Any rule on whether discard piles have to be kept face up or down? I figure down because of the several actions and effects that cause the player to draw from or exchange from the discard. I wouldn't think it is fair to have face up cards to see when deciding whether or not to trigger these effects.

One of the players at our club mentioned that discard piles are open to inspection by either player ... is this true? If so, then it seems face up or down would just be a matter of personal preference.

I cannot find a sepcific rule regarding the state of the discard pile. However, on page 7 of the Core set rule book you'll see in the GAME SET UP AND SUGGESTED PLAY AREA DIAGRAM that the discard pile is indeed face up.

I'm sure players must be allowed to view your discard pile due to one of the Yog-Sothoths character cards that lowers his cost based on the number of Spells in the players discard pile. If players couldn't review the discard pile it could result in cheating.

I know in other games it is also often important that the discard pile remain "in order" even though all players are generally allowed to view them. But again, I cannot say for certain if thats the way with CoC unless a card comes down the line that says something like "Action: if the top card of your discard pile is a Spell...." , etc. I can't think of a card off the top of my head that does that at this time though.

Pretty much every CCG ever has face up discard piles that are public knowledge. A few will forbid you from rifling through them or counting the cards in them unless you have a good reason to (like a card effect that relates to the cards in discard pile), but otherwise, discards are more or less universally face up and public.

You also should keep them in order and not mix them around if you do look at them as there are things in CoC that require this (such as the story that lets you switch cards between hand and "the top of the discard pile".

I can't find a place where someone wrote anything about the discard pile.

But, in any CCG I used to play, the discard was always open, in a way the opponent should see what you've got on the yard.

I had to rule once on such a question during a tournament and ruled that every players had to be given the possibility to know what every discard owns.

PRODIGEE said:

I know Middle-Earth ccg is face down. You never know what your opponent just recycled from there (though fairly accurate guesses come with experience, and legality can be verified, but showing card border/edge is enough, since cards are color-coded for each of the types). One of the base set Wizard has an ability that your opponent must discard face up to his discard. Otherwise, no peeking in there.

But even in my ccg gaming, Meccg might be the exception to the rule.

I'm sure I remember this being clarified years ago - all discard piles were face up and public, since several stories and cards affected both players' discard piles and certain cards could not legally be played without verifying the contents of each players' discard piles (e.g. Opening the Limbo Gate cannot be played unless each player has at least one discarded character).

The discard piles definitely have to be kept in order as plenty of cards such as Signing the Book refer to the top card of the discard pile (or first event, etc).