It is my understanding that when you start a new investigator in the middle of a game (beacuse you were devoured/retired) you can start in any locaiton or street (or am I making this up?) If so, can I start on the Kingsport Head? This might actually be relevant as trophies aren't discarded when you lose your investigator.

p.s. didn't think this next rant deserved a thread so I put it here: what's up with that AO that retires in one of his plot cards? I'm sorry but that's retarded and removes all the point of the final battle, even if you are playing for score

Making it up.

"The player then draws a new
investigator at random and sets up the investigator as if
he were starting a new game (as described in “Game
Setup” earlier in these rules)." (p. 17)

On page 5, step 13 states you place the investigator at their "Home" area.

kroen said:

That AO is Bokrug. If you knew Bokrug, you'd realize that that plot card was completely appropriate. Plus, you're never guaranteed to draw it.

Tibs said:

Still though. This is a game, and as such, it's too easy to win the final battle without doing anything. In game terms its unbalanced.

Dam said:

Oh.

What if the location has a gate?

p.s. is it just me or Luke (the dreamer) is highly underrated? he's even better that Akachi or whatever her name is that seals gates with 1 clue less in the sense that luke only needs 3 clues to seal a gate- he will get the other two when he enters the OW.

Well you have Epic Battle. And the Innsmouth investigators are a pretty tall order. Feel free to remove it of course.

Some investigators start in closed locations; they will be booted out into the streets. There shouldn't be a gate on any starting location, but if there is (Ursula or the Naacal Key), then they would be drawn in when they actually have an Arkham Encounters phase, I guess.

Kate starts at science building...

Also my first question again, but the investigator you bring into play is ursula. Can she start at the kingsport head? again, relevant if she has trophies from the previous investigator

The v2 proto-FAQ merely says that Ursula may not begin in "restricted areas." I take that to be Kingsport Head and Y'ha-Nthlei. However, you'll be happy to know that if she starts on an unstable location, she takes the clue token(s)!

good to know. also, these are some questions that were asked in the FAQ thread but for reason it can't be respounded too and no one answered them. I, too, would very much like to know the answer to these:

Do the "counts as a cultist" monsters from Black Goat

- get removed from the cup if Abhoth is the Ancient One?

- get eaten if Rhan-Tegoth is the Ancient One?

- count towards personal stories that require a Cultist trophy?

What happens if Rhan-Tegoth is the Ancient One and you get an encounter that lets you draw a monster trophy, and you draw a Cultist? Do you get to keep it, or does Rhan get it and you get something else?

Children of the Goat and the Dark Druid count as Cultists in all respects. This means (I'm quoting from the proto-FAQ):

• Yes, they get removed with Abhoth.
• When using the Tulzscha herald, the first "Cultist" of the game is selected at random. It could be a regular cultist, a Child of the Goat, etc.
• Count towards Cultist-related personal stories
• Get eaten by Rhan-Tegoth
• When playing against R-T, if you draw a Cultist for any purpose at all, even to take it as a trophy, R-T eats it.
• Their combat and horror stats get replaced with the Worshiper ability (where relevant). This means that against Yig, the Dark Druid's combat modifier will actually get easier. Oh well: killing him still costs you a doom token!

Also, in case you're interested, with regards to the Dark Druid specifically:

• His "move everything" ability activates when a black hexagon movement symbol is drawn, regardless of if he himself moves (he moves as a black-bordered monster by the way)
• The term "all other monsters move on black" means, "all other monsters move as though their symbols were drawn in black," which means that a yellow monster will not move, a green monster does it special ability, etc.

Hope this helped!

Tnx! Rhan-Tegoth sux =[ I wouldn't mind him eating cultists and adding doom tokens IF he had a doom track of 13... but 11? this is madness

edit: already knew all there is to know about dark druid pretty nasy if u ask me

kroen said:

Yeah, well the ruling on DD went back and forth for a while. Hopefully, this current ruling is the one that'll stay (it's the easiest one after all).

I don't like Rhan-Tegoth for that reason. His special ability is a complete crapshoot with no risk element (except maybe for closing gates without sealing so that you have fewer surges, but... really??). His ability is unfair, he's tough to prepare to fight... it's no real wonder that he's had the fewest games on the stats sheet. When R-T was included in an Innsmouth preview I thought "oh God I hope the other seven AOs will be better than this." They were!

That AO you mentioned is Bokrug. Gameplay-wise it is a rather silly mechanic, but story-wise it makes absolute sense. Bokrug is from a story called 'The Doom that Came to Sarnath.' In it, a band of human traders established a city on the edge of a massive lake. On the other side of the lake, they found the village of the beings of Ib, who worshiped Bokrug. Their physical appearance horrified the traders, and finding the beings to be physically frail, they raided the village, killing the beings and dumping their bodies into the lake, along with most of their religious artifacts.

The only thing they kept was the green idol of Bokrug himself, which they took back to their city as a trophy of war, and as a symbol of how they bested the old gods. The following morning, the high priest was found dead and the idol of Bokrug was nowhere to be found. The priests kept the incident under wraps and every year, when the rest of the city celebrated the destruction of Ib, the priests stayed in their tower, performing a ritual to bar Bokrug's wrath.

However, centuries later the descendants of the priests give up on the ritual and join the rest of the city in its merrymaking. That night, Bokrug raises the spirits of the long-dead beings of Ib to attack the city and reduce it to rubble. And once he was satisfied with the level of destruction they inflicted, Bokrug returned the spirits to rest at the bottom of the lake, and his idol once again appeared amongst the ancient ruins of Ib.

Unlike most of the other AOs, he's not an engine of otherworldly evil, just a primitive god whose harmless and helpless worshipers were cut down by a band of ignorant raiders. All he wants is to avenge them. And then once he exacts the punishment he deems necessary, he returns to his slumber. That's what that card is meant to represent.

And whoa, I kinda got carried away there! My apologies. I seem to do that a lot when it comes to Lovecraft trivia...

Again, I am not arguing with the mythos, I'm just arguing with the balance, in which case there is none. Why, you could draw a plot as the first epic battle and that card as the first plot and the final battle ends before it even begun. Kind of an anticlimatic end if you ask me.

It was a good story. Essentially at some point during final combat, Bokrug might figure out that Arkham isn't Sarnath, and take his wrath elsewhere.

Again, it's only one plot card. In the best-case scenario, if all the Beings of Ib are removed from Bokrug by the time he awakens, you will have eight rounds to beat him. There is only one card to draw a Sinister Plot in the first eight cards, and then it's 1 in 3. So really, your best-case scenario has a mere 1 in 3 chance of him walking away. But if he has no Beings on his sheet, he's a complete pushover anyway.

That said, I've had games where he's awoken with NO beings removed (making him essentially the hardest AO to defeat) and have still bothered to go through with final combat in the hopes of that card coming up. Occasionally, it does, and Arkham can breathe a sigh of relief.

kroen said:

Yep, but anyway, you're sucked through a gate only during Phase III, so, even if you start on an unstable location with an open gate, you can leave - if you wish - during your movement (Phase II).

Except when your investigator gets devoured in the movement phase, your new investigator doesn't get another movement phase, so would enter play and get sucked in. Assuming of course the proto-FAQ doesn't touch upon the timing of replacement investigators.

Dam said:

Oh? We must have been playing wrongly then. I've always played it like a retiring investigator, where the new investigator only appears during the Upkeep phase (as the declaration of retirement occurs then). If the devoured investigator is the first player, we would skip any benefit/disadvantages that he would gain/suffer from the mythos card, since he only appears during the next Upkeep phase.

I don't entirely like the idea of being able to voluntarily retire or allow an investigator to be devoured (after passing important items to another investigator), with no obvious punishment (unless playing against Glaaki or Eihort). At least for my play group, I'm thinking of house-ruling to force a necessary one turn delay.

Jumesyn said:

IIRC (still at work, so can't check), on page 17 where the rules discuss devoured investigators, it states something like immediately replaced. Retiring has a more fixed timing as per the DH rules, but devourings haven't been officially clarified as to their timing. Bottom line is that I don't think it makes a huge difference if you just start the new investigator from the following turn, fit him/her into the turn sequence slot at their normal place, allowing the player to use the rest of the turn to setup the new investigator.

Jumesyn said:

Hum... always played like Sora, i.e. a new investigator enters play in the round after the one he was devoured. Nice point, Dam!

Tibs said:

Waaait a minute!

Is this now the final and definite answer? You sure?

Last time I checked there were contradicting answers in the proto-FAQ. Is this issue finally cleared?

I guess I can't say for sure that it's cleared, but proto-FAQ v2 says this:

Q: With the Dark Druid’s movement ability, what does "all other monsters move on black" mean?
A: They move as if their symbol appeared on the black box on a Mythos card.

The other interpretation is not in there anywhere.

Also, forgot to add this:

• If the AO changes the Druid's movement type, his ability still triggers.

Thanks.

Dark Druid was the biggest annoying rule ambiguity for me. I can finally sleep easy!