I'm just curious about how people have been playing the "A Dark Path" mythos card.. The event reads: "Each investigator advances Doom by 1 unless he gains 1 DEAL Condition." In addition to the Dark Pact, Agreement and Debt conditions, Promise of Power and Funding are also "DEAL" conditions. But most certainly the intent of this particular mythos card is NOT to bestow a benefit on the investigators, which is obviously what a Funding or Promise of Power condition would do.

This is the second time now that this card has come up in my games. Previously I house ruled that Funding and Promise of Power were disqualified as options. I'm going to do that again now, but I'm wondering what others do with this and/or if there has been an official ruling on this particular issue. Thanks in advance.

We had the same thing come up tonight as well, and we pretty much ruled it they way you did.

Rules be rules imo. I'd say they're fair game if they are randomly chosen as both are deals. I don't have the flavor text of the Dark Path card, but if God works in mysterious ways, I can only imagine the kind of consequences a dark God would force down the road for permitting you to have funding for an "expedition" or promises you power...

Here is the flavor text: "The old man listens carefully to your story. When you finish, he looks you coldly in the eye. 'What would you give to stem the tide of darkness?' An unearthly chiming comes from the old bottles on the shelves." Clearly, the investigators are expected to give up something to get something, as opposed to getting an additional favor instead.

Ordinarily I would agree with you, Soakman, as yours would be the literal translation. In this case, I feel compelled to look beyond that, personally. I think it's a case where this one slipped through the cracks of game designing detail and it's too much in the category of minutiae for them to errata or faq it. Not that I don't see the value of your interpretation, if you look at it karmically.

But most certainly the intent of this particular mythos card is NOT to bestow a benefit on the investigators

There are several other Mythos cards that can randomly either harm or benefit investigator.

Have in mind that this particular Mythos card appeared in Mountains of Madness where Funding originally appeared. Do you think that that the designers forgot that they're including a positive Deal in the very same expansion?

Although the flavor text isn't a good guide in general, this one seems fitting to me. You may haven't seen that yet, but Deal is never only a benefit in this game. Even Funding and Promise of Power can pull bad stuff to you. Whichever Deal you have, the game implies you're dealing with something dark.

Let's take a look at the numbers - with Signs of Carcosa, we have:

7 Dark Pact

4 Agreement

12 Debt

4 Promise of Power

4 Funding

That's 23 bad deals vs 8 good deals (in theory).

Still sounds like Eldritch Horror odds to me.

Of course, someone will tell us that Debts are not that bad now, but you know what?

I already got killed by 2 so far, go figure.

Debt is the silent killer (the realism! ). Honestly, creeping debts have probably ended me many more times than Dark Pacts. Sure, they're more common, but in the end they are probably MORE of a risk (although usually there is a gain as well).

Either way, yeah, I tend to look at things karmically. The flavor text does seem to imply a more immediate peril though.

I have yet to encounter a Funding or Promise of Power card that has had a negative effect, but I may not have seen all of them yet. (I don't want to read all the card backs now, for purposes of this discussion, as I'd prefer to retain the element of surprise if there are any I haven't seen..) And maybe future expansions will include some that have a negative aspect, and then a Dark Path will make more sense relative to the flavor text.

As for whether the designers could have forgotten something pertaining to card synergies within the same expansion, I'd hope they wouldn't. But it does seem possible, given the variety of detail involved in the process and the likelihood that they're working under pressure of deadlines.

Mostly I was just curious about how others had been playing it, and why.. Thanks!