Mike and the damnable Watch.

By ShivaX, in General Discussion

Posted at

I think, I get how these work, but the FAQ does an amazing job of wording everything so ambiguously, that I figured I'd just ask how they work in various scenarios.

Obviously situations of the ilk: "if you fail... you become Delayed."

- They work, obviously. You aren't choosing anything.

Lost Carcossa card: "Lose 2 Sanity unless you become Delayed."

- here they don't because it's a choice? Delayed is "paying" for the Sanity?

Sea Encounter : "You may become Delayed to gain 1 Artifact."

- again assuming no because it's a payment and you can choose not to?

Wilderness Encounter: "You may become Delayed to recover 3 Sanity or discard one Madness Condition."

-no because it's a payment for the 2nd part?

I guess what I'm looking for is a simply stated rule for how these things work. It seemed to explain itself until later on where it tells you: "QQ. If an investigator chooses an effect, can that effect be prevented?" and "QQ. If the Lead Investigator or investigators as a group choose an

investigator to become Delayed, can that investigator negate that
effect with the Pocket Watch Asset?"
I assume the first case refers to Other Stuff (as in mostly Health and Sanity losses/payments), though it could easily be seen as referring to the Watch/Mike. The second one... I think it's because the player was getting Delayed placed on him by the group? Basically it wasn't a payment, so therefore the ability doesn't work.
Am I understanding this correctly if I think of it along the lines of:
"If it is a payment, the ability doesn't work. That 'payment' could be not taking Sanity/Health damage or gaining something (Clue, Artifact, Asset, whatever), but as long as it is 'paying' for something in some way, you can't use this ability."
I know the ability says "choose" but the FAQ comes out and says basically "well yeah, you can choose and then ignore it," which makes the whole thing go from simple to more complex.
Or maybe I'm just over-thinking the whole thing. :)
Edit: Or should I approach it along the lines of "can I avoid this another way with what is on the card/effect" and if that answer is "yes" then they wont work?
Edited by ShivaX
Posted at

I'd say you've got the gist of it: when it's a penalty the watch prevents it from happening, if it's a payment (e.g. used to get something) then the watch cannot be used to avoid (no such thing as a free lunch).