And another, more specific one:
CoE Digest #75 wrote:In a recent game with Nigel Buckle, we had a disagreement over the power of Webs to nullify negative influence modifiers. On this list, it hadpreviously been ruled that webs nullifies all cards like Foolish Words, Scatha at Home, etc. because they are "influence modifications". However, Nigel pointed out that Webs says "... are REDUCED to zero", which, according to one way of looking at it, can only move the modifactions DOWN. So positive modifications go down to zero, but negative modifications cannot go down to zero, so they stay where they are. I argued that Webs should be read as either "... are SET to zero," or that the absolute value of modifications "are reduced to zero," either of which would mean that negative modifications would be nullified by Webs. Any ideas?
*** I do not have conclusive evidence to overrule the current ruling, so it stands that negative modifications are also "reduced" to zero by Webs of Fear and Treachery.
Do we now have that "evidence"?
Just for reference, the ruling related to this:
CoE Digest #68 wrote:I've never quite understood the card webs of fear and treachery: I'm unclear on what exactly a character's "unused normal direct influence (including influence modifications in a character's text)" includes. I'd assume that if a character has followers, they would decrease his DI (since it would be "used" on them). I think it's pretty clear as well that Webs cancels the effects of cards like threats, gifts given, lordly prescence, etc. Does it also cancel the effects of, say, foolish words, lord of the carrock, and scatha at home? What about a ringwraith in some kind of mode? Does he not lose 3 DI in Fell Rider mode? Does he not gain DI in heralded lord mode? What if he gets a bonus for being in heralded lord mode (since that is a modification on the character's text)? What about leaders using command cards? Say I have lt of angmar controlling no one but with I'll report you on him -- does he still get +5 against orcs and trolls if webs of fear is out?
*** In all the cases above, the modifications are reduced to zero for influcence attempts, except for DI changes printed on a Ringwraith card or being in a mode. Note that this is for attempts only, and not for controlling characters.
We could rule that negative influence attempt modifiers are not affected by Webs. That would take care of the issue at hand, and it also reduces the cheezy ways people can use Webs.