In a solo game last night I had 2 Mythos cards that seemed to be in perfect conflict with each other, so I'm not quite sure I played it correctly.

First I drew Happy Days are Here Again, an Environment (Urban) card that prevents the terror level from increasing as long as it's out.

Later on I drew Disturbing the Dead, a Rumor card that causes the terror level to increase at the end of every Mythos Phase on a die roll of 1 or 2, with a few ways to get rid of it.

I played it so that Happy Days are Here Again took precedence over Disturbing the Dead because that seemed to be the intent of the card, but I can't really recall any rule that exactly specifies which should override the other. In other words, do cards that state a "cannot" have more priority than cards that don't?

I personally would think that the card that is the most current would take precedence, but this is only my opinion.

adeangel said:

It would have to be that the Happy Days environment takes precedence, otherwise it wouldn't ever work. The more recent card (or event) would be that the terror level rises.

If I encountered that in the game, I'd say that they would both be in effect, it just has a little tweaking.

Environment cards change the board. The Terror track can go up from various other ways, like Monsters in the outskirts, or maybe event cards? Happy Days would prevent those from happening.

The rumour came second, and Rumours are special cases. The Disturbing the Dead would be the only way to increase the terror level.

It...makes more sense in my head. Rumours are a level above Environments in my stack, since they are supposed to be immediate threats.

As long as 'Happy Days' is in the game, the rumor is on hold. 'Cannot' always beats 'can' in situations where there is a conflict in rules.

jhaelen said:

Agreed. The terror level can not rise. Period.

From the Rule Book:

"If there is already a Rumor mythos card in play, ignore the special text of the newly drawn Rumor and discard it face down to the bottom of the mythos deck after resolving its other effects for the turn (such as gate opening and monster movement)."

Snak said:

Of course, we're not really talking about 2 Rumors, "Happy Days" is an Environment, "Disturbing the Dead" a Rumor, they can co-exist.

Since the environment could change on any turn, I would say that as long as it is in play, it stops the rumor from taking effect. Eventually the environment will go away, but the rumor never will unless it is passed (or failed, though that won't happen while "Happy Days" is on the board.)

Every now and then the mythos gives you a break. Usually just to slap you down harder just when you think things are going your way!

Dam said:

Thanks for the input everyone.

I've found that in other games "cannot" seems to trump "can", so that's how I applied it in this case, but I still haven't read any rule on this specific to Arkham Horror. If there is something specific regarding this that I've missed, in the rules or maybe a FAQ, can someone point me to it?

Environment effects change much more easily than Rumors, so the way I played it Happy Days only gave me a brief respite from the brutality that is Disturbing the Dead. Seems like I played it right...

Svartnatt said:

I don't think such a rule is ever spelled out anywhere, except for the clause that "timing conflicts are resolved by the players in the order they choose." (AH Manual, pg. 23) It's better to give every card in play "equal importance"; this will generally work itself out. Happy Days says the Terror Track CANNOT rise, so if any other card says, "Raise the Terror Track please," you have an equally powerful card in play saying, "I said NO."

It's even better when you get examples like Investigator Akachi, which has an "ignore this particular 'cannot', but only for her" clause.

In short, you played it right. Congratulations on getting good use of your Happy Days.

The way my group sees it:

The rumor USES a game mechanic (raise terror track)

The environment CHANGES it.

I play that environments trump all other effects. It keeps things simple.