Parker Stick Up Upgrade

[KingCrow]

Recently ran into a question in the game about this upgrade.  It states "This action can only be used once per Activation. Target enemy Enforcer, Henchman, or Master may choose to suffer 4 damage; if it does not, it must discard 1 Soulstone if able and this crew may add 1 Soulstone to its Pool." 

My opponent had zero soulstones left to use and so I decided to use this ability.  My thought was that since he did not have any soulstones to discard (i.e. "if able" and he's not able to with zero stones), he must take the 4 damage.  My opponent decided to not take the 4 damage and argued that since it says "discard a soulstone if able", then he did not have to take the damage or discard a soulstone and I gained a single soulstone to my pool.  I argued that it was like trying to say you had zero cards in hand but could still discard cards to trigger an effect but he still argued his point.  I was a bit confused about his argument but accepted it since the game was running a bit long and I needed to finish up.  

So, what is the correct way to play this and how do I justify it to the other player? 
 

[Adran]

Your opponent was right. He gets to choose if he wants the damage, and if he chooses not to take the damage, then he discards if able (so if he has no stones he can't discard) and you gain a stone. 

It's a much weaker action once they are out of stones. 

[Ludvig]

It says the opponent discards if able to, not that you have to be able to discard to pick that option. If you are not able to discard a soulstone you can still choose to give the opponent an extra soulstone instead of taking damage.

You are not the only player to think that action is pretty weak. It should have bern worded differently to work in a more intuitive way, the "if able" part would need to be included i the choice part. Right now you choose damage or no damage and after that you discard a stone if able but still get out of the damage.

[KingCrow]

It's frustrating that it seems so counterintuitive to how it's supposed to be played but I understand the reasoning behind what you two are saying. Basically if the upgrade didn't have the "if able" part, it would work the way it was intended.  Basically this action went from being amazing to plain ol' crappy because of the way it was written. 

[Adran]

I think it does work the way it was intended to. If you try and Rob me and I have nothing worth takeing, I'll let you search my wallet and pockets so you don't need to hurt me. It's only if I resist the stick up that I'll get hurt. 

[santaclaws01]

1 hour ago, KingCrow said:

It's frustrating that it seems so counterintuitive to how it's supposed to be played but I understand the reasoning behind what you two are saying. Basically if the upgrade didn't have the "if able" part, it would work the way it was intended.  Basically this action went from being amazing to plain ol' crappy because of the way it was written. 

No, the part that lets the model avoid the damage no matter what is that it says they may choose to suffer to damage or not, and then it details what happens if they choose not to. If able is only there because that's how most forced discard effects are worded.