To pass Trish's personal story she needs to gain 2 Clue Tokens during an encounter. If she has the Press Pass and gains 1 Clue Token during an encounter then exhausts the Press Pass to gain another Clue Token ... does this count as gaining two Clue Tokens during an enounter or is it one Clue Token from the encounter and one Clue Token from the Press Pass?

Clarification on the whole Minh Thi Phan + "reading a tome" would be nice as I'm still not convinced I'm wrong.

And clarification on the whole "stirring in their slumber" text during Final Fights, as well as Heralds during a Final Fight, would be nice.

And clarification on what is and isn't considered legal movement to and from Devil Reef would also be nice.

And finally, how does Darrel Simmons's text work with the Innsmouth Jail? If he rolls and has enough people in Sawbone Alley to normally draw 4 enocunter cards, what does his text do to this? As far as I can see, it either lets him now draw 5 OR lets him draw 4, pick one, draw another 4, pick one, then choose one out of the two that have been picked.

Is Voice of Ra negated by magical immunity?

Stenun said:

re: Trish, I don't think so, but I'll ask. re: Darrell I'm 95% sure he'd draw a 5th based on previous rulings, but I'll ask

re: Monsters stirring (it's officially ruled as taking place during Final Battle). Heralds seem obvious since they have effects that explicitly take place during final battle and there's no part anywhere where it says ignore herald abilities that do not specifically take place during the final battle. If you reeeeally want, I'll ask this, but I think it's an unnecessary question.

re: the other two questions, I was already going to ask about "reading" and I haven't seen if the Devil Reef question has been resolved. I don't think it has. I haven't gotten to the Innsmouth section of the FAQ yet, but I did search it for all references of Silas and I wasn't happy with the results.

Avi_dreader said:

The rules for the King In Yellow expansion say that when the Ancient One wakes up, you return the Herald to the box. However no other rule sheet since then has mentioned this in regards to Heralds.

The reason it's important is because if the King In Yellow Herald itself still applies during the Final Fight then he combos exceedingly nastily with Glaaki - whose attack is to raise the Terror Level by one.

Stenun said:

Yeah, you're right, I'll complain about this :')

Interesting sidenote: FFG gave an official ruling that Tulzscha removes Abhoth's cultists ;') yeaaaah, I'll be houseruling that. The answer recommends drawing a different herald.

Avi_dreader said:

Avi_dreader said:

Definitely house-ruling that: the cultists stay in! Hey, they're not Abhoth's cultists; they're Tulzscha's!

So... We also have to deal with whether magical immunity effects cards like Voice of Ra (and Call the Beast?)

Also, another question: What happens if all investigators have cult memberships?

http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Speak_to_Your_Friend

Does the new FAQ answers when the new investigators enter play after being devoured? Next phase? Upkeep? If upkeep, if the investigator gets devoured in upkeep, does the new one come into play immediately or in the NEXT upkeep?

Hipsu said:

There's currently no reason to think that new investigators don't enter play immediately, although it would be interesting to find out if they become active the same phase, or the next phase. So, the answer is no, and I'll try to remember to add this in... The FAQ has been... ::Cough cough:: bogged down... I'll try to find out what's going on...

Does anyone know if Mania was intended to only affect skill checks, or also sealing gates (because if it's the later, it's much worse than I always thought it was)?

Avi_dreader said:

I've always played you pay 6 clues for sealing a gate, since there is no evidence on the card the penalty is specific for adding bonus dice to skill checks

yop same for me (same as Julia). It is pretty bad (though some even worst :-).

I'm playing that way too :'/ (amnesia's bad enough— and if it weren't doable it would be like a worse version of amnesia, which would be redundant, and unlikely) but I'd like a definite ruling just as clarification.

A few from recent games.

If George Barnaby comes in as a replacement for a devoured Investigator, and so starts with a Cultist trophy (since trophies are preserved), do they need to get another one to pass their story? The wording on the PS is slightly non-standard.

If Tommy Muldoon is devoured by an event that causes the AO to awaken, and the terror level is low, exactly when is the doom token for passing his personal story removed - before or after the AO awakens? (The case that we almost had was "Endlessly Breeding" rumour from BGOTW in play, a Lloigor reduces Tommy to 0:0, the monster surge potentially puts enough hexes into play to fill the doom track, but there are other situations - Wizard's Hill Bargain, for instance - that might have different timing answers) If it is before the AO awakens, is there time for a replacement to enter play?

Related, if Tommy Muldoon is lost in time and space when Tsathoggua awakens, and the terror level is low, then does the personal story pass take place before or after start of battle effects (in this case: lose all clues)? Page 19 of the AH rules implies that part of the "Start of Battle" effects is "fill the doom track", so if the personal story pass takes place before this, does the part of the personal story that removes a doom token also not occur? (Similar issues for any AO that can devour investigators as part of start-of-battle, of course.)

In Joe Diamond's personal story, does giving a Unique Item to someone else trigger the failure condition? If not, what about using an Elder Sign (which is "return to box" rather than the "discard" wording of his personal story)?

If the Endlessly Breeding rumour is in play, if someone is devoured by being reduced to 0:0, how many clues does this place on the rumour - none, one or two?

cim said:

Joe, no, giving is not discarding. Elder Sign, no. Return to the box isn't discarding. (Unless FFG made a specific errata, which is unlikely).

I would think Endlessly Breeding would get 2 clues in that case, based on the text.

[i'll see if we can get a definite ruling on order of LitAS devouring— even though it's really only significant for Tommy, as far as I can tell— and I'd guess the answer would be player's choice, it seems like these timing conflict questions often are]

I would think Barnaby autopasses, since he starts with it. Not 100% sure though.

Avi_dreader said:

I don't know. I'd say "leaves his possession" would be more appropriate.

What does "discard" even mean? To use? But Elder Signs get used.

Does it mean "to throw away"? Giving away is really not any different than throwing away.

Does it mean "to lose"? That would be the same as "to throw away," particularly since you can never just voluntarily throw something away just for the sake of it. You need some abnormal effect in place to facilitate that.

Tibs said:

Discard means return to the bottom of the appropriate deck. I think it's actually defined in the original manual, somewhere (I'm too busy to look for it right now). Someone else want to give it a shot?

Nmind... Got a manual pdf. It's on page 22 in Miscellany under "Discarding Cards." So, um, by the manual definition, Elder Signs aren't discarded when used, they're returned to the box.

But is that good enough for Joe's personal story? The Lodge will not be happy if he misplaces, loses, or breaks the item they're after. What's the difference between "discarding" Ibn Ghazi Powder and "removing from game" an Elder Sign? Technically, Ashcan Pete can recover one of them but not the other. I don't think the Lodge will bother to make this distinction.

How hopeless is it when the only two guys with access to the new Ghost FAQ can't find an answer???

“Are we gonna die???”
“Uh…we don’t really know.”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

It would be nice if Joe could designate exactly which Unique Item the Lodge hired him to find, because with the broad strokes his story paints with the word "discard", Joe could have the entire Unique Item deck in his possession, and apparently have NO IDEA which one of them the Lodge is looking for.

“Out of all of this, I only used the Powder!”
“We were looking for the Powder.”
“………Nuts.”

I once passed Joe's story by spending a Mission. If Joe had completed that Mission, would that count as a discard? See, NOW it's a FAQ question.

jgt7771 said:

If the "discard" does mean "discard and no other item-losing effects", then no. Completed missions and tasks are returned to the box rather than discarded.

Tibs said:

::Shrug:: if you want, you can specifically ask about this in the FAQ (it would be nice if a line was added in the clarification section that "'Return to the box' is not considered a 'discard'"— presuming the term was understood as such by the game designers). I understand your point thematically, but I don't think it works mechanically (and let's face it, some of the game mechanisms are bizarre thematically, like being able to move away from Devil's Reef with a patrol wagon, but not *to* it).

Here's another one: The Funnel Clouds environment from BGotW is in play, so anyone ending their movement in the streets must make a Luck +1 check or be devoured.

An Investigator moves to a street location with two or more monsters. When do they make the Luck check?

- immediately on failing an Evade check (is there an exception if it was a Nightgaunt?) or declaring an intent to attack one of the monsters?
- after defeating the first monster?
- after defeating or successfully evading every monster? (assuming they defeated at least one or have no movement points left anyway)

Does it make any difference if they move (or are moved) to the street location by some "instead of movement" effect such as Checkered Cab Trials, the Patrol Wagon, the Mi-go Brain Case, or the Call Friend spell?

There are other "end their movement" environments with less dangerous effects where the order could also make a difference.

And some more obscure ones which have nevertheless come close to happening for us recently:

An Investigator is in Uptown streets, Arkham is at the monster limit, and the One Thousand Young rumour is in play. They use the Mi-go Brain Case to swap places with a non-spawn Dunwich monster (or cast Lure Monster). Does it go straight into the Outskirts or does it briefly flicker into existence in Uptown long enough to be caught by the rumour?

Related to that: Can "One Thousand Young" eat Spawn monsters? If so, I assume the "return all monsters on it to the cup" instruction in Pass/Fail is not to be taken entirely literally.

An Investigator is in the Woods, and the environment "Fires in the Night" from BGotW that says "monsters in the Woods do not move" is in play. They use Mi-go Brain Case or Lure Monster to bring a Cthonian, Colour out of Space, Dunwich Horror, or Lloigor to the Woods. The monster's movement symbol comes up in the Mythos phase before the environment changes. Does the monster's special movement effect apply, even though it wouldn't ordinarily be able to move? (Do Yellow, Blue or Green monsters in the Uptown streets move to the Woods anyway?)

Related to that: "Fires in the Night" is in play, and a monster (black-bordered) is in the Woods. The Dunwich science building encounter with the white and black levers comes up. If you pull either lever, does it drag the monster out of the Woods?

cim said:

re: funnel clouds — what we probably just need is a general ruling stating that "End of movement effects (i.e. martial law evade check, environment effects) take place prior to combat in the order of the player's choosing." [see how nice and short that was Tibs? ;') you wish. We could also suggest that clues can be picked up prior to fighting monsters since A) how often is a monster on a clue anyways? Almost never. And B)it would be consistent with the rest of this end of movement effects ruling if they accepted it. It wouldn't require an pre-end of movement end of movement, an end of movement, and an post-end of movement end of movement. This terminology is becoming even more absurd and convoluted— and since it will only come up once in a blue moon, it will be difficult to remember— it'd be nice if we could persuade them to simplify it a bit.]

I'm pretty sure they would go directly to the outskirts (like 95% sure, it would be a bizarre rules exception made just to deal with one card otherwise).

Why not? re: eating Spawn monsters (vortexes can), and yes, obviously if that were the case you'd not take it literally (since Spawn monsters by definition don't go to the cup— and I'm 99.99999% sure that FFG had no intention of making an exception of this rule for that card). Unless FFG wanted to make an errata ::shrug:: we could ask. [Tibs, the question could be rephrased as "Can a spawn monster be placed on One Thousand Young, and if the rumor is failed, does it return to Uptown Streets or is it removed from the board?"]

Tibs!

re: Fires in the Night, what we should probably get is a ruling that combines this card with how Dark Druid works, and the Science Building encounter (that'd deal with three questions in one).

Hoo... Okay. I have to go do my portfolio now. Bye :')

Avi_dreader said:

I thought there was already a ruling that clues was definitely after dealing with monsters?

Prior to combat is an unclear point, too, since failing an Evade check enters combat involuntarily.

"This huge monster spotted me, but before it could hit me, the cops drove up and threw me in this cell." (The Innsmouth cops, of course, would let the combat damage for failing the check be taken, and then arrest the Investigator)

If it should be read "End their movement +phase+" when it says "End their movement" that seems a reasonably simple general clarification, and I can't immediately think of anything that interpretation breaks.