Dominion - bold and regular type: which action comes first?

Question

So, my son, my wife, and I play regularly. I've read the instructions thoroughly, and we have been playing for a while both ways, but I would like to see if someone can help figure this out once and for all.

The rules state that when you play an action card you go from top to bottom. We've done that, and still come across cards which bring up the issue of which order to do things in. Do you always do the bold before the regular print, or do you do the regular print, and then the bold? I get that you accumulate a pool of actions, and can use those whenever, and most of the time it makes sense to do the bold first regardless, but certain cards still cause issues.

For instance: Intrigue card - Shanty Town has +2 actions, in regular type is: reveal your hand. If you have no action cards in hand, +2 cards.

I have 1 action card in hand after playing the Shanty Town. Do I reveal my hand before or after playing the other action card in hand?

Answer 1

You do exactly what the card says in order, how bold the type is doesn't matter. The +2 Actions isn't an instruction to play (up to) 2 action cards at that time, it means that later in the Action Phase you can play 2 additional actions. So the revealing cards would happen before you could play any other cards from your hand.

From the Dominion Rules:

Furthermore, the player must fully resolve an Action card before playing another one (if he is able to play another Action card).

and

"+X Action(s)" – the player may play X number of additional Actions this turn. +X Action(s) adds to the number of Actions that can be played in the Action phase. It does not mean play another Action immediately. The instructions on the current Action card must be completed before playing any additional Actions.

Answer 2

You can't interrupt playing one card to play another. So you play Shanty Town, you get +2 Actions, you reveal your hand and since there's another Action card there you don't get to draw. Then, once all of that has finished resolving, you've got 2 Actions in your pool, so you can spend one to play that card.

There are some cards that specifically say that you get to play another card as part of resolving them, including Throne Room, Golem, and Herald (as well as Black Market and Storyteller which let you play Treasure cards when you play them). In those cases, you play the main card, let's say Throne Room. It tells you to pick a card in hand and play it twice, so you do that. Once you've finished playing that card twice, you also finish resolving the Throne Room. For example:

Play Throne Room
  Select Shanty Town from hand
  Play Shanty Town (first play)
    +2 Actions
    Reveal hand
    Conditionally draw cards
  Done playing Shanty Town
  Play Shanty Town (second play)
    +2 Actions
    Reveal hand
    Conditionally draw cards
  Done playing Shanty Town
Done playing Throne Room

At the end of which, you are up 3 Actions and 0-6 cards. Alternatively, you might have something like (see below for card text):

Play Procession
  Select Throne Room from hand
  Play Throne Room (first play)
    Select Storyteller from hand
    Play Storyteller (first play)
      +1 Action
      +1 Coin
      Select 3xCopper from hand
      Play Copper from hand
        +1 Coin
      Play Copper from hand
        +1 Coin
      Play Copper from hand
        +1 Coin
      Spend all coins (4) and draw that many cards
    Done playing Storyteller
    Play Storyteller (second play)
      +1 Action
      +1 Coin
      Select Diadem from hand
        +2 Coins
        +1 Coin per unused Action (2)
      Spend all coins (4) and draw that many cards
    Done playing Storyteller
  Done playing Throne Room
  Play Throne Room (second play)
    Select nothing from hand
  Done playing Throne Room
  Trash Throne Room
  Gain Storyteller
Done playing Procession

Where Procession = "You may play an action card from your hand twice. Trash it. Gain an Action card costing exactly $1 more than it.You may play an action card from your hand twice. Trash it. Gain an Action card costing exactly $1 more than it.", Storyteller = "+1 Action, +$1; Play up to 3 Treasures from your hand. Pay all of your $; +1 Card per $ paid.", and Diadem = "$2; When you play this, +$1 per unused Action you have (Action, not Action card)."

Note how the coin that Storyteller naturally gives you comes first, and is then turned into drawing a card draw by the time it finishes resolving. Similarly, the Actions you get from the two Storyteller plays give you coin for Diadem, but don't let you play more Action cards until the whole chain is completely resolved. And trashing the Throne Room and gaining a new card due to Procession happens right at the end, so you won't draw the new Storyteller as part of drawing cards from the one you picked to Throne Room.

Answer 3

As you've read in the rules, you're supposed to process the card instructions in order going from top to bottom. The top-to-bottom rule applies to all text on the card, including the bold text.

Note that boldfaced type is used only to highlight the basic card properties (+Action, +Buy, +Card) and has no relation to order; some cards have the bold text after the regular text (e.g. Oracle) and some have bold text in the middle (e.g. Bridge Troll).

Also, +Action and +Buy don't mean that you perform the action or buy immediately; they instead increment the "bank" of playable actions and buys for your turn.