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Europe definitely feels closer in this regard. I do find the above issue can cause a lot of problems on the Switzerland map however: the country to country tickets can lead to very high scores for a lucky player.
Ahaha! Also, Frodo can use any white Hobbit card for this purpose. From the FAQ at freespace.virgin.net/chris.lawson/rk/lotr/faq.htm: "Example: The Event cost at Speak Friend and Enter requires the players to discard a Friendship and Joker symbol. Frodo volunteers since he can discard any two white Hobbit cards to pay for the cost." I believe the FAQ at this site (which is really an annotated rule set) is Knizia-approved. It's a good place to know about if you plan to play this game many times.
Were you playing with the expansion? Just found the rules for that and that has blue shield tokens which appear different, maybe. "The symbol on the Hiding cards is a shield in the Silver Line edition" which might confuse with the expansion I guess.
Lots of games have some kind of instant heal ability. It comes at the loss of 2 Glory which can hamper your character later. In the example you would need 4 Glory to prevent the damage which seems fair.
I found a picture of that exact example on BGG just now. In the rulebook it says: "Some cards have star symbols, which are wild. These may be played as any Activity symbol (Fighting, Friendship, Hiding, or Traveling)." but doesn't specify that it applies at all times. Would seem reasonable to do so though.
I don't see why not personally but can't find a definitive response in the rulebook. Since I don't have the board to hand can you give example text from one of the events in question?
My interpretation is based on experience with many other games where this is how it would work. 'Any time' normally means just that even when it seems odd like in this instance. If they had intended differently there would normally be an exception in the FAQ and there is not in this case.
Ok - that makes sense now. I can't find a source for it now but I've definitely read previously that if there is a choice and one option would be worse for the players that is the one you choose. I don't feel tactically skipping like that is in the spirit of the game but can't find a specific ruling on it atm.
