I was wondering... are personal plot cards only ment to be dealt out during game setup?

What if the investigator changes during play because of retirement, devouration etc? Does he gain his story cards anyway, and if so, what happens if they would be passed/failed the moment he gets them?

I don't own IH yet, so I don't know what's making you think otherwise, but I see no reason they wouldn't get dealt them anway, as part of their starting package. It's part of who they are and what they are here to do.

If they pass/fail them immediately, then I suppose they pass/fail them immediately. It can be kind of fun (and very setting appropriate) to restart as a character who has nothing else to live for.

An example:

Since you keep your trophies even after being devoured, it could occur that you draw a new investigator who'd pass his plot by gaining 3 monster trophies.

Finn Edwards story seems pretty weird in that case...

"I'm going to take out those darn things... hey, wait a sec, I already did. Go me!"

On the other hand, beginning in a game with terror level 3 or higher, Jenny would come to town just to find a box in front of her newly rented apartment. (well, that still makes more sense, i think)

In case of Finn Edwards, I'm thinking about if the conditions given to fullfill a story must be achieved by the investigator himself. So Edward would still have to kill his foes, even though he already starts with trophies.

If an investigator is devoured, a new one is drawn and set up "as if he were starting a new game (as described in “Game Setup” earlier in these rules)" - so it seems you draw the personal story cards.

I don't see why trophies wouldn't count - the investigator who replaces the previous one keeps the trophies, so why should'nt they count for that purpose?

The only problem that I see here is that you could pass and fail the personal story at the same time. There's that golden rule that the players decide which effect happens first, but I would just discard all personal story cards in that case, since IMO it feels a little cheap to automatically pass a personal story if you failed it as well.

Using the personal stories are a variant, so you can play them like you want. So however your group determines whether or how a varaint is played is probably OK.

After I've played them all, I plan to give each player his choice to use them or not. Right now a replacement investigator takes his personal story, like it or not. Sometimes it may be already passed or already failed. I suppose one could say, the three doom token fail condition takes effect when three MORE doom tokens are placed, or whatever.

mageith said:

Sounds like an interesting variant. It works with trophies, the doom track and the terror track, and everything which you discard when replacing a devoured investigator. Does it work with all personal story cards?

HëllRÆZØR said:

So far, but I haven't used most of the non IH personal story cards yet. I don't even give the invesigators the results of pass or fail until they've done it--just to to keep the mystery going a bit longer.

Vitus_Prem said:

I see what you're saying, but that sounds like a pain to keep track of.

mageith said:

Same here. It feels more authentic if none knows the results, and these cards make the game a little easier anyway. ^^

I've been playing that when an investigator leaves the game for whatever reason (i.e. retires or devoured), the replacement investigator does NOT get any of the gate or monster trophies. I still count them for the score, but otherwise I don't want a new investigator immediately running off and getting themselves blessed or made deputy just because they're replacing someone who had been a lean mean monster killing machine.

ricedwlit said:

That's one of the things I didn't even look up when I first got the game and when it was pointed out to me, I had to check it out. I couldn't believe it. So, I agree, I've never given the new investigator access to the old investigator's trophies. We do keep them segregated for scoring but scoring has become less important for me too. Scoring just doesn't reflect what's going on.

For example if one investigator draws an elder sign and passes it off to another, the first investigator should get some sort of assist award. Or if one novice investigator closes a gate he should have walked away from because its just going to open up again, why should he get credit for it? Or if an investigator turns in his trophies for money, buys a weapon with it and passes it off to another player who eventually gets the first citizen award. Or why should the team's score suffer for efficient use of resources? Or an investigator defeats 10 monsters so another character can slip by and close/seal gates, who is really worthy of the points?

I'm with Mageith and Ricedwlit on trophies.

The rule as written is one of those boardgamey intrusions into the world of the game that ring remarkably false. Particualrly if one allows "retirals", another rule I avoid. I really dislike the idea of playing for deliberate retirals, combined with passing on trophys. It is so at odds with the spirit of the game, or at least how I percieve the spirit of the game. Your spirit may vary :-)

- Mariana the ex-nun cultist

*edited* to make it clerar I was talking about the trophy inheritance rules

Even stranger, the "investigator swap" encounter in the Science Building doesn't let you keep trophies.

avec said:

Nah, it's not. When dealing with trophies, just start a new pile until the story is passed or failed.

When it comes to terror level or doom track, just do it like instructed on most of the other story cards:

Place a counter (a clue token for instance) on your plot card whenever the terror level raises / a doom token is added etc.

cim said:

That's one of the things that's still a mystery to me.

I think I'd start a new pile of trophies for the investigator etc if that as required, but anything that failed due to an exteral trigger e.g. terror at 3 could already be failed. In this example it isn't terror rises by 3, but terror at 3, which I'd read as 3 or greater. That to me makes thematic sense, the story fails when the town reaches a certain pitch of panic.

- Mariana the ex-nun cultist

Hmn, I wonder how this was intended to be in the first place...

Mariana the Ex-Nun Cultist said:

Hmn, thinking about that, it would give you some kind of extra penelety for getting devoured... I like it. I guess I'll rule it just the same way.