Mount Doom

[Phallen Cassidy]

Could you edit your changes to be in bold? I see you clarifying that the site being active means the keywords can be spotted and then adding a new ruling to change Mount Doom specifically so that's more intuitive, but not sure if there's something else I missed.

So: keywords (as game text) cannot be "used" unless the fellowship is at that site.  "Use" is not defined, but if by "use" it means "spot" (which is about all you can do with unloaded keywords), then this section completely breaks Lost in the Woods and Brutality and a small host of other Shadow cards from sets 11+ that spot keywords on sites.

I think you've disproven your own point here. If "use" means "spot" then a ton of other stuff breaks, so it can't mean that. I wouldn't say that you "use" unloaded keywords at all, any more than you "use" Gandalf when you activate Trust Me as you Once Did. And do you really use loaded keywords? I guess it depends on which, but I wouldn't say that archer is something you "use," rather that spotting it inherently means something.

Now of course, I agree that MD would be more intuitive if it started working whenever it was played. But far beyond this game, the world is full of examples where the intuitive result is the wrong result. And what is intuitive for one person, even the majority of people, isn't intuitive for others. Consistent rules can sometimes be confusing -- I mentioned Birthday Present, Savagery to Match Their Numbers, Swiftly and Softly, and Corsair Marauder earlier. There's also the "preventing a prevent text causes the initial effect" ruling and example of Morgul Destroyer + Sapling of the White Tree, how Dwarven Bracers and Gimli's Helm interact when taking multiple wounds, whether Shagrat, Captain of Cirith Ungol should be able to use his text if he is killed in a skirmish, whether you should be able to use Wulf respond to Dunlending Arsonist winning a skirmish in the same phase that DA uses his text to play Wulf... The list goes on. Making all of these intuitive without breaking other interactions will require a ton of effort, and many times more if you want to make them all rulings instead of the "we couldn't quite figure out the wording so just pretend this card does what we wanted it to do" Decipher clarifications, or even PC errata.