So the dmrulestream strikes again over at the official Dice Masters Rules Questions forums.  If you don't know what this is it's WizKids official channel to ask rules questions about Dice Masters where you will (probably) receive an answer (sometimes).  I don't want to sound too critical, because I think the forums serve a necessary purpose and I'm thankful to get some interaction with the developers of the game.  There have been large gaps of time that have gone by where answers to questions kind of seemed to come and go willy nilly, but we can be thankful when we get them!

Question from user kabuto: Hello People! I Asked this question of facebook and people couldn't help me out.  Could anyone help?

See these two characters, does Cyclops make Cable Global cause +1 damage?

Thanks! :)

Answer from the dmrulesteam: A Global Ability isn't something a character does, it is something a player does.  Cyclops does not increase this damage from Cable's Global Ability.

- The Dice Masters Rules Team 

So there you have it.  Relatively straight forward despite the funny wording.  Let's get to the heart of the question and then summarize the rules ramifications of the dmrulesteam's answer.  The user kabuto is really asking this question: "Do effects that modify a character's damage apply to Global Abilities found on a character's card?"  This is a good question and especially pertinent to me because of my love affair with all things Cyclops and especially Cyclops, Field Leader.  Now, we already know that any kind of damage dealt by a character, a character's die or character card ability text is considered to come directly from that character.  We know this because of the dmrulesteam's ruling back in November which you can find .  So what is the new ruling pointing out?

It's pointing out that only players are considered the source of damage for Global Abilities.  Did you get that?  That's kind of a big deal.  Not only does it nerf a card like Cyclops, Field Leader in light of other nifty combos but it creates and names another game space for damage to come from.  Do you follow?  No longer is damage just coming from the sources described above - character dice or a character card text ability.  Damage can also come from a player.

Now, this may not seem earth shattering in the current meta and, rightfully so - it isn't.  My point is it opens up opportunities to see new types of card text that can begin to play with different damage sources.  Think of a card like Mister Sinister, Nasty Boy.  On one card we see two sources of damage.  The first source is Nasty Boy himself - his card text ability, when the conditions are met, pings your opponent for 1 damage.  Can it be augmented by Cyclops, Field Leader or another type of damage affecter?  Yep - this is a card text ability and belongs to the character card, thus the character.  What about his Global Ability?  Will Cyclops affect it?  No, he will not.  Remember, the new ruling says that Global Ability damage belongs to the player triggering it not the card where it lives.

Now imagine a couple of made up cards.  I'm not a game designer and so I'm not judging these on quality of use or being well-written.  They're just here to illustrate my point.  Let's say we have a Blob, Big Belly with the card text: "While Blob is active, all damage from your opponent is reduced to 0."  Would Nasty Boy still ping our opponent for 1 if a Villain is knocked out?  Yep - that's damage sourced from a character, not a player.  Would Nasty Boy's global work and deal 3 damage to one of your opponent's characters?  Absolutely not, because the source of that damage is you, the player (or opponent of...your opponent).  Do you catch my drift?

What about this one for kicks.  Let's say we've got another made up card: Solomon Grundy, Impervious to Pain and he's got the card text: "Whenever you would be assigned damage from a single source, you may move Solomon Grundy to the used pile to reduce that damage to 0."  Back to Nasty Boy.  Could Grundy nullify his card text?  Yup.  What about his Global?  That's a 10-4, good buddy.  Why?  Because in this case, Grundy is targeting the "source" of damage - whether that's a character or a player.

See what I mean?

This has gotten far too long, so I'll conclude with a couple of final opinions.  First, I don't like the ruling.  I don't like it because, for my money, Global Abilities are a large part of the theme of this game.  They mostly fit the characters they belong to.  I can't think of a single Global off the top of my head that is just incredibly, unjustifiably unthematic.  Most have something to do with their respective characters and you could argue your way to it with hundreds of comic book sources if you want to, sure.  I think Globals should belong to their respective characters for game purposes.  This doesn't mean it's a bad ruling at all, it's just disappointing to me as a lover of theme.  'Dems da rules' and there's no reason to buck the system.

Second, I absolutely love the open door this ruling leaves for future character card text and damage sources.  Bravo to the dmrulesteam for teasing what could be coming up in future sets.  I think seeing new avenues for sources of damage is really going to open up some interesting interactions in this little game we love to play.

Until next time!

- Chris