Effect of using Two of a Kind or Favor on an empty hand in Exploding Kittens?

Question

In Exploding Kittens, it is possible to have an empty hand. When using Favor or Two of a Kind, what happens if the chosen player's hand is empty?

First, consider what happens if Favor is used on a player whose hand is empty.

FAVOR 4 CARDS
Force any other player to give you 1 card from their hand. They choose which card to give you.

It seems like there are two possibilities, but which is intended?

• A player whose hand is empty cannot be selected. Favor and Two of a Kind are unusable if everyone else's hand is empty.
• The selected player gives nothing. Favor and Two of a Kind are usable without effect if someone's hand is empty.

The same question as above applies to using Two of a Kind on a player whose hand is empty.

"everyone else's hand is empty" is a rare game state, but it seems reachable by having 2 players left:

• P1 has 3 cards and uses uses Three of a Kind, asking for a card that P2 doesn't have
• P1 draws 1 card
• P2 uses Two of a Kind to empty P1's hand
• P2 uses Favor on P1

Answer 1

You have it right: the selected player gives you nothing. Whether you want to restrict playing the card (or pair) in that way (to no effect) is up to you (EK is not the kind of game to get official answers on such things), but since playing the card/pair that way is only bad for the player playing it, the restriction won't come up.