hand strikes and melee weapons? Or does it only apply to physical strikes from potence? For example if you have +1 strength would you then do 2 hand damage or say 3 damage with a bastard sword? Or does the +1 only apply to strike cards?

+strength affects any strength-based strike: the default hand strike, any combat card that makes a hand strike, or any melee weapon strike.

Proeliator wrote:

1. My brother thinks he remembers you only being able to add 1 bleed modifier during a bleed action but I have found cards from the newer sets that don't have the language that bonding, conditioning and threats have which limit you to only one of them per bleed. So are you allowed to use multiple bleed modifiers per action if the cards don't explicitly prohibit the action?

That is because that text migrated from the cards to the rulebook, section 6.1.1:
"No more than one action modifier card can be played to increase a bleed during a bleed action. Some bleed action modifiers explicitly state that they do not count against this limit; those can be played before or after modifiers that count against the limit. Players are reminded of this rule by the "(limited)" card text on some cards."

There are a few more recent bleed modifiers that are not limited but those are very rare.

Thank you very much. Extremely helpful.