Greetings everyone,

Having just purchased the Core Set of Call of Cthulhu: LCG, I have some doubts which I'm hoping someone in this community can answer. I apologize in advance if any are far too obvious, or have been asked previously till kingdom come. As someone famous once said... maybe a president: Here we go!

1 - Can you drain more than one domain to play a single card? My guess is no, only because I feel it's a bit more strategic to ponder whether you'd put all your resources in one domain to play that ONE big powerful card, or spread it, in order to play 2 or 3 smaller cards.

2 - When resolving a story, in the Terror struggle, if you lose it and possess 2 characters, one with willpower and one without it, can you choose the Willpower character to become insane, thus nullifying the effect? Or do you have to choose the one that can actually go insane?

3 - If you are defending and win an investigation struggle, you get to put a success marker in a story, right? The defender just can't win the story card.

3b - Now, assuming what I wrote is correct, doesn't that make investigator cards a bit overpowered? You can actively win success tokens every turn (especially if you're playing against a deck of Elder ones - I decided to put Cthulhu and Hastur together and then I realized that it wouldn't work, because I'd be playing against the clock).

I guess this were the things that were itching in my mind, and I'd be truly grateful for the help. Ohh!, I still have another question, which I am uncertain if anyone can answer. I'm acquiring Call of Cthulhu simply for casual play, but I do dream of collecting the cards. Seeing as how the new asylum packs are, owing 3 of each kind truly sounds like a feasible dream (eventually other Core Sets will be purchased). Unfortunately for my wallet, the older asylum packs contained some card with only 1 copy, which would mean buying triplicates.

Now, I tried to explain how awesome that would be to my wife, but she doesn't believe that Cthulhu cards can sustain us. *whispers* I think she's one of them

Since some of the earlier Asylum packs are out of print, what I meant to ask is if someone believes they shall be re-printed in the new 3x all, or 2x all format. I find it hard to believe it myself, but one can dream, right? And get forever trapped in that dream... forever and ever and ever.

Chakan said:

#1: No, you can only drain one domain.

#2: You have to pick the non-WP character in this case.

#3: Not only do you get a success token if you win the I struggle as defender, you can also win the story that way.

#3b: Well, yes and no. Yes, if you defend and manage to keep someone with investigation sane and alive until the I struggle, you do get a success token. But getting that far sane and alive might be tricky. If you're constantly throwing 3 people to defend a story, just to get a token from I struggle, you're probably losing 1 to Terror and 1 to Combat per turn. Additionally, you need your people ready to defend, meaning unless they pack Arcane Icons and can win that struggle, you're not doing a lot of attacking stories on your turn.

Agency has okay Investigation combined with Willpower (and ton of Combat), they are fairly tough. Miskatonic has tons of investigation, but poor combat and willpower access. Syndicate have I'd say a bit more Investigation than Agency, well short of Miskatonic (and reverse those for Combat), but they have a lot of tricks up their sleeves and their people are dirt-cheap.

Thanks for all the answers! I was sure there'd be more to every faction than just the investigation, but it was something that made me scratch my head, especially since I have yet to sit down and play a game.

I do have another question, which I hope noone minds. I saw a card in a spoiler on this site, which was the Conspiracy Theorist. The ability is somewhat intriguing, and I'd like to know, in a normal deck, how many conspiracy cards do you have?

I'm sure there are ways to deal with a single creature, without having to rely on conspiracy cards, but those cards have funny ideas by giving you an edge to win a story. 3 conspiracies sound nice, like the locked door, where you get an investigation boon. Ack, there's so much to learn, so much to do!!!

Regarding conspiracy cards, I've yet to run across a single player using them in a deck. Now the Red Gloved Man makes the possibility greater, but I haven't seen it happen yet (except in a fun deck I made that is all neutral characters. Not intended to be competitive, just for fun. Interrogation Center does a number on this deck!!)

TheProfessor said:

Conspiracies could start seeing play though.

The locked door has a kind of inevitability over it that almost guarantees you'll win it before the next turn, and thus being almost a free 1/3rd of your story quotum. But most conspiracies tend to work slowly, making it hard to use them in a competative deck.

I played against the Locked Door at Regionals, and truly, BrooklynMike had it won before you could even react.

Thanks for the info! I wouldn't have guessed that conspiracy tend to blow up in your face like that. Heh, gotta live and learn. Still, when I get my hand on The Locked Door, I'll try to sneak it in.

The speed of the play is something that I'm not very used to. My Magic: The Gathering slow, defensive, cleric deck clearly formed some bad habits, and I seemed to be hitting a bit of a stalemate when I play the game. I've read that it's a bit of a rookie mistake, and I have to play more aggressively... I shall have to work on that... and on getting more cards hehe.

There is the tendency to scratch ones head at the math, and make a gut decision, versus refering to the astrolabe and slide rule. That can lead to a field full of characters that should instead be dead or gibbering, or worse, a crazy over-commit that glaringly hoses you the next turn.

Conceptually, the investigators and scholars who are fighting against the horrors of the universe aren't going to just sit back and let the darkness come to them. They are doers. If they must die, at least they'll die knowing it was to give the world a few more minutes of sound slumber.

"each of your characters commited to story gain investigation"

Does this apply to the owner of the conspiracy, the active player making the attempt, or both players?

I think that "your" in this context refers to the player who played the card. Otherwise it would probably say "all characters"., or just "characters"