Played game #9 last night, with just the base game and no expansions. I was Dexter Drake and started with a seal and a Tommy Gun, my wife was Bob Jenkins, and she started with a rifle. Pretty good start. I immediately went into the first gate to close and seal while my wife went to the Curiositie Shoppe (bought that +5 magic lamp) and started to gather clues. On turn 2 a second gate opened. On turn 3, I closed and sealed my gate, and we had a monster surge. By now my wife has 6 clue tokens, and will jump in to seal the next gate. Well, turn 4 opens a second gate on the board and happens to be the rumor, Good Work Undone. So my wife spends all her clues to pass the rumor. We both spend the next 6 turns gathering 5 clues each and both jump in to a gate to close and seal. However those 6 turns each spawn a new gate and before we can both leave the other worlds we are in, Nyarlathotep wakes up and puts us in final battle. We luckily had our 5 clues each, and with the tommy gun and rifle, made short work of him without any danger. The game lasted only an hour, and was the shortest and weirdest game we have experienced. Although, we have plenty of expansions we need to get, and with the stories I've read on here, there is plenty more weirdness to deal with.

But anyway, back to the topic at hand, I have a question about Nyarlathotep's attack (as well as others that make you give up items or trophies). His attack says "Each investigator must pass a Lore (+1) check or lose 1 Clue token. Any investigator with no Clue tokens left is devoured. This check's modifier decreases by 1 each turn (+0 the 2nd turn, -1 the 3rd turn, etc.)". That's all fine and good, we never got to below 2 clue tokens that battle. My question is if you have 1 clue token left and fail the check. Do you lose that clue token and get immediately devoured because you now fit the condition that you have no clue tokens left? Or do you lose that clue token, and the NEXT time you fail a check, you are devoured because you have no clue tokens left to lose? The way it's worded I can see it go either way, although with being an easier base game AO, most would vote to be devoured immediately to prevent extra attacks (which is how I would play it if there was no official rule). But has there been a ruling on what was intended?

DoomTurtle said:

His attack is a two-parter. First is the Lore check. Then you check to see if you have Clues left. If not, you're devoured, even if you passed the Lore check. Lore check just enables you to keep hold of your Clues instead of giving them up for Nyarly's attack.

DoomTurtle said:

My wife and I just finished an 8 hour game recently. Your game seems like a breath of fresh air compared to our problematic game.

Dam hit it on the head. You can spend your last clue token against Nyarlathotep to attack him and not be devoured, but you'd better be sure that that attack counts, because he will devour you on his next attack regardless of if you pass the Lore check.

I figured that's how it went, I just had to be sure for times when it's more important to last as long as possible, like when you have to give up gate trophies instead of clues, and may only have one or two.

And an 8 hour game is nuts! I had a 4-player game last just over 5 hours, but that's mostly because my brother was playing for the first time, and has to question EVERYTHING. Because of it's length and amount of rules, he will never be playing this game again, but then I knew that from the beginning. Having him play in the first place was a form of torture that I knew he wouldn't be able to put up with. But that's what big brothers are for!