In the Official Answers from Kevin Wilson thread, there is an answer from Kevin on the "draw" issue of the Personal Stories

Q Regarding "draw" on Personal Stories. (IH)
A Starting items never count towards personal stories unless they are of the type "have X items of a certain kind at once". And items must be drawn and kept before they count.

Do you guys have an example of "have X items of a certain kind at once"?

hmmm...there arent any with that wording as i recall...the closest is Harveys but it doesnt say "have X type at once"...the only ones that do say something like that are calling for trophies...i think hes referring to the stories that put clue tokens on them, for example Amandas where she puts 1 clue on the card for each UI she draws. I think its about those and is saying you have to keep the card, the ones just drawn dont count.

If Akachi has 3 gate trophies, she passes her story. The gate trophy she starts with counts towards passing.

Amanda Sharpe puts a token on her story card each time she draws a unique item. Her starting items do not add tokens, however.

Not items as such, but several investigators start with Clues and need to "have X Clues" to pass their PS (Daisy, Roland).

This sounds cool. Is it associated with a certain expansion to be able to pass a story?

n00b question I know...

The personal stories are in Innsmouth Horror. There is one (made up of two cards) for each investigator that has been printed throughout all expansions (48). None of these stories actually require any of the previous expansions to pass or fail, apart from the use of the investigator itself.

dj2.0 said:

Thanks. It'll be a while before we start getting the expansions, but I will put that as a plus for Innsmouth.

I think its my favourite add of any expansion, but best left til last!

And how about William?

Can he use his starting monster trophies to get blessing and pass his PS in the first turn?

I think that yes, he can do that, but my friend (who played William btw) said that is wrong and didn't spend his MT this way.

Assuming he has 5 Toughness worth, I can't see anything against it (well, apart from Tsathoggua ). They are no different from MTs you gain during the game, why would they be? Is your friend also separating Clues from setup and Clues you gain during the game ? Of course, you're never forced to spend them if you don't like it, but William even Blessed is kinda sucky, at least has been for me most games.

Anvilek said:

sure, I see no reason why not.

Dam said:

6 will, 4 fight? Give him a decent weapon and he can be collecting clues and keeping the streets clear at once, at relatively little personal risk. Pick the fights carefully and he gets a better exchange rate than the Science Building, and leaves the 'real' clues on the board for other people to collect.

Of course, if you never get monster surges, then there probably won't be enough monsters around for this to work, and he will seem a little less useful (but even then, someone who can often enjoy "Other: a monster appears" is handy)

cim said:

I don't really care about street-sweeping, it's a side show. Most of the time I expect each investigator to make their own way to the gate. And I certainly expect, no, require each investigator to seal at least 1 gate. William is slow, but this is made worse by him starting in the "wrong end" of the board. On a side note, another 3 Speeder I hate, Vincent also starts from there. His PS doesn't really boost him that much, Focus 2 vs Focus 1 looks good, but only slider that sees any real movement is Fight/Will (if he gets combat spells, then I might need to move that Lore/Luck, which is otherwise Luck maxed). Blessing is nice though.

Speaking of the Fight/Will slider. Sanity 4 forces him to keep his Will at a higher level than I would like when taking on monsters (especially those Hounds of Tindalos who seem too bloody popular in my games), meaning lower Fight. In fact, William is almost like a slower Bob Jenkins, though if you look at their starting equipment, William gets $5 less, meaning that's the going rate for his 3 monster trophies (they have same amount of every other possession).

dj2.0 said:

I'd like to know your explanations about that opinion, DJ, so I could see more than I barely see right now. Because I'd definitely put the Personal Stories near the end of the TOP list of added stuff brought by expansions... most of them bore me, every player to whom I showed these cards was like "er... I'll play without, doesn't seem entertaining at all".

When I see the Inj/Mad cards, the Rifts, the Exhibit Items, the Flare cards... there are so much more entertaining stuff in my opinion.

Tell me why ? maybe I could enjoy them more if you tell me the good points of them. Cheers !

its a very personal thing, it scratches my roleplaying itch I used to play Call of Cthulhu in its heyday. After my gang split up and went their ways in life, I missed it badly. AH was the perfect solution to that, so I bought the original AH and went about reliving those fun times. The original game was nowhere near like actually playing rpgs, but it scatched my itch on rainy days. Then, some 20 years later, FFG bring out their AH. And suddenly the game is more rpg than ever, with near endless replayability, but missing something. Personal stories is what it was missing, a personal role to play in the game, and something that turned the story so far into gameplay. So when IH arrived I had this "oh my Elder God!" feeling, as I had been waiting something like 20 years to find this game.

When I sit and play solo with 4 investigators, I assign three to the other people in my old rpg group, and I figure out what to do with that investigator based on what I remember of those games we played. It adds a whole new dimension of entertainment to things like getting devoured if you imagine its someone you actually know

Ill definately agree that other adds were more significant adds to the base, just not as fun for me personally. And since I NEVER read cards until they actually enter play, there are some big very fun twists and surprises along the way. Akachi almost doomed the entire investigation the 1st time she passed her story, against Yibb, 2 doom from the end...luckily she was deputised and scooped up massive quantities of clues otherwise Yibb would have come at us with a -17 modifier...

So sadly, I cant sell you on the personal stories, as I am woefully biased having waited 20+ years Maybe someone else would be more objective. I think they add a new level of consideration to the game, a new thread to follow or ignore, possibly at your peril, and thats welcome because a lot of AH is about prioritising which threat to deal with. Adding more to that, and more that is different, enhances the overall game. Thats my best shot, lol

dj2.0 said:

My "best" is still 29 Clues on the boards . It was either late-game Prof. Rice or Akachi passing her PS (both?).

Dam said:

Sure, for most Investigators, it's something that you do if you have to (and since I play mostly 2 Investigator games, having to do so comes up rather a lot) and leave otherwise. William can do it and be accumulating "clues" for the next gate probably no slower than anyone else. Gate sweeping's also a possibility - grab 4 clues/trophies from the board, and then go for a gate with a monster on it a turn sooner than anyone else.

Dam said:

Sure, but how many Fight+Will = 7 Investigators have more than 4 sanity? Ashcan Pete - while he has Duke - has 5. Bob Jenkins also has 4. Luke Robinson from Kingsport has 7 sanity. Michael McGlen only has 3. Silas Marsh also has 4. Trish Scarborough could have Fight+Will=7 if Speed 1 was acceptable that turn, and has 6 sanity, but Trish breaks the Will/Fight balancing act anyway, and generally has enough Sneak to go around the monsters rather than through them.

At least once William's killed the Hound he can bury it deep and not have to face it again later...

cim said:

Does the total for the combo matter? If I can take the Sanity hit, Fight 6 is preferrable (few can take the San hit from Hound though). If not, use Clues/Whiskey, etc. If William's the right-most Fight/Will was 5/2, I'd probably like him more.

Dam said:

Unbeatable! hmm, how many clues are in the box?

Game comes with 48. Yeah, I SO ran out in that game. Come to think of it, that was Patrice + Prof. Rice game, with Roland getting his each turn as well.

Dam said:

I completely agree with you and I really haven't expected any other answer. That was my friend's first game with Innsmouth, he heard many positive opinions about personal stories, and when suddenly he was able to pass his PS in the very first turn of the game, he just felt disappointed and assumed that we play something wrong.

yeah some are too easy. But I wonder what the odds of drawing 5 tpughness with 3 monsters is?

dj2.0 said:

I've never yet started William with less than 5. Best so far is 8 Toughness I think.

I played with him twice so far, the first was 3 toughness, the second was 6 or 7.