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[GalacticHitchhiker]

I ran into this a couple days ago while playing with some friends and the actual physical cards.  If you don't have two cards to discard for Horse Traders, can you play it?  The rules booklet didn't seem to have anything to say about that.  I ended up saying that you could (the guy was so pathetically behind, it didn't matter) but I wasn't sure.

[DG]

Follow the card text as best you can. +1 Buy. +3 Coins. Discard 2 cards. There are no conditions or complications.

[Brando Commando]

I don't think there's any situation where you are prevented from playing an action card based on the rules text on the card. Think of it like a computer would: You read each line and execute them sequentially, and when you get to a command you can't follow (because, in this case, you don't have enough cards to discard) you freeze and do nothing until your owner shuts you off in disgust and wonders why he didn't buy the warranty package.

Actually, you would just skip it because you can't do it. Most of the cards have "If you do..." when anything is conditional.

[GalacticHitchhiker]

Thanks, guys.  This is what we ended up doing.  Glad to know I was on track.

[Davio]

Well, you don't actually freeze, you jut skip it and go on with the rest of the card.
Some cards have conditions which you have to meet to get a bonus.

Examples
Market:
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 $
+1 Buy

If you have no more cards in your draw (or discard) pile, you still get the rest of the bonuses.


Treasure Map
Trash this and another copy of Treasure Map from your hand. If you do trash two Treasure Maps, gain 4 Gold cards, putting them on top of your deck.

You could play this and trash just one Treasure Map if you only have one in your hand, but you don't get the Gold. If you have 2 (or more) Treasure Maps in your hand, you are required to trash both of them as the text instructs you to and you get the Gold.


Bishop
+$1
+1 <VP>
Trash a card from your hand. +<VP> equal to half its cost in coins, rounded down.
Each other player may trash a card from his hand.

If you play Bishop as the last card in your hand (no more Treasures, Curses or Victory cards for example), you still get the $1 and the VP, but since you can't trash anything, you don't get extra VPs.


Upgrade
+1 Card, +1 Action, Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing exactly 1 Coin more than it.

If you Trash Coppers or Curses (and don't have any Bridges/Princess in play) you don't get anything, because there are no cards costing $1. This doesn't mean that you don't have to trash them, you still do.


Just follow this simple rule and you can never go wrong: When you play a card, you are required to follow the instructions as much as you can.
You don't get any punishment if you can't complete it, nor are you restricted from playing it if you can complete it, and sometimes you use this strategically as per your example with Horse Traders. If you play it as the last card, it's as good as Contraband without the buy restriction.

The cards' texts are mostly unambiguous and use the proper grammatical tenses/moods to note if something is required (Imperative: Trash, Gain, Reveal) or optional (You may...) and if some result is dependent on completing a prior objective (If you do...).

[Lhurgoyf]

One question remains: Do you discard one card, if you have only one in hand when you play Horse Traders?
I could imagine something like Village - play all but Horse Traders and Library - play Horse Traders - play Library.

[Davio]

One question remains: Do you discard one card, if you have only one in hand when you play Horse Traders?
I could imagine something like Village - play all but Horse Traders and Library - play Horse Traders - play Library.

Following the rule of "doing as much as you can" you indeed discard one card.
You try discarding 2 cards, start with 1 and then find out you have none left.

You're strategy only works with Golem, playing the HT first and then the Library.

[Brando Commando]

One question remains: Do you discard one card, if you have only one in hand when you play Horse Traders?
I could imagine something like Village - play all but Horse Traders and Library - play Horse Traders - play Library.

Yes, discard the last card in your hand if you have just played Horse Traders.

I like this question because indeed it does seem there are two ways to interpret the phrase "Discard two cards":
1) "Discard one card. Discard another card." (the interpretation we do use in Dominion)
or
2) "Discard two cards, and if you can't discard exactly two, consider this operation undoable." -- i.e., the discarding of exactly two cards is itself a unit of action.

But 2) is sorta unintuitive, I think, and in any case not how Dominion operates.

[Jack Rudd]

I like this question because indeed it does seem there are two ways to interpret the phrase "Discard two cards":
1) "Discard one card. Discard another card." (the interpretation we do use in Dominion)
or
2) "Discard two cards, and if you can't discard exactly two, consider this operation undoable." -- i.e., the discarding of exactly two cards is itself a unit of action.

But 2) is sorta unintuitive, I think, and in any case not how Dominion operates.

And on the occasions that it does, it specifically does so: it says things like "Discard two cards. If you do, +$3 +1 Buy".

[Jeebus]

I like this question because indeed it does seem there are two ways to interpret the phrase "Discard two cards":
1) "Discard one card. Discard another card." (the interpretation we do use in Dominion)
or
2) "Discard two cards, and if you can't discard exactly two, consider this operation undoable." -- i.e., the discarding of exactly two cards is itself a unit of action.

But 2) is sorta unintuitive, I think, and in any case not how Dominion operates.

And on the occasions that it does, it specifically does so: it says things like "Discard two cards. If you do, +$3 +1 Buy".

This is still not like Brando Commando was describing. You would still discard one card if you only had one card in hand. The "if you do" part is something else.