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[Jeebus]

I'm assisting in translating Empires. I noticed this phrase:

"When two things happen to different players at the same time, go in turn order, starting with the player whose turn it is."

I see that the same phrase is used in many rulebooks. But it looks like it's wrong to me. In Empires this is what follows: "For example, when a player plays Catapult and trashes Silver, the other players gain Curses in turn order, which may matter if the Curses run out."

This is not "two things", but one thing. It's something happening to several players at the same time. It seems like the start ("When two things...") was copied from the preceding, different rule: "When two things happen to a player at the same time, that player picks the order to do them..."

Am I correct, or does it make sense with "two things"?

[Donald X.]

This is not "two things", but one thing. It's something happening to several players at the same time.

There is no copying error or any such thing. I don't know how the language you're working with works. In English that rule has stood the test of time, failing to generate questions until today. Two players gaining Curses can be viewed as two things happening, the one player gaining a Curse and the other player gaining a Curse. You can view it as one thing happening - that set of players gaining Curses - but well the text does not treat it like that, and there's an example, and it does not confuse people.

The rules do need to cover both two related things happening to two players at once, e.g. both gaining Curses, and two unrelated things happening to two players at once, e.g. both taking extra turns from different sources. So "one thing happening to two players" is not sufficient.

[Jeebus]

I guess I was caught up in thinking about it as more than two people, because of the example having more than two people, and so "two things" didn't really make sense to me. But I see what the meaning of it is now, thanks.