Hello Call of Cthulhu fans!

I am currently working on an FAQ update for CoC. If you have any specific rules clarified or questions answered, please add them to this thread.

Best,

James Hata

What happens if The Night is in play and the only mechanism to make the game state "night" is the Dreamlands Wanderer , but Dreamlands Wanderer is exhausted?

If a character played as a response or action, such as D reamlands Fanatic is met with Power Drain as a response, does the character go to the discard pile or back to hand?

Some cards use the term " when " and others use the term " after ." ("when this card commits...." vs. "after this card commits...")

Is that intended as a timing distinction? Do " when " things occur before " after " things, or are they considered simultaneous?

Does the game end the instant a fifth token is placed on a third story (unless there are some game extending conditions) or is there an opportunity to respond with something like Field Researcher after an opponent wins his/her third story?

What is the duration of an effect like Chess Prodigy? If Chess Prodigy commits to a story, names a struggle to be resolved with investigation icons and then is removed from the story before resolution, will the effect endure for the phase or be elminated upon removal of Chess Prodigy ?

We've resolved most of these ourselves, but an official response would be great:

Chess Prodigy:
1) When exactly does the player who controls prodigy announce the replacement? (For example, when committed with a Ravager. Does the controller have a chance to announce the struggle before the prodigy dies)
2) What happens if the prodigy leaves play before the story resolves.
3) What happens if the prodigy uncommits.

Passive Effects and duration of effect:
1) The Chess Prodigy question speaks to a larger question about passive effects and their duration. There is a duration of effects in response to Triggered effects, but not passive effects, and there is a disagreement about whether the same applies to passive effects or not.

Guardian Pillar:
1) Does it's ability allow it to commit "out of turn". I.e. can you commit characters, your opponent commits, then you use the ability of the pillar to recommit. (like a Cats of Uthar)
2) When it is committed, exactly what type of card is it? i.e. is it just a character or does is it also a support card still, and a location?
3) If it is only a character, is it a Unique Character? (i.e. Would it be effected by Shallow Grave)
4) After the story phase, when it is no longer a character, does it count as a character leaving play?

Dreamwalkers and Stealthy Zoog:
1) Does the player win immediately or does the zoog trigger and force story resolution?

Book of Eibon and New Story card (draw until 8 cards in hand)
1) Do you draw up to 8 and then enforce the book's effect?

Dynamite:
1) Can you use dynamite when not at a story? I.e. to just wound the character it is attached to regardless, or does it have to be at a story?

Ammunitions Expert
1) Can you use his ability to put Dynamite on a non agency character or is the agency qualifier part of the cost?

Dreamlands Fanatic & Power Drain
1) Dreamland Fanatic's ability is triggered from the hand, but then power drained. Where does the fanatic end up? Discard Pile or Back in Hand?
2) Similar questions about Cats of Uthar and other 'play from hand' abilities.

Horrid Dreams & Domain Cards
1) If you have no cards in play that match the affiliation would you need to sacrifice a resource card.
2) In a more general sense, are resource cards considered "in play" for purposes of generic game effect targeting (i.e. not a specific targeting like Servent Out of Time)

"All" and "Choosing Targets"
1) If a card effect targets "all" support cards, such as "Destroy all Support Cards", can it be disrupted with Guardian of the Key "exhaust to to cancel 1 effect that chooses a support card as a target." (i.e. does something that targets everything not qualify for having targetted / chosen something specific?

Victoria Glasser
1) Can her forced response target something that couldn't go insane? I.e. can it target something with a Terror Icon or Willpower?

Twilight Gate
1) Does the wording on this card supercede the rules about cards not having a text box when they are a resource, at least as far as pertains to Ancient Ones? (i.e. if a card is a resource, it has no text box, and therefore is not an Ancient One)

Hey Professor, Sorry about duplicating the things you had posted. I was collecting these all up in a text editor and then posted em at once and I didn't see you had listed many of these already. And, of course... the post edit ability.... Yeah.

Here's a new one with Repo Man:

When you take control of the attachment, what are the requirements for playing it?

1) If you take control of a "negative attachment" can you play it on your opponent's characters. For example, Tear Gas. If I take control of it, do I / can I switch it to an opponent's character. Same with Bite Marks, etc.

2) Do you need to match affiliation restrictions as if you played it from hand? For example, Dynamite. Can I put it on one of my non-agency characters?

3) Attachments on Story Cards (Dreaming of the Past). Once you take control of it, do you then have the option of placing it on a different story card?

4) Infernal Obsession. What exactly happens with Repo Man and Infernal Obsession (does it go away do to the 'if control changes again' clause, or does that no longer apply since it's already on a new card, etc etc)

KallistiBRC said:

No problems.

BTW, I probably wouldn't say "We've resolved most these ourselves..." so much as "Individually we drew our own conclusions and stopped asking."

TheProfessor said:

Or even, "We debated these until we were consumed by the Lovecraftian madness intrinsic in such debates and stopped talking about it while we all went looking for Elder Signs"

Here's my list of questions without offiical answers, including links to the threads where the questions have been discussed:

Dreamlands Fanatic (Dreamlands F47):

"Response: After an opponent's character leaves play, put Dreamlands Fanatic into play from your hand."

Does this response trigger when a character that has been turned into an attachment leaves play?

An attachment no longer counts as a character while attached, but what happens when it leaves play? Does it revert back into a character card, thus triggering the Response?

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

The Captain (Dreamlands F21): what can you do with the action?

Is it possible to use the action twice on the same story to add The Captain's skill and icons twice to it?

Now the trickier one:

If The Captain is committed to a story can you use his action to target the story he is committed to?

I'm inclined to assume the story isn't a valid target since the action says "... without committing him to that story" but I'm not really sure.

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

Zoog Burrow (Dreamlands F56): what does it do when resourced?

Well, I noticed that Zoog Burrow has a Zoog resource icon but its text doesn't mention any effect related to draining the domain it's attached to.

Since the FAQ says that "A card attached to a domain as a resource does not have a text box, unless the card has a Zoog icon", it's clear that the card counts as a Dreamlands location even if it's attached as a resource.

But does it also mean that you can trigger its Response while attached as a resource? It seems odd that you can exhaust a resource...

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

Horrid Dreams (Dreamlands F84): What can/must be sacrificed?

Horrid Dreams:

Action: "Discard the top card of an opponent's deck. Then that player must choose and sacrifice a card from the same faction, if able."

First the (hopefully) easier question:

If the discarded card is a neutral card, it doesn't have a faction. I.e. no card must be sacrificed, correct?

Second question:

I know that insane characters could not be chosen to be sacrificed, since they do not have a faction. But what about resources? Could I choose a resouce to be sacrificed? The Servant from Out of Time seems to indicate that resources can indeed be sacrificed. But do they still have a faction? It seems the resouce symbol is separate from the faction symbol.

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

Hey James, here are some that have been frequently asked on BGG that could use some official clarification:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/548294/question-about-chess-prodigy-and-parallel-universe

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/546296/what-u-think

Heres one that has been bugging me.

Snow Graves:

Can this card be played without a shub card dedicated to resources since it is a 0 cost card and does not have a shub icon requirement as cards such as Endless Interrogation do?

My two major questions are:

1. What happens with Chess Prodigy vs. Parallel Universe?

2. Guardian Pillar - when a card changes into another type (support to character, in this instance) does it retain its original type? Is it both types now or just the new one? Second, does it retain its title and uniqueness (this would be important in conjunction with the Dreamlands support card which removes terror from non-unique characters)? Lastly, the card specifies no time limit on it. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, we'd just go with the FAQ ruling which assumes until the end of the phase. However, the card isn't worded as an Action support card ability, so we're not sure it counts.

As far the unique-ness goes, we decided amongst ourselves that it retains the title and uniqueness. Even though there's nothing in the rules to support it, we decided that otherwise, you'd be able to get multiple copies of this card into play, which all of the rules revolving around uniqueness try to avoid allowing to happen.

So, now that we have a ruling on passive effect duration (Chess Prodigy = end of turn ) does that now mean that Azalthoth costs you the game reguardless of whether he stays in play or not?

Chevee

It seems so. Unless of course you win the game by placing your fifth token on your third story card, in which case the game is over before the end of the turn.

The new FAQ has some points that I'm totally opposed !!

The new ruling on the change of status for the Guardian Pillar removes a lot of possibility to handle the card ! No more possibility to give it a Ghoul Tainted, to play Burrowing beneath during the story phase, no possibility to use the mmoquah serpents ...

This is the worst thing I ever read on the FAQ, and I still don't know how to submit it for a change.

Just imagine how cool will be the GENCON Tournaments with :

3x Magah, 3x Pillar ,3 seventy steps .... be prepared to encounter Agency and Hasturian only decks ...

We got a new ruling at GenCon. Interrogation Center affects Guardian Pillar.

Interrogation Center: Neutral Characters cannot commit to stories

Guardian Pillar: If you control more Dreamlands support cards than any opponent, you may exhaust Guardian Pillar to commit it to a story as a character with 4 skill, Terror, 3 x Combat and Invulnerability.

This was a little surprising to me because Guardian Pillar is not a character before you exhaust to commit. So I thought it was not a Neutral Character so not affected by Interrogation Center. But it was ruled that when Interrogation Center is in play Guardian Pillar cannot be used as a character at a story.

Most of the decks at GenCon included Birds, 70 Steps, Cavern of Flame, Interrogation Center, Guardian Pillar, and Crazed Arsonists.

This is surprizing, as the Pillar becomes a character while he's committed ...

How could they rules it this way ???

Probably the same way they ruled that Jack "Brass" Brady can disrupt event cards...

Some other questions I have:

1) Is Forced Response equivalent to Response in terms of triggered effects? This is in relation to Power Drain which can cancel Action and Response type effects. Can it also cancel FR?

2) What's the difference between Forced Response and Response that has "must" in its text body (vide Azathoth )? If the effect MUST be triggered, wouldn't it be better if it were changed to FR to avoid any confusion?

3) Why the hell would you put a misleading example in the previous FAQ? I mean the Jack "Brass" Brady using his disrupt on Shotgun Blast while the text of his action clearly states that it can be used before the triggered ability resolves, which would imply an effect that came from the card on the table, not in the hand.

1) Power Drain can't cancel a Forced Response or an Interrupt. In the game you have 4 triggered effects and Power Drain cancel only 2 of them (Action and Response)

2) A player choose or not to play a Response, a Forced Response must always be triggered, you have no choice.

3) The example is wrong in the faq and has never been corrected, one day may be. Jack Brady can't disrupt from an event card, only from a triggered ability (ie. a card already in play, a triggered effect from a character or support card already in play)

Manit0u said:

I agree, the wording on Azathoth is confusing, but it's likely they meant it to be a Forced Response and not Response trigger. If so, errata is needed. How Azathoth is actually played needs clarification:

1) Some say that the ruling on passive effects for Chess Prodigy would rule that the passive effect on Azathoth would still happen even if he was removed from play because the FAQ states that passive effects "based on a trigger" last until the end of the turn even if removed from play (did they mean "turn" or "story phase"?) The FAQ here is immensely confusing: errata Chess Prodigy to be a forced response then so it actually is a triggered response and not "a passive effect based on a trigger." Is Azathoth such an example of a "passive effect based on a trigger"? Is there a difference between that and just a passive effect? Is it because passive effects can't be disrupted or canceled?

2) Some say that passive effects are removed the instant the card is removed and it is removed from play, which would make more sense and would make Azathoth actually playable. It's too dangerous otherwise and too situational to actually be of use.

Sorry if my previous post was trollish. I don't really know what the intent of the designers were for any card. This one is a reprint of a CCG card, so I'm sure it was meant to be exactly what it is. Clarification on the wording in the FAQ for Chess Prodigy about passive effects with a trigger, and about it lasting until the end of the turn, would be helpful, especially if there is any application to Azathoth.

One more that's come up in a post about Julia Brown:

When Julia Brown (Summons F17) is sacrificed and Julia Brown (Summon F107) is put into play commited per Julia 17's disrupt ability, does Julia 107's forced response trigger, and does she enter play exhausted?