Tibs said:

"Come on folks, it's me Sister Mary! Okay, so I look like Mandy but it's still me. Honest!"

Tibs said:

The narrator of "The Thing on the Doorstep" eventually came around,

Tibs said:

Sure, why not? This *is* Arkham after all.

Yes, but I am going to apply Occam's razor to assume that it's far more likely that the other investigators will just consider this newcomer a stranger, rather than a new vessel of their suddenly vanished friend's soul.

...or should that be Arkham's razor?

Tibs said:

Hunh. That's probably the best title for the popular unwritten rule...

"Arkham's Razor: Whatever hurts the Investigators more."

jgt, you're brilliant.

From here forth, let the term "Arkham's Razor" mean "when more than one interpretation is apparent, and the official answer either is not available or does not exist, do what hurts the investigators most."

Tibs said:

I love it!

Another question about Lurker. If you draw the Prisoner's Dilemma and all your investigators have zero power, what happens? Is everyone driven insane, no one driven insane, or just one investigator driven insane? Or can you still make the choice to have someone devoured... It seems badly written. What do you guys think?

I hit that in today's game. I treated it as either

• one investigator is devoured OR
• one investigator is insane

Basically, in case of ties, only affect one investigator ... i.e. I'd apply the same reasoning if there were four investigators, two of which are tied for max power (not zero) and two tied for least power (not zero). One with max gets devoured OR one with min goes insane.

Another Lurker question: if you get a mythos that opens two gates (no doom) and one of the gates listed is already open, what should be done? Is it

1. open the new gate, add a monster to the old gate OR
2. open the new gate and treat second as a surge

I went with #1, but I'd be interested in hearing what others think.

[side note: if both gates are open, then it's clear (to me) that it should be a simple monster surge]

I would interpret that as one gate opens + surge or 2x surge in the case of both open gates.

So far my players have found the new gates a lil frustrating, but thats cause they keep making bad decisions, and then have bad luck on top of it.

So far my players have found the new gates a lil frustrating, but thats cause they keep making bad decisions, and then have bad luck on top of it.

Tibs said:

You're assuming that attachment is reciprocal.

Consider the Aura cards in Magic: the Gathering. When you play an Aura, you attach it to a card in play. If the card the Aura is attached to leaves play, the Aura goes to the bin. If, however, the Aura is destroyed, the card it was attached to remains unaffected because it is not reciprocally attached to the Aura. I believe that this is how the Bound Ally pacts are meant to work.

Tibs said:

I kind of like the idea of the investigators doing a little routine like in the movies where the "new" person starts spouting off things only the "old" person could know until everyone else just accepts it's really him (or her) in a new body.

Also, Arkham's Razor is gold!

Avi_dreader said:

The way I play this is: I make a decision among all the investigators that have a pact card first, since they are the only players that CAN have power. So, pick the investigator that has the most power, or the investigator, with a pact card, that has the least power. That, at least, narrows down the choices (most of the time). Then, if there is a tie for most power or least power, pick one.

Musha Shukou said:

I'm not really sure why you're associating pact card with power :') I mean, that's not what the card says, but I guess it's more thematically appropriate.

Musha Shukou said:

There's a couple of Reckonings that might be about to give you a nasty shock...

Well, it looks like I might be playing it wrong then....

It may be that one hasn't come up yet - it's a fairly big deck.

One of them says something like "The Investigator with the least power gains one power, even if they don't have a Dark Pact. Remember that you need a Dark Pact to spend power."

How do you pick relationship cards? Do you draw them at random and put it at random for investigators?

That seems the rule.

However I found it very weird last game when the 2 fighters had a Students of the Arcane relationship card and one of them had a Practitioners of the Art card with another investigator...

So they were useless. I know this is how it is meant to be played (like useless skills) but thematically it is weird. And also for the mechanic of the game. The goal is to have a more interactive and cooperative feeling.

What do you think?

Yes, thematically, it is weird, but that is how it is meant to be played.

For the first time, I got Investigator Relationships that made sense (with some thematic nip/tuck) across the board:

Ursula & Darrell: The Best of Friends
Why not? I can see them sharing stories over coffee, comparing photographs foreign and domestic.

Darrell & Trish: Socially Connected
Darrell has attended some of the richer soirées (perhaps something superficial for the Lodge) for assigned (or candid) shots, while Trish has been assigned to infiltrate or exchange information. I am amused that both could be “socially connected” through covers and lies.

Trish & Leo: Fellow Travelers
Many of the places where expeditions would be headed are near places of a “questionable nature” where spies are known to operate.

Leo & Ursula: Business Associates
Duh. Either Leo has hired Ursula as part of his team, or Ursula has “tagged along” on a whim.

It is a little irritating when, say, Michael and Mark end up with something like Practitioners of the Art. What are they, hobbyists? Although it might be the only way either of them could successfully cast a Spell without going insane, it would look like monkeys trying read a newspaper. So it's kinda nice when the Relationships match up with little or no rationalization.

Tonight we had a four player game using the basic game with injury/madness cards, epic AO combat deck and the Lurker expansion. Overall we not blown away by the Lurker mechanics. We tried taking the pacts but ultimately we agreed that much like the cult of the black goat, there is no reason to ever take the bait. The benefits did not equal the disadvantages. Also, the relationships cards seemed unnessecary, but then we do prefer the individual plot cards from Innsmouth Horror (IIRC).

We lost the game when it went to the wall against Hastur. Four pacts on him at the end but we got him down to one doom token left before the remaining investigator got nobbled by the big guy.

The extra cards that get rid of the allies was a nice addition but not as good an expansion as it could of been.

I would think that Hastur would be the ancient one where a pact could potentially be a huge boon, with the inflated cost of sealing gates some quick power from a pact could be invaluable if you're prepared to take an unexpected backlash.

Veet said:

Yeah, I was thinking the same :')

Now I want to play Hastur with Lurker with the house rules that final combat victory is a draw, and that power can't be used in the turn it is gained.