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Let's say that I have already placed 14 roads and have the Road Building Progress Card. Am I able to play it and place my single road, or must I be able to play 2?
Here's the full description in the Almanac:
Road Building: If you play this card, you may immediately place 2 free roads on the board (according to normal building rules).
It seems like if I may place 2 free roads I may place only 1 road, but someone suggested that I must place 2.
Yes. There are no rules providing conditions that must be met to play development cards other than playing only 1 per turn, and not playing them the turn you buy them. So you would play the card, and then just do what you can to follow the instructions. If the instructions are impossible to follow, then you just do what you can. The same would go for playing a Year of Plenty if there's only 0 or 1 resource cards left in the resource piles.
I don't have a particular rule to quote for this, but it seems like the only logical way to handle it. The rules are clear about when you can and can't play development cards, and there's no mention of requirements of having enough roads left.
you may immediately place 2 free roads
The "may" says you don't have to play 2, or even 1 road, it only says that it takes effect immediately, so you can't decide when to play them. Technically I don't think you can stop and build a city in the middle.
A strict reading of the rules says that a player at 14 roads may play road building, but cannot build any roads with it.
You've quoted the relevant bit of rules. You "may" build 2 roads, meaning you can build 2 or 0. It does not say "up to 2", which would enable you to build only one.
The rules on building and component limits are the following:
You can build as many items and buy as many cards as you desire—as long as you have enough resources to “pay” for them and they are still available in the supply.
Each player has a supply of 15 roads, 5 settlements, and 4 cities.
According to the building rules, you cannot build 2 roads if you only have one road left in your supply. Thus, you cannot use road building's effect. There's nothing stopping you from playing the card, but you can't actually build any roads with it.
If you think this is a dumb conclusion, house rule it.
