Council of Elrond

Question raised in a GCCG game:

Pilfer is played and targets an agent, which then presmuably leads to the target of a character. On Pilfer it states "make a roll for a character in play of your choice..."

Does the character have to be in the current active m/h phase then? I remember asking this question before regarding all these agent type cards, e.g. Your Welcome is Doubtful, as to whether they target a character, target the agent or target both and whether they have to be played during the targeted character's active m/h phase and the answer was yes.

Fine, but then Digest #54 states that Tom can't cancel Pilfer! If Tom can cancel cards that target a character then surely this would mean that agent cards like Pilfer don't target the character at all?

Confused.com

What;s the deal with these agent cards?

Overruled!

CoE Digest #91:

Can Tom cancel an agent's pilfer roll?

*** Pilfer targets a character, so Tom can cancel it if the character
that is being targetted is in the same company as Tom, along with the
other restrictions.

Woot, well found Mister!

Why does the character have to be in the same company as Tom? Tom can cancel hazards that target a character in another company moving in the stated regions.

Yes you are right, Tom can cancel Pilfer for a character in another company as well, as long as the requirements are met. Tom is queso grande.

CRF, Rulings by Term, Active Condition

Annotation 8: An action that requires a target is considered to have the active condition that the target be in play when the action is declared and when it is resolved. An action may not be declared if its target is not in play. However, dice-rolling actions may always be targeted by other actions declared later in the same chain of effects.

So if choice is part of main effect of card, then choosen entity is not target of this card.
Phrase "make a roll for a character in play of your choice..." is part of main effect of card. Similar cards are Gloom and Waiting Shadow, where card is played on company, not affecting it (as whole) and affected characters are choosen at resolution.