Wow. Is it just me, or does that town seem brutal? Martial law. Deep One track probably needing a minimum of one off-set per game (possibly two). Eeee... EHEEHEEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHA! So much for the strategy of only sealing high frequency gates ;'D say hello again to the terror track. ::Shrug:: on the other hand, there are four extra clue tokens on the board during set-up now, sooo, that is a bit of an offset. But on the other other hand ;') one has no idea how dangerous Innsmouth encounters are yet.

I wonder how much of an impact this will have on Kingsport? Good luck keeping the rifts down now ;'D

P.S. the subject heading was not intended as a pun, but it shoud've been ;') Also, I can't wait to play William Yorrick (and is it just me, or should it have been William S. Yorrick).

Heh... The Patrol Wagon has just been bumped up a few notches in my esteem. Giving it to a high sneak character should help avoid the worst of martial law.

Does anyone else think Mark Harrigan is unarrestable in Innsmouth (and hence immune to Martial Law)? The Innsmouth rules only say players can not prevent delays if arrested, not that players can't prevent arrests.

It says even those who normally wouldn't be delayed are. Mark might be able to stare down your average cop but not the D.O.P.D. Let's face it, it's not like they don't have backup from millions of deep ones in....yg....whatever it's called

yes, but Marks special ability is: You can't be arrested or delayed. Mark would have to be arrested first in order to be delayed.

awp832 said:

Exactly. I think it would work against Erich Wiess, but not Mark. You also couldn't use a telescope against it I guess (it's been a while since I looked at it— I don't remember exactly what it says).

Gatha said:

Heh... You're assuming Mark is staring down those cops and not beating the crap out of them ;'D he does have military training, a flamethrower, and a sanity of three after all.

Avi_dreader said:

I think I went to high school with that guy.

The thing that I liked most, among all of the cool things in there, was the line about Quachil Uttaus. He hunts one investigator until they are dead, and then picks on somebody else. That is so cool.

I think I agree with Avi about Mark. That man is on a mission. Guess it's another one for the FAQ, though.

Seems like being arrested and delayed amount to pretty much the same thing except you're moved for the one. Besides, that might make Mark a common investigator for the board who sits in Innsmouth every game, never having to make a sneak check to avoid the slammer. It just detracts from the whole mechanic, especially the supposed brutality of the people in Innsmouth.

It's really sad how the persons writing the rules have copy/pasted previous rulebooks. Apart from an identical FAQ just read the example of traveling between towns. I do not think Harbourside and the rope and anchor are located in Innsmouth.. where's the read-through?

The expansion will be awesome, no doubt but will add even more situations where people will have to decide the rules by themselves. The evade/sneak-example of the curfew is the worst example. Unless we get an official saying I think I will play with "evade"..

Well, since the rulebook states that Evade checks are a special type of Sneak check, so you make a sneak check to avoid being arrested, but if you have for example +1 Evade (or +1 Sneak) skill, they are both applicable. But items with bonuses only to Evade checks would grant them. After all, you're trying to evade the cops and being arrested.

Gatha said:

Agreed. There's no point making Mark immune to the whole game mechanic, and it would thematically just plain wrong.

I agree that Harrigan is also affected by the Innsmouth police. I'm pretty sure they meant to include arrested along with that clause. I think it's pretty silly to include a clause like that in the rules to just cover an ally from CotDP and ignore an Investigator. Granted it does make Harrigan virtually worthless in Innsmouth as that negates the purpose of his character, but it would turn Harrigan into the Innsmouth runner to fill the raid track.

On a similar note, what do people say about the Bird Flu Mythos card? (Or whatever the mythos card is that says people can't be arrested this turn [i think it also lets people out of jail as well]) Do the residents of Innsmouth care about some stinkin' cold?

I dunno... I think I'll take the more unpopular route, unless someone official clarifies it and let Harrigan ignore arresting. For two reasons:

1) That ability has not once come into play for us, even when Harrigan got a Sheldon Gang Membership. I think it is just about useless, as it seems like it happens far less than LiTaS, unless that Curfew card is in play. I think this might make his ability useful, instead of just a pleasent add on to being immune to delayed.

2) The people I play with don't understand the rules as well as I do, so would feel I am arbitrarily messing with them if I say "Well, yeah, he is immune to arrest, but not that arrest." Same goes with the earlier debate over in the quiz section about The Messenger with Yog-Sothoth lost in time in space. I'd say, "Hey, wait a minute, that is a continuing condition, not necessarily an event. Even though you were really excited, your guy is still devoured." And they'd say "$#&@ you, Graksnor. You're a #$%@". And I'd feel like a bad guy (even if that is the way the rules go).

I'm in the Harrigan immune to the Keystone - sorry, Innsmouth - cops camp. Harrigan isn't a particularly good character - low will and San 3 see to that, so something that bumps him up a notch is no bad thing in my book.

So can anyone read any of the text ont he locations or card shown. if so, what do they say?

put me down for immune, its only right!! he is a soldier he is used to rough environments!

Urgh. Well, I suppose some issue had to be first.

On the one hand, I'm really not big on "negating" any Investigator's Special Ability for any reason, because, as they are pulled cleanly from the box, that's what makes them special. What makes them THEM. Nothing surprises Kate. Nothing stops Wendy in the Streets. Leo can block anything from whole dimensions away. I know the guideline, "Anything that hurts them more", and I counter with, "That's fine...but not THIS. Not with him/her." And I think that fits with...why these 48 people? There's a whole town of characters, but these particular ones seemed marked for...something bigger. I think that warrants a bit more shoulder into what little they have printed on their sheet, especially when it's threatened. (Granted, that's way more Chaosium than Lovecraft, but that's a different debate altogether.)

HOWEVER...

On the other hand, the other towns have been ramping up to this. It's been quietly burbling for years. Dunwich gave us one or two crazy families. Kingsport gave us a whole mist-covered town full with shady people that noticed you, but never really acknowledged you. But this is Innsmouth. "No allies...few safe havens." This town belongs to the other side. This is the Ancient Ones' end zone. This is our Death Star. This is our Klendathu. This is our Mordor. If Innsmouth is going to play as oppressively as we masochists want, then maybe this is the one place where no Investigator gets a break.

That's just an early impression, but if I start seeing cards with, "A monster appears, even if it's Kate," or monsters that cannot be evaded under any circumstances, I'm prepared to believe that Innsmouth cops can take down ANYONE.

jgt7771 said:

I'm prepared to play either way, but to be honest, Innsmouth cops, as fishy as they may be, don't have anything on the mythical image of Mark in my head. So I'm currently favoring him.

jgt7771 said:

A thoughtful and intelligent commentary. I especially agree with your point that Innsmouth is our Death Star, our Mordor. Of course the true heart of it, the Black Tower if you will, is uquestionably Y'ha-nthlei. The city of the Deep Ones should have deadlier and more devastating encounters than any other location on any of the four boards. I will be disappointed if there aren't multiple Devouring encounter to be found in Y'ha-nthlei.

Solan said:

I agree with both points. It was a well thought out commentary and I am already terrified of Y'ha-nthlei. I hope there are just awful things that happen to you there. You know those three CotDP other world encounters where you fight old ones? Like that bad. I can't wait to get my hands on this expansion.

For the record, it's pronounced: Yah-haw-neth-lay. (Y’ha-nthlei).

TroySterling said:

When a guy whose picture is a person on a transmitter makes a claim like yours, I tend to pay attention.

hahahahh! Nice.

awp832 said:

It sounds to me like you're trying to "rules lawyer" the Great Old Ones. You are doomed to fail. You are all doomed to fail.

...

In all seriousness, whenever a rule seems ambiguous, I tend to rule in favor of the GOOs. By the time the FAQ answers the question, these rulings turn out to be correct about 90% of the time. To me, the rule reads as if the designers intended for those with "arrest immunity" to lose that privilege because of the dark powers of Innmouth denizens.